When I woke up, it was already 6:30 in the morning on Tuesday.
After preparing breakfast for himself and Mia, Xia De glanced at the advertisement section while reading the newspaper. Then he realized that he had kept Mia the cat for more than half a month, but he seemed to have never given it a bath.
But before Xia De could do anything, the orange cat seemed to be aware of something, and after eating its own cat food soaked in goat milk, it ran to the first floor of the house. No matter how Xia De shouted, it refused to go upstairs.
After Xia De went downstairs on his own initiative, the little cat avoided his hand again. Even when Xia De forced it into a corner, the cat stared at Xia De for the first time and made a "meow~" sound that was almost like a roar.
Light poured into the house without even a decorative wall from the first-floor window. Shad, squatting in front of Mia, showed a look of surprise on his face, and then a frustrated expression, looking at the cat he had raised for half a month with some shock.
"You actually... "
He opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he just slowly stood up and withdrew his hands that were about to pick up the cat.
He stood there, looking down at Mia, his lips trembling, but still said nothing. He turned his head first, then turned around, and walked towards the stairs with a slightly heavy step.
Mia the cat stood in the corner and looked at Shad's back. The cat's big eyes blinked twice, and then immediately followed. The cat walked with Shad at his feet, looking up with big eyes, trying to observe Shad's expression.
"Meow~"
It cried softly.
Xia De stopped and looked down, then bent down and picked up the orange cat. Then his expression changed:
"Ha~ I caught you!"
He smiled happily, held the orange cat's waist with both hands, and lifted it up. A man who is good at acting can show excellent acting skills even when acting to a cat. This is the basic ability of a foreigner to exist in another world.
"Meow~"
The small orange cat struggled twice but failed to get out of Xia De's hands, so it stopped in a sullen manner. But fortunately, Xia De did not bathe the pet cat at home today.
Because he didn't know how to wash a cat.
People in this world believe that cats have the ability to bring good luck. This is a cultural and customary view, so many magic tricks related to "luck" can be related to cats.
The fact that Shade caught the "cat" this morning seemed to have brought him good luck. This morning, he did not wait for the maid, Tifa Servet, to come to his house, but instead waited for a brand new client.
The advertisement placed in the newspaper last week finally worked.
The client was a thin middle-aged woman. Judging from her clothes, her financial situation was not good. When she followed Xia De upstairs nervously, Xia De guessed that this client was also here to ask for help on matters like "her husband cheating on her".
But the situation was more outrageous than he thought.
"Detective Hamilton, here's what happened. My distant relative, Mr. Firas Flamel... I don't know exactly how far back he came from, I just met him a few decades ago. Mr. Flamel passed away, and he left me a large inheritance..."
The middle-aged woman sat on the sofa uneasily, her butt just rubbing against the edge of the sofa, as if she was afraid of damaging it. She did not go to serve the tea prepared by Xia De, and after sitting down, she nervously pulled the edge of her skirt and told her about her commission.
The middle-aged woman's surname was also Flamel, but her relationship with the deceased Mr. Firas Flamel could be traced back to her great-grandfather.
"A few days ago, his lawyer... Is that the word? I remember it was. His lawyer came to me and told me to sign and take Mr. Lemaire's inheritance away, but I was afraid it was a trap. You know, sir, the kind that tricks people into signing documents and then takes away everything at once."
This is a relatively common trap in this era, but for outsiders, in fact, in this slightly ignorant era, traps such as the "Ponzi scheme" are the most cost-effective scams.
Of course, Xia De would not do that. Even if he wanted to make money, he would make it in an honest way with the knowledge in his head. He always thought that he was probably a "positive character"... ...
"Now, I haven't done anything illegal so far, and I didn't throw the steam bomb."
He thought about it in his heart, and then he gently comforted the somewhat nervous woman. He could see that she had never been to such a place:
"So, what do you want me to do?"
"Investigate the lawyer who wants me to sign. I don't understand this, absolutely nothing, so I need to find someone reliable to investigate the whole thing. I can't read much, but I know that the detective who opened an office in St. Teresa's Square is definitely not a liar."
This is the innocent idea of the lower-class citizens, but they cannot imagine that the guy working as a detective in St. Teresa's Square may not be a liar, but may be a foreign spy or a visitor from another world.
"Investigating lawyer...do you have any information about him?"
Shade thought for a moment and asked.
"Yes, I have his address, sir. I just need you to confirm whether he is a so-called lawyer. Oh, God, that word is so confusing."
The middle-aged woman with a low level of education said embarrassedly, and Xia De shook his head to indicate that it was nothing.
If you just want to confirm whether the other party is a lawyer, it is quite simple. A more brutal way is to go to the door to confirm whether it is a ring magician. If it is, immediately tell the client to ignore the matter. If not, take out a gun and threaten the other party to tell the truth.
He can also use less violent methods, such as visiting the other party and chatting with them, or tracking them for a day.
"Let me ask you a little, what is the amount of the inheritance you mentioned?"
Chateau asked again, and Madame Flamel showed no signs of being on high alert:
"About 50 pounds."
"That's quite a lot."
This is not an exaggeration. For the lower class people, 50 pounds is a huge sum of money that can change the fate of a family.
"So what did Mr. Firas Flamel do? Do you know how he died?"
Xia De then asked, although this information seems to have nothing to do with investigating the identity of the lawyer, it is relevant to determining whether this is a scam.
"Yes, the lawyer told me."
Mrs. Lemaire recalled, though she was not clear on some details:
"When I was in my twenties, I heard that he sailed with a fleet to explore a new northern route to the New World. Later, I gradually lost contact with him, but occasionally heard that he joined a very remarkable fleet... The lawyer said that he died in a shipwreck, and people later found the suicide note he left with his friends at the harbor. He seemed to have expected that people who go to sea will sooner or later run into trouble. Among his estate, there is fifty-three pounds in cash, in addition to some personal items, diaries, collections of books, and some strange little souvenirs... Oh, this is probably the poor man's life savings."
Although she was not familiar with her distant relative Firas Flamel, Mrs. Flamel wiped her slightly red eyes with a handkerchief.
Let Mrs. Lemaire calm down first, and Shad thought about the details of the commission and finally decided to take it on.
After all, investigating whether a stranger is a lawyer is just a day’s work anyway.
As for the commission fee, since Mrs. Lemaire was a middle-aged woman who raised her children alone after her husband ran away, Chad did not ask for too high a price.
When the two finally signed the power of attorney agreement, they agreed that if the lawyer was not a lawyer, then Mrs. Lemaire, who would not be able to obtain the inheritance, would have to pay Shad 5 shillings for investigation fees.
If the other party is a lawyer, then Shad will follow Mrs. Lemaire to sign and collect a suitcase of inheritance. After Mrs. Lemaire receives the inheritance, Shad will receive a huge reward of up to 5 pounds.
This pricing method satisfied both parties, and when the client was about to leave, Shade specifically asked the other party which newspaper he got the address from. The advertisement was published last week, and Mrs. Lemaire must have been attracted by a commission from a newspaper.
"Steambird Daily, I was afraid of being cheated, so I didn't dare to ask the detectives in the small newspaper ads for help... My neighbor, a kind young man who studied art at Tobysk University, read the ads for me. I can't read much..."
Mrs. Lemaire said embarrassedly, and Shad sent the client downstairs, feeling that he owed Miss Louisa even more.
"At most I can help her study the little match girl. I don't have any other ability to repay her now."
He thought as he watched his client merge into the bustling crowd of St. Teresa's Square.
Compared to when he first came to this world, Xia De has already escaped poverty. He continues to accept such relatively low-paying commissions, not because he is obsessed with the identity of a detective, but because he has more ideas.
First of all, it would be a long time before he left the civilized world and went to St. Byrons Comprehensive College in the far north. Before that, he needed to stay in Delarion, so it was important to maintain a necessary decent identity.
Moreover, detectives can also make a lot of money, but this requires the accumulation of countless small commissions, so it is foolish to look down on low-paying commissions.
Not to mention, the way Ringmasters learn means that correspondence academic Ringmasters are destined to have an identity that can deal with crises in their respective areas of operation.
Therefore, even though I am not as eager to make money as when I first came to this world, it is still necessary to accept commissions.
Not to mention, Xia De is actually very interested in this type of small commission. Outsiders intend to see more of this strange world in this way.
The client came in the morning, and Xia De planned to use a full day of tracking to confirm whether the lawyer was a fake. Tracking the lawyer would start from tomorrow afternoon, so he spent this relatively quiet Tuesday on other things.
Around ten o'clock in the morning, Shad took Mia out and went to "Good Peter's Pet Shop" on Purple Iris Lane. This was also the place where Shad first met Miss Beas and took Mia away.
The shop owner with a rosacea was impressed by the young orange cat. When he saw Xia De holding the cat in his arms, he almost announced that he would not accept any business today.
But fortunately, Shade didn't want to place Mia here again:
"I want to know how to bathe my pet."
He told them his purpose, but the shop owner blocked the door and had no intention of letting the man and the cat in.
"Just wash it, it doesn't matter what, just don't use force like washing clothes."
In this bustling era, complex and diverse pet service programs have not yet developed.
"Then you can give it..."
"When the cat is in the store, it is usually my wife and Miss Cindy who bathes it."
The middle-aged shop owner said, shaking his head rapidly, as if he was afraid that he would leave the cat behind.
The cat held by Xia De still remembered this place, but it didn't seem to have a very good impression of it. Now it curled up in Xia De's arms and refused to move.
"So are those two ladies in the store now?"
Xia De asked again, and the man answered without thinking:
"No, they haven't been here for the past half month, no, they haven't been here for the past year. They... eloped. But in fact, you don't have to bathe your cat so often. Cats are different from people. Sir, you can bathe the cat yourself. It's very simple. It doesn't matter if you bathe the cat once every three or even four months. Cats are not delicate at all."
Xia De suspected that the other party just wanted him to leave quickly, but he also knew that Mia had left a very "deep" impression on the middle-aged store owner, so he left after expressing his regret that the other party's wife eloped with the female clerk.
When he spoke, the middle-aged owner's expression was very interesting, and it even made Xia De look forward to the scene when he visited here next time.
As for the matter of washing the cat, you still need to think about it carefully.
After leaving Iris Lane, it was almost lunchtime. Shade found a restaurant nearby and spent 1 shilling and 10 pence to have a pretty good lunch with his cat.
After leaving the restaurant, I saw that it was still foggy today and the scorching summer sun could not penetrate the fog, so I took Mia and strolled towards the Prophet Association.
It was a very dull afternoon. After last night's heavy rain, the accumulated water on the ground evaporated so quickly that it was hard to tell that it had rained more than ten hours ago.
The strangers wearing long-sleeved coats were not very adaptable to the climate of this city, but fortunately, the Prophet Association located on Silver Cross Avenue was relatively cool.
He did not come for the Rhodes cards, but to find Miss Annat. He wanted to tell her about his recent contact with Miss Beas.
According to the contact information left by the brown-haired female fortune teller last time, I first explained in the lobby on the first floor that I wanted to come for fortune telling, and then reported the name of Miss Annat. But unfortunately, Miss Annat was not in the association at the moment.
The management of the association's ring wizards was relatively loose, unlike the church's ring wizards, who were not required to be on duty every day. Although Shade knew where Miss Anat lived, it was obviously unlikely that she was at home during the day.