Jian, who had been quite arrogant before, did not dare to resist him at all and went downstairs with his men in shame.
Hitzfeld guessed that they were parked on the corridor landing, ready to wait for James to call them at any time.
Is this the rule of the aristocratic circle?
She felt a little emotional.
Before, she was not a noble, so these people excluded her and did not hide their hostility towards her. Now that she was knighted, they came to curry favor with her, and even a small baron wanted to make friends with her.
This Gianmarco is a "noble hooligan". It is obvious that in his eyes, the stolen jewels are far more important than just currying favor with others. Maybe he thinks that the jewels are not his anyway, they are just put on display here. If he loses something, he will certainly be troubled and held accountable by the owner of the jewels, but if he can take this opportunity to get to know himself, Count Xiyang, those people will turn around and curry favor with him.
He was more afraid of Xia than he respected her, but after all, he hadn't really done anything wrong, and after he came to his senses, he still dared to try to build a relationship with her in a playful manner.
It has to be Lawrence...the aristocrat among the aristocrats, the bully of this circle.
I originally thought that bringing James along would be useless, but now he is a great help.
I thought about so much in one breath, mainly because Hitzfeld felt it was ironic.
Whether it is the shop owner who was robbed or the owners behind the jewelry, they may care more about knowing themselves than recovering the jewelry.
...This is completely challenging her three views.
"You're an earl and he's a baron. In this circle, a higher-ranking official can crush a lower-ranking one. There's no need to be polite to him." James leaned forward and whispered, "His father, Marco, works in the Urban Construction Management Department. He's a minor official, right? Old Marco originally had two sons, including him. They were sent to other parishes to participate in construction tasks in their early years. Kian is the younger brother and Lu Lun is the older brother. The two brothers were attacked by evil spirits during a guard mission, and the elder brother stepped forward and died, leaving only the cowardly younger brother alive. The credit was attributed to the younger brother Kian, who used it to get himself a baron and also pushed his father to his current position in one fell swoop."
Hitzfeld glanced at the door. "Maybe he doesn't remember it so clearly."
"I just came back from abroad." The young man laughed at himself, "If I don't find out the background of each person and know who can be offended and who can't be offended, then I can't say anything at all."
"Who has a higher status in this circle, him or his father?"
"He's taller."
"Doesn't his father have real power?"
"But it's not big, or rather, not big enough to require respect across classes."
James probably saw what she was struggling with, and took the initiative to explain to her further: "You may think that in this circle, although noble status and official position are separate, they also coexist, and the latter is even more important..."
"But that's not the case." He shook his head slightly. "Although it can no longer be inherited, and although the title only represents status but no real power, you may be able to guess... some people are still obsessed with the glory of their ancestors and cannot extricate themselves."
"Do they want to push for legislation to restore the hereditary system?"
“They dream about it.”
"Already doing it?"
"I've been working on it, but I just haven't succeeded." James smiled. "It's ironic, isn't it? Lawrence, who has a heritage of more than 150 years, thinks about how to protect himself every day, but these idiots don't have much background, and they think about these things all day long..."
He did not mind showing his hatred and contempt for this circle, as if he was ashamed to be associated with other nobles.
Hitzfeld didn't like him any better because she wasn't sure if it was an act.
Lawrence might indeed look down on other nobles, but whether James Lawrence was speaking from his heart or was trying to use this to get closer to her... she couldn't tell.
Chapter 20: Rotten Things Part 2
But it must be admitted that the truth about aristocratic circles is indeed ironic, so ironic that it makes people laugh.
This is not difficult to understand - Sarah's current noble status has no real power (except that collateral princes are allowed to own territories), but this does not mean that they cannot get involved in power.
You can understand this by thinking about your previous life. In the previous life, human society basically eliminated aristocratic privileges. But even so, some people could still manipulate the situation by giving money, currying favor with others, or obtaining wind direction information one step ahead. This in itself is a manifestation of privilege.
And it's the same with Sarah... The noble families can also do similar things with the wealth and resources they have accumulated before. Even because this circle still exists, the internal pride and identity still exist, because they are closely united and often help each other. They only regard the nobles as their own kind, while other people may be another kind of creature in their eyes. The strength of this circle barrier is far beyond that of modern society, to the extent that even the royal power cannot break it by brute force.
Too many things are involved: the nobles of previous generations used their wealth to bribe and buy off people to arrange official positions for their close ones, and these people then used their power to amass wealth. This cycle has developed from generation to generation, and including blood relatives and marriages, they have already infiltrated every aspect of this society.
Their presence can be seen in trade, construction, military industry, and any other field. Their power is so great that although they dare not overthrow the regime as blatantly as the old royal party, nor dare to really raise the flag and oppose the royal family, their attachment to and greed for privileges cannot be cut off.
Whether it was during the last period of Charuni or when Alwin first came to power, the royal family killed a lot of people.
It's useless, they can't be killed all... and there is also gray fog here. Except for Wayne, other parishes don't have enough power to suppress the evil spirits. People have to worry about monsters in the dark from time to time. Compared with this kind of life-and-death threat, what is corruption and embezzlement?
At least they are still human beings, fellow human beings who look similar and speak the same language.
Hitzfeld didn't understand for a while. She thought that with the help of the tree people, Alvin should have no shortage of power. Especially since she could control the mechanical Yang more perfectly - this thing could travel throughout Sara in a short period of time.
To a certain extent, there would be no difficulty in centralizing power and transferring it to local levels. Moreover, the country was originally a feudal monarchy, a dictatorship, and a one-man show. She could not understand why the royal family left so much rotten meat and did not deal with it.
But in Bartlett she understood the deeper meaning... She realized that even if she was really decisive in killing and cutting off all the rotten flesh, the mess left behind would be even more difficult to deal with.
Neither dictatorship nor egalitarianism can solve the problem quickly and efficiently from the root. She concluded at the time that this can only be solved through hard work, by increasing productivity and waiting for public opinion to awaken.
But this still didn't stop her from feeling ironic again.
Especially this strong contrast... Some people have to endure the dirt and stench to dig out gold sand in the sewers, praying for fate to favor them to survive; some people don't even care about the stolen jewels, but only have eyes for her identity as a count.
To be honest, if she didn't need to find the "Purple Sapphire and Gold Crown" herself, she would have left by now.
Although the rotten sludge also emits a terrible stench, at least it is not to this level of disgusting.
'Nothing has changed, dear.'
She heard Lady Usilian whisper in her ear.
"There is nothing new under the sun..."
"…Let him in."
"it is good."
When James "summoned" him, Kian immediately ran in with his servants, looking a completely different person from the first time he came up.
With such a humble look on his face, who would have thought that he called himself a baron just a minute ago?
Even someone as slow as Lori could tell something was wrong. He stared at Kian with a sullen expression while he was talking, and said nothing.
Hitzfeld didn't care about the others. She just focused on asking for clues: "Are these two behind your servants?"
"Yes!" Kian turned to her immediately, "As you can see, Count... they are my servants. The taller one is called Li Xin, and the shorter one with curly hair is called Riley."
“They are also your store clerks.”
"That's right!"
"I'm going to ask them a few questions."
"Just ask!"
Hitzfeld looked at the two men, and their expressions suddenly tensed.
"The theft took place at night."
"Yes……"
"How do you know for sure it's at night?"
"We live on the third floor, Lord Earl." The tall Li Xin pointed upwards. "We checked everything the night before and went up after locking the door. We can be sure that everything is normal before midnight."
"Is the third floor as big as this one?"
"It's very small, sir... This is actually the second floor of the shop next door that the owner bought and expanded by breaking through the wall. It wasn't originally this spacious."
"I want to go visit."
"Anytime, sir..."
The two men led a group of people to the third floor. When they passed through the outer corridor, Hitzfeld finally saw the so-called "big box".
It was about the size of a double-door refrigerator, four-fifths of which was embedded in the wall. It was made entirely of blue metal. The door, with several large locks on it, was half open, and one could see that it was empty.
Among other things, she noticed that the hallway carpet had been turned up.
From the beginning to the end of the corridor, all the decorations were turned upside down.
"This is for investigation." Lori explained, rubbing his hands.
"We cannot rule out the possibility of embezzlement, so we have to conduct a search."
"Anyone with common sense knows that this is impossible!" Jian couldn't help but defend himself, "How dare I offend so many people at the same time!"
James looked at him and he was forced to hold back the rest of his words.
Hitzfeld said nothing and looked at Xia Yibing.
The woman nodded slightly at her.
They walked through the corridor almost side by side, went upstairs together, and began to tour the staff dormitory.
nothing special.
Compared with the luxurious decoration on the second floor, the third floor seems too shabby.
There are no wooden floors, and even the walls are not painted. The overall area is comparable to the first floor, which sounds large, but if you include the bathroom, utility room and storage room, there is not much space left for people to live and move around.
That makes sense, and Kian doesn't seem like someone who would treat his employees well.
The girl turned around and asked: "Do you always live here?"
The young man Li Xin nodded quickly: "Yes!"
"Never an exception?"
"Well...Riley sometimes has some female friends, and then he'll go live outside."
“But you always live here.”
"Uh yeah!"
"How do you usually clean up your shop?"
"It means locking up the gold and jewelry in a safe."
"It's the kind I saw on the second floor."
"Yes... There is actually another storage room, which is used to store more valuable but smaller items. The one on the second floor is for some antique paintings."
"Were you all there on the night of the incident?"
"Everyone is here. Riley didn't go out that night."
"Did you hear any unusual noises while you were sleeping?"
"I didn't hear anything."
"Are any of you sleepwalking?"
"No! We've been working together for two years... If there was anything, we would definitely find it."
"Who keeps the key to the safe?"
"it's me."
"Where is the key to the iron door from the first floor to the second floor?"
"It's Riley."
"Where are you exhibiting those three paintings?"
"Looking forward from the two rows of display cases... the wall facing the street, you should have noticed that there is a vacant space there."
"What are the paintings?"
“They are all portraits.”
"I need detailed information about those three paintings." Hitzfeld turned to look at Lori.
Lorry went downstairs immediately to send a telegram to urge someone to do something.
Hitzfeld then asked some routine questions, such as whether anyone had gotten up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and whether anyone had heard any rumbling noises, and then ended the inquiry.
"Okay." She nodded to Xia Yibing, "It's getting late, why don't we go eat first."
Xia Yibing naturally had no objection, and the young man Lawrence took the opportunity to say, "I know a pretty good seafood restaurant..."
"Aisun doesn't eat seafood."
"Ah... let's go to another one. I've been here before. Trust me, I know where the food tastes the best..."
The group chatted away, leaving Kian-Marco and his servant standing there.
"Sir..." Li Xin came closer, "Would you like to... inform Count Zhiqi?"
Jian's face was uncertain.
"grown ups?"
