48 Hours a Day

Zhang Heng and Holmes had a good time together, but after all, they had only known each other for a few weeks. They could not talk about a deep friendship. Zhang Heng advised the latter not to think otherwise and said nothing. After all, everyone was an adult and already qualified to be responsible for their actions.

Holmes sighed with satisfaction before Zhang Heng left the house, recommending, "You are rare to come to London. Go out more often, not only with your eyes, but also carefully observe the city and document those details, which will also help you solve future cases. ”

Zhang Heng mumbled, “I asked Mrs Hudson to bring you lunch. ”

“Much appreciated. ”

…………

In fact, even without Holmes' reminder, a tour of London City has been part of Zhang Heng's plan, and Holmes undoubtedly knows the city very well, as he can swim to prom banquets in the upper classes of society (despite his hypothetical nose for the red tape in them) or have a black beer chat with the drivers.

In order to win this competition and complete the main task, Zhang Heng needs to minimize the gap between the two sides.

So in the afternoon, he also walked out of the house, Zhang Heng didn't call a carriage, but went straight to the street.

He first went to the lively Queen's Market, where he could see the Royal Clarence vase with a single shilling, which was said to take 15 skilled workers three years to produce for George IV, in addition to small items from all over the world, Indian cotton coats, Chinese tea… Zhang Heng then took a boat tour of the Thames River, factories and houses on both sides of the river, dense numbness chimneys emitting black smoke, and the shore was filled with countless ships, increasingly dense, leaving a narrow passage in the middle, skinned boatmen smoking at the stern of the boat, covered by what Dickens called a "slippery evil” fog.

The carriage flew past on the road, the flower sellers traveled lightly in the crowd with a basket of flowers, and the shoe brushing children squatted on the floor waving their shoe brushes diligently in anticipation of making more tips.

West of the Charlene Cross is London's main commercial and entertainment centre and England's largest business centre, as is the famous West Side theatre complex, on the contrary, the East Side north of the Thames River east of Bishop's Gate Street.

In the Middle Ages, it was still rural and sparsely populated, but with the rapid expansion of London City, the population became dense, the houses were generally old and broken, and low and dense, and the middle roads were narrowly curved, starting with sailors, shipbuilders and a large part of the Jewish population, and now it is a gathering place for all low-income groups.

It is very densely populated, with 30,000 people in half a square mile of streets, basically a large family living in every house, poor lighting conditions and lack of ventilation measures. Shared toilets are even dirtier, and there is a stench in the air, which results in frequent epidemics.

Rash and typhoid fever are the most common epidemics, with about 6,000 people killed in the first cholera epidemic in the early nineteenth century, followed by several cholera outbreaks that killed tens of thousands more people, the vast majority of whom were poor in the eastern sector.

The East Side is also the most dangerous place in London as a whole.

There are 2 million people living here, but there are no important public facilities, no municipalities, no theatre galleries, no soldiers —— nothing, like a forgotten corner, no history, no future.

Superiors from the West Side would not be here unless they had to contact the Scotland Yard police, accompanied by several people, to ensure safety.

Zhang Heng also came here after getting dressed in coarse cloth, however, he was not long after being followed.

Mainly his Oriental face was eye-catching, and his skin, as a modern man in the 21st century, was better than many noblemen in this era, even if he changed clothes, still looked different from the poor living in the East Side.

Two kids, all the way through him with branches, one of them slipped under his foot.

“I'm sorry, sir,” the kid's eyeballs slipped around, got up and went after his companion, but as soon as he took a step, he was grabbed by the collar and brought up.

“What are you doing? Don't touch me! Can I warn you, do you know who my brother is? Nobody messes with him in this neighborhood!” The kid screamed.

“Really?” Zhang Hengdao, his hand didn't stop. He directly knocked the little one down. Zhang Heng grabbed the latter's calf leg and shook it hard. As a result, he dropped three wallets from the little one and some pieces of little things.

“You got a good harvest today.” Zhang Heng threw the kid aside and then picked up his wallet.

“Wait for me, you will not leave here today!” The kid felt insulted, raised his face, didn't pick up the rest of the trophy, and ran away with a smoke.

Zhang Heng, of course, was not interested in dealing with the kid's appointment rack. He photographed the dust on his wallet and continued to walk forward.

In fact, Zhang Heng had already heard of the infamy in the East Side, but he had stayed in the Pirate's den. He did not feel that there was anything more chaotic in the world than that until he personally came to the White Church District in the East Side and had to admit that it was worse than in Nassau.

In Nassau, while the pirates at the bottom are poor, at least they have freedom and hope for the future, and the island's pubs are full of stories about ancient and mysterious treasures, about wealthy merchant ships, monsters in the sea, beautiful mermaids, even if they haven't found a boat, and no pirate group is willing to host them, but everyone's face is still filled with a kind of obsession and confidence.

It's like one of them is the black beard of the future, which is also what Zhang Heng likes about Nassau. Those chaos and disorder hide a flourishing life force, which is exactly what the East Side lacks.

More terrible than poverty is numbness and despair.

Perhaps that's why people like Pearson want to leave this place regardless of everything. Zhang Heng has seen all the way, it's hungry children, painful fathers and daughters, drunken villains, people only think of it when there's a murder or an epidemic.

Zhang Heng took another journey and suddenly heard a quarrel coming from ahead.