He may have felt a little uneasy at first, wondering if he had made a deal with the devil, but as time went on, day by day, he found that he was hardly affected at all.

His body still belonged to him – though there might have been some changes.

His mind was not manipulated.

He could gain thoughts and experiences that he had never heard of or seen before by constantly devouring the memory fruit. After he understood and absorbed these things, they became experience, making his writing more sophisticated, and he could convey rich emotions with a simple sentence.

This is surely how the so-called wisdom bestowed upon those novelists who suddenly emerge must have come from.

But why did Haytham die?

According to previous speculation, he was the only novelist who took the initiative to write about his experiences in the dream world. So his death was most likely caused by his companions – or the library.

What needs to be explored here is why he did this – why he took such a big risk to do such a thing.

Hitzfeld guessed… this might be because he discovered the strange changes in his mentality earlier.

Admittedly, his body and mind are still under his own control.

But he might gradually find that… he can no longer bear to continue living a normal life.

His threshold of happiness has been raised. He can no longer get a sense of accomplishment from normal reading and writing. So what reason does he have to continue to do these things?

So he became anxious and irritable, often yelling and smashing things, and became a “madman” in the eyes of others.

He realized that things were going wrong.

But he was unable to break through the limitations of the times. He did not have the modern thinking of Hitzfeld, and he might not even know why he became like this.

He just instinctively felt that this was wrong, this was not normal.

Through Simon’s description of him, Hitzfeld roughly confirmed that this was a person who was a little cautious, a little greedy, good at seizing opportunities, and even dared to take risks in order to seize opportunities.

Otherwise, when ordinary people come to an environment like West Grant and face the mysterious Dream Fairy, they may not even have the courage to look her in the face, let alone steal her wand like Haytham did.

“You mean… Bella Haytham wrote the story of West Grant to save herself?”

After listening to her analysis, Xia Yibing’s brows never relaxed.

“No matter what they did before, Xia… after they tasted the flavor of these fruits and tasted the supreme joy that comes from ‘enlightenment’, you must understand that they are no longer a mob.”

Hitzfeld sighed.

“Experience? They may have eaten a lot of fruit, they have no shortage of it.”

“Experience? Similarly, there is no lack of it.”

“Their enthusiasm for the fruit and their enthusiasm for happiness will make them spontaneously unite and form a secret gathering. And Haytham and Robert are undoubtedly members of this gathering.”

“I understand what you mean.” Xia Yibing raised her hand and let her listen to him first.

“Although these people have gained experience through the fruits, it has been a short time since then, and they have not yet ‘corrected’ many habits.”

“So for Haytham, he wanted to save himself. According to normal people’s habits, he would definitely want to ask for help from the parish… or secret departments like ours. That’s why he wrote down in Dream City that only a very small number of people can detect abnormal factors, attracting higher-level forces to send people to find him.”

“But he was also under close surveillance by that organization!” She spoke faster and faster, the light in her eyes becoming brighter and brighter. “Those people would never allow their companions to betray them… Of course, they probably couldn’t imagine why someone would betray them! So they didn’t have time to stop Haytham at first, which led to the publication of “Dream City”!”

Yes.

“Dream City” has been published.

It has already flowed into the market in Nanxinze.

It has become unrealistic to cut off the spread of this story at its source.

So the way these people dealt with it was to have Robert and possibly others imitate Haytham’s writing style and write stories similar to his style to “confuse the concepts.”

That’s why they see so many copycat works in the newspapers.

In this way, the truth of the “Nanqiao Street 215 Murder Case”, a branch case of the Nanxinze Newspaper War, was finally revealed.

All the links have been completed, Xia Yibing is sure that this is exactly the case.

then.

Neither of them spoke anymore, and the atmosphere gradually became weird and solemn.

While it is gratifying to uncover the truth behind the “215 South Bridge Street Murders” and perhaps even the entire newspaper war, there are many serious issues that need to be addressed urgently.

For example, West Grant.

Why did this city that was swallowed by the giant snake appear above the Dream Ruins, and what mechanism did it use to pull human souls from the Dream Ruins?

Another example is the West Grant-Dream Fairy-Harry Library.

What role do they play in this case?

Because in their view, the “assembly organization secretly created by novelists who have eaten the fruit”…is not actually a big threat.

After all, they were still human beings. As long as we could find out what was wrong with them, we could just send more people to capture them one by one and lock them up. It was easy and simple.

But this West Grant is different from the library.

They are the source of the newspaper wars.

These bookshelves.

This is the countless “forbidden fruit”.

The vague “fruit tree of wisdom”.

The dark snake that has never been seen.

These things are definitely much more important than novelists.

If there is no way to clearly understand where these things came from, why they exist, and what consequences their existence will cause, the case cannot be considered solved.

and so–

“Hitzfeld?”

Xia Yibing opened her mouth slightly and looked in astonishment as the girl picked up a bright red fruit from the bookshelf.

“What do you want to do?”

She stared with wide eyes, watching the girl open her mouth and stuff the fruit directly into her mouth.

“Don’t–“

“Crack!”

Chapter 37: Forbidden Fruit 4

“Crack!”

With one bite, the soft flesh and sweet juice moisten the tongue and teeth at the same time, bringing Villefort supreme comfort and enjoyment.

“Great!” He quickly finished the fruit, threw the core into the trash can, and smacked his lips. “The peaches from the southern plantations are still the best! Compared to them, the ones sold by Parris Manor are nothing… I really admire them for daring to sell them at such a price.”

After he finished complaining, he noticed that there was still a person standing in front of him who had not left.

“Ethan?” Villefort raised his eyebrows. “What else do you want?”

Could it be that the food he just ate was too delicious and inadvertently aroused the appetite of his subordinates?

Hmm… this box of peaches came from the White Shadow Palace. Strictly speaking, it’s a tribute. I can only taste it a few times a year.

However, considering that Ethan Doyle has worked diligently and made considerable contributions to the organization, it is not impossible to give him half of it with reluctance…

“No, no… Chief, that’s not what I meant.”

Ethan waved his hands hurriedly as he watched Villefort take out another peach from the box, cut it in half with a knife and hand it to him.

Just kidding, everyone in the bureau knows that Villefort loves sweets the most.

He is in a good mood today and is willing to share his desserts with others. But when he is in a bad mood the next day and is caught, this sharing experience will be brought up and written about in great detail, and the person will be criticized as a typical example of a lazy and unenterprising person.

So there is a consensus in the bureau: it is better to be caught deserting on duty by Villefort than to accept the dessert he gives you.

Don’t be fooled by that kind smile.

fake.

all fake.

“Oh?” Villefort didn’t really want to give it to me. When Ethan said that, he immediately withdrew his hand. “Then why are you standing here? Do you think my office is too small and want to sacrifice yourself to be a wax figure for me?”

“I’m worried about the safety of Hitzfeld and the captain, Chief.” Ethan took a breath and decided to tell the truth.

“Team 17 has basically completed its tasks, and Zafira has successfully recruited four new members. I thought, since we have time now…”

“No need…” Villefort interrupted him directly, “I can understand your concern for your companions, especially… well, a child as cute as Hitzfeld.”

“I’m not–“

“I understand.” Villefort interrupted him again, “I understand everything, Ethan… This matter is not as complicated as you think, nor is it dangerous! Really, I heard that the library has already sent people there.”

“Wheel of Fortune?” Ethan frowned slightly. “Who are you sending?”

“De Casimir.”

“Casimir, the Nightmare of Fate?” Ethan widened his eyes and couldn’t help but exclaimed.

“Have you heard of him?” asked Villefort, somewhat surprised.

The person sent by the library this time is quite important. It is said that his internal authority is at least level eight.

The authority levels there are the same as those within the Security Bureau, or Shadow Lions – strictly speaking, the Security Bureau copied them. After all, the Tree People came first and then the Shadow Lions, and they have a lot of things that are worth referring to.

There are not many agents of this level in the entire security bureau. Including those sent out to perform missions around the world, there are no more than ten. The information of these people is specially encrypted without exception. Under normal circumstances, it is difficult to hear their names even within the organization.

He was curious about how Ethan knew this person.

“I came across his file by chance,” Ethan explained. “It happened these few days… The case happened to involve the reorganization of the files from that year, and I saw a short description of this person in the archives. It said that he was the only survivor of the disaster.”

“Then you must have known how great he was.” Villefort nodded and threw another peach pit into the trash can.

“So you got anything else?”

“No more.” Ethan regained his composure and nodded.

“Sorry Chief.”

“Don’t be in such a hurry to go,” said Villefort, again interrupting him.

Ethan turned around and saw him holding up a few juice-stained fingers and using his only two clean fingers, the little finger and ring finger, to pick out a letter from the drawer.

“This, send it to the Dream Corridor.”

“this is–“

“Something very important.” Villefort took out his handkerchief and wiped his hands.

“Do you remember why Kuroki City is called this name?”

“You mean—” Ethan’s pupils contracted violently.

“It is just what you think.” Villefort narrowed his eyes.

“You are not overestimating Nan Xinze’s problem. It is indeed very troublesome. Even if people from the parish and the library get involved, it will still be troublesome.”

“But I believe they can still solve this problem. As far as the newspaper war in Nanxinze is concerned, the most damage it can cause is to wipe the entire city off the map.”

Can this also be described as “the most”?

The corner of Ethan’s mouth twitched.

He had also heard about the disaster that had caused the disappearance of West Grant.

If it were a disaster like that, I have to say that you wouldn’t find anyone more suitable to assist than De Casimir in all of Sara.

It is very likely that the reason why Villefort can sit here and not take the hidden danger over there seriously is that the other party has sent back some important information.

“What is really troublesome is what is revealed behind this case.” Villefort gradually lowered his voice, “That tree…”

“?”

A look of confusion appeared on Ethan’s face.

Then, as if he had thought of something, the muscles on his face twisted and the pupils of his eyes contracted violently.

“…”

“…”

“So you should understand the weight of this letter.”