In the private detective agency.
"Sir, your commission has been completed," sighed the burly private detective Henry, looking at the gentleman dressed in a black tailcoat, wearing a half-high silk hat and a dark face mask. "This was a difficult task, not easy, but it consumed us a lot of energy. To be honest, I'm very sorry. I regret having set the price too low before."
No matter what you say, I won't pay even a single penny more! Klein emphasized in his mind, pointing at the thick stack of documents on the coffee table, "This is the investigation report?"
"Yes," Henry held the investigation report, which was at least sixty pages long, and sighed, "This is the most troublesome one I've ever done..."
Before he finished speaking, Klein handed over four one-pound notes, so his attention was entirely focused on verifying the authenticity.
"This is the full payment for the paper costs of the report," Klein held the thick investigation report in his hand.
Henry coughed twice:
"You are truly an honest and trustworthy gentleman. Oh, I never expected that the investigation report would use so much paper, completely beyond my budget."
Just then, Klein picked up the very thick investigation report and stood up with a swish.
He bowed slightly and immediately took his cane and walked towards the door.
The subsequent words of Detective Henry were thus blocked in his throat.
Hey, how could I pay for the paper costs of the investigation report? This is included in the overall commission fee! Klein touched the remaining 5 pounds 8 shillings of his private money and muttered to himself in his heart, then walked briskly to Besik Street.
He first observed the surroundings to make sure no one was paying attention to him, then cleverly left here, finding an opportunity to remove the mask.
Klein didn't plan to go home now. Instead, he was going to find a nearby café to quickly organize the investigation report and find those houses where there were tenant changes after he divined "the red chimney", and then investigate some of them before dinner time.
There are quite a lot of coffee houses in the nearby area, but hardly any met Klein's requirements - since steam and machinery became the symbols of the era, more and more coffee houses lowered their style and became places like cheap restaurants, providing tea, coffee, bread, toast, and dishes like green pea stewed lamb meat for busy laborers. As a result, respectable gentlemen and ladies no longer went to coffee houses to discuss matters, no longer regarded this behavior as a symbol of their identity. Various clubs began to emerge, replacing the social function of the coffee houses.
After walking for a while, Klein finally found a coffee house with a decent environment.
After sitting in the secluded corner booth, he took a sip of the South Wales coffee that only cost three and a half pence, and carefully opened the investigation report. "... In the northern, eastern, western, southern, Jinwutong, wharf and university districts of Tinggen City, there are a total of 1179 houses with dark red chimneys... In the suburbs of Tinggen City, there are 546 houses with the red chimneys described by the employers... This does not include those small towns and villages that are outside the city but relatively distant from it."
"Here are the addresses of each house along with the corresponding landlord and tenant information. According to the employer's request, a more detailed collection of the situation over the past three months has been made." ...
Klein swept through the pages, constantly making notes on the paper he carried with him using a pen.
Finally, he discovered that after he had divined "the Red Chimney", a total of twenty-five houses had experienced changes in tenants.
"Not too many. I'll try to finish the investigation within two days. Well, I've seen that Red Chimney in my dream divination, and I've seen part of the appearance of that house. As long as I encounter it again in reality, there will definitely be a spiritual familiarity, thus confirming the target. In simple terms, I'm a human flesh detector..." Klein nodded silently, planning out the fifteen places to visit today based on the locations of the houses.
As for whether this action was dangerous, he could get the answer without divination.
Since there was a tenant change, it indicated that the person behind the mysterious interference that caused his fate to be out of sync and always encounter coincidental events had left!
He hoped to learn about the appearance of the previous tenant from the landlord... However, since that guy hidden behind the scenes could influence my fate without anyone noticing, making coincidences seem natural, there must be a way to eliminate his own traces... Ah, he could only pray to the goddess to let that guy make a certain mistake... Klein exhaled, forcibly lifting his spirits, putting on his silk hat, holding his cane and report, and got up to leave the café.
Next, he spent 2 sols to hire a two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, and rushed through the fifteen houses with the Red Chimney in front of him before dinner. Unfortunately, none of them were the one he had seen in his dream divination.
"If the investigation tomorrow still results in this outcome, things will be troublesome. He is still living in the house with the Red Chimney that I divined earlier... Either he has enough confidence not to be afraid of my investigation, or not afraid of the capture by the Tinggen Market Night Squad, or he doesn't know he has exposed himself. Later, he fought against the divination I did, and it was a force that wasn't entirely his own... Klein stood at the door of 2 Water Lily Street, analyzing one possibility after another.
After several minutes, he brushed off some dust on the black tailcoat, pressed the half-high silk hat on his head, took out a copper key, and with a smile, opened the door and went home.
Tonight, he planned to prepare braised lamb and honey-roasted meat for Benson and Melissa. ......
At 11 p.m., the three siblings, having exchanged goodnight greetings, went to their respective bedrooms.
Klein closed the door, stood in front of the desk, and with the light from the gas lamp, looked out of the window with a bulging belly. At that moment, the nearby neighborhood was in darkness, only a few streetlights guiding the way. The stars high in the sky were embedded in the black curtain, appearing one by one, but not clearly.
"I wonder what the so-called 'Land of Hope' and 'Capital of All' Beckland looks like..." Klein murmured silently, reaching out to grasp the curtain and preparing to pull it.
Whew!
Just then, a cold wind blew without warning, and the light from the gas lamp suddenly turned green.
Klein subconsciously stepped back a few steps, instinctively tapping his left teeth twice, at the same time, he leaned towards the bedhead, trying to reach the pistol pressed under the pillow.
In his vision, below the gas lamp and on the wall above the desk, suddenly a face appeared, a translucent face without eyes or a nose, only a half-open mouth!
"Don't shoot." That face said as it opened and closed its mouth.
Can you communicate? Klein had the gun in his hand and aimed at the target.
"What do you want?" he asked in a deep voice.
That face chuckled and said:
"I'm Dali."
Dali? "The psychic" Dali? The psychic who was transferred to the Beckland parish? Dali? Klein frowned in confusion and said:
"Ms. Dali?"
"I know this visit is too rough. You should have been informed in advance to prepare yourself well, but I'm not convenient to meet you directly now. I can only communicate with you through this little guy." That translucent face with no eyes or a nose smiled.
Although the voice was not right, faint and piercing, it was indeed Ms. Dali's speaking style... "The psychic's" ability is really cool... Klein muttered to himself, without lowering the gun, and asked:
"Madam, what do you want to communicate with me about?"
"If I were you, I would first seal the bedroom with spiritual sealing, otherwise, your family would think there's something wrong with your spirit." The translucent strange face joked, "Hehe, you don't need to be so cautious. I returned secretly to Tingen because of the letter from Dunn. You know, night guards can't leave their jurisdiction at will."
"The captain's letter?" Klein didn't approach the desk, but instead, from the inner pocket of the black windbreaker on the hat rack, he found the "Holy Night Pink".
"I and Dunn were extraordinary individuals who grew up with the Night Guard team in Tingen. Our relationship has always been good. He sent a letter to me last Thursday, yes, Thursday, mentioning your matter. He said you imitated the motto of the Secret Seeker and summarized your own 'Divination Master's Code' from the divination behavior, and claimed that this effectively helped you master the potion and no longer hear the inappropriate sounds or see the inappropriate images. Dunn said it was very similar to me."
"Hehe, you don't go to seal the room? Personally, I don't mind being misunderstood by your brother and sister." That translucent face explained slowly without a fast or slow pace.
So that's it... It's really Ms. Dali... Klein let out a sigh of relief, put the "Holy Night Pink" back into the inner pocket, and then took a few steps to the desk, taking out the silver ritual knife from the drawer.
He quickly built up the spiritual wall and turned to look at the strange face highlighted on the wall, saying:
"Ms. Dali, what did the captain say in his letter?"
"He just expressed his doubts, feeling that he grasped something, but couldn't clearly recognize it. Hope can get my opinion." Dali said through the translucent face without eyes or a nose, "And this morning after I finished reading that letter, I knew that you are definitely not as naive as you described yourself. Hehe, Mr. Moretti, I think you must have summarized the role-playing method!"
"Is this your reason for coming to me?" Klein merely asked in a questioning tone, neither affirming nor denying.
Daly had already clearly understood the "acting method"... He calmly judged to himself.
Daly, with a slightly smiling expression on that translucent face, said:
"Yes."
"I think we should be honest with each other about this matter. I know you have summarized the acting method, and you surely also know that I have mastered it. Well, what's unpleasant is that it took me nearly two years to clearly realize it, while you became an extraordinary person just one and a half months ago."
Upon hearing Daly's words, Klein pondered for a moment before smiling calmly and saying:
"This is because you are my role model."
He originally wanted to say "I'm just standing on the shoulders of a giant", but ultimately decided not to give Rosel the Emperor another chance to appear in his ears.
PS: I knew about the event earlier. ReadWrite and I have communicated. However, I have to follow my own pace. Recently, my elderly family member is celebrating his birthday, and I have been traveling back and forth. Plus, there were more incidents in the previous few days, so I need to adjust. Well, I will try to add more content before the event ends. In general, this is the first month for the new book to be available. There won't be fewer additions later. As for those tasks, I have completed two of them. Donating is something that everyone gave generously on the first day of the release. Now there is no need to insist.