Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 235 Mysterious Disappearance
Overall, Li Wei was doing quite well at the Golden Mead Club.

He now goes to the club almost every day when he has time, chats with other members, plays the piano, has dinner at the club, and then goes home to rest.

Even now, the empire is not entirely peaceful, and mysterious cases are not uncommon. However, after Li Wei was appointed Knight of the Thistle, it became difficult to assign him ordinary mysterious cases.

To put it bluntly, Li Wei is now somewhat like a serious crime squad. Unless it's a case with a serious impact, like killing seven or chopping eight people, he almost never gets to take action.

Just like those divine weapons and spirit swords in fantasy stories, they are not drawn unless necessary, and once drawn, they must draw blood. If you don't draw blood, then you'll have to wait and see the consequences.

Therefore, unless there is a particularly large or dangerous mysterious event, MI7 will generally not easily dispatch Li Wei anymore.

Of course, another reason is that since the Queen carried out religious reforms in the Empire and conducted a large-scale purge of the entire Empire because of the events in the Delict region and the Steel City, the mysterious cases that have occurred in the Empire so far are just minor incidents and do not require Li Wei's intervention.

Just like after a crackdown, the social environment always stabilizes for a period of time. Petty theft may still occur, but particularly heinous crimes like dismemberment, murder, or killing an entire family will be much less common.

That's why Li Wei found himself with more free time.

Of course, Li Wei also brought his world's "Werewolf" game to the club, and it quickly became a sensation. Not only were the club members addicted to it, but it was also quite popular among ordinary people. After all, Werewolf doesn't require anything; as long as you gather enough people and understand the rules, anyone can have a thrilling game anywhere.

Therefore, it quickly became popular in Chongqing.

Especially when everyone learned that the game was proposed by Li Wei, even newspapers published columns to discuss it in detail, and the Golden Mead Club also got a small but significant advertisement as a result.

Baron Cohen was laughing so hard his jaw almost dropped to the ground.

Incidentally, Li Wei naturally brought Katie in as well. After all, this young lady didn't seem to have many friends and seemed quite bored all day. After joining the Golden Club, Katie quickly gained everyone's approval.

Well, watching this little girl toss and catch three crystal dining tables with both hands at the same time, who would dare to disagree?

As for Katie's identity, she is naturally the detective's assistant.

Li Wei joined the club not only to pass the time but also to expand his "business channels." After all, MI7 either doesn't assign him any missions, or the ones they do assign are incredibly difficult. Li Wei can't rely solely on MI7 missions for a living, so he needs to find other places to take on missions.

The club's members are all rising stars or future stars in various industries, and if they encounter trouble, they will most likely come to you for help.

So Li Wei is now waiting here in wait for his prey.

As it turns out, perseverance pays off; given enough time, the rabbit will eventually stumble upon it.

That day, Li Wei arrived at the club and was having afternoon tea while reading the newspaper when he saw a shadowy figure sneaking up to him.

"What is it, Mr. Dunn?"

Looking at the somewhat embarrassed and awkwardly smiling East Dunn, Levi raised an eyebrow and asked him curiously.

"Hahaha... Sir Levi, actually..."

This cheerful and lively rider wasn't usually this nervous around Li Wei, but judging from his current demeanor, he clearly needed Li Wei's help.

"Actually... I've read those reports about the cases you solved, and I wanted to ask you something..."

At this point, the rider's expression immediately tensed up.

"Um... do things like ghosts and curses really exist in this world?"

"It's hard to say."

Li Wei took a sip of tea and put down the teacup.

"Of course, if you encounter any problems, you can talk to me."

"Hahaha... As expected of a famous detective, you saw right through me."

The rider gave an awkward laugh, then looked around to make sure no one was paying attention before speaking in a low voice.

"To be honest, it wasn't me, but my brother and sister-in-law... had some problems. Well, it's a long story."

We have an afternoon.

"How about we go somewhere else?"

"No problem at all."

Levi and Easter left the restaurant together and went to the meeting room. Easter closed the door and then sat down, beginning to explain the situation to Levi.

This rider is the third son of the Dunn family, with an older brother and an older sister. The brother is naturally the heir to the Dunn family, while the sister and the rider do whatever they want. The rider himself is relatively well-behaved, which is why he works as a rider, but his sister is very rebellious. Their father had arranged a good marriage for her, but she completely rejected it. Not only that, she even left the Dunn family and disappeared without a trace.

The Duen family has been searching for her, but they haven't been able to find her.

Then, a few years ago, news suddenly came that the older sister was in a small town in the south. So the Dunn family immediately sent people to find her. At that time, the rider was close to the older sister, so he brought people from the Dunn family to the town, trying to persuade the older sister to return.

When the rider saw his sister, he was shocked. She was lying unconscious on the bed and was even pregnant. After asking the locals, he learned that his sister hadn't always lived there. Several days earlier, people from the town had found her unconscious on a mountain road and brought her to the town.

Because the older sister remained unconscious, and given the poor conditions in the small town, the rider made a decisive decision to take her back to Chongqing for treatment. He planned to ask her what had happened in the past few years and who the father of the child was when she woke up.

However, to everyone's surprise, although the Dunn family consulted many doctors after returning to the Fog City, no one could clearly explain the sister's condition. The sister remained in a high fever and unconscious, never even opening her eyes once.

Ultimately, the older sister gave birth to a daughter, and she herself passed away shortly after giving birth.

As for the daughter, she is being raised by the rider's older brother—although the older brother is married, for some reason, he and his wife have never had children. Although their relationship is good, the lack of children is a regret for them.

Therefore, when faced with this baby who had lost her mother, the eldest brother decisively decided to adopt her, after all, she was also of the Duen family bloodline and was his sister's child.

After that, the eldest brother and his family of three lived happily. They named the girl Alice, and she was a smart, lovely, and well-behaved child.

But as Alice grows up, strange things begin to happen.

First, the servants discovered that Alice sleepwalked at night. The guards and servants on night patrol often saw Alice in her pajamas wandering around the corridors or gardens like a ghost, which frightened them quite a bit.

And when someone tries to stop her, she yells that she wants to go home.

When someone asks her where she's going back to, Alice will keep mumbling a name.

Death Valley.

For others, the word might be meaningless, but for the rider, it sent chills down his spine. He remembered clearly that when he went to that town to pick up his sister, the townspeople told him that they had found her on the mountain road leading to Death Valley!
But the rider was certain that he had never told Alice about this, and she didn't even know that her older brother and sister-in-law were not her biological parents!
How did she know about Death Valley?
Alice's sleepwalking symptoms did not improve but instead worsened, so her family had to lock her room doors and windows every night before going to bed and then open them the next morning.

But something even stranger happened.

The next morning, when the maid went to open the door with the key, she was horrified to find that the entire room was empty.

Alice vanished as if into thin air!

The doors and windows were intact, without any signs of damage. Where could Alice, a six or seven-year-old girl, have gone?

This caused the Dunn family great anxiety. Although they had reported it to the police, the police had not been able to find out anything.

At that moment, the rider thought of Li Wei.

"To be honest, I've always felt that Alice might have run off to Death Valley... When I went to that town, I heard some rumors about it... but at the time I just thought it was just the superstition of country folk... but now..."

"Um……………"

After listening to the rider's story, Li Wei pondered for a while.

Disappearance case?
I've actually encountered very few cases like this myself.

But is this a mysterious event? Or an ordinary case?
Based on these statements alone, it's impossible to draw any conclusions yet.

but it does not matter.

"I see."

Thinking of this, Li Wei raised his head and looked at the rider.

"If possible, I would like to go and see it in person."

"No problem at all!"

Upon hearing Li Wei's answer, the rider was overjoyed.

He had previously told his older brother and sister-in-law that he would ask Li Wei for advice, but at the time his older brother and sister-in-law thought that such an important person would not waste his time on them. However, the rider felt that Li Wei was not that kind of person.

Now it seems that my judgment was correct!

(End of this chapter)