Chapter 1538: Green Lake Hotel

"The newspaper date is... this is the newspaper from the Month of Birth earlier this year. The destination is correct, this is the Green Lake area, and it is most likely not Mikaela Furnace City, but Green Lake City."

Without rushing to leave, Xia De narrowed his eyes slightly, used the miracle 【Blood Echo】 to look around, and then observed very fresh bloodstains. Following the bloodstains, he found the place where pork, mutton, and chicken were placed, separated by red bricks:

"Not a tavern. Even if a tavern sells food, it wouldn't be prepared so comprehensively. It looks like this is a restaurant or hotel storage room, and the area is not small. The ingredients and wine are not high-end, not a noble club or a high-end restaurant that requires reservations; but it is cleaned very cleanly, and the ingredients are also placed in categories, indicating that the business here is very good."

He summarized in his heart, used 【Red Butterfly Illusion】 to disguise himself, and then walked toward the exit of the basement storage room. The basement was connected to the stairs above, but the door connecting to the top was not a vertical door like the basement of Xia De's house, but a trapdoor embedded in the ground.

Xia De pushed the door and found that it was not locked, so he opened a gap directly. He looked out through the gap. Outside was the storage room on the ground. Bacon and chili were hanging on the wall, tableware and wine glasses were placed on the shelves, and a bag of soybeans and a mountain of potatoes were placed in the corner.

The area of the room was not large, there were no windows, and the door was also closed. Xia De then came to the ground from the trapdoor, leaned against the door to listen to the sound outside, and confirmed that the outside of this door was the kitchen of this restaurant or hotel.

"It seems it is indeed a hotel."

It was around 9:30 in the morning now. If it were a restaurant, this time point wouldn't even have started a fire.

The chefs who were busy were all ordinary people, so Xia De walked out of the storage room generously, and no one could find him. However, Xia De didn't enter the front of the hotel from the kitchen door, but left from the back door of the kitchen connecting to the alley.

Restaurants or hotels would have back doors for throwing garbage, which was the same in any city.

"It turns out the door is actually inside the hotel. This makes it inconvenient to act at any time. The business here is very good, and I can't spend money to buy the whole hotel directly."

Xia De thought in his heart.

Arriving in the narrow alley, what came into view were low-rise buildings connected in pieces. The air was filled with gray mist, and the mist mixed with the smell of rotting food residues, forming an unusually disgusting smell. The wanted posters and blurred old newspapers posted on the walls had turned yellow, and the obscene patterns doodled by someone were also covered by various filth. The brass steam pipeline was fixed on the ground by a keyhole, and the entire pipeline was located on the central axis of the alley, and not far from the back door of the hotel, the pipeline covered by garbage was even hissing and leaking.

The water vapor mixed with the stench made the environment here even more unbearable.

The wild dog that seemed to have skin ringworm, which was startled by Xia De's appearance, fled in a panic from the garbage dump outside the door. The barking of the dog startled a large group of crows pecking at the ground in the alley, and the flying birds left bursts of creepy calls when they flew toward the gray sky filled with mist.

Gloomy, dull, dilapidated, this was Xia De's first impression of this city:

"Although I heard that the development status of Green Lake City is not very good, but this... it is also possible that this is a slum."

The narrow alley even had a curved arc. On the left, one could see the fork in the alley, and one didn't know where the end led. Not far to the right, the houses on both sides were connected into a corridor bridge, and looking over the corridor bridge, one could see the tower, and further away, it seemed to be the main street.

"Go deep into the maze-like city alley on the left, and go to the main street on the right."

He summarized the current situation, but didn't set off immediately, but knocked on the lid of the metal trash can beside him.

There were not many positions on that lid that could be considered "clean," and Xia De had to avoid the dried sticky phlegm and animal feces before he dared to drop his fingers:

"Is anyone home?"

He didn't get any response, so he opened the lid of the trash can himself. He leaned over and looked inside. A boy wearing a gray short-sleeved shirt in the early spring weather, holding a spotted puppy in his arms, curled up in the trash can, looking timidly at Xia De who leaned over.

There was also a strong strange smell in the bucket, and old quilts and some newspapers were padded under him. Before the boy could speak timidly, the weak black-and-white spotted puppy barked fiercely at Xia De.

Xia De ignored the dog, looked at the boy for a moment, and beckoned to him while the latter became more and more afraid:

"Come out, ask you some questions. I'll give you food."

Saying this, he stepped back, took out the bread and a few pieces of sugar cubes in a paper bag from his pocket at an angle where the line of sight in the bucket couldn't see clearly. And the reason why he didn't give money was because Xia De didn't know whether the boy had a channel to safely turn money into food.

I don't know if Xia De's affinity was amazing, or the temptation of food was really too great. The boy, whose limbs were as thin as matches, first threw the puppy out of the trash can, and then climbed out with effort.

However, he didn't dare to approach Xia De, but hugged his companion, leaned against the trash can, and stared at the bag of bread in Xia De's hand.

"The mood is not good all of a sudden."

The Outlander sighed softly and asked:

"Test if you can speak first—where is this? City name, street name. What is your name, how old are you."

The boy pursed his chapped lips and waited for five or six seconds before saying:

"This is Green Lake City, I don't know how to read, but others say this is Rotten Bug Alley. This is the back of Green Lake Hotel, the main street outside is Owl Street. My name is John, thirteen years old."

But his height looked like he was only five or six years old, which was a symptom of severe malnutrition.

"Little John, is it?"

Xia De nodded, and then searched his memory for the map of Green Lake City. While thinking, he took out a piece of white bread from the paper bag and threw it to the boy. After the boy put down the weak puppy and caught the bread in a panic, he first tore off a small piece and threw it to the weak puppy, and then he devoured it himself.

"Do you have water? I have other questions, don't choke yourself."

Xia De said again, and the boy nodded quickly, climbed back into the trash can to find a wooden cup—this looked exactly the same as those in the hotel warehouse, and then ran back dozens of steps, bent down and pushed aside the garbage on the ground, revealing the inconspicuous faucet and filled a cup of water.

This kind of faucet connected outside in the alley had special uses. The boy occupied the trash can here, largely because of this faucet.

After the boy finished eating that piece of bread, Xia De, who was waiting patiently, continued to ask:

"Have you always lived here?"

"Yes."

It was still a very short answer. Xia De also understood that he lived on the garbage thrown by the hotel, so he gave the boy another piece of bread.

"Green Lake Hotel, how is the business this spring?"

"Very good, better than the winter business. Recently, the kitchen garbage they threw away is more. I even found a fried fish that was only eaten two bites yesterday."

"Very good. Then, have there been any strange things happening nearby recently? For example, strange sounds at night, or the garbage thrown by the hotel is very strange."

The things he wanted to know had actually been asked. Continuing to ask was just because since there was still bread in his hand, there should naturally be an excuse to send the bread out.

The boy thought about it, shook his head, held the new bread and looked at Xia De, not knowing whether he should return the bread because he didn't answer the question. Xia De certainly wouldn't do that. He put the rest of the white bread and those sugar cubes in the bag and gave them all to the boy.

The boy and the puppy seemed a bit scared. Xia De didn't say much, put the paper bag on the ground, waved his hand, and walked toward the right side of the alley.

Not only in the alley, but after passing through the alley and coming to Owl Street, the city was still in a gray mist. But compared to that alley, at least the street showed the scene of a border metropolis.

What came into view were low-rise two-story or three-story old-style buildings connected in pieces, and large patches of tile roofs looked like some kind of ringworm in the sparse sunlight. In the distance, one could see several towering buildings, the most eye-catching of which was the tower of the church. Further away, the lonely chimney sprayed black smoke into the sky, like an old man about to suffocate, unwilling to admit defeat and wanting to breathe a few more times.

Just looking at the street scene, the development status here was not as good as most cities the Outlander had been to in this world, and it was not even as good as the "Eternal Night City" in the rainy night.

"Here, it's simply like dying in this gray mist."

Owl Street was the street in the downtown area of Green Lake City. The library, city hall, chamber of commerce, and important functional buildings in the city were all here. Walking further east, it was the Duin River that connected Green Lake and crossed the Green Lake area from north to south. The east bank of the Duin River was the train station of Green Lake City, followed by large patches of slums.

And Green Lake Hotel, since it was named after the local city, was naturally the largest hotel in the area.

Xia De looked at the street scene in the mist while walking toward the main entrance of the hotel. From the appearance, the area of Green Lake Hotel was larger than the "Three Cats Hotel" in Tobesk and the "Abundant Earth Hotel" in Randall Valley, occupying about one-third of the east side of Owl Street. The hotel had three floors, and the small square windows with drawn curtains looked dense when viewed from the street, and it felt a bit strange after looking at it for a long time.

Considering that he would be active here for many days in the future, Xia De entered Green Lake Hotel from the main entrance, intending to rent a room as his communication address. ===== CHAPTER 1539 =====