151: Nine.
Brian, or Hol 151: Nine.
Brian, or Hol Noises of conversation ca from the kitchen adjacent to the living room.
A woman peered out quietly, glanced at Lu Li a few tis, and then quickly retreated behind the door.
Shortly after, Brian erged, his apron no longer around his waist, and apologized, “I’m sorry, I just had my wife keep an eye on things.”
“It’s fine,” Lu Li responded briefly.
“May I ask what brings the officer here?”
“About your disappearance before,” Lu Li entered the living room and sat down at the dining table without hesitation.
“Do you rember any details?”
As Lu Li had instructed, Anna drifted away from Lu Li’s side and into the kitchen.
Brian scooped so water into a wooden bowl and placed it on the dining table in front of Lu Li, saying, “This…
I’ve already told you everything I rembered when you last ca, I really can’t recall anything else.”
His black eyes glanced briefly at the shimring glass of water.
Lu Li continued to inquire, “Did you notice any other details, such as the date and ti of that day?”
Anna floated back from the kitchen and then slipped into the bedroom.
Brian picked up the empty wooden bowl again, poured himself a drink of water, and after downing it in one gulp, chuckled, “No, but my mory is definitely fine, thank you for your concern, I’m truly all right.”
Lu Li subtly asked a few more questions, and after Anna ca out and whispered in his ear that she had found nothing, he got up to leave.
Brian saw him to the door.
As Lu Li was stepping out, he suddenly turned back and called out a na.
“O’Connor.”
Brian visibly stiffened, his face expressing confusion, “What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
Other than a calm deanor, one could discern nothing else from Lu Li as he turned and walked out of the house.
A door closing sounded behind him.
Once inside the carriage on the street outside, Anna couldn’t suppress her curiosity and materialized to ask, “That guy isn’t O’Connor?”
The carriage was empty; Jojo, who had brought Anna, had been sent back to Belfast by Lu Li in another carriage.
“Hmm,” Lu Li drove the carriage slowly away from Brian’s residence.
A few monts of deflation and Anna slumped listlessly in the cab, “We got it wrong again…”
“We didn’t get it wrong,” Lu Li replied without turning his head.
“What?
You said he wasn’t…”
The carriage stopped again, maintaining a distance of dozens of ters from Brian’s residence.
From this spot, one could see the entrance of the house.
“He is Hol.”
Anna was stunned, “Eh…?”
“Rember when you went to the kitchen and bedroom?” Rain started to pour heavily, and Lu Li climbed into the cab to ensure they weren’t noticed by nearby residents.
“He kept changing direction to avoid exposing his back to you.
No matter where you went, he always maintained his side or front facing you.”
A flash of understanding crossed Anna’s face as she ventured, “Are you saying he could see you…?”
“Yes, he could see you.”
“Isn’t that reasoning a bit far-fetched?” Anna felt it wasn’t enough to serve as evidence.
“You wouldn’t think so if I put it another way,” Lu Li glanced toward the sparsely populated hazy street and indifferently said, “Imagine you are the culprit and one day, an officer cos to inquire about sothing, and one of the officers searches the house.
To avoid being suddenly subdued, you use subtle actions to avoid turning your back on the officer.
For instance, you pour a cup of water for the officer, then pour one for yourself and drink it…
Would you drink again after serving water to a guest?”
“That does sound problematic…” Anna belatedly realized the issue.
“So, the last thing you called out to him was…”
Although Anna had beco slower in her responses due to being dead for a while, she was not stupid.
She realized sothing, “You were confirming whether he is O’Connor or Hol?!”
“Mmm,” Lu Li nodded lightly.
The mont he shouted the na, he was watching Brian’s eyes.
Those eyes instinctively constricted after the inquiry and then gradually relaxed as if relieved.
“Is this the adult world…”
Anna murmured to herself, sinking into guilt over her low intelligence.
However, like Oliver, her emotions ca and went quickly, and soon she curiously asked, “Then why didn’t we make a move when we were inside?”
“The victim’s wife was inside.
She is already miserable enough, we had no reason to exacerbate her misery.”
“So now we…”
“Wait for him to co out, my appearance will make him go look for Richard,” Lu Li leaned back into the car, closed his eyes, and rested.
“Keep an eye out for .”
Anna sowhat understood and sowhat didn’t, nodding slightly.
A human and a ghost began their long wait.
The rain continued to drizzle, neither increasing nor decreasing.
Ti passed, and finally at three in the afternoon, there was so activity at the front door of Brian’s house.
“He’s coming out!”
Anna, who was observing the target while enjoying the street view, exclaid.
The feigning Lu Li opened his dark eyes and sat up to look out the window.
The skies were gloomy; through the misty rain, a figure walked out of Brian’s house.
Clad in a woolen overcoat and a gray hat that covered half of his face, the figure turned and walked down the street opposite to the carriage.
From the build, Lu Li discerned that the figure was indeed Brian.
Lu Li climbed out of the carriage, drove the carriage, and turned to follow behind Brian.
The light rain gave Lu Li so advantages.
The sound of the rain covered the noise of the carriage moving dozens of steps away.
But Brian seed to notice sothing; he slightly tilted his head and then, pressing down on his hat brim, quickened his steps and ducked into a dark and narrow alley off the street.
The carriage stopped in front of the alley, its large body blocking the alley’s exit.
This was a dead-end; at the end of the alley was a wall, trapping Brian in a box.
Lu Li opened an umbrella, stepped down from the carriage, and stood at the entrance of the alley, facing the slowly turning Brian.
Brian, or rather Hol’s, smile gradually faded.
He shed all his disguises, and his originally simple and honest face beca sowhat sinister.
While curling his lips slightly, he spoke softly, “No matter who you are, why there is a ghost following you, or what you found out from Richard…
I am now a living person.
Whether you acknowledge it or not, I am Brian.
I possess all his mories.
What do you plan to do with a common man?”
Those who are eager to reveal all their secrets at the first eting are usually not very smart.
Of course, he might also be overly confident.
Hol spread his arms and slowly walked towards Lu Li, “We don’t need to co into conflict.
I an, look, I just want to be a normal person, and I am just a normal person.
You might as well let go.”
Lu Li’s hand rested on his waist, and noting his movents, Hol stopped and continued to maintain that unsettling sinister smile.
“You’re not a police officer, right?
Let guess…
Richard was forced to flee from the cabin a few days ago, and Ulysses didn’t get a new body either.
Did you do that?”
It looks like it was the latter.
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