Early the next morning, before it was fully light, Lin Ze was woken by the House-elf Mr Delacour had sent.
He was staying in a wizarding hotel arranged by the French Ministry of Magic.
The room was small, but compared with his attic in London, the accommodation was practically paradise.
"Mr Lin Ze, Master asked me to remind you that your Floo Network reservation is for seven in the morning."
"Got it." Yawning, Lin Ze climbed out of bed.
While washing up, he studied himself in the mirror for a while.
Stubble had sprouted on his chin again. He hesitated, then picked up the razor anyway.
He was going to Marseille on official business today, so he still needed to mind his appearance.
Though his impressions of Marseille were limited to Château d'If Prison, where the protagonist of The Earl of Monte Cristo had been imprisoned, and something called bouillabaisse.
It was supposedly very fishy, and he had never considered trying it.
At six twenty, he appeared punctually in the French Ministry of Magic's Floo Network hall.
Mr Delacour was already waiting there. Beside him stood Richard, the bearded Auror Lin Ze had met yesterday, and two other young Aurors wearing dark blue uniforms and serious expressions.
"Everyone's here." Mr Delacour glanced at Lin Ze.
The French Ministry of Magic's Marseille outpost was in an unremarkable old building near the Old Port.
From outside, it looked no different from the faded apartment buildings around it: dingy gray exterior walls, with a few shirts hanging on a balcony, flapping wildly in the sea breeze.
Only after passing through the archway in the entrance hall, which had been placed under a Disguising Charm, did they discover an entirely different world inside.
"Mr Delacour!" A young witch in an Auror uniform hurried over to greet him.
The witch wore the nervous expression peculiar to newcomers.
"How is Dupont?" Mr Delacour asked as he strode inside.
"Same as before." The witch jogged to keep pace with Delacour.
"He hasn't said a word since last night, and he hasn't touched the breakfast we sent in."
"A hunger strike?"
"Yes."
Lin Ze followed behind, taking in his surroundings.
Several wanted posters were pasted on the walls on either side of the corridor. He had seen some of the faces in British files: Death Eaters who had fled Britain after Voldemort's downfall.
The corners of one wanted poster had crumpled in the damp air, making the already frightening face of the criminal on it look even more hideous.
The interrogation room was at the end of the corridor.
Mr Delacour stopped at the door and turned to Lin Ze.
"Try your methods in a moment. See if you can get him talking."
Lin Ze glanced inside through the small window in the interrogation room door.
Antoine Dupont sat at an iron table, his hands secured to the tabletop by magical handcuffs, his whole body slumped in his chair.
He looked about fifty, with closely cropped hair and a section of faded tattoo showing on his neck.
Lin Ze pushed the door open and went inside, closing it behind him.
Dupont raised his head to glance at him, then lowered it again.
"What, the Frenchies hired an Easterner?" His voice was hoarse, with a thick Marseille accent.
"Has the French Ministry of Magic run out of people?"
Lin Ze did not respond.
He sat down opposite Dupont, took an orange from his pocket, and leisurely began peeling it.
The fresh scent of orange peel slowly spread through the cramped interrogation room.
It was an orange Quinn had given him that day.
He had left it in his robe pocket and kept forgetting to take it out. Fortunately, apart from some shriveling inside, it had not spoiled.
"Give me a segment."
"No." Lin Ze broke off a segment, popped it into his mouth, and chewed.
"Mmm~ Pretty sweet."
"Do you take me for a three-year-old?"
"Of course not." Lin Ze wiped away the orange juice trickling from the corner of his mouth.
"I just thought our conversation might be rather long, so I'd have some orange first to moisten my throat."
Dupont's gaze lingered on Lin Ze for a moment before shifting away.
Lin Ze paid him no further attention, instead taking the pile of parchment beside him and reading it.
"How boring." Dupont leaned back in his chair.
"You Aurors only ever use the same few tricks in your interrogations. Veritaserum, threats, bribes. Not a single new idea."
"What new ideas were you hoping for? Magic tricks, or a song and dance?" Lin Ze turned a page of the parchment in his hands, densely covered with records of Dupont's smuggling over the past decade.
Dupont did not answer. He simply stared at Lin Ze with bloodshot eyes, inwardly sizing up the young man.
Lin Ze continued leafing through the documents, speaking unhurriedly. "Mr Dupont, you've been in this business for twenty years, haven't you? From a lowly porter at the Port of Marseille to a big shot controlling the entire underground flow of contraband in southern France. Honestly, it's quite inspiring."
"Hmph."
"I genuinely think so."
Lin Ze put down the documents. "Twenty years of hard work, all the money you've saved, all those connections, all those channels. Do you think keeping your mouth shut now will save any of it?"
Dupont's fingers twitched slightly.
Lin Ze noticed the detail, but continued. "Your situation is very simple. The Dark Lord has fallen. Your former partners, those Death Eaters, can barely save themselves now. They can't help you, and they won't come to help you."
"I don't need anyone's help."
"Oh, right. You certainly don't." Lin Ze nodded.
"What you need to worry about now is something else. You transported so much for the Death Eaters, and every piece of contraband you handled bears your traces. Now that the Dark Lord has fallen, what do you think those Death Eaters still on the run will be thinking?"
Something flickered in Dupont's eyes.
"Will they think you're a ticking time bomb? You know too much. Every transaction you handled, every name, every location could become irrefutable evidence that puts them on trial."
"Rather than leave a liability like you around, they might as well..."
Lin Ze drew a finger across his own throat.
"You're trying to scare me." Dupont's voice was still hoarse, but a barely perceptible hint of uncertainty had entered his tone.
"You're an old hand. How could a youngster like me possibly scare you?"
Lin Ze took a second item from his pocket, a neatly folded sheet of parchment, and spread it out on the table.
It was an asset-freezing order bearing the joint seals of the French Ministry of Magic and the Britain Ministry of Magic.
"Oh, and there's this. Your three vault accounts at the London and Paris branches of Gringotts were all frozen in the early hours of this morning."
"Your three warehouses at the Port of Marseille, along with the two properties you registered in your younger sister's name, have also been added to the asset-freezing list."
Dupont's face visibly paled.
He lunged forward, his handcuffs scraping against the iron table with a piercing screech. "You can't touch those! That's my whole life's..."
"Your whole life's work?" Lin Ze finished for him.
"Then... after helping the Death Eaters harm so many people, do you think you deserve to keep that money and enjoy your old age?"
Dupont stared at the freezing order, veins bulging on his forehead, his breathing growing increasingly rapid.
"I didn't hurt anyone..."
"Of course. I believe you never actively harmed anyone. But do you know how many people were indirectly killed by the things you helped smuggle in, the things that passed through your hands?"
Dupont stared fixedly into Lin Ze's eyes.
"However..." Lin Ze changed tack, taking a third item from his pocket.
A blank confession.
He placed the confession beside the freezing order and lightly tapped the paper with his fingertips.
"If you're willing to cooperate with us and tell us the shippers' names and the recipients' locations, I can help you apply to the French Ministry of Magic to retain the two properties in your younger sister's name."
He paused, giving Dupont plenty of time to wrestle with himself.
"Your younger sister is in poor health, isn't she? And I believe her son is still studying at Beauxbatons? If both those properties are confiscated, where can your sister and nephew go?"
Dupont closed his eyes, looking as though his spine had been pulled out.
The interrogation room remained silent for a long time.
"Will you keep your word?" Dupont finally spoke, though his voice was extremely hoarse.
"Of course. I keep my word."
Dupont opened his eyes. The stubbornness from earlier was gone, leaving only a weariness worn utterly bare. "What do you want to know?"
"Let's start with the shippers' names." Lin Ze took a quill and notebook from his pocket and set them on the table.
"Let's take our time..."
[Three chapters today. The next two might get held up in review~]