Lu Li let the calm voice be heard in the corridor outside the door, walked to the window with an oil lamp in hand, and quietly opened the window.
"Mr. Detective, we would like to entrust you with an investigation." The voice outside the door was deliberately lowered and returned to normal.
"Let's go."
Lu Li picked up the picture frame, stepped on the sofa and stepped out of the window frame, came to the cool and quiet street, and said to Anna who was looking at him in wonder.
"Mr. Detective?"
The police outside the door asked and knocked on the door for the second time, and then they discovered that the light extending under the crack of the door was missing.
"The oil lamp was put out and knocked away!"
"Wait a minute, gentlemen officers"
The landlord who came with the keys failed to stop the police officers, and the old wooden door could not block the impact. There was a dull "bang" sound, the door panel burst open, and two police officers rushed into the living room.
The oil lamp in their hands illuminated the dark detective agency, and they saw the footprints on the sofa, the open windows and the curtains lifted by the breeze.
…
The warm mist from the windows on the street makes the long street shrouded in night cold and quiet, but it is not lonely.
Occasionally, you can see residents who have returned home late holding oil lamps and hurrying past.
Dodging another passerby, Anna appeared next to Lu Li, the light of the oil lamp passed through her illusory body, and her eyes were as clear as before.
"Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Not afraid."
"You should go to the police station and confess your crime."
Anna was lagging behind Lu Li, staring at the back of his head, wondering if she could knock him out. Anna was helping the robber! Anna thought so, and then became discouraged. What she did was more likely to make herself caught, and then drove her away.
Demon destroyed...
"It was just an accident." Lu Li walked along the edge of the street: "I have more important things to do."
"What's more important?"
Anna, who was fed up with the boring gallery life, felt her silent heart begin to beat, drifted past Lu Li, turned around and asked him curiously.
Handsome and mysterious, rational and calm, he looks full of stories! So is it the revenge of a down-and-out young nobleman or...
"I didn't have money to buy anything, so I tied up the boss and took away the things." Lu Li answered truthfully.
He didn't say it was a psychic gun, that would scare Anna.
As real as the imaginary scene Anna was looking forward to was, her excitement cooled off quickly. She still refused to give up: "Well... that person is a bad person? That person has a grudge against you...?"
Thinking of Hades selling the psychic gun for 000 shillings for 000 shillings to deceive him who was a newbie, Lu Li nodded lightly: "So."
Anna can reluctantly accept this answer. It is inevitable to judge people by their appearance. Handsome people and ugly people will be treated differently if they do the same thing.
Especially for Anna, who is still just a girl.
Arriving at the carriage shop at the end of Sailor Street, Lu Li rented a carriage with only a few coins left and the deposit from the previous rental carriage, and disturbed the quiet night by tapping the horseshoes.
Soon, the police officers who were chasing after him ran past the roadside. They did not pay attention and did not recognize Lu Li who was driving.
After driving a few blocks, the carriage came to the avenue connecting the top of Mount Sugard and Rodster Port and drove along the slope.
Anna's cheek quietly passed through the carriage, like an illusory human face growing on a wooden board, cute and terrifying.
She asked without realizing it: "Mr. Robber, where are we going?"
"Go west."
Lu Li didn't let Anna know the destination to affect his emotions.
This was Lu Li's idea of a way to maintain his dream state.
"Why did you take me with you?"
When she didn't get an answer, Anna asked again: "Don't you want to tell me? Then why did you go to the gallery to buy...take me away? Maybe you wanted to rob me..."
"Because you are my family."
"Are you also a member of the Bessie family!?" Anna shouted in surprise, and then excitement replaced the brief and inexplicable loss: "Are you my brother or sister, but why do you have black hair and eyes."
"Not this kind of family."
For Anna, who met Lu Li for the first time, she could not understand the meaning behind this word.
"It's lovers."
After a brief silence, Anna stammered and stammered: "You mean...you like me?"
"Um."
"But, we don't know each other yet..."
Anna retreated into the carriage out of shyness, but soon Anna told her story.
Lu Li took the trouble to listen quietly for the third time, occasionally responding.
During this period, the carriage climbed over Sugard Mountain, came to the back of the mountain, passed through the commercial road that was still bustling at night, and continued to advance through the town of Shouwang.
There is no moonlight tonight, and darkness covers the earth.
The carriage was pulled by an old horse, which could move along the dirt road with only the faint light of an oil lamp.
But they were not alone. Occasionally, they could see a series of faint lights as far away as stars shining in front and behind them.
But at this time, the wilderness is no longer safe. As the night approaches, the last glimmer of light and distance disappears, and loneliness and darkness wrap around the carriage.
Then he was driven away by the dim oil lamp, the dull turning of horse hooves and wheels, and the voice of narration from the carriage.
At a certain moment, Lu Li saw the surging darkness that was more solid than the darkness, wandering in the mist-like wilderness.
The old horse snorted uneasily and veered off the lane, trying to avoid the solid darkness.
Lu Li did not stop him and dimmed the oil lamp.
Shaking his way around the wandering darkness, Lu Li looked behind him until it was no longer visible and returned to the road.
The carriage did not encounter any strange things during the subsequent journey.
"Mr. Robber, where are we?"
Near morning, Anna's voice sounded.
"Outskirts of Himfast."
Anna got out of the carriage. The darkness before dawn had passed. In the dim light, she saw the brightly lit city in the distance.
"Why come here...?"
"This is your old home."
It was also Anna's obsession. She was yearned for and feared by her.
"The former manor is now a college, and Aunt Mary is now the dean of the college." Lu Li said.
Anna quietly looked at the art city, shrinking in anticipation, and even ignored asking why Lu Li knew this.
The carriage drove slowly into Belfast, along the streets that were waking up in the dim morning, and arrived at the former Bessie family manor.
The main entrance to the manor was locked with iron chains. When Lu Li was about to knock on the iron fence to call the gatekeeper, Anna stopped him.
"Follow me."
With a complicated look on her face, Anna led Lu Li to the side of the manor and pulled out a loose guardrail.
This is the "secret passage" where she ran outside to play when she was young.
After passing through the secret passage, Anna stood in the former manor again. Although the shrubbery and flowerbeds were withered and abandoned, she could still recognize everything here.
Anna's obsession has been completed, and Lu Li may leave the dream at any time.
"Annie..."
She saw a dead sapling, subconsciously approached it, and stared at it blankly.
Lu Li followed Anna and stood under the withered tree.
At this moment, Lu Li suddenly heard Annie's weak closeness coming out of the bark of the tree.
Emotions touched Lu Li's soul, like plucked strings, triggering deeper power, like a storm that shredded dreams like lenses.
Lu Li woke up from his dream.
Young branches emitting hazy light stretch out from behind. (To be continued.)
