Clown Game
Chapter 230 - 217: Fairy Tale Twenty

Chapter 230: Chapter 217: Fairy Tale Twenty

Brother Preserved Egg’s prosthetic limbs were indeed mighty, in a full burst of energy, the steel at the lower levels of the Corrosion Pool was smashed open with a few "clangs".

Indeed, there, a crudely made piece of paper was somehow floating atop the still-hot molten iron, completely unaffected.

So, to cut the long story short, let’s get straight to the point.

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"The Candle"

Once upon a time, in a small town, there was a girl.

She was ugly and poor, and her parents had left her at an early age; she had lived alone and miserably for many years.

Because of her looks, she had no friends and, of course, no one liked her, so her life was incredibly lonely; she always dreamed of having someone to keep her company.

Perhaps God heard her prayers

...Perhaps.

In any case, on a winter’s night, a drunkard barged into her home.

This was the first person who had voluntarily visited the girl in many years... and he was a man. Therefore, the girl decided she must find a way to keep the drunkard!

...

...

The next morning, the drunkard woke up to find himself lying in a strange bed, and next to him was a strange woman.

The drunkard freaked out.

In the following inquiries, the drunkard learned of his actions the night before, and just as he was unsure of what to do next, the girl actually proposed that they start dating!

Although she was not good-looking, she was a woman after all, so after some thought, the drunkard agreed.

Of course, he didn’t love her. He lived a life of drinking and gambling every day, only returning to the girl’s place when he was dead drunk to sleep, and leaving again the next morning. Besides that, he gambled, accumulating a huge debt. Soon after, he started demanding money from the girl, forcing her to help repay the debt.

The man’s actions were utterly despicable!!

Of course, the girl knew this, but she still couldn’t leave the drunkard, because he was her only lover, the only person still by her side. Without him, she would return to that loneliness... she didn’t want to be alone anymore, for a woman who had lost her parents at a young age and never experienced "love", loneliness was harder to bear than any disaster.

In fact, the girl knew even more that this man didn’t love her; he just wanted someone who could give him money, a puppet to pay off his gambling debts, and it didn’t matter who this person was.

That being said, the girl and the drunkard were probably the same type of people. Because the girl didn’t love the drunkard either; she just wanted someone to fill her loneliness, and it didn’t matter who it was.

So, under such a distorted relationship, no matter what the drunkard did to her, she could accept it.

...

To pay off the drunkard’s gambling debts, the girl started working frantically, earning money by selling candles.

She braved the severe cold every day, peddling at street corners.

But she couldn’t sell a single one.

The girl became scared. If things continued this way, she would definitely be abandoned.

But no matter how hard she tried, one day, her savings were completely depleted.

"I have no more money!" the girl said, her head hanging low.

The drunkard became extremely angry when he heard this.

"You are absolutely useless!" he yelled at the girl, pushing her down, "You useless, ugly woman! Get out of my sight, just looking at you makes me sick!!!"

The drunkard hurled insults at her mercilessly, and then walked out of her door.

The girl cried, though she knew this day would come eventually, she still couldn’t accept it when it really arrived.

Soon after, the girl followed the drunkard... still trying to find a chance to keep him.

But next, she was shocked to discover that the drunkard already had a lover. Moreover, his attitude towards that woman was a thousand times, ten thousand times better than towards her.

At that moment, the girl finally realized, the drunkard had never actually been with her... never.

His heart... had long found its place.

The girl envied, she was jealous, wondering why everyone else had companionship except her.

Angered, she pulled out the unsold candles from her pocket.

She set fire to the house belonging to that woman and the drunkard.

Watching the blazing flames, and hearing the miserable screams... it seemed to bring the girl a bit of solace. She even saw herself in those flames as another woman, surrounded by handsome and wealthy men, possessing a beautiful exterior...

What a blissful scene it was.

...

...

After that day, the town’s guards naturally began a vigorous search for this deranged arsonist.

Finally, one day, the girl was caught.

In the cell, she underwent an interrogation and confessed to everything.

She spoke of her own experiences, of what the drunkard did to her, and also why she committed arson.

But... what puzzled the chief was that while the girl mentioned a drunkard, there truly was no such drunkard. The first people she had burned were a couple she had never even met, and in the town, there was no drunk like the one she described.

...

With questions, the chief went to the girl’s home, where he was astonished to find a man’s sculpture made of candles.

...

It turned out, everything was a scene imagined by the girl in her mind.

There was no drunkard, that night, no one had entered her home... never.

The girl’s loneliness made it impossible for her to distinguish reality, she crafted a man out of wax figures, daydreaming and conversing with this imaginary person.

And her arson was merely an excuse she had fabricated in her deranged state to justify her actions.

...

When the girl heard this, she simply could not believe what the chief said, because she could still clearly remember the drunkard, clearly remember every word she had spoken with him.

Of course, the guards didn’t bother to explain anything further, they simply locked the crazed woman up in the cell.

In the cell, the girl wondered, was any of this real?

Soon, she figured it out...

Actually, whether something is real doesn’t matter at all, what matters is whether you acknowledge it.

With this thought, the girl recalled the wonderful scene she had seen in the great fire...

"Real or fake, does it matter?"

The girl muttered, smiling, and took out the last candle from her pocket... and lit herself on fire.

In this flame, she would never be lonely again!

...

...

No one knows how many years have passed, but it is said that the girl is still burning,

Eveywhere she passed turned to ashes.

And she herself, watching the surrounding flames... smiling happily.

The end.

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