Although Belvedere is far from the center of Stuttgard, it is the central city of the 7th administrative district, with a population of 7 figures, and the high-rise buildings in the downtown area can still attract the attention of alpacas more than a box of matches. Ed remembered the alpacas, the group of fellows who had a very delicate nickname, called grass or something, and often rushed back and forth in groups of places that would normally never be able to break into, and they couldn't stop.

Of course, neither the downtown nor the alpacas have anything to do with Ed. Especially the latter. At this time, he was driving to a place called Langu in the north of the city, which the local government of Belvedere wanted to develop into a tourist attraction a long time ago, but later turned it into a regal entertainment park. A part of Stuttgar's low-key wealthy people – a tiny, very small part of the country – gathered here, occupied it, and transformed it. A small lake in the valley is contracted by a club along with its shoreline, with water recreation services. Of course, even more enjoyable are the surrounding casinos, where the monthly cash flow can be enough for Ed to raise 100,000 alpacas on top of his head.

Ed drove in, with an invisible knife standing at the front of the car, cutting through the thorns. He went all the way to the gate of the Lakeside Club, and after saying the name "Albert" to the little characters who guarded the door, he drove the car inwards into the parking lot with the gaze of the rare wild animals on the planet.

As the beautiful woman said on the phone before, he came all the way to the door of the "Super Noble Luxury" suite on the top floor of the club, which was a little more luxurious than the hotel, and rang the doorbell. Then the beautiful woman opened the door for him.

She was a little different from what Ed had imagined, or that a woman like her was not something that Ed could imagine with her voice.

She is a typical straight black man, with long vertical hair that blocks both cheeks. She wears an ingenious black gold-rimmed triangular denim fur hat on her head, big eyes, pointed chin, and a standard melon seed face, and looks less than thirty years old, probably between twenty-five and thirty. She looked at Ed, her dark pupils like thick glass that could not reflect a shadow, making Ed feel as if he was doing a 250th mayoral campaign speech at City Hall naked for a moment.

"Mr. Ed."

A charming and oppressive smile that is peculiar to perennial condescending superiors blooms on the face of a beautiful woman, full of sincerity, not a fake, and never cheap. She opened the door wide and made a "please" gesture to Eddard inside.

Ed didn't know when he had seen the deadly goblin, but he was sure he looked as familiar with his face as he had slept with his picture in his arms last night.

"Please come in, Mr. Eddard." She said, "Mr. Albert is waiting for you." ”

Ed nodded and entered the room. After taking two steps, he knew where he had been. He thought that the hotel he was staying in was good in Belvedere, but it was not as shabby as the ant's nest compared to here. The toilet here was almost bigger than his entire room.

The beautiful woman led Ed through the living room with the sun terrace, through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, through the corridor with a long line of exaggerated murals, and finally into a study-like inner room. A man is sitting behind a desk reading a book.

It was a man who looked much older than Eddard, about forty years old, with a golden-black back, wearing a snakeskin shirt with taut streamlined muscles under the shirt, and the whole person sat there in a lazy and casual posture, holding a book in one hand, half of his face was blocked behind the book. After hearing the movement, he put the book down. He had a big, thick cigar in his mouth and a pair of narrow sunglasses that were half-new.

He glanced at Eddard for a moment—maybe a second, maybe a season—and then he waved his hand at the woman behind him.

"Miss Eligi," he said, his voice sounding like a muffled thunderclap mixed with mud, "let's go out first." ”

"Yes, Mr. Al." Eliki reached out and pressed her hat and bowed to Albert behind the table, then respectfully withdrew from the room, leaving only Ed and Albert.

"You may be seated, Mr. Eddard." Albert gestured to Ed to the guest chair across from his table.

Ed looked at the man in front of him, closed his mouth in silence, and walked to the chair and sat down without saying a word. He felt as if he was having a conversation with a humanoid serpent.

"First of all, thank you for accepting my abrupt invitation to come here and meet me, Mr. Eddard." Albert spoke in a magnetic voice, reached for the cigar in his mouth, and dusted the cigarette butt in the ashtray, "Do you know who I am?" ”

"Unfortunately, I know." Ed said dryly, "That's why I'm here to see you." ”

He remembered the funny look on Marcy's face when he heard the name "Albert" this morning, as if she had seen a dancing chicken on the beach in the last days, and the explanation she had given to Ed after she had agreed to the invitation and hung up. He still vividly remembers his heart beating a few beats faster.

Albert is a man from "the other side of the world", a true gangster in this aerial metropolis, a high-level of the high-level, and one of the highest-ranking people in the underground kingdom. On the surface, he is a well-known philanthropist, speaker and writer in Stuttgar, but behind the scenes, he runs a business in black market antiques and money laundering. Not only that, but he is also a broker, responsible for connecting sellers and buyers, and maintaining good and close ties with all the forces in the Underground Kingdom as a third-party guarantor. If the relationship between friends becomes strained, he will also accept the invitation to do the work of "mediation", a special existence like a "central hub".

Nissa, who had been caught by Ed and Marcy before and was a legendary thief who had just turned black market merchant, was a bald, blind rat by comparison.

Such a person suddenly came to Belvedere at this time, and also approached Eddard, saying that he wanted to "talk" about some of the things Ed was doing now - whether it was Marcy or Ed, it was obvious that this could not be a coincidence. They must see it. Ed wondered what Albert was trying to say to him.

"I know a lot of people, Mr. Ed." Albert had a relaxed, languid smile on his face, his eyes hidden behind the narrow, hedron-like lenses, and looked at Ed, "I know a lot of detectives, big detectives, shrewd, cunning ghosts who run big offices. But I've never heard of you. ”

"I haven't been in the city for long. Less than a year. ”

"But you obviously have your own way, your own channels, and you can find out a lot of things that are difficult for little people like you to touch." Albert took the cigar back into his mouth, "like something about me." ”

“……”

"But that's your business, and it has nothing to do with me." Albert smiled, then leaned forward, put his arms on the table, his fingers crossed together, and the whole person suddenly became serious, "Mr. Ed, do you know about gangsters?" ”