Chapter 399

Lugano looked at Lu Mian with a slightly strange feeling:

"You've heard of this surgery too?"

After responding subconsciously, he piled up a smile:

"As expected of you, knowledgeable and with broad interests, even knowing about this kind of cutting-edge surgery."

"It seems you know a lot." Lu Mian skipped Lugano's ingratiation.

Lugano nodded quickly:

"I've seen it in a few magazines. Some physicians believe that the essence of this surgery is to destroy the patient's brain, and it's irreversible. That is to say, it seems to have cured the patient's madness, but it makes him dull and stupid, forever calm, without emotional fluctuations.

"They feel that if this surgery isn't used for treatment, there is still hope for the madness to improve through other methods, but once dull and stupid, there is no possibility of a cure."

There are still quite a few doctors in Intis with high academic levels who dare to tell the truth, and their professional ethics are also quite good... Lu Mian nodded secretly.

After confirming that Lugano had a certain understanding of the medical field, he asked casually:

"Are there any strange medical cases recently?"

Lugano thought carefully for a while and shook his head slowly:

"Nothing strange."

Lu Mian was just about to change the question when Lugano added:

"If you really want to talk about strange, a folklore that has been popular in a small area recently is quite strange."

"Folklore related to medicine?" Lu Mian tasted the hidden meaning in Lugano's words.

Lugano, with brown hair and brown eyes, smiled and replied:

"You could say that.

"It's roughly that a group of Trier citizens feel that the blood shed by death row inmates carries the most tenacious power of the end of life. If you use bread to dip some and eat it, it can treat various diseases. This makes many column doctors very angry, calling this a retro, bloody, and stupid behavior. By comparison, going to the church to pray for protection might be more effective."

"How come I've never heard of such a folklore?" Lu Mian felt that the behavior of those Trier citizens carried an indescribable meaning, not just stupidity.

Lugano smiled:

"Boss, this is very normal. I hadn't heard of it before either. It's a folklore that only appeared in the last two or three months. It might have been brought by some outsiders, and more and more people believe in it."

Lu Mian chatted with this bounty hunter who was saving money to buy the main materials for "Physician" for a while longer, and had a vague impression of the Trier medical field.

Near noon, after filling his stomach, he turned into White Coat Street and entered building number 3, which served as an apartment.

During this process, Lu Mian didn't hide his curiosity and specifically examined the exterior of 6 White Coat Street, finding no traces left behind.

He knocked on the door of Apartment 601 and threw the "Lie" earring to Franca, who had her flaxen long hair tied up simply.

This companion had to go contact people from the Demoness Sect again this afternoon, so she had to change into her previous appearance.

"Why did you just come?" Franca caught the silver-white earring accurately. "Didn't you receive the materials sent by Lady Hela? I've been waiting for you to come over to discuss them."

Lu Mian gave a laugh:

"Why are you more anxious than me?"

After he closed the door, he sat on the sofa and told all the key information and corresponding guesses he had extracted from the materials. Franca interrupted from time to time to give her opinions.

Toward the end, Lu Mian roughly repeated the situation of the Trier medical field and the strange folklore described by bounty hunter Lugano Toscano.

Franca's expression suddenly became strange.

"Problem?" Lu Mian was happy instead of surprised.

Franca said "Hmm":

"The rumor that eating bread dipped in the blood of death row inmates can cure diseases is very similar to the ancient folklore of my hometown, but that was many years ago. Since the popularization of education, this kind of folklore has basically disappeared.

"The original version of the folklore is that steamed buns stained with the blood of death row inmates can treat serious lung diseases, provided they are eaten while hot."

Lu Mian raised his right eyebrow as he listened.

He just said that the strange folklore gave him an indescribable feeling:

The feeling of a prank!

This is the style of "April Fool's"!

"Done by 'I have a friend'?" Lu Mian was suddenly a bit excited.

A "Psychiatrist" who can hypnotize can completely make such a folklore appear and spread without anyone knowing!

Franca nodded solemnly:

"'I have a friend' is also from the same hometown as me and your sister. Otherwise, your sister wouldn't have trusted him and sought him out for psychological treatment.

"His codename and the languages he mastered all prove this point. And except for him and 'Black Earth', other members of the 'April Fool's' might not know that ancient folklore."

"'Loki' doesn't know either?" Lu Mian asked in astonishment.

"I'm not sure." Franca frowned. "I'm not familiar with him, and he never revealed his identity as a fellow countryman. If it weren't for the fact that he used the language of my and your sister's hometown when reciting those four honorific names, I wouldn't have known he could. I always thought the Emperor Roselle diaries of their group were translated by 'I have a friend' and 'Black Earth'."

Lu Mian smiled:

"It would be great if it really was a folklore prank created by 'I have a friend'. I'll go to the execution ground in the Prison District to watch later."

The Prison District is also called Red Hat District, officially numbered 4, and is one of the oldest districts. It has one of the most famous prisons in Intis—St. Malle Prison, from which the district gets its name.

Near St. Malle Prison is one of the busiest execution grounds in Trier—the Ruwa Comprehensive Execution Ground.

"Be careful, 'Psychiatrists' are more cautious than 'Marionettists'." Franca reminded him.

Although "I have a friend" is not a Beyonder of the "Seer", "Marauder", and "Apprentice" pathways, even if he worshipped the "Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings", he wouldn't be able to discover the seal on Lu Mian's body. But Lu Mian still felt he couldn't be careless. He took back the "Lie" earring and simply changed his appearance—he was worried that the resurrected "Loki" had already communicated his and Franca's real appearance to "I have a friend".

After Franca got the "Lie" earring back, she asked curiously:

"What's going on with that terrifying aura that day?"

Lu Mian smiled:

"This has to start from Lady Hela and me looking for the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring'."

"..." Franca was stunned at first, then started cursing, "Damn! How many details do you still have about such a matter that you haven't told me?"

"It depends on when it's used." Lu Mian briefly mentioned the situation of being eroded by the "Blood Emperor's" aura into his flesh and blood.

Franca had forgotten her anger and carefully looked at Lu Mian's raised right palm, finally discovering the few inconspicuous marks that looked like they had been squeezed.

"Wow, you actually have the aura of a True God on you. Although it's just an empty shell, it's still the aura of a True God, and it's a True God of the same pathway." Franca sighed with envy, wishing she could get one for herself too.

She then looked at Lu Mian's left hand, which was still wrapped in bandages:

"What's on this one?"

"Nothing, it's used to attract attention." Lu Mian replied with a smile.

Franca was stunned for two seconds:

"You are so insidious! If you advance to 'Conspirer', your digestion speed will definitely be very fast!"

"I hope the result is as good as you blessed." Lu Mian didn't humble himself.

…………

In the afternoon, Lu Mian took a public carriage to the north bank of the Selenzo River and arrived at the Ruwa Comprehensive Execution Ground in the Prison District.

One of the great hobbies of Trier citizens is watching the execution of criminals. Although today is not a weekend, many people have gathered here, and there are even many vendors either setting up stalls or weaving through them, peddling food and drink.

Among them, there are many brightly dressed streetwalkers looking for business, and there are also a batch of writers who came specifically to stroll around.

If it weren't for the name "Ruwa Comprehensive Execution Ground" written at the intersection, and the gallows and guillotine standing in the distance, Lu Mian would have suspected that he had come to the wrong place and entered some market nearby, lively and noisy.

Stepping on the ground paved with rammed earth, Lu Mian hid himself in the crowd and walked around the execution ground like strolling through a market.

He didn't discover any suspicious people, but he saw a dozen or twenty men and women holding bread squeezed to the very front. Their clothes were all very old, and some could even be called shabby.

After a long while, the crowd suddenly surged, squeezing to both sides of the road leading to the execution ground to welcome the team coming from St. Malle Prison.

Lu Mian didn't join in the fun, but heard some people cheering, some whistling, and women shouting "I am willing to marry you".

The latter is not a proposal, but a mockery of past folklore. In the classical era before Emperor Roselle, if someone among the onlookers proposed to a death row inmate on his way from prison to the execution ground, and he chose to agree, he would get a commutation and survive. But death row inmates wouldn't all accept it either; some valued appearance very much, some had great dignity, and all chose to use death to persist in their own concepts.

The two most famous cases are that a handsome death row inmate rejected the proposal of an onlooker woman, thinking her appearance was a nightmare, and a beautiful girl gave up self-rescue in the face of the executioner's courtship, on the grounds that this was an insult to love and marriage.

Lu Mian squeezed to the front row of onlookers and saw two death row inmates standing in the rammed earth shooting point.

They were both relatively young, not over thirty, wearing uniform prison clothes—red jackets, yellow trousers, green hats, dragging iron balls on their feet, their hands tied behind their backs with iron chains.

One of these two men had black hair and blue eyes, and the other had brown hair and brown eyes. Their appearances were quite good, but when they looked at each other, they were full of hatred.

Seeing that the gunmen responsible for the execution had arrived at the designated position and raised the rifles in their hands respectively, the two death row inmates shouted loudly at the same time:

"Long live freedom!"

"Reproduce the glory!"

After shouting, the two looked at each other angrily, and fell down amidst the bang-bang gunshots, blood gushing out.

Those people holding bread were excited for a moment, but were blocked by the soldiers in front and couldn't rush into the shooting point.

After the situation of the two death row inmates was confirmed, the soldiers left in formation, and the citizens holding bread rushed madly toward the rammed earth stained with blood.

Lu Mian didn't look at them, but observed the surroundings to see who was appreciating this absurd comedy.

PS: Second update today, seeking October base monthly votes~ During the double period, it's a waste if you don't vote~

(End of chapter)