Maison vide dans l'abîme

Chapitre 40

It would cause a sensation. Pull him from his seat in the magnificent carriage and take him to Andrei's upside-down cross—this cruel...

Coolness is more imaginative.

The carriage stopped between the execution platform and the viewing stand. The attendants jumped down, opened the doors, and lowered a small ladder. (Police)

The police chief alighted from the car, followed by an officer from the guard, and finally Grenouille. He was wearing a blue...

He wore an overcoat and a white shirt, white stockings, and buckled shoes. He was not in shackles, and no one was supporting his arm.

They took him away. He got off the carriage like a free man.

Then a miracle happened, or rather, something like a miracle occurred—something incomprehensible and unheard of.

Something incredible happened, so much so that all the witnesses, at some point afterward, when talking about it...

They called everything a miracle.

The story goes like this: the ten thousand spectators on the street and the surrounding hillsides instantly and firmly believed that they had just come from...

The short man in the blue coat who stepped down from the carriage couldn't possibly be the murderer. This wasn't their opinion.

His identity was being questioned! The man standing there was the same one they had seen at the government office window in the church square a few days ago.

The people he saw were them—if they had gotten their hands on him—who were already consumed by a maddening hatred.

The man who tortured others. He was the same man who had been sentenced to death two days earlier based on irrefutable evidence and his own confession.

The man people had been waiting for the executioner to come and put to death a minute ago. It was him, without a doubt!

But—it wasn't him, it couldn't be him, he couldn't be the murderer. The person standing on the execution ground was...

Innocent. In that instant, from the bishop to the juice and soda merchant, from the marquis to the young washerwoman, from the courthouse...

From the young people who wander the streets, everyone knows this.

Papon knew this too. His hands, gripping the iron bar, trembled. For a moment, he felt like a child.

His strong arms went limp, his knees buckled, and unease gripped his heart. He couldn't lift that iron bar anymore; he would never do it again in his life.

He had the strength to lift it and strike the innocent little man; the murderer felt fear the moment he was brought up.

He trembled, needing to lean on his killing iron rod for support to prevent himself from kneeling in weakness; tall and strong.

Phra Phrom!

The situation of the ten thousand men, women, and children gathered together was no different: they became like being tormented by a lover's twisting force.

The conquered girl was so delicate. A sudden, intense, tender, and utterly childish and laughable feeling of infatuation arose within me.

They attacked them; indeed, it was common knowledge that there was a fondness for this diminutive killer. They were powerless.

Resisting, yet unwilling to resist. It's like an uncontrollable cry, like a long-suppressed sob emanating from the abdomen.

It arises, miraculously breaking down all resistance, turning everything into liquid and washing it clean. Humans are nothing more than that liquid.

The inner self transforms into spirit and soul, but it exists in an amorphous, liquid state; they feel their hearts are an indeterminate mass.

The mass swayed within them; both men and women placed their hearts upon those dressed in blue.

In the hands of the short man in the clothes, no matter what: they liked him.

Grenouille stood motionless for several minutes at the open carriage door. His attendant beside him had already...

He knelt down, bowing completely downwards—a posture reserved only for the Sultans and Arabs of the East.

I had only seen him frequently before. Even in this posture, he was still trembling and swaying, as if he wanted to continue...

He lay prone, flattening himself on the ground, burrowing into the earth until he reached the underground. Because of this noble loyalty,

He truly wished he could sink to the other side of the world. Both the guard officer and the police chief were strong, tough men.

Their task was to now bring the criminal to the execution platform and hand him over to the executioner, but they were no longer able to coordinate the movements.

They wept, took off their hats, put them back on, threw them on the ground, and then embraced.

Come on, separate again, idly waving arms in the air, twisting their hands, twitching, like a chorea attack.

People were making faces. The gentlemen further away lost control, becoming extremely excited. Everyone let their inner desires run wild.

The ladies, upon seeing Grenouille, crossed their arms and sighed happily; others, due to...

Longing to pursue this beautiful young man—which they believed he was—the gentlemen fainted without a sound.

They kept jumping up and down from their seats, panting heavily, their hands gripping their swords.

They drew their swords, as if to pull them out. They drew their swords, then pushed them back in, causing the scabbards to rattle; others...

The gentleman remained silent, his eyes fixed on the sky, his hands trembling in prayer; the noble bishop swayed forward, as if...

He looked as if he were about to vomit, his forehead hitting his knees until his green hat rolled off his head; this

At that moment, he didn't feel distressed; rather, for the first time in his life, he was immersed in religious fervor, because before the eyes of millions, one...

A miracle occurred, for the supreme God was already stopping the executioner; He had condemned the world to be murder.

A man was declared an angel. This actually happened in the 18th century! How great is God! And how... how... the bishop himself...

How insignificant, how negligible! He recited the decree to expel the faith, yet he himself did not believe it, merely to comfort the people! Ah,

How arrogant, how lacking in faith! Now God has created a miracle! Ah, to be punished by God like this for a bishop!

What a wonderful humiliation, what a sweet shame, how merciful!

The people on the other side of the barricades grew increasingly shameless, reveling in the effects of Grenouille's appearance.

A chilling feeling pervaded the air. Who initially saw him only perceive physical intimacy and emotion; yet now, he was filled with nakedness...

Ji Ying's greed; what began as mere admiration and pursuit had now transformed into extreme excitement. Everyone thought that the one dressed...

The man in the blue coat was the most beautiful, charming, and perfect person they could imagine: the nuns thought he was...

The incarnation of the savior, the demon king's followers regard him as the radiant god of the underworld, and enlightened people consider him the most...

The high-ranking ruler, whom young girls believed to be the prince of fairy tales, and whom men thought to be the embodiment of their ideals.

It was like an elephant. Everyone felt that he had seen through their most sensitive spots, had seized upon them, and had struck them.

The moving nature of love is precisely this: it is as if this man possesses ten thousand hands, as if he places his own hands upon the ten thousand people around him.

The lower body of every person, the strongest in everyone's most secret fantasies—whether man or woman.

He demanded every possible way, affectionately caressing her lower body.

As a result, the plan to execute the most heinous criminals of the era turned into a grand Dionysian festival, the scale of which...

This was unprecedented in the world since the second century BC: virtuous women tore open their bodices, and...

Amidst hysterical screams, their breasts were exposed, their skirts billowed up, and they fell to the ground. The men stared in bewilderment.

Their gazes stumbled as they walked across the ground where naked bodies lay. With trembling fingers, they touched them as if they were being...

An invisible, frozen genital was pulled from his trousers, groaning and collapsing towards something in an extremely rare posture.

And the pairing methods are clear: old man and young girl, hired hand and lawyer's wife, apprentice and nun, Jesuit member and Freemason.

The meeting with female members was a chaotic mess, the air thick with the sweet, heavy scent of lust, brimming with a thousand beasts.

The shouts, mutterings, and sighs of the people were like those of hell.

Grenouille stood there, smiling. More precisely, everyone who saw him felt as if he were using the world...

She smiled in the most innocent, adorable, charming, and alluring way. But in fact...

This wasn't a smile, but a hideous, mocking sneer lingering on his lips, revealing his complete...

Victory and all the hatred.

He, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, was born in the smelliest place in the world. He himself had no odor.

Growing up without love, without the warmth of human souls, one can only rely on stubbornness and resentment.

He survived only through strength; he was short, hunched over, lame, and ugly; no one associated with him, from the inside out.

He was a pitiful monster—but now he had finally achieved his goal, making himself beloved by the world. What does it mean to be loved by people?

He was loved! Adored! Respected! Deified! He accomplished the feats of Prometheus. Others were born...

Everyone who came immediately received the divine fire, but he was the only one who didn't get one; he obtained it only through his boundless wit. No.

That's all! He has already let divine fire enter his own heart. He is greater than Prometheus. He created for himself...

A fragrance emerged, far more captivating and alluring than that emanating from anyone standing before him. He needed no...

He owes this to no one else—his father, his mother, and a merciful God—but solely to himself. In fact, he is…

His own god, a god far more beautiful than the one who reeks of incense and stench in the church. A god with mortal...

The bishop, whose body was in human form, knelt before him, weeping with joy. The rich and powerful, the proud gentlemen and ladies...

The soldiers were astonished, and the general public, including the parents, siblings, and other relatives of the girl he had murdered, were also deeply saddened.

They paid homage to him, reveled in his name. With just a hint, he would have everyone swearing to abandon their god.

The great Grenouille worshipped him.

Indeed, he was the great Grenouille! Now it is clear. He is who he is; the past only exists in the past.

He had been lost in self-admiration, and now it had become reality. At this moment, he experienced the greatest victory of his life.

He found this kind of victory quite terrifying.

He found it terrifying because he couldn't enjoy it for even a second. When he stepped off the carriage and into the bright sunshine...

In that instant in the square, the perfume he had applied had already taken effect, captivating everyone present.

It was a perfume he spent two years creating, and he spent his entire life hunting down people to possess it…

This banner; he saw it and smelled it. The perfume had an irresistible effect; it spread rapidly.

It made everyone around it a prisoner. In that instant, all his disgust for people rose in his chest again, completely...

This ruined his sense of victory, so much so that he not only felt no joy, but was also completely unaware of it.

Satisfaction. His long-cherished desire—to be loved by others—was fulfilled in the moment of his success.

He found it unbearable because he didn't love them, but hated them. He suddenly realized that he was loving them...

They can never be satisfied in the middle, but can only find satisfaction in hatred, in resentment, and in being hated.