Chapter 562: A Shadow Hidden in the Shadows
Everyone has gaffes, when self-consciousness loses control over mental emotions, people often make some unbelievable words and deeds, some people think that this is the manifestation of the subject's true wishes, the more depressed, the stronger the final outburst of emotion. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info but after the soberness, reason regained the upper hand, and it is inevitable that he will be annoyed and regretful.
The next day.
The indifferent Xia Lan did not see anything unusual in him, he left the hotel for only one thing, purchased a cemetery in the cemetery outside the city through an intermediary, and then buried Winnie's body completely.
Only one line was engraved on the tombstone.
Winnie.
I used to try to dream, I used to try to love.
Xia Lan stayed in front of her tomb for a long time, her eyes deep and empty, all the feelings disappeared with the wind, only the bottom of her heart will remember that someone once came here, those spots of memory, no matter how much time smeared layer upon layer, like a thick powder makeup can not hide the paleness of memory, those souls stripped from life, singing or crying in the sky above midnight.
Spring in March, summer in March, like a year of water.
In the blink of an eye, the autumn is high and cool, the cool breeze removes the impetuousness of the hot summer, bids farewell to the hissing cicadas boiling, sweeping the dust, flying away, and is impregnated with the color of bleakness and withering. The morning light shines at the beginning, the sunset in the mountains, filled with a faint and leisurely silhouette, the undercurrent of sadness and loneliness is a trace of melancholy, a little sadness, and the promises and vows are like falling yellow leaves are gloomy and silent.
A week passed, and Xia Lan, who stayed in Cologne, seemed to have forgotten his mission, he was like an ordinary aristocratic tourist from afar on vacation, spending half of his day in the streets and alleys for food and entertainment, but he never went to the west of the city, the refugee concentration of the green wheat neighborhood. In particular, in recent days, there have even been blatant demonstrations because of the rumors that the town hall is about to be driven out of the city, which led to the protests of the refugees en masse.
Coincidentally, similar things have happened one after another in the towns near Cologne, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is a very targeted conspiracy, and in order to maintain its image in the eyes of the world, the Glorious Church can only swallow its anger in the face of no solid evidence, otherwise once it commits an excesse, I believe that the mastermind behind the scenes will inevitably smear the image of the Templar and directly knock the Templar's reputation to the bottom.
Through clever and sleek communication methods, Xia Lan easily broke into the upper circle of Cologne Town, and with his good image and temperament, elegant words and deeds, and status symbolic badge rings, he easily won the trust of the powerful. Because in this era, it is difficult for commoners to disguise themselves as nobles, and identity symbols can be faked, but a person's quality and words and deeds cannot be disguised, and shrewd and sophisticated nobles can see through the truth at a glance.
In fact, the upper circle is often misunderstood, as if arrogance **** is synonymous with this circle, but in fact, everything has its two sides, and only from an objective perspective can we see the essence of things. Most people who see the upper circles will subconsciously associate with decay and depravity, but ignore the resources and insights represented by the upper circles.
Xia Lan mixed in to understand the future situation of Cologne and even the mainland in more detail through this circle, because a person's ideas have limitations after all.
The political structure of the towns and territories within the Templar's sphere of influence is similar to the ******** system, although the nobles have a certain degree of autonomy, but they are far from the freedom of the other countries on the mainland, whether it is governance, taxation, or justice, the Templars enjoy a transcendent status, although the Templars do not interfere in local affairs on weekdays, but once a major event occurs, the nobles can only stand obediently next to them like an ornament.
Therefore, they mistakenly thought that the territory under the Templar was monolithic, and that the nobles with evil intentions alone had a great deal of it, and that they were the happiest to see the Templar's bad luck.
Every time she went to a banquet, Xia Lan would prick up her ears and listen to the whispered conversations of the nobles, and thus gained many secrets that no one knew. For example, in the case of refugees, is there really no way for the city hall to solve the refugee problem? No, in fact, there are many solutions, but someone is secretly obstructing them, otherwise why would there be a two-faced fight in the city hall over the refugee issue? As a result, it was clear that the Templars had the upper hand, and the loser was not willing to be lonely, and immediately released rumors of the expulsion of the refugees, in an attempt to completely disrupt the other side's plan.
The competition one ring after another is dizzying.
It seems dangerous and difficult to find out who is behind the refugees, but Xia Lan has found a very simple way, he only needs to find the nobles who oppose the expulsion of refugees on the surface and incite the refugees to riot behind their backs.
So he set his sights on someone.
Viscount Blaise, Deputy President of the Cologne City Hall.
He was in his fifties, gray-haired, strong-bodied, and showed no signs of aging, and as one of the old nobles of Cologne, he had a high reputation among the people and the nobility, and he was the leader of this opposition against the expulsion of refugees. Strangely enough, no one ever suspected him of ulterior motives, given that Blaise was well known for his devotion to the Templars, and that his two sons, one a priest of the Church and the other a Templar, would a noble family loyal to the Templar do anything against the Templar in terms of background? It's a fantasy when you think about it.
Blaitze's style of life is very low-key, usually he doesn't see people easily without important official duties, except for going to the church to pray every week, rain or shine, most of the time he is in a state of seclusion, and rarely participates in the banquets between nobles, but since the beginning of the refugee incident, he has begun to frequent the banquet venue, and the drastic changes before and after are an important reason why Xia Lan is eyeing him.
He had seen Blaise many times, and someone had warmly introduced Xia Lan to Viscount Blaize, but Blaise only made a friendly and polite remark and left, with a rather cold attitude. Every time he saw each other in the future, Xia Lan would find that he was exchanging words with two or three nobles in a remote and uninhabited corner, and his demeanor was full of mystery and sneakiness.
He wanted to eavesdrop on their conversation, but he didn't, because Blaise was always accompanied by a vigilant personal guard, who would unleash a strong wall of perception around them if Blaise started a secret conversation with someone, and he would be the first to notice the slightest snooping.
The strength of this guard is very strong, and the preliminary judgment is that it is at the level of the upper middle rank, and the specific strength needs to be fought to know.
Charan asked a good nobleman about the identity of the other party, and later learned that the guard was a friend of Blaise as the son of the Templars, and it is said that the other party was a contemporaneous Trialist student of Blaise's son when he participated in the Templar examination.
In fact, many Trials students from poor backgrounds will choose to cling to the nobles who recruit them after losing the Templar ranks, after all, they have shown enough value for the nobles to cultivate. And those trial students who are eager to change their fate, or who have no hope of retaking the exams in the future, happen to hit it off with the nobles, and coupled with the intricate relationship between the nobles and the templars, it is really easy to fish out a failed trial student.
The aristocracy's persistent digging of the Templars not only strengthened themselves, but also weakened the Templars' armed forces, so why are there fewer and fewer new Templars? Qualifications worried? The reason for this is nothing more than greed and corruption inside, and the grabbing of nobles outside, can't the top of the Templar see it? Maybe it's not that they can't see it, but they think that everything is under their control.
Time waits for no one, once she has a plan, Xia Lan will take action.
Stalking is like being a thief, and the key is how to hide yourself from being discovered.
It's just that Xia Lan's tracking target this time is not Blaise himself, but the attendant who usually guards him every step of the way.
Through a detailed understanding of various channels, the bodyguard named Selle, born in the small country of Pelidolai on the south coast of the mainland, became a trial student of the Templars in 1120 of the New Moon Apocalypse, and after failing the assessment, he was assigned to the 3rd Patrol Garrison of Cologne, and then left to commit himself to the Blaise family, and took his parents and sisters to Cologne a year later. In 1130, he was promoted to the upper rank, and the Viscount of Blaise made him a knight, and now married with a son and two daughters, both of whom live together in the Blaise estate.
A low-key and reticent man, he often accompanied Viscount Blaise in guard duties, second only to the direct members of the Blaise family, and his sister was rumored to be married to his fellow Trialist friend, the second son of the Templars, and a solid alliance forged by a strong marriage.
He and Viscount Blaise are also of the same type of secluded house, spending most of their vacation time with his parents, wife and children on the estate, and rarely seeing him go out alone, but he has been seen quietly appearing in the wealthy district of Cologne, St. Buran, and his movements are quite suspicious, and the specific reason is unknown.
Following this clue, Charan thoroughly surveyed the surrounding population based on the eyewitness description of the place where Sair had appeared, and then he found something very interesting, to be precise, he found a person, a woman who did not fit in with her surroundings.
This is a single woman who lives in a luxury residence with a nanny all the year round, her identity is mysterious, rarely goes out, basically does not interact with the surrounding neighbors, most of the time when she sees her is a sick look, she looks more than thirty years old, but she is unusually beautiful, the charm still exists, and there is an indescribable charm all over her body. (To be continued.) )