Chapter 363: Farewell

Those who often came to the basement bar had recently become numb to Charlie talking about "what is a decent person, what is a civilized person". Now that they had a chance to tease that guy, they were exceptionally excited, each shouting louder than the other.

Charlie, wearing a white shirt and an open black vest, hesitated whether to pay for a drink for nearly thirty people or dance a striptease.

Soon, he put down the beer in his hand and jumped onto a small round table.

What stupid things hadn't he done when he was drunk here before? What was there to be afraid of with a striptease?

Lu Mian smiled, clapped his hands, took out a 20 Felkin banknote, slapped it on the bar counter, and said to the boss, Paval Nisen,

"One for everyone, whatever they want to drink."

After saying that, he picked up a glass of Renz, watching Charlie, amidst the cheers, clumsily twisting his hips and carefully unbuttoning his shirt.

"More intense! More violent!" Lu Mian shouted loudly in a tone of watching the fun.

Other drinkers also followed suit.

Sweat beaded on Charlie's forehead, worried that violently tearing the clothes would damage the shirt.

This was not a cheap old linen shirt!

He thought for a moment and, taking advantage of the fact that the buttons on the shirt had already been undone, simply adopted the method of taking off a sweater.

Lu Mian took another sip of Renz, sat back at the bar, looked at Gabriel, who was wearing black-rimmed glasses and dark suspender trousers, and asked with amusement,

"So early today?"

Didn't this playwright, who was used to staying up late, usually come here for a drink only after midnight?

Gabriel held a glass of green absinthe and smiled peacefully,

"I'm moving away tomorrow."

"Has 'The Light Chaser' been staged?" Lu Mian immediately had a guess.

Gabriel rubbed his messy brown hair, smiled, and said,

"Not yet, but after rehearsing for a period of time, both Mr. Lop and the director and actors of the Revival Theater are very optimistic, and their confidence is very high. So I don't have to worry about how to live after spending the 1,000 Felkin manuscript fee I received in advance after moving to a more expensive place. You know, I no longer write vulgar and inferior stories for those tabloids."

"Where do you plan to move?" Lu Mian asked casually.

Gabriel said with longing,

"Saint-Michel Street in the 2nd District. Many writers and painters live there. Not far away are the National Museum, the Trier Art Center, various art galleries, and sculptures of different shapes."

The 2nd District, also known as the Art District or Financial District, is half ancient and has a strong cultural atmosphere, and half is luxury architecture popular in the last ten years, where the headquarters of financial institutions such as the Intis Central Bank, Trier Bank, Suhit Bank, and Asset Credit Bank are located, as well as places like the Trier Stock Exchange and the Intis Futures Market.

Saint-Michel Street is the most peripheral street in this district, and the rent is relatively cheap, attracting many writers and painters to settle down.

"A good place. Maybe if you throw a brick down, you can hit three writers and two painters, oh, and poets who died without anyone noticing." Lu Mian recalled Aurora's ridicule of Saint-Michel Street and said it in his own words, not forgetting to satirize the poorest poet group.

Gabriel drank a sip of absinthe embarrassedly.

"But that place is indeed the most suitable place for communication and creation, unlike here, which is only relatively quiet at night, but even that is only relative, and there are hateful bedbugs..."

Speaking of this, Gabriel suddenly remembered that the black-market boss beside him, who was both violent and had a humanistic temperament, was the current owner of the Golden Rooster Hotel, and hurriedly closed his mouth.

At this time, Charlie finished his striptease, put his shirt back on, squeezed out from the drinkers who were commenting on his figure with 'malice', sat beside Lu Mian, and said as if casually,

"I've been too busy recently, I haven't come for several days, I just want to sleep when I get home. Look, look, this is the trouble of being a decent person. Hey, why would they suddenly think of conducting a large-scale investigation of wanted criminals from Cordu Village?"

Yo, learned to be much smarter? Lu Mian, who was intentionally practicing his way of speaking, responded with a smile,

"What does the Cordu Village matter have to do with me, Charles Dubois?"

Since contracting 'Face of Nisse' from the 'Human-Faced Mantis', he didn't worry much about being recognized by the official authorities.

Seeing Lu Mian's confidence, Charlie didn't mention this matter again and talked happily about how he was introduced to a female teacher by a colleague. Although the other party didn't take a fancy to him, it also proved that he had taken another step toward being a true decent person.

Drinking until almost midnight, Lu Mian and Gabriel, who was moving tomorrow, sent Charlie away and walked up the stairs to the second floor.

Gabriel looked at the corridor wall, which had only one gas wall lamp and was covered with newspapers and cheap pink paper, and suddenly felt some emotion.

"Only when I'm about to leave do I feel that there are things here that can be savored."

"When I first moved here, I thought that with my talent, it wouldn't be long before I could leave this garbage dump, uh, hellish hotel. Who knew, I lived here for ten months. Even if I move to Saint-Michel Street, I should often think of the small bar I can reach by going downstairs, think of the absinthe that makes me both sober and intoxicated, think of the pungent smell of sulfur, think of those hateful bedbugs, think of those people who gave me light in the darkness, Miss Safali, Charlie, and, you."

While Gabriel was speaking, he stopped and reached out to touch the wall cracks revealed where the newspaper had fallen off.

"Do you writers just like to suddenly be sentimental and talk at length?" Lu Mian ridiculed.

Gabriel laughed sheepishly.

"I don't know if other writers are like this, but I am occasionally."

"I've lived here for almost a year, seeing many tenants either suddenly disappear, leave in a hurry, or painfully end their own lives. But the next day, no, maybe it was just an hour later, new tenants would arrive to chase the prosperity of Trier, to chase the dreams in their hearts, and move into the rooms they left behind. The vast majority of them failed and disappeared like dust, but there will always be batch after batch of people arriving, and perhaps one or two will succeed."

"This is the inspiration for the script of 'The Light Chaser'."

"You are considered one of the successful ones." Lu Mian remembered Mrs. Michel, who sang the lyrics "This is the city of joy, this is the eternal Trier" and hanged herself, and lost the mood to ridicule Gabriel.

"Hope." Gabriel's face was filled with anticipation.

He started walking again, up to the second floor, but he didn't stop, as if he wanted to continue going up.

"Are you going?" Lu Mian could roughly guess the answer, but still asked politely.

Gabriel pointed upstairs.

"Going to say goodbye to Miss Safali and thank her for always encouraging me."

Lu Mian revealed a teasing smile, pinched his lips with his hand, and whistled.

"Wish you a dreamy night!"

"I don't!" Gabriel denied subconsciously.

Lu Mian turned his body, walked toward room 207, and waved his hand.

"Can't a person have a dreamy night alone?"

Gabriel was speechless.

After watching Charles enter the room, he cleared his throat and continued walking toward the third floor.

On the way, he thought of many past events, including the first time he met the human body model Safali, the first time he talked to her about creation, the first time he received encouragement...

He knew that being a human body model was a very low-income profession. The most popular male model only earned eighty or ninety Felkin a month, and ordinary ones might be sixty or seventy, equivalent to a trainee waiter in a hotel. Female models earned even less, only about forty Felkin, which couldn't support themselves at all. It could only be a part-time job. There was no such thing as someone choosing to expose their body and become a painter's model because of laziness or greed for enjoyment.

Safali was the same, enduring criticism just to earn a little more money, just to change her current situation.

Gabriel stopped outside room 309 and knocked lightly on the door.

"Please come in." Safali's slightly hollow voice came out.

Gabriel pushed open the door and saw Safali standing in front of the wooden table by the window, her lake-blue long dress sliding off her body and piling onto the ground.

Under the crimson moonlight, Safali's brown eyes were fluttering, her brown hair was disheveled, and her fair body was inlaid with one human face after another.

Some were gorgeous, some ferocious, some handsome, some venomous, and all their eyes were looking at Gabriel at the same time.

Gabriel was startled and almost screamed.

"Is something the matter?" Safali's voice with a strong sense of detachment sounded again.

Gabriel came back to his senses abruptly and found that those faces were just near-realistic oil paintings, and the canvas was Safali's body.

Thinking that the other party's profession was a human body model, Gabriel didn't ask further and let out a breath.

"I'm moving away tomorrow, thank you for your encouragement these past few months."

As soon as he finished speaking, Safali stretched out her right hand, her eyes becoming blurred.

Gabriel walked in involuntarily.

Half an hour later, Gabriel lay on the bed, holding Safali, and said sincerely,

"Come with me to Saint-Michel Street."

Safali shook her head firmly.

"I'm moving away too, to another place."

Gabriel asked,

"Where to?"

"To a place called 'Hostel', where my friends are." Safali's voice took on a bit of hollowness again.

Gabriel tried to persuade her again and again, but was rejected by this human body model.

He had to leave sadly, Safali got out of bed naked, watching him walk toward the door.

At this time, the red moon was covered, and the room was exceptionally dark. The oil painting faces on Safali's body suddenly seemed to come alive, one after another opening their mouths toward Gabriel's back.

They finally returned to calm, and Gabriel closed the door politely.

…………

The next morning, Lu Mian, as usual, ran, practiced boxing, and sought breakfast.

After returning to the Golden Rooster Hotel, he saw that Gabriel's room next door was already open, with no one inside and no luggage.

Lu Mian curiously went up to the third floor and found that room 309 was the same.

He immediately made a "tsk tsk" sound and walked back to room 207 with a smile.

Not long after, the 'Doll' messenger appeared, throwing the folded square letter paper and a silver-white mask onto the wooden table.

Miss Justice's reward has arrived? Lu Mian felt happy in his heart.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 364 =====