The ink-stained quill was held in one hand and rested on the paper.
"Mr. Lu Li, you can speak now."
The psychiatrist raised his head and motioned to the dark-haired man sitting opposite.
There is a harbor outside the window, and the gray and gloomy weather leaves only the outline of Rodster Harbor.
The chimneys in the industrial area have been out for many days, but the haze still shrouds Belfast strangely.
"It's a long story." The black-haired man named Lu Li said.
The psychiatrist said he didn't care at all: "You can do whatever you want, there's still a long time until dark."
The man nodded and spoke slowly after a brief silence.
"I'm an exorcist."
On the bluestone street in the morning, Lu Li said to an old couple inside the door.
"I heard that a ghost appeared in your house?"
The two old men looked at Lu Li carefully from head to toe, with an emotion called vigilance surging in their cloudy eyes.
The man opposite was dressed very formally. He used the formal attire that most civilians would only wear at festivals or parties as daily attire. He wore a white shirt with a black tie and a black coat, but he did not have a cane or a bowler hat.
Black hair and eyes are rare in Rodster Port and even in the whole of Belfast. His calm black eyes are like an abyss, which makes people fall into it uncontrollably.
"Who are you?"
The two old men's vigilance had subsided a bit, and they did not think that this man with exquisite clothing and handsome face could be a gangster.
"The Bizarre Detective Agency, Exorcist Lu Li."
Lu Li took out a brand new postcard and handed it to the two old people.
He took the business card with his wrinkled palm, and confusion flashed across his eyes. It wasn't until they saw the word "Detective Agency" and the address on the business card that they roughly understood the purpose of the card.
"Are you here to help us get rid of ghosts? Come...please come in..."
They eagerly got out of the way.
Lu Li stepped into the door and was swallowed up by the darkness of the room.
The sky was overcast and the room was dark.
A damp, musty smell hung in the air.
Scanning the simple and plain room, Lu Li looked back and looked into two pairs of eyes full of expectation: "Can you tell me the specific situation? For example, what happened."
The old man said mysteriously: "Have you seen it..."
Lu Li shook his head gently: "I didn't feel anything, that's why I asked you."
The old couple's disappointment was palpable, but they still told Lu Li about their experience.
Such as the sound of marbles on the ground at night, the cry of a baby in the middle of the night, the fleeting white shadow outside the window, and the strange noises in the kitchen.
Lu Li listened quietly: "These are not necessarily done by ghosts. They can be explained with scientific basis... Do you know science?"
The old couple looked at each other: "Yes, I heard that steam cars and iron ships are made by science."
Lu Li did not correct some of the old man's common sense mistakes. Most of the people here knew little about science: "Absolutely, then I will continue. The sound of marbles you hear is the sound of building materials expanding and contracting due to heat, and the crying sound is caused by the expansion and contraction of building materials.
It was summer, and I saw a wild cat when I came here, and the cat's mating calls were very similar to those of a baby. The white shadows outside the window were probably from pedestrians on the street."
"As for the strange noise in the kitchen..." Lu Li didn't take a look at the kitchen, and he didn't need to. "You should put up a mousetrap."
"I...we didn't lie to you! I really saw a ghost! If you don't believe me, ask my wife!"
"Yes, yes, that night..."
The two old men hurriedly defended themselves, trying to make Lu Li believe what they had seen with their own eyes.
"alright, I got it."
Lu Li looked calm and stopped the old man's narration. He had seen a lot of such conclusive words in the past few days.
"I can't find the ghost for the time being, so I will arrange an exorcism ceremony in the room. Can you please wait outside the door?"
"This..." The old man looked at each other with a troubled expression.
Ghosts are scary, but leaving your home in the hands of an outsider...
Lu Li, who knew what they were worried about, said, "You guys stay outside the door, I have nowhere to run."
The two hesitant old men half-pushed out of the house and stood on the street. Lu Li followed behind him and closed the door.
Dang clang——
Just drop the door latch.
The two old men tensed up when they heard the sound of the door latch, and then heard a low, obscure spell coming from behind the door. It was in a language they couldn't understand, and the pronunciation was weird and complicated.
After a while of whispering, there was dead silence behind the door.
Suddenly there was a muffled sound, the door trembled, and several mottled pieces of wall covering fell off.
The two old men were so frightened that they almost retreated to the middle of the street.
Suddenly, there were fierce sounds of fighting and roaring in the room, which made people imagine a scene of exorcists fighting ghosts.
At this time, in a house separated by a wall.
Contrary to the imagination of the old man outside the door, Lu Li sat calmly at the dining table, except for occasionally kicking the wooden chair, knocking on the table, and making a few muffled groans.
After dozens of seconds passed, Lu Li, who felt that time was almost up, stood up, kicked over the chair, and hit the wall with his shoulder.
There was a muffled sound and the wall shook.
Then there was ten seconds of calm.
The two old men held their breaths as time passed by...
The door opened, and a figure appeared behind the door.
Lu Li's dark eyes were calm, his forehead was covered with water stains that looked like sweat, and his breathing became more steady: "It's settled, now it's time to talk about the remuneration issue."
…
"Wait a minute, you said before that you were an 'exorcist.'" The doctor interrupted Lu Li's narration. He emphasized the word "exorcist."
Lu Li asked back: "Do you think I'm the kind of exorcist who grabs the ghost's neck and yells, 'Destroy you in the name of God'?"
The doctor was silent and waved his hand for him to continue.
…
"The ghost has..." The two old men poked their heads into the door, trying to find any traces of the ghost.
"It's taken care of." Lu Li turned sideways and motioned for them to come in.
The income of the two old people was not high, so Lu Li only took a symbolic payment of 10 shillings as a charity and left.
"I'll find you."
The moment he walked onto the street, a whisper suddenly sounded in his ears, very close to him.
Lu Li turned around suddenly and saw the relaxed-looking old couple closing the door.
The breeze blows, the tips of the hair are swaying, it is obviously daytime but it is bitingly cold.
…
"So your confusion is... you have encountered a ghost and suspect it is a psychological problem?"
"Yes."
The psychiatrist's eyes became very strange and he looked Lu Li up and down: "Are you a foreigner? Or a nobleman who rarely goes out?"
"Is there a problem?" Lu Li neither denied nor admitted.
The psychiatrist spread his hands and said: "As we all know, ghosts do exist. So instead of worrying about mental illness, you should worry more about the troubles caused by being haunted by ghosts - after all, you are not a real exorcist."
"Really?" Lu Li was noncommittal. "Then let's change the story. What if I say that I come from another world."
"Can you tell me more about it?" The psychiatrist changed his sitting posture and looked very interested.
Lu Li briefly described the situation on Earth.
"Wow... Dozens of tons of metal flying in the sky? A house hundreds of stories high? Can you talk face to face thousands of kilometers apart?" The psychiatrist laughed subconsciously, but after realizing that this emotion should not appear in him,
He quickly turned away and said seriously with a straight face: "Mr. Lu Li, this is a very serious case of hysteria. Your condition is more serious than I thought."
"I'm just asking, I don't want treatment." Lu Li replied.
False existence becomes real, and real existence becomes false. There are ghosts in the world that are more believable than hundreds of tons of metal flying in the sky.
"Uh... whatever you want, you've already paid the consultation fee anyway." The psychiatrist shrugged, put the paper and quill on the table, and turned to look out the window. "It's getting dark. If you live far away from
If it’s far away from here, please hurry up.”
The gray sky was darker than when the conversation began.
"Thanks for reminding."
Lu Li stood up, shook hands with the psychiatrist who also stood up, and turned to leave the clinic.