Chapter 76: The Malice and Kindness of the World

Chapter 76 The Malice and Goodwill of the World
Early in the morning in the parish of St. Giles, in the hallway of 27 Church Lane, came three police officers.

Arthur’s hand hung long before the door, but never knocked on it.

His mind was in a bit of a turmoil; he didn’t know exactly how he was going to present the cold truth to both of Robin’s parents.

He had lost the decisiveness and ruthlessness that he had shown when he had laid hands on the gravedigger last night.

It was like what Agares had said, in this world, it was easy to kill people, but hard to save them.

And when a promise to save someone is made, but it is not fulfilled it, how on earth to face such a reality is even harder.

The three silent standstill in place stood for a long time, and finally actually has always been considered the least courageous Tom opened his mouth to break the silence.

“Arthur, why don’t you let me do it?”

Arthur looked back at him and smiled reluctantly, then shook his head gently.

He let out a breath, then finally made up his mind, intending to knock on the door of the room in front of him, which had lost its paint.

But before he could do so, the door to the room was suddenly pulled open with a creak.

Behind the door stood a bearded man, and a woman in a long, washed-out white dress.

Their eyes were distributed with some bloodshot threads that represented sleep deprivation, and an unpleasant odor of fermented sweat permeated their bodies.

When the man saw Arthur in his uniform, he first looked startled, then took a step backward alertly as he opened his mouth and asked, “What do you do?”

“We ……” Arthur opened his mouth, but the words that should have come out immediately afterward clogged up in his throat, and he couldn’t spit them out no matter what.

Tony looked at the woman’s face, which bore a passing resemblance to Robin’s, and the otherwise strong Scotland Yard officer burst into tears.

He held the small, cream-colored coffin very lightly, and the tears fell drop by drop into the cracks of the coffin.

Tony lowered his head and slowly shook his head, “Sir, ma’am, I’m sorry. As a police officer, I feel very …… very sorry for you.”

The man and the woman stared at the coffin for half a day, and then realized that Tony’s face seemed somewhat familiar, and only then did they understand something somewhat indistinctly.

“You …… are the officer who took our report? And …… this …… this is Robin?”

Tom also took off his hat and said, “Sir, I’m sorry. Although we did our best to apprehend the murderer, Robin was already …… long gone by then.”

The man stared at the coffin for a long time, just shaking his head repeatedly, he did not have a mental breakdown or cry as the crowd expected, not to mention pointing at their noses and cursing as the three officers had predicted.

He was stronger than the others thought, so strong that it was a bit unbelievable.

He just reached out and touched his daughter’s coffin and stood there quietly, even as he had the energy to comfort the three officers in turn.

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault. I’ve guessed from the day Robin went missing that this would probably be the outcome. It’s normal for children to die in St. Giles, so normal that it’s about to paralyze me.

Gentlemen, in case you didn’t know, we once had seven children, but now there are only two left. It’s actually good that Robin is dead, at least over there, she has three brothers and a sister to look after her.

She might be able to get along a little better over there than she can here, as long as her brothers and sisters can mix it up better than her dad did.

I’m sorry, Mr. Officer, I’m very unproductive.”

Robin’s mother leaned down and pressed her head against the coffin to listen sideways, as if to feel Robin’s heartbeat.

She mouthed the words, “From a long, long time ago, she told me she didn’t want to go to the factory anymore. She said her body hurt here and there, and even her mind was foggy. But there was nothing we could do, the family was short of money and we still had to let her go.

If she doesn’t go, we’ll be kicked out of this place for less money. It’s actually quite nice to be dead, we’ve dragged her down and she’s dragged us down, she deserves a better life, we just can’t afford to give it.”

With that said, the man suddenly spoke up at Arthur, “Mr. Officer, can we have the coffin? With Robin’s body, we’ll be able to collect a funeral grant from the funeral mutual we attend, and that’ll be enough money to give Robin a decent burial and have some left over on top of that.”

The man said this as if he were telling some banal story, perhaps unsurprisingly enough for someone living in the parish of St. Giles.

Tom couldn’t help tugging at Arthur’s sleeve when he heard this.

Arthur, of course, understood what he meant.

According to Scotland Yard’s investigation, a number of the St. Giles Parish Funeral Mutual Aid Societies had a direct connection with gravediggers.

It was because of the information from these burial associations that the gravediggers were able to so quickly determine where there were bodies waiting to be buried.

Arthur did not tell Robin’s parents the truth, but only asked, “How much subsidy can you receive from the burial mutual aid societies?”

The man rubbed his disheveled hair, “Those of us who are adults pay five pence a week and children three pence a week, and at the rate of the grant, Robin’s death should get us three pounds.” Arthur fished his wallet out of his pocket and counted out ten brand new bills and handed them over.

“Here, sir, are ten pounds, which is compensation for the dereliction of duty on the part of the Scotland Yard police. On top of that, we’ll prepare a proper funeral for Robin, and we’ll let you know where and when it starts afterwards.”

“The funeral ……” The man and woman seemed to be in some difficulty as they asked, “Is the church where the funeral is to be held far away?”

Arthur nodded his head and said, “It may be a bit far, but I can pay the fare for you two.”

The man hesitated for a moment and finally shook his head, he smiled bitterly, “Forget it, Mr. Officer, I believe you. My child’s mother and I can’t get out of here, and missing a day of work might get us fired, and as you know, it’s not easy to find a job these days.”

The woman sighed as well, “If it’s okay, after the funeral, could you let us know where the burial is? We’ll visit her sometime.”

Arthur’s lips trembled a little as he took a breath, he stood at attention and saluted, “Of course ma’am, we will of course inform you of the burial location. So, goodbye, and I wish you both a bright road ahead!”

He turned around and couldn’t help but close his eyes and take deep breaths repeatedly.

Seeing him like this, Tom and Tony knew that he had some hard feelings, but they couldn’t say anything more.

The two just patted Arthur’s back and raised their hands to dry the tears on their faces, “It can’t be helped, that’s the way it is these days, people have to live.”

Agares was sitting on the rickety stair railing, he grinned a big grin, “Arthur, you have to understand, pests don’t sting people out of malice, it’s the way they have to sustain their lives.”

Arthur’s eyes opened and he looked at the red devil, not that he didn’t understand.

But the more he understood, the more pain he felt. The more he knew, the more he felt torn.

He muttered, “Maybe I should have listened to you in the first place, I really shouldn’t have looked into this case.”

The red devil’s seductive laugh sounded again, “But you looked into it anyway, Arthur, feel the pain? Feeling pain is the right thing to do, this is the world’s punishment for your pursuit of justice and righteousness.

In a world of darkness, when a light shines into the darkness, then that light has sinned.

Why do you do these thankless things, what good does it do you?
In this world, people are born every day, people die every day, but what the hell does that have to do with you?
This world is not clean, the more you know, the deeper you will fall in this quagmire. The more you know, the more twisted your mind becomes.

A qualified villain should always maintain a cool head, a strong body, a clear and transparent soul with iron willpower.

Don’t let these trifles bother you, don’t let this garbage pollute you, and pull out now before it’s too late!
As long as you can’t see these things, you can pretend it’s not happening.

Look at you now, what you’re becoming!

You’re still young, you’re barely 20 years old and you’re already a Scotland Yard inspector, and you’ve got a whole host of big names looking out for you above you.

Your glorious future has been paved, look at the gaudy red carpet that’s close at hand, the road to success that’s within reach, smell the aroma of the group’s fragrance, and see the stairway to heaven that’s been forged from gold.

All you need to do is follow the footprints of those who have gone before you, step by step, and don’t look at your feet, but always keep your eyes on the zenith, where the beautiful scenery is worthy of your admiration.”

Arthur took the cream-colored coffin from Tony’s hand, which was cupped in Arthur’s hand, and he felt that the coffin should have been heavy, but it was actually very light when he held it in his hand.

He took a step and was about to walk down the stairs when suddenly, a woman’s voice sounded behind him.

“Mr. Officer, please wait!”

It was Robin’s mother, and in her hand she held a small wooden box with half of its sides missing, containing a number of penny coins.

The woman placed that small wooden box gently on top of Robin’s casket, she pulled back the disheveled hair from her ears and pleaded softly.

“These are the coins Robin saved up for her funeral, I remember her saying how much she wanted a beautiful red dress, please use this money to buy one for her, something simple will do.”

At these words, another large rough hand holding a wooden pony reached out behind Arthur.

Robin’s father spoke up, “She said she wanted to hire a white pony to pull the cart for her at her funeral. But we can’t afford to hire one, so I’ll have to make her a wooden one, and you can let her take it down with her.”

Arthur looked back at the embarrassed looking couple until they blushed and burned as he looked at them.

The couple bowed, “Mr. Officer, thank you!”

Arthur smiled and took off his hat as he bowed and returned the favor with one hand pulled over his chest and one hand holding Robin’s coffin.

“No, it is I who should thank you.”

(End of chapter)