Chapter 3 Section 2 Invitation

"July 2nd, a free cocktail party. This is from Amy." Taphne put two exquisite invitations on the table, "If you are willing to get drunk by Mojito again? We can go together," said the detective assistant, smiling at her boss. "Oh? Who is the host of the reception?" Wenzel put down the "Libertarian Newspaper" in his hand, "I am more concerned about whether the bartender invited in this reception can make a glass of authentic Cuban flavor—fresh mint leaves, good-sized crushed ice, and real white rum: if the booze tastes bland, I'd rather spend a rare weekend at home."

"This happened to be a reception arranged by the bartender." Taphne took back the two invitations and looked at them in her hand, "John Baines——if you have heard of this person in any bar .He's more professional than Evian's bartender, I guess." After being reminded by the assistant, our detective picked up the day's "Libertarian" again and turned forward to the eleventh page. Then, pointing to a rather eye-catching picture news on that page, he said to Taphne: "'John Baines was awarded Liberty City's Best Sommelier of the Year 2006', is that the guy?"

"Is there a name and a surname—if there are many bartenders with this name?" The detective assistant smiled, seemed to think for a moment, and said with some regret, "It seems that you don't have any Interested! Oh? I’d better invite Handik to this reception—Amy didn’t invite you specifically.” She reached for the phone receiver, as if she wanted to call Handik immediately. Upon hearing this, our Mr. Detective stood up from the armchair and pressed down the phone receiver as quickly as possible: "Let me go with you?" Wenzel seemed a little embarrassed to say, "You know, our old friend has always been only interested in wine - such a reception is not suitable for him?"

"But they also serve good red wine." Taphne said, pretending to be a little embarrassed, "Listen to Amy - this friend of his has a few bottles of very rare Ch. Latour's top wine: You know, the top winery in Médoc, the best vintage, plus first-class collection conditions?" Taphne said, moving her hand in the direction of the phone, as if she was going to pick up the microphone again. "Okay, okay?" Wenzel shrugged his shoulders, sat back in his seat, and gave up control of the phone, "My dear Taphne—if you want me to accompany you If you attend this reception, I can give you an extra day off so that you can get ready for this weekend's activities? You know—it's Friday tomorrow anyway, so there's nothing too important?"

"Is this considered a bribe?" Taphne smiled smugly, "However, it is best to start the temporary vacation from now?" She deliberately raised her hand and glanced at her nails, "I already have Haven't put on nail polish in a long time - it looks like it needs some special treatment this afternoon? You know, boss, this is quite a formal reception! As a representative of our detective agency employees, should I really prepare well?" "Go and pack your things?" Our detective completely compromised with the "employee representative" lady who had no other candidates. "I will drive to pick you up on Sunday? Wait for my call."

"My dearest boss," Taphne left an invitation letter on Wenzel's desk, "So, see you on Sunday night?" It's 10:30 am on Thursday, and Miss Taphne, who just went to work not long ago, has already picked up her handbag and car keys, saying goodbye to this busy working week in advance. "Thank you, Professor Joshua!", when she was about to walk to the parking lot, Taphne, who couldn't help smiling, made a toast to the air and gave such a thank you speech. Of course we know that Professor Joshua has been teaching at the Business School of Libertarian University for many years—this lovely professor who lectures on business negotiation once taught Taphne a big class for two semesters. While Taphne goes to get her nails done (God knows if that's an ingenious excuse for the station stalwart to catch some new soap in the afternoon), we might as well let the space move with us For a moment—now, our sights have shifted to the Hauser district: under Rydberg Castle, at the end of Faraday Street, with Cold Mountain as our signpost, all the way to the edge of the downtown area? At this moment, we are strolling in the On the tree-lined New Ludwig Allee - this street far from the downtown area has one of the highest land prices in the city: not only because of the excellent scenery along this street, as well as the cold mountains and The shelter of the old castle; the most important thing - this is the settlement of the city's new aristocrats with a sense of classical Victorian manor, an expensive magnet with a strong attraction for power and wealth.

Clever real estate developers have spent more than ten years managing this former wasteland. They invited world-class architectural elites and spared no effort to turn this place into an exhibition of luxurious neo-Gothic architecture. The government bids for large tracts of land at low prices, plans them to a suitable size, and then lets architects pick up their building blocks and build them at will in the spirit of the Middle Ages. It's certainly not enough to do this - with a palace, there is a need for a kingdom and a king. So, they began to use their diplomatic skills to attract various media to promote this place.They certainly wouldn’t be so stupid as to just advertise “luxury villas for sale”—these hype real estate developers have invited first-rate architectural critics, stuffed their pockets, and let them praise the building in unison:

"Undoubtedly the greatest aristocratic complex since the Renaissance." "Neo-gothic innovation and classic design that would put a Brit to shame." "The baroque tomb of Sir John Vanbrugh." (Author's Note: Sir John Vanbrugh was the most famous Baroque architect and playwright in the late 17th and early 18th centuries in England. His architectural masterpiece is Blenheim Palace (Blenheim Palace) ).) This series of large-scale actions made the new aristocratic street name "New Ludwig Allee" gradually become famous-although its original name was not "Ludwig Allee", but Unassuming, even cheesy "mountain trails": who cares now?

The real estate agents who were laughing logically organized an open exhibition and a grand and gorgeous house sale ceremony-of course it was an unprecedented success!Twenty-five sets of palaces were sold out quickly. In addition to recovering their investment, these shrewd speculators naturally made a lot of money without any suspense. These background introductions are just digressions.Now we're finally at Neue Ludwigsallee 17 - a place where wealthy people of all stripes have bought a palace, perhaps not for the purpose of living in it, but for their social needs.But we can't call it "the villa of Grand Duke John Baines": the reason why the world-renowned star sommelier bought this villa, which covers an area almost as large as half of the Allianz Stadium, is that In order to be able to be used for living while meeting social needs - which of course means: it is large enough.

The main building of the villa, if you overlook it from the top, if you don’t pay attention to the garden road and the villa garage carefully paved with colorful tiles, it just forms a thick "herringbone" shape - the starting point of the character "人" is the owner's The lounge, by the way, is the wing, the hall, several separate guest rooms and the kitchen.The second starting position is the hall: the ingenious architect deliberately designed the hall in the shape of a right-angled trapezoid, adding a sense of visual beauty and layering to the entire palace.The brushstrokes pass through the reception hall and foyer under the tower and terrace in turn, and come to the gate of the villa.

Don't get me wrong, the owner of the villa usually doesn't live in the hall that is big enough to hold a small equestrian competition—look from the air to the left of the main entrance: behind the garage, there is an inconspicuous two-story building— ——Just as Schwangau Castle in Fussen and the famous Neuschwanstein Castle are far away from each other.This is also a neo-Gothic three-story building, the larger side is for the owner, and the rest is the residence of the relevant personnel of the villa. But John does not go to his herringbone palace except for receptions - of course we still remember another title of Grand Duke John Baines: "Tequila Master".And the collection of hundreds of bottles of tequila that he won this title is stored in the wine cabinet in the owner's lounge. Regardless of the back door on the other side of the garden (although we can already see a corner of the owner’s garden through the gaps in the ornate decorative pattern on the iron door), continue to walk forward for seven or eight minutes, under the shade of the huge sycamore tree, All the way past the high shrub walls carefully pruned and cared by the villa gardeners, a grand and luxurious gate unexpectedly appeared before our eyes.Don't bother with those villa security guards - remember, we are visiting as guests now, just like the gang of socialites who were hypocritically chatting here a few days ago: although the golden tulip cup was released this week Sancai is officially in John's hands, but in fact, they have already started celebrating here as early as last weekend? As for the "first celebration reception" on July 2, it goes without saying that it was an elaborate communication It's just a beautiful decoration that has been cleverly designed. After passing the pass, the doorman pulled up the gate gate, and the well-trained housekeeper led our steps—we could already see this splendid palace when we walked on the driveway just entering the gate: although the villa Only one floor, but with an impressive overall height - a Gothic roof with a slope of almost seventy degrees definitely contributes to this.Looking from the tower on the left to the right: the dislocation created by the trapezoidal hall, the overall asymmetrical beauty of the building, the floor-to-ceiling windows nearly three meters high, the combination of blue-black roofs, beige walls and pure white stone rain channels? Everywhere makes people have to admire the genius of the designer (I didn't mean to ignore the gorgeous and fashionable outdoor lighting group erected outside the lobby and side hall - just because they were recently completed and did not belong to the original builder Achievement). A thin description is a bit weak, so we might as well use a ready-made example to imagine-the Palace of Fontainebleau after reconstruction according to modern Neo-Gothic ideas is in front of us! (Author's note: Schloss Fontainebleau, one of the scenic spots in Fontainebleau, France. Its Italian style is attributed to the famous Italian worker Rosso Fiorentino and others - as a whole, due to many times The remodeling of the building presents a mixture of French and Italian styles) Now, we should be able to know how magnificent this villa is. I know that you definitely want to continue this tour of the villa, but please allow me to move the space back to the two invitees of the detective agency on my own initiative-the part of the indoor tour is still by our protagonist It is more appropriate to complete (laughs). OK, it's seven o'clock on Sunday night.After finally solving the problem of matching clothes, Taphne is sitting in front of the vanity mirror in the bedroom, carefully putting on makeup for herself. Wenzel stood helplessly outside the door, looking at his watch from time to time. It was getting dark. the reception has begun