Crazy
Draven climbed out of the window and left Alice's room. Instead of returning to the city immediately, he climbed back up to the tree where he usually hid.
He was waiting, waiting to see if Winnie would rush out of the house, waiting to see if Ronald would grab a stick and roar as he searched for the "intruder".
The wooden door creaked open.
First came Rona, carrying an oil lamp, yawning, and heading towards the warehouse as usual. Next was Winnie, carrying an empty basket, silently walking towards the chicken coop. Collecting eggs, picking vegetables, moving goods… everything proceeded as normal. The couple didn't exchange a single word, not even a glance. Winnie's face returned to its usual stagnant numbness, as if that glimpse at Alice's door earlier was merely a hallucination caused by Draven's extreme tension.
She didn't say anything.
Why didn't she tell her husband?
Draven watched as Ronald hitched up the oxcart, told Winnie to "take good care of Alice at home," and then drove the creaking cart away from the yard, disappearing into the misty road at the end.
Winnie was left alone in the yard. She stood there for a moment, then turned and went back into the house. Draven watched her begin clearing the dishes from the table, her movements slow and mechanical.
Draven mustered the greatest courage of his life, slowly moved to the front of the Rona family's door, raised his hand, and gently knocked on the door.
"Thump, thump, thump."
After a while, soft footsteps came from inside. The door clicked open as the latch was pulled, and the wooden door opened a crack. Winnie's face appeared behind the door. Seeing him, her expression showed neither surprise nor anger. She simply looked at him silently, then stepped aside, gesturing for him to come in.
Draven nervously squeezed in. The room still smelled faintly of milk and oatmeal. He stood in the hallway, unsure of what to do with his hands and feet, and dared not look at Winnie.
Winnie didn't speak, but simply turned and walked towards the kitchen. Draven hesitated for a moment, then followed behind her. The kitchen was spotless. Winnie pointed to a wooden chair next to the dining table, gesturing for him to sit down.
Draven sat down awkwardly, his bottom barely touching the edge of the chair. Winnie picked up a clay pot from the stove, poured a glass of still-warm milk, and pushed it in front of Draven.
"No...no no no!" Draven stammered, waving his hands as if burned, his voice trembling with nervousness. "I...I didn't come here to beg for food! I came...to apologize!"
Winnie didn't speak. She sat down across the table, placed her hands on her knees, and looked down at the wood grain on the tabletop.
Her silence made Draven even more flustered. He licked his dry lips, struggling to find the words: "I'm so sorry! Winnie... Madam. I know I shouldn't... I shouldn't have sneaked in and disturbed you. I... I just... I really just wanted to see if Alice was doing well, if she was settling in... Please, please don't tell Mr. Rona about what happened this morning!" The more he spoke, the more anxious he became, and the more he explained, the more he felt like a clumsy thief, his words incoherent.
"Take her away with you..."
Winnie suddenly spoke, her voice very soft.
"Wh...what?!" Draven was stunned, thinking he had misheard. He looked up in a panic, a terrible thought flashing into his mind: She must be furious! Furious that he didn't trust them, so she was saying the opposite of what she meant, demanding that he take Alice back to sever all ties!
"That's not what I meant!" Draven protested rapidly. "I... I didn't suspect you of abusing her! I could tell you treated her very well, really! Much better than we... much better than we could give her! I was wrong! I'll never do it again! I swear!"
"Take her away..."
Winnie repeated herself, this time her voice was a little clearer, but still without any emotional fluctuation, as if she were reciting a spell that had nothing to do with her.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" He jumped up from his chair, bowing repeatedly as he apologized. "I'll leave right away! I promise I'll never approach your daughter without permission again! I promise I'll never come back!..."
"She is not my daughter!!!"
Winnie suddenly stood up from her chair and yelled! She stared intently at Draven, her chest heaving violently!
Startled by the sudden outburst, Draven stumbled back, crashing into the chair behind him with a screeching sound. He stared dumbfounded at the woman who had suddenly become a stranger to him.
After shouting that, she seemed to have all her strength drained away. Her body swayed, and she slumped back into her chair, covering her face with her hands. Uncontrollable sobs poured out from between her fingers, her shoulders trembling violently. "She's not my daughter...she can't be my daughter...she's not...my Suva...my Suva won't come back...she can't be...can't..."
Draven stared at the woman breaking down in tears, unable to stay any longer. He stumbled backward through the foyer, frantically opened the front door, and rushed out without looking back. He ran madly along the dirt road as if chased by a vengeful ghost, until the eerie two-story building was far behind him and out of sight.
He felt he must be going crazy.
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October 973 (Noxus calendar)
The day before the fifth market day, Draven set off for Riverside Village once again. He didn't go straight into the village, but lingered in the familiar grove outside, leaning against an old tree.
He spent the week in a daze. He almost fell into the sea while carrying bags at the dock, often stared blankly while biting his chopsticks at meals, and when he lay on the straw mat at night, all he could see when he closed his eyes was Winnie's bloodshot eyes.
"She is not my daughter!"
"She can't be my daughter!"
These words tormented him day and night.
Winnie probably never accepted Alice from beginning to end.
She was devastated by the loss of her biological daughter, Suva. Rona, perhaps to comfort his wife, or perhaps because he genuinely wanted a child, adopted Alice. But when Winnie looked at Alice, she was only reminded of her own dead child. This replacement brought no comfort, only intensified her pain. That's why she was always so numb, so empty.
My appearance was like throwing a large stone into this stagnant pool.
He, Draven, a slum boy with a bad reputation and reckless behavior. He repeatedly sneaks into people's homes like a thief, trying to get close to their "nominal" daughters. What does this mean to Winnie?
"See! Because of this child of unknown origin, all sorts of shady characters have been attracted here! Today he came to see her secretly, who knows if he'll come to steal or even harm her tomorrow? I told you long ago we shouldn't have adopted him! Now we can't even guarantee the safety of our home!"
Draven could almost picture Winnie crying to Ronald. Her words, "Take her away," weren't just said in anger; they came from the depths of her rejection.
The existence of this adopted daughter had already brought "trouble," disrupting her previously peaceful but potentially safe life. She was afraid, and she wanted to completely get rid of this source of unease.
And her final words, "your daughter," struck a nerve with Winnie—she had never considered Alice her own daughter, and these words sounded like a cruel irony to her, which is why she completely broke down and cried out, "She's not my daughter!"
It's all my fault.
This realization left Draven incredibly frustrated. He had almost ruined the peaceful life Alice had finally achieved.
He felt like he was going crazy.
How should I tell Alice? Should I just tell her that I can't see her anymore? That clingy little girl will definitely cry and make a fuss, and she won't understand.
"Alice, I'm going to a very far place to learn new skills, and it will be a very long time before I come back..." No, she'll definitely cry.
"I found a good job, I'm so busy, I don't have time to come over..." No, no, she still cried.
Every excuse seemed so weak and unconvincing that even he himself couldn't convince himself.
But if he didn't tell her, was he going to keep breaking his promise to her? Frustrated, he tugged at the dry grass on the ground, feeling trapped in an unsolvable predicament.
Just then, the voices of two village women talking came closer and reached his ears.
"They really fought?" a voice asked, sounding slightly surprised.
"Yeah, he got hit! Tsk tsk, you can even see the marks on his face," another voice affirmed, with a hint of schadenfreude.
"That Rona family is something else. With such important guests coming over, they didn't even leash their dog..."
"That's right! If it were me, I'd be beaten so badly I couldn't get out of bed!"
"Sigh, what bad luck..."
Two village women, carrying baskets, walked towards us from the other end of the path, talking as they went, and then gradually walked away, their conversation becoming inaudible.
A fight broke out? Who got hit? Winnie?! An important guest? The dog?!
He could no longer contain himself. He emerged from the woods where he was hiding and hurried toward the village. He needed to know what had happened. He found the group of children he often played with in the village, and, feigning a chance encounter, struck up a conversation. "Hey! I just heard that something happened to Rona's family a few days ago?"
When the children saw him, they immediately started chattering away.
"Yes! Something happened to Uncle Rona's family!"
"A very important gentleman came to the inner city the day before yesterday! He arrived in a horse-drawn carriage! He was quite impressive!"
"Then, for some reason, Uncle Rona's skinny dog suddenly bit the old man who got off the carriage! And it bit Uncle Rona too!"
"I heard that when that big shot got off the carriage, his boot accidentally stepped on a dog's tail!"
"Huh? But I heard that the dog was sleeping by the door and that old man stepped on its tail when he came in..."
"Uncle Rona tried to stop him, but he got bitten too!"
"That lord was furious; he left before he was even properly seated in his carriage!"
“I heard a dog barking, and then there was no sound. My mom said that Uncle Rona killed the dog.”
"Yes! My dad overheard Uncle Rona cursing as he passed by, saying that the beast almost killed him, and then he hit the dog's head hard with a stick..."
"My dad said that the Rona family has offended a big shot in the inner city and is in big trouble!"
The children's voices chattered away, and Draven felt a buzzing sound, his mind going completely blank. He couldn't hear anything else the children said after that.
Lak... is dead.
That brave and loyal Lark who protected Alice on several occasions... was killed just because his tail was stepped on and he bit someone?
He looked at his rough, dirty hands, at his tattered clothes covered in patches, and the image of the pockmarked guard at the city gate, his sinister grin and spittle, uncontrollably flashed through his mind:
Look at them! Don't they look like two dogs with their tails between their legs?
A poor person is a poor person!
[Useless!]
Yeah...useless.
Like a dog.
Lark was a dog who didn't recognize his place. He followed someone from the slums to a wealthy farmhouse, but he still retained the instincts of a wild dog, which resulted in him being beaten to death.
What about Draven?
Isn't he just another "Lak"... a stray dog that crawled out of a stinking ditch and shouldn't exist here?
He slowly slid down onto the ground, leaning against a tree trunk by the roadside, burying his face deeply in his knees.
He felt like he was going crazy.
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Draven huddled in the shadows by the window, his clothes damp with night dew.
In the room, Alice's sobs gradually subsided, replaced by even, long breaths—she had finally cried herself to sleep, cuddling her new puppy.
The sound of the door being gently pushed open. It was Winnie.
Then came Rona's voice. But it was no longer gentle; instead, it was a different tone Draven had never heard before—impatient and rude.
"Once you've lulled the dog to sleep, throw it out and tie it up. This one needs to be tied up more often, lest it ruin my plans like that beast did!"
Draven held his breath, almost able to hear the thumping of his heart against his chest.
Silence answered Ronaldo. One can imagine Winnie just standing there numbly.
"What the hell are you standing there for? Didn't you get enough beatings the other day?!" Rona's voice suddenly rose, full of threat.
After a moment of silence, Winnie finally spoke, her voice so weak it seemed about to break: "Let her go..."
"Let her go? Do you think she can leave?" Rona said, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world. His tone was sarcastic and cruel. "My treasure that I finally found is born disabled! Look at these legs! Do you know how much wealth she could bring me?"
"She's only ten years old... please let her go..."
“So what if she’s ten?!” Rona roared, as if something exciting had been touched. “Master Angelo just likes young girls! Suva started making money for me when she was only eight!”
Suva! This name was like a key, instantly unlocking all the mysteries in Draven's mind! Winnie's breakdown, her rejection of Alice... everything became clear! A chill, a mixture of nausea and anger, crept up his spine.
“Let them take her away, don’t let her become the next Suva…” Winnie’s sobs escaped her lips.
"...Winnie"
"...Who are you talking to? Winnie?"
"Bang!"
The window was flung open from the inside! The wooden frame slammed against the wall with a loud thud. Rona leaned out of the window, his usually fake smile plastered on his face as he approached Draven, who was pressed against the wall with nowhere to hide.
Their eyes met.
"So there was a mouse hiding here." Rona's voice was as gentle as ever.
Draven's hair stood on end. His mind went blank, and time seemed to stand still. He could see Rona's mouth slowly opening and closing, but he couldn't hear a single word he uttered.
Alice...
"How much did you hear?" Rona asked, looking down at him and emphasizing each word.
Alice, my one and only star, Alice.
"Good morning, Mr. Rona," Draven suddenly smiled, their faces less than ten centimeters apart.
In that instant of shock, the sharp blade sliced through the flesh and severed the artery on the side of his neck.
Like a ruptured water bladder, warm, rusty liquid gushed out, and blood blurred Draven's eyes, staining his vision red.
And then... goodbye!
Rona's face was filled with disbelief and horror. He instinctively covered his neck with his hands, but blood gushed out like a fountain, spurting wildly from between his fingers. He tried to scream, but only a series of "hoarse...hoarse..." sounds, like a leaky bellows, came out of his throat. His body convulsed violently, and finally, he slid limply out of the window, crashing heavily to the ground below with a dull thud.
Draven stood there, letting the warm blood stream down his face. He raised his hand and wiped his blood-covered eyes with his sleeve, then looked down at Rona, who was still twitching slightly on the ground and quickly surrounded by a pool of blood.
So even the blood of scumbags is warm. This thought inexplicably flashed through his mind. There was no fear, no disgust, only a… liberating sense of relief.
So I've gone mad. (Laughs)
Winnie slowly walked to the window. She didn't even look at Rona's body lying on the floor. For the first time, Draven saw a smile on this woman's face.
Yes, Winnie smiled.
"Let's get up early tomorrow and take it to the river to throw it away."
"Um!"
"Do you want some milk?" she asked Dezi, whose face was covered in blood, with a smile.
"Drink!" Dezi smiled back at her. "Thank you, Winnie...Auntie!"
...So everyone's gone crazy!
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