336: One hundred ninety-three.
Identification of pollution sources 336: One hundred ninety-three.
Identification of pollution sources “`
Little Raef District.
Adjacent to Elm Street, geographically, it’s closer to the city center of Belfast than Elm Street is.
But the house prices here aren’t a bit more expensive than those on Elm Street, on the contrary, this is one of the few neighborhoods in Belfast where house prices can be called affordable.
Because it’s too far from the city, and not close to Elm Forest.
Elm Street at least borders a forest, and a considerable number of people like being close to nature.
Afu Reyno is the owner of House No.
158 in Little Raef District, and next to him is Elm Street No.
Afu Reyno has rheumatism, so whenever it rains, he moves a rocking chair over, prepares a blanket and a kettle filled with hot coffee, as well as a book, and sits in front of the fireplace to pass the time.
However, he wouldn’t sit near the window, as seeing or hearing the rain would make his knees start to ache—out of sight, out of mind.
On this rainy Sunday, Afu Reyno sat on the opposite side of the fireplace, far from the window, holding a travelogue novel, quietly reading with the crackling sound of the burning wood.
At some point, he heard a faint noise mixed with the rain outside the window, which spread over time and drowned out the sound of the falling rain.
His feet touched the floor, the rocking beneath him stopped, and Afu Reyno took off the blanket and left the chair to walk to the window.
In the pouring rain, he saw dozens of officers spread out, blockading the road leading to Elm Street.
Among them were some figures in black uniforms with eyes open on their shoulders that sent shivers down one’s spine.
Afu Reyno stiffened, staring blankly at these people busily moving around the street not far from his home.
A figure in black uniform noticed Afu Reyno behind the window, glanced coldly for a moment, and then looked away.
The police officers who had arrived earlier appeared at the edge of Elm Street.
They looked confused and frightened, but they hadn’t forgotten their duties, having no interaction with their colleagues outside the blockade.
They were in charge of explaining the situation to the possibly infected residents inside Elm Street.
The entire Elm District had been completely sealed off, preventing anyone from entering or exiting.
Inside the sealed-off Elm Street.
As the words of the coffee shop owner fell, Pryce and Matthew exchanged glances—because Lu Li wasn’t looking at him.
Lu Li continued to ask, “What do you know about the cup she brought to your place?”
The coffee shop owner had some guesses, “You think it’s her cup…”
Lu Li nodded slightly, calmly watching him.
The coffee shop owner murmured something unclear, then thought for a moment and told Lu Li, “I don’t think it’s the cup…
at least not that there’s something wrong with the cup itself.
Madam Petra has been doing this for almost five years now, it couldn’t have just started recently…”
The coffee shop owner hesitated.
Pryce replied, “Let’s set aside the analysis for now, tell us the details about the cup.”
It’s a silver cup set, Madam Petra said there are three other cups of the same kind, but I only saw her bring one kind…
maybe there’s no difference in appearance.
Oh right, the style of the cup is a mug…”
“Did she tell you where the cup came from?”
“She did, it was from one of her students.”
“Continue… um… I can’t think of… wait, I just remembered!
Because it was often inconvenient to carry her cup around, Madam Petra would sometimes leave her cup here, and then come back the next day to drink tea directly.
However, she liked that set of cups a lot, so she didn’t do this very often.”
Pryce said, “Is there anything else you’d like to add?”
“Can’t think of anything else at the moment…” the coffeeshop owner replied.
Pryce turned to the thoughtful Lu Li, waiting quietly for him to conclude his thinking, “What have you come up with?”
“The most suspicious are the people and the cup.
The cup might not be the source of everything, but it could be what infected the coffeeshop—the source of infection might be something or someone that infected Madam Petra’s home, and then her cup was brought to the coffeeshop, causing a second infection.”
“We can pursue both of these leads concurrently.
You establish contact with the outside world and investigate who Madam Petra had interacted with before, focusing on the time period one week ago.”
The interval between the evil entity’s awareness coming to life was roughly one week.
Assuming the infection at Madam Petra’s house also took a week, they just needed to determine what happened one week prior.
Matthew stayed behind, while Pryce personally made calls to connect with the outside world.
Six minutes later, he returned to Lu Li, “The Alliance has started working on it, and Elm Street has been completely locked down.
Should we wait here now for the information to be delivered?”
Hot drinks could be provided non-stop, but food was another story.
This tailor shop didn’t store much food, and with this weather, it was tough to buy food outside—especially when there was no way to communicate with the outside.
Except for the night watch, no one usually ate three meals a day, including Lu Li, so no one complained.
In the midst of the dull wait, Lu Li briefly left the kitchen to walk to the corner bookshelf, picking out two books: a field guide to the species of the Ailen Peninsula and a romance novel loved by young girls, related to the strange— the story of a human girl falling in love with a young noble ghost.
Anna would probably enjoy reading it
With the two books in hand, Lu Li returned to the window, placing one in front of him and another beside him.
Under Pryce’s watchful gaze and Matthew’s slightly raised eyebrows, they saw the book beside Lu Li open on its own, as if an unseen presence was flipping through the pages.
The Alliance worked quickly.
By the third hour of Lu Li’s visit to Elm Street and the second hour after Pryce’s phone communication with the outside, the officers stationed at the head of Elm Street received the information tossed over by the external officers.
Everything Lu Li and Pryce needed was in there.
When the items arrived, Pryce handed them to Lu Li out of habit, “You take a look first.”
While Anna continued reading, Lu Li opened the outer tarp and pulled out the information.
The content was a mix of print and handwritten notes, the ink on it not completely dry.
Madam Petra had come into contact with many people one week ago, resulting in numerous exchanges.
Last Saturday, Madam Petra was invited by Bolivian University to give a lecture.
The Alliance quickly visited most of the students and professors she had contact with and recorded the details of their conversations.
Three people were highlighted as important.
The 29-year-old Hawkinson, associate professor of Mysticology at Bolivian University, student Nancy Lin, and Mr.
After briefly skimming over the information on the latter two, Lu Li’s attention settled on Hawkinson’s details.
If everything went as expected, the problem lay with this associate professor.
When Madam Petra visited Bolivian University a week ago, her former student Hawkinson presented her with an ancient tome.
What’s more, after the ancient tome was given away, the young associate professor disappeared.