horror effect

Elena left, but the topic of the white lion did not leave with her. The people in the tavern discussed more and more heatedly, folklore, Orthodox Church, Catholicism, Christianity, ancient Egyptian civilization, Mesopotamian civilization, Early Gothic novels, modern legendary novels, all seemingly related and irrelevant ones have been moved out to find any oblique clues to confirm the illusory legends.

This confusion continues until new topics arise and replace old ones.Mitya had in hand a newspaper of the day, the first page of which contained a case of a colossal theft in the capital: a certain rich merchant—in this country, newly born rich merchants are like glassy volcanoes erupting from volcanoes. As brand-new, light and shiny as gravel——I hid a lot of valuable jewels in a certain room of a private mansion, and thought that there would be a servant waiting day and night to be safe, but I never thought that the servant was also a human being, and he was also illuminated by the brilliance of diamonds. When dazzled.

Naturally, there is only one key to the treasure room, and it is never far away from the rich merchant. However, the mansion is an old building, and the door lock is also an antique. On the night when the rich merchant left, the diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls and their gold brackets all fled with the servants to a new life in the sun.What the papers are writing about is the aftermath of the case, how the police heroically and cunningly found one suspect and part of the jewels, and how the other suspect escaped the police with cunning and cunning, and readers must continue Pay attention to future reports and so on.

Jewelry, shiny and priceless, can easily seduce human greed and show-off nature, and crime is a popular topic.As soon as Mitya read the report, the people in the tavern immediately abandoned the frivolous legends and turned to discussing the theft.

Some people like gems, like many women, they are envious of its texture, color, and brilliance. They talk about gem varieties, identification, and those treasures that are treasured in foreign palaces or museums and are named after such and such a lord.

Some people only love the value of jewelry, so they talk about diamonds the most, especially those over 100 carats. They feel that the Americans launched a large diamond to Venus in order to leave an infrared window for the detector. It is a pity that the diamonds on Venus, of course, lost their circulation value on the earth.

There are also people who are concerned about whether the thieves will all be brought to justice in the end, and whether the police will once again play a role that is both stupid and big talker.Most of those who spoke on the subject supported the escaped criminals, who found it both irritating and a mocking mockery of state institutions.

Of course, there are people who don't care about diamonds or escape, but only about criminal technology: How did the thief find out where the jewelry was stored?How did they formulate the keys?How did they go unnoticed by others and by sirens during the theft?This group of people is rational and intelligent, because what they care about is what Holmes, Poirot, Marple, Quinn and others care about.It was just such a group of people who happened to sit next to Julian and Stephen, and their conversation was all heard by those two people.

"The servant probably saw it from the window, the door, or the balcony when the wealthy businessman was hiding the jewels. In addition, although there are surveillance cameras that keep watching the jewelry room, it is precisely this that gives the servant a chance to watch." Chances are, the surveillance screen does not know the person sitting in front of it, and the rich businessman can certainly find out who has been in the room, but the servants can also see where the rich businessman puts the jewels.” Someone said.

"And how did the servants get the key?" asked So-and-so.

"It's not difficult. We know that the rich merchant's mansion is an old house. In order to keep the ancient building as it is, it is impossible to make major changes. Therefore, the door locks of each room are old-fashioned. This kind of lock is easier to open. The current It should be easy for thieves to drive."

"But you forgot, thieves are not habitual offenders, they are just ordinary servants."

"Then what? Most of the door locks in the same mansion are produced in one batch. There is not much difference. Try to open the door with a key from another room, and modify the shape of the key with a file according to the blocked situation. As long as you have patience, The goal is always achieved, and the servant who has been living in the house has plenty of time."

While they were talking, Julian had been drinking, but Stephen was listening to the conversation beside him very carefully. Hearing this, he suddenly shook his body, reached out and grabbed Julian's arm, and whispered, "Did you find out?" ?”

"Huh?" Julian was puzzled, "What did you find?"

"Discover... new ways to investigate the secrets of legend."

"Oh? What is it?"

"We can't say it here, let's go somewhere else." After speaking, Stephen pulled Julian who was still in a state of confusion, hurriedly checked out, and walked out of the tavern.

The weather was wet and cold, and Elena, who was walking on the cobbled road, felt a dull pain in her left knee, but she didn't feel particularly cold, it might be because of the glass of wine just now.On the way, I met Mrs. Baring. She went to the city for treatment a few days ago, and she has obviously recovered a lot. She can go shopping alone in this weather.She greeted Elena with a bag of tomatoes.As usual, they exchanged recipes, housekeeping tips, tiresome husbands, and so on, and then Irene left Mrs. Barnin on the pretext of being too cold.

When they broke up, the two women who were very different in age agreed to visit each other's home at some time, but Irone knew that Mrs. Barnin was just talking about it, and if she really kept her promise to visit, she would do everything possible. way to shirk.Some people are like this, they are friends with everyone on the surface, but in fact they have no friends.Mrs. Barnin would talk to her about recipes and, in retrospect, tell the others about Irone's disgraceful experience.That's the thing, Elena understood from the first day she came here: she doesn't belong here, and she will never belong here, not only her foreign status, but more importantly, a sense of alienation, It seemed that everything that happened here had nothing to do with her.

When he got home, Nikolai hadn't left work at the clinic, and Theolos was calculating the accounts.As soon as he saw Elena coming in, he asked, "Is it 176 levs? I think I remember correctly."

"That's right... Guess who I saw in the Four Calendars?"

"Who?" Theolos said as he continued to keep his books.

"The man I met this morning, the British reporter."

"So he likes to drink too."

"Maybe, I don't know..." Irene frowned and said, "I saw him with the bank president's son."

"It's Stephen. He and Nicholas are also friends."

"Don't you think there's something weird about it?"

Hearing this, Theoros put down his pen, looked up at her, and urged her to continue speaking with his eyes.

"I remember three or four months ago, when it was early autumn, Nicholas took Stephen to our house as a guest. You happened to go to the city to discuss business at that time, so I didn't know about it. Stephen was very talkative and very talkative. People like it, I stayed him for dinner, and our conversation didn't end at the dinner table. During the conversation, he asked about you many times. I don't know where he got this interest. At that time, I just thought He has heard some gossip from adults. But now it seems that he has a purpose."

Theolos smiled unnaturally, and said, "That kid is also investigating me."

"Have you ever had an affair with Stephen or his parents?"

"What can there be? I just owe some money to the bank, and you know that too."

Elena nodded. "If you look at the behavior of Stephen or the British alone, it can be regarded as curiosity, but when these two people get together, curiosity is unreasonable. They seem to have a plan... just now in the tavern they asked me about the white lion. coming..."

Theolos stood up abruptly, which surprised Irone. "What’s wrong with you?"

"Well... nothing, nothing..." Theoros sat down again, "How did you answer them?"

"I put this question to all the people in the tavern, and they argued and argued. As a result, the Englishman and Stephen got a bunch of useless information."

"Ah...you're right..." Theoros wiped his face with the back of his hand, but he didn't sweat, but he felt wet.

Irena stared at her husband, and suddenly she felt something strange appearing on the long sandy beach of life made up of thousands of uniform sands, she couldn't see what it was yet, but she felt intuitively that something It has been buried under the sand for a long time, just waiting for a big wave to come and flip it to the ground.

"Theolos," she said, "what's the matter with you? You're afraid of talking about your past, you're afraid of talking about white lions, what else can stop you from being afraid?!"

She thought that such contempt would make him fly into a rage, but unexpectedly, Theoros just put his hands on his head, and said as if he was very troubled: "You don't understand...don't talk about it..."

His voice was painful and helpless, which surprised Irone very much. "Yosif..." She whispered his name softly.She rarely used the name, and she didn't like her husband, and sometimes even hated him.But at this moment, she found a trace of tenderness in his weakness.

"Irene," he said, taking her hands, "are you my ally? You are my only ally."

While her husband pressed his face to her hands, Irene's eyes were fixed on the evening sky outside the window.The sun appears bigger and redder than usual for a split second before being swallowed up by the black silhouette of the mountain, a beautiful moment that lasts only a few seconds.She waited for the last golden thread in the sky to disappear, hoping that the moment would last a little longer.The sun disappeared and sank into the shadow of the earth, which was once the same substance long, long ago.

Julian was sitting on the sofa in Stephen Breumontrost's study, holding the big white cat Zoe in his arms. When he first entered the door, it barked at Julian for a long time and scratched his trouser legs with its paws. It seemed that he forgot that he had been to the study, but after feeding it some fried fish brought from the tavern, Zou Yi immediately regarded him as a relative, and was lying on his lap and licking his paws.

However, Stephen, the owner of the study, knelt in front of the closet, leaning his entire upper body into it.There was a "clang" sound of rummaging around in the closet. After a while, a pile of things gradually piled up on the floor beside him, including a miniature flashlight that can be clipped to the forehead, a few pairs of silicone gloves, and round-tipped tweezers , resin specimen box and matching label paper, sealed plastic bags, fluorescent ink pens, thin bamboo sticks, soft brushes of various sizes and models...

Seeing this pile of things, Julian couldn't help but ask, "Are you planning to play a detective game?"

Stephen was still rummaging in the closet, and without looking back, he said, "It's not a detective game, it's archeology, but it's actually the same. Archeology is a detective science that detects ancient life from the few clues left in ancient times. "

"Then... where do you want to go for archaeology?"

"Just in this country..."

"Um……"

"It's in this town..."

"Ok?"

"It's in room C307 of the Cedar Hill Hotel."

"So you were planning to burglary!" Julian stood up suddenly, and Zou Yi, who was lying on his lap, turned over and fell to the floor.It growled angrily at Julian, and ran to its real master.

"Wait, wait, Julian, don't be so excited." Stephen turned around and raised his hands, as if to calm Julian, but also to prevent him from rushing over and pinching his neck, "This is me I suddenly thought of it when I was listening to those people talking in the tavern just now, I think this is the easiest and fastest method, and this is not burglary, I don’t intend to take anything..."

"It's also against the law to break into a private house." Julian sighed helplessly.

"But you can't wait for an opportunity to drop from the sky without taking any risks."

"Okay, Stephen..."

"Listen to me first. We have tried everything we can think of, but nothing of value has been obtained. It is only a waste of time to go on this road, and your time is limited, and it is impossible to always Staying here, we have to find another way."

"Illegal road."

"Julian," Stephen shrugged his shoulders indifferently, "you should know that the most important figures in the history of archeology——Schliemann and Belzoni, in a sense, what they did was actually Illegal, but without them, we don't know where the city of Troy and the tomb of Thetis I are now."

"Ah...you compare yourself to Schliemann." Julian laughed at him.

"No, I'd rather be Champollion. I don't just discover things, I have to interpret them. Believe me Julian, did you hear what they were talking about in the tavern just now about the jewel theft? It was an old house Well, so is the Cedar Hill Inn; the house has an old-fashioned lock, and as far as I know your wing has an old-fashioned lock, and this is a rare opportunity. Wouldn't you like to go in and see?"

Stephen held Julian by the upper arm, and they were so close that Julian could see his eyes, with their curled lashes and eyelids covered with nice bushy hair, bright and determined and eager, as if he could Breaking through everything, nothing can stop him. 'Don't I want to go in and have a look? ' he asked himself, if the door had not been locked that night, wouldn't he have just broken in?Trying to open the door, go in and take a look, even if you find nothing, is much better than being tortured by countless possible guesses.This is of course an adventure, but there is always a desire to break the rules or restrictions in people's hearts, and Julian is the same. He is like a person standing on the edge of a cliff without guardrail protection, knowing that he may slip into the abyss, but he cannot restrain himself I want to go one step further.

As soon as this thought came into being, Julian felt all the muscles in his body suddenly relax, and Stephen obviously felt the change in him, and the hand holding his arm became stronger. "You agree?" he asked.

"Yes, I agree. Let's go to archaeology."

The two laughed at the same time.Then, their conversation naturally shifted to archeology. Julian used to travel in the Near and Middle East as a reporter, and Stephen had participated in archaeological activities in the Valley of the Kings and Babylon when he was a student. Similar experiences enabled them to Talk about going together.

"Schliemann thought that the layer where the gold and treasures were buried last was Troy, but later Dopfield researched the result that Schliemann dug through Troy, and the sixth layer above was, and Now some people claim that the seventh floor is the one." Stephen said.

"This kind of situation is common in the history of archaeology," Julian continued, "we always take it for granted that the discoverer is correct, but in fact no one can guarantee that they will not make mistakes. Herodotus and Holabolon Having been to ancient Egypt in person, their records should be correct, but it turns out they were just wrong, and those of us thousands of years later get more accurate from inscriptions and papyrus documents."

"This is actually helpful for us to excavate room C307. No matter what we find, we must first maintain a correct attitude..." Stephen said thoughtfully.

Julian laughed. "What is the correct attitude? What we have done is something that the law despises."

Stephen shrugged his shoulders and said: "We need to act because the law can't solve it. It is also the fault of the law. People need to abide by the law because this is the way to maintain social order, but laws are made by people and only for society Most of the provisions of benefit service, since this is the case, it is impossible to protect the interests of all people or repay the pain of all innocent victims, it is not perfect, so why should I try to maintain an imperfect thing?"

Julian looked at him with a smile, but didn't answer.He did not misunderstand the person. As he expected, Stephen Breumont Rose was not an ordinary person. He was not the kind of person who regarded the law as the absolute criterion of society, nor was he the kind of person who regarded morality as the ultimate goal. Hidden under the seemingly unruly appearance is a person who is always seeking and introspecting.They found their shadows in each other.He considers himself lucky, it's not every day that someone like Stephen comes across.