She was planning to do so, but just as her left thumb was about to pull up her right glove, Xia Yibing suddenly took a step sideways and met Bishop Padom.
The next moment, a hand wearing a thick leather glove and a slender but withered hand clasped together.
Including Hitzfeld, everyone else in the back hall was watching this scene in great surprise.
Especially the big man, he first looked at Hitzfeld and then at Xia Yibing who had a determined face, and whispered in a voice that everyone could hear clearly: "A woman... is so brave!"
Hitzfeld was too late to be moved, because she found that Padom suddenly looked at her with a playful smile.
This doesn't feel good.
This was the first time...she felt that something that she and Xia had deliberately concealed had been discovered.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm Panca Padom. The big guy over there is Walker. He will be in charge of the rotation of the troops here until the next three years."
"Not three years!" Smail reminded him sternly, "It's less than two and a half years!"
Two and a half years...that means Walker has been here for more than six months.
Hitzfeld glanced at Walker.
Indeed, their conflicts were deep-rooted, which meant that Walker was not a new transfer. The recent second rotation was due to the changes in the hive, which meant that the first rotation - the transfer of veterans and the addition of new recruits - could be traced back to six months ago.
After a brief greeting, they got down to business and continued discussing the worm curse.
"We have our differences, and I'm sure you heard them when you came in."
Padom returned to the main seat with a helpless expression on his face.
"I just wanted to hear your opinions. I also have some questions for you."
On the small table next to him was a pile of photos and line drawings, all of which were drawings of the various kilns in the living area.
Without exception, they are all in a damaged state, and even in black and white photos one can clearly see that countless distortions are evident on their inner walls.
There were human faces, tentacles, limbs and sharp teeth, spreading from the inner wall of the kiln all the way up, and the entire inner wall of the chimney was covered with these terrible reliefs.
It was these things that frightened Smail so much that Jinde Huoxing was even more frightened and closed the door directly.
Businessman Hughes is already considering whether to back out and cancel the trip to the red soil.
"Our opinions are not important, and I don't want to interfere with Onsin's local resolutions." Hitzfeld said softly, "As for the problem... I'm afraid I can't do anything about it."
She knew what Weng Sein was most worried about right now.
The people that Smail sent to investigate had returned long ago. As she expected, all the people with gain-loss syndrome in the surrounding area had more or less come into contact with the kiln, or at least had inhaled a lot of kiln smoke recently.
Coupled with the situation in the furnace and those horrible semi-finished products, it was an indisputable fact that there was something wrong with the red clay.
But there is still controversy here, and the key point is whether there is a problem with the recent red soil, or whether there is a problem with all red soil.
"It's impossible that all red soil is cursed!"
As soon as General Walker opened his mouth, the entire back hall seemed to shake.
He has a very loud voice.
All his words sounded like muffled thunder.
"How else can we explain why this has never happened before? Those kilns...right? It's impossible that they were opened for the first time today and the scenes inside were revealed. Those weird reliefs have never appeared before!"
"It's also possible that the people who saw it are no longer here." Smail said with a gloomy face, "Either they are dead, or they have been contaminated!"
"Isn't that exactly your responsibility?" Walker growled at him, "What about your ability as Paladins to detect evil? Isn't it said that the Holy Slate can dispel all evil?"
"That's not the Holy Slate! It's just a replica of the Holy Slate!"
"Quiet--"
Bishop Padom drew out the note.
When the two men shut up again, he continued to look at the gray-haired girl.
"Tell me about it, Detective."
"I don't necessarily agree with your opinion, but I want to know what you think."
"What I'm thinking is..." Hitzfeld met his eyes, "Onsin should immediately stop any form of clay trading."
"Secondly, you should thoroughly investigate all local fire companies, dig out the names of the workers who have died in recent years, and trace the reasons behind them."
"You--" The big man glared at her fiercely, but dared not say anything more because of the bishop's gaze.
“But this is just a remedial measure.”
Hitzfeld changed the subject.
After all, red soil has been mixed into many houses, and many of them have never been burned.
If all the red soil is problematic, doing this will only save your life.
It is impossible to stop Onsayin's fate of...destruction.
"No matter what the result is, the source of the curse is definitely not inside the fortress."
The little old man also narrowed his eyes and grinned slightly, revealing his gums.
“And in the Northwest.”
"You still have to go there."
--------
Pay off the debt to the Lord first, and then pay off your own debts...
Chapter 29: Scripts, Actors, and Devil's Whispers
Bishop Padom was determined to follow Hitzfeld's advice, and no amount of General Walker could stop him.
From the city of Onsin to the town behind, soon, under the enforcement of the Flint Knights, the fire business in the entire Plain Parish was forced to shut down the kilns that burned earth.
On that day alone, more than a hundred shops were sealed off, and countless red clay products were confiscated and sealed.
This can already be described as a "vigorous movement." Hitzfeld stood on the third floor of the tavern and looked downstairs, and saw countless business people gathered under the tent. Everyone was talking about something, and their expressions were very excited.
Fortunately, this is Onsayin.
She narrowed her eyes, leaned back a little, leaned against the windowsill and smoothed her hair.
In another place, this rude request would most likely not be implemented immediately. The pressure from the local administration alone is immeasurable, and it would take at least more than a week of wrangling before a decision could be made.
And even if the decision is made, the resistance from the people will be unimaginably strong. Only a parish like Onsin, where military power is above all else, can do it so efficiently.
Xia Yibing washed some fruits in the bathroom, dried them and put them in a basket. When she came out, she saw the girl sitting on the windowsill, her chin resting on her head, as if thinking about something.
"What are you thinking about?" She walked over, put the fruit basket between the two of them, and sat down opposite the girl. "You look so lost in thought."
Hitzfeld glanced at her and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
"What's wrong?" Xia Yibing picked up a fruit and took a bite, wondering as she chewed, "What's so funny about this?"
"No... I misjudged your behavior. I thought you were going to pull me down from above. It is indeed quite dangerous after all."
"So I'm here to accompany you." The woman handed her a fruit and said, "At this distance, even if you want to jump, I can hold you back. I'm confident in my skills."
"That's why I'm laughing." Hitzfeld took the fruit and didn't eat it. He just stared at the woman's face, as if it was something more beautiful than the fruit. "...I don't regret my choice."
Xia Yibing was stunned for a moment, then jumped off the windowsill and took a step forward, forcing the girl against the window frame.
"Why are you suddenly thinking about these things?" She squinted at Hitzfeld. "Is it because of that old man? Because of Padom?"
She helped Hitzfeld block Padom's handshake last night, and of course she noticed the other person's eyes changing in an instant.
This old man has a strong ability to observe and associate. It is possible that he has guessed that there is a special relationship between them.
But what does it matter? He is just an administrator of a remote parish. He will never leave the Plains Parish until he dies. In addition, Padom has no evidence, so she is not afraid of being reported by him.
"And most importantly, they don't even know me." She smiled proudly, "I guess he will just doubt it for a moment, and forget everything in a few seconds."
"I can see that General Walker doesn't recognize you." Hitzfeld also smiled and reached out to touch the woman's face. "But I'm not sure about Smail and Padom. They at least know that you are a secret policeman."
She could see that Xia had been deliberately hiding herself.
Including the seemingly abrupt handshake, she seemed to be committed to positioning herself in the role of bodyguard and guard, deliberately leading Padom and others to think in this direction.
She knew that she wanted to use this method to observe the real operation mode of the parish... just like the imperial envoys and patrol teams in various works, or even some emperors who had nothing to do and had to make incognito visits - use this method to observe.
But looking at the current results, it seems that Walker is the only one who has been kept in the dark.
After a brief moment of intimacy, Hitzfeld and Xia Yibing separated.
The third floor is not the thirtieth floor. If you go too far, there is a risk of being seen by others.
They packed up and planned to look for Darent, but when they arrived at the next room, they found it was empty. There was only a note on the table saying that he was going to another hotel to look for Kak's crew.
"What a troublesome guy..." Hitzfeld looked at the note speechlessly.
In those days, the concept of movies was just beginning to emerge. How professional could such a crew be?
In her opinion, this... well, let's just call it a movie - the shooting of this movie does not require any advance rehearsal at all. The most important thing here is technology. As long as there is dynamic recording technology, it is enough to save the captured images in dynamic mode.
Rehearsal? Crew? Script?
What is that?
It was just the first movie, so there was no need for such professionalism. If the film could be edited, it would be a success. She didn't understand why Darent worked so hard.
"He doesn't seem like the kind of person who doesn't know the difference between the important and the unimportant." Xia Yibing also found it strange.
If their mission was not heavy before, shooting a movie along the way would not be a big deal, but now that they have discovered the abnormality of the red soil, the plan to go deep into the plains in three days has immediately become more dangerous.
It was strange that Darent didn't give up the filming plan, and he even went to familiarize himself with the crew in advance...
The two looked at each other.
"Let's go and take a look?" Xia Yibing suggested.
"Let's go and take a look." The girl nodded.
Kak's crew lived not far away, also in the city of Onsayin, which was of course also a living area.
After only turning three streets, the two found the "Oven Tavern" according to the address left on the note. After asking the bartender and other servants, they were taken to the stable in the backyard.
"It's here." The servant pointed to a warehouse ten steps away.
"It was empty. They rented the whole room for rehearsal. It seemed they were debugging some equipment."
"Thank you."
After giving the servant a few coins to send him away, the two of them walked over there.
Before I could get close, I suddenly heard a sharp and sad melody coming from inside.
violin……
After looking at Hitzfeld, Xia Yibing put down her raised hand.
The two people stood outside the door motionless, listening to the entire song in silence.
When they opened the door at this time, they immediately heard a loud noise coming from inside.
"awesome!"
"Sounds good!"
"I know violin! This is no ordinary skill!"
"I've never heard anything like it, Darent. What's it called?"
Looking closely, it turned out to be Mapus-Dalent sitting at the back of the room. He was leaning on a high chair with one foot on the ground, and was taking a violin off his shoulder. The smile on his face looked very unfamiliar to Hitzfeld.
It was not a smile of joy, nor was it a smile of pride.
It's more like a person who suddenly lost the right to be sad one day, and all his expressions were smiles. But now he feels sad, so he can only show a weird smile of this nature.
"Ah! Miss Detective and her assistant are here too!"
Kak was the first to notice them, and he talked to them for a long time, and eight out of ten sentences were praising Darent.
"He's a natural actor!" he said.
“I’ve never seen anyone perform better than him!”
"Ah~ As long as you are satisfied." Hitzfeld was a little absent-minded, and his tone was obviously perfunctory.
only……
