Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 111 The Map in the Box
"Why do you have a lot of boxes related to Freemasonry here?" Obviously, the stall owner knew what he was selling, so Liang En simply stepped forward and asked.

"I found this when I cleaned out the attic left by my grandfather." Hearing Liang En's inquiry, the young stall owner with a simple and honest face said after glancing at them, "I only found out that this is related to it after I checked the books. Freemasonry related."

"Oh, so that's the case." Liang En nodded. Of course, he believed at most 1/10 of what the stall owner said. After all, antique dealers all over the world are better at deceiving people in this regard.

The reason why he believed 1/10 instead of not believing everything was because Liang En observed the box just now and found that, except that the material of the box was indeed Xibei, the overall structure did look exquisite enough.

This kind of exquisiteness is not only the workmanship, but also the overall design.One of the most special points is that the Masonic pattern on the box is very harmonious with the box as a whole, unlike the feeling that it is simply added to the empty box.

That said, there's either a master craftsman behind the thing, or an original prototype.A box so harmonious in appearance would not have been possible otherwise.

Compared with a master craftsman, Liang En felt that the other party should have an original model.Because if there is a master craftsman, then there won't be all big and small boxes here.

Thinking of this, Liang En immediately checked the booth.After using a [Detection (N)] card, he quickly followed the white light and focused on a gray box.

The shape of this box is not much different from other boxes, the whole is made of lead, only a layer of gold is plated on the outside.And because someone might try to scrape the gold off with a knife in the middle, it looks mottled and inconspicuous at all.

It is precisely because of this feature that the owner of this pile of boxes put this box in the corner of the booth.It doesn't look like much attention is paid to the box.

This is good news for Liang En. It shows that the owner of the stall simply doesn't have the ability to distinguish these antiques. Naturally, it is possible to sell some truly valuable things.

Thinking of this, Liang En pretended to look around the booth, then pointed to the lead box and said. "Your box is beautiful, but why scrape off the gold plating?"

"Uh, I did this when I was a child." The stall owner in his 20s scratched his hair in embarrassment and said, "I wanted to scrape off the gold on it, but my father beat me because of it." A meal."

"Haha, everyone did some ridiculous things when they were young." Liang En smiled, and then picked up the lead box, "Your box shouldn't be expensive, right?"

"You can take the 30 pounds. After all, this is a box I had when I was a child. Maybe it has something to do with Freemasonry." The stall owner said after thinking about it.In this place in the UK, things are generally sold with clearly marked prices, and there is no bargaining situation.

But this flea market is an exception.So after haggling a few times, Liang En bought the lead box for £25.

"Is this a treasure?" Fan Meng asked softly in Chinese after the two left the booth.Because in his impression Liang En would find something of value every time he took a shot.

"It's hard to say, but I think this box should not be a mere imitation." Liang En said as he opened the box, only to find that the box was empty and contained nothing.

Thinking about it, if there was really something in the box, the seller would have discovered it long ago, and it would not be Liang En's turn to buy the box at such a cheap price.

But when the two went to a deserted place to examine the box carefully, they made a new discovery.

"Do you think the bottom of this box is a bit thick?" After touching it with his fingers several times, Liang En turned his head and asked Fan Meng next to him.

"Let me see." After hearing this, Fan Meng took the box and touched it with his hands, but because his hands were rough, he didn't feel much wrong.

"I think this box is quite normal. After all, this kind of metal box basically has a thicker bottom. Do you feel wrong?" After touching for a long time, Fan Meng returned the box and said helplessly.

"It's absolutely impossible for me to feel wrong. The bottom of this box is indeed thicker than normal boxes." Liang En shook his head and said, "And more importantly, the bottom of the box is actually welded on."

"What's wrong with welding?" Fan Meng continued to stare at Liang En with confused eyes. He didn't know why Liang En was so interested in the processing method of this box.

"This box is only about the size of a palm. For normal people, casting is the easiest way." Liang En opened the lid of the box and pointed to the welding marks on the bottom of the box.

"What's even more strange is that the other party also specially polished the weld seam, disguising this thing as if it was cast. If there is no secret hidden, normal people don't need to do this at all."

After putting away the box, Liang En and the others continued to wander around the small flea market.It's a pity that there really aren't many things worth paying for in today's market, so they just left the market with this lead case.

However, in the markets other than the flea market, they found a lot of things worth buying.Because what is sold in this market is mainly a variety of characteristic snacks, and they come from various countries.

Except for a few things that were almost impossible to tell what the ingredients were, Liang En and the others tasted more than a dozen types of barbecue. Even if they only ate a little bit of each of these barbecues, the total amount was not small. up.

After eating and drinking enough, Liang En and the others went directly to Pierce's shop, and then began to disassemble the lead box, which didn't look very special, with the tools left in his warehouse.

Compared with steel or even copper, this kind of lead box is obviously much easier to disassemble.So after using a chisel together with a saw, a hammer and pliers, Liang En quickly removed the bottom of the box.

"Look, the bottom of this box is indeed abnormal. The other party used two pieces of lead and stacked them together." Liang En said to Fan Meng and Pierce who came to watch the fun, and at the same time opened the two pieces because they were pasted together. Too long results in sticky lead flakes.

"There are words and patterns here." After Liang En cleaned off the rust on the surface of the lead sheet, Fan Meng saw a series of patterns and characters engraved on the lead sheet at a glance.

"This seems to be a map." As Liang En gradually cleaned up, more and more patterns were revealed.Pierce soon realized that the pattern of circles and circles on the sheet of lead looked like a map.

"If it's a map, it shouldn't have a long history." Liang En shook his head and said after taking a rough look.

"After all, this kind of contour map only appeared in the 18th century, and its large-scale application did not even become popular until the 19th century. That is to say, the history of this map is only more than 200 years old at most."

(End of this chapter)