Whispering Verse

The alley that you turned into was completely a passage between two houses. It was very small, so except for garbage and filth, there was no accumulation of other things in the alley.

His heart was beating wildly. Shade knew that this decision was risky, but the voice in his head was right. If you want to be extraordinary, you have to accept risks. Maybe the channels of psychiatrists and churches are safe, but he doesn’t know anything. Every path is actually risky for him.

He has to pay for what he gets, and he is willing to take risks, small risks.

"If there is any problem, I will leave immediately."

Shade tightened his grip on his cane and walked forward on tiptoes as silently as possible. There were some wooden boxes at the end of the alley, with wanted notices affixed to them that could barely be read. They seemed to be serial murderers who had fled to Tobesk City.

You can turn left or right at the alley entrance and directly enter the slums in the Lower Town of Tobesk City. Shade hid behind the wooden boxes and looked through the gaps between the wooden boxes in the direction the man had just turned.

It was also an alley, and there were only young men wearing pebbled rings. He was now standing in the middle of the alley, looking around cautiously. He even squinted his eyes and looked at the sky. It took him a long time to put the black suitcase on the ground. Then he took off the pebble ring on his right index finger and kissed it carefully under Shade's surprised gaze.

The young man seemed to have lowered his head and said something, but Shade didn't hear clearly. The wind and space obscured his hearing.

After kissing the ring face, the young man seemed to relax a little.

He put the ring on his right index finger again, and thick smoke immediately appeared from his body like it was on fire. Thick smoke emerged from the gaps in his clothes and soon completely enveloped the young man.

Shade heard a whisper in his ears, but it was not the elegant woman's voice in his head. The whisper could not be heard clearly at all, it sounded like chewing or something was cursing.

There was some discomfort in my head, as if I had to walk in a straight line after turning in circles several times. The crazy whispers became stronger and stronger, and at one moment, Shade even thought he saw an evil spirit rushing towards him.

Fortunately, the hallucination ended quickly, but Shade, who gradually recovered, still suspected that there was something wrong with his eyes. Because he saw that as the black smoke disappeared, the man wearing a white pebbles ring walked out, patted the edge of his skirt lightly, and then bent down to lift the suitcase.

Mrs. Lasoya turned her head and looked around cautiously again, her lips seemed to be smiling. After confirming that no one saw this scene, he finally carried the box and walked to the other side of the alley.

Shade covered his mouth and leaned against the wall, hiding in the gap between the wooden box and the wall, and did not dare to move for a long time.

Just now, Shade was puzzled by the church investigator's part-time job of distributing leaflets, but now he understood that the other party might be at the door of the club like the crappy detective Shade, trying to spy on Mrs. Lasoya.

And when Shade walked out of the alley again, the three moons of silver, yellow and red were already hanging together in the sky. Among them, the yellow moon was whiter in color and the brightest. The nights here are as peaceful as the world in the past.

This street is a bit remote, so there are no street lights. Under the dim light, Xia De didn't know what his expression was at the moment. It took him a long time to take out his pocket watch. It was already close to eight o'clock in the evening. He stood in the gap in the wall for two hours before he dared to leave. He didn't even know that his physical fitness was so good.

“Don’t even think about relief food.”

He shook his head dejectedly, feeling indescribably bad. Walk along the street, toward home. Even if I have to starve, at least I still have a house to live in, so the situation is not too bad.

The key now is that the lucrative commission to investigate the mistress seems to be impossible to carry out.

It is obvious that Lady Lasoya has the ability to turn into a man with the help of a ring, or in other words, a young man has the ability to turn into Lady Lasoya with a ring. Of course, Shade couldn't report this information to his employer, and he also didn't want to hand over the dead detective's report as if nothing happened.

Once the report is submitted, Mrs. Lawrence will inevitably let Mrs. Lasoya know that a detective is following her without her knowledge because of her conflict with Mr. Lawrence. Even if the report did not involve any secrets, Shade could not guarantee what Mrs. Lasoya would do.

"This world is really more troublesome than imagined... Is Mr. Lawrence in love with a man or a woman?"

Maybe Mrs. Lasoya is a good person and turning into a man is not a harm to others. But having come into contact with this kind of thing less than twenty-four hours after coming to this world, Shade felt quite a sense of crisis.

"Perhaps the extraordinary in this world also follows the law that the extraordinary attracts the extraordinary."

He thought a little tiredly and walked forward along the street. Because he was worried about being robbed by people in the dark, harassed by drunken men, or even running into some illegal transactions, Shade, who only had a cane and a fruit knife, did not even dare to take a shortcut home through the alley.

"Today is really unlucky..."

Turning left at Old John's Pawn Shop at the corner of the street, I felt even worse when I thought about sleeping in a house where someone had just died.

"Since there are supernatural beings, there might also be ghosts... Don't scare yourself... Wait, where did I turn just now?"

He stopped, tilted his head and stepped back, and once again saw the signboard of "Old John's Pawn Shop" and the interior of the store with the gas lamp still on.

"Well, I didn't expect such a trick, so it's not unlucky. It will always get better."

Sighing slightly, he held his pocket watch and opened the door of the pawn shop.

In the end, instead of pawning the pocket watch, he pawned the cane. A pocket watch is a very important daily utensil, but a walking stick is dispensable. More importantly, the value of the pocket watch was not high. The owner of the shop, an old man who called himself John Jones, was only willing to pay 10 shillings. The reason was that there were many scratches on the surface of the pocket watch and he might often be kept with the keychain.

But he was willing to pay £1 12 shillings for the cane.

"Do you understand at all? This is the heart of a natural cedar tree from the Delado Mountains. Look at the texture and the workmanship. If you can provide information about the craftsman who made it, I might be able to find out more. money."

The old man seemed to be complaining about Shade's ignorance. After confirming that he wanted to pawn the cane, he also told him that if he did not come to redeem it within half a month, then the cane would belong to the pawn shop.

Of course Shade knew that the price of the cane was definitely more than 1 pound 12 shillings. But he was really not in the mood to bargain now. In the end, he just took two 1 pound notes, signed the contract and left.

According to the price of goods, this money is enough for Xia De to live quite well in two weeks. If he lives frugally, excluding possible rent, it may be possible to support his life for one and a half months. The money was enough to dig out Sparrow Hamilton, place an obituary in the newspaper's advertising section, and give the detective a shabby funeral.

Of course, he just didn't have this idea for the time being.

"But to solve the short-term problem of food and clothing, what on earth am I going to do about transcendence and mystery?"

We had dinner at a restaurant very close to the pawn shop and tasted the rich soup with steak before walking home.

When we returned to No. 6 Saint Teresa Square, it was already close to ten o'clock at night.

After checking that the hair that was placed when leaving was still in its original position, he entered the room. Carefully rotate the gas lamp on the wall of the living room to let the light gradually appear, and then throw yourself on the sofa tiredly. From the open door of the master bedroom, you can see the bed where Sparrow Hamilton lay.

Shade is determined to get in touch with the extraordinary in the near future, rather than living a life of ignorance. Although he has not encountered any definite danger yet, the world is not simple. Xia De does not intend to find a solution if he encounters danger.

And he currently has three methods that may help him contact the extraordinary.

The first is Mr. Bill Schneider, the psychiatrist who gave Shade his business card; secondly, there are five Orthodox churches in the city. Visiting the churches may be fruitful; and finally, Mrs. Lasoya herself, she must know about the extraordinary. , contacting her is also a way.

Each of the three has advantages and disadvantages, but in the final analysis, Shade still knows too little about the world, and he does not have any channels to understand it. Before going out today, he checked the map. This city didn't even have a public library where he could get free knowledge.

There are some private libraries in the city, but you have to be introduced by an acquaintance and pay a considerable fee before you can become a member of the library, and Shade obviously does not have the money now.

The only information he could rely on was the information left by Sparrow Hamilton, but this gentleman did not have the habit of collecting books, and this gentleman was obviously just an ordinary person.

Through Sparrow Hamilton's death, to trace the cause of his death, you may also be able to contact the supernatural, but this is undoubtedly a very dangerous approach, and Shade's reason refuses to do so.

"Can you give me some advice?"

He patted his head, but all he heard was the woman's chuckle. It was the voice in his head that allowed him to complete all the work of "investigating Mr. Lawrence's mistress". Otherwise, he alone would not have been able to discover the secret of the ring.

He hoped the voice would prompt him again, but he got no response.

"People still have to rely on themselves."

He whispered to himself, tilting his head and looking out the window, looking at the night sky where the three moons that he had never seen appeared together. So magnificent, so mysterious, so intoxicating. Especially the silver moon among the three moons. Whenever you look at it, you can feel your depressed mood getting better.

"No matter what, we can't wait any longer. Although we haven't encountered danger yet, but now that we have the initial plan to survive as a detective, we must have the ability to protect ourselves and know how complicated this world is. Otherwise, Detective Sparrow Hamilton is what will happen to me."

With money in his pocket for the time being, he put aside the idea of ​​continuing other investigations and shifted his current main goal to contact the extraordinary.

"The church, the psychiatrist, Mrs. Lasoya..."

He was not very optimistic about the last option, because the other party's appearance today seemed to coincide with the investigation between the church and the police, so he instinctively thought that the other party did not seem to be a good person. I am somewhat interested in the first option. Based on a simple understanding, the Orthodox Church in this world is relatively open-minded.

But that's just his understanding, he can't make plans based on such a simple idea. Moreover, he is not a believer in any god. As a homeless man, he has never been to a church. It is hard to say whether the church's enlightenment is aimed at people like him.

"Maybe... we can investigate for a few more days. Now we don't have to worry about starving to death. Pawning some inheritance can also last for a long time. As long as the possible rent collector does not show up, I will have a lot of time to investigate. . Around these three options, you can always find the most suitable one."

With this thought in mind, he fell asleep in the bedroom of the original owner Shade in the apartment and spent his first night in the new world.

In the haze, I seemed to hear the woman's laughter in my mind again. That laughter made Xia De unexpectedly feel at ease. That night, he had a very relaxing dream, sitting on the field ridge and looking at the silver moon in the horizon.

Accidents always disrupt existing plans, and Shade's plan to choose one of the three was disrupted early the next morning.