Lord of the Mysteries

Returning to his chair again, he heard the faraway cathedral’s bells chime again. It continued seven times before Zhou Mingrui slowly stood up. He went up front to the cupboard and took out his clothes.

A black vest with a matching suit, trousers that clung tightly to his legs, a halved top hat and his faint scholarly air made Zhou Mingrui feel like he was watching an English drama set in the Victorian era.

He suddenly muttered softly as he shook his head with a wry smile, “I’m not going for an interview. All I’m doing is buying some ingredients to prepare for my luck enhancement ritual…”

Klein was so concerned about his impending interview that it became instinct. When he was not focused enough, he habitually wore his only decent set of clothing.

After taking a breath, Zhou Mingrui took off his suit and vest, switching to a brownish-yellow coat. He also changed to a felt hat with a rounded edge of the same color.

With his outfit done, he walked to the side of the bed and lifted a square cushion. He reached his hand into an inconspicuous hole beneath and rummaged around before finding an intermediate layer.

When he retracted his right hand, there was a roll of notes in his palm. There were about eight notes with faded dark green colors.

These were all the savings Benson had at the moment. It even included the living expenses for the next three days. Two of them were five-soli notes and the remaining were one-soli notes.

In the Loen Kingdom’s currency system, soli was ranked second. It originated from ancient silver coins. One soli was equivalent to twelve copper pence. They had denominations of one and five soli.

At the top of the currency system was the gold pound. They were also paper based but were guaranteed by gold and pegged directly. A gold pound was equivalent to twenty soli. They had denominations of one, five, and ten gold pounds.

Zhou Mingrui spread a note and caught a whiff of the faint unique ink.

This was the smell of money.

Perhaps a result of Klein’s memory fragments or his constant desire for money, Zhou Mingrui felt like he had instantly fallen in love with these notes.

Look, their designs are so beautiful. It makes the stern and old-fashioned George III and his two mustaches appear especially adorable…

Look, the watermark that can be seen when the note is placed against sunlight is so alluring. The exquisite design for the anti-counterfeit label makes it completely different from those fake fancy schlocks!

Zhou Mingrui admired it for nearly a minute before pulling out two one-soli notes. He then rolled up the remaining notes and stuffed them back into the cushion’s concealed layer.

After arranging and flattening the cloth around the hole, Zhou Mingrui folded the two notes he had taken out neatly and placed them into the left pocket of his brownish-yellow jacket. He separated the notes from the few pence he had in his trouser pocket.

With all of this done, he placed a key into his right pocket and brought a dark brownish paper bag along with him and quickly walked toward the door.

His shuffling footsteps slowed down from a brisk pace until it eventually stopped.

Zhou Mingrui stood by the door and was unsure when he had already begun to frown.

Klein’s suicide was fraught with peculiarities. Would he encounter any ‘accidents’ if he were to leave just like that?

After some deep thought, Zhou Mingrui returned to his desk and pulled open the drawer. He then took out the shimmering brass revolver.

This was the only defensive weapon he could think of, and it was the only weapon with sufficient power!

Although he had never practicing shooting, just pulling such a revolver out would definitely daunt anyone!

He caressed the revolver’s cold metal before stuffing his revolver into the pocket where his notes were. He clasped the money in his palm as his fingers pressed onto the gun’s handle. It was perfectly concealed.

Feeling secure, he who knew a little of everything suddenly had a worry.

end

cylinder. He

a misfire, he

back into his pocket, Zhou Mingrui

down on his hat with his right hand and pulled open the

during the day remained dim as limited sunlight shone in from the window situated at the end of the corridor. Zhou Mingrui quickly went down the stairs and left the apartment

of the Loen Kingdom, so it had unique climate characteristics. The highest annual temperature was not even 30°C on Earth, with even cooler mornings. However, the streets were awash with filthy water and strewn junk. From Klein’s memories, this was not a rare sight

our delicious

fresh oyster soup. Drink a bowl

the port for just

and eel soup make the

“Conch! Conch! Conch!”

plucked from the farms outside the city. Cheap

…

rushing pedestrians. Some of them would stop and carefully compare before purchasing.

Mingrui took in a whiff of the air that mixed both noxious and fragrant aromas. As he clenched the revolver tightly in his left hand, he held the notes tight. He pressed down on his hat with his right hand while passing through

working part time after losing their

the crowdedness around him restored to normal. He straightened his back and raised his

a vagrant accordionist busking. The melody was sometimes

were several children in ragged clothes with sallow

to the beat, dancing self-made choreographies. Their faces were filled with joy as though

deadpan woman passed by; her skirt was dirty

the bunch of children did a faint glow flash. It was as though she had seen herself from three decades

overtook her and turned into another street before stopping at

year old granny named Wendy Smyrin. Her hair was completely grayish-white and she always wore a

and lemon cakes

Mingrui gulped a mouthful of

Smyrin, eight pounds of rye

Benson? Is he not back?” Wendy

few more days,” answered

the rye bread, she sighed. “He sure is a

her lips curled up as she said playfully, “All is good now. You have already graduated. You are a history graduate of our Khoy University~ Oh, you will soon be able to earn money. You should not be staying in the apartment you are currently living in. At the very least, you should have a

and energetic woman today.” All Zhou Mingrui could do

a lecturer at Tingen University, it was true

he had once fantasized about renting a bungalow in the suburbs. There would be five or six rooms, two bathrooms, a huge balcony upstairs, two rooms,

a lecturer on probation at Tingen University would have a weekly salary of two gold pounds. After the probationary period, the salary would be raised to three gold pounds and ten soli. One had to know that despite working for so many years, Klein’s brother, Benson, only had a weekly

four thousand yuan and earning fourteen to fifteen thousand

all of this was under the premise that he passed either the Tingen University or Backlund

those who studied history were more limited in job opportunities. There was not much demand for private consultants from the aristocrats, banks, or industrial

were fragmented and incomplete, Zhou Mingrui felt awkward and guilty

been this

bread she had weighed into the brown paper bag that Zhou Mingrui had brought. She

rye bread weighted about half a pound as differences were

pence? Wasn’t it eleven pence two days ago?” Zhou

cost 15 pence the month before the previous

the people who protested on the streets for the repeal