Yin Luna paused and stuffed the parchment back into her bag:
"However, judging from the current situation, the church speculates that there is a high probability that a blood-sucking species has appeared in the area. It sucks the blood of pure virgins, but because it is worried about the retaliation of the church, it dare not harm their lives. The only doubt is why the victims are all flower girls... ... Could it be that the blood-sucking species has some weird obsessive-compulsive disorder?"
"I haven't heard of any vampires in the Randall Valley. They usually do serious business in the northern United Kingdom, near Huntington City."
Xia De said that although he thought it was possible that it was a blood-sucking species brought by the Blood Spirit School, he instinctively thought that things couldn't be that simple:
"The Randall Valley is now in turmoil, so it will attract relics related to the land. Just like the Middleburg incident and the Pantanal incident, the distortion of the local environment will attract relics that do not often appear. Go investigate. What clues do you have now?"
"I have the addresses of the girls who have returned home."
Yin Luna stood up and patted her skirt gently:
"Go check on those girls who have lost their memory. I hope you will gain something."
Every city has slums in the traditional sense, but in the Randall Valley, due to its special valley topography, the actual slums are mostly concentrated in the southwest of the city and in small villages that exist on the edge of the city.
The city of Randall Valley itself is not very square. It is long from northeast to southwest along the river and short in the other directions. Therefore, it is very convenient to visit the flower girl who lives in the village outside the city.
Xia De and Yin Luna then boarded a carriage at the entrance of the Rich Land Inn and got off at the edge of the city. When passing through the city wall gates left over from the ancient city-state era, they saw police officers questioning the identities of outsiders. Perhaps they were also looking for clues about the missing flower girl.
After leaving the city, we walked across the wooden bridge over the moat outside the city gate. On the other side of the moat was a small village with dilapidated buildings. On Friday morning, it was quite lively here. Country people preparing to enter the city stopped here to rest, the owners of horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carts transporting goods discussed business loudly, and travelers hurried by, covering their noses to cover the smell of urine and chickens, ducks and geese.
There were no house numbers in the small village, but the information Yin Luna received said that the girl she was looking for lived by the river, and there was a dead willow tree at the door.
This was a very obvious feature, and soon they found the two-story small house surrounded by a fence. Although it was called a two-story house, the first floor was actually a common adobe house nearby, and the roof was a simple shelter built with bamboo and wooden boards. Because of the continuous earthquakes in the past few days, Xia De even felt that the wooden boards were a little crooked.
The woman with a headscarf and a baby on her back was washing clothes on a washboard at the door when they came over, chatting with the neighbor's woman who was drying quilts. Yin Luna had obtained the local police station's ID, and after briefly explaining her identity, the woman washing clothes stood up and called the boy who was running around at the door.
After receiving the "order", the boy ran towards the north of the village in his patched cloth shoes. Soon, the 12-year-old girl that Yin Luna was looking for came running after him, holding a bucket with a small crucian carp in it.
The boy brought the bucket into the house, and the woman carrying the baby didn't seem to trust the young-looking Yin Luna, so the conversation took place in another corner of the yard to ensure that the girl did not leave the woman's sight.
The little girl named Mary Kara lowered her head nervously and played with her fingers while talking to Yin Luna. It seemed that she didn't want to communicate with strangers.
"Mary Kara, right? I'm a police officer from the Randall Valley Police Department, and the person next to me is my assistant. This time, I'm here again in connection with your disappearance a week ago. Have you recalled any new details since the last time you were questioned?"
Yin Luna said while holding a notebook. The little girl lowered her head and played with her fingers, unable to speak, so Xia De rummaged through his pocket, took out a piece of white sugar cube and handed it to her.
The girl glanced at her mother at the gate and quickly took the candy from Xia De's hand:
"I can't remember anything. It's like I slept for a whole week."
"Have you sold flowers since then?"
Yin Luna asked again, and the girl shook her head:
"My father and mother said it was too dangerous. They asked me to stay at home for the time being. If I was taken away by human traffickers next time, I would never be able to come back."
She spoke with a heavy accent, and Yin Luna, who had just arrived in the area, had to rely on Xia De's whispered translation to fully understand her, no matter how good her Carsenrick language was:
"Is that so? That's fine."
Yin Luna glanced at Xia De worriedly, but she didn't expect that there was really no clue at all:
"Well, do you mind if we touch your forehead? I heard that some of the girls who came back had symptoms of a low-grade fever."
She added, and after the girl agreed, she and Xia De touched her forehead together. Yin Luna felt nothing, while Xia De frowned slightly. He felt the whispering element, but it was very weak.
"So is there anything else you want to tell us?"
So Yin Luna asked again, and the little girl looked at Xia De, who understood and gave her another piece of candy.
"If you want to ask for information, you can go to the intersection of Stonemason Street in the city and find little Lianna. She is the best at selling flowers among us, and she is also the most informed. If anyone knows the news, it must be her."
Although Xia De was skeptical about this statement, Yin Luna still wanted to investigate, so the two of them planned to return to the city. When they said hello to the woman carrying the baby and left, the woman was talking to a man who looked like a carpenter at the gate of the yard. The woman looked sad:
"I know this house can't withstand the next earthquake, but we really don't have the money."
She turned her head and looked at the second floor of the house:
"Now we can only pray to God that there won't be another earthquake."
The scruffy-bearded carpenter was also in a dilemma:
"I know that everyone has had a hard winter this year. Wasn't the 13-year-old son of the widow at the head of the village killed by an unknown beast when he went into the mountains a week ago? You should also consider the village's concerns. If your house collapses, your neighbor Larry's family will also suffer."
“Didn’t Larry’s family run away from the village in debt because all the fish they kept in the pond died during the winter due to water quality issues?”
The woman immediately asked, and the carpenter shook his head:
"But as long as the house still belongs to them, the village has to consider these things... Lend me some money to repair your house. Although I can ask for a very low wage, I still have to pay for the materials, right? My apprentice has been infected with the petrifying plague. Now I am the only carpenter who can work in the village. If you don't come to me in the next two days, I will have no time at all when the weather warms up a few days later."
The things they talked about seemed to be related to the disaster in the Randall River Valley since this winter.
Yin Luna looked at Xia De. In just a few words, she understood the impact of the disaster on the ordinary people living on this land. She wanted to speak, but was stopped by Xia De.
Xia De knew that she wanted to give the woman money. The cost of materials to repair such a dilapidated house was actually very low. But Xia De thought that it was better not to give money for nothing:
"How much will it cost to repair this house?"
He then walked over and interrupted to ask, the carpenter looked at him and pointed his finger:
"2 Or 6 Finneys is enough."
1 kroner is equal to 7 ols, 1 kroner is also equal to 95 pfennigs, and 1 kroner can be exchanged for about 13 to 14 pounds now. So, it really doesn't take much money.
"In that case, I will lend it to this lady. Although we don't talk about such things in this era, I still have some chivalry."
Shade said, turning around and looking at the house:
"I know that you villagers need to use your savings to buy seeds and find a blacksmith to repair farm tools during the spring ploughing season, so I will come back to get the money back in the summer. I will give you the lowest interest rate and you can pay me back 2 ol 19 pfennig in the summer."
Yin Luna also came over at this time and listened to Xia De talking.
"I'm not worried that you won't pay me back."
Shade pointed to the house:
"Your house is here, and it's newly renovated, so you definitely won't run away. If you run away, it means that your family is facing the dilemma of not even being able to keep the house. Even if I want you to pay me back, you won't be able to. So, it's relatively safe to lend you this money."
The woman then stammered and tried to thank him, after all, the house was indeed too dangerous now. She just told the carpenter that it was not because she didn't want to repair it, but because she really had no money.
Xia De shook his head, took out some change from his pocket, then wrote an IOU and asked the woman to put her fingerprint on it before leaving with Yin Luna.
"Will you come back to collect the money in the summer?"
The seventeen year old girl asked curiously, she thought what Shade just did was right.
"If I could remember it, I would come."
Xia De replied, stuffed the IOU into his pocket, and whispered in his heart:
"Don't remind me of that."
"She" smiled gently. Although the air in the countryside was a little unbearable, the wind in the countryside was so warm. Today was the last day of the Starry Moon, and spring was really coming.
Stonemason Street is where the Randall Valley Stonemason Association is located. Although it is located in the old city, it is also very busy. On the way, Xia De explained to Yin Luna what he had learned about the feud between the Stonemason Association and the Carsenrick royal family in the past two months, as well as the preparations Princess Margaret had made for it.
When the carriage reached Stonemason Street, the driver did not turn and stop as Shade requested, but stopped the carriage in advance:
"Sir, I'm afraid we can't go any further."