Chapter Summaries

After Han Lu woke safely, Zhang Heng asked her to keep in touch while he returned to his ordinary routine and earned his driver’s license. He then used his hacking skills to examine the social media accounts of two members of the Greenland expedition, finding troubling private posts on Marshall’s account.

• Han Lu thanked Zhang Heng for saving her, and Zhang Heng asked her to contact him every morning for a month while he declined to claim credit for Hypnos’s disappearance.
• Over the next two weeks, Zhang Heng got his driver’s license and drove his roommates back to their dorm after a celebratory dinner.
• Zhang Heng used his hacking skills to access Nicholson’s Facebook account and found that Nicholson had avoided mentioning the Greenland expedition.
• Zhang Heng examined Marshall’s account and found private nighttime sketches and posts about being watched and someone coming back.
• Zhang Heng saw that Marshall had stopped updating his account a week after his girlfriend left him over his sleepwalking.

After learning that the broken Katana’s repair would cost 2,000 Game Points and require its missing half, Zhang Heng began his seventh game instance, Deduction. He arrived at 221B Baker Street, where his new roommate introduced himself as Sherlock Holmes.

• Zhang Heng postponed investigating the former Navy SEAL and psychologist until summer break because he could not leave school.
• Bartender Lady told Zhang Heng that a blacksmith could repair and potentially upgrade his Katana for 2,000 Game Points, but he first needed to find the lower half of the blade.
• Zhang Heng decided to seek the missing blade piece, which he believed Hong still had, before deciding whether to pay for the repair.
• Zhang Heng started the Deduction instance, whose mission was to solve a case with his new roommate and find the criminal first.
• Zhang Heng arrived at 221B Baker Street, met Mrs. Hudson, and was introduced to his roommate, Sherlock Holmes.

Zhang Heng met Sherlock Holmes, and the two impressed each other by deducing personal details. Holmes welcomed Zhang Heng as a lodger and agreed to teach him observation and deduction, leaving them to celebrate their future life together.

• Sherlock Holmes deduced that Zhang Heng had spent time at sea, seen war, practiced archery, and traveled.
• Zhang Heng deduced Holmes's expertise, habits, family, and background, then attributed his knowledge to Arthur Conan Doyle.
• Mrs. Hudson welcomed their introduction and offered refreshments as Holmes became interested in Zhang Heng.
• Holmes and Zhang Heng discussed sharing the house, Holmes's work and violin playing, and Zhang Heng's wish to learn deduction.
• Holmes called for port instead of tea so they could toast their future life together.

Sherlock Holmes enlisted Zhang Heng and Inspector Gregson to investigate an unidentified young woman found dead in the Thames. As they traveled to the river, Holmes enthusiastically discussed music and his method of recalling past cases, while Gregson remained troubled by the mystery.

• Inspector Gregson told Sherlock Holmes and Zhang Heng that a young girl's body had been found in the Thames with no clothes or belongings to identify her.
• Sherlock Holmes agreed to investigate and invited Zhang Heng to join him, despite Gregson's apparent reluctance.
• Zhang Heng followed Holmes and Gregson into a carriage bound for the River Thames.
• During the ride, Holmes talked about his love of music and explained that he remembered difficult cases by keeping records in his head.

Zhang Heng examined a murdered girl beside the Thames with Sherlock Holmes, who quickly deduced where she had worked and described her killer. Over dinner, Holmes invited Zhang Heng to ask how he had reached those conclusions.

• Zhang Heng examined the girl's body and recognized that she had been murdered, struck on the head, and likely violated before death.
• Sherlock Holmes told Inspector Gregson to investigate John's Textile Factory and described the murderer as a tall, strong man known to the girl who had scratches on his arms.
• Holmes left Gregson to solve the case and invited Zhang Heng to dinner at Hobben Restaurant.
• At dinner, Zhang Heng asked Holmes how he had deduced the girl's workplace and the killer's characteristics.

Sherlock Holmes explained how he identified the drowned factory worker, reconstructed her murder, and inferred the killer’s actions. He then challenged Zhang Heng to a deduction bet about a man at the next table, whom Holmes believed had just returned from Afghanistan as an army doctor.

• Sherlock Holmes used the victim’s hands, rope marks, and copper sulfate crystals to link her to John's Textile Factory and explain how her body reached the river.
• Sherlock Holmes deduced that the victim had resisted an attempted assault, scratched her attacker, and was strangled after striking her head on a table.
• Sherlock Holmes explained how he estimated the killer’s height and taught Zhang Heng to infer professions from people’s appearances.
• Sherlock Holmes claimed the man at the next table had returned from Afghanistan and was an army doctor, then proposed a bet with Zhang Heng.

Zhang Heng beat Holmes in a wager by identifying John H. Watson without looking at him, then reviewed his game gains and borrowed Holmes’s case clippings. He left with the research materials he needed for the new instance.

• Holmes deduced that the army doctor across the restaurant was wounded in Afghanistan, but Zhang Heng identified him as John H. Watson and won their wager.
• Holmes confirmed Watson did not know Zhang Heng, then agreed to lend Zhang Heng his organized case clippings.
• On the carriage ride home, Zhang Heng checked his character panel and reviewed his recent game rewards, including the Plague Bone Bow and the White Horse Crown.
• Holmes brought two boxes of newspaper clippings and case records from his room and lent them to Zhang Heng.

Gregson arrived with a newspaper praising him for identifying Molly and arresting Paul, but Sherlock Holmes concluded from Gregson’s description that Paul was not the murderer. Sherlock asked Zhang Heng to join him in investigating further, leaving the real killer still at large.

• Zhang Heng read The Echo’s report, which credited Gregson with identifying Molly and arresting Paul while barely mentioning Sherlock Holmes’s help.
• Gregson explained that Paul had been Molly’s coworker and had possessed her bloodstained clothes, leading him to confess that he had desired her.
• Gregson described Paul as much shorter and less powerful than Sherlock Holmes’s suspected killer, and noted that Paul had no scratches on his arms.
• Sherlock Holmes declared that Gregson had arrested the wrong man and that Paul was not Molly’s murderer.
• Sherlock Holmes asked Zhang Heng to accompany him on another investigation to free an innocent man and find the real killer.

Zhang Heng and Sherlock Holmes investigated John’s Textile Factory and Wood Chemical Factory while pursuing the murder of Molly. Holmes suspected he had identified the murderer but waited for more evidence, then sent the Baker Street Irregulars to watch Pearson.

• Zhang Heng and Sherlock Holmes paid a factory attendant to enter John’s Textile Factory, where Zhang Heng persuaded him to prepare a list of skilled workers.
• Sherlock Holmes praised Zhang Heng’s investigative skill and explained why he would gather enough evidence before naming a murderer.
• At the chemical factory, Sherlock Holmes learned that managers disliked Paul while his fellow workers respected him, and that Paul had no alibi after visiting Molly.
• Sherlock Holmes and Zhang Heng finished their investigations and left the remaining work to the Baker Street Irregulars.
• Sherlock Holmes gave Wiggins travel money and ordered him to investigate Pearson at Wood Chemical Factory.

Zhang Heng asked Sherlock Holmes for a way to earn money without taking up much time, and Holmes tested his fighting ability. Impressed by Zhang Heng’s skill despite getting punched in the eye, Holmes offered to introduce him to underground boxing rings.

• Sherlock Holmes explained how the Baker Street Irregulars gathered information and played Sarasate’s “Introduction and Tarantella” while Zhang Heng read case records.
• Zhang Heng told Sherlock Holmes he needed a part-time way to earn money, and Holmes said he knew an option that required only one evening when Zhang Heng was free.
• Sherlock Holmes took Zhang Heng to an empty lot and tested his boxing, then intensified his attacks after Zhang Heng blocked them.
• Zhang Heng warned Sherlock Holmes that he would counterattack and, five minutes later, returned home with Holmes covering one eye.
• Sherlock Holmes offered to introduce Zhang Heng to underground boxing rings and advised him not to win too easily.

Sherlock Holmes found evidence that textile factory owner John Jones was involved in Molly’s murder and explained why he believed someone had helped frame Paul. The chapter ended with Holmes preparing to reveal how the accomplice fit into the case.

• Wiggins returned with no unusual observations of Pearson, but came back the next morning in a panic, prompting Sherlock Holmes to summon Inspector Gregson.
• Holmes took Gregson and Zhang Heng to a pawnshop, where they found the carpet removed from John Jones’s office with traces of blood still on it.
• Holmes told Gregson that women at John’s factory had reported harassment and that Molly had been alone with John on the night she was killed.
• Holmes described finding signs that John’s carpet had been replaced and blood on his desk, while Gregson remained concerned about the evidence against Paul.
• Holmes concluded that an accomplice must have helped frame Paul because John could not plausibly have planted Molly’s clothes beneath Paul’s bed himself.

Sherlock Holmes explained how Pearson helped John frame Paul and led Gregson to arrest him at the chemical plant. Pearson escaped the factory but was caught by Zhang Heng, leaving the case ready to close with witness testimony and physical evidence.

• Sherlock Holmes deduced that Pearson had helped John dispose of Molly’s body, planted her clothes under Paul’s bed, and discarded the office carpet.
• Gregson and Sherlock Holmes went to the chemical plant and tried to arrest Pearson, but Pearson incited the workers and escaped into the crowd.
• Pearson reflected that he had betrayed Paul and helped John in hopes of improving his position, but his plans had collapsed.
• Pearson encountered Zhang Heng outside the plant and threatened him, but Zhang Heng knocked him down.
• Gregson and Sherlock Holmes found Zhang Heng standing over Pearson, who was curled up on the ground.

Zhang Heng fought Anchor Quinn in an underground boxing match, appearing to be overwhelmed until he exploited Anchor’s exhaustion and landed a decisive combination. Anchor fell, leaving the stunned crowd unable to understand the sudden reversal.

• The crowd gathered behind the Owl Tavern and heavily favored Anchor Quinn over Zhang Heng.
• Anchor attacked relentlessly while Zhang dodged and guarded, making it appear that he was being dominated.
• Sherlock Holmes recognized that Zhang was taking little damage while Anchor was tiring from his assault.
• Zhang evaded Anchor’s committed punch and struck him repeatedly, disorienting him with blows to the ears.
• Zhang finished Anchor with an uppercut, and the crowd fell silent in shock.

After helping Sherlock Holmes solve the River Thames case and completing his boxing match, Zhang Heng continued his detective studies while Holmes took on two more consultations. With work drying up, Holmes fell into idleness and used a cocaine solution to escape the monotony, insisting that only challenging cases made life worthwhile.

• Sherlock Holmes gave Zhang Heng the thirty pounds from the boxing wager, bringing Zhang Heng’s earnings for the trip to thirty-two pounds.
• Inspector Gregson followed Sherlock Holmes’s advice, lured John back to his London residence, and arrested him after he returned from hiding.
• Sherlock Holmes checked that his deductions about the River Thames case matched the evidence, while Zhang Heng finished the cases Holmes had assigned him and began reviewing their patterns.
• Sherlock Holmes solved two consultations without visiting the scenes, then spent a quiet week finishing a paper and playing the violin.
• Zhang Heng found Sherlock Holmes reclining with needle marks and a syringe, and Holmes explained that he used the cocaine solution because he could not endure an ordinary, uneventful life.

Zhang Heng explored London to improve his understanding of the city, then visited the East End and saw its crushing poverty and danger. After catching a young pickpocket, he continued through Whitechapel and heard an argument ahead.

• Zhang Heng left home to tour London after Sherlock Holmes advised him to observe and record the city.
• Zhang Heng visited Queen's Market and toured the River Thames before comparing the West End with the impoverished East End.
• A boy tried to pick Zhang Heng's pocket, but Zhang Heng caught him and shook several stolen wallets and trinkets from his clothes.
• Zhang Heng walked through Whitechapel and reflected that its despair felt worse than the poverty and chaos of Nassau.
• Zhang Heng heard an argument as he continued through the East End.

Zhang Heng followed a Gypsy busker after watching him give money to a struggling Jewish family. When a group of strangers accused the busker of theft and moved to rob him, Zhang Heng prepared to fight them.

• The Gypsy busker paid two months of rent for a Jewish family and gave the man's daughter a gold coin.
• Zhang Heng followed the busker through the East End, lost sight of him, and then encountered him again.
• Zhang Heng warned the busker that someone was watching him because he had displayed his wealth.
• A group of strangers accused the busker of stealing a wallet and closed in on him.
• Zhang Heng handed the busker his coat and told him to knock the attackers down.

Zhang Heng rescued a Gypsy busker from five pursuers, then returned to Baker Street and uncovered Sherlock Holmes’s disguise. Holmes reported that his investigation into a member of Parliament’s connection to a young woman had revealed she was the politician’s illegitimate daughter.

• Zhang Heng charged the five men, knocked down their leader and another pursuer, and drove the remaining three away.
• Zhang Heng returned his coat to the Gypsy busker, advised him to leave, and gave him his name and address before they parted.
• Zhang Heng arrived home and learned that Sherlock Holmes had gone out after receiving a letter.
• Sherlock Holmes returned disguised as a bearded coachman, and Zhang Heng recognized him from the traces of chemicals on his hands and his new shoes.
• Sherlock Holmes told Zhang Heng that the young woman he had investigated was in love with her boyfriend and was the member of Parliament’s illegitimate daughter.

Holmes and Zhang Heng met François Le Vial at the docks, where Vial explained that he had come to London to pursue a thief who extorted prominent people by stealing evidence of their secrets. Vial revealed that his employer, a viscount, had secretly acquired a stolen Canaletto painting and had become the thief’s target.

• Holmes invited Zhang Heng to meet his French detective friend François Le Vial, who was arriving in London.
• Holmes and Zhang Heng waited at the docks for the Seagull and discussed scientific change and the growing use of alkaloids in crimes.
• Vial arrived and told Holmes and Zhang Heng that he was tracking a master thief who stole evidence of prominent people’s guilty secrets to extort them.
• Vial explained that his employer, a viscount, had secretly bought a Canaletto painting stolen from a famous collector and that the thief had discovered it.

Sherlock Holmes, Zhang Heng, and Vial examined the theft of a Canaletto painting from a Viscount’s estate and considered how the mysterious Reputation Thief learned his victims’ secrets and entered without a trace. Zhang Heng identified several unanswered questions, but the thief’s methods remained unexplained.

• Vial told Sherlock Holmes that the Reputation Thief targeted people’s buried secrets, demanded ransoms, and returned stolen items when paid.
• Vial shared his detailed notes on the Viscount’s stolen Canaletto, which had been taken from a small room while a valuable Chinese porcelain vase was left untouched.
• Zhang Heng questioned how anyone could prove the painting had belonged to the Viscount, and Vial explained that the Viscount had signed its back.
• Sherlock Holmes and Zhang Heng wondered how the thief discovered the Viscount’s secret purchase and the secrets of his other victims.
• Zhang Heng pointed out that guards, hunting dogs, rain-softened soil, and the butler’s room should have made an undetected break-in difficult.
• Vial said the maid had found the frame still in place and a taunting letter signed Mr. M, but no trace of how the painting had been removed.

Sherlock Holmes and Zhang Heng investigated how Mr. M stole paintings from guarded estates and concluded that a household maid was involved. Holmes said recovering the painting would be easy, but catching Mr. M would be difficult, and the investigation continued in London.

• Vial told Sherlock Holmes that a maid had been searched after a painting vanished and described two similar thefts linked to letters from Mr. M.
• Sherlock Holmes agreed to help Vial and took him and Zhang Heng to an inn in London.
• Zhang Heng argued that the maid who cleaned the room was the likeliest culprit because an outsider could not have entered unnoticed.
• Sherlock Holmes concluded that a thief inside the household had stolen the painting, likely by bribing the maid.
• Zhang Heng questioned how the maid had escaped the search, and Sherlock Holmes said he was close to the answer and vowed to catch Mr. M.