After the plan was finalized, Zhou Mingrui suddenly felt more confident, and all his fear, hesitation and anxiety were huddled in a corner.

It was only at this time that he was in the mood to carefully examine Klein's remaining memory fragments.

Zhou Mingrui stood up as usual, closed the pipe valve, and watched the wall lamp slowly dim until it went out. He then sat down again, unconsciously stroking the brass wheel of his pistol while pressing the side of his head, quietly "reminiscing" in the crimson darkness, like the most attentive audience in a movie theater.

Perhaps affected by the bullet, Klein's memory was like broken glass. Not only did it lose coherence, but many places were obviously missing content, such as where the exquisitely crafted revolver came from, whether it was suicide or homicide, what exactly did the sentence "Everyone will die, including me" in the notebook mean, and whether he participated in any strange things two days before the incident.

Not only did these specific memories become fragmented and incomplete, but so did the knowledge he had mastered. Judging from his current state, Zhou Mingrui believed that if Klein returned to university, he would probably not be able to graduate, even though he had only been away from campus for a few days and had not relaxed at all.

"I will be attending an interview at the History Department of Tingen University in two days."

"The universities in the Kingdom of Loen have a tradition where graduates do not stay in school directly. The instructor gave one letter of recommendation to Tingen University and one to Backlund University."

As Zhou Mingrui "watched" silently, the red moon outside the window was setting in the west and gradually sinking until a faint light appeared in the east and the horizon was dyed golden.

At this time, there was movement coming from the room inside, and soon, footsteps approached the isolation door.

"Melissa is awake now. She is as punctual as ever." Zhou Mingrui smiled slightly. Influenced by Klein's memory, he felt like he was looking at his own sister when it came to Melissa.

However, I don’t have a biological sister, he immediately complained.

Melissa was different from Benson and Klein. Her enlightenment education was not completed in the Sunday school of the Church of the Evernight Goddess. When she was old enough to go to school, the Kingdom of Loen promulgated the Primary Education Law, established the Secondary and Lower Education Committee, and provided special funding to increase investment.

However, within three years, many public elementary schools were established on the premise of incorporating many church schools. They strictly adhered to the principle of religious neutrality and did not get involved in the disputes between the Lord of Storms, the Goddess of Night and the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery.

Compared with Sunday school which only charged one copper penny a week, the tuition of three pence per week in public primary school seemed quite expensive. However, the former only studied one day a week on Sunday, while the latter had classes for six full days a week. Overall, the price was so low that it was almost free.

Melissa is different from most girls. She has liked gears, springs, bearings and other things since she was a child and she aspires to be a steam mechanic.

Benson, the eldest brother who had suffered cultural loss himself and understood the importance of education, supported his sister's dream just as he supported Klein to go to college. After all, Tingen Technical School can only be regarded as secondary education, and there is no need to go to grammar school or public school to accumulate knowledge.

Last July, fifteen-year-old Melissa passed the entrance examination and became a member of the Steam and Mechanical Department of Tingen Technical School as she wished. The weekly tuition fee was also increased to nine pence.

At the same time, the import and export company where Benson worked was affected by the situation in the southern continent. Both its profits and business volume shrank significantly, and it had to lay off more than one-third of its employees. In order to keep his job and maintain his life, Benson could only accept more arduous tasks, had to work overtime frequently, or travel to places with harsh environments, just like these days.

It's not like Klein hadn't thought about helping his brother with the burden, but he was born into a commoner family and was admitted to an ordinary grammar school. As soon as he entered university, he felt his own shortcomings. For example, the ancient Feysac language, which is the source language of all countries in the Northern Continent, is something that children of the nobility and the wealthy class have to learn since childhood, but he didn't come into contact with it until university.

There are many similar aspects. Klein almost exhausted all his strength, often staying up late and getting up early, just to barely catch up with others and graduate successfully with average grades.

Memories of his brother and sister jumped into Zhou Mingrui's mind until he turned the handle and the door of the inner room creaked open. He suddenly woke up and remembered that he was holding a revolver in his hand.

This is a semi-controlled item!

It would scare the little kids!

Also, there is the wound on my head!

Seeing that Melissa was about to come out, Zhou Mingrui pressed his temple and hurriedly opened the desk drawer and threw the revolver into it with a bang.

"What happened?" Melissa heard the noise and looked over in confusion.

She was at the most youthful stage of her life. Even though she didn't have much good food to eat and her face was thin and slightly pale, her skin was still full of luster and exuded the aura of a girl.

Seeing his sister's brown eyes looking at him inquiringly, Zhou Mingrui forced himself to remain calm, picked up the things closest to him, and calmly closed the drawer to cover up the presence of the revolver. The touch of his temple with his other hand made him sure that the wound had healed!

He took out a silver pocket watch with a vine-shaped pattern from the drawer. He pressed the top lightly and the watch cover popped open.

It was the most valuable item left by the three siblings' father, the Royal Army Sergeant. But second-hand goods were second-hand goods after all. In recent years, it had problems from time to time, even after it was repaired by a watchmaker. This made Benson, who liked to carry it to improve his status, embarrassed himself repeatedly, so he simply left it at home.

I have to say that Melissa might really have a talent for mechanics. After mastering the theoretical knowledge, she began to tinker with the pocket watch with the help of tools from the technical school, and recently she even announced that she had repaired it!

Zhou Mingrui watched the watch cover pop open and saw that the second hand stopped moving. He subconsciously turned the top and tried to wind the pocket watch.

However, after twisting it several times, there was still no sound of the spring being tightened, and the second hand remained motionless.

"It seems to have broken down again." He looked at his sister for something to say.

Melissa glanced at him expressionlessly, walked over quickly, and snatched the pocket watch away.

She stood where she was and pulled up the button on the top of the pocket watch. After turning it a few times, she could hear the ticking sound of the second hand.

Normally, shouldn't pulling up be used to adjust the time? Zhou Mingrui's expression suddenly became dull.

At this moment, the bells of the distant cathedral rang six times in a row, distant and ethereal.

Melissa listened attentively, then raised the button on the top of the pocket watch a little higher, and then twisted it continuously to adjust the time.

"Okay." She said briefly and without any emotion, then pressed the top back and returned the pocket watch to Zhou Mingrui.

Zhou Mingrui smiled back awkwardly but politely.

Melissa looked at her brother again, turned and walked to the cupboard, picked up a toothbrush, towel and other things, opened the door and went to the public bathroom.

"Why did her expression just now sound so disgusted and helpless?"

"The look of caring for your mentally retarded brother?"

Zhou Mingrui shook his head and chuckled, closing the watch cover with a click and opening it with another click.

As he repeated this action, he thought of a question.

Without a silencer, Klein committed suicide. Well, let’s call it suicide for now. The noise he made was definitely loud, but Melissa, who was sitting on the other side of the wall, didn’t even notice it.

Was she sleeping too soundly? Or was Klein's suicide itself full of weirdness?

Snap, open, snap, close When Melissa came back from washing up, she saw her brother opening and closing the cover of his pocket watch unconsciously. ..

Her eyes were filled with helplessness again, and she said in a sweet voice:

"Klein, take out the remaining bread. Remember to buy new bread today. Also, meat and peas. You're going to have a job interview soon. I'll make you lamb stew with peas."

As she spoke, she moved the stove out from the corner, used the remaining charcoal to make a fire, and boiled a pot of hot water.

Just before the water boiled, she opened the bottom drawer of the cupboard and pulled out a can of inferior tea leaves like a treasure. She sprinkled a dozen leaves into the pot, pretending that it was real tea.

Each of them poured two large cups of tea, and Melissa and Zhou Mingrui shared two pieces of rye bread with the tea.

There was no sawdust mixed in, and not too much gluten, but it still didn't taste good. Zhou Mingrui was now weak and hungry, so he relied on tea and forced himself to swallow the bread while complaining in his heart.

After a few minutes, Melissa finished eating, gathered her black hair that fell to her vest, looked at Zhou Mingrui and said:

"Remember to buy new bread, only eight pounds. It's hot, too much bread will go bad. Also, lamb and peas, remember!"

Is it true that you care about your nerdy brother? I have to emphasize it again. Zhou Mingrui smiled and nodded:

"OK."

Regarding the Loen Kingdom's pound, Zhou Mingrui compared Klein's meat measurement memory with his own and believed that it was close to the pound he was used to, which was 0.5 kilograms.

Melissa said nothing more. She got up, packed the last loaf of bread for lunch, put on the worn-out gauze hat her mother had left her, picked up the bag she had sewn for her books and stationery, and prepared to go out.

Today is not Sunday, she has to go to school all day.

It takes about fifty minutes to walk from the apartment to Tingen Technical School. There are public horse-drawn carriages that charge one penny per kilometer, with a maximum limit of 4 pence in the city and one penny in the suburbs. In order to save money, Melissa always leaves home early and walks there by herself.

Just as she opened the door, she paused again, half turned around and said:

"Klein, don't buy too much lamb and peas. Benson might not be back until Sunday. Um, remember that bread only costs eight pounds."

"Okay, okay." Zhou Mingrui replied helplessly.

At the same time, he repeated the word "Sunday" several times in his mind.

In the Northern Continent, the year is also divided into twelve months, with a total of 365 to 366 days, and a week also has seven days.

The front is the result of heaven, which makes Zhou Mingrui suspect that this is a parallel world. The latter comes from religion, because there are seven orthodox gods in the northern continent: Eternal Sun, Lord of Storms, God of Knowledge and Wisdom, Goddess of Night, Mother Goddess of the Earth, God of War, and God of Steam and Machinery.

Watching his sister close the door and leave, Zhou Mingrui suddenly sighed and quickly turned his attention to the luck-changing ceremony.

Sorry, I really want to go home.

ps: Ask for recommendation votes on Monday