Ning Ning glanced at Boss Qu.
Because of that song of his.
"Kidnapped kids, let to pick a wooden man. Whoever picks a lame, has their legs broken; picks the blind, and will be blinded; picks the amputee, we cut their limbs. Then, as beggars, they'll beg for money." This song originates from Zibuyu, 'What The Master Would Not Discuss' by Yuan Mei. Ning Ning had not seen the entire book but this paragraph wasn't hard to interpret; its general idea was a group of human traffickers kidnapping children, then made them pick a wooden man from the wooden box: if a lame was picked, their legs will be broken, if one with broken arms was picked, will have their arms broken. The human traffickers make a bunch of handicapped people, then throw them to the streets to beg for money.
No wonder Boss Qu was so rich. Because he's a human trafficker. Every silver dollar in his hands, every clothing in her wardrobe, was deeply drenched in human blood.
The box on her thighs was the wooden box sang in the lyrics. If the lyrics turns out to be true, then the kidnapped child will be made into the appearance of the wooden man they pick.
What led Ning Ning shudder all over, was that there were not many men in the box which mostly consists of animals.
Ning Ning gathered herself together and picked a wooden mouse up to give it a closer look; this wooden mouse is different from the human faced puppy before, it had a small delicate mouse head yet grew a pair of human female's big breasts.
"Good pick." Boss Qu stopped humming and smiled. "This mouse beauty will do, it suits her."
Li Xiulan once again started struggling, but was kicked down to a the ground by Boss Qu who stepped on her mouth with his foot, making her unable to let out a word.
"Pa." Ning Ning asked cautiously, "What are theses small wooden items… used for?"
She only knew of human traffickers making kidnapped children into blind and lames, but to make them into mouse and dog… is this the magical version of the Republic period?
"You don't have to know." Boss Qu obviously didn't want her to know the truth, thus he replied ambiguously, "You just need to pick one."
"You, you agreed…" Li Xiulan struggled to say, "agreed to let me pick."
Boss Qu gave her a few more kicks, stating coldly, "That was before, now you don't have a choice."
Li Xiulan was helpless against him, hence she could only vent it out on someone else. A pair of eyes filled with resentment and hatred pierced through the curtain.
Behind the curtain, Ning Ning was currently stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Although she had no clue the purpose of the other wooden engravements, but her instincts told her that it wasn't something good, otherwise Li Xiulan wouldn't be struggling that violently.
"Can I not pick?" Ning Ning rubbed the mouse beauty in her hand and quietly asked.
"There is only two outcomes for her today, to die, or to accept punishment." Boss Qu rejected immediately as he spoke out in a cold voice, "If she is allowed to walk out of here without any punishment today, anyone would dare bully you in future whenever I'm not around."
On this point, he was persistent in his own view, and would not budge not matter how hard Ning Ning persuades. Thus, without a choice, Ning Ning could only put the mouse beauty down and took out the only three wooden men inside.
One was without arms, One without legs, and the last one was the most tragic, for everything below the waist was gone as if being chopped in half.
There was no other choice. Ning Ning took a shut-eye for a moment, before throwing a wooden man out through the curtain.
The wooden man fell to the ground in front of Li Xiulan, and she climbed over with great difficulty to hold it in her hands. When she had a clear look of it, her tears fell uncontrollably down, dripping onto the wooden man without arms.
"Why have you picked this?" Boss Qu clicked his tongue finding it a little pitiful.
"Don't, don't take away my arms." Li Xiulan's lips started trembling. "My hands are very skillful, it can do many things if you keep it…"
"Forget it, a pair of arms that would harm their owner has no use keeping." It was after all someone else's arms, so Boss Qu might find it a pity but would not find it pitiful for long. He started pulling her away. Meanwhile, Li Xiulan cried as she was pulled away, turning around to look at Ning Ning from time to time - it wasn't a pleading gaze but one filled with deep-rooted hatred. It seemed as if she had pinned all the blame of her sufferings on Ning Ning.
After the two left and a long while later, Ning Ning's voice lightly traveled out from behind the curtains. "What will papa do to her?"
Wang ma said monotonously, "Don't know.
She must know and just refuses to tell me, or doesn't dare to tell me.
Ning Ning did not dare to delve in too deeply with her thoughts, for the more she delved the more frightened she felt. She shut her eyes and supported her head with a hand while the other hand picked up a wooden engravement then let go of it - the wooden engravement fell back in, thump, thump. This process repeated itself for a few times, then, Ning Ning opened her eyes and said, "This is so stuffy, oh right, where is that young man from back then? Call him over to perform."
Chen Junyan once again appeared in her courtyard, and she once again wrapped herself up tightly with only her voice travelling out from behind her mask. "What's your name?"
"My surname is Chen." The young man spoke with lowered head, "Named Junyan, jun from Jūnzǐ(nobleman), and yan from Yàntai(ink stone)."
Ning Ning nodded, this is the right name, now the name and face have matched with the poster, so very likely, this world is the one in the movie.
"What are you going to perform?" She asked.
Chen Junyan took a bow towards her and then he straightened his back, crossed his arms on his chest, and suddenly did a backflip. After the flip, he made a few more consecutive flips till he reached the bottom of the tree. There, he pulled out a long rope from his coat.
He gave it a toss and the rope hung itself between two trees.
Taking the ground as a support, Chen Junyan swiftly leaped up onto the rope; one foot on the rope and the other in the air, then once again crossed his arms on his chest. He waited for the rope to gradually settle down from its shaking, before making another somersault, then…Boom!
Ning Ning who was getting ready to applause saw a blur, and he had already fallen headfirst to the ground, unable to get up for a long while.
"Are you okay?" Ning Ning straightened up on the chair and looked at him anxiously, worried he may get a concussion from the huge fall.
Chen Junyan struggled to get up but failed to do so, at last with great difficulty, he managed to flip his body over into a prostrating position and with head buried in the ground, he said, "Servant is useless, please exact punishment miss."
Ning Ning had absolutely no intention of punishing him, for she had intentionally called him over in a bid to get closer to him. Thus, she smiled. "It was an accident, nothing to punish you over."
However, Chen Junyan insisted on receiving punishment, and when he saw Ning Ning not reacting to his pleas, he started to get anxious. He lifted his head up. "Miss, please chastise me, otherwise master will punish me!"
When Ning Ning heard this, she gave it a thought, then said, "Fine, I'll punish you since you insist on it."
At her words, Chen Junyan heaved a sigh of relief, as being punished by her would be better than master's punishment, because a young girl would unlikely be able to think of methods to torment him.
However, Ning Ning's next words were, "What do you fear most?"
Chen Junyan's face paled, thinking of lying to her but ultimately hadn't dared to. Thus, he could only tell her the truth. "…Servant, fears rats the most."
Light laughter traveled over from above his bowed head, and he secretly took a glance. Ning Ning stood with her profile to him and currently had a white gloved hand on her masked face while turning back to say something to Wang ma. He dared not take a long look and quickly lowered his gaze. In a short while, Wang ma's footsteps could be heard leaving and coming back.
Rustling sounds made by a dress's hemline rubbing against the ground gradually neared him, then, he heard miss's voice above him in near proximity. It was a naive yet arrogant and willful voice. "Your punishment's to eat what's in my hand."
Large beads of sweat trickled down Chen Junyan's forehead and fell into the soil on ground. He replied, "Yes miss, thank you for the punishment."
He had actually left out part of the truth; what he feared most wasn't rats, but rats that had fed on human meat. A child that had been abducted together with him had died in the middle of the night in bed, and when his corpse was discovered in the morning, his ears and toe had already been gnawed off by the rat. He was the one that killed the rat which had red eyes perhaps because it fed on human meat.
Even if she had never left home before, she's afterall Boss Qu's daughter, and tormenting people to her is natural instinct. Chen Junyan thought as he slowly pushed himself up.
He saw a dot of dark red the minute he looked up.
It was currently mid winter with snow covering the ground, a lone plum tree stood in the courtyard as the others have withered away. Ning Ning stood before him, behind her was the plum tree filled with pretty plum flowers. She stretched her white gloved hand out to him, on her hand was a snow white pastry with a red dot in the middle - just like a cinnabar mole on a beauty's forehead.
"Did you really think I will make you eat a rat?" Ning Ning showed an expression of 'I find it dirty even if you don't mind', then casually pulled apart the pastry. "Look, it has sweetened bean paste filling."
After she spoke, she put one half in her mouth and gave the other half to him.
Chen Junyan took the pastry whilst hesitating, with Wang ma watching his hand with an intense gaze, he suddenly had no idea whether to eat it or not. In the end, he clenched his teeth and put the pastry into his clothes. "Something this good, I'll bring it back and eat it slowly."
"Are you giving it to the young girl from last time?" Ning Ning asked abruptly.
Another bout of cold sweat overcame Chen Junyan. He hurried to clarify his relations to her. "After such a heinous crime she made, I can't wait to personally kill her to help miss vent your anger, why will I want to specially bring something back for her?"
Ning Ning blinked. "I thought the both of you has a good relationship."
"I am not familiar with her. We are only learning tricks together and know each other's names." Chen Junyan continued to emphasize the fact that he wasn't close to her.
Ning Ning said, "Orh, what's her name?"
"Li Xiulan." Chen Junyan replied.
Now Ning Ning had also confirmed the female lead. She gave Wang ma a glance and Wang ma walked away to bring the pastry plate to her. Ning Ning took the plate and turned around to give it to Chen Junyan. "Take it, share it with Li Xiulan."
Chen Junyan left with a heavy heart while hugging the pastries. After he left, Ning Ning asked, "Where's papa?"
She couldn't leave home at all, not even a step. Only Wang ma is allowed to freely leave and enter, however, it was very simple for her to see Boss Qu. "Help me tell him I miss him."
Not even two hours later, Boss Qu appeared before her.
He had even changed into a new set of clothes to conceal the faint bloody smell on him.
My nose has spoilt, no! I have no nose! Ning Ning tried to hypnotize herself, then asked, "Papa, do you run a circus?"
Boss Qu's gaze sharpened immediately. "Who told you that?"
Ning Ning had guessed it, as the movie is called
Boss Qu blinked his eyes. "Why? Do you like acrobats a lot?"
"That's right. " Ning Ning lied through her teeth, for she was definitely someone who would rather watch a commercial than watch the acrobatics channel, yet now she had on the expression of being obsessed with acrobatics. "I love watching acrobatics, do you have anymore people? Tell them all to come and perform for me."
She wanted to witness with her own eyes the type of circus Boss Qu had, then find out the truth and details and get to the bottom of this…In anyway, she had to be clear of the movie genre for
…Please don't let it be a horror movie!
Here's a photo of the cinnabar mole on a beauty's forehead.
Thanks for reading! – Ruisi