The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 301: The Eternal Dreamer

The carriage was sent back to Belfast with a hired coachman. When Lu Li left the office, it was already bright enough outside to see without a lamp.

Unless, of course, you needed to find something on the ground.

On his way home, Lu Li passed by the market. Crowds of people brought some life to the dreary, rainy day, but anxiety was etched on most of their faces—food prices were skyrocketing. The money that would have bought five kilograms of flour three days ago could barely purchase three today.

Few people haggled with the vendors, and even fewer dared to buy anything.

If the city council didn't intervene, the prices would continue to climb.

Fortunately, Belfast was a coastal city, and in a dire emergency, people could fish in the bay. It was hardly enough to fill their stomachs, but it would at least stave off starvation.

A thick fog shrouded Belfast, obscuring the bay from view. Lu Li imagined that many of the city's poor were already out there, searching for food along the shore or taking small boats out to sea, despite the rain.

After buying enough food at the market to last a few days—at prices one and a half times higher than normal—Lu Li stopped by a grocery store and spent his remaining 2,000 shillings on two crates of canned beef.

The shop owner, true to his word, gave Lu Li a discount, so the price was the same as usual.

To the astonished gazes of the owner, clerks, and other customers, Lu Li lifted the two twenty-kilogram crates without any apparent effort and walked out of the shop.In reality, Anna was carrying the crates; Lu Li was merely putting on a show.

With the two crates of canned food, he returned to his damp apartment, which smelled of wood. An exhausted-looking man was sitting against the wall in the dark hallway. Lu Li walked past him and entered the detective agency.

Anna tied on an apron and went to the kitchen to prepare her signature dinner. Lu Li picked up the three newspapers that had been slipped under the door, placed them on the table, took off his black coat, rolled up his sleeves, and went to wash up.

He soon returned and sat down at the table.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Lu Li turned toward the entrance.

Standing in the doorway was a woman Lu Li had seen a few times before—his neighbor from across the hall.

She explained that a man had come looking for him that morning. He had seemed very agitated and, upon learning Lu Li wasn't home, had decided to wait by the door.

Lu Li recalled the exhausted man in the hallway.

After thanking his neighbor, Lu Li was about to go out to the man, but she had already brought him over.

The man had clearly been waiting for quite some time.

The oil lamp he was holding suggested as much.

Lu Li invited the man inside, closed the door, and sat back down at the table.

The man had come without an umbrella and was soaked to the bone. Even his long wait in the hallway hadn't been enough to dry his clothes. His chestnut hair was plastered to his forehead, and water dripped occasionally from his trousers.

He seemed oblivious to it all. With his head slightly bowed, his eyes were lost in shadow. His pale lips trembled as he asked, "Are you an exorcist?"

"Yes."

"I need your help..."

Lu Li hadn't taken a case in a long time. The meager pay—usually just a few hundred shillings—was part of the reason, but the main issue was that they were too time-consuming.

So, Lu Li cut straight to the point: "How much can you pay?"

The man snapped his head up, and Lu Li saw his bloodshot eyes. "Anything!"

"Be more specific."

"In cash... I have five or six hundred shillings!"

Not a lot, but not too little, either.

Lu Li decided to hear him out. If it didn't seem like it would take too long, he would take the job.

"Tell me what happened."

Lu Li pushed a chair toward him, but the man didn't sit. He remained standing, slightly hunched, shivering from the cold. He didn't even bother to introduce himself before launching into his story.

It started a few years... or rather, a few days ago.

One night, he had a dream. He told Lu Li that the dream had been unusually realistic, but he didn't go into detail.

The next night, he had another equally realistic dream, but this time, it lasted for an entire day.

Yet he woke up at his usual time.

The long dream had no effect on reality.

At that point, the man didn't see it as a problem and went on with his life as usual.

Until the third night.

This time, he spent a full week in his dream. When he opened his eyes, only a single night had passed in the real world.

He realized something was wrong, and the ever-lengthening dreams began to interfere with his life. He tried to sleep less, or not at all, but nothing helped.

Two days later, unable to stay awake any longer, he dozed off for a short while. That brief nap stretched into nearly a month—in dream time.

In reality, he had only slept for a few hours and even had a headache from sleep deprivation. But in his dream, he had lived through almost an entire month.

The long dream erased many of his recent memories. He struggled to recall what he had eaten the day before or what he had discussed with his colleagues.

He started making mistakes at work because he couldn't remember anything.

After all, to him, yesterday felt like a month ago.

He grew fearful, desperately trying to stay awake, and finally went to see a doctor.

He was terrified that his next dream would last for years.

But while he was waiting for his appointment at the clinic, he unintentionally drifted off.

This time, for two years.

The long dream wiped out most of his already fading memory. Everything around him seemed like it had happened two years ago. He had even forgotten where he was until the smell of disinfectant and the sight of a nurse in a white coat telling him the doctor was ready finally brought him back.

Only then did he remember why he had come.

With bloodshot eyes, he burst into the doctor's office and described his symptoms.

"The doctor said it wasn't an illness and advised me to see an exorcist," the man finished, his voice laced with despair.

Lu Li remained silent. It was clear that the local medicine left much to be desired.

"Have you seen a psychologist?" Lu Li asked.

"I'm not crazy!" the man roared.

In this world, being declared mentally ill was a terrible fate. It meant being stripped of your basic rights, confined to a psychiatric hospital that was little different from a prison, and subjected to brutal treatment: forced restraints and regular beatings.

"Mental illness and psychological problems aren't the same thing..."

Lu Li suddenly fell silent.

He realized that lecturing the man would accomplish nothing. Even in his own world, many educated people shied away from psychologists, equating mental health issues with madness. What hope was there in a place like this?

Explanations were pointless.