How to Stop the Villain from Going Crazy
Translator: Fuyu
Chapter 51 - She was feeling sympathy for her predator (2)
After over ten minutes passed, Bo Li recovered enough to look around.
The basement wasn't big. It was a little over ten square meters, and there was a lit rushlight on the pillar.
The air was gloomy and foul. The walls were filthy and covered with tiny black spots.
At first, Bo Li thought those spots were bugs, but when she stared at them, she realized they were splatters of dried blood. The brown specks of dried blood resembled shoddy, flaky paint as they fell down like dust.
This wasn't a nightmare.
Bo Li had never seen so much blood, so she couldn't have dreamed such realistic detail.
She didn't have time to regret. Once she regained her strength, she started to check the furnishings around her. In the innermost part, there was a desk with a cabinet above it.
She found a notebook in the drawer and flipped it open.
B.W. (SOLD)
Theo Whitt
Emily Brown
Ollie Thorne (SOLD)
Harriet Fielding
Edmund Blu (SOLD)
F.S.
Although the handwriting was neat, the writer's literacy wasn't high. Some of the names were incomplete or only their initials were written. She guessed that Mrs. Merlin wrote this list.
Bo Li noticed Emily's name on the list.
… So Mrs. Merlin and Trique had been working together.
Bo Li vigorously rubbed the spot between her eyebrows. This was her second time falling into a trap set by someone in this world.
If Mrs. Merlin was a modern-day person, she might be more cautious and think twice before entering her home alone.
She had underestimated people in the 19th century. She thought that a middle-aged woman without a cell phone or internet couldn't be that dangerous.
In fact, in this era without cell phones or internet, for a middle-aged woman to become Trique and Boyd's accomplice, she had to be inherently dangerous.
She had placed too much reliance on the fact that Trique and Boyd were dead. She thought that even if Mrs. Merlin had bad intentions towards her, she wouldn't dare to do anything to her.
Who could have thought that Mrs. Merlin's hatred of Mrs. Ciri far exceeded her fear of death?
Just a few questions about Mrs. Ciri's past was enough to infuriate Mrs. Merlin into pushing her into the basement.
There was no point in blaming and reflecting on herself. in being annoyed. Her top priority was saving herself.
Bo Li took out the knife from her petticoat. She would wait for Mrs. Merlin to open the door and then stab her in the neck.
Having suffered once in the swamp from not being able to tell the time, she bought a pocket watch and carried it with her.
Well, the silver lining was that she hadn't completely failed to learn from her previous lesson.
She took out the pocket watch and checked the time. It was 3:30 PM.
Who knows when Mrs. Merlin would open the door again?
Thinking of this, she took off her cloak, laid it on the ground, and decided to take a nap.
At 8 PM, Bo Li was awakened by the sound of the door bolt being pulled back.
Mrs. Merlin opened the basement's wooden door and threw a young man down like he was trash.
"Here, the freak you wanted." Mrs. Merlin said, "I found him for you. This guy looks exactly like the Elephant Man in London. If you have any proclivities, it's best that you use him now. Otherwise, once he becomes famous," she cackled, "you won't even be worthy of licking his boots!"
Bo Li: "... I don't have that sort of fetish."
"Really?" Mrs. Merlin scoffed. "I thought you kept asking about the whereabouts of these freaks because you want to keep them to play around with. It turns out you're really a good person." She looked up and sarcastically chortled. "My god, I met such a kindhearted person!"
"Thorne, what do you think?" Mrs. Merlin asked that young man. "This girl visited me so many times. She's so annoying. I thought she was in the same line of work as me at first, and I didn't want to fight with someone in the same business as me. I kept holding back from taking action against her. But, she's actually a kind person! Thorne, tell me, do you want to become a famous star?!"
Bo Li looked at Thorne.
Thorne shuddered and curled himself into a ball. There was a sack over his head with two holes cut out - a bit like Erik's mask.
Bo Li's heart skipped a beat. She felt compassion.
How strange.
Even when she witnessed Erik being dragged by a horse, she didn't feel sympathy for him and only calmly considered how to use him to survive.
When she saw the injuries on his back, she was more shocked than sympathetic. She didn't understand how he could knock her down with one hand when he was so badly injured.
And yet, when she looked at Thorne, who was similar to Erik, she felt bad for him.
Why? Was it because her feelings toward Erik had changed?
Bo Li's mind was a mess. She didn't speak.
Thorne kept sobbing and didn't speak either.
After Mrs. Merlin left, Bo Li crouched down and approached Thorne. She softly asked, "Are you okay?"
Thorne heard her voice and seemed to tremble in fear. He scooted back a lot and desperately clutched the sack on his head.
Erik wouldn't retreat. He would pull out his dagger, place it against her throat, and warn her with a cold look to not move forward.
And yet, in a way, their reactions were… the same.
"I won't hurt you." Bo Li's expression was complicated. "If I can take you away with me, will you come with me?"
Thorne didn't reply and only gasped in fear. He pressed the sack against his head as if he was afraid she was going to come forward and rip off the sack.
Erik wouldn't press down his mask, but recently, he rarely spoke to her face-to-face. He usually appeared behind her like a shadow or ghost.
If she tried to turn to look at him, he would grip her jaw and not allow her to turn her head.
His usual attire was black gloves, a black shirt, a black vest, and a black cloak. Other than his neck, he almost always kept his skin covered up. It was as if he wanted to disappear into darkness.
Was he so secretive about his body because he was once like Thorne, unable to keep others from tearing off his mask?
That awful feeling was getting worse.
Bo Li felt a sour pit in her stomach. This time, it wasn't because of pity, but because of… sympathy.
"I'm not the same as Mrs. Merlin." Her voice was hoarse. "I really want to give you a job so that you can impress the audience with your story, your acting skills, your charm just like a real actor instead of relying on your unique appearance."
She had said this rhetoric so many times. In the past, those lines had always been half truth and half lies.
But at this moment, she actually sincerely meant it.
Why? Was it because she wasn't any different from Erik and Thorne?
Was she scared that her disguise would be taken off, and that others would see she didn't belong to this world?
"Trust me, okay?" She lowered her voice and carefully approached Thorne. "I swear I won't take off the sack or make fun of your appearance."
There was a small window for ventilation in the basement. The purple and red glow of dusk sprinkled through the window.
Thorne cried and trembled. He looked like he was about to faint. When he saw that she didn't act like others - didn't beat him, scold him, rip off the sack, or squeeze the lumps on his face - he finally slowly relaxed his death grip on the sack. He looked at her with tearful eyes.
Bo Li stretched her hand out and gently said, "Trust me, Thorne, we'll escape from here."
After a long time, Thorne, who was still trembling, held her hand and nodded.
Bo Li inexplicably thought of the night she escaped from the circus with Erik. At that time, she felt so isolated. She was walking in a swamp, but she felt like she was trying to crawl out quicksand.
What about Erik then?
He seemed to have no emotions. He closely followed behind her and kept a calm pace like a predator stalking its prey at a leisurely pace.
However, just like Thorne, he believed her. He believed that they would run away together.
Bo Li's heart felt strange. Her heart felt like it was wrapped in a towel soaked in warm water and slowly being wrung dry.
She felt both sore and pained. Her scalp felt numb.
She was feeling sympathy for her predator.
Translator Ramblings: Not sure if I should say anything, but this is the last time that Bo Li isn't wary enough of people in the 19th century.
Edited on 9/21/24: Same as last chapter, I striked-through the original text and bolded the new text.