Chapter 2: After the Hunt

Images flashed through her mind, incoherent from one another, like a failed film clip.

But the hero of each picture is a boy with black hair and pale yellow eyes. As the screen keeps switching, the boy seems to be growing up.

Jing Wenying watched and gradually realized that these intermittent images were describing the little boy's past life in the most brief form - from some of the images, she learned that the boy's name was Douglas.

At the age of seven, Douglas followed his father, a farmer, to Beckland, living in the chaotic East End, where his father died in a factory accident at the age of fourteen, leaving Douglas without his family and home, and having to survive alone at the bottom.

She could see Douglas in the market trying to steal food from the stalls...... He fights, uses violence to steal food from other children, or is robbed of food by others...... He worked at the docks with other tattered homeless men to carry cargo, pull ropes for ships, and scrub decks...... He snuck out a cigarette butt from the almshouse and took a puff through the candle flame...... He joined a gang and committed crimes such as roadblock robbery and burglary......

This gloomy life lasted until one day when Douglas was seventeen years old. Until then, he was admired by the upper echelons for his cleverness, and was selected among several candidates to meet a mysterious man who covered all his identity with a cloak and mask.

It was this mysterious man who gave Douglas a bottle of potion and made him extraordinary!

Seeing this, Jing Wenying finally understood that the previous wall piercing was not a so-called crossing skill, but one of the extraordinary abilities that can be brought by drinking potions in this world!

She exhaled, slowly opened her eyes, and hooked the corners of her mouth self-deprecatingly: It turns out that my crossing is really so unremarkable...... Even the extraordinary abilities are brought by the original owner! It has nothing to do with me at all!

………… And the owner of this body was originally a man! But I'm a woman! It's not appropriate, isn't it? Jing Wenying roared loudly in her heart.

But when she thought about the health and living conditions of the poor in this era, she quickly comforted herself, at least she didn't have to deal with her menstrual period every month, and she didn't have to worry about being kidnapped and sold...... As long as I keep my chastity, no, keep my male virtue! Physiology, there's nothing to worry about!

As for problems such as going to the toilet, I can get to my best with my eyes closed, and I can still cut it......

As his thoughts flickered, the door clicked and was opened from the outside.

An old man with gray hair dressed in a brown clergyman's uniform walked into the room, carrying a tray in his hand. Seeing Jing Wenying sitting on the bed, the old man showed a kind smile: "I'm glad to see you recover so quickly." ”

"You gave me a new lease of life, Father Schulz." Jing Wenying, who was facing Douglaspie, sat up a little straighter, raised her head and politely responded to the priest's gaze, and said from the bottom of her heart, "I, please forgive my stupidity, I don't know what kind of praise can be worthy of your noble character. ”

- Two days ago, she fainted on the street due to physical exhaustion, and happened to be rescued by Father Schultz of Mother Earth God Church, who was passing by here on an errand, and brought back to the Harvest Church in the south area of the bridge. The Church of Mother Earth seems to have a lot of experience in medical treatment, and the priest, after examining Douglas's body, concocted several potions to cure her in just two days.

Except for a few injuries that have not yet healed, the rest of Douglas is now in good health.

"Don't care." Schultz placed the tray on the table and then made a gesture of prayer, "We are all children of Mother God, and Mother God teaches us that life is precious and harvest is gratifying." ”

Praise the Mother Goddess! Your teachings to believers are very practical, very consistent, and very humane...... Jing Wenying muttered in her heart.

She didn't dare to really praise it, after all, according to Douglas's memory, this world seems to really have gods...... And "he" did not have any faith in his life, so it is not easy to praise God or ask for anything.

Nowadays, although the Mother Earth God Church has a life-saving grace for herself, Jing Wenying, who was born under the red flag before crossing the past, has always been an unbeliever and has no intention of believing in something easily.

At least not yet.

The priest didn't stay long, it was daytime, and there was still business to take care of in the church, he just brought food to Douglas and visited the injured by the way. After a few pleasantries, the priest left the room.

In the tray brought by the priest, there was a bowl of vegetable soup, a large cup of tea, a few slices of toast and a piece of butter, a typical Western way of eating, which was difficult to arouse Jing Wenying's appetite. But not wasting food is a dogma engraved in our genes. Anyway, there is food, if it is not picked up, it is estimated that it should be eaten by wild dogs by now......

She didn't pick herself on the brunch, but after a while, she had to face the reality, pushing the tray aside and taking out pencil and ink from the drawer.

This temporary room was originally a rest room for the clergy, with mirrors, paper and pens for the clergy's grooming. Jing Wenying pinched the old fountain pen that had lost its paint, and spent a few seconds thinking about whether to write Chinese or the current Ruen script.

Chinese is enough to keep it secret...... But considering that I am in the church, if I write words that no one can understand, I will be accused of believing in a cult or colluding with the devil...... Well, be on the safe side! Jing Wenying glanced at the candles on the table and decided to burn them as soon as they were used up to reduce hidden dangers.

She took a pen and wrote the first question on paper in Runn:

"1. What is the identity and purpose of the 'mystery man'? Is it dangerous? ”

When she finished writing, she raised her hand and pinched her temples, browsing the memories of her original owner faster.

According to Douglas's understanding before his death, "potions" and "extraordinary powers" should be a kind of hidden existence in this world, and they are not known to ordinary people.

Generally speaking, only the Church of the Seven Righteous Gods will produce official Extraordinary. Under the crackdown of the Church officials, it is very difficult and dangerous to make potions without permission to become extraordinary.

At the same time, it also means that potions should be very precious, and it is impossible to pick a random subordinate and make him extraordinary.

In this way, the "mystery man" who made Douglas an extraordinary person looks very suspicious......

And Jing Wenying found that the tasks directly assigned by those "mysterious people" were very vague and fragmented in Douglas's memory, and there was almost no useful information, which made her suspect that the other party had handled them by occult means out of the need for secrecy.

After all, in this world where extraordinary power exists, dead people can speak. Jing Wenying can only recall some bits and pieces of "herself" instigating strikes, smuggling machines, and propagating doctrines in the Eastern District, as well as the two not-so-serious sounding organization names of the "Aurora Society" and "Gnosis Society".

However, even though her memory was vague, her body trembled almost instinctively when she wrote these two terms.

It seems that these two organizations have left a very terrible impression on the original owner.

Fortunately, according to the memory of the original owner, after the "Great Smog of Beckland" incident in late 1349, the "mysterious man" never contacted Douglas to issue a new mission and never showed up again.

It's possible that the mission has been completed and I won't be needed anymore...... But as a person from a secret organization, he didn't even think about killing people, and I really thank him...... Or is she?

Well, it's also possible that the "mystery person" himself encountered an accident, died or fled in a hurry, and couldn't care about dealing with my downline......

As a result, Douglas had no immediate boss since 1350, and relied on the literacy he had learned to read and write, the occult knowledge, and the connections he had saved while working for the "mystery men", and continued to operate as a bounty hunter in the East End, and his life was barely passable.

And now it is the end of 1352, and three years later, this "mysterious man" should no longer pose a threat to Douglas. Jing Wenying pondered for a moment, only circled the names of the two secret organizations, and decided that he must walk around them in the future.

Then, she wrote down the second question on a piece of paper:

"2. Why was Douglas injured and hunted down?"

Jing Wenying looked at this question and couldn't help but smile bitterly. It's not that she doesn't really know the answer, but the point is, the answer she does know is incomplete.

She remembered that about three or four days earlier, while attending an underground gathering of the Extraordinary, Douglas had been given a lucrative assignment: to help a man named Thomson take temporary custody of a dangerous object.

However, I don't know if it was a side effect of the time travel, or if there was an accident in between, Douglas's memory seemed to have been deleted out of thin air. One second, Douglas and Thomson met to hand over the items, and the next second, the memory jumped to two days later, and Douglas hid that dangerous item in a sewer in the East End alone with his injuries.

As for where Thomson went, what they encountered, and what was the identity of the pursuers...... Douglas doesn't remember all the key information, along with all the trivial things, as long as it happened in those two days.

Habitually tapping the paper with the tip of the pen, leaving a few deep ink spots on it, Jing Wenying followed the known information and roughly wrote down the guesses and plans:

"It is known: the chase was caused by this commission; The consignment is very dangerous; The pursuers knew who I was, so they could chase me to the safe house in one day; The pursuer was 'One-Eyed Ford', or someone hired him. ”

She had already learned from her memory that the single room she was in when she woke up that day was a safe house in Douglas's Beckland Bridge District, and the yellow-haired one-eyed man Fud, who almost used a stick to open a scoop for himself, was a well-known villain, running several gambling establishments in the docklands, and also buying murder door-to-door debt collection business part-time.

"Speculation: The pursuer wants the consignment; Thomson had been killed as the original owner; Hand over the consignment? ”

She put a big question mark after the last short sentence, and her mood was slightly tangled.

Thomson was a slightly chubby, middle-aged man with a slightly high hairline, a brown beard that covered his chin, and was always interested in the mystical knowledge of astrology when he attended parties.

The two thus established an initial friendship. Thomson himself is not an extraordinary person, but he yearns for the extraordinary, but unfortunately there are few formulas circulating in the underground market and it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity, and Thomson has not been able to realize this wish.

However, before this commission, when informing Douglas of the commission information, Thomson was excited that he would usher in a valuable opportunity!

"As long as I can keep this item safe, the credit I have accumulated will be enough for me to exchange a recipe from them and become an extraordinary!"

The "they" in this sentence made Douglas in memory and Jing Wenying at this moment vigilant. Upon questioning by Douglas, Thomson confessed that he had joined a secret organization that he had bought at auction for the organization, promising him a recipe and telling him that there might be other forces coveting the item, and asking him to hide it within a few days and wait for the organization to send someone to collect it.

"You don't have to worry about that, it's just my personal commission, just like before." Thomson said as he took out a few 5-pound notes and handed them to Douglas, "You are someone I can trust, and you happen to be an extraordinary person who is good at concealment!" You see, I'll pay you 15 pounds in advance, it only takes three days, help me put East XZ for three days, and I'll give you another 35 pounds! ”

With a £50 reward and the self-confidence of being an extraordinary "apprentice" path, Douglas finally took on the task. He agreed with Thomson to keep the item from Nov. 17 to Nov. 20 and then return it at the Nov. 20 evening meeting.

As a result, after handing over the items on the night of November 16, Douglas lost his memory of the period between November 17 and November 19, and Jing Wenying woke up in the cot in the safe house in the early morning of November 20. Then he was killed by Fude, ran away, fainted, and was picked up and returned to the Church of Mother Earth God, where he lay solid for two days.

Today is November 22nd, and everything that should be missed has been missed...... Jing Wenying scratched her head a little irritably and continued to write:

"Risk: If you hand over the items, the forces behind Fude may kill me; Even if he returns alive, he may be retaliated against by the secret organization behind Thomson.

The best way is to call the police, report directly, and use the power of the official to crack down on the organizations behind the two parties! ”

Faced with this situation of black eating black, Jing Wenying, who is a person in the 21st century, instinctively wants to seek official protection from power.

But the problem is, she's Douglas now, and Douglas is a wild extraordinary.

If she really reported it, I'm afraid she would have mentioned a shiny silver bracelet first......