Trafford’s Trading Club

Unlike what she imagined, like suffering some sort of terrible treatment, she seemed like receiving princess-like treatment… except freedom.

Anna opened a small part of the curtain to check the environment outside— there were two men guarding downstairs; likewise, some people were monitoring outside the room.

She took off all her clothes to be inspected herself all over under the tough attitude of the maidservant.

Anna had no way to contact Efim or the outside world; she was under the situation of house arrest.

She didn’t even know if Efim had seen Urey through the brooch she worn— the brooch had been destroyed on her way to the manor.

He was the Typica’s Family, or Urey’s follower… But, Urey’s follower?

Shouldn’t he only be a frustrated painter wandering the streets? His identity should have been well investigated.

Was there any mistake?

The room door was suddenly opened at the moment. Anna warily turned around and looked at Urey, whose both hands grasped the door handle.

It was really Urey.

“You guys wait me outside,” Urey instructed.

Anna clearly saw several men with serious look came to the door. They nodded and didn’t say anything. Only their eyes turned to her with a vicious intention.

Urey closed the door.

He stuck his back to the door, no getting close or talking with Anna, except quietly looking at her— which made her more confused with what he really wanted to do.

“Did you have a good rest last night?” Urey suddenly laughed, “This room should be the best room besides mine.”

Anna tried her best to be calm, “I think Mr. Urey might not be that comfortable in an unfamiliar place as well.”

“You called me Mr. Urey?” Urey shook his head, seemed to think of something. Finally he walked towards the corner of the room—the cloakroom.

He opened one of the wardrobes, selecting the clothes inside, while speaking casually, “But I don’t live in an unfamiliar place, do I? I slept well last night, with two beautiful girls hugging me… well, I think I had the best sleep last night within recent days.”

“Did you? That’s so great, congratulations.” Anna said to Urey.

The distance between the two was the longest distance within this room—from the window to the closet. Anna put her hands backwards, slowly pulling out a toothbrush out of her sleeve.

The toothbrush handle was broken, and the broken point had already been sharpened— this was probably the most meaningful issue Anna did after she woke up, which gave her sort of sense of security.

Finally, Urey picked out a set of clothes from the closet. He lifted it up as looking at Anna, smiling, “Do you like it?”

Anna frowned, “Seems like you want me to put it on.”

“You’re smart as usual.” Urey looked at her with praise. He put his clothes on the bed, but didn’t talk more; rather, he went straight to the door. “Someone will bring you out soon. Hopefully you’ve put on the clothes at that time… By the way, don’t do meaningless action. To be honest, I don’t really want to see your appearance holding weapons.”

After his words, he pointed to the corner of the room, and then pointed at his eyes.

This action had Anna subconsciously put in mind of Efim, who also liked peeping at everything in the dark. Anna took a deep breath, hands pressed on the window sill at the moment Urey left.

Her face turned a little awkward. Looking at the clothes on the bed… The current feeling was extremely terrible.

But what was worse, she couldn’t judge what Urey wanted to do.

…

…

“It’s dinner time now.”

A man came in with a plate of food— here was in the manor’s basement, or more accurately, maybe it was called a dungeon? Yelgo thought.

It was probably not a proud experience.

As the national police officers, Victor and he had been being imprisoned here by those thugs— but unfortunately, the food was not for them.

He was merely sending the food to another guard who had been watching them.

Yelgo was hungry, because he hadn’t eaten or drank anything since last night!

The cloth wrapped around his mouth barred him from communicating with Victor, even if Victor was restrained near him.

But both were locked to the wall.

“Won’t you kill these two guys?” The person sending the food sat down and asked his companion.

The peer shrugged, “The boss said keep them alive first. However, the steward also instructed that if they try to escape …”

He grinned hideously, sweeping his dagger virtually over his neck, as if such result would be what they expected to see.

It would be the worst thing! Yelgo drew back his sight… he felt that he still hadn’t mature, his scared mental state almost made him collapse psychologically.

Perhaps he should learn from Mr. Victor, who was unperturbed. Yelgo subconsciously looked toward Victor, he found…

Victor lowed his head… He fell asleep?!!

What the f*ck!

So hungry!!

But the young Detective Yelgo didn’t know that his situation was in the sight of two people—the two could easily leave the small windows where the basement situation could be seen through.

Because it wasn’t suitable to stay for too long in a single place of this manor.

One of the both spoke with worry, “Vera, would you like to steal the painting from here?”

“Steal? No…” the other one shook her head, saying calmly, “If I do, then we won’t know the intention of the manor owner.”

“That’s right… hey, wait, wait…” Vicar had to cover his mouth quickly for stopping making louder voice. He hurried to catch up with the figure that always walked in front.

…

…

“Boss, I’ve brought Miss Anna here.”

“I got it, go out first.” Urey nodded and ordered.

“Yes, boss.”

Thus, only Urey and Anna were left in the large room. Urey looked at Anna’s new wear, smiling, “It suits you.”

Differing from Urey, Anna looked over every corner of the room… and she finally looked at Urey.

There placed some painting tools such as easels, brushes, and so forth… the outline had already been drawn on the paper, and Anna recognized what Urey drew at the first glance.

She frowned, “No wonder you also said to auction ‘The Nameless Maiden’… you want to draw another one!”

Urey took up the brush, didn’t look at Anna, focusing on mixing the pigments, and answering indifferently, “Come to be with me, you can always give me the inspiration and let me know where the most suitable part is to begin to paint. I’ll have to do quickly so that I have some time to utilized the antique processing method.”

Anna stunned, “You caught me just for letting me accompany you and watch you draw the picture?”

Urey didn’t turn to Anna before this question. His innermost thought couldn’t be seen through from just his face. Anna felt like she was looking at him through ice, someone who had an intimate relationship with her.

Suddenly, she felt he was so very vague.

Urey stretched out his finger on his lip to make a ‘hush’ gesture, “Stop talking, just stay with me quietly… All the money we get from auctioning this picture will belong to you.”

Anna … Anna opened her lips faintly. She felt she heard the most incredible words in her life.

She puckered her lips tightly, thinking about the authenticity of Urey’s words, while slowly walking to the front of the easel and sitting down.

Urey suddenly closed his eyes. His left hand grabbed the brush while his right hand held the color palette.

Anna knew this was merely the habit before he began to paint.

When Urey opened his eyes and began to paint, Anna suddenly sensed that she had long vanish from Urey’s sight even if she was sitting here.

She didn’t know why an inexplicable sadness rose up from her heart… as if she was the one being abandoned.

…

…

In the luxurious manor, Urey was forgetting himself by waving his brush.

In the simple house, the club boss who just returned from morning jog was taking a duster cloth to wipe, trying to fix part of a picture that had been destroyed.

He just wiped the frame which was dyed by pigment, instead of the paper, or else it would bring a counter-productive effect.

This was the one that had been destroyed last night in the hotel— such destroyed items had lost their original value completely, no matter who looked at it.

But even so, its historical value wouldn’t be lost for this reason—It was not a true one, so it had been abandoned.

It had been destroyed by its original owner ruthlessly, and abandoned by the second owner, then brought back by the club boss from the outside area of the parking last night.

“Well, it’s quite hard to restore it by an unspecialized person.” Luo Qiu watched the chaotic part and the duster cloth in his hand, shaking his head due to self-mockery, and stretching himself.

So he gave up this stupid method, then brushed the messy part of the oil painting gently.

The pigments mixed with alcohol start to separate gradually and move little by little, as if going back to where they should be originally.

When all alcohol had been separated from the canvas and dropped into the glass next to it, this abandoned painting was restored to its original appearance.

Luo Qiu looked at it, nodding with satisfaction.

Spilled water had already been withdrawn.