When I woke up, it was already half past six on Tuesday morning.
After preparing breakfast for himself and Mia, while reading the newspaper, Shade glanced at the advertising section. Only then did Shade realize that he had not given Mia a bath for the cat for more than half a month.
But before Shade could make any move, the orange cat seemed to be aware of it, and after eating its goat milk-soaked cat food, it ran to the first floor of the house. No matter how Shade shouted, it refused to go upstairs.
.
After Shade took the initiative to go downstairs, the small cat avoided his hand again. Even when Shade forced it into a corner, the cat stared at Shade for the first time and let out a "meow" that was similar to a roar at Shade.
~" sound.
Light spilled from the window on the first floor into this home that didn't even have decorative walls. Shade, who was squatting in front of Mia, had an expression of astonishment on his face, and then a frustrated expression, looking at himself in shock.
A half month old cat.
"You actually treated me..."
He opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he just stood up slowly and retracted his hand that wanted to pick up the cat.
Standing there with his head lowered and looking at Mia, his lips trembled, but he still said nothing. He turned his head first, then turned around, and walked towards the stairs with a slightly heavy step.
Mia the cat stood in the corner and looked at Shad's back. The cat's big eyes blinked twice, and then immediately followed him. The cat walked with Shad at his feet, looking up with its big eyes, wanting to observe
Shade's expression.
"Meow~"
It called softly.
Shade stopped and looked at his feet, bent down and picked up the orange cat, and then his expression changed:
"Ha~ let me catch you!"
He showed a happy smile, held the orange cat's waist with both hands, and lifted it up. A man who is good at acting can still show excellent acting skills even when he is acting to cats. This is the basic ability for foreigners to exist in a different world.
"Meow~"
The small orange cat struggled twice but failed to get out of Shade's hands, so it stopped unhappy. But fortunately, Shade did not bathe the domestic pet cat today.
Because he doesn't know how to wash a cat at all.
People in this world believe that animals like "cats" have the ability to bring good luck. This is a cultural and customary view. Therefore, many thaumaturgy related to "luck" can be related to cats.
Shade's behavior of catching the "cat" this morning seemed to have brought him good luck. This morning, he did not wait at home for the maid Tifa Servit to come to his door, but instead waited for a brand new client.
The advertisement published in the newspaper last week finally worked.
The client who came to the door was a thin, middle-aged woman. Judging from her clothes, her financial situation was probably not good. When she followed Shade upstairs a little nervously, Shade also guessed that this client was also here.
Entrust things like "husband cheating".
But the situation was more outrageous than he thought.
"Detective Hamilton, here's the thing. My distant relative, Mr. Ferras Flamel... I don't know exactly how far away, I just met him decades ago. Flamel
Mr. Er passed away and left me a large inheritance..."
The middle-aged woman sat uneasily on the sofa, her butt just rubbing against the edge of the sofa, as if she was afraid of damaging the sofa. She did not take the tea prepared by Shade, and after sitting down, she nervously pulled on the hem of her skirt.
Tell us about your commission,
The middle-aged woman's surname is also Flamel, but her relationship with the deceased Mr. Firas Flamel can be traced back to her great-grandfather's generation.
"A few days ago, his lawyer...is that the word? I remember it was. His lawyer came to me and asked me to sign and take away Mr. Le Maire's estate, but I was afraid that this was
What a trap. You know, sir, it’s the kind of trap that tricks people into signing documents and then takes everything away at once.”
This is a relatively common trap in this era, but for outsiders, in this slightly ignorant era, traps such as "Ponzi schemes" are actually the most cost-effective scams.
Of course, Xia De would not do this. Even if he wanted to make money, he would have to rely on the knowledge in his head to make money openly. He always thought that he was probably a "positive person"...
"To put it this way, I haven't done anything illegal so far, and I didn't throw the steam bomb."
He thought in his mind, and then comforted the somewhat nervous woman softly. He saw that the woman had never been to such a place:
"So, what do you want to entrust me to do?"
"Investigating that lawyer is the person who wants me to sign. I don't understand this, I don't understand it at all, so I need to find a reliable person to investigate the whole thing. I don't know much about literacy, but I know that in St. Teresa Square,
The detectives in the agency are definitely not liars."
This is the innocent thought of the lower class citizens, but they never imagined that the guy working as a detective in Saint Teresa Square might not be a liar, but might be a foreign spy or a visitor from another world.
"Does the investigating attorney... have any information on him?"
Shade thought for a while and asked.
"Yes, I have his address. Sir, I just need you to confirm whether he is a so-called lawyer. Oh, God, this word is such a twist."
The middle-aged woman, who was not very well educated, said embarrassedly. Shade shook his head and said it was nothing.
If you just want to confirm whether the other party is a lawyer, this is quite simple. A rougher way is to go directly to the door to confirm whether he is a ring warlock. If yes, immediately tell the client to ignore the matter. If not, take out a pistol and threaten the other party to tell the truth.
He can also use non-rude methods, such as coming to the person's door to talk to them, or conducting a one-day follow-up.
"Let me ask a little bit, what is the amount of the inheritance you are talking about?"
Shade asked again, but Mrs. Flamel was not wary:
"About 50 pounds."
"It's quite a lot."
This is not an exaggerated metaphor. For the people at the bottom, 50 pounds is a big number enough to change the fate of a family.
"So what did Mr. Firas Flamel do, and do you know how he died?"
Shade also asked, although this information seems to have nothing to do with investigating the identity of the lawyer, it is relevant to determining whether this is a scam.
"I know, the lawyer told me."
Mrs. Le Maire recalled, but she did not know some details:
"When I was in my twenties, I heard that he went to sea with a fleet to explore a new northern route to the New World. Later, we gradually lost contact. I only heard by chance that he had joined a great fleet...
...The lawyer said that he died in a shipwreck, and people later discovered the suicide note he left with a friend in the harbor. He seemed to have expected that people who went to sea would have problems sooner or later. In his inheritance, the cash was five
Thirteen pounds, in addition to some personal items, a diary, a collection of books, and some strange little souvenirs... Oh, this is probably the poor man's life savings."
Although she was not familiar with her distant relative Firas Flamel, Mrs. Flamel still wiped her reddish eyes with a handkerchief.
Let Mrs. Le Maire calm down first, Shade thought about the details of this commission, and finally decided to proceed with the commission.
After all, no matter what, investigating whether a stranger is a lawyer is only a day's work.
As for the entrustment fee, since Mrs. Le Maire herself is a middle-aged woman whose husband ran away and raised the children by herself, Schade did not charge too high a price.
When the two finally signed the entrustment agreement, they agreed that if the lawyer was not a lawyer, Mrs. Le Maire, who could not receive the inheritance, would have to pay Schade 5 shillings for the investigation fee.
If the other party is a lawyer, then Shade will follow Mrs. Le Maire to sign and collect the inheritance of a suitcase. After Mrs. Le Maire receives the inheritance, Shade will receive a huge reward of up to 5 pounds.
This pricing method satisfied both parties, and when the client was about to leave, Shade specifically asked the other party which newspaper he got the address from. The advertisement was published last week, and Flamel
Mrs. Er must have been attracted by a commission from a certain newspaper.
"Steam Bird Daily, I am worried that I will be deceived and dare not go to the detectives in the advertisements in the small newspapers to commission... My neighbor, a kind-hearted young man studying art at Tobesk University, read the advertisement for me
,I don’t know much about literacy…”
Mrs. Flamel said embarrassedly, and Shade sent the client downstairs, feeling that he owed Miss Louisa even more.
"At worst, I can cooperate with her in researching [The Little Match Girl]. Now I have no other ability to repay her."
He thought as he watched his client merge into the bustling crowd of Saint Teresa Square.
Compared to when he first came to this world, Shade was already above the poverty line. The reason he continued to accept such relatively low-paying commissions was not because he was obsessed with his role as a detective, but because he had more ideas.
First of all, it will be a long time before he leaves the civilized world and goes to St. Byrons Comprehensive College in the far north. Before that, he needs to hang out in Delrayon, so it is very important to maintain a necessary and decent identity.
Moreover, detectives can also make a lot of money, but this requires the accumulation of countless small commissions, so it is foolish to look down on low-paying commissions.
Not to mention, the learning method of ring magicians means that academic ring magicians who take correspondence courses need to have an identity that can respond to crises in their respective areas of operation.
Therefore, even though I am not as eager to make money as when I first came to this world, it is still necessary to accept commissions.
Not to mention, Shade is actually very interested in this type of small commission. Foreigners intend to see more of this strange world through this method.
The client arrived in the morning, and Shade planned to use a complete day's tracking to confirm whether the lawyer was a fake. The tracking of the lawyer would start during the day tomorrow, so he spent this slightly calm Tuesday on
other places.
At about ten o'clock in the morning, Shade took Mia out and went to "Good Peter's Pet Shop" located on Purple Iris Lane. This was where Shade met Miss Bayas for the first time and took Mia away.
The place.
The shop owner with the rosy nose was deeply impressed by this young orange cat. When Shade came to the door with the cat in his arms, he almost announced that he would not accept any business today.
But fortunately, Shade does not want to foster Mia here again:
"I want to know how to bathe a pet."
He told his purpose, but the shopkeeper blocked the door and had no intention of letting the man or the cat in.
"Just wash it directly. What else can you do, as long as you don't use as much force as washing clothes."
In this bustling era, complex and diverse pet service projects have not yet been developed.
"Then you can give it..."
"When the cat is in the store, my wife and Miss Cindy usually bathe it."
The middle-aged shop owner said, shaking his head quickly, as if he was afraid that he would leave the cat behind.
The cat being held by Shade still remembers this place, but it doesn't seem to have a very good impression of it. Now it is curled up in Shade's arms and refuses to move.
"So are those two ladies in the store now?"
Shade asked again, and the man answered without thinking:
"I haven't been here for the past half month, no, for the past year. They... eloped. But in fact, you don't have to bathe pet cats so frequently. Cats are different from people. Sir, you wash the cat yourself.
That’s fine, it’s very simple, it doesn’t matter if you wash it once every three months or even four months, cats are actually not delicate.”
Shade suspected that the other party just wanted him to leave quickly, but he also knew that Mia had left a "deep" impression on the middle-aged shop owner, so he left after expressing his regret that the other party's wife had eloped with the female shop assistant.
here.
When he spoke, the middle-aged shop owner's expression was very exciting, and it even made Shade look forward to the scene when he next visits here.
As for washing your cat, you still need to think about it carefully.
After leaving Purple Iris Lane, it was almost lunch time. Shade found a restaurant nearby, spent 1 shilling and 10 pence, and had a pretty good lunch with his cat.
After leaving the restaurant, I saw that it was still hazy today and the harsh summer sun could not penetrate the fog layer, so I took Mia and walked towards the Prophet's Association.
It was a very dull afternoon. After the heavy rain last night, the water on the ground evaporated so quickly that it was impossible to tell that it had rained more than ten hours ago.
Foreigners wearing long-sleeved coats are not very adaptable to the city's climate. Fortunately, the Prophet's Association on Silver Cross Avenue is still cool.
He didn't come here for the Rhodes cards, but to find Miss Anat, and wanted to tell her about his recent contact with Miss Bayas.
According to the contact information left by the brown-haired female fortune teller last time, she first explained that she wanted to come for fortune telling in the lobby on the first floor, and then reported the name of Miss Anat. But unfortunately, Miss Anat was not here now.
In the association.
The management of the association's ring magicians is relatively loose, and they are not required to work every day like the church ring magicians. Although Shade knows where Miss Anat lives, it is obvious that the possibility of her being at home during the day is very low.
