Mermaid Reef

The Orient Express stops next to a small station in Switzerland.

John stood at the door of the car, looking at a simple coffin on the platform, which contained the body of the banker's secretary.

"Women are terrible." Detective Martin sighed.

John smoked quietly and ignored him.

In the eyes of Detective Martin, the secretary is an unlucky guy, because he helped Bauer to find a buyer, which resulted in the death of a buyer (it is said that it was Miss Vanessa's lover), so he was murdered.Vanessa first killed the banker and then the secretary, pretending to be weak to make everyone careless of her, and finally pretending to be ill to deceive the doctor, but in fact, she managed to jump off the train and escape when the train slowed down through the tunnel.

When John heard this statement, his eyebrows were raised high.

He retracted his foreword, which was as illogical as the doctor's memory of Black Lagoon.

Listen, does this describe an opera soprano?

This is clearly a train robber!

Only the thieves in French adventure novels have such agility, such excellent acting skills, and a revenge experience with clear love and hatred.

One could even add an explanation that Miss Vanessa, a famous London soprano, was wounded by love and died of a serious illness. She turned to a famous thief for help, and the thief readily agreed and disguised herself as Miss Vanessa.His gender is male, known as Yasen Luoping. (Note)

Thinking about it this way, it doesn't seem so absurd.

After all, the incident took place in France.

John bit his cigarette and sighed.

"I will definitely catch her. The gang of robbers is staring at the gold coins and will definitely continue to hunt down that woman." Detective Martin said confidently.

He decided to get off the car here and continue to investigate the case, looking for the banker's body and the "missing" Miss Vanessa.

John didn't stop him, he understood the police detective.

——Brain, it's not that it's not easy to use, it seems that I don't know how to use it.

Forget it, he won't be dealing with Scotland Yard anyway.

John watched Detective Martin leave, and the other party also took away two "witnesses", the conductor and Dr. Abel.

Passengers in first-class carriages are not happy to be delayed by a case that happened during the journey.

The train conductor Mr. Sanger also got off the train here. He had a sudden illness. After being diagnosed by Dr. Abel, he had a mild stroke. He should be cured with timely treatment, but it seems that this Mr. train conductor can only choose to retire.

As for the American car dealer with a throat injury, he chose to continue to take the train to Venice to treat his small wound that was not fatal but very painful.

Because of the ridiculous reason for being injured by eating and choking, the car dealer felt very humiliated. He chose to hide in the sleeper box and dared not show his face in the social car.

"Aren't you going to Venice?"

John hugged Dr. Abel, ready to say goodbye.

The doctor looked bitter, and he whispered: "I feel that there are countless people waiting to expose me under the podium."

If it was before, Dr. Abel could confidently refute it with his own experience and scientific knowledge, but now it's over.

Let's run away!

——After encountering a murder case on the train and delaying the trip, I sent a telegram to apologize, saying that I was ill in Switzerland due to acclimatization, so I had to regret to miss this speech.

Apart from patting his shoulder, John didn't know how to comfort him.

"By the way, Miss Vanessa..."

"I know, she died." The detective sighed softly.

Dr. Abel was shocked. He has been depressed since he remembered the speech, so he didn't tell John the news at all. How did John know?

"Zhan... those two told you?"

"No, it's my guess."

John rubbed his still aching head, and said slowly: "She is sluggish and thin, obviously she has been hit hard, she looks like she is going out for a vacation, but her body is so bad, the people around her To be alone, without a close friend or a close lover, is very unusual."

Vanessa may have been exposed to the cursed gold coin in London, but she didn't own it, and the curse of the gold coin was not strong at the time, so she didn't die directly.

"She did come for revenge, but most likely not for her lover, but for herself."

"Yes, when I found her, she admitted your reasoning in the bathroom as soon as I found her." Dr. Abel was a little sad.

The real murderer doesn't make every excuse or bother to create a perfect alibi like in detective novels.

Vanessa, just a person who has come to the end and has a hatred in his heart.

Maybe she didn't believe that gold coins were cursed, but she was sure that her lover's death was due to Banker Bauer, and she was destroyed with it.

"...She said that she always heard strange voices, couldn't sleep, suffered day and night, and was almost sent to a mental nursing home by the troupe, and could never return to the stage."

The doctor couldn't forget Vanessa's whispers to herself.

She said that she couldn't figure it out, she didn't love her dead lover that much, so is this a curse or a trick of fate?

Vanessa hired a detective to investigate the whereabouts of the banker Bauer. After discovering that the other party was about to flee London, she immediately bought a first-class ticket on the Orient Express. She was determined to kill the other party with her own hands and kill the source of everything that was destroyed. .

The narrow train carriage, like a moving iron cage, can provide her with a perfect opportunity to kill.

Before Vanessa could wait for this opportunity, Bauer died.

So her bullet turned to the second target.

The doctor suddenly asked: "You, like Detective Martin, think that the banker's secretary is too unlucky to be killed?"

John lit a cigarette again, and the light from the fire illuminated his furrowed brow and the melancholy in his eyes.

"He was indeed very unlucky, but Vanessa was even more unlucky, and those who died in London...Doctor, even if there is no evil god in this world, greedy people will still start disasters. Ball harmed himself and others. "

John felt that he also had his own responsibility. If he hadn't deposited the gold coins in the bank, he would have buried them in the garden of the house.

But these are all regrets afterwards. After all, he had already bought the ticket at that time, and he had no extra time to hide the money, and there is a high probability that empty houses in London will be patronized by thieves.

Dr. Abel is still describing Miss Vanessa's death.

"...It was very sudden. In an instant, people fell and injured themselves everywhere in the carriage. Vanessa screamed out of control. She seemed to be suffering from a disease. I tried to save her, but a vase smashed her head.

"By the time I got up again, it was too late.

"Her body was wrapped in a terrible dark red smoke, which dragged her away."

Then the clock was reversed, the scenery outside the car window changed, the decorations in the car began to restore, and the wounds on people's bodies disappeared.

Only Vanessa disappeared.

Dr. Abel said in a low voice: "She is probably dead, and the dead cannot return."

Her body remained forever in that eerie place where time stood still.

Abel looked at the night and the Xuefeng Mountains at the end of the railway tracks.

***

With a long whistle, the train slowly left the station.

John now feels uncomfortable when he hears the sound of the steam boiler and thinks of the black coals shoveled into the furnace again and again.

He rubbed his arms and returned to the first-class car, tentatively walked to the door of box No. [-], and knocked.

"Mr. John Doe, the two passengers in box No. [-] and No. [-] said that if you want to find him, they are in the library." The conductor lowered his voice and said dully.

detective:"……"

It's already eight o'clock in the evening, and the social carriage should be closed, but who gave those two "privileges"? The conductor must have been affected by his mind and got the time wrong.

John decided to ask the conductor for a glass of whiskey.

He drank it all in one gulp, paid the tip, and then walked slowly towards the social car.

John knocked on the door cautiously.

The door opened by itself.

John walked in with his eyes closed, he was afraid that he would see something he shouldn't see again.

Excellent spatial memory allowed John to avoid obstacles smoothly, walk to the center of the box, and then carefully opened his eyes.

Well, Jason is still Jason, like an English gentleman.

Gemil was wearing a tight mask, but John faintly felt that long red hair glowing in the dark.

There was a box on the table in front of Gemil. It was pitted and pitted, as if it had been corroded by something, and the whole body was black.

"This is--"

John couldn't help lowering his voice, worried that the box lid would open and a bunch of bouncing gold coins would jump out.

"The matter of the Lieyang God has been resolved, don't worry, the gold coins have been destroyed, and the box was temporarily repacked by me." Gemil said.

John was relieved to find the two sitting on the same side of the sofa again.

John sat down across the sofa with a serious expression: "Can I ask where Miss Vanessa has gone?"

Jason said softly: "Her willpower is too low, and she has been continuously affected by the gold coins of doom. When the shape of doom was chasing you, the pollution of the power of the evil god turned her into a monster... I stopped her, Otherwise, the passengers in the entire train will be killed by her."

"She's dead?"

"As a human, Vanessa is dead." Gemil gave an unclear answer.

John thought of those girls who became the family members of Gray Butterfly, they seemed to be alive, but they were not alive, and he understood a little bit.

"This is for you." Gemil raised his hand, and the lid of the box opened automatically.

A dazzling pearl lay inside.

Its light is reflected on the wall of the room, rippling with layers of ripples like waves, and strangely, there is a faint shadow of a ship floating between the waves.

John stared blankly for a minute, then closed the lid decisively.

"No, I can't have it."

This kind of thing that looks like rare jewelry is not convenient to sell, and it will cause hidden dangers if kept around, what if it is stolen?Have a second doom coin event?

"Its light can only be seen by determined humans. In the eyes of most people, it is just an ordinary glass bead. People will automatically ignore its existence. No one will steal it. Even if you accidentally lose it, it It will come back to you automatically."

It was Jason who spoke this time, and he said in an undeniable tone, "You seem to encounter mysterious incidents very easily. Other evil gods will not be like us. When you perceive danger, it will be too late. This pearl Can save your life."

"Only one chance." Gemil warned.

Jensen added: "Usually it is best not to open the box and reduce contact."

John's hands trembled a little.

Perhaps it was the strength of the whiskey, and he felt his heart burn.

"Is this a reward?"

"You can also see it as a gift."

Thanks a lot, John.

After experiencing the train escape incident, John never wanted to come for the second time in his life.

The detective was ready to leave with a wink, but Gemil stopped him.

"The reward has been received, and you should also provide a new book list."

John: "..."

A client who is too powerful to be offended asks you to provide additional services, can you still refuse?

John nodded resignedly, picked up his pen, turned on the lights in the library, and started writing the book list.

It's too difficult, all the love novels he's read have been listed last time.

Does he, a single British detective, look like someone who reads romance novels at leisure?

The detective worried about the paper.

Venice, Venice... By the way, you can watch Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice"!John refreshed, Shakespeare has more works, um, plus a little classic drama.

At this moment, John was full of confidence.

He quickly finished the book list.

"You will never be disappointed, about human wisdom and love."

It was not Gemil who took the book list from the detective, but Jason.

He looked like he wanted to check.

John: "..."

The detective's heart was filled with curiosity, and the alcohol prevented him from perfectly concealing the expression on his face.

"What do you want to ask?" Gemil laughed behind the mask.

John shook his head, got rid of the influence of the voice, and asked with difficulty: "Aren't you really on your honeymoon?"

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The author has something to say:

Note: If Sherlock Holmes is the foundation of detective novels, then the origin of the strange thief is "Arson Lupin" serialized by the French writer Maurice LeBlanc in 1905. This thief is also known as the gentleman thief. He likes to steal jewels. omnipotent (occasionally unlucky), eloquent, deceptive, good at disguise, has many vests, men, countless sources of information, very rich, very arrogant

Sometimes he mails notice letters before stealing things, causing a lot of trouble, sometimes he takes revenge for others and is very low-key, and those who are favored by him don't know that he did the good deeds

There were other styles of good detectives in Sherlock Holmes's time and later

However, Yasen Luoping has basically influenced the image of all "monster thieves" since then. As long as they are famous monsters, they will more or less bear the shadow of Yasen Luoping.

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It is said that after this character became popular, due to the historical background that the French wanted to compete with the British in the cultural field, the French writer Maurice LeBlanc also wrote a story about Arson Robin fighting Sherlock Holmes. bad.

It caused an uproar that year, and the controversy continues to this day

In terms of literary value and excellence of the work, the character design is too outrageous, which leads to the plot bug Arsen Robin is far inferior to Sherlock Holmes

Today, we push forward 100 years, around 1920, it was the era when these two characters were serialized at the same time, and the plot was wonderful. At that time, many readers believed that they were real.

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Going back to this chapter, John said that the case happened in France. Thinking of the robbers, he said that this explanation is not so absurd... In fact, there is a mockery of the British position in it.

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Scotland Yard refers to the London police and has nothing to do with Scotland

John is going to sell his London property so he will say he won't be dealing with Scotland Yard again

(I know this is common sense for many people, but there are also readers who have never read novels and TV dramas with similar backgrounds. After all, hearing this term for the first time is a bit confusing)

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The detective finally received the gift of thanking the matchmaker (no), and he couldn't help asking his soul: how old are you?