Mary's Nineteenth Century

Berlin time, November 1871, 11.

After dark, the winter wind is getting colder and colder, making people more eager for the warmth of the indoor fireplace.

There are always people walking in the cold wind.

Sheriff Patton, for example, never imagined that one day he would perform an autopsy on a rooster.In order to determine who it is, the filth was thrown at the soon-to-be statue at specific points.

Combined with the local temperature conditions, it is roughly determined that the dead rooster was killed on the night of the 2nd.Because of the cold weather in November, even if a dead rooster is thrown on the statue, it is not easy to emit an overly pungent smell.

What's more, the surroundings of the statue were surrounded by curtains. It was not until the afternoon of the 3rd that the staff came in to check and found the problem.

Around the curtain of the statue, apart from the shoe prints of the staff, another group of footprints that were not obvious was found.The rubber soles worn by workmen, the usual men's shoe size, not Little Ralph's.

"Sheriff Patton, that Holmes really made sure of the situation. Little Ralph will not come to throw dead cocks himself, he can hire anyone at any high price."

The agent pointed to the shoe prints, "There are nearly a million people in Berlin, and most of them are workers who wear these rubber shoes. Where should we go to find the perpetrators?"

Barton's face was colder than the winter night wind, and there was no evidence on the dead rooster's body that it was related to little Ralph.

It's just the most common rooster in the market, and you can buy two or three for half a mark.Although not everyone can afford chicken, it is by no means difficult to buy.

The most common chicken carcass, the most common rubber shoe prints, these two points are unlikely to be ironclad evidence against little Ralph's crime.

'Snapped! '

Barton angrily closed the notepad in his palm, "These rampant children of the rich and powerful, an Englishman is still arrogant on the land of Germany!"

However, he couldn't grasp the evidence of the rooster thrower committing the crime.

"No, you can't just let little Ralph get off the hook easily."

Sergeant Patton was not reconciled, and ordered the police officers, "Go to each market one by one to find out who sold the rooster to the people around Little Ralph recently. Also go to the beer bar to find out if anyone finally spoke the truth , talking about the statue being thrown a cock."

These two investigation directions are approximately equal to none.

There are nearly a million people in Berlin, and it takes luck to catch the perpetrator of the chicken throwing. How likely is that person to admit that Little Ralph instigated him to commit the crime?

In any case, even if you are looking for a needle in a haystack, you have to check it out.

Constable Carl said in a low voice before leaving, "Sheriff, I have a question. What if Ralph Jr. wasn't the mastermind of this matter? Do you want to expand the scope of the investigation?"

Because of the night watchman's identification, the police determined that Ralph Jr. was going to give a rooster to the statue's inauguration ceremony.But the night watchman himself admitted that he and his family, colleagues, and neighbors complained angrily about this incident.

In other words, the possibility of someone framing little Ralph also exists.

"Expand the scope of the investigation? Will you find me the police?"

Barton said angrily that he subjectively didn't believe that the main messenger was someone else, but he still didn't say anything.

An autopsy on that rooster found a black feather on the rooster's wing.

It is preliminarily judged that the black feather comes from a raven, but I don't know how this feather got on the dead rooster's wing.Did the perpetrator accidentally touch it while committing the crime?Or did a raven fly over the statue and just drop a feather and land on the dead rooster?

Barton shook his head, there was no need to think so complicated, it was just a black feather. "Regardless of whether there are other main emissaries, we will investigate based on the fact that little Ralph is a major suspect."

That night, the Berlin police station was restless.

The statue was defiled, but this case without any human casualties has attracted a lot of attention.The news spread to the Kaiser's Palace in Unter den Linden Street, and even to the Prime Minister's residence.

"Little Mr. Ralph, it seems that you have spent the past twenty-four hours in a leisurely and relaxed manner."

At 08:30 in the evening, Mycroft walked around the places where little Ralph might be haunted, and finally blocked people at the house of the courtesan Red Rose.

Looking at little Ralph's sleepy face, it was day and night turned upside down, and he had just woken up not long ago.

The rumors spread outside were about to set off a storm in the city, but the main messenger in the rumors was so stupid that he didn't know anything.

"Mr. Holmes, why are you here!"

As soon as little Ralph saw Mycroft in the living room, it seemed that he was standing in the street in winter and had been poured a basin of ice water over his head, and all sleepy creatures disappeared from fright.

What are you afraid of? This guy is just a secretary in the embassy. Can he compare to his father in terms of official position and family background?

A few months ago, little Ralph naively believed so, but the reality gave him an iron fist education.After he learned what it meant to offend Holmes, he could even stop his teeth when he drank cold water, and he was rarely scolded severely by his father.

"Did you get someone to do anything to the soon-to-be-completed Schiller statue last night?"

Mycroft asked bluntly, "You once said you were going to give the statue a rooster. How exactly?"

"Isn't it just a casual sentence?"

Facing Mycroft's questioning, little Ralph dared not answer, "Yes, I just mentioned something casually after drinking too much two nights ago. Don't tell me I don't even let people say anything?"

Mycroft squinted, and seemed to return lightly, "Yes, you just said something innocuous, but it has now reached the ears of Emperor William I."

"what!"

Little Ralph was not stupid to the end, and finally realized what was wrong. "Mr. Holmes, what happened?"

In a few words, Mycroft spoke about the dead rooster incident.

As his words fell, little Ralph sat down on the chair, and his complexion suddenly deteriorated visible to the naked eye.

"No no, you have to believe me, I've never had a dead cock thrown."

Little Ralph realized that his situation was very bad, and immediately begged like he was grabbing driftwood. "Mr. Holmes, I beg you to prove my innocence! I really did not do such an insult to Germany."

When a person's reputation is bad, even if what he says is true, most people will not believe it.

But Mycroft knew that little Ralph wasn't lying, mainly because he didn't have the guts to do it.

"You can prepare to drop out."

That was all Mycroft threw out, regardless of little Ralph's pale face.Regardless of whether little Ralph is the culprit or not, he cannot be allowed to stay in Berlin, otherwise something serious may happen.

Of course, the British embassy will not plead guilty to insulting the statue.

The search for the rooster-throwing culprit continues.Even if it is as difficult as finding the moon in the water, you still have to find it.

Starting from the enemies of the Ralph family, starting from the disputes between Germany and France, starting from the internal conflicts in the newly established German Empire, we must find out who did this.

Ten days, neither long nor short, passed in a flash.

Little Ralph was ordered to drop out of Berlin University. This time, he no longer cared about the identity of his father, and officials in London, England also sent an order to resign Counselor Ralph.

However, the apparent reason has nothing to do with the dead rooster incident, because the perpetrator of throwing the dead rooster has been found.

A habitual thief uttered drunken words in a bar after being drunk. At eleven o'clock on the night of November 11, he took a large sum of money from others and threw the dead rooster on the soon-to-be-completed Schiller statue.

Out of his professional habits, he paid great attention to observing the surrounding situation, and he managed not to be caught by anyone.

The key is who pays and hires the murderer?

The answer was a bit unexpected to the Berlin police. It had nothing to do with the British embassy or consulate, so it had nothing to do with Ralph and his son. It was a man from the southeastern part of the German Empire.

I used to say that the man's accent seemed to be from Bavaria.

It is suspected that the man was dissatisfied with the unification of Germany by the Kingdom of Prussia, and made the insulting statue of throwing a dead rooster.

The newly established Germany is not of one mind, because the north and the south believe in different sects of religion, the Kingdom of Bavaria is reluctantly merged into the German Empire.

In this way, it is logical for disaffected men to want to make trouble at the celebration of the inauguration.

As for the habitual thieves, why do they still do it knowing that the impact of this matter is extremely bad?

It's very simple, that mysterious man gave too much, and a sum of money can be squandered for several years.

In this way, the dead rooster incident came to an end.It seems that Thor's heavy rain is small, and in the end he failed to hold anyone accountable on the bright side, because the habitual thief didn't know where the mysterious man was.What is certain is that it was not Ralph Jr., nor anyone related to him, who gave money to make trouble.

Of course, a wanted warrant was issued soon.

But the appearance of the man who was used to stealing descriptions was vague, he only knew the general height, shortness, fatness, and thinness, and he couldn't even see the whole face clearly.With a mosaic-like portrait, how likely is it to find the perpetrator?

Mycroft had no hope of that.Although the ostensibly farce was over, he began to read the news from all over Germany.Are you screening for a class of incidents where dead roosters or dead animals are exceptions at major ceremonies or events?

Perhaps it was due to paranoia, or perhaps it was because the man who hired the murderer was not arrested, it always made him feel that this matter did not end easily.

Screening, however, did not go well.

First, it is Germany, not the United Kingdom, and second, it is to investigate the deaths of animals rather than human beings. The relevant data cannot be comprehensive.

Reluctantly, three incidents related to dead animals were found in the territory of the German Empire.

At the end of September, wild dogs were killed at the Oktoberfest;

In mid-August, parts of Bavaria hold the Assumption Festival, and a black cat was hanged on the tree in front of the church;

At the beginning of June, on Whitsunday, a donkey suddenly went mad at the gate of the Frankfurt Bank, crashed into the gate of the bank, foamed and died.

Animals died at other times and places, but they were not as influential as these three events.

Donkeys, cats, dogs, and chickens are four different animals that died in different ways and at different places and times. Is there any relationship between them?

It might just be that he was thinking too much. After the animals died unnaturally, there were no other related homicides in those places.

However, it is unusual for these four animals to come together, which just corresponds to the previous Grimm's fairy tale "The Musicians of Bremen".

In the story, donkeys, cats, dogs, and chickens work together to drive away the robbers and live a happy life in the forest, but in reality these four animals are all dead.

Mycroft put down the file and rubbed the space between his brows.Is he suspicious, or is there an undercurrent surging?

Let it go.

The wall clock shows that it is one o'clock in the afternoon, and this year I will be at the University of Berlin at two o'clock.

Two years ago, several professors in London gave admission recommendations due to the affection of Ralph's family. Who would have thought that little Ralph would lose his reputation and be expelled from school if he didn't seek higher education.

Today, he wasn't going to intercede for little Ralph, he just made a trip on behalf of those professors in order not to implicate the reputation of those professors.

At this time, he felt that it was good for his dear brother to choose to be a detective in the future, because he could live a more free-wheeling life and not have to deal with those people who looked up and saw him down.

From the sophistication of the world among the powerful and dignitaries, to the trivial trivialities of life, there must always be someone to deal with these matters.

Mycroft liked to be alone, but he had to deal with it.

***

On the campus in winter, more than half of the trees are bare.

The cold wind hit, blowing a desolation.Most of the students are holding books or arms, and most of them are hurrying, hoping to rush to the teaching building or return to the dormitory, and they don't want to be blown by the cold wind.

Mary walked out of the file room and left the small red brick building.

Get out and take a deep breath.The air is cold, and the eyes are instantly refreshed, and the fatigue of looking up information for a long time is swept away.

Recently, she has been staying in the archives room, ignoring what is going on outside the window, and not caring about the progress of the dead rooster case at all, but she finally found a clue that might be related to the place where the Scarab Society was active.

It's not that the Scarab Society still has remnants of data, but that other societies have mentioned relevant records.

A magazine of the "Urban Quest Society" mentioned ten years ago that there was an old abandoned church on Berlin's remote Cheese Street, and some scarab graffiti were found on the wall of the church prayer room.

Could that be left over from the Scarab Society, which has been disbanded for many years?Or left by other wandering artists?

correct.

The journal does not use the word scarab, but the common name dung beetle, which is the insect that pushes dung balls.

Counting the course time, he planned to take a trip to the abandoned church as soon as possible.Thinking about it, he didn't rush on his way, and walked slowly in the cold wind, which made his head clearer after searching for information for a long time.

Not long after, she paused by the flower bed.Keeping your eyes down, you keep talking about scarabs, and you see something alive.Two dung beetles push balls of dung at the edge of the flower bed.The little bug kicks its hind legs and pushes the round ball little by little. This scene is very rare in the cold winter.

Mary stopped and watched with great interest, and for a while she emptied her mind, not thinking about those complicated cases full of weirdness and blood.

Simply watch the dung beetles push the dung ball, watch the dung ball hit the roadblock stones and shatter and need to be pushed again, and watch the bugs detour when they encounter the branches on the ground.

Looking at it, Mary couldn't help but smile.

Everywhere in nature has beautiful scenery, and today is also a day for the little bugs to survive.No matter what complex inside stories the scarab society has, the scarab itself is just a simple insect in nature.

It was a quarter past four in the afternoon.

Mycroft finished his visit to the University of Berlin and finally settled the mess left by little Ralph.The cold air came oncoming.He quickened his pace, hoping to catch the tail of the afternoon tea, find a shop and have a date with the little cake.

After turning the corner, it stopped suddenly.

The road ahead was deserted, with almost no people, and only one or two evergreen cedar trees on both sides of the road.

On the side of the cedar, there is a flower bed.

There is not a single flower in the altar, only sporadic withered rhizomes.

At this time, I saw a familiar figure beside the flower bed.Classic British gentleman winter wear, top hat, shawl cape coat, black suit.

The man was holding a stack of documents in his hands, but he was squatting by the flower bed, looking at the bare flower bed with a low eyebrow and a smile.

'It's Mr Minton! '

On an ordinary evening, the reunion unexpectedly came unexpectedly.

Mycroft recognized the profile instantly, and he knew he should turn around immediately.You shouldn't linger for another second, and watching for another second will attract the attention of the other party.

However, he unexpectedly failed to allow reason to take absolute control, and he did not move his feet.

Perhaps it was because the scene in front of him made the surroundings suddenly quiet, and even pressed the time pause button.

The sun is shining, and the wind is cold.

On a winter evening, an English gentleman squatted beside a withered flower bed, smiling slightly.When the rays of the sun blend with the cold wind, it endows people with a cool and gentle feeling.

Mary quickly felt the sight not far away, and she thought it was some classmate.

She didn't get up, but just turned her head to look at the corner. She wanted to nod her head in greeting, but she only saw a strange man.

Two people, looking at each other.

Mary was slightly taken aback, the man had a pair of gray eyes, his eyes were so calm that it seemed that all emotions had been restrained.But why?Why does it feel familiar.