Mystery: From the Shadow World

Chapter 71 Neighbors
The next day, Philip changed into Jane Charlotte, wearing a light blue dress and dragging a suitcase, and walked out of the hotel in Hillston District where he had lived for nearly half a month.

Her sapphire eyes glanced at the familiar streets, then turned to the information in the housing rental section of the newspaper in her hand:
"17 Brown Street, Cherwood. House rented for £1 per week."

Yes, she is going to rent a house.

In the face of the cruel reality, that is, the terrifying and almost bottomless expenses in the field of mysticism, let the pursuit of real estate in the hearts of those foodie Chinese people go to hell!
The "monster" formula, the concept of an extraordinary pet, the needs of extraordinary items and messengers, and the purchase of related materials needed to upgrade to a "zombie" - Philip counted the places where he would need to spend money next, and his already weak desire to buy a house was completely wiped out.

She sighed silently inwardly, hailed a horse-drawn carriage in the slightly foggy day, and headed straight for the location mentioned in the newspaper.

Amid Backlund's disgusting air pollution, the streets that should have been unimpeded now became somewhat congested. After all, no coachman wanted an accident to happen.

They were just hired servants, and the owners of the carriages often did not get up at this moment, but continued to sleep in the large and warm beds, waiting to enjoy themselves after waking up.

After an hour and a half of travel, Philip finally arrived at his next landlord's residence, which was the house at No. 17 Brown Street, opposite No. 9 Brown Street.

She moved her body, which had already adapted to the situation, walked forward with her suitcase, and gently rang the doorbell.

Jingle bell, jingle bell——

After more than ten seconds of silence, the door was opened. The person who opened the door was an old gentleman who was over fifty years old. His temples were already gray, but he was still wearing a swallowtail suit, with an upright posture and extraordinary demeanor.

He raised his hand to support his gold-rimmed glasses, and smiled politely and kindly, "Beautiful lady, may I ask what can I do for you?"

"Hello, sir." Philip suppressed his irritation, lifted his skirt slightly, and bowed with a curved mouth. "My name is Jane Charlotte, and I want to rent the house across from you."

She made great mental preparations before she finally transformed her originally masculine and slightly strange dress into a female one, striving to minimize the risk of her identity being exposed.

"Oh, the building No. 17?" The old gentleman closed his eyes and sighed as if reminiscing about the past. His expression showed the wrinkles left by the years on his face, but it did not look ugly at all.

"I almost forgot, my name is Joel Jock."

After saying his name, he immediately stepped aside, gestured to the inside of the house, and led the guests outside into the clean and tidy house.

"Need something to drink?"

Philip walked in, without any extra movements, and followed the other party to sit on the sofa in the living room, while politely declining the other party's kindness.

"Okay." Joel sat down and called upstairs in a restrained voice, "Conseil, bring me the standard rental contract."

Conseil?
Philip's expression became somewhat intriguing for a moment, but it quickly disappeared. He sat quietly on the sofa, waiting for the owner of this name.

Taking advantage of this gap, Joel looked towards the door with a bit of nostalgia, as if he wanted to see through the barrier and directly see the house opposite. "This is what my deceased brother left behind. We have no relatives, so his house was transferred to me."

Philip lowered his head slightly and listened quietly without making any inappropriate remarks.

After a few seconds of sadness, the old gentleman suddenly smiled and spread his hands, saying:

"I'm sorry, that's what happens when you get old. You've forgotten a lot of things, but every time you think of something, it seems to summon back all the sorrows from that period of forgetfulness."

He quickly passed over the topic and turned to Philip, asking, "Miss Charlotte, although it may be a bit presumptuous, I would like to ask why you came to Backlund?" Philip was silent for two seconds, then recalled Jane Charlotte's general experience and replied calmly, "Staying in my hometown will only increase sadness, and I want to see what is different about this City of Hope."

"Haha, City of Hope." The old gentleman suddenly smiled with a bit of mockery, his tone a little lonely, but he did not add anything.

Soon, a sturdy butler in his early thirties walked down steadily from upstairs with two documents in his hands.

Philip pondered for a moment, thinking of the lesson he had learned in Tingen last time, and decided to be on the safe side and only paid one year's rent, a total of 65 pounds.

She counted out the cash from her wallet and handed it to him. Joel roughly counted it and then put it into his wallet. He smiled and added, "Miss, you'd better choose your job carefully. If you don't earn 4 pounds a week, it will be difficult for you to survive on your own."

"Of course, you can share the house with others. I think you should be able to tell who deserves to live in Cherwood and who should go to the East End, the Docklands or the Bridge area."

The old gentleman stood up and lowered the brim of his top hat. "If someone is giving you trouble, try to calm them down first, and then come to my house for help."

"Thank you so much."

Even though Joel Joel was very kind and polite, Philippe did not take the opportunity to get familiar with him in order to avoid exposing her flaws. After discussing the general matters, she was led by the butler Conseil to her future residence.

The thirty-year-old butler was very professional and introduced the entire house in detail. If she hadn't interrupted him subtly, who knows how long it would have dragged on.

After standing at the door and watching the other party leave, Philip, who was about to close the door and go home to adapt to the new environment, suddenly found that a rental carriage had passed by the detached house on the right.

The two women were walking slowly towards the house at this moment, talking to each other. They seemed to notice Philip's gaze and turned their heads to look at her at the same time.

Philip nodded slightly in response, but when she saw the face of one of the people opposite through the already thin mist, she was suddenly stunned.

Forth Wall, the author of the recent best-selling novel, Stormwind Heights.

What a coincidence! As she thought this, she turned her gaze to the figure beside her who looked like a girl. She pinched her chin and whispered, "Knight. Training uniform?"

"Fors, she seems to know you?"

In front of the door of No. 19 Brown Street, a blonde girl with delicate and soft features and a height of just over meters observed for a few seconds and then said to her friend beside her.

"Hmm." Fors narrowed her lazy light blue eyes slightly. She pondered for a moment, carefully sorting out her memories before she said softly, "He must be a book fan. After all, my face was featured in the newspaper."

"Xiu, what's wrong?"

Upon hearing this, the girl named Xiu withdrew her gaze and shook her head, saying, "It's nothing, it's just that we have a special status, so we still have to be more careful about the people living nearby."

"Yeah, that's true."

　Regarding Braun Street, this is made up.

　　There is no way. Throughout the book, Squid does not mention the detailed address of Hugh and Fors's residence in Cherwood District. He always skips it with a house, a building, or a small apartment.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)