Chapter 40 - Horror Variety (5) (2/2)

“Good boy.”

Zhou Luo Chen smiled and gave the boy a piece of chocolate: “Is it boring here? You can go wander around but make sure you don’t go too far.”

“Thank you, Uncle Zhou.”

The boy received the chocolate and softly gave his thanks. He ate the chocolate and then returned back into the sea of flowers.

He was still very curious about that bone fragment from before and he wanted to go back and see if there really is treasure there. If there really are, he wanted to dig it up and become an archaeologist that would appear on TV.

But…..why is he suddenly feeling sleepy……..

His line of sight suddenly began to spin, and his body went weak. Feeling dizzy, he fell into the sea of flowers and blood red colour filled his vision.

Surrounded by the intoxicating, sweet aroma, he slowly closed his eyes and fell into a rosy dream.

……….

Cheng Zhi Chu was also affected by this strong dizzy spell and almost fainted but, with perseverance, he didn’t fall asleep and instead reawakened.

As the boy slept soundly, Cheng Zhi Chu who needed to borrow his sight couldn’t see anything. Everything was pitch black before him but fortunately his remaining senses continued to function.

There was something wrong with the chocolate Zhou Luo Chen gave!

He recalled Zhou Luo Chen’s strange look when he saw him earlier. Although he had already sensed that something wasn’t right with him, Cheng Zhi Chu didn’t expect him to be crazy to the extent of giving the child drugs right in front of his parent.

But even if he thought of this at the time, he couldn’t sleep or control his body and could only watch it happen. After an unknown amount of time, he began to hear his parents call his name out anxiously. It seems that they have realised that he had disappeared.

“Zhi Chu? Zhi Chu———-!”

Cheng Zhi Chu also heard Zhou Luo Chen’s voice, and he seemed to know where he had collapsed. He heard him slowly approach him and soon he heard the footsteps stop right next to him.

“He’s also not here.”

He heard Zhou Luo Chen say this. In an instant, his heart went cold. He quickly came to a realisation about who he should be hiding from——

……………

While in a state of confusion, the boy found himself surrounded in darkness. His hands and feet were tied, and his mouth was covered with tape. He felt a small movement below him and he heard the sound of a car’s engine.

He’s……….in the trunk of a car……..?

“Hello Mr Zhou. Welcome back to ‘Rose Manor’……..”

The boy gradually realised that something wasn’t right. He wanted to struggle and cry for help, but he couldn’t fight back the strong drowsiness. Soon, he once again fell into deep sleep.

…………….

As the effect of the drug faded, the boy lying in bed suddenly woke up. He quickly sat up and the velvet blanket on his body slipped down to his waist. This movement of his also startled the young man sitting next to him reading a book.

“You’re awake?”

Zhou Luo Chen took off his glasses and gently closed the book in his lap. He placed it on the coffee table and crossed his legs. Sitting elegantly, he smiled at the boy: “You slept for a long time. How are you feeling?”

“A little dizzy……”

The boy who was originally a little uneasy saw that it was the Uncle Zhou from earlier and not a stranger felt a little more reassured. He gripped onto the blankets and whispered: “Uncle Zhou, is it just the two of us here? Where’s mummy, daddy and my little sister?”

“This is uncle’s home. Your family is outside.” Zhou Luo Chen smiled. “You fell asleep, so your family left you here to rest. Don’t worry, uncle will take care of you.”

“Thank you, uncle but I don’t want to bother you. I want to find my mummy and daddy.”

Unable to see his parents, the little boy was still a little scared. This room was also very strange. Although the decorations were very luxurious, there were no windows so he couldn’t tell if it was day or night. There was also a thick black curtain hanging in the middle of the room. From behind it, he could smell the strong scent of roses as well as a strange smell of something else.

The boy pried away the blanket and wanted to get out of bed, but he was held down by Zhou Luo Chen. Although he didn’t use much force, the strength of an adults was something that a child couldn’t resist. The boy couldn’t get out of bed so he could only sit back down.

The man sat on the edge of the bed with a smile. He said to him: “Zhi Chu, where do you want to go? You should stay and rest here. Uncle will take care of you. Here, give me your hand.”

For some reason, despite his tone being very gentle, the boy felt a little scared. His face went pale and he hesitantly extended his hand which was then held onto gently by Zhou Luo Chen.

“……….Uncle?”

“Zhi Chu’s fingernails are a little long. Uncle will help you cut it.”

Zhou Luo Chen picked up a nail clipper from the bedside table. Ignoring the boy’s weak resistance, he pinched his soft fingers, and, with a “clip”, a small piece of nail was cut off.

“Don’t move or you’ll get hurt.”

“………….”

“Are you bored? Let me tell you a story.”

Zhou Luo Chen lowered his eyes. His movements were very gentle, and his lips contained a smile. With a low voice, he said: “Do you believe that a person’s dream will one day become reality? ———–Or rather, someone would dream of something that he had never seen before, and that thing actually existed in this world?”

“Although I am a painter, I have never believed in these kinds of things. But today, I actually witnessed someone from a dream appear in reality.”

“I have a student. He is a genius. He can only be described with the word ‘perfect’. No one can be compared with him let alone be jealous of him. They could only admire him and look up to him because he is a unique and special existence.”

“Maybe it is also because of this that there are some flaws in his personality. Although he may seem normal, his heart is extremely cold, and he doesn’t experience any emotional changes.”

“There was only once case where there is an exception——-It’s when he talks about his dreams.”

“He would always dream of the same child in his dreams and this had been happening for several years.”

“Although it was only his dream, the child in it was very lively and bright, like he really did exist in reality. It made him unable to resist and the child soon invaded his world.”

“Again, and again, the child would appear, so my student naturally started to care about this child.”

“He watched the child grow up and experienced all the child’s joys, sorrows and troubles through his dreams. The child’s family was a very ordinary family, but they’re very happy. For my student, it was something that he couldn’t touch but it was also a world that seemed very real.”

“Maybe this sounds ridiculous but, to him, the dream made him feel more alive than reality ever did.”

“So, I suggested to this child to draw the child and let his dreams become reality.”

“Ahhh—–” The boy suddenly let out a painful cry, interrupting Zhou Luo Chen’s words.

The nail clipper had cut through his flesh and fresh blood flowed out. The sharp pain at his fingertips made him bite his lip and he couldn’t help but want to pull back his hand.

“Sorry, did I hurt you?”

Zhou Luo Chen apologised, but he didn’t let the boy take back his hand. He continued to cut the nail on another finger and this time he cut even deeper. A deep groove formed in his finger and large droplets of blood fell from his fingertips, staining the velvet blanket below them.

“Uncle Zhou! Wuuu……..I don’t want to cut it. I don’t want………”

The boy cried in pain. Zhou Luo Chen used his finger to wipe away the blood from the fingertips and looked down at the blood in his hand. He suddenly chuckled softly, and his chest trembled. His laughter grew louder and louder and soon it reverberated in the quiet room.

“………He painted the child. You could tell that he had poured all his feelings into it.”

“That painting was so beautiful, I loved it like crazy. I couldn’t help but find an excuse to bring the painting over and put it up in my bedroom so that I can look at it day and night.”

“Time and time again, I wanted to shred it because it was so beautiful.”

“I like beauty and I like children. But I what I like most………..is destroying that pure beauty.”

“Whoosh——-”

He pulled aside the heavy curtains, revealing the other half of the room.

Thick smell of blood and roses mixed together attacked his senses all at once. Seeing the scene before him, the boy’s pupils sharply constricted. Revealed before him were several rotten bodies of young children intertwined with red roses.

Brightly coloured roses were mottled with dark red blood stains. Instead of butterflies, flies and maggots roamed over the flower petals. Thorned branches and leaves grew out from the corpses’ rotting mouths and abdomen, while thick pus and mucus coated the flower roots.

It was a combination of both an alluring aroma and also the most rancid smell.

The boy’s fingertips bled, and his face turned cold and sweaty. Trembling on the bed, he started to vomit. Zhou Luo Chen stood beside him and looked down at him with a careless smile on his face. He said softly:

“I used to think that that painting was the most beautiful. It was only until the moment I saw you that I realised that it was actually very lifeless.”

“……..It turned out to be you, Zhi Chu.”

“The ‘beauty’ that I should really kill is you.”

****

Bai Yi’s Diary (Part 40)

Again, I dreamt about the past.

……..

I regret it very much. When I killed that man, why didn’t I think of doing it in a crueller way.