Ella bought a shoulder gun bag from Jack, put it on her body, and then put on her coat. She tried to touch it a few times and found that it was still light.It does not interfere with movement, and the protrusions are not obvious.

Since she bought this revolver, it was the second time for her to come to the underground shooting range, and she had been busy with various things before.After thoroughly solving the problems of the George brothers and sisters, she got a rare free time.

After that attack, Ella felt that she needed to practice.The girl took a deep breath, closed one eye, and took aim.

After emptying three turntables and a total of eighteen bullets, a small black hole appeared on the edge of the circular target.

Ella was a little excited. This was the first time that she didn't miss the target. She turned around excitedly to share her feelings with someone, and then she found Ling wearing plush pajamas appearing in the passage behind her. Ella was excited. Xiao jumped a few steps and pulled Ling to the front.

"Ling, look, I hit it!"

Ling squinted his eyes and carefully looked at the center gun target ten meters away. After staring for a long time, he found the fuzzy black spots on the edge of the gun target, and smiled awkwardly.

"Ah, that's really good, let me try it."

Aila handed the gun to her friend with a smug look on her face and a small expectation of seeing Ling make a fool of herself.

"It's very difficult."

Ling inserted the bullets into the turntable one by one, and then "cracked" the gun body, holding the handle with one hand, and fired a shot at will.

Ella opened her mouth wide in astonishment, and she found that the small black hole appeared near the seventh ring.

But Ling frowned in dissatisfaction. Instead, she held the gun with both hands, straightened her posture slightly, and emptied the remaining five bullets in a row.Except for the first shot, the remaining five black holes are all near the bullseye.

She handed the gun back to Ella,

"I have regressed a bit, Ella, do you want to continue practicing?"

"Forget it... let's go have breakfast"

Ella put the revolver back into the gun bag and felt that Jack was right. It only had to act as a deterrent at critical moments and buy herself time to cast spells.

"Good morning, George, Maykel."

"Good morning, sister Ella!"

Ella left the underground shooting range and walked out from behind the wine cabinet. The two children had already gotten up and were waiting for her to have breakfast together.

Ella simply ate two slices of white bread and drank a cup of black tea.

As usual, this was already the second three-day cycle, and she asked how old Jack was doing recently.

The bar owner said that he had found no clues about the ritual, but he showed a strange expression.

"Besides that, recently...forget it, it's nothing, you should be able to see it today."

Ella was confused, but old Jack muttered and returned to the basement with a bottle of whiskey, seemingly not intending to say more on the topic.

Ella didn't plan to ask more, since Jack judged that it had nothing to do with the mysterious incident, she didn't need to care too much.Although Jack can only be regarded as a layman in terms of magic, after all, he has rich experience, and his judgment should be no problem.

Ella put the matter aside and followed Mecole to the door of the bar. Although the snowstorm had stopped last night, the weather was still very cold.According to Ella's character, she planned to stay in her bedroom and watch "Introduction to Magical Ritual" for a whole day, but she was worried about her two children.

She put on her new minase fur coat, a thick cloak over it, and her deer-brown woolen gloves, but she was still too cold to go outside.Meckle and George also put on new unpatched winter coats that Jack had ordered prepared as part of the fifty pounds that Ella paid.

"Sister Ella, let's build a snowman!"

Mekel's face was flushed from the cold, but he didn't seem to care. George just followed behind his sister. It could be seen that he was also afraid of the cold, and he grinned a bit.

"OK."

Ling rolled a snowball until it reached the wall between the Old Ones bar and a nearby store, where it was three feet high.Coupled with the somewhat irregular shape of the head, and the old paper Santa hat that George found out from nowhere, it is almost enough to be the signboard of the "Old Man" bar.

Small pieces of black pebbles, ink or some dried flowers and grass together constitute the decoration and irrelevance on the snowman's body. It is a crooked smiling face that looks a little funny.

"It's a shame, maybe after the new year it will melt."

Looking at the occasional ray of sunshine in the sky, Mekel showed a somewhat regretful expression.

"Mekel, we can keep it from melting if we like."

Ling is trying to make the snowman's head more rounded.

Ella touched the girl's hair and said:

"When we get to Glamis, we can wait until next year to build a bigger snowman. Let's go back first. Your clothes are all wet. If you catch a cold, you'll have to take that bitter medicine again."

Ella stayed in the room on the second floor as she wished, sitting on a chair by the fireplace and reading "Introduction to Ritual Magic" for a long time. She was very interested in the kind of ritual magic that Ling had used to enhance her blood or magic power.

But Ella didn't know which god's blood descendant she was, and it was still difficult to determine how to describe the first three incantations corresponding to the gods in the ritual magic.This is a somewhat embarrassing question. This is the basis of ritual magic. If the connection between the caster and the object of prayer is not close enough, the effect of ritual magic will be weakened. The surgeon was severely injured.

Ella closed the book irritably and put it on the coffee table. There had been noisy sounds outside the window since just now. It sounded like thousands of people shouting slogans or shouting loudly.

She looked down from the window sill on the second floor, and couldn't help being stunned. People in shabby clothes lined up neatly, holding signs high and moving forward slowly.

Ella realized that this was probably what Jack mentioned, and she couldn't continue reading in this environment, so she simply ran downstairs.

"What is this doing?"

"It was workers on strike, marching for better working conditions and wages."

She was answered by a voice that sounded somewhat familiar. The man in a black tuxedo was sitting on a high stool under the bar, drinking Scottish stout. He raised his glass and smiled at her.

"See you again, Inspector Williams, thank you for your help, my mother is fine now."

Ella recalled that it was Mr. Morris, the lawyer. He didn't look haggard at that time, and his hair was combed meticulously. He looked a bit out of place with the "Old Man" bar. "

Chapter 30 Whitechapel

"Attorney Mr. Morris."

Ella came up to say hello and sat on the high stool in front of the bar.

"Congratulations, health is indeed more important than anything else.'

Morris showed an expression of admiration,

"I have to sigh again, Miss Inspector, your medical skills are amazing. You work in the police department instead of a hospital. This is definitely a great loss for the medical community in London! Please accept this small gift, and I will once again on behalf of my mother." Thank you."

As he spoke, he held out a bottle of red wine, which was produced at a winery in Richmond District, London. The value of this bottle was over five pounds.Given the family background of Lawyer Morris, this is already a decent and valuable gift.

"Thank you for your generosity, but I remember that you live on Hanborning Street, right? Why did you come to the "Old Man" bar today? It shouldn't be very famous here."

Ella accepted the gift and expressed some questions of her own.

"I have been asking for a long time before I found out that you and Inspector Jack are here, Miss. I came here today to express my gratitude, but I happened to catch up with the parade."

"procession?"

Ella looked at the workers lined up outside the bar, and could vaguely hear some slogans they shouted.

Salary, new machinery and lead poisoning, these are the words that appear most frequently.

"I heard you just now that they were on strike?"

Ella had worked in Henry's factory for several years, but had never seen anything like this.

"It's completely useless behavior."

Morris shook his head to make an evaluation,

"They demand new, less polluting equipment, but this is obviously not in the interest of the factory owners. Some unemployed workers are willing to work for food and clothing. They will only lose their jobs and live on the streets. Even if there is any factory owner Dafa Charity is willing to fill enough new machines, which also means that less labor is needed, and many workers will still be unemployed. If I were the boss, I would definitely give priority to dismissing these strikers... Sorry, accidentally said Too much."

Morris smiled awkwardly.

"To me, they really should have a better environment. As far as I know, workers who work in textile factories or steel factories for a long time can only live for five to ten years. Lead or other toxins will slowly corrode their bodies. The body usually just feels more tired, but after a certain level of accumulation, they will suffer from pain, suffocation, shock, and death. Let me say that even if you are a little tired, being a dock worker is better than working in that kind of factory better."

Ella fell silent when she heard this. Her body was weaker than her peers. In Henry's factory in those years, workers would stop appearing from time to time. She didn't understand the reason before that.

"In this case, even if that monster doesn't appear, George's mother..."

Ella thought, her heart was full of shock, there were too many factories in London to count, so the number of workers who died was far more than the casualties caused by the mysterious incident.Even Ella herself would be the same if Yusef hadn't discovered her. She was young and weak, and she couldn't even last five or ten years.

Poverty, filth, hunger, cold, these are the living conditions of the bottom dwellers in Whitechapel.Like the foul-smelling waters of the Thames, it's hidden under ice, but its presence cannot be ignored.

Outside the bar, people in police uniforms are maintaining order and are always on the lookout for possible riots.

One of the big police officers with a beer belly stepped forward, fired a gun into the sky, and shouted loudly:

"Hey, you lazy scum, the streets aren't reserved for your kind of silly parades, get the hell out of here!"

On his shoulders are black-and-silver epaulettes, according to which he is a senior inspector like Ella and Jack.

The workers had long feared these uniformed gentlemen, and the line began to slowly back off and break up.

"You are much more mature than you look, Miss Inspector. I don't know what the special department of the police station means, but this is not something that two people can change. Worrying is just in vain. There is no need for us to say that we are unhappy. Topic, New Year’s Day is in two days, and I plan to take my mother to Scotland for a few months’ vacation. Do you have any plans?”

Ella remembered Jack's expression when he casually mentioned this matter, shook her head, and forced a smile on her face.

"I wish you and old Mrs. Morris a pleasant journey. Scotland is a place with warm sunshine, which should be very good for the old man's health."

"Is Miss Inspector Williams Scottish? I hear you have that accent."

"...Yes, I have been in Glamis, Scotland. It is a town full of white roses. I will go back soon, probably in the next few days."

"Is it full of white roses? It sounds really good. Maybe we will have a chance to meet in Scotland. Please be sure to introduce the local customs to my mother and me."

Lawyer Morris finished his glass of dark beer, politely took off his hat and saluted, bid farewell to Ella and left the "Old Man" bar.

Ella looked at the red wine sent by Lawyer Morris. It was worth about five pounds, which may not be enough for the lawyer's salary for a week, but a worker may need to eat or drink for more than a month. To save five pounds.At the same time, they have to support three to five families, pay rent for low-rent apartments, buy bread, give their children a minimum education, and even eat meat twice a week.

Morris was a kind and upright man, but he hadn't really lived in that environment after all.The weekly wages of the factories can be as high as twelve or thirteen shillings, while the common dockworker does not get half of that.Little did he know that there was no choice between the immediate death of freezing and starvation and the possible danger five or ten years later.

But one thing, Mr. Morris, the lawyer, is right. This status quo cannot be changed by one or a few people. Even if a certain banker in London spends all his assets, he cannot make a splash in the times.

Ella went back upstairs with the bottle of red wine and stopped thinking about those things. After the new year, when Kraft resumed school, she and Ling would take George and his siblings to Glamis.After that, the Whitechapel area of ​​London was a world apart.

Chapter 31 Crack

Western calendar 1847, December 31st.

It was the day before the New Year, and the weather cleared up. The sun, which hadn't shown up for more than a month, broke through the clouds again and dispelled the cold.

On Yangjiao Street where the "Old Man" bar is located, the number of workers parading is increasing. They occupy almost every corner of the street, but the team is no longer so neat.

In the morning, the bar owner Jack found Ella with a serious face.

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