"What's up?"

Lu Ban and Xia pricked up their ears to listen to gossip.

Xia didn't notice that there was another donut missing from her bag for unknown reasons.

"An urban legend."

Drizzt seemed to know this, and he spread his hands and explained.

"It is said that in the slums of the abandoned city, you can sometimes meet a woman at night. If you take her in with good intentions, or kidnap her with evil intentions, you will most likely meet with misfortune and be found dead somewhere in the sewer the next day. The death is horrible. There are many such legends, and there are different versions in different regions. They are all meant to scare children into going to sleep and not to go out to play at night."

"I see."

Lu Ban expressed his understanding.

"So, there are similar rumors over there, saying that if you don't sleep in the middle of the night, you will be captured by the Night King of the forest. Fry it in a sizzling oil pan, add some salt and pepper, stir-fry until both sides are golden brown, and then add chili peppers and dried salted fish..."

As Xia was talking, she started talking about how to make midnight snacks.

"Please stop, my friend."

Drizzt interrupted Xia's recipe.

"What is the Night King?"

Lu Ban asked curiously.

"It's a legend in our area. It's said that hundreds of years ago, the monster that defeated the winter wolf and dominated the night was used to scare children who didn't want to go to sleep."

Shia said seriously.

“…”

Lu Ban thought about it. If there was anyone who defeated the Winter Wolf, wouldn’t it be himself?

Didn't expect that his deeds from the past would be passed down, and even continue to evolve, becoming the great devil who stops children from crying at night?

I wonder what Xia would think if she knew that I was the Night King.

Lu Ban thought it would be better to talk about how to add chili and salted fish.

"Salted fish needs to be soaked in water first and then... I mean, so, this rumor is just a rumor, not something strange?"

"Who knows? Several people die every day in this black street. Sometimes, in order to cover up the crime, it is convenient to make up some simple and useful urban legends to take the blame."

Drizzt wanted to take out his pipe, but after thinking about his current position, he put it back.

"However, this person should have seen at least one woman before his death."

Lu Ban nodded.

"How do you know that?"

Xia reached into the paper bag, only to find that the donuts were gone. She was a little confused, but still crumpled up the paper bag and stuffed it into her pocket.

"He smelled of perfume. You see, his internal organs were preserved so well, and the smells around him at the time were stuffed into the glass."

Lu Ban's [True Vision] gave him more clues.

"Were any of his patients that day female?"

"Probably not."

Drizzt shook his head.

"A bartender on the black street broke his leg due to drunkenness, and a worker in a factory suffered from lung disease due to long-term exposure to exhaust gas. These were the two patients he came into contact with that afternoon."

"Aren't there any call girls who have been beaten up, or women who have to work for their families who come to the clinic?"

Lu Ban asked.

"No."

Drizzt closed the book.

"What other clues are there in these internal organs? Take another look."

"Watching this has a serious impact on the body. Can you bear to let me watch it?"

"You are the only one present who has no right to say this."

Drizzt couldn't help but take out his pipe, struck a match, and lit the tobacco. He took a deep breath, letting the slightly pungent smell fill his lungs and bringing a hallucinogenic feeling that soothed his nerves. He took another look at the corpse with the glass flower blooming. If it were before, Drizzt might have already lowered his rationality and had various stress reactions, but now, he could stand in front of the corpse and talk and laugh.

All these changes come from the place of silence.

As the number of missions in the abandoned city increased, Trist began to have a premonition that the pollution in this world was gradually overflowing and breaking through the things that originally bound them.

Perhaps one day, the dream created by the author of the ancient capital will become a real reality, and monsters will be rampant in the streets of the abandoned city.

"Well, what's here?"

Lu Ban took another careful look and found that the part between the internal organs, close to the skin, seemed to be stained with a little color.

This color is not obvious at ordinary times, and can only be seen clearly in dark environments and under the light of Drizzt's match.

"It could be the dye. There are often such stains in the factory. The factory has been very busy recently and many people have fallen ill. Dr. House sometimes helps the sick."

Drizzt also leaned over to take a look.

“This should be brought by the workers of that factory?”

Xia felt that this corpse with glass flowers blooming on it was full of weirdness, and more like an outlet for some kind of emotion.

Because Dr. House's face showed so much pain and surprise, he must have suffered a lot.

There are many kinds of murder, and Xia herself has killed many people.

Simple killing is just killing a person. Killing is a means, a process to achieve other goals.

As for the instigator of this glass flower, killing was obviously his purpose. He killed Dr. House in this way just to make him suffer.

"Does he have any enemies?"

Xia asked, and took out a bag of cookies from the gap in her armor, which she had secretly hidden.

Crunch, crunch—

The sound of chewing biscuits echoed in the morgue, causing considerable torture to people's stomachs.

"I'll have one too."

Lu Ban reached out and took the biscuit handed to him by Xia Ya. Just as he was about to eat it, he found that the biscuit in his palm was gone.

"It can be said that Dr. House has almost no enemies. He is everyone's good neighbor. After graduating from medical school, he worked as a doctor in a hospital for a while, and then he set up a clinic on his own. He charges low fees and helps the poor. Perhaps some of his colleagues are unhappy with him?"

Drizzt explained and added another sentence.

"Of course, it doesn't mean that good people won't die and bad people will definitely die. He may have another dark side behind the scenes, or he may have provoked someone he shouldn't have provoked. In the Wasted City, this is normal."

"We can go to his clinic and then ask the supplier."

The great detective of the abandoned city said again.

"no problem."

The three of them thanked the staff and left the funeral home. Not far from the funeral home, just one block past the teahouse where Lu Ban and Trist met, was Dr. House's clinic.

This place is closed and guarded by police, and ordinary people are not allowed to enter.

It was already afternoon, the sunlight began to become ambiguous, setting in the west, and lazy, and the clinic also became dim.

Walking into the clinic, Lu Ban smelled a strong smell of disinfectant.

He saw that the bed in the clinic was cordoned off, where Dr. House's body was found.