Mr. Rat of the Steam World

Chapter 34 Shushu-1
"Something is lost?"

Staring at the empty corner of the wall, Tamara was a little dazed. She picked up some soil with her fingers and rubbed it. It was dry and brownish, and also a little loose.

The thief didn't tamp down the soil like I did; instead, he simply dug it up. And judging from the marks on the soil, it seemed like it had been there for some time. Going back in time...

“So that feeling was right, and right after my follow-up examination that day, the things were immediately dug up,” Tamara muttered to herself.

Swish.

She suddenly turned around to look behind her, but still found nothing.

I don't know when it started, but I've been surrounded by a subtle, almost imperceptible, sense of being watched.

At first, I thought it was just nervousness from coming to Earl Biden's place, but now it seems that it wasn't all an illusion; someone was indeed watching me from the shadows.

“Earl Biden, Miss Afra, or a servant, butler, or someone from another church.”

It seems anyone could have been, or even just an accident, taken away by Bella, who likes to pee in corners.

"Damn thief!"

Tamara gritted her teeth, her heart aching at the thought of the lost potion. But for now, she could only quickly calm herself down. She pretended to be nonchalant and casually kicked the dirt she had just dug back up with her foot. Then she went back to her dormitory to pack her things. After that, she continued to follow Afra's instructions to the stables and asked the servants there for a mule cart.

despair.

As Tamara climbed up the cart shaft, the ashes from the furnace on the soles of her coarse cloth shoes rubbed onto the wood, leaving a light gray footprint.

"Go to Baker City to buy things for Miss."

She gave instructions to the coachman, and the bamboo basket she was holding swayed slightly, the coarse cloth at the bottom of the basket rustling.

"Got it."

The coachman cracked his whip, about to make a move, when Tamara suddenly twitched her ears, pretending to stretch her body casually, and caught a glimpse of a gray shadow out of the corner of her eye.

The next moment, Tamara suddenly reached out and slapped hard. The gray figure reacted quickly and dodged the first blow, but it didn't expect Tamara's second hand to follow up.

Snapped!
"What's wrong?" The coachman in front turned around instinctively.

Tamara waved the gray squirrel in her hand and smiled reproachfully, "Look, there's a gray squirrel on your mule cart. It almost scared me."

"Hey, our mule cart isn't the kind of horse-drawn carriage that masters and young ladies ride in, so it's not normal for us to have this kind of thing."

Ma Fule laughed loudly, his tone somewhat nonchalant, occasionally making "whoosh" sounds.

Tamara's eyes flickered: "Is this normal?"

"Zhizhi, Zhizhi..."

The gray squirrel, held tightly in her hand, squeaked in pain. The squirming stopped only when Tamara tightened her grip slightly, producing a soft cracking sound.

Tamara carelessly tossed the lifeless mouse behind her, and the mouse stumbled against the frame of the vehicle before collapsing limply to the ground.

"But you still need to pay attention to cleaning. You look so dashing. Next time a maid is happy to ride in your car, don't scare her away."

The coachman was taken aback. Hearing the suggestive praise behind him, he scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly: "Haha, that makes some sense. I'll try my best, I'll try my best."

A sharp crack of a whip.

The mule cart rolled over the gravel road of the estate, its wheels creaking and groaning, until it left the estate's inner area, at which point it began to pick up speed, kicking up dust as it sped away.

Whether it was psychological or not, Tamara's subtle gaze suddenly disappeared as well.

"Is it a coincidence?"

……
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1
499/650
Lu Ran, who was eating a scone, felt a jolt in her heart and subconsciously glanced at the system data.

A mouse is missing?

Lu Ran was stunned.

He had just raised the unit limit for mice to 500 because the number of mice in his territory had reached that level. The expansion of the mouse population shouldn't start so quickly, and now one mouse was suddenly missing. "Something's happened to a mouse!"

If it's not a sudden decrease of dozens of rats dying off, then we can rule out several rat colony clusters and narrow down the problem to a few other small groups.

The group that hunted poisonous creatures with one ear, the novel "The Rat of Baker City," or perhaps the rat that followed Tamara...

Lu Ran frowned, quickly finished eating, glanced at Afra who was reading, and had no intention of staying to sunbathe with her. Then he ran out in a flash and found the location of Detective Mouse Number Three and Four.

Because they had already shown their faces to Afra, the main surveillance work was done by the mice that Lu Ran had assigned. These detective mice only needed to help with simple information filtering.

Some understanding.

"Tamara discovered something was missing and went out in a mule cart, so you sent a mouse to follow her?"

"Depend on!"

Lu Ran cursed inwardly. Even he himself dared not easily track Tamara, that assassin woman. He had to be extremely careful to keep his distance.

However, if you're facing Tamara riding in a mule cart, the best solution to keep up with its speed is to jump on the cart, which would be too close to follow.

Many things are unthinkable because they defy common sense, but once you understand a key point, many things that seemed unreasonable and strange before will suddenly become clear.

"Slept with her?"

Lu Ran's eyes flickered. If he could find Bella now, he would definitely be faster than the mule cart and still have a chance to catch up.

The only problem is that once they catch up, it's uncertain who will take their place. A gray rat and a dog probably won't be enough to defeat that female assassin.

"Should we ask Sang Biao for help?"

After some thought, Lu Ran reluctantly gave up and could only try to think more positively.

As long as one interacts with humans, it's only a matter of time before they're discovered. Even if they don't show themselves in the open, they can still amass wealth by stealing or other means. Not to mention that Lu Ran wanted to do legitimate business, so he should have expected this all along.

"But this time they probably won't realize it so easily, it's just a gray rat."

Lu Ran calmed herself down and comforted herself a little.

The fact that the mouse got into trouble and Lu Ran's secret was discovered are not necessarily the same thing; it's possible that I'm overthinking it.

If Afra discovers later that the guy hasn't returned, and then sends someone to investigate and finds out the problem, she'll probably be in trouble herself, so how could he have time to continue investigating her?

Although Lu Ran felt a pang of sadness that the mouse had sacrificed itself, it wasn't all bad.

At least the previously worrying issue of the danger that Afra was going to face in the ceremony has now unexpectedly disappeared.

Unless the other party has no intention of running away and is genuinely just going to buy ritual props.

Lu Ran thought it was unlikely; who would be so audacious as to realize their secret had been discovered and still dare to come back?

Lu Ran thought this way until later in the day, when he saw a mule cart slowly approaching in the distance, his face was full of disbelief.

"What the hell!"

They watched helplessly as the carriage stopped, and then Tamara jumped off, clutching a silver mirror and a basket full of things, while the coachman eagerly helped her.

No.

Putting himself in her shoes, Lu Ran realized that if his secret were suspected of being discovered, he would be scrambling to find a way out, and the trip to the manor would be the perfect opportunity.

But now this female assassin not only doesn't run away, she's coming back to continue the ritual?
Lu Ran's eyes gradually turned serious as he unconsciously recalled the price Zell paid for obtaining the potion.

Is Tamara also someone who hasn't finished a task assigned by some church and can't leave even if she wants to?

"What's so important?"

(End of this chapter)