Neverland

In a small town fifty miles away from Robert Manor, a drizzle just fell.

On the side of the dirt road outside the small town, a nightingale landed on the top of a dead short tree. This petite bird is very inconspicuous. Its gray-brown feathers blend with the color of the dead branches, and they complement each other to become the most beautiful thing in this gloomy atmosphere. An unremarkable point.

The deep ruts left by the public two-wheeled carriage on the wet soil the night before were re-trodden by travelers to and from the town in the early morning of the second day, leaving only a few shallow traces, which were left behind by the falling rain. A barely traceable shelter was left behind.

A crow flew over the main road of the town along with the crowd entering the city, and finally stood proudly on the eaves of the most prosperous street in the town.

In the window at the foot of the crow, a music box was just touched by a boy passing by, and the exposed screws were turned, and the little butterflies on it flapped their wings up and down, making crisp music.

These music boxes have been slow to sell since Christmas, and the bright red paint on the boxes has faded badly. One of Santa Claus's eyeball springs is rusted and cannot be retracted, and it hangs precariously outside the box.

The music inside the music box is still Christmas music, which is cheerful and lively. Through a thin glass window, the hoarse cries of crows for no reason cast an ominous atmosphere on this cheerful music.

On the roadside wall opposite the window, there is a large wooden bulletin board.This bulletin board was about the same age as a small town, and the edges of the wooden frame were pitted, the wood color was corroded white by the wind, and the torn paper was pasted layer after layer.

The latest notices are missing persons notices—a young girl has been lost in the town.

The handwritten missing person notices are messy, and the content on several pages is similar, but the signatures are different. If someone with good deeds passes by and checks carefully, they can find other missing person notices under these missing person notices.

Because this is not the first time, in the small town, it has even become the norm to lose young girls.

Every once in a while, a girl will disappear mysteriously in the small town.There are not many people each time, only two or three, but the accumulated number is already very large, and it has become a major case that cannot be ignored.

Most of these lost girls were sixteen or seventeen years old. The time and place of their loss were completely random. Sometimes they just went out to deliver bread to their grandmother's house two streets away, and they would get lost along the way.

People with daughters in small towns are in constant panic. Every day, they remind their little daughters to go out at noon and not to go to the wasteland in the suburbs. If they want to go out to deliver laundry, they must be within 10 minutes go home.

But even so, the number of missing girls in the town is increasing day by day.

Those shy or lively young girls seemed to disappear suddenly under the sky. No one in the whole town saw their traces, and they didn't know where they went.

Over time, a message came from nowhere, saying that these disappeared girls were taken away by the devil for sacrifice, and someone saw ghostly lights in the wilderness in the suburbs, and the carbon traces left by the black magic circle.

"Fart." The drunken middle-aged detective stood under the eaves, took off his hat and patted the water droplets on the woolen coat, and said, "It's still black magic. Why, do devils need regular snacks?"

"But these girls are indeed missing, that's right." The young assistant stood in front of the bulletin board and looked at the missing person notice, and said, "I think this is a large-scale human trafficking case, should we call the police? Office—"

"This is sixteen or seventeen years old, not six or seven years old." The middle-aged detective said.

He put his hat back on his head. He had just relaxed from the tavern, and there was a strong smell of alcohol when he opened his mouth.The assistant frowned, and moved half a step aside in disgust.

The middle-aged detective didn't notice his little move. His face was flushed red, and he couldn't see the content on the bulletin board clearly because of his drunken eyes.

"Young man." The middle-aged detective hiccupped and looked at him with a smile: "Use your eyes to observe—this will not be a kidnapping case."

"Why?" said the assistant.

"Because they are already very big." The middle-aged detective squinted his eyes and said, "Sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls are so beautiful, like flowers in bud - they are pure and beautiful, intelligent and alert, like They are cute little larks, wherever they go, there will be villains with malicious intentions watching them."

"You—" the assistant got goosebumps from his yearning tone like an old hooligan, rubbing his arms while walking three steps away from him: "What are you talking about?"

"You may not be good at this job." The middle-aged detective sighed: "This shows that they will have at least a sense of vigilance and will not rashly follow strangers... Besides, this town has lost so many girls. Those lessons are here, and these girls will be as wary of strangers as a frightened bird."

"You want to say that an acquaintance committed the crime?" The assistant said, "But there are not many people in this small town. After I visited, I found that since the first time they lost their children seven years ago, almost every household has lost their daughters. If It was an acquaintance who committed the crime, so the cycle will be so long?"

"Hmm—" The middle-aged detective still seemed to have not sobered up. He wiped his face and asked vaguely, "Interview? What did you visit?"

Hearing his question, the assistant subconsciously stood up straight, took out a small notepad from his pocket, and read the information on it carefully: "I visited the families of the missing girls this time, and one of the girls is an orphan. , there is only one grandmother who is very old in the family, and she is a little confused. Another couple said that they had searched for their children in and around the town, but they couldn't find them. Only a pile of black carbon traces was found in the wild outside the town , it looks like a black goat's head—"

"Okay, okay, okay." The middle-aged detective slapped it on the assistant's note pad, and said impatiently, "I, today, will teach you a lesson."

The assistant asked unconvinced: "Can I go to class when I'm drunk?"

"Hey, young man." The middle-aged detective laughed and patted him on the shoulder: "Let me tell you, the devil doesn't have the leisure to do evil in the world...the devil can only lure people to do evil by themselves."

The middle-aged detective's tone was ups and downs, coupled with that deliberately deep expression, he looked like a strange uncle deliberately scaring children.Of course the assistant wouldn't be intimidated by him, curled his lips, and said boringly.

The middle-aged detective laughed loudly, leaned back against the wall unsteadily, and fumbled in his jacket pocket for cigarettes.

He finally found what he wanted in the right outer pocket. There were a lot of scattered things in his pocket. He fished it out casually without looking at it. He took out a crumpled cigarette from the sundries.

His outer pocket was turned upside down, showing indecently, and a crumpled piece of paper fell from his pocket and fell to the ground in a swirl, stained by water stains on the masonry. corner.

"What is this?" The assistant squatted down strangely, picked up the piece of paper, and wiped the sewage on it with a handkerchief, only to find that it was a well-made envelope.

There was no sign of the envelope being opened yet. The assistant looked through it and found that the delivery time on it was three days ago.

"Did you miss the mailbox again because you were drinking?" The assistant looked at him: "This is your letter, do you know who sent it?"

"What?" The inspector narrowed his eyes slightly and approached the envelope, trying to search for relevant memories in his mind.

Thanks to the high recognizability of this light blue envelope, he thought hard for a while before he remembered that when he went out yesterday, this letter was stuffed in the mailbox at his door. He was rushing out to investigate, so he Just put it in your pocket and forget about it afterwards.

"...Let me see what it says." The inspector took the envelope, without even looking at the wax seal, he tore the envelope roughly, and took out an invitation card from inside.

"Dear Inspector Smith." Smith muttered: "You are sincerely invited to participate in—"

Smith's eyes widened, and by the time he finished reading the invitation, he was almost completely sober.

"This is an invitation from Countess Robert!" He said in shock, "Oh my God, why would such a big person like her send me an invitation?"

Smith was like a spinning top, holding the invitation card around, muttering in his mouth: "It's over, it's over, I actually missed this invitation——"

"What is written on it!" The assistant grabbed him.

"Invite me to the Earl Robert's manor to attend the Earl and Countess' wedding anniversary." Smith frantically stuffed the invitation back into the envelope, grabbed the assistant and walked out.

"Let's go, let's hire a stagecoach now." Smith said, "I hope we haven't gone too late, and I hope the Earl hasn't lost his temper because we are late."

The nightingale at the entrance of the village failed to settle down on the dead branch, and the driver of the public carriage was drowsy, and the long whip he swung while driving almost caught the nightingale's tail.The poor little sparrow jumped up from the dead branch and protested angrily, but it was a pity that Nightingale's voice was sweet and mellow, no matter how it sounded, it sounded like she was coquettishly begging for favor, and it was indeed harmless.

Three hours later, the last guest of the banquet arrived at Count Robert's estate.

Smith took his assistant and was introduced to the manor by the butler with a smile on his face, and lived in the last room at the end of the second floor of the castle.

At the same time, Count Robert was receiving his most loyal subordinates in the study on the third floor of the castle, which was very close to him.

The captain of the guard, Kelin, had a long sword hanging on his body. With his right hand touching his chest, he knelt down on one knee in front of Yan Cen.

"Lord Earl." Kelin said, "Once again, I have granted your wish."

Yan Cen didn't know what Robert's wish was, but this did not prevent him from performing the scene well.

He looked down at Kelin, and asked arrogantly: "Really."

"Yes, please believe me." Kelin bowed humbly, knelt down on both knees, took two steps forward, and said humbly and reverently: "I have provided you with the offerings you need this month. Well collected—they were all pure and clean enough to be worthy of your enjoyment."