Mysterious Hunting Ground

Chapter 127 127. Reverse Thinking

Marco's home is a small two-story building of a certain age on the outskirts of downtown Reno, away from the riverside walk.

Not long after Dean knocked on the door.

Marco, who was wearing pajamas, opened the door. There were two faint bags under his eyes, his skin was loose, and his hair was disheveled. He obviously didn't sleep well last night.

"Have you finished chatting with Jero? Did you find anything?"

"Yeah. Gero is full of praise for Luben, rather than belittling him as a waste like you said." Dean walked through the hallway to the sofa in the living room, sat on it, and looked around——

This house is much more luxuriously decorated than the apartment, and it has a taste of magnificence. The sofas, tables and chairs are all expensive mahogany, ceramic vases are placed from the entrance to the living room, the gold and silver leaf wallpaper is on the side wall of the stairs leading to the second floor There are portraits of people hanging on them. Judging from their appearance and flaxen hair color, they should all have the blood of the Van Helsing family, perhaps their ancestors.

Even the petal-like lampshades hanging from the ceiling are exquisite and look like antique works of art.

"And I can now confirm that Luben's disappearance is related to his last autobiography, "Luben van Helsing."

"That's just a broken book." The old man shook his head, sat on the sofa opposite him, his eyebrows were tightened, "Why do you always get entangled in this place?"

"Intuition..." Dean nodded his temples, his eyes glowing brightly. "It's a bit unbelievable to say, but my investigation mainly relies on intuition. This is my strongest weapon."

"Besides, I don't want to beat around the bush anymore. I'll put my words here now. Whenever I mention that book, you change the subject. If you haven't read it, how can you have such an attitude?"

"You must have a copy, give it to me," Dean stared into the eyes of his old employer, and said without doubt, "Otherwise I will give up Luben's commission now and return to Las Vegas, and I will not want the reward. "

The threatening voice fell to the ground.

The air in the hall is still, and the dim light seems to be frozen in the photo by the camera.

Marco's old cheeks were stunned for a moment, and the wrinkles on his face wriggled like sandworms that had come to life.

The expression struggled.

But he said nothing.

Dean got up,

"So farewell, Marco, thank you for your care these two days, next time you come to Las Vegas. I ask you to go around."

Amid the hurried footsteps, Dean, who counted silently, strode towards the door, pressed the door handle with his right hand, and twisted it.

"I'll give you a copy." A decadent voice came from behind.

The corners of Dean's mouth curved slightly.

Then, he got the book as he wished, and sat on the sofa to read it by the light of the living room.

It is very simple, without a cover, and it is just a volume of dense drafts, with a total of more than 100 pages. The condition is very new, and it seems that it has not been read much.

"More than half a year ago, I took advantage of Lu Ben to go to the bar to drink at night, sneaked into his apartment, took the manuscript and copied it." The old man held a cup of warm black tea, as if he wanted to warm his cold heart, but he Hunched over, with an extremely helpless expression, as if he had aged several years in an instant, "I am also worried that he will burn books impulsively again."

"Why should you care about your son secretly instead of being more open and aboveboard? As a father, don't always keep your concern in your heart."

Dean glanced at it, and the first page of the book opened to clarify the identity of the protagonist.

"My name is Reuben van Helsing, the last blood of an ancient family that immigrated from Holland to America...a third-rate writer who failed the honor of his ancestors and accomplished nothing."

Laughing at himself, Luben began to talk about his growth experience. Dean had heard it from Jero and Marco before, so he won't repeat it.

But there are a lot of details in the book, such as Lu Ben's complaints about his father Marco's emphasis on work and neglect of himself.

"A tyrant who only knows how to give orders but never listens..."

"The machismo Hitler II..."

"The egg-cutting maniac at the pet clinic..." The corners of Dean's mouth twitched, and Marco next to him also looked embarrassed.

In addition, the adolescent Luben can be seen everywhere in the book. He has various fantasies about the goddess of his dreams—big blue eyes, a straight nose, a small cherry mouth, a bumpy figure, and likes to wear a graceful red dress. The most distinctive feature is a beauty mole on the corner of the mouth.

"Why is the goddess in Luben's dream a little familiar?"

"That's right, it's exactly the same as my wife, his mother Mary." Marco slapped down the table and said in a low voice, "This immoral brat is just imagining in his heart, but he actually wrote in the book openly." It is really unethical to have your own shameful fantasies."

"This behavior shames the whole family!"

"And it's not over yet..." Marco took a deep breath, his face began to turn red, and he growled, "There are even more absurd plots behind!"

Dean continued to look back.

Lu Ben's growth into a down-and-out writer is mixed with a lot of Lu Ben's complaints about his bad luck and underappreciated talents.

The writing is gorgeous, and the description is also delicate and vivid. The appearance and clothing of the characters are as if in front of your eyes.

But as a reader, Dean just wants to read some cool content. This Luben prefers to feel sorry for himself.

One look at Wenqing, she deserves to be thrown into the street!

……

Skip the whining words.

Dean flipped all the way to the last part.

The night of life turning point.

Luben, who wasted 36 years, drunkenly rescued the beauty on the Virginia Street Bridge, and then poured out his heart to each other.

The rescued woman's name is also Mary, which is very similar to Luben's mother's name and appearance.

And the reason for her suicide was because her ex-husband had an affair, and she couldn't stand it, so she came to Reno for a divorce without responsibility.

After the divorce was successful, the man left gracefully.

But the feelings she paid for her in the past were not worth it, and she committed suicide on impulse.

This is how the woman in red described her ex-husband—six-foot-three, on the thin side, who loved jeans, loafers, and a big black coat.His flaxen-colored short hair with traces of silver was parted with pomade. He had a high nose bridge, high cheekbones, deep wrinkles on his face, and an old-fashioned and serious appearance.

Moreover, he has a bad temper, is stubborn and rigid, and has a lot of machismo.

There is also a pet clinic.

When Dean read this, he looked up at the old man across from him, his pupils shrank.

Isn't this fucking ex-husband Marco?

"You bastard, son of a bitch!" The old man suddenly got up from the sofa amidst grief and indignation. "I regard Mary as my only true love. Even if she died long ago, I would never marry her."

"But my dear son made up things in the book, slandered my personality, said that I had an affair, and said that I broke Mary's heart! It made me a heartbreaker."

"What kind of son would insult his father like that?"

The old man was shaking with rage, and his beard and gray hair stood on end.

And Dean finally understood why Marco had an ugly face when he mentioned this book before-this is a proper family scandal!

In the book, Lu Ben, the protagonist, snatches Mary away from her father, a playboy.

What is this?
A son stealing his father's lover?
Shocking!

Is this the true temperament of the writer, something wrong with his brain, or the depravity of human nature?

"That's right, Luben is too outrageous." Dean followed the old man's words and reprimanded,
"But now, let's calm down for now, it's important to find someone."

Dean turned another page, and the desolate Luben and the suicidal Mary leaned on each other's shoulders and slowly cuddled together.

Then he turned to the end of the page.

The new love came to an abrupt end.

Dean's face darkened, his expression frantic, "The second half?"

"Before he had time to copy another book, he threw all the books into the river to feed the fish." Marco pressed his liver, opened and closed his mouth like a catfish, and kept taking deep breaths.

"Shet!"

Dean couldn't help but bowed his head and cursed.

"Are you kidding me? There's only half a book, how can I find someone?"

"Dean, you let me experience the pain of being insulted by my son again." Marco's face turned blue, "Now tell me, what clues did you find in this half of the book?"

……

clue…

Dean rubbed his swollen temples, pondered for a moment, flashed the five clues he found in the past two days in his mind, and merged them——

Luben Van Helsing is a poor writer who lives on relief from his father Marco. He loves the cultural history of his hometown Reno, the "divorce capital of the world", and fantasizes all day long about finding someone like his mother Mary. Same good girlfriend.

Finally, one day, Luben wrote an autobiography based on the history of Reno, and the heroine in the autobiography was based on Mary.

……

According to this clue, Dean made a guess.

"Before Lu Ben disappeared, he met this woman in red who committed suicide in reality, and then wrote her in the book?"

"Then he left Reno with the woman?"

"If we find a woman, we can follow the clues to find him!"

After all, the plots in many writers' novels are adapted from their own personal experiences.

Marco shook his head resolutely when he heard the words,
"That stinky boy can't hide things in his heart. If he encounters this kind of heroic opportunity to save the beauty and succeeds, he will definitely not be able to help but tell Jie Luo and talk to me."

"He's going to hang his mouth happily from ear to ear for quite a while."

"But in recent years he has been in a low mood."

"If there is such a woman who looks exactly like Mary in reality, I must have seen it, but I haven't."

……

Both his father Marco and his close friend Gero denied the existence of the heroine in the book one after another.

It seems that it was not Luben Van Helsing who saved the woman in red in reality and wrote her into the story.

……

"No idea? Dude, don't bother with this shitty book anymore," Marco said with an expected look on his face, closing the pages with his withered hands. "It's all fake, it's all ridiculous fantasies, and it can't be changed. If it becomes a reality, you should change the direction of investigation!"

"Wait, it's impossible for fantasies to become reality?" Dean suddenly stared straight into Marco's eyes, clenched his fists suddenly,
"No, you are wrong. The plot of the book may become reality."

This is a medium-difficulty event with a supernatural element, so anything is possible.

Dean re-examined the previous clues again, his brain was running at high speed, and his brain was open to reverse thinking.
It is not that Luben wrote his personal experience into the novel.

Instead, Lu Ben first wrote the novel, and then the plot in the book came true.

Fantasy shines into reality!
Mary, the woman in red, ran out of the book and was about to jump off the Virginia Street Bridge. After Lu Ben rescued her, the two disappeared together!
As expected, what happened to Lu Ben after his disappearance was recorded in the second half of the lost book!
……

this idea together.

Dean breathed a sigh of relief as if he drank a mouthful of sweet and thirst-quenching cold water in the hot summer.

The investigation progress in the system also jumped suddenly, from 40.00% to 40.00%[-].

But it was lower than he expected.

Is there no definite evidence?
……

Marco looked at the young detective with changing expressions, smirking and frowning, and then thought of his inexplicable entanglement with a broken book, a strong distrust flashed in his eyes,
"Won't Tribeca recommend me a psycho?"

……

"But it still needs to be verified." Dean ignored the old man's weird gaze and said to himself, "I have to ask experienced people, does the fact that books come true exist in folklore?"

(End of this chapter)