Count Dracula 328: 185.
Count Dracula As the clock on the alarm neared the number 4, the carriage arrived at Belfast.
As a commercial city built on the mountainside, Belfast looked even busier and more bustling.
Standing atop the mountain, one could see houses stretch out towards the coast and into the distance, tightly packed like scales, and the entire city could be surveyed at a glance.
A few minutes before four in the afternoon, the carriage returned outside the Detective Agency’s Long House.
Reaching the elm forest on the outskirts of the city would take more than two hours, and it was already too late today.
After putting their things back in the Detective Agency, Lu Li and Anna returned the carriage to the rental company, and collected their deposit.
On the way back, they passed by the marketplace.
Just like the previous two times, Lu Li bought two types of ingredients, one for dinner, and the other for Anna to try her hand at cooking.
Having returned to the Detective Agency, Anna’s mood had somewhat improved, slipping back into her usual girlish demeanor, holding the food as she bustled into the kitchen.
Lu Li lit the oil lamp on the dining table and covered it with a glass shade.
Gently extinguishing the match, a wisp of blue smoke rose and disappeared, and Lu Li’s gaze fell upon the sculpture by the door.
The sculpture remained as they had left it the day before, not having moved.
The next time the merchant comes, they could ask if he knows the identity of the sculpture.
After returning to his desk and sitting down, Lu Li placed the 5,000 shillings Aunt Mary had given him, along with the 500 shillings tucked between the pages of a book, into the deepest part of the drawer.
Once the “Alley’s Cry for Help” case was confirmed, Lu Li would almost be able to purchase a second Deep Sea Stone.
Having done all this, Anna suddenly walked out from the kitchen, pursed her lips, and approached Lu Li’s desk, staring at him.
The fire in the kitchen wasn’t lit yet.
“I remembered we still have something to do,” Anna said.
“Something that can make us a sum of money.”
Twenty minutes later.
Lu Li, along with Anna who was cloaked in shadows, stood in front of Madam Anne’s Art Gallery.
However, now it should bear the word “former”: Former Madam Anne’s Art Gallery.
The sign for Madam Anne’s Art Gallery had been removed, and the new owner who had rented the place was directing workers to lightly sweep the messy floor inside.
An unexpected exhale resonated by Lu Li’s ear from Anna.
Lu Li had been prepared, as Benjamin had previously revealed the gallery’s poor business with no customers—thinking that solving the ghost problem would increase patronage, but instead, they had lost even more customers.
The sighing next to him stopped, and Anna said indignantly, “You go ask that guy where he’s moved to.”
“Never mind.” Lu Li shook his head, almost knowing what Anna was planning to do.
“He might not have much money either.”
“Alright…” Anna slumped, but then, as if she had discovered something, she let out a light gasp, “Lu Lili, I sense a ghost nearby…”
“Don’t worry about it.” Lu Li intended to leave; it was getting dark.
“The spirit feels very weak.”
The steps Lu Li had started to take froze, “Where?”
Behind the former Madam Anne’s Art Gallery, an alley.
In the deserted alley, next to overflowing trash bins, something was covered with a white cloth.
Lu Li stopped in front of the trash bins, and at Anna’s thought, the white mist covering was lifted, revealing what appeared to be a pricey oil painting.
The figure in the oil painting, dressed in lavish attire, suddenly turned towards Lu Li, his face smeared with cosmetics like a woman’s, grotesquely split into a grin: “A young body…
It has been a very long time since I have entered—”
A voice came from the empty space beside Lu Li, and Anna recognized the name of the painting and told Lu Li that the spirit’s presence was upon it.
Perhaps, like Anna, this Count Dracula was also a ghost dwelling within the oil painting.
Dracula suddenly shouted, his painted version guardedly looking around Lu Li.
But apart from this person holding an umbrella, there was no one else around.
“I’m here.” Anna appeared voluntarily, floating beside Lu Li — the ground was all mud, and even without physical contact, she did not want to step on it.
“Anna…” Dracula’s gaze flickered, finding the name somewhat familiar.
Its gaze fell on Lu Li, then suddenly froze: “Wait, I recognize you, you’re the one who killed that pregnant ghost!”
“To correct you, it was liberation.”
Lu Li didn’t want to sound like a jerk.
Dracula snorted coldly, his wary and puzzled gaze shifting back and forth between Lu Li and Anna: “What are you doing here?”
“We should be the ones asking you that.
Haven’t you realized where this is?” Anna couldn’t help but say.
Dracula paused, took another look around, and his expression suddenly turned ugly as he pinched his nose and cursed loudly: “Damn it!
Why am I next to a trash bin!”
“It seems that Benjamin didn’t take it with him when he moved.” Anna analyzed, and after thinking a bit, she added: “Or he secretly tossed it out.”
Her murmurs spread throughout the deserted alley and unsurprisingly reached Dracula’s ears.
A cold light rose in Dracula’s eyes, an unsettling aura spread from the oil painting, and it whispered: “Two weak vermin, the great Count Dracula—”
Anna, too, released a hint of her own aura, her voice turning cold: “Who are you talking to?”
Dracula shivered incessantly in that bone-chilling cold, halting his speech.
“Apologize to Lu Li.” Anna, however, decided to let it go.
I’m sorry, Your Excellency Lulian…” Dracula was very amenable in sincerely acknowledging his mistake.
The chill on Anna’s face faded, and she withdrew her aura and asked Lu Li softly: “What do we do next?
Offer it as a sacrifice for the Spirit-Calling Gun?”
Dracula didn’t understand what a Spirit-Calling Gun was, but it didn’t prevent him from understanding the word “sacrifice.” He shuddered, quickly shouting: “Please wait!
Respected Madam, you can’t treat me !”
“Why?” Lu Li retorted.
Dracula opened his mouth, then suddenly didn’t know what to say.
He had never communicated with humans before and didn’t know how to do so.
“Change of question.” Anna lifted her chin and said with a light hum: “What are you good for?”
The ghost with the dignified middle-aged man’s image hesitated: “Use…
Apparently, I don’t have any.”
“Have you ever harmed someone?” Lu Li suddenly asked.
Upon hearing this, Dracula’s expression once again contorted into a grimace, and he whispered with a vicious smile: “Of course, I am the great Count Dracula.
except for the two Excellencies, no one can—”
Lu Li didn’t intend to let him finish and turned his head to speak to Anna: “Then let’s take him back.”
He knew how to deal with the ghost in the painting now.
Anna covered the oil painting again with a white cloth, and Dracula’s panicked shouts filtered through the thin fabric: “What are you doing?
Where are you taking me?!”
Lu Li, walking out of the alley without looking back, said.