365: Two hundred twenty-two.
Photo 365: Two hundred twenty-two.
Photo Old Cozy District.
This once Warmth District had many names.
But after the new Warmth District emerged, no one called this wasteland the Warmth District anymore.
The cause of Old Cozy District’s destruction was no longer traceable, it was an event from over a decade ago.
There were various theories about the cause of the fire, with conspiracy theories being the most prevalent—after all, the fire spread along the entire street, while the adjacent Black Cat District, Hancock District, Theory District, and Martin District suffered only partial blackening on some external walls.
The fire that rose in the dead of night claimed the lives of over a hundred people.
Aside from the dozen or so unfortunate souls who were directly burnt to death, the majority of the victims were suffocated by the thick smoke that filled the streets.
The fire was extinguished the following afternoon, and the survivors were relocated by the city government to new homes, to forget their sorrow and start new lives.
Given its favorable location, the Warmth District should have started reconstruction projects early on.
But it seemed that because the land involved a part of the upper-class nobility, whether due to uneven spoils or some other reason, the area was left abandoned, neither cleared nor rebuilt.
All of these formed the scene that Lu Li saw before him: under the veil of rain, the charred ruins stretched into the distance.
“There are no souls or presences.”
Anna spoke softly at his side.
Lu Li, holding an umbrella, stood before the dismal gray stone path ahead.
Hearing Anna’s voice, he took a step, walking into this dilapidated and abandoned district made up of ruins.
The curtain of rain obscured the view, blocking not only the full extent of the district but also the scenery outside of it, which made the surroundings look like a kingdom composed of burned ruins.
Rising and falling ruins, homes collapsed halfway, charred timbers standing crookedly—all while passing, occasionally one could see relatively intact houses.
Though their appearances were worn and charred, they still maintained their original house shapes.
Just as Jojo had guessed, this district was not entirely forgotten.
Under the relatively sturdy houses and half-collapsed buildings, there were Scavengers wrapped in multiple layers of clothing hiding beneath, occasionally a fire was lit for warmth.
This somewhat dissipated the loneliness brought by the surrounding ruins.
They looked on with numbness, curiosity, or malice at the figure walking on the charred stone path.
This tall, mysterious man often paused in front of half-collapsed and relatively intact houses, glancing at the doorplates that might still have numbers on them before moving forward.
Lu Li was approaching building number 16 as indicated on the letter’s address.
Minutes later, Lu Li stopped in front of a three-story stone building.
Apart from the scorched exterior and most of its windows missing, this was the most intact building Lu Li had seen—surrounded by a field of ruins.
Even this building had a door, albeit nearly charred to carbon.
A metal plate hung beside the door on the wall, showing burn marks and the number 19.
The numbers 1 and 9 were not aligned, with 9 standing half shorter than 1, just like…
Lu Li approached this oppressively dark building, and a persistent smell of burning wafted from behind the broken door.
Just as Lu Li thought, there was a mark of 6 on the number plate.
He reached out to turn the number 9 into a 6, the marks fully blended now, and it was aligned with the 1.
Pushing on the charred wooden door, the damaged door scraped against the floor with a rough noise, revealing a dark corridor leading inside.
Anna, whose figure emerged, kept Lu Li protected behind her.
“Is there a problem?”
As Lu Li reached towards sequence 1 to light the oil lamp.
“It just feels a bit eerie, like an aura or something…” Anna felt around quietly for a while then shook her head.
“I haven’t noticed anything.”
Lu Li continued to turn on the oil lamp’s valve, the flint sparked a few times, and a dim light appeared within the lampshade.
Holding the oil lamp, Lu Li closed his umbrella, stepping into the dark corridor.
The charred floor was somewhat rough, as if covered with a layer of sand and gravel.
There were traces on the walls that had been scorched by high temperatures, but these traces quickly disappeared as we walked down the hallway.
The fire had not significantly affected this stone building.
The cold and damp corridor was dust-free.
Lu Li bypassed the stairs leading to the second floor and another corridor, continued past Room 101, and stopped in front of Room 103.
Pausing at the door, Lu Li did not attempt to open it.
“Do you feel something strange?” Anna whispered.
“Sort of,” Lu Li replied.
“This is the only house we’ve come across that’s intact.
Those scavengers taking shelter from the rain under the ruins would have no reason to ignore it.”
No matter how you looked at it, this place was much safer than those leaky and precarious ruined houses.
“Maybe that woman did something?
After all, she’s an investigator.”
Lu Li’s palm rested on the doorknob, he lightly exerted force but did not turn it.
“I’ll do it,” Anna said as she squeezed past the door and unlocked it from the inside.
As the door opened a crack, the musty smell wafted out, followed by Anna’s grumbling, “But for her to live in a place , it’s really…
somehow it makes sense.”
In most people’s minds, shady individuals naturally resided in shady places.
Like the contrast we felt when we went looking for the wrong address in the Warmth District.
The residence of the figure in the Bird Beak Mask was modest, much like the Detective Agency, with only basic items and nothing superfluous; even the layout consisted merely of a living room, a bedroom, and a kitchen.
This was one of the rare houses with intact windows, whose streaks of watermarks barred the outside wind and rain.
Amid the muffled sound of rain sealed off by the windows, Lu Li stepped into the room and looked up at the chandelier.
The electrical wires had long been burned out, and now the light fixture was merely decorative.
It seemed there was nothing of value here.
Anna made a round through the living room and bedroom and came back holding a picture frame, handing it to Lu Li: “Is she the woman with the Crow Mask we encountered in the cabin?”
Lu Li took the picture frame, brushed off a layer of dust from it, revealing a rather blurry group photograph.
The faces of the two people in the black-and-white photo were indistinct, barely recognizable in their youthful features.
They were intimately close to each other, like a couple, with the front of this building as the backdrop.
“It’s her,” Lu Li said, handing the picture frame to Anna.
Maybe they’re her parents,” Anna asked, her expression odd as she took the picture frame and scrutinized the photo.
“Photography technology only appeared a decade or so ago, and women taller than one meter seventy aren’t common.”
Anna nodded as if she understood and put the picture frame back: “But I didn’t find a basement.”
Lu Li said nothing, just let his gaze fall on the wooden door to the storage room beside the kitchen.
He walked closer to the storeroom and reached out to pull open the door.
A sinister chill rushed at us, and some kind of malice-filled whispers floated up from the darkness below the stairs—
Lu Li shut the wooden door leading to the basement once again.