Who? As a "peace officer", Xio had a keen intuition about monitoring and being monitored. His heart tightened immediately, and his thoughts raced, thinking about what had happened.

In the past two or three weeks, she had not encountered anything that required special attention. The few criminals she had captured were not Extraordinary Persons. At most, they had some connection with a certain gang. No one would offend a bounty hunter who was well-known in the East District for them. Therefore, she quickly narrowed down the scope of her targets and vaguely guessed which force the person who was secretly watching her belonged to.

Aurora Society member? I didn't go to Mr. X's party last time, and an accident happened there. The scene was said to be very shocking... Someone from MI9 told me that Mr. X was killed on the spot and his body was taken away. The assassin used the power of a demigod... Is the Aurora Society investigating who did this? Everyone who receives a party invitation is their target? Although Xio is sometimes careless and has a direct way of thinking, he has a strong intuition in similar fields and can always think of the key points at once.

As for the murder of Mr. X, on the one hand, she was glad that she was pulled away by Fors and did not attend the party, thus avoiding the accident. On the other hand, she believed that there was nothing wrong with her and she could withstand any kind of investigation by anyone. Therefore, when she met the masked man from MI9 last week, she was calm and confident and took on the task of investigating the truth of the case. Unfortunately, she did not know which other Beyonders had attended the party, so she had no idea where to start.

Well, the gentleman from MI9 told me that the people of the Aurora Society are either already insane or latent insane, and their behavior cannot be inferred using normal people's logic. Even if they confirm that there is nothing wrong with me, they may kill me to vent their anger and warn the real murderer... Hugh walked forward with a highly tense mind, and replanned his route in the East District.

On this route, she can get help from her friends at any time, and if she is attacked, she has a good chance of escaping or fighting back.

As he walked, Hugh suddenly became dazed and found himself back at his residence in Cherwood without knowing when.

Xio entered blankly and drank a glass of water. Fors patted him on the shoulder and said,

"Accompany me to the East District."

Xio was stunned for two seconds, and then said something that seemed very familiar to him:

"You, are going out to collect materials?"

Fors immediately denied this statement, saying that she had accepted a mission before to help people find the dust left after the ghosts disappeared. The souls of the dead in the cemetery had long been purified and sent to their respective realms of gods, so they could only go to the East District to look for them.

Xio hesitated and said:

"I'm about to attend a party called by Mr. X. Can't you postpone your business for a day?"

Fors immediately put on a bitter face and said that she had been procrastinating too much and the task was about to end.

Xio sighed and agreed to accompany his friend to the East District to look for those who had just died or had been dead for some time and had not yet been discovered.

As the two were about to go out, the wind outside blew on Hugh's face. He shivered and suddenly woke up. He saw a bard sitting on the street corner, playing the lyre and singing popular songs from the southern countryside.

Xiu frowned slightly and raised his hand to rub his forehead. He felt that he was a little absent-minded just now, but he couldn't remember what he was thinking.

She continued to maintain a high level of vigilance and followed the predetermined route, entering a bar that sold lunch, and met an East District resident who occasionally provided her with intelligence.

This is a young man of about 23 or 24 years old. His eyebrows are trimmed very thinly, his brown hair falls to his shoulders, his facial features are not rough, but he wears cheap makeup, which gives people a very incongruous feeling.

"Sherman, has anything happened these days?" Hugh greeted.

According to her understanding, this young man named Sherman always believed that he should be a woman, but fate played a bad joke on him and made him a man, which caused him to suffer very serious discrimination over the past years.

Sherman smiled slightly and said:

"It was very peaceful, no man invited me to drink."

"Drinking is not good." Xio warned seriously, walked past the other person and went to the bar.

Sherman spat, walked out of the door with a swaying waist, and came to the apartment he rented.

He stayed at the door for a few dozen seconds, took two steps sideways, and knocked on the door next door.

The wooden door creaked open, and a deep but sweet female voice came out:

"Have you made your decision yet?"

Sherman stepped inside, closed the door, looked at the girl in a black dress sitting beside the bed and said:

"I still don't quite believe it. I don't believe there could be such a magical thing."

In his eyes, the girl had a slightly round face and a gentle temperament. Not only was she sweet-looking, but she also had a unique flavor. She was very charming and attractive.

Of course, for Sherman, it was more of envy than obsession.

The girl in the black skirt responded without any expression:

"Haven't you seen my old photos?"

Whenever her eyes turn, there is always a hint of melancholy in them unconsciously.

"But that might be your twin brother or younger brother. I find it hard to believe that there is really a way to turn me back into a female..." Sherman said unsteadily.

The girl in the black skirt smiled without any smile and said:

"Then you can treat this as a lie and go back."

Sherman clenched his hands little by little, and after a long silence, he said:

“I, I’m willing to give it a try. Even though I know you’re probably lying to me, I still want to give it a try.

"So, what will it cost me?"

"Follow my orders and help me do something. Don't worry, you can definitely do it." The girl in the black dress said, "To truly change your gender, you need to drink the medicine three times and complete some rituals. I will teach you."

At this point, she laughed at herself:

"You can think of a female name for yourself now."

…………

At night, in the Backlund Bridge area, in a small alley on Tiemen Street.

Hugh stood under the gas street lamp that had been broken by someone and thought about what happened this afternoon.

After confirming that she was no longer being followed, she returned to Cherwood and secretly observed Fors. She discovered that her good friend had not gone out and had stayed at home as usual, spending a lot of time reading novels, newspapers, and magazines. She also spent nearly an hour in the room with the curtains drawn, seemingly practicing her extraordinary abilities. When she had nothing else to do, she took out a piece of paper and wrote the beginning of a new book for a quarter of an hour, then tore it up, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.

She also smoked too much... and drank too much... Xio gritted her teeth secretly and saw a man in a black suit walking out of the shadows at the other end of the alley.

The man was tall and straight, with a golden mask on his face that revealed his eyes, nostrils, mouth and cheeks. He was the MI9 officer who had contacted Xio.

"What's the emergency?" he asked directly.

Although Hugh was short, he said with great momentum:

"I was followed in the East District. I suspect it was someone from the Aurora Society. They also seemed to be investigating the last gathering."

The topic that Xio had originally prepared was about a person that the other party had previously asked her to find. She intended to use clues that were not guaranteed to be true to make this urgent meeting request seem normal. But now, she had a better and more appropriate excuse, the Aurora Club.

"The crazy people in the Aurora Society are like this. Even though they know we are investigating this matter and looking for them, they will not back down. If they were not like this, they would not always be attacked." The man with the golden mask laughed and said, "To be honest, I am surprised that they did not surround you directly and take you to a deserted place to question or communicate with you."

Xio was about to answer that the Aurora Society's people hadn't followed him for too long, but suddenly he thought of the trance that made him hard to let go, so he carefully asked:

"I don't know what happened to me. For a short period of time, I seemed a little confused and couldn't remember what I was thinking."

The golden masked man was silent for a moment, and after more than ten seconds he said:

"The follow-up investigation on you should have ended... The Aurora Association attaches more importance to this matter than I thought. I will report it.

"Hmm... You said before that there were quite a lot of Beyonders who received invitations but did not attend the party?"

Xio nodded and said:

“No more than one-third of the people invited will attend each gathering.

"This is the normal state of affairs at most gatherings, and Mr. X's is no exception."

The man with the golden mask thought for a while, then asked:

"Have you found any clues about the person I asked you to find last time?"

"The one whose original name is Triss?" Seeing the other party nod, Xio shook his head and said, "Not yet. She should be a veteran."

The man in the golden mask laughed and said:

"She has killed more people than you have completed bounty missions. If you have any clues, try not to get close to her. She is very dangerous."

Xio said "hmm" and got to the point:

"Are there any new commissions this time?"

"Why are you suddenly so active?" the man with the golden mask asked with a little surprise.

Hugh responded calmly:

"I'm almost accumulating enough merit to exchange for the 'Interrogator' potion formula. I hope to get it soon."

"Actually, there's no need for that. You can just exchange for potions directly, which will save you a lot of merit." The man with the golden mask actually spoke from Xio's perspective.

I already have extraordinary characteristics! Xio shook his head and said:

"That will take a long time. Maybe I can buy the materials at other Beyonders' gatherings."

The man with the golden mask did not try to persuade him any further. He said with a half sigh and a half smile:

“Good luck to you then.

"This time there is a more complicated commission. If you can complete it, the merit should be enough."

Xio suppressed his joy and asked:

"What mission?"

The man with the golden mask said in a slightly strange tone:

“Keep an eye on the people Viscount Stratford comes into contact with, and include each one in your report and submit it to me.

"You don't need to monitor it all the time. When you have free time or are passing by, just pay attention. Believe me, you are not the only one doing this task. As long as you can submit a valuable report every week, you can get a certain amount of merit. You get it every week."

Viscount Stratford...Xiu was suddenly a little dazed again, and this time, she knew why.

This viscount is the captain of the palace guards and her father's former deputy!

ps: I recommend a book, "Plague Doctor". I read it all the way to the part about sacrifice to the banyan tree in one go, and I thought it was pretty good. I'm thinking of keeping it for a while to see how it unfolds later, and then I'll actively help promote it. After all, it's the type of book I like, with a modern background and a strong Cthulhu flavor. After the doctor profession is added, the details are very solid and textured, and the suspense of the story is also very good. I hope comrade Wall-E can hold on later. Well, friends who like this type of book can go and have a look