The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 317: Rising Tensions

“How did you get in?”

Lu Li addressed the silhouette sitting on the couch. As soon as he spoke, the icy aura emanating from Anna dissipated.

“The statue let me in,” the man replied, nodding toward the sculpture by the entrance.

“Next time, if we’re not home, don’t open the door for anyone,” Lu Li told the sculpture, which had recently become unusually active. The sculpture remained motionless, perhaps listening.

Lu Li didn’t bother asking the man why he was so unfazed by a moving sculpture. After all, his own dreams were far stranger and more bizarre than reality.

Closing his umbrella and placing it by the door, Lu Li shut the door and sat down at his desk. He looked at the man, waiting for an explanation.

Lu Li assumed the man would bring up the newspaper article, but he started with something else entirely.

“It’s been a long time,” the man began. His clothes hadn’t changed since their last meeting two days ago, but he looked like a completely different person.

His worn, desperate expression had given way to a profound calm, and his clear eyes held a deep wisdom. Not a trace remained of the man he had been.

It was strange. He seemed to have become a wise elder who had lived through ages, though he appeared to be only a few years older than Lu Li.“A long time,” Lu Li agreed.

“Two hundred and thirty-one years.”

Considering the man had spent millennia in his dreams, his strange transformation made sense.

After a brief pause, the man explained the purpose of his visit. “Over such a vast span of time, I’ve forgotten so much. Only a few things remain in my memory: my parents, a few happy and sad moments, and your help.”

“During those two hundred and thirty-one years, I constantly recalled your words. At first, I didn’t understand them; I even resisted them. But over time, after decades, I began to grasp their meaning. It helped me open up. I managed to accept my new world, and it accepted me. The world of my dreams became a part of my life.”

The man spoke slowly, like the old man he had often been in his dreams, and this seemed to have changed his perception.

“Sometimes, the infinity of this world troubles me, but more often, I feel gratitude... I am glad to continue living, especially when I see how quickly others fade away, like sparks—even those mythical creatures that yearned for immortality.”

“Before I fell into despair.”

“Your help was invaluable, but there is nothing I can do to repay you now... If you have any questions, you can ask me. If, of course, my consciousness hasn’t dissolved into the infinity of time by then.”

The man stood up and headed for the door. Stopping at the threshold, he added, “Just in case, please, don’t take too long.”

With that, he disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.

“He’s like a philosopher,” Anna remarked, appearing after the man had gone. She frowned. “That man gave me a strange feeling, especially when he glanced in my direction a few times—as if he could see me.”

“A person’s every action enriches their life experience, and he has had enough time to experience everything,” Lu Li replied.

“So, is he a good person?”

“Without a doubt.”

Anna was surprised. Lu Li usually answered evasively, and this was the first time she had seen him so certain.

“Why?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“Do you know what dice are?”

“Um... I think so.”

Lu Li didn’t change his analogy despite Anna’s uncertainty and continued, “If you roll dice many times, each side will come up a different number of times. But with more rolls, the frequency of each side appearing becomes more and more even.”

“It’s the same with that man.”

“He could have been evil at one moment, good in another, or wavered between these and other qualities. But in the end, they all fuse and harden into a single whole.”

“It will be neither good nor evil, nor a mixture of the two.”

“Such a transformation won’t be long in coming. It might happen tomorrow, or the day after.”

Anna understood some of it, but much remained unclear. However, she knew that if Lu Li said so, it must be true. So she changed the subject. “So, he can really help us, like he said?”

“Yes.”

But time was limited.

If the man’s time in his dreams continued to expand infinitely, sooner or later he would lose himself in that infinity, until his consciousness disappeared completely.

Then he would be alive, but at the same time, dead.

The man had already realized this. That was why he had warned Lu Li before he left.

They needed to hurry.

“Aaaaaah!”

Suddenly, a child’s cry rang out in the hallway outside, mixed with snippets of conversation and the sound of neighbors’ doors opening.

Lu Li’s reflections were cut short, and he glanced toward the door.

The news in the paper had caused a panic in Belfast. The sky had already darkened, but the streets were still crowded. People huddled under awnings, talking animatedly and glancing with envy at those who could afford to buy a few more supplies.

Fragments of conversations, in which “prices” and “bandits” were often mentioned, drifted into the detective agency.

Fortunately, the rainy season was approaching, and most residents had managed to stock up on provisions before the bad news broke.

The remaining food in the kitchen was enough for two days. Anna asked Lu Li to buy more tomorrow and went to prepare dinner.

As darkness fell, people began to disperse to their homes.

After dinner, Lu Li drew the curtains, lit a second lamp, and lay down on the couch.

“Good night,” came Anna’s voice from the bedroom. After that, only the quiet rustle of pages remained.

The night was restless. Various sounds drifted in from the street: arguments, crying, the clatter of wheels.

Most of the city’s inhabitants spent the night in anxiety.

...

Morning, 5:50 AM.

The sky began to lighten as people woke up.

Smoke rose from partially blocked chimneys, but more often it curled from doorways and windows.

The cold air mingled with the acrid smoke of burning firewood.

It was hard to say what woke Lu Li—his internal clock or the smell of smoke seeping into the detective agency.

Anna noticed at once that Lu Li was awake. As usual, she opened the curtains and went to the kitchen to light the fire and prepare breakfast.

After breakfast, Lu Li and Anna prepared to leave, with Anna concealing her presence. She gave some last instructions to the sculpture, and they left the detective agency.

Hiring a carriage, they set off to pick up the Jones brothers and, while they were at it, the distiller.

When the carriage pulled up to the Jones brothers’ house, Lu Li saw all four of them waiting for him by the door. Today, they looked even more downcast than yesterday, their faces clouded with anxiety.

Lu Li understood the reason for their unease, but there was nothing he could do to help.

He himself could only try to survive the events to come.