355: Two hundred twelve.
Travel on a rainy night 355: Two hundred twelve.
Travel on a rainy night The road down the mountain was congested.
Row after row of carriages lined up, moving slowly forward in the gloomy rainy weather.
At the very front of the congested road, several figures in black rain cloaks stood at the fork, blocking the incoming carriages and saying sothing, with the left fork cordoned off by them.
“Damned weather…
when will those municipal lords think to fix the road?” The officer watched the carriages drive past him towards the right fork, pulled down his cloak’s hood, and couldn’t help but curse.
The carriage behind was still approaching, and John waved at it, glancing sideways, “They now have more pressing matters to attend to.
Everyone is busy, so let’s grumble a little less.”
The subordinate closed his mouth.
The carriage stopped in front of them, and John and his subordinate walked around to the side of the carriage.
A chubby hand wearing a ruby ring lifted the curtain to reveal a middle-aged woman in a lace evening dress, with a wide-brimd hat, who still complained, “How rare, to have a traffic jam in such a rural place.
I thought only when hosting dinners at ho would the side of Agate Lake be crowded with carriages.”
John ignored the fat woman’s boasting and shouted at her, “Madam!
The road ahead is flooded!”
The panic was apparent on the fat woman’s pale face, caked with makeup, “You can’t do this, I have urgent business in Endfast!”
John couldn’t hear her voice, leaned in and shouted, “What?
Please speak up.”
“I said I’m going to Endfast!” The fat woman had to yell, then muttered under her breath, “Damn rude brute.”
John pointed to the road on the right and shouted, “You can go through Conch Town.
The road there is still intact!”
“That would take a detour!”
“There’s no other way, madam, the road ahead is impassable!”
“Such a…
nuisance, if it weren’t for my butler going ho for the holidays, I wouldn’t…”
The fat woman continued saying sothing, but John, who was walking away from the carriage, could no longer hear her.
He waved his hand at the coachman, signaling the carriage behind to co forward.
The carriage curtain opened just a sliver, revealing a pair of dark eyes.
John paused montarily before telling the mysterious man, “Sir!
The road ahead is flooded!”
“Even near the sea, it floods?”
“Ahead lies a low-lying area!
It doesn’t drain into the sea!”
The man in the carriage didn’t dwell on the issue further and instead asked, “I’m going to Himfast.”
“You can take the route through Conch Town!
Just follow the carriage ahead and you’ll get there!” John pointed at the carriage ahead, which had not yet vanished into the curtain of rain.
“Thank you.”
The reins extended into the carriage, quivered slightly, and the horse turned toward the right fork, slowly catching up to the carriage in front.
After following for a few seconds, he overtook the preceding carriage and sped up toward his destination.
Handing the reins back to Anna, Lu Li refolded the map and extinguished the oil lamp.
The carriage returned to darkness.
Anna pursed her lips and said to Lu Li, “Will we make it to Himfast before dark?”
In the dim carriage, Lu Li’s silhouette beca visible as he looked up at the sky, which was darker than before, and shook his head, “We were never going to make it in ti, and now it will be even slower.”
They had rented the carriage and left the Detective Agency around one-thirty in the afternoon, and it was now three o’clock.
With the terrible weather, it was likely to start getting dark by five o’clock without needing the sun to set.
The muddy roads limited their speed, especially after the flood made the shortcut impassable, forcing them to take a roundabout route, first to Conch Town, then from Conch Town to Himfast.
The fading daylight was swifter than Lu Li had anticipated; by four o’clock in the afternoon, with more than ten miles still to Conch Town, only dark silhouettes surrounded them, and it was necessary to light the oil lamp in the carriage.
Carriages with faintly visible outlines also began to light up one by one, bringing a sense of hope that was not lonely in the dim rainy day.
Half an hour later, the carriage entered Conch Town.
The town was small, with only a few thousand residents, and on clear days one could see its entirety at a glance.
Neither Lu Li nor Anna had any intention of staying there; their carriage drove straight through Conch Town, heading towards the road to Himfast.
“Your friends seem to be here,” Anna rembered sothing.
“Hmm.”
Raimy and Jimmy were in Conch Town at this ti.
If they really appeared in this world.
After hesitating for a mont, Anna asked softly, “Should we go look for them?”
“We can look for them when we co back,” Lu Li replied.
“Besides, they will go to Belfast sooner or later.”
“Hmm!”
Anna nodded emphatically, her tone becoming more relaxed.
Lu Li opened the map and looked at the distance between Conch Town and Himfast, estimated their current speed, and announced the approximate ti of arrival, “We should be approaching Himfast around 11 p.m.”
“I hope we’re not too late…” Anna murmured.
Ten minutes after leaving Conch Town, the surroundings turned into a cold rainy night.
For Lu Li, he was finally unable to see the huge, illusory shadow that had been lying on the horse’s back.
The phantasm might still be there, but it had blended into the surroundings.
The journey through the night was anything but peaceful; Anna sensed malice hiding around the road several tis, and when she released her presence, that malice would silently retract.
“That’s the sixth one…” Anna retracted her presence, frowning deeply with her delicate face.
“Still specters?”
“Hmm.”
It was both bad news and good news.
The bad news was that the appearance of these specters was very strange; the good news was that Lu Li and Anna were adept at dealing with such entities.
If they were other types of oddities, it would be difficult for Lu Li and Anna to harm them.
All was well on the road, and at fifteen minutes past eleven at night, the coach entered Himfast.
Buildings and bright streetlights dispelled the slight unease in Anna’s heart.
Lu Li took the reins from her hand and turned into the street where Mary’s residence was located.
The coach stopped in front of Mary’s residence; the hazy light from the room illuminated the rainy night, indicating soone was ho.
Lu Li, holding up an umbrella, stepped down from the coach and up the steps, knocking on the door.
A mont later, footsteps ca from behind the door, the peephole darkened montarily and then the door opened, revealing a haggard and astonished face.
“You…
I thought you would co tomorrow.”
“Ti is pressing.” Noticing Mary was only in her nightgown, Lu Li’s gaze settled on her face, answering curtly.
“Co in quickly.”
Mary stepped aside, allowing Lu Li and Anna into the room.
She closed the door behind them and asked with concern, “Have you…have you eaten anything?
Do you want to have so food?”
Anxiety mounting in her heart, Anna began to speak but then suddenly stopped.
She rembered Lu Li hadn’t eaten anything along the way.
And because of the cold and the jolting of the journey, his face had been very pale.
We can wait a bit, now that we’ve arrived…
Anna thought to herself.
“Let’s go to Anna’s house first,” Lu Li said.
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