Chapter 241: Chapter 240: Keep Up with the Beat of the Music, Remember This Rhythm! Chapter 241: Chapter 240: Keep Up with the Beat of the Music, Remember This Rhythm! Twilight had drained away, and night had fallen.
Richard strolled through the newly rented courtyard.
At this time, Alex had already left, saying that his legs were about to break off and he needed a good rest or else he might not be able to get out of bed tomorrow. Gro had also departed, returning to the Academy, indicating he needed to get up early to figure out how to report for the elective courses.
Only Richard was alone, walking in the empty courtyard, his footsteps echoing.
Richard surveyed the entire yard, becoming more and more satisfied as he looked.
It was a two-section yard with a small fountain in the front and a small garden in the back. Although it appeared incredibly messy due to a long period of neglect, with wild grass everywhere, a simple cleanup would restore it to its original state, which was much better than the yard he had rented previously in Cuijin City.
As for the haunting issue mentioned by Alex, Richard wasn’t worried at all.
Firstly, he wasn’t afraid of ghosts or, to put it another way, he wasn’t afraid of the unknown.
Regarding the haunting, he was more curious than fearful. If there really were ghostly phenomena, he was keen on exploring what caused them.
And even if there really were inexplicable ghosts, he wanted to find a way to capture them and then study them. Perhaps he might discover some significant findings, and it would be even better to unveil the truths of the world.
Thinking along these lines, Richard stepped into the depths of the courtyard, carefully observing each room, and then contemplating how to arrange the use of these rooms.
“This room is quite spacious; it can serve as the main laboratory.” Richard mumbled to himself, “This one will be a backup laboratory. Here I’ll set up a small toxic gas lab, fit with a fume hood. This room will be for microbiological culture experiments; it needs to be modified, and if possible, I’ll try to install a temperature control system. This room will be a normal material storage room, constant temperature, pressure, and humidity. This one is for hazardous materials storage, make sure to prevent leaks. This room…”
As Richard was talking to himself, he suddenly heard a faint knock on the door from outside the courtyard.
“Hmm?” Richard’s eyebrows raised as he stepped forward and opened the courtyard door.
Then he saw the street outside the gate empty and devoid of people.
A chill wind blew through, whisking up dead branches and fallen leaves in the yard, adding a ghostly atmosphere to the night.
“Hmm…” Richard pursed his lips, recalling the ghostly knocking mentioned by Alex before; it seemed this was it.
“Coming so soon, a gift delivered right to my door,” Richard said. With a ‘creak,’ he closed the door and walked back into the courtyard, preparing to see what happened next.
However, barely moments after entering the courtyard, the door was knocked on again.
Quickly stepping to the front door, he opened it, only to find the outside still empty.
Richard’s eyes narrowed slightly.
After closing the door again, he waited quietly not far from the door, then heard the knock for the third time.
With a swift motion, he stepped forward and opened the door, only to find it empty as before.
Richard’s eyes narrowed to slits, then returned to normal, his eyebrows twitching a few times as he had already guessed some possibilities.
“Is that so…” Richard murmured, showing a faintly disappointed expression, “I thought it would be a more complex reason…”
Richard spoke as he stepped out of the courtyard gate, stopping in a corner of the street in the night. He then used the “Concealing Breath Skill” he had acquired from Old Marlon to quickly blend his presence into the surrounding environment.
In a short while, the sky suddenly filled with the indiscernible flapping sound of wings, as a large swarm of bats flew towards the courtyard gate and began striking it.
The gate started making noises: “Bang, bang, bang!”
Richard walked closer as the bats sensed something and quickly took flight, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Richard went straight to the gate, sniffed forcefully at the wooden door, and detected a faint, fishy stench, proclaiming, “Just as I thought.”
The reason behind the ghost knocking was found, and to say it out loud, it was hardly worth mentioning: The gate was contaminated with, or had been smeared with, some special liquid that emitted an odor attractive to bats, thereby drawing a multitude of them to strike the door and produce a sound akin to knocking.
When people heard the knocking and moved to open the door, the bats, using ultrasonic waves to scan their environment, were so sensitive that they could detect it in advance and move away. Therefore, no matter how many times people opened the door, they would never see a shadow of the bats, thus creating what seemed to be the ghostly knocking at the door in a sense.
In fact, similar techniques already existed in ancient China on modern Earth. The liquid used was eel blood, which could attract bats from hundreds of meters around, achieving a certain purpose.
After clarifying this, Richard couldn’t help feeling some disappointment, as he had indeed previously contemplated capturing a “ghost” to play with… ahem, to investigate, that is.
Now it was just bats, with not much significance for research.
Once this was understood, finding a permanent solution was simple.
Richard flipped his hand and took out a bottle of alkaline solution from the Space Iron Ring, removed the cork, and sprinkled it evenly on the wooden gate, letting the solution soak in.
Although it was uncertain what substance was staining the door, unless it had extremely strong chemical inertia and didn’t react with the alkaline solution, the solution would destroy its structure, rendering it ineffective. Even if the substance really had chemical inertia, the smell of the alkaline solution was enough to mask its odor and prevent the bats from returning.
After completing these tasks, Richard entered the house. He waited patiently for a while and indeed, the bats didn’t reappear.
With a relieved heart, Richard continued to check each room, constructing blueprints for a future laboratory, working until the night was quiet and the work was thoroughly done.
Although Richard knew that fully implementing the entire blueprint would be difficult under current conditions, Rome wasn’t built in a day; he could take it step by step.
Even if he couldn’t establish it here, there would be an opportunity to build it elsewhere in the future.
Thinking this way, Richard left the courtyard and headed back towards the White Stone Tower Academy.
Walking on the street, Richard saw that many places had fallen into darkness, but many others were brightly lit.
As he passed the “Salt and Fire” tavern where he had lunch before, Richard heard the clamorous noise inside and the gentle sound of a piano and singing, the same woman from earlier still performing.
Because it was a folk song, Richard couldn’t understand much of it, but he could faintly discern the rhythm of the music: one strong, one weak, one strong, one weak…
“Hmm, is that a 2/4 time signature?” Richard mused aloud, “Hmm, it’s changed, now it’s a 3/4 beat: strong, weak, weak.”
“Strong, weak, weak, secondary strong, weak, weak, now it’s turned into a 6/8 beat?” Richard gradually moved away from the tavern, unable to help but shake his head, “This rhythm is a bit messy, indeed, in a world similar to the Medieval, where the metronome hasn’t been invented yet, the music leaves room for improvement. But if you don’t get too demanding, it’s still okay to listen to. Tap, tap-tap, tap, tap-tap…”
Slowly, Richard walked into the darkness.