Leaving the house and walking onto the street is the real entry into this world. Compared to the hustle and bustle of the city, Xia De walking into it is as inconspicuous as a drop of water merging into the sea.
He seldom spoke, but just walked towards his destination, the Lark Club. He listened as he walked, learned about the world, the city, and everything around him.
To put it simply, this world is somewhat like the steam revolution in the 19th century in the past world, except that compared to the past world, the steam industry here is more prosperous, and it feels like it is moving forward along the road of steam without turning.
While harmful black mist was spewing out of factory chimneys, all kinds of strange inventions were being created, and the economy was taking off with the development of productivity.
Just as Shad guessed, the city he is in now is Tobesk, the capital of the northern human kingdom of Draerion. It is the pearl of the north of the continent, the gathering point of human civilization, and the essence of the times.
A big city naturally has to look like a big city. Although it is restricted by the shackles of the times and leaving the streets and entering the alleys, one will inevitably encounter feces and garbage dumps, but the appearance of a big city still came into Xia De's eyes during the short one-hour journey.
Fortunately, the "Lark Club" is not far from the city center. If it were across the entire city, Xia De might not be able to reach it even in the middle of the night. The key point is that Xia De has no money to take a carriage.
Along the way, he also gained more information about the world from the perspective of an observer. The most important thing was to learn about the monetary system. At least in the current country, the common currency is divided into gold pounds, shillings and pennies, of which 1 pound = 20 shillings and 1 shilling = 12 pence.
Of course, this name is very similar to British currency. It is not that they are exactly similar, but that Shade translated the three different currency names from the alien language into familiar names. After all, the way the numerical values are converted is really similar.
The unfortunate fact is that the note with the number "10" that Shad found was worth 10 pence. In terms of current purchasing power, this was not even enough for him to take a carriage from his home to the club.
But if he lived frugally, spent 10 pence to go to the bakery which was about to close in the evening, and compete with the children and housewives in the slums to buy the cheapest bread crumbs, he could at least ensure that he would not starve to death for three days.
"At least it's a peaceful era now. Our country, the Kingdom of Drarion, is one of the largest kingdoms of mankind. There are some local frictions with another powerful kingdom, the United Kingdom of Carsenrick, to the south. But relatively speaking, this is an era of peace and development, an era of progress... ... We are pretty lucky."
Xia De is very good at comforting himself.
The world is temporarily peaceful. The Kingdom of Drarion in the north of the Old World and the United Kingdom of Carsenrick in the south have almost divided the world. The total war ended decades ago. Although it is still undercurrent, it at least shows peace.
Club culture seems to be a special culture of this era. Xia De learned from the investigation report that the mistress under investigation, Mrs. Lasoya, would visit the "Lark Club" every weekend and stay there for at least three hours.
Detective Hamilton's report speculated that this was the place where Mrs. Lazoya and Mr. Lawrence had their trysts, because every time Mrs. Lazoya appeared in the club, Mr. Lawrence would also enter.
This was a private club with a membership system, and Shad did not have permission to enter, so after turning onto Valente Pedestrian Street at the intersection, he stopped and observed at the door of the newspaper office opposite the club according to the records in the investigation report.
It was a newspaper owned by the Tobesk Evening News, and it was said that the royal family had a stake in it. Saturday was the busiest time for the newspaper, because Saturday was the customary time for the king's speech and the parliament's report.
At this time, a group of people would gather at the door of the newspaper office, waiting for new news to be delivered. Of course, the full-time reporters had already set off, and those who stayed at the door of the newspaper office were people waiting to try their luck.
Xia De's plan was to blend in. Although it was already noon, his mistress, Lasoya, usually didn't show up at the club in the morning. So if he was lucky, he would be able to spot the target soon.
The report is complete as long as the time the lady appears and leaves is recorded.
It was so easy to accomplish this that it felt unreal to Shad. But after all, Hamilton had almost completed everything, so this was actually one of the "legacy" left by the deceased gentleman.
Shade was holding a pocket watch that was one of Mr. Hamilton's inheritances. So when he stood by the mailbox at the entrance of the newspaper office, he looked around for a long time as if he was waiting for someone. Finally, he saw the target appear, and immediately compared it with the black and white photo in the report. He confirmed and recorded 1:23, which was the time when the mistress Lazoya appeared.
The lady was dressed in fashionable clothes, with lace decorations on the hem of her skirt and jeweled hair ornaments that were expensive. She arrived at the door of the club directly by carriage, and even though the weather was gloomy, she still held a cloth umbrella.
She looked to be around 30 years old, of average height but plump. Although she had too much makeup on her face, she was still a beauty.
Because he was worried about being discovered, Xia De also knew that he had no experience in tracking, so after confirming that it was the target, he immediately looked away.
Observe her ring.
"What?"
The woman's whispering voice appeared in his mind again. Although Shade didn't know what she was talking about, he still turned his attention to Mrs. Lazoya.
At this time, the doorman of the club was already greeting her. When the woman turned around, Shade saw the ring clearly. It was strange that the ring was inlaid with neither gemstones nor diamonds, but rather a small pebble.
Of course, since he was observing from across the street, pedestrians on the street would occasionally block his view, so he was not sure whether he was seeing things wrong. Mrs. Lazoya also quickly entered the club and did not give Shade many opportunities to observe.
"What do you mean? Why did you draw my attention to that ring?"
He asked the voice in his mind again, but the murmur did not come out automatically because of his question. This made Shade a little annoyed, but he knew to control his emotions, he was not the kind of person who gets angry easily.
"Sir, what time is it now?"
While thinking about something, he suddenly heard someone talking next to him. Xia De was startled, thinking that he was standing by the mailbox and looking at the entrance of the club on the other side of the street, which was too conspicuous, but when he heard the voice, he realized that someone was asking about the time.
"Sorry, I forgot my pocket watch."
The person who explained his rash questioning was a middle-aged gentleman in his forties who looked quite elegant and easy-going. He wore a black silk hat, formal clothes and a white shirt that looked like he was going to a banquet. His face was a bit broad, with a well-made mustache on his chin, and his blue eyes were very attractive.
The middle-aged man smiled at Xia De. Xia De hesitated for a moment and took out the pocket watch he had just put into the right pocket of his shirt.
"One-thirty."
He said, somewhat curious about the reason why the middle-aged man was here. This attire didn't look like a reporter waiting for news at all. Xia De's outfit with a notebook in his hand looked like that of a reporter.
As if he had heard Xia De's thoughts, the middle-aged gentleman smiled and said:
"Thank you for your time. I had an appointment with the editor of the newspaper. I didn't bring my pocket watch, so I thought I would be late. Now it seems I'm just in time."
As he spoke, he handed over his business card. Shade politely took it and handed over his business card as well. In fact, it was the business card of the deceased Mr. Hamilton, which had the address and business scope of the detective agency, and the name was only "Hamilton Detective" without a prefix.
Since Shad chose Hamilton as his last name, he could use these cards. He was glad that there was no household registration system here, and he didn't even need to forge identity documents.
The middle-aged man was named Bill Schneider, who ran a private psychological clinic. Unlike Shade's current unstable career, Schneider's psychological clinic was quite formal, and the income from the clinic was obviously more than that of a detective like Shade who relied on inheritance to conduct his first investigation. The evidence was that Shade's business card was shabbier than the doctor's business card, and the other party's business card was much better in terms of paper and printing quality.
"If you have anything, you can come here to find me."
Mr. Schneider said very kindly, pointing to the clinic address on the business card, which was in the eastern district of Tobesk:
“My treatments are broad.”
He looked at Xia De, and Xia De had an inexplicable feeling that he was being seen through by those blue eyes.
“Including schizophrenia.”
The psychologist said kindly that he was very good at communicating with strangers.
"What?"
Shade's heart skipped a beat, but before he could ask, Mr. Bill Schneider quickly changed the subject:
"By the way, Mr. Detective, have you ever considered taking adult education? Correspondence courses."
"Correspondence adult education?"
The topic changed too quickly, and Xia De didn't catch up:
“I have no plans to study psychology for the time being.”
He mistook her for an enthusiastic graduate of some college of psychology.
Xia De refused, and the doctor did not insist:
"Well, goodbye."
The doctor nodded to the detective, put the detective's business card into his pocket, and then turned and walked towards the newspaper office yard.
"Correspondence course... ... Speaking of which, what did Dr. Schneider mean by mentioning schizophrenia?"
Xia De stood there thinking silently, and then realized that he heard a voice in his head, which seemed very similar to the so-called "schizophrenia".
"You don't have to laugh in my head. I admit that your laugh is very nice and charming. You are definitely not the product of my schizophrenia."
Shade said to the voice in his head.
Although he was certain that his condition was caused by contact with the mysterious and was definitely not schizophrenia, he was not sure what the psychiatrist he met by chance had seen.
"I just went out and I actually met someone who might have supernatural powers. Is my luck too bad? Or is the density of supernatural people in this world greater than I thought? Or maybe this psychiatrist just mentioned it casually and I thought too much?"
Xia De thought to himself and carefully put away Dr. Schneider's business card. No matter what, the commission is the most important thing at the moment. Now that I know the address of the psychiatrist, I can go there anytime.
At least from the brief exchange just now, Dr. Schneider didn't seem to have any hostility. But a brief exchange couldn't reveal his true thoughts, and Shade still wanted to understand the world a little bit before communicating with people in depth.