375: Two hundred thirty-two.
Warming up 375: Two hundred thirty-two.
“How did you get in?” Lu Li asked the shadowy figure on the sofa.
As the words fell, the cold aura from the other party began to fade.
“The lady sculpture helped open the door,” the man said, directing Lu Li’s gaze towards the sculpture behind the door.
“Next time we’re not home and someone comes by, there’s no need to open the door,” Lu Li said to the sculpture which had recently become much more active.
The sculpture remained motionless, perhaps listening.
Lu Li didn’t ask why the man was calm in the face of a moving sculpture, after all, his dreams were more bizarre and eerie than reality.
Stowing his umbrella outside, Lu Li shut the door, walked behind his desk, sat down, and looked at the man, waiting for him to state his purpose for coming.
Lu Li thought he would mention something from the newspapers, but he didn’t.
“It’s been a long time,” the man said.
He was dressed exactly the same as two days ago, but the aura he gave off was entirely different.
The weary and desperate look had been replaced by calmness, his clear eyes containing wisdom, showing no trace of his past self.
This brought an odd sensation.
Beneath the shell, he seemed like an old man who had seen through the affairs of the world, yet he looked only a few years older than Lu Li.
“How long,” Lu Li said.
“231 years and 1185 years.”
Considering the man before him had actually experienced a millennium, the strange feeling made sense.
After a brief pause, the man spoke of the purpose of his visit, “Such a lengthy span of time made me forget many things, leaving only a few I hold dear in my heart, like my parents, some happy moments, some sad, and your help.”
“During those 231 years, I thought about your words countless times.
At first, I couldn’t understand them; I even resisted, but as time passed, decades went by, and I gradually grasped the meaning of your words.
They helped me open up my heart.
I succeeded; I accepted it, and it accepted me.
The world after waking from slumber became a part of my life.”
The man spoke slowly, maybe because in his dreams he had been an old man so many times that it affected his mindset.
“Although sometimes the excessive length of it troubles me, more often, I feel fortunate…
I’m grateful to be alive, especially when I see people extinguish like sparks and mythological creatures futilely pursuit immortality.”
“Before I despaired.”
“Your help has been invaluable.
But now, there’s little I can do for you…
However, if you ever have questions in the future, feel free to look for me.
If by then, my consciousness hasn’t dissipated in the long flow of time.”
The man stood up, walked towards the door, paused in front of it, and said, “Just in case, please don’t wait too long.”
With that, he left as unexpectedly as he had appeared.
“He looks like a philosopher.”
Once the man had left, Anna emerged and said with a frown.
The man had given her an odd feeling, especially when his gaze swept over her—as if he could see her.
“Because any action people take adds to their life experience, and he has had enough time to experience anything,” Lu Li replied.
“Is he a good person, then?”
Anna was slightly surprised; Lu Li’s answers were usually ambiguous, and it was the first time she saw him so certain about the outcome of something.
“Why?” she couldn’t help but ask.
Lu Li didn’t switch metaphors just because Anna said she “should know” and continued his explanation: “If you throw the dice several times, the number of times each face appears will vary, but as you keep throwing it, the occurrence of each face will tend to be the same.”
That man was just like that.
He might become evil at a certain time, good at another, or he might fluctuate between two or even more personalities.
But someday, these would fuse and set together.
The personality wouldn’t be good, bad, nor a mix of good and evil.
This change wouldn’t last long, maybe it would be tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.
Anna understood somewhat, yet also didn’t, but knowing Lu Li had said it, she was certain it must be true, and she turned to ask, “So he really might be able to help us as he said?”
But with a time limit.
If the man’s dream time kept increasing without end, he would eventually lose himself in the endless expanse of time, until his consciousness completely faded away.
He might still be alive by then, but he would be dead.
The man had realized this.
So before he left, he told Lu Li.
Suddenly, a child’s crying and shouting came from the corridor outside the door, mixed with indistinct talking and the sound of the neighbors opening their doors to check.
Lu Li stopped thinking and glanced at the room door.
The news on the paper had the entire Belfast People on edge.
The sky had already darkened, yet there were still many residents on the streets, clustered under the eaves, chatting noisily while enviously watching those who had spare money to buy a new batch of supplies.
Bits and pieces of conversation drifted into the Detective Agency, intermingled with words like “price” and “ruffians”.
Fortunately, with the rainy season approaching, most residents had already stockpiled some supplies before the bad news struck.
The remaining ingredients in the kitchen were enough for two more days, and Anna had Lu Li buy some more tomorrow, then went to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
As night gradually fell, the people on the street also dispersed, returning to their own homes.
After dinner, they drew the curtains, lit the second oil lamp, and Lu Li lay down on the couch.
Anna’s voice came from the bedroom, followed by the occasional sound of pages turning.
The night was not quiet, with noise occasionally drifting in from outside the window.
Sometimes there were arguments, sometimes cries, and sometimes the sound of rolling wheels.
Most of the public spent this uneasy night restlessly.
Early morning, 5:50 a.m.
The sky began to lighten, and people started waking up one after another.
Smoke billowed out from the mostly blocked chimneys, and even more came out of doors and windows.
The cold air was tinged with the pungent smell of wood burning.
It was hard to tell if Lu Li woke up because of his biological clock or the smell of smoke that had seeped into the Detective Agency.
Anna noticed Lu Li waking up first thing, and as usual, she drew back the curtains and went to the kitchen to start a fire and prepare food.
After eating, Lu Li and Anna, who were hiding, prepared to leave, with Anna giving instructions to a sculpture before leaving the Detective Agency.
They went to rent a carriage from the carriage shop, then picked up the Jones Brothers and fetched back the distillation equipment.
As the carriage arrived in front of the Jones Brothers’ residence, Lu Li saw the four brothers waiting at the door.
They looked even more somber today than yesterday, each wearing a heavy heart on their face.
Lu Li knew what they were worried about, but there was nothing he could do.
He too could only struggle to survive in everything that was about to come.