Chapter 5 The shrill laughter of girls with long braids reached the ears of the night soil collector…
Several months passed, and I became more and more efficient at my work, handling all kinds of tasks with ease. What used to take a whole day, I could finish in half a day.
Although I am timid and cowardly, I also have my strengths. I am very adaptable—I can quickly adapt to new environments and jobs.
But this may not be a good thing, here.
When the long-haired female supervisor noticed that I had finished all my work ahead of schedule for three consecutive days, she gave me a strange look and suddenly ordered in a cold voice, "Starting tomorrow, after you finish here, go to the moat ditch."
A moat? Castles usually have moats in front of their gates. Could this be an opportunity to escape?
I was actually quite delighted. "Really? Thank you."
A strange burst of laughter suddenly erupted from behind me. I turned around in surprise and saw Princess Manboya laughing so hard she fell over in the iron cage. The long-haired woman, however, ignored her and said, "Someone will take you there tomorrow."
After the long-haired woman left, the laughter inside the cage grew louder; all the black princesses were laughing.
Princess Manboya's laughter was the most prominent; her raven-like voice produced a loud, piercing laugh that was chilling.
"What are you laughing at! Laugh at yourselves!" I don't know where I got the courage, but I angrily shouted, "Even if I'm unlucky, I'm still better off than you guys."
Princess Manboya laughed even harder, seemingly unable to breathe.
The next day I was led to the ditch next to the castle and suddenly realized why they were laughing like that.
I witnessed an extremely spectacular scene.
Thousands upon thousands of stinking excrements piled up in a large ditch, like towering mountains, while countless disgusting flies buzzed around the dung mountains with glee.
I suddenly vomited violently, bringing up a huge amount of disgusting stuff.
The long-haired woman who led me there covered her mouth and nose and pointed at the girls in front of her, saying, "Just do the work like them."
He left immediately after speaking, not wanting to stay even half a second longer.
I looked over while vomiting.
A group of girls with long braids, wearing black masks and coarse cloth skirts, struggled to carry a carrying pole with two wooden buckets hanging from it, crossing a narrow wooden bridge connecting the cesspool and the moat, and dumping the excrement from the buckets into the moat amidst swarms of flies.
I vomited even more violently, and it took me more than ten minutes to stop.
I sat on the ground, completely exhausted, wiping away cold sweat, feeling like I had lost half my life.
No wonder the toilets in this castle weren't bursting with poop even without a flushing system; this is why I was wondering where all the poop went.
The toilet here is very basic; it's just an ordinary wooden board embedded in a stone chair with a hole in the middle. You sit down, align yourself with the hole, and leave when you're done. There's no flushing, and no water to flush.
The moat was a stinking inland river filled with excrement and water. This river flowed directly to the sea, carrying all the excrement away with it.
Before you reach the other end of the dilapidated wooden bridge over the cesspool, you'll find the moat. On the other side of the moat are high, black city walls.
Another question arose: shouldn't the moat be outside the castle? Why is it inside? And where is the city gate? Just as I was pondering this, a girl with a long braid walked quickly toward me and handed me a black scarf and a carrying pole with two old wooden buckets hanging on it.
The veiled girl with long braids didn't speak, but pointed to the girls working, indicating that I should do the same. I nodded.
Covering my mouth and nose with a black gauze scarf, I began to carry the shoulder pole to shovel the "manure mountain".
Suppressing my nausea, I filled two buckets with excrement and followed the long-braided girls carrying loads on shoulder poles as they shakily walked onto the log bridge.
I walked very carefully, afraid that I might accidentally fall into the cesspool below. You can't bathe here; you'll just have to endure the stench.
But that's fine too, it'll make those haughty princesses who live with me stink.
I walked carefully, trying my best to maintain my balance, and only breathed a slight sigh of relief when I reached the end of the bridge.
But as soon as I poured the two buckets of excrement into the moat, someone pushed me from behind. Before I could even scream, I fell into the stinking river of excrement, buckets and all.
I used the buoyancy of the wooden bucket to hold on tightly and swam desperately through the river of filth and sludge. It took me quite a while to finally climb ashore.
The sharp laughter of the girls with long braids reached my ears, and I fled back in a disheveled state.
The black princesses saw my embarrassing state through the open door and laughed so hard they almost fell over.
Princess Manboya laughed the loudest.
My head was covered in excrement and urine, and my feet were covered in excrement; I was a complete mangy dung.
Standing awkwardly outside in the corridor, I stomped my foot hard.
Let them laugh; the poor only laugh at the poor. Their situation is clearly worse than mine—prisoners locked in iron cages.
But I'm not as low in character as they are, so I wouldn't use that phrase to refute them in public.
They laughed for a long time, until they were tired and stopped.
******
The next day I was punished by having to work in the ditch until midnight, just because I had returned to the iron cage room early the day before.
I tried to explain to the long-haired female manager, but as soon as I, who smelled terrible, approached her, she covered her mouth and left in disgust.
There was nowhere to shower or change into clean clothes. I spent the whole night in the corridor getting some fresh air to dry myself, but the stench still wouldn't go away.
Fuming with anger, I carried a shoulder pole back and forth to collect manure, working until midnight.
Walking back to the iron cage room and up the winding corridor, I suddenly remembered that the doll room was just ahead, and I also thought of the oil painting and the round sacrificial plate. As if possessed, I walked over there.
I gently pushed the door, and to my surprise, it opened. I took a deep breath; the door wasn't locked, especially in such an important room.
It was pitch black; thick red velvet curtains hung to the ground, blocking out even the moonlight.
As if drawn by a mysterious force, I walked step by step toward the fireplace, and with a gentle push, it opened.
Suppressing my fear, I descended the dilapidated wooden stairs, passed through the dimly lit tunnel, and with trembling legs, walked up to the circular altar to observe the black tower inside the semi-circular glass dome up close.
It was only then that I realized the wax figure lying inside was actually a beautiful young man dressed in a snow-white robe.
The sculpture is extremely lifelike, with exquisite details down to every strand of hair, eyebrow, eyelashes, earlobes, and neck, comparable to a modern lifelike wax figure.
A head of shiny silver hair cascaded down the pillow and out of the bed like a waterfall.
Wait, isn't that the silver-haired boy I saw in the horror comics?!
I was shocked. How could he have died so young?! And where is his coffin?
It suddenly occurred to me that if I came here because of him, perhaps his coffin was related to the castle's exit.
I gently jumped off the circular offering plate and looked around. Before long, I discovered a small door.
Actually, this small door isn't hidden; it's just that it's the same color as the earthen-yellow wall, making it difficult to spot.
I pushed open the small door, but after taking only a few steps, I stopped in shock—
Countless white skeletons appeared in the gloomy and dark cave. As far as the eye could see, there was a long path of white bones, and the cave ceiling was covered with skulls, as if one were in a terrifying hell.
I was so terrified that I lost my voice and couldn't even scream...
I scrambled back home, and for the first time, I couldn't even eat. All the bread went to the stuttering girl and a few black princesses.
A silver-haired boy, an underground tomb, a tomb guardian doll, and a black princess kept as an animal. The princess can also transform into a crow. Something seemed to flash through my mind, but I couldn't quite grasp it.
Two days later, something even worse happened. My skin underwent a terrible change.
Under the dim moonlight, the skin on the back of my hands and palms began to show obvious signs of aging, becoming wrinkled, like the skin of a sixty or seventy-year-old.
The skin on my arms, belly, legs, and soles of my feet has also started to age, peeling off in layers, resembling orange peel.
After the initial panic subsided, I touched my slightly rough face and suddenly felt grateful that there was no mirror here.
If I saw an old woman's face, I would faint immediately.
He suddenly realized with horror why he would be turned into a meat patty.
A person who ages rapidly has no value in living.
I was reminded of Sonmi from the movie "Cloud Atlas," who, once she gets old, is turned into a "Speedpup" to provide nutrition for other young cyborgs.
I suspect I'll face the same fate; to conserve resources and food, I'll definitely be eliminated.
Things couldn't get any worse—I, who was usually prone to tears, suddenly calmed down and stayed awake until dawn.
The next morning, I worked even harder, scattering feed, changing rotten grass, and cleaning the iron cage, completing everything meticulously.
After kneeling and wiping the corridor floor three times, I quickly went to the ditch to fetch manure.
After filling two buckets with excrement, I carried them on a shoulder pole and followed behind the other girls.
The wooden bridge was narrow and covered with countless splinters. I forgot to wear cloth shoes and walked on it barefoot.
Halfway there, I stepped on a splinter and cried out in pain as I stopped.
A girl behind me almost bumped into me. She yelled angrily, "Why did you suddenly stop?"
"I stepped on a thorn." I winced in pain.
"You can't touch me." The girl kicked me hard in the knee.
I cried out and swayed twice, but the girl was still angry and kicked me again, sending me and the bucket tumbling into the cesspool once more.
Another burst of shrill laughter erupted, and I screamed as I sank to the bottom of the river with a few splashes.
However, underwater, amidst the filth and mud, out of the girls' sight, I reversed my previous miserable struggle, kicked my legs, and swam at an extremely fast speed towards the other side of the moat.
Yes, I can swim, but I pretend I can't in order to swim into the deep water and explore.
I just got into an argument with someone so that I could conveniently fall into this stinking river.
I stayed up all night last night, thinking about a place I had previously overlooked: the moat.
The purpose of a moat is to defend against invasion by foreign enemies. It serves as a military barrier between the castle and the outside world and is usually built in front of the city gate.
In other words, the city gate was located on the other side of the moat.
Why can't we see the city gate?
Based on my observations of the moat's topography over the past few days, I've come to a bold guess: one end of the moat is the city wall shrouded in thick fog, and the other end is Black Castle. It's not that there's no city gate here; rather, the Black Castle wall itself is the city gate.
This city wall, or rather the city gate, cannot be opened; one must enter through a special means.
Everyone living inside the city gates is a tomb keeper—the long-haired woman, the long-braided maid, the black princess, the dolls, they are all tomb keepers.
A note from the author:
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