Soul echo

Chapter 192 Inquiry
The snow spread on the ground is enough to cover many things, such as low-lying areas, excrement, corpses...

Lilian followed behind Zhong Ye, poking her head around, looking at the scene of this 'slum'.

It is difficult to express in words - because it has not yet joined the wave of industrialization, Burger's productivity is relatively scarce, and winter cannot meet everyone's survival needs.

Every door that appeared in front of us was tightly closed, whether strong, thin, large or small. However, even if the doors were closed, these houses still couldn't keep out the cold air.

The walls are weak and old, visible to the naked eye, and can provide shelter from the wind and rain, but it is difficult to provide warmth to the residents.

This is the slum of Bourg, the poorest and most backward place in the whole city. People living in this place just 'survive' rather than 'live' and struggle to survive every day.

The oppressive environment creates bad people, and the bad people intensify the oppression of the environment. Almost all slums are like this. If there is no external support, the slums will always be slums, and the people living in the slums will never succeed. day.

As they continued to go deeper into the slums, the surrounding buildings gradually became older, some closed doors were opened, and pedestrians appeared on the road.

In order to avoid catching a cold, the women in several layers of clothes leaned against the door, their eyes cruising on the pedestrians, and if someone saw them, they would walk over and enter the house with them.

These are relatively 'rich'. The poor have no choice but to stand in rags in the cold wind, and the 'work place' is just an alley.

Lilian's pupils were trembling. For her, 'prostitute' was already a word lost in history. Of course, she had seen prostitutes in other cities, but she had never seen such... miserable!

She slowly turned her eyes, and her eyes fell on Zhong Ye's back.

Why did Zhong Ye bring her here?
Slums, slums...

Lilian was taken aback for a moment, and then Zhong Ye asked, "Did you see it?"

"See what?" Lilian blinked her eyes and subconsciously turned her head to look around.

At this time, she finally moved her attention away from those prostitutes and put it to other places, and found that many people were smoking in the corners, alleys, and in front of the door.

"cigarette?"

"Yes." Zhong Ye nodded, "Some people just smoke, but there are a few people who seem to have 'something' added to their cigarettes."

A word came to mind, and Lilian's eyes widened, "Hydrogen?"

"So..." She looked around, "Are we going to start the investigation from here?"

"Bulger is different from Annecy. Here, we don't have that much help. The Earth Mother Church counts as one, but the flood of hallucinogens in Bulger also shows the problem. They can't help us too much."

The sweet smell lingered at the tip of his nose, Zhong Ye's eyes rolled back and forth, his eyes swept across the street, and he silently counted the number of people using hallucinogens in his heart.

Whores, vagabonds, ragged pedestrians...

These are the bottom of the society, they either live in the slums, or more activities in the slums, because this is actually a 'land outside the law', there are not so many people to manage them.

At the same time, he tried his best to spread his hearing, listening to movements in all directions.

Talking, breathing, moaning, praying...

These voices were mixed together like a mess, and Zhong Ye was able to extract effective information from this mess because his intelligence attribute was high enough.

The object of the prayers' belief was the 'Earth Mother', which surprised Zhong Ye, but if you think about it carefully, this is not something that should be surprising.

The Dimother Church has always been known for its 'kindness'. If nothing else, the Dimother Church in Bulger has also tried to solve the slums, and it is still trying until now, but the method is not proper, and naturally it has no effect.

Not only Dimu Church, but also other churches in other cities have made similar attempts, but most of them have had little success.

These thoughts flashed through Zhong Ye's mind, and he settled down to search for information related to 'hallucinogens' or 'cultists'.

More and more information poured into his mind, and he analyzed them one by one, screened out the useless ones, stored the useful ones, and slowly filled up the blank framework of 'Bulger'.

However, if there is no accident, the people at the bottom are destined not to be able to get in touch with higher-level things. The only information he can extract from the words is some bottom-level dealers...

"Walk."

Zhong Ye, who seemed to be wandering in the sky, suddenly opened his mouth, and Lili understood it with peace of mind, and quickened his pace.

The slums in Burg are like a labyrinth. All the buildings were not planned when they were built. The roads are not parallel on both sides.

Some houses are close together, but there are gaps between houses that can fit half a house, and the street forms a fork here.

Lilian followed Zhong Ye through one corner after another. With Zhong Ye opening the way ahead, his ferocious aura directly drove back all the gang members with malicious intentions, so that she was not harassed in any way.

Zhong Ye led her to the door of a big house, and kicked the door open.

Lilian opened her mouth slightly. This scene seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember when she saw it.

This is a tavern, and when she was outside the door, Lilian could already feel the lively atmosphere inside.

Quarrels, squabbles, and joyful laughter filled the tavern.

When the door was kicked open, a noisy atmosphere poured out of the tavern and filled the street, followed by pairs of surprised and angry eyes.

People stood up one after another, pulled out daggers from the back of the waist, took out long swords from under the counter, and raised wooden clubs from the corners. A big sword as tall as a man.

Bang!

The ferocious smiles on everyone's faces slowly changed from anger to flattery, and all weapons were thrown to the ground.

"I heard that you are in charge of half of the slums?"

Zhong Ye glanced at the people in the tavern indifferently, and asked in a deep voice: "Then do you sell hallucinogens?"

"We don't touch that thing!"

A gang member who reacted the quickest replied immediately after Zhong Ye posed the question: "We are all believers of the Earth Mother, and we will never touch that kind of thing!"

"Yes, yes! We are all believers of the Earth Mother!"

"Boss won't let us touch that thing, he said it's a gift from the evil god, once we accept it, we're done!"

"The boss also said that anyone who dares to touch that thing will be hacked to death!"

A group of gang members responded one after another.

They knew that if they didn't answer, they might die.

The 'Consultant' is the smartest among them, since he has admitted to being cowardly, there is no need for them to be stubborn.

"It's fine if you don't."

Zhong Ye put the big sword back, asked Lilian to close the door, then pulled up a chair, and sat down in front of the gang members.

"Now I want to ask a few questions, and I hope you can answer them truthfully."

Looking at Zhong Ye's big sword behind his back, a group of middle-aged men nodded in unison, not daring to refute.

Zhong Ye stretched out a finger, "First of all, do you know where the group of hallucinogen dealers came from? Are they locals?"

The very first question stumped them, and they couldn't help but look at each other for answers from other people, but alas, no one seemed to know.

At this moment, the 'Consultant' sighed and walked out from behind the crowd, "They are all locals, and all of them are from our area."

'This place' means the ghetto, and all the hallucinogen dealers are ghetto people?

"Including other urban areas?" Zhong Ye asked.

The 'Consultant' nodded, "Including those in other urban areas."

Zhong Ye thought for a while, then stretched out his second finger, "Second, are they forming a clique?"

"They don't form cliques, but they have ties to many gangs—except us." 'Consultants' once again emphasized their 'speciality'.

"Okay, last two questions—"

Zhong Ye's eyes were dark, and he asked in a cold voice, "Who are they? What kind of hallucinogens are they selling?"

(End of this chapter)