Red Moon Returns

Steam erupted, and gray fog rushed to the sky.

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

Clack, clack.

Several metal floor boxes on the corner of the street unfolded, and the gears inside were turning on their own, sometimes fast and sometimes slow.

A section of the rail began to move slowly, switching from one to another.

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

Although this place is already in the gray fog area of ​​the industrial zone, it is not far from Lynch's office in the river valley area, and it only takes fifteen minutes to walk there.

19:50, countdown four hours and ten minutes.

Covering his mouth and nose, Lynch strode across the rails in the pungent smell of coal smoke, bypassed several speeding carriages, crossed the bluestone road and appeared outside the kitchen door of Latis.

The streets in the industrial zone are not prosperous and sparsely populated, but the door of Latis's kitchen is crowded with carriages, and there are at least ten pairs of men and women in formal clothes standing under the gas lamps outside the eaves.

At this moment, Lynch felt for the first time that he was in another world.

He lifted his sleeves to look at his arms, which were still withered, and seemed to have spread a little above his elbows.

He was not sure if it was an illusion, but the pressure on his chest became 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 up.

"Sorry, sir, we are full, you..." The waiter looked at Lynch in confusion, "Sir, you just came in the evening, I'm sorry, your position just now is already occupied, you need to queue up again."

Huh, at least this memory is not wrong, this is a good start.

Lynch's hanging heart fell, and his expression was relieved a lot.

Looking inside, under the bright lights of the hall, dozens of thick wooden tables were placed in a staggered manner, already full of well-dressed gentlemen and ladies, and in his previous seat, a gentleman in formal clothes seemed to sense his sight, raised his hat embroidered with a blue L-shaped family emblem, and nodded to him.

Who is it?

I immediately found the answer in my memory, Mr. Randall, a very stingy capitalist. Lynch took over several commissions from him, and always tried to take advantage of him in various ways, but he never defaulted on the commission money. He was an extremely annoying and high-quality customer.

Not wanting to pay attention to him, Lynch just raised his hat and bowed, then retracted his gaze and said to the waiter: "It seems that you still remember me?"

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

I'm afraid I'm crazy.

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

With a hum, Lynch asked calmly: "Since your memory is so good, do you remember where I came from?"

"This... uh, sorry, sir, I really don't know, mainly because I didn't pay special attention to you before you came in."

"Then how did I get here? Did you notice whether I walked or took a carriage?"

"Walking, sir, I remember it very clearly."

Lynch nodded thoughtfully, and before he could say anything, he heard the waiter continue:

"Because you said goodbye to your friends outside before you came in, and I saw that there was no carriage passing by the door at that time."

Hmm? Friends?

Lynch's heartbeat quickened a little, his palms were moist, and he asked expectantly: "Do you remember what that person looked like?"

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

Lynch's heart sank, but he immediately heard the waiter think about it and add:

"But I remember his nose was obviously red."

"Hiss, I understand, thank you."

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

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

There were only three shillings and six pence left in his purse.

How did I spend it? I have no memory of it at all.

Lynch realized that this might also be a memory related to the statue.

Well, not only did you want me dead, but you also took away all my property and left me no chance to live.

Now it's not just for my life, even for these six pounds and fifteen shillings, I will find you and kill you.

Wash your neck and wait for me.

Feeling ruthless in his heart, Lynch patted the waiter's shoulder again, took back the purse he had taken out, and turned around and left under the waiter's weird eyes.

The original Lynch's memory had made him remember who that person was.

'Drunk Peter', an antiquities information dealer, one of his informants.

Excluding some small probability possibilities of encounters, since they broke up at the door of the restaurant in the afternoon, the biggest possibility is the statue he got with him in the afternoon.

If it was a private transaction with him for the statue, it could be done in the office. If he wanted to keep it secret and was doing it outside, he should have chosen to hide his whereabouts and distance himself from the matter, and not go to the restaurant together afterwards.

So it is very likely that he went somewhere with him to get the statue. If he could find this person, he would know what happened in the afternoon.

As for where he is now...

Lin Qi quickly checked his notebook. Although a few pages were very strange, the previous records were normal.

The information of this informant was recorded a long time ago.

He would spend the night at the 'Mole Club' most nights.

What is that place?

Lynch's curiosity was quickly extinguished, or rather, completely ignited.

It was less than one kilometer away from Latis's kitchen.

At around 8 p.m., when the countdown was four hours, Lynch followed the dim gas street lights in the mist, stepped on the humid steam in the roadside sewer, and approached a very common two-story building.

The exterior decoration was very stylish, and the narrow windows emitted an ambiguous glimmer. The only special thing was that there was a thick door on the steps at the door, and there was a peephole on it.

"Who are you looking for?" A questioning voice came from the peephole.

"Countess Marianne."

"Someone is already here."

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

Simon is the name of 'Drunk Peter'.

"Huh? Is it such a big deal?"

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

A shadow waved his hand: "Come in, No. 18 on the first floor, don't walk around, or you'll break your legs if you disturb other guests."

With his collar turned up and his hat lowered, Lynch quietly entered the club.

As soon as he entered the door, a strange smell hit him. It was a mixture of tobacco, perfume, alcohol and a special fishy smell.

Lynch had roughly guessed what kind of place this was.

A pink service place, definitely.

The corridor was dark and deep, with more than a dozen wooden doors painted pink on both sides, which looked very solid. Each door had a nameplate hanging on it, with titles such as xx Marquise and xx Princess. Some doors were ajar, revealing the pink gas lamps and the most conspicuous gauze-screened solid wood bed, as well as the gorgeous figures dressed in noblewoman costumes.

Lynch didn't want to look closely, and 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 closed it again.

Then he looked at the number and nameplate on the door and had to push open the door of No. 18 again.

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

Fuck you, drunk Peter.

"Countess Marian?"

The burly man nodded charmingly: "I have a guest, dear, you can come back tomorrow."

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

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

Hmm? Bathroom? Isn't there one in the room?

Lynch frowned, didn't he run away, why would he run?

It was a matter of life and death, Lynch didn't care about politeness, bumped into the door and turned around to walk deeper, just two steps, he ran into a waiter in a black vest.

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

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

Hearing Marian's name, the waiter did not doubt: "Who is Simon?"

"A red nose."

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

"Basement? What is that place?"

"Steam engine room."

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

What is this person doing there?

Lin Qi was even more confused: "Is he drunk and went the wrong way? Come with me to see."

"Go by yourself, just go down the stairs, and don't touch the boiler."

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

The steam engine room is an open underground space, filled with pungent smells of burnt and coal smoke, and a wave of heat rolled in.

The huge boiler is in the middle of the engine room, and the fire inside makes the basement red.

However, just as he got around to the front of the boiler, Lynch suddenly stopped.

In the steaming environment, he was tense all over, as if falling into an ice cellar.

A person was lying in the boiler.

His body was completely inside, with only his head exposed.

The flames burned his body, making a squeak.

His body had turned into charcoal, but his head was still intact, looking at Lynch with wide eyes, with a weird smile on his face, and his red nose gleaming in the light of the fire.

"Ugh~~"

The rich aroma of barbecue made Lynch vomit on the spot, and he vomited so much that his whole body became weak. As soon as he regained his sanity, he immediately stumbled and ran out, running all the way out of the club door, and then leaned against the cold wall, pressing his chest and gasping for breath.

Dead, 'Drunk Peter' is dead.

And it seems that he stuffed himself into the boiler and burned to death.

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

The horror and fear wrapped up Lynch's heart tightly. Lynch felt that his blood vessels tightened and even his fingers were trembling slightly.

There was a chaotic sound in the club behind him. It seemed that his behavior attracted other people's attention and the body was found.

Unwilling to stay any longer and waste time, Lynch quickly got into the shadows on the roadside, holding his chest and slowly regaining his thinking ability.

One step late, ten minutes earlier would have been fine.

Not even a friend, just an ordinary informant, Lynch felt only deep regret in his heart.

The clue was broken just like that?

No, I'm not willing to accept it.

Gritting his teeth, Lynch repeatedly thought about the information he found. Unconsciously, his chaotic and fearful spirit had 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 should not do this kind of thing together, but we appeared together today, combined with his professional 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. Moreover, it is a place where transactions can be carried out safely and legally. Places such as museums do not count. I generally do not do illegal activities.

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’s 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 one by one, 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 Latis Kitchen.

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

Open the city map 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 to for blessings. As he muttered, his fingers circled 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.