The police carried the man away, and Sia put the book on the table.
Lu Tan felt that the cover looked familiar. It showed a man in a suit working at his desk. But beside him, various ugly and abstract monsters surrounded him. The whole picture had a strong sense of disharmony and looked extremely crazy.
.
The title of the book can be seen through the translation of A Quiet Place, which is called "Shadow of Terror". If you look back at the picture on the cover, you will find that these monsters all emerged from the shadow of that person.
Lu Tiao subconsciously looked at his own shadow. It was empty and only dark.
"This is a book from the ancient capital."
Drizzt picked up the book.
"They are sold in all the bookstores in the abandoned city, and there are even manuscripts in many places. Whether they are people from the upper class or the clerks who help in the store, as long as they are literate, they all like the author's stories, even if they are illiterate.
It doesn't matter, the storyteller outside the teahouse is also telling his story."
He pointed at the storyteller standing at the door of the unaffected teahouse opposite, wearing a long gown and mandarin jacket, holding a folding fan, and wearing sunglasses.
In front of him gathered some porters, workers, and children, who were listening to the storyteller's story with great interest.
"Ancient capital?"
It was obviously the first time for Shia to hear this name.
"This is a writer, I've heard of him before."
Lu Tan had heard the name of the ancient capital during his previous mission to the abandoned capital, and knew that he was a writer who liked to write horror novels and romance stories, and he seemed to often hang out with married women.
Could it be that he is the writer we are looking for this time?
"Yes, actually... the ancient capital has disappeared."
Drizzt's expression looked a little bitter.
"Actually, my previous colleague received a commission to search for traces of the ancient capital. But at that time, I thought it was just someone's husband who found out that he had become a cuckold and wanted to seek revenge from the ancient capital. But today, I received a commission from the publishing house.
We are looking for the ancient capital, he disappeared two weeks ago and there is no news yet."
After leaving the teahouse, Drizzt led the way, and the three of them walked to a corner of the street.
Lu Tan listened to Drizzt's words while observing his surroundings.
It was just like what he had seen at that time. He could see the signboards of various shops. Most of the people walking on the road were dressed in old, tattered and shabby clothes, while the people riding rickshaws were wearing suits and leather shoes and cheongsams and long skirts. They were completely different.
Two societies.
The main road in the center is flat, but the alleys exude a stench. In some areas, the hawking sounds of walking vendors overwhelm everything and are noisy, such as vegetable markets. In some areas, there are only antiques, jade, and bookstores.
The taller shops are quiet and depressing.
The three of them soon arrived at a two-story building. There was a small teahouse on the first floor. Most of the people sitting inside were ordinary civilians. As they walked up the stairs to the second floor, Lu Tiao saw the sign "Detective Drizzt".
Office" sign.
When he opened the door, Lu Tiao first heard a lazy cat meow.
The fat orange cat didn't feel wary when he saw a stranger. He only glanced at Lu Tan and Xia, and fell asleep again without moving his tail.
"This is the landlord's cat. I don't know why it likes to come to my place to sleep."
Drizzt took off his coat, took off his hat, and placed his pipe on the shelf on the table.
His desk is messy, filled with documents, files in various formats, and scattered photos. Next to the desk is a bookshelf on the wall, which is also filled with piles of files.
There is an old sofa in the living room on the second floor. The orange cat is sleeping in the middle of the sofa. There are some leftover food on the coffee table, a half-empty wine bottle, and more gadgets whose purpose is unknown.
There was no bed on this floor, there was only an unfolded quilt next to the sofa, and it looked like Drizzt was sleeping on the sofa.
"Okay, now we can sort out the mission information."
Drizzt picked up a bottle of wine on the coffee table and looked at the two of them questioningly. Lu Tan and Shia both shook their heads, and then he poured the wine into a turbid cup and drank it all.
"Gudu was a writer. He became famous about seventeen years ago. He was good at writing horror stories, the scary kind. The horror stories he wrote were very popular among the upper class, so the publisher's books quickly sold well. He also
I wrote several books and made a lot of money."
Drizzt put down his cup, came to his desk, randomly pulled out two files, and handed them to Lu Tan and Shia.
"Some ladies, you know, are either widows whose husbands died young and inherited a large sum of inheritance, or whose husbands have been involved in romantic affairs all year round and have kept several mistresses outside. Of course, there are also some who simply don't like themselves.
Husband, we got married purely for family reasons."
"These noble ladies were addicted to Gudu's novels and naturally became interested in this writer. They would sometimes hold some poetry salons and invite literati to participate. Gudu was one of them. After the salon ended, the others dispersed. Gudu
Sometimes I would spend the night at their house.”
He smiled and poured half a glass of wine again. This time he did not drink it directly. Instead, he sat on the sofa and touched the sleeping orange cat beside him.
"Over time, Gudu's reputation has become strange. Sometimes, some of his female readers are even willing to trade their bodies for a night with him. But this guy is really amazing. He has a lot of love stories, and
I am very energetic and can sometimes go to three houses in one night.”
"Three families?"
Shia tilted her head in confusion.
"Ahem, in short, because his works are quite popular, the rich people in the abandoned capital cannot openly harm him. There are some eccentric masters who specially invite Gudu to his home to create with his wife. However,
His behavior will always cause some dissatisfaction, and the publishing house wonders whether a master of some family may have taken action against the ancient capital because he was labeled as such, and killed him or hid him."
Drizzt saw that Shia didn't quite understand, so he changed the subject again.
"I think our mission this time is to find the ancient capital."
"Since it's a mission, Gudu should not be dead, maybe just kidnapped. Well, wait a minute, what happened to that person just now? Is there anything special about that novel?"
Naturally, Lu Tan had never read the book about the ancient capital, so he asked.
"The book itself is an ordinary book, there is nothing special about it, it's just this novel..."
Drizzt pulled out a book from his bookshelf, it was "Shadow of Terror", and it was even more brand-new, like a new book that he had just bought and hadn't read yet.
"I wasn't interested in these novels and haven't read them before, but for the sake of research I asked for a set from the publishing house. I read another one last night. I can only say that it makes sense for the ancient capital to become famous. Since that man
It is said that this book is the reason why he attacked us, so maybe we can take a look at what is written in it."