Next, just as Richard thought, troubles followed one after another: falling rocks, dead ends, broken suspension bridges...
In this way, Richard stopped and walked all the way, and finally came to a village near dusk.
The village is very ordinary, not too big in scale, with hundreds of houses scattered along the roads shaped like "fields". Because it was dinner time, smoke was rising from many houses. A group of five or six-year-old children chased each other in a noisy manner. When they saw Richard, a stranger on horseback, they were slightly frightened and ran away.
Richard looked at it and shook his head. Just as he was about to enter the village, he suddenly subconsciously turned his head and looked aside.
A few hundred meters away, a white crow flew up from a dead tree and flew away.
"You still don't give up until now -" Richard squinted his eyes and said to himself, "You have spent so much effort and hindered me until now, what are you going to do?"
Shaking his head again, Richard rode into the village and prepared to leave across the village.
While walking through a small square in the center of the village, I saw a group of people busy building a wooden platform. The children who had just run away because they were afraid of him were gathered around the wooden platform and looked at it curiously, looking forward to it. It seemed that the villagers who had eaten around were gradually gathering.
This is
Richard was confused and suddenly heard someone calling him: "Passers-by, stop for a moment!"
Richard turned around and looked over, and saw a tall, thin man wearing a clown mask standing up next to the wooden platform, his whole face hidden under the mask and saying: "Passer-by, you are heading north, right? But It's going to be dark soon, and the road won't be easy to walk.
Take my advice and stay to watch our circus performance. I guarantee you won't regret it. Until dawn tomorrow, we can go on the road together and take care of each other to ensure that you walk quickly and steadily without delaying your journey. "
After hearing what the clown said, Richard's eyes flashed and he looked the clown up and down carefully: "You seem to have something in your words, Mr. clown?"
"No, no, you're just overthinking, passerby." The clown waved his hands and said, "As a clown, I always like to use some awkward words to express my inner thoughts, which is more likely to cause misunderstandings. But I I just sincerely invite you to stop and watch my performance. By the way, we have a lion!"
As he spoke, the clown pointed to an iron cage covered with black cloth next to him: "Did you see that iron cage? The lion is in it. His name is Kuba. He is the best friend of our circus trainer Thors." partner."
"That's my circus leader, Oliver." The clown pointed to a short fat man on the wooden platform and introduced him very naturally.
When Richard looked over, he saw a man who looked like a rubber ball standing, giving instructions to others to work. The other person was wearing black trousers and white clothes. He was extremely funny, with a bulging belly and almost no fingers.
"That one is the strongest among us. You should be able to understand by looking at his size." The clown pointed to a strong man busy on the wooden stage, "His name is Tyne, and he often performs with the lion Baku. programme."
"That one is our groom." The clown pointed to an old man who looked a little lame. "His name is McGee. He is not in good health, but he is nice to us. He will cook for us and drive us in the carriage. We performed everywhere.”
"By the way, I almost forgot, there is one last person, our great beauty—Aimee!" The clown pointed to a beautiful young woman in purple clothes in the corner, putting on makeup in the mirror, "She is our circus The most important person in the circus often performs with Tyne and the lion. Many people come to our circus shows just to see her."
"Okay." The clown looked over and asked Richard, "I have introduced all my companions to you. Out of politeness, should you also introduce yourself, passerby?"
"Me?" Richard raised his eyebrows, looked at the clown and said, "As you can see, I'm just an ordinary passerby. You can always call me passerby."
"Okay, okay, passers-by, you can always call me Mr. Clown." The clown said, "Then do you want to stay and watch our performance?"
"What's the benefit of me staying?"
"As I said before, you will see a very exciting game, and the journey will not be delayed tomorrow. Isn't this enough?" the clown said.
Richard stopped talking because he saw a white crow suddenly flying over and landing on a cage covered with black cloth in the distance, looking a little scrutinized.
Richard raised his eyebrows, thought for a moment, looked at the clown, and said, "Okay then, I will stay."
"This is the best, you will never regret it, passer-by." The clown said, "Now you can find a place to sit down and wait. As soon as the wooden stage is ready, the performance will begin. And I, now You have to go and get busy, otherwise the leader of the group, Oliver, will be scolding you later."
As soon as he finished speaking, the fat man on the wooden stage shouted: "Jack! Where is Jack? Where did he die? Didn't you see that the circus is short of manpower, are you lazy again?"
The clown spread his hands towards Richard, walked backwards back to the wooden platform, and started working.
Richard turned to look at the iron cage on one side and found that the white crow had disappeared at some point.
"What's the deal?" Richard asked, jumping off the horse, leading the horse to one side and tying it up, and looked at the wooden platform.
…
After a while, it got dark, and many torches were lit in the small square to illuminate it.
The wooden stage was also set up and the circus performance began.
The clown was the first to take the stage. He walked with funny steps, made ridiculous moves, and said witty words, making many audiences laugh.
Richard did not smile. He watched calmly from the outside of the square. While watching, he thought about the identity of the mastermind behind the scenes and what he wanted to do with the circus. Could it be that the clown is the so-called mastermind behind the scenes? But the other circus members looked very familiar with the clown, which was weird. Or is it the mastermind controlling the Joker
As Richard was thinking this, he suddenly saw two five or six-year-old children, a boy and a girl, running in front of him, holding hands and jumping.
"Um... sir..." the little boy looked at it eagerly and asked, "can you perform tricks?" with an innocent look on his face.
"Huh?" Richard looked at the little boy and asked with interest, "Why do you ask me that?"
"Because... because the circus should have horses, and you have horses. Therefore, you should also be a circus person, so you will naturally be able to do tricks." The little boy said what he thought was impeccable logic.
Richard spoke up: "Although I have a horse, I am not a circus person, so I don't know how to do tricks."
"Is this so..." The little boy's eyes showed a disappointed expression, and he pulled the little girl to move aside.