Operation Red Book

The rain fell heavily, all pouring onto the land of August Street.

The streets were wet from the rain, and the dust was suppressed by the rain and could not be turned over at all.

There were few pedestrians on the road. Occasionally, a few children wearing berets were running wildly on the street, holding a newspaper or a steaming loaf of bread in their hands.

The children laughed and walked past Ivy and Joshua. The bright smiles on their gray faces infected Joshua on the opposite side, but they could not move Ivy, who had a gloomy face.

Ivy and Joshua sat under the outdoor awning, each with a cup of hot latte in front of them, with a complicated latte art on it.

Ivy was wearing a black short puff, her plain long skirt was wet in a large area, and her long black hair was also wet, making it look particularly shiny under the light of the store.

Ivy was still in melancholy after her conversation with Grace. Joshua knew her temper and didn't dare to disturb her easily. The two of them just sat there in silence.

The long silence was finally interrupted by Holmes and Dorian.

The two men walked towards each other from opposite directions and rolled their eyes at each other when they approached the awning.

The wooden chair next to Ivy was pulled away, and Dorian sat down silently, placing a portion of steaming pasta in front of Ivy.

Holmes also sat down next to Joshua and threw the baguette in his arms to Joshua.

"It's on sale right now, eat it quickly, or it will get cold and hurt your teeth."

Holmes took out his own baguette, bit off a piece with great effort, and chewed it vigorously in his mouth.

Joshua looked at Holmes with a sad face. He frowned, picked up the baguette in front of him, sniffed it gently, carefully bit off a piece with his teeth, and then put the whole piece of bread aside.

"Tell me what information you have found." Holmes said vaguely while chewing bread.

"Let me go first, Mr. Holmes." Joshua took out the letter paper and the thick white book from his pocket.

"This is the correspondence between Mr. Morris and his adoptive parents. This one is from the Viscount, this one is from the Member of Parliament, and this one is from the Countess."

Joshua spread out three pieces of letter paper and gave one to each person.

"The adopters are all high-ranking officials and nobles. So far, no correspondence has been found between him and other civilians," Dorian added.

"Isn't that normal? Morris's office is full of his medals and honors, and his photos with nobles could cover the entire wall." Ivy poked the spaghetti bolognese in front of her with a fork.

"Besides, ordinary families don't have the money, time, or energy to adopt a child. It's common for wealthy upper-class nobles to look for adoptions."

"Yes, these can only explain who the group Florence adopted is." Joshua responded to Ivy.

"There are problems with these letters themselves," Holmes said decisively. "Those nobles are very demanding and usually select people in person or by sending people. How could they so rashly decide on candidates in a letter?"

"Yes, that's the suspicious point. The contents of these three letters are highly similar. Without exception, they all ask Mr. Morris about the child's age, weight, diet, and physical condition."

Joshua pointed to the marked content and frowned, saying, "It feels bad to me. It's not like choosing a child to adopt, but choosing pork in the market."

Ivy's heart sank as she read through the contents of the letter. She exchanged glances with Holmes, who had a frown on his face. There was a layer of gloom in the other's eyes.

"A little girl told us what happened to Florence recently." Ivy said solemnly.

"First, the kids were drugged with LSD. I brought some of it out, which was the incense oil that was burned every day in the prayer room."

Holmes produced a small glass containing some clear, jelly-like liquid.

"Barbiturate is a drug developed by the Germans more than ten years ago. It has a sedative and hypnotic effect."

"The children smell the molecules emitted by it every night in the prayer room. The dose is small for children, and they can easily fall asleep at night after smelling it for an hour or so, so they can't hear any noise outside."

Holmes placed the glass on the table and continued to wrestle with the baguette beside him.

"Henry and his friends told me that on some nights they heard footsteps, shuffling, crying and chanting of incantations."

"Chanting a spell?" Joshua repeated uncertainly, "Why are you sure it wasn't a voice but a spell?"

"Henry and his friends went out one night to look for the voices and they saw the adopted child in the prayer room."

"The child was placed in a coffin, with a knife stuck in his chest and blood oozing from the corners of his mouth and eyes. This is..."

"This is a sacrifice, representing the offering of his soul to the devil in order to pray for the devil's appearance and protection."

A cold voice was heard, and everyone looked at Dorian at the side. Dorian crossed his hands and smiled coldly, his eyes full of sarcasm and arrogance.

"Summoning the devil in front of the cross, if you can summon it, that's the real hell." He said calmly.

"I have already smelled the familiar smell of blood. A temple dedicated to God is against my will after all, so I will feel uncomfortable. But in this place, I only feel uncomfortable when I pray before meals."

"The children are the only ones here who are sincere." Dorian's eyes were mixed with light and dark, and a hint of mockery flashed across them.

"So, praying to God is just on the surface, they are actually using children's souls to worship the devil?" Ivy said with a pale face and fear.

Dorian nodded slightly, a faint smile of unknown meaning appearing at the corner of his mouth.

Ivy felt a deep chill, as if the chill of a thousand-year-old ice rose from the soles of her feet and quickly spread to her forehead.

Her thoughts were frozen by the ice, and Ivy could only feel endless coldness and chill.

"Is Grace in league with them? She told me that Morris is God's will and she obeys Morris in everything."

Ivy murmured to herself with a sense of loss, but her voice was soon washed away by the heavy rain.

"There's just one problem now."

Holmes placed his hands on the table and said coldly, "Another adoption like picking vegetables, and another devil sacrifice, what on earth is this welfare home doing?"

Everyone looked at each other, each with their own thoughts.

"Ah! Here is Mr. Morris's account-book. He hid it very well. I suppose it is no ordinary account-book."

Joshua took the thick white book and placed it in the middle, then began to flip through it with Holmes.