Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 364 - 364 221

364: 221.

Old Cozy Street 364: 221.

Old Cozy Street The noise soon alarmed the neighbors and attracted the attention of the patrolling officers.

However, the situation did not escalate further; once the homeowner, the neighbor next door, and the arriving officers discovered that Anna was a ghost, the scene became as calm as a sea without wind, without a ripple.

Lu Li hadn’t misremembered the address, and the figure in the Bird Beak Mask couldn’t have written it wrongly, but this indeed was not her residence.

The homeowner also told Lu Li that the building had no basement.

Without knowing the name of the figure in the Bird Beak Mask, Lu Li could not inquire further and left the building amidst respectful gazes.

Standing at the front steps of the doorway, Lu Li looked towards the gloomy rain curtain overshadowing the sky, pondering slightly.

He did not believe that the figure in the Bird Beak Mask had deceived him or made a mistake in writing, so where could the problem lie?

Returning from the expedition with no “unexpected gains,” Lu Li returned to the Detective Agency a while later, picked up the letter again, opened it, ignored the original content on the diary paper, and looked at the address at the bottom.

Although it was scrawled and had traces of rain-soaked wrinkles, the handwriting was clear, with no smeared signs, and the numbers could not possibly be misrecognized.

With his knuckles gently tapping on the tabletop, Lu Li put down the letter and picked up the phone to call Jojo.

The call connected, but the person answering told Lu Li that Jojo hadn’t returned yet.

About half an hour later, the phone rang, and Jojo, who had returned to the academy, called.

Lu Li directly asked her about the Warmth District.

Like, if there were other streets named Warmth District, or streets commonly known by the public as Warmth District.

Jojo told Lu Li that there were none of the former, but indeed there were two nearby streets that fit the latter: Violet District and Kertz District— the residents there were very good at maintaining neighborly relations, and everyone was friendly as friends, hence jokingly dubbed the “Warmth” District.

This was clearly not what Lu Li was looking for.

The figure in the Bird Beak Mask could have easily written the real address in the address section instead of using a metaphor.

However, there were some possibilities.

Such as, the figure in the Bird Beak Mask was worried that some entities might pry into the letter.

In this case, using a metaphor became necessary.

After contemplating the cost-effectiveness, Lu Li decided to take a look at these two districts since he had nothing else to do at the moment.

The Violet District was in the middle of the city, while Kertz District was in the east, not too far from Elm Street, and Lu Li could check out the houses on Elm Street along the way.

Lu Li and Anna, who concealed her presence, first went to Violet District, briefly stopped, and then took a carriage straight to Kertz District.

Because Violet District did not have a number 16.

Kertz District indeed had a number 16, but it was a Long House just like the Detective Agency, the door number did not match, and it had no basement.

Having gained nothing, Lu Li then went to Elm Street, where he observed the two addresses provided by Jojo separately on the street.

Both were standalone two-story buildings; the one in the middle of the street was a residential home, owned by an affectionate elderly couple who felt it was too far from the city center and wanted to move to their son’s place.

The house at the edge of the street was also a residential building, but it appeared to have been used as a warehouse before, with different sizes of wooden boxes and uncut logs stacked under the house walls.

This was indeed one of the lumberjack’s transit warehouses.

Both houses had their advantages and disadvantages.

The former was ready to move into, with everything prepared in advance, and the elderly couple would only take some of their personal belongings.

The latter had only a single bed and a dining table on the second floor; other than that, the space was as empty as an abandoned house.

But the advantage was the large space of the first-floor hall, and during good weather, one could directly see the entire bay and the side of the cliff from the second floor.

Especially since the price was very low—this house was at the very edge of Elm Street.

Although the mood from Elm Forest did not reach here, no one could settle here in peace.

For Lu Li, this was not a problem, so his choice was not hard to guess.

After waiting for a while, the homeowner arrived.

He was a middle-aged man with ulterior motives, who concealed the secrets of Elm Forest from Lu Li and earnestly persuaded him to buy the place for only 2,900 shillings.

The middle-aged man was not greedy in terms of the price, but Lu Li could not afford that much money, nor would he spend nearly 3,000 shillings on it.

Thus, Lu Li only rented the house for 80 shillings per month.

The landlord left the keys and departed.

Lu Li stood by the window of the bedroom on the second floor, looking outside.

Anna appeared beside him, surveyed the simple room with only an old single bed by the wall and a wooden desk, and asked reluctantly, “Are we moving here?”

“Not for now.”

Its use was merely as a warehouse—the goods Lu Li bought could be delivered here and then taken up the cliff.

“Not for now…” Anna murmured.

“As time passes and danger increases, we will eventually have to move to the edge.”

“Mmm.” Anna nodded.

She was already prepared.

It was just that she had grown accustomed to the affairs at the Detective Agency and was momentarily struggling to adjust.

“Want to go see the cliff?” Lu Li turned his head to look at Anna.

“Won’t it delay things?”

“We can’t do much in this heavy rain anyway.”

After thinking it over, Anna nodded slightly.

Without Barton’s hindrance and the initial caution, the speed of Lu Li and Anna was quite fast.

The sadness and despair that permeated the Withered Forest were denser than a few days ago but became less effective in affecting this forest.

They hadn’t accepted Lu Li as one of their own yet, but they were no longer as wary of him as they were of an outsider.

With Anna’s help, this time it took only a little over an hour to reach the cliff.

Anna contacted Annie while Lu Li walked into the cave, which remained dry, without any seepage or rainwater seeping in.

Back outside, Anna excitedly told Lu Li that Annie’s presence was growing stronger.

They had successfully rescued Annie.

After speaking with Annie for a while, Anna reluctantly left the cliff with Lu Li.

An hour and a half later, Lu Li and Anna returned to the Detective Agency.

Compared to when they had left three hours earlier, some changes had occurred at the Detective Agency.

The sculpture stood behind the door.

Its intact arm was raised, pointing to the telephone on the desk.

“You came back to life?!” Anna exclaimed joyfully at the sculpture.

Lu Li walked to the desk, called the telephone station to ask if there had indeed been a recent call.

After getting a response, Lu Li hung up and then picked up the handset, dialing Jojo’s number.

Shortly after they left, Jojo had called.

When the call connected, Jojo told Lu Li that she recalled there indeed used to be a street called Warmth District before it was burnt down.

For some reason, Lu Li felt this was the place he was looking for.

After asking about the current state of the area, Jojo told Lu Li, “Because of a huge fire, most of the houses were burnt down and collapsed, leaving only a few barely intact buildings which should have been uninhabited for a long time… However, there might be some Scavengers taking shelter from the rain there.”

“Where is it?”

“On the west side of the Black Cat District, keep walking west from the Black Cat District and you will see it.”