novelraw Chapter 307: The Photograph
Chapter 307: The Photograph
Old Warm Street.
The Ruin District.
The Nameless District.
This once-cozy street had gone by many names. But ever since the new Warm Street was built, no one called these ruins by that name anymore.
The reason for Old Warm Street's destruction was long forgotten. It happened over a decade ago, and the cause of the fire was now just a matter of rumor and conspiracy theory. After all, the blaze had consumed the entire length of the street, while the neighboring Black Cat District, Hancock Quarter, Theory Quarter, and Martin Quarter were only partially blackened by soot.
That night, the raging inferno claimed hundreds of lives. Aside from a dozen unfortunate souls who burned alive, most of the victims suffocated from the acrid smoke that flooded the streets.
The fire was extinguished by noon the next day. The survivors were relocated by the city hall to new homes, encouraged to forget their grief and start a new life.
Warm Street had been prime real estate, and logically, reconstruction should have begun long ago. But it seemed that because the land was partly owned by members of the high nobility—perhaps due to a squabble over the spoils, or for some other reason—the area was simply abandoned. No one cleared it, and no one rebuilt.
All of this culminated in the scene that now lay before Lu Li: a sprawling expanse of blackened ruins under the falling rain.
“There are no souls, nor any kind of aura.”Anna murmured quietly beside him.
Lu Li stood under his umbrella, facing the gray cobblestones. Hearing Anna’s words, he stepped forward, entering the derelict district of shattered buildings.
The rain blurred his vision, obscuring both the district's full layout and the world beyond it, creating the illusion of an entire kingdom of burnt ruins stretching out around them.
Looming ruins, half-collapsed houses, crooked and charred wooden beams... Along the way, they occasionally passed a relatively intact home. Despite its scorched and dilapidated appearance, it still retained the basic shape of a building.
Just as JoJo had suggested, the district was not entirely forgotten.
In the sturdier houses and beneath the crumbling structures, scavengers wrapped in layers of clothing could be seen taking shelter from the rain. Some had even built small fires to keep warm.
This somewhat lessened the sense of desolation that emanated from the surrounding ruins.
They watched—some with indifference, others with curiosity, and a few with ill intent—the figure walking along the blackened pavement. This slender man with a mysterious air about him would often pause before the half-ruined and relatively intact houses, study the barely legible number plates, and then continue on his way.
Lu Li was approaching house number 16, the one mentioned in the letter.
A few minutes later, Lu Li came to a stop before a three-story stone building.
Aside from its soot-stained walls and shattered windows, it was the most intact building Lu Li had seen. It stood alone, surrounded by nothing but ruins.
The building even had its front door, though it was charred almost to charcoal.
A metal number plate hung on the wall beside the door, bearing the marks of fire and the number 19.
The numerals 1 and 9 were not parallel; the 9 was hung half as low as the 1, as if...
Lu Li approached the strangely oppressive black building. The persistent stench of smoke wafted from behind the dilapidated door.
Just as Lu Li had suspected, the plate bore the faint impression of a 6. He raised his hand and turned the 9 upside down, transforming it into a 6. The impression aligned perfectly with the numeral, and now both digits were parallel.
This was the place.
He pushed the charred wooden door. It scraped against the ground as it swung open, revealing a dark hallway.
Anna materialized and stood behind Lu Li, protectively.
“Is something wrong?” Lu Li reached for the oil lamp in his inventory.
“It just feels... gloomy in here, the atmosphere...” Anna froze for a moment, listening, then shook her head. “No, I don’t sense anything.”
Lu Li opened the lamp’s valve and struck the flint, igniting a dim flame inside.
Lamp in hand, Lu Li folded his umbrella and stepped into the dark corridor.
The scorched floor felt coarse, as if covered in sand and grit. The walls bore signs of intense heat, but they quickly faded the deeper he went into the hallway.
The fire hadn't badly damaged the stone building.
The cold, damp corridor was free of dust. Lu Li walked past a staircase leading to the second floor and another hallway, found room 101, and continued on until he stopped before the door marked 103.
Standing before the door, Lu Li didn’t open it.
“Did you sense something?” Anna asked quietly.
“You could say that,” Lu Li replied.
“This is the only intact house we’ve come across. The people sheltering in the ruins couldn't have missed it.”
This place looked much safer than the wind-swept ruins.
“Maybe that woman did something? She’s an Investigator, after all.”
“Perhaps.”
Lu Li grasped the doorknob and pressed down slightly, but didn’t turn it.
The door was locked.
“I’ll open it,” Anna said. She passed through the door and unlocked it from the inside.
The door creaked open, releasing a musty smell. Anna’s voice followed. “To live in a place like this... It’s strange... Though I suppose it’s very much her style.”
Most people assume that gloomy individuals should live in gloomy places.
Like that time they went to the wrong address on Warm Street.
The bird-beaked woman’s apartment was simple, somewhat reminiscent of the detective agency. Besides the bare necessities, there was nothing extra. Just like the agency, it had only a living room, a bedroom, and a kitchen.
It was one of the few houses with intact windows, raindrops trickling down the glass, keeping the weather out.
To the quiet sound of the rain, Lu Li entered the room and glanced up at the chandelier.
The wires had burned out long ago, so the chandelier was now just an ornament.
There didn’t seem to be anything of value here.
Anna searched the living room and bedroom, and when she returned, she held out a picture frame to Lu Li. “Is this the woman in the beak mask we met in the hut?”
Lu Li took the frame and wiped away a layer of dust. Beneath it, a slightly blurry photograph was revealed.
In the black-and-white photo, the faces of two people were barely discernible, though one could make out a youthful awkwardness in their poses. They stood pressed closely together, like a couple in love. In the background was the facade of this very building.
“Yes, that’s her,” Lu Li said, handing the frame back to Anna.
“How do you know? Maybe it’s her parents?”
Anna took the frame in confusion and studied the photograph.
“Photography has only been around for a little over ten years, and women taller than five-foot-seven are not that common.”
Anna, seeming to understand, nodded and put the frame back in its place. “But I didn’t find a basement.”
Lu Li remained silent, his gaze shifting to the wooden closet door next to the kitchen.
He walked over to the closet and opened the door.
There was a rustle...
A sinister, cold air washed over his face, and from the darkness beneath a staircase, an evil whisper drifted out...
Lu Li quickly slammed the door leading to the basement shut.