[Shen Xia] Britannia Rose

Hearing these words, the boy on the other side of the interrogation chair was relieved. In just half a day, his eyes were covered with horrible bloodshot eyes, his upper eyelids began to congeal, and the back of his shirt was wet with sweat, sticking to his body , Isaac felt a little cold in the interrogation room when he relaxed now, and he couldn't help sneezing.

Isabella pursed her lips. She looked at Isaac with a haggard face and said nothing. Just when her phone vibrated for a few seconds, the caller ID was Alston Hill. She said sorry in a low voice, and walked out of Scotland Yard quickly. Taking a deep breath, Isabella pressed the answer button.

"Hey?"

Standing on the side of the road, the sunlight easily passed through the withered yellow branches and leaves, casting a soft light on her face. Isabella squinted her eyes and looked up at the canopy of the tree. She noticed a bird's nest there.

"Uh, Isabella," the person on the other end of the phone was a little embarrassed at first, and after talking casually about the weather in London, he sighed and said frankly, "...well, actually I am Just wanted to tell you that I accidentally bought Princess Diana's pearl earrings that you wanted to photograph..."

"Really?" Isabella paused, "Where did you get it?"

"A private party..." Auston was vague, and he quickly diverted the topic to another direction, "I originally planned to ask Carol to bring it to you, but she recently went to Iceland with Mr. St. Clair. "

"It's a beautiful place." Isabella was on the phone with one hand, and her eyes kept looking at the bird's nest in the forest. She watched a bird fly out of the small bird's nest, and it dexterously jumped over the branches , Chirping, it is a beautiful and beautiful singing voice.

Gray outer feathers, dark orange breast and belly... She recognized it, it was a mockingbird.

"That's why you may need to come to Anola's Bar," Alston said solemnly, "This pearl earring should be returned to its original owner."

"Anyway, thank you for always remembering this..." Isabella said earnestly, thinking back from the robin, "I'll thank you again for what it was worth. "

"Uh, um, no..." Oston didn't know what to say, he was at a loss for a long time, he let out a long sigh of relief, and said, "That's not what I meant, I want to treat it as your birthday present For you."

"It's too precious..." Isabella didn't know how to refuse, and rationally told her that after Auston's abrupt confession, she should try to reduce the money exchanges with Auston, but after all, they are friends for many years , The sudden refusal was too obvious and made the relationship between the two even more embarrassing.So Isabella thought, let's talk about everything after meeting at Anola's bar.

"It's okay, I'll wait for you at the bar."

After hanging up the phone, Isabella subconsciously looked up at the branch, and the free bird had disappeared. Maybe it went out to find food for the young birds in the nest.

Looking down the bleak branches, the leaves piled up on the ground almost buried the entire blind path. Isabella looked around and no one paid attention to her. She carefully lifted the toe of her shoe, and used a very unroyal posture to remove the leaves that had accumulated on the blind path. The leaves on the tree are kicked into the flowers.

She kept walking like this until she came to her fiery red sports car, and the dead leaves fell on the hood of the car one after another. Isabella took it off little by little and threw it into the trash can , she moved very carefully, the edges and corners of the dried and brittle branches and leaves were very sharp, and she scratched an ugly mark on the car paint if she didn't pay attention.

Isabella bent down to throw the leaves, her eyes randomly swept across the car body, she suddenly felt that something was not right.

The sagging depth of the left rear tire of the car is obviously different from that of the other rear tire.With a sinking heart, Isabella went over and kicked the tire.

It was not the expected firm touch, she lifted the hem of her skirt and squatted down, and Isabella pushed a sharp thumbtack into the inconspicuous groove of the rear tire near the ground.

The thumbtacks scattered at the gate of Scotland Yard... It should not be accidental, but it cannot be ruled out that some young people who are resentful of the police threw nails on the side of the road to retaliate indiscriminately. up.

In any case, the car can't be driven.Isabella called the towing company, and she bowed her head and walked quickly to the nearest subway station.

This subway trip should have coincided with the rush hour, and Isabella found a vacant seat after walking through two carriages in succession.It was at least twenty minutes to Anola's Bar, and the London Underground signal was still unbearably poor.She looked at the people around her with a reading magazine on their laps. Obviously, they often commute by subway. Only Isabella, who lost the network signal and did not carry books with her to pass the time, will spend the next twenty minutes It was extremely difficult.

She scratched her neck and looked down in her satchel, but she didn't find anything to relieve her boredom except a lipstick, pen and change.

You can't count change on the subway, can you?Isabella sighed silently from the bottom of her heart, there was no way, she leaned back on the dark blue chair, the chill from the cold chair back faintly permeated into her back through a layer of coat.

When she was bored, Isabella's favorite thing to do was to stare at the passers-by, judging their life experience from their clothes, demeanor and expression.In her naughty childhood when she was banned, Isabella would often lie on the castle terrace alone, stand on tiptoes, and look at the soldiers standing guard outside the castle and the occasional passers-by, guessing that they were yesterday Where did you go, who did you meet.

She saw the evening from the morning, from the first drop of dew on her forehead to the first ray of sunset piercing the sky, and the stars gradually returning to their positions.Isabella is already familiar with this kind of loneliness, but it doesn't mean that she is willing to endure it forever and obediently.

Now, on the London Underground, which has neither Internet nor entertainment facilities, Isabella feels the loneliness of her childhood for a long time.But she doesn't plan to spy on other people's lives anymore, she has a more interesting toy - the memory palace that Mycroft taught her.

She closed her eyes, her thoughts began to diverge, the bricks and tiles of her thoughts were quickly built, and a majestic royal palace stood majestically in her mind. Isabella still remembered the last time that suddenly appeared on the sofa in the main reception room Phantom, this made her lag a bit when she pushed the door.

There was no one in the clean and bright room, except for a bouquet of roses left on the tea table.

The young princess picked up the rose and gently stroked its delicate and tender petals. The rose in the memory palace even had dewdrops on it. The anonymous person who left this rose carefully removed the excess thorns.

Isabella fell into deep thought. In fact, when she lightly touched its branches and leaves, a memory flooded into her brain. It was a small memory she inadvertently deposited on the rose. It was full of gunpowder smoke. Even after a few months, she can still feel the tremor when she shot and killed people in the underground parking lot that year, it was the tremor of the soul.

The rose gradually withered in her hands, and the corolla could no longer retain the fallen petals. They slipped from Isabella's hands. Isabella, who was immersed in painful memories, did not respond to this, until the flower branches fell and scratched heavily. She just woke up from the nightmare.Isabella looked at her hands in horror. In her eyes, what she held tightly was not rose petals, but balls of dark red sticky blood.

The blood dripped from the fingers, and after a while, it formed a small pool on the floor.Isabella took a step back, biting the tip of her tongue lightly until it bleeds, the blood in front of her eyes turned into rose petals again, she raised her hands, holding two petals in her smooth and delicate palms, Isabella let go of her hands, let It falls freely.

There was a commotion, and Isabella looked out the window in surprise. The nearby green grass and green trees were lush and lush, unlike someone talking loudly. She understood that something must have happened in the subway, so she took a deep breath and let herself go from the memory palace exit naturally.

Opening her eyes suddenly, the surrounding environment began to be noisy. People around were talking loudly. Isabella frowned. She gradually realized that something was wrong. For example, she was sure that at least 15 minutes had passed, but Why had she never heard a stop call?Not only that, the number of people on the subway was exactly the same as at the beginning, and no one got on or off the train at all.

"What's going on? I'm going to Central Avenue, but I've stopped twice!"

"Why isn't it parked? Hey, can someone take care of it? I'm going to be late for work! What the hell!"

"Steward? Steward! Oh... I knew no one would find him when we needed him!"

The crowd began to commotion, and Isabella looked around, and through the glass window, she could only see the dark subway tunnel and the surrounding subway light box advertisements that were always on, like a ribbon, and only a light and shadow could be seen on the speeding subway .

The subway has not slowed down from the beginning to the end!Isabella looked at the time on her phone, half an hour had passed, but the subway showed no intention of stopping, no wonder the crowd began to complain and riot.

"I'm sorry, please be quiet..." The flight attendant who hurried over tried to calm everyone's emotions with a smile. "The train has encountered some minor problems, and the technicians are already troubleshooting. Please stay calm..."

"What's the technical problem? Don't you usually check it?"

"Then what about my work?! I'm going to be late, who will compensate me for the loss?"

"I only care about how long it will take!"

The crowd shouted loudly again. With a reasonable explanation, everyone seemed to be more emotionally stable, and more dissatisfied with the subway company for delaying their time.

But Isabella pursed her lips tightly, feeling a strong sense of bad feeling in her heart. She observed carefully, and she did not miss the corner of the female flight attendant's stiff lips and the uncontrollable trembling fingertips hidden in the sleeves.