After the Little Crybaby Enters the Nightmare Cycle

At 12:20 in the morning, the artisan apprentices in the mask shop were busy tidying up the shelves and preparing to finish their day's work.

Just as the apprentices sorted the orders one by one during the day, the wind chimes outside the shop rang.

A gentle and handsome gentleman in his thirties walked into the mask shop.

The apprentice raised his head and met the gentleman's dark eyes. Before he spoke, the other party asked gently, "Hello, can I still place an order now?"

The apprentice hurriedly smiled politely as he treated the guests: "Hello, sir, yes, is there anything I can help you with?"

The apprentice secretly looked at the well-dressed gentleman who seemed to be of rich origin. At this moment, he finally noticed that this gentleman was holding a painting wrapped in black cloth in his hand.

"I need to customize a mask. Can it be done exactly as the person in this painting looks like?" The guest puts the painting on the counter and carefully lifts the wrapped black cloth. "There must be no deviation in the details."

When the black cloth fell completely and the apprentice saw the tearful young man in the painting, he breathed slightly and his heart beat inexplicably.

The moment he stared at the green-eyed boy in the painting gave him a feeling of standing upside-down, not fear, but a divine shock and solemnity.

"Can it be done?" The picky-looking guest confirmed again.

The apprentice finally recovered from the overwhelming sense of sacredness, and after a little thought, he dared to nod his head: "Don't worry, sir, we are definitely the best handicraft mask shop in the world."

"...It's just that the price of such a finished product is relatively high," the apprentice gave a price that was enough to shock ordinary people's chin, "do you think it?"

The gentleman who didn't seem to be bad for money smiled happily: "It's okay."

"But I have a condition," the gentleman said, "this painting can't leave me, so I must watch you finish it all the way."

The apprentice froze for a moment. After all, no guest had ever asked such a question: "Wait a moment, I will ask my master."

The guest nodded patiently: "Okay, you have worked hard."

The apprentice opened the door curtain and walked into the shop's production workshop. On the 9th, the guest re-wrapped the painting carefully and hugged it in his arms.

Then he looked at a pair of face masks on the shelf that could be faked.

This shop is not an ordinary mask shop. The masks sold here are enough to turn one person into another. The shop is also engaged in grey transactions. If enough money is given to customize services, they will also choose to hire suitable identity actors for the guests. In addition, wear a face mask to meet the needs of guests.

Of course, No. 9 is obviously not in the scope of these guests who need to be satisfied. He absolutely cannot tolerate others playing Chi Nan. In his opinion, any form of acting is blasphemous.

Five minutes later, the apprentice walked out of the production room: "Sir, this is the case. If you need to supervise the entire production process, you must bring the drawing at a fixed time every day, and... the price is more than the amount I told you before. Add it up."

"No problem." When it comes to price, No. 9 is always refreshing.

After talking to the store, I brought this painting to me every afternoon on the 9th. The craftsmen in the mask shop made masks that fit the face according to the facial features of the tearful boy in the painting.

Face masks are extremely delicate and complex tasks that require a long period of time to be polished repeatedly.

Fortunately, No. 9 has enough money and patience.

"Sir, is the boy in the painting your son?"

During the long production process, the apprentice suddenly chatted to pass the time.

No. 9 looked at Chi Nan who was still in the painting, and asked with a smile, "Do I look so old?"

"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean that." The apprentice who dreaded to offend the wealthy guests said in a panic. Let us craftsmen make masks, and then find suitable mask models to provide the required services, including taking care of guests at home regularly every day, and restoring the time when a family of three is still living happily together."

"Although these are services that are purchased with money, they do provide spiritual comfort to the guests, don't they?" said the apprentice.

No. 9 still smiles gracefully: "Counting out, the person in the painting is much older than me."

The apprentice murmured, "Is this a portrait of him when he was young? It's so beautiful..."

No. 9: "It can be understood this way, but to be precise, he will always be so young."

As No. 9 said, there was a gleam in her dark eyes.

The apprentice took the guest’s words for granted as an exaggerated compliment: "This gentleman must be a very important person to you, right?"

No. 9 nodded: "Although we have only one side, he is my most important person."

The guest’s words aroused the interest of the curious apprentice. He said, “Can you tell me your story? If the mask is made with emotions, the works will be more vivid and vivid, and the emotions will give the mask a soul. "

"He was also my customer. At that time, I was still a desolate painter living on the street. He appeared in front of me in an ordinary afternoon with non-stop rain and water."

"He didn't bring any money, and I just didn't need him to pay," No.9 smiled, "and I was stupidly asking him if we still have a chance to meet."

"Actually, I was supposed to collect the money and give him an IOU so that he would come to see me again in order to repay the money."

Number 9 shrugged.

The apprentice said: "I don't know, maybe he doesn't want you to paint? Then you won't even have the chance to create this painting."

No. 9 laughs: "Perhaps."

"I created this painting and watched him take it away. The rain that day was as heavy as tonight." No. 9 glanced at the misty water vapor on the window, paused thoughtfully for a moment, and continued. , "We haven't been able to meet again since."

A sad sympathy appeared on the apprentice's face: "Have you been to him?"

No. 9: "Of course, he told me that he would not leave that city, so I searched every street in the city, including mass graves, but didn't find him."

"Until one day, I met a strange and dangerous friend who came from a long distance. This friend seemed to know him and knew everything about him..." No. 9's sight was attracted by the blurry rain and fog outside the window. "This friend also Know everything about me."

"He told me that the only way to find the young man in the painting was to wait and wait endlessly, just like the constant rain during that period of time."

No. 9 retracted his gaze from the rain and looked at the blade and mold in the hands of the apprentice: "Later, I accepted the proposal of a friend and waited for a long time, until more than ten years later, I bought this painting from the black market again."

The apprentice was deeply attracted by the guest's story, and raised his eyes again: "Black market? What happened?"

"The city where we lived before experienced a disaster. The continent collapsed and sank into the sea, completely disappearing on the map and in people's memory."

"People are gradually forgetting the existence of that city, but I always remember it, and I can't tell whether this is a good thing or a bad thing."

"This painting was first salvaged from the seabed by sailors, and then fell into the hands of pirates. After several rounds, it fell on the black market. After I got the news, I bought it again."

"It is rumored that this painting will bring disaster to the people who own him. The pirate ship that once robbed him and then sank inexplicably to the bottom of the sea. Several small black market vendors who tried to resell it at high prices also encountered accidents one after another."

The apprentice's hand suddenly stopped, and suddenly a little horrified: "Ah? Such a wicked way...Aren't you afraid?"

No. 9 laughs: "I am not afraid of curses."

"Moreover, those people don't deserve it."

...

This day is also cloudy and rainy. After the final payment is delivered on the 9th, the finished mask will be retrieved from the shop.

After returning to the apartment, he hung the painting directly opposite the bed, and the mask was placed next to the mirror on the bedside table.

The rainy and humid dusk is especially prone to sleepiness. After dinner on the 9th, I turned off the lights in the room, and slumped into the quilt and fell asleep.

Those bizarre scenes once again occupied his dreams. Over the years, he dreamed again and again. The scenes in the dreams made him feel strange and familiar. This vague and vague feeling was like he had foreseen his future in his dreams. .

In his dreams, sometimes he and someone stood on the splint of a cruise ship at dusk. The distant sea level seemed to never be able to go ashore. The air was filled with a strong smell of blood, and the sea that was dyed red by the setting sun was murderous and strange.

Sometimes he came to a small town full of candlelight. There was a huge shadow wall in the middle of the town, which pressed against him in darkness at night when the candlelight was flickering.

At the end of this dream, he was always pierced by a bullet in his chest, and the blood mist sprayed out, but strangely it didn’t hurt at all, because he fell into someone’s chest before he lost consciousness, he even Remember the smell of that person's tears.

Sometimes it was snowy nights, the floor-to-ceiling windows isolated the cold, and the room was warm like spring music. He seemed to be holding someone's hand on the dance floor until the bell rang at twelve o'clock in the morning.

On the deserted highway, he leaned down low in the driving position, and piously kissed the back of the tear-soaked hand of someone in the co-pilot position.

There were countless nights when the blazing fire surrounded him and his paintings. He opened his eyes from the choking smoke and the heat of burning skin... He became that ‘someone’...

Every time I wake up from these bizarre dreams, the clock always points to 12:20.

This point in time seems to be a hint and metaphor.

And he could never see the look of this ‘someone’ in his dream, he only remembered that he had a pair of dark green eyes with two moles of tears on the corners of his eyes, which looked chic and melancholy.

These eyes overlap with the boy in the painting.

Sometimes the dreams confuse the memory, and he is even a little confused. I don't know whether these inexplicable and familiar dreams first had the cause and effect, so that the rainy afternoon met.

It is because he sees things and thinks about people, and grows these bizarre dreams over time.

12:20 midnight.

No. 9 woke up from his dream again.

The rain outside the window made the night look bright. He didn't light up the light, standing in front of the mirror on the bedside table, carefully putting the soft mask on his face.

He had a dream in which there was a pair of twin brothers who were crazy to the bones. After killing his brother, his brother fell into a pervasive sense of loneliness and confusion. The deformed thoughts took root in his bones and blood, and his brother began to transform into makeup through makeup. The appearance of the younger brother, and then live with this appearance in the abandoned house.

No. 9 covered the mask of the gods on his face, and behind him in the mirror image was endless rain and night.

As if the whole painting came to life.

After he bought back the paintings from the black market, he suddenly understood.

Chi Nan, who was born in Dream City, is the **** in the Dawn Tower.

He had already completed the task assigned to him on the 10th, but the bad guy not only deceived him, but also deceived the pocket watch that Chi Nan gave him.

But he was not angry at all, and even now he believed in what the guy said.

He had a hunch that those dreams were real, and his encounter with Chi Nan was also real.

The pocket watch will return to his hand at 12:20.

He thinks that any form of acting is ‘blasphemous’, and he is doing it.

He even had an inexplicable premonition that one day, God will live in his body, just like in a mirror, with faint green eyes and tears on the corners of his eyes floating on his face, God and him completely overlapped. .

He didn't know where this strange premonition came from, maybe it was his bizarre dreams, or some other energy and field that he couldn't even explain.

If you want to say when is...

He guessed that maybe it was the time when time returned to the correct position at 12:20.

The author has something to say: I briefly wrote the story of No. 9 and the incident after the destruction of Dream City.

The next chapter will be the sweet daily life of crying package squid.

Thanks for enjoying.