Chapter 6

Leaving the house and coming to the street, it counted as truly walking into this world. Compared to the noise of the city, Xia De, who walked into it, was as inconspicuous as a drop of water merging into the sea.

He rarely spoke, just walking toward the destination "Lark Club." Along the way, he listened while walking, understanding this world, understanding this city, and understanding everything around him.

Simply put, this world was somewhat like the steam revolution period of the 19th century in the past world, but compared to the past world, the steam industry here was more prosperous, feeling very much like it was moving forward along the path of steam and absolutely not turning.

While harmful black fog was sprayed from the chimneys of factories, various strange inventions were also created, and the economy was taking off with the development of productivity.

Just as Xia De guessed, the city he was in now was Tobesk City, the capital of the Northern Kingdom Delarion Kingdom of humans. This was the pearl of the northern continent, the gathering point of human civilization, and the essence bred by the era.

A big city naturally had to look like a big city. Although limited by the shackles of the era, leaving the street and entering the alley, it was inevitable to encounter feces and garbage piles, but the appearance of the big city was still reflected in Xia De's eyes during the short one-hour journey.

Fortunately, the "Lark Club" was not far from the city center. If it were across the whole city, Xia De probably wouldn't be able to walk there until midnight. The key point was that Xia De had no money to take a carriage.

Along the way, he also obtained more information about this world from the perspective of a bystander. The most important point was knowing the currency system. At least in the current country, general currency was divided into gold pounds, shillings, and pennies, where 1 pound = 20 shillings, and 1 shilling = 12 pennies.

Of course, this kind of address was very similar to British currency, not just coincidentally similar, but Xia De translated the three different currency addresses from the other world language into familiar addresses, after all, the conversion method of the values was really similar.

The very unfortunate fact was that the banknote with the number "10" that Xia De found had a value of 10 pennies. In terms of current purchasing power, this wasn't even enough for him to take a carriage from his own door to the door of the club.

But if he lived frugally, used 10 pennies to go to the bakery about to close in the evening, and competed with the children and housewives in the slums to buy the cheapest bread crumbs, at least it could guarantee that he wouldn't starve to death within three days.

"At least it's a peaceful era now. Our Delarion Kingdom, as one of the largest kingdoms of humans, has local friction with the Southern Carsonric United Kingdom, another powerful kingdom, but relatively speaking, this is an era of peace and development, an era of progress... Luck is not bad."

Xia De was very good at comforting himself.

This world was temporarily peaceful. The Delarion Kingdom in the north of the Old Continent and the Carsonric United Kingdom occupying the south almost divided the world. The total war ended decades ago. Although there were still undercurrents now, at least it was peaceful on the surface.

Club culture seemed to be a special culture of this era. Xia De learned from the investigation report that the mistress Mrs. Lasoya, who was being investigated, would patronize the "Lark Club" every weekend and would stay there for at least three hours.

Detective Hamilton's report guessed that this was the place where Mrs. Lasoya and Mr. Lawrence had a tryst, because every time Mrs. Lasoya appeared in the club, Mr. Lawrence would definitely enter as well.

This was a private club with membership nature. Xia De didn't have entry permission, so after walking on Valente Pedestrian Street, according to the records in the investigation report, he stayed at the door of the newspaper office opposite the club to observe.

That was the newspaper office belonging to the "Tobesk City Evening News," and it was said that there was also royal investment. Saturday was the busiest time for the newspaper office, because Saturday was the customary time for the King's speech and the parliamentary report.

A group of people would gather at the door of the newspaper office at this time, waiting for new news to be transmitted. The full-time reporters had of course already set off, and those who stayed at the door of the newspaper office were all people waiting to try their luck.

Xia De's plan was to mix in among them. Although it was already noon now, that mistress Lasoya usually wouldn't appear in the club in the morning. So if he was lucky, he would soon be able to discover the target appearing.

As long as he recorded the appearance time and departure time of that lady, this report would be considered completed.

Completing this matter so easily gave Xia De a sense of unreality. But after all, Hamilton had almost completed everything, so this was actually one of the "legacies" left by the dead gentleman.

Xia De held the pocket watch, one of Mr. Hamilton's legacies, in his hand. Therefore, when he stood by the mailbox at the door of the newspaper office, pretending to be waiting for someone and looking around for a long time, he finally saw the target appear, and immediately compared it repeatedly with the black-and-white photo clipped in the report. He confirmed and recorded 1:23, which was the time Mrs. Lasoya appeared.

That lady was dressed fashionably, and the lace decoration on the skirt and the gemstone hair ornament on her hair were known to be expensive at a glance. She arrived directly at the door of the club by carriage. Even though the weather was gloomy, she was still holding a cloth parasol.

Judging by her age, she was about thirty years old, her height was ordinary but her figure was plump. Although the powder on her face was applied a bit thickly, it could be seen that she was also a beauty.

Because he was worried about being discovered, and Xia De also knew that he had no tracking experience, so after confirming that it was the target, he immediately shifted his gaze.

【Observe her ring.】

"What?"

The woman's whispering voice in his mind appeared again. Although Xia De didn't know what she was specifically, he still shifted his gaze to Mrs. Lasoya.

At this time, the doorman of the club was already greeting her. When the woman turned around, Xia De clearly saw the ring. Very strange, what was embedded on the ring was neither a gemstone nor a diamond, but instead looked like a small pebble.

Of course, because he was observing across the street, and pedestrians on the street would occasionally block his view, he wasn't sure if he had seen it wrong. Mrs. Lasoya also quickly entered the club and didn't give Xia De many opportunities to observe.

"What do you mean? Why do you want me to pay attention to that ring?"

He asked the voice in his mind again, but the whispering sound didn't actively sound because of his inquiry. This made Xia De a bit annoyed, but he knew to control his emotions; he was not the type of person who was easily angry.

"Sir, what time is it now?"

Just thinking about things, he suddenly heard someone speaking beside him. Xia De was startled, thinking that his action of standing by the mailbox and wantonly looking at the door of the club on the other side of the street was too conspicuous, but only after hearing the voice did he know that someone was asking for the time.

"Sorry, I forgot to bring my pocket watch."

Explaining his rash inquiry behavior was a middle-aged gentleman about forty years old who looked quite elegant and easygoing. He wore a black silk hat and was dressed in formal wear and a white shirt as if he were going to attend a banquet. His face was a bit wide, and he had a sophisticated mustache on his chin, and his blue eyes were very likable.

The middle-aged man smiled at Xia De. Xia De hesitated for a moment and took out the pocket watch he had just put into the right pocket of his coat.

"1:30."

He said, and was also curious about the reason for the middle-aged man's appearance here. This attire didn't look like a reporter waiting for news at all; Xia De's attire with a notebook looked like it.

As if hearing Xia De's inner voice, the middle-aged gentleman smiled and said:

"Thanks for your time. I have an appointment with the editor-in-chief of the newspaper office and didn't bring my pocket watch. I thought I was going to be late, but now it seems just right."

Saying that, he handed out his business card. Xia De politely took it and also handed out his business card. In fact, that was the business card of the dead Mr. Hamilton, with the address and business scope of the detective agency on it, and the name was only written as "Detective Hamilton," without adding a prefix name.

Since Xia De chose his surname as "Hamilton," of course he could use these business cards. He was very happy that there was no household registration system here at all; he didn't even need to forge identity documents.

The middle-aged man was named Bill Schneider and ran a private psychological clinic. Unlike Xia De's currently unstable profession, Schneider's psychological clinic was quite formal, and the income of the psychological clinic was obviously more than that of a detective like Xia De who relied on inheritance for his first investigation. The evidence was that Xia De's business card was shabbier than the doctor's business card, and the other party's business card, whether it was paper or printing level, was much better.

"If you have anything, you can come here to find me."

Mr. Schneider said quite friendly, pointing to the clinic address on the business card, which was the address in the East District of Tobesk City:

"My treatment range is very wide."

He looked at Xia De, and Xia De, in inexplicable confusion, actually had a creepy illusion of being seen through by those blue eyes.

"Including schizophrenia."

The psychologist said very friendly, and he was very good at communicating with strangers.

"What?"

Xia De's heart jumped, but before he could ask, Mr. Bill Schneider quickly changed the topic:

"Speaking of which, Detective, have you ever considered accepting adult education? Correspondence."

"Correspondence adult education?"

The topic changed too fast, and Xia De didn't keep up with the train of thought:

"I don't have any plans to study psychology for the time being."

He regarded the other party as an enthusiastic graduate of some psychology vocational school.

And being rejected by Xia De, the doctor didn't pester:

"Then alright, goodbye."

The doctor nodded at the detective, put the detective's business card into his pocket, and only then turned and walked toward the courtyard of the newspaper office.

"Correspondence... speaking of which, what did that Dr. Schneider mean by specifically mentioning schizophrenia?"

Xia De stood in place and thought silently, then realized that hearing the voice in his head seemed very much like so-called "schizophrenia."

"You don't have to laugh in my head; I admit your laughter is very nice and charming, you are definitely not a product of my schizophrenia."

Xia De said to the voice in his head.

Although he was sure that his situation belonged to contacting mystery and was definitely not schizophrenia. But what he wasn't sure about was what exactly this psychologist he met by chance had seen.

"I just went out, and I actually encountered this kind of person who might involve supernatural power. Is my luck too bad? Or is the density of supernatural beings in this world greater than I thought? Or is this psychologist just mentioning it casually, and I am thinking too much?"

Xia De thought in his heart and carefully put away Dr. Schneider's business card. Anyway, the commission was the most important thing. Since he knew the address of that psychologist, he could go whenever he wanted.

At least from the short exchange just now, Dr. Schneider didn't seem to have any hostility. But a short exchange couldn't see the real thoughts, so Xia De still wanted to understand this world a little bit before having an in-depth exchange with people.