Chapter 211: Bad Luck

Breeze Dance Hall.

Lu Mian looked around in the dim light, but couldn't find Charlie.

This made his heart sink, and he hurriedly beckoned Louis and Sakota over.

"Boss, is something the matter?" Louis asked with some unease.

He thought the boss was dissatisfied with some situation in the dance hall.

Lu Mian's gaze swept over the waiters wearing vests and ties, and he asked in a casual tone:

"Where is Charlie? I have something to find him for."

Louis's eyes widened instantly, and he blurted out in astonishment:

"Boss, didn't Charlie just follow you out?"

Me? Charlie followed me out? Lu Mian's pupils contracted sharply, as if receiving light that was too intense.

He asked in a deep voice:

"When?"

Louis recalled and looked at Lu Mian in confusion:

"Less than five minutes ago."

Lu Mian's gaze fell on Sakota, finding that this taciturn, relatively more trustworthy subordinate was also looking confused.

Five minutes ago? I had been to White Coat Street for over half an hour, and besides, I left the dance hall last time in the guise of a drunkard; it was impossible for Charlie to have followed me out... Lu Mian quickly ruled out the possibility that Charlie had followed him out of the dance hall without his knowledge.

This matter was becoming increasingly bizarre!

Combined with Charlie's bright red and black fortune, the probability of him encountering danger had almost reached one hundred percent!

Lu Mian suppressed the various thoughts bursting in his mind and said to Louis and Sakota:

"Perhaps someone is impersonating me, but I don't know what they want to do with Charlie."

"Impossible..." Louis blurted out.

A few minutes ago, both he and Sakota had greeted the boss; that couldn't be fake!

Before Louis could finish speaking, he was glared at coldly by Lu Mian, and he immediately changed his stance, muttering:

"Also possible, it really might be fake."

Lu Mian didn't dwell on this question, instead asking:

"Did Charlie change his clothes when he walked out of the dance hall?"

According to the rules of the Breeze Dance Hall, every waiter, bartender, chef, and kitchen helper could receive two sets of uniforms, but they couldn't be taken out of the dance hall and could only be placed in the locker room on the first floor.

This was caused by the cultural environment of the Market District. Those bartenders and waiters could go bankrupt at any time due to their own or their family's gambling, alcoholism, illness, etc., and be forced to flee the area. If they took the uniforms home, they would inevitably take these things to a pawn shop to mortgage them for cash before moving away, not caring whether the Breeze Dance Hall belonged to a gang.

Similarly, cheap cafes that did business with scavengers, coolies, vagrants, and low-level workers often used tin tableware and fixed them to the tables with iron chains, only retaining a certain range of activity to avoid being quietly taken away by customers and sold.

Better cafes also had their own troubles. For the sake of decency, they tended to use silver or porcelain tableware, and some customers weren't that decent, so the boss had to count the tableware over and over again after closing every day to see if any were missing, and repeatedly urge the waiters to pay attention to similar things in their daily lives.

"No." Louis answered Lu Mian's question very affirmatively.

He had originally intended to stop Charlie from walking out of the dance hall in his waiter's uniform, but because the other party was following the boss, he wisely closed his mouth.

Most of the rules of the dance hall were prepared for waiters, dancers, bartenders, chefs, thugs, cleaners, and even managers; the boss didn't need to follow them!

Lu Mian nodded lightly and said with a calm surface:

"You go do other things."

After speaking, he walked toward the locker room near the kitchen area.

He suspected that Charlie's disappearance was related to Susanna Mattise!

The small locker room was empty. Lu Mian scanned it twice and found the locker with Charlie's name on it.

"Reacted quite quickly, knowing to find a divination medium for me." Franca, wearing a black robe and hood, appeared at Lu Mian's side, praising him.

"I'm not stupid." Lu Mian responded simply, took out the half-length wire he carried with him, fiddled with it a few times, and opened the locker where Charlie kept his clothes.

Franca pondered for two seconds and reached out to take Charlie's linen shirt.

She then used a broom placed outside the locker room door to perform divination.

"Charlie's current location...

"Charlie's current location...

"..."

Franca held Charlie's clothing in her left hand and pressed her right palm on the top of the broom, muttering incantations.

Soon, she released her right hand, but the broom didn't move, standing very steadily, as if it were still being held by someone.

After several seconds, it fell down with a *pa* sound.

"Interfered with?" Lu Mian asked tentatively.

Franca shook her head slowly:

"Doesn't look like it..."

She walked quickly to the full-length mirror in the locker room and stroked the surface virtually a few times.

Holding Charlie's clothing, she began a new round of divination.

After a few breaths, the mirror became deep, as if reflecting darkness.

The next second, two human figures were outlined, walking in yellowish and blurry light.

One of them was Charlie in waiter attire, and the back of the other looked very much like Lu Mian.

Besides that, nothing could be seen.

Franca examined it for a few seconds and interpreted it with a firm tone:

"They are underground!

"So the divination just now couldn't indicate the result. A broom can't jump up by itself and stand upside down, right?"

Lu Mian nodded, turned and walked out of the locker room, went upstairs to get a calcium carbide lamp and things that might come in handy later, and headed straight for outside the dance hall.

He already had a rough speculation!

Seeing this, Franca took out the fluorescent powder again, cooperated with the incantation, and hid her figure.

On Market Avenue, illuminated by both the crimson moonlight and gas streetlights, Lu Mian walked quickly while searching for possible traces.

His destination was the entrance to the underground in the middle of Market Avenue.

In the patches of illuminated areas surrounded by darkness, Lu Mian suddenly stopped his steps.

He saw that the railing of the drainage ditch here had traces of slight displacement, and there were quite chaotic multiple footprints on the side of the road next to it. The gas streetlight pole had signs of impact at a height close to an ordinary person's head.

"It looks like a slip, a struggle to stabilize, being tripped by the drainage ditch, and finally hitting the streetlight... Originally there should have been some bloodstains, but they were cleaned up..." Franca appeared again and made a preliminary reconstruction of the whole thing based on the situation at the scene.

She asked herself with slight confusion:

"It's a bit like that unlucky thing I saw this afternoon..."

Speaking of this, Franca suddenly realized:

"That fake Eve who was plagued by bad luck? Was it him who took Charlie?"

Lu Mian had long suspected it, and now he was even more certain:

"He can disguise himself as Mr. Eve, so he can naturally disguise himself as me.

"This ability is a bit powerful..."

At this time, all the details had been roughly connected in his mind:

Susanna Mattise was close to recovery but worried that official Beyonders were still monitoring Charlie, so she let the fake Mr. Eve disguise himself as Charles and take Charlie away in a way that looked like there was nothing abnormal, bringing him into the underground. Once in underground Trier, it would be very difficult for official Beyonders to find them.

Wait a while longer, and perhaps even divination would be interfered with!

"It wouldn't be powerful if it couldn't deceive official Beyonders during the first investigation." Franca replied and didn't hide herself again, following Lu Mian as he ran toward the entrance to underground Trier located in the middle of Market Avenue.

As the yellowish-blue light of the calcium carbide lamp illuminated the stairs going down, Lu Mian found two pairs of footprints.

He was very familiar with one pair; they belonged to Charlie.

From the state of the footprints, it could be seen that Charlie was very afraid of entering the underground late at night, walking timidly, but ultimately chose to trust "Charles."

He didn't show any signs of being restricted for the time being.

"Idiot..." Lu Mian cursed the guy.

It's normal not to see whether it's fake or real, after all, one is a Beyonder and the other is an ordinary person, but they had walked together for such a long distance, didn't he find anything wrong from the exchange?

Is Lu Mian Lee that easy to impersonate?

"Fortunately, there are footprints." Franca breathed a sigh of relief.

The simplified "Dowsing Rod Method" was difficult to use underground, because the direction it pointed might be correct, but there might not be a path, requiring a long detour and the risk of getting lost.

This "Witch" didn't bring lighting tools, not knowing if she was certain she wouldn't be separated from Lu Mian, or if she wasn't worried that the darkness would cause any damage to her vision.

Lu Mian carried the calcium carbide lamp and walked along the stairs to the level with street and square names.

He was very fast, sometimes choosing a direction before finding footprints, and not long after, he found Charlie and the fake Eve's footprints again.

This made Franca very confused, and after a few times, she finally couldn't help but ask:

"You seem to know where the fake Eve is going?"

"The pervert who drugged Jenna also took this route." Lu Mian replied flatly.

This was the route that group was most familiar with and felt most safe on, and besides, the fake Eve should be taking Charlie to see Susanna Mattise—Susanna Mattise was likely at the end of this route!

Franca didn't say much, used the surrounding darkness to half-hide her figure, occasionally searching forward, occasionally guarding the rear and sides.

After walking for a few minutes, Lu Mian and Franca stopped their steps.

There seemed to have been a certain collapse here, with rubble everywhere, and the footprints became messy here, eventually pointing to a small cavity blocked by a pile of rubble.

"The target encountered a slight collapse and was trapped here?" Franca hissed, "This is too unlucky, right?"

She then looked at Lu Mian:

"Where did you buy that bad luck charm? The effect is too good, right?"

"I'll buy you one next time I encounter someone as unlucky as that vagrant." Lu Mian wasn't sure if he would encounter people as unlucky as that vagrant again recently.

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw pieces of rubble rolling down from the stone pile blocking the entrance to the cavity, *pada* falling to the ground.

Not long after, a passage was dug out there, and a figure carefully crawled out.

He had golden-black hair, a pair of bright light-blue eyes, and looked quite good, looking exactly like another Lu Mian.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 212 =====