Chapter 456: The Beginning of the Confrontation (Part 1)

In a spacious and bright doctor's office, Merkel sat in front of a chair, watching Schiller, who was buried in writing medical records opposite him. He frowned and said:

"... So, you mean, I am currently in your dream?"

"That's right. Now, can you specifically explain what exactly is going on?"

Merkel frowned. This young butler, who always appeared mature and steady, had a completely different temperament at this moment.

When serving Schiller at the manor, he looked steady and honest, talked about the weather whenever he met anyone, and carried a unique British sense of humor. In short, as soon as you saw him, you could associate him with the most typical British butler.

But now, when he frowned and narrowed his eyes, a sharp temperament spread from him, making it hard not to associate him with certain professions related to spies or soldiers.

"If I don't say it, can I not leave here?"

Schiller shook his head and said: "No, you cannot stay here for too long. If a person enters a dream for too long, the body's functions will be affected, just like a vegetative person who has been asleep for many years, whose muscles will atrophy."

"I am referring to you; will you let me leave here?"

Schiller nodded again. He looked into Merkel's eyes and then said: "I hope you can clarify one thing. I spent money and time hoping to find a butler who could manage the manor for me."

"But while I was not at home, you rummaged through my things, which led to you coming here. So please don't talk as if I imprisoned you. This is entirely your own mistake, and I am the victim."

Merkel looked like he wanted to say something, but Schiller continued before he could speak:

"I don't care what your political stance is, or what other purposes you have for taking this job. However, I hired you with money, hoping you could do your job well."

"I hope I don't have to help you recall how many things you have messed up during this period."

Merkel kept frowning. Schiller saw his completely clueless look, so he could only say:

"Merkel, you haven't been here long, but during this time, you forgot to deliver food to the newsboy, ironed two newspapers badly, knocked the buttons off a custom-made suit, almost broke the decorations on my table, and used a handcart to scratch a deep mark on the corner of the sandalwood bookshelf. These losses are more than three times your commission."

"I hope you think about why I still haven't fired you, even though I know you are a Soviet spy and are clumsy?"

Merkel opened his eyes wide. Actually, he also wanted to ask why.

If, as Schiller said, Schiller had already discovered something was wrong when he got off the train, then why did he still hire him? And even when his work was not going well, he still hadn't fired him.

Now it is the winter of 1988. Those familiar with history may know that the situation during the Cold War was very severe. During this period, no normal American was willing to have anything to do with the Soviet Union.

"Are you making a statement to me?" Merkel asked.

Schiller covered his forehead with some helplessness and said: "I guess you haven't been trained for very long, or rather, you are just self-taught."

"I won't mention that you handled cigarette butts with the usual methods of a spy in front of a newsboy."

"I can also ignore that you have been doing nothing for a long time after coming to my manor because you didn't dare to take risks."

"I can even not mention that you chose to open my private letters without judgment, so you didn't get any important information."

"When you still adopt an aggressive attitude under these circumstances and demand that I make everything clear, this will not increase my pressure, but only expose your guilty conscience."

Schiller sighed and said: "I guess you should be a pure Briton, just because you received some kind of ideological education, you participated in some causes."

"Now, what occupies the largest proportion in your mind is still ideals and struggle. I cannot say this is wrong, but obviously, you seem to have thought things too simply."

Merkel frowned. He stared at Schiller and said: "No matter how you slander me, I will not waver in my attitude."

"Okay, let's change the subject. What mission did you come here to execute?"

Merkel remained silent.

Schiller supported his face with his fingers. He looked up slightly, stared into Merkel's eyes, and then said:

"Before, when you were in the manor, you didn't like to look directly into my eyes. Actually, you should know yourself that this is not out of politeness, but because some things in your eyes cannot be hidden."

"This is actually a very interesting phenomenon. All the Marxists I know have different eyes from others."

"Do you know other Marxists?" Merkel finally couldn't help but speak.

Schiller suddenly changed the subject again. He said:

"Since you came into my dream during this period, it means you should have started checking from the third floor of the manor, all the way down, and finally touched the wine bottle placed on the bookshelf. Besides that, did you find anything else?"

"Do you have anything that can be discovered?"

Schiller showed a rather helpless expression and said: "Your thinking is completely immersed in the work of a spy, so much so that you didn't realize how stiff the use of those scripts was."

【Author's Note: "Five Generations of Rivers and Mountains"】

"You have to understand one thing, Merkel. Now you must have more doubts than I do. The things you want to know must be more than I do, and the questions you want to ask must be more than I do."

"If you want to get the answers to these questions, you must answer my questions first. Do you think the answers you want to know are not worth you revealing some information in exchange?"

Merkel stared at Schiller's eyes silently, as if confirming whether this was another trap, but in the end, he still opened his mouth and said: "I don't guarantee that I will answer every question."

"Okay, one question for one question. If you can't answer, I'll change to the next one."

Schiller fiddled with the pen in his hand and asked: "Did you find anything in my manor?"

Merkel paused, and the expression on his face became a bit wonderful, as if he recalled something not very good. He said:

"I can understand that for the sake of safety, you locked every door in the manor. Okay, if it's for safety, then it's understandable that you equipped every door with a different lock, and it makes sense that different locks correspond to different keys..."

"But why on earth do you have to hide every key in a different location, then design a puzzle for every key, then arrange several clues for this puzzle, then to get this clue, you have to decipher several codes, and to get these codes, you have to go to the library and finish several books..."

Merkel stretched out his finger to block his eyes, and his tone revealed deep helplessness: "Because of this, I came to your dream at this time. I spent most of the night solving these damn puzzles."

"He... am I sick?" Schiller muttered in a low voice, puzzled.

"What?"

"No, nothing. Did you solve it?"

Merkel looked at Schiller with an extremely resentful look and said:

"I spent several hours finally opening the door, and then the moment I touched that wine bottle, I came here."

"Don't be sad, I just updated the puzzle library in the second-floor room recently, because someone recently gave me a set of quite good hardcover 'Sherlock Holmes' collections."

"If you opened the doors in the order from south to north, then you should have at least finished the first two cases. I think that is the most amazing part. What about you?"

"Does this count as the second question?"

"Come on, don't be so boring, this is just a very normal chat." Schiller waved the pen in his hand, lowered his head to look at his medical record, and said:

"You always want to use an aggressive attitude to gain the initiative at every key node. This may be because you are currently in a weak position and lack a sense of security."

"Look, every gesture and expression of yours will reveal a lot of information. It's not that you can deal with me just by being aggressive and putting on a cold face."

Merkel's eyes kept staring at Schiller. Actually, he felt a bit strange because the Schiller in front of him was a bit too patient.

Actually, Merkel knew that his current attitude could not be said to be lacking a sense of security, and could even be said to be somewhat fearful. During the time he worked at Schiller's manor, he and Schiller were together day and night, so he knew very well what kind of person he was.

Merkel had not studied psychology, so he didn't know the professional terms for certain diseases. He just felt that Schiller was a bit neurotic, had many stubborn and rigid habits, and his temper was also a bit unpredictable.

On some strange and useless things, he would invest a lot of energy and time, such as installing a different lock on every door, then arranging hundreds of puzzles to protect the keys, or spending a lot of time wiping those strange collections, such as umbrellas, globes, telescopes, and glasses, etc.

But at the same time, on many serious matters, he appeared very impatient. For example, he read the newspaper at breakfast every day without fail. If either breakfast or the newspaper was delivered late, he wouldn't start.

He felt very resistant to breaking the routine, but he often went out in the middle of the night.

When speaking, he was always to the point, basically not considering the listener's feelings, and would make a big deal out of some very ordinary exchanges, deliberately letting people know that their inner essence had been seen through by him.

This kind of temper, which was very different from ordinary people, made Merkel feel that he was a bit crazy.

And the Schiller in front of him now looked very normal, a bit too normal.

When Merkel decided to take a tough stance, he actually didn't intend to leave here alive. According to his understanding, his mysterious employer wouldn't have so much patience to listen to the scripts commonly used in his spy interrogations.

Merkel also didn't know how long he could persist in this kind of communication.

Originally, his expectation was that whether he could leave here alive or not, as long as he didn't expose the secrets in his heart, it would be a success. He completely didn't expect that he still had room to bargain.

This kind of change in Schiller had no logical basis, so Merkel only felt that it might be because Schiller was in a good mood now, so he also relaxed a little, wanting to take advantage of this time to win more chances for himself to survive, and it would be best to get some more intelligence.

"Okay, it seems you have no interest in chatting now, so you can ask your first question."

Merkel swallowed his saliva. He gradually relaxed his body and focused his attention on his thinking. He looked at Schiller's eyes and asked:

"How on earth did you do it?" ===== CHAPTER 457 =====