Chapter 4 The moment the side door of the secret passage opened, I was stunned. My God…
At noon that day, the stuttering girl came to my place for lunch as usual.
I asked gossipily, "Do you know how old these princesses are?"
"Almost, almost ten, sixteen." The stuttering girl was eating half a loaf of bread.
"Sixteen already?" I exclaimed in surprise.
But these black princesses are shaped like nine or ten-year-old girls, not sixteen at all.
"Can the iron cage hold them?" I asked doubtfully.
The iron cages inside the breeding enclosures are far too small to accommodate even an adult girl.
The stuttering girl, munching on her noodles, mumbled, "We'll...we'll change...we'll just need to change to a different cage. You...you should worry about yourself."
"The zookeepers in front of you are all dead, and you... you're going to die soon too."
I was so shocked that I dropped the half-eaten bread in my hand. The stuttering girl quickly snatched it and put it in her mouth, but I grabbed it back. "Tell me what happened!"
The stuttering girl drooled as she looked at the bread in my hand, "I...I'll make you...make you into a meat...meat pie."
Startled, I loosened my grip again, and the bread fell to the ground. The stuttering girl snatched it and ran away.
If I were to be transported into a comic book, it would definitely be a horror comic.
That night, I lay on a makeshift bed in the corridor, suffering from severe insomnia, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.
I kept thinking, what should I do? What should I do? How much longer do I have before I die?
Tears streamed down my face. I covered my mouth and cried my heart out until I drifted off to sleep...
An hour before dawn, a sharp, piercing whistle broke the silence of the night.
Having not slept well all night, I quickly got up and looked out the window. What happened? Could it be a chance to survive?
To be honest, I don't want to miss any opportunity now.
A series of flapping wings sounded in my ears. Just as I was wondering about it, a living creature suddenly flew past my head, leaving a few feathers behind. Where did this bird come from?
I frantically lit a tinderbox, when suddenly I saw a huge, jet-black crow fly out of its "breeding pen," its gold anklet swaying from side to side on its right leg. Was this... Princess Manboya?
Impossible! A person turned into a crow? That's not scientific.
It was truly unscientific—what I saw next completely overturned my common sense—the remaining black princesses all transformed into jet-black crows, and like Princess Mamboya, they screamed as they flew out from the gaps in the iron cage and soared into the night sky…
My mind went completely blank with terror.
At the same time, other black crows took flight from the castle, their wings obscuring most of the pale sky before dawn.
Quack quack quack—
The crows cawed and circled for a while before flying away into the distance.
This, this, this...
It wasn't until all the crows had flown far away that I came to my senses, hurriedly stood up, and followed them towards the terrace at the top of the castle.
Perhaps this is truly the opportunity to escape, I think.
I ran towards the crows, through the dimly lit corridor, around the dark garden, and straight towards the wooden stairs in the backyard when a sturdy little hand suddenly reached out from the corner of the wall and grabbed me.
I was startled, but breathed a sigh of relief when I realized it was the stuttering girl. She nodded at me, and I was taken aback. She pointed in the direction the crows were flying, and without saying a word, she pulled me and rushed towards the side door of the hall.
The moment the side door opened, I was stunned.
A huge, spiraling red wooden staircase appeared before my eyes, soaring straight into the sky.
Above us was empty space, without a roof.
As dawn approached, wisps of white clouds floated in the sky, encircling the spiral wooden staircase, just like the staircases to heaven seen in horror comics.
Good heavens, where is this place?
The stuttering girl led me, still shaken, up the spiral red wooden stairs, one floor after another, I don't even remember how many floors we climbed.
Just when we were about to be exhausted, the stuttering girl pulled me through a small door, quickly pulled the rope, and the door closed. We started to rise. It turned out to be a simple elevator—of course, not electric, but using physical principles, with several large axles and thick ropes to pull our "elevator" upward.
I slumped down inside the "elevator," panting. The stuttering girl looked at me and stammered, "Only on this floor can you sit on this elevator."
"Thank you, thank you."
I was out of breath and stammering. After a moment of composure, I opened my mouth wide in shock, unable to believe what I was seeing.
This is definitely not the castle terrace I sneaked onto before—at this moment, I feel as if I am standing in the sky, overlooking the entire continent.
The clouds formed circles, and you could see what was happening below from inside those circles.
The boundless, deep gray sea is like a painting of the ocean. Although it is vast, the view extends beyond the sea itself, revealing islands, towns, and... countless crows on all sides.
Yes, crows.
I saw a large flock of crows spreading their black wings, circling over the surging sea, cawing as they flew back and forth.
A terrifying storm was raging at sea, causing several large ships to bob and sink slowly. Crows circled the wrecks, occasionally opening their beaks to swallow wisps of visible black mist.
There was too little black mist, and too many crows. The crows often fought in mid-air, emitting sharp cries, and countless black feathers drifted down with the wind…
My eyes are glued to the screen. What story is this?
More and more long-braided maids and long-haired women slowly gathered around me, all calmly watching the crows snatching the black mist.
"What are the crows doing?" I asked the stuttering girl in the lowest of my voice.
"Eat the spirit, the soul."
I was breathing heavily, and it took me a long time to come to my senses.
Fifteen minutes later, I followed the large group of maids into the doll's room. As soon as I opened the door, a flock of crows flew in through the open, arched window, cawing sharply. Two long-haired women quickly pushed the tall fireplace, and with a loud bang, the fireplace opened like a door...
Behind the fireplace hangs a huge oil painting depicting a dignified and elegant noblewoman wearing a glittering gold crown and a thick veil covering her face, obscuring her features. Yet, one can sense that she is exceptionally beautiful, breathtakingly so even through the veil.
Suddenly, a series of ghostly, terrifying howls arose from all sides, and a wooden box under the mural shook violently, its lid banging loudly as if something was trying to pry it open.
A strange fear spread through my limbs and bones, making the hairs on my body stand on end.
Suddenly the lid of the box was overturned, and one by one, dolls crawled out of the box, walking unsteadily while emitting strange and mournful whistles—the very dolls the princesses had been playing with.
Aside from me, who nearly collapsed in fright, the stuttering girl and the other maids all watched with indifference, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.
At this moment, the crows flapped their wings and exhaled wisps of black mist—the very souls they had just devoured.
Suddenly, the puppets opened their mouths wide, as if swallowing all the black mist souls. The puppets' pale faces gradually regained their color, their bluish-white lips began to turn red, and their hands and feet could even move.
After swallowing the soul, the male puppet stiffly straightened his collar, while the female puppet tremblingly fiddled with her hair with her fingers.
The male and female dolls swayed and staggered into the open fireplace, followed by crows and maids. I followed unsteadily behind, and if the stuttering girl hadn't been supporting me, I would have collapsed to the ground long ago.
Behind the fireplace was a section of rotting wooden ladder that creaked as you walked on it, giving you the feeling that you might fall at any moment.
As we entered the cave, it was dark inside, but the further we went, the brighter the lights became. I followed the group to a circular stone altar.
On a circular offering plate sits a semi-circular glass dome, inside which is a black tower, and inside the tower is a bed with a person on it. Outside the tower are lawns, gardens, slides, and swings, all exquisitely beautiful and lifelike.
The dolls began to slowly move around the circular offering plate, emitting ghostly howls that sounded like mysterious songs, carrying a strange power that stirred people's souls and made them feel as if their minds were separated from their bodies.
The crows all stood on the ground, watching silently.
The mysterious ballads sound like weeping, like an old woman in a distant land grieving for her deceased loved ones, or like an Indian widow sitting by a fire, weeping as she dies for her husband.
I suddenly had a bold guess: this might be a royal tomb, like the pyramids or the Taj Mahal, with a sacrificial palace above ground and the tomb underground. The coffin was hidden in a very secret place to prevent tomb robbers, but the living still needed something to worship, so the black tower and garden model on the circular altar became symbols of the tombstone, and the dolls would circle around these things and sing, performing a mysterious worship ritual.
Perhaps everyone, including the long-haired woman, is a gravedigger.
My eyes lit up. Where there are tomb keepers, there are tombs, and where there are tombs, there must be an exit.
I've been here for so long, and I've never seen the castle gate. Even standing on the top of the castle, I can't see the main gate or the drawbridge.
I suddenly felt excited—if I could find the gate, maybe I could escape. Whether I could go home or not, I could at least escape this awful place.
***
That evening, hungry, I gave the stuttering girl half a loaf of dry bread and asked, "Do you know where the castle's exit is?"
The stuttering girl snatched it away, saying, "No, no, nobody knows."
"Doesn't the castle have a door?" I asked again.
The stuttering girl nodded and grinned.
"How could that be? Where did the people in the castle come from?" I didn't believe it.
The stuttering girl, looking bewildered, slipped away with the dry bread.
I scratched my head, but there was nothing I could do.
Sitting on my cot late at night, I suddenly remembered that enchanting, silver-haired young man.
Strange, the Black Castle has appeared, and the Spiral Staircase has appeared, so why hasn't he appeared? I thought of him not because I was captivated by his good looks, but because I felt that he was the key to my return, and everything started because of him.
Time passed day by day, and three months had already gone by. The crow doll incident had not occurred again, or perhaps it only happened periodically.
I still feed them every day, change their excrement and straw, clean the iron cages, wipe the corridor floor, and occasionally share some of my bread with the princesses.
The princesses never thanked me for my bread; after they finished eating it, they would look at me with disdain and mockery as I changed the straw.
But I don't care. I give not for reward, but out of pity.
Although sympathizing with people of higher status than you will not bring good fortune.
But I don't need any reward; I just need to be the best version of myself.
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