Chapter Index

The western bells in the circus suddenly rang out, tinkling. There was a knock on the door panel, and the big-headed doll poked his huge head through the door with an extremely wide grin at the corners of his mouth.

 

“Sir,” he said, “it’s time.”

 

A bad feeling rose in Kou Dong’s heart. He tugged on the boy’s sleeve and asked, “Time for what?”

 

Before the boy could answer, the big-headed doll already giggled.

 

“Of course it’s a performance,” he replied. “How can one not go on stage for such a wonderful performance?”

 

 

Kou Dong didn’t move, only looking at the man in front of him in disbelief.

 

 

“There is a performance?”

 

He looked at the Big Headed Doll’s appearance at this moment; it looked like he had already retrieved his bones from the abductors. In that case, they were no longer trapped in this circus; how could there still be a show?

 

The big-headed doll smiled more and more broadly. He rubbed his head, his crimson lips grinning as he gazed at Kou Dong.

 

 

“Since we’re leaving, how can we not put on a farewell show?”

 

 

“Just think of it as a reward for what we’ve given them over the years.”

 

Behind his thin and slender body, more members of the circus poked their heads out, looking on impatiently. Everyone was more or less stained with red, and Kou Dong could smell the stench of bl-ood, which made him vaguely uncomfortable; he knew that these spiteful evil spirits should have had a k-illing spree in the abductor’s room.

 

“There is still one last performance.” Ye Yan pushed a few strands of his disheveled hair behind his ear, his expression vaguely warm, and said, “Only one last performance left—brother will be able to completely protect you.”

 

The big-headed doll came over to pick him up and placed him carefully on the wooden wheelchair, and he turned the wheels to go out with the circus members. In a flash of lightning, Kou Dong suddenly thought of something and yanked his sleeves tighter.

 

The teenager’s shirt tightened, but he didn’t move away; instead, he twisted his head to look at him.

 

 

“Nui Nui?”

 

“Can’t I go?” Kou Dong looked at the person in front of him and said, “Can’t I go see this last… performance?”

 

His heart was clear as a mirror. If he was really locked in this hut, it would definitely be difficult to get out, and with the NPCs watching over this place, even if Song Hong and the others wanted to rescue him, it would be much more difficult.

 

He had to find a moment to go out. To be out of this room… then the remaining things would be easier to handle than staying inside.

 

 

The young man’s expression seemed somewhat hesitant, his fingers caressing the urn on his hand, as if reluctant to let him step out of this room. Kou Dong looked at his expression and immediately softened his voice, gently urging him, “Brother Ye Yan.”

 

 

This was the first time he had called out an NPC’s name.

 

The expression on Ye Yan’s face was one of undisguised excitement. He leaned his wheelchair even further forward, almost sticking to the bed, and looked fixedly at the person in front of him.

 

“What did Nui Nui just call me?”

 

The child was sitting on the bed, looking up at him. Ye Yan saw his clear, black pupils; his eyes were clear, no different from the child who held the door of the room and looked over timidly back then.

 

His heart involuntarily softened. His flesh was clearly dead, but he seemed to have come back to life within this body for the sake of this glance.

 

Naturally, he couldn’t refuse such a look.

 

 

“Then go,” he leaned down slightly, grasping the hand of the child in front of him more tightly, “brother will accompany you.”

 

The big-headed doll hesitated a little; he glanced at the teenager, but seeing that he looked like he had made up his mind, he finally swallowed the sentence. The members of the circus turned their heads, grinning and laughing as they made their way to their stage.

 

It was now separated by a bright red curtain, out of sight of the propped-up, long, stale wooden stage.

 

The hall was dimly lit, and on each side there was another large red lantern, reflecting a small oval dark shadow on the floor.

 

 

Ye Yan and Kou Dong sat straight in front of the curtain in the first row, which was now empty with no one in sight.

 

 

Behind him, someone asked in a hoarse voice, “Sir, are you going to open the stage?”

 

Ye Yan’s hand slightly waved towards the back. The watchman at the back then used strength in his hand and slowly pulled open the vermilion door. At this instant, the sound of excited people violently flowed into the house along the doorway, and the townspeople outside looked like they had been waiting for a long time and couldn’t wait to pour in.

 

“I heard that it’s free to watch the show today; is it really true?”

 

“Go, go, go, this is a big bargain…”

 

“Let’s see the world today!”

 

In a blink of an eye, the hall was full. There were quite a few townspeople still crowded standing beside the seats, children riding on the necks of adults, shouting happily. The hall was full of joy, but as Kou Dong sat in the first row, his heart was constantly rising upwards with a cold feeling.

 

 

The more people entered, the more he felt bad. He made a hasty look to the left and right but didn’t see the shadows of Song Hong and Ah Xue.

 

He also didn’t see the other beggars. It was as if this place had long since lost the other players, and he was the only one left.

 

Ye Yanzhi stood on his shoulder, also looking serious, and whispered, “I’m afraid something is going to happen.”

 

 

Kou Dong knew that the teenager had sharp senses and didn’t dare to make a big move in front of him; he only took the moment to bow his head, then he nodded his head in a faintly invisible manner.

 

There were so many people that they couldn’t even close the door, and it was eventually packed to the brim. Right in the midst of this noisy, dizzying hubbub, there was finally a gong that struck heavily, startling the people present with a slight shiver.

 

Immediately, a child with a large mole on his face came forward with a smile and bowed towards the audience in front of him.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he laughed, “this performance will begin soon.”

 

A voice from the bottom of the stage asked, “What’s in it? If it’s not rare, you’ll have to pay for it!”

 

The audience laughed out loud at that one. The boy announcing the curtain also laughed a little harder, the light from the red lanterns reflected on his face, making his cheeks glow with a strange red light. “How could that be?”

 

 

He slightly bowed his body, elongating the words at the end, transmitting a bit of chilling coldness. The red light flowed on the surface, almost like a puddle of living, flowing bloo-d. However, the crowd under the stage was so excited that no one paid any attention to what was wrong with the actors on the stage.

 

The child continued, “In our circus, there are mouse beauties, flower vase beauties, snake beauties, bear people… sure enough, they are all things you have never seen or heard of.”

 

“Even if you look forward a few thousand years, look back a few thousand years, you will not see such a rare scene. You only need to open your eyes wide.”

 

“Dang!”

 

Another alarming gong.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the child raised his voice, and he looked extremely excited. “The show now begins!”

 

The red cloth on the stage was lifted by a gust of wind from somewhere. At the back, the big-headed doll was holding a singing dog on all fours, tugging on the reins around his neck and dragging him forward.

 

 

The singing dog had curly hair and seemed to be taller than usual, only whimpering lowly as if it were in pain.

 

Kou Dong looked at it for a couple of moments and then moved his gaze away. Suddenly, he suddenly realized something and moved his gaze back.

 

At the same time, Ye Yanzhi also said in his ear, “It’s a replacement.”

 

It was a different person!

 

The one that was led out… wasn’t the little fat man that was originally made into a singing dog!

 

Kou Dong stared at the human face and finally vaguely recognized a familiar outline, which he had once seen in the house where he was being held. This face, however, did not belong to any of the children.

 

He was the abductor who held them.

 

Realizing this, Kou Dong’s bloo-d almost froze. He stared firmly at the man on the stage; the big-headed doll gripped his whip tightly and grinned, revealing two rows of uneven teeth inside.

 

“Come on,” he urged at the singing dog, “come on—sing a song for everyone.”

 

The singing dog buried his head in his two front paws and just shook his head. The big-headed doll tightened the reins, strangling him so that he had to tilt his head back, and there was a da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da sound in his throat, almost stopping his breath.

 

“Sing,” he lashed heavily, hitting the singing dog on the stage that was wailing and cowering; watching him roll on the ground, the big-headed doll laughed even more openly, “You’re mute? Why don’t you sing?”

 

The singing dog struggled to lift his head and finally opened his mouth. His voice wasn’t gentle at all, but rough and hoarse. It was the tone of a middle-aged man who had been tainted by alcohol for a long time. He still choked up in his words, whether it was because of fear or pain; he was trembling on the ground, and his lyrics were sung in a jumbled manner.

 

“So… it turns out that Yan Zi and Yan Hong are blooming everywhere.”

 

The big-headed doll stopped laughing and frowned.

 

 

“What are you singing?” He sorrowfully questioned, “The audience is listening. What are you singing?”

 

The audience under the stage was still uncertain but knew that it had indeed sung that line badly just now. At this moment, they didn’t know who was the first to applaud and shout, “boo–.”

 

The sound of the uproar was so loud that the people in the hall said together. All the people in the hall chanted together, “Boo–”

 

The singing dog raised his head and stared incredulously. The big-headed doll held the whip, looked at the people below the stage, and said, “It sings like this. Audience,.should it be beaten?”

 

 

Waves of voices rolled over and loudly replied, “It should be beaten!”

 

The big-headed doll raised his whip again and really whipped it again and again. His arm looked weak, but in reality, it was extremely strong. The singing dog rolled all over the stage in pain, wailing again and again, and a large area was stained red with bloo-d. The lantern swayed inconspicuously.

 

 

This scene further stimulated the audience, with endless cheers and applause. This farce was cruel and tragic, leaving Kou Dong unable to utter a single word.

 

He finally knew exactly where their hatred for the townspeople of Taoyuan Town came from.

 

 

It wasn’t just because they had paid money to come in and watch their painful, undignified performances—it was more because they were also devils in these performances.

 

 

They never treated what was on stage as human beings.

 

The big-headed doll cracked the whip in his hand, and right after that, the child with the mole stepped forward again and said, “Please look upwards; there will be a human bear from our circus performing a tightrope walk for you!”

 

Kou Dong raised his head and not surprisingly saw that the human bear’s face also changed; it was the triangular-eyed man. He was shivering; he didn’t know who pushed him onto the tightrope, but there were tears streaming down his face; he looked disheveled and unrecognizable.

 

The steel wire under his feet was thin and soft; he wasn’t a child with good flexibility and was now wrapped in thick fur, making it more and more thrilling to watch him walk.

 

 

Kou Dong could see clearly from below; he was swaying left and right, clearly trying his best to steady every step. But as he walked to the middle, the steel wire shook even more violently. He desperately stretched his arm, but in the end, he didn’t stop and fell off and landed on his head.

 

The dull sound startled the audience present. The child didn’t react at all; he just smiled and said, “Oh, he was really careless.”

 

Another human bear came out from the back and dragged one of the abductor’s legs, pulling him out.

 

 

The audience noticed that he remained expressionless and even looked a bit dizzy, so they concluded that this person was much stronger than an ordinary person and that it was okay for him to fall from such a high place. The child clapped his hands and said, “We can’t disturb the interest of the audience. We have to invite the others out.”

 

Next, all the characters appeared one by one. The beauty snake, with a long tail but with a rough man’s face, lay shivering on the bed of nails. The vase beauty couldn’t speak and was held up by someone. Several viewers touched her head, but in the end, she couldn’t pass through the circle of fire and fell backwards. The new big-headed doll also walked on a tightrope but failed to reach the finish line and fell down together. In addition, those without arms or legs, those with strange shapes, those without noses or ears…

 

The world’s rare wonders appeared one by one; it was really dizzying; it was like they had one foot in the underworld and were witnessing a hundred ghosts pass by.

 

Kou Dong sat in the first row; his heart sank a little. Ye Yan kept a tight grip on one of his hands, so he had no chance to escape.

 

At this moment, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a tail. The Beauty Snake was by the backstage, hiding in a corner that wasn’t easily seen by Ye Yan, and met his gaze.

 

Immediately, the corners of the Beauty Snake’s lips moved slightly, as if saying something.

 

Kou Dong blinked, trying to understand, and when he did, his heart couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

 

What he said was three words.

 

— Prepare to run.

 


 

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