The dark and dilapidated corridors, with many signs in front of the doors, are filled with smoke.
"Where is this."
Standing in the corridor, Lu Li looked out the window shrouded in mist.
"Jones Psychotherapy Clinic." the psychiatrist answered.
"What city."
"...Belfast." The psychiatrist quietly opened the drawer and knew how to deal with this kind of "patient": "Do you want to inquire or make an appointment?"
Black eyes looked around the clinic quietly. Lu Li left the clinic without saying anything.
The wooden stairs passed under the feet, and Lu Li, who returned downstairs, walked into the deserted and dim light at the end.
The darkness faded, and the scenery revealed was neither the twilight swamp nor the waiting Silver Cross Sloan and Mildred Hemprey.
The pungent smell that came with the mist in the air disappeared due to the suspension of work in the industrial area. There were more pedestrians on the street than in previous days, but the ladies had not yet taken off the black gauze covering their faces.
A postman on a bicycle rang his bell to alert passers-by. Whispering conversations and the sound of horse hooves passed by, and a steam car spewed black smoke and came towards us.
The winding streets extend downward and disappear behind the outlines of houses. The bay at the end is obscured by the mist, and only the occasional distant whistle can be heard.
Old times, Belfast.
Where it all begins.
Lu Li stayed where he was and waited. If it was some kind of illusion that blocked his perception, two controllers would be enough to rescue him.
At the same time, I checked my body and found that there was no doomsday book, stomach bag and psychic gun.
The touch of shirts and coats has also become more delicate.
Lu Li opened his palm, and there was no pentagram mark, no scar from redemption.
The power brought by the redemption fragment disappeared, and his left hand returned to its original state, and he no longer felt the presence of humanity.
The only things he had in his pocket were some shillings, a bunch of keys, and a box of matches.
It was as if Lu Li had really returned to the beginning.
Lu Li, who had been waiting for a while, received nothing but curious looks.
Then it seems that we should consider the authenticity of this moment, just as Lu Li suddenly came to this world. On a day when the world was about to die, it seemed not unexpected that Lu Li suddenly returned to the beginning.
But triggered by what?
The only clue about this is: Lu Li opened a door.
But it wouldn't be the "Gate". Lu Li saw no trace of it, and it would take some time for it to arrive at Giant Tree Academy.
Unable to wait for "rescue", Lu Li walked along the street and returned to the sailor neighborhood in his memory.
The fishy smell in the cold and damp mist was like the plywood of a fishing boat floating on the sea, and it was quickly covered up by the stench of sweat and other smells.
The streets were as noisy as a market, with children chasing each other and residents drying fish out to dry. They stopped when Lu Li passed by to avoid contaminating his neat, clean and expensive clothes.
Familiar longhouses emerge from the street in the distance.
[Bizarre Detective Agency]
A brand-new wooden sign hangs beside the door of the longhouse.
Pushing the door ajar, stepping on the creaking floorboards, he walked along the narrow, dark corridor back to the familiar door.
Wow wow wow
The sound of cooking could be heard from the room with the wooden door ajar across the way, and a child's cries to teach him a lesson could be heard from a room not far away.
Taking out the keychain, Lu Li jumped out and inserted the copper key into the keyhole.
click
The damp smell of wood, like wine lees, filled his nose as Lu Li walked into the quiet and silent living room.
Anna is not here.
At this time, he had not met Anna yet.
After stopping for a while, Lu Li left the detective agency again.
He has something to do, even if everything in front of him may be false.
"Do you want to go out? It's getting dark soon." In the corridor, the landlord, who was fat and fat, and the oil on his face reflected under the oil lamp, said hello in a flattering manner.
"I brought an oil lamp."
A few dozen minutes later, Lu Li arrived at No. 23, Da Vinci Street.
【Mrs. An Lei Art Gallery】
As evening approached, only a faint oil lamp was lit in the gallery window.
The current owner of the gallery, Benjamin, was wiping the floor. When he heard the footsteps, he said without turning around: "Are they the new employees you want to apply for?"
"Guest." Lu Li replied calmly.
The rich Benjamin quickly got up, put the dirty mop into the bucket, and looked at Lu Li, who had a mysterious temperament and seemed to be either rich or noble: "I'm sorry, sir, we have closed. You can come tomorrow morning."
Lu Li took out a handful of shillings from his pocket and stuffed them into Benjamin's open fleshy palm. At a rough glance, it should be close to a hundred shillings.
"I am a friend of the Bessie family. I heard that the gallery was opened here, so I came to take a look."
"Well……"
The "acquaintance" status of Shilling Palm and Lu Li made Benjamin hesitate.
"But I still recommend that you come back during the day." Benjamin looked hesitantly into the darkening depths of the gallery: "You may not know that this gallery has become haunted at night recently..."
"That's why I'm here." Lu Li interrupted Benjamin again: "I'm still an exorcist."
Benjamin's breathing suddenly became more rapid, and he hurriedly stuffed the shilling Lu Li gave him back into Lu Li's hand as a reward: "These are all for you! Please help solve the problem of the gallery being haunted!"
Dang Dang Dang
At the same time, the sound of church bells drifted through the streets at night.
With his face trembling, Benjamin said, "I'll leave this to you." He couldn't wait to leave without even putting away the mop and bucket, leaving Lu Li and the entire art gallery behind.
Seeing Benjamin's fat figure disappear, Lu Li lit the oil lamp.
The dim yellow light gradually spread, driving away the darkness surrounding him. Holding the oil lamp, Lu Li entered the darker depths of the gallery with echoing footsteps.
He saw the oil painting titled "Mrs. An Lei's Daughter".
The place depicted in the portrait is in a manor, and you can see the dark green and light pink flower beds on both sides of the path and the mansion in the background.
Anna was sitting in a chair in the manor, her bare hands gently pressing the hem of her skirt. She was wearing a white gothic pleated dress as delicate as a doll. The posture of an aristocratic girl could not hide her lively atmosphere.
Some fine particles are all over the oil painting, making the canvas a little uneven. Perhaps because there are no protective measures, the pigment has been oxidized, making the oil painting somewhat distorted and dim. This distorted and darker color gives the painting and Anna a special mottled beauty.
.
Like the weight of time.
After stopping for a moment, Anna did not break away from her rest. Lu Li temporarily left the portrait and continued walking deeper.
A plaster statue like a perfect work of art stood on the display stand. Lu Li, who had returned to Wanghai Cliff, could not find him, so Jimmy and his sister took it with them to Paradise Valley. But so far, Lu Li has not received any information about "Paradise Valley".
Lu Li returned the same way, without going upstairs, or even getting close to the portrait of Dracula in the center of the stairs.
Now he doesn't even have a psychic gun, so he doesn't have any means to fight against the weird.
When Lu Li returned to Anna's painting, there was suddenly a strange sound of stones rubbing against the floor deep in the gallery he had just left.
In the dim and gray mottled oil painting, the beautiful and delicate outline color is becoming more vivid.