How to Stop the Villain from Going Crazy
Translator: Fuyu
Chapter 27 - Who was the one being controlled and tamed (1)
Bo Li wasn't worried that it would be difficult to find Trique without his business card.
This wasn't modern-day where people were completely indifferent to each other. If Trique was really going to throw a party, she only had to enter the city and find a gossipmonger to get information about his affairs.
Breakfast was a rabbit that Erik brought back from hunting. He skinned the rabbit in front of her. He cut a hole in the rabbit's stomach, held the stomach opening open, and pulled hard on both sides. He stripped the skin off the rabbit in one move.
Bo Li was astonished. She even wanted to ask him to catch another rabbit so that she could give that a try.
Unfortunately, she didn't dare to make that request.
After breakfast, Erik doused the fire with water, kicked dirt over the embers, and finally used his boots to stamp the loose soil down.
After that series of actions, she almost couldn't see that there had once been a fire here. She had to admit that winning over Erik was the best decision she made after transmigrating.
He seemed to have a wealth of experience in surviving in the wild. His movements were calm and quick. He took down the tent, stacked it together with the wool blanket, and tied both items to the back strap of the saddle. Finally, he placed the backpack behind the saddle and tied it tightly with a thick leather belt.
In modern times, horses were the luxuries of luxuries. Even if there were many people that had ridden a horse, it was under the watch of a teacher.
Ordinary people had no idea how to safely approach a horse or how to adjust the saddle without startling the horse.
Although being with Erik was fraught with danger, she had to admit without him, she would have already died at the hands of the manager or under Cesar's hooves.
Bo Li didn't forget that Cesar had bitten off the stable keeper's ear in a fit of anger.
Erik had greatly helped her.
She couldn't help saying to Erik: "Thank you."
It was always a good idea to say thank you more often when one was away from home.
Erik acted as if he hadn't heard her words. He got onto the horse in one smooth movement and grabbed the reins.
Just as Bo Li was about to say "I can get on myself", he leaned over. Just like last time, he grabbed her by the sides and lifted her up.
Bo Li could only swallow her words.
She remembered what she read on Trique's business card. He was staying at a hotel in New Orleans. She didn't know how far they were from New Orleans though.
They traveled in silence.
With only the passing scenery as a distraction, Bo Li had too much time to think.
At first, she didn't actually want to form a circus. She only said that to win over Erik. Later on, she said she would write stories for the deformed circus performers, so that the audience would see they were real people too. That was also to get closer to Erik.
He rarely spoke, and his behavior was unpredictable. It was difficult to tell what he was thinking.
She could only use people with similar experiences as him to break through his defenses. Only by doing this could she increase her odds of survival under his hands.
She hadn't expected Trique to seek her out. Now that he had, she would be able to obtain resources and money to open a circus by making connections at his party.
If she didn't form a circus, it would probably arouse Erik's suspicions. She could only bite the bullet and go through with what she said.
There was not much to see in the swampland. There were tall, gloomy, leafless cypress trees everywhere. Their branches were covered with thick moss and hanging green lichen that swayed in the wind.
As Bo Li watched the monotonous scenery, she accidentally drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, it was already dark.
The surroundings were no longer wooded swamplands. A few simple farmhouses appeared in the distance along with pigs, cows, and sheeps in pens.
They were on a slippery mud road. Every few steps, there would be a pile of horse manure.
As they approached the city, the fog became thicker and took on a dirty brown color.
There were gas street lamps on the streets, but the fog was too thick. The thick fog seemed to swallow the light. Not a single ray of light could pass through the fog.
Bo Li furrowed her brow and covered her nose with her arm. The air here smelled worse than modern roads.
Erik seemed to have been to New Orleans before. Even though the fog was so thick and heavy, he easily found a hotel.
He leaned over as if he was going to throw the reins onto a hitching post.
Bo Li quickly went to stop him. Worried that he couldn't see her movements, she almost reached out to hug his waist. "Wait, do you know where there's a clothing store?"
After a pause, Erik picked up the reins and lightly jerked the reins back to get the horse to walk in the other direction.
Bo Li sighed in relief.
After a night of fermentation, the sweat, blood, and rotting leaves from the swamp had mixed together into a rather strange smell on his body. If he didn't change his clothes, he would attract everyone's attention as soon as they entered the hotel.
Bo Li's blood ran cold when she pictured that scene.
Erik didn't like to appear in front of others and disliked it even more when others stared at him.
If her imagined scene happened, he would probably go on a killing spree.
The clothing store was about to close. Bo Li said a bunch of things to persuade the boss before he would let them inside.
At first, she didn't know why the boss didn't make a fuss when he saw that Erik was wearing a mask. He took the soft measuring tape from his neck and started measuring them.
"Six feet and two inches…" The boss muttered about Erik's height. "You're very lucky. The store usually doesn't carry clothes of such height. A customer named Terry ordered a lot of clothes for his freaks, and one of them shares your measurements. We usually make a few extra clothing as backup and have some leftovers. I can sell those to you."
Bo Li immediately thanked him.
The boss seemed to think she was Erik's agent and started chatting with her, "Are you here to attend the spectacular exhibition? A lot of people have come to the city recently to see the exhibition…"
"No," Bo Li said, "We're siblings. He's my younger brother. He just came back from hunting in the swamps."
As she said this, she handed the shirt and pants to Erik, so he could change into these clothes in the dressing stall.
The boss measured her height and was very puzzled. "Ah, you're two brothers? He's terrifyingly tall, and you're ridiculously short… Could it be that he stole your milk in the womb?"
Bo Li almost choked on her saliva.
Fortunately, Erik was still in the dressing stall and didn't hear those words.
Mother, woman, intimate contact. Those words became taboo around Erik. He wouldn't allow others to joke about those topics.
Bo Li suddenly had an idea. If she took care of him as if she was his mother… could she live longer? She had to get him to stop seeing them as predator and prey.
This might be a good breakthrough.
Thinking of this, she turned her head and asked the boss, "Do you have any dresses? One that's… my size."
In the end, Bo Li bought a few printed dresses, a few shirts, a few pants, a wide-brimmed hat, a woman's tweed hat, and a black cape.
Erik didn't have any objections to the clothes that she bought and bought a pair of black leather gloves for himself when they were checking out.
When he slowly put on the black leather gloves and pulled them taut with his extremely long fingers until the thin, but pliable leather was stretched over his joints, she remembered that scene in the movie. She felt the cold and cruel aura of a killer coming from him.
Perhaps, out of fear, her legs felt weak.
(T/N: She's thinking of the movie scene from chapter part 7.)
T/N: Next update at 10:25 PM EST.