Chapter 32

Hearing the fat chef's request, Xia De frowned. He looked at the man known as "Mr. Neat" who collected the money, and the latter shook his head:

"This is a matter between you, the club will not stop him from leaving, but you have to persuade Fat Jack."

"I have no money left."

Xia De pulled out the pockets on both sides of his coat. Indeed, there was nothing in them except a key ring and a notebook, because his money was in the inside pocket:

"I didn't expect that he could owe so much money."

Young Franklin had already stood up, hanging his head and saying nothing beside Xia De. Although he was a bit of a jerk, he also knew that he had to rely on this person who didn't look much older than himself to leave.

"No money?"

The fat chef angrily bent down to pick up the four scattered Rhoder cards on the ground and showed Xia De the suits, which were Sun 1, Sun 8, Star 13, and Emperor.

Emperor and Empress are independent cards outside the four suits, somewhat similar to the big and small jokers in Xia De's world, but they have very interesting roles in Rhoder card games similar to "21 points."

"Draw one from the four, if you draw the Emperor, you take him away. If you don't draw it, he leaves all his clothes, and you leave your coat."

Speaking in a muffled voice, the fat chef put his hands behind his back and began to shuffle the cards. Then, with his hand with bloody tooth marks, he held the four cards facing forward and spread them out in a fan shape:

"Don't say I'm a bad person, he bit me."

He said angrily, signaling Xia De to draw a card quickly.

Xia De blinked and reached out to stop young Franklin who wanted to reach out:

"If you are lucky enough, you don't need me to redeem you here."

As he spoke, the life ring in his soul slowly rotated, the spirit urged the elements, and the elements influenced reality. There were some imperceptible red marks in his right eye, and the blood echo made the blood marks reflect in Xia De's eyes.

The world in his eyes changed, and everything took on a wonderful halo. Even though young Franklin had only sprayed a little blood on the cards just now, and all of them were sprayed on the front, the curse of "Blood Echo" still allowed Xia De to see the faint red marks in the air and the different red mist luster around the four cards in the fat chef's hand.

He had just seen that the content of the blood sprayed on the "Emperor" card was the highest, so he almost immediately knew that the card he needed to draw was the second one on the left.

"Does this count as bullying people? Just becoming a Ringed Shushi and doing this, this is not right."

He thought absentmindedly, examining his own morals and values.

Then he stretched out his finger and placed it on the card on the far right. His eyes did not look at the back of the card, but stared at the fat chef's face. The fat chef immediately tightened his fat face, trying hard not to make an expression.

Mr. Neat and young Franklin on the side were attracted by this scene.

"This one is not it."

Xia De said softly, placing his finger on the second card from the right, and stared at the chef's face for a few more seconds:

"This one is not it either."

Shaking his head, this time he changed to the correct card. After several seconds, he slowly pulled it out amidst the fat chef's irrepressible surprised expression:

"This time it is."

The card slowly turned over, and it was indeed the "Emperor."

"This should count as bullying ordinary people."

He also thought in his heart.

"Damn, I didn't see that you were actually an experienced gambler."

The fat chef was surprised for a moment, then angrily threw the other three cards in his hand to the ground:

"Take this damn kid away, next time if he owes money and doesn't pay, be careful not to fall into my hands."

A look of relief appeared on the accountant's son's pale face, while Xia De nodded. He did not comment on other people's behavior, only knowing that the curse 【Blood Echo】 was indeed very helpful to the detective career.

After giving Xia De the receipt, in order to prevent Xia De and the dejected young Franklin from running around in the club, the man had to send the two outside the club. But the three of them had just walked to the stairs on the second floor and were about to go downstairs when they were stopped.

It was a woman in her thirties dressed as a maid, with a very mediocre appearance, but a very good temperament.

She walked down the stairs from the third floor:

"That lady wants to see you."

She looked at Xia De and nodded slightly to him.

"Is there anyone behind me?"

Xia De thought and immediately looked behind him, but there was no one behind him:

"Me?"

"Yes, sir, please come with me, your friend can wait for you on the first floor for the time being."

The woman said. Xia De didn't understand, so he looked at the man leading the way, and the latter shrugged:

"There is only one distinguished guest on the third floor tonight. If it is that lady, you'd better follow her up. That is a very noble lady. As for him, I will watch him for you, and guarantee not to let him get close to the gambling table."

As he spoke, he patted young Franklin's shoulder very hard. The latter was almost knocked down, but dared not oppose Xia De's departure.

"May I know. Who is that lady?"

Xia De asked hesitantly, suspecting that it was someone like the owner of the club, and even suspecting that it was Lady Lasoya, Mr. Lawrence's "mistress," who had discovered him.

But he didn't understand the reason why the other party was looking for him. The previous detective's only intersection with this place was coming to pick up people last time. Besides that, Xia De had no other social relations that could possibly be related to this club.

He was still thinking about a cat at home, and wanted to go home as soon as possible to prevent the newly arrived cat from excreting on his bed or desk.

"That lady is a noble with a title, and is our most distinguished guest tonight. For the sake of her reputation, you cannot know the lady's identity for the time being."

The woman dressed as a maid said in standard Delarion common language. Xia De then nodded slightly:

"Then what is the matter for looking for me? Sorry, I don't seem to know anyone with such a noble status."

"Please come with me."

The woman leading the way turned and walked upstairs. Xia De hesitated for a moment, then followed.

Compared to the relatively quiet second floor, the third floor was absolutely quiet. Judging from the decoration, if he hadn't walked up from downstairs, Xia De would even believe that this was a floor of an art museum.

He followed behind the maid, looking at the oil paintings on both sides of the wall while walking along the carpet in the corridor. He stopped in front of a golden double-door gate. The maid helped push open the door on the left, leaving a gap wide enough for Xia De to enter:

"That lady is waiting for you inside."

Xia De nodded again, waited for a second, and did not wait for the woman's voice in his head to prompt the appearance of "elements," and then entered the room.

The maid closed the door from the outside. Xia De stood with his back to the door, looking at the empty reception room.

The layout of the room here is very similar to the doctor's reception room and clinic.

The bookshelf occupied an entire wall, and the floor of the room was completely covered by carpets. The combination of desk, coffee table and sofa, and closet were all brown wooden products, which looked very business-like.

It's just that the brass-colored metal box on the coffee table is a bit eye-catching. This looks like a so-called gear mechanism box, which needs to rotate the large and small gears on the six sides to a specific arrangement order to open.

The steam pipes and gas pipes on the wall blend well with the paint color of the whitewashed walls. There are two gas lamps in the shape of angels blowing horns on the surrounding walls. The warm yellow light is not brighter than the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

The three windows on the wall facing the door are covered by thick embroidered fabric curtains in reddish-brown, but Xia De did not consider the possibility of hiding people behind the curtains.

It was extremely quiet, and Xia De felt creepy because of this. Someone was spying on himself, but definitely not in this room.