566: Eighty-five.
Endless incidents 566: Eighty-five.
Endless incidents “Stop your damn crying!”
In the sewage-ridden streets shrouded in fog, a harsh voice bellowed from a window emitting a faint glow.
“Not a single three shillings begged for the whole day, yet you expect to eat a dozen shillings’ worth of food!”
In a dilapidated cottage, a burly man was cursing a young boy who was crying in his kneeling mother’s embrace.
He raised his hand, and the wife instinctively shielded the child with her body.
This infuriated the burly man even more, and he kicked his wife, yelling, “Tonight, neither you nor this bastard gets to eat!”
He didn’t take his anger out on his wife any further; compared to that useless bastard of a child, his wife, who earned a modest inco by sewing clothes for neighbors, was sowhat useful.
If she were hurt, she wouldn’t be able to earn money anymore.
The enraged head of the family stepped out of the bedroom and sat down at the dining table, pouring himself a full glass of cloudy liquor from the bottle.
Knock—knock knock—
Just then, a slow knocking sound ca at the door.
“Who is it!”
The burly man looked towards the door and yelled impatiently, but received no reply.
“Damn it, if I find out it’s so asshole trying to mock …”
Muttering curses under his breath, the burly man took the oil lamp from the table and walked to the door.
“Shhh…
it’s all right now…” In the bedroom, the mother whispered comfortingly to the sobbing child.
“Mommy, I’m hungry…” the frail little boy lifted his head.
The mother’s eyes reddened further with sorrow as she touched his face, saying, “It will all pass…
Just hang in there a little longer, we won’t be hungry soon…”
Knock—knock knock—
When the knocking sounded a second ti, the burly man waiting at the door abruptly pulled it open and sneered, “Let’s see who it is—who are you?”
The burly man froze, eyeing the tall, dark figure standing before him with confusion.
The man at the door, wearing a top hat that only the upper class or those of status would wear, stood straight outside, not answering the burly man.
The burly man never had patience, especially when his anger was at a peak because the whole family’s inco couldn’t afford even two pounds of black bread, the silence of the man only made him more irritable; but suddenly, he noticed droplets trickling down the brim of the top hat.
The burly man was stunned, his eyes moving downwards, only to find a puddle already ford at the man’s feet.
A breeze blew by, bringing a chill that seeped into the burly man’s heart.
Sothing made him uneasy, a foreboding feeling rising within him.
Without daring to utter another threat, the burly man closed the door again and put the bolt on.
He didn’t even notice that his trembling hands slowed down the process of securing the bolt by several seconds.
Knock—knock knock—
However, just as he had finished bolting the door, the third series of knocks began at a steady rhythm.
The burly man, who had just fastened the bolt, stepped back from the door’s range, deciding that no matter who that eerie person outside was, he wouldn’t open the door for him again.
As he was thinking this, he suddenly saw an outline sketched on the wooden door in front of him, as if…
the figure with the top hat was there.
…
The evasive refusal of these children’s leader didn’t surprise Lu Li much.
Lu Li knew that distrust of strangers was the foundation of survival for these children, whose average age was not even eight.
Even though the younger ones hadn’t yet learned this lesson.
“Mist of Strangeness is hard to disperse, and it’s dangerous after dark,” Lu Li said again, his offer of help to the children unrelated to Richard’s request—it was simply sothing he wanted to do.
“Thank you for your kindness, would you mind if we take so ti to think about it?” the spectacled young girl leader bit her finger indecisively, “You can give us the address, and if we decide, we will co find you tomorrow morning.”
Thanks to the two boxes of canned food, she was not very wary of Lu Li, but she was not entirely trusting either.
“Okay.”
Lu Li didn’t press any further and gave her the address of the Detective Agency.
The young girl breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Lu Li didn’t insist, which was followed by a tinge of regret.
“We will co to find you as soon as we’ve made a decision; my na is Wei’er!” worried that Lu Li would be upset, Wei’er felt she had to cautiously please him.
“Alright, Wei’er,” Lu Li nodded, not lingering any longer, and left the rest area amidst the reluctant gazes of the little girl who had led him there and other children.
“Why don’t you agree, sir?
He’s a good man—”
The voice of a little girl ca from behind the slowly-closing iron gate.
“That guy actually didn’t lie.”
As he walked towards the outside beach, Anna’s voice rang in his ears.
“He’s an orphan too, he ought to feel sympathy for children in the sa predicant unless he’s purely evil.”
Upon reflection, Richard wasn’t purely bad, but that didn’t change the fact that he had killed thousands.
“Are you leaving?”
The young boys guarding the “camp” in the sewer asked Lu Li as he approached.
“Yes.”
“Bon voyage!” the young boys shouted, standing as straight as guards.
“Thank you,” Lu Li replied as he passed them by.
The boy, sensing a kind of equality from Lu Li, puffed out his chest even prouder.
Lu Li looked down as he walked out of the broken fence gate, the cold sea breeze blowing in his face.
“I have a feeling they won’t survive the night.”
Suddenly, Lu Li whispered to Anna beside him.
He couldn’t be sure if this was a premonition derived from intuition or rely concern for a group of children.
“But they’ve already lived here for quite so ti,” Anna said.
Lu Li gently shook his head, “It’s different now.”
Even just a week ago, the biggest concern for most people was simply the calamity of the night.
“What do you want to do?” Anna’s voice ca from beside his ear.
Before Lu Li could reply, the sound of flapping wings rose from the fog, getting closer and clearer than the waves.
A black crow erged from the Mist of Strangeness, landing on the oil lamp Lu Li carried.
The bamboo tube tied to its leg identified the crow’s role.
Lu Li reached for the paper inside the bamboo tube and unfolded it by the light of the oil lamp.
[New case in the Belfast area: The Crimson Cottage]
[Difficulty: Unknown]
[Information Level: 3%]
[Known Information]
[3%: The cottage itself is an oddity]
[Detectives nearby may decide on their own whether to investigate the case or avoid it]
New cases were issued from the Detective Agency’s base, but there wasn’t just one.
[New case in the Belfast area: Ghouls]
[Difficulty: Easy]
[Information Level: 100%]
[Known Information]
[10%: The source of Ghouls originates from Sicken Town in the central region of the Main Affinity Continent]
[5%: Ghouls will attack all life forms and possess only basic instincts]
[25%: They are transford humans infected with sothing, physically fragile but with strong regeneration; only a heart injury can kill them]
[10%: Humans scratched by a Ghoul will be infected and transform into a Ghoul]
[50%: The infected humans won’t turn into Ghouls imdiately; usually, they undergo several stages, fully transforming roughly within 1–2 days.
Humans in the incubation period won’t show obvious differences and aren’t contagious]
[Detectives nearby may decide on their own whether to investigate the case or avoid it]
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