Salted Fish Chapter 65.2: The House of the Poor (Part 2)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

The conversation was so heated that it turned from the Carter Criticism Conference to the business of the Perlilla Estate. Al couldn’t cook dinner for so many people by himself, so they went downstairs to the Dodo restaurant.

The owner of the restaurant had probably never seen so many customers, including a serious nobleman, and was moved to tears. The restaurant chef was so encouraged that he went above and beyond the call of duty, and made a meal that was barely palatable.

Duan FeiZhou originally wanted to pay for it himself. After all, everyone was there to celebrate him, so how could he, the host, not pay. However, Z just waved his hand and went to the kitchen with the restaurant owner for 20 minutes to talk. Duan FeiZhou suspected that Z had gotten a discount on the price.

Lord Perlilla and his mother had come in their own carriage and didn’t need to call a cab. His Lordship wanted to show some courtesy to Miss Lynn, so when the family’s magnificent carriage arrived he said, “Dear Sir, Madam and Miss. If you don’t mind using my humble carriage, please let me take you home.”

Mr. Lynn gave him a strange look. “Thank you, my Lord, but we live just down the street; a ten-minute walk away. A ride will not be unnecessary.”

Louisa took her parents’ arms. “Yes, it’s been a long time since we’ve been out for a walk together as a family. Consider it an after-dinner snack!”

They politely said their goodbyes, then the three of them walked away, hand in hand. Lord Perlilla watched them sadly, his silhouette held a bleak chill in the summer sun.

Lady Edith, who was a smart person, naturally saw that her son was interested in the Lynn girl. Her foolish son was born with an incurable condition called “knight’s disease.” As long as he sees a delicate girl, he couldn’t help but promote the knightly style. Once upon a time, he was jumped by a fairy, Melissa, also because of this over the top chivalry.

She wasn’t sure if her son was suffering from a brief attack of chivalry, or if he really fell in love at first sight with the lady. If it was the former, then she was afraid the affair would end in vain. The lady was the daughter of a friend of Mr. Chester, and how can she take advantage of her benefactor’s friend? It must be stopped before it become a tragedy!

If it was the latter…Miss Lynn was in a girls’ school, and her father was a well-known lawyer in London. A middle-class family in England was already considered of good origin. Lord Perlilla was a hereditary baron who had discovered a large deposit of Ether crystals in his domain, making him one of the wealthiest men in the country.

On the other hand…she, herself, was only the daughter of a country squire. The marriage between her and her late husband had been much criticized. Many people said she was too low to deserve his Lordship, but her husband said that the luckiest thing in his life was to marry her. He had never regretted it.

Lady Edith didn’t think so.

However, times were changing, moving rapidly in directions that people never dared to imagine. The world was changing, people were awakening, many things were very different from her youth. As she boarded the carriage with her son, she thought to herself, Maybe one day, it will become commonplace for nobles and commoners to get married. Maybe one day, even the royal family will be married to the commoners. Perhaps one day, even the nobility will cease to exist. If my son really likes a commoner girl, what’s wrong with that? He’s only bringing the future forward.

Forget it, let the children and grandchildren have their own blessings. She was too old to care so much. Let him go!

Duan FeiZhou waved goodbye to Lord Perlilla’s carriage, turned to Al and said, “It’s getting late. You should go back too. Don’t let your mother worry.”

“Don’t you need my service anymore, Master?” Al asked with concern. “I haven’t heated your bath yet. Your bags aren’t unpacked yet either. Do you even know how to make your own bed?”

Duan FeiZhou’s ego was bruised. “I am not unable to take care of myself!”

“Then…Then…” The teenager came to his ear and whispered, “Will the Nightman act against you?”

“I’m a Sir now. He wouldn’t dare.” Duan FeiZhou patted the teenager’s head. “Go ahead. You have a day off tomorrow.”

“I don’t need a day off.”

“It’s paid.”

“Oh!” Al left happily.

In the eyes of the common people, a knighthood was as unattainable as the stars in the sky, and they were under the protection of Her Majesty, Al felt that the Nightmen wouldn’t dare to do anything to his master even if they had more guts, so he jumped up and walked towards his house.

From today, he was a knight’s personal manservant! His master was not only an occult practitioner, but also an occult practitioner recognized by the Queen! Even the Nightmen did not dare to touch him!

What the young man didn’t know was that although the Nightman didn’t dare to put his master in jail, there were thousands of ways to ‘bully’ his master. Just this evening, his master would suffer many, many types of “bullying”…

He didn’t see how his master and the hateful Nightman exchanged a few words then walked up the stairs. The two men’s fingers were tightly interlocked.

He also didn’t see how the restaurant owner, holding a rag in the middle of the Dodo, stood in the doorway and stared thoughtfully into the night.

As soon as he entered the house, Z gritted his teeth and said, “I suspect that guy did it on purpose.” 

“Who?” Duan FeiZhou asked.

“Your best friend, the poet.” Z even refused to call Yeats by his full name. “He deliberately spread the news of your knighthood, and asked everyone to come to congratulate you, so as to delay the time…”

Duan FeiZhou stopped smiling, “You’re thinking too much, right? He’s your colleague now. Do you really want to be like that…”

His lips were sealed by Z. He’d discovered that once he said something Z didn’t want to hear, Z would use this trick to shut him up. It was tried and true.

Damn, he really did eat this up. He hooked Z’s neck and the two of them kissed intermittently as they stumbled into the bedroom and fell on the bed.

“You wait, I’m going to take a bath.” Duan FeiZhou said as he sat up.

Z pressed him back into bed. “Haven’t you washed enough on the airship?”

“Who let you do that every time when I was taking a shower…” As he remembered those charming scenes, Duan FeiZhou blushed and couldn’t say any more.

Z made a low chuckle deep in his throat, unbuttoned his shirt, and raised his chin at him, “Turn around.”

Duan FeiZhou didn’t move a muscle. “Why do you like to do it from behind every time?”

Z’s movements paused for a moment, “I don’t want you to see.” He hesitated. “I don’t have a nice body.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’ll be shocked.”

Duan FeiZhou tilted his head, and stared defiantly at the white-haired Nightman. “I want to see your face.”

Z leaned down and met him at eye level. “You like my face, huh?”

Duan FeiZhou pulled back his collar, and kissed a scar on his chest. “Like the rest of your body too.” He lifted the corners of his lips.

That night, he kissed every scar on Z’s body.

When he woke up the next day, Duan FeiZhou felt like his body was falling apart. With his ability to heal himself, Z became more and more carefree. He was tossed and turned until almost dawn before he fell asleep. He suspected that Z hadn’t let him go even while he was asleep, but he had no proof.

When he turned his head, he saw Z’s sleeping face in the morning sun. Every inch of his features was just right, so beautiful that it looked like a painter had designed it on purpose. The man who once saw him as a beast, had now put down all his defenses and slept beside him; exposed his most vulnerable side to him. How could this be done if not with 100% trust?

He was going to complain a few times, but that scene made Duan FeiZhou’s heart inexplicably soft. He lowered his head, and kissed the corner of Z’s lips.

Z’s eyelashes fluttered like a butterfly’s vibrating wings.

“Can you go to Scotland Yard today?” he asked without even opening his eyes. “I want to gather everyone to discuss the future of the Secret Trading House.”

“…Is it necessary to talk about business matters early in the morning?” Duan FeiZhou was helpless.

“Then let’s talk about private matters?” Z opened one eye. “Before going to work, I want to…”

“No you don’t want to!” Duan FeiZhou jumped out of bed, and dressed quickly. “I have to go to the poorhouse first today. Did you forget about Simon? He bought a lot of gifts for his little friends, and I promised the Colonel I would deliver his gifts to those little friends.”

“That can easily be done tomorrow.” Z sat up. The sheet slipped off him to reveal a muscular, scarred body. The sun shone on his mechanical prosthetics, and reflected a blinding golden glow.

Duan FeiZhou glared at him. “He was a poor orphan. You can be kind.”

Z propped himself up with one hand and asked lazily, “Do you want me to come with you?”

“…Don’t you work?”

After a simple wash, Duan FeiZhou changed into a decent jacket and found the bag full of Simon’s gifts in his suitcase. Simon cared so much about his fellow orphans and bought them many gifts, but he could never go back. He was left at the end of the world forever, a victim of political struggle and intrigue.

He ate breakfast in the restaurant downstairs (the chef’s standards had fallen back to normal), called a carriage and went straight to the Rosefield Home for the Poor.

Duan FeiZhou’s impressions of the poorhouse came almost entirely from the novel by Dickens,¹ who portrayed the poorhouse as more horrific than a prison. The great writer firmly believed that the inmates in prison had committed a crime, while the only crime committed by the “inmates” in the poorhouse was poverty.

However, the Rosefield Home for the Poor was very different from Dickens’ description. It was more like a school than a home for the poor. The red-brick schoolhouse wasn’t beautiful, but at least it was bright and elegant, the grass and trees in the garden were neatly trimmed, and a group of children were playing under the trees.

Duan FeiZhou explained his purpose to the gatekeeper of the poorhouse. The gatekeeper led him to the director’s office. The director was an older woman, about the same age as Lady Edith. She had a kind face and spoke in a soft voice. She was devastated to hear of Simon’s death.

“The boy came to our home when he was very young,” she said. “I watched him grow up. He was a very special boy, and very much loved by the animals. He always said he could be an animal trainer or the like. Then he was chosen by Sir Carter and taken away. Everyone was very happy for him, and thought he was going to make it big. I didn’t expect…”

“I heard that His Excellency Carter is the patron of this House?”

“I should say that the Committee for the Advancement of Science is the patron, and the Honorable Sir Carter is just their representative. They donate a large sum of money every year, and choose the brightest and the best from among the orphans to work for the Committee, or sponsor them to go to a better school.”

Duan FeiZhou shed tears with her for a while, and after she calmed down, she said, “I think we shouldn’t tell the children about Simon’s death. They have already lost their parents and family. If they lose their friends again, I’m afraid they will go crazy with grief…”

Duan FeiZhou nodded in agreement. Since Simon had marked each gift with the name of the recipient, Duan FeiZhou took out the list and asked the director to call the children on the list.

The director went out for a while and came back with seven or eight children. Both male and female, the oldest was 11 or 12 years old while the youngest was 4 or 5 years old. They were dressed cleanly and neatly and looked like ordinary children, not like the little abused wretches in Dickens’ novels.

“This gentleman is a friend of Simon’s,” the director introduced. “And he has been asked by Simon to bring gifts for everyone.”

The children were called to the director’s office during playtime and weren’t happy about it, but when they heard that they were getting gifts, they became happy. Simon was the best of them all and had been chosen by Sir Carter to be his assistant. They all saw Simon as their pride and role model! He even sent gifts! He was so kind!

Duan FeiZhou called out the names on the list one by one, and every time a child came forward, he took the appropriate gift out of the bag. He felt like Santa Claus. However, if the price of Santa Claus giving a gift was the loss of their friend’s life, the children of the world wouldn’t like Christmas so much.

After handing out the gifts, the director said to the children, “You should thank this gentleman.”

The children said in not very neat but loud voices, “Thank you, sir!”

“Let’s all go play.”

They swarmed out of the room with gifts in their arms.

Duan FeiZhou couldn’t smile anymore. He had noticed that more than half of the children were wearing necklaces, rings or other accessories and those ornaments invariably emitted the light of occult items.

Duan FeiZhou walked to the window and looked at the children playing in the garden. The children who had received Simon’s gifts were laughing and talking under the tree, as they examined each other’s gifts and compared whose gift was fresher and more interesting.

“My doll is the best. Have you ever seen such a beautiful doll?”

“That’s for children. Adults don’t play with them! Adults read books!”

“Too many books will turn you into a nerd! My toy soldiers are the best!”

“Simon is so nice to remember to bring us gifts. When we grow up, can we also work for the Committee like Simon?”

“The Committee only selects the most talented people in the occult arts, so you probably won’t have a chance.

“Nonsense! My occult arts are very strong!”

“Shh! Don’t mention those two words! If people knew we learned the occult arts, the police would come and take us away!”

The director upstairs couldn’t hear the children’s conversation, but Duan FeiZhou could hear it clearly. If he wasn’t mistaken, those children were all descendants of families of occult practitioners, and the reason why Simon befriended them was precisely because they were also occult practitioners.

How many occult practitioners were there in London? How many occult practitioners were there in England? Then how many old families of occult practitioners were left? There were so many orphans from the families of occult practitioners in this home alone? Could all the eggs in the world automatically run into one basket?

These children were stuffed into the same institution, and when they grew up, the Committee for the Advancement of Science then selected those with outstanding talent to serve them.

It didn’t seem like…a coincidence.

A horrible suspicion came to Duan FeiZhou’s mind, and no matter what, it wouldn’t go away.

These children had lost their families, but was it really the result of simple accidents? Could it be that someone deliberately made them into orphans and sent them to this institution, so that when they grew up, they could select the best ones for themselves?

It was like…To put it nicely, it was raising dead soldiers. To put it differently, it was like breeding livestock.

However he needed evidence.

He probably wouldn’t find any evidence by directly asking those children. One, they were too young to ask such a question. Second, they wouldn’t necessarily want to open up to outsiders.

However, Duan FeiZhou didn’t need a confession. He could read memories directly from objects.

As long as there was a piece of evidence, he could find the cause and effect of things. It was much more efficient than interrogation.

 

In Scotland Yard’s Abnormal Case Investigation Unit Section, Mr. R stood in front of the window smoking. Today was a good day. A cigarette before work, it was like he was a living god! He was happily swallowing smoke when a hand suddenly reached out to him, pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and crushed it on the windowsill.

Mr. R stared at his boss in shock. “Boss, I thought the rules were changed, and now you can smoke?”

Z was unconcerned. “The rules have changed again.”

“Boss, you can’t change the rules overnight!”

Z ignored his complaint and looked around the office at everyone: Miss Acheson, who was typing, Xenophon, who was reading the newspaper, Mrs. Q, who was waving her hands in the air, and Yeats, who was hurriedly writing something, but it was definitely not an official document.

“There’s something I want to discuss with you all,” he said. “About the future of the Secret Trading House. As you know, the Master of the Trading House has been knighted…”

Xenophon happily interrupted him, “It’s in the papers! Mr. Leopold Chester of Aberdeen has been knighted’!” He waved the paper with a clatter.

Z frowned and continued, “Her Majesty has also pardoned him for all his crimes, so we can’t hold him any longer. But I don’t think the trading house can continue to operate any longer. I would like to ask for your opinions on what to do with the merchandise in the trading house and what to do with the trading house itself.”

Xenophon suddenly realized, “Boss, you want to confiscate the merchandise in the trading house? Those are all valuable treasures! This wave, this wave is an empty glove!”

Yeats spoke up, “Can Nightmen just confiscate someone’s personal property? No offense,” he nodded slightly to Z. “But isn’t the property of citizens sacrosanct?”

“Legal property is protected by law.” Z said coldly. “What I’d rather discuss is the trading house itself. That place can only be accessed through a spell, and is extremely secretive. I think it could be used to facilitate the Nightmen.”

Mrs. Q said, “I thought of that, too. Since we can enter and exit the trading house anytime and anywhere, won’t it be much easier for us to communicate? We wouldn’t have to send telegrams to report on our work when we go on a business trip, we could just go to the trading house and meet directly.”

“In critical moments, it can also be used to save lives.” Mr. R said. “If you are in danger, you can go directly to the trading house.”

“I have a question,” Xenophon raised his hand. “If we all hide in the trading house, and then the spell runes are destroyed, what will happen to us? Would we be trapped in a different dimension for the rest of our lives?”

The crowd was silent. They were also curious about what the conclusion would be, but no one dared to try. After all, no one wanted to be trapped in a foreign space forever for a small experiment.

“… Why don’t you ask the Master of the Trading hHouse himself?” Xenophon said.

Z grunted, “I’m afraid that he doesn’t know…”

His speech was interrupted for the second time. This time it wasn’t Xenophon, but the door of the office being opened with a bang. He turned around impatiently, and wanted to rebuke the person who dared to interrupt him. However, as soon as he saw the face of the person who came, his anger dissipated.

“You’re just in time.” Z said. “We were discussing the trading hou–”

He was interrupted for the third time.

Duan FeiZhou slapped a list on the table. “I want to check the family backgrounds of these people, and I want it now!”