Musician Mr. Bundy's eye condition had been congenital. He was forty-one this year, unmarried, and lived alone in an apartment in the Lower District. Shade greatly admired blind people who lived alone. Though more than forty years of life might have accustomed him to feeling his way through darkness, the courage to survive by himself still earned the deep respect of Shade, who had never known the experience of blindness.
Mr. Bundy lived in an alley called Rotten Fish Alley. Its name alone made it clear that this was an inconspicuous corner of the city. The alley could not be found on tourist maps of the city; only on the map left behind by Detective Sparrow could it be located in an overlooked corner of the northern part of the city.
Detective Sparrow had written a small pencil note beside the alley. It stated that loan-sharking gangs could be found around Rotten Fish Alley, and that, with the right code words, one could even find people selling prohibited drugs.
Shade set out from Saint Derain Square, first taking a carriage to Saint Song Square in the Lower District. Then he followed the northern streets of bustling Saint Song Square, continuing north alongside children running wildly about.
The weather was quite nice today, and Shade was in no great hurry.
At the Five Intersection at the end of the street, he chose the northwestern road. After turning onto it, he entered at the second alleyway. Carefully avoiding the excrement and piles of rubbish on the ground, he raised his collar to cover his nose and mouth, passed through the alley, and arrived at the entrance to a slum centered around a large locust tree.
He continued west along a slightly wider alley, weaving between the old, dilapidated apartment buildings towering there.