“What do you want to draw?”
In a blur, Kou Dong couldn’t hear if Xiao Yu answered; maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. A few moments later, the sound of someone being dragged and pulled resounded again, the door closed with a squeak, and all the voices fell silent.
The three people in the room didn’t speak.
This ending, in fact, wasn’t unexpected. After Xiao Yu shook off the singing dog in the daytime, they already had a guess that this group of people would come to look for Xiao Yu tonight.
If she could sleep, she might be able to escape. But Xiao Yu realized it herself.
Because she realized that she might not have long to live, she panicked and wanted to find a way, and she even imagined that if a scapegoat drew the wood tonight, she wouldn’t have to go through. So she hid the copper coins, wanting to rely on them to keep herself safe this night.
Unfortunately, this plan was also pierced by Ah Xue.
How could Xiao Yu sleep?
She couldn’t sleep at all, and when she opened and closed her eyes, all she could see was the dog that wanted to pounce on her and bite her throat off.
When she opened her eyes once more, she finally saw the singing dog again—the fat little man who once loved her had dragged her down with his own hands, and she was never able to climb back up again.
No one in the house seemed to notice that a child was missing, or maybe they were used to it. No one asked any questions about it. But when they went out on the street again in the daytime, the big-headed doll soliciting in front of the circus was all smiles and said to the townspeople who stopped and lingered in front of him, “Today, we have a new member…”
Kou Dong already knew why their production speed was so fast. They weren’t humans, so naturally, they didn’t need to strictly follow the human production process.
In other words, it was a supernatural power, impossible to deduce by common sense.
The circus people brought out a snow-white sheep. The sheep had thin hooves and a pair of horns on its head.
It couldn’t speak; instead, it laid in a corner and wept silently. The big-headed doll brought a red drum and patted it again before lifting the sheep’s hooves and striking them on the surface of the drum.
The drums thumped, and the people around them shouted in unison, expressing peace and joy. Kou Dong and the others turned their heads and walked away from the crowd without anyone looking back.
“It can’t wait any longer.” Song Hong said, “The money collected can be divided equally, but there is no way to manipulate who will be asleep and who will be awake.”
Even if they knocked themselves out, they couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t wake up at that moment.
Once they were awake and discovered, they wouldn’t be much different from the sheep in front of them.
Ah Xue said, “There’s bound to be other stories of this group of abductors and of the circus.”
They walked along the alleys of Shanhai Town; the road was full of pedestrians, everyone had a smile on their face, and it looked like a peaceful world.
Who knew what was hidden underneath this peaceful world?
Kou Dong suddenly said, “Where do those abductors live?”
Song Hong and Ah Xue looked at each other and shook their heads. Every day when they went back in the carriage, the cart would deliberately go around the town a few times, and no one could remember the route.
They couldn’t even find the small courtyard where they stayed at night, let alone find the abductors’ residence.
Kou Dong thought about it and simply squatted down in a corner, taking a branch and gesturing on the ground.
They were now dressed as beggars in tattered clothes, so they squatted in the corner without getting any strange looks. He made a long mark on the soil and gestured, “If this is where we take the cart, we drive to the left for a while and then turn right.”
The two of them also meditated and followed their memories, but the cart had no windows, and they couldn’t see the scenery outside. They were like blind people sitting in the carriage, unable to distinguish direction at all.
After sorting for a while, they only managed to figure out the turning direction of the first half of the road. As for how long they went along each road and when they turned, they had no clue at all.
Kou Dong wrote down the simple schematic map on the ground and rubbed it off with his foot before saying, “Tonight, we have to memorize it properly.”
There was no clock. In Shanhai Town, after finishing his work at the teahouse, Kou Dong asked for a bunch of thread incense and a small box of matches from the teahouse keeper. The bowl still had a string of copper coins.
Song Hong looked at the number of coins in his bowl and asked, “Is there a need to beg for money at all?”
He shook the bowl in his hand.
“If we all had zero, no one would be the least.”
Kou Dong shook his head and whispered, “It’s not that simple, and NPCs aren’t stupid. I’m afraid that in addition to the explicit condition of being the least, there is also an implicit condition that there must be more than one number. — Less than this number, as usual, you have to draw a wood.”
He didn’t believe that this ghost system wouldn’t dig a hole for him.
After being set up a few times, Kou Dong’s intuition was now practiced, and it was always better to ask for more than less. Otherwise, if the implicit rules took effect, he would be dragged to the circus as a rabbit by that group of NPCs.
Although the big-headed doll who said that swore that he wouldn’t destroy him and just add ears and a tail to him. But that wasn’t much better!
He thought about that image and shuddered; it was bizarre.
He still wanted a face and didn’t want to experience this kind of thing.
Song Hong thought carefully about those words and felt a chill on his body. “If it’s true, it’s indeed dangerous.”
He hadn’t considered this point.
“In that case, the more money, the better.”
With enough coins, the remaining difficulty lay with Xiao Shuan.
Whether or not this man was a human being, none of them could be sure.
Although the guess was that he was in the circus, there was no guarantee that the other person wasn’t in the remaining two houses that they hadn’t entered.
After discussing this, the three of them decided to spread out tonight, each entering a house. Song Hong was originally a little skeptical about this, but after Kou Dong took out the cell phone from the luggage compartment and showed the function of its “universal address book,” he was also a little more relieved. At least with this prop in hand, the three of them could still keep in touch.
But how could he use it?
Kou Dong opened the address book, looked at Song Hong, and silently created a new contact. The little man leaned towards his chest and poked his head to watch as he saved it.
Contact 1: Worrywart Mom.
Set as shortcut key 1.
Song Hong: “……”
He rubbed his face in disbelief and thought, “Me?”
Was he the worrywart mom?
Kou Dong opened up the second one as well.
Contact 2: White Rabbit with Steel Teeth.
Set to shortcut 2.
Ah, Xue didn’t blink, accepting the title “steel-toothed white rabbit” well and even finding it a bit cute.
Kou Dong held up his cell phone and decided to give it a try. He tried to call worrywart mom across the street, and after a few beeps, he heard Song Hong’s numb voice: “Hello?”
Kou Dong: “Can you hear me? Is the signal stable?”
Song Hong was silent for a while, and only after half a day did he answer, “I can hear you…”.
He avoided the passersby and couldn’t help but whisper, “It’s just too weird. I had to grab something and put it close to my ear in order to hear you speak. The sound seems to be transmitted directly into my head, and now that I’ve grabbed a handful of dirt, the people around me are all looking at me like I’m crazy.”
Kou Dong imagined that image and thought it was a little weird too. But “it works.”
He hung up the phone and tried to connect with Ah Xue again, and everything was fine.
Having verified the prop’s usefulness, the three of them prepared to separate at night. As he approached the boarding point, Song Hong’s expression became increasingly nervous. He couldn’t help but grab onto Ah Xue and Kou Dong and say, “Be careful. If it doesn’t work out at night, pretend to sleep. Don’t open your eyes. If someone is causing trouble, don’t fight with them. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Before the words left his mouth, he noticed that both of them were looking at him strangely. “What’s wrong?”
Kou Dong pointed to his prop bar.
In that instant, large words were reflected in their minds in unison.
–Worrywart Mom.
Song Hong: “…………”
He shut up and didn’t say another word until he got into the cart.
The three entered three separate carts, and the incense they held in their hands was lit after the carriages moved. Kou Dong secretly calculated the time in his heart by holding a stick of incense to the left, going straight for three sticks of incense, and then turning again.
As he was getting confused, Ye Yanzhi reminded him, “To the left again.”
Kou Dong took the incense and said quietly, “Little boy, dad is sorry for you.”
Ye Yanzhi: “?”
He didn’t understand; why did he suddenly say this?
Kou Dong sadly said, “I just realized that my memory is not good, in case you inherited it from me…”.
Ye Yanzhi: “……”
There they went again; Kou Dong was doing it again!
He originally thought he could get rid of this father-son relationship for a few days, but apparently, Kou Dong’s nature hadn’t disappeared at all; it was just that he’d been with the other two for the past two days, so he suppressed it.
Once the opportunity arose, he was that loving old father again.
Ye Yanzhi had to right himself: “I have a good memory.”
It didn’t have a problem.
Kou Dong let out a sigh of disappointment and said, “Ah, don’t deceive me.”
“……”
Who was deceiving you?
In order to prove that he had a good memory, Ye Yanzhi told Kou Dong the route along the way. Kou Dong remembered while lighting incense and waited until they reached the house, and the way he came was basically almost sorted out.
This time, Kou Dong entered the second room.
When he took the money out and offered to split it equally, most of the children were fine with it. Only a skinny person said, “How do I know if you’re hiding it?”
He was thinner than the other children, but his cheekbones were high, giving him a sharp-tongued look.
Kou Dong swept him a glance and faintly said, “Why would I hide it?”
He shook the bowl in his hand, the copper plates clanking inside.
“Even if I don’t share, I will definitely not be the least. So why would I hide it?”
Not to mention the least, the coins in his hand were clearly the most valuable in this room. Even if the children here were lining up to draw the wooden man, he would still be the last one to be chosen.
It was indeed unnecessary for him to share this life-saving money.
Thinking about this, most of the children automatically came up to put their coins. Only the skinny boy was still inactive, standing still and looking at him coldly with a guarded expression: “How do you know this trick works? Have you tried it?”
Kou Dong’s patience was gradually worn out, and he said coldly, “I tried it.”
The skinny boy became even more aggressive. “Tried it? Where did you try it?”
“Next door.” Kou Dong said, “After you came back yesterday, did you hear any sound from the first yard?”
“……”
That was a no; no screams came from there until the early hours of the morning. That was proof enough that the boy in front of him was telling the truth. The skinny boy choked and finally remained silent. After a long time, his expression darkened, and he put the copper plate in Kou Dong’s bowl as well.
Kou Dong didn’t move away, still staring at him. The skinny boy’s scalp went numb as he stared at him, but he hid his unease and said sternly, “What else?”
Kou Dong asked, “Do you have anything else hidden?”
The skinny boy’s face violently turned red, as if he had experienced a great insult: “Nonsense! Who would hide it? You …”
He snapped his mouth shut, realizing the faces of the people watching him around him were not looking good. He panicked and raised his voice: “You believe him? He’s a plant! I’m being framed! He’s deliberately framing me!”
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became, as if he had suffered a great injustice, shaking his hands. The kids in the room weren’t having any of it, and some of them were already pressing their hands against his pockets and groping around.
The boy looked panicked and struggled desperately, but finally three or four beggars swarmed to hold him down.
The one in the middle searched through his body, finally grasped something, and extended his hand.
It was a few coins.
A beggar laughed coldly, held the coins in his hand, and asked him, “What is this?”
The skinny boy was speechless; his face changed again and again. He lowered his head and said nothing.
The beggar gave him a heavy push and pushed him to the corner, and then put those copper plates into Kou Dong’s bowl as well. Kou Dong counted them and divided them equally, and the first child helped him distribute them.
He looked more calm than ordinary children, was clearly a leader among the children in the same room, and was taller than them. Kou Dong measured his height and asked, “How old are you?”
The kid said, “Eleven.”
He smiled and looked at the people in the room. “I’m the oldest.”
Kou Dong thought to himself, “No, there’s still me.”
Not to mention that skinny guy; he looked like a player; maybe he was already in his fifties or sixties.
He whispered this to his cub, Ye Yanzhi, and asked, “How are you sure he is a player?”
“He must be,” Kou Dong said with certainty. “He doesn’t love me.”
Those who didn’t love him were all players.
Ye Yanzhi: “……”
What a simple and brutal method of determination!
He sat down beside the leading child and said, “Then you have been here for a long time.”
The kid nodded and said, “Seven or eight years.”
Kou Dong asked him in a low voice, “Do you know Xiao Shuan?”
After this sentence, Kou Dong clearly felt the people around him stiffen, and then the child turned his head over, staring at him: “Do you know him? I haven’t seen you before.”
His tone made Kou Dong’s heart rejoice, knowing that he had found an important NPC to guide the quest. “I’ve heard of him. Where is he now?”
The kid didn’t say anything, and only after a long time did he say in a daze, “In the circus…”
He trembled slightly, as if afraid, and curled up his body. Looking at him like this, Xiao Shuan didn’t seem like a person, but rather like some kind of devouring beast that could tear his flesh and blood apart.
Kou Dong and his cub looked at each other, both realizing that Xiao Shuan might be even more unusual than they thought. After the child calmed down a bit, he asked, “What does he look like?”
The child swallowed hard and reluctantly said, “He–”
The face that was almost buried in his memory appeared in front of his eyes.
“He ……”
What was he like? Where did he come from? He couldn’t really remember any of it. The child peered into the corner, as if he could still see the child, holding a somewhat smaller child, gently patting his spine and coaxing gently so that the person in his arms wouldn’t cry.
That dark silhouette, for a long time, became the nightmare of almost all the children here.
“Don’t go near him.” He warbled, and eventually all he could get out was, “Don’t go near him.”
He surveyed Kou Dong with a different gaze.
“You and that man… look alike. He’ll go crazy if he sees you.”
Kou Dong asked again who that man was, but the child only shivered and shook his head, not saying a word more. He just shrunk himself even further into a dark corner; not knowing what he had thought of, he buried his head and refused to say a word.
Kou Dong wasn’t able to ask anything more.
In the dead of night, after the other children had fallen asleep, Kou Dong used his “universal address book” to contact the other two. Song Hong didn’t get any useful information, but Ah Xue did hear from the abductor who came to their house that someone had once thought of escaping.
“His words were,” Ah Xue mimicked, “Don’t think of running; it’s not like you haven’t seen what happens when you run away.”
The words sent a chill straight to the heart.
“That’s true,” Song Hong whispered. “Among the children who are abducted here, there are bound to be those who want to run.”
But what was it that made them all unable to run away, not even daring to give birth to the thought?
It was clearly more than simple deterrence. The words of the abductor should have been preceded by something that shook everyone.
He thought again of the child’s eyes, full of fear.
The call ended before the members of the circus arrived. Kou Dong lay on the cold ground and forced himself to close his eyes and fall asleep.
Before the heavy darkness came, a dream came first.
He heard low, gentle chanting, a small hand belonging to a child patted his back, and his nose brushed against fabric.
The fabric wasn’t soft; it was even quite rough, but with the human body temperature on it, it appeared warm.
“Sleep,” the voice sang low, “sleep…”
“Sleep, my-”
“My Precious.”
Kou Dong felt like he had stepped into such tenderness, and his body sank downward. He struggled, a thin layer of cold sweat breaking out behind him, almost soaking through his shirt.
He vaguely felt that he couldn’t fall asleep at this point, and he desperately lifted his eyelids. When he finally managed to fight the force, he opened his eyes, right into a pair of pure black pupils.
The surprisingly large pair of black eyes gazed at him, whirled around, and pulled away a little bit—a little bit farther away—before Kou Dong realized that it was the big-headed doll.
He looked at Kou Dong with joy, like a hunter who had caught his prey. His thin, pointed hands gripped Kou Dong’s shoulders so tightly that they hurt.
The corners of his mouth widened into a strange, unholy grin.
“You’re awake,” he hissed. “You’re awake…”
TN:
I almost forgot how creepy this was 😭. I missed it though, I’ll update more often. See ya tomorrow 👋
ahh i missed this one! thanks you for updating!!!
Why do i feel like next chap kou dong is going to get out of this by pretending to sleep with his eyes open or something? xD
Thank you for the chapter!!