[Shen Xia] Son of Great Britain

Any game has rules. The rules of minesweeping are very simple. To sum it up in one sentence - mark [all mines] according to [hints] within [range], and the shorter the [time], the better.

The Scrabble games these days have all come from the City of London newspaper, so the [range] of this live-action minesweeper is obviously in the City of London.

If so, the range is too large. Even if there are hundreds of bombs, hiding them in London is no different from finding a needle in a haystack.

What's more, what is [hint]?How many bombs//bombs?What type of bombs are these bombs?How's the power? [Time spent] How short is short?Is the game over when Oros gets impatient?besides……

Knowing nothing and struggling to move forward, just thinking about these problems is enough to make an ordinary person collapse.

Not so for Favors.

After understanding Oulos' signal, he just hooked the corners of his mouth, showing an interested smile, and then continued to watch today's news.

"Damn it, I got up late. Morning, Favors." Lestrade came out of the bedroom in a hurry, and he turned on the TV while he was wearing his tie. Of course it was more convenient to watch TV news at this time.

"Good morning, Greg."

The nanny who took care of Favors had already prepared breakfast, but Lestrade had nothing to eat. He sandwiched the egg sausage in the toasted soft bread, squeezed yellow mustard and ketchup, and served black tea Swallow it whole.

Just when Lestrade was about to go out, he suddenly remembered something, "There is someone coming to see the house at six o'clock tonight. Yes, it is the person I told you the day before yesterday. His style may be a little... mysterious , but not a bad person, you can open the door with confidence."

Favors nodded. Although Lestrade didn't mention the person's name, it was not difficult for Favors to guess the identity of the other party.

This can be regarded as... finally meeting.

Surprisingly, he actually had some expectations.

At six o'clock in the evening, the doorbell of the dwelling house rang.

When the door was opened, tonight's guest - Mycroft Holmes, showed a proper smile to the little host who opened the door.At the same time, his cold gray eyes are also interpreting this child who has been favored by the inspector as an adopted son. He will never underestimate any child.

[hair at the back of the head]

-sofa chair

-read

- organized by hand

[fine folds on the shoulders]

-violin

- Lightly taken care of, his detective needs a more meticulous nanny.

[Clock shaped platinum brooch]

-The original family is wealthy, with harmonious parents and children

-Big Ben commemorative model

[etiquette]

- there is an etiquette teacher

- Tutor

-knowing my identity, the detective will not mention it, reasoning, intelligence, and other secrets

[look]

-confidence

-Mature

- playing me

- good at reasoning

[Door opening time 3 seconds] [Position of sofa chair in living room] [Correct book with bookmark]

- Take it easy, be prepared, get stuck

- Be organized and calm

[The book "Miss Mary under the Stage" next to the sofa chair] [The advanced books on the bookshelf]

- recently deceased bestselling author, mother

-genius

- Violation

-hint

Maybe it's a tacit understanding between father and son, who knows?In short, Favors is also playing him.

Mycroft's expression changed slightly, he stretched out his hand, "Hi, Favors." It seems that he finally found the reason for Sherlock's strange attitude.

Not Favors Ramirez, and not Favors Lestrade.

Favors took his hand and smiled politely, "Don't touch my hair, it hurts."

Mycroft nodded, "Yes, I also don't like people touching my hair."

After finishing speaking, Mycroft looked back at his assistant and said, "Chewing gum."

What kind of code is this?of course not.

After a while, the assistant came back with the chewing gum that MI6 agents bought, even though she was also in a daze.

It wasn't until she saw the two of them sitting on the sofa chewing gum simultaneously without saying a word, that the assistant lady suddenly realized.

One of the samples in the paternity test is called the chewing gum sample, which is a very convenient way to compare the need for hair samples with follicles and more troublesome body//fluid samples.

After returning home from get off work, Lestrade was stunned for a moment when he opened the door. He saw two black-haired and gray-eyed guys, one big and one small, sitting together and playing chess. They seemed to be chewing something like fudge or bubble gum. , Suddenly there is an illusion.

It's a pity that this delusion was just a flash of inspiration, and Lestrade had forgotten it when he thought about it. In the end, he understood it as the strange sense of home in Mycroft.

Oh my god, he actually felt at home in that "Iceman" Mycroft Holmes!Even he himself couldn't believe it, and he choked for a long time but didn't say it.

It wasn't until the silent two seemed to have finished the game of chess that Favors spit out the chewing gum into a paper and wrapped it on the tea table, Lestrade finally said to Mycroft, "Sorry, I'm late, I brought You look at the house."

Mycroft, who also spit out his chewing gum, looked away from the chessboard he had just won. He raised his eyebrows and turned his head towards Lestrade: "I thought I was here to eat pizza?"

Well, Greg, use your head and let him look at you like a goldfish again.

Lestrade secretly pulled himself together.

But he really couldn't understand that McCoff actually came for a 1/8 pizza, which was more surprising than making him think that McCoff was here to see the house (although he knew very well that McCoff would never living in such a small house).

At such a time, Mr. Inspector brought out his experience in getting along with the Holmes brothers - anyway, you can't guess what they are thinking, so don't think about it.

"Has Sanna left?" Mr. Inspector glanced at the house, but he didn't seem to see the nanny.

"Yes, because there isn't enough air here." Mycroft's assistant, Miss, replied frankly.

"Okay." Lestrade shrugged, took off his coat and tie, and rolled up his sleeves, "I hope she left enough ingredients." The finished pizza base was used up last time, and he didn't want to ferment the dough himself Roll out the skin yourself.

Lestrade rummaged through the boxes, "Fortunately, Sanna left some pie crust and canned pineapple. Favors, Mycroft, do you want Hawaiian puff pastry pizza?"

"Of course." Favors, who likes sweets, was very happy.

Mycroft looked at the materials presented by Lestrade, and nodded reservedly.

Favors and Mycroft couldn't help with the rest of the work. They sat back on the sofa and saw the busy figure of Mr. Inspector through the open kitchen, drinking the black tea made by the assistant. Chatting one sentence at a time.

"I read Dr. Watson's blog." Mycroft started.In John's blog, he mentioned the death message left by the No.4 deceased. Like Favors Sherlock, Mycroft also noticed the violation, but he realized from the beginning that it was not a death message. But last words.It's just that even he didn't expect that the last words were directed at himself.

The game of chess just now made him have a preliminary judgment on Favors. He was right to win, but the win was too smooth, it was exactly as he expected.If it was someone else, he might think that the other party was a goldfish, but what he was facing was Holmes.

Mycroft never underestimated any Holmes, including his stupid brother.He also takes his family very seriously, in every sense of the word.

There is no doubt that Favors lost to him on purpose, and even lost to him completely according to McCoff's plan.

This makes it impossible for McCoff to make a correct judgment on him. McCoff, who suffers from Dongfeng phobia, is wary of him at this time, even if this is his biological child.

Favors wasn't upset by his attitude, nor was he worried that Mycroft would send him to Sherringford, since he was a good boy and had no interest in murder and arson at the moment.

and many more!

...So it turned out that he almost lost.

Suddenly, Favors smiled.

As mentioned many times before, the calculation method of minesweeping is very simple. It is just to deduce the location of bombs//bombs according to the prompts. It is so simple that Favors may get bored after playing it. All Ray find out.

Just like the psychological test Lestrade gave him, he lacked a sense of social responsibility, was too indifferent, and had no special feeling for the possibility that half of London would be blown up.As long as the person he cares about is fine, it's not difficult for him to follow the prompts to remove the bombs from his acquaintances, and he doesn't care whether the remaining ones explode or not.

It doesn't matter to him whether he wins or loses the game, just like losing to Mycroft in the chess game before, making the other party feel an indescribable aggrieved is also an interesting thing, isn't it?

Did he kill and set fire?Of course not.

But if Mycroft knew that it was a game between him and others that caused the catastrophe in London, and he had enough information and the ability to prevent it, he deliberately did not stop it or report it, and connived at the birth of this catastrophe.This is a crime of omission in law (seeing death without saving the crime), and it can even be judged as the crime of indirect intentional homicide (with a laissez-faire attitude towards harmful consequences, whether it occurs or not against one's subjective will)①.Even if he is a minor, considering the wide spread of the incident and the vile circumstances, even if he is McCoff's biological son, there is only one end.

— Sherinford.

Rather than saying it was a game, it was more like an invitation to invite him into Sherringford to play with her with the safety of the whole of London.

His lack of social responsibility was completely controlled by the other party, which made him feel bad.

Back to the topic now.

What did he just say?

Favors thought for a while, oh, he said John's blog.

"He should really change his name." Favors answered casually, but he remembered what happened that day in his heart.

That's how he trusted his mother... If he hadn't let Hannah exist, his mother wouldn't have rushed back overnight, and if he had offered to provide information about the serial murderer, his mother wouldn't have died in such a cold night.

His mother's death made him regret his inaction.

He has indeed changed, this time he has learned his lesson and paid more attention to his relatives, intending to clean up Lestrade, Mycroft, and Sherlock.

But is this really enough?

Not enough, far from enough.

He can't control all the coincidences in this world, even if he intends to control, he can't guarantee 100% that Lestrade will not leave Scotland Yard when the explosion occurs, the more elaborate the plan, the more prone to problems.

He needs to clear out a larger security circle, and the scope of a Scotland Yard and a few houses is obviously not enough.

The City of London, and the whole of the UK.

At this moment, Favors breathed a sigh of relief.He found his purpose and will spend the rest of his life working to create a society where his family can live safely.

This is precisely the sense of social responsibility that Lestrade feels he lacks. Maybe his starting point is slightly different from others, but there is no doubt that they all hope that this society will become a better place.

Favors' eyes reflected Mycroft's figure.

McCoff is definitely not a saint who pursues moral correctness, justice, and dedication. Everything he does seems to be full of social responsibility and seems to be for the betterment of this country, but in essence, he is nothing more than It's just creating an environment for the family.

In the environment created by Mycroft, Sherlock can be a consulting detective at will, to solve all kinds of dangerous events, and someone will always take care of him; although Oros is imprisoned because of her danger, she is exempt from brain research. The Sherlock Holmes couple lived in the beautiful lies he spun, and they would not know what a terrible murderer their daughter was.

Perhaps for his family, they do not accept these, but McCoff's purpose has been achieved.

"ASTudyinTheFat (John's blog title: A study of fat people). Yes, it looks more like a weight loss program."

"If your fitness trainer and nutritionist know what you have for dinner today, I believe you will soon receive a new menu called "ASTudyinTheFat (also can be translated as Fat Research)."

Favors decided to start hating Mycroft.Well, he already found same-sex repulsion, and now he finds this guy doing everything he wants, which is really annoying.

"Do you like to joke?" Favors asked.

"No, it's disgusting." Mycroft also replied seriously.

"Then I decided to give you a joke." Favors showed a little devil smile.

"what?"

"Not now, you can guess, but I guarantee you will be shocked." Favors stuck out his tongue, jumped off the sofa and ran to the kitchen to help Lestrade.

Mycroft thought for a while, he felt like he was hated by his son?

yes son.

The paternity test was just a procedure on the rational level. Emotionally speaking, McCoff had already believed that this was his son, a child of the Sherlock Holmes family.

Taking advantage of no one's attention, Mycroft pinched the belly fat piled up from sitting down, pondered for a moment, got up and walked towards the kitchen.

Lestrade was taken aback by McCoff's visit to the kitchen, but he didn't let him go. First, he asked McCoff to help put the sprinkled pizza into the preheated oven, and then asked him and Favor to help him. Roll out the leftovers of the pie crust together to make the tart crust.

The prestigious British Government//government glanced at Favors who was already rolling up his sleeves and pinching the pie dough like plasticine, but he didn't refuse. He rolled out the dough cooperatively and did a good job.

With the help of the two of them, Lestrade felt a little more relaxed, finished some semi-finished products left by the nanny, and barely put together a dinner table.

The pie crust was limited, and only one pizza was made, which was cut into eight equal pieces, two pieces for each person, including the assistant.But there was only one piece on Mycroft's plate, and both Lestrade and the assistant pretended not to see it.

Favors bites into a pizza with two slices on his plate and winks at Mycroft, as if to say, "That's a kid's prerogative."

Mycroft raised his eyebrows, and the next moment he took a scone, the cranberry black tea that Favors loved.He was Mycroft Holmes, and it was a breeze to figure out what Favors liked best at the table.

So angry.

Favors puffed up.

What two childish ghosts.

Lestrade looked left and right, and his inexplicable fear of McCoff disappeared completely.

Mycroft seemed to feel something, and glanced at Mr. Inspector.

But Lestrade was no longer afraid of him, and besides the same unlovable and over-intelligent brain, he found a new commonality between the Holmes brothers-they were all childish.He even kind of expected Sherlock to be at the table too, it would be fun, but it would be nice to bring John with him so at least someone would share the load with him.

"You seem to be getting along well," Lestrade said to Favors and Mycroft.

Just confirmed that he hates Mycroft, and has not yet confirmed his (wisdom) ranking in Holmes's house. The genius who was eating scones almost choked to death because of Lestrade's words. He drank half a glass of milk and said after recovering. : "Greg, you almost ruined London."

What?

Lestrade was dumbfounded. He thought it was Favors' joke and didn't pay much attention to it.

But Mycroft remembered this sentence. He realized that Favors would definitely not be a target, so he immediately sent someone to monitor Favors in all directions after returning, intending to find out what was buried in London. A crisis he doesn't know about.

Favors did let McCoff know on purpose. After all, with his small stature, is it possible that he is expected to run all over London to dismantle bombs?Definitely looking for a tool guy.

However, a whole month later, Favors maintained the same rhythm of life as before, and he only went to the library every week when he went out. The MI6 agents and McCoff couldn't dig out anything from his action patterns.

Finally, on March 3, Favors bought an up-to-date map of London from the newsstand on his way home from the library in the evening, and hung it on the wall opposite the window in his room.

This move was intentionally shown to the agents. Mycroft contacted that Sherlock had taken over a bank break-in case today, and he suspected that Favors was deliberately avoiding Sherlock.

but why?

Favors drew a red circle around an apartment with a marker and dropped a bomb he had found in the kitchen on the agents watching him.

MI6 and McCoff immediately began to investigate, but this type of bomb//bomb is relatively common in the world, so it is difficult to find out the source for a while.

At the same time, they also compared the location circled by Favors with the pages Lestrade had recently browsed, and confirmed that this was not the address of the new house that Lestrade liked, and Favors' actions had no reason.

Mycroft tried to have a conversation with Favors about whether the bomb had anything to do with the safety of London, but Favors was not very cooperative.

After work the next day, Lestrade also saw the red circle on his wall, and he said unexpectedly: "Are you helping me find a house? In fact, I noticed a few good ones recently. On the 26th, you have to talk to them." Shall I go to see it together? We can also go to a circus by the way. It is said that a Chinese circus has come to London and will only perform for one day.”

Favors declined him, but he deliberately avoided Sherlock, and he didn't intend to let Sherlock notice the abnormality.

The invitation to Minesweeper comes from the City of London Gazette, which means that anyone can join in the game and find bombs.Don't forget that in addition to the most basic task of finding mines, minesweeper games also need to compare whose speed is faster. It is impossible for Favors to compare with her.

He thought that Sherlock might have discovered that sentence a long time ago, but because there was no further news for a long time, it could easily be regarded as an activity of the Spelling Club.

In fact, the lack of prompts or messages is entirely due to the fact that the game has not really started.

For minesweeper games, the real game starts when the player steps on the first grid.

Favors controlled the start time of the game. Sherlock, who was immersed in the smuggling case, failed to notice the fragmented prompts. He was the only player in this game.

Favors marked the address deduced from the prompts in the form of an X on the map. After seeing it, MI6 would immediately send people to search for it. Almost every time, they found the same bomb as the one at the beginning.

The reason for using the word "almost" is that they obviously missed, although only once.

Mycroft came to the door again.

"There's another player, he found the bomb." Favors replied, staring at the map of London.

"Who?" Mycroft asked not only the identity of the second player, but also the person who set up the game.

"You'll find out soon enough," Favors replied.It's not that he doesn't want to tell McCoff, but that mine clearance is a single-player game, and it's nothing to ask MI6 to dismantle the bombs, but if those agents are really asked to do a carpet search, it's "cheating".Destroying the fun of the game itself, it is easy to be "cleared".

On March 3, Sherlock, who had just solved the smuggling case, fell into boredom again. At this moment, the building opposite 28B exploded.McCoff's men detected the wreckage of the bomb at the scene, which belonged to the same model as the bomb that Favors had found earlier.

Favors, who was questioned, replied without hesitation: "This is done by the second player, but this time it is not the bomb he found that exploded."

The real mine-sweeping bomb//bomb exploded in one go. In fact, he still doubts whether MI6 has dismantled the bombs.

In the next few days, Favors found all the bombs//bombs, a total of 39 bombs, and the one that was taken by the second player was missing.

"40!" Mycroft couldn't help but get angry. A terrorist who has not shown up until now has hidden a total of 40 bombs in London, and his son kept this matter from him for a month!

"You should be glad it's not 99." Phevos shrugged, "If April Fool's Day hadn't been chosen, maybe there would have been 4." The bomb was hidden from Ready Counting from the beginning, from February 1th to April 99st, the full 2 days coincided with the number of bombs in the intermediate minesweeper game.

The reason why he knows that the deadline is April 4 is also very simple. The other party is obviously not someone who will play with him indefinitely. In addition to implying the location of the bomb//bomb, it also implies time.

That day, Lestrade brought a message—"a circus that only performs for one day", although it was something that the smuggling group Hei Lian would do, it was indeed a hint of a minesweeper game.

What do most people think of when they mention the circus? ——Clown

But usually when people mention clowns, they will also think of a word-Joker, which refers to a card with a clown in a poker card, or it can be a well-known super villain in the comics.

And in the April Fools' Day tradition, everyone becomes a Joker.

By the way, if you contact this circus, Black Lotus is essentially a criminal group, then the conclusion will undoubtedly point to the crazy clown, and the famous origin work of the DC clown is "Deadly Joke".

Isn't it a "deadly joke" to use the bombing in London as a festive game?

While he's busy hunting for the bomb, Lestrade and Sherlock are also troubled by London's latest bomber.

This Bomber is not playing a silent single player game, he kidnaps hostages, straps Bombs to the hostages, and blows them up after giving them hope.It's a pity that he didn't know that MI6 had been following him from the very beginning, and Favors was also following him.

forgot?Favors' mother died at the hands of a serial murderer, and Moriarty was behind the scenes.

When he was triumphant, he didn't know that Favors and MI6 had already replaced the hostages with dead bodies.

Moriarty is also playing a game, but his opponent is Sherlock Holmes.Needless to say, the real body of this bomber is Moriarty, an admirer of Sherlock.

Moriarty found an interesting game through the newspaper, and he actually found a bomb when prompted, which made him very excited.

What a wonderful game!

Instead of looking for other bombs//bombs, he found a few bombs//bombs of the same type, and carefully designed a game for Sherlock. He even made plans to blow up the bomb// / Bullets are placed on the last hostage, and if Sherlock can't stop him, celebrate his victory with an explosion in London.

What a beautiful firework, isn't it?

"It's really a beautiful firework, isn't it?" Favors said to the black-haired lady on the opposite side of the glass, "Happy April Fool's Day, Oros."

Behind him stood Mycroft, who was frowning and completely on alert.

Forty fireworks bloomed over Sherringford, and all this was seen through the screen by Oulos who was stuck to the glass of the cell.

"It's a pity that I can't play with you here, but I brought you a playmate, I believe you will like it."

The door behind Favors was opened, and Moriarty walked in with a look of wonder, "Wow, three Holmes."

"Hi~ Ma'am, nice to meet you, I'm James Moriarty."