"I had to go to that person. Richard said to himself, "But...... If you go, you need to bring something with you in exchange. So what do you bring......

As he spoke, Richard looked around the research room, eventually landing on a wooden box on a wooden shelf.

With a click, he opened the wooden box, took out an egg-sized item with an oval metal shell, nodded, and walked towards the door.

At the door, Richard stopped again and turned his head to look at the rolled-up painting of the corpse on the table.

"This thing, the other party should also be interested. ”

Richard said again, his eyes flashed, and for insurance purposes, he reached out and picked up the corpse oil painting, and really walked out the door.

......

More than an hour later.

Somewhere in the heart of Florence.

In a quiet alley, Richard stood in front of a large courtyard door and knocked on the door.

"Bang bang bang!"

There was a knock on the door, and soon there was footsteps inside the door, followed by a "squeak", and the door was opened, and a woman who looked to be in her thirties stood inside, plump and plump, but she was unsmiling, cold and serious.

Looking at her, the serious woman asked aloud, "Excuse me, who are you looking for this gentleman?"

"I'm looking for the owner here, Mr. Sherlock. ”

"Then may I ask ...... you?"

"I'm a friend of his, his name is Richard, you can inform him. ”

"That—" the serious woman hesitated, and bowed, "then Mr. Law is here for a while, and I'll come as soon as I go." ”

"Good. Richard nodded, and watched the stern woman walk deeper into the courtyard.

......

Soon, the serious woman walked back, her face a little kinder, bent down at Richard, and said in a loud voice: "Mr. Richard, Mr. Sherlock, please come in, I beg your pardon for being a little sloppy just now." ”

"It doesn't matter. Richard said, and followed the stern woman into the courtyard, and walked into the depths of the courtyard. As I walked, I looked at the environment in the courtyard.

Richard found that although he had been here once before, the interval was not too short, and now the scene in the courtyard had changed a lot. It may be because spring has arrived, the ground has been carefully turned over, and seeds have been sprinkled, which should be flower seeds, and it is foreseeable that it will be a sea of flowers soon.

In addition, in the center of the courtyard, a square pool of four meters long and wide has been built, and in the middle is a fountain that is constantly spraying water.

In the middle of the pool was a statue of a young girl, and the water from the fountain was splashing on the face of the statue. The statue girl raised her hands slightly, making a gesture to protect her face, as if she was shouting shamefully: "Don't!"

Richard watched all this, and slowly walked through the courtyard to the front of a large meeting room.

Here the serious woman stopped and stepped aside, and then a hearty voice sounded, and a figure hurried out to meet the owner of the courtyard, Sherlock Melrose.

When I looked over, I saw that the other party was wearing a pale pink, extremely slim men's aristocratic dress, and stepping on snow-white lamb leather boots. A head of broken blonde hair, reflecting a dazzling luster in the sun, a face that is more beautiful than most women, and angular cheeks, not too feminine, but more elegant.

"Hey, my dear friend, Richard, why did you remember to come to me? You can't miss me?" said the other man in a characteristic exaggerated tone, "Of course, it doesn't matter whether you want me or not, because our friendship is eternal. Right?", with that, the other side winked at Richard, as if he was discharging.

Richard: "......" had already guessed that the other party would be like this, but he was still not used to it.

After a moment of silence, Richard spoke up: "Sherlock, you really should change the way you say hello, otherwise I wouldn't want to come to you even if I had something." ”

"Okay, okay, I'll try to change it. Sherlock clasped his hands together, as if apologizing, and then changed his tone, "However, whether it can be changed or not, it's hard to say." After all, you know that I'm a person. Anyway, no matter what happens, let's go into the house and stand outside and talk, it's not my way of entertaining friends. ”

As he spoke, Sherlock made a gesture of invitation to the door, and Richard shrugged and walked in.

Walking into the parlor and taking down a chair, Richard and Sherlock began to talk.

After a moment, Sherlock suddenly remembered something, clapped his hands, and shouted into a small door connected to the living room, "Lucia, there are guests here, can you make two cups of tea?"

"Here it is, Mr. Sherlock. As soon as Sherlock's voice fell, a young girl stepped out of the small door, apparently already preparing. The girl carried a silver tray in her hand, in which were two cups of hot tea, and in the tea floated a large number of flower petals—carefully collected from the previous year, coated with honey and then dried, exuding a refreshing sweetness.

Richard wasn't very impressed by this, and in his opinion, no matter how good the petal tea in this world was, it was just sugar water in a sense. So, the girl put the tea on the table beside him, and he only glanced at it briefly, then turned his head, and was ready to explain to Sherlock the real purpose of his visit.

The next moment, he found something, raised his eyebrows, and his eyes suddenly fell on the girl serving the tea.

Well?

Richard's eyes flashed, and then he narrowed, his expression was slightly surprised, and he recognized that the girl serving tea turned out to be the poor girl who had been auctioned off that he had seen at the auction before.

How is it here?

Could it be that the nineteenth auctioneer who spent 4,500 gold coins on the girl at the auction was Sherlock?

No!

Richard shook his head in his mind, in denial.

As far as he knew, Sherlock was very resistant to that kind of place, and he usually wouldn't go, and with the other party's temperament, it was absolutely impossible to deliberately pretend to be an old man.

So what's going on?

Richard wondered.

Noticing Richard's abnormality, Sherlock looked over and asked, "What's wrong with you, my dear friend? Do you think there's anything wrong with Lucia?" or are you fascinated by her beauty?"

"Uh-" Richard said with a glance at Sherlock, "it's not a big deal, it's just that I think this maid of yours resembles a girl I saw at the auction." ”

The girl's body trembled when she heard this, as if she remembered a bad memory, which also showed that Richard did not recognize the wrong person.

Sherlock sensed the girl's emotions, quickly stood up, patted the girl on the shoulder soothingly, then looked at Richard, and said thoughtfully, "Auction, uh, the guy who sold Lucia to me seems to have mentioned it." ”