mud buddha

At this time, there were few people on the street, only a few women selling breakfast in baskets, casting long black shadows on the ground.

Tom led them down alley after alley, and finally into a small road.It seems to be cut off from the sun here, and it is colder than outside.The moisture in the air seeped out, covering pedestrians like a towel.But the hut in front of him seemed incompatible with this cold and damp atmosphere.

The walls seemed to have just been painted, exuding a faint smell of dust.The door seemed to be in disrepair, but the lock was brand new. Although it had lost its metal luster in the dark, it was a bit dull, and it seemed that a piece of the door was missing from a distance.

Tom knocked on the door: "Adam! Are you home?"

A little girl poked her head out of a second-floor window.Her hair was dark brown, tied in two strands, and fell to her shoulders like twine.

"who are you?"

"These two gentlemen are looking for Adam! I am Adam's good friend."

The little girl retracted her head, and after a while Nibel and the others heard footsteps coming downstairs.The walls of the house were not too thick, and they even felt the creaking sound of the wooden stairs coming from the house.

"Hello." With a creak, the door was opened, and there was a boy of eighteen or nineteen years old standing there.

"Adam, these two masters are looking for you."

Adam nodded and stepped aside.He looks very ordinary, with hair left to the collarbone, casually draped, character-splayed eyebrows, and dark blue eye circles that seem to have been drawn with eyeliner.But if you don't look at his face, his figure can be said to be very fit, like a model in a pictorial.

There is a small square table and two chairs in the room, but no sofa.There is a small pencil portrait on the wall, placed very low, it is impossible to tell who is painted, and the brushwork is very delicate.Benoit wanted to stand, but Niebert forced him to sit down and stood beside him.

"Have some water, gentlemen." Adam found two glasses.The cups are the kind of cheap sixpence and eight bought outside, but they have been wiped clean.

"Thank you." Benoit put one of the cups in front of Nibel, and he held one but didn't drink it.He smiled: "It's nothing, don't bother. We just came to ask you about someone."

Adam paused, looked up at Benoit, and leaned against the wall with folded arms: "I don't know anyone."

The girl who stuck her head out of the window dragged two benches into the living room: "Sit down, gentlemen."

Adam took the chair, patted the little girl's shoulder, and turned sideways to block her face: "Don't bother, it's still early, you can go back to sleep."

The girl looked at the two guests sitting one by one in the living room, and scratched her face.Benoit found that the other party's neck and arms were bruised.Benoit frowned: "Excuse me, who is this?"

"Ah, my sister." Adam said, subconsciously hiding the girl behind him.

"Excuse me, I'm meddling in my own business, but her injuries—"

"She fell outside the night before yesterday."

"Wrestling will fall like this?" Benoit put down the cup, walked over to take a closer look, and looked at Adam with more reproach and vigilance. "It looks like a beating. Sir, child abuse is against the law."

Tom gritted his teeth slightly, feeling that Benoit's air pressure had dropped, and his eyes rolled around him and Adam nervously.

"I'm Roswell, and this is Guy. Don't be nervous, we want to ask you about Rishi Guy."

"Ruixi Guy?" Adam was obviously relieved, and his eyebrows stretched a lot.

"Yes, on the day you were on duty, he ordered Hermes."

Adam thought for a while: "I don't remember too much. He is very handsome, has red hair, and is thin and tall."

"Have you met the proprietor of the Thrush Hotel?" asked Benoit.

"Boss..." Adam scratched his head: "No, he usually tells the manager directly if he has anything. But it is said that the manager has never seen him."

At this time, the little girl behind him poked her head out: "The owner of the Thrush Hotel? I seem to have heard of it."

Adam hurriedly said: "She was joking, how could such a young child have heard of him?" Then he turned his head and whispered to the girl: "Don't be in the limelight."

Benoit didn't think the little girl was joking, he bent down slightly, looked into her eyes, and asked her name.

As soon as she approached, the girl looked at the pair of smiling eyes in front of her, her face instantly turned red like ripe tomatoes in the field, and her voice became much softer: "My name is Emily."

Nibel squinted his eyes to look at the little girl, and frowned slightly.

"Hello, Emily." Benoit laughed: "What kind of person is he?"

"He?" Emily tilted her head and touched her braid: "Isn't she?"

"What did you say?"

"I always thought she was a woman."

"Where did you hear that?" Benoit asked quickly.

"I used to have a friend. Every time I went to see him, the other sisters said that she was looking for that bitch."

"Every time you go to see him?"

"That's right. I also accidentally discovered that she went to find the hotel owner every time she went out." The little girl glanced at the two of them: "But I didn't do it on purpose, it was my cleaning, and her diary happened to be on the on the table, and it's not closed..."

"What does that person look like?" Nibel also walked over.

"Black hair, brown eyes, very thin." Emily scratched her face: "Let me draw for you, I'm good at drawing."

She walked over and pointed to the painting on the wall: "This is what I drew."

Benoit stood up, putting his hands on his waist.Because he had been bending over just now, his head was a little dizzy.Seeing this, Nibel quickly supported him and led him to sit back on the chair: "I said that you were not fully recovered from your illness before, and now you seem to be a little weaker than before."

"Maybe I didn't eat enough in the morning." Benoit sighed, watching Emily run upstairs to get a pen and paper.

"Where did this kid come from?" Nibel asked Adam.

Adam sighed: "I picked her up the night before yesterday."

"Find it?"

"Yes, it's at the station. She was lying on a bench there. The weather was cold at night, and she was wearing thin clothes. She was lying there so straight. I thought she was dead at first. Go and see Only to find that her eyes were open, and she cried out for pain when she saw me. She said her name was Emily. I asked her where she came from, but she didn’t tell.” Adam sighed again: “It’s so cold, she Just lay there with nothing covered."

"I have a little impression, but I'm not sure." Nibel lowered his eyes: "I hope I remember wrong."

Emily stomped downstairs and pressed the paper on the table. The three adults stopped talking and looked down.

The woman in the painting is gradually taking shape, her black hair is divided into two halves by thin hair slits, covering the tips of her ears like dark clouds.She frowned slightly, her nose was small, and her mouth seemed to be open.

"This is..." Benoit's eyes widened.

"Mrs. Mill." Nibel rubbed Yamane.He felt that his heart seemed to be stepped on by an elephant, and it was extremely heavy.Although he could probably guess why Mrs. Mill fell into the dust, he still felt a sense of guilt hit him.

He is indeed a master in the field of love, but he has always been easy to get together with women, and he is never stingy with money. He will often give a large amount of compensation when they break up.But Mrs. Mill never asked for money from him.

Whether it's his fault or not, he doesn't know, but the air around him seems to be thinning, grabbing at his throat.

"Isn't this Charlotte?" Tom leaned over and stared at the painting on the table.

"Charlotte?" Benoit looked down at Tom.

"My parents picked her up in the woods this winter. She said her name was Charlotte Linton."

"Charlotte Linton?" Benoit chuckled: interesting name, but it sounds fake. "

"Tell me carefully." Nibel's tone was a little blunt: "Tell me about her, Charlotte Linton."

Tom told the story from the beginning to the end, spending a lot of space in the middle to exaggerate her beauty and gentleness, and even pulled up his school uniform to show Charlotte's handiwork.

Hearing about Charlotte's miscarriage, Nibel's face instantly turned pale, so pale that Emily even asked him if he was okay.

"It's okay." Nibel forced a smile.

"Really, you look like a zombie now." Emily wrinkled her nose.

Benoit got up, took out a sum of money from his pocket, and left it on Adam's table: "Thank you for today, let's say goodbye first."

After speaking, he took Nibel out.Tom found that the faces of the two were very bad, one was sickly pale, and the other was livid with hidden anger.So he followed tremblingly, without saying a word.

On the way back, neither of them spoke.Niebel followed Benoit all the time, although he could not see the road clearly, he kept looking at Benoit.When Benoit accelerated, he accelerated, and when Benoit stopped, he also stopped. Tom almost fell several times because of the sudden brake.

Finally back at the hotel, Benoit asked the porter to prepare the carriage, but still did not say a word to Nibel.While waiting for the bus, Nibel kept looking at his face, and Benoit turned his head away as soon as he felt his gaze. Finally, Nibel stood in front of Benoit, and Benoit turned his head sideways, unwilling to look at him .

"Benoit, are you angry?"

"No."

"Then why don't you look at me?"

"My neck hurts and I have to turn my head sideways."