The red moon returns

Chapter 3 I Found You
  Steam erupted and gray mist shot into the sky.

The surroundings were filled with dampness and the pungent smell of soot.

Ka La Ka La.

Several metal floor-standing boxes on the street corners were unfolded, and the gears inside were turning on their own, sometimes faster and sometimes slower.

A section of railway track began to move slowly, switching from one track to another.

The next moment, the ground shook and a train roared past.

Although this place already belongs to the gray fog area of ​​the industrial area, it is not far from Lynch Office in the river valley area, only a fifteen-minute walk away.

19:50, countdown to four hours and ten minutes.

Covering his mouth and nose, Lynch strode across the railroad tracks amidst the pungent smell of coal smoke, bypassed several speeding carriages, crossed the bluestone pavement and appeared outside the door of Latis' kitchen.

The streets in the industrial area were not prosperous and sparsely populated, but carriages were crowded at the door of Latis' kitchen, and at least ten pairs of men and women in formal suits were standing under the gas lamps outside the eaves.

At this moment, for the first time, Lin Qi truly realized that he was in another world.

Pulling up his sleeves and looking at his arms, he saw that the withering was still there, and seemed to have spread a little above the elbows.

Not sure if it was an illusion, but the weight on my chest was getting heavier.

Time waits for no one.

Under the glare of the queue, Lynch squeezed straight into the restaurant door.

The waiter in the red vest immediately came to greet him.

"Sorry, sir, we are already full. You..." the waiter looked at Lynch doubtfully, "Sir, you just came here in the evening. I'm sorry, there is already someone in your seat. You need to queue up again."

Huh, at least this memory is correct. This is a good start.

Lin Qi's anxious heart dropped, and his expression also relaxed a lot.

Looking inside, under the bright light of the hall, dozens of thick wooden tables were placed at random, and they were already filled with well-dressed gentlemen and ladies. On the seat before him, a gentleman in formal clothes seemed to sense his gaze, and lifted up the blue embroidered The hat with the L-shaped family emblem nodded towards him.

Who is it?

He immediately found the answer in his memory. Mr. Randall was a very stingy capitalist. Lynch had taken over several commissions from him and always tried various ways to take advantage of him. However, he had never defaulted on the commission fees. He was considered a good person. Extremely annoying quality customer.

Too lazy to pay attention to him, Lynch just raised his hat and bowed, then looked away and said to the waiter: "It seems you still remember me?"

"Of course, you spent four shillings and gave me a tip of one shilling."

I'm afraid I'm not crazy.

Lynch frowned slightly. One shilling was equivalent to the purchasing power of sixty dollars in his previous life. In his memory, he was just a poor detective. He never tipped when he went out. Today, he actually ate four shillings and gave a high tip. .

After humming, Lin Qi asked calmly: "Since your memory is so good, do you still remember where I come from?"

"This... uh, sorry, sir, I really don't know. I wouldn't pay special attention to you until you come in."

"Then how did I get here? On foot or in a carriage, did you notice?"

"Walking, sir, I remember that very well."

Lin Qi nodded thoughtfully. Before he could say anything, the waiter continued:
  "Because you were saying goodbye to your friends outside before you came in. I saw at that time that there was no carriage passing by the door."

Ok?friend?

Lin Qi's heart beat a little faster, and his palms were wet. He asked expectantly: "Do you still remember what that person looks like?"

"Sorry, I didn't see it clearly, I just glanced at it."

Lin Qi's heart sank, but he immediately heard the waiter think about it and add:
  "But I remember his nose was obviously red."

"Hey, I understand, thank you."

Lynch patted the waiter's shoulder excitedly, took out his wallet and prepared to give him another tip of... a penny. However, he was stunned when he opened the wallet.

In his memory, Lynch's original property, six pounds and fifteen shillings, disappeared.

There was only three shillings and sixpence left in the purse.

How did I spend it? No impression at all.

Lynch realized that perhaps this was also a memory related to that statue.

Well, not only did they want me dead, they also took away all my property and gave me no way to survive.

Now not only is it for your life, but even for these six pounds and fifteen shillings, I will pull you out and kill you.

Just wash my neck and wait.

Feeling cruel in his heart, Lin Qi patted the waiter on the shoulder again, took the money bag he took out, and turned away under the strange look in the waiter's eyes.

It turns out that Lin Qi's memory has reminded him who that person is.

‘Drunk Peter’, an antiquities information dealer and one of his informants.

Excluding some small possibilities of chance encounters, since we broke up at the door of the restaurant in the afternoon, the most likely thing is the statue we got with him in the afternoon.

If it is a private transaction of statues with him, it can be done in the office. If you want to keep it secret so you are outside, you should choose to hide your whereabouts to clear up the relationship and not go to the restaurant together afterwards.

So he probably went somewhere with him to get the statue. Then as long as he found this person, he would know what happened in the afternoon.

As for where he is now...

Lynch quickly checked his notepad. Although a few pages were very strange, the records in front of them were all normal.

Information about this informant was recorded a long time ago.

He spent most nights at the Mole Club.

where is that?
  Lynch's curiosity was quickly extinguished, or rather, completely ignited.

It's less than a kilometer away from Ladis Kitchen.

Around 20 o'clock, with the four-hour countdown, Lynch walked along the dim gas street lights in the mist and stepped on the humid steam permeating the sewers on the roadside, and approached a very common two-story building.

The exterior decoration is very stylish, with an ambiguous glimmer of light coming from the long and narrow windows. The only special thing is that there is a thick door on the door step with a peek window above.

"Who are you looking for?" A voice came from the peep window.

"Countess Marian."

"Someone is already here."

"I know, it's Simon, we made an appointment."

Simon is the name of ‘Drunk Peter’.

"Huh? Are you playing so big?"

For some reason, the sound inside the door was a little more terrifying, and then the door opened with a bang.

A dark figure waved his hand: "Come in quickly, No. 18 on the first floor, don't wander around, I'll disturb other guests and break your legs."

Turning up his collar and lowering his hat, Lynch quietly entered the club.

As soon as I walked in, a strange smell hit my face. It was the air mixed with tobacco, perfume, alcohol and a special fishy smell. Lynch has roughly guessed what the hell this place is.

You can’t go wrong with pink service venues.

The corridor is dark and deep, with more than a dozen pink-painted wooden doors on both sides. They look very strong. There are name tags on each door, which read titles such as xx Marquise xx and xx Princess. Several doors were ajar, revealing the pink gas lamps and the most conspicuous gauze-barrier solid wood bed inside, as well as the gorgeous figures dressed in ladies' attire.

Lynch didn't care to look closely, so he went straight into the long and narrow corridor and found No. 18 next to the stairs at the end.

After pushing open the pink door, Lynch paused for a second and then closed it again.

Then he looked at the number and nameplate on the door, and had no choice but to open the door No. 18 again.

Facing a heavily made-up... strong man sitting on the bed.

X You drunk Peter.

"Countess Marian?"

The strong man nodded charmingly: "I have a guest, dear, you can come back during the day tomorrow."

Lynch's expression became quite exciting, and he took a deep breath: "Where's Simon?"

"So I was looking for him. He said he was going to the bathroom, but he hasn't come back yet. It's been ten minutes."

Um? bathroom? Isn't there one in the room?
  Lin Qi frowned, he couldn't have run away, why should he run?
  It was a matter of life and death. Lin Qi didn't care about politeness. He hit the door and turned around to walk deeper. After taking only two steps, he bumped into a waiter in a black vest.

"Sir, don't rush in. Are you lost?"

"Marian asked me to help him find Simon, saying that Simon had been in the bathroom for ten minutes and suspected that he was drunk."

Hearing Marianne's name, the waiter had no doubt: "Who is Simon?"

"A red nose."

"Oh, it's him. He didn't go to the bathroom. I just saw him going downstairs. It seemed like he went to the basement."

"Basement? What is that place?"

"Steam room."

In this world, most large buildings will have steam engine rooms to provide power for some equipment in the building.

What was this man doing there?
  Lin Qi became even more confused: "Isn't it because I was drunk and went to the wrong place? Please accompany me to have a look."

"Go on your own, just go down the stairs and don't touch the boiler."

Without asking any more questions, Lin Qi turned around and chased after him.

The steam engine room is an open underground space filled with the pungent smell of burnt and soot, and a wave of heat billows in.

The huge boiler was in the middle of the machine room, and the firelight inside made the basement red.

However, as soon as he reached the front of the boiler, Lynch suddenly stopped.

In the steamy environment, his whole body was tense, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

A man is lying in the boiler.

The body was completely drilled in, and only the head was exposed.

The flames burned his body, making a squeaking sound.

The body had turned into charcoal, but the head was still intact. He looked at Lynch with wide eyes, a strange smile on his face, and his red nose shone in the light of the fire.

"Yuck~"

The strong aroma of barbecue made Lynch vomit on the spot, making his whole body weak. As soon as he regained his senses, he immediately stumbled out and ran out of the club door. Then he leaned against the cold wall, pressing his chest and gasping for air. .

Dead, 'Drunk Peter' is actually dead.

And it seemed like he had stuffed himself into a boiler and burned himself to death.

How is it possible? This is weirder than me hanging myself.

Emotions of horror and fear tightly wrapped Lin Qi's heart. Lin Qi felt that the blood vessels all over his body were tightening, and even his fingers were trembling slightly.

There were chaotic sounds in the club behind him. It seemed that his behavior attracted the attention of others, and they discovered the body along the way.

Not wanting to get into trouble and waste time by staying too long, Lynch quickly got into the shadows on the roadside, clutching his chest and slowly regaining his ability to think.

One step too late, just ten minutes earlier would have been better.

Not even a friend, just an ordinary informant. All Lin Qi felt was deep regret.

The clue was just cut off?

No, I am not reconciled.

Gritting his teeth, Lynch thought over and over the information he found. Unknowingly, his chaotic and fearful spirit quickly calmed down.

Are you helping me, witness?
  [You are special, the awakened one. Your will is exceptionally strong and you can quickly get rid of the influence of fear. This has nothing to do with me. 】

Okay, thank you too.

After calming down, my mind regained its clarity, and I learned the habit of analyzing clues that I had developed when watching dramas in the past. All the information came together in my mind.

In fact, he and I are not very familiar, and we shouldn’t do this kind of thing together, but we appeared together today, combined with his profession as an antiquities information dealer, and considering the identity of the statue, it is very likely that I got the information about the statue from him. , he took me to buy the statue door-to-door, and this is how I spent my money.

Then the place where we took the statue is most likely a place related to his profession, that is, a place related to antiquities. And it’s a place where you can trade safely and legally. Places like museums don’t count. I generally don’t do anything illegal.

Of course, it might be a private collection, but I shouldn’t take a large amount of cash to an unknown house with an unknown person. It is most likely to be in a public place, well, antique stores first.

There are more than 100 antique shops in the Rhine City. It may be too late to search for them all, but there is no need to search for them one by one.

I have always been a very poor person and never tipped, especially when I only had three shillings left, but I still tipped the waiter one shilling and ordered a bottle of good wine.

It couldn't be because I wanted to die at that time, otherwise I would have given away the remaining three shillings. It only means that I was about to have a lot of money, and I was very happy at the time, so I had no worries. Of tipping.

In this mood, there are people walking with me. If the distance is too far, it is impossible for me to choose to walk. No, it should be said that even if it is the distance that normal people choose to walk, I will choose to rent a carriage. This is in line with the mood at that time. After all, now If you are rich, you will have to take a taxi even if you are only ten meters away. "

But I chose to walk. The most likely reason is that the location is not far from Ladis Kitchen.

The brain is running at high speed, and the mystery is gradually revealed.

Open the city map tucked in the notebook, find Ladis Kitchen, press your finger on the map, use it as the center of the circle and slowly expand outward to draw a circle.

"Use it as the center of the circle and three hundred meters as the radius, and then search for public places related to antiquities."

Lin Qi made a habit of kissing the moon pendant. He didn't know who he was praying for for blessing. As he muttered, his fingers circled around the map to expand the search area.

Circle, circle, and suddenly stopped.

He raised his head and showed a somewhat ferocious smile.

"Got you."

Granville Antiques, 4 Bluebell Lane.

20:15, countdown to three hours and forty-five minutes.

(End of this chapter)