THE HANGED MAN

Chapter 4: Divination

Sitting back in the chair, until the church bells in the distance rang again, seven times in a row, Zhou Mingrui stood up slowly, came to the cupboard, and took out his clothes.

Black vest, formal dress of the same color, slightly tight ankle pants, a half-height top hat, with a faint bookish atmosphere, let Zhou Mingrui look at himself in the mirror, as if watching a British drama telling the story of the Victorian period.

"I'm not going to the interview, I'm just buying a vegetable and preparing the materials for the transfer ceremony..." Suddenly, he muttered in a low voice, shaking his head and laughing.

Klein was so anxious about the upcoming interview that it turned into a physical instinct, and when he was not concentrating, he habitually put on this only decent set of clothes.

Exhaling, Zhou Mingrui took off his formal clothes and vests, replaced them with a brown and yellow old coat, and changed the top of his head to a felt hat with the same color and round edges.

Collecting himself, he paced to the side of the high and low bed, lifted the cushion above, put his hand through the inconspicuous hole at the bottom, and fumbled for a while, found the mezzanine.

When his right hand retracted, there was already an extra roll of banknotes in his palm, about seven or eight, dark green and white.

This is all Benson's current savings, even including the living expenses for these three days, of which only two five-sulle bills, the rest are one sule.

In the monetary system of the Kingdom of Ruen, the sulle is located on the second level, derived from ancient silver coins, one sullet is equal to twelve copper pennies, and there are two denominations: one and five.

At the top of the currency is the gold pound, which is also a paper money, but protected by gold and directly linked, one gold pound is equal to twenty sules, and there are three denominations of one, five, and ten.

Zhou Mingrui unfolded the banknote and smelled a very light and light special ink fragrance.

This is the smell of money.

Perhaps it was from the influence of Klein's memory fragments, or perhaps because of his unchanging thirst for money, at this moment, Zhou Mingrui felt that he was in love with these little guys.

Lo and behold, their patterns are so exquisite that George III, with his mustache and serious and stodgy, looks so cute...

Lo and behold, the watermark seen through the sun is so tempting, and the well-designed security label makes it very different from a fake charm!

After admiring for tens of seconds, Zhou Mingrui pulled out two one-soul bills, re-rolled the rest, and stuffed them back into the mezzanine inside the mat.

Smoothing out the strips of cloth near the hole, Zhou Mingrui folded the two notes he took out neatly, put them in the pocket on the left side of his brown and yellow coat, and placed them separately from a few pennies in his trouser pocket.

With all this done, he slipped the key into his right pocket, grabbed the large dark brown paper bag, and walked quickly to the door.

Click, click, the footsteps went from fast to slow, and finally stopped.

Zhou Mingrui stood by the door, his brows furrowed at some point.

There are many mysteries about Klein's suicide, just go out like this, will there be any "accidents"?

After a moment of contemplation, Zhou Mingrui returned to the desk, opened the drawer, and took out the revolver that shimmered with brass luster.

It was the only defensive weapon he could think of, and it was also powerful enough!

Although he has never practiced shooting, just taking out this pistol will definitely scare people!

Rubbing the cold metal wheel, Zhou Mingrui stuffed the pistol into the pocket where the banknote was located, clutched the banknote in his palm, and his fingers tightly held the g*n handle, perfectly hidden.

A sense of security was born, and he who knew a little about everything suddenly came out with a worry:

"Will it be a missed shot?"

Thoughts came to him, Zhou Mingrui quickly found the idea, he drew his pistol, swung the wheel to the left, turned the ammunition nest vacated by "suicide" to the waiting position, and then snapped it close.

In this way, even if it goes off, it is just an "empty bomb"!

After stuffing the pistol again, Zhou Mingrui's left hand was inserted in his pocket like that, and he no longer took it out.

He pressed his hat with his right hand, pulled open the door, and slammed out.

The corridor during the day was still dim, and the sunlight that could penetrate through the window at the end was quite limited, so Zhou Mingrui quickly walked down the stairs and left the apartment before feeling brilliant and warm.

At this time, although it is close to July, it belongs to the height of summer, but Tingen is located in the north of the Kingdom of Ruen, with unique climatic characteristics, the highest temperature of the year is less than 30 degrees Celsius on the earth, and the morning is even cooler, and some places on the streets are dirty and debris, in Klein's memory, where the low-income class lives, even if it has a sewer, similar scenes are by no means uncommon, because there are many people, because of life.

"Come on, delicious fried meat fish!"

"Hot and fresh oyster soup, drink a bowl in the morning, and be energetic all day!" "Fresh fish from the port, only 5p!"

"Little muffins, eel soup with ginger beer!"

"Conch, conch, conch!"

"The vegetables just collected from the farms outside the city are cheap and fresh!"

……

Mobile street vendors selling vegetables, fruits, and cooked food shouted loudly to hurried passers-by, some of whom stopped to carefully compare their purchases, while others waved impatiently, because today's work had not yet been settled.

Zhou Mingrui smelled the foul smell and fragrance of the air, firmly grasped the g*n handle in his left hand, clutched the banknotes, and held the round-rimmed felt hat with his right hand, bent slightly and bowed his head through this noisy street.

Where there are many people, there are thieves, especially in this neighborhood where there are many semi-unemployed poor people working in temporary jobs and hungry children driven by others.

Along the way, when the density of the surrounding crowd returned to normal, Zhou Mingrui straightened his back again, raised his head, and looked at the street.

There is a wandering accordion player playing, and the melody is sometimes melodious and sometimes passionate.

Next to him, there were many children in ragged clothes and sallow complexions from malnutrition.

They listen to the music, follow the beat, twist their bodies according to instinct, dance their own dances, and their faces are full of joy, as if they are a little prince and a little angel.

A woman with a numb expression passed by, her skirt dirty and her skin dull.

Her eyes were dull and dull, and only when she looked at the group of children did she see a glimmer of light, as if she saw herself thirty years ago.

Zhou Mingrui overtook her, turned to another street, and stopped in front of the "Sling Bakery".

The bakery is owned by a seventy-something grandmother named Wendy? Slin, her hair was all gray and her face was always with a gentle smile, she had been selling bread and pastries here for as long as Klein could remember. Well, the tingen cake and lemon cake she baked herself were very delicious... Zhou Mingrui swallowed his spit and said with a smile:

"Mrs. Sling, 8 pounds of rye bread."

"Oh, little Klein, where's Benson, haven't come back yet?" Wendy asked with a smile.

"A few days away." Zhou Mingrui replied vaguely.

Wendy sighed while holding rye bread:

"He's such a hardworking guy and will have a good wife."

Speaking of this, the corners of her mouth rose and she smiled a little playfully:

"Well, now that you've graduated, our Hoy University history graduate~ Well, you'll be able to make money soon, you shouldn't live in an apartment like this, at least have your own bathroom."

"Mrs. Sling, you really look like a young and lively lady today." Zhou Mingrui could only respond with a dry smile.

If Klein can successfully pass the interview and become a lecturer at Tingen University, then the whole family will indeed run directly to the well-off!

In the fragments of his memory, he even fantasized about renting a single-family house in the suburbs, with five or six rooms upstairs, two bathrooms, a large balcony, two rooms downstairs, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, a washroom, and an underground storage room.

This is not a luxury, even if the lecturer of the internship period at Tingen University, the weekly salary can be 2 gold pounds, after the regularization is 3 gold pounds 10 sules, you know, Klein's brother Benson, who has worked for several years, the weekly salary is only 1 pound 10 sules, the ordinary workers in the factory are not even 1 pound or just a little over, and the rent of such a single-family house ranges from 19 sules to 1 pound 18 sules.

"This is the difference between a monthly income of three or four thousand and a monthly income of ten thousand and four five..." Zhou Mingrui muttered to himself.

However, all this presupposes passing an interview at the University of Tingen or the University of Baekeland University.

As for other routes, people without backgrounds could not be recommended to become public officials, while those who studied history had a narrower scope of employment, and there was not much demand for private advisers of aristocrats or bankers or industrial tycoons.

Considering that the knowledge that Klein has also become "fragments", incomplete, and many incomplete, Zhou Mingrui's expectations for Mrs. Slynn are full of embarrassment and weakness.

"No, I've always been so young." Wendy replied humorously.

As she spoke, she put the weighed sixteen rye breads into the large dark brown paper bag that Zhou Mingrui brought with her, and spread her right hand and said:

"9pence."

Each rye bread weighs around 0.5 pounds, and deviations are inevitable.

"9pence, didn't you ask for 11p two days ago?" Zhou Mingrui subconsciously asked.

Last month, it was 15p.

"You have to thank the Grains Act for the repeal of the Grain, and thank those who marched." Wendy spread her hands and laughed.

Zhou Mingrui nodded understandingly, Klein's memory of this is a little broken, only remembering that the core of the "Grains Act" is to protect the price of domestic agricultural products, and before the price rises to a certain extent, it will not import grain from the southern countries of Fenerpot, Marsey, Lemburg and other countries.

Why did anyone march against it?

Without saying much, Zhou Mingrui was afraid of bringing out the revolver, so he could only carefully take out the banknotes, take out one of them, and hand it to Mrs. Slin.

After recovering three copper pennies and stuffing them into his trouser pocket, he carried a paper bag containing bread and headed to the "lettuce and meat" market across the street to work for the tender pea lamb stew that his sister had ordered.

At the intersection of Iron Cross Street and Daffodil Street, there is a town square, where tents are set up and clowns dressed up strangely and funny are handing out leaflets.

"Tomorrow night, circus show?" Zhou Mingrui glanced at the leaflet in the hands of others and read the approximate content in a low voice.

Melissa must like it, don't know how to collect tickets? The thought flashed, and Zhou Mingrui moved closer.

He was about to ask one of the red and yellow clowns when a husky female voice suddenly came from his side:

"Do you want divination?"

Subconsciously turning his head, Zhou Mingrui saw a woman wearing a pointed hat and a long black skirt standing in front of a low tent.

Her face was painted with red and yellow oil paint, and her eyes were gray and blue.

"Nope." Zhou Mingrui shook his head and replied, how could he have spare money to divination.

The woman smiled and said:

"My tarot divination is accurate."

"Tarot..." Zhou Mingrui was stunned suddenly.

This pronunciation is very similar to the tarot cards on the earth!

The earth's tarot cards belong to a kind of fortune-telling poker, but there are more "graphic cards" with symbols.

Wait a minute...... He remembered the origin of tarot divination in this world.

It is not derived from the seven orthodox deities, nor is it a relic of antiquity, but was created more than one hundred and seventy years ago by Rossel, then consul of the Republic of Intis. Gustav invented.

This Mr. Rossel invented the steam engine, improved the sailing ship, overthrew the rule of the Kingdom of Intis, and was recognized by the Church of the "God of Craftsmen" as the first consul of the new republic.

Later, he fought in the south and the north, included Lemburg and other countries in the protection, so that the Kingdom of Ruen, Fenerpot, the Fursack Empire and other northern continental powers bowed one after another, and then changed the republic to an empire again, calling himself "Julius Caesar".

It was during the reign of Rossel that the Church of the "God of Craftsmen" received the first public oracle since the Fifth Age, changing the title of "God of Craftsmen" to "God of Steam and Machinery". Rossel also invented tarot divination, and laid down the composition and play of the current cards, which include several types that Zhou Mingrui is familiar with, such as upgrades, fighting landlords, Texas, Quint...

In addition, he sent a fleet of ships to find a channel to the southern continent in storms and turbulence, ushering in the colonial era.

Unfortunately, when he was old, he was betrayed and assassinated in 1198 by the Eternal Sun Church, the Sauron family of the Tyss royal family, and other nobles, and fell to the White Maple Palace.

This...... Remembering these common senses, Zhou Mingrui suddenly had a little toothache.

This won't be a crosser senior, right?

Thinking of this, Zhou Mingrui had the heart to see what the tarot cards here looked like, so he nodded to the woman with a pointed hat and an oily face:

"If not, uh, the price is reasonable, I'll give it a try."

The woman immediately laughed:

"Sir, you are the first person to come to divination today, free of charge."