Chapter 204

"Yes." Su Qian's gentle voice entered Lu Mian's ears.

Almost at the same time, Lu Mian felt as if his consciousness had been tied to a heavy object, being dragged down rapidly, sinking deeper and deeper.

In just a few seconds, his eyelids became extremely heavy, closing uncontrollably, and his thoughts blurred rapidly.

In a daze, Lu Mian seemed to have turned into a floating ghost, wandering and drifting in the dark night, in the familiar village of Cordu.

I don't know how long it had been, but he, who only maintained a little bit of clarity, saw the church with the onion-like top. A circle of light was condensing near its main entrance, while the rest was pitch black, like shadows.

Lu Mian wandered aimlessly to the cemetery on the side.

In the deep darkness, tombstones were arranged in dead silence, and trees stood eerily.

Several men were dragging a corpse to the side of a dug-out deep pit, preparing to throw it down.

Under the dim crimson moonlight, one of the men raised his head and looked around.

He had a fleshy face, black hair, and blue eyes, and his features seemed to be covered by a layer of shadow.

Pons Bénet!

Lu Mian suddenly became much clearer.

The distance between the two sides narrowed instantly. Lu Mian lowered his head and looked at the corpse.

The corpse's face was bloated from being soaked in water, pale white, the brown hair was completely soaked, and the brown eyes were opened extremely wide, freezing pain, unwillingness, and resentment.

Raymond!

Intense resentment surged in Lu Mian's heart. He shouted angrily at Pons Bénet and the others, venting the emotions in his heart.

He felt he had cursed a lot, he felt he had attacked the scoundrel Pons Bénet, and he felt he was digging the deep pit with his hands.

The soil pierced into his fingernails, and another corpse was revealed at the bottom of the deep pit:

The girl's lake-blue eyes were bulging fiercely, her face was blue and purple, her mouth was wide open, her neck was swollen, there were obvious finger marks, and her expression was extremely painful.

Ava!

Lu Mian stood up with a start, driven by intense emotions to walk toward Pons Bénet, which also made him open his eyes suddenly.

Hah, hah, Lu Mian looked at the empty sofa opposite the booth and took deep breaths.

The intense indignation, hatred, and other emotions from the dream still remained on him, making him tremble uncontrollably.

"What did you see?" After several seconds, Su Qian asked gently.

Lu Mian answered with his facial muscles slightly distorted:

"I saw, I saw the corpses of Raymond and Ava. One of them was drowned, and the other seemed to have been strangled...

"Pons Bénet and the scoundrels following him were burying the corpses of Ava and Raymond in the cemetery next to the church...

"I roared at them, I wanted to do something, I, I woke up..."

Su Qian listened quietly and said peacefully and soothingly:

"This time, I didn't let you have a lucid dream to find clues existing as symbolic things in the dream yourself, but let you contact certain scenes in your subconscious in the way of dreaming.

"Even if what you saw is not completely equal to the facts, it is a picture combined from situations that truly happened. There may be overlaps in time or space, but the basic details are no problem and can be interpreted."

Lu Mian asked painfully:

"Do you mean I really saw Pons Bénet and the others burying the corpses of Raymond and Ava in the cemetery at the scene?"

"This is not certain," Su Qian analyzed. "What can be seen at present is that Raymond was drowned by Pons Bénet and others, and Ava was strangled by them. The corpses of the two were finally buried somewhere in the cemetery, and you were not necessarily at the scene. It is possible that you only found out later, tried to dig out their corpses, and retaliated against Pons Bénet and others, but the result was not very good; otherwise, your dream just now would have mapped out certain content."

Lu Mian was silent for a while and said:

"So that's how it is...

"I was just wondering, if I were really at the scene, why wasn't I killed by Pons Bénet and the others and thrown into the deep pit..."

Part of his pain just now came from refusing to believe the guess made about this problem, which meant that he might have been in the same gang as Pons and the others!

"It cannot be ruled out that you indeed witnessed the whole thing at the scene, but there are many explanations, not necessarily what you imagined. You were not killed, perhaps just because they needed a container with excellent physical conditions," Su Qian was clearly very clear about what Lu Mian was rejecting and resisting, and comforted him gently. "What is certain is that the anger, hatred, and the impulse to take revenge that appeared in your dream are not fake; they were your true feelings at the time. That is to say, no matter what, the deaths of Ava and Raymond have nothing much to do with you."

As soon as he heard Su Qian's words, Lu Mian was like someone who had just been fished out of the water, having lost all his strength, and leaned his whole body against the back of the sofa.

His mental state was much more relaxed than before, and he didn't have to force himself to hold on.

A moment later, an invisible warm breeze blew over his body and soul, giving him complete comfort.

Su Qian's voice with a hint of a smile and encouragement rang out:

"Compared to last time, your state is indeed much better. You gathered the courage to face some guesses and doubts you were unwilling to face earlier than I expected.

"In the field of psychology, this is an important sign of walking out of a predicament. Only by facing the problem squarely can the problem be solved.

"Alright, today's treatment ends here. Your current state can face Louis Lund, Madame Pualis, and the others."

At this time, Lu Mian, whose emotions had calmed down, remembered Ms. 'Magician's' instructions:

"There is one more thing.

"I might have to believe in another existence later, but I can't recall his honorific name at ordinary times. Do you, do you have any way to keep me from recalling it?"

That clear, gentle female voice responded with a slight smile:

"This is very simple. I will give you a psychological suggestion. Once your spiritual intuition believes that you lack protection, your subconscious will replace the corresponding honorific name with 'that one', unable to reproduce it.

"Under the condition of protection, it can be fully recalled and spoken..."

Lu Mian's thoughts suddenly became dazed for a moment, and then he heard the other party say:

"The corresponding psychological suggestion has been set."

"Thank you, ma'am, and thank you, Ms. Su Qian," Lu Mian nodded toward the empty position opposite the booth.

"You're welcome, see you in two weeks," that clear, gentle female voice responded to him, and Su Qian also followed up with "See you in two weeks."

Lu Mian didn't know when they left. In short, the area around booth D became very quiet, with only the chirping of birds in the botanical garden, the clattering of horse hooves on the road, and the clicking sounds of some machinery operating echoing here, as if they were there and yet not.

He picked up the cup, drank the remaining Intis coffee in one gulp, and adjusted his psychological state.

Taking this opportunity, he recalled the entire treatment process and inexplicably felt that the last sentence Ms. Su Qian said had a certain sense of strangeness.

"She said, my current state can face Louis Lund, Madame Pualis, and the others... Does it mean that I couldn't before, and the answers to certain questions obtained from Madame Pualis might crush me?

"This is understandable, but if my improvement is not as expected, would she ask me to give up this opportunity to run into Louis Lund? But what if Louis Lund appeared yesterday? In that case, I wouldn't have had time for a follow-up visit, wouldn't the problem be very big?

"If that were really the case, when the last treatment ended, shouldn't Ms. Su Qian have warned me not to try to contact Madame Pualis and not to face the parish priest directly before the follow-up visit?

"Is she so sure that I won't run into Louis Lund in these two weeks, or that if I do, he will escape?

"'Spectator'..."

Lu Mian woke up instantly, left booth D, and took a public carriage back to the Honest Market district.

He didn't rush to the Auberge du Coq Doré or the safe house on White Coat Street to summon his messenger and write a letter to Ms. 'Magician' to tell her about Termiboros. Instead, he headed straight to the vicinity of 126 Market Avenue to see if his subordinates and Anthony Reid and Franca had gained anything.

Lu Mian, wearing a dark brown wide-brimmed round hat, walked to the diagonal opposite side, nearly twenty meters away from the house of "Black Scorpion" Luo Jie, and sat in the gap between two buildings, leaning against the wall.

There were several homeless people here.

One of the homeless people moved his buttocks, approached Lu Mian, and lowered his voice:

"Nothing discovered yet."

Lu Mian nodded, cast his gaze toward the three-story building with a garden, and paid attention to the passing pedestrians.

As time passed bit by bit, the sun fell to the horizon, the light became extremely dim, and the lamplighters began to light the gas street lamps one by one.

Just at this moment, Lu Mian saw a man wearing gray-blue worker uniforms.

Under his flat cap was light yellow hair, and his slightly chubby face looked somewhat honest.

Anthony Reid? Why did he come out? Lu Mian recognized the intelligence broker and was confused by his behavior.

Anthony Reid walked hurriedly toward the end of Market Avenue as if he were a worker who had just finished work.

Lu Mian's pupils shrank slightly because he discovered that Anthony Reid was not pretending to pass by, but was approaching someone.

That person was wearing a blue dress suit with a row of yellow buttons, a waxed hat, a white tie, and a red vest, sitting on a rental carriage with a yellow number, looking like a coachman belonging to the Imperial Carriage Company—coachmen of different carriage companies have different uniforms.

The coachman pressed his hat very low, keeping his head down as if waiting for a passenger.

Lu Mian's heart stirred, he stood up, and walked a few steps in that direction.

When Anthony Reid passed by the carriage, he seemed to trip over something, stumbled, and bumped into the horse pulling the carriage.

The horse was startled and was about to lift its front legs, but the coachman pulled the reins hard and controlled it steadily.

But the coachman also raised his head because of this, revealing his face:

He was over forty, had black hair, and because of the distance, Lu Mian couldn't see his features clearly, only vaguely feeling a sense of familiarity.

Lu Mian's eyes narrowed slightly, watching Anthony Reid apologize repeatedly and leave the vicinity of the carriage, while a manservant walked out of 126 Market Avenue.

He came to the carriage and said to the coachman:

"My master wants to hire your carriage. Come in now and help move some things."

The coachman nodded and responded in a deep voice:

"Okay."

He immediately followed the manservant into the house belonging to "Black Scorpion" Luo Jie.

Lu Mian, who had witnessed the whole process but hadn't heard the conversation, curled his lips up bit by bit.

He was now incomparably certain that the coachman was Louis Lund!

Finally waited for you!

(End of chapter)