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"Go ahead, Inspector."
"You bought a batch of cats a few days ago, about 40 cats, why didn't you see them?"
As soon as the words came out, the two of them gripped their staffs tightly, ready to cast spells at any time.
However, the old man laughed: "So it's for them."
He stood up and walked outside the yard, pulling away all the weeds on the grass, revealing a square wooden door underneath.
Toby and Wino walked over slowly and uneasily, and the old man just opened the door.
"Meow meow meow--"
The cat's sweet cry came from inside the door.
Chapter 303: The lottery of the Anomaly Bureau, a grand event in China, a baby or a cat?
The old man waved his hand to signal the two to come over, and then he went down through the door embedded in the ground first.
Toby and Wino looked at each other, confused but with no one to answer their questions, and they were also hesitating whether to move closer to the door.
The two of them spent many days in the library, not only reading books about magical creatures, but also various common sense books about the magical world.
One of the books mentioned that when your magic power reaches a certain level, you can learn magic circles.
Most of the evil wizards are expelled senior students, so there is no doubt that they have dabbled in this field to some extent.
What if the old man really was an evil wizard and had set up a magic circle near the door? Going there would be like walking into a trap for them.
"Hey, two detectives, what's wrong with you?" Perhaps because he hadn't seen the two of them for a long time, the old man popped his head out of the door with a puzzled look on his face.
"I'm coming." Wino responded, then leaned close to Toby's ear and whispered, "I'll go, you wait where you are. If I don't call you after 30 seconds, then he is the evil wizard."
Toby was not happy with this arrangement and hoped that the two would switch places.
However, Weino did not give him a chance to make a proposal. After he finished speaking, he strode towards the door, squatted down and looked inside.
There seemed to be a cellar under the door. The light was very dim, with only a kerosene lamp emitting a dim light.
He looked back at Toby, then decisively stepped down the wooden ladder.
30, 29, 28...
Toby counted silently to 30 seconds in his mind, clenched the staff tightly in his right hand, and took action as soon as the time was up.
But only 10 seconds later, Wino's relaxed voice came: "Toby, come here."
It was indeed his voice, but Toby did not let down his guard. He slowly walked to the ground door and looked down like a thief.
Wino stood beside the wooden ladder and looked up and said, "It's safe."
The danger was over, Toby's tense muscles relaxed, he put his wand back into his sleeve, and went down to the cellar along the wooden ladder.
The basement below is called a cellar, but it is actually a room of about five square meters. It is not high, and Toby has to bend slightly to walk smoothly.
Looking around, the overall environment is very clean and tidy, and the furniture is also very simple. There is only a wooden table against the wall on the right, and there are two wooden barrels on the table.
As for the cats the two men were looking for, the old man did not lock them up, but let them run around.
How do we ventilate here?
Toby and Wino thought about this at the same time, and so did the old man.
He scooped out a bowl of water from the wooden barrel and a bowl of what looked like crushed feed of some kind of crop, and placed them side by side on the ground.
Looking at the cats that gathered around him, he smiled and said, "My neighbors don't like my cats running around, so I have to keep them here.
Normally the door is open, but today two inspectors came and I thought someone was reporting a crime, so I hurriedly closed the door."
Toby walked over to the pile of cats that had submerged the bowl and looked down carefully.
These cats are about four months old. Judging from their activity, they are in good health. Their fur is very soft and smooth, with no signs of abuse.
Found the wrong one?
Wino didn't give up and asked, "Do you like cats very much?"
"Yes, sir."
"Why do you have so many?" He scanned the area and estimated that there were about thirty of them. "If you like cats, two or three is enough.
Besides, you just said that your legs and feet are not very flexible, so it must be difficult to take care of these cats, right?"
The old man seemed unwilling to answer directly, and just smiled: "Is it against the law to keep a lot of cats, Mr. Inspector?"
Wino stared at him for a moment and laughed, "Of course not."
"So, anything else?"
“I wish you and your cat a happy life.”
"Thank you for your blessing."
Everything seemed normal around them, and the two men lost the reason to continue investigating. They turned around and climbed the wooden ladder back to the ground, then quickly walked out of the yard, called back the three people who were ambushing nearby, and walked towards the rental house together.
On the way, Toby turned his head and looked at Wino beside him, and asked as he walked: "Do you think there is something wrong with him?"
"Based on the information we have so far, he is not an evil wizard."
The conclusion was consistent with what Toby was thinking, and he couldn't help but frown.
The only possibility that he was the evil wizard, the old man, was ruled out, and they had no other clues, so the mission came to a standstill.
After thinking for a while, Toby still had no idea and said with an unpleasant expression, "If the sound is not from a cat or a baby, then what else could it be?
Is it some kind of magical creature?"
Considering that Hogwarts was not a blue planet and there were many strange magical creatures, he could only guess this.
Wino patted him on the shoulder: "I think you are on the right track."
"But……"
"There's one more clue."
"what?"
"baby."
"There have been no reports of missing babies in this town, or do you think there's something wrong with the police department?"
"No, I've been paying attention since yesterday. The residents of the town are all normal. If the police were simply hiding something, the town wouldn't be peaceful."
Toby paused and said thoughtfully: "Either there is really no missing baby, or..."
"Let's go and ask the families with babies."
Leon and Cressy knew that their reasoning ability was basically zero, and Misha rarely expressed her opinions and only followed orders. After hearing the two people make a decision and turn right, the three of them quickly chased after them.
Thanks to the files they bought yesterday, they were able to successfully impersonate detectives.
The owner of the room opened the door and saw two people holding files and asking him to cooperate. Naturally, he answered all the questions.
They spent an entire afternoon visiting every family with babies in the town, but in the end they still returned empty-handed - the babies were all safe at home and growing up healthily.
As dusk fell, the five people squatted side by side on the roadside, and the feet of pedestrians came and went in their sight.
“Damn it, is there really an evil wizard doing suspicious activities here?
It's just a small town, why can't we find anything unusual? " Claysey lowered his head and muttered.
Misha picked up a piece of dogtail grass that she had pulled from somewhere and swept the furry end back and forth across the ground meaninglessly:
"Maybe we've taken the wrong path? The sound really has nothing to do with cats and babies?"
"My intuition tells me that the key lies with the cat and the baby." Wino rubbed his chin.
"Come on, relying on intuition to find a mortal?" Leon couldn't help but complain.
Toby shook his head: "Leon, you haven't been exposed to analyzing and summarizing complex and fragmented information before, so you don't know that intuition plays an important role most of the time."
"for example?"
"For example, Wino's intuition." Toby seemed to put aside the grudge between them for the time being, "I believe in his intuition."
Wino looked at him strangely: "It's really rare."
"I am just stating the facts objectively."
"Okay, so Captain Toby, what's the next step?"
"Don't you already know?"
"A team can only have one brain. I can give you suggestions, but I can't give you orders."
Toby stood up and said, "Did you notice that all the babies we saw today were very... healthy."
"Yes." Wino's mouth curled up slightly, "Extremely healthy, even amazing. What a...strong baby."
"If you guess wrong, I will bear the consequences."
Wino also stood up on his knees: "I said we are a team. The so-called team means that no matter the good or the bad, we bear it together. I will do it."
"You also said we are a team. What difference does it make whether you come or I come?"
"I'm worried that you can't do it." Weino raised his hands as high as he could and stretched comfortably. "Leave the cruelty to me. I'm used to it anyway."
Toby stood there in silence for a moment, then said, "It's up to you."
After saying that, the two walked side by side towards the rental house. Leon and Claycee didn't quite understand what the two were talking about. They squatted there in a daze for a while, then came to their senses and found that the two were walking away, so they quickly got up and followed them.
“Misha, let’s go.
Hey, wait for us, and what did you just say? Why don't I understand? "
Misha finally raised her foot: "Boring adult."
…………
On the wall of the hall, the hour hand of the clock reached twelve o'clock midnight.
The five people who woke up simply washed their faces and gathered in the lobby.
Toby glanced at them: "Confirm the equipment."
There are similar steps before each mission. The process is very cumbersome. You have to check whether you have all the guns and ammunition, whether all teammates are in place, etc.