Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 339 - 339 One hundred and ninety-six

339: One hundred and ninety-six.

Ancient books.

339: One hundred and ninety-six.

Ancient books.

The door wasn’t closed, leaving it open was one of Lu Li’s ways to judge if he was safe.

The cold, wet soles of his shoes left damp marks on the floor, other than the creaks with each step, there was no other sound, and an eerie calm pervaded the house.

Apart from the smell of damp wood, there was also a faint stench of rotting food in the living room beyond the entrance hall.

Considering that no one had entered the house in the week after Petra was consumed, it was natural that no one had cleaned, so it was normal for leftover food to rot.

Lu Li remained silent, while Thomas kept on talking, “Did you know, ‘The Carnivorous House’ was my investigation at first.

If you’ve seen the files.”

Lu Li’s gaze shifted from the surroundings to Thomas, “I didn’t see your name in them.”

“I just chose to remain anonymous.” Thomas walked towards the kitchen, stopped at the door, pinched his nose with a disgusted expression, waved a gloved hand, and turned away from the kitchen.

But he didn’t forget to talk to Lu Li, “I’ve heard Trass talk about you, the guy thinks highly of you, looks like he’s got good taste.

So when the base asked me if I wanted to take the case, I pushed off attending tonight’s massive party at the Viscount’s manor to come and help you, and brought along the hypnosis box to resolve this case in one go.”

“Speaking of which, I owe it to your investigation that we found the source.”

After making a round in the living room, Thomas returned to Lu Li, remembered something, and asked, “Oh, can I ask for your help?”

“What is it.”

Thomas pointed a finger towards the kitchen, “My mysophobia is quite severe, could you please investigate the kitchen for me?”

“The contaminant is that ancient tome, we just need to find it.”

Thomas smiled mysteriously, “But sometimes there are unexpected twists, like that difficult case I was once part of, where I and three investigators went to that town to investigate numerous deaths.

We all thought the culprit was the monster roaming the town, and we tracked it for a long time— but in actuality, the murderer was the son of the town mayor, who had been working with us.

His attempt to attack us was keenly detected and subdued by me, and unfortunately one of my unlucky colleagues lost an eye in the process.”

“So if you’ve been through enough cases, you’ll realize this.”

Stripping away the boastful parts of his story, what Thomas said wasn’t wrong—before the truth is clarified, all deductions and judgments are conjectures.

They can only come infinitely close to the truth but are not the same as the truth.

Of course, it would be better if Thomas could convey his point in a more palatable manner instead of sounding so arrogant.

“What am I supposed to look for in there?” Lu Li asked.

Thomas gestured to his own eyes with two fingers, “I know you have a high level of intuition, look out for anything that feels off to you.”

Lu Li quietly walked into the kitchen.

The stench of decay intensified as Lu Li stepped into the kitchen; its source was a pot of beef stew on the stove.

Being left for over a week during the rainy season had almost solidified the surface of this pot of soup, with coal slag-like and grayish-black mold spots creeping across it.

In some ways, the pot of food had a psychological impact on a certain subset of people similar to confronting an aberration.

Like a certain mysophobic Senior Investigator outside in the living room.

Looking away, Lu Li scanned the rest of the kitchen.

Other than that pot, there was nothing here that unsettled him.

Lu Li returned to the living room, and Thomas, who had just wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, put it away and looked at Lu Li, “Your face tells me you didn’t find anything.”

“Hmm.”

“Then let’s go upstairs.”

Lu Li followed Thomas to the second floor, where Thomas pushed open the door of the study.

Bookshelves crammed with books lined two walls, a desk was neatly stacked with notes and a few books beneath the window—it looked like a professor’s office.

“Can you sense the ancient tome?” Thomas asked Lu Li, who shook his head.

“All right, we’ll have to do it the hard way then.”

With that, he pulled out the first book from the shelf.

As Thomas perused each book, Lu Li walked around the desk towards the window.

The mist and rain blurred the view outside, barely allowing visibility of a few silhouettes standing in the street below, waiting.

“`

Knock knock—

The light tapping on the glass suddenly penetrated the study.

Lu Li, slightly startled, saw an invisible finger draw a smile on the window.

Although the marks were quickly covered again, the smile remained etched in his mind.

“Tsk, tsk…

‘Insmouse Mysteries,’ ‘Fifty-eight Cooking Recipes of Raccoon Crab,’ and ‘Mystic Astrology.’ This poor old lady had good taste, oh right, she was formerly a professor.”

Thomas commented as he put the book back and said to Lu Li, “Let’s go take a look in the bedroom.”

“Have all the books been checked?”

“No, I’ve only checked the ones that have been recently browsed.

Those that haven’t been touched for a long time aren’t relevant to the investigation—unless we find nothing in her bedroom.”

Lu Li and Thomas left the study and stood in front of Petra’s bedroom door.

The door creaked open, and almost simultaneously, Lu Li’s gaze was drawn to the nightstand by the bed.

An old book with a black cover lay upon it.

“You feel it?” Thomas glanced sideways.

“Some kind of whispering pervades the air around the book,” replied Lu Li.

“It seems congratulations are in order; your guess was completely correct,” said Thomas as he entered the bedroom and approached the nightstand.

A gloved hand reached for the ancient tome, and just before touching it, Lu Li’s warning rang out from behind him.

“This book is dangerous.”

“If it were dangerous, a retired old lady wouldn’t have brought it home so easily,” Thomas said, touching the ancient tome—

Nothing happened as he picked up the old book.

But as he prepared to open it, Lu Li’s warning sounded again.

“This book is very dangerous.”

The same words, but with a slightly heavier tone.

“You mean it could turn the surrounding furniture and house into malevolent beings?

Don’t worry, they are already slumbering,” Thomas said with a dismissive smile, passing the ancient book to Lu Li.

“You go first?”

“No, thanks.”

Lu Li always kept his distance from such mysterious items.

“Young man, that’s not very like an investigator,” Thomas said with a light chuckle as he opened the cover.

“Because I don’t think the contents will be of any help to me,” Lu Li spoke from the doorway.

Thomas was about to say something when his pupils abruptly froze while looking at the ancient book.

“This is…”

In an instant, his clothes seemed to come alive, emanating a disturbingly vile aura, writhing with a detestable posture, tightening mercilessly.

Thomas only had time to cast a look at Lu Li—

Whoosh—

Flesh and fabric piled up on the floor, forming a small mound, with half a face that had fallen on top of the heap, the open mouth as if it wanted to say something.

In just a few breaths, the Senior Investigator was ground into pulp by his own clothes before Lu Li’s eyes.

“`