Late at night, a heavy snowfall swept through central Ohio.

In the city of Columbus and the German town in the south, the red-brick buildings that have stood in the 19th century are covered in a thick silver cotton jacket.

And a row of faint and long footprints were imprinted on the pavement next to the building, stretching from the road out of the city to the middle of nowhere, at No. 24 Fifth Avenue, a ruin,

Snow-covered crumbling roofs, broken walls, and broken wooden beams outlined the skeleton of a giant beast.

Dressed in a pale blue down jacket and transformed into a snake demon Seth, Dean crouched down and pulled out a brick from the rubble, and the brick was jet black, all traces of being burned by the raging fire.

"It's too late, there's a fire here." Dean showed a trace of helplessness in his eyes, and it took less than half an hour at night, across hundreds of kilometers, from Hawkins Town to Columbus City, but he didn't expect to wait for this result.

He was unwilling to search every corner of the ruins from the perspective of God, but unfortunately the fire was probably not short, except for the broken roof trusses, everything was swept away, and there was not even a piece of paper left.

There were no clues at the scene.

He looked to the left and looked into the night to another brick-walled villa on the side of the road a few hundred meters away, and knocked on the door.

"Bang bang."

"Kaz..."

The door opened, and an aunt in thick pajamas leaned out from behind the burglar chain, looking at the visitor's brown hair, brown eyes, beard, and standard Mexican face with "not to mess with", "Are you?" ”

"Hello, I'm Kenny from New Mexico..."Dean smiled and swept his aunt's stubby chin, his eyes flashing with a hint of telekinesis, "I have something to do with William White, the owner of the house at No. 24 next door, but why is his house gone?" Can you tell us what happened? ”

The aunt blinked in a trance, and suddenly felt that the man had become as pleasing as her nephew, so she quickly pulled open the anti-theft chain, lovingly welcomed him to the living room sofa, and served him a cup of hot chocolate.

"Mr. Kenny, you're too late," said the aunt, looking out the window, regretfully, "the house where William lives on House 24 was burned to the ground by a fire six months ago, and he himself was killed. ”

Dean stared, and his hands holding the cup tightened, "William is actually dead, are you sure?" ”

"Well, I remember it was two or three o'clock in the morning in the summer, and there was no one on this remote street for a long time, and the neighbors were also asleep, and they couldn't put out the fire in time." The aunt stroked her fat chest and said fearfully, "When I heard the movement of the fire brigade and got up, I saw that the flames had been extinguished, and a black and smoking corpse was lifted out of the stretcher of the ambulance." ”

Dean took a sip of hot chocolate and squinted his eyes pleasantly, "Was the fire an accident, or was it arson?" ”

"How could it be arson?" The aunt was taken aback by this reckless statement, and shook her head to deny, "The law and order in German Town has always been good, and the police later announced that it was the aging wiring of the house that caused the fire. ”

Dean rubbed his temples and was silent for a moment,

"And what kind of person is William?"

"To be honest, I don't have much contact with him, and I don't have the impression that he is a vegetarian, a professor at Ohio State University, and he is also very busy, going out early and returning late, and never interacting with his neighbors." The aunt rubbed the puffy bags under her eyes, looked at the fireplace across the living room and recalled, "I once invited him to come to the house as a guest, but he also politely refused on the grounds that he didn't eat meat. ”

Dean bowed, "Are there any relatives who have accepted his inheritance, such as his wife?" ”

The aunt's expression moved, "I heard that his wife has been dead for twenty years, but the two have a son named Adam White, in his twenties, who dropped out of high school before graduating, and did not find a regular job. ”

"A professor's son dropped out of high school before graduating?" Dean looked questioning,

"Who knows, maybe it's because Adam lacks the company and care of his mother?" The aunt said uncertainly, "And children from single-parent families are usually more rebellious. ”

"I can't remember how many times, two fathers and sons pointed at each other's noses at the door of the house and scolded, almost started to move... I'm really worried that William will one day be so angry that he will have a brain congestion and faint. ”

"This father-son relationship is bad?"

"Well, the most chilling thing is that after William's death, Adam only came back and asked us neighbors about the fire, but never mentioned a funeral for his father!"

The aunt roared indignantly at the fireplace with her hands on the bucket waist, her face was as red as a tomato,

"Poor old William, a decent university professor, died for half a year without getting a beautiful funeral, and his soul can't rest in peace!"

What an aunt with a sense of justice.

"Dissipate your anger, don't be angry with yourself." Dean interrupted the aunt's exclamation, "Is there a specific address for Adam?" ”

"He has no job or income, how can he afford a house, and the only house was destroyed by fire and has not been rebuilt." Auntie's carrot-thick fingers poked the flames of the fireplace, as if to poke the bastard to death, "Maybe he rented a house somewhere else, but I don't know the exact address..."

Dean asked again, "So you have a picture of Adam?" ”

"Nope."

"What does he look like?"

"Brown hair, blue eyes, thin lips, about 5.9 feet tall, quite handsome... If you have to look for him, try your luck in Old Franklin, west of downtown, where I've heard that stinky boy used to hang out. ”

Dean listened to her description, closed his eyes and entered the dark realm of his mind, and in less than a minute, he regretfully retreated.

Without real photographs or portraits to refer to, mere words of description were not enough to connect Dean's psychic power with his target.

"OK, thank you for your patience and hospitality, this is the reward," Dean put down the empty cup at hand and got up, patted Auntie on the shoulder, and poured in a small stream of life energy to treat her old and sick body, "Notice your blood pressure later." ”

The heat washed her whole body, and the aunt fell softly on the sofa, her chubby cheeks became like red cloth, and she closed her eyes and snored regularly.

Dean draped her in a thick blanket and pushed the door open to re-enter the snow.

The left coat pocket fluttered a few times, and the round badge flew to his shoulder, "Master, although this old lady is just an ordinary person, she has a lot of emotional energy, which makes me breathe a lot." ”

"When you're full, do something practical." Dean commanded, "Have your guys go to Franklin and find Adam." ”

"Good master!" The shallows jumped over his shoulders and flew like a streamer over every house on the side of the street, over the manhole covers of the sewers, over every street tree, with a shrill and piercing chirping and croaking.

Hundreds of birds fluttered their wings out of the trees in response to the call of the shoals, skimming the gray sky and rushing to the mission's destination, while thousands of black-haired rats wagged their long tails out of basement partitions and sewer manhole covers, and crawled into the snowy corners of the Franklin Fields to the north.

If one stumbles by, one will find a black stream of rats running in the night.

But the heavy snow obscured all the unusual movements.

Dense small animals quietly dispersed to the glass windows and chimneys of houses, poked out their little heads, stared at the scene in the house, and searched for "Adam White".

Dean took advantage of the gap to visit other houses near Room 24 one after another, but failed to find photos of William's father and son, and the information he learned also coincided with that of the aunt.

He simply returned to the ruins to perform a psychic ritual, but the house was too dilapidated and leaky to be considered a house, and the spirits of the dead did not listen to the call.

But there was also good news, the group of small animals set off for less than half an hour before they found Adam's whereabouts.

……

The Franklin District, where the Seoto and Orlantenji rivers meet, is lower than the river level in many places, so a dam near the river is needed to prevent flooding.

But the time entered January, the dry season, the temperature was below zero, but it was not to the extent of the frozen river, the shallow water surface was covered with ice floe, white flowers, flashing under the moonlight, like crystallized salt pans.

And on the edge of the salt pans, behind the river embankment, there are rows of maples, oaks, oaks, walnuts wrapped in silver... As the cold wind swayed the white branches, the mere glance made your teeth chatter.

But in such a harsh environment, there is a lonely bright yellow tent.

In the tent lay a homeless man with high cheekbones, dirty hair, knotted hair, and ice slag.

His blue eyes stared blankly at the pitch black air of the tent, like a dummy's buttonhole, lifeless, and his emaciated body was tightly wrapped in a blanket and trembling, as if it would be broken by the cold wind outside the tent at any moment.

Brushing –

The tent's zipper suddenly opened.

A faint yellow light penetrated into the whistling cold wind, accompanied by a burst of furnace-like heat, which instantly warmed the homeless man's body that was about to be frozen, but the face reflected in the yellow light made the homeless man sit up in fright, grabbed the blanket in front of him like lightning, and covered his buttocks by the way,

"Who? Get out of here, I've been robbed of everything, there's nothing left! Gone! ”

"Don't be nervous, Adam White, I have no ill will towards you and I won't hurt you." The Mexican spoke, his voice warm and enthusiastic, like an old friend he hadn't seen for a long time, but his eyes looked at his butt hand strangely, "I'm Kenny from Alamo University in New Mexico, and I once met your father, William White, at an academic exchange meeting, and I am an old friend. I was very interested in his research topic, and this time I passed by Columbus to talk to him, but I didn't expect to see only a ruin. ”

"By the way, how did you become a homeless person?" The man's eyes stared deeply at the eyes of the homeless Adam, even if he was so depressed, his light of life was stronger than that of ordinary people, but it was greatly dimmed at the left arm, and the left hand was broken from the elbow, because it was not corrected correctly, the bone was directly crooked, like a tree seedling with a crooked neck, "Why is your hand broken?" ”

Adam's eyes flashed with complexity, and then he retracted his left hand awkwardly and clamped it under his armpit, "I don't have a job, I've been relying on the old man to support me, he died half a year ago, I lost my financial resources, and naturally I became a homeless man." Isn't it normal for a homeless person to fight for turf and break his muscles and bones? ”

Dean swept the man's face, and at a glance saw the delicate eyebrows and eyes under the sloppy beard, if he shaved off his beard and took care of it, he was a handsome young man, and it was easy to find a rich woman to eat soft rice, why did he have to go to the streets and protect the "local area" all day long.

"Your father, William. What about the research materials that White has devoted his life to? Was it just burned to ashes? Give them to me and I'll help you get out of trouble and heal your hands. ”

Adam asked disdainfully, "Data, are you talking about the information of those mythical creatures that don't exist, Leviathan, and Baphren?" ”

"That's right..."Dean put the flashlight to his feet, squatted down, sat on the edge of the tent, took out a cold hot dog from his arms, heated his telekinesis and threw it over, "Do you know the specifics?" ”

"I don't know, I'm not interested." When Adam took it, he took out the sausage from the bread and threw it away, and then devoured it in a big gulp, and was so hot that he hissed and spat out the heat, and his mouth opened and closed non-stop, and in the blink of an eye, most of it was destroyed.

Dean's eyelids jumped, "Why don't you eat sausages?" ”

"I'm a vegetarian and never eat meat." Adam licked his fingers clean of the black dirt and oil stains, and said calmly, "The information you are looking for is all fake, ridiculous, and William has been obsessed with research for half his life without any results." And all his books and materials were stored in the study, and burned along with the fire, otherwise I would have sold them to you at a high price. ”

"What about the rest of his legacy for you?"

Adam grinned wryly, a hint of sarcasm in his eyes, "That old thing has already invested all his money and energy in his own research, and now even the house has been burned down, and the only inheritance I get is - a thousand dollars and freedom?" There is no bad old man who scolds me for not doing my job every once in a while. ”

Dean examined his eyes carefully, making sure there was no trace of sympathy or tenderness in his expression, and that he described it as if he were just a stranger.

"Why do you hate your father so much?"

"Man, are you going to lecture me?" Adam glanced at Dean sarcastically, "You want me to respect a man who only has his own research in his eyes and doesn't care about his son for twenty years?" ”

"Doesn't he give you a living allowance every once in a while?"

"That's the compensation he gave me, he gave birth to me, and he will be responsible for me to the end!" Adam's voice was full of complaints.

Dean raised his eyebrows on the left side, it was the first time he had seen such a person who spoke of gnawing old men as straightforward.

"Listen, buddy, I can't help you," Adam looked Dean in the eye and then at the exit of the tent, "but as a thank you for the meal, I'll give you a suggestion to go to the history department at Ohio State University and ask if William's colleagues and students might know something." ”

"History Department?" Dean bowed, but his body remained motionless like a statue, "I'll investigate, but before I can do that, I need an explanation, about the lies you told?" ”

"I don't know what you mean." Adam's eyelids jumped, and he nervously lifted his ass back,

"Adam, although you disguise yourself well on the surface, you don't blink your eyes when you lie, but your heart beats faster. Especially when you say the phrase 'he died half a year ago'. Dean laughed and said, "So William White didn't die in the fire half a year ago, right, that charred corpse was someone else's, right?" ”

"Don't lie to me, don't you say that I have at least three ways to get you to be honest, but then the atmosphere won't be so friendly and harmonious."

"Do you believe it or not?"

Believe it or not?

The calm sound echoed through the tent, and the light of the flashlight shifted brightly and darkly.

Puff puff puff.

There was a cardiac arrest-inducing depression in the air.

Adam White shook his head vigorously in a dizzy feeling of suffocation, and then opened his eyes, looking at the bearded face close at hand, his face was blank for a long time, he lowered his head dejectedly, and sighed long,

"I don't know who you are, but my gut tells me you're not an enemy, otherwise you wouldn't have been so patient with me. Since you guessed it, I'll be honest. ”

"William. There's a good chance that the old man didn't die. Adam said in a heavy voice, "When I identified his charred body at the police station half a year ago, I examined the deceased's teeth, and there were no traces of repair, which were very neat and natural. ”

"And I remember very clearly, my father William was greedy when he was a child, and he didn't brush his teeth frequently, and he had multiple fillings in his teeth..."

"The two are obviously not the same person, and someone is creating the illusion of his death to confuse the public. In order to get his research. ”

Dean suddenly thought, no wonder this guy didn't hold a funeral for his father in the first place, "Why didn't you call the police?" ”

"I don't dare to say anything, William reminded me years ago that his research is fraught with unpredictable risks, and that he could die or go missing at any time. When the time comes, I have to accept everything calmly. ”

"I did as he commanded." Adam's right hand stroked his broken left hand, his eyes looked over Dean to the gap behind him, his eyes were cold and hateful, and he gritted his teeth and said, "But the group of people who caused the fire still don't intend to let me go, they send people to torture me, break my hands, and ask me about William's research." ”

"I didn't say anything."

Adam laughed at himself,

"I thought I was going to die some winter night. In the early morning of the next day, the snowplow driver found the body frozen into a popsicle. ”

"But Kenny, since I've met you, and you want William's research, let's make a swap, shall we?" Adam struggled to tie his left hand and begged word for word, "You help find William's true whereabouts, and I convince him to share the research with you." ”

As Adam's voice landed, Dean opened a prompt in front of his eyes - the event "William White's Secret Research"

William White, a professor of history at The Ohio State University and a scholar of Paphers and Leviathans, died in a fire six months ago.

But when you find his son, you find out that it's just an illusion, and that he might still be alive somewhere.

Now find a way to find William White and get his research.

Event difficulty: At least medium

Progress: (10/100)

Duration: one week

Reward: At least 150 XP

(End of chapter)