Bizarre Detective Agency

   Chapter 22 Twenty-two. The girl in the oil painting

   Anyway…

  Lu Li picked up the flintlock gun, stood up, and looked around at the mess and debris.

  ...a ghost has been resolved.

  The pattern engraved on the palm and the gun body is separated by a leather case. The feeling of getting stronger is not an illusion. As an evil spirit died under the gun, the rose pattern on the body of the flintlock gun bloomed a little.

   Maybe you can ask Haders after the gallery incident is resolved.

   rustle rustle——

   A strange sound came from downstairs. Not intending to clean up the house for Benjamin, Lu Li stepped over the broken debris, picked up the oil lamp that had fallen on the corner, glanced at the sculpture in the other corner, and turned to the door.

  .

  The door closed softly, the last ray of light disappeared, and the messy room fell into darkness and silence.

  The closed room was silent, and the sculpture was unexpectedly quiet, maybe it was frightened?

   After getting rid of the sculpture's tracking, Lu Li returned downstairs, and a strange sound came from the darkness not far ahead. The hand-held oil lamp went to the source of the sound.

   As we approached, a figure poking out from the oil painting appeared in front of us.

   "Mrs. An Lei's Daughter"

   This is the painting that the envelope refers to, and it is also the name of the painting.

   Unsurprisingly, the description in the envelope was wrong again. It only said that the girl in the oil painting would come back to life after dark, but it did not say that she would climb out of the oil painting.

   The half of his body protruding from the portrait is like a living person, and the gothic dress is pure white, unlike the dull and gray oil paintings. She seemed to be stuck out of the frame, panting and struggling, trying to get out of the portrait.

  Lu Li watched quietly, his right hand slowly lifted his coat and stretched it out behind him. The holster was hung on his back waist, which was more convenient and concealed.

  After getting rid of a ghost and getting real benefits, Lu Li was less resistant to contact with ghosts.

   While holding the handle of the gun, the fluttering girl finally noticed it, raised her head in a daze, and looked at Lu Li's pair of black eyes.

   A patch of blush quietly spread from the white neck to the delicate face, clearly visible under the dim oil lamp.

  The girl propped up the frame, brushed the hair from her forehead with one hand, and pretended to smile gracefully: "Hey, can you help me?"

   If you don’t consider that she is stuck in the painting and her face is full of blush, she may look like an elegant noble girl.

   Before Lu Li could speak, the portrait swayed suddenly, as if it could not support its weight and fell off the wall.

"ah--"

Snapped--

The    exclamation stopped abruptly, and the entire oil painting was shot on the ground, making an inexplicably painful and crisp landing sound.

  “…”

  Lu Li kept quiet.

While    Lu Li's gaze, the fallen portrait fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly stood up.

  Yes, stand up. A pair of white and tender feet appeared at the bottom of the portrait, followed by a snow-white lace pleated skirt.

  There are two extra hands on both sides of the frame to support it, like taking off a sweater. The girl stood on the spot and took off the oil painting from the top of her head.

   "Hey~"

  Hair fell from the edge of the frame, scattered on the delicate, slightly flushed cheeks like a porcelain doll.

   The girl let out a slight breath, and threw the oil painting aside as if throwing garbage, and floated in front of Lu Li.

   "Although you didn't help, I forgive you~ Huh? It's a raw face, what about that little girl Leona, who was scared to quit her job? Just call me Anna."

  Lu Li didn't say a word, the girl said a lot in a crisp voice.

   "Well, I'm the new night duty officer." Lu Li said.

   Lu Li concealed his occupation. The existence of this temporary ghost seems to be easy to get along with, but if it is exposed as an exorcist, it is not so simple.

   "Looking like you're not afraid at all, Leona told you? Or that fat fat Benjamin?"

   "You know Benjamin?"

   "The gallery he bought from my mother, how could I not know."

   "Are you An Lei's daughter?"

"Um."

  Anna raised her head proudly, revealing her smooth and white jaw.

  Things are more complicated than expected. Lu Li almost subconsciously linked the current clues and checked the conspiracy theory.

   "How did you die."

   "No one taught you not to ask the ghost how it died!"

   "No." Lu Li replied.

   He only knows not to ask a woman's age casually,

   "Then you know now."

"Um."

   Lu Li nodded and didn't ask any further questions. It had nothing to do with his investigation anyway.

   retracted his thoughts, and suddenly found Anna's cheek coming closer.

   "Hey, are you really not afraid at all?" She narrowed her eyes slightly, unable to distinguish the color of those crystal clear eyes under the oil lamp.

   "Why are you afraid?" Lu Li tilted his head slightly, puzzled.

   "I'm a ghost!"

   "Like a living person."

  Anna fluttered backwards like an electric shock, her eyes wandering and she dared not look at Lu Li, the blush that had faded reappeared: "Is the gallery already in a state of desperation to just accept such a glib guy as an employee?"

   "Don't think you'll be fooled by just saying something nice, I..."

   In the midst of the chatter, an unpleasant voice sounded in his ears, interrupting Anna's mindless nonsense.

   "If you have nothing to do, you can continue, I still have things to deal with."

   Confirming that the ghost is not malicious, Lu Li turned around and planned to leave.

   "Huh? What are you going to do?"

   "Investigate something."

"What's up?"

   "Something about the other two ghosts in the gallery."

   suddenly became quiet behind him.

   Until Lu Li took a few steps, a weak inquiry sounded from behind.

   "Let's not provoke them, okay...?"

  A ghost is also afraid of ghosts.

   "That's why I just said I'm going, and didn't bring you with me." Lu Li didn't stop and didn't turn his head.

   "And the two ghosts were led away by me, and the upstairs was empty."

  Anna floated behind Lu Li subconsciously, and exclaimed, "Let's lead you away?!"

"Um."

   The pair of eyes staring at Lu Li's back gradually became weird: "Do you have any conspiracy to lure them away? Steal something? Set fire?"

   Her words were not hostile or vigilant, only curious. It seemed that she wouldn't mind even if Lu Li had to do these two things.

   "Just out of curiosity, I want to investigate some of the causes of their deaths." Lu Li replied.

   "Oh~~~"

   "Do you know their names?" Lu Li asked, if Anna knew, it would save a lot of things.

   "Athena Leslie, there's someone named Ruth...? I don't know what her last name is."

   Compared with the employee booklet, the first name matches, but the second name Lu Li has no image, it does not appear in the employee booklet.

   "I don't remember a former employee named Ruth."

   "Of course you don't know her, she's not an employee here."

  Lu Li stopped, looked back at Anna, frowned slightly: "Isn't it an employee here?"

"Um!"

   "Then why is she here?"

   "Because it was our former employee who killed her."

  Anna tilted her head and thought.

   "That man's name is James Campbell."

   (end of this chapter)