Part 1 The Joker Chapter 2 The Situation
Stomp!
Zhou Mingrui was so shocked by the sight in front of him that he retreated a few steps, as if what was in the dressing mirror was not himself, but a dried corpse.
How could someone with such serious wounds still be alive!
He turned his head sideways again in disbelief and examined the other side, even though the distance was stretched and the light was blurred, he could still see the presence of penetrating wounds and deep red blood stains.
”This ……”
Zhou Mingrui took a breath and tried to calm himself.
He reached out and pressed towards the left side of his chest, feeling the violent, rapid and vibrant beating of his heart.
Touching the exposed skin again, the slight coldness masked a warm flow.
After crouching downward and verifying that his knees could still bend, Zhou Mingrui reared up, no longer so flustered.
”What’s going on?” He frowned and whispered, intending to carefully examine the head wound once more.
After taking two steps forward, he suddenly stopped because the light of the blood moon outside the window was relatively dim, not enough to support the “serious examination”.
A fragment of memory came out in response, and Zhou Mingrui turned his head to look at the gray pipe and metal grill surrounded by wall lamps on the wall adjacent to the desk.
It was a gas lamp, the current mainstream, with a steady flame and excellent illumination.
Originally, with Klein Moretti’s family situation, not to mention gas lamps, even kerosene lamps should not be extravagant, the use of candles is consistent with the status and position of the performance, but four years ago, he stayed up all night to study, for the Hoy University Entrance Examination, his brother Benson thought that this is an important matter related to the future of the family, even if borrowing debt to create a good condition for him.
Of course, literacy and work for several years Benson is definitely not reckless, lack of means, do not think about the consequences of the person, he used “the installation of gas piping is conducive to improve the grade of the apartment, will help the future rental” as the reason to persuade the landlord to pay to complete the basic renovation, and his own use of import and export company to work for the convenience of the company, get the I used the convenience of working for an import and export company to get a new type of gas lamp at nearly cost price, and used only my savings without borrowing any money from anyone.
Fragments flickered by, Zhou Mingrui back to the desk, open the pipe valve, twist the gas lamp switch.
Da da da da, friction ignition sound even sounded, but the light did not come as Zhou Mingrui expected.
Da da da da! He twisted a few more times, but the gas lamp remained dim.
”Hmmm …… “Retracting his hand and pressing on his left temple, Zhou Mingrui squeezed up fragments of memory to find the cause of the matter.
After a few seconds, he turned his body and walked towards the side of the door, coming to the same mechanical device set into the wall with the same grayish pipes connecting it.
It was the gas meter!
Looking at the gears and bearings that were exposed a little, Zhou Mingrui pulled out a coin from his pants pocket.
It was dark yellow in color, glittering copper, with the head of a man wearing a crown on the front, and the word “1” surrounded by ears of wheat on the back.
Zhou Mingrui knows that this is the most basic currency of the Kingdom of Ruen, called copper pennies, the actual purchasing power of 1 penny is equivalent to three or four dollars before he crossed the border, the value of this coin is also 5 pence, half a penny and a quarter of a penny three kinds of coins, but it’s still not fine enough, in daily life, or from time to time to make up the whole to buy things.
After turning the copper penny, which was only issued when King George III ascended the throne, around his fingertips a few times, Zhou Mingrui twisted it and inserted it into the long, thin, vertically open “mouth” of the gas meter.
Ding, ding, ding!
As the penny fell to the bottom inside the meter, the sound of gears turning clicked and clicked, playing a short but beautiful mechanical melody.
Zhou Mingrui stared at it for a few seconds, rejoined the log-colored desk, and reached out to twist the switch on the gas lamp.
Ta-da-da-da, snap!
A clump of flames flared up, quickly growing larger, and bright light first took over the interior of the wall sconce, then passed through the clear glass, casting the room in a warm color.
As the darkness suddenly shrank away and Crimson exited the window, Zhou Mingrui was inexplicably reassured for a few moments and quickly walked to the dressing mirror.
This time, he carefully scrutinized the location of his temples, not sparing a single detail.
After a few comparisons, he found that apart from the initial blood stains, the hideous wound did not ooze out any more liquid, as if it had received the best hemostasis and bandage, while the slowly wriggling grayish brain and the blood and flesh of the wound that was growing at a rate visible to the naked eye were signaling the healing to come, maybe in thirty or forty minutes, maybe in two or three hours, there would be only shallow traces left there.
”A healing effect from crossing over?” Zhou Mingrui cocked the right corner of his mouth and whispered wordlessly.
Then, he exhaled a long breath, no matter what the reason was, at least he was still alive!
Settling his mind, he pulled the drawer and took out the small bar of soap, removing one of the worn towels hanging next to the cupboard before opening the door and walking towards the tenant’s common washroom on the second floor.
Well, the blood on his head would have to be dealt with before he always looked like a crime scene, and it didn’t matter if he scared himself, if he scared his sister, Melissa, who would have to get up early tomorrow, then things wouldn’t end well!
The corridor outside the door was dark, only the scarlet moonlight spilling in from the window at the end barely sketched the outlines of the things protruding from it, making them look like a pair of monstrous eyes silently watching the living in the depths of the night.
Zhou Mingrui softened his steps and walked towards the washroom with a bit of trepidation.
Once inside, the moonlight was even more abundant, and everything was clear, Zhou Mingrui stood in front of the washstand and unscrewed the tap.
The water clattered into his ears, and he thought of his landlord, Mr. French, with a huff.
Because the cost of water was included in the rent, this short and slim gentleman with a bowler hat, vest and black formal coat always actively came to inspect several washrooms and eavesdrop on the sound of running water inside.
If the clatter was loud, then Mr. French would, in spite of his gentlemanly manners, swing his cane fiercely, strike the lavatory door, and exclaim, “Damned thief!” “Waste is a shameful thing!” “I’ll remember you!” “Let me see you one more time, and take your filthy luggage and get out!” “Trust me, this is the best value apartment in all of Tingen, and you won’t find a more generous landlord than me!”
Retracting his thoughts, Zhou Mingrui dampened a towel and cleaned up the blood on his face, over and over again.
Once he had looked in the tattered mirror of the washroom and confirmed that only the hideous wounds and pale face remained, Zhou Mingrui relaxed for a moment before removing his linen shirt and rubbing the stained blood spots with the help of soap.
It was at this time that he frowned, remembering that perhaps there was other trouble:
With the exaggerated wounds and numerous blood stains, there should be traces of it in the room, in addition to his own body!
After a few minutes, Zhou Mingrui disposed of the linen shirt, took a wet towel and quickly returned home, first wiping the bloody handprints on the desk, and then relying on the glow of the gas lamp, looking for other residues.
This search, he immediately found a number of splattered blood spots on the floor and the bottom of the desk, and by the left-hand wall, there is a yellow bullet head.
”…… fired a shot with a revolver against his temple?” The clues before and after hollered through, and Zhou Mingrui probably understood the cause of Klein’s death.
He did not rush to verify, but first seriously wiped off the bloodstains, dealt with the “scene”, and then put on the bullet, returned to the desk, opened the pistol wheel to the left, poured out the bullets inside.
Snapped, a total of five bullets, a shell, all flowing brass luster.
”Sure enough ……,” Zhou Mingrui looked at the empty cartridge case and nodded slightly as he stuffed the bullets back into the rotary wheel one by one.
His eyes shifted to the left, looking at the notebook written on the sentence “everyone will die, including me”, his heart followed the emergence of more doubts.
Where did the gun come from?
Suicide, or suicide in disguise?
What could a civilian-born history graduate have gotten himself into?
How did this type of suicide only leave this bit of bloodstain? Is it because I crossed over in time and came with healing benefits?
After a moment of contemplation, Zhou Mingrui changed into another linen shirt, sat down on a chair, and pondered over more important matters.
What happened to Klein was not the focus of one’s concern at the moment, the real problem was figuring out why he had traveled across and whether he could travel back again!
Parents, relatives, dead friends, friends, the colorful online world, a variety of food …… which are all want to go back to the urgent mood!
Snap, snap, snap …… Zhou Mingrui’s right hand unconsciously flung out the pistol revolver and gathered it back again, again and again.
”Well, this period of time and the past is not too different ah, just a little bit of bad luck, how can somehow cross the line?”
”Bad luck …… Right, I did a transmigration ceremony before dinner tonight!”
A bolt of lightning crossed Zhou Mingrui’s mind, illuminating his memories that were obscured by the fog.
As a qualified keyboard politician, keyboard historian, keyboard economist, keyboard biologist, keyboard folklorist, he has always claimed to “know a little bit of everything”, of course, the diehard party also often ridiculed as “only a little bit of everything”.
One of them is the square art.
Last year, back home, in the old bookstore found a threadbare vertical version of the “Qin Han Secret Records of the Square Art”, looking quite interesting, think it helps to pretend to be on the Internet, so I bought it back, but, unfortunately, interest in the fast, go away quickly, the vertical version of the reading sense is very poor, I only flipped through the beginning of the book, and threw the book into a corner to go.
Waiting for the last month of continuous bad luck, lost his cell phone, customers run away, work mistakes, bad things round to come, only by chance remembered “Fangjiao Chronicle” at the beginning of a transit ceremony, and the requirements are extremely simple, without any foundation:
Just get four copies of the staple food in the region, put the four corners of the room, which can be on the table, cabinets, etc., and then stand to the center of the room, with four steps counterclockwise out of a square, the first step sincere meditation “Fusheng Xuanhuangxianzun”, the second step meditation “Fusheng Xuanhuangxianjun “, the third step meditation “Blessed Xuanhuang God”, the fourth step meditation “Blessed Xuanhuang Tianzun”, after walking, close your eyes, wait in place for five minutes, the ceremony is considered a success.
Holding the mentality of no money anyway, he turned out the book, according to the requirements, in the dinner before doing it again, however, however, nothing happened at that time.
Who knows, by midnight, one had crossed over!
Crossed over!
”There’s a certain possibility that it’s that Transit Ceremony …… Well, try it here tomorrow, if it’s really because of it, then I’ll have hope to wear it back!” Zhou Mingrui stopped shaking and flinging his revolver and sat violently straight.
No matter what, one had to try it out!
A dead horse must also be treated as a living horse!