White Church Under Red Fog

Chapter 7

Mia recalled what happened before. At that time, she had a headache, face, arms, and chest pain. She really didn't pay much attention to what kind of person the kind policeman was. Would he also be affected by common human emotions?

Recalling a certain policeman's father, she thought she could still give it a try.

Not only to find the murderer who killed Arthur Colette to prevent future troubles, but also because the other party pulled her face off the herbal knife and sent her to the clinic for treatment.

The police of the British Empire have no obligation to protect ordinary people. They really helped, regardless of whether she really needed it.

Otherwise, she would probably have to stay on the herbal knife for a while, and maybe she would be treated as a corpse by an inexperienced policeman - don't doubt it, this kind of thing will still happen a hundred years later. Why do you think that the British Empire police a hundred years ago can have the common sense of doctors?

Then you should say thank you.

In this kind of thing, Mia has always been very clear and very active.

It was this thank you gift...Looking at the barren kitchen, she didn't know what to say. Arthur's two brothers were really capable. In just one afternoon, they had almost wiped out all the food in the kitchen. Not only was there no meat or milk left, but even the two bottles of wine that didn't taste very good were wiped out. Was this a locust invasion?

When Mia thought of the few slices of hard bread and a bag of oatmeal she had finally found in the morning, she felt her forehead twitching, and she had an urge to beat up the two Colette brothers.

But now everyone had run away, and even if she had the urge, it would be useless. She couldn't go to the most chaotic place to pull these two people out for her to do anything, right?

Opening the cabinets one by one, Mia carefully looked through the kitchen and had to face a realistic problem. There was really nothing in the house that could be used. Even the jar of sugar was empty and about to be empty, with only a thin layer of powdered sugar left. What else could she expect?

There was nothing in all directions. Mia took the expired newspaper with news about Jack the Ripper and threw all the garbage on the table into it and wrapped it up. Now she felt powerless to complain.

Jack the Ripper is really everywhere. How can he be everywhere?

I just don't know who the identity of Jack the Ripper is here. Is it consistent with her previous speculation? But looking at the news in the newspaper, it is similar to what she saw in the Clinic of Kleinte. The person has disappeared and no longer commits crimes. Then this person's identity has become a mystery again.

It is also a good thing that there will be no new victims.

Mia sighed and hoped to find the person who disemboweled Arthur Colette as soon as possible so that she could live a little easier in the future.

After cleaning the kitchen, throwing away a pile of garbage, and counting the things that could be used, she went to see Anne and little Arthur who had fallen asleep. After confirming that there was nothing wrong with them, she took the money out of Anne's drawer.

She now needs to buy some food to ensure that the family has enough food. Otherwise, Anne will really starve to death and rot here!

"I have written all the price tags and posted them on the cabinet. You should familiarize yourself with them first. I will teach you the rest slowly after I come back." After explaining the situation to Perry, Mia put down the bun on her head to cover the injured half of her face, put on a thick shawl, and went to the market with a basket.

Although the kitchen was poor in food, it still had the necessary equipment, such as a stove that looked very old - the kind that was taller than her and could be used for a long time after making a fire.

Let's not talk about the fact that the stove looked older than Anne, and let's ignore how much effort it would take to make a fire and clean it. It at least has one advantage, which is that it can do a lot of things, even if it is a bit troublesome to use, and it is easy to overturn if the fire is not well controlled.

Fortunately, Mia was familiar with this kind of stove, so she didn't really fail. She used the stove to heat water before eating bread. It must be said that the water quality in London is really terrible. It turns out that the thick fog poisoning people is not a random thing. This city is really a rip-off in some aspects.

For example, the milk in front of her now, after taking a look at the milk that was obviously mixed with water, Mia silently left the milk stall.

One penny is certainly not expensive, but the quality is not good!

She wanted to sigh again after digging up Marina's memory from her mind. Obviously, the family's conditions were not good enough to drink mellow milk without water every day. On weekdays, the bread was spread with butter instead of jam like people with more financial conditions.

The only thing to be thankful for is that pork is still affordable. Only one shilling and seven pence can buy three pounds of pork, enough for the family to eat for a week. As for beef, it is slightly more expensive than pork. Colette's weekly food expenditure is only fifteen shillings. Beef is an occasional food, not the main meat purchased by the family.

Anne carefully controls the use of every penny in the family, so that the Colette brothers who often come to Arthur to ask for money do not let their family not even have meat to eat.

But for Mia, both she and Anne are now in a stage of serious injuries and extreme need for nutrition. If they continue to save like this, their bodies will be hollowed out sooner or later!

Silently taking out two pennies to give to the owner of the vegetable stall, Mia put three pounds of potatoes into the basket and continued to move forward.

A pound of tomatoes, a pound of mushrooms, a cabbage and an onion cost one shilling and three pence, plus a handful of green onions, half a pound of peas and three pounds of beef, and three shillings disappeared.

Looking at the heavy basket, Mia raised her head expressionlessly and walked into the grocery store at the end of the market.

"I need a pound of butter, a gallon of dry milk, two pounds of rice, three stones of flour, four pounds of sugar, three pounds of bacon, four cans of condensed milk, a packet of yeast, a packet of baking powder, and a packet of baking soda." Mia told the boss what she needed in one breath, looked at the labels on the shelf, thought about it, and added some more items, "Three ounces of black tea, a pound of soap, a pound of candles, ten cans of pineapple, three bottles of wine, a dozen eggs, and a can of bergamot oil."

Scanning the counter, Mia pointed to the place where the condiments were placed, "Give me a bottle of pepper, a can of nutmeg and two pieces of ginger, and raisins, half a pound, two bags of basil and mint, a bag of sweet dried apricots, two pounds of butter and a pound of cheese."

In addition to fresh vegetables, the rest of the things can be bought once and she doesn't have to go out to buy them for half a month, saving her from dragging her crispy and anemic body to go shopping, which is good.

"Butter, milk..." The grocery store owner quickly took the things Mia wanted to the counter, weighed them and packed them. He also asked a few questions that he didn't remember. After calculating, he got a result, "The total is five pounds, eleven shillings and seven pence."

"Please send it to Colette's herbal medicine store, thank you." Mia paid the bill, thankful for this era where you can get more delivered to your home.

Anne... Alas, my cheap mother is in a state of confusion now. It will probably take a long time for her to recover, but it makes it easier for her to sneak in. It's really complicated.

Looking at the few shillings and pence left in her handbag, Mia silently stuffed in a handful of pound coins with the Queen's head on them. The Victorian era was more suitable for the rich. The poor had a hard time living. Even buying some basic food to fill their stomachs required careful calculation of the money in their hands. The British Empire was not destroyed, and those cabinet ministers who were plundering and robbers all over the world really contributed to it!

This is the key. When can we cure the damn fog in London?

Seeing the fog thicker than when she came out, Mia was numb. Wasn't she really experiencing some fog murder?

Can you have pity on her face that was just disfigured!

"Miss, do you need me to take these back with you?" The clerk who put all her purchases in a cloth bag asked Mia who was leaning against the door.

This lady looked like she was about to die, even her lips were pale and bloodless. He was a little worried that if he asked her to carry the basket on the ground back, she would really fall on the road.

"......Thank you." Mia smiled at the delivery clerk and picked up the basket on the ground and handed it to him.

The only bad thing about this grocery store is that it doesn't sell all kinds of vegetables and meat, otherwise she can really solve all the problems here at once.

"Do you need anything else?" The delivery clerk saw the vegetables and meat in the basket, his eyes lit up, "I mean, the new fish and shrimps that arrived today are guaranteed to be alive!"

Even in a grocery store with a full range of goods, it is not every day that you can meet customers who can spend more than five pounds at a time, not to mention that this is Whitechapel. He thought that this lady must have more needs. She also bought fresh vegetables and meat, didn't she?

You are really a clever little ghost!

Mia looked at the boy who was not yet an adult and exclaimed, showing a smile, "I want some fresh shrimps, you send five pounds first. If I think it's appropriate, I will order some other things in the future."

She is not suitable for eating seafood now, but Anne and Arthur don't have external injuries like her, so they can still eat. Especially Anne, after the miscarriage, she needs some high-protein food to supplement her nutrition. This era that is too unfriendly to women is too easy for a woman to suffer lifelong sequelae from miscarriage. And Arthur, a child of only three years old, although he has passed the age with the highest mortality rate, but if he eats better, his body will be healthier.

"Can you buy a chicken?" Mia looked at the excited boy and asked after thinking for a while, "I don't want grouse or turkey, I want the kind that's used for stewing soup in Chinatown."