As Tang Ren squatted on the bow of a gondola and ate a pizza, the shouts of the mask vendors drowned out Su Chen's warnings. Qin Feng used a magnifying glass to observe the wax seal on the invitation letter for the two exhibitions - the saw-like cracks on the edge of the seal matched the key of the Louvre perfectly.
"There's something wrong with this boat!" Su Chen suddenly grabbed the boatman's wrist. A man who rowed often should be very skilled, but this man's palms were covered with chemical burns. The boatman suddenly opened his cloak, and a cold light flashed from his sleeves. Tang Ren's pizza box blocked the dagger for him.
The three fell into the muddy waterway. Qin Feng saw a waterproof box attached to the bottom of the boat while floating. Tang Ren emerged from the water with a half iron chain in his hand: "There is a moving iron lion in the box!"
---
In the shadow of the bell tower of St. Mark's Square, Su Chen disassembled the water-soaked mechanical lion. The joints of the lion's claws were engraved with the iris emblem of the Medici family of Florence. "This is not a decoration," he unscrewed the lion's head, "the tooth spacing is exactly the same as the frame mechanism of the Louvre."
Tang Ren suddenly pointed at the old man feeding pigeons in the square and said, "That old man looks like the retired director of the Louvre!" Qin Feng approached him pretending to be a tourist, but the bronze eagle on the top of the old man's cane gave him a shock - it was the trigger of the anti-theft device in Leonardo da Vinci's manuscript.
When Qin Feng sneaked into the abandoned monastery late at night, he found a secret door in the place where the wet murals peeled off. Tang Ren used the stolen macaroni to pry the lock, and the sound of gears turning came from inside the door. The wooden elevator built five hundred years ago carried them down to the cellar, where rows of glass jars were floating with Renaissance pigment specimens.
"Look at this!" Su Chen held up the moldy account book, "Leonardo da Vinci once designed an anti-theft exhibition hall for the Medici family. All the agencies are hidden here..."
Suddenly, there was an explosion from overhead, and the men in black from the Q organization broke open the cellar door.
--
Tang Ren grabbed the carnival mask and put it on his face to blend into the crowd. Qin Feng was squeezed to the side of the Bridge of Sighs. The flower girl wearing a golden lion mask suddenly whispered in Italian: "The real thing is in the dungeon of the Governor's Palace."
Su Chen found a key clue at a second-hand goods stall - the "Mona Lisa" exhibition was held in Venice in 1911, and the transport manifest showed that there was a secret compartment in the frame. When the stall owner pulled out the dagger, Tang Ren used the glass mask he just bought to dazzle him, and the pocket watch he received contained a microfilm: the blueprint of the drainage system of the Governor's Palace.
"This drain pipe can lead to the dungeon!" When Tang Ren pried open the manhole cover, Su Chen noticed the fresh oil stains on the rusty iron. After they crawled in the smelly pipe for two hours, Qin Feng suddenly stopped the two of them - a French conversation came from the front, and it was the retired director of the Louvre who waved his hand to move the picture frame.
---
As the moonlight shone through the tide gates and illuminated the dungeon, Qin Feng could see the pattern of the water marks on the wall. When the tide was high, seawater would flood into the dungeon, and the Q organization calculated that the water level would reach the activation line of the anti-theft agency in two hours.
"Do you need a key for this broken picture frame?" Tang Ren kicked the cube made of fine steel. The retired director sneered and showed a copper key: "The last key is the safe of the mayor of Venice. You are too late..."
Su Chen suddenly rushed to the iron bed by the wall, lifted the rotten straw to reveal the scratches: "Da Vinci used to hide backup mechanisms in his works!" The groove in the bed board fit perfectly with the mechanical lion's tail vertebrae, and the first keyhole slowly opened.
The tide surged in at an incredibly fast speed, and Tang Ren stepped on the buoy to turn the key. When the last buckle popped open, the original "Mona Lisa" emerged, but on the back of the canvas was written a bigger secret in invisible ink - the Rosetta Stone that Napoleon looted from Egypt was a fake.
---
When the members of the Q organization tried to snatch the picture frame, Tang Ren pulled the canvas over his head and started to panic. When the retired director's yacht started, Qin Feng found a waterproof cylinder tied to the stern - inside was the authentic picture frame of the 1911 theft case.
"Look up!" Su Chen pointed at the fire helicopter hovering in the night sky. Tang Ren grabbed the microphone of the square concert and shouted, "It's here! Put water on it!"
The high-pressure water cannon knocked the yacht over and Qin Feng took the opportunity to jump onto the deck. When the retired director took out his flintlock rifle, Tang Ren threw out the Gongduo iron chain to entangle his artificial leg. When the original painting frame fell into the sea, Su Chen hooked the rope with a mechanical lion, and the lion claw mechanism just caught the edge of the frame.
--
In the Venice Police Headquarters, Qin Feng pointed out the key evidence: "The clay on the soles of your shoes came from the restoration room of the Louvre." The retired director's dentures suddenly fell off, and there was a micro-film roll hidden inside - recording the security loopholes of museums around the world.
Tang Ren secretly returned the fake fragment to the sheriff: "This can be exchanged for three seafood dinners..." However, the newly revealed coordinates on the back of the fragment made him freeze - the Hall of Mental Cultivation of the Palace Museum in Beijing.
At the closing banquet, Su Chen stared at the mechanical lion. The lion's eye suddenly turned and projected the remaining pages of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscript: a mechanical dragon was sitting on the dome of the Imperial Palace.
The sea breeze blew up the copy of "Mona Lisa", and the smile of the person in the painting seemed to deepen.
(This case is concluded, the Q organization's tentacles extend to the East, and the mystery of the heirloom jade seal is about to open a new chapter)