The open-air garden was already covered with heavy snow. Due to the shortage of manpower and the fact that this place was not very important, the old housekeeper did not send anyone to clean it up. The snow piled up here, almost covering everything.
Arthur groped among the white snow and found the position of the stone bench, wiped away the snow on it, and sat down.
It was very quiet in the garden. You could faintly hear the noise coming from the surrounding buildings. Some of the voices were quite familiar. They sounded like Lorenzo's. This guy was going crazy and his voice was always loud, just like on the stage.
Actors want to attract everyone's attention.
"Aren't you ready to go in?"
A voice sounded, and then Seleu came from behind.
"No, you can just talk to Lorenzo about this kind of thing. My appearance will disturb everyone's interest."
Arthur smiled. He knew very well that he was not suitable for such a happy occasion, at least not for other people.
In the eyes of Shrike, Lan Jade and others, he is a serious boss, in the eyes of Eve, he is a rigid father, in the eyes of Lorenzo... well, let's not consider Lorenzo, a rotten person.
Out of various thoughts, Arthur finally chose to wait here.
"The house is filled with a youthful atmosphere, and an old guy like me can't adapt to it."
He looked at the window where the sound came from and said to Seliu.
"okay."
Seliu didn't say anything more and stood beside him.
"Won't you sit down?"
Arthur pointed to the stone bench beside him, where he also wiped out.
"No, it's very cold."
Seleu responded indifferently. After hearing this, Arthur was stunned, and then laughed even louder.
"Okay, okay, anyway, it's hard for us to get involved in this right now, isn't it?"
Arthur looked at the heavy snow and said helplessly.
"Young people are great. You have done a great job. The deus ex machina is foolproof. It's time for me to exit and leave these things to you."
Seliu nodded and didn't make any further judgment on this.
"Watson's report has been circulated among the nation builders. Her report is very timely. There have been changes in the Seven Hills. We initially suspect..."
As he spoke, Seliu's voice lowered, hiding the unspeakable nightmare.
"Did you tell Lorenzo these things?" Arthur asked.
"No, it's a rare vacation. I don't want him to be under too much pressure."
"Yes, maybe this is also the last vacation," Arthur pointed out Seleu's worries, "You also know that you can't stop him."
Seliu was silent for a few seconds, then nodded reluctantly.
"yes."
"Well, there is nothing we can do about it. You also know that he is a stubborn guy," Arthur said. "Besides these, we are also speeding up our mobilization to cooperate with you, and we also have some new news here.
"
"what news?"
"The news from Nalo in Gaul. I sent the spies there for so long, and they finally got back some useful information." Arthur looked a little proud. "Old guys, I am completely useless."
"What's wrong?"
"Lawrence took action. He gathered a fleet and left the port of Maluri in the middle of the night with an unknown destination."
After Arthur finished speaking, he asked Seleu, "Where do you think he will go?"
"I don't know...but I thought someone would."
After saying this, Seleu turned and left in a hurry, while Arthur shouted at her leaving back.
"Little girl, the purification mechanism is ready, the rest is up to you!"
Seleu's figure gradually faded away, and Arthur's eyes slowly returned.
"So it's you who explains this to them? Not me."
【Well, this matter should be done by me.】
"That's good. I'm too old. I was still involved when I was young, but now I just feel tired."
Arthur murmured to himself, and soon the strange feeling in his consciousness began to fade. He could feel that Watson had left.
…
Under the influence of alcohol, the temperature in the room gradually became warmer. There were no strange activities. Everyone just sat together and chatted about ordinary things.
Shrike told others about his promotion, and rarely showed his drunkenness. He also said that you are all his confidants, and he will cooperate more in the future.
Seeing this, Eve was very excited. She held Shrike's head and put her arms around her shoulders, acting like a good brother.
"Then we need to communicate more! Shrike!"
Eve said to Shrike with a conspiratorial expression.
"This is nature, this is nature."
Shrike answered repeatedly that Eve was Arthur's daughter after all and a direct relative of his boss. Although the cleanup agency rarely had the workplace culture that people were familiar with due to the nature of its work, it did not mean that this thing did not exist.
"I will support you well."
Probably due to drinking, Shrike became somewhat unruly and raised his eyebrows at Eve, changing his usual serious image.
"I'm telling you, I'm going to..."
Seeing this, Eve simply leaned into Shrike's ear and whispered the secret to him.
Shrike nodded while listening, and then his expression gradually sobered up from his drunken state, with a look of surprise on his face.
"Are you sure you want to do this? Eve."
"Of course, I have been planning it for a long time." Eve affirmed.
"But...but this is not good. After all, he is your father."
"You also know that the relationship between our father and daughter is very bad, right? Besides, isn't retirement a good thing?" Eve puzzled Shrike, "Think about it, Shrike, once he retires, the purification mechanism will be replaced.
Well, it’s not what we want to do then..."
Eve laughed out loud, full of bad feelings.
Shrike blinked hard, stretched out his hand, took a glass of ice water, drank it down, trying to wake himself up, looked at Eve's threatening expression, and remembered what she had just said to him,
He always felt like he was in a bad situation.
"You're not going to snitch, are you?"
Eve's voice was close to her ears, full of a sense of intimidation.
"Hmm...hmm."
Shrike coughed a few times and then spoke dryly.
"She is indeed a good daughter of Arthur."
"It's natural. I'm very concerned about his physical condition." Eve showed an innocent smile. Seeing that her plot had succeeded, she said nothing more and stood up to leave.
"What did she just say?"
Seeing Eve leave, Lan Jade, who was standing aside, came over, sat next to Shrike, and asked. Looking at Shrike's expression, she always felt that something was wrong.
"Nothing... Do you remember that Arthur has an island?"
Shrike's eyes evaded, not knowing what to say.
"Well, what's wrong?"
For Lan Jade and others, this is no secret in the purification agency. Everyone has known for a long time that Arthur has a headache in the education of his children, and for this reason he bought an island for her as a dowry.
According to the life plan Arthur made for Eve, study, grow, get married, and live a peaceful life... As for what happened next, everyone knows that the island remained vacant and became many properties of the Phoenix family.
one.
"Nothing...nothing."
Shrike shook his head and tried to shake Eve's crazy words out of his mind. Although it sounded outrageous, when this happened to the people of the Phoenix family, it seemed that it was not so surprising, but rather shocking.
accept.
Even so, Shrike still felt that something was wrong. If there was something wrong with Eve, if there was something wrong with him, under the influence of alcohol, he couldn't figure it out.
"More?"
There was a hint of joy in the questioning voice. The other party was silent for a while, and then whispered.
"Come!"
"Oh oh oh! So proud!"
In the midst of the cheers of Sa Liangxi, he filled up the wine for Rhodes, and then it was like Eve was possessing him, bewitching him in his ears.
"Look, this guy is already blushing. He can't stand it anymore. You can definitely win!"
"This is natural, don't underestimate the Yin Erweg people!"
Rhodes grabbed the wine glass and threw it on the table, then drank the wine in one gulp. Seeing this, Sa Liangxi tried his best to suppress his smile and clapped his hands repeatedly in praise.
"OK!"
"snort."
Rhodes looked triumphant, his eyes blurred, and he looked around at the people in the room.
As expected, he didn't know any of these people, so he was dragged into this inexplicable gathering by Sa Liangxi.
"You guys, all of you look familiar."
Rhodes murmured to himself.
These past few days have been really magical for Rhodes. He didn't expect that he could really meet these mysterious Jiuxia people. Then these "customers" became unexpectedly enthusiastic. The enthusiasm was so high that Rhodes almost mistakenly thought
, they have known each other for several years.
This made Rhodes a little uneasy and a little cautious. Coming to this strange party aroused this emotion to the maximum, until someone asked Rhodes to relax and have a drink with him... Yes, it was the person sitting opposite him.
This guy.
"Mr. Huo... Holmes?"
Rhodes tried to pronounce his name. Although he had had several drinks with this guy, Rhodes had just learned his name.
"Don't be so outgoing, just call me Lorenzo."
Lorenzo smiled and while talking, he clinked glasses with Rhodes again, and then drank the wine in one gulp.
"Say, Lorenzo, do we know each other?"
Rhodes pointed at himself and then at Lorenzo, his words stammering.
"Who knows?"
Lorenzo said, and then motioned to Sa Liangxi to fill Rod with wine.
"Why are you so enthusiastic?"
Rhodes couldn't understand that Lorenzo gave him the same feeling as Sa Liangxi. The two seemed to have known each other for a long time and were still joking.
Based on the above, coupled with Sa Liangxi's fanning the flames, Rhodes and Lorenzo had a drinking match inexplicably.
“It’s called hospitality, hospitality!”
As Lorenzo spoke, he winked at Saira Kei, who could not stop smiling and gave Lorenzo a thumbs up.
Seeing this, Shao Liangye sighed and whispered.
"Don't go too far."
"I know, I know... mainly, don't you think Rhodes is cute?"
As he spoke, Sa Liangxi grabbed Rhodes' head, rubbed his cheeks and chin vigorously like a dog, then turned his head towards Shao Liangye.
Rhodes was almost drunk, and his consciousness was so blurry that he was like a doll being played with. He looked at Shao Liangye. Although he was so drunk, his professionalism and moral etiquette prompted him to instinctively show his affection to Shao Liangye.
Smile, even though the smile looks extremely funny at the moment.
"Come on, come on! Rod, you are so strong! I'm about to die."
At this time, Lorenzo spoke again. He raised his glass again and pretended to be drunk.
"Tch, I'm telling you you can't do it!"
Rhodes became proud, but opposite him, Lorenzo, like Sagaraki, was suppressing his smile.
The demon hunter's physique made it extremely difficult for Lorenzo to get drunk. Most of the time, his drinking was no different from drinking water. Poor Rhodes didn't know this at all, and was played by the two of them while applauding.
"I said, Lorenzo, why don't you blush?"
"It's so cold that it turns white."
The two of them talked to each other and kept drinking, until at a certain moment, Rhodes could no longer hold on and fell down with a whimper.
"Mr. Holmes wins!"
Lorenzo shouted, and Sagaraki also took Lorenzo's hand and raised it vigorously.
"Victory!"
Two neurotic guys singing and dancing together.
This singing and dancing did not last long, the door was pushed open, and the owner of the mansion appeared.
"Seleu!"
Sa Liang Kei was still in the state of singing and dancing, so she shouted loudly when she saw Seliu.
"Stuart!"
Lorenzo completely followed the rhythm of Sarakei and didn't even realize what he was shouting. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and even realized it.
"Master is late."
Lorenzo stood up, walked over Rod's drunken figure, and strode to Seleu's side.
Seleu turned his head slightly, his eyes were cold, which made Lorenzo shiver, but Lorenzo quickly recovered. He had long been accustomed to Seleu like this, just like usual...probably.
Lorenzo and Seleu's eyes met each other for a short time, but in Seleu's eyes, Lorenzo read too many different emotions.
In an instant, Lorenzo woke up. He looked at Seleu and everyone in the room. An extremely bad idea arose in his heart. In his excitement, he stuttered on his words.
"This... this is a party, right?"
Seleu nodded without denying it, but Lorenzo knew that something was wrong, so he asked tentatively.
"More than just a party...?"
This time, before Seliu could respond to him, another old voice sounded, answering everything.
"Yeah, Lorenzo, it's more than that...at least it was originally going to be a happy party."
The man came over, and Oscar's embarrassed figure appeared at the door. He looked as if he had drunk too much, his face flushed.
"Did he drink too much? Why didn't I see him?"
When Eve saw Oscar, she was shocked to realize that Oscar was not among them.
"No, he's not Oscar."
Lorenzo looked at Watson, and suddenly he understood a lot.
"So what happened? You can only borrow this guy temporarily, wait... let me guess."
He stretched out his hand to stop Watson's words. After a few seconds, Lorenzo spoke slowly.