"But you did a great job this time." The topic finally turned back to Hitzfeld herself, and Ethan looked at her with approval, "I've read all the information... You are really... I think Mu Ke will be very happy."
"Yes." Hitzfeld's pupils shrank slightly, "I will not let them down."
Those who had sacrificed their lives to save her during the Golem crisis.
There were many more people whose faces she couldn't even remember.
She would not let their sacrifice go to waste.
"Don't give yourself too much responsibility!" Ethan immediately realized that he had said the wrong thing.
He was just expressing his emotion, and his intention was not to bring such heavy pressure to Hitzfeld.
"With your identity and your power, everything you have done so far is enough to repay the world...Allowing people of your age to participate in this itself shows that we are not doing well enough. This should be-"
"Okay, man, stop talking." Darent interrupted his sentimentality, "Aren't you thirsty after talking so much? Look, Miss Norm is waiting there."
Jerry had indeed arrived.
She waved a few tickets, jumped and shouted behind the ticket gate, and finally attracted their attention.
They met across the railing and Jerry handed them three tickets. They then showed them to the eagerly watching security guards before being allowed to go through the railing and walk side by side towards the waiting platform.
Maybe the topic Ethan brought up was too heavy, and they didn't communicate much after coming in.
As for Jerry, she was an outsider herself, and she was already very grateful that Hitzfeld had brought two "detective companions" - knowing that she could only afford one share of the salary - so it was naturally impossible for her to go up and disturb them.
There were no accidents during the boarding and transfer process.
A day later, sitting in the spacious carriage of the Reising Line 3, Hitzfeld concentrated on observing the carriage environment.
She did not ask for a private room, nor did she sit in the first-class carriage just because she had money. But she specifically asked Jerry where Mr. Eugenie-Copperfield sat at the beginning, and specifically asked her to buy the same ticket.
So the position where she is sitting now is exactly the same as the missing person in this case.
They all had their backs to the front of the car.
They are all by the window.
Sitting opposite them was Jerry Nome.
Darent and Ethan were sitting across the aisle, so they could come over immediately if anything happened.
"You mean, he's picky."
"Yes, he has very strict requirements on food. Not only did he point out that the dishes we cooked were not authentic, but he also said that even if they were authentic, he would not eat the food given to him by others."
"But he did drink the water you brought him?"
"Yes, water with a little lemon juice. We heated it up for him. He wanted it hot."
"Hot? This is really a weird habit..."
Hitzfeld was discussing the missing person with Jerry, trying to build up a basic impression of him and see if he could find any hidden clues.
The Reising Company can definitely be called pioneering in this world, as the carriage decoration and crew system are not common on other trains.
It’s not that there aren’t attendants on other trains, they do, but those people aren’t asked to serve passengers so frequently.
Hitzfeld dealt with several service requests, saying that he had no needs at the moment, and asked those people not to bother him, then leaned back in his chair and fell into deep thought.
She had already learned from Jerry what kind of person Eugenie Copperfield was.
He likes to drink hotter water.
They are extremely wary of food handed to them by others and will even prepare snacks specifically to fill their stomachs to fight hunger.
Smoking - Jerry saw him take out a cigarette box, and he also had his own matches with him.
He looks good and youthful, which is why he attracts Jerry.
He has a lot of experience and many enemies, but he knows Green Town very little.
Hitzfeld ran these elements over in his mind.
Then there were some ridiculous suspicions that this person might be a spy from an enemy country.
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Thanks: Little Finger Qingqiao, Patient Doubi's blade and reward~!
Thanks for your support~!
ps: The third update will probably be delayed a bit, and I will probably take a day off before the end of the month to rest. After all, there are only 28 days in February... Time is so tight that I dare not take leave for the whole month.
ps2: I am still hesitating whether to offer a bounty in February.
I didn't get up, so I had to update it four times!
It is being typed manually, please wait a moment. After the content is updated, you need to refresh the page to get the latest update!
Chapter 11 Old Tang
"spy?"
Ethan raised his eyebrows in surprise: "Why do you think so, Hitzfeld?"
Just now, Hitzfeld crossed the aisle and sat on this side, telling him some of the things she was thinking about.
The conclusion she came to surprised Ethan, because the major towns in Sara all have identity verification systems, and it is not easy for outsiders to conceal their identities and move around freely, let alone those from abroad.
"Because he seems to be wary of everything in the outside world," Hitzfeld said, "but he is willing to drink the drinks given to him... I think this may be because it is easy to tell whether there are other ingredients in plain water with only lemon juice."
"What does this mean?"
"It means that he has relaxed his vigilance a little bit." Hitzfeld frowned slightly. "This may be because he has come from a place where he needs to be vigilant all the time to a place where the situation is more relaxed. After all, he is still a human being, and his nerves cannot be tense all the time."
"That sounds reasonable." Ethan thought about it and decided to explain it to her from another angle: "Do you know how we usually find rats in the sewers?"
"not sure."
"When you lived on Flo Street, did you notice that the police patrolled there quite frequently?"
"Yes."
"But you don't see such frequent patrols in the city center of Blackwood City. This is actually a preventive measure - those people are looking for unfamiliar faces, and they can investigate and collect evidence at any time if they have any suspicions."
"They can ask all the strangers where they are from, what they do now, whether they have a place to live in the local area, what their interpersonal relationships are like..." Ethan waved his arms, "Then all this information will be sent to the Population Supervision Department by street and district. When we arrest someone, we can go directly to the Population Supervision Department to ask if there are any suspicious persons recently."
"That's clever." Hitzfeld nodded slightly.
This practice is actually the prototype of the modern police screening system, but it seems rather clumsy due to the inconvenience of information transmission and transportation, but it does have its reason for existence.
If nothing unexpected happened, this system was established because of the Eclipse Church. Starting from the chaos that started more than 40 years ago, Sarah needed such a net to filter out those complicated troubles.
Although the enemy can also circumvent this network in various ways - such as the doctor across the street who was exposed in the Golem Dilemma, who lurked for so many years before attacking again - but doing so at least increases the cost for the enemy to disrupt order.
It is actually enough to have such an effect.
"So Hitzfeld." Ethan looked at the girl with satisfaction. "You should know now that the probability of your guess is very small... If Eugenie Copperfield really came from another country, his experience and all the information about him would never have been brought to you by Miss Norm. The detectives around Green Town and even in the area where he entered the country would have taken over the case long ago."
"Maybe." Hitzfeld thought about it and had to admit that he made sense.
"We can write a letter and ask the police department in Tok City to check it out." Ethan saw that she was unwilling to give up, and continued, "The surname Copperfield is quite rare. If he has been active there, the local regulatory department must have records of it."
"That's a good idea," Hitzfeld agreed.
The train was still some distance away from reaching Green Town, and it had to pass a supply station in the wilderness. In addition to providing some necessary emergency supplies, there was also a post office for emergency contact. Hitzfeld asked Ethan to start writing a letter now, and then personally put it in the mailbox when the train stopped for rest.
When she came back, she saw an older-looking man scolding Jerry at the end of the carriage.
As for the content of the criticism... as expected, it was comments like "didn't even say hello", "willful", "you know how anxious we were", "audacious". Jerry, who usually looked very lively, kept her head down at this time, and seemed to know that she was wrong.
"I'm sorry I made everyone worry." Jie Li had already seen Hitzfeld, so she quickened her explanation: "But, Tang Meng, I left alone because I didn't want you to get involved."
"Why did you leave alone?" The man turned his back to Hitzfeld, obviously dissatisfied with her explanation. "What's so good about that man that made you give up this regular job that you worked so hard to get and run nearly half the distance of Sara to find someone to save him? The total time you talked to him was not even three hours!"
"I don't want to have anything beyond friendship with Eugenie!" Jerry raised her head and defended, "I just... he really needs help! And I'm the only one who can help him!"
"Come on, I think he's just a professional liar!" the man cursed, "I've been to Green Town more times than you have. Let me tell you, Jerry Norm, I've never heard of any missing cases there. His behavior is an insult to every resident of the town!"
"I believe he is not lying!"
The two men were so engrossed in their argument that Hitzfeld had to cough to alert them of his presence.
"Oh..." The man turned around quickly and was stunned when he saw her.
"You are...oh, I guess you are the detective this girl hired."
He curled his lips, his contempt for the girl clearly visible on his face.
After all, being a detective is a job that requires experience. He doesn't discriminate against women doing this job, but she is so young... and blind in one eye, so she doesn't look trustworthy.
"You may not understand what happened, Miss Detective. I can tell you clearly that this is most likely just a farce..."
"Whether it's a farce or not, Miss Norm has already paid the corresponding fee." Hitzfeld interrupted him, "And we're already in the car, it's impossible for us to get off halfway. In that case, why don't we complete the process according to Miss Norm's wishes, so that she can have a deeper impression of what she has done?"
"Hmm?" The man was stunned and couldn't help but squint and look at the girl carefully.
She had a blue eye, silver-gray braids, and wore a very conservative black dress. Her makeup and manners were impeccable, and she had the aura of someone who came from a noble family.
Having worked on the train for many years, he was naturally good at judging people. He had only seen this kind of temperament once or twice in the top socialites, and it was not so profound, it could only be said to be superficial.
"Donmont Lux."
Nodding, he told the girl his name.
"You can call me Tang Meng, or you can follow their lead and call me Old Tang. I'm the chief purser of this bus - Jie Li's immediate superior before she ran away."
"Esun Hitzfeld."
Hitzfeld also gave his name.
"From Blackwood, Detective."
With his calm performance, Hitzfeld temporarily gained Tang Meng's trust. Then he told Hitzfeld some information about Eugenie Kopperfield, and after sending Jerry away, he told the girl, "You must find the liar."
"..." Hitzfeld couldn't confirm for a moment whether he was hitting himself at the same time.
She felt there should be.
"This world is not very good for ordinary people..." Tang Meng stared at her face and spoke softly word by word.
In the middle, he looked back at Jie Li.
Jie Li was blocked by two women of similar age wearing female stewardess uniforms. They pulled Jie Li to the other end of the carriage, one on each side, and teased her with a smile, making Jie Li look embarrassed.
"Especially for someone like her who is a little too naive. You never know when she might die."
“So we all love and care for her.”
He turned his head back again.
"Especially for me, who lost a daughter, sometimes I treat her as my own family member."
"You understand what this means, Detective?"
"clear."
Hitzfeld tapped his chin.
"very good."
Tang Meng also nodded.
"I'm glad she didn't find someone who likes to talk nonsense. Let me be frank with you, Detective - I respect your profession. I won't care what you want to do in Green Town, but you'd better not take her with you. If you must do so, you have to convince me in advance... Can you do it?"
"can."
Hitzfeld continued to nod.
"very good."
The man finally breathed a sigh of relief and made way for the girl.
"We'll be in town in less than two hours."
"I recommend you get some sleep."
"I wish you a pleasant journey."
Chapter 12: Dreamland
We have arrived at Green Town.
