The night in the Heart of the Earth doesn't come sooner or later, only to take away the last rays of the setting sun in the west when the hour hand points to eight.

The bustle of Valentine's Smithfield Tavern doesn't come sooner or later, only to play the first joyous notes when the first stars in the sky begin to shine.

At this time, the Smithfield Tavern becomes bustling with people, with upbeat tunes bouncing out of the pianist's fingertips, and even the barber who runs the shop in the tavern can't help but dance to it. Gentlemen, cowboys, noblewomen, prostitutes, these people, who are scattered and busy with their own affairs during the day, are almost all gathered here at this moment, some to find pleasure in alcohol and women, some just to eat on their own terms, and some to play Texas Hold'em here, to experience the feeling of spending a lot of money, of course, just the feeling.

Tonight, the people in the tavern were all focused on the table on the right side of the tavern near the door, because at this table, there was a high-end gamble that Valentine had never had before.

There were two people sitting on either side of the table, and there were no other butts stuck to the seats next to the table, and the only proof that the owners of those butts had been on the table were the chips left on the table and the cards that covered the deck.

The man sitting by the window wore an old cowboy hat, a dusty black trench coat, a green scarf tied around his neck, a short unkempt beard on his face, and a pair of small eyes like eagles.

Sitting across from him was a young man with pale blonde hair, bright green eyes, and a well-groomed new suit. With a confident smile on his face, the young man almost had the words "victory" written on his face, and he asked as he stroked his freshly maintained hair, "How is it?" Do you want to raise or not? ”

"The stakes have been raised to forty dollars." A fat man in sloppy clothes on the side whispered to his companion.

"I've been in this town for years, and I've never seen such a big gamble." His companion sighed.

"Who's to say it isn't, eh, by the way, do you know where the two people at the table are coming from?"

"I don't know where to go, there are so many people who come to buy drunk every day, and I don't know everyone."

"Well, I know that young man," a scantily clad woman joined in, "Valentine, who only arrived today, came dirtier and smellier than you fat man, and had a cart of corpses with him. ”

"How dare he pull a cart of corpses and swagger down the street?" The fat man was a little surprised.

"I've seen it with my own eyes," the woman glanced at the man she had never looked down on, and said, "And, ah, our honorable sheriff is very polite to him, oops, I just didn't expect it, it's really a man who relies on clothes and horses to rely on saddles, he is so handsome after he is well groomed and dressed, if I can have an in-depth exchange with him for one night, I will be happy to charge no money~"

At this time, the young man at the gambling table asked again: "Add or not, to put it mildly, there is only one card left unopened, and it is pointless for you to delay." ”

The man in the green scarf seemed to be a little angry, but as if he had made up his mind, he took out the last crumpled ten-dollar bill from his pocket and slapped it on the table, and shouted as if to cheer himself on, "I'll follow." ”

"Very well," said the young man, nodding his head, and magically pulling out a brand new ten-dollar bill from the trouser pocket of his suit, "I will follow." ”

The game was upgraded from $40 to $50, and everyone around was in an uproar.

Texas Hold'em, winner takes all, in this gamble, no matter who wins, the winner can directly take away a huge sum of more than 100 dollars. In this age when more than twenty dollars can be exchanged for an ounce of gold, a hundred dollars, there are so many things that can be done.

Both players do not raise at this point, so the other player chosen by the two to act as the dealer deals the last card.

At this time, the community cards on the table are Ace of Grass, 10 of diamonds, 8 of hearts, Q of diamonds, and King of spades.

The man in the green scarf was just about to open his cards, when the young man suddenly raised his right hand and said, "Wait a minute." ”

All eyes were on him.

The young man smiled slightly, looked at the man in the green scarf, and said, "Why don't we add another code at the end, what do you think?" ”

Although the man in the green scarf was extremely worried about winning or losing this gamble, he didn't want to make his momentum inferior, so he replied: "What else do you want to bet?" ”

The young man reached for his waist and slapped a revolver on the table, a gun of exquisite workmanship and a rare skull carved on the body, and the price was unmatched by ordinary firearms.

"How about we bet on our own guns?" Said the young man.

The man in the green scarf's hand touched the handle of his gun, and his face showed hesitation.

"You'll have to think about it," the young man pressed again, "if you don't, according to the rules, it's all mine." ”

When the man in the green scarf heard this, he looked at his hand, rubbed his fingers on the handle of the gun for a while, took out the gun as if he were ruthless, and slapped it on the table so hard that the table jumped and jumped.

"I'll follow!" He shouted.

"Then please open the cards." The young man made a gesture of please.

The man in the green scarf smiled contemptuously and casually flipped over the cards in his hand, which were two gorgeous aces, causing another small commotion among the people around him.

"Three of a kind A, this hand is indeed okay, no wonder you dare to bet to this point." That's what the vast majority of people say.

The young man looked at the other man's hand and smiled, as if disdainful. He slowly lifted a card from his hand, the 9 of hearts.

The young man looked up, smiled at his opponent, and said, "Do you want to guess what suit and number my last hand was?" If you're right, I'll treat you to a bottle of whiskey later. ”

"I don't want to guess." The man in the green scarf was a little angry.

The young man nodded, with an exaggerated expression of regret, and said, "That's a pity, sir, you lost the opportunity to borrow wine for free to drown your sorrows." With that, he turned over the last card of his hand, the square J.

Cheers and applause rang out, and the handsome young man defeated the stubby man in the green scarf with a gorgeous straight, just as everyone had hoped, especially the women, whose cheers almost lifted the roof.

The man in the green scarf had a gloomy face, his hand resting on the handle of the gun that no longer belonged to him, sometimes clenching the handle and sometimes loosening it.

At this moment, he was suddenly tapped on the shoulder, and he lost his mind, and the gun was snatched from his hand.

The handsome and arrogant young man played with his pistol and said, "Dude, listen to my advice, gambling is bad for your health, especially the health of your wallet, what about my advice, you, either stay away from the table in the future, or you should fold and fold in the future, and stop the loss in time." ”

After saying that, the young man took another bottle of whiskey from the bar, put it in front of him, and said, "Oh, please, you're welcome." ”

The man in the green scarf looked at the whiskey, and then at the smiling young man, and felt that he had been greatly insulted. He slammed the table, leaving an angry "snort" and walked away.

The young man looked a little confused, but soon he integrated himself into the lively atmosphere of the tavern: "Huh? Don't drink it? If he doesn't drink it, I'll invite everyone to drink it, and everyone present now will pay for the next bottle of wine! Then the music, the dance! ”

The whole tavern was boiling, not because of how rich the handsome young man was, not because of the pleasure of white whiskey. It's just a pretext, a prelude to make tonight's party a little better, and they're just intoxicated and don't want to wake up.

But passion always burns out, and what remains is the ashes of burnout. By the middle of the moon, the tavern was still brightly lit, but it was no longer as happy as it had been a few hours ago, as if the man lying beside him with a graceful woman had lit a cigarette and fallen into deep contemplation.

Brandi pushes open the door of the tavern and drunkenly says goodbye to the drinkers and bartenders. He walked out of the tavern, leaned against the pillar in front of the tavern, lit a cigar, and looked up at the starry sky above Valentine like an idle gentleman.

He wasn't really drunk, just a little tired from the American Western-style. Brandi originally thought that in this backward era, even clubbing was not fun, but he didn't expect that this unique bar culture that only belonged to this era of primitive and civilization collided deeply attracted him, and he even felt that compared with this kind of 19th century tavern, the kind of glamour and wine in the 21st century is simply inferior.

Brandi took a deep puff of his cigarette and habitually inserted his right hand into the trouser pocket of his suit, rubbing the original Vlaco Hernandez revolver.

He now felt that fate did like to joke on it sometimes. He finally had the opportunity to leave the team for a while and go on his own, hoping to experience the charm of the Wild West, but after a really puzzling and disgusting adventure, he now has enough property to retire directly and buy a piece of land in the west to live his old age.

Brandi is not a person who likes to run, on the contrary, he was a very standard otaku in his previous life, and the farthest distance he walked every day was from home to work, so although he likes to venture around more in this life than in his previous life, the desire for a stable life that remains in his soul still flutters occasionally.

But the western life of gunfire and adventure is just as appealing to him, and it's big.

After smoking a cigarette, Brandi left the cigarette butt on the ground, and while stepping on the cigarette butt, he succeeded in temporarily suppressing the seemingly ingrained inertia in his soul.

"I haven't done what I need to do, I haven't experienced the adventure I want to go through, so how can I stop here." Brandi thought.

At this time, Brandi suddenly heard a woman's voice: "Hey! Mr! ”

He was a little puzzled, and followed the voice to see a woman with heavy makeup and scantily clad looking at him, her face full of eagerness mixed with three points of fear. When the woman saw that he had noticed this, she immediately whispered with a little joy: "That's right, it's you, sir, come here, I need your help!" ”

Brandi straightened up and walked over to the woman. The woman said incoherently, "I'm almost blind." That guy, he's a complete badass, you have to help me and I'll pay you! ”

"Okay, okay, calm down, ma'am," Brandi pressed down to guide the woman to calm down, "Where's that villain you're talking about?" ”

"He's inside, upstairs. Come with me, and I'll take you. With that, the woman turned and led Brandi to the second floor of the tavern.

In the 19th century American taverns, there were always women who were either trying to make a living or simply seeking excitement, and there were many men with different purposes who were willing to become their customers, and the tavern was also happy to provide convenience for these men and women, such as Valentine's tavern, the two rooms upstairs were specially set up for this kind of business. A man and a woman make a deal, and after a long and friendly exchange there, one party is satisfied, the other is satisfied—and perhaps at the same time—and the tavern owner, who acts as a middleman, receives a large share of the business, a win-win situation for all three parties, so why not?

Brandi and the woman climbed to the second floor of the tavern in a few minutes. The woman opened the door, and Brandi was greeted by a ** man lying on the bed, with a dagger stuck in his chest, and the white sheets were stained red by coagulated blood.

The woman swore an oath: "I promise you, if you don't kill him, I will be the one who dies." ”

"Oh?" Brandi looked at the woman suspiciously, and then at the corpse, hesitating on the surface, but in fact, he already had a plan in his heart.

"Really! You have to trust me! He almost strangled me! The woman reassured, looking around in a panic, as if looking for something, "I ...... I need to clean this room, can you help me dispose of his body? Please! I'm willing to give you all the money I have! ”

"All the money?" Brandi smiled slightly, pulled the chair aside and leaned against the door, then sat down, sealed the door, and then he crossed Erlang's legs and said, "Then let me see how much money you have." ”

The woman didn't react for a while, and in her impression, normal people shouldn't react like this to a woman who killed someone in a panic. Somewhat overwhelmed, she asked, "Sir, are you......?" What are you doing here? ”

"Beforehand, my price is high," Brandi said, lighting a cigarette and taking a puff, "you want me to help, you can, but I have to see if you can afford it, which makes sense, doesn't it?" ”

The woman was a little confused. In her imagination, she should be the leader of the whole thing, when was she inexplicably taken away the dominance by this human-looking guy in front of her?

She didn't know what to do, so she started looking for money, because it seemed to be the only hope of breaking the game at the moment.

The woman searched for the places where the money could be hidden, and finally found a few crumpled banknotes and coins, and handed them to Brandy.

Brandy sneered slightly, and said, "Not even twenty dollars, why are you calling Hanako this fool?" ”

The woman was a little anxious. Her top priority now is to clean up the scene so that people can't see that there has been a murder here, but this bastard in front of her, who deserves a thousand cuts, insists on pulling her to the end. She had no choice but to use a killer weapon.

"If you are not satisfied, I will leave it to you after the incident." A little shyness, a little cowardice, combined with her hot and sexy appearance, women believe that as long as it is a man, no one can resist this kind of good thing sent to the door for nothing.

Brandi saw the woman's wistful gesture and didn't know what to do. "It's so interesting, hey, unlock a new story." He thought so.

Brandi sorted out his thoughts a little and said to the woman: "In this way, I have a few questions, as long as your answer satisfies me, I will help you, of course, I still want the reward you said before, what do you think?" ”

The woman didn't think much of it and hurriedly nodded.

"First of all, how did you meet this man?"

"Also...... How else could you meet," the woman's words were a little hesitant, "sir, you should also know what I do, I am just a normal solicitor, and I just happened to meet him." ”

"Oh~ coincidence," Brandi nodded, "then you tell me, why did you kill him?" ”

"I said before, if I don't do that, I'll be the one who dies," the woman hurriedly argued, "I negotiated the price with him, but it didn't come to an agreement, he was going to come hard, and he almost strangled me, I, I couldn't breathe, so I felt the knife on the bedside table, and then I ...... That's it. ”

"You say, he wants to strangle you," Brandi said unhurriedly, "and why don't you have a pinch on your neck?" ”

"This ......" The woman's eyes were frightened first, and she was speechless for a while.

"Maybe you haven't noticed that there's a lot of dust on the bedside table here, and if something ever was on it, it would always leave traces, but you can also see that there's nothing on the bedside table except dust." Brandi continued to reason.

"Yes...... Maybe I'm mistaken, I seem to ...... It's a knife from under the pillow......" The woman's voice became weaker and weaker.

"In such a room, how could a normal person hide a knife under his pillow?" Brandi smiled confidently, he could see that this woman's heart was already in turmoil, "You don't need to explain, no matter where the knife came from, you can't get rid of the fact that the knife was prepared by you in advance, and the purpose was to kill people." ”

"You...... You're spewing blood! The woman became angry, "You said I deliberately killed someone, what evidence do you have?" ”

"Evidence?" Brandi sneered, took out the police badge the sheriff had given him from his pocket, and said, "Come and see, what is this?" ”

When the woman saw the badge, she instantly seemed to lose all her strength and fell to her knees.

"I don't need any evidence, I just need to suspect, and I have the power to arrest you," Brandi said as he put away his badge and lamented the hard-to-evidence-based style of the American police at this time. ”

Brandi stood up, removed his chair, and said, "To sum up, I suspect that this is an intentional homicide case, where you used your position to lure a man into the bait and then brutally murdered him. I'm sure this isn't the first time you've done this kind of thing, after all, you're really skilled at dragging people into the water. ”

Brandi got out of the way and said to the woman, "How's it going?" Will I go by myself, or will I tie you up and carry you away? ”

"I ...... I'll go on my own, sir, ah no, officer," the woman stammered, "I...... My feet are numb and I can't stand up, can you help me? ”

"Of course, ma'am." Brandi said, reaching out to take the woman's outstretched hand for help.

The woman's eyes suddenly flashed with ferocity, and the hand hidden under the skirt held a steel knife that stabbed Brandi in the abdomen like lightning.

Brandi had expected it, took a step back to dodge the cold and shining sharp knife, and took the opportunity to hold the wrist of the woman's other hand with his other hand, and with a fierce force, the woman screamed miserably, and the sharp knife came out of her hand.

Brandi cut the woman's hands back, pressed her directly to the ground, and said viciously, "You know what? If I were to codify the law, your punishment would not be as simple as hanging. ”

"You're a bastard! You're just like that group of men, there's not a single good thing! You're worse than they are! The woman stopped acting at the moment, and scolded hysterically.

Brandi pulled a piece of sheet as a rope and tied the woman's hands and feet tightly. He carried the woman on his shoulders, and without shying away from anything, he walked straight down the main staircase in the tavern.

The bartender was startled when he saw Brandi carrying a woman who looked like a madman, and asked, "Mr. Manny, what is the situation?" ”

"Oh, this bitch killed someone upstairs in your shop, and she wanted to kill me just now, and I'm going to take her to the sheriff now." Brandi said lightly.

"Oh my gosh," said the bartender, "what's wrong with these bitches?" Are you alright? Mr. Manny? ”

"I'm fine, but this bitch is going to be out of luck." Brandi adjusted the position of the woman on her back, she was really energetic, and if she didn't adjust it, she was afraid that she would fall.

Valentine, Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Malloy, who had been asleep for a long time, suddenly heard a sharp knock on the door outside, he rubbed his eyes and got up from the bed, tied the belt of the gun around his waist, and while pulling out his pistol, he asked, "Who's outside?" ”

"Sheriff, I'm here to deliver business to you."

The voice Malloy was all too familiar. He put away his gun, opened the door, and said with a smile: "It's Brandi, haha, come in, come in and talk about something." With that, he let Brandi into the house.

Malloy noticed the woman on Brandy's shoulder, sometimes scolding, sometimes struggling to beg for mercy, and asked, "What's the matter with this woman?" ”

Brandi immediately told the truth about his experience of meeting this woman tonight.

After hearing this, Malloy said happily: "Okay, we have been murdering prostitutes here for a while now, and the modus operandi is exactly the same as what you said, we have arrested many times without results, it seems that this bitch is unlucky today." ”

"Isn't it time for her to go where she's supposed to be?" Brandi asked.

"Of course," Sergeant Malloy pointed to the cell next to him, "just open the door there and let her in." Ma'am, the bed here isn't as comfortable as the tavern, but at least there's no blood on it, and that's the point. ”

Brandi opens the door of the prison and throws the woman into prison, and the woman seems to be tireless, constantly scolding and making everyone else feel dry for her.

"Thank you, Brandy," said Sheriff Malloy, "the killer prostitute is exactly what Valentine needs to solve right now, and he is a student of Major Warren, and the connoisseur will know if there is one as soon as he makes a move." ”

"Sheriff False," Brandy smiled, "now that the matter is done, I won't linger, and this woman should be able to accompany you through the long night." ”

"Ha, I'd like to live a few more decades," Sergeant Malloy said with a smile as he pulled out a few bills from his desk, "Honestly, if there were a few more capable and righteous young people like you, this place might be a good place to live and work." Come on, take the money, it's not much, but you deserve it. ”

Brandi took the money, nodded approximately, nodded, said goodbye to the sheriff, and left the sheriff's office.

Behind him, the conversation between Sheriff Malloy and the woman is clearly audible.

"That bastard is mistaken, sheriff, it's that guy trying to kill me!"

"You want to say you're defending yourself, aren't you? Were the previous times all self-defense? You've got a lot of blood on your hands, woman. ”

"Fuck you! You're no different from everyone else! ”

"Ha, if you say that, then I'll take it as a compliment."

Valentine's night has since fallen silent, leaving only the stars still shining, casting a little sparkle on the roofs of every house.