Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 548 - 548 Sixty-seven

548: Sixty-seven.

Bait 548: Sixty-seven.

Bait A bowl full of meat soup, steaming, was placed in front of the table.

Smelling the aroma, the black cat jumped off the desk and rubbed against Lu Li’s legs with its tail raised.

Anna watched nervously as Lu Li picked up the wooden spoon, scooped up the soup, and brought it to his mouth.

“Better than most restaurants,” Lu Li said to Anna, who was waiting for his verdict.

After all, restaurants couldn’t afford to use so many spices extravagantly.

Anna’s lips pursed into a smile, increasingly rare, “Then have some more.”

Lu Li bent down, picked up the black cat, and placed it on the table, scooping out pieces of meat from the soup and setting them before the cat.

The black cat, as silent as Lu Li, sniffed the meat and began to eat.

Ding, ding, ding-ding, ding, ding-ding—

The phone suddenly rang in the quiet Detective Agency.

Anna’s eyes turned cold, then softened again, “It might be Richard.”

Lu Li didn’t speak.

He set down his spoon, walked over to the desk, and picked up the receiver.

“Hi, hi, it’s been a long time, great detective,” came the voice of Richard, or rather Marcus, from the receiver.

Richard had disguised his voice, and through the poor phone line, it became even harder to recognize.

That was why he had remained undiscovered by Lu Li’s side all this time.

Lu Li spoke in an even tone, as if unaware of the truth, “We just spoke three days ago.”

“Uh…

that soon?

I thought it’d been at least several months,” Marcus’s tone remained light, as if Lu Li wasn’t the one who had thwarted his plans.

“That’s not important, the guy you asked me to find…

I have information!”

“That Richard whose skin is like a woman’s?”

“Shh…

no!

His skin isn’t like a woman’s you bastard!

Uh I mean…

the bad guy you mentioned, I think his skin is just pale, related to not being in the sun too long.”

Lu Li slightly lowered his eyes, to think he had been deceived by this guy for months.

“Anyway…

I’ve got news about this damn guy, yeah!”

“What news.”

Richard’s voice lowered from the other side of the phone, “His current hideout.”

“Where is he.”

“Don’t be so anxious, I guarantee the address is correct, you can catch him if you go there directly, but my reward…”

“How much do you want?”

“5…1000, 1000 shillings!

It’s a lot but you don’t know how much effort it took to find him he’s so important to you 1000 shillings isn’t much—”

“How should I give you the money.”

“Uh…” Lu Li’s directness silenced Richard for several seconds; he thought it would take more persuasion to get his payment.

“Same old place, beneath the brick next to the second blue trash bin in Whistle District, you’ll find Richard on your way there.”

“Then where is Richard.”

“Remember where you first met?

Outside Watch Town in the Asylum, he’s there!

You hear me?

My stomach’s growling, hurry up, then I can have a big meal!”

“I will.”

Lu Li hung up the phone.

Anna, who had listened to the entire conversation, said, “Is what he said true?”

“But he will definitely go get the money.” Lu Li was right; Richard was indeed short on money, to the point where he couldn’t afford to eat.

Whether Richard was in the asylum or not didn’t matter, they just needed to stay hidden around the cash stash and wait for Richard to show up.

“What if he can sense where you are?” Anna didn’t think it was that simple.

The speculation was not unfounded, as Richard had always seemed like a ghost following them, able to locate Lu Li no matter where he went.

“We’ll split up, you hide at the cash stash, and I’ll go to the asylum.”

“No,” Anna decisively refused, she absolutely did not want to leave Lu Li’s side, “You are just an ordinary person.”

“So is Richard.”

“But he hides in the shadows.”

Knowing Anna would not agree, Lu Li didn’t waste further words but instead said, “Then we’ll go to the asylum and have the United Organization keep an eye on the cash stash.”

Anna no longer objected, and Lu Li picked up the phone to call the investigator base, requesting the United Organization to watch the cash stash.

To prevent the cunning Richard from making a personal appearance, Lu Li instructed them not to reveal themselves if someone other than Richard came to take the money, just to follow them.

Before leaving Belfast, Lu Li would check the results from a telephone booth.

If Richard appeared, they would return the same way.

If it was someone else, they would head to Watch Town.

After hanging up the phone, Lu Li returned to the dining table.

The meat soup was no longer piping hot, and serving a piece of meat to the black cat waiting for him, Lu Li began to eat.

During the meal, a newsboy delivered three newspapers, the front pages all coincidentally covered the “Human Pus incident” at Rhodest Port, while the second and third editions differed.

The “Daily News” and the “Walson Post” reported on the Elders’ Council issuing a decree that black bread’s markup should not exceed 300% of the original selling price, and the “Arlen Principality Gazette” reported on police stations around the area beginning mass recruitment of officers, demanding the young and bold, unafraid of the strange.

The third edition was consistent: Belfast under the Mist of Strangeness.

After breakfast, Anna handed Lu Li the coffee she brewed and went into the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Lu Li, like most citizens who didn’t need to scramble for their livelihood, stayed at home, poured himself a cup of coffee, and browsed the newspapers.

Buildings on fire, crowds screaming, residents killed by Mist Monsters—all these incidents were crammed onto the entire newspaper.

Luckily, this Mist of Strangeness attack was confined only to the vicinity of Belfast.

Sugard Ridge, just over twenty miles from the city at Watch Town, was spared the disaster.

At the end of the newspaper, Lu Li found a small piece of information mixed in with other news.

[The shelter is officially open to the public]

Though the section was small, it was the first time the shelter appeared in the public’s eye.

The paper stated that the shelter was absorbing personnel; scholars, doctors, lawyers, writers, and other professionals could participate in the assessment to enter the shelter.

Lu Li’s gaze lingered on those professions, which seemed like animals on Noah’s Ark, seemingly to preserve the seeds of human civilization.

Speaking of the shelter, Lu Li remembered the missing Tesla.

He had been in the shelter for three days, but there had still been no news from him.

Crash—

Lu Li’s gaze moved from the newspaper to Anna, who floated out of the kitchen, and he closed the newspaper.

Putting on his coat and taking the thousand Shillings Richard had asked for, Lu Li and Anna left the Detective Agency.

Renting a carriage from the next block over, they drove the carriage up the mountain.

The fog finally cleared, but the overcast clouds still enveloped the land, blocking the sun, and the damp, cold sea breeze felt like deep autumn.

Twenty minutes later, Lu Li arrived at the designated spot, placed the money under a brick next to the second blue trash can, did not linger, and directly left Whistle District.

As he gradually approached the mountain’s peak, Lu Li saw from a distance Baron Joseph’s Manor by the Shore of Agate Lake.

The usual figures of servants moving about the manor were nowhere to be seen, and the manor houses surrounding Agate Lake were mostly devoid of people as well.

They had already fled early to safety.

About to leave Belfast, Lu Li stopped by the roadside and walked into a red telephone booth.