Chapter 70 Unexpected Harvest (two chapters in one)
May 18, 1399, 7 o'clock.
Lin Qi woke up from the sunshine outside the window.
From the first night, he developed the habit of falling asleep bathed in the moonlight every night, which would immerse him in a sense of solid security, and of course allow him to wake up to the sun the next morning.
After enjoying Mrs. Maggie’s carefully prepared pancakes and vegetable soup last night, Lynch went to Charles Square to squander his newly recovered energy, and his figure that disappeared and appeared in the square left There were countless piercing screams and shocking and strange legends.
Returning to Apartment 221 satisfied, Lynch went to bed early, soaked himself in the crimson moonlight, held the invitation letter and fell into deep thought.
It was difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, and the method was quite strange. Lynch actually didn't want to go. Even though the black cat was extremely beautiful and very attractive to Lynch, he still felt uneasy.
But after a night of thinking, he changed his mind.
Thinking about it carefully, the other party always behaved politely, and deliberately avoided scaring Mrs. Maggie. Even the letter was stuffed into the crack of the door. It was this detailed performance that made Lynch finally make up his mind to see who Countess Hathaway was.
This kind of polite aristocratic style usually does not set up a death trap from the beginning. Since there is no life-threatening danger, it is better to see what the mysterious Countess Hathaway wants to do.
After making up his mind, Lynch no longer hesitated, and went to bed early to recuperate his energy until the sun hit his face and woke him up from his deep sleep.
It’s nice not to be a slave to an alarm clock.
After thinking about today's plan, Lynch put on loose casual clothes, stuffed the last six one-pound notes into his peaked cap, put on his pistol and ring, and then picked up his cane and went down the stairs.
When he got downstairs, he saw a gentle smiling face peeking out of the kitchen, wearing an apron and holding a grill tong, which made Lynch feel warm in his heart. He heard that Lynch was going to do morning exercises and skip breakfast. Mrs. Maggie He was a little disappointed, but he still wrapped two slices of toast with thick butter and put them into Lynch's pocket before watching him leave the apartment.
What a wonderful world.
After taking a deep breath of fresh air and coughing from the smell of coal smoke and horse manure, Lynch began to walk quickly along the main road. Life in this era is not yet leisurely enough to create the need for morning jogging, but for the sake of the future To prepare for battle, it is still necessary to exercise physical fitness.
For half an hour, Lynch made a large circle in the King District, and finally crossed the Rhine Bridge across the Rand River to the Crown District, and happened to encounter the Rhine Bridge cutoff in the middle.
The buckets of the two mine cars were pushed along the small track from the dark warehouse to the bridge. A group of shirtless workers wielded shovels and quickly shoveled the coal in the mine cars into the bridge. in the boiler room.
Within a few minutes, black smoke billowed out of the boiler, and then there was the sound of rattling gears rotating and colliding under the bridge. Metal connecting rods, large or small, moved slowly and quickly, moving up and down rapidly, and the flat bridge deck Slowly lift it up to reveal a passage in the middle of the river.
Three three-masted sailboats were dragging black smoke columns along the river. They seemed to be sailing to the river dock in the Twin Towers area downstream. According to people waiting for the bridge on the roadside, these were coming from the capital. Due to the obstruction of the Carlos Mountains, the train cannot pass through the cargo ship coming from Nolin. The Rand River is the most convenient way to transport cargo, with dozens of cargo ships passing by every day.
Lynch sighed in the crowd, so it was strange that the railway plan was not blocked. With such a large throughput, how many people along the way will benefit from it. Not to mention anything else, opening and closing the bridge dozens of times a day will consume a huge amount of coal. The fuel alone will bring huge benefits. Once the railway is built, these people don't know how much loss they will suffer. If they don't cause trouble, who will?
Silently writing down this message, Lin Qi watched with great interest the spectacular scene of the bridge closing again. He really didn't expect that it was only steam technology, but it could achieve such a precise bridge under the technical level of the 18th century. Lifting technology.
It was just a small interlude. As soon as he crossed the river, Lynch walked up the river and went straight to the Hall of Order.
When I passed Mrs. Bessie's prop house, I looked inside. This innocent red-haired woman was first implicated by Downey and blew up her house, and was almost driven crazy by the evil god's look.
This probably has nothing to do with me attracting mysterious side effects. I hadn't embarked on this road at that time. It must be because she was unlucky herself. It's so pitiful. But she is an expert after all, so she probably won't leave any psychological shadow. I hope She can recover as soon as possible and hopes that another expert will be more reliable than her and decipher the mysterious document as soon as possible.
Lin Qi muttered a few words unconsciously, then turned to a low building on the side of the Hall of Order a few hundred meters away.
A two-story Victorian building that is 100 meters wide. There are four guards with standard postures standing at the door. They look like they are from blue uniforms.
Rhine City Police Club, a semi-official organization dedicated to communication among special practitioners.
Normally, ordinary private investigators are not eligible to enter unless Officer Natalie leads the way every time. But the situation was different for the special adviser to the Governor's Mansion. The police stationed at the door still wanted to stop him until Lynch took off his hat and revealed the small badge hidden in the hat.
That was the logo of the special adviser to the Governor-General's Palace that was delivered to him along with two pages of mysterious documents the day before yesterday. In fact, it's not that specific. It just represents the special service personnel of the Governor's Mansion. It's a bit like a watchman, not a policeman, but it is fully qualified to use all police facilities. If necessary, he can even mobilize the police with this badge. Resources just can't be mobilized on a large scale like Watchers.
Lynch had no idea before. It wasn't until the police officer explained it to him when she delivered it that he understood how much convenience the old Duke had provided him for the investigation.
Lynch came here today mainly to participate in some training courses. The first place he went to was the fight club.
It was still very early, but there were already people training inside. Lynch was lying at the door, and the first thing he saw was a few muscular men rolling around on the wooden floor. .
After taking a look, cold sweat broke out. Lynch felt a dull pain in some places, so he quickly left the fight club before anyone noticed.
As a Rand gentleman, it is too undignified to be so frank. Well, yes, I am definitely not afraid. For such an undignified matter, I'd better ask Officer Natalie for private personal guidance later. A little more respectable.
That’s it.
Lin Qi fled here in fear, fearing that some hands would stretch out from inside and pull him in. Lynch turned around and went to the swordsmanship club next door.
There is no one in this department now. Only the waitress at the door is fixing her makeup boredly. After asking Lin Qi, she was sure that this place is more suitable for her.
Basic training in fighting can be carried out, mainly with one-handed swords. However, given the popularity of Rand's gentleman's attire, many people use canes instead of stabbing swords, which just meets Lynch's requirements. The only problem is... the annual membership fee is two pounds. If you need professional guidance, you need to pay per session, one shilling an hour.
The Fight Club next door only costs one pound and ten shillings.
Well, how about I go next door and have a look?
Despite this thought, Lynch still paid the membership fee for one year. Anyway, the Church of Dark Night still had a reimbursement quota of fifteen pounds. At that time, it was said that it would be used to improve his own strength. This expenditure was completely meet the requirements.
But Lynch did not start training immediately. He had already made a plan in his mind. As long as he had time, he would practice swordsmanship and physical fitness every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As for Tuesday, April and Saturday... of course he would practice marksmanship.
Climbing down the stairs for three floors, you will see a huge underground space in front of you.
This is the shooting club and a large shooting range.
The view is quite wide, with torch-thick gas lamp nozzles embedded in the wall, and the bright flames make the shooting range as bright as day.
It is cheaper here. A shooting lane costs one shilling an hour. If you need shooting guidance, you can add another shilling. The price is clearly marked and you pay per session. But the problem is that besides the venue, ammunition is the focus of shooting practice.
The .40 revolver in Lynch's hand is of a relatively common caliber, and the ammunition is relatively cheap, with a box of twenty-four rounds costing just two shillings.
It's just numbers, just numbers.
Lin Qi has become numb, and only this sentence is left in his mind. Now he realizes more and more that he cannot help but spend too much money. He must earn more, otherwise he will not even have enough money to practice shooting. .
Sighed, according to the schedule, today was shooting training time. No matter how heartbroken he was, Lynch still took out four shilling coins and hired a shooting coach. Shooting skills were secondary. , first asked for complete firearm maintenance operations, and recommended a full set of maintenance tools to Lynch, and then briefly introduced shooting techniques. The wrist strength strengthened by the alienated soul was just enough to lift the heavy pistol. The cold metal touch gave him a strong sense of security.
Close your eyes and pull the trigger. There is a huge explosion in your ears. The impact is transmitted from the wrist to the arm. It is not as heavy as expected. It seems to be the reason why the power of gunpowder in this world is relatively small. But even so, killing an ordinary person is still enough.
"Stop! Why did you close your eyes? Why did you hit the gas pipe on the roof? What are you aiming at?"
Well, you have too many questions. The more you know about this taboo knowledge, the faster you will die. The bullets will be for you next time.
Lynch gave the talkative coach a vicious look in his heart and raised his gun at the target again.
The difficulty is quite high. Lynch’s wrists already hurt so much after practicing twelve bullets today, and only two of them hit the target. Although the targets in the other shooting lanes were mostly damaged, at least they were not damaged. The coach who hit him behind is really worthy of celebration.
However, it feels really good. The otaku in the previous life had never touched a real gun, but now he has the opportunity to enjoy it.
Rubbing his sore wrists and carrying the newly purchased gun maintenance tools, Lynch left the underground shooting range with satisfaction.
Take out your pocket watch and look at the time. It's past ten o'clock. I'll go to the Dark Night Cathedral in Crown Plaza later to pay my dues and get the money. By the way...huh?
Lynch was thinking about the remaining arrangements for the morning while walking out of the Police Club when he suddenly smelled a vague smell in his nose.
Rancid smell.
The unique rancid smell of ghouls.
This smell is so iconic. I smelled it in Maya's cabin for a long time and I can't forget it.
Lin Qi tensed up, but his movements and expression did not change at all.
Leaning on the side of the road, he lowered his peaked cap to cover his face, lowered his head and pretended to wind up his pocket watch, but his eyes were searching for the direction of the smell under the cover of the hat brim.
The direction the smell came from was...hiss, why is it them?
Lynch frowned, it was one of the three black windbreakers of the Rangers, but it was not the leader Walker.
This made Lynch a little confused, because the smell was strange.
Yesterday, he and Officer Natalie stayed in Maya's cabin for a long time, and they were already prepared to be covered in rotten smell. However, after leaving, they smelled each other and found that there was no smell at all.
After I got home, I asked my landlady to test it, and everything was normal.
So last night Lynch estimated that the rancid smell was the smell of ghouls, which could be contaminated into the environment, but could not be contaminated from the environment to other people.
However, the rancid smell was emanating from the ranger at this time. The smell was very light but lingering, and Lynch could clearly identify it even in the open air.
It seems that other people can still get the smell, but I don’t know how. The question is where did these rangers get it?
Have they found Maya or those mountain people?
Lin Qi's heart moved, and he took two steps back and leaned into the shadow of the building. As the light and shadow changed, his figure disappeared in front of the public, but did not attract anyone's attention.
What a useful ability, Lin Qi sighed in his heart, but knowing that the opponent was probably stronger than himself, Lin Qi did not dare to follow too close, always keeping a distance of three meters and falling behind him.
The other party was unaware.
He was not familiar with Lin Qi's appearance. He didn't notice Lin Qi at all when he passed by. He didn't even know that Lin Qi followed him quietly and walked back to the Hall of Order in a swaggering manner.
Huh?
Just as he was about to enter the building on the east side, Black Windbreaker suddenly stopped, looked back in confusion, shook his head mockingly, and turned around to walk into the east building of the Hall of Order.
There was a man in blue uniform walking down the stairs. As soon as he saw the black windbreaker, he immediately stood on the side of the stairs and watched him pass by and went straight to the second floor. However, the saluting man in blue uniform looked at the back of the black windbreaker in confusion. For a moment, he seemed to see a figure following the commander, but he immediately disappeared.
"Sir, you..." Just as he was about to ask, he found that Eric had left. The blue uniform could only scratch his head in confusion, thinking that he was dazzled.
Push open the two double doors on one side of the second floor. Inside is a large open office. The other two Rangers are in the corner of the office, holding a stack of documents and discussing in low voices across the desk. There are also many captured documents and documents in the room. furniture.
Just as the black trench coat was about to enter the room and close the door, he heard a hurried shout from the corridor: "Sir, sir."
The black trench coat entered the room and stepped back, leaving the door of the office. I looked around in the corridor behind me, but there was no one in the corridor and stairwell. I didn't see anyone in the black trench coat. I could only think that I heard wrongly, cursed a few times and walked into the office angrily.
"What's wrong?" Walker glanced at him from a distance.
"I don't know who called me, it's weird, and I always feel like someone is staring at me along the way."
"What about now?"
"I don't feel it now, I guess I'm too sensitive. "Yes." Black Windbreaker said, "I came into contact with those mountain people, and they were indeed a group of ghouls."
"Huh?"
"As your Excellency said, the target of these evil gods' followers is the female reporter."
"Of course, that woman heard Mordiggian's murmur "It's very important to them." Walker said with a sneer, "So we must find this person as soon as possible, so that your Excellency no longer has to worry about these mountain people causing trouble."
"Damn woman, she's so good at hiding that she even lost track of the one in the frame." Another man in black trench coat angrily threw away the document in his hand.
"Oh, then it depends on our old friends." Walker was not as arrogant as before, and said with a cold smile, "As long as you keep an eye on those watchers and stimulate them from time to time, they will naturally Help us find the female reporter, and we can just wait and see. The only troublesome thing is Lynch. Have you found him? Where did he come from? If he is too much trouble, just get rid of him."
" He is just a useless detective, but your Excellency in the frame said that this person is still useful, and it is best not to touch him until he has fulfilled his purpose, and we can do whatever we want with him. "
"Then let's endure it a little longer and see what kind of trouble he and that crazy woman can make together. Let's... hmm?"
Walker was sneering when a red bell suddenly rang in the office. , getting more and more urgent and louder.
“Urgent mission, let’s go.”
The expressions of the three rangers changed, and they didn't care to say anything else. They picked up their weapons and rushed out of the office. They could only hear the footsteps of the three of them getting further and further away. After another moment, Lynch's figure appeared. Emerged from a corner of the Ranger's office.
(End of this chapter)