Muñeca nocturna - Capítulo 26
And that is the scent of a human being. He wanted to possess the scent of a human being that he didn't have, even if it was only a inferior one for the time being.
A substitute. Of course, a person doesn't have a scent, just like a person's appearance. Everyone's scent is different.
No one knew better than Grenouille, who could identify the scents of thousands of people from birth.
From the very beginning, we can distinguish people by their sense of smell. However, there is one fundamental element in human scent, and that is...
Quite ordinary: something greasy, sour like cheese, something generally quite unpleasant.
Everyone possesses the fundamental element of aversion. And it is upon this fundamental element that individuality floats.
The molecules are very exquisite.
However, this aura, that is, the extremely complex and unique code of personal scent, is mostly unmistakable to people no matter what.
Unaware of the fishing. The vast majority of people have no idea they possess this aura and do everything they can to hide it.
Beneath the clothes and trendy artificial fragrances, they were only familiar with that basic scent, that primal human scent.
They feel safe living only in this smell; anyone who merely emits a nauseating, ordinary mist...
They will then regard you as one of their own.
On this day, Grenouille created a peculiar perfume. Even more peculiar perfumes still exist in the world today.
No, its scent isn't like a fragrance, but rather like a person emitting a fragrance. If someone were in a dark...
If someone smells this perfume in a room, they will definitely assume that someone else is standing there. If someone possesses...
If a person with a certain scent uses this perfume, then we will feel that he smells like two different people, or even worse.
The cake, like a terrifying dual-body, like an unidentifiable form, appears so blurry, like...
A painting depicting the bottom of a lake, with ripples on the surface.
To replicate the scent of such a person—which, as far as he knew, was far from sufficient, but more than enough.
Deceiving others—Grenouille collected the most unusual ingredients at the Runel workshop.
Behind the threshold of a door leading to the yard was a small pile of cat poop, which looked like it had been there recently. He took it...
Take half a teaspoon, mix it with a few drops of vinegar and crushed salt, and put it in a mixing bottle. Under the workbench, he found...
A piece of cheese, about the size of a thumbnail; apparently, it was dropped by Munell during a meal. This piece of cheese
It had been sitting there for a long time and had begun to decompose, emitting a pungent odor. He took it from the sardines placed at the back of the shop.
On the fish bucket lid, I scraped off a bit of something that smelled rancid, and mixed it with rotten eggs, castor oil, ammonia, and nutmeg.
The scraped-off keratin and charred pigskin scraps were mixed together. He also added a considerable amount of catnip, then...
These horrible ingredients were mixed with alcohol, boiled, filtered, and then transferred to another preparation bottle. The liquid's odor...
I was terrified. It was like the stench of decay coming from a sewer; if you used a fan to mix its stench with clean air...
If one were to imagine standing on the corner of a laundromat on Rue du Fleur in Paris on a sweltering summer day, one would feel as if one were a merchant...
The smells from the field, the Santo Niño cemetery, and the overcrowded houses all converged there.
On this horrible, fundamental odor that smelled more like a rotting animal carcass than a human being,
Grenouille now adds a layer of fresh, aromatic scents: peppermint, lavender, pine resin, and eucalyptus.
Use delicate floral oils, such as those from geranium, rose, neroli, and jasmine, to control their scent.
And to give it a pleasant aroma. After further dilution with alcohol and some vinegar, the base flavor of the entire preparation is...
The nauseating smell was gone. The lingering stench had vanished thanks to the fresh ingredients, leaving one feeling refreshed.
The smell of vomit has been transformed from the fragrance of flowers into something almost amusing; strangely, the stench of decay is no longer detectable.
I couldn't smell it at all. On the contrary, an extremely light and refreshing fragrance of life seemed to emanate from the perfume.
Grenouille filled two small bottles with the perfume, corked them, and kept them for himself. Then he carefully used...
Rinse the bottle, mortar, funnel, and spoon with water, and wipe them clean with bitter almond oil to remove any trace of odor.
They took the second formulation bottle and used it to quickly synthesize another perfume, a replica of the first.
The fragrance is made with fresh and delicate notes, but it no longer contains magical liquid ingredients; instead, it is entirely based on...
The traditional method includes a touch of saffron, ambergris, a hint of civet, and cedarwood oil. This perfume itself differs from the first fragrance.
Water, more diluted, purer, and less infectious than the first type, lacks the characteristic human scent.
However, if an ordinary person uses this perfume and combines it with their own scent, then it...
It is indistinguishable from the perfumes that Grenouille made entirely for himself.
He put the second perfume into a small perfume bottle, then took off his clothes and sprayed himself with the first perfume.
He then gently wiped his armpits, between his toes, his lower body, his chest, his neck, his ears, and his hair, before putting his clothes back on.
The clothes were removed from the factory.
As he stepped onto the street, he was suddenly overcome with fear, for he knew that for the first time in his life he was spreading human disease.
He smelled... but he also realized he was emitting a foul odor, a truly awful one. He couldn't imagine what others would think.
His scent was odorless, and he dared not go directly into the hotel, for Menell and the Marquis's chief butler were waiting.
He felt that testing new human-scented perfumes in unknown environments was less dangerous. Nearby, where there was a...
The workshops of the leatherworkers and dyers, where they did their stinking work. Whenever someone came to meet him, or
As he passed the doorway where children played or old ladies sat idly, he forced himself to slow down.
He walked forward, carrying his own scent through the thick fog.
From his youth, he had become accustomed to people passing by ignoring him; he had once believed that they...
It wasn't that they despised him, but rather that they were completely unaware of his presence. There was no space around him; he had no...
Like others, the waves he creates in the atmosphere cast no shadow on anyone's face. Only when he is in a crowded place...
People will only glance at him if he bumps into someone unexpectedly in a crowd or on a street corner.
The people who collide usually step back in surprise, staring at him for several seconds, as if they've seen someone who shouldn't have been there.
A living being exists, undeniably there, yet somehow not present.
The person then looked into the distance and immediately forgot about him.
But now, in the alleys of Montpellier, Grenouille perceived and clearly saw—and whenever he re-
Seeing this again filled him with a strong sense of pride—he had already made an impact on people. When he...
As he walked past a woman who was bent over by the well, he noticed that she raised her head for a moment, as if to see who was there.
There, he seemed relieved and turned back to face his bucket. A man stood with his back to him.
He turned around and stared at him curiously for a long time. The children who encountered him all avoided him—not because…
They weren't afraid, but rather trying to make way for him. Even if they ran from one side of the door and suddenly bumped into him, they weren't afraid.
Instead of being afraid, they walked past him quietly, as if they had already sensed his arrival.
Through several such encounters, he learned to more accurately estimate the power and pattern of action of his new scent.
He walked towards the person more quickly, his body more closely intertwined, even extending one hand as if to sign the document.
He bumped into a passerby's arm. Once, trying to get ahead of a man, he collided with him, seemingly unaffected.
Suddenly, he stopped and apologized; and that person, just yesterday, had been so frightened by Grenouille's sudden appearance...
He was thunderstruck, but at that moment, he acted as if nothing had happened, accepting his apology and even smiling for a while.
He patted Grenouille on the shoulder. He left the alley and walked into the square in front of the Saint-Pierre Cathedral. A chorus of voices rang out.
The church doors were packed with people. A wedding ceremony had just ended. Everyone wanted to see the bride. Grenouille ran past...
He went, blending into the crowd. He pushed his way through, trying to reach the most crowded part of the crowd so that people could easily reach him.
The children pressed themselves against him, wanting to smell his scent. He spread his arms in the crowd, forking...
He spread his legs, pulled open his collar, letting the scent flow freely from his body. He noticed that no one else seemed to notice.
He realized, indeed, that he hadn't realized anything at all; all the men, women, and children standing around him were so easily...
They are easily fooled and inhale the stench of a mixture of cat feces, cheese, and vinegar, mistaking it for the same smell as their own.
And to accept him, Grenouille, the villain among them, as one of the people, he felt immensely...
He was overjoyed! He felt a child at his knees. A little girl. She stood like a wedge between the adults.
In the middle. He lifted her up, feigning concern and affection, placing her on one arm so he could examine her closely.
He looked at her. The child's mother not only allowed him to do so, but also thanked him, and the little girl cheered with joy.
Grenouille stood there in the crowd, pretending to be serious, holding a strange child to his chest.
A quarter of an hour. Just as the wedding procession was reeling from the deafening chimes and people showering them with hard, icy rain...
As the coins passed by amidst cheers and cannon fire, a different kind of cheer rose in Grenouille's heart—a sinister kind of cheer.
Ah, a wicked sense of victory, like a lustful attack, made him tremble and become intoxicated; it took him a great deal of effort to...
He restrained himself from spraying venom at everyone and shouting at them: he was not afraid of them; he hardly hated them; rather...
They were utterly despised, because they were stinky and stupid. Because they had been deceived by him. Because of what?
No, he was everything! He hugged the child tighter, as if mocking everyone, he took a deep breath, and...
The others shouted in unison, "Long live the bride! Long live the bride! Long live the beautiful bride and groom!"
As the wedding procession moved away and the crowd began to disperse, he returned the child to her mother and then went into the church.
They went to the cathedral to recover from the excitement and rest. The air in the cathedral was thick with the smell of cigarette smoke.
Cold smoke rose from the two incense burners on either side of the altar, forming a stifling canopy over the area that had just been...
The lingering scent of those who had sat here. Grenouille crouched on a bench beneath the altar.
Suddenly, he felt an immense sense of satisfaction. This was not the intoxicating satisfaction he had felt when he was enjoying himself alone in the cave.
It wasn't a sense of sufficiency, but a calm and clear-headed satisfaction arising from the awareness of his own strength. He now knew he was capable.
What? He used minimal aids, relying primarily on his genius, to replicate human scent, and did it perfectly.