doll city

Chapter 108 Interlude

evening.

The one-week hunting grounds brought the whole city into a temporary relaxation. At the same time, more people took to the streets to look for the thirteen "thieves".

"I'm not a thief! Don't chase me! I was just caught near the museum that day!"

Just after turning around a block, Yan Ge saw another incident of innocent people being chased and killed.

Before he could make a move, the hunted person suddenly disappeared in place.

"Where are people?" The pursuers behind were dumbfounded, looking around, they couldn't help but start to shrink back.

"Don't have any cannibal puppets nearby... let's go, leave first!"

When the pursuers left, the hunted person appeared on the other side of the block, still running desperately, and soon disappeared at the corner of the street.

"It's really impolite speculation, I don't eat people, I just guide people to discover their noble qualities." Lyon said.

Yan Ge: "There are many kinds of noble qualities, I hope you don't always lead people to sacrifice."

Leon smiled and said, "Then what are you doing now?"

"..." Just after a big battle, he was in a hurry to die before he recovered physically and mentally. Yan Ge also admired himself.

Leon's own skills are very strange. He will not only brainwash a person to make him a hero who has the courage to sacrifice himself, but also create an existence that is independent of reality and similar to a four-dimensional space, allowing people to stay in this space. Gradually lost in the illusion of reality.

Yan Ge never thought that one day he would take the initiative to ask to enter such an illusion.

"It's probably here. Teacher Dai said that from here, within ten miles of Old Porcelain Street, it's all property of Zeng Ciling's Gu family."

The place where Yan Ge stopped at this time was a pedestrian street under development. Behind the piles of building materials were rows of arched buildings with the style of the Republic of China.

About 70 years ago, this area was the most prosperous ceramic trade area in East China. Foreign merchants from all over the world came here on merchant ships to gather porcelain from the Porcelain King family.

At that time, being able to carry the Gu family's porcelain overseas was equivalent to carrying a ship of gold and silver.

"This...should be where Luca, Alice, and other 'Porcelain Puppets' were born."

Yan Ge grabbed a handful of soil from the flower bed and sat on an open-air bench in a coffee shop. The soil in his hand was Ciling's unique clay, which was reddish-purple in color and as fine as flour, which made him feel nostalgic.

When he was very young, there was still a porcelain kiln in the backyard of his family. When his grandma was busy firing porcelain, Yan Ge played with clay by the kiln.

He would knead his grandma into various small animals with the leftover clay, and then put them into a porcelain kiln to burn together.

I don't know whether it's a lack of talent or something, but Yan Ge's pottery always burns and cracks, and he hasn't learned from grandma's ingenuity at all.

In fact, Yan Ge didn't know much about his grandma's past. Grandma never mentioned it, but vaguely heard from the second aunt's chat that grandma suffered a lot when she was young.

Grandma must also be a descendant of the Gu family in Ciling. If she knew that the porcelain kiln of the Gu family had produced such horrible things, I don't know how to react...

"...I feel that you are ready to enter the play, can we start?" Leon asked.

Yan Ge nodded, and the image of himself in the glass window across the street became blurred again, turning into a porcelain doll in a dark green dress, mask and top hat.

"Three, two...one."

With the sound of snapping his fingers, Yan Ge finally felt the mud fall from between his fingers, and then he lost consciousness.

……

"I awoke from the unknown,

I am the dust that fell from the stars millions of years ago,

I am the soil that is intertwined with the thousand-year-old ginkgo biloba,

My heart once nurtured tall and straight bamboos,

The rise and fall of dynasties are engraved on it, and finally return to me. "

"I have resided in every corner of the world,

I don't know where the journey ends,

Maybe follow the fish to the deep sea,

Hear the humming of whale bones.

Maybe follow the birds to the snow-capped mountains,

Looking up at the same race beyond the starry sky.

"I shall exist forever, I shall be alone forever,

Until the hand of the craftsman lifted me up and sent me to that furnace...

I, was born. "

……

intermission.

Ciling in 1935 was a turbulent Ciling.

The news in the newspapers was heavy day by day, the novelties brought by foreign merchants squeezed the market, and the porcelain industry, which used to lie down and wait for all nations to come to Korea, had to take the initiative to find a way out.

As the president of Ciling General Chamber of Commerce, Mrs. Gu had a double happiness recently.

One is the new work of the craftsmen of the Gu family - absorbing the craftsmanship of Western water-driven puppets, coupled with the hard work of Ciling ceramic craftsmen, last night's "Twelve Actors Porcelain" made a big splash at the fair, and orders flew like snowflakes In the future, there will be no worries about Ciling's ceramic sales in at least two years.

"My lord, Miss refused Mr. He's invitation to listen to the play again, did you..."

"Nonsense, the parents ordered the matchmaker to let her mess around? If you don't go, you won't go, tell the young lady, let her prepare well, and don't make any fools at the engagement banquet the day after tomorrow!"

This is the second joy, the young lady of the Gu family is finally getting married.

He married the young master of the He family. He had just returned to China to work as a comprador, and he was very well connected in the maritime trade industry. This was also Mrs. Gu's strategy—with such a landlord and son-in-law, the Gu family would be able to bring Ciling's ceramics industry overseas. Open a maritime silk road.

This is related to the jobs of businessmen and craftsmen, big and small, in Ciling. Of course, the granddaughter cannot say no.

The Gu family is also busy with the eldest lady's wedding.

Old Mrs. Gu said that the day after tomorrow is the day of my lady's engagement, and it has been decided to let the "Twelve Actors" perform again. At that time, many important people from Ciling will be present, and even foreign nobles.

The entire family is preparing intensively, but the protagonist of the wedding banquet does not quite agree with this marriage.

"Miss, don't you want to pick out the dress? The wedding dress and wedding dress are all beautiful..."

"Whatever, I haven't finished this top hat yet."

Parents and relatives persuaded her in turn, but Ms. Gu was unmoved at all, she just concentrated on sewing flowers on the top hat in her hand.

It wasn't until the sun set that Ms. Gu raised the finished top hat and compared it on her own head. After she was satisfied, she went back to the back room and smiled at the porcelain doll who was sitting silently by the sofa.

"Good evening, Luca."

She handed the hat to the porcelain puppet: "Do you like it? In order to finish it before the engagement, I did it for three full days."

The obsidian-like pupils look forward to it as always, but there is no fairy tale in reality, and the porcelain doll is as quiet as ever.

"When you performed on stage the day before yesterday, I always felt that you were looking at me. Hey, are you looking at me?"

Miss Gu was not discouraged when she didn't get an answer, and sat down next to the porcelain doll.

"I must be the only one who discovered it. Everyone went to see Alice... She is indeed too dazzling. I heard from my grandfather that a craftsman made it according to my photo, but I don't think it looks like it at all."

"Alice is a real princess, and I'm just a clay girl."

"That's great. At the end of the play, you took Alice away from the bad wizard's wedding. It would be great if you could take me away too... I dreamed about it last night."

The voice became smaller and smaller, the girl sat on the carpet with her knees hugged, and stared out of the window for a while.

White pigeons flew past the glass window, and the voice of the housekeeper reprimanding the servants for not taking good care of the pigeons came from downstairs.

"I heard that they have prepared five carts of pigeons, and they will let them go at the wedding banquet like foreigners. In my opinion, they might as well cook them and distribute them to the refugees outside the city."

Miss Gu was silent. Occasionally, when her mother took her by car to pick out new jewelry, she could see unemployed people everywhere in the city, chasing after the Gu family's car, begging for a job to support their family.

Whose parents are they?Whose children are they?

The Gu family has a great business, but it is limited after all.

"There is a war in the north, and many people in the city are starving. I have to marry that comprador according to my grandfather's wishes, and open up business routes, so that these people can have food."

"I have been useless since I was born, I want to be sensible."

"But Luca... I don't love him."

"Will you miss me?"

"Or, at least shed a tear for me?"

She can tell everyone a lie to make others happy, but she can't lie to her own heart.

At the age of 16, this is the biggest reluctance she can do.

……

"The wonderful thing is, is this your theater?"

This is a circular theater hall, with black and white pictures of the Republic of China projected on the curtain.

Everyone's faces in the picture, including the soon-to-be-married Ms. Gu, are blurred, and it is impossible to make out what they look like.

Leon looked around curiously. In the empty theater, there were only a few audiences. A few rows of seats behind him, Yan Ge was sitting there with a blank expression on his face.

"I have materialized my inner world, allowing others to temporarily become 'audiences' watching my performance."

"Shouldn't you be on stage right now?"

"I'm on the stage, and this is a rational personality that I split off."

He is the slave, and he is the audience, which makes Leon very interested.

"The release of the spiritual world, where does it seem to have been seen? Let me think about it..."

After recalling for a while, Leon suddenly realized.

"You imitated Princess Alice, she can connect her spiritual world with reality—no, not everyone can imitate the Red Dead King, unless you get a part of her gift."

gift...

Yan Ge felt that his strength had obviously undergone a qualitative change, but he also had a vague intuition—he seemed to have gained more than that.

"However, I must remind you that because you have been approved by Alice, you can have the qualification to play her."

"In contrast, you have not been recognized by Luca."

"So when you play him, be careful not to really 'become' him."

Yan Ge suddenly fell silent.

"You really have a bright mouth."

After speaking, he lowered his head.

Leon stared at him steadfastly. After a few seconds, he stood up, took off his hat, and bowed slightly to Yan Ge's position.

"Although I have no room to comment, I still want to say that it is not wise to take the body of this slave."

Yan Ge's figure changed. The moment he raised his head, he turned into the porcelain doll in the dark green dress from body to heart.

"I smell the familiar blood, but it's not for him." Luka looked at the twelve porcelain puppets on the curtain, and gently pressed his hand on his face wearing a half mask.

Lyon hoped that Yan Ge would learn to sacrifice like a hero, but he didn't want him to die in an unclear manner. In his heart, Yan Ge was suitable for a more grand occasion to end his life.

But fortunately, Luca came only for his true love, and would never take the life of the possessed person at will.

After learning about this section, Leon sat down with ease: "If you were given another chance, would you still be on stage?"

"meeting."

"I heard that you are already a defective product, and a defective product will not be allowed to be the main character on stage."

On the curtain are twelve porcelain dolls of actors who rely on each other. They are all dressed in gorgeous silk clothes, have skin as white as snow and expressions that fit the characters. Different porcelain dolls have their own exciting features.

"My relatives, my compatriots... We have been separated for too long, so long, I am broken and I am no longer qualified to be among you." Luka said. "But I still want to be on stage... for her."

Leon asked, "Even if it's not a prince, but a jester?"

The jester is not entitled to the favor of the princess, but can only watch her marry the real prince, and then wear a mask and weep during the feast.

Luka didn't speak, he saw himself a long time ago.

At that time, from the time he came out of the kiln, his flawless quality was regarded as a treasure by everyone.

"It's really like the Prince Charming in the book, so beautiful, no princess would refuse, right?"

People often praise it like this, but Luca doesn't care, the princess he believes is not the same perfect porcelain doll as Alice.

He fell in love with a dirty girl who liked to knead clay.

The dirty girl said in his ear that she liked him, and he heard the voice.

The dirty girl hoped that he would open his eyes, and he saw her face blackened by the fire in the porcelain kiln.

Just seeing her gave Luca a sense of light in his world.

For her smile, he tried his best to play the role of a good prince every time. When he saw her eyes shining brightly on the stage, his chest was filled with joy.

Just listening, just seeing, can no longer satisfy him, he wants to open his mouth, wants to marry her like his character.

He went through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, killed the black wizard, and rescued Alice from the wicked again.

Amid the familiar applause, Luca looked towards the audience, looking for his favorite smiling face—but, he only got a pair of tearful eyes.

Among the laughing crowd, only his princess was crying.

—Why is she crying?Is it my bad acting?

Great bewilderment enveloped him until the actor's owner took her onto the stage.

"...Thank you all the guests. Our Gu's Porcelain Industry will join hands with the He family in the future... At that time, we hope that all colleagues in the porcelain industry will work together..."

Amid the applause of the crowd, a man in a white suit and with oiled hair came onto the stage and politely extended his hand to Princess Lucca.

The princess glanced back at Luca.

The miracle in the girl's dream was not born, only the cold and steady embrace of reality.

She turned her head little by little, the light in her eyes went out, she took the man's hand and followed him away.

"Do not……"

Luka felt the pain clearly for the first time, and with the screams of the people, the dead thing took his best step, and then...

He fell heavily from the high platform.

The ceramic shattered, leaving ugly tears on his cheek forever.

"Don't go..."

A voice no one heard echoed in the empty chest as Luca murmured her name.

"Full moon."