In desperation, a pair of arms stretched out in time. Cesare firmly hugged Anya's waist, and the falling body stopped instantly.
After a near miss, Anya held her chest to catch her breath, and her face turned red again, whether due to peace of mind or embarrassment. "A little bit scared." Anya raised her face, looked into Cesare's eyes and smiled.
"It doesn't matter. At least it proves that you can be like a normal person sometimes." Cesare shrugged. "Can you stand up now?"
"Ah, yes." Anya stood up from Cesare's arms, dusted off her clothes, regained her composure and looked at the dead woman's body specimen again.
"Is this some novel folk culture, or is it a mascot placed in the motorcade? But she doesn't look very auspicious."
Cesare also looked at the specimen up and down and began to analyze it.
"Maybe it's just a specimen of a deformed freak being put on display. Although I have never seen it with my own eyes, I have heard of similar examples in school, and... this behavior is not illegal. This kind of freak is very important to the circus. It is said to be private property like slaves, and it is the right of the circus no matter how it is used."
"You misunderstood Cesare. What I'm curious about is not why this specimen is here." Anya shook her head and walked towards the woman's dead body. She stretched out her hand and wanted to touch it but then retracted hesitantly and turned around. Instead, he just pointed at the extra arm of the dead specimen. "Did you notice anything strange?"
Is it the woman with three arms that makes Anya feel strange? This was a circus of freaks, and they had already seen dwarfs and fools with deformed bodies. What would be surprising if they met a woman with three arms?
Anya's words made Cesare a little confused. He followed the direction of Anya's finger and looked at the place where the extra arm was connected to the dead body's shoulder. He slowly understood what Anya meant, at the place where the skin connected to the skin. They actually used steel nails and needles and threads to sew two completely unrelated bodies together.
That's not a strange woman born with three arms.
This is just a weird scene made of an ordinary woman's corpse and someone else's arm sewn together. She was forcibly made into a freak during her lifetime or after her death. She will not be able to sleep in peace after death. She was trapped by this circus. He was dragged around and laughed at by the world and became a tool to make money.
The nature of this matter is far more cruel and horrific than taking advantage of disabled people. Thinking of the way Claudius, the leader of the circus, whipped the dwarf, the cruelty and ruthlessness he showed did not seem to be part of the rehearsal performance, and the conversation between them became more and more suspicious the more he thought about it.
Cesare became more and more convinced that this circus was definitely not a place where the two of them should stay. If there were no other carriages nearby, he really wanted to stay away from this group of extremely suspicious guys tonight.
At this moment, Cesare no longer wanted to stay in this place for half a second.
Just as they turned around, Cesare and Anya heard a man's voice calling them like "Hey, eh...".
Cesare's nerves tensed up in an instant, and he initially thought it was the captain Claudius who had returned, but then the two realized that the sound did not come from outside the carriage, but from inside the carriage where they were.
His voice was trembling and weak, and he seemed worried that the two children would be frightened by him and run away, so his tone was soft and gentle.
"Don't be afraid... I won't tell Claudius that you have been here. I can't see you now, but I can guess that you are the ones who fought with the robbers on the roof of the car during the day. I am familiar with your footsteps... …”
Cesare now only felt that he was careless, and he never noticed that there was a guy in the motorcade who had never shown his face before. He looked around nervously, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't see anyone other than him in the carriage. Could it be that Was it the specimen soaked in the potion that came back to life? It was so ridiculous that Cesare quickly dismissed the possibility.
Now that the other party has guessed his identity, it is no longer wise to leave rashly. "Who are you? Where are you?" Cesare asked into the air.
"Polonius... My name is Polonius, and I am the storyteller in this circus... Well, I didn't mean to hide and talk, but I'm just not feeling well. Can you help take this painting away? I’m right behind the painting.”
The voice did come from behind the portrait, but it was still very strange. Judging from the tilt of the portrait, it was impossible to hide a complete person.
Cesare and Anya looked at each other. Anya had already taken off the white cloth just now, and now it was her turn. Slowly approach the oil painting, trying hard to find the angle and strength to move it away without making too much noise.
When he saw what was hidden behind the oil painting, Cesare couldn't help but gasp, and Anya gently covered her mouth with both hands to prevent her from making a sound. It was scary, but rather weird to the extreme.
"You..." The words were on his lips but he didn't know how to say them out.
That was a grown man, sure, but incomplete. His body only has a head, neck and torso, no arms or legs, and is hidden behind the oil painting like a large roly-poly.
It took Cesare a while to react before he realized that this was a living human stick, like a stick without limbs. What he was wearing was more like a sack on his torso than clothes, with part of his neck exposed at the mouth of the bag. and brain.
The "thing" in front of him made Cesare froze in place, and for a moment he didn't know whether he should greet him or follow his instinctive exclamation.
As a human being, Polonius knew very well how outsiders would react when they saw his body for the first time. His face was pale and weak, and his eyes were as dull as those of a person who had been dead for a long time. They were sunken in the eye sockets and looked very tired. , he smiled bitterly and said.
"I'm sorry for scaring you, but don't worry, it's not Claudius's doing, I was born like this... This is just a rare and terrible disease... Don't be nervous, I mean no harm, please allow me I re-introduce myself formally as Polonius Boloni, the friendly geek, and offer you both a humble salute with my non-existent arm."
The appearance of the human stick made Cesare still not sure how to express his position, but Anya's initial surprise turned into curiosity about new things. She bent down and bowed in response to the so-called salute of the human stick Polonius.
"Anya Lauryn, it's an honor to meet you sir, um...how do you usually clean up when it's convenient for you?"
Anya's unbridled question put a forced smile on Polonius's face. He pretended not to hear it, and Polonius twisted his only body to get as close to Cesare and Anya as possible. , accompanied by bitter laughter and words that seemed to be talking to himself.
"What an exquisite and lovely two faces. I have been following the circus for so many years and have told stories to countless children, but there has never been a child as cute as these two... Do you want to know what this circus hides? What is the truth? As long as you do me a favor, I am willing to tell you all the stories I know, how about it? "
As he spoke, Polonius' eyes inadvertently looked at the dead woman's body specimen.
Through the sack-like cloth, the balls of Polonius's thighs struggled to move left and right to move his body forward. There were mud spots formed by sweat on his face. It looked like no one had washed him for a long time, and his hair was messy and sparse.
His eyes were strangely erratic, like a lunatic who was prone to madness trying his best to suppress the hysteria in his heart. It was a miracle that he was even alive, let alone able to maintain his sanity and communicate with others.
Even if there is really no malice, it is hard not to be disgusted by the pitiful look.
"There's no need to be too close. We can't help you in any way, and we're not interested in your troupe's affairs."
Although the other party did not pose any threat, Cesare subconsciously protected Anya behind him with his hands, and at the same time signaled Polonius not to get closer.
Seeing Cesare's serious expression and Polonius no longer moving, he sighed sadly. Although his voice and appearance were that of an adult, he had to raise his head high to look up at the two children.
"Look at me, my body can't even commit suicide...how could I harm you? I just pray that you two will try to take me out of here when you leave. If the risk is too great, I won't I can only blame you for making things difficult for you two."
Cesare recalled what happened between the leader Claudius and the dwarf. It seemed that these freaks wanted to leave here for some unknown reasons. Even if their physical disabilities were still difficult to survive in the outside world, Especially the one in front of me doesn’t even have limbs...
"Are you sure? To put it bluntly, even if we take you out successfully, we won't always take you with us."
Before Polonius could respond, Anya cleared her throat and interjected.
"Actually, I have always wanted to keep an unusual pet, maybe..." Before she could finish her words, Cesare turned his face and stared at her with a vicious look, instantly forcing the girl to swallow what she just wanted to say. go back. "Ahem, no, it's indeed a bit inconvenient."
Polonius was not disappointed, but appeared very relaxed about the problem.
"It doesn't matter. There are people I know in this forest. As long as you can prevent our leader Claudius from finding me, I will figure out a way to solve the rest. Whether it's being eaten by a wild beast or being eaten by a wild beast." Is it okay to freeze to death in the forest and starve to death, it has nothing to do with you two?"
There was a cry of urgency in Rengun's tone, and it could be seen how much he wanted to seize this hard-won hope.
"Don't you want to know why I took such a big risk to escape from here? Since you ventured into this carriage, you also want to know something, right? I am the only one who can tell you the truth. If you miss it, you can There will be no chance again!”
