The picture began to distort, blur, and disappear.

Klein came out of that dream-like experience, and his vision adjusted to the darkness of the bedroom.

He knew that his brother Benson had a weekly salary of 1 pound and 10 soli, or 30 soli, and it was quite difficult to support himself and Melissa according to normal civilian standards.

He thought that most workers earned 20 soli a week.

He had heard Melissa mention that in the lower street of Iron Cross Street, there were families with five, seven, or even ten people living in the same room.

He learned from Benson that in the past few months, the kingdom had experienced an economic downturn due to the situation in the southern continent.

He had learned that a maid who did odd jobs with room and board could earn between 3 soli and 6 pence to 6 soli a week.

Klein stretched out his hand and pinched his brow. He did not speak for a long time until Sir Deville, who was lying on the bed, spoke:

"Officer, don't you want to say something? The psychologists I hired before would always chat with me and ask questions in this environment at this time."

"But I did feel at peace. I almost fell asleep just now, but I didn't hear any moaning or crying."

"How did you do that?"

Klein leaned back in his rocking chair and asked instead of answering. He spoke in a calm voice:

"Sir, do you know about lead poisoning? Do you know the harm of lead?"

"..." Deville, who was lying on the bed, was silent for a few seconds and said, "I didn't know it before, but I found out later. You mean, my psychological problem, or mental illness, is because I feel guilty about those lead-making and glazing women?"

Without waiting for Klein to answer, he spoke as he always did when he took the initiative in a negotiation:

"Yes, I did feel guilty before, but I have already compensated them. In my lead white factory and porcelain factory, each worker can get a much higher salary than similar places. In Backlund, the weekly salary of lead-making and glazing women workers does not exceed 8 soli, while I pay them 10 soli, or even more."

"Oh, many people accuse me of making them lose their morals and difficult to recruit workers. If it weren't for the repeal of the Corn Laws, many farmers would have gone bankrupt and moved to the city, and they would have followed me to raise wages."

"I also told the factory supervisor to ask workers who had repeated headaches and blurred vision to leave places where they could be exposed to lead. If they became seriously ill, they could apply for assistance from my charity fund."

"I think I've done enough."

Klein spoke without any fluctuation in his tone:

"Sir, sometimes you can never imagine how important a paycheck is to a poor person. Even if they are unemployed for just one or two weeks, their families will suffer irreversible and extremely tragic damage."

He paused, then asked:

"I'm curious, why don't you, who is so caring, install equipment to protect against dust and lead poisoning in your factory?"

Deville looked at the ceiling and smiled bitterly:

"That would make my costs unacceptably high, and I would be completely unable to compete with other lead and porcelain factories. I no longer care too much about the profits from this, and I'm even willing to subsidize part of the money, but what's the point of always doing this? This can only help a small number of workers, and it can't become an industry standard to drive them to make changes."

"This will lead to me just spending money to support people. I heard that some factories are secretly using slaves to save costs."

Klein clasped his hands together and said in silence:

"Sir, your psychological problems are caused by the accumulated guilt, even though you thought it had faded and disappeared. Originally, this would not have any obvious impact, but something happened that stimulated you and ignited all your problems at once."

"Something irritated me? I didn't know there was such a thing." Deville said with both confusion and certainty.

Klein let his body sway gently in the rocking chair and explained in a calm tone:

"You actually fell asleep for a few minutes just now and told me something."

"Hypnotherapy?" Deville habitually made guesses and drew conclusions.

Klein did not give a direct answer, but said directly:

"You once saw a woman working on her way to work in a carriage. She died of lead poisoning while glazing your porcelain."

"..." Deville rubbed his temples and whispered uncertainly, "It seems that there was such a thing...but I don't remember it clearly..."

Long-term insomnia has caused his mental state to be very bad, and he seemed to have vaguely seen similar scenes.

He thought about it, stopped squeezing his poor brain, and asked:

"What's the name of that woman?"

"Well, I mean, what can I do to treat my mental problems?"

Klein answered in a low and concise voice:

"Two things."

"First, the female worker who died on the roadside was named Hayley Walker. You told me that she was the most direct cause of the incident. Therefore, you need to find her parents and give them more compensation."

"Second, publicize the dangers of lead in newspapers and magazines, use your charity to help more workers who are harmed, and if you can become a senator, promote legislation in this regard."

Deville sat up slowly, smiled self-deprecatingly and said:

"I will do everything else, but as for legislation, I don't think it's possible because there are foreign competitors. Legislation will only cause these industries in the kingdom to fall into an overall crisis. They will go bankrupt one after another, and a large number of workers will lose their jobs. The Poor Relief Organization cannot save so many people."

He slowly got out of bed, straightened his collar, and looked at Klein.

"Hayley Walker, right? I will immediately ask Karen to go to the porcelain factory to get her information and ask her parents to come over. Officer, please wait with me and evaluate my mental state at all times."

“Okay.” Klein stood up slowly and patted his black police uniform with white checkered patterns.

…………

Eleven o'clock in the morning, in the living room on the first floor of Deville's house.

Klein, who had been silent, sat on the single sofa and watched in silence as a man and a woman were led in by the housekeeper Karen.

The two guests had rough skin and wrinkles on their faces. The man's back was slightly hunched, and the woman had a black mole on her eyelid.

They basically matched the appearance that Klein had seen through Hayley, but they looked older and more haggard, so thin that one could almost see their bones, and their clothes were old and tattered. It was said that they could barely even live on the lower streets of Iron Cross.

Woo…

A cold wind began to swirl in Klein's mind.

He pinched his brows and turned his gaze to Sir Deville, and saw that a pale, transparent, distorted figure had emerged behind him at some point.

"Morning, good morning, your Excellency." Hayley's parents saluted very stiffly.

Deville rubbed his forehead and asked:

"Are you Hayley Walker's parents? Doesn't she have a brother and a two-year-old sister?"

Hailiye's mother replied fearfully, "She, her brother broke his leg at the dock some time ago. He broke his leg, so we asked him to take care of his sister at home."

Deville was silent for a few seconds, then sighed and said:

"I express my deepest sympathy for Hailie's misfortune."

Hearing this, Hai Liye's father and mother's eyes suddenly turned red. They spoke one after another, saying in a mixed tone:

"Thank you, thank you for your kindness."

"The police told us, told us, that Hailie died of lead poisoning. Is that the word? Oh, my poor child, she was only seventeen years old. She was always very quiet and stubborn."

"You sent someone to see her and funded the burial expenses. She is buried in Raphael Cemetery."

Deville glanced at Klein, changed his sitting position, leaned forward, and said in a heavy tone:

"This was actually an oversight on our part and I need to apologize."

"I've thought about it. I have to compensate you, compensate Hayley. Her weekly salary is 10 soli, right? That's 540 soli a year, um, 27 pounds. Let's assume that she can still work for at least 10 years."

"Karen, give 300 pounds to Hailie's parents."

"3,300 pounds?" Haley's father and mother were stunned.

When they were at their most financially comfortable, their savings did not exceed 1 pound!

Not only them, but also the bodyguards and servants in the living room were all shocked and envious. Even Sheriff Gate couldn't help but breathe heavily - his weekly salary was only two pounds, and the only police officer under him, "V", only received one pound.

In the midst of an unspeakable silence, the housekeeper Karen came out of the study with a bulging cloth bag in her hand.

He opened the sack, revealing stacks of banknotes inside, some 1 pound, some 5 pounds, but more of them were 1 soli and 5 soli notes.

It can be seen that Deville had someone exchange the "change" from the bank in advance.

"This is a gift from the lord." With the owner's approval, Karen handed the cloth bag to Hayley's parents.

Hailie's father and mother took it, rubbed their eyes, and looked at it over and over again.

"No, this, this is too generous, we shouldn't accept it." They said, holding the cloth bag tightly.

Deville said in a deep voice:

"This is what Hai Liye should get."

"You, you are such a noble and kind knight!" Hayley's parents bowed repeatedly with excitement.

Smiles appeared on their faces, smiles that could not be suppressed.

They praised Sir Deville over and over again, they repeated the few adjectives they had, and they repeatedly said that Hayley would definitely be grateful to them in heaven.

"Karen, send someone to take them back, um, take them to the bank first." Deville breathed a sigh of relief and instructed the butler.

Hailie's father and mother hugged the cloth bag tightly and walked quickly towards the door without daring to stop.

Crane saw that the pale, transparent figure behind Sir Deville tried to reach out to them and tried to follow them away, but they smiled extremely brightly and did not look back.

The figure became fainter and fainter, and soon disappeared completely.

But in Klein's perception, the coldness in the living room seemed normal.

He just watched quietly from beginning to end without expressing any opinion.

"Officer, I feel much better. Can you tell me now why my butler, servants and bodyguards can also hear crying and groaning? Shouldn't this be just a psychological problem unique to me?" Deville looked over curiously.

Inspector Toller, who knew the inside story, became nervous.

Klein replied without any expression:

"In psychology, we call this phenomenon mass hysteria."

PS: The prototypes of several female workers in the previous chapter are taken from Jack London's "The Dwellers of the Abyss: A Journey into East London"