"Mr. Hargreaves." Lin Ze put down the tea cup.
"I heard that this library has a long history. Who was running it before you took over?"
"Father." Hargreaves put his glasses back on the bridge of his nose.
"My father is an old-school man. He has always liked collecting books, repairing books, and organizing bibliographies. During the years when I was at Home Office, he was the one who took care of it. Later, when he became ill, I resigned and came back to take over."
"Can I take the liberty to ask, what are you responsible for at Home Office?"
"Archives management." Hargreaves looked at Lin Ze with calm eyes. "It's similar to what we are doing now, except that one is in charge of the government's files and the other is in charge of the family's old books."
He said it very naturally, but Lin Ze knew that he must be aware of the four-year blank file.
"What about your father?"
"Dead."
"Sorry."
"It's nothing. The old man lived to be eighty-seven and passed away peacefully."
Hargreaves picked up the teapot and gave Lin Ze a refill.
"Mr. Lin is so interested in family history, I would like to ask, what kind of investment do you do?"
"Mainly business related to mergers and acquisitions." Lin Ze continued editing.
"It involves the asset restructuring of some old companies, so it is relatively sensitive to the history of family industries."
Hargreaves nodded and did not ask any further questions.
Halfway through the tea, Lin Ze glanced at the secret door in the corner with his peripheral vision while placing the tea cup.
A very faint light came from under the crack of the door, flickered slightly, and disappeared again.
Lin Ze remained calm, picked up the tea cup and continued chatting with Hargreaves about book collection and edition studies.
Mia occasionally interjected a few words, but mostly just listened quietly, with his fingers lightly resting on the briefcase.
Before leaving, Lin Ze walked around the reading room, pretending to be interested in certain ancient books, and asked Hargreaves to take them down and show them to him.
While the other party turned around to pick up books from the bookshelf, he quickly glanced at the ground around the secret door.
There is a very fine drag mark at the joint of the floor tiles, as if a heavy object has been repeatedly dragged out and pushed back from the direction of the secret door, and the mark has been worn into the cracks of the bricks over time.
"Mr. Lin?" Hargreaves came over holding two thick ancient books.
"Here we come." Lin Ze turned around and greeted him with a relaxed smile on his face.
Hargreaves put two ancient books on the table. One was a French poetry collection from the seventeenth century, with a leather cover embossed with gold arabesques. The other was a Latin animal atlas. The lion in the illustration looked like a lizard with a mane.
Lin Ze flipped through it casually, pretending to be very interested and asked a few questions about the version and binding.
Hargreaves answered questions fluently, which clearly shows that he has a strong family background.
Mia glanced at his watch and said in a very natural tone that it was time to leave. There was still a meeting in the afternoon.
The two stood up to say goodbye, and Hargreaves walked to the door of the reading room, shaking hands and saying goodbye.
"Mr. Lin If you decide to join the membership, please call this number at any time." He handed over his business card.
Lin Ze took it and put it away, and the two of them went out.
When they reached the intersection of King Street, Mia said, "What did you notice?"
"There must be something like a secret door inside."
"Do you think there might be any wizards among them?"
"You can't tell, the wizard might work for Muggle, as long as you give him enough money." Lin Ze stood at the intersection waiting for the red light, looking at the crowd of people on the other side in the direction of the Buckingham Palace.
The two walked back along Whitehall. When they passed Horse Guards Parade, Lin Ze suddenly stopped.
His eyes were attracted by a familiar figure across the square.
The man was wearing a dark coat and an old hunting hat. He was walking slowly with his back to them, his pace was leisurely, as if he was taking a walk.
Old hunting hat.
Lin Ze's pupils shrank.
The figure that appeared several times at the entrance of the church alley, at the door of St. Mungo's, and under the streetlight of Knockturn Alley.
"Mia." He lowered his voice.
"Hmm."
"See that guy in the hunting hat in front of you?"
Mia followed his line of sight and looked over.
"I saw it."
"Follow him."
The two quickened their pace and crossed the square.
The man didn't walk very fast, but the route was very strange. He was neither visiting the scenic spots nor rushing to a certain destination. He walked around the square, passed Canada Gate, and turned into a small road leading to St. James's Park.
Lin Ze and Mia kept a distance of about twenty steps, using the trees and tourists on the roadside as cover.
After entering the park, Hunting Hat walked a little faster, heading west along the path by the lake, and finally stopped on a small bridge.
The bridge is not high, and there is a lake under the bridge. A few ducks are swimming on the water, unaware of everything on the shore.
The man stood in the middle of the bridge, resting his hands on the bridge railing and looking down at the water.
Lin Ze did not rush over, but stopped under the shade of the trees at the head of the bridge, letting Mia stay where he was.
He walked up alone.
When he was three steps away from the man, Hunting Hat spoke.
"Are you tired after following us all the way?"
The voice was very soft, with a strange hoarseness.
"Who are you?" Lin Ze asked.
The hunting hat took off his hat.
Her long gray hair was scattered on her shoulders, and was slightly blown by the lake breeze.
The man turned around, revealing a thin face with high cheekbones and sunken eye sockets.
"My name is Amycus."
Lin Ze's breathing stopped for half a beat.
The vampire of Amycus, Gaunt family.
"Don't be nervous, we are not enemies." Amycus spread his hands.
"It's just that I didn't expect you to be able to find King Street. In order to prevent people in the library from being suspected by you, I simply came out to see you."
"It is indeed hidden in the library." Lin Ze looked at him with a serious face. Although the other party said so, he did not dare to let down his guard at all.
Amycus turned around and looked at the lake. Several ducks swam through it, causing thin ripples.
"Have you ever experienced what it feels like to be locked in a cage for two hundred years?" he asked.
"Gaunt family regards me as a hematopoietic machine. They think they are creating immortality medicine, but in fact they have only created a group of lunatics from generation to generation."
Although his tone was calm, Lin Ze could feel that the other person's lips couldn't help but tremble when he said this.
"I was released by a silly girl, her name is Megan." Amycus said.
"She let me go, but ended up dying under her father's curse. I was too weak at that time, and there was no way I could fight against the powerful Gaunt family."
"After Megan died, I hid underground in London. At that time, Muggle was fighting the Germans and dropping bombs all day long. I stayed in the collapsed sewers for many years."
"Then how come you are related to 19 King Street and those Muggle?" Lin Ze asked.