Operation Red Book

Half of London is golden in October.

The bleak autumn is short, but the sycamore leaves that cover the entire street leave an eternal mark in everyone's heart.

The weather suddenly slipped from cool to cold. Although it was still below zero degrees, Ivy, who was never afraid of the cold, still put on a thick coat.

The temperature by the river was much lower than in the city center. Ivy always liked to jog to the Chinese pier with a piece of bread in her mouth, soak in the warm bathtub for a while, and then change into clean clothes.

After accepting the position of manager, Ivy's work has obviously increased.

In the past, she only needed to manage the business of Muyunzhai and at most deal with a few trivial matters at the Chinese wharf.

But now, Ivy not only has to keep an eye on the management of the ship, the construction on the shore, and the exchanges with the British side, but also has to manage the traffic conditions of major shipping routes.

There are so many things to do, but the salary hasn't increased a penny!

Why!

Ivy shouted this sentence beside Mr. Zhu's bed. She pulled aside the soft quilt and pulled the shirtless Mr. Zhu down with force.

The sun was already high in the sky, but Mr. Zhu's bedroom was still gloomy.

The strong smell of alcohol filled the entire house, mixed with the stench of burning tobacco.

Ivy was almost suffocated by the smoke. She puffed out her lips and struggled to open the heavy windows one by one, regardless of the soreness in her eyes.

The cold wind blew in, and Ivy had never felt so refreshed.

"Oh! Who is it? I'm so cold, I hate it..."

The naked man on the ground shivered and crawled onto the bed like a slow earthworm.

Seeing this lazy look that refused to change despite repeated warnings, Ivy was immediately furious.

"Oh! I understand. No wonder he was so kind to give me this job. It turns out he wanted to retire early and become the emperor!"

Ivy said sarcastically, but Mr. Zhu still didn't respond.

After a while, snoring sounds were heard in the house. Ivy gritted her teeth and became angry again.

She bent her ten fingers, revealing her sharp nails, and reached into the warm bed, finding Mr. Zhu's smooth waist...

Then, holding onto the skin, he spread his legs apart, exerted force on his waist, and felt a warm sensation in his heart...

Pull it upward suddenly...

Downstairs, Mingcan was introducing Muyunzhai’s newly launched hot spring business to the visiting guests:

"The newly launched riverside baths are now on sale. Order now and get a free English breakfast floating on the water!"

"But the water of the Thames is grey..."

"Please don't worry about that. Our bathhouse is a water-view bathing pool installed at the bottom of the ship. It has Chinese medicinal springs that will not cool down for twelve hours."

"Is this so!"

"It is fully supervised by our manager, Ms. Ivy. It is of royal standard, British style, with vast water views, and nourishing the body and mind, giving you a different wonderful experience..."

"Ahhhhhhh-"

Suddenly, a scream like a pig being slaughtered sounded above Mingcan and the customers' heads, sounding extremely miserable.

"This is……"

The guest was startled by the sudden noise and looked towards the ceiling in confusion.

"This...this is..."

Mingcan smiled unnaturally, and to hide her embarrassment, she deliberately coughed twice.

"Oh, you know our Mr. Zhu likes to play some tricks..."

After that, there was another loud noise overhead, and then Ivy angrily walked through the front door and walked away holding the tweed coat in her arms.

"Ms. Ivy and Mr. Zhu..."

"It's really a relationship between superiors and subordinates without any connection, hehe..."

Mingcan smiled awkwardly and called over a capable waiter.

"How about a free breakfast and a coupon for you?"

Meanwhile, on the other side of London.

"Student Ivy?"

Joshua was startled when he heard the sound of the door being pushed open. He hurriedly took the coat handed to him by Ivy, and did not forget to look at the big clock standing in the corner.

"You, you came back so early today? It seems... it's only this morning..."

"I'm on vacation, a very long vacation." Ivy said calmly.

"what……"

Joshua followed Ivy silently, his mind as clear as a mirror.

She must have had another argument with Mr. Zhu, otherwise she wouldn't have returned home with such a sad face.

But it was also a good thing. Ivy spent less and less time at 221-B Baker Street, and the time Joshua spent with her became shorter and shorter, often not meeting for two or three days.

Now that she's back, it means that I can talk to classmate Ivy again...

Thinking of this, Joshua curled up the corners of his mouth unconsciously.

With such a shy look in front of her, Ivy was just confused: "What are you laughing at?"

"what!"

Joshua suddenly came back to his senses, blinked blankly, and then laughed happily.

"I'm so happy that Ivy can celebrate Halloween with us!"

"Halloween?"

Ivy put her hands on her hips and flipped through the calendar on the mantel.

October is almost half over, and Halloween on November 10st is less than a week away.

"Boring, though."

Ivy threw the calendar aside nonchalantly and sat on the sofa with her nose turned up.

"Halloween is so interesting! It's much more fun than Christmas! Every time I dress up as a headless female ghost, I can always scare Sherlock hahahaha... Oh my! Why did little darling come back so early today?"

Mrs. Hudson came out of the bedroom. She was still wearing her woolen pajamas and must have just had a good night's sleep.

"Hmph! Boring!"

Ivy crossed her arms and pouted.

"Do you know where the Halloween atmosphere is strongest? The town of Rye."

Moriarty walked in at some point and sat next to Ivy in a familiar manner, with a glass of mellow red wine in his hand.

He took a small sip, and his nostrils immediately expanded and contracted violently, as if he had tasted sweet wine from heaven.

"Oh! Miss Ivy is back. What a rare visitor! Shall we go to Rye Town to celebrate Halloween together?"

"No, it's boring!"

Ivy turned her head to the side and just saw Holmes tumbling down the stairs.

"Hey! James, let's go!"

He hurriedly got up, and before saying hello, he did not forget to turn his body 180 degrees and straighten himself back.

"Ivy? You're back so early, that's great! We have plenty of time to set off for the town of Rye!"

"Boring! I'm not going!"

"Go! Ivy!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the four people who had just scattered around started talking in unison. They were dressed neatly and lined up in a row at the door.

For some reason, their expressions became extremely excited, like four rabid dogs.

Ivy frowned in an indescribable way. If nothing else, at least Moriarty would never make such an expression.

"No...go..."

Ivy shrank her shoulders in fear. Even though she was trembling all over, she still expressed her inner rejection in detail:

"I... am not... going... to... the... town of Rye..."

"what?"

"what?"

"Oh?"

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

For a moment, four kinds of sounds surrounded Ivy's ears, some far away, some near, some deep, some shallow.

The bodies of the four people were twisted and entangled like smoke, with their heads bent and corners twisted, and they did not look like human beings at all.

Ivy was so frightened that she trembled. She simply closed her eyes and curled up into a ball.

Ghostly spirits surrounded her closely, like mosquitoes that could not be swatted away in the dark night, or like ghost lights that could not be dissipated in a cemetery.

This went on for a long, long time...

When Ivy was finally getting used to this surrounding, a woman's gentle voice, pushing aside all the screams, sounded in the distance:

"Please, save me..."

"I'm in... the town of Lei..."