Chapter 181 - 181 Thirty-eight

Words : 1398 Updated : Sep 21st, 2025

181: Thirty-eight. Covert surveillance 181: Thirty-eight. Covert surveillance The mysterious man took the oil lamp, turned without a word, and stepped onto the wooden stairs beside him, disappearing around the corner as the light halo of the oil lamp and the sound of footsteps gradually receded. “A strange foreigner, right?” The old woman withdrew her gaze and said to Lu Li. “Why shouldn’t we look outside?” Lu Li asked as he looked at her. “That is what a normal tourist would do,” the old woman said with a satisfied smile. “But it is already very late.” Most people would probably walk away disappointed. Fortunately, Lu Li had received many similar baptisms at Hades’s place and knew exactly what the old woman wanted. “It’s alright, I haven’t had dinner yet and I’m not planning to rest just now. You can prepare a meal and we’ll talk over it.” The old woman’s smile became genuine, “We will come up to notify you after we have prepared the meal.” “Alright.” Lu Li picked up the oil lamp on the bar and turned toward the upstairs. The narrow corridor was dimly lit by oil lamps hung on the wall; their long intervals made the second floor less bright than the lobby downstairs. Lu Li took down a bunch of keys hanging on an oil lamp, with a tag reading “203,” and stood in front of door 203. Music and the noise of footsteps and the shifting of beds could be heard beyond the extremely poorly insulated wooden walls. That mysterious guest was staying in the next room. The key was inserted into the lock and clicked softly, the wooden door creaked open with a groan. The oil lamp shone into the dark room. Directly opposing the triple window, the specks of star-like fires adorned the night sky, casting shadows of the room’s objects. Lu Li stepped into the guest room, a smell akin to damp and rotting wood invading his nostrils. The room was very ordinary: a low single bed in the corner, a dining table, and a clothes rack behind the door. There were no unnecessary items. Lu Li placed the oil lamp on the table by the window and touched the sheets on the bed. Thankfully, the bedding was dry. Creak— Lu Li turned around. The door was slowly closing on its own without any breeze, accompanied by Anna’s shape slowly emerging behind it. “Are we going to eat here? The food won’t be a problem, right...?” The room seemed not to be soundproof. Anna’s voice was very soft. “This is a town, not a lair of evil spirits.” Lu Li reassured Anna, who was succumbing to paranoia. “But I think that woman was a bit strange...” Anna was still a little uneasy. Lu Li looked at her and said, “If you insist, we can change to another inn.” “Uh... never mind, maybe I’m just making a Saqie joke,” Anna was not sure and told Lu Li not to trouble himself. Saqie was a nobleman from a century ago, known historically for a joke he became the butt of at a noble ball: he suspected a rival noble wanted to kill him at the ball, so he tremulously hid in a corner, keeping his distance from others. Just then, a lady with a broken shoe heel also came to the corner, took off her high heels, and held them in her hand. Her shadow cast on the wall looked like she was holding up a knife—hence Saqie fainted, becoming a laughingstock ever since. It was akin to the saying at Lu Li’s place, “Once bitten by a snake, one fears a rope for ten years.” Lu Li made no comment and said nothing. Some items were still left in the carriage. After checking the room, Lu Li picked up the oil lamp again and went back down to the first floor, retrieving some items from the carriage parked in the backyard. Twilight shrouded the world, with blood-colored tentacles hidden in the night, beyond prying eyes. An oil lamp hung on a post at the edge of the stables in the backyard, barely illuminating the surroundings of the stables. Animals also needed to stay in the light when darkness fell. However, they were somewhat better off; being enveloped in darkness only added a touch of danger for them, unlike humans, for whom it could mean the difference between life and death. Yet, even so, it was enough to cause a noticeable decrease in the populations of wildlife and insects. Lu Li guessed that perhaps the sluggish growth of plants had something to do with the disappearance of certain insects. But the study of biology in this world was still in its infancy. They had a long way to go to understand this relationship. Approaching the carriage by the stables, Lu Li patted the brown horse’s head and saw that it had water and hay mixed with beans in its trough; he left it alone and climbed into the carriage to grab the remaining bread and Anna’s books. As he lifted the carriage curtain and stepped out, Lu Li’s peripheral vision suddenly caught a distortion in a dim corner unreachable by the lamp’s glow, as if something had slithered behind the wall. Lu Li’s dark eyes fixed on the corner shrouded in dense darkness. “Did you see something?” Anna, hidden in the shadows, noticed Lu Li’s movements. “Do you sense anything?” Lu Li stepped down from the carriage, whispering as he lowered his head. “Um...nothing at all.” As Lu Li’s feet hit the ground, he looked once more towards the dim corner, but after a moment, his gaze relaxed and he said in a normal voice, “Perhaps my eyes are playing tricks on me.” Caught off guard, Anna’s ears rang with a suppressed and urgent voice. “Stay alert. Like you said, there might be something wrong here.” Back at the inn, the brightly lit hall allowed Anna to relax gradually. Invisible to everyone, she floated around Lu Li, occasionally drawing close to a painting on the wall out of curiosity. The open kitchen door wafted out the scent of food, drawing her attention; she floated over to the doorway behind the bar and peered inside. A pot was bubbling with meat soup and oval-shaped green fruits. “What is the kitchen cooking?” Lu Li, seated at a dining table, asked at just the right time. The old woman wiping the bar with a rag replied, “Those are a specialty of the Shadow Swamp, Light-illuminating Fruits. They grow in parts of the swamp that get sunlight and they taste amazing when stewed with rabbit meat.” “It’s a shame that we haven’t had sunlight for a long time, and plants don’t grow, so Light-illuminating Fruits have become expensive. Only outsiders like yourselves are willing to use them to cook meat with.” Lu Li had not requested such a delicacy, but since it was already being cooked and smelled acceptable to him, he was open to trying it. “Don’t rush, it’ll be ready in half an hour,” said the old woman, turning her head to glance at the clock on the liquor cabinet. “Perhaps you could take this time to tell me about the matter you didn’t finish talking about earlier,” responded Lu Li. “You sure are an impatient one,” the old woman joked, placing a certain ambiguity in her words. She put down the rag, walked around the bar, and sat down opposite Lu Li on a wooden chair: “But before that, would you mind telling me what brings you to our town?” Half truthfully, Lu Li said, “I am a detective, commissioned to investigate someone’s whereabouts in the Shadow Swamp.” “So you want to know some things about the Shadow Swamp?” “Yes.” “Going into the Shadow Swamp, huh...” The old woman’s gaze grew slightly unfocused, as if recalling something, and began speaking slowly, “Before I tell you about that, please allow me to remind you not to venture too deep into the swamp. Generally, one wouldn’t encounter trouble if not going too far in.” “What kind of trouble?” “Those deceivingly deep quagmires, and the...certain things that reside within.”

Chapter 181 - 181 Thirty-eight

Comments (0)