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Harras, who wore a white wig, cut off a piece of fried dragonbone fish with only its main bone remaining, dipped it in black pepper sauce, and put it in his mouth. After chewing and swallowing, he picked up his pale golden champagne, its bubbles rising like strings of beads, and took a sip in a good mood.
He had already begun unconsciously imagining the evening's entertainment, imagining the pleasure of conquering a stubborn young girl.
This diminished his appetite and made it difficult to concentrate.
Katie kept her head down, eating roast spring chicken and paying no attention to anything around her. Mr. A lurked silently within this shell, waiting for an opportunity to act. Before dinner, Maria had suddenly contacted him and handed him a complete floor plan of the villa. At the time, Mr. A had been proceeding cautiously to avoid alerting anyone. After twenty hours of work, he had only just figured out the general routes through the villa and had yet to explore the ventilation ducts, sewers, or secret passages.
This unexpected map had been a tremendous help. It was so precise that both of them suspected the Detective had an inside contact in the villa, and it also put Mr. A on his guard against this Detective, whose connections seemed to exceed all imagination.
Dinner proceeded in an orderly fashion. After saying a few words, Capim suddenly scratched his cheek, then scratched it again.
"It's a little itchy." Capim smiled apologetically. Before he had finished speaking, he could not help scratching again, leaving an obvious bloody mark.
The bloody mark quickly swelled, its surface becoming translucent, allowing a faint glimpse of pale yellow liquid inside.
"It really is a little itchy." Capim smiled again. He scratched the same spot once more. He used