Horseshoes stepped on the bluestone road covered with dew in the early morning, splashing away with the stagnant water.
Some shops on both sides of the street opened their wooden doors, and the sweet smell of toast spread throughout the street. Men who were preparing to go to work early stood in front of the door, wiping their bodies with water in buckets.
These somewhat dispelled the desolation in the gloomy and cold weather.
The carriage stopped briefly at Mrs. Phillin's Bakery. Lu Li got out of the car and bought five pounds of bread. While the clerk was preparing to pack the freshly baked bread, he left the bakery and walked towards the newsstand not far away.
The newsstand truck had just set up its stand, and the raincloth was covering the top of the newspaper before it could be removed.
"Give me today's newspaper. There may be no one in the detective agency these days, so you can just stuff the newspaper into the crack of the door."
Thanks to his unique black hair and black eyes, most people who have met Lu Li can hardly help but be impressed by him. The old man who managed the newspaper truck took off his hat and said hello to Lu Li. He turned around and lifted the raincloth to get the newspaper Lu Li needed.
Said: "Are you planning to travel?"
"Um."
Pulling out a brand new newspaper from a pile of newspapers, the old man turned around and handed it to Lu Li with a strong smell of ink: "I wish you have a good time."
"Thanks."
Lu Li took the newspaper, returned to the bakery, and returned to the carriage with a cowhide bag full of bread.
"So many..." Anna craned her neck to look.
"I need to eat for a day and be prepared to prevent any changes in Shadow Town."
For example, the food there is not to my liking.
Putting the cowhide bag on the edge of the carriage, Lu Li sat on the edge of the carriage, pulled the reins, and the obedient horse slowly drove forward.
Da da da da——
Amidst the crisp sound of horse hooves and the slight sway of the carriage, Lu Li put the oil lamp next to him and opened the newspaper that smelled of ink.
[The Kodak Sirson (Immortal Giant) set sail from Hasko Port on the Lennon Islands early yesterday morning]
Below the title is a low-quality black and white picture. A steamship that looks like the Titanic is leaving the port. Colorful flags are hung on the shore. Family members gather in front of the guardrail and wave to the cruise ship.
There is a line of text at the bottom of the newspaper: "——The steel behemoth known as unsinkable"
It seems that giant ships with such names and titles generally do not end well.
Lu Li thought so, after briefly reading the news that took up half of the front page, he looked at the second article.
[The case of Baron Joseph has entered the evidence stage]
[Our reporter learned from the Watch Town Police Department that both the plaintiff and the defendant have entered the stage of presenting evidence. The lawyer hired by Baron Joseph is Solon, a famous lawyer in Watch Town——]
The two names that appeared were more or less related to Lu Li.
The third piece of news is still related to Baron Joseph.
[Baron Joseph’s new prey? Witnesses saw Baron Joseph leaving the home of a mysterious man——]
[Two days ago, Baron Joseph traveled in disguise and went to a detective agency in Sailor Street to meet someone privately. It is understood that the detective of the detective agency here is a man with a mysterious identity. According to eyewitnesses, Baron Joseph stayed at the mysterious person's house for a few minutes before leaving.
...]
What Lu Li didn't expect was that he would be exposed to the public for the first time in such a way.
Fortunately, except for people who knew Lu Li, no one else knew who the person mentioned in the newspaper was.
Looking at the second page, Lu Li knew why the content of the first page, Baron Joseph, was on two news items - nothing happened yesterday.
The next three pages are all daily trivial matters. For example, a rich man was robbed on the street, a painter criticized other painters' paintings as a pile of shit, and the body of a homeless man was found on the street, with no scars and a smile on his face.
The police analyzed that the homeless man's death was caused by being trapped in darkness.
This kind of thing is not uncommon in Belfast. There are always some people who are extremely courageous, think differently than ordinary people, make bets with friends, drunkards, homeless people, and extremely stingy people who fall into the darkness and die. Some of the differences are -
Most people who fall into darkness end up disappearing rather than leaving a body behind.
Closing the newspaper and putting it aside, Lu Li looked at the horses moving along the uphill street, turned around and asked, "Do you know Shadow Town?"
"have no idea."
The conversation is over.
When the sky was almost completely bright, the carriage left the Belfast area and began to travel to the north where the terrain is gentle.
Passing through a birch forest, the forest that used to be lush and green is now gray and dead, and the sounds of mosquitoes and birds have never sounded or appeared.
May is coming to an end. In previous years, the back side of Sugard Mountain would have been a lush green area of plants and farmland, but until now, most of the plants have not even sprouted.
Not only Sugard Mountain, but the entire continent seems to be stuck in a situation where plants are not growing. Even the most fertile northern countries have been slow to see green. I am afraid that only expensively cultivated plants and flowers are still blooming in the mansions of nobles.
The ugly and gray land surface is uneven, and the fields on the roadside that have been plowed and sown have yet to see any sprouts sprouting.
The Allen Peninsula usually enters autumn at the end of September, leaving little time for people.
If the plants continue not to grow and no solution is found, this disaster will erupt into a situation far more terrifying than the disaster of night.
As Hades once said pessimistically, the world is dying.
The sky was completely bright, but still dim and gloomy, and it started to rain. Perhaps the bloody tentacles above Shadow Town gradually became hazy, becoming more illusory in the misty drizzle.
Lu Li got into the carriage, opened the curtain and drove the carriage to the right road.
Anna sat with Lu Li for a while, but because it was boring and there were too many carriages and trucks on the road, she hid in the carriage and read a book.
"Too dark is bad for your eyes."
Just as he picked up the book that was buckled on the floor, Lu Li's voice sounded from in front of him. He handed the oil lamp into the carriage, and the dim yellow light dispersed the darkness.
"oh."
Anna subconsciously picked up the oil lamp. She didn't realize anything until her palm passed through the handle and Lu Li's fingers. Instead, she took the oil lamp with her telekinesis and put it aside.
Thinking of Lu Li's previous question, Anna hesitated and said, "I know a little bit about Shadow Swamp..."
"For example?" Lu Li, who was sitting under the car curtain, asked without turning around.
"Such as its length and the species that live in it..."
Anna's voice became smaller and smaller, realizing that what she knew from the textbook seemed useless.
Lu Li said no more, and silence fell into the carriage inside and outside.
Anna was embarrassed for a while, and was gradually attracted by the content in the book. Occasionally she would raise her head, stare at Lu Li's back in front of her, and then continue reading.
The road gradually became smoother, and they had completely left the Sugard Mountain area. The air was no longer filled with the smell of seafood, but the scenery remained unchanged: desolate and gray.
The carriage jolted all day long, and as evening approached, a group of low buildings on the plain finally appeared at the end of the line of sight.
Looking upward, the extremely illusory bloody tentacle deep in the clouds seemed to be a little more real, swaying slowly like a waterweed behind the Shadow Town.
