For the rest of the holiday, a full week, the commotion at An Tan Street 12 did not cease. Residents who could leave did so, and those who couldn't stayed indoors, refusing visitors.
As the most sensational scandal and murder case in Paris recently, it provided Parisians with a significant pastime to alleviate their boredom.
Citizen-focused publications like Le Petit Journal, Le Petit Parisien, and Morning News all began to track and report on the case, and even Le Figaro dedicated extensive coverage and commentary to it.
Lionel opened the newspaper and saw a series of sensational headlines—
Le Petit Journal—"Blood Bath on An Tan Street! Husband Shoots Adulterous Wife and Lover, Then Kills Himself!"
"...Horrified neighbors, drawn by the sounds, witnessed a hellish scene: Madame Petite and Mr. Pance lay in a pool of blood, their bodies torn apart by powerful shotgun blasts, instantly killed!
And Mr. Greenheight, the usually taciturn, honest man, widely regarded as a 'model husband,' sat in a blood-stained armchair, pointing the gun at his own jaw and blowing off half his head! The scene was a gory, unbearable sight! ...
We cannot help but ask: Is such a tragedy a moral degradation or a perversion of human nature?"
Le Petit Parisien—"An Tan Street Love Nest Becomes Graveyard, Three Dead!"
"Madame Petite had a long-term illicit relationship with Mr. Lucien de Pance, an opera actor residing in the same building. Mr. Pance, handsome and dashing, had a rich history of romantic entanglements, and his profligate behavior was already rumored. The trigger for the tragedy is suspected to be Mr. Greenheight catching the two in the act, leading to a sudden eruption of long-suppressed rage and humiliation, resulting in an irreversible catastrophe.
Currently, the grief-stricken relatives of both parties have arrived at the scene, and their emotions are stable..."
Reading this, Lionel's emotions remained relatively stable, and he turned to "Le Figaro."
As a newspaper whose main readership was the middle class, Le Figaro did not excessively sensationalize the gruesome details of the murder scene but instead focused on deeply exploring the underlying causes of the case.
Le Figaro—"The Triple Tragedy of An Tan Street: Social Disorder or Individual Collapse?"
"Mr. Greenheight was both perpetrator and victim. He represents a typical type of good Parisian citizen: diligent in work, with a decent income, striving to maintain a happy family life.
Mr. Lucien de Pance, on the other hand, symbolizes another type of existence in the city: relying on charm and a disregard for morals, operating on the fringes of the law. Madame Petite's actions expose the alienation, even degradation, of values in Paris during its rapid expansion.
Alphonse Bertillon, director of the Police Prefecture's Criminal Identification Bureau, pointed out to this newspaper that this case highlights the necessity of promoting the 'born criminal' identification system. Greenheight's flat forehead and prominent brow ridge indicate his difficulty in controlling emotions, making him prone to violent crimes; Lucien's long, narrow face and high skull are typical features of fraudsters and perverts..."
"Born criminals?" Lionel found it a bit outlandish after reading it and muttered, "If this were widely implemented, Paris would need ten more Bastilles."
But the subsequent report in "The Clamor" sent shivers down Lionel's spine—"Lewd Novels Breed Real-Life Tragedies! The An Tan Street Bloodbath as a Warning of Moral Decay's Consequences!"
"The blood spilled at An Tan Street 12 has not yet dried, and three souls have already plunged into the abyss due to sinful lust! It is the poisonous fruit of the continuous collapse of the moral foundation of Paris, and even all of France! And nourishing this sinful soil are the rampant, blasphemous, and corrupting publications of today!
Look at the characters in the case! The seductive and depraved Lucien de Pance shares not only a surname with the libertine character 'Louis Pance' in the forbidden book 'the decadent city,' which is currently poisoning countless souls, but also the same profession! Is this a coincidence? No, this is a divine revelation from God.
Bishop Gibert and the esteemed Cardinal Montelli have already issued resounding warnings in the assembly! 'the decadent city' and its ilk are a spiritual plague cast upon humanity by Satan! The tragedy of An Tan Street is the latest and bloodiest manifestation of this plague!
We strongly urge: A complete ban on 'the decadent city' and all related publications! Hunt down its publisher and the wicked author hiding behind the mask of 'an honest Parisian'!
The blood of An Tan Street must not be shed in vain! It is a weeping accusation and a sacred warning to the entire society! Let us, guided by God, cleanse the filth and regain purity!"
Lionel read the last sentence, cold sweat breaking out on his back.
When he used Lucian as the prototype for 'the decadent city,' he never imagined that one day the two would be linked by such an event.
If he were caught by reporters as a neighbor of Greenheight and Lucian, he would surely be interrogated, and if someone read this report and made a slightly more imaginative connection...
Lionel dared not even imagine the chain reaction that would occur.
Fortunately, however, he was no longer at An Tan Street 12 but at Lafitte Street 64, in an 'Haussmannian' apartment of similar size to his previous one.
This apartment was not, like An Tan Street 12, directly adjacent to the opera house, but two blocks away, alongside Boulevard Haussmann and Galeries Lafayette, with residents mostly consisting of clerks, minor literati, grocers, and petty bourgeoisie.
The only minor inconvenience was the lack of running water in the house; water had to be fetched from the communal tap in the hallway, but the rent was consequently reduced to 80 francs per month.
He had moved in swiftly on the third day after the murder, even taking only the most essential items from An Tan Street 12, all to quickly disassociate himself from the murder case.
The manager of An Tan Street 12 did not make things difficult for him; instead, he happily refunded the rent and deposit—after all, compared to a former tenant who didn't babble to reporters and left early, a few hundred francs were a matter of cutting losses, not suffering them.
Lionel also noticed a bad omen—
The Clamor had not followed up on the murder case, merely continuing to publish its usual lewd stories, jokes, and gossip, with more and more GG pages.
This was clearly abnormal, raising Lionel's alarm to level twelve.
But there was also good news—
When he sneaked back to An Tan Street 12 a few nights later to retrieve some things, he received a letter from Emile Bergerat, editor-in-chief of Modern Life.
Emile Bergerat agreed to pay 30 sous per line for "letter from an unknown woman" and enclosed a sample copy of the current issue.
On the front page of Modern Life, the title "letter from an unknown woman" was emblazoned in large letters, below which was a large, impressionistic illustration—
A living room with a deep red velvet carpet, curtains half-drawn, a warm but dim yellow winter morning sunbeam slanting in, falling on the wooden floor;
A man sat on the sofa, wearing a half-unbuttoned dressing gown, holding an opened long letter in his hand, his expression confused and bewildered, a barely perceptible slight upward curve at the corner of his mouth, carrying a hint of mockery or hesitation.
To Lionel's astonishment, the illustration was in color!