The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 1001: A New Beginning

The dim world stirred to life with the appearance of a white dress, which seemed to radiate a faint luminescence.

Lu Li watched in silence as the figure emerged, confined within the narrow frame that hung upon the wall. Her presence broke the quietude. With echoing footsteps, he approached the oil painting, which now seemed illuminated by an unseen beam of light.

The girl in the white dress looked up at the sound of his approach, her gaze meeting Lu Li's dark eyes.

A faint blush crept silently from her snow-white neck to her delicate features, clearly visible in the dim glow of the oil lamp.

No one could say why a ghost would blush, but it was just as Lu Li remembered seeing her before.

Lu Li extended his hand. The shy girl hesitated for a moment before her spectral, pale palm gently rested on his, allowing him to help her out of the frame.

She seemed a little flustered. As she stepped forward, her feet, clad in a long, pleated lace dress, caught on the edge of the frame, and she stumbled.

The hand he had offered Anna shifted to an embrace around her waist, while his left hand moved behind her back, making the gesture resemble the start of a formal dance.

For a moment, Anna lingered in Lu Li's arms, lost in the starry depths of his eyes, but she quickly pulled away in a fluster.

"My apologies... Thank you."Anna shyly averted her gaze, no longer daring to look at Lu Li. But soon, her girlish nature and the awkward silence compelled her to break it, asking with curiosity:

"Have we met before? You seem to... know me."

"This is our first time meeting."

"Are you a new employee?"

"I'm an exor—" He caught himself. "A friend of Benjamin's." Lu Li's voice sounded softer than usual.

"You certainly don't look like an employee..."

The image of Lu Li's handsome face and dark eyes lingered in Anna's mind, but it was soon replaced by a more pressing concern.

"Did he leave you here? He's not a good person. This gallery is haunted by ghosts..."

Anna added hastily, despite being one of those very "ghosts."

Just then, a bone-chilling cold radiated from the oil painting, now an empty landscape.

"Have... you... seen... my child...?"

"She's coming, she's coming! We have to run!"

Terrified, Anna hid behind Lu Li, tugging at the hem of his coat and urging him to flee.

Lu Li merely tilted his head, his gaze calm as he watched the spectral shadow emerge at the edge of the lamplight.

A long white dress, like a nightgown, was stained with blood. Something swollen and grotesque hung from beneath its hem, dragging behind her as she moved.

The child's body was likely upstairs, in the office.

"Why... haven't you... avenged... me...?"

Asina's line of questioning had suddenly shifted. Lu Li lowered his dark eyes and said nothing.

"Why... haven't you... avenged... me...?"

When Asina asked a second time, her voice growing more vicious and tormented, Lu Li finally responded:

"He's already dead. He died in agony."

Having received her answer, Asina fell silent. Repeating "Have... you... seen... my child...?", she retreated into the darkness, as if everything that had just happened were merely an illusion.

The chill gradually receded, and Anna, who had been hiding behind him, poked her head out again.

"You seem to know Asina, too?"

"She used to work here. Then her fiancé, Bill Eddy, brutally murdered her and their child."

"So she was that unhappy... Wait? How do you know that?"

"Benjamin told me."

Anna had no reason to doubt Lu Li, though his mysteriousness was as deep as his dark eyes. Besides, the appearance of a "friend" she could talk to delighted her.

"You're not afraid of ghosts..."

But she was still testing him cautiously.

"No."

Lu Li looked into her clear, evasive eyes.

"And what if... I'm a ghost, too?"

"You came out of an oil painting."

"Oh, right..."

Soon, Anna forgot her shyness, though she still didn't dare to meet those eyes. Gathering her skirt, she sat down beneath the oil painting and, like a sparrow, began to chirp about her life in the gallery.

Like one of the main characters in a story, a statue drew near and then retreated. Lu Li watched it calmly, and the statue, as if understanding his gaze, moved away again with the scraping sound of a heavy object.

Absorbed in her tales, Anna didn't notice the statue's appearance and continued talking. After finishing the gallery's story, she began to tell her own—the story of her family.

Occasionally, there were questions.

"I still don't know your name."

"Lu Li."

"A strange name... Is it a pseudonym?"

"No."

"Are you from Belfast?"

"No."

"From Himmfast, then?"

"No."

"You know Benjamin, so you must be from the Kingdom of Ellen?"

"No, not there either."

"Hmm... Are you always like this?"

"Like what?"

"So quiet?"

"Mhm."

Fortunately, Anna had plenty to say.

Lu Li listened quietly as Anna recounted her past, or what she could remember of it, feeling himself enveloped in a certain sense of peace and beauty...

In the distance, the faint chime of a church bell could be heard. A mysterious morning fog enveloped the still-slumbering city of Belfast.

The wick of the oil lamp on the floor had grown dim. The piercing chill that had occasionally swept through the room was gone, and the statue in the depths of the gallery had returned to its original place.

"Thank you for listening to my story."

But the time spent with Anna was coming to an end.

"Will you come back tomorrow?"

With a mixture of hope and shyness, Anna looked up, meeting his dark eyes, in which the oil lamp and the fog were reflected.

"Perhaps."

"...Goodbye, Mister Lu Li."

With unconcealed sadness, Anna returned to the oil painting. Her brightness gradually faded, solidifying back into the original heavy stillness of the canvas.

Only Lu Li remained, standing alone in the empty gallery, now shrouded in a grayish-white fog.

After standing before the oil painting for a moment, Lu Li suddenly reached out and took the painting off the wall.

In the morning, when an anxious Benjamin arrived, he found the exorcist holding the painting and standing next to the statue. His calm words frightened Benjamin so much that he nearly fainted from fear.

"There are five anomalies in this gallery. This painting and the statue, the oil painting of Dracula by the stairs, and two ghosts, Asina and Ruth. Asina has already been dealt with. I'll be taking this painting and the statue with me."

"Please, wait!"

Benjamin, covered in a cold sweat, didn't doubt him, because he already knew about the ghost of Asina and the statue.

"What about the Dracula painting and... and the ghost, Ruth?"

"You can sell the Dracula painting to an exorcist. I didn't encounter Ruth."

Lu Li, having no intention of completely cleansing the gallery, ignored Benjamin's pleas and left.

Hailing a passing morning carriage, Lu Li returned to the detective agency. He set the statue back in its usual place, lit the oil lamp, and gently tapped on the frame of the oil painting.

Anna slowly awoke, drowsily emerging from the oil painting.

"Where am I?"

She realized she was no longer in the gallery.

"Home."

Beneath the oil lamp, Anna leaned forward, moving closer to Lu Li. A faint blush appeared on her delicate, doll-like face, and her clear eyes shone as if a thousand stars were twinkling within them, conveying a message just as they had in the old days.

"So... you bought me?"

"I didn't pay. I told Benjamin there was a ghost in the painting, and he let me take it."

The shy Anna lifted the hem of her dress slightly and gave Lu Li a low curtsy, a gesture of noble etiquette.

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Mister Lu Li."