Chapter 181: The Lawyer Who Plays Cards

"Excuse me, does Mr. Laurel live here? Is he home?"

There was no wind today, and a thick fog hung over the city. The morning sun could not pierce the clouds with much force, so the whole street looked somewhat gloomy.

While the drunkard eyed Xia De suspiciously, Xia De was also sizing up the other man. Although the client, Mrs. Lemuel, could not provide a photo of the lawyer, the drunkard's appearance did not match the client's description of the lawyer at all — this was definitely not the lawyer.

"Laurel? Go find him at the tavern on the street corner."

Saying that, the drunkard tried to slam the door shut. Xia De strongly suspected this fellow had also just come from the tavern.

Thinking this, he reached out and held the door; no matter how hard the drunkard pulled, he could not close it. Xia De put on what he considered a very affable smile:

"Sir, I'd also like to ask — when did Mr. Laurel move in? And what work does he do?"

Because he didn't want to breathe through his nose and inhale too much alcohol fumes, his voice came out a bit muffled.

"Him? When I moved here three years ago, he was already here. He's a lawyer — you know, the kind who solves legal problems for people, handles estates, divorces, that sort of thing... hic!"

The drunkard muttered on. Xia De thanked him and finally let him close the door.

Hands tucked in his pockets, he studied the door in front of him, then turned to look at the bustling street. A carriage passed by; a newsboy looked at him hopefully; a housewife leading a child scolded her as she walked along the wall. After refusing the newsboy, Xia De looked again toward the tavern at the street corner:

"Even though I have information, I can't take it at face value. I still need to meet the lawyer in person. If it comes to it, I'll just break into the house — a lawyer who's been practicing for years must have plenty of documents."

If it were the middle of the night, Xia De could have used an illusion to bewitch the drunkard when he knocked and slipped in without a sound. Unfortunately, during the day Xia De's thaumaturgy is restricted — the outsider favored by the Silver Moon is a creature of the night... though not all that powerful, really.

The tavern at the end of Queen Mary Street was called "The Boar Head Tavern." From the name alone, you could tell it had nothing special going for it.

Although it was only nine in the morning, the tavern still had quite a few people inside. After Xia De pushed the door and walked in, he took a breath of the strange mingled smell of alcohol and fermented food, and saw that nearly half the tables had someone sitting at them.

Because it did business on a main street rather than in a narrow alley, at least the sanitary conditions here were decent. There was even a young man in a hat sitting by the wall playing a lute, his notes fitting neatly into the tavern's din.

Xia De surveyed the tavern's interior, concluded that the fire-safety measures here were inadequate, and walked over to the bar. He rapped on the counter, took out his wallet, and raised his voice above the noise:

"A glass of water... no, a glass of rye beer."

The busy bartender glanced at him:

"Five pence."

Xia De put down seven pence on the counter, and the bartender gave him a surprised look.

"Which one is Mr. Lock Laurel?"

the detective asked.

"Just for two extra pence?"

The young bartender said in astonishment, but seeing Xia De about to take the money back, he hurriedly swept the small coins into his own hand:

"Two pence is still money... that one over there, by the wall — the tall man playing Luo De Pai with the others."

The client had described the lawyer as a man with brown hair, dark brown eyes, taller than Xia De, with a beer belly.

Following the direction the bartender indicated, he indeed saw five or six people gathered around a table by the wall. The man sitting on one side of the table was the only one in the group wearing a white shirt.

Although this wasn't the slums of Beicheng's North District in Tobesk, the people living around here generally hovered between subsistence and hunger. On a weekday morning, most of the people hanging around a tavern were idlers, so they dressed very casually — which made the lawyer in the white shirt stand out.

"Do you know anything about Mr. Laurel's situation?"

Xia De didn't walk over right away, but asked again. The young bartender, whose face was densely freckled, put on a mercenary grin and made a rubbing-fingers gesture. Xia De thought for a moment, then pushed the glass of rye beer toward him:

"My treat."

"You..."

The bartender had probably never met anyone like this, but he still set the beer on the shelf behind him, then took five pence out of the small cardboard box he kept the money in and stuffed it into his own pocket:

"He's a lawyer. He comes here to play Luo De Pai every Wednesday, Friday, and weekends."

"Has he been a lawyer for a long time? Is playing Luo De Pai here an expensive habit?"

Xia De asked again. The bartender looked at him for a while, saw he had no intention of pulling out more money, and said somewhat helplessly:

"Yes, he's been a lawyer since he moved to this street five years ago. As for playing Luo De Pai, it's just a hobby — he can hardly even be called a gambler. Educated people, they can generally control themselves well."

Xia De rested an arm on the counter and turned to look at the lawyer, whose back was to him, playing cards. Based on the situation so far, the odds were very good that Lock Laurel really was a lawyer, and combined with that divination from the Prophets Association, he was basically certain the man was fine. But Xia De still needed one final confirmation before the investigation could be considered wrapped up.

And quite conveniently, Xia De could also barely be considered a Luo De Pai player.

After bidding farewell to the bartender, who looked very bored, he walked toward the card-playing group while sorting his deck. The special cards had to be pulled out and replaced with ordinary playing cards — a tavern like this was hardly a safe place.

Then, pretending to have been drawn over, he stood with the onlookers and watched the lawyer's game against a rough, sweating middle-aged man. The latter was clearly having no luck — every card he drew was accompanied by filthy curses. In the end, he even slammed his cards viciously onto the floor, abandoning the pile of loose change and cards on the table, and stormed toward the bar in a fury, apparently out of money to keep playing.

"Anyone else want to play?"

The victorious middle-aged lawyer looked quite pleased with himself. People murmured among themselves about the brilliance of the last round, but no one seemed inclined to step up.

Xia De certainly wasn't going to walk up right away. He waited until Lawyer Laurel looked a touch impatient, then called out from behind the crowd:

"If you don't mind playing cards with a stranger, I think I could give it a try."

The people made way for him to reach the table, and Xia De set his old deck of Luo De Pai down on the round wooden surface.

The lawyer, with great poise, sized him up, took a large swig from the glass in front of him, then gestured for him to sit down:

"Five pence a round. Double on a bust, triple on twenty-one, quadruple on drawing the King and Wang Hou. Only the highest multiplier counts. Let me warn you — this isn't a game for young men."

The stakes weren't all that large in relative terms, but losing round after round could still be terrifying.