The lawyer probably saw that Xia De was young and didn't want him to get involved in gambling. Xia De smiled and acted confidently:
"Look at my old deck of cards. Do I look like a novice at Rhodes? The highest I can lose in a game is less than two shillings. I don't think my luck is so bad that I always lose... Sir, we have to find something to do in this boring morning."
He spoke in a deliberately heavy Tobysk accent, and the lawyer shrugged his shoulders, signaling that he could begin:
“I really admire people who are confident.”
The crowd around was also very excited. Although no one had ever seen this young man, as long as the game continued and they had something to do, they didn't care even if Shad was from MI6.
Xia De still holds the idea of not gambling, and now he sits at the table, hoping to gain information by winning money. Therefore, this is not gambling.
There is no formal way to play this kind of gambling in the tavern. Both sides keep drawing cards and count the points after the cards are stopped. The lawyer may have good skills and rich experience, but he still loses more than he wins when facing Shade, who relies on the luck brought by the founding silver moon.
When Xia De sat down, he was prepared for both losing and winning. But after winning four of the first five games, he knew there was nothing to worry about.
At 10:30 in the morning, Shade already had a pile of small coins and a small amount of banknotes next to him, and the lawyer only had the empty cup. His right hand, with sweat on his forehead, secretly held his last card. As his palm moved, his bloodshot eyes trembled slightly as he looked at the gradually revealed card:
"Oh, Moon 9, I got blackjack this time!"
He exhaled slowly and a smile of relief appeared on his sweaty face. The three people standing behind him discussed with each other how many more rounds the lawyer could last after winning this time.
On the other side, Xia De also received the last card and pressed it with his palm. The two people standing behind him looked down with him:
"Oh, King."
Xia De said lightly, then shrugged:
"Lawyer, it looks like I win again."
"No more playing, no more playing."
The middle-aged lawyer was stunned for a moment, then threw his last hand of cards on the table in frustration:
"I think all my luck was used up before you showed up. It's not that my skills are bad, it's the law of conservation of luck."
He did not forget to explain himself in front of the acquaintances around him, but he did not suspect Xia De of cheating, after all, there were a circle of people surrounding him.
"You don't want to play anymore? 20p."
Shad knocked on the table and said that the pile of pennies and a few rare shillings at hand added up to about half a pound, of which about 3 shillings were the lawyer's money, and the rest were what the lawyer won from others this morning.
“Really? I was thinking about going to see Laura at night, but now I can only take a shower at home.”
The middle-aged lawyer complained and touched his pocket, while people on the side cheered and laughed at him.
"It's only twopence left, but I won't refuse to pay other people's money. Come with me to my house and get it. I live in this street."
The lawyer stood up and said dejectedly. Xia De packed up his cards and stood up. This was the purpose of him coming here to play cards. Guys who gambled cards in a tavern would probably not leave until they lost all their money.
I had originally planned that if I lost more than two shillings, I would claim that I had no money, take my lawyer to a nearby friend to get money, and take out a pound note on the way to ask him for change. But now, this plan is no longer useful:
"Okay, it seems like I'm pretty lucky today, do you want me to buy you a drink?"
Shad suggested.
"No need. I still have work to do in the afternoon. If it were at night, I would definitely ask you to buy me the most expensive drink."
The people watching them play cards certainly hoped that they would continue playing, but Lawyer Laurel was determined to leave. He would not play cards with debts, and the lawyer knew the bottom line of gambling.
So they went to the apartment where Xia De had knocked a few hours ago. After the middle-aged lawyer opened the door with his key, he wanted Xia De to wait downstairs. But he followed Xia De in and asked him to go upstairs with him without saying anything.
Locke Laurel lived on the second floor of this small apartment building and rented three rooms on the entire floor.
In this era, lawyers have become a middle-class profession. Although Lawyer Laurel's living place is not very good, judging from the furniture and the shoes placed at the door, his income is not low. He probably lives here just to get used to the living environment here.
Just like Detective Sparrow's study, the middle-aged lawyer's home was also filled with piles of documents and file bags. While the lawyer was looking for small coins in the shoe cabinet, Shade stood at the door and deliberately sighed:
"They said you were a lawyer. I didn't believe it at first, but now I do."
"Can't lawyers go to the pub and play Rhodes? That's prejudice."
Then he handed the found money to Xia De. After Xia De carefully counted it, he left directly, which made the lawyer who thought he had ulterior motives feel puzzled.
Coming to the street, Xia De felt relieved. From what the people around him said and what he saw at the lawyer's house, it was basically certain that there was nothing fishy about the inheritance. Although he had not seen the will and the inheritance, he would go with Mrs. Lemaire to sign it and could help check it out.
In this way, after going home and writing the report, the first half of the commission was completed, and the money was earned very easily.
As for the half pound change in his pocket, Shade didn't plan to keep it. He didn't like gambling, and even if he kept the money, it wouldn't have much of a positive impact on his life. So, he thought about donating it to the Dawn Church. While disposing of the money properly, he could also get a great sense of psychological satisfaction, and even thanked Father Augustus for not charging him for the preparation of the potion.
As for returning the money to the lawyer, Shad had never considered it. He just hated gambling, not wanting to be a saint. Even if Lawyer Laurel recognized him when he went to see the lawyer with Mrs. Lemaire, there was no reason to ask for the money back.
"However, the Rhodes cards are indeed very useful. I can now feel the fun of playing cards a little bit."
He thought to himself as he walked along Queen Mary Street towards Dawn Square.
There is a candy store on the side of the next intersection of Queen Mary Street. When Shad passed by, he saw a familiar middle-aged woman anxiously talking to passers-by.
This was the woman scolding her child that he saw when he knocked on the door downstairs of the apartment where the lawyer rented this morning, but his child was not with him now.
It happened that Xia De was walking in the direction of the woman. The middle-aged woman with messy hair also spoke to Xia De:
"My child, little Ron, is lost. Sir, have you seen a boy this tall and wearing a black hat around here?"
Her eyes were dull and her haggard expression immediately ruined Xia De's good mood.
"The child is missing? When did it happen?"
He asked in surprise, looking around.
"Ten minutes ago, I took him here to buy something, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared. I don't know if he ran off to play nearby, or... was taken away by someone."
The woman's eyes were red, and the look in them was hard to describe. She didn't want to cry, she wasn't anxious, and she wasn't panicked. It was a kind of despair that was suppressed to the extreme. Xia De had never thought that an emotion could be so strong just through the eyes:
"Why don't you call the police... just pretend I didn't say anything."
Xia De took a deep breath. In this era, even if there are frequent cases of "child trafficking" in cities, don't think that calling the police can solve the problem. It is better to hope that you can find some clues on the spot.
The stranger has established himself in this world, but he knows that this era is far from being civilized and orderly. The stranger has long thought about all kinds of things that might happen in places he can't see, but he didn't expect that he would encounter them so soon.
After a little inquiry, Shad found out that the middle-aged woman was named Marian Cook, a single mother living in a nearby neighborhood with no relatives. As for where her husband had gone, Shad didn't ask and she didn't tell him.
Sighing, Xia De decided to get involved in this troublesome matter since he had encountered it:
"I'll ask the pedestrians nearby for you, and you can go to the store next door and ask again."
Although this matter had nothing to do with Shade, since he happened to come across it, it would be no harm to try to help. Anyway, he had nothing else to do today.
If it was something like a lost wallet, he would probably ask about the situation and then walk away. But if a child was lost, he would help if he could.
Mrs. Cook turned to ask at the clothing store next to the dessert shop. Shad did not talk to the passers-by as he said, but took a long breath and closed his eyes;
“Echoes of the past.”
His ears felt itchy, and then the noisy street sounds came into his ears. This magic related to time and space can only randomly hear sounds within 24 hours. Although he tends to hear human voices, this tendency cannot increase the probability of Shade hearing key clues on the street or in the store.
In the "Divine Afterglow" state, any magic and spell will be enhanced. The enhancement of the echo of the past is not to increase the probability, but to increase the 24 hours to 36 hours. He learned this when he was doing experiments at home.
He tried several more times, but none of the sounds in his ears were related to the lost child. The longer the time dragged on, the lower the probability of finding the child. Turning to look at the haggard woman who was holding her hands together and asking the clerk about the situation in the store at the intersection, Xia De sighed helplessly.
He reached into his pocket and asked the female voice in his head:
"The twenty-sided dice of fate..."
You want to try your luck for a stranger? Good idea, but I must remind you that you only have one chance a day. And even if you get a lucky number, it may not be related to your magic.