Chapter 196: Trigger

Lu Mian saw this and hurriedly ended the ritual, extinguishing the candlelight in the correct order.

The gibberish filling his ears disappeared, and the intense pain stopped abruptly before it could emerge.

Roughly cleaning up the altar, Lu Mian cast his gaze toward the gold coin worth 5 Felkin.

It looked like there were no abnormalities, and under the illumination of the calcium carbide lamp, it flickered with a charming golden luster, and there was no essential difference from other coins.

Lu Mian's eyes suddenly became deep, observing its fortune as if the gold coin were a real person.

Normally, he couldn't "see" the fate of an item, but this time, the situation was different. After he concentrated, he found that the gold coin was surrounded by strands of black energy, and there was even a hint of blood-colored light in it.

The former was a symbol of bad luck, and the latter represented a certain degree of bloody disaster.

"Hoo..." Lu Mian breathed a sigh of relief.

This meant that "Luck Transfer Art" was successful, and the homeless person's fortune of being very unlucky for the next few days had been transferred to the gold coin!

But if another person was not found to bear this fate within three days, it would return to the homeless person and could never be transferred again.

Lu Mian stared at the homeless person for a few seconds again, confirming that his fortune had temporarily become normal, neither good nor bad.

After confirmation, Lu Mian, who was already standing at the edge of the altar, reached out and picked up the 5 Felkin gold coin that served as the medium for luck transfer.

He was not worried that this behavior would cause the bad luck attached to the item to transfer to himself, because the triggering of "Luck Transfer Art" required specific conditions:

One, it must be that the target voluntarily takes the gold coin, and subjectively holds the mentality of possession;

Two, in the whole process, the target takes advantage that they shouldn't have taken.

That is to say, if Lu Mian takes this gold coin to buy something, the shop owner will not bear the corresponding bad luck because of accepting this item, unless the thing he sells to Lu Mian is fake, or the transaction is facilitated by deception, earning improper profits.

Similarly, if Lu Mian actively puts this gold coin into Charlie's pocket, and he doesn't notice it for a while and takes it out to use, he won't become unlucky.

And as the original owner of the gold coin, Lu Mian picking it up naturally wouldn't be affected by "Luck Transfer Art."

Two simple ways to trigger "Luck Transfer Art" are to put it in a pocket and let the target steal it, and to pretend to drop it and let the target pick it up for the purpose of possession.

Lu Mian believed that Mr. Eve and the others who had developed the habit of miserliness, unless they had major changes, would retain an excessive love for money and would easily fall into the trap in this regard.

After dealing with the various traces on the altar, he carried the homeless person on his back, returned to the ground all the way, threw him into the alley where he was originally, and took off the ropes that tied his hands and feet, the cloth strip that covered his eyes, and the cloth ball that blocked his ears.

Observing the homeless person's situation, Lu Mian kicked him and turned to leave.

The homeless person woke up slowly and shouted with abnormal fear like a conditioned reflex:

"Let me go, I beg you!"

He opened his eyes and instinctively looked around, finding that there was no one around, and he was still sleeping in a familiar place.

"..." The homeless person fell silent.

After regaining a bit of sobriety, his first reaction was to reach into his pocket.

The cold and hard touch was transmitted to his brain, and he happily took out a silver coin worth 1 Felkin.

It was really still there!

It was really still there!

It wasn't a dream just now!

Borrowing the faint crimson moonlight from high altitude and the slight street lamp light from the main street, the homeless person looked at the silver coin over and over again, finally confirming that it was not fake.

Only then did he remember to check his body.

Soon, he found a bandage wrapped around his arm, and a stinging sensation entered his brain in waves.

Other than that, there were no other abnormalities.

The homeless person groped and stood up, rubbed his butt, and muttered to himself:

"Not that kind of pervert..."

Before he went bankrupt, he had also seen the world and knew that there were many guys with strange sexual habits in Trier, thus giving birth to some private organizations, for example, a club that advocated that men and women were for reproduction and that men were true love, for example, a peach-colored gathering that believed only women understood women's love.

The homeless person just thought he was attacked and violated by someone who liked smelly and dirty men, but now it didn't seem to be the case.

After thinking for a while, he suspected that his blood was taken a fancy to and some was drawn, and that 1 Felkin was the reward.

He had heard before that some big shots relied on constant blood transfusions to maintain their lives.

"At least there is 1 Felkin." The homeless person became happy instantly and no longer thought about the matter of losing fresh blood.

He even hoped that the other party would come to find him again; by then, he would actively ask how much they wanted.

…………

Lu Mian tossed a copper coin to decide to sleep at the Golden Chicken Hotel tonight, so he returned to room 207 and slept until six in the morning.

After he went outside to have breakfast, exercised his body, returned to the hotel, changed his clothes, made a disguise, and prepared to go to Market Avenue, the two cleaning women had already started to get busy.

Looking at the cleaning woman who was wearing a bright gold wig, wearing powder, and was about fifty years old, who was dealing with the trash in the lobby, Lu Mian stopped his steps and asked thoughtfully:

"You are Elodie, right?"

He had heard Charlie mention the other party's name.

"Yes, Mr. Xia Er." Elodie straightened her waist and back.

She was wearing an old but clean gray-white long dress, and she was not short, about 1.65 meters. From her facial features, it could be seen that she should have been quite good-looking when she was young.

"You know me?" Lu Mian asked as if chatting.

Elodie replied truthfully:

"That gentleman named Charlie Corrent mentioned you, saying you are the protector of the hotel."

Hehe, worthy of being Charlie... Hmm, the attitude is very normal, not inferior or fearful at all... Lu Mian began to feel that this cleaning woman named Elodie shouldn't have been the streetwalker Charlie guessed when she was young.

He asked as if casually:

"I heard from Charlie that you used to be a theater actor?"

"Yes." A smile appeared on Elodie's face, "I used to perform in two theaters, both playing supporting roles. Later, one went bankrupt, and one stopped hiring me for some reason, and at that time, I was also quite old."

Speaking of the past, she was obviously somewhat melancholy.

Lu Mian nodded and looked at the hotel entrance:

"Then have you heard of the Chen Jiu Pigeon Cage Theater?"

This was what he really wanted to ask.

This cleaning woman named Elodie was originally a theater actor and was hired by the hotel landlord Mr. Eve, who had a close relationship with the Chen Jiu Pigeon Cage, which was somewhat suspicious.

Elodie's expression suddenly became vivid:

"I know, every play of theirs is excellent, and most of the actors have excellent performance skills. It is a theater worth me saving for a month to buy a ticket.

"I was watching a performance at the Chen Jiu Pigeon Cage when I discovered someone recruiting cleaning women to work only half a day, and then I came here."

Is that so... It sounds like it has nothing to do with the Chen Jiu Pigeon Cage or Mr. Eve... Lu Mian didn't investigate for the time being, so as not to arouse the other party's suspicion, and said with a smile:

"It sounds like you have other work?"

Elodie thought Mr. Xia Er wanted to figure out the origin of the cleaning women so as not to bring harm to the hotel, so she replied frankly:

"I work in a factory south of the Market District from two in the afternoon to ten in the evening, hmm, on Saint-Gilles Street, called Goodwill Chemical Factory."

Saint-Gilles Street was near the Trier city wall and was a neighbor to the factories in the Botanical Garden District.

—The habit left over from the Roselle era for factories in Trier was that if they wanted to produce twenty-four hours a day, they had to divide the workers into three shifts, one responsible for the morning to noon, one for noon to evening, and one for late night.

"Very hard." Lu Mian sighed.

Elodie smiled and said gently:

"I have two children, they are almost truly adults. When they have their own jobs, I won't have to work so hard."

"What about your husband?" Lu Mian asked casually.

Elodie's expression darkened:

"A few years ago, he passed away in a factory accident."

Lu Mian didn't ask any more questions and chatted with the other cleaning woman, fulfilling his duty as the protector of the Golden Chicken Hotel.

Then, he left the chaotic street, entered Market Avenue, and walked toward the Chen Jiu Pigeon Cage Theater.

He wasn't specifically waiting for the suspected fake Mr. Eve, just taking a look by the way. His main purpose was to pay attention to people going to 126 Market Avenue.

"Prophecy Art" told him that he would reunite with Louis Lund on Market Avenue, and "Hammer" Aite said that Louis Lund would come to find the Boss of the Sting Gang, "Black Scorpion" Luo Jie, again this Saturday or Sunday, and "Black Scorpion" Luo Jie lived at 126 Market Avenue.

Combining the two, Lu Mian decided to "station" on Market Avenue on Saturday, wandering around to see if he could bump into the target.

Arriving not far from the Chen Jiu Pigeon Cage Theater and the apartment building where Mr. Eve lived, Lu Mian slowed down, sometimes sitting with homeless people, sometimes going to a nearby cafe to drink something.

Since he was already here, he naturally had to stake out Mr. Eve by the way; anyway, this was also within Market Avenue.

After nearly three-quarters of an hour, Lu Mian finally saw that hotel landlord.

He was wearing a formal suit washed to white, wearing an old-fashioned top hat, holding a black cane with peeling paint, came out of the apartment, and walked toward the Suchit Steam Train Station.

Lu Mian stood up slowly, looked back, pretended to be terrified, and started to jog, as if he were being chased by an enemy.

When he overtook Mr. Eve from behind, he accidentally bumped into him.

With a ding, a golden coin fell from him to the ground, and Lu Mian seemed to be completely unaware, burying his head and fleeing in a panic.

Mr. Eve complained, and his gaze was suddenly attracted to the gold coin on the ground.

He subconsciously wanted to call out to the reckless ghost just now, but after stretching out his hand, he didn't make a sound.

He quickly looked left and right, squatted down, picked up the gold coin worth 5 Felkin, and then pretended that nothing had happened and stuffed it into his trouser pocket.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 197 =====