Mystery: The whole good living master

［Marcher Bar］

As the night deepened, the wooden door was cautiously pushed open.

A young man with his face covered with a scarf, wearing a woolen hat and sunglasses, came in quickly, crouching down.

Countless empty bottles hanging from the ceiling clinked and jingled.

An old man sitting behind the bar, wiping his cup with a dirty rag, looked up and asked, "What would you like?"

The young man looked at the menu hanging behind the bar, coughed dryly, and answered with a pinched throat: "A glass of... uh... Lewiston Tears?"

The old man answered subconsciously: "Okay, Chenghui Jiusu..."

The middle-aged man sitting on the high stool beside the bar suddenly started coughing loudly, heart-wrenchingly.

In the corner, a young girl with short burgundy hair accidentally broke a glass, making a crisp sound.

The old man paused, rubbed his eyes, put on a pair of pince-nez reading glasses, squinted at the young man, and took a breath: "Uh... ahem... well, nine pence."

The tightly covered young man scratched his head in confusion, but still paid the money silently and found a seat to sit down.

The old bartender's hands were shaking as he held the glass, and his hands holding the bottle were also shaking. Lemons and rosemary fell to the ground with a crackling sound, and ended up breaking two bottles of wine and three glasses.

The waiter brought a glass of "Lewiston's Tears" to a young man wearing sunglasses and a mask. There was a circle of salt on the rim of the glass, and a sprig of rosemary and a small piece of lemon peel were sunk in the translucent milky white wine.

The masked young man picked up the cup and took a sip, grimaced at the spiciness, and put the cup down silently.

"Luralis rock salt, the rich aroma of lemon peel, the bitterness of gentian and parsley, the only function of these ingredients is to bring out the sweet taste of sugarcane wine." A somewhat vague voice came from behind the masked young man.

It was a woman wearing a slim red long skirt. She had a good figure and the skirt was dragged to her ankles, revealing a pair of black shiny high heels with rivets.

The woman's hands gently stroked the young man's shoulders.

The red lips pressed against the young man's ear: "Did you know that Emperor Roselle gave this sugarcane wine a beautiful name?"

"...Rum..." The masked young man whispered two syllables.

"That's right~ It's Rum! It's a very cute name, just like you~" The woman stretched out her hand and wrapped it around the young man's neck: "Don't you drink often?"

The masked young man said nothing, his neck stiff, and silently took another sip of wine.

"You can't escape my eyes~ You are a good boy, right? Is there something important that brings you here?" The woman pouted her lips sexily and blew on the masked young man's ears: "Do you want to talk to your sister? Maybe I can help you."

"No thanks." The masked young man remained unmoved. Only his fingers, whose knuckles turned white from tightly grasping the cup, revealed his uneasy mood.

The trembling old bartender knocked his heavy crystal beer cup on the table: "Hey! Pretty girl, that's enough! Stop harassing my guests!"

"Oh~ I think this young man might enjoy it~" The frivolous woman in the red dress smiled, straightened up, blew a kiss to the masked young man, and returned to her seat.

The old record player in the corner played outdated songs in a hoarse tone.

There were people talking in low voices at every booth.

-

A woman in a valuable fur coat sipped red wine.

[Did you see that?]

Sitting opposite was a hunchbacked, skinny old man with a pointed face and a funny moustache, like a mouse.

[I saw it, what happened?]

[I have seen him in an important intelligence from within Tingen. He has a special identity.]

The rat-like man held a large glass of draft beer and took a gulp, with white foam covering his beard.

[How special is he? Why don't you let me go meet him?]

The lady in furs tapped the table with her fingers.

[Welcome to die, I will send you the document later.]

-

The burning fireplace continuously emits a warm atmosphere.

A mouse... No, not a mouse, but a man with shifty looks and a very funny moustache.

The rat-like man approached the masked youth with a wine glass in his hand, dragged a chair and sat down, with a cunning smile on his face: "Brother, what do you want to do here?"

"Uh...what do you have?" The masked young man looked around and shrank back.

The mouse man laughed happily as if he heard something funny: "Hahaha..."

Then he patted his chest confidently and said, "Young man, go ask around. There is nothing in this world that I can't find out!"

The mouse man rubbed his fingers: "So, little brother, what do you want to know?"

The masked young man was silent for a moment: "I want to... know some secrets that ordinary people don't know..."

"Secrets unknown to ordinary people? There are too many!" The rat man picked up the huge beer cup and took a big sip: "Southwell beer, do you want to try it?"

"No... cough cough... no." The masked young man shrank back again: "Uh... what I want to ask is, do you understand the society?"

"No, no, no, I mean, what do I know, it depends on this..." The rat man pinched three fingers and rubbed them.

"Well... then I need... I want to know whether there have been any large-scale conflicts without paper records between the academic cliques and the church... or similar organizations." The masked young man took a sip of wine and said after weighing the pros and cons.

The rat man smiled with a triumphant smile: "Of course, you need to pay a deposit first, two golds..."

A rise and fall, choppy cough interrupted the rat man.

The woman in the red dress who came over to chat, the noble lady in the fur coat in the booth, the middle-aged bearded man sitting at the bar, the young girl with short burgundy hair sitting in the corner, and the old bartender who was wiping the glasses, they all started coughing heart-wrenchingly at the same time as if they had tuberculosis.

The interrupted rat man was speechless: "Uh...uh...two golds...only...only two soles!"

The masked young man looked around and became even more confused, but still paid the money silently.

The rat man, feeling very uneasy, took the money carefully, stood up stiffly, bowed, stepped back and left, leaving only a sentence "Come to the bar at this time in two days".

-

The rat man sat at the bar with a beer mug in his hand and complained, "Why are you all coughing so loudly all of a sudden? I almost couldn't hold it in, do you know?"

The bearded man sitting at the bar picked up the glass and took a sip of wine.

[Can't you see? I'm saving you!]

The mouse man also raised his glass and drank.

[How can I test him if I don’t charge him a little more? I can just give it back later…]

The bearded man poured all the wine from the glass into his mouth.

[No wonder you don’t wear a hat, it turns out you have no brains!]

The bearded man pushed the empty glass to the bartender: "Change it to a glass of draft beer."

[Why can’t I take his money? Is there any explanation?]

The old bartender took away the cocktail glass, took out a heavy crystal beer glass and turned to get the draft beer from the barrel.

[Heh… I’ve grown up so much and drunk so much in vain. You have to figure this out on your own. Those who understand will understand, and those who don’t understand won’t understand.]

The bearded burly man took the crystal glass filled with yellow beer with one hand, tilted his head back and drank it in big gulps, making a "thumb thumb" sound.

[Read those two documents yourself. The words between the lines reveal a lot of what that gentleman meant. As an excellent intelligence worker, it is not enough to just use the Spring and Autumn style to attract business. If this is not our bar, you will be dragged into the alley and beaten to death sooner or later.]

The beautiful woman in the red dress also came over, leaned on the bar with her arms, revealing a snow-white valley on her chest.

[The old man was also tricked, wasn't he? What do you think, old man?]

The mouse man seemed to be drinking, but in fact his squinted eyes were glued to the woman in the red dress.

The old bartender wiped the glass and shrugged.

[I receive so many people all day long, how can I have time to see whether he is a king visiting incognito or a notorious wanted criminal?]

[Tsk~ He's just talking and not doing anything except coughing. So should I check him out?]

The rat man looked away, rolled his eyes at the others, and then quickly looked back.

[Investigate! Of course! Why not? This is a good opportunity to stir up trouble in Tingen!]

The bearded burly man was also watching the game with great interest.

[He is a very good pass. Although we cannot touch him and it is meaningless to touch him, if we use him as an excuse, we can open bars in the academic cliques and churches.]

Suddenly, several people gathered around the bar started coughing loudly as if they had choked on their drinks.

-

The masked young man, who was covered tightly, moved step by step to the bar counter at some point.

"Ahem...um..." The masked young man also coughed twice and asked tentatively: "Do you...do you think there will be red coins on the floor of the bar?"

Several people gathered around the bar started coughing again.

The old bartender behind the bar was so scared that his mouth twitched: "I... I'll look for it... You... Please wait a moment!"

-

The old bartender put down the cup that was getting dirtier and dirtier, then put down the dirty rag, and walked around anxiously behind the bar with his hands in his hands, like a stereotyped monkey.

[What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?]

[Save me, save me! Save me!]

The burly bearded man knocked on the table with his cup.

[Stop squeaking! It's so noisy!]

The beautiful woman in the red dress stopped coughing and poured all the red wine in the glass into her mouth to calm herself down.

[Isn't that a good place for him to go?]

The rat man looked away, shaking his head.

[That's not important. What's important is how did he know the code?]

The woman in the red dress cast a wink at the masked young man.

[Just play dumb, pretend you don't understand, and fool him away.]

The bearded burly man drank beer in big gulps and glared around fiercely.

[I think he doesn’t know either, he’s just here to test us!]

The young girl who had been standing alone in the corner walked over with big strides.

The burgundy short hair swayed with every step.

[Shut up! Let’s do what we usually do now]

-

"Come on, I'll take you to find the red coin."

The young girl with short burgundy hair picked up the lantern on the bar and stretched out her hand toward the masked young man.

The masked young man subconsciously stretched out his hand, then quickly retracted it: "Ahem... just lead the way..."

The young girl tilted her head and skipped around to behind several stacked wooden barrels, where there was an inconspicuous trapdoor.

The trapdoor opened, revealing the dark passage below.

The lantern in the young girl's hand illuminated the stone steps, and on the stone walls there were faint mosses and spiders crawling in lines.

The young man adjusted the scarf that covered his face and followed.

Passing through the corridor that seemed unusually long because of the darkness, the crisp sound of metal and glass colliding, the shouting of guests... the noisy, unbearable sounds came out like an explosion.