"She must have just run away not long ago." The police officer who was following behind said, running out the door and letting his men search for traces of Richard nearby.
Lu Li took off the oil lamp on the wall and walked to the window, stretching out his arm to illuminate the alley.
The damp walls of the dark alley reflected water light, and the drizzle washed away many traces while also leaving traces behind.
A clear footprint sunken into the mud extends out of the alley.
But it’s so obvious…
There was no reason for cunning Richard to leave such obvious traces.
Lu Li left the window and looked around this narrow wooden house with nowhere to hide anyone.
"There is no hiding space." Anna's voice sounded in her ears.
Lu Li nodded and said to the police officer who came back from the door, "Help me check the recent call records of this phone."
"Who have you contacted before? Okay." The police officer agreed and left the hut with Lu Li.
Crunch——
The wooden door is closed, and the oil lamp on the table in the wooden house exudes a quiet halo.
Squeak——
The door suddenly opened again, revealing a calm face.
"Your Excellency Lu Li?" A voice asked from beside him.
"Nothing, let's go." Lu Li said, closing the wooden door again.
"I'll ask someone to stay nearby and monitor this place."
On the way to the alley, the police officer said.
"Trouble." Lu Li nodded and looked at the three police officers who were following the footprints.
Obviously, Lu Li's identity made them wary of the murderer they were arresting, and they did not dare to force him too much.
"Let them come back." Lu Li said.
The police officer beside him explained a little shyly: "Sorry... the city has become more and more dangerous recently. Three brothers from the police station have died..."
"I know,"
Lu Li asked them to come back because of this.
The police can provide some help, but they are not suitable to arrest Richard head-on.
After watching the police officers return to the carriage and leave, Lu Li, accompanied by Anna, led the carriage and followed the extended footprints into the ruined neighborhood.
Empty footsteps echoed among the collapsed and burned houses. Compared with the last time, the depression in the ruined neighborhood could not be dispelled even as it approached noon.
Lu Li thought this might be related to the recent rumors and the lack of sight of homeless people.
I hope those homeless people just moved to a safer place to survive and not something else.
Less than two hundred meters after following the footprints, the increasingly faint traces completely disappeared in front of a ruins.
Richard may have stepped on the ruins to go somewhere else, or he may have used some method to cover up the traces.
"Maybe we can go to the police station and borrow a hunting dog," Anna said.
"It's useless." Lu Li shook his head gently. "The smell in the air will mislead the hunting dogs."
Unable to smell the temperature, Anna asked: "What does it smell like?"
Lu Li raised his head slightly, stared at the raindrops falling on the transparent protective cover, and whispered: "The burning smell in the air."
And if anything, there were faint screams that gradually became clearer as they went deeper into the neighborhood.
"Go back, you may encounter trouble if you move forward." Lu Li said.
"But Richard..."
"He probably has no time to care about us. Let's get rid of all the bloody tentacles now." Lu Li said, and he and Anna returned the same way.
As I stepped back onto the land that was no longer scorched, the feeling of depression gradually faded away.
Returning to the carriage, Lu Li approached one of the bloody tentacles.
The carriage stopped briefly when passing through a relatively lively street. Lu Li asked a passing postman to go to the Andres Brothers maintenance station on the coastal street to deliver information about the condition of the ruined block, and gave him 10 shillings as a reward.
This is much cheaper than using carrion to summon black crows.
However, Lu Li still did the unnecessary thing - following the bloody tentacles, he also came to the coastal streets.
The bustling port and coastal streets continue to be lively. At the end of the leaden sea, the blood-colored tentacles hanging from the clouds fall into the sea that cannot be seen clearly.
"You haven't arrived in Belfast yet?" Anna asked Lu Li, who was looking at the fence.
Lu Li didn't answer, frowning and looking at the dark, oppressive sea. After a moment, he suddenly walked forward along the street and stopped in front of a telescope for viewing the scenery.
The immigration boom made this business boom again. Lu Li paid a shilling from the manager to get five minutes of using the telescope. He lowered his head in front of the telescope and turned the lens to focus on the direction of the sea where the bloody tentacles fell.
In the blurry lens, a small passenger ship was parked on the sea a few nautical miles away, and the bloody tentacles disappeared behind the passenger ship.
Ignoring the coincidence that the bloody tentacles on the vast sea coincide with the small passenger ship, the host of the tentacles may be on the passenger ship.
"It's not far from us."
Leaving the telescope, Lu Li seemed to be talking to himself to outsiders.
"Are we waiting here for it to dock?"
Lu Li's eyes fell on the upside-down wooden boat on the beach: "It's better to get closer to it before it docks."
"We can find another host first." Anna said.
Lu Li shook his head slightly: "The host on the passenger ship may still be alive, but I'm not sure if he can sense me. Just in case, boarding the passenger ship on the sea will give him nowhere to escape."
"Then just sit as you said..." Anna's voice faded.
Lu Li walked down the steps through the gap in the guardrail, stepping on the sand to approach the darker beach and a small wooden boat.
The sand and gravel rose up with the opened wooden boat. Anna let Lu Li sit in the wooden boat, ignoring the surprise and panic of the people admiring the coastal scenery around the beach, pushing the small wooden boat as if it were sailing on the sea and gliding on the beach, leaving a line of ravines.
Entering the sea, it faced the waves without slowing down and rushed in the direction pointed by Lu Li.
The sea breeze blew against his face along with the waves, parting his black hair and clothes, and the speeding wooden boat really gave Lu Li the illusion that he was still on a peaceful and peaceful earth.
Anna pushed the small wooden boat directly towards where Lu Li was pointing. An ocean liner that had just left the port was on the path of the wooden boat. She just slightly disguised herself and flew past at the feet of this ocean liner that almost covered the sky. She left the deck and pointed at
Leaving behind a line of passengers and crew of the small wooden boat with a trail of white waves.
Then Anna suddenly felt a little annoyed.
Obviously she could carry Lu Li and fly over with her own hands.
On the other side, Lu Li, who was restrained by Anna on the small wooden boat to prevent him from being thrown out, narrowed his eyes slightly and watched as the boat got closer and closer to the passenger ship, which had a black spot on its surface.
More details were revealed as we got closer, including the slightly peeling paint of the ship's hull, the anchor that fell into the water, the figures walking on the deck, and the bloody tentacles hanging down from the ship's hull.
A few minutes later, there were only a few hundred meters away from the small passenger ship. Lu Li raised his arm and signaled Anna to stop.
Anna dissipated her strength and let the small wooden boat float forward.
Lu Li stared closely at the figure walking on the deck for a moment, then suddenly whispered to himself: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven-eight... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven-eight... one, two, three, four, five..."