[Comprehensive British and American] Super Mario

After Andrew and Peter had a sandwich for dinner, he drove Mary and Peter to the home of the missing little girl Zegna.

Mary was sitting on the passenger seat, supporting her aching head with her hand, and she was staring blankly at the streets of New York as the night fell. But, slowly, her eyes focused on the street they were driving on. She turned her head to look at Andrew, and said hesitantly, "Is this Chinatown? Is that little girl's home here?"

Andrew looked ahead, nodded casually, and said, "Oh, no, don't be nervous, Zegna's house is not in Chinatown, just go there and walk closer from here."

Peter grabbed Mary's car seat, leaned his head over and said to her, "It's over for a while, should we come over and have a look?"

Mary didn't make a sound, she looked out of the car window at the neon lights made of square characters hanging on both sides of the street.

Andrew turned his head and glanced at Mary, shook his head at Peter, and gave a "she's not in a good shape today" look.

Peter nodded knowingly, and made a movement of pulling the zipper over his mouth with his hand.

Andrew laughed, looking ahead at the car slowly driving through Chinatown, towards Zegna's house. The little girl's home is about 5 minutes' drive away from Chinatown. It can be said that it didn't take long to get out of Chinatown. their destination.

Zegna's house is a small row house with a red roof. When Andrew rang the doorbell, the door was opened immediately, revealing a pale and haggard face of a woman. Seeing Andrew's eyes brighten, she asked hesitantly: "You are Andrew?"

Andrew showed a proper smile, stretched out his hand and said, "Andrew Evans."

The woman shook hands with him and said softly: "I am Emilia Badley, Zegna's mother who has contacted you." After speaking, she looked at Peter and Mary behind Andrew and asked, "Are they ..."

Andrew introduced slightly sideways: "This is my partner, Mary and Peter."

Mary and Peter smiled at her.

Emilia returned a weak smile, took a few steps back, and said, "Please come in." After speaking, she turned and walked towards the house.

Andrew followed her into the living room inside, and turned to look at Mary and Peter. The three did not sit down immediately. They watched Emilia pick up a large gray shawl from the sofa and wrap it around her body. Andrew said : "Mrs Badley..."

"Just call me Emilia! I'm a single mother, and I'm not married to Zegna's father." Emilia touched her arm nervously, looking cold.

Andrew nodded kindly and said, "Okay, Emilia."

She looked at Mary and Peter, her eyes slightly absent-minded, and said, "I didn't expect three of you to come, thank you for coming!"

Peter laughed and said, "Oh, you're welcome, we're just trying to help, as long as you don't think we're here... a little too much!"

Mary gave him a sideways look, much?Is it more than you?

Peter looked back at her innocently, spread his hands, and smiled innocently.

Emilia showed a grateful smile following Peter's words. She shook her head and said, "No, no, I don't think so at all. Thank you very much for taking my request for help so seriously." She turned to look at Andrew and said, "You guys Would you like something to drink?"

Andrew smiled: "If there is beer or juice!"

Emilia nodded, turned around and walked out of the living room towards the kitchen.

There were three Andrews left in the living room. Mary took advantage of Emilia's absence to look around and saw a row of photo frames on the fireplace in the living room. She walked slowly to the fireplace. Those photo frames The photos in the photo are arranged in order from left to right according to time and distance. The protagonists of each photo are Emilia and a little girl. This little girl should be the missing Zegna, Mary thought so, her gaze Turning to the photo on the far right, sure enough, I saw a recent photo of Zegna. The little girl in the photo was exactly the same as the one Andrew showed her before.

Peter leaned over, took a look, and said, "There is no picture of my father."

Mary glanced at him, shook her head slightly, signaled him not to speak, turned around, went to the sofa and sat down.

Andrew stood by the window and looked out the window. He narrowed his eyes slightly and turned his head to whisper to Mary when he saw Emilia walking in with a tray. She put the tray on the coffee table and said to Peter: "I see that you seem to be very young, so I poured you a glass of juice, I hope you don't mind."

Peter smiled, reached out to pick up the glass of orange juice that Emilia had prepared, and said, "Oh, thank you!"

Emilia looked at Andrew and said, “Please take care of yourself, you are welcome.”

Andrew nodded, and sat down beside Mary. Peter saw that they were all sitting down, looked at the sofa, and said, "Can I sit on the carpet?"

Emilia showed a faint smile and said, "Of course!"

Peter simply sat down not far from Mary, and took a sip of the orange juice in his hand.

Emilia sat down on the sofa opposite them, looked at Andrew and said, "I have no choice but to ask you for help."

Andrew nodded and said, “I’m sorry, first I have a question I want to ask you.”

"What's the problem?" Emilia asked.

Andrew pondered for a moment, and said, "You should know that we are all hunters, hunters who specialize in dealing with supernatural events, right?"

"Yes, I know very well." Emilia said softly, "I understand the purpose of your question. I didn't seek help from the hunter because I was desperate."

The three looked at her silently, waiting for her to speak.

Emilia seemed to be afraid of the cold. She wrapped the shawl tightly around her body, sighed deeply, and said, "I can be sure that Zegna's disappearance is not what the police said..." She lowered her eyes, After a long silence, he said in a low voice: "My Zegna is a naive and lively girl. There is no conflict between me and her. She has no reason to run away from home. As for what the police said, she may be looking for her father. Oh, sorry, I think they're just talking nonsense, Zegna doesn't like her father, and that's a complete asshole."

Mary stared at Emilia, and she kept touching her arm lightly while she was talking. It seemed that she was not only chilling, but also had some other reasons, such as: fear!So what is she afraid of?She squinted slightly.

Emilia didn't go on talking right away, but pulled out an art sketchbook from the shelf under the coffee table. She put the sketchbook on the coffee table, slowly opened the sketchbook, and flipped through a few pages. Page, then turned the sketchbook to face them, and said: "Zenia likes to draw, she likes to draw her own life, every bit of life." She stretched out her hand and tapped gently on the page. , "This is the painting she drew before she disappeared."

Mary looked at the last page of her sketchbook, frowned, and there was a picture of a window, and outside the window stood a black figure, and the figure stretched out a hand to the windowpane, because Not knowing who it was, Emilia could only point to the painting and said, "This shouldn't be drawn by a 7-year-old child at all, should it?"

Andrew glanced at Mary, and the two exchanged a look. He pondered and said, "So, that's why you're looking for us, isn't it?"

Emilia remained silent, reached out and turned the sketchbook forward, and said, "No, this is it!"

Mary took a closer look, and saw that the white drawing paper was covered with black, and there was a pair of black and white eyes in the center.

"Did she draw this too? Wow!" Peter said in surprise, "It's really not normal, isn't it?" After finishing speaking, he looked up at Andrew.

Emilia nodded sadly and said, "Yes." After speaking, she began to flip through the sketchbook again, showing them slowly page by page.

Mary said suddenly, "Wait!" She reached out and pressed Emilia's hand.

Emilia jumped up, and she withdrew her hand and groped vigorously.

Mary and the others froze for a moment. Soon, Mary came to her senses and said apologetically, "I'm sorry for scaring you! I didn't mean to..."

Emilia shook her head, smiled palely and said, "No, it's not your fault! I just, since Zegna disappeared, I don't seem to have slept well... sorry!" She slowly sat down on the sofa again.

Andrew looked at Emilia without saying a word. Peter looked at Emilia, then at Mary, and asked, "What did you see? Mary."

Upon hearing this, Mary reached out to pick up the sketchbook on the table and looked at it carefully for a while. Zegna was very talented in painting. With a few strokes, he drew a girl sitting on a chair and drew a box outside the girl.

Andrew and Peter came closer, and they showed different expressions. Andrew glanced at Mary thoughtfully, while Peter was a little disappointed. He was a little puzzled why Mary paid special attention to this painting. There was nothing strange about it. yes, isn't it?

Mary's eyes fell on the girl's arm in the painting. Although Zegna's brush strokes were simple, a red line on the girl's arm in the painting was so conspicuous.She unconsciously touched her wrist and touched the red bracelet. After a long time, she looked up at Emilia and said softly, "Don't worry, we will find them."