Catherine had said that Sasha was not very interested in the circus after Mass, and after Mass the two returned to Mrs. Alain's inn together.

After a brief dinner, Catherine had to keep watch over the shop until eight o'clock in the evening, while Sasha went back to her attic to pass the time with reading and painting, and the light that came into the attic was golden at first, then gradually changed to garnet red, rose, lilac, peacock blue, eel blue, pigeon gray, oyster white...... The light in the small room senses the change in the outside light, turns itself on and slowly brightens, the light is soft and bright.

Sasha pulled out a chrome-yellow oil pastel, rubbed it a few times on the rough-grained commercial paper, and then took it and compared it to his own skin tone—the result was very satisfying, and the difference was very small compared to the standard color stored in his brain, whether it was a light or a brush.

What to draw? Sasha closed her eyes, Catherine, Catherine, of course.

He first typed the sketch with a pencil, and then repeatedly rubbed the pastel against the paper to make it clay-like. Then slowly stick out your thumb and dip it in the paint.

It was so silent that Sasha had focused almost all his attention on the painting, so that Catherine's mouth tilted as he slanted his fingers when there was a crisp and rapid tapping on the skylight.

He looked up, and Mrs. Lalan's youngest boy was lying on the attic window, his eyes glazed and sweaty, his hands clenched into fists, pounding on the glass, and he had to throw down his sketchpad, jump into his makeshift bed, tiptoe, open the latch on the inside of the window, and slowly—he didn't want to push the boy who was lying on the glass window out of the roof—not that he didn't want to do it, but that it was almost impossible to do a perfect aftermath here.

When the window was less than a quarter of a way open, the boy nimbly slipped in. His red hair was mixed with untold straws, and the sweat from his forehead scratched his dusty face, and Sasha noticed that he was not wearing shoes, and that his feet were as black and dirty as his hands, and that his knees were frayed in large pieces, and that his shirt was sticking to the thick reddish-brown dirt that only dusty ketchup would have, and that Sasha remembered that Madame Alain had specially asked him to change for today's mass—it seemed that all of her thoughts had been reimbursed.

"Didn't you go to the circus?" Sasha asked. He couldn't quite remember the boy's name, Tom, Peter, or Joseph?

The little boy nodded haphazardly, shook his head again, pursed his lips, said not a word, and climbed straight into the small bed and futon that Sasha had, and pulled all the pillows and bedding over his head, and Sasha could feel him trembling desperately even through the thick blanket.

The boy closed his eyes in the darkness, and all sorts of bells and whistles and images streaked before his eyes—everything was fine at first.

At the beginning is a group of three white ponies, rushing out of the curtain to the sound of the trainer's whip, running around the dry pasture, performing various spins and sharp turns, or one by one putting their front hooves on the saddle of their companions, walking like a man, and then in a row, standing on their hind legs, and exiting in turn; Then the clown rushed out, whirlwindling somersaults in the field, and after a gag with the band's conductor, he ran into the curtain and replaced the contortionist with a performance that was not very exciting, but it was enough to make the children's eyes widen - this man was actually like they usually play with plasticine figures, who could twist their bodies into any shape at will, walk with their hands, and wear hats with their feet; Then the clown jumped out a second time, and this time he invited a beautiful woman to play with him, and he and the girl in the tutu were constantly jumping up and down on the trampoline, making all sorts of incredible moves in the air; Then came the curly-haired dogs, who drilled fire rings and jumped poles, and the monkeys, wrapped in Indian headscarves and small vests, sat on the backs of camels and zebras, and then the elephants, who were ready to shave their faces with their long trunks and hot towels, and the trainers repeatedly invited the audience to come out and become customers of the elephant barbershop, but few people responded to them, and finally had to let their Hercules come to the rescue.

By this time, more than half of the show had passed, and the most exciting scene finally appeared, a young man brandished a whip, and four lions followed him into the arena, and the iron fence was closed behind them.

After a short silence, the man began to speak, his emotions were very excited, and his words were a little slurred, but his intentions were very clear, under his command, these four sturdy and huge beasts jumped on the barrier more than two meters high in the blink of an eye, there was no protective net on the fence, as long as they jumped slightly, they would fall into the dense crowd.

The boy screamed in fright, but Mrs. Alain, who was holding him, laughed loudly, as if she had seen something quite funny, and not only that, but she also grabbed her youngest son's face and made him look at the circus.

The boy saw the blue-white electric light, and every one or two meters outside the fence there were adult men standing, holding sticks that flashed with electric light, and the sticks were placed on the fence, and the four terrible animals were burned so much that they fell back, and the miserable roars came and went.

The intense pain caused the beasts to completely lose their rationality and gentleness that had been forcibly imbued into the round skull by humans, and the man was attacked by the beasts he had tamed.

But the show wasn't over yet, the circus people were arrested by the townspeople, from the boss to the tent man, and an impromptu meeting was held to vote to interrogate and try them directly here - the "criminals" were thrown into the fence one by one, where four beasts that had tasted human flesh and blood awaited them.

The man roared and cursed under the lion's fangs, and the boy could not understand much, but he vaguely remembered that there was a female name that he was quite familiar with, and a word, "revenge."

The Bible says, "For man's envy has become wrath, and vengeance is merciless." ”

This was taught to him by the woman who was cried out by the dying man, who, like Sasha's mother, Catherine, had come alone to the town, and she had to pay a lot of money for it, because the people of the town could not protect her for free, and "if you ask for something, you will lose something." The boy's mother, Mrs. Alain, said so.

The boy did not understand very well, he only knew that the clothes, jewelry, and bags he had seen in this woman soon appeared on the other women of the town, and even his mother, Mrs. Alain, wore one of her watches, and her slender neck and wrists were replaced by rusty shackles from the slave period, and she had to work incessantly, harvesting lavender, picking grapes and prickly olives, and teaching the children of the town to write and read at night, whom he used to respectfully call Teacher, But she was reprimanded well by Mrs. Alain, because it was an obligation she had to fulfill, and ...... She was still a "prostitute".

His brother said she was a "prostitute" shared by the men in the town. She also said that if they were old enough, she would also be their "prostitute".

He didn't want a "prostitute", he just wanted a "teacher", a gentle, patient teacher who would touch his hair and say good to the child.

She disappeared as abruptly as she had arrived, and one evening, when the boy asked her why she had not yet come to class, Mrs. Alain told him that by a vote of the whole town, they had decided to no longer shelter the "prostitute." They called, she was taken away by the men who had been hunting her, and every family in the town was given an interest-free loan.

The boy couldn't go any further, being ridiculed by his brothers, who called him "Milk Doll," and he slid out of his chair and crawled under his seat as his mother ran to vote again, escaping from the hellish tent.

He runs out, only to find himself with nowhere to go because all the people in town have gone to the circus. Finally he remembered this, and he promised to tell Sasha about it after watching the circus, and promised to bring him a pack of popcorn.

The boy buried his head in the fluffy wool and began to sobble bitterly.

***

Sasha closed his eyes, and he could clearly smell the smell of blood, alive, hot, bright red blood, the kind of blood that only humans can have, with a special, disgusting smell.

There was once more than one doctor who studied Sasha's father, Anthony. Hopkins, from the physical to the psychological, there are also people who ask stupid questions, such as: "How do you solve the emetic hormone in human flesh and human blood?" Dr. Hopkins's answer to this is to make a live argument with him after the prison escape, from blood to flesh, from gratin to steaming, successfully showing that the human body does not contain the so-called "emetic hormone", and the reason why the human body feels nauseous and wants to vomit is purely psychological, such as one example: when he did not know that the object of chewing was his own spine, this old man ate very happily; And when Dr. Hopkins tastes his liver, all the mental fluctuations are no greater than swallowing an egg.

Human emotions such as "pity", "regret", "sadness", etc., and the physiological reactions that follow them, will distinguish the object, even if the object belongs to the same group of people in terms of physical and psychological aspects.

Anthony. Hopkins never had any psychological problems when it came to cannibalism, even if he was kissing someone's hand or discussing a deep philosophical question with him a moment ago—although he no longer cannibalized after Sasha, he still occasionally showed that kind of look, and most of the people who were stared at by that kind of gaze were short-lived.

The people of this town also looked at Catherine with this kind of eyes.

Sasha's thumb rubbed lightly on the drawing paper, and after thinking for a while, he dipped some water from the cap of the mineral water bottle he had prepared on the side and applied it, and the salmon red color suddenly deepened, and Catherine's cheeks, which were originally only bloody, now looked like they were injured.

Very serious injury.

Sasha held up her fingers, bright red color running down her fingertips.

(To be continued)