The alley they turned into was completely a passageway between two buildings, very narrow, so nothing but trash and filth accumulated there.
His heart was pounding wildly. Xia De knew this decision was risky, but the voice in his head was right. To yearn for the extraordinary, one must accept risk. Perhaps the channels with the Psychologist and the Orthodox Church were safe, but he knew nothing, so every path was a risk for him.
To gain, one must give. He was willing to bear the risk, a small risk.
“If there’s any problem, I’ll leave immediately.”
Xia De gripped his cane, tiptoeing forward as quietly as possible. At the end of the alley were some wooden crates, on which wanted posters with almost illegible text were pasted, seemingly for a serial killer on the loose in Tobesk City.
The alley entrance allowed turns to the left or right, leading directly into the slums of Tobesk City’s Lower City. Xia De hid behind the wooden crates, looking through the gaps between them in the direction the man had turned.
It was also an alley, with only the young man wearing a pebble ring. He now stood in the middle of the alley, cautiously looking around. He even squinted at the sky, and after a long while, he placed the black briefcase on the ground, then took off the pebble ring from his right index finger and carefully kissed it, to Xia De’s surprise.
The young man seemed to have whispered something with his head bowed, but Xia De didn’t hear it clearly; the wind and space obscured his hearing.
After kissing the ring face, the young man seemed more relaxed.
He put the ring back on his right index finger, and immediately thick smoke, as if he were on fire, billowed from him. The smoke emerged from the seams of his clothes and soon completely enveloped the young man.
Xia De heard a whisper, but it wasn't the elegant woman's voice in his head. This whisper was utterly indistinct, like chewing, or like something cursing.
His head felt uncomfortable, like spinning around several times in place and then trying to walk in a straight direction. The frantic whisper grew stronger and stronger. For a moment, Xia De even thought he saw a wraith lunging at him.
Fortunately, the hallucination ended quickly, but Xia De, gradually recovering, still suspected his eyes were also problematic. Because he saw that as the black smoke disappeared, the person wearing the white pebble ring emerged from the smoke, gently patted her skirt, and then bent down to pick up the briefcase.
Mrs. Lasoya turned her head and cautiously looked around again, a smile seemingly on her lips. Only after confirming that no one had witnessed this scene did she finally carry the case to the other side of the alley.
Xia De covered his mouth and leaned against the wall, hiding in the gap between the wooden crates and the wall, not daring to move for a long time.
Just now, Xia De was still puzzled by the Orthodox Church investigators moonlighting as leaflet distributors; now he understood that they, like the inept Detective Xia De, were probably trying to monitor Mrs. Lasoya at the club entrance.
And by the time Xia De emerged from the alley again, three crescent moons—silver, yellow, and red—hung together in the sky, with the yellow moon being whiter in color and the brightest. The night here was as peaceful as in his previous world.
This street was a bit remote, so there were no streetlights. In the dim light, Xia De didn't know what expression he currently wore. After a long while, he took out his pocket watch; it was almost eight in the evening. He had stood in the wall crack for two whole hours before daring to leave, he didn't even know his physical fitness was so good.
“No need to think about relief food.”
He shook his head somewhat dejectedly, his mood indescribably bad. He walked along the street, in the direction of his home. Even if he had to go hungry, at least he had a house to live in, so the situation wasn't too bad.
The key now was that the lucrative commission to investigate the mistress seemed impossible to continue.
Clearly, Mrs. Lasoya had the ability to turn into a man with a ring, or rather, the young man had the ability to turn into Mrs. Lasoya with a ring. Xia De, of course, could not report this information to the employer, nor did he want to submit the deceased Detective’s report, pretending as if nothing had happened.
Once the report was submitted, Mrs. Lawrence would inevitably, due to her conflict with Mr. Lawrence, let Mrs. Lasoya know that a Detective had been tracking her without her Knowledge. Even if the report did not involve any secrets, Xia De could not guarantee what Mrs. Lasoya would do.
“This world is really a bit more troublesome than I imagined… Did Mr. Lawrence fall in love with a man or a woman?”
Perhaps Mrs. Lasoya was a good person, and turning into a man wasn't harming others. But having been in this world for less than twenty-four hours and encountering such a thing, Xia De felt a strong sense of crisis.
“Perhaps the extraordinary in this world also follows the rule that the extraordinary attracts the extraordinary.”
He thought wearily, walking along the street. Because he was worried about being robbed by people in the dark, or harassed by drunkards, or even encountering some illicit transaction, Xia De, with only a cane and a fruit knife, didn't even dare to take shortcuts through alleys to go home.
“Today is really unlucky…”
Turning left at Old John's Pawnshop on the corner, the thought of sleeping in a house where someone had just died made his mood even worse.
“Since there are extraordinary beings, perhaps there are also ghosts… Don’t scare yourself… Wait, where did I turn just now?”
He stopped, tilted his head, and stepped back, seeing the sign for “Old John's Pawnshop” again, and the interior of the shop where the gas lamp was still lit.
“Well, I never thought of such a move. Actually, it’s not unlucky. Things will get better.”
He sighed slightly, squeezed his pocket watch, and pushed open the door of the pawnshop.
Ultimately, he didn’t pawn the pocket watch, but the cane. The pocket watch was an important daily necessity, while the cane was dispensable. More importantly, the pocket watch wasn’t very valuable; the shop owner, an old man who called himself John Jones, was only willing to offer 10 shillings, reasoning that the watch face had many scratches, perhaps from being kept with a keychain often.
But for the cane, he was willing to offer 1 pound and 12 shillings.
“Do you understand? This is the heartwood of natural cedar from the Delado Mountains. Look at the grain, look at the craftsmanship. If you can provide information about the artisan who made it, I might even offer more money.”
The old man seemed to be complaining that Xia De didn’t know the business. After confirming that he wanted to pawn the cane, he also told him that if he didn’t redeem it within half a month, the cane would belong to the pawnshop.
Xia De, of course, understood that the cane was worth far more than 1 pound and 12 shillings. But he really wasn't in the mood to bargain; in the end, he just took two 1-pound banknotes, signed the contract, and left.
According to prices, this money was enough for Xia De to live quite well for two weeks, and if he was frugal, not including potential rent, it could even support him for a month and a half. This money was even enough for him to dig up Sparrow Hamilton, place an obituary in the newspaper's advertisement section, and hold a humble funeral for the Detective.
Of course, he didn't have that idea for now.
“But having solved the short-term problem of food and clothing, what exactly should I do about the extraordinary, about the mysterious?”
He had dinner at a restaurant very close to the pawnshop, enjoying the taste of thick soup with steak, before walking home.
It was almost ten at night when he returned to 6 Saint Delan Square.
He checked that the hair he had placed when he left was still in its original position before entering the room. He carefully rotated the gas lamp on the living room wall, allowing the light to gradually appear, then wearily threw himself onto the sofa. From the open door of the master bedroom, he could see the bed where Sparrow Hamilton had lain.
Xia De was determined to come into contact with the extraordinary soon, rather than live in ignorance. Although he hadn't encountered any definite danger yet, this world was not simple, and Xia De didn't plan to wait until danger struck to find a solution.
And he currently had three possible methods that could help him come into contact with the extraordinary.
First was Mr. Bill Schneider, the Psychologist who had given Xia De his business card; second were the five Orthodox Churches in the City, visiting a church might yield something; finally, Mrs. Lasoya herself, she must know about the extraordinary, and contacting her was also a method.
Each had its pros and cons, but ultimately, Xia De knew too little about this world, and he had no channels to learn. Before leaving home today, he had checked the map; this City didn't even have a public Library where he could gain free Knowledge.
There were some private libraries in the City, but one had to be introduced by an acquaintance and pay a considerable fee to become a member, and Xia De clearly didn't have that money now.
He could only rely on the information left by Sparrow Hamilton, but this gentleman had no habit of collecting books, and this gentleman was clearly just an ordinary person.
Investigating Sparrow Hamilton's death to trace its cause might also lead to contact with the extraordinary, but this was undoubtedly a very dangerous approach, and Xia De's reason refused to do so.
“Can you give me some advice?”
He patted his head, but only heard the woman's soft laughter. It was the voice in his head that allowed him to complete all the work of “investigating Mr. Lawrence’s mistress”; otherwise, he alone could not have discovered the secret of the ring.
He hoped the voice could give another hint, but he received no response.
“People still have to rely on themselves.”
He said softly to himself, tilting his head to look out the window, at the night sky with the three crescent moons he had never seen before. So magnificent, so mysterious, so intoxicating. Especially the silver moon among the three, every time he gazed at it, he felt his depressed mood improve somewhat.
“No matter what, I can’t wait. Although I haven’t encountered danger yet, since I’ve initially decided to live as a Detective, I must have the power to protect myself, and I must know how complicated this world truly is. Otherwise, Sparrow Hamilton Detective will be my fate.”
With money temporarily in his pocket, he put aside the idea of continuing other investigations and shifted his main goal to contacting the extraordinary.
“Orthodox Church, Psychologist, Mrs. Lasoya…”
He wasn't very optimistic about the last option, because her appearance today seemed to coincide with the investigations of the Orthodox Church and the police, so he instinctively felt she didn't seem like a good person. He was somewhat tempted by the first option; based on simple understanding, the Orthodox Church in this world was relatively open-minded.
But that was just his understanding; he couldn't make plans based on such a simple idea. And he wasn't a follower of any god, and as a vagrant, he had never been to a church, so it was hard to say if the church's open-mindedness applied to someone like him.
“Perhaps… I can investigate for a few more days. For now, I don’t have to worry about starving to death, and pawning some inheritance can support me for a long time. As long as the potential rent collector doesn’t appear, I’ll have plenty of time to investigate. Among these three choices, I’ll surely find the most suitable one.”
With this thought, he fell asleep in the bedroom of the original owner, Xia De, in the apartment, spending his first night in the new world.
In a daze, he seemed to hear the woman’s laughter in his mind again. That laughter made Xia De feel unexpectedly at ease, and that night, he had a very relaxing dream, sitting on a field ridge, looking at the silver moon in the distance.
The unexpected always disrupts existing plans, and Xia De’s one-of-three plan was disrupted the very next morning.