Detective's Intuition

When he woke up, Trist gasped for breath in the damp, cold air. He felt his clothes were soaked with cold sweat and he felt completely exhausted. He sat up and realized that it was still very late at night.

You witnessed the pollution.

[Rationality - 2]

Xiya's snoring was louder than the occasional hum of the machines in the factory outside, making Trist wonder if his dreams were related to the girl.

As for Lu Ban, he was sleeping soundly, using the Big Orange Cat that had previously disappeared as a pillow. The orange cat looked Affliction and tried to struggle, but Lu Ban held it tightly, and the cat couldn't escape at all, only occasionally letting out whimpering sounds.

Trist closed his eyes, recalling the dream he had just had.

Indeed, the girl's life and her dream self had improved considerably, indicating that some time had passed.

As for how the girls earn money and survive, the answer to such questions is readily available in the Black Street.

Drizzt was more emotional than sympathetic.

In the Ruined City, the gap between people is sometimes greater than the gap between a person and a dog.

and

He picked up the pendant that he had left on the coffee table while he was asleep.

This wooden, flower-shaped pendant also appeared in the dream, right around the girl's neck.

"The person in my dream, was it Flora?"

Trist truly felt the dramatic change in a girl as she grew up; apart from their somewhat similar eyebrows and eyes, the two gave off completely different vibes.

Moreover, the scenes in Trist's dream may be more than a few years ago.

"What is this dream trying to tell me? Why did I have to kill Flora?"

"Could it be that the killer's real target was Flora, not Dr. House?"

"Or is this the killer's perspective?"

Trist is now somewhat relieved that this dream is not a real dream but some kind of corrupted knowledge. Although his sanity has diminished, he can now clearly recall every detail of the dream as long as he closes his eyes.

He closed his eyes, trying to find more clues.

For example, the location of the room where the two are, or the identity of the dream's owner.

Since the woman from "Good Times" said that Flora had no relatives or friends, the owner of this dream might not have a good ending, or might have broken with Flora, leading to resentment.

In the dream, while the girl was handing Trist food, he tried to turn his head, but found that his head wouldn't move at all, and even his eyeballs couldn't move. He couldn't look anywhere else at all.

It's probably because the dreamer didn't see it at the time, so things that even the other person doesn't know about cannot appear in the dream.

Entering the dream again, this time Trist didn't turn his head, but instead carefully stared at the girl's back, at the room's furnishings, and peered out the window out of the corner of his eye.

The sky was overcast, but factory smoke was already visible. These were houses near the factory, laid out like small apartments, with windows like these.

Trist struggled to recall everything she had learned in her life, trying to find clues about the apartment.

Near the factory area, there are these cheap little apartments, most of which share toilets and bathrooms. The apartments only have beds. These are not for the workers, but for some of the factory's clerical staff and foremen. Compared to the dirty and smelly Black Street, these locations are obviously more comfortable.

More upscale apartments, those with their own private bathrooms, are located closer to the city center of the Ruined City.

For the lower classes, a house like Trist's was already considered a mansion.

Trist kept recalling his dream, his mind filled with the girl's face.

Just then, Trist suddenly had a flash of inspiration; he remembered something.

His gaze was fixed on the girl's hand, where she had just taken out a medicine bottle containing medication to treat "him," which she had bought cheaply with the money she had earned.

Trist read the label on the medicine bottle carefully.

He recognized the label; he had seen it before.

"Dr. House's clinic used to offer this kind of medicine."

When Trist opened his eyes from the dream, he felt he had caught the tail end of inspiration.

"The cheap medicine, Flora and Dr. House, their connection here means their house isn't far from Black Street, I need to look for it."

He got up, stepped over the snoring Xiya and Lu Ban who was holding a cat, went to his office, pulled out a map of the Ruined City (though it was mostly marked by himself), Trist found Dr. House's clinic, looking for apartments around it.

Soon, Trist found an apartment called House of Happiness.

Despite the name, the apartment is in poor condition; it's a cheap apartment with shared bathrooms and poor soundproofing.

Trist wrote down the address, then searched through old newspapers, looked at the apartment rental advertisement and the contact person's name, and wrote them down in his notebook. After doing all this, he leaned back in his chair, picked up his pipe, and wanted to take a puff, but recalling his frail body in the dream, he put the pipe down again.

He pulled out Dr. House's files, which contained patient records. After searching through them, he remembered something else.

The police and I must have already checked Dr. House's medical records. Apart from the ones Madam Martina needed, there was definitely no other file on Flora.

She was not a formal patient of Dr. House.

"Perhaps Dr. House came into contact with them when distributing medication. Could there really be some unknown connection between these two?"

Trist frequently reads novels and plays, has already imagined a grand drama.

Looking at the pendant in his hand, Trist suddenly felt a little sad. He didn't know if it was because of the influence of the dream he had just had, or because of the imbalance between himself working so late while the other two were sound asleep.

He went to the window, looked at the Ruined City would never truly sleep, and sighed.

The next morning, Trist was woken up by Lu Ban's voice. He immediately fell asleep in a chair, his neck aching.

At breakfast time, he saw the sandwiches that Lu Ban brought from the restaurant downstairs, and he felt a little nauseous.

Trist skipped breakfast and instead told Lu Ban and Xiya about his dream from the previous night and the investigation he had conducted while they were wolfing down their food.

"So, shall we go check out the apartment today?"

Lu Ban asked, with traces of milk still on the corner of his mouth.

"I always have a feeling that the people in my dreams are trying to tell me something, and want me to stop it."

Trist muttered to himself.

"Is this what you call a detective's intuition?"

Lu Ban asked.

"If I could, I'd like you to have this dream."

Trist said seriously to Lu Ban.

Thank you "Gentle Stubble" for the 1000 coin reward!