Baker Street Charterers

After tidying up, Nora immediately embarked on a journey to find a job.

In nineteenth-century London, restrictions on women were still relatively serious. This was not reflected in clothing and etiquette, but in women's rights, status and work.Even though the law clearly stipulates that the property of married women is guaranteed, in the social circle, a leisurely and wealthy lady's life is still advocated. is also controversial.So Nora didn't expect to get a good job at all, and she was even considered as long as she could afford the rent.

She stood on the empty wall covered with notices and notes at the street corner, and looked at each of them carefully, feeling more and more depressed. It was similar to the lucrative job of recruiting a librarian or a doctor's assistant. Men only", she almost read the whole page of all kinds of job offers but couldn't find a suitable one, sighed and took a step back to lean against the wall, glanced at it unintentionally, snorted, and immediately went to the one next to her that was buried in the Look closely at the colorful note.

"Private clinic in Cleveland looking for a permanent worker at 31 Euston Road at £[-] a month."

There is also a touching note at the back, "Those with medical work experience are preferred." There is no mention of gender issues at all.

Nora felt that this was a job tailor-made for her. The salary of two pounds per month was considered very high for low-level workers, and the place of work was not too far from Baker Street. As for the only requirement "Medical work experience", because of her previous career, she decided to give it a try.

She searched for the past one by one according to the house numbers, but found that there was no so-called No. 30 clinic between a clothing store on No. 32 and a tailor shop on No. 31.Nora was a little confused. Could it be that she encountered a fake advertisement?

No way, she could only ask the kind-hearted old tailor with the cheek, "Excuse me, is there any one called Cleveland..."

"Over there." The old tailor was busy with his work, and immediately pointed to an extremely narrow and dark alley between No. 30 and No. 32, and muttered, "Why do people always ask such stupid questions these days? ..."

Nora Jiong looked intently at the alley that only allowed one person to pass and was almost ignored by most people, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally walked in.Sure enough, I found a crooked sign on the wall, "Cleveland Clinic, please go straight forward thirty steps."

"..." I felt more and more that it was a black clinic.

She walked forward according to the signs, the alley was dimly lit, and there were scattered discarded newspapers scattered on the ground. She stepped on a puddle of muddy water carefully, and when she turned around, she saw a dilapidated wooden door with no signs on it. , Nora looked up again to inspect the surroundings, but still did not find any words about "Cleveland Clinic".

Although she felt very unreliable in her heart, but thinking about the two pounds, she still had the courage to knock on the door. Unexpectedly, the door that had been in disrepair made a creak due to the slight force, and the lock faintly fell off. Falling signs.

If this was a clinic...it would be too shabby, and she even suspected that the door would open without opening with just one finger.

She was thinking about whether she had left here to look for the next reliable job, but the door was suddenly pulled open from the inside. The rude force finally made her unable to bear it any longer, and she fell back with a bang. The person reacted quickly and immediately caught the heavy door panel with both hands, skillfully placed it against the wall behind him, clapped his hands, and then looked up at the applicant with a blank expression, "Hello, welcome to the Cleveland Clinic, Is there anything I can help you with?"

Nora looked at this man who seemed to be the owner of the clinic—about no more than 35 years old, tall and extremely thin, with a pale complexion that had not seen the sun for a long time, and a pair of light blue eyes that were faintly gray in the shadows. Going up is flat and sluggish.Wearing an old but neat white linen shirt and black loose trousers, with messy brown hair and obvious blue under the eyes, he looks like he just woke up after staying up late for a long time.

If it weren't for Nora's strong mental quality, when she suddenly saw such a person who looked like a corpse, her first reaction would probably be to scream and turn around and run away, because the young man's eyes at the moment are too dim and lifeless, and the whole body People are dull and lifeless.

Nora took a deep breath, and she had given up on the two pounds, and said as calmly as possible, "I'm here to apply for the job..."

"Have you seen the corpse?" The other party asked suddenly.

"What?" Nora was taken aback by such an incomprehensible question, and then subconsciously responded, "I've seen a lot."

There was a look of satisfaction in the eyes of the other party, his voice was as stiff and obscure as his eyes, but his speech was extremely fast and fluent, and he said, "Our work includes handling the corpses, examining the corpses and preserving the corpses. The time is not fixed and there are needs. We'll be working, and maybe there'll be bodies for festivals, so..."

"|Wait!" Nora, who found out that the plot was wrong, interrupted the other party's conversation, and asked with some difficulty under the man's dull eyes, "Isn't this... a clinic?"

Isn't the clinic a place to receive live patients, diagnose and prescribe medicine for patients?Did she go to the wrong place, the Cleveland autopsy or the Cleveland funeral home? ?

The other party looked at her blankly, and said in a calm tone, "Yes, this is the Cleveland Clinic." She didn't feel that there was anything wrong at all.

Could it be that my English is so shallow that I keep misinterpreting the real meaning of "clinic"?Nora moved her nose and smelled the familiar and unfamiliar smell of hydrogen peroxide that can only be smelled in hospitals and autopsy rooms. Thinking of the golden two pounds, she finally compromised, "...then what do I need to do? ?”

The young man gave her a strange look, and said dryly, "Our work includes handling the corpses, examining the corpses and preserving the corpses. The time is not fixed and we will work if there is a need. There may also be corpses that need to be received during festivals, so we need to be on call. You know, if there is a special need, we will also cremate the body and put the ashes. When you are not working, you can stay anywhere, two pounds a month, not including the tips you get.”

He repeated it like reciting in one go, staring at her blankly, as if expecting her reply.

"..." Nora trembled when she was stared at as if looking at a dead person. She paused for a while, a little surprised, "You mean... I was hired, right?"

The other party nodded without hesitation.

Although the boss's recruitment requirements are a bit strange, it seems that it is not difficult to get along with. The rare thing is that the salary is very good. Except for the "on call" rule, there is almost no other dissatisfaction. Nora nodded, "Then the agreement..."

"I hope to start working now." He said slowly, "There is a freshly baked body that needs cleaning, but I need to go out and receive another body now." After finishing speaking, he took out a bunch of keys and handed her , "I'll be back in an hour."

After finishing speaking, he was about to leave, and Nora immediately called to him, "Wait, wait," she unexpectedly tied her tongue and was confused by the employer's actions, "Where are the others?"

The young man looked at her even more strangely, as if seeing a corpse sitting up, "You are the only one." He said it as a matter of course, after thinking about it, he added a sentence that didn't fit his expression, "Do it well."

After speaking, he walked out of the alley briskly, looking very eager.

Nora looked down at the bunch of keys and the dilapidated door panel in her hand, sincerely admiring the other party - Mr. Cleveland was probably able to hand over the house keys to a stranger who hadn't talked for more than 5 minutes so honestly. Not ordinary people either.

She recalled what the old tailor said - "Why do people always ask such stupid questions these days", so it means that she is not the first applicant, but the only one who was admitted, doesn't it Is the employer's only requirement for a candidate "seen a lot of dead bodies"?She hadn't seen such eccentric people, eccentric clinics.

After thinking about it, she still lifted up the worn-out door panel, symbolically covered it up on the door frame, and then groped forward—the light in the clinic was too dim, and even though the light bulb had been invented in [-], Because tungsten filament light bulbs have not been used yet and are expensive, ordinary people still use kerosene lamps for lighting.But obviously the employer didn't pay attention to placing an oil lamp in the aisle. Nora leaned against the wall and walked slowly through the narrow corridor. Unexpectedly, her eyes gradually adapted to the darkness. Several doors in the aisle were brand new. There was a smell of paint, and there was even a wool carpet on the floor, which was incompatible with the dilapidated appearance of a dangerous building.

Is it really a black shop?

There are a total of four rooms on the first floor, and at the end is a winding staircase.Nora bowed her head and counted the keys. There are seven keys in total, which means that there are six doors in this unremarkable house hidden in a dark alley. For a little-known private clinic, the property is almost It's amazingly rich.

She tried the keys in turn, and finally opened the nearest door when she tried the fourth one, and then froze immediately.