Chapter 170: Prayer Object

Along the way, relying on his quick eyes and hands, Lu Mian dodged several waiters who were coming out with food or returning used tableware.

Not long after, he approached the kitchen and saw a mess inside:

Unwashed tableware was piled randomly in the sink, layer upon layer, full of grease, and two dishwashing women stood there constantly cleaning;

Several stoves were spewing yellowish flames, making this small area several degrees hotter than the outside. Everyone was sweating and busy;

Three chefs in white aprons were making different dishes, occasionally pouring them into plates, dipping their fingers in the sauce or pinching a small piece of food to put in their mouths to taste. After finishing this, they would wipe their hands on their aprons and start cooking the second dish;

Waiters who received permission from the chefs would pick up the corresponding plates and walk outside. Their thumbs would often touch the dishes and thick soups, but they were completely unaware and didn't care at all;

Several kitchen helpers were surrounding the chefs, either cutting vegetables, processing fish, cleaning other ingredients, dumping trash, or delivering seasonings and other things, too busy to stop. But no matter how hard they tried, the kitchen still looked very messy. On the floor, around the stoves, and near the sink, there were many vegetable leaves, fish scales, and fruit peels scattered about, full of oil stains;

The sounds echoing here were mainly the scolding and shouting of the chefs and kitchen helpers, which was very lively.

If Lu Mian closed his eyes and listened purely with his ears, he would probably think this was a messy battlefield.

Thanks to this situation, he easily avoided the busy people and came to the cabinet storing various ingredients. Then, with the help of the baffle, handle, grayish-white gas pipes, and tap water pipes, he climbed up to the ceiling and slipped into the ventilation duct located there.

A strong smell of oily smoke instantly pierced Lu Mian's nose, almost causing him, with his keen sense of smell, to faint.

Relying on the "Mendicant Monk's" ability to endure various extreme environments, Lu Mian forced himself to crawl forward along the ventilation duct, occasionally moving upward.

After just over ten seconds, he poked his head out from above a washroom on the second floor.

After confirming that no one was here, Lu Mian jumped down lightly and walked quickly to the door, looking covertly at both sides of the corridor.

It was very quiet here, with only two gang thugs guarding the stair exit. Their attention was entirely focused on the place where people came up from the first floor, and they didn't pay attention to the situation behind them at all.

Lu Mian breathed a sigh of relief, identified his destination, hunched over, and dashed to the room next to it.

The door there was locked, but it didn't stump Lu Mian. He fiddled with a piece of wire he carried with him for a few moments and pushed open the wooden door.

Just as Jianna described, the washroom attached to "Hammer" Ait's room didn't have a windowsill extending outward, only a decorative protrusion, barely enough for a person to stand sideways.

Even for a "Hunter," jumping from this windowsill to that protrusion and standing steadily was quite a difficult task.

Fortunately, Lu Mian was also a "Dancer," and his flexibility was exaggerated to the point of not being human.

He observed for a moment, leaped, and his right foot landed accurately on the protrusion, but his left side lost balance, and he fell in the direction of the drop.

At the critical moment, Lu Mian's body shook like a spring, rebounding toward the washroom, and he took the opportunity to grab the window frame with his right hand.

He stood firm, squatted sideways, and exposed only half his head, quietly looking into the room.

The washroom door was not closed, and gang thugs passed by from time to time as if patrolling.

Lu Mian waited patiently for a while, figured out the pattern, and took advantage of the opportunity when the area corresponding to the washroom door was temporarily empty to pry open the window with Hedesi's dagger and flip inside.

He turned around and closed the glass window quite calmly and decisively before flashing to the bottom of the bathtub, using the curtain hanging there that hadn't been unfolded to hide his body.

Having successfully completed the infiltration, Lu Mian placed the items he would use later in a more convenient place and confirmed their respective positions to avoid taking the wrong one in a panic.

Then, he stood there like a statue, listening to the movements in the room outside.

"Hammer" Ait occasionally asked the dance hall manager about recent earnings, occasionally scolded his subordinates, and occasionally flirted with the top dancer, accompanied by movements that seemed very intimate.

After a while, after the dance hall manager and the top dancer left, Ait seemed to stand up and pace slowly.

He said to the several gang thugs in the room:

"In the last few days, you all send out all your men to 'visit' every household in our territory, ensuring that in next week's election, that person can be elected as the Member of Parliament for the Market District!"

Yo, you gangs even interfere in parliamentary elections? Lu Mian was both surprised and not so surprised.

If Trier's gangs didn't have support behind them, it would be impossible for them to develop and grow. They were either on good terms with certain high-level officials in the Police Department or the General Police Bureau, or they had obtained the protection of powerful political figures, or they belonged to the black gloves of big businessmen, and big businessmen were bound to have certain interest entanglements with high-ranking government officials, church superiors, and military generals.

What Lu Mian didn't expect was that the person behind the Poison Sting Gang actually had the ambition to compete for a parliamentary seat. He originally thought it was at most at the level of the Market District Police Commissioner or the Trier City Council.

Intis was a parliamentary republic, with members elected from constituencies to form the National Convention, and the National Convention appointed the President and Prime Minister. The President and Prime Minister were responsible for appointing ministers. Of course, this had to be approved by the National Convention.

The National Convention also possessed the power of legislation, the power to declare war, and the power to determine the government budget. Every Member of Parliament could be called a person of real power.

Currently, the National Convention had more than 300 people, one-tenth of whom came from the original nobility, led by members of the former royal Solon family. The remaining seats were broken down into different provinces and direct-controlled districts, that is, the Trier Region, according to population and economic status.

Whether it was population size or economic status, Trier was second to none in the entire Intis and the entire Trier Region, and it was allocated nearly 40 parliamentary seats.

These nearly 40 seats were broken down into 20 city districts, with some having four or five members and others having only one, and they were also ex officio members of the City Council.

The Honest Market District belonged to the small category of constituencies, with only one parliamentary seat. Whoever was elected would be the person with the most real power and influence here.

Currently, whether it was the ruling National Party, the most popular Enlightenment Party, or the Reform Party that wanted to change various drawbacks, they were all doing their best for next week's parliamentary election.

Whoever could win a simple majority of seats in the National Convention would become the new ruling party; otherwise, they would have to make compromises and concessions and form a coalition with another party.

Besides the National Party, the Enlightenment Party, and the Reform Party, there were also widely existing Emperor Parties (restorationists who worshipped Roselle) and Carbonari who were dissatisfied with the current system and tried to overthrow everything by force.

Those gang thugs responded to "Hammer" Ait one after another, saying there wouldn't be the slightest mistake.

But they never mentioned which party's candidate they supported, which made Lu Mian feel a little depressed.

You guys should just say it!

After giving instructions about the election, "Hammer" Ait said to his subordinates:

"You all go out for a while, and I'll let you in when I tell you to."

What is this for? Lu Mian was surprised by the "eavesdropping."

Soon, those gang thugs left the room, leaving only "Hammer" Ait alone.

Lu Mian didn't take action because, after careful analysis, he believed that if he didn't use "Fallen Mercury," fighting "Hammer" Ait in the washroom was more targeted than outside.

The room outside became quite quiet, and Lu Mian tried his best to listen before barely hearing some sounds.

It seemed to be "Hammer" Ait talking to himself:

"Protector of the evil... Lady who gives birth to gods..."

Lady who gives birth to gods? This sounds very powerful... Is Ait praying, praying to some hidden existence? It seems there are four sentences, or five sentences of description? This is different from the common three-part structure... Lu Mian roughly guessed what "Hammer" Ait was doing.

As for who he was praying to, based on only half of the description he barely heard, Lu Mian had no way to speculate.

This was not within the scope of the occult knowledge he currently mastered.

Vaguely, Lu Mian felt that the room outside was full of malice.

Yes, the room itself had become evil.

Lu Mian held his breath and restrained his spirit, not daring to listen to the movements outside anymore.

After a while, that feeling dissipated, and everything returned to normal.

Lu Mian exhaled slowly and moved his palms.

At this time, "Hammer" Ait let the subordinates who had gone out earlier return to the room.

Lu Mian continued to wait.

Time ticked by, and finally, he heard the heaviest footsteps walking toward the washroom.

These were "Hammer" Ait's footsteps; Lu Mian had already distinguished them clearly just now.

He immediately took out a small metal bottle, the one with a scratch mark on it.

Then, he unscrewed the cap and stuffed a long, thin paper ball he had rolled up beforehand into the bottle mouth.

After a few seconds, when the footsteps were approaching the washroom, Lu Mian pulled out the paper ball and tightened the bottle cap.

Then, he split the paper ball into two and stuffed them into his nose.

The stench, like fermenting feces, rushed straight into Lu Mian's brain, stimulating him so much that tears almost flowed out. His right hand instinctively wanted to pull out the long, thin paper ball.

Relying on his strong willpower and the "Mendicant Monk's" ability to endure extreme environments, Lu Mian controlled himself. While his expression was distorted and his muscles were twitching slightly, he took out another small metal bottle that was mostly gas and unscrewed its cap.

Clang!

"Hammer" Ait closed the washroom door and walked to the front of the toilet.

This place instantly became a semi-enclosed space, with only a little fresh air coming in from the door gap and window gap.

Hmm, he has a serious disaster of blood... Lu Mian looked at the fortune while quietly swinging the open small metal bottle, helping the colorless and odorless gas inside to volatilize and fill the washroom.

This was the anesthetic made by that pervert Hedesi, an anesthetic that could make an "Assassin" lose a large part of their strength at close range, even if they only smelled a little of the scent that drifted out!

This was very suitable for a cramped and semi-enclosed space like a washroom.

This was the trap Lu Mian had set for "Hammer" Ait!

Of course, it would take quite a while for those gases to fill the washroom and exert their effects to a certain extent. After all, this wasn't close-range sniffing.

What Lu Mian had to do next was not to let "Hammer" Ait leave this washroom and not let the people outside open the door.

He placed the open small metal bottle on the edge of the bathtub, took out Jianna's revolver, and aimed at the toilet area through the curtain.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 171 =====