Lorenzo Holmes, who arrived in Old Dunling six years ago, now wanders the city of steel and steam as a private detective.

Another person died.

That's what people are talking about this morning.

According to the Queen's Daily, a man was shot at the junction of Irins and the Inner City in the Eastern Suburbs, and because of the proximity to the inner city where the rich live, the patrols were quick to dispatch, but as they had done so many times before, they found nothing.

According to the autopsy of Su Yalan Hall, the man was hit head-on by a shotgun at close range, and the scattered projectiles hit his body into a bloody blur, making it difficult to distinguish his appearance, but based on the tanned skin and the faint smell of fish, Su Yalan Hall speculated that he was a sailor, but they didn't know why this sailor was there that day, it was very far from the harbor, and he didn't have any motivation to come here.

Another unsolved case, at least that's what the public thinks.

No one was surprised by this result, and there was no panic, after all, everyone has been used to it for a long time.

This is Old Dunling, the heart of the whole of Invig, the heart of the whole world, where the first steam engine in human history came from.

Therefore, countless strangers come here every day, some for wealth, some for knowledge, some for power.

In order to maintain order, the old Dunling was divided into four districts, and they were linked to each other.

The most central is the power center of the whole Ingwig, where Queen Victoria lives in the Platinum Palace, and at the same time there is also stationed the third mobile force of the royal family, outside of which is the inner city, where the rich and noble people of the old Dunling basically live, enjoying the 24-hour protection of the patrol police, and beyond this is the outer city divided into four small areas, most of the residents live here, which is the largest part of the whole old Dunling, and finally the lower city.

According to the visitor's documents, the old Dunling was open to all districts, and if you were dressed in tatters, you wouldn't be able to get into the outer city at all, and at most you could only hang out in the lower town, which in some sense was not a city.

It started out as a slum, but as more and more people arrived, the Lower Town grew until it grew so big that even the consuls had to face it.

Thus a chaotic and chaotic city has emerged, where the largest black market in the whole of Old Dunling takes place, the last incinerator of all hidden information, and it is separated by a thin line from the world that everyone seeks.

The dead sailor was a man from the Lower Town, who seemed to the inhabitants of Invig to be not even human, they were just a bunch of dirt that stained the beautiful city.

The death of the sailor became the talk of everyone, and no one cared at all, except for one person, the one who killed him.

Lorenzo walked in the lower town, and now he is on the edge of the lower town, where the infrastructure roots are not the same, the boots are one foot deep and one foot shallow on the muddy road, and Lorenzo would not have died here if he hadn't died for his livelihood.

Wearing a deer hunting hat dyed black, his short pale blonde hair pressed down, a dark red tie on his chest, and a wide gray-black trench coat perfectly blocking the guns underneath, he held his cane and looked at the pocket watch in his hand from time to time, looking like a businessman in a hurry.

Lorenzo was dressed just right, just like a normal pedestrian, but now that he was in the lower town, he seemed to the people of the lower town to be a fat sheep who had strayed here.

People from different countries and regions are waiting for this fat sheep in the corner, this place is not under the jurisdiction of the patrol police, and even the dead are rarely held accountable, after all, there is a huge flow of people here, and countless people arrive in the city with ships every day.

There are all of them, and they know exactly who to target and who not to target.

Several new strangers took an interest in Lorenzo, and they whispered about Lorenzo's possessions, some asking for his trench coat and others for his pocket watch.

The rest of the people just ignored this, and after the lower city became the black market of Old Dunling, a new black industry chain was formed here, and most of the people who dared to rob people were gang members, and they would only get themselves into it if they helped.

On the filthy streets, the group surrounded Lorenzo with a fierce look in their eyes.

"My friend is dressed nicely. ”

The leader looked at Lorenzo with a smile on his face, which was not a good gesture, he just found that Lorenzo's pocket watch was worth a lot more than it looked.

"If I were you, I wouldn't do that. ”

The voice was a little helpless, as if he was used to it, and Lorenzo didn't care about what happened to him.

This is the case in the lower city, he used to kill a few people in front of dozens of people, thinking that he would establish some prestige, but every time he came, Lorenzo thought that someone was targeting him, but later he found out that it was just that this group of people was gone.

This is the lower town, the temporary residence of the strangers, and it is not protected by the kingdom by the laws of Invig, and the people here are not citizens. Beyond this is the mouth of the Thames, where Invig's largest harbour is located, and the men of the Lower Town may be here today, and the next day they may be running away with their fishing boats.

There are also gang reasons, and these are the only benefits of the black market, for the sake of these industrial gangs will break out in conflict in the lower city every day, and every day people will die, their bodies will be thrown directly into the Thames, and after being filtered by the steam hub, the corpses will be incinerated together with the debris.

It's not that no one remembers Lorenzo, it's just that they died too quickly.

The knife flickered in front of Lorenzo's eyes, and just as he was thinking about what to do with these lifeless thugs, the sound of horses' hooves sounded, and a dark carriage stopped on the side of the street, and the coachman saw this scene and took out his pistol and shot at these thugs.

He was really welcome, and after a few gunshots, the bodies of the thugs lay in front of Lorenzo, and the people in the streets fled because of the gunshots, and for a time the streets were empty and only he and the coachman were left.

"Mr. Holmes?"

It seems that he can't see Lorenzo clearly because of his old age, but the shooting just now is so precise that it is a little difficult to judge the coachman.

"It's me. ”

Glancing at the emblem on the carriage, Lorenzo did not hesitate to get into the carriage, but instead of getting into the carriage, he sat in the front of the carriage and sat with the coachman.

"What's going on with those guys?"

Looking at the corpse on the ground, Lorenzo looked disgusted.

"Stowaways. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of stowaways, most of whom are criminals, who think they can usher in a new life in Old Dunling, but they don't know that they have to say goodbye to their past when they start a new life...... They still retain the mentality of thugs, so they have caused a lot of trouble recently. ”

The coachman whipped his whip and the carriage started slowly, moving forward on the muddy road.

"Shrike cares about this?"

"Your Excellency has been very busy recently, there are two gangs that are about to go to war because of territorial issues, your Excellency has been mediating recently, those two gangs have important industries, your Excellency doesn't care if they win or lose, but because of their conflicts, those industries are bound to be affected, and their lives are not so valuable. ”

"Hmm...... It looks like his style. Lorenzo said and nodded.

"By the way, Mr. Holmes, if you want to come next time, please tell me in advance, and I will come to pick you up, so as to avoid some unnecessary conflicts. ”

The coachman said again, thoughtful as a butler.

Lorenzo nodded and didn't speak, although it wasn't long before he got in the car, it was clear that his destination had arrived.

Behind the crumbling buildings was a hidden castle, made of rubble, with tattered flags and iron frames, like the work of some artist.

He got out of the car and took off his hat to thank the coachman, which he had only learned in etiquette class for a long time, and he was too lazy to think about what the occasion should be, but it had become part of his habit.

Walking towards the strange castle, the half-hidden gate opened directly to him, and then the real appearance of the lower town was revealed to him.

Unlike the dilapidated outside world, this opulent place is like an inner city, like a moment of crossing from the slums to the Platinum Palace.

It was already the end of October, and the weather was getting cooler, but the moment he entered, Lorenzo still felt a burst of heat, not only in his body, but also in his heart.

The space inside is much larger than it looks from the outside, with all kinds of expensive hanging paintings hanging on the pale gold walls, the floor is marble that can reflect the human figure, and the attendants in ornate masks carry plates and serve drinks on the various gaming tables.

The distant female voice singing on the high platform in the center drove the atmosphere of the entire casino.

Incense was lit in the delicate iron cages all around, and it smelled good, but it carried a trace of stimulant, making the hesitant guests gamble all their chips.

That's what Downtown really looks like, drunken and golden.

Unlike the inner city, it is ungoverned and has become a den for many nobles who sell their stolen goods, who appear to be gambling, but they are diverting their wealth to another channel, and the amount of money traded here every day is beyond the reach of ordinary people. Of course, there will be a lot of aristocrats looking for excitement here, and they are all VIPs of the lower town.

Shrike had said this to himself, and that, according to the laws of Invig, every man here would have committed enough crimes to spend the rest of his life in prison, and of course, the entire aristocracy of Old Dunling would be at least a third less.

No one stopped Lorenzo, unlike the short-lived strangers from the outside world, the people here lived for a long time, and they knew very well who Lorenzo was.

Pushing open the iron doors, Lorenzo easily made his way to the deepest part of the underground, where he met the employer of the business.

The man wears a delicate silver mask with carvings of thorns and birds. Sitting behind the oak table, the whole room filled with incense, the singing on the gramophone flowed slowly, and he closed his eyes and waved his hands like a conductor until the arrival of Lorenzo broke the world in which he was immersed.

"Welcome!

He saw Lorenzo, a smiling welcome.

This is the real ruler of the lower city, the shrike to whom all the gangs bow down.

Butcher Bird Shrike.

Lorenzo sat down across from him unceremoniously, and spoke directly without any polite words.

"There was nothing on that man, and before he died, he was like crazy, he couldn't ask anything, and he didn't have any clues to check. ”

"Well, is that really the case?" said Shrike as he took his glass from under the table and poured his favorite wine into it, "Lorenzo, you're the best detective I've ever met, you should have noticed more than that, right?" ”

Listening to the words of the shrike, Lorenzo sighed helplessly.

"It's just speculation. ”

"What speculation?"

Hearing Lorenzo's words, Shrike became interested, and sure enough, Lorenzo Holmes never let him down.

"I found his whereabouts based on the drug dealer. A sailor in the lower town who doesn't have much income but goes to a different drug dealer every day to buy hallucinogens. By the time I found him, the sailor seemed to have been injected with a large dose of hallucinogens, his speech was slurred, and with patrols everywhere around the inner city, I couldn't ask much......

So I speculated that something must have happened to him, something that frightened him, and he was so scared that he had to rely on hallucinogens to escape. ”

Lorenzo's voice was soft, as if reading a permeating story.

"Why do you think it's a matter of fear? For some reason, the shrike cared so much about the word fear.

"Because I shot him in the chest, dozens of projectiles pierced his heart, lungs and bones, and he would feel pain and wake up even if he inhaled hallucinogens.

You must know that people are afraid of death, and as long as I tempt me a little, he will be respectful to my words for the rest of his life, and I will answer whatever I ask. ”

But he didn't, and kept speaking in a foreign language that I didn't understand...... Although his face was also shattered by the projectile, I could see the relief on his face. ”

"It's as if I didn't kill him, I saved him from some nightmare. ”

Shrike was stunned when he heard this, and he ignored Lorenzo's speculation, but cared about his actions.

"You killed him, you should have brought him to me alive!"

"Huh?"

Lorenzo was stunned.

"You didn't say you wanted to live, and please pay attention to your identity, okay? You are a shrike, the boss of the entire lower city, the nobles of the House want you to die, and the gangsters below also want you to die, and only when you die can they become the next boss. ”

He took the glass and drank it, he continued.

"I'm thinking about you, people who know my identity more or less know about your relationship with me, and you repeatedly emphasize that this matter should be kept secret, I guess this matter is very important, right?

They all want to bring you down, and I'm not going to give them a handle on this important matter, you see, it's just a dead sailor, and no one will think about you. ”

Lorenzo put down his glass and spread his hands.

"The best of both worlds. ”

"So your best of both worlds is to kill the only clue and come here for a drink?"

In a calm tone, Shrike calmly took out a revolver from under the table, the silver metal surface was carved with reliefs of gods and ghosts, delicate and completely devoid of firearms.

"Lorenzo I want you to understand one thing, you are my employee, and I am your employer, and you will not receive money in this way, but will receive a bullet. ”

Without even looking up at Lorenzo, he filled one bullet after another into the nest, filling five rounds to leave one, and then he turned the nest and pointed the gun at Lorenzo.

"You're the best detective I've ever met, but you're really stupid...... So do you want to bet on your luck? 1 in 6 probability. ”

Shrike looked at Lorenzo solemnly, he was not joking about it.

The smile on Lorenzo's face stiffened.

"Okay, okay, you're really boring. ”

With a wave of his hand, he tried to press the muzzle down, but then Shrike raised the muzzle again.

Seeing this scene, Lorenzo also knew that he could only explain things at gunpoint.

"I've been following the sailor for many days, his name is Wall, a Viking from the northern seas, and he's been wandering among the drug dealers for the past few days, without the slightest intention of returning to port, as if abandoned by his captain. ”

"When you gave me this case, you just asked me to investigate this person, and you said he had a secret. ”

As if there was no muzzle in front of him, Lorenzo was casual again.

"To be honest, your requirements for this case are really ridiculous, and you don't know his secrets, but you asked me to investigate......"

"Identity, sociability, nothing, very clean person, until I witnessed him injected with hallucinogens. ”

"What's wrong?"

The Shrike was particularly concerned about the matter of the Sailor Wall.

"That's, you know?"

Lorenzo was talking nonsense as he posed for an injection around his neck.

"A whole bottle of hallucinogens, which is lethal for ordinary people, he just injected them all, and he took them for several days, which I confirmed from the drug dealer, and he bought it every day. ”

"I thought it might be a matter of Viking physique, after all, their ancestral pirates had hit the gates of Old Dunling. ”

Speaking of this, Lorenzo raised an eyebrow, telling this kind of black history always makes him extra happy.

"I tried it with a Viking in Downtown, and he was foaming at the mouth after a whole hallucinogen. ”

"So there's something wrong with Wall's body?"

The shrike grasped the key to this.

"Yes, there's a big physical problem. And not only that, but he was very aggressive, and he killed at least six people in those few days, otherwise you think a sailor would have any money. Then I did kill him, but that's what he begged me to beg me for. ”

Lorenzo recalls the story of that night.

In the rising white steam and the light of the Zeppelin, Lorenzo was the pitch-black silhouette, with twisted flesh beneath him, dark red blood bubbling from every bullet hole, his chest heaving violently, and a whimpering sound in his throat, which he did not understand, but as if he understood the meaning.

Kill me!

Take me away!

Then I stabbed my sword with my cane through the bullet hole. ”

Lorenzo pulled out his staff, the pitch-black wood cracking open to reveal the chill beneath it.

"I pierced his cervical vertebrae...... The carotid artery ruptured, there was a lot of internal bleeding, and he soon died, but that's when something strange happened. ”

In Lorenzo's story, Shrike leans forward, listens carefully to every word, and constructs in his mind the scene of that night.

"He should be dead...... He must have died, but his heart was still beating, beating violently, and it could be said that his brain was dead, but his body was still alive, squeezing a steady stream of blood out of the bullet hole. ”

"It's a complete anomaly, and I pierced his heart with my sword, and that's when the body was truly dead. ”

The story ended, and the shrike was silent as if thinking about something, and Lorenzo was not in a hurry, just drinking a little wine, he knew very well that everything that could be placed in the shrike was good, and it was a little more to drink.

"You should have brought his body back. ”

"There's no need. ”

"There's no need, you know there's something wrong with that body!"

Shrike was really angry this time, as if he was going to shoot in the next second.

"What about getting it back? You're in a casino, not a morgue, and you've got a bunch of thugs who don't even have a coroner...... Do you know how many bones there are in the human body?"

Looking at the shrike with disdain, Lorenzo continued.

Now Wall's body is lying in the morgue of Victoria General Hospital, being dissected by a group of forensic doctors who have spent an unknown amount of time at the Royal Medical School.

Piece by piece, it was cut and neatly laid out on the iron frame, like a sumptuous human feast, and every anomaly was recorded in the report in strict accordance with the code, and all of this was there at the moment waiting for me to pick it up. ”

Picking up his pocket watch, Lorenzo looked at the time.

"It's two hours before this group of people get off work, do you have anything else to ask?"