Chapter 438

"However, even to win favor, giving this..."

Duoluoqian's eyes lingered on the pearl on the table. This appearance was very similar to the cat caught by Xia De:

"What a pity to give such a beautiful pearl... cough cough, I mean, if it's to please the Queen, for the sake of a future title, giving this is just right."

"A title? Duoluoqian, I don't care about this."

Xia De shook his head and said:

"If you like this pearl, just keep it."

Although Xia De always felt that he was short of money, he actually had many precious items that could be cashed in.

"No, no, just give it away. Although you don't care about the title, but..."

Duoluoqian looked up at Xia De, and Xia De also looked at her. The blonde, blue-eyed girl didn't continue immediately, but waited for several seconds of eye contact before looking at Xia De and continuing this sentence softly.

What kind of thoughts were contained in her beautiful eyes, Xia De really couldn't guess:

"... Princess Lei Qianya cares."

"Meow?"

The cat held by Xia De stared with eyes that were even better-looking than those of the beautiful girls, curiously looking at Duoluoqian, while Xia De opened his mouth slightly to show surprise.

It was because of this sentence that Xia De spent the whole day letting his imagination run wild. Even the report paper for Professor Kajia's "Locked Space" course, which he planned to finish during the day, was delayed until the evening to be finished.

Although the report was long, when he put the final period on the parchment, the satisfaction and sense of achievement were also there:

"Mia, go to the side!"

The cat was trying to use its claws to smudge the ink that hadn't dried yet.

He had agreed with Priest Priest Ao Gu Si to meet at midnight, but the meeting place was in the northern suburbs of the city, so Xia De set off early at ten o'clock in the evening. After thinking about it, he still took Mia, who wanted to stay at home and didn't want to go out, with him. In Xia De's view, Priest Priest Ao Gu Si was a very reliable person. Since he said there was no big deal, then there should really be no big deal.

The night in Tobesk in mid-August still didn't have much coolness. He found a carriage at the intersection of St. Deran Square, but when he heard that he was going out of the city to the vicinity of the cemetery in the suburbs, the carriage driver refused to carry Xia De out of the city no matter what.

Even if Xia De promised to pay double the fare, the cautious driver was unwilling to do this business. In the end, Xia De could only let the driver carry him to the Song Square in the north of the city, then find another carriage from near the Song Square in the Lower City, which was also very lively at night, carry him to the edge of the city, and then walk towards the Hanged Man's Path.

The night at St. Deran Square in the center of Tobesk was quiet and peaceful, with only patrolling police and occasionally scurrying wild cats bringing some sounds. The strange light of the three moons and the light of the elegantly shaped gas street lamps illuminated the earth together;

The vicinity of the Song Square in the Lower City was noisy and dangerous, with streetwalkers, gamblers, and drunks wandering around. The light of gas lamps and kerosene lamps was dangerous and full of temptation;

As for the small villages outside Tobesk, they were dead silent. This was still a civilized area, and it was only physically separated from the city by the low city walls remaining from the old era, but the firelight of the steam age still stopped abruptly here.

The residents outside the city didn't have the spare money to waste kerosene lamps at night. As for whether the gas pipelines of the city's infrastructure were connected here, only the civil servants of the City Hall knew.

Even the carriages in the Lower City were unwilling to send Xia De out of the city at this time. Therefore, like the last time he visited Mr. Kopusi's cemetery with Duoluoqian, Xia De walked through the small village outside the city.

The buildings were low, but the straw by the wall and the chicken coop built next to the courtyard made this place full of life.

The point Xia De was most dissatisfied with was not the terrible smell that made both him and the cat unwilling to breathe, but the uneven ground under his feet. Fortunately, it didn't rain in Tobesk yesterday, otherwise this place would definitely be a mud swamp.

The small village he was passing through at this time was called Upper Glen Village. Like Lower Glen Village, which was located in a low-lying area a few miles away, it was a village outside the city adjacent to the Lower City of Tobesk. And after passing through the small village in the north of the city, going north completely left the scope of the royal capital, which was the real Tobesk countryside.

The road named "Hanged Man's Path" was not far from Upper Glen Village. Except for the road sign, Xia De could only confirm that this road existed on the edge of the detailed city map left by the previous detective.

The nameless cemetery that the Hanged Man's Path led to was a public cemetery for several nearby villages. Although it was a cemetery for country people, it was well-equipped, with incinerators, gravedigger huts, churches, and underground tombs.

And the withered tree on the Hanged Man's Path where Priest Priest Ao Gu Si and Xia De agreed to meet was located at the end of the path, and further ahead was the gravel road paved by the villagers for the cemetery.

That withered tree far exceeded Xia De's imagination. He originally thought it was just a withered small sapling, but he didn't expect it to be a towering tree that didn't grow any leaves even in summer.

It stood bare in the center of the Hanged Man's Path, with branches growing in all directions along the main trunk, like tentacles spreading in the dark night, or the hands of an old witch in a fairy tale.

"But speaking of which, the prototype of the old witch in most existing fairy tales seems to be the witches of the Fifth Era."

Xia De thought in his heart, but it was hard to equate a beautiful lady like Miss Feilian with an old witch with a hunched back.

This tree clearly looked like it had no vitality, but it still stood here. Several crows were perched on the branches at night, and accompanied by Mia's calls, they flapped their wings and flew towards the distant night sky.

Xia De arrived twenty minutes early. He held the cat in the night wind, stood under the tree, and looked up at the trunk. It had to be admitted that if anyone wanted to hang themselves, this tree was simply the best place.

Not only could people of all heights easily find a place to tie the rope, but it was so close to the cemetery that there was no need for a carriage specifically for carrying corpses to drive out; the gravedigger himself could drag the corpse into the cemetery area.

The cat, which was usually very timid, was very interested in this strange environment. Held in Xia De's arms, it kept looking around. Xia De was guessing the intention of Priest Priest Ao Gu Si asking him to come and help. Although the priest was not a Ring Warlock of the church, when encountering trouble, he could use the name of the church's clergy to seek help.

Unless this matter was something he didn't want the church to know, or there were great benefits involved, or the priest thought he could solve the trouble himself.

Just as he was thinking, on the other side of the Hanged Man's Path, the figure of the priest finally appeared. He was still dressed as a clergyman, panting and carrying something as he walked over. Seeing Xia De under the moon and the magical cat in his arms, he waved his hand as a greeting.

And when the priest walked closer, Xia De saw that he was actually carrying two shovels:

"Oh, my Mr. Dawn, this thing, this thing is much heavier than I thought."

The priest threw the shovels under the tree and then leaned against the trunk, panting heavily.

Xia De handed over the test tube containing water, and the priest thanked him and drank it in one gulp.

"Shovels? Priest, are you trying to dig something?"

Xia De asked curiously, and the priest leaned against the tree, panting heavily and nodding to Xia De:

"Of course, otherwise, would I be carrying such heavy things to sell to the gravedigger?"

"Then what are we going to dig? Is there anything under this tree? Treasure? Relics? Or a corpse?"

Xia De and the cat were both very curious about this.

"Who said we were going to dig the tree? We are going to dig over there."

Priest Priest Ao Gu Si pointed to the pitch-black cemetery not far away.

"This... is something buried in the corner of the cemetery? Or is there a secret in the underground tomb or the gravedigger's hut?"

Xia De asked again.

"Don't think wildly, we are just here to dig a grave."

The priest finally adjusted his breathing, threw one of the two shovels to Xia De, and took the other one himself:

"Follow me, be quick, the best ritual time ends at two o'clock in the morning. I noticed you brought your cat, that's great, a smart cat helps improve the success rate of the ritual."

"Wait, Priest, are we really going to dig someone else's grave?"

Xia De hurriedly followed the priest, who was walking in a hurry. The two left the Hanged Man's Path and officially stepped onto the gravel road in front of the cemetery gate.

"That goes without saying, we really have to dig... Oh, I understand."

The old priest turned his head and looked at Xia De by the moonlight:

"You have a psychological barrier, right?"

"No, of course not."

Xia De shook his head immediately:

"I'm just surprised that you are the one taking me to do this kind of thing. If it were Doctor Shi Nai De, I wouldn't be surprised. In my heart, you are the kind of... person who strictly follows the church's rules."

"Don't just stand there, detective, follow me. Also, why is the doctor's image so bad in your heart? We are not desecrating corpses tonight; we are dealing with an accident. I have always believed that human nature is evil, but if it is for doing good deeds, then some problems with the means are acceptable. Everything is for the dawn and justice."

Naturally, there was no competent gravedigger in the nameless rural cemetery. Priest Priest Ao Gu Si originally wanted to knock the other party unconscious to make tonight's action more convenient. But when the two used Xia De's illusion to sneak outside the window of the gravedigger's hut where the kerosene lamp was lit, they found that the old gravedigger had long been dead drunk, holding a wine bottle and sleeping soundly on the bed.

Even when Xia De and Priest Priest Ao Gu Si broke into the hut, they didn't disturb him.

So Xia De kindly covered the old gravedigger, who was full of the smell of alcohol, with a quilt, and then kicked his shoes under the bed. Priest Priest Ao Gu Si kindly extinguished the kerosene lamp in the room and took away a portable horse lamp to prevent a fire.

In an era when most poor people had night blindness, even if the gravedigger woke up, in the situation of not being able to find his shoes, the first thing he would definitely do was not to look outside the house, but to light the kerosene lamp.

In this way, Xia De and Priest Priest Ao Gu Si could know at any time whether the other party had woken up.

Except for the drunken gravedigger and the two sneaky people, the living creatures in the cemetery also included the cat on Xia De's shoulder, as well as the wild animals living here. Xia De was very glad that Little Mia didn't have the habit of meowing randomly, otherwise, blowing in the night wind, once he suddenly heard a cat meow in the cemetery, he would definitely be scared.