Sherlock Holmes

"Let's go see it again."

"Well, even though I've watched it twice, it still feels like listening to a movie. It's so exciting."

"Enough is enough, you all. The announcement from the City Security Bureau is talking about the [traitor] coming from the other side of the rift in time and space. It is a monster. Don't listen to it as a story. Remember the danger of that traitor. Also, Remember the reporting method, if you discover that guy’s whereabouts, you can be rewarded with a lot of money.”

"I know, don't ask so much, I'm already 15 years old."

"Hey, how long do we have to chat for? If we don't go over there, the video over there will be finished..."

"coming!"

On the street, some children shouted to each other, with excitement in their voices, and ran in groups towards the big promotional screen at the street entrance.

Melissa sat in front of the window. She deliberately avoided the scarlet sunlight and did not open the window.

A long, long time ago, it would have been such a pleasant time to bathe in the afternoon sunshine, enjoy the warm breeze, eat some snacks and afternoon tea, and read a book.

However, in this world, the amount of sunlight radiation exceeds the standard, and the breeze carries dust from the weathered ruins outside the city. Melissa is blind, and of course she cannot read, so in this leisure afternoon, she can only Sitting by the closed window, listening to the noise among the people on the street outside, fortunately, she also had snacks and afternoon tea, so it wasn't too bad.

On the street, people are like fish seeking to mate during the flood season, swarming towards the nearest street intersection. There are government workers on both sides of the road, handing out leaflets to these people, and most people will take them easily. , but it was thrown to the ground in a blink of an eye, and was trampled to pieces by the shoes that followed.

On the other side of the street is a huge building. This kind of building is very common in this last gathering place of mankind. It is extremely tall and covers a huge area. It contains everything from commerce, industry, accommodation, education, etc. The goal is to cram as much stuff into a limited space as possible.

After all, there is not much space left for humans to use on this planet.

In the square in front of the main entrance of this huge building, there is a huge screen. At this time, a video of an explosion in an old mental hospital outside the city is being played on the screen. In the screen, as the hospital building collapses, the surrounding buildings collapse. The road surface also began to crack, the earth shook, screams, shouts, smoke and dust, everything seemed messy.

Due to the shortage of supplies, current entertainment products such as movies and television are all synthesized by computers. The kind of movies that cost huge sums of money to shoot in real locations have long since disappeared, so being able to see such real and exciting scenes, for these lonely people It's quite strange to the bored citizens.

Of course, the reason why the government broadcast this video in various commercial centers or population gathering places is not to provide entertainment for citizens, but to increase citizens' awareness of "rebellion" prevention, and at the same time, also We are calling on everyone to report the whereabouts of this person to the nearest relevant agency as soon as possible.

Oh, the word "renegade" is the folk name for defectors, and it has a very obvious meaning of humiliation. In this world, no one likes defectors. In fact, as long as they have something to do with the other side of the rift in time and space, Everything about it is disliked.

It has been half a month since Sherlock walked into this company called [Old Miller Detective Agency], and the round-the-clock search operations some time ago have gradually subsided.

Looking back on the first few days, the entire block was surrounded on three levels inside and three outside. However, because the traitor was never found, the government had to allocate police forces to other places. As for the result , still no trace of the target was found. In desperation, the government can only suddenly start a large-scale wanted manhunt, and constantly play the video of Sherlock's escape, trying to let more and more people understand the danger of this man, and at the same time constantly calling on the citizens to join in. During this large-scale search for traitors.

On the big screen at this time, an interrogation officer had been knocked backwards and hit the wall firmly. A blurry shadow quickly passed through the surveillance camera. The screen switched quickly, but this shadow Each scene only stayed for a moment. A few minutes passed, and no one seemed to have seen the clear outline of this guy, but the guards wherever he passed fell to the ground one after another. boom! boom! boom! Some gunshots rang out, followed by a lot of screams and muffled sounds. In the picture, people began to be shot and died, and blood spattered on the wall. Some pictures that were too bloody were mosaicd, but those scarlet squares , as well as the deliberately exposed shots and unobstructed stumps, all make everything on the screen look so horrifying, and at the same time, it also makes this traitor look even more murderous, violent, and inhumane.

And all this just confirms what is said in elementary school textbooks: people in the other world are bloody, barbaric, madmen and freaks who only know how to eat hair and drink blood.

…

These scenes were played for more than an hour, and with the explanation of a government official and various reporting methods, the time was extended to two and a half hours. "Old Miller Detective Agency" is not far away from the street. Melissa's visual impairment caused her hearing to be very poor, so for more than two hours, she could only listen to the chatter.

After so many days, she felt like she could almost memorize it.

Finally, today's video screening is over. After people leave, many people will pass by the window of [Old Miller Detective Agency]. Under the inducement of the government, some citizens picked up promotional slogans and kept shouting such as Slogans like 'Traitors must die' are noisy, but everyone loves to hear them.

Just like this, another half hour passed, and the noise outside the window finally stopped. Melissa breathed a sigh of relief, not only because she was too noisy, but more importantly, because so many people were blocking the door, which would delay her business.

"Click-click-"

There was a sound of the door lock turning, and then the door was opened, and some scorching wind blew in. Melissa frowned, looking very dissatisfied, and then shouted: "Close the door quickly, the sand is blowing in." The porch."

"Bang~"

The door was quickly closed, then someone slapped a windbreaker, took off a hat, and finally, there was the sound of a plastic bag being placed on the ground.

"Why did you come back so slowly? I thought you met a traitor and were killed."

"You have been staying in the house. I don't know how strong the wind is today." A man's voice came. It was not very nice, it was very hoarse, as if his throat had been injured not long ago.

"Sweep up all the dust and sand that blow in for a while. If the door is too dirty, it will leave a bad impression on the client when they come in." Melissa warned.

"Okay~Okay~" The man's voice seemed weak, but he still walked into the house obediently, took out a broom and began to sweep the floor slowly.

"Please hurry up, Mr. Hopkins. Don't think that because I can't see you, you can waste time unscrupulously." Melissa's voice was very pleasant, so even if she was assigning work to Mr. Hopkins, and Huo Mr. Pugins was very lazy and still did not cause much resentment from the other party.

Who made her the boss of this detective agency?

"Wow------------"

The sound of the broom slowly rubbing against the ground could make Melissa think of the other person's laziness, but she didn't say anything more.

This gentleman is his only employee now. Although he is lazy, his ability to reason, reflect, etc. as a detective is barely enough. This detective agency has to rely on him to support it for the time being. He cannot let himself be a disabled person. Pushing a wheelchair to handle cases.

Melissa Watson is 20 years old this year. Her parents died in a car accident when she was young. She has been living with her uncle. Three years ago, her uncle also passed away due to illness. Melissa became an orphan and had no choice but to receive government relief. Next, he completed his studies.

It sounds quite tragic, but in this era, it is quite common for relatives to die one after another, and a person to become a lonely person in a daze.

So Melissa didn't show much sadness about this. Except for occasionally crying a few times at night, she was quite cheerful most of the time. Moreover, she also inherited Uncle Miller's business, a detective agency. .

It is great for a 20-year-old blind person with disabled legs to own a detective agency in this messy society. However, her physical condition does not seem to be suitable for the detective profession, so she has no choice but to recruit employees. .

As a result, the detective named [Stanley Hopkins] became the only person capable of working in this detective agency.

Oh, actually, I just said that Melissa is a loner, which is not accurate, because she still has a relative in this world, and that is her uncle's son, Little Miller.

It's just that he is only 9 years old this year and is extremely stupid. In some novels, 9-year-old children are usually already world-famous powerful detectives, but he can't even cook an egg.

"It would be great if mom and dad were still alive." She thought subconsciously, but then she realized that she seemed to have forgotten their voices.

So she quickly shook her head to drive out these sad thoughts. In this world, any sadness is useless, because no one will give you even a penny more because of your tears. She When he heard the slow sweeping sound finally stopped, he said politely:

"If you're done cleaning up, let's go cook. What should we eat today?"

Hopkins, or rather Sherlock, who borrowed Hopkins' name, responded lazily: "Potatoes."

"Potatoes again?" Melissa's face didn't seem to look good.

"You should understand that you only gave me so little money, but you asked me to buy enough food for the three of us. Apart from potatoes, I really can't think of any other choice."

"But there are only three of us, I eat so little, and little Miller is still a child." She argued with reason, her voice a little louder. In fact, as long as money is mentioned, Melissa will always become alert instantly.

"Miller is indeed just a child, but he is a 9-year-old child weighing 110 pounds. In this world, I really can't understand how he got so fat. It was the first time I saw his arms. When there were three pleats on his breast, he was so frightened that he thought he had mutated."

Sherlock's complaint forced Melissa to end the topic: "Okay, don't talk about these irrelevant things and go cook."

"Three pleats, you actually said this is insignificant." Sherlock sighed, picked up a bag of potatoes on the ground, and walked to the kitchen.

In fact, to be honest, Melissa quite likes this guy named Hopkins, because she can't cook, and of course that idiot Miller can't cook, so the solution to three meals a day is to have three meals a day. If you go to a restaurant, you can only hire a cook.

From Melissa's point of view, this expense was absolutely unacceptable, so she shamelessly added the provision of "meals and accommodation" to her employee benefits.

But in fact, the so-called meals need to be prepared by the employees themselves, and the so-called accommodation conditions are just two sofas in the detective agency placed side by side, barely used as a bed.

So she liked her employee because he rushed into the detective agency anxiously that day and said he wanted to apply for a job. He also accepted this series of requirements. The most important thing was that she offered him a very low salary. When asked about the salary, the other party actually accepted it.

Melissa, who had a low salary, couldn't believe it. She originally wanted to take advantage of the low price and conduct a series of bargains with the other party.

Soon, it was time for dinner.

This detective agency was very big, and Melissa said that his uncle was very prestigious in the neighborhood back then. He had helped many neighbors catch evidence of their husbands’ cheating, and he had also helped two families find their missing children.

Although today's children are all born into the world through breeding barns, they still need the genes of their parents, so this kind of family affection is still difficult to ignore.

"Don't look at the lackluster business now. In fact, when my uncle was still alive, there were many clients here." Melissa put a spoonful of potatoes into her mouth and said while chewing: "There is no way, after all, this is a detective industry. It mainly depends on ability. If the detective disappears, then this detective agency will be no different from closing down."

After saying that, she tilted her head towards Sherlock again: "So, if you want the business here to improve, you have to work hard. Of course, I don't expect you to reach the level of my uncle. That would be bad for you." It’s a bit too difficult, but I hope you will try your best to complete a difficult case like helping the client find a lost wallet. Reputation always needs to be accumulated.”