dead innocent

Doctor: "Hi, handsome boy, how are you feeling today?"

Juvenile: "Why did they ask you to come to me again? I've already told the police everything I know. I don't want to see the police and I don't want to see you again."

Doctor: "Don't be afraid, I am the one who helps you, unlike the bad guys who kidnapped you, the police have rescued you, and now you are safe."

Juvenile: "I know who you are, you are a psychiatrist, and you, like those policemen, are here to interrogate me."

Doctor: "I'm not interrogating you. I just want to chat with you. This is my job. Since you don't want to see me, please cooperate and talk to me, and I can go."

Boy: "... What are you talking about?"

Doctor: "Let's talk about you. I heard that you have been refusing to eat for the past few days, only eating fruits and drinking water. When you see meat and red liquid, you will vomit, feel nauseous, and have strong physical symptoms. Repulsion, can you tell me why?"

Boy: "I know what you want to ask, you want to ask me if I ate them, just like that person."

Doctor: "...then do you have any?"

Boy: "...I don't remember, but I know their taste."

Doctor: "What's the smell?"

The young man slowly raised a pair of gloomy, cold eyes, which shone with alertness and hostility.

"The smell of human blood," he said.

three days ago -

In front of her house, across a small road is a small park that has been around for a long time. It is so small that there is only one seesaw and two swings in the park, and they are all old and faded.

She was sitting on the swing, swaying back and forth slowly, staring at a courtyard across the path, which was only separated from her home by a wall.

There was nothing unusual about the yard, except that the doors and windows of the houses in the yard were always locked and covered with thick curtains.The windows were as black as black walls, leaving no gaps.This is a new neighbor who has moved in for more than a week. She has never seen this house open during the day or at night, but there are people living inside, and she knows it.

Her eyes were firmly fixed on the window of a room on the left. The window was closed tightly, with thick black curtains hanging down, lifeless, as if it would never be lifted, like a black coffin.But she knew someone was inside, and, just like herself, that person was watching her.

She felt that the window was like a bride with a hijab. Some bride would unpreparedly lift her red hijab, revealing a pair of dark night-like eyes.

"Xiaonan"

Mother opened the door and told her to come home for supper.

The seven or eight-year-old girl jumped off the swing and ran towards the house, crossed the path, and stopped suddenly in front of the gate.Looking at the window again through the wooden fence.Suddenly, she saw that the thick black curtains, as rigid as iron, swayed slightly as if being blown by the wind, revealing a bright eye hidden in the darkness.For a fleeting moment, that eye seemed to have seen her, and quickly hid in the darkness as if frightened, as if the eyes suddenly opened in the dark night, and then closed tightly again.

Xiao Nan came home, sat at the dining table, and said, "Mom, there is someone in the next house"

"Of course there are people. Didn't mom tell you that we have a new neighbor next door, who is a university professor. You will call someone when you see him, you know?"

Xiao Nan said: "No mother, besides that uncle, there is another person in his family, who is hiding in the room on the left. I saw him today!"

The mother said: "Don't talk nonsense, Professor Zhang is not married, and lives alone, where did the other person come from?"

Xiao Nan didn't continue to defend herself, hugged the white cat nestled on the chair next to her, and stopped talking. She is a child, and adults always don't take her words seriously, how annoying!

When dinner was about to finish, there was a knock on the door, Xiao Nan's mother opened the door, and a well-dressed man stood at the door.Wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, he looked like a man who was full of knowledge, good quality, and mixed in high-end social circles.His eyes behind the frame are calm, and the light in the room hits his glasses like a white reflector.

"Professor Zhang, is there something wrong at this late hour?"

Professor Zhang didn't enter the door. He stood at the door and glanced casually into the room. His gaze passed Xiao Nan so quickly that it was almost imperceptible.

"Mrs. Chen, I'm sorry to bother you at this time. I'm making dinner, but there's no soy sauce at home. Can you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Mrs. Zhang turned back and entered the restaurant: "Okay, okay, wait a minute, Xiao Nan is calling for someone."

Sitting behind the dining table, Xiao Nan shrank her neck and looked at him timidly. The white cat was hugged too tightly by her, and it meowed in dissatisfaction.

Professor Zhang looked straight at the little girl, his eyes were still reserved and gentle as before, even a little more loving.

"Professor Zhang, what are you cooking?"

Mrs. Chen greeted casually, returned to the door with a bottle of soy sauce, and handed it to him.

Professor Zhang took it with both hands, thanked him first, and then said: "It's just a home-cooked dish, let's make a lamb chop."

Professor Zhang was about to leave with the soy sauce, but when he turned around, he stopped suddenly, and when he turned his head, that gleam of gaze drifted past Xiaonan again like the wind, aimed at Mrs. Chen, and said with a very modest smile : "Mrs. Chen, do you know how to make lamb chops delicious?"

Mrs. Chen didn't expect this taciturn university professor to suddenly chat with her about recipes, and before she had time to generously share her private dishes, the conversation was cut off by the other party.

"I don't think the method is important. The important ingredients, as long as the ingredients are fresh, no matter whether they are fried or fried, the taste will not be bad."

When Professor Zhang was speaking, his eyes moved to Xiao Nan again.But this time his gaze was very obvious, cast straight on Xiao Nan, and compared with ordinary men's lips, which were darker in color, drawn upwards in a standard arc, neither warm nor cold, like greetings.

He smiled and said: "This time I entrusted a friend to get the lamb chops, which are very tender. The bones of lambs just a few months old have not yet fully developed, and the meat quality does not have the smell of old lambs. It's as tender as tofu brain. Lamb chops aged three months are the best, and you can't eat them any older. So, as long as the ingredients are selected correctly, this dish is delicious. I invite you to try it at my house when you have time. "

Mrs. Chen thanked him, watched him turn around the door, and closed the door. She stared at the door panel with a strange expression for a while. For some reason, what the gentleman said just now made her feel a little uncomfortable.

Xiao Nan suddenly started to sob, startled Mrs. Chen, and quickly asked, "What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Xiao Nan wiped her tears and sobbed, "I don't like that uncle just now, I don't like him looking at me!"

"Tell mom why you don't like him looking at you?"

Xiao Nan bit his lip and scratched his stomach, but couldn't express his feelings accurately, and suddenly pointed to the braised pork on the table: "He looks at me, just like I look at this plate of braised pork!"

Mrs. Chen was taken aback, and then went to look at the plate of braised pork, and suddenly felt that it was covered with red juice, like fresh thick blood, mixed with a sensual meaty smell that rushed into her nostrils, and she felt nauseated and nauseous.

"You child, how do you talk, take a bath and go to bed quickly."

Xiaonan was afraid of that gentleman, but the child's nature made her more curious about him.

The next day, the streets became sparse during the day, so Xiao Nan asked her mother's permission to play on the swings in the small park opposite her home.Accompanied by her white cat, Xiao Nan sat on the swing and looked at the dark house next door to their house in a daze.The white cat walked up and down on the sand, walked around twice, glanced at the little master who was only in a daze, and gave her a glance as if to say hello.The cat walked lightly across the path to the opposite side of the road, then jumped up and jumped onto the fence of the gentleman's yard, swept its tail back and forth twice, and then stepped on the fence all the way to the roof of the gentleman's house, looking at Xiao Nanhuang as if showing off tail.

Xiao Nan quickly jumped up from the swing, but before he could make a sound to stop it, he saw the white cat jump down to a window sill on the right.The windows, which were usually tightly sealed, were not closed tightly today, and a small crack was opened in the windows.At this time, a gust of wind blew past the window, revealing the dark curtains inside. The white cat squatted on the window sill for a moment, then jumped down and jumped into the black house.

Xiao Nan's heart sank, and he ran home quickly, sneaked into the yard next door through the gap between the fences separating the two yards, walked to the door like a thief, and called the white cat's name twice.Seeing that the white cat ran out, she hesitated for a while, and bravely went to the window sill with the open window and struggled to climb up, imitating the white cat, and jumped through the window with her thin body.

The house was dark, as dark as night, and the floor under her feet made soft noises as she walked, as if it would sink at any moment.She came in from the kitchen, and taking advantage of the opening of the window just now, a ray of sunlight seeped into the room, allowing her to see the blurred edges and corners of the room.There is a dining table in the kitchen. The door of the kitchen faces the small living room, and facing the living room is a bedroom.

Xiao Nan walked towards the door and asked in a low voice, "Is anyone there? I'm here to find my cat."

No one answered her, but suddenly there was a soft noise in that bedroom, as if someone had knocked something over, followed by a cat meowing.

It's her cat!

Xiao Nan seemed to have found her way suddenly, and walked quickly to the door of the bedroom. First, she looked in through the crack of the door, and only saw the end of a single bed covered with a clean white bedding. Gently opened the door: "Sorry, my cat..."

She was stunned suddenly, standing at the door and staring blankly at the person in the room.

It was a boy, a boy older than her, but about eleven or twelve years old.He was wearing snow-white pajamas and sitting on the bed against the head of the bed, holding the trespassing white cat in his arms.His complexion is also snow-white, the kind of sickly white that has not been exposed to the sun all year round.Xiao Nan felt that if he opened the heavy curtains in his room now, he would be melted by the sun, like a vampire who couldn't see the light.

Xiao Nan felt a chill creeping up her heels and up her back, fear spun a big net and slowly wrapped her tightly.Because there has never been a boy whose eyes are as gloomy, cold, and full of hostility as the boy in front of him.

"who are you?"

The young man spoke suddenly, his voice was weak and cold, like a wave of melting ice.Two amber eyes gleamed dimly like lanterns flickering in the night.

Xiao Nan suddenly recognized his eyes, those were the eyes she saw behind the curtain yesterday.

The unprecedented cold and fear made the little girl forget to speak. Suddenly, the white cat in the boy's arms jumped out of his arms onto the bed.Xiao Nan trembled slightly following the white cat's movements, then looked down following the white cat, and his eyes widened instantly.

She saw a shackle, a black iron shackle embroidered with dark spots, which was fastened on the young man's slender and white ankle.That piece of black iron must have been extremely heavy, the bed had been smashed into a hollow, and a thick iron chain protruded from the leg shackles, extending to the foot of the bed.

"I, I, I came to mine, my..."

The young man looked at her coldly, his eyes full of guard and distrust, making him look like an abandoned and bullied little animal.Suddenly, his eyes trembled and he said, "He's back."

Then, Xiao Nan heard a soft sound from the door, which was the sound of a key turning the lock cylinder.

Three days later—

"Where's the girl?"

The psychiatrist asked again, "Where is that girl?"

The boy hugged his knees like he was hugging the white cat, bowed his head in silence for a long time, and said, "I don't know."

Doctor: "Is she still alive?"

"I do not know."

"She is missing, you have to tell me where she is, did that person take her away?"

"I do not know."

"You said just now that you know the smell of human blood, whose? Is it that girl's?"

The young man raised his head suddenly, with a red light in his eyes, his eyes were angry and hateful, and his thin voice trembled violently: "I said, I don't know!"

The boy did not know Xiao Nan's whereabouts, but he knew that it was the girl who broke in that he could be rescued.This is between him and the devil, an exchange.

Volume [-]: Young Blood