The pleasant reception did not last long, when it was interrupted by an uninvited guest, a tall man with a fair face and gray-yellow hair, but he looked a little sad now, and as soon as he entered the door, he said, "Something is wrong." ”

"When did you come to me because something happened," Sherlock Holmes sat on the sofa, but he was not in a hurry at all, and he was still introducing Zhang Heng.

"Gregson, the leader of Scotland Yard, of course, compared to those of his companions," after saying that, he looked at Gregerson again, "Zhang Heng, my mysterious and lovely new roommate of the East, we are discussing the influence of professional opponents together, by the way, destroy my treasured port wine, you came just in time, do you want to have a drink together?" ”

"I'm afraid it's not a good time to drink." The sheriff said, glancing at Zhang Heng at the same time.

"Don't worry, this friend of mine is very tight-mouthed and won't go around talking." "So you can say anything you want." ”

"Okay," Gregerson obviously didn't deal with Sherlock Holmes on the first day, and when he heard this, he no longer dwelled on Zhang Heng's question, and said bluntly, "I have encountered a very difficult case. ”

"I'm skeptical, but you can go on."

"In the afternoon, the patrolling police found a body on the Thames, and asked the nearby boatmen to help recover it, it was a young girl, but we had no other clues, the poor child had no clothes, jewelry, and nothing else to prove her identity, we didn't know her name, we didn't know where she lived, what she did, if she had any friends or relatives, in short, we didn't know anything about her, and no one had come to report her missing recently, You've said you're most interested in this kind of case where there's nowhere to start, so I'm the first to come to you. ”

"A smart move." After listening to Gregson's description, Holmes really showed a look of excitement on his face, and turned to Zhang Heng and said, "My friend, I'm sorry that our drinking party is ending early." ”

"It's okay, work matters." Zhang Heng expressed understanding.

Holmes got up and put on his coat again, but then he spoke again, "Where's your hat, the theory course is over, and now it's time for us to put it into practice." ”

Zhang Heng was a little surprised, he could see that Gregerson didn't really want him to be involved in this case, and he and Sherlock Holmes had only known each other for less than two hours, although they had talked quite speculatively before, but there was no need for Holmes to be with him when he was down to business.

Although Zhang Heng has the main quest in his body, he didn't expect to meet the opportunity immediately on the first day, Sherlock Holmes is a person with very good observation skills, and Zhang Heng happens to have a lot of secrets, so he didn't have an easy time in the first two hours, even if he mentioned that he wanted to learn from Sherlock Holmes before, but Zhang Heng didn't want to be too eager, so as not to be too late.

But now it seems that Sherlock Holmes's problem of liking to pull roommates in the case is still as serious as in the original book, when he and Watson first met, they couldn't help but say that they dragged the latter to the scene of the crime together, but Zhang Heng remembered correctly, Watson had been living with Sherlock Holmes for a few weeks at that time, and they also figured out their respective temperaments, and this time he and Sherlock Holmes were really a little better than passers-by.

The sheriff opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Seeing this, Zhang Heng naturally would not be polite anymore, and walked out with Sherlock Holmes, and the three of them got into a four-wheeled carriage parked outside the door.

Most of the stories in Sherlock Holmes take place in the late 19th century, when Britain was in the Victorian era, during which Britain completed the Industrial Revolution and expanded its colonies overseas, and its political, economic and cultural development was rapid, and its industrial production capacity was greater than that of the rest of the world combined.

As the capital, London is also the world's largest metropolis with a population of more than 6 million.

But the gap between rich and poor here is also huge, and in Dickens's words at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities – it was the best of times and the worst of times.

The rapid expansion of the population in a short period of time has made the city of London crowded, Zhang Heng still remembers a certain data that he saw in later generations, in a place of about 1,200 feet, there are a total of 2,795 families, more than 10,000 people, and three generations of grandparents are crammed into a small room, like piglets locked in a pigsty.

The average worker, who earns less than ten pounds a year, most of it goes into the pockets of his landlord, eats poor quality bread mixed with expired flour, potato flour and even alum and chalk, does not dare to get sick, has no money to buy clothes or toys for his children, and has little time to rest.

In contrast, Watson, who is a military doctor in the book, for example, although he is not a rich man, can already live very comfortably in London, receiving an allowance of 11 shillings and 6 pence a day, and an income of almost 17 pounds a month, as for the big landowners and factory owners, they have even more money in their pockets, and they wander around various balls and theaters every day, and their bed partners change and change.

…………

The carriage drove towards the Thames, and Holmes was in a good mood along the way, chatting endlessly about the concert he had gone to before, but unfortunately the two companions beside him were difficult to have much in common with him on this topic, Sheriff Gregerson was still having a headache for the case at hand, and seemed a little absent-minded, although Zhang Heng had practiced the piano for a while, his understanding of the musicians of the nineteenth century was limited to a few more famous ones.

"I love music, it's one of the few things in this boring and boring world that excites my nerves, and beyond that there are all kinds of cases, the more unbelievable the ciphers, the more complicated the analysis makes me happy, but unfortunately there are fewer and fewer criminals who are willing to use their brains," Sherlock Holmes seemed to be on the rise, opening up the conversation.

"In most cases, you can actually find similarities or similarities in the past cases, so when you are at a loss, you can always find something to gain by looking through the old files of the past."

"Why, did you have an archive where you live?" Gregerson interjected.

"I do have a habit of collecting newspaper clippings to record difficult and miscellaneous cases, but more records are here." Holmes pointed to his head and smiled.