The location where I met the detective was an abandoned warehouse at a remote dock. This place was once used to repair warships, but it gradually lost its use after the war.
Xing Ze and John walked across a broken road full of puddles. Today's weather was just as hot, but there was no sun, and the air was filled with rising water vapor.
John couldn't help but take out the flask and took a sip. He complained: "I'm starting to think that damn detective is trying to trick us."
"Why do you say that?"
"Oh, damn!" John frowned and shouted. There was a dead seabird floating in a puddle not far away. "Who would choose a meeting place like this? This place is so corrupt that it reminds me of
Knockturn Alley."
They walked around the puddle, and Xing Ze looked inside. The dead bird was mostly rotten and had become a maggot restaurant.
"Isn't this where you last met him?"
"Of course not. If it weren't for you this time, I definitely wouldn't have walked into this place. The first few times we met, we were either in coffee shops or bars.
"At least I won't have to drink my own wine then. Oh, it's such a hot place."
Xing Ze pulled out his wand and cast a small weather-in-a-bottle spell on John, "Where was the last time you met?"
"Ah, you mean the time I hung him upside down from the ceiling?" John lowered his head and thought for a moment, "I don't remember the name of the bar, but I remember I hung him from the ceiling of the toilet and cast
cast a covering spell."
"Where's the time?"
"Hey, kid, why do you feel like you're interrogating me? Are these things important?"
"I'm just used to it." Xing Ze took out his notes and recorded the information he just got. "I'll treat you to a drink later. Burke paid me three hundred gold galleons in advance."
"That's about right. It should have been around the end of July, I can't remember clearly."
After passing through a thicket of plantains growing in the cracks in the road, Xing Ze took out the report and looked at it. On the back of the report was a map drawn by Burke.
"Turn right, walk a little further, and we'll be there."
"Is it time?"
"There are still twenty minutes. I don't think the detective will arrive early."
"Of course." John took another sip, "I'm almost out of wine, please remember to hurry up later."
"Have you checked out "Snake's Teeth"?"
"You know I've never been a fan of books," John replied, "but I've asked Edwin and Recco to check them out."
"As expected of you."
"Speaking of this, do you really plan to leave the Round Table Party to that young lady?"
"Ai Li is the person who knows how to manage a team best among us." Xing Ze said, "What's more, she has invested a lot of money in us. As our sponsor, it is appropriate to give her an appropriate position.
"
"You are the BOSS, you have the final say." John said, "While we still have a little time, do you want me to report to you the results of my recent work?"
"No, just like you are not interested in books, I am also interested in politics." Xing Ze said, "Just do it. If there is anything you need to pay attention to, tell Ellie, she should be more capable than me to handle it."
"You are really comfortable being the hands-off shopkeeper." John teased.
"Let the right people do the right things, so that you can get twice the result with half the effort."
"Is it the famous aphorism from that book again?"
Xing Ze did not answer the question. He stopped and looked up at the warehouse in front of him that was almost about to collapse.
"We're here."
…
Benson's old house.
"More cookies, dear lady?" Porky asked Ellie.
"No, no, no." The eldest lady waved her hand, "The biscuits you made are so delicious, but I have to control my weight. This period of time has been too comfortable, and I have gained a lot of weight."
"I think you are just right now." Reko walked up to Ellie holding a glass of broken wine.
"Stop complimenting me, great poet, there is no possibility between us."
"This has to be the most hurtful thing I've heard this summer. Did you hear it? My heart is broken."
"Don't worry. Within three days, your heart will be resurrected by a certain bartender, maybe a bar girl, maybe a widow." Edwin sat next to Ellie with a bottle of beer.
Reko curled his lips in dissatisfaction and changed the subject: "Dear Miss Shafiq, can you tell me how you persuaded your father to let you rejoin us."
"This..." Ellie bit her lip and fell into thought.
"Do you have any extra steak?"
These were the first words Xing Ze said to her when he saw her at the dance that day, which was quite consistent with the style of this steely straight man.
"I bet there's enough steak on the table to last you a week."
"Perhaps someone secretly placed a curse on me, but I still have to eat a hot meal."
Seeing Xing Ze's aggrieved and annoyed look, Ally couldn't help laughing, but she quickly put away her smile and said seriously: "I know a safe way to the kitchen. But before that, I hope
Can you tell me what my father talked to you about."
"He wants me to kick you out of the Round Table."
"I expected what he would do." The corner of the eldest lady's mouth raised slightly, "So I asked John to go to Gringotts to register a business account in the name of the Round Table, and put half a million gold Galleons into it."
"For Merlin's sake." Xing Ze shouted in surprise, "Fifty thousand? How many assets do you have?"
"I'm not very sure. Eight million? Ten million?" The eldest lady tilted her head and thought for a moment, "Maybe more, they are all in Gringotts. I have three financiers helping me manage the money.
I also have an assistant looking after my company..."
"That's enough." Xing Ze waved his hand, "So you went to Hogwarts to teach purely for the mission of the Key Hall."
Ellie neither denied nor affirmed, just shrugged and said: "Unfortunately, even this was stopped by my father. So I lost my job."
As expected, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors are all annual throwaways. Xing Ze complained in his mind. "Then you found a job as an investor in the Roundtable, why don't you manage your own company?"
"My assistant is very capable, and he never complains about working overtime. To be precise, he only cares about work. I can only force him to take a vacation. So I have nothing to do there, I just need to sign some documents."
Having said this, Ellie raised her arms, "Look, I have a gorgeous dress, a lakeside villa in London, and more money than I can spend in my life. But I can't sink like this. I
Need to find something to do.”
"I see." Xing Ze said. To say that he was not jealous was obviously a lie, but he still held back the vicious words that came to his lips. "You have found something that can torture me and prove that you
It's not the work of a rich girl who has nothing but money.
"Your father told me that when you were studying in Nurmengard, you were deeply influenced by your great aunt Carlotta Pinkston. I remember she was a famous activist, right? Advocating for speaking out in front of Muggles
Use magic and advocate that wizards should go out of this world."
"You are wrong about one thing. I did not become interested in Carlotta Pinkston when I was studying in Nurmengard. I have admired her since I was a child." Ellie said proudly, not caring at all about what she said.
The activist is a well-known political prisoner. "My middle name is Pinkston, and even my father doesn't know that."