The Huihe River is not large, but it is not small either.

The three of them came to the only bar located in Gray River and planned to ask the bartender Tito for help.

Taito and Xiawolei are old acquaintances, so they have a lot of conversations: "Long time no see, Taito."

"Just say what you want to say." When Xiawole and others came here, Taito was busy with his back to the counter. Hearing Xiawole's words, he spoke without turning his head.

Xia Wulei didn't care and made her request: "I want to find out if anyone has been discussing the topic of gunpowder recently."

Upon hearing this, Taito stopped what he was doing, turned around and looked at Xiawolei and the other two with a serious face. He suddenly pulled the corner of his mouth and revealed a smile that did not reach his eyes: "Information has a price."

"I heard that bandits are rampant at night recently, and the supplies in Baisong Town have been affected. How about I provide more manpower to help?" Xia Wole no longer has Mora with her, so she can only make conditions in other aspects.

Fortunately, her condition was a good idea for Taito. Taito laughed, "Hahaha, you're still as easy to talk to as before." After that, he no longer concealed the truth, "A month ago, a brother drank too much at night and lost his gun. Three days later, he found it in the corner of the bar."

"What's so strange about this?" Little Paimeng didn't hear the trick here. It was just an ordinary story of loss and recovery. "He just forgot it there."

Tito did not make any sarcastic remarks. After all, in their line of work, the most important thing besides being ruthless was to be tactful. Everyone had two faces.

"This is Gray River, my friend." Tito reminded him, "Any valuable things in the tavern that have no owner, even a rat, will not survive until the next day.

But the rifle was returned intact and unfired. What's the point? "

Taito shrugged. Some things are self-evident. Gray River is equivalent to a slum. Most of the people here can be considered scavengers. It is better to expect people here to return lost items to their owners? It is more reliable to expect Saphir to find Kamisato Ayaka to dance belly dance with him when he is bored one day.

"I guess... it's because the gun has a criminal record." Xia Vole immediately understood, after all, he was the one who had been tracking him from the beginning.

Taito came to his senses after hearing this: "Are you worried that the bullet marks will be discovered by the Shadow Chasing Court? Maybe. If that's the case, then the criminal is really cautious."

Regarding the case, Taito would neither proactively ask nor deliberately avoid questions. After all, with this position, there were not many things he couldn't know, and certain standards would be relaxed for this kind of person.

"I didn't say anyone committed a crime." Xiawolei blinked her eyes and acted ignorant. This look was worth learning for Kamisato Ayato for the rest of his life.

Taito chuckled and spread his hands: “In Gray River, knowing who was killed is as easy as knowing what you wore today.

It's the guy from the east side, right? I never liked him. He only ordered one drink at a time and had a bad look in his eyes. "

Taito hated misers and hated sinister people even more, and unfortunately, the person who died this time was both of them.

Paimon was a little curious: "Who was the person who lost the gun?"

Tito didn't intend to answer this question: "Forget it. Even if you ask, he won't admit to a special patrol captain or a stranger that he has a gun."

Assholes all have their own set of rules for survival, and one of the most unchanging rules is: never admit you are guilty.

"He's right." Xia Wole agreed with this. Although she was indeed a member of Gray River in the past, after she joined the special patrol team, although she tried her best to avoid it, her relationship with the people of Gray River became distant.

It's not that she didn't try to maintain it, but the relationship between people can't be maintained unilaterally. Gray River has its own rules, and she doesn't belong to Gray River.

Gray River can accept the Rose Thorn Society, refugees, criminals, the poor, the Treasure Thieves, the Fatui...but it cannot accept the Special Patrol Team.

Taito could naturally see the disappointment that Xiawole tried hard to hide in her eyes, and after thinking for a while, he said, “I know you grew up here, Xiawole.

Although Thornrose will welcome you, you have been away for so long that many people don’t recognize you. Also, many people don’t like the Special Patrol Team.”

"I know." Xiawolei was very clear about her situation.

Seeing that she understood everything, Taito tilted his head to look at her and said, "So, for your safety, I'll give you a suggestion. It's best not to show up here."

People don't like traitors. Isn't Xia Wole, who left Huihe to join the special patrol team, also a traitor to Huihe?

Even if we say that the Grey River is part of Fontaine ten thousand times, so what? There is a wall in the human heart, a barrier that is difficult to destroy even after time.

Xia Wulei crossed her arms, her face full of stubbornness: "I come when I want and leave when I want. And due to work reasons, I'm afraid I will come more often."

"Well, I gave the advice anyway." Seeing that she was not convinced, Taito didn't want to say anything more.

How could he not know what Xia Wo Lei was thinking? This girl grew up in Huihe, so she naturally knew how bad the environment here was, so she also hoped that this place could become as free and prosperous as the upper city.

This was a very naive idea, and no one thought she could succeed. Neither did Taito.

Fontaine needs the Grey River to hide its filth and allow the desperate to find a place to live in the dark and stinking ditch. Merlot Petersburg is not enough to accommodate those sins.

After all, there are more petty thieves and people who are frustrated in life than big villains.

The Gray River is a good place for these people to live. They get entangled together and gradually rot in the mud, becoming bugs in the mouths of the glamorous ones. When they are looked down upon, they turn around and spit on those people.

The three said goodbye to Taito and began to wander around, trying to find some traces.

Soon, they discovered something.

"Broken planks, broken barrels, and... some wine bottles?" Looking at the things in front of him, Paimon scratched his head.

The little guy is not cut out to be a detective, so he can't see anything very keenly.

Xiawolei looked at the wine bottles. There were three bottles neatly placed on a wooden barrel. Two of them were intact, and one was broken in the middle, and the whole bottle was shattered.

It seems that it exploded due to a strong impact.

"Look carefully, Paimon." Xia Wulei had already seen the clue.

After Xiawolei's reminder, Paimon was sure that there was something fishy here, but he still didn't quite understand it.

Seeing this, Xia Wole walked to the wall, reached out and touched it, and indeed found a few bullet holes there: "Although it has been cleaned once, these are obviously the scorch marks caused by rifle bullets.

That means someone has practiced shooting here. The bottles and barrels were used as targets.”

"Could it be the murderer?" Paimon immediately became alert.

Xia Volei nodded slightly: "I guess, yes. Although there are many people with guns in Gray River, no one cares so much about the bullet marks they leave, let alone take the time to clean them up."

That’s right, the people of Gray River never care about the traces when they shoot, and they will specially clean them up to appear suspicious.

"Let's go and continue our investigation." Although there was no breakthrough, at least now they could get a small glimpse of the murderer.

If he keeps up this momentum, the murderer will be caught soon.

With a good start, the subsequent investigation of the three people went smoothly and they gradually obtained some clues.

"That should be all we have." Xia Wole took Ying and little Paimeng to search almost the entire Gray River in one night. They investigated everything that could be investigated and said this only after making sure that there was nothing missed.

Little Paimon has been immersed in the atmosphere of the investigation and has not felt tired: "It feels like there are more clues here than above."

"Well, assuming that these clues all point to our suspect, then we can generally draw the following inferences -

A month ago, someone picked up a gun, took it home, and possibly disassembled it to figure out the structure of the gun before returning it.

Over the course of several weeks he pieced together a rifle of his own and took it to Gray River for target practice.

Then a few days ago, he found his target, committed the crime, and, like in the novel, placed a rainbow rose.”

Xia Wulei slowly stated her own inferences, recounting the entire process almost logically self-consistently.

After listening to Xiawolei's reasoning, although Paimon agreed with it, he just felt that something was wrong: "Well... although it makes sense to hear you say that, it's still hard to know who the murderer is."

"The identity of the deceased..." Ying felt it necessary to figure out this issue, and it might be easier to start from the victim's social relations.

Xia Wo Lei knew that there was no need to hide it any longer, so she spoke directly: "The deceased lived in Huihe. It is said that he lived alone all year round and his living conditions were difficult."

"The one in the story is a noble..." Ying subconsciously began to compare this incident with Yingying's plot.

Xia Wulei nodded: "Well, this is also what I don't understand."

Xiawolei has always been confused by this difference. "If there is really a hidden story as in the novel, this should be a revenge killing. But the investigation results show that the deceased has no obvious enemy.

He had done a lot of bad things, but he just didn't have the kind of enemies who would make people shoot him and leave roses behind.

What message is the criminal conveying, and to whom is he conveying it..."

Ying also pondered, and suddenly an idea flashed in her mind: "Where is the author? What did the author say?"

"We checked it out from the beginning." What Ying could think of, Xiawolei would certainly not fail to think of. "He claimed that he was at the opera house the whole day on the day of the incident, and the ticket collector there also confirmed his statement."

Paimon nodded when she heard this: "That is to say, he has an alibi." Although she was not good at thinking, she still understood the basics. An alibi was the best way to clear herself of suspicion.

After all, the person was not there, so how could he have done it?

Xiawolei nodded, then shook his head: "Not only that, he also lacks motivation.

He has a complete family, his parents are still alive. I have done in-depth research and found that he was adopted when he was six years old, following formal procedures. There is also a record of him being in an orphanage before the age of six.

The mothers of the two protagonists in the novel were killed when they were ten years old. Although the novel may have adapted the facts, I don’t want to be trapped by this way of thinking. "

It is wrong to make random guesses before identifying the suspect. Xiawolei hopes to get substantial evidence rather than making assumptions out of thin air.

"More importantly, I've talked to him, and he doesn't seem like the kind of person who would dare to pick up a gun and kill people." This is the most important thing. Xia Wole has been involved in investigating cases for many years, so he knows this basic method of judging people.

Paimon felt like everything had returned to square one: "What should we do now? It sounds like the clues are still broken..."

"I don't expect to catch the criminal in one day. The investigation will take time." Xia Wole was very calm. After all, it was a homicide case. The suspect would definitely hide very well and would not be easy to find.

She thought about it and suggested, "How about this, we just shoot Yingying normally these few days, and then investigate around after the shooting. Clues will eventually appear."

She had a hunch that the truth of the matter was not far away from her and must be related to this film.

"But didn't you also say that these isolated islands of information would easily pass you by?" Little Paimon didn't understand Xia Vole's feelings and was a little confused.

Xia Volei shook her head slightly: "Paimon, there is another sentence in the book that I haven't told you."

"Huh? What?" Paimon was running out of ideas and asked hurriedly.

"But if you sail through the fog long enough, you will eventually hit an island."

As long as we keep investigating, the suspect won't be able to escape.

After finishing the serious discussion, Ying returned to the Dust Song Pot with Xia Wole and little Paimeng.

On the way, she was a little curious: "Come to think of it, Xiawolei actually grew up in Gray River."

"What's wrong? Is it strange that the captain of the special patrol team grew up in Gray River?" Xia Wole asked when she saw the curiosity in Ying's eyes.

Ying nodded: "It feels like it will be difficult."

"Are you talking about the process of climbing up?" Xia Wulei recalled for a moment, then nodded, "It is very difficult. But as long as you are strong enough and have made enough achievements... one day you will be recognized.

On the other hand, Gray River has also shaped me in some ways. For example, how to trade with sinners, how to think like a sinner...

Of course, let’s keep this a secret between us.”

Ying knew that she didn't want to discuss this topic, so she didn't say anything more.

She felt that Xiawolei and Saphir were a bit similar. They both climbed up step by step from the bottom. They both had a difficult past and regarded those experiences as the wealth of life.

Saphir once said that Dotore had brought her countless pains, but without Dotore, she would not be where she is now.

“Suffering gives us unbearable pain, but it also elevates our lives. We can climb up step by step on the pain we suffer until we reach the top. At that time, we will see the most beautiful scenery that is far more dazzling and blazing than the suffering itself and belongs only to us.”