The Newsvendor at the Bookstall

The modern Industrial Revolution brought enormous changes to cities.

Before the Industrial Revolution, cities were characterized by a primary-industry economy, with secondary and tertiary industries playing supporting roles. Urbanization levels were low.

After the Industrial Revolution, industrial cities were characterized by a large tertiary sector, modernized agriculture, highly developed towns, concentrated populations, and polluted environments. Cities expanded outward in concentric layers, like a spiral theater hosting anatomical demonstrations—the closer one was to the center, the more expensive the ticket.

Only when plagues broke out, or serial killers like Jack the Ripper appeared, did people feel the drawbacks of excessive population density.

Scotland Yard's list of suspects ran to a hundred people. Every one of them seemed suspicious. Later investigators even included women among the suspects, based on jealousy, since those prostitutes had all given birth before.

Pomona had also suffered a miscarriage. Honestly, she felt somewhat relieved. Raising a child really was no easy task; dealing with Severus alone was already enough.

She had helped raise other people's children for thirty years. Molly had given birth to six children. It had been hard at first, but once they grew up, Molly was free.

Not every woman yearned so desperately to have children of her own. If circumstances allowed, she would even have wanted to adopt Hermione, but Hermione probably felt more attached to her biological parents. It would be difficult for her to accept her former teacher as an adoptive parent.

"Jack" seemed to choose his victims at random. As long as they were drunken prostitutes, he would strike.

If Annie Chapman's death had allowed "The Dissector" to understand female anatomy, then Catherine Eddowes's death was already irrational. He had struck too heavily and lost the precision of a scalpel.

Jack had wanted to tear Catherine's face off, and had