Chapter 9 09

09 "Not only did he not make any mistakes, but he also found many mistakes caused by other people's translation of the Bible." Dr. Jeffries glanced at Randall and Feite, and then said conclusively, "Based on his performance Delicacy and alertness, it seems impossible to suffer from nervous tension." "I think I agree with that sentiment," Randall was the first to agree. "But you may believe my other judgment," said Dr. Jeffries kindly. "Dr. Knight may have suffered a psychological blow in terms of his working situation." Randall frowned: "What kind of work situation?"

"Oh, that's what the poor chap hasn't figured out about his translation work for so long. Remember, we've all been sworn to secrecy about this work. Although Dr. Knight is as trustworthy as we professors are, we have been advised that as few people know about Ostia's discovery, the better. Therefore, Dr. Knight and other translators have always been deceived. In the drum." Randall was puzzled. "But if you don't show him the manuscripts of those discoveries, how can he take over your job?" "We never showed him or anyone else the whole manuscript. We gave Dr. Knight some critical pieces to translate, and other parts to other people. I told Dr. Knight that I had some true and false Difficult Bible manuscripts. I want to plan a study. I am compelled to keep the secrecy from him, and I have given him a translation so fragmented, so difficult, and so puzzling that I think he must have Weird for that kind of assignment. But he always had a good demeanor and never questioned me."

This aroused Randall's curiosity again. "Jeffries, do you mean to say that your researcher, Dr. Knight, has never been aware of the work plan of 'Second Resurrection'?" "I mean he didn't know anything until yesterday afternoon. But when I came to him from Oxford to ask him to go with you to Amsterdam as your adviser, I knew it was no longer necessary to keep him secret." Yes, because the Bible is in print, and also to make him useful to you. So I revealed to him some of Professor Monty's great discoveries, which is why I came to his office yesterday to tell him for the first time that James About the Gospels and the Petronas parchment. He was stunned when he heard it."

"As you can guess, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say he was stupefied. He was silent at first, and then became very excited. He has been doing Bible studies all his life. And what I revealed to him is enough. Can make him beyond strange." Randall's curiosity was well aroused. "He's been sick since then, hasn't he?" "What? No, he was not sick in front of me." "Then he fell ill after he left you and went home?" Dr. Jeffries was stroking his beard again. "Well, I think that's what happened. We had agreed to meet again at dinner, and I wanted to talk to him about the details of working with you. But shortly before dinner, I received a mysterious call from his fiancée, Miss Hughes. He can't come to have dinner with him, and he can't fulfill the next assignment. His doctor even advises him not to think about this job. Also, for a week or two, he can't see anyone Visitor." Dr. Jeffries shook his head.

"It's too bad, it's too bad. The situation is unclear, and there's nothing we can do to find out at this point. We can't rely on him anymore. What are we going to do? I think there's only one way to go, and that's to find someone else to replace Dr. Knight." people." He said to Wheeler: "I have two or three researchers working with us, all reliable young people, and I think I can send one to go with Mr. Randall. But, unfortunately, No one can catch up to Dr. Knight." Wheeler coughed and stood up.Naomi followed suit. "Professor, I really don't want to see anyone else," he said. "But that can't be helped. But we still have a lot of work to do, and a lot of data to gather, so that our International New Testament will be a sensation when it comes out. Well, it's getting late, and I have to Take the plane and rush to Amsterdam. I think this is the way it is, you and Mr. Randall discuss who may replace Dr. Knight, and you can make a decision when you meet and have an appointment tomorrow."

Dr. Jeffries stood up and walked Randall and Naomi to the door. "It's really bad luck, but I will try my best," Dr. Jeffries promised. "I wish you a pleasant journey, and I will rush to Amsterdam soon to take part in work." Wheeler sighed. "Well, Mr. Knight is very unfortunate. Then please do your best to help...Steve, please call me tomorrow. Tell me when you will arrive, and I will send a car to pick you up." "Thank you, sir." Randall stood listening, while Dr. Jeffries turned slowly, half talking to himself, half saying to Randall, "Well, this question about the attorney, I have to take care of it." If you think about it carefully, finding a suitable person is not an easy task. You have to think carefully and ask about it. We can have a clear discussion in the morning and then draw some conclusions. Do you think this is okay?"

"Excellent," Randall said.He shook hands with the professor, and as they walked toward the door, he asked in passing, "Oh, Dr. No—do you know where she lives?" "I'm not sure about that. But I've heard she's in the books department of Sotheby's. You know, that's the auction house in Lund Street. I think I heard Dr. Knight say once that they first That's where we met. He always likes to go to the bookstalls and find some valuable biblical materials. Yes, they met at Sotheby's." Dr. Jeffries opened the office door. "Mr. Randall, if you have nothing to do, I welcome you to come to my place for dinner."

"Thank you, Dr. Jeffries. Let's do it another day. I'm going to see some friends this afternoon and evening. It's already scheduled." At 4:30 in the afternoon, Randall arrived at his destination on New Bond Street. Nestled between an antiques store and a newsagent stands the oldest auction market in the world.High above the entrance of the mall is a statue of an Egyptian goddess carved from black granite.It is said that this ancient relic was once bought, but the buyer never took it away.So the owner put it at the door, and it became a unique mark of this auction market.After Randall knew the name and address of the mall, he hurried in.After passing through two doors, he climbed the green carpeted stairs to the exhibition hall on the second floor.

The exhibition hall is quite crowded, but it seems to be full of men.At this moment, a group of people is surrounding a batch of jewelry, while others are carefully appraising other different jewelry, paintings and coins with magnifying glasses.There are also some uniformed guards watching with wide eyes. Randall searched for the shadow of the shopgirl, but saw none.But just as he was wondering if Dr. Jeffries was mistaken, he heard someone speak to him. "Sir, is there anything I can do for you?" I saw a man with a London accent walking towards him. "I'm a staff member here, I wonder if you are looking for something?"

"I'm looking for someone," he said, "do you have a Miss Hughes worker here?" The man's face showed a bright expression. "Yes, yes. Miss Hughes is in the book auction department. I can take you there." So they headed for a neighboring auction room packed with customers. "What does Miss Hughes do here?" Randall asked. "She is a very smart girl. Originally, she was just a receptionist in the book auction department. If someone brings a book to sell, the receptionist will first meet them, and then the receptionist will inform one of our eight book appraisal experts. First, to assess the value of books. Miss Hughes seems to be as good at evaluating books as our book evaluation experts, so she was promoted because of the lack of book evaluation experts. Sir, this is the book auction room."

It was a large room in the shape of an auction market. The surrounding bookshelves were filled with various books, and on the top shelf were busts of stone figures such as Dickens, Shakespeare, and Voltaire.In the middle of the room is a semi-circular table for buyers to sit around during the auction.Adjacent to one end of the table was a dais and a stool that Randall guessed must have been used to collect money after the auction. In the room at the moment two older men and a younger woman were busy sorting books, perhaps for the purpose of printing a catalog of new arrivals. "Wait a minute, I'll go find her," said the waiter, "what's your name, please?" "My name is Randall. I'm from America. Please tell her I'm a friend of Dr. Knight." The clerk hurried to Hughes.Randall saw him whisper to her, and she glanced this way, confused, and finally she nodded and put down the notebook.After the clerk left, she quickly went up to Randall, and the two met in front of the semicircular table. She is a short but plump girl.She has short hair, wears a pair of oversized glasses, her nose and lips are well-developed, and her skin is even more rosy. "Mr. Randall," she said, "I—I don't recall Dr. Knight ever mentioning your name to me." "He just heard my name from Dr. Jeffries yesterday. I just came from New York, and I'm the one he's going to work with in Amsterdam." "Ah—" she said, and at the same time put her hands to her mouth, as if petrified. "Did Dr. Jeffries call you?" "No, he didn't know I was here at all. I found out where you work and decided to come and talk to you. I just introduced me as Dr. Knight's friend because I really wanted to make friends with him. I need his help badly. I came to see you to tell you of my plans, and to let you know how important Dr. Knight's help is to me." "I'm sorry, but that can't be done," she said sullenly. "He's too sick." "Anyway, listen to me for a moment. I'm sure he's told you about—about our secret project. I don't think it matters that you mention the name of that project, which is 'The Second Resurrection,' He just heard about it yesterday, didn't he?" "Yes, he told me a little bit," she said flatly. "Then, just listen to me." Randall said eagerly.He lowered his voice, first introduced himself and his occupation, and then told the whole story of how he got involved here.He also told her about Dr. Jeffries' call to the ship last night, Dr. Jeffries' confusion during the meeting this afternoon, everyone's disappointment that Dr. Knight could not do this job, and so on.He speaks sincerely and his words are touching. "Miss Hughes," he added at last, "if Dr. Knight is really as ill as you tell Dr. Jeffries, I shall never bother you about it. He is, however. Is it great?" She watched Randall with wide eyes. "No, that's not the case." Her voice trembled. "Can you tell me what's going on?" "No, Mr. Randall, I really can't tell you. I promised to keep it secret. You don't know how much he means to me." "Don't you think he'd be interested in 'The Second Resurrection'?" "Mr. Randall, you know it's not what I think it is. Assuming I mean what I say, I'll put him on your job right away, because that's what he's supposed to do, it's his specialty, and it's the best thing he's ever done in his life. Interesting. As to the consequences of it, it would be good for him too. But I cannot tell him what is best for him." "You can try." Hughes took a handkerchief from her coat pocket and wiped her nose lightly. "Ah, I don't know if I can, I don't know if I have the guts to try." "Then let me try it." "You?" She seemed shocked by the suggestion. "I—I don't believe he's seeing anybody." "There may be a reason for his reluctance to see Dr. Jeffries. But I am different. I respect him and need his help." She blinked at him. "I suppose that's all right," she said hesitantly. "For his own good, of course I'd like to go to Amsterdam with you." Her round face expressed determination. "Well, I'm going to try and get him to see you. Do you have any paper and pen with you?" Randall pulled a business card from his wallet and handed it to her along with the gold pen. She scribbled on the back of the card with Florian's Hill Park address and returned it to him. "Here's his address. It's probably just a waste of time, so go ahead and try it. Please come to his apartment at eight o'clock tonight, and I'll be there. If he won't see you, well, you Knowing that I tried, it was just bad luck." "But maybe he'll see me." "That's as good as it gets," said Hughes. "If you get along with him, you'll think he's a really nice guy. Well, I'll pray for you." She smiled resignedly for the first time. "And God will bless us too." He dropped an already irritated Darlene out of a taxi in front of a movie theater near Piccadilly Square, and then sped on to Knight's address in Hill Park. In the dim light, he surveyed the three-storey old Victorian building, whose appearance showed that its former grandeur had long been lost to the relentless years.This apartment-style building, judging from the common staircase in the middle, may be divided into 6 families.Dr. Knight's house is on the second floor to the right.Unable to find the doorbell, Randall knocked on the door a few times, but when there was no response, he knocked harder.The door finally opened, and it was Miss Hughes who appeared in front of him. "Has God blessed us?" he asked lightly. "He has promised to see you," she said quietly, "but only for a while, please come with me." "Thank you," he said.So I followed into the musty and poorly furnished living room.Naturally, there are piles of books everywhere in the room, which is as messy and clogged as his office. Now he was in his cramped bedroom. There was a desk lamp on the coffee table next to the bed in the bedroom, which gave off a dim light, so the light appeared extremely dim. Randall had to adjust his eyesight to see everything in the room clearly. "Florian," he heard Miss Hughes calling, "this is Mr. Randall from America." After finishing speaking, she immediately retreated timidly to the wall behind her.At this time, he vaguely saw a figure leaning on the bed supported by pillows.Taking a closer look, this Dr. Knight's appearance is really similar to Bozley as Naomi said, but he can give people more sense of beauty, and it is even more peculiar.He was holding a glass now, which Randall guessed might be sherry. "Hey, Randall," said Dr. Knight grandly, "you really have a way of convincing us, Miss Hughes, that I agreed to see you just because I was curious and wanted to see what kind of three-headed and six-armed you are." character. But even though you have come, there will still be no results." "It's a great honor for you to allow me to come." Randall said humbly. Dr. Knight put down the wine glass in his hand, pointed to a chair near the bed and said, "You can sit for a while, but don't hold back. I think five minutes is enough for us to talk." "Thank you, Doctor." Randall went over and sat down. He can now see the young man wearing a hearing aid.He didn't know where to start to dispel the professor's hostility, so he said politely: "I am very sorry to hear that you are ill. I hope you feel better now." "I've never been sick. That was a deliberate lie to get rid of our not-so-honest friend Jeffreys. As for whether I feel better now, not at all, but worse." Randall felt that there was no time for politeness, he had to make it as clear as possible. "Dr. Knight, I have something to say to you. I don't know why you feel this way now. I am an outsider and I have nothing to do with it. Whatever it is, I hope it can be resolved satisfactorily." , for I need your help. I know very little about this new Bible which seems to be a great thing for me to promote. I am a pastor's son, but I am nothing short of biblical and theological. Layman, I need help desperately. I have been told from the beginning that you can give me everything I need. Therefore, what is between you and Dr. Jeffries need not be related to the work between the two of us. " Dr. Knight clapped his hands and mocked. "Randall, your presentation was good, but you're going to have a hard time getting me into that old Jeffries job." So Randall didn't have anything to care about anymore, he just went straight to the point, "Why on earth are you making trouble with Dr. Jeffries like this?" "Ha! Why do I have trouble with that pig?" Dr. Knight's eyes flicked from Randall's face to Hughes's, with a painful expression, "Dude, that's why I have trouble with him He lied and cheated! Huh! Anyway, this is the last time he'll use me. I'm fed up, I'm his victim, and he's skyrocketing. Randall, he lied to me, he wasted me for two years Precious time, I will never forgive anyone for such a thing.” "Why?" He followed closely and asked, "What did he..." "Speak up, please!" Dr. Knight growled, touching his hearing aid. "Don't you know I'm deaf?" "I'm sorry," Randall said, raising his voice, "I still wonder why you got so mad at Dr. Jeffries. Is it because he hasn't been honest about the research you're doing?" "Randall, put yourself in my shoes. I know it's difficult for you, but you might as well give it a try." He was so excited that his voice trembled, "Two years ago, he urged me to leave the comfort zone. Comfortable Oxford University, asked me to come to this bloody place to do translation work for him. On the other hand, he also made promises to me, but he didn't keep them. Anyway, I always trusted him. I didn't lose my temper Well, I work for him, but I don't care. I sacrifice everything because I love that kind of work. But it wasn't until yesterday that he told me the truth. I didn't realize that I always believed in worship. people who don't treat me as a human being. Moreover, I suddenly realized that the price I paid was not what I imagined, but just a translation of a new "Bible". Think about it, this kind of useless thing Can you bear it?" "Dr. Knight, I fully understand this. However, you admit that you still like this kind of work. Besides, what you have done has indeed made great contributions, and Dr. Jeffries also highly respects you." "What contribution?" said Dr. Knight dismissively. "Papyrus and parchment found in Ostia? Jesus Christ said to be among the people? Do you think I will believe what Jeffries says? " Randall frowned and said: "Those manuscripts have been appraised by many experts in Europe and the Middle East, and their reliability should be beyond doubt, so of course I have no doubts." "You know shit," Dr. Knight said roughly, "you're an amateur, and you're completely taken advantage of by them to believe what they say." "That's not the case," Randall said, looking at the Doctor with all his might, suppressing his anger. "It's not at all what you say it is. But from what I've seen and heard, I have no reason to be suspicious or contemptuous of the work. You mean, of course, the discovery..." "I don't mean much," Dr. Knight interrupted him, "but I can say that there is no scholar in the world today who knows the time and circumstances of Jesus better than I do. Jeffries and his gang simply It doesn't make sense, I can say that that job can't do without my Knight. But I won't accept that discovery unless I personally inspect it until I am satisfied. As far as the current situation is concerned, it is just a rumor .” "Then, Dr. Knight, you should come with me to Amsterdam to have this confirmed," said Randall. "It's too late," Dr. Knight said. "It's too late, it's too late." He fell back on his pillow, looking tired and pale. "I'm sorry, Randall. But I can't be a consultant for The Second Resurrection because I'm neither that self-abuse nor that self-destructive." He put his hand on his forehead and said weakly, "Valerie, I'm sweating again I'm in a terrible pain." Miss Hughes had come to his bedside, "Florian, you need to take some more sedatives and take a good rest. I'll take Mr. Randall to the door and I'll be right back." Randall thanked Dr. Knight and walked out resignedly.His goal was not achieved, and he was really not reconciled. But when he reached the door and reached the stairs, Miss Hughes followed him. "Wait for me at Robock," she whispered urgently, "just around the corner from Bond Street. I won't keep you waiting, maybe twenty minutes will do. I—I think some things are best Tell you." At 9:45 he was still waiting for Miss Hughes. He sat on a wooden stool against the wall near the door.Although he was not hungry at all, he still ordered some beef ham pies and boiled eggs and ate slowly, mainly to pass the unbearable time. While eating slowly, he looked anxiously out of the door.He had been wondering what Miss Hughes had to tell him, and why she had been so long in coming. Suddenly, he heard the sound of the door opening and closing, and it was Miss Hughes who appeared in front of him.He stood up hastily, grabbed her arm, and seated her across the table. "Sorry," she said apologetically, "I have to wait until he's asleep to get out of there." "Would you like something to eat or something to drink?"