Chapter 363 - 363 Two hundred twenty

Words : 1408 Updated : Oct 9th, 2025

363: Two hundred twenty. Oolong 363: Two hundred twenty. Oolong The man’s payment would take some time to arrive, but it wouldn’t be too long. He would have all this done before he went to sleep. Two boxes of Deep Sea Stone were stacked in the corner of the Detective Agency, next to be arranged, but with the situation changing, lining them up on the bedroom walls was no longer the only option. The refuge had already been designated and Annie had been transferred in anticipation of his departure from the city not being too far off. In this situation, lining the Deep Sea Stone in the bedroom became meaningless—they would soon have to be taken down again. Next, Lu Li’s focus would completely shift to constructing the refuge. The Long House was no longer suitable, be it in terms of location or size. Lu Li planned to find a building on Elm Street to use as a transitional warehouse, making it easier to transport supplies up to the cliffs. Buying a house was beyond Lu Li’s means, but renting was well within his budget. After hearing Lu Li’s plans, Anna said with some reluctance, “So we’re moving?” “We would have to move eventually.” Lu Li opened a drawer and took out a piece of paper with a task list written on it. Glancing briefly over the content, Lu Li directly crumpled the now-useless paper and threw it into the wastebasket. Investigating the world or investigating the door were no longer important; what he needed to do now was to prepare more before troubles arrived. The former was just a chronic symptom; the latter was surging toward him. Taking out a new task list, Lu Li wrote down what needed to be done now: moving to the refuge and renting the house on Elm Street. The former needed time, and Lu Li had to find workers to expand the cave. The latter was easy; “Cannibal Houses” may not have spread, but the residents of Elm Street were aware of what happened around them, anxious and eager to leave the district. Lu Li could easily rent a suitable house there. These two tasks were given to Jojo, who had reconnected with them; she was a professional. Lu Li had more important things to do—waiting at the Detective Agency. The man didn’t make Lu Li wait too long; less than an hour later, a middle-aged coachman, looking as old as an elderly man, arrived at the Detective Agency, claiming to be the man’s neighbor, bringing his commissioned payment. Besides seven hundred Shillings in cash as payment and a letter handwritten by the man, part of the “payment” was brought by the middle-aged coachman with a carriage parked outside the Long House. Lu Li followed the coachman outside to check, finding that most of it was furniture and tools, almost an entire house moved over. The man had given most of his belongings to Lu Li. Just as Lu Li had comforted him, he decided to focus his life on his dreams. As for reality? “Perhaps the unchanging reality is my dream.” The man wrote this in the letter, and Lu Li looked at that sentence in silence. Perhaps this world was the same for him? He didn’t know. A carriage full of furniture might sell for two to three hundred Shillings—just like he used to deal with a carriage full of flowers, Lu Li had the coachman sell it and gave him ten percent of the earnings. The coachman happily accepted and left with a carriage full of goods. Lu Li returned to the Detective Agency, placing the single-sentence letter in a drawer. The drawer already had quite a few envelopes, some normal, and some that only he could see. Lu Li took out the stack of normal letters, omitting a few that gave off the scent of perfume, and began reading through the rest. Most of them were from Raimy and Jimmy. Opening the next letter, which seemed to have been torn from some diary, reminded Lu Li of its sender. “The Mother of the Marsh has set her sights on you.” [Go to the repair station on Snowflake District, Anres, show the people there the token I gave you, and let them dispel the mark on your body.] [Be quick, do not let the mark turn into a scar.] [Remember, do not set foot in Shadow Town until the mark is removed, as there is an issue there. If a week passes after you receive this letter and I have not retrieved the token from you, inform the people at the repair station, and they will handle the matter.] [I have a basement at my residence, hand over the items there to them; everything else is yours.] An address is attached on the back. This letter, coming from someone wearing a Bird Beak Mask, was delivered like a will into Lu Li’s hands. However, upon receiving it, Lu Li immediately set sail to participate in an investigator’s certification exam and afterwards, the matter was forgotten deep in his memory. More than two weeks had passed since then. Since then, Lu Li hadn’t received any more letters or any form of contact from the figure with the Bird Beak Mask. She might have already vanished near Shadow Swamp. Just to be cautious, Lu Li called Tesla to inquire and, learning that the person with the Bird Beak Mask hadn’t returned, Lu Li revisited the address attached to the back. 16 Warmth District, Belfast. A relatively high-end neighborhood near the top of the hill. Folding up the letter, Lu Li quietly finished reading the remaining letters, then stacked them back into the depths of the drawer. In the following hour, Jojo called twice. The first call was to inform Lu Li about several property owners on Elm Street interested in renting out their places, providing Lu Li with two contact methods, one on the edge of the neighborhood near the Elm District, and the other in the middle but with the most favorable price. The latter call was to inform Lu Li that he had contacted workers willing to go to the Elm Forest, and like before, provided Lu Li with two contact methods—one who could start work immediately on the cliffs but was more expensive, and another who would start once the weather improved a bit, with a moderate price. Lu Li noted down the numbers but didn’t contact them, instead, he picked up an umbrella and a raincoat, and left the Detective Agency with Anna. The financially strapped Lu Li planned to inherit the “legacy” of the person with the Bird Beak Mask. Hopefully, his basement would have something to pique his interest. ... Street names in Belfast usually have no relation to the neighborhood itself, only a few have some connection. For instance, most residents on Sailor Street are sailors or crew members, overwhelmingly are members of Shelov Gang on Shelov Street, and there are many bars on Rum Street— 16 Warmth District. This was a large stone terraced house, akin to a Long House, where many tenants lived together, yet it had no comparable space or environment. Lu Li stood in front of door 103, which was locked. The envelope from the person with the Bird Beak Mask contained no key, but that wasn’t a problem for Lu Li. After finding no key under the doormat, Anna directly floated into the house and opened the door from the inside. Click— Lu Li stepped into the room and half-closed the door behind him. There was no strange moldy smell, nor were there damp stains seeping from the corners of the walls; the dry air, the new furniture, and the relatively bright lighting made it a comfortable setting. It was hard to imagine that the somber and secluded person behind the Bird Beak Mask would settle down in such a place. With Anna’s company, Lu Li toured several bedrooms and a study, but found nothing. There was no basement described in the letter. What was even more puzzling was that everything in the house was very clean, as if someone had organized it not long ago. Suddenly realizing something, Lu Li paused. At the same time, the half-closed door was suddenly pushed open, and a middle-aged man stood at the doorway, angrily shouting at Lu Li. “What are you doing in my house!”

Chapter 363 - 363 Two hundred twenty

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