Chapter 210: Countermeasures

Susanna Mattise's attack is coming? Considering Charlie had no other enemies and had been working as a waiter at the Breeze Dance Hall recently, not going to any dangerous places, Lu Mian quickly had a clear speculation in his mind.

Of course, the possibility of Charlie being very unlucky and encountering other accidents recently couldn't be ruled out, but Lu Mian felt that in similar matters, one absolutely could not harbor any fluke.

While waiting for the tray to be put down, Charlie felt a bit uneasy under Lu Mian's gaze.

He remembered the other party's magical "prophecy" ability and hurriedly leaned over, asking in a suppressed voice:

"Did you see anything?"

Lu Mian smiled:

"I saw that you will have a romantic encounter recently and will have a relationship beyond friendship with a beautiful lady."

"Really?" Charlie was both surprised and happy.

That lady's name is Susanna Mattise... Lu Mian took back that sentence and laughed loudly:

"You are too easy to fool, right? You believe this too?"

"I knew it..." Charlie was full of disappointment.

The existence of the Fool's Ritual made him not doubt Charles's ability to lie at all.

Watching Charlie walk toward the edge of the dance floor with a tray full of glasses, the smile on Lu Mian's face faded bit by bit.

His thoughts turned rapidly, and one thought after another flashed through his heart:

"Am I too unlucky, or is fate destined? Seeing that official Beyonders will value Mr. Eve and the Old Pigeon Cage Theater tomorrow or the day after, arrest all those evil cultists who believe in the 'Mother Tree of Desire,' find the whereabouts of the evil spirit Susanna Mattise, and purify her completely, yet today Susanna Mattise might attack Charlie and me again...

"Fuck, that sow-raised Termiboros, it must be his doing!

"Judging from the experience of observing fortune before, the problem will erupt at the earliest tonight late at night, and at the latest the night after tomorrow...

"I cannot pin all my hopes on Susanna Mattise not coming to find Charlie and me until the day after tomorrow; I must respond according to the worst development..."

Lu Mian, who didn't know when he had been infected with profanity by Franca and Jenna, forcibly calmed his state and made a calm judgment on the current situation.

At the same time, he had a preliminary countermeasure:

First, hide his identity and remind Charlie to go to the nearest "Eternal Blazing Sun" church tonight and stay there for three full days;

Second, go to White Coat Street to find Franca and seek her help.

With Franca and Mr. K's finger as a backing, Lu Mian believed he had a great chance of surviving Susanna Mattise's first round of attacks. After that, she wouldn't have another chance. Whether it was Franca reminding official Beyonders through secret channels or Charlie's performance of seeking protection at the church, it was enough to tell the "Eternal Blazing Sun" Church that Susanna Mattise had appeared again!

Although with Mr. K's finger, Lu Mian had a not-small chance of dealing with Susanna Mattise on his own, since he already owed Franca a favor, why not owe a bit more and make things more certain?

Without any hesitation, Lu Mian drank the remaining absinthe in one gulp and stood up to leave the Breeze Dance Hall.

He returned to Room 207 of the Golden Rooster Hotel and took out the "Spectator Glasses," placing them on the bridge of his nose.

It was another dizzying spin, another fall toward the underground, another huge brown-green root system, and another common insect and mouse hiding in different places...

Just as Lu Mian was about to take off the glasses and start applying makeup, he saw a cluster of green hair with vines and branches.

*Bang! *

Lu Mian's head felt as if it had been hit, and one golden star after another appeared before his eyes.

He hurriedly took the "Spectator Glasses" off his face, lowered his head, and dry-heaved for several seconds.

After doing all this, he took advantage of the urge to draw something not yet disappearing, rummaged out his makeup tools, and applied different things to his face.

Inside the glass window with darkness as the background, Lu Mian felt himself becoming more and more unfamiliar, just like the kind of drunkard who drank inferior wine and was unkempt, common in the dance hall.

After finishing the last bit, he hurriedly shifted his gaze, not daring to look again, afraid of cognitive impairment.

*Hoo... * After putting away the makeup tools, Lu Mian exhaled and filtered the scenes he had seen after putting on the "Spectator Glasses" through his mind.

That cluster of green hair with vines and branches made him feel exceptionally familiar, and he soon had an association:

Susanna Mattise also had very long green hair, and they were intertwined with branches and vines that had spread from somewhere!

"Susanna Mattise's 'territory' is somewhere underground in the Market District?" Lu Mian made a preliminary judgment.

He couldn't help but complain:

"Why is it underground again?"

Is the underground of Trier too lively?

However, this could also explain why the official Beyonders failed to completely purify Susanna Mattise last time. Monsters involving the underground are always not easy to eradicate, just like the Monsouri ghosts.

Lu Mian remembered that the real Mr. Eve had gone to underground Trier late at night, remembered that the pervert Hedesi had brought Jenna to an underground cavity after drugging her, and seemed very familiar with that area and felt very safe there.

This made him start to believe that Susanna Mattise was really hiding somewhere in underground Trier, and it wouldn't be too far from the cavity Hedesi chose.

The end of that road leading deeper underground? Lu Mian guessed while changing his clothes, leaving Room 207 in a strange mix-and-match style of a simple formal suit paired with canvas pants.

Inside the Breeze Dance Hall.

Lu Mian looked around and found Charlie, who was delivering drinks to guests at the edge of the dance floor.

He approached and whispered as he brushed past Charlie:

"Susanna Mattise."

Neither Jenna's singing, the roaring music, nor the noisy crowd could cover up this name, making Charlie freeze in place as if struck by lightning.

Only then did Lu Mian whisper a reminder:

"I received information that Susanna Mattise will appear again within these three days. If you don't want to die, go to the church tonight and stay there for three days before coming out."

Charlie's first reaction was terror, the second was to look for Charles, and the third was "will I be fired directly if I ask for three days off?"

Not finding Charles, he swallowed his saliva with difficulty and asked in a low voice to confirm:

"Really?"

You can choose not to believe... Lu Mian controlled his habitual response to avoid Charlie making certain associations.

He maintained a low voice:

"If you go to the church tonight, someone will tell you whether it's true or false."

Charlie could no longer suppress the fear in his heart, looked at that unfamiliar face, and asked with a slight tremor:

"Who are you?"

Why would you specifically come to remind me?

"A kind person." Lu Mian responded with a sentence his sister would occasionally use when joking.

He didn't say more, passed Charlie, squeezed into the dance floor, and soon disappeared from Charlie's sight.

Charlie felt as if he had encountered a cold winter, his body trembling uncontrollably.

During this time, he would occasionally reminisce about Susanna Mattise's beauty, gentleness, and passion in his dreams, but each time he was scared out of his desire by memories of tree tumors, flowers, and mucus. Now, that monster was coming back!

Go to St. Robert's Church now! Charlie just took a few steps toward the door with the tray, then stopped.

He remembered that it was already quite late at night, and there were definitely very few pedestrians on Market Avenue.

Such an environment was much more dangerous than the bustling Breeze Dance Hall!

"Susanna Mattise always comes into my dreams, or it's the middle of the night when everyone is asleep. I'm in the dance hall, with so many people watching, she definitely won't dare to appear... Wait for Charles to return, and ask him to send me to St. Robert's Church..." Charlie withdrew his gaze from the door and decided to wait a bit longer.

The dance hall, filled with various sounds and different scents, gave him a certain sense of security.

3 White Coat Street.

Lu Mian, who had finished removing his makeup, knocked on Franca's door.

Franca had long since let down her ponytail, letting her flaxen-colored long hair hang down naturally, but she wasn't wearing a nightgown tonight, but rather pajamas and pajama pants made of cotton cloth.

She was wearing a pair of cool slippers belonging to summer, and while turning her body to let Lu Mian enter the room, she asked suspiciously:

"Are you here to ask about occult knowledge tonight?"

She had parted ways with Lu Mian less than two hours ago, and she felt there shouldn't be anything else.

After Franca closed the door, Lu Mian said solemnly:

"There's a situation on Charlie's side. I suspect Susanna Mattise will appear again in these two days, and there's a certain probability it will be late tonight."

"So fast?" Franca didn't hide her surprise.

She hadn't even had time to pass on the problems of Susanna Mattise, Mr. Eve, and the Old Pigeon Cage Theater to "007"!

Lu Mian nodded:

"Although it's hard for me to accept, all kinds of signs indicate that my speculation just now is correct."

"What do you plan to do?" Franca didn't waste time discussing how large the possibility was.

Lu Mian told Franca the two countermeasures he had thought of, but didn't mention Mr. K's finger.

Franca looked at him with a smile:

"You are very calm.

"Didn't you tell me before that Susanna Mattise is an evil spirit suspected of having Sequence 5 power? If we two are tied together, we might not be able to beat her.

"Tsk, do you have too much confidence in me, or too much confidence in yourself?"

Lu Mian smiled:

"Both."

"You who could escape from that disaster in Cordu Village are really not simple." Franca marveled and looked at the wall clock in the room. "Surviving tonight should be fine. I'll hurry up and tell the official side through my channels. You wait for me in the living room."

She walked into her own master bedroom, not knowing what she was tinkering with.

Lu Mian sat on the sofa, looking at the cuckoo wall clock hanging on the side, counting the time silently.

Nearly half an hour passed, and Franca opened the door and came out, having changed into that black robe with leather armor inside, and wearing a hood.

"Done, there will likely be action tomorrow." She said to Lu Mian, then asked, "Aren't you worried that Charlie will encounter accidents on the way to St. Robert's Church? In the dead of night, one can also encounter evil spirits on the side of the road."

St. Robert's Church was the cathedral of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" Church in the Honest Market District, near the Suchit Steam Train Station. Its affiliated cemetery was originally the current Breeze Dance Hall.

Lu Mian had an idea early on:

"I plan to secretly follow him to the church after the Breeze Dance Hall closes."

"I'll go with you." Franca suddenly frowned and looked at Lu Mian. "Won't Charlie be attacked while in the dance hall? Some evil spirits won't care if there are other people around, or how many people there are."

Because Susanna Mattise's previous appearances hadn't affected other people, Lu Mian subconsciously felt she would avoid places with many people, and the human density of the dance hall was far greater than the hotel.

After being reminded by Franca, he was shocked and said in a deep voice:

"Let's rush back to the dance hall now!"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 211 =====