It is impossible for the girl to find the evil god in the textbook

What Knox meant was that Ella and the others were now being treated as guests, not prey.

He put a smile on his face and said:

"Welcome, my guest, how can I help you?"

Chapter 48 The Huge Fig Leaf

"Give us a quiet room."

Melanie took out a few five-franc silver coins, stacked them neatly on the bar, and slid them towards the bar owner.

Knox raised his eyebrows and whistled briskly,

"follow me."

He led the two to the corridor on the second floor. Ella felt multiple auras in several houses in the corridor, and those obviously did not look like tenants.

This is quite normal. To be able to open a bar in such a chaotic place, Knox is definitely not as simple as it seems.

But since these people had no intention of rushing out, Ella ignored the small gesture of the bar owner and just smiled.

The back of Knox walking in front seemed to froze for a moment, but he quickly returned to normal. He opened a door at the deepest part of the corridor.

It was a clean and tidy room, with freshly washed sheets, faded but unbroken curtains, a separate bathroom and a small coffee table.

"This is the quietest room, it's actually in the next building, so the boys in the bar can't hear it."

“I’d venture to say that’s the most you could rent a townhouse before Paris remodeled.”

Melanie roughly looked at the environment of the room and expressed her satisfaction.

But Knox seemed to have no plans to leave, and he asked curiously:

"You two obviously don't look like residents of Batignolles. Can I ask why a lady like you would come to such a remote place?"

Ella has no intention of speaking, her current position is not just Miss Detective's bodyguard.

"Actually, I am a reporter for the Journal de Seine, and the editor-in-chief wants to publish a report on the old city. I am responsible for collecting some information. This is the special commissioner responsible for protecting me."

As she spoke, she even took a bulky camera out of the box, quickly assembled them and set them up in the room.

This scene left Ella a little stunned. Melanie had indeed made enough preparations.In fact, this is not a lie. The Seine newspaper is indeed the contact point established by the Paris executioners.

In addition to performing tasks, Melanie doesn't mind taking it to earn a little extra money. Earning money for local organizations is also one of the ways to accumulate contributions.In addition to the executive's fixed salary, these extra money are also part of their source of income.

Knox made a clear expression. This is nothing new. In the past few months, many reporters have unannounced visits to Batignol.It's just that this time it seems to be too high-profile.

"Mr. Knox, would you answer a few questions for me? It will only take a few minutes at most."

"Of course, I am very happy to serve you."

Knox moved a stool and sat down at the coffee table.

Melanie nodded, took out paper and pen and started recording.

"Before you ask me questions, there's one thing I want to know. A few minutes ago, my people told me that a family dog ​​was lost in Belleville not far from my bar. Miss reporter knew about this. What?"

Melanie gave Ella a wink. They had discussed the matter before entering the bar, and they had already discussed the plan.

Ella's face is mostly hidden under the black veil, only her lips and small chin are exposed.

"It barked at me, so it was crippled, and it won't be long before it will go back by itself."

This can even be said to be an arrogant provocation.

Knox's expression changed, and he sat up straighter unconsciously. He took a deep look at Ella and exhaled a foul breath.

"This bodyguard lady... is really impressive. I have no other questions. Miss reporter, please ask."

Melanie put on a pair of round crystal glasses and filled the quill with ink.

"Tell us a little about yourself, Mr. Knox. Were you living in Batignolles before Paris was rebuilt?"

"No, I opened a bar on Xiheli Street in the fourth district before. You know, it was one of the first places to be classified as a remodeling area."

"Xiheli Street? The environment there is much better than Batignolles, right?"

"Of course!"

Knox's mood seemed to be a little unstable. The bartender carried the tray to the second floor and poured a glass of beer for the two guests and Knox.

"They paid [-] francs for my bar to be developed. You know, what is that money? Even before the renovation, it wasn't enough to buy half of the area on West and Ridge Street. A house! And now—I've inquired, after the street is rebuilt, my place is worth less now."

Knox held out five fingers, which meant more than three times the compensation.He drank the beer from the glass, which was actually more like a keg than a glass, holding nearly fifty ounces.

Knox slammed the cup onto the coffee table.

"This money is all in the pockets of Osman and those people!"

Regardless of whether these data are true or not, Melanie recorded them in her notebook. According to the editor's habits, this number may still have room for improvement.In any case, for the target readers of "Journal de Seine", negative information about Baron Haussmann will not be outdated for a long time.

"Those damned upper-class people have brought Batignolles, even suburbs like Belleville, and even villages or wineries into Paris."

"Are they trying to expand the city? I don't think so, it's just the slums of New Paris! Just because it's far enough fucking away that the stench of us poor people doesn't get to the rich gentlemen nose!"

"These messy houses are the fig leaf of the whole of Paris, a huge fig leaf!"

Knox concluded the conversation with these words.

"A wonderful metaphor."

Melanie said so.

"Thank you sir, I'm going to walk around in the next few days and look out of the corner of my eye."

"It's nothing, I treat you with this glass of wine. No one has been willing to listen to me talking nonsense for a long time. If your newspaper can cause some trouble to those big shots, even if it just makes them feel annoyed, I will be satisfied."

With that said, Knox, who seemed a little drunk, left the room.

Ella looked in the direction of the door and shook her head.

"He is not a good person. From a certain point of view, Knox is indeed a victim, but he chooses to bully the poorer poor here. He is no different from the disgusting rich man in his own mouth."

Melanie nodded. The lighting in this room is very good. From the window, you can see the crowded and dirty streets below.She pointed to the expressionless, numb and busy people below.

"These ordinary people are the most difficult, whether it is the whole of Paris or the small area of ​​Batignolles. They can only seek to survive in the mezzanine of order."

After adjusting the angle, Melanie pointed the camera under the window and pressed the shutter.

A burst of white light flickered, and thick smoke rose, but Number Four failed to attract the attention of the residents below.

Chapter 49 report (plus more

In a room in the corridor on the second floor of the bar.

Knox, the two bartenders who had appeared on the first floor before, and a dozen men dressed as drinkers or with completely unfamiliar faces formed a group.

"Boss, shall we..."

One of the dark-skinned bartenders wiped his neck,

"Maybe we can sell the Belleville Party a favor."

Knox sipped his beer silently, and there was no hint of drunkenness on his face at all. The so-called revealing of true feelings just now was just a somewhat exaggerated performance.

He suddenly shook his head and lowered his voice.

"The lady reporter should be just an ordinary person, but that bodyguard is not simple... She seemed to have noticed your presence in the corridor before."

"Is it impossible?"

The man who answered Knox was a man with a gauze bandage on his head. If Ella was here, he would find that he was the previous guest who was smashed to the ground by himself with a wine bottle.

"Our people didn't make any movement at that time, so what if she finds out?"

"After all, there were only two of them, and a dozen of us . . . Shit, I'll have to get some interest back before I hand that chick over to the Belleville party!"

The man's words were not very convincing, after all, he was knocked down after just one meeting, and he had no power to resist.But from a certain point of view, his words also make sense, after all, the ratio of the number of people is obvious.

But would those two women be too stupid to understand such a simple truth?

The corners of Knox's mouth twitched and pulled downward, showing a very ugly smile.

"If you want to go, go by yourself. My intuition tells me... things are not that simple. I believe in intuition, that is the biggest reliance for me to survive in this kind of place."

The men were silent for a moment.

The bartender spoke again,

"Is that so?"

Knox thought for a while, and suddenly sneered.

"No—favors from the Belleville party are still for sale, but not by us."

"We just need to determine their location and sell the news to those guys. I think Belleville should pay a good price. As for what happened after that, it has nothing to do with us."

-

"That's probably what they plan to do."

Melanie took off her glasses and put them in a small wooden case lined with white silk.

"So we just need to wait quietly, and the gangsters will come to the door themselves."

Ella nodded and simply lay down on the bed to rest.

Melanie waited patiently for another two hours after noticing that Ella's breathing was calming down.

During this time, she quietly finished another report, and then went to the bathroom to prepare for a certain ceremony.

During this process, Ella just rolled over, as if not noticing anything.

A strange-looking creature squeezed out of the vortex-like space and fell into the bathroom sink.It looked like the corpse of a deformed baby with a crooked, out-of-size old black top hat.

The moment the courier appeared, it took a strange look into the room with its crooked deformed eye sockets without eyeballs, and then it took Melanie's letter and disappeared into the rippling air.

Five minutes later, in the editor-in-chief's office of the "Journal of the Seine", Hebrew, the acting executive officer for the hunter mission, received a report about the "pharmacist" who might become an informant. "Report.

"Pharmacist, formerly known as Val Farmina. After a day's observation, her strength far exceeds our original expectations. In addition to being able to use 'doors', the pharmacist is good at melee combat capabilities similar to body strengthening... ..”