Whispering Verse

Compared with them as mortals, Grace and Helen's current state is obviously very wrong. This abnormality refers to their mental state. It seems that they, entangled in the whispering element, are finally heading towards chaos.

Meeting an old friend from long ago not only did not make Shade happy, but instead made him worry about the future of the twins. At the last moment when the disaster at Fort Midhill was about to come to an end, they actually appeared as the guardians of the seal. This was obviously not a good sign.

However, Xia De can't do anything about it at present and can only wait for the further development of the matter.

He picked up his cat from Miss Swift outside the door, then went upstairs to say goodbye to Granny Cassandra, and then took a carriage to Loranta Manor in the north of the city. It was Miss Aurora's temporary residence at Fort Midhill, and the manor itself was the property of Cassandra's mother-in-law.

Shade is going to visit "Reverse Rebirth" Joey Barton again in the afternoon, but he will not invite the twelfth-level witch Miss Sylvie Aurora to go with him because this time he wants to talk to Mr. Barton alone. Sensitive topic regarding the Chosen One.

When he went to the manor to visit Miss Aurora, in addition to the fact that after the witch came to Middleburg, Shade had only seen her once at the Fire Worship Festival dinner, so he thought that since he was fine, he could see her more often. He also learned from Avro Miss Laura borrowed the piece of witch jewelry that belonged to her, which is a sage-level relic [the ancient witch's gold ring, first on the right] that can provide all-round benefits to ring warlocks.

Joey Barton is related to the Society of Truth, and Shade will definitely not rush over without making any preparations.

It was already noon when they arrived at the manor, and Miss Aurora, who had just received guests from the Chamber of Commerce, invited Shade and Cat to have lunch together.

During lunch, she asked about yesterday's "ceremony" and confirmed that Shade had met Cassandra's mother-in-law's teacher.

"Yes, she is someone I have known before. I met her before when I was in Tobesk, but I didn't know that she was also a ring magician at the time."

Shade used this excuse to prevaricate. It could be seen that Miss Aurora was very suspicious of this, but in the end she did not ask any more questions:

"Just be more careful yourself. The more beautiful a woman is, the more likely she is to lie."

The witch said while holding a spoon, and motioned to the servant to refill her glass with red wine.

After lunch, Shade got the ring from Miss Aurora who didn't ask anything, and then set off again with Mia.

After separating from Iluna last week, Iluna has reported the [Truth Society] to the church, and it is said that there has been some progress. But so far, the church has not been able to find out about the Crow Club from the Society of Truth, because there is no difference between Pig Tail Alley and the first two times Shade came.

Even when Shade knocked on the door, the same person opened the door. He also knew Shade, and naturally he remembered "John Watson" who accompanied two different girls, so he directly led Shade to the deepest room on the first floor of the club and met Mr. Joey Barton.

The room is still the same, except that the crow in the birdcage at the door seems to have been changed.

When he sat down, Shade curiously asked why the original crow was missing. Mr. Button, who was wearing a turban, said rather sentimentally:

"After you left last time, it died for no reason, as if it was frightened to death. The crows in the club have been specially cultivated and have high spirituality and humanity. I really don't know what happened to it. Suddenly Just died."

Shade, who was holding the cat, comforted:

"You also said last time that normal birth and death are natural laws, and there is nothing to worry about. Mr. Barton, you should bless it for this life. However, the artificially raised crow was scared to death. This It’s quite a rare thing.”

Shade pretended to look around:

"In recent weeks, I have often heard rumors that the city is haunted. Even when we came by carriage just now, the talkative coachman also mentioned this. Maybe you should be more careful, maybe there is something dirty nearby. How about preparing some refined salt to sprinkle on the door."

Mr. Barton shook his head:

"Using salt to exorcise demons is just a superstition of the country people. You cannot use it to deal with ghosts. However, there have been a lot of haunting news in the city recently. This autumn is really not peaceful in Fort Mills. If you are worried about the intrusion of evil spirits , I can give you an amulet, oh, for free of course, I don’t make money by selling this.”

As he said this, he actually wanted to stand up and get the amulet that could expel ghosts from Shade, but was stopped by Shade.

Mr. Barton then asked:

"Mr. Watson, are you here alone this time to perform divination for your pet cat Sherlock? I noticed that you did not bring any other female companions this time."

"Yes, it's still a divination for it."

Shade scratched little Mia's chin, then looked around, confirming that there were indeed only two people, a cat and a crow in the dark room:

"However, before proceeding with the divination, I would like to have a word with you."

"Of course. I only receive guests once every half day, and chatting with them is also part of my job scope."

"I want to talk about something about privacy. You can understand that I want to draw material for my new book."

"Oh, that's how it is."

Joey Barton nodded, stood up with difficulty, then limped to the door, picked up the pole erected behind the door, reluctantly stood on tiptoes, and used the wooden pole with a hook at one end to push the cage aside The blue curtain was opened, allowing the curtain to cover the cage.

In fact, he didn't have to do this at all, because the crow looked as well-behaved as the last one. After Shade came in with Mia the cat, it huddled in the cage and didn't dare to move.

"Sometimes crows have very sensitive eyes and ears, and they are very spiritual."

Mr. Barton explained with a smile, then limped back and signaled to Shade that he could speak.

"Excuse me, what do you think about death?"

Putting Mia on his knees, Shade officially got to the point.

Regarding Shade's question, Mr. Barton was obviously taken aback:

"This is really a profound question, but no matter what, I want to remind you not to give up your life easily."

"Don't worry, there are still too many things in my life that I can't let go of."

"That's good."

This man who was obviously middle-aged but looked like a deformed child sighed:

"Death, I have had a lot of feelings about this in recent decades. Although I don't think I am a good litterateur or writer, if I write down my inner thoughts, it is probably enough to publish a book. I think death, It’s the end of a journey.”

"Please elaborate."

Shade made a very interested expression, Mr. Button's thick hands were clasped together, and his two thumbs were twirling each other:

"Perhaps everyone has a different background and identity when they are born, and their future growth trajectories are also different, but for us mortals, the fairest thing about life is that everyone will be born and die."

"Yes, everyone does."

The figures of Helen and Grace behind the curtain jumped into Shade's head.

"After going through a long journey, you fall into eternal sleep with satisfaction and regret. Maybe some people's lives are blooming flowers along the way, some people are withered bones along the way, some people are walking uphill, and some people are on the top of the mountain and Walking back and forth between the valleys, some people even walk backwards.”

He paused, obviously thinking of himself:

"But no matter what, everything will return to death. All things are equal and all living things die - I respect death for this reason."

"All living things die. That's true. It's true."

Shade nodded, then showed an embarrassed expression, while Mia looked up at the birdcage:

"Mr. Barton, I'm sorry to say this, but I asked someone to inquire about you."

Joey Barton wasn't surprised:

"Yes, it is impossible for a rich man like you to trust a strange guy like me so much. However, what I am more curious about is, what do you know?"

"I know some strange past events. After you were born, you suffered from a strange disease. Your body aged rapidly when you were very young, so that even though you were still a child, you looked like a dying old man. But as you age, With the growth, the aging body seems to be growing younger and younger. As for now, Mr. Barton, although you look like a child now, your actual age should be over forty years old."

"Yes, I didn't expect you to know so much."

"No, no, that's all I know."

Shade shook his head hurriedly:

"I am local and have some very powerful friends, so I can investigate past records. But I really don't know your experience after leaving Middlesbrough. What I want to know today is these stories. Of course, if you If there are past events that we don’t want to recall, we can also talk about other things.”

"Hey, that's right. It wasn't a pleasant experience. If you want to know, we can talk about it. I'm not ashamed of my illness."

Mr. Barton sighed and stared at the teacup in his hand:

"Most of my memories of childhood are of the hospital bed and the scenery outside the window. After they were convinced that my reverse growth disease could not be cured in Middleburg, my parents sent me to other places and stayed with relatives to continue treatment. The family I came from was not like You are so wealthy, so you say you are treating illnesses, but actually you want me to be able to see around while I am still alive."

"Have you found a cure?"

"This is the trick of fate. The gold pounds have been spent, but to no avail. If the medical school is not willing to use my body as research material, it can give a certain subsidy, and as I grow older, my health condition also deteriorates. It’s getting better and better, but it’s actually very difficult for me to live to adulthood.”

PS: Modify a small detail. In Chapter 711, Sister Devlin mentioned that Joey Barton is 43 years old and he returned to Middlesbrough when he was 32 years old. The modification is that Joey Barton returned to Middlesbrough when he was 40 years old, that is, three years ago.