I am aging gracefully in the world of famous books

After arriving at the agreed place, Ace bought bread, coffee and a morning newspaper because he didn't know Pei Xiang's current location and the exact return time, and then sat down on a bench with a nice view and the sun was warming up.

About three hours later, when Ace was about to get up to buy another tabloid with crossword puzzles, Pei Xiang appeared in front of Ace with a box of maple hazelnut cake and a bag of fruit jelly.

Facing his companion who came late and smelled like butterscotch, Ace raised his eyebrows slightly.

Pei Xiang tilted his head and blinked, showing a sweet and friendly smile.

"I kept you waiting, Ace. When I came back, I happened to pass by Mrs. Matt's dessert house, and I happened to smell the aroma of the newly baked maple syrup hazelnut cake, so I waited in line for a while.

"Hey, it's strange if you say it's strange. I thought it would be my turn in 5 minutes at most, but I didn't expect to wait for more than half an hour. Oh, by the way, in fact, her new fruit jelly candy is also good, I specially I brought you a copy as a small gift."

Reaching out to take the thing in Pei Xiang's hand, Ace couldn't help teasing:

"I'm sure you won't miscalculate the waiting time in line. Although there is a little difference between 5 minutes and 10 minutes, there are accidents in everything. It must be that the clerk and the customers in front have delayed for too long."

"That's it, Ace, you are so smart." Pei Xiang nodded immediately, with a look of deep approval.

In fact, Ace suspects that Pei Xiang didn't "just pass by" at all, but deliberately took a detour to visit the dessert house.It's been on her mind ever since she shared Mrs. Matt's blueberry cake with the hotel owner's five-year-old grandson.

So, he asked softly, "Amy, where did the carriage end up?"

"It's parked at 67 Cherry Street near May Park. The resident is a man surnamed Quincy, that is, the person in the carriage."

"Cherry Street..." Ace pondered the map of the city in his mind, and found that no matter which route he chose, he would not pass Mrs. Matt's dessert house on the way from Cherry Street to here.

Pei Xiang's eyes rolled slightly, and he put his hands behind his back, pretending that he didn't know what Ace had noticed.

Ace coughed lightly. In fact, he didn't think it was a big deal to wait a little longer. Anyway, the two had only agreed on the meeting place before, and did not specify the specific time.

What's more, Pei Xiang brought him fruit jelly as a gift.

- Brought to me specially~

"Quincy? Who is he?"

Following Pei Xiang's careful thinking, he quickly skipped a certain topic, and Ace started talking about serious matters with a serious expression.

Pei Xiang couldn't help but bend his eyes, and immediately explained solemnly:

"The preliminary inquiring information is consistent with our previous inferences. This Quincy is indeed running a shipyard that is not very profitable. However, his business may have to take off recently, because he is very hopeful that he will get a good return. Large orders from, um, orders from the military, with Colonel Lester in charge..."

Hearing the surname "Lester", Ace was slightly taken aback, and then asked very keenly:

"Is that Colonel Leicester whom Guy Stuart is approaching and trying to curry favor with?"

Pei Xiang nodded lightly, and said slowly:

"That's the one. From the few words I heard in the bookstore and the situation you investigated yesterday, Mr. Stuart is also trying to win the business from Colonel Lester. But now it seems that he Probably going to lose to Quincy."

"Where is Quincy's competitive advantage?" Ace's eyes narrowed, and he pondered and analyzed, "It's technical improvement. He is eager to get your drawings in order to have enough weight when he wins orders. Now he takes When it comes to the remaining blueprints, I must feel that I have a sure chance of winning."

"Then he is doomed to be disappointed," Pei Xiang sighed with feigned sympathy, "the data on it are not very accurate, and a few wrong lines were drawn in the most core places. Alas, I hope his loss will not be as bad by then." would be too big."

"Are you really going to let him get that order and produce defective products?" Ace asked with a smile.

The corners of Pei Xiang's lips curled up slightly, thinking that naturally he would not let his enemy Quincy be at ease for so long.

She restrained the slightly exaggerated regret between her brows, turned her head and said another thing to Ace beside her:

"How do you think Quincy got involved with Colonel Lester?"

After thinking for a moment, Ace shook his head, expressing that he didn't have much idea about this issue.

Pei Xiang didn't hold back, and simply announced the answer neatly:

"Through an 'old acquaintance' of ours, Major James Albert. The major introduced Quincy to Colonel Leicester and had good things to say about him."

"It's him?" Ace raised his eyebrows, wondering, "In that case, did Albert participate in Quincy's sinister activities? Does he know the secret of the Blue Whale Dome?"

"This, I'm not sure yet."

Pei Xiang said unhurriedly:

"When I found out that a man named Quincy had obtained the sealed drawings, I went around the back of his house, jumped into the room through a half-open window on the second floor, and overheard a scene. Study talk.

"Probably because he just got the long-awaited drawings, the conversation between Quincy and his confidants has been around related topics. Therefore, I easily heard some inside information, including the order he is seeking recently.

"According to Quincy, it was Albert's current lover, Serena, who was the go-between and persuaded Albert to help him contact Colonel Lester. Listen to Quincy's tone of voice... Well, that Serena Na should be regarded as a person on Quincy's side. But what I haven't figured out so far is whether Albert's reason for helping Quincy is simply because of his lover's pillow affair, or because he has already participated in it. This needs further investigation. "

Hearing that the courtesan named Serena was involved in this incident, Ace felt that it was a bit unexpected but also reasonable.After pondering for a while, he reminded Pei Xiang aloud:

"I found out before that Serena has an older brother who is studying shipbuilding in Europe, but the outside world has never been clear about the true identity of the sponsor. You said, could it be this Quincy?"

"Maybe."

Pei Xiang was thoughtful, and then temporarily suppressed the question.

"Anyway, we've found the person behind the scenes. Don't worry. Ace, we've only learned about the preliminary situation today. Naturally, there are still many doubts that need to be further investigated. Of course, the most important thing is to collect Quincy's criminal evidence and scandal. , and then pull out his minions at the right time, forcing him to admit his mistakes and make compensation."

"Just do what you want," Esther smiled gently, and at the same time crossed out the wonderful idea of ​​directly using violence to deal with Quincy as soon as possible, and said calmly, "Let's split up and try to fight for all his bad things." All the secrets of glory have been uncovered.”

Pei Xiang raised his eyebrows and smiled, and decided to finish eating the maple hazelnut cake before going to work.

Afterwards, both Pei Xiang and Ace got busy, and because they had a clear goal, their investigations made considerable progress.On this day, after finishing sorting out the criminal information she collected on Quincy, Pei Xiang went out to find Ace who was hiding in the dark.

The two had just met, and before they had finished exchanging two sentences, they realized that there was a new situation.

In the room, Quincy, who had been under surveillance by them, suddenly jumped up from his chair.

His expression changed suddenly, his face was ashen, holding an old pocket watch with a dull luster in his hand, and at the same time staring closely at the housekeeper who brought the pocket watch in, he asked gloomyly:

"Where is the man who gave you the watch?"

"First, sir," the butler was taken aback by Quincy's gloomy expression. He subconsciously took half a step back, leaning back slightly to dodge, "I didn't, I didn't see the person who gave the pocket watch. Just now, yes, just now Well, when the doorbell rang, the footman went to answer the door without delay. But, but there was no one outside the door, except for this pocket watch and a card left on the steps."

Quincy grabbed the dirty card on the tray and stared at the writing on it in silence.

Pei Xiang couldn't see the contents of the card clearly, but she believed that Ace should have seen it in advance.

Sure enough, Ace behind her whispered in her ear:

"The card said: To my old friend Quincy. It was signed with 'Returned X'. Quincy was so shocked by such a simple content, it was a little strange."

"It's a little strange."

Pei Xiang replied vaguely, a little absent-minded.

When Ace spoke in a low voice, she felt a little warm air blowing over her ears, which was itchy and made her feel a little uncomfortable.

But what bothered her the most was...

"Ace, did you just eat lemon fudge? Is it delicious? I haven't even tasted this flavor."

Ace thought for a moment and gave a more responsible answer:

"It's better than grape, not as good as orange, but I still like apple best."

Pei Xiang opened his mouth, wanting to say that the raspberries actually taste good, and saw that Quincy in the room had already waved the butler away.

When Quincy was alone in the room, his face became more gloomy and stiff, and his protruding hooked nose and high cheekbones made him look even more cruel and mean.

"Xenos, how dare you come back! You bastard who didn't keep your promise!"

Quincy cursed under his breath and paced back and forth in front of the window with his hands behind his back.After a while, he took a deep breath, as if he had finally made a decision.

Looking from the perspective of Pei Xiang and Ace, the gray-haired Quincy suddenly calmed down. He pursed his lips and carefully played with the old pocket watch for a while.After a soft "click", the pocket watch chain was removed, and then, Quincy pulled out a very small beige paper from the place where the dial and the chain were disconnected.

With a sneer, Quincy rolled the corners of his mouth and unfolded the beige paper roll in disgust, then stared coldly at the "help letter" from an old friend for a while.Then, he reluctantly wrote down the above content.

After reinstalling the old pocket watch, Quincy turned and went out.He didn't take a carriage or bring any servants, but chose to act alone.

At the same time, Pei Xiang was chewing lemon-flavored fudge with a puffy face, and kept up with Quincy who was going out, and Ace followed closely after losing the last candy in his pocket. Then he chased after him.

"Amy."

"Ok?"

"The candy you specially bought for me..."

"Delicious, right?"

Pei Xiang, who had finally tasted all the flavors, was in a good mood. If she hadn't been following Quincy, she would have wanted to hum a song.

"It's really good, thank you for your little gift," Ace first gave affirmation, and then said slowly, "I just calculated, there are 36 gummies in the bag specially bought for me, but I only I ate fifteen."