359: 216.
Eternal Drear 359: 216.
Eternal Drear The carriage was returned to Belfast and Company’s carriage house, and coming out, the brightness outside finally didn’t require the aid of an oil lamp for illumination.
Unless sothing had fallen on the ground.
On the way back, they passed through the marketplace, where a bustling crowd brought a hint of liveliness to the bleak rainy day, but most faces were etched with distinct despair—food prices had begun to skyrocket, the money that could buy 10 pounds of flour three days ago couldn’t even fetch 6 pounds today.
Only a small portion of people were bargaining with the sellers, and those who made up their minds to purchase directly accounted for an even smaller part.
If the city council did not step in to control prices soon, they would continue to rise.
Fortunately, Belfast was by the sea, and in the absence of food, one could go to the bay to fish.
Although it was hard to feel full, it was just enough to keep from starving.
Belfast was enveloped in rain, visibility was poor, and the bay was not visible.
It could be assud that there were already many poor people braving the rain at the seaside to look for food and venturing out in small boats to fish.
After purchasing ingredients for the next few days at the market, which cost 1.5 tis more than usual, Lu Li turned to the grocery store, where he used the 2000-plus Shillings he had carried from ho to buy two boxes of canned beef.
The owner had promised Lu Li a discount last ti, which was 5% off.
This discount allowed Lu Li to buy food at the sa price as before.
In the midst of the owner, clerks, and custors’ astonished gazes, Lu Li very effortlessly “picked up” the 40-pound boxes of canned goods and left the grocery store.
The one actually carrying them was Anna; Lu Li was just pretending.
With the two boxes of canned goods, they returned to the Long House where the sll of damp wood was pervasive.
In the gloom, a haggard man leaned against the wall.
Lu Li passed by him and entered the Detective Agency.
Anna, wearing an apron, went to the kitchen to prepare her specialty dish, while Lu Li picked up the three newspapers from under the door, placed them on the desk, took off his black coat, and rolled up his sleeves to wash up in the kitchen.
A short while later, Lu Li ca out of the kitchen and walked directly to the desk.
Knock, knock, knock—
Suddenly, the sound of the door echoed, and Lu Li turned towards the entrance.
Standing outside was a woman, with whom Lu Li was slightly acquainted—she lived across from him.
She told Lu Li that earlier in the morning, a man in a hurry had been looking for him, seemingly very anxious, and had waited by the door since he knew you were not in.
Lu Li thought of the haggard man in the hallway.
After thanking her, Lu Li planned to go see him, but the kind-hearted woman had brought the man over.
He had been waiting here for a very long ti.
The oil lamp in his hand revealed so of that.
Gesturing for the man to co in, Lu Li closed the door and seated himself at the desk.
The man had co unsheltered from the rain; he was drenched, and even after spending a long ti in the corridor, his clothes were not half dry.
Brown hair hung over his forehead, occasionally dripping rain from his trouser legs.
He seed unconcerned, his head slightly bowed, his eyes hidden in the shadows, his pale lips slightly parted and trembling as he asked Lu Li, “Are you the Exorcist…”
“Yes,” Lu Li responded.
“I have a matter I would like to entrust…”
Lu Li hadn’t taken a case in a long ti; the few to several hundred of Shillings it paid were one reason, and the ti it consud was another reason.
Therefore, Lu Li asked directly, “How much can you pay for this task?”
The man sharply lifted his head, his crimson pupils filled with bloodshot veins, “I can give you whatever you want!”
“Be more specific.”
“In cash… around five to six hundred Shillings!”
It wasn’t much, but it wasn’t too little either.
Lu Li planned to listen to his detailed situation, and if it wouldn’t take too much ti, he would accept the commission.
“Tell what you’ve encountered.”
An wooden chair was placed beside him, but the man didn’t intend to sit down, he slightly stooped, shivering from the cold.
He even forgot to tell Lu Li his na, and began to speak slowly.
The incident happened a few years ago… or rather, a few days ago.
After nightfall, he entered a sleep filled with dreams, he told Lu Li it was an exceptionally realistic dream, but didn’t reveal the specific content of the dream to Lu Li.
The next day, his dreams were similarly exceptionally realistic, and slightly different from the last ti, this ti, his dream lasted an entire day.
However, when he woke up, there was no difference from the usual waking ti.
The prolonged dreams did not affect his reality.
At that ti, the man hadn’t realized the problem, and continued his work and rest as usual.
Until the third night’s dream.
This ti, he spent an entire week in his dream.
When he opened his eyes, only one night had passed in the real world.
He started to realize that this was not normal, and as the increasingly lengthy dreams began to affect his life, he tried to reduce his resting ti, or not to rest at all, but to no avail.
Two days later, utterly exhausted, he dozed off for a while, and that mont lasted nearly a month—dream ti.
In reality, he had only slept a few hours, even experiencing so headaches due to the short rest ti.
But in the dream, he lived for nearly a month.
The prolonged dreams made him forget many recent real-life events, such as what he had eaten the day before and what he had said to his colleagues.
He even got scolded at work because of his unfamiliarity.
After all, for him, yesterday’s events occurred a month ago.
He began to fear, desperately trying to prevent himself from sleeping, while also seeking dical treatnt.
He worried that the next dream would last years.
But just as he was on his way to the clinic, waiting for the doctor, he accidentally dozed off.
This ti, it was for two years.
The long passage of ti erased most of his hard-to-rember mories, everything here felt like it happened two years ago—he even failed to rember why he was there, until the sll of disinfectant entered his nose, and a nurse in a white dress approached him to tell him it was his turn to see the doctor.
Only then did he rember he ca for treatnt.
His eyes red, he rushed into the doctor’s office and told him about his symptoms.
At this point, the man’s tone was thick with despair, “The doctor told this wasn’t a disease, and advised to find an Exorcist.”
Lu Li remained silent.
The dical standards here were limited, which was understandable.
“Have you contacted a psychiatrist?” Lu Li asked.
The man’s eyes blazed as he bellowed, “I am not insane!”
In this world, being tagged as insane was a terrible thing—it ant they would lose their basic human rights, be confined in a psychiatric hospital akin to a prison, and undergo horrendous treatnt: like forced hospitalization and routine corporal punishnt.
“ntal illness and psychological issues are not—”
Lu Li abruptly stopped speaking.
He realized that reason never took effect by preaching.
Even in the Earth era, countless educated people resisted psychiatrists, equating ntal health issues with insanity, let alone here.
Explaining was pointless.
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