old dream

Chapter 106 Wordless Silence

Unknowingly, it was already too late, and a few dogs barking could be heard in the distance.Ke Lin looked out the window of Ji Lian's house, and found that most of the sensual venues on the opposite floor had closed their doors, and the windows on the second and third floors had also drawn curtains, but there was still a bit of vague light.

Now is not the time to go home and sleep in peace.Because there is one more crucial thing to confirm.

Can burying the hearth deep in the ocean of consciousness avoid the lantern detection of the seminary, or the observation of Mr. One?
In theory, there is really no problem, because the deep sea of ​​consciousness is already equivalent to another world.It is equivalent to hiding the fuel source in the place where it is least likely to be found.

But as Ji Lian said, no one can guarantee whether there will be a chain reaction.

For example, those red silk threads that appeared in the consciousness, until now no one can tell what they are.

Each person's inner structure is unique, and the path to ascension in relation to the depths of consciousness is always more uncertain.

Colin got used to the feeling of controlling the two bodies for a while, and gradually mastered some tricks, but he still didn't know if it would be useful in battle.

Because of the rejection reaction, he couldn't maintain this state for too long, and soon after, he took the shuttle demon back into the hearth.

"How much do you think the net salt test will be worse than the lantern?" Colin turned his head and asked.

At two o'clock in the middle of the night, Ji Lian didn't have the habit of staying up all night for a long time like Ke Lin, and spent too much effort in remodeling "The Wedding Ring" during the day.At this time, he covered his mouth with his hands and yawned from time to time, his head was bit by bit like a chicken pecking at rice, and there was a slight snoring sound in his breathing.

"..."

Finding that Ji Lian was already in a semi-drowsy state, Ke Lin reached out his hand helplessly and shook her shoulder.Try to wake her up a bit.

"...?" Ji Lian opened her eyes in confusion, her thick eyelashes still drooping.She raised her hand and rubbed the corners of her eyes, as if she still couldn't figure out the situation.

"Can the net salt test be as effective as a lantern?" Colin asked again.

"I don't know." She said in a daze:

"Let's see who is using clean salt. It's just that the effect of the lantern... will be more stable."

"Check it out for me to see if there is any overflowing spiritual essence in my body." Colin said: "At least before dawn, there is still time to adjust."

"Alas." Knowing that she had to continue working, Ji Lian's eyes immediately became resentful.

She actually wanted to ask: Do you usually toss yourself like this?But when the words came to her lips, she gave up again, knowing that she would definitely get an affirmative answer.

Because that's what this guy is, energetic, ambitious, like never-ending.

Although she wanted to complain, she also knew that Colin had no other choice, so she tried to change the direction of her efforts:

"52 Ori."

She stretched out her two hands to sign three and two respectively, and waved them in front of Colin's eyes.

"what?"

"You don't think that the services here are all free, do you?" There was a hint of malice in the whisper-like voice:

"The fee for the rewriting ceremony is [-] Ori, and the net salt test is [-] Ori. Thank you for coming. Please pay the above items in cash."

Ji Li'an collected her energy, raised her spirits, and showed a professional attitude as a private doctor.

"Isn't the remuneration offset by the materials you usually bring?" When it came to financial issues, Colin immediately became alert.

"Recently, the quality has dropped too much, you know it yourself." She said: "So we have to charge here, as a wake-up call."

Colin nodded thoughtfully, then reached out to take out the wallet from his jacket:
"Okay, 52 Ori, right?"

Unexpectedly, Ke Lin would start to pay so readily, and Ji Lian was stunned for a moment.

They would occasionally make such small jokes before, but Ke Lin would always be preoccupied every time. After all, most of the reasons Ji Lian gave were unreasonable, so he would sometimes refute them in a serious manner.

Ji Lian didn't really ask for money, she just wanted to use this to make fun of his stinginess and clumsiness, to find an excuse to satirize him, or to be lazy.

As a result, Colin started to pay without saying a word, which caught her by surprise.

"Hello..." Seeing that something was wrong, she changed her tone and reminded:

"Just kidding, you know? Don't insult me ​​with that stuff."

She was originally happy to be close to everything related to mystery, and was deeply obsessed with it.So even if she didn't have those materials as a reward, she would still do it.

"That's the cost of tonight's accommodation." Colin handed her a stack of banknotes and said:

"I may have to sleep in the dark room for a while and leave tomorrow morning."

52 Ori.Why did she say this number in a half-dream and half-awake.

Because that is the cost of one treatment cycle.

Ji Li'an has been receiving a consolation treatment plan in the municipal hospital, but it's better than nothing, but the asking price is not low.

Under such medical conditions, the average age of civilians in the Principality is only about 45 years old.

Although Ji Li'an has been helping prostitutes to see a doctor, she must be short of money.

"There is no place to stock up on wine, and I don't dare to buy too many redstones from Luca in the short term." Colin shook the banknotes in his hand and said:

"So this little cash is not that useful to me, so take it."

On the premise of not affecting the big goal, help as much as you can, this is Ke Lin's principle for treating friends.

What's more, the price of adapting a witchcraft should be far more than 52 Ori, which she deserves.

Ji Lian stared at the money in Ke Lin's hand, bit her lower lip, and secretly asked herself why she had fallen to such a point.She turned her head away, but couldn't help stretching out her hand.

When Ji Lian pinched the top half of the note with her fingers, Ke Lin said abruptly:
"But after receiving the money, just work for me honestly."

He is like a devil:
"Don't sleep tonight until you're sure the problem is fixed."

Knowing this would happen, Ji Lian sighed silently.But he couldn't take back his outstretched hand.

……

……

The practice of burying the hearth deep in the dream world works.

Ji Li'an did several clean salt tests in a row, and found that without releasing the shuttle demon, the overflow of spiritual essence in Ke Lin's body was even lower than the average level of ordinary people.

"This is not just the effect of improving the hearth." Ji Li'an said:
"Since the memory seal can repair the shell of the heart, maybe it also conceals the existence of the crack to some extent..."

Ji Lian's spiritual perception is already at an excellent level.So she personally used the clean salt test, and the effect would not be much different from that of the lantern.

Therefore, it can basically be considered that Ke Lin's concealment of his own strength can already take effect from most conventional detection methods.

And in a place like Holy One Seminary, it is not enough for the church to use unconventional detection.

After all, even if it is just a "lantern", it is already a very expensive instrument.

Hiding everything related to the extraordinary means that the related costs will rise sharply.

"Actually, I've heard that the materials that can be transmitted by the red letter instrument are generally relatively low-class."

As dawn approached, Ji Lian put away the last set of clean salt.Instead, he began to wake up and enter a weary excitement.

The Holy One Theological Seminary itself is not considered a high-level institution, although several red star instruments are connected to the network for publishing documents and communicating among alliance scholars.

But it itself is nothing more than a specialized academy in a borderland.

Therefore, the business of the Seminary newspaper is even semi-open. In addition to maintaining communication with other colleges or churches, it will also accept some communication commissions from the society, or assist other organizations in internal communication.

For example, the "Jackdaw Hunting Group" that was in charge of monitoring Ji Lian belonged to an organization called "The Holy Province of the Principality", but it actually had nothing to do with the Holy One Theological Seminary.

But Colin intercepted their internal order documents in the seminary newspaper office.

"If you don't see any other weird props besides those 'lanterns'." Ji Li'an said:
"Then it can basically be considered that there is no risk of exposure to the 'hearth' for the time being."

Colin nodded, and got up from the operating table that was temporarily transformed from a seat.

He wanted to thank Ji Li'an for his hard work, but this was not the first time the two of them stayed up late together to solve problems.Besides, this kind of polite words seem to be alienated.

After more than ten consecutive hours of work came to an end successfully, they all breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a little relaxed for a while, but also a little uncomfortable.

Ji Li'an looked out of the window, and there was already a glimmer of light in the sky, which meant that a new day had arrived.

Everything will go back to the usual way, Colin will leave in a hurry, and then he will bury his head between the documents and the microscope alone, spending that dull time that seems to have no end in sight.

"Different bacterial populations that produce pheromones have been isolated."

For some reason, Ji Lian suddenly felt a little uneasy and wanted to say something more, but found that she could only talk about these work matters:
"Put them next to the main body of the ceremony, and they can produce pheromones stably. It's just that there is no progress on the inhibitor side."

"I wasted a whole injection...but I didn't understand anything." She apologized slightly.

"It's okay, if you can't figure out the ingredients in a short time, don't waste time on it." Colin thought for a while:

"After all, I didn't find the 'Black Chimaera' in time, which is also my problem."

Perhaps it was my own arbitrary decision to leave this matter to her.

For these complex active substances, even if the ingredients are successfully analyzed, how to extract and produce them is another level of problem.

Ji Lian still has to seize every opportunity to screen for streptomyces, and time is becoming more and more precious to her.Colin didn't want to delay her any longer.

It's just that there may be some more twists and turns on how to deal with Aresio.

"Yeah." Ji Li'an nodded slightly, and then didn't know what to say next.

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, just like they had done at work before.There were sporadic birdsong outside, and it was a quiet and refreshing morning.

Colin's sight is often too focused on a certain point, so it is easy to ignore things outside the target.

And because of living in seclusion for a long time, Ji Lian gradually lost the ability to communicate with people normally, or she prefers to immerse herself in her own world, and she is not the kind of person who is good at understanding other people's moods.

So this kind of silence will always appear between them, and no one knows how to break it.

"I'll go to the darkroom for a while." Colin raised his hand and looked at his watch and said:

"It's time to go to seminary in two hours."

"Okay." Ji Lian also stood up:
"I'll get you some blankets."

……

……

The site of the Five Hands meeting was placed in a manor under the name of Marizio.

This time it was the extension of the patriarchal meeting. Except for the Five Hands, the other Sindhili groups would be invited as long as they reached a certain scale, and then send people to participate.

It was the first time for Colin to attend such an occasion, because Luca was going to bring him to say hello to most of the people.

"According to your credit, this is what you deserve." Luca turned his head and said to him:
"After all, without you, there would be no Chestalo today."

In fact, Colin just got off work from the seminary, and he spent the whole day in fear, afraid that at some point, the suspicion of witchcraft in him would be noticed.

But it turned out to be business as usual.Then it must be possible to keep the secret from the lampkeeper.

Julio was dressed up for the rare occasion, in a brimless cloche and knee-length dress that was fitted but low at the waist.

Such meetings are often thought of as gathering places of vulgar Sincilian tastes, filled with eccentrics with puffy chests, flowing beards, and national costumes, a common source of villains in comic strips.But the women have moved away from traditional attire in recent years, preferring to keep in line with Ankh's upper circle.

The meeting has not yet started, and most people are free to visit the manor.It is said that the manor may be more like a villa, because the area is small and there is no farmland. Some fruit trees adapted to the climate here are planted in the backyard, but they are probably only for ornamental purposes.There is also a swimming pool with a fountain.There is a wide hall in the main building, where most people gather first to greet each other.

Colin's eyes quickly swept across the crowd. In fact, he knew most of the leaders, at least in photos.Most of the fresh faces are people who have only come to the top in the past two years.

The valets brought drinks, and although bootlegging was banned, that didn't mean Marizio couldn't get quality drinks for his party.But at the same time as he was blatantly violating Prohibition, Colin also saw the mayor of Stade make a brief appearance before being welcomed into his office by Marizio.

Everything that appeared in this manor was like some kind of demonstration by Marizio, implying that although Caruso was in the same meeting with the other four families, they were essentially forces at different levels.

But Luca faced all this calmly, holding champagne and chatting and laughing with most people freely, without showing any discomfort.

(End of this chapter)