Chapter 352: Grabbing time
Palm Tree Hotel.
Gaode came to the front desk.
He had only booked the room for three days at the beginning, but now things here are obviously going to take some time, so he wants to renew the reservation for another week.
Handing over two gorse coins and one silver dragon coin, Gaode reviewed today's itinerary while waiting for the landlady to write him a receipt.
After the Rose Hotel, he visited all other mid-range hotels in the city, but found nothing.
It seems that apart from staying at the Rose Hotel on her first day in Lagos, Aisha has a new place to stay later.
This is somewhat elusive.
Fortunately, the waitress at the Rose Hotel provided the key clue - the shipyard.
Although Aisha does not understand shipbuilding skills, since she is asking this, it is most likely that she is looking for what she needs from the shipyard.
But it was already late, so Gothe decided to wait until tomorrow to visit the shipyards in the city one by one.
As a traditional fishing city, Lagos has developed supporting industries related to fishing, and there are not many shipyards, with more than 20 shipyards.
So, this is obviously a big project.
More importantly, those small shipyards are okay, while the big shipyards are basically backed by the nobles in the city.
In this case, he is back into the same predicament as before - his status as a sea sentinel trainee mage is most likely not enough, and those big shipyards may not necessarily give him this face.
This made Gaode slightly troubled.
But troubles are troubles, and you still have to go tomorrow. In short, just take one step at a time.
Gothe thought so.
"Hello." At this moment, a hoarse voice came from the side.
"Excuse me, has the hotel received this woman recently." Gothe subconsciously turned his head and saw a man hidden in a black cloak appearing in front of the counter. He pushed a piece of parchment towards the landlady.
There is a portrait on the parchment.
Gothe glanced at it casually, and then his mind was suddenly shaken.
Because the portrait on the parchment was very familiar to him.
It is the sister Anna is looking for, Elsa!
Besides myself, is there anyone else looking for Aisha?
Is he an old friend of Anna’s father?
This is the first thought in Gaode's mind.
However, Gaode quickly ruled it out.
"I haven't seen it." The landlady who was writing the receipt replied decisively without raising her head.
Gaode's mouth twitched slightly: Why don't you just be perfunctory?
“Ahem.” The man was very calm. He just coughed twice and lightly knocked on the table. A silver dragon coin appeared on the portrait at some point.
Obviously, the man understood very well that if he did not give some benefit, even if the landlady had received the woman in the portrait, she would not reveal anything to him.
Without money to build a road, nothing can be accomplished.
Unless you are like Gothe, who wears a sea sentry uniform and comes to inquire, you can save a lot of expenses by using this layer of "tiger skin".
The landlady was obviously immersed in writing the receipt, but as if she had a clairvoyance, she knew that the man had used the "Silver Coin Technique". The next moment she raised her head, looked at the silver dragon coin on the portrait, smiled, and swept the silver dragon coin into the drawer with a casual sweep of her fingers.
Then, she looked at the portrait seriously for several times, and then gave a definite answer: "I haven't seen it."
After the man left the hotel, the landlady also wrote the receipt and handed it to Gaode, "Sir, your receipt."
"Sorry for the trouble." Gaode collected the receipt and thanked him.
After the man left the hotel, he couldn't help but look back at the Palm Tree Hotel.
When he saw Gao De going upstairs, he looked back.
For just a moment, he felt that the other party seemed to care about him.
However, nothing was found wrong in the follow-up, and the other party seemed to be an ordinary guest. After returning to the hotel, Gothe had changed out of the sea sentry uniform, and there was no trace of the mage.
Hence, he didn’t think much about it.
The matter at hand is urgent.
It’s not that he is not vigilant enough.
The main reason is that this is his first time in the Plantagenet Dynasty. He doesn’t know anyone here, so under normal circumstances, who would care about him?
Open the door.
The little girl was frowning at her clothes.
When she came out, she brought nothing but herself.
So I have actually been wearing this set of clothes for several days.
Normally speaking, in this world, for most people, it is actually normal not to change clothes for a week, let alone a few days.
But Anna used to change at least one set of clothes a day, so now she looks "dirty" and actually doesn't have very dirty clothes. She feels a little uncomfortable and her nose is wrinkled.
"Brother!" Upon hearing the sound of the door opening, Anna immediately raised her head and shouted obediently with her big eyes open.
What an extremely cute little girl Gothe thought as he came to the bedside, squatted down, and was at the same level as Anna who was sitting on the bed, and then said extremely "sternly":
"Anna, what else are you hiding about your sister, you must tell me today."
Looking at the little girl's little face that changed from surprise to depression, and her slightly trembling eyelashes, Gao De was helpless, and his heart softened a little. He sighed and softened his tone: "Just now downstairs, I met a guy who didn't look like a good person. He was holding a portrait of your sister to investigate your sister's movements."
"Huh?!" Anna's little face was stunned, and then she lowered her head, as if she didn't dare to look directly at Gothe's face anymore, which was extremely pitiful.
"Brother, help sister, don't let him find her." Her voice became pitiful: "He is a bad person!"
He pursed his lips and said softly: "So, Anna has to tell me what she is hiding, so that I can help you."
Maybe it was the short time with Gothe that really allowed Anna to build enough trust in Gothe. The little girl raised her head again and said seriously:
"Sister did come here with Anna to escape. This is true, but we are the only ones who There is no debt, there are bad guys who want to steal our family's treasures. Even after we escaped here, the bad guys chased us all the way and did not give up. "
"It's just that my sister didn't come to Lagos to make a living." At this point, Anna looked at Gothe carefully, her voice became low, and she muttered: "It was to find a way to avoid the bad guys. Anna lied to her brother. Anna is a bad kid."
Gothe took a deep look at Anna, with a look in his eyes, as if he was trying to distinguish whether her current statement was the truth or a new set of lies.
He looked carefully for a while. He had always been very good at judging people, but for a little girl, it seemed that this ability was not very effective.
Vershe's not looking at it for long, and he quickly said: 'So, it seems that the reason why your sister asked about the news about the shipyard is not to make a living in the shipyard, but to go to the shipyard?
A foreigner came to Lagos specifically to look for a shipyard. Apart from working, the only thing left was to buy a ship?
In addition, buying a boat also coincides with what Anna said about "finding ways to avoid bad guys."
If the "bad guy" really pursues him so closely, if you think about it from his perspective, what would you do?
Gothe's original choice was not to take any transportation, rely on his own [adaptive] ability, and leave St. Sean's City with the boat, so that he would be truly traceless.
Elsa cannot have the ability to [Adapt], so it is impossible to not rely on any means of transportation.
But there is another way to make the vehicle your own without a trace in a certain sense.
It is also called buying a boat and going to sea.
Of course, going to sea is not something that can be done by one person. You also need to hire crew members, etc. But in short, when you get on the ship, if the captain does not reveal the clear destination, it can at least be guaranteed that no one will know where the ship will sail for a long period of time.
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A very reasonable and smart method.
"Maybe so?" Anna blinked and said uncertainly: "Brother, what do you think we should do now?"
"That should be it," Gothe thought for a while, and then said: "You don't have to worry too much, at least we have two advantages now."
"Hey, two?" Anna tilted her head and looked at Gothe, with tears still on her little face, and her confused look was a little bit cute.
"First of all," Gothe raised a finger and explained patiently: "The Palm Tree Hotel is a hotel in a relatively central location in Lagos City. This bad guy has just entered the Palm Tree Hotel to investigate your sister's movements, so there is a high probability that he has just started the investigation." At least it is certain that he has not asked about the Rose Hotel and has not obtained any further information. "
"And now," Gothe looked up at the sky outside the window, "it is already night, and he can only wait until tomorrow to continue the hotel investigation."
This world is not like his previous life. The service industry has been involved to a certain extent, and it is very common for hotels to have 24-hour front desk duty.
Most of the front desk staff in hotels here are the bosses. Even if there are specially hired staff, in order to save costs, under the premise of limited passenger flow at night, it is rare to hire an extra person to guard the front desk all night.
Most of the time, guests arriving at night need to ring a bell or call to wake up the resting staff to provide services.
It's okay if you want to stay in a hotel. You just want to wake them up to ask for news. Let's see who can give you a good look.
Hence, the man must wait until dawn tomorrow before continuing the hotel investigation.
"This is a time advantage for us."
"The second is that we have ended the hotel inspection stage and entered the next stage," Gothe took out a piece of parchment from his arms, "The two of us can determine the target tonight, and this will gain nearly a day's time difference." As he spoke, Gothe unfolded the parchment.
On the parchment, there is information about the shipyards in Lagos that he collected, including scale, main ship types, addresses, etc., listed in order of size.
"Then how to determine the target?" Anna opened her eyes wide, confused.
"Look, assuming your sister is really planning to buy a boat, it is to escape to the sea. The larger the boat, the more manpower it will need. And your sister is just to avoid bad people, not really doing business, so naturally she doesn't need to buy a big boat."
"In this case, these large shipyards can be eliminated first." Gaode's fingertips ran across the large shipyards at the forefront of the parchment.
"Then, since you are fleeing here, I guess your sister will not have too much money. When buying a boat, she will naturally pursue cost-effectiveness."
"Another point is that she is a foreigner, so when buying a boat, she will most likely have to look for some relatively informal small workshops. These small workshops attach great importance to every business transaction, and naturally they are not so strict about identity verification. "
Anna kept nodding her head, feeling that everything Gothe said made sense.
"So," Gothe pointed his finger at a name on a piece of parchment, "The main ship type of this shipyard is a brig, which is a small transoceanic ship type suitable for small traders and explorers. In addition, they have gone bankrupt and have stopped building ships. They are now clearing out the backlog of ships in the shipyard and transferring the shipyard at a low price."
In this case, their ship prices will definitely be the most affordable.
Hand, he no longer cares about the foreigner status of the buyer. After selling the ship, the factory will be closed anyway. Even if the official wants to punish him, there will be no punishment.
"Yes, yes." Anna narrowed her big eyes, looked at the shipyard pointed by Gothe, and read out its name word by word.
「Harland Shipyard.」
“Then get up early tomorrow and go straight to the Harland Shipyard.” Gothe has always been a straightforward person and made a decision immediately.
"Sir, yesterday there was indeed a young lady from out of town who wanted to buy our last remaining Harland brig. However, the lady did not have enough money and said she would prepare for a few more days and left first."
After a slight hesitation, the fat Harland boss glanced at Gothe's straight sea sentry uniform, and finally revealed some information.
Sea Sentinel trainee mage is not a particularly big figure, but he is still a mage from Sea Sentinel. He is a bankrupt shipyard owner, so there is no need to provoke others for nothing.
It’s not important news anyway.
"The money is not enough for yesterday." Gothe's eyes lit up slightly, and he was almost certain that he had found the rightful owner.
"Then do you know how to contact her?"
Harland shook his head, "This lady did not leave any contact information or a deposit, so I specially reminded her to do it as soon as possible, otherwise if I meet other guests, I will not be able to keep the ship for her."
"Like this" Gothe was lost in thought.
Obviously, Elsa is very vigilant.
But this kind of vigilance also prevents Gothe from finding her any further now.
Gaode was thinking and unconsciously looking at the environment of the shipyard.
Harland Shipyard is located near the port of Lagos City. This is to facilitate the direct launching and seagoing of the ship after it is built.
There are also a large number of lumber factories, rope workshops, and canvas making workshops in the surrounding area, forming a relatively complete shipbuilding industry chain.
Hence, the air is filled with the fragrance of wood, the pungent smell of tar, and the salty smell of sea water.
The largest and most core facility in the shipyard is the dock.
There are also corresponding wood processing areas, workshops and other work areas, but because Harland Shipyard has gone bankrupt and stopped building ships, they are all empty and deserted at the moment.
Gaode smelled the unique smell of the shipyard in the air, and an idea suddenly popped up from the depths of his mind.
"Boss, are you transferring the shipyard at a low price? Have you found a buyer?"
"There are several interested buyers, but they are all profiteers. The price offered is too low, even a dog will not even look at it!" When this was mentioned, Harland suddenly got excited and couldn't help complaining.
"What is your psychological price if I want to take over the shipyard?" Gaode suddenly asked.