Mr. Rat of the Steam World

Chapter 12 Manchester Foundry
Manchester Foundry is one of the three largest steel mills in Baker City and one of the factories of steel tycoon Conrad Birmingham.

However, this Manchester Foundry has nothing to do with the Manchester newspaper. It's just that there's a river in Warrenbeck called the Manchester River. This is Lu Ran's first time here. When he was investigating this guy Zell before, Zell's mind was not on business at all and he never came here.

Following the rats under my command, I navigated through the factory area filled with the roar of machinery and the sweltering heat.

What comes into view is an office building mainly made of red bricks, surrounded by trimmed green hedges to isolate dust and noise. The front of the building has a spacious porch supported by several simply designed stone pillars. From time to time, well-dressed elites come and go. Lu Ran and the two rats are hiding in the trimmed green hedges next to them.

"That person disappeared here in the end?"

"That's right, but there were too many people in the lobby, so I didn't dare to go in after that."

Lu Ran nodded, offered a few words of reassurance, and didn't seem to care too much.

It seems highly likely that the other party is that guy Zell. However, what Lu Ran still doesn't understand is why this guy wanted him to investigate Earl Biden, and the content of which is an unprecedented act of treason.

According to the information Lu Ran knew, Earl Biden's full name was Austin Biden. His title came from his early military exploits. It is said that he participated in suppressing rebellions in overseas colonies at the age of 25, and at the age of 47, he refused the position of Minister of War and voluntarily retired to the second line with his title of Earl. He was involved in promoting the development and changes of the old and new cities of Baker and various steam machines.

Regardless of his early years fighting for his country or his later years personally funding the construction and renovation of Baker, most people hold this old count in high esteem.

Not to mention that Zell almost became family with the Earl.

Lu Ran had said before that inexplicable behavior would lead to over-interpretation by the target, and that was exactly what he was doing at the moment. He was unsure whether this was aimed at him, the Earl, or a double-edged sword.

After forcefully shooing away the little guy who was leading the way, Lu Ran walked around the office building along the hedge and soon found a ventilation duct at the bottom of the office building. It seemed to be poorly maintained, as the grille looked a bit loose. Lu Ran tried to pry it open a couple of times and a gap that he could enter was revealed.

The inside of the pipe was rather dark, and the inner walls were somewhat rough, which was barely enough for a claw to grip. There was a slight airflow inside. Lu Ran followed the direction of the airflow and continued to climb up. It took him quite a while to finally climb up. Even though this was his first time here, Ze'er, as the boss's son, would naturally be in one of the top offices if he were in the office.

"No money? What do you mean no money?!" A sudden, familiar roar made Lu Ran's eyes light up. As an old acquaintance who had investigated this guy for a while, he was sure he wouldn't mistake him.

"Got you!"

Lu Ran quickly crawled in the direction of the sound until he came to a ventilation opening. Looking down through the small window above, he saw Zell angrily kick over the oak wine cabinet next to him. Wine poured out like a dark red waterfall, mixed with broken porcelain plates and flowing on the floor, making the scene even more fierce and terrifying.

The employee on the other end of the line said nervously, "Because of the steel issue, the quality of recent batches of products hasn't been very good. The factory's machines are running every day, but we're only getting small, sporadic orders. We've been operating at a loss for a long time. We used to have some cash on hand, but..."

Upon hearing this, Zell flew into a rage and rushed forward, grabbing the man by the collar.

"I brought you here to solve problems, not to create them for me, do you understand?"

"Yes Yes Yes."

"Get down there and figure something out!"

The staff member left, the door closed again, and Zell's chest heaved gradually slowed down. Suddenly, he clenched his fist and slammed it heavily on the desk with a loud thud.

"Even in this situation, you still have the spare money to have me investigate?" Lu Ran rolled his eyes, completely baffled by this guy's motives. The air froze in silence for a long time.

Lu Ran observed quietly, watching Ze'er go from scratching his head and growling to calming down, then cursing as he walked out of the office, and finally perking up when he saw the empty office.

"good chance."

Looking down and to the left and right, I figured the height of about three or four meters was still within a safe range, so I quickly jumped down, scraping my claws against the wall a few times to slow down, and landed easily.

The room had just been vandalized, and Zell had gone out, so it would probably be a while before someone came to clean it up. Coming down to scout now was a good time to avoid worrying about any traces.

He couldn't open the drawer, and Lu Ran didn't intend to either; he simply glanced at the documents on the table.

On the oak desk, yellowed parchment contracts were piled up like a small mountain, their edges frayed from frequent handling. Lu Ran climbed up and quickly browsed through them, finding that they were mostly order contracts from a foundry and loan contracts from a bank. After a quick look, Lu Ran could roughly tell that the factory was indeed not doing well, but this was not what he was looking for. Just as he was about to put it down, Lu Ran suddenly realized something was wrong.

"Why are all the orders signed by Zell?"

Lu Ran looked around. On top of the bookcase against the wall stood an old bronze clock, and the brass calendar on the table was also an old model from several years ago. The office's decor was obviously old-fashioned. The oak wine cabinet had its brass corner protectors polished to a shine. Judging from the packaging, there were many kinds of wine, categorized in detail down to the brand and era. The collector was clearly quite patient and fond of wine. This was completely different from what Lu Ran knew about Zell. This guy didn't seem like such an elegant and tasteful person.

"Does this steel tycoon have so much money he doesn't know what to do with it? He's handing over such a huge factory to his son to squander?"

Lu Ran was somewhat incredulous when she realized what was happening. Even if she was handing over her work, she should at least have let her son get acquainted with the company for a while. What kind of move was it to just walk away and step down to make way for someone more capable?

Looking around, Lu Ran's gaze fell on the trash can, where there were some crumpled papers. Lu Ran jumped in a few times and unfolded the papers, only to find that they had been torn into pieces and crumpled together. The hastily pieced-together papers could only barely make out a few keywords.

"Success... the potion."

"Potion?" Lu Ran's heart skipped a beat. How could it be related to the church?

He was trying to find the missing words and piece them back together when he suddenly heard footsteps getting closer and closer outside the door. He cursed under his breath, crumpled the paper back into a ball, and put it back. Then he quickly rummaged through the trash can and hid it under his desk.

"What's wrong with young master Zell? He's been smashing things for days on end."

"He probably lost money gambling. It's not the first time this has happened. Last time, his creditors even came knocking on his door. If Mr. Birmingham doesn't do something about it, I'm afraid the family business will be ruined by young master Zell sooner or later."

“Who says otherwise? What has Mr. Birmingham been up to? I haven’t seen him for days. When he was here, he never missed a paycheck, and we never had to work so anxiously.”

"Ugh……"

Hearing the servants' regrets, Lu Ran grabbed the wall and climbed back up the ventilation duct.

However, he smeared some spilled liquor on his back, intending to use it as a marker to mark his location by rubbing it against the ventilation duct once inside. He planned to have a few rats keep watch there and hopefully they would be able to gather some information.

(End of this chapter)