horror effect

When Nikolai saw Hostatova walking in from the door, she felt that something was wrong with her: her shoulders were slumped, her waist was no longer straight, and her feet were as soft as if they were stepping on cotton.She walked in with her head down, and sat weakly on the sofa, covering her face with her hands as if she didn't want to be seen.

Nicholas knew that she went to see Bowai, and her current situation must be related to the meeting just now.He hesitated for a moment, and walked over slowly. "...Dr. Hostatova..." He whispered her name softly.

Hostatova didn't respond, as if she hadn't heard anything at all.

He was flustered for a while, managed to calm himself down, and said: "Doctor... I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't talk too much, but you said that sadness can have a bad effect on people... and this effect will eventually be It is manifested in...from the disease of the body."

Maybe this tense, textbook-like way of talking really helped, and Hostatova put her hands down and looked up.Her face still bears the sadness and depression from just now, which makes her who was always stern and indifferent suddenly become gentle and lovable.She gave Nikolai a sad smile, then took his hand and said, "Thank you, you always remind me that a doctor should not be brought down by bad mood or disease, but by bad mood and disease." Illness. I almost forgot." Then she got up, let go of Nikolay's hand, straightened her body and walked towards the consulting room.

Nicholas looked at her vigorous back, and then looked at his hands, feeling a sour taste from his throat to his tongue.He suddenly wanted to be a patient, so that Hostatova would look at him with concern and tenderness.He knew that he was jealous of every patient who received her care, even those pills, potions, ointments, and reagents. She cared more about them than he did, but he, a living person, was in her eyes is the least important.He slowly and unconsciously raised his hand to his lips, but then he realized what he was doing and put his hand down in a panic, his face heating up.

Is this what I was expecting?

Caress, kiss?

No, no, this is not what I want, I don't want anything!

Let me give my whole soul!Let me do everything for you!

But, but... I know it's impossible!what do I do?I can understand her, even if she doesn't love me, I can understand her.And she never tried to understand me, not once.

On this day, Nikolay first copied the wrong prescription, then the price of the medicine, but, unlike usual, Hostatova didn't criticize him very harshly, or she didn't care much at all. Because she was almost the same as Nicholas, who was in a daze all day long and lost her mind.

That afternoon, Hostatova was anxious that her heart, which was trying to maintain indifference, was not as strong as she expected, and at the same time, Nikolai was also anxious about how much of his feelings for the female doctor were pure. Love, he is afraid that his feelings will be mixed with selfishness, but he also knows that if the influence of personal mood is completely eliminated, love will wither because of losing the place where it happened.He was so disturbed by this contradiction that he couldn't feel at ease whether he was eating lunch or sitting in his room reading a book.

Elena saw that something was wrong with Nikolay, but she didn't want to worry about it, it had nothing to do with her, and in her opinion, moping about a relationship was the stupidest thing a person could do, not to mention she had other things to care about.Theolos had left the house for an hour, and before leaving the house, he waxed his hair and put on the most decent clothes, so Irene thought he was going to visit Mikhail Bu Wai, she even guessed that he was going to borrow money.

Half an hour later, Theolos came back, his face was very gloomy, fury and frustration could be seen from his unsmiling face.He sat on the sofa and wiped his face fiercely with his hands.Irene understood that he had failed, she looked at him sullenly, and waited for him to raise his head, and said: "It seems that your relationship with Bouy is not as good as you said."

Theolos turned his head to stare at his young wife, and said in a low voice: "My relationship with him has never been good."

"Yeah." Elena sneered, "You are right, you despise each other, and each thinks that only you are worthy of being a human being. I am so surprised, how did you tell him about borrowing money? Maybe you told him Saying hate and insults, he will really lend it to you, so it's too funny to talk about Bois; or, you put on another face that is the opposite of the present, groveling and fawning on him?"

The blood vessels in Theoros' neck throbbed, and his eyes seemed to be burning. "Shut your dirty mouth, Irene," he said. "You'd better remember that I'm the breadwinner, not you."

"I should be grateful to you, I should kneel at your feet and beg your forgiveness!" She exaggeratedly spread her arms in a begging gesture, but then she spat and said, "But I am no longer your first The first time I saw Irene, I was never 'her' - that low-key woman who relied on pity. I know, you men like this, so I put on that to please you, because it At that time I wanted to live first! But it is different now, Theoros, kneel before Bouy, I am watching with joy!"

"Ah! I knew it all along!" cried Theolos. "You're a licentious bastard! You've been betraying me from the beginning!"

"No," she shot back at him. "I didn't want to be like this at first. I wanted to spend my life with you, but just keep your eyes open! What woman wants to be with an alcoholic who can't do anything?" Together! It’s all caused by you, what has anything to do with me. It’s you! It’s you who destroyed yourself, and you want to indirectly destroy me!”

"Shut up!" Theoros yelled angrily.

"It's you who should shut up! The idiot should hug the idiot, you go to Bowai! Anyway, you both have the other's shameful history! Crawl at his feet and eat what he left—— "

Before she finished speaking, Elena felt a sharp pain in her cheeks, and she fell on her back on the sofa with a fishy smell in her mouth. Only then did she realize that she had been punched by Theoros.She got up, put her face in her hands, and said through gritted teeth, "Okay! Okay! Theolos, you played really well!"

Then she got up, ran quickly into her room, put on her coat and overcoat, let her hair loose, and rushed out the door.

Theolos was a little dazed at first, as if he couldn't believe that he hit her, but then Elena's roar woke him up, and he tried to stop her, but facing the angry wife with half of his face swollen, his The momentum was at a disadvantage, and in the end, he could only watch Elena rush out of the house and walk into the night.

In the evening, Julian received a call from Elena, which surprised him.Her voice was slurred on the phone, and Julian wasn't sure if it was the phone or hers.She wanted to meet him and made an appointment to meet at the southeast corner of the churchyard where they met last time.Julian thought for a moment that Irene was going to reveal the secret she had, but he quickly dampened his optimism.When he came to the cemetery with doubts, Elena was already waiting for him.

Julian noticed that she was different from that night: she was still wearing the cloak of that night, but she added an extra hood, and her whole face was covered in shadow; her arms were folded on her chest, as if it was cold, so her Her chest receded and her back was arched, which made her look gloomy and depressed. Compared with her arrogance and arrogance the last time we met, it gave people the impression that something had suddenly changed her.

So the first thing Julian said when he came up to her was, "What's going on?"

"It's nothing important." Elena took a breath and said softly.

She kept her head down as she spoke, and Julian could see that she was shaking. "What happened?" he asked again.

"It's really nothing."

Julian stared at her.He knew that something must have happened, and it had a deep relationship with her.She may have been wronged, so she came to him. She didn't need him to solve the problem, but needed his comfort.Julian is very clear about the role he should play at this time-as he has played in front of Lidi many times-the prince who rescues the princess, the knight who rescues the girl, and Hercules who rescues Hesione.

He put his hand on her shoulder, gave a reassuring smile, and said, "Let's go for a walk inside the cemetery." Then he took Elena's arm, half coaxing, half pushing her into her. up the cemetery.

They wandered among the tombstones, and Julian asked Irene about the person when he saw a name on a tombstone, but said nothing about her own problems.He was waiting for her to speak for herself.Sure enough, after absent-mindedly answering a few questions, Elena grabbed his sleeve and said hastily, "Julian, please forgive me. I didn't come out to chat with you."

"Oh? So you're going to tell me the secret?" he said innocently.

"No, no." She looked very distressed, her fingers twisted together, she seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then she said: "I'm looking for you for my own business, maybe I shouldn't do this, but I I can't think of any other way. As for what it is... you can judge for yourself." After she finished speaking, she raised her hand and lifted off her hood and cloak.

Julian gasped when he saw her face.Elena's left half of her face was completely swollen, and it was much higher than the right half of her face. The skin under the corners of her eyes turned blue, and her eyes were forced to squint.

"Damn! Who did this?!" he couldn't help shouting.

"Who else? Who else but my husband?" Irene answered as calmly as she could.

"Theolos...? Have you seen a doctor?" he asked.

Elena nodded.

"Okay," he put his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Now tell me how this all happened."

Elena told about the family's near-bankruptcy situation and the process of Theoros borrowing money from Mikhail Bouai.During the narration, she would tremble when Theoros was mentioned several times. At this time, Irene would always lean on Julian intentionally or unintentionally, and he always seemed to put his hand on her shoulder inadvertently. superior.

After Elena finished speaking, Julian sighed and said, "How could he do that. I must say, from a legal point of view, you can file for a divorce."

Elena stared at him with wide eyes.That's not what she wanted to hear, she thought.I don't need your sympathy, your pity, and I don't need the law.law!It is it that binds people who have no feelings for each other firmly.I don't need these!Where is your love?Where is your help?Could it be that I can't expect that even from a man like you?She shook her head in disappointment.

"No, I can't get a divorce, it's my only security. If I leave, who can help me?" she said, looking at him.

Julian knew she was addressing him.If it was ten years ago, or when he first met Lydie, he might have said to her "Let me protect you"-which is what she expects now, and would even be with her elopement.But he wasn't young anymore, and over the years he'd met many women who had had misfortunes like hers, and he couldn't help them.

Seeing that Julian was silent, Elena knew that what she was looking forward to had turned to ashes like a burning autumn leaf.She smiled wryly, let go of Julian's hand, and walked forward slowly.

"Irene!" he said behind her. "What are you going to do now? Have you thought about it?"

"I'll go to Mrs. Barnin's for a few days to get my wounds healed, and then... maybe I'll go back anyway, maybe... I haven't thought about it. Whatever..."

She stood there with her eyes looking into the distance, and Julian looked in the direction she was looking and saw that it was just a pale sky at sunset.He turned his head and looked at her.

In her arched lips that would twitch almost at the next second, in her face, delicate and brittle, milky crystal, he read pain.The pain that belonged to her, mixed with the pain that belonged to women he had known, was as frozen as Irone's blank expression and the still air of the moment.Pain turned to stone and brick, to those heavy, useless tombstones at their feet.

He took her hand, put it in his palm, and said with a sincere expression: "Irona, not everyone hates you, and not everyone is cruel. I can't take you away now, this It is true, but I can still help you. Now you live with Mrs. Barnin, and if Theoros is still so cruel to you in the future, come to me, and maybe we can find a solution."

Julian was very frank, very sincere, and above all very kind, and his kindly dark eyes and benevolent smiling lips made Irene feel warm in her heart.She put her arms around his shoulders involuntarily, and leaned her face against his chest.Julian didn't move, just kept this position and waited for a while, then he lowered his head and pressed a light kiss on her forehead.Elena could feel that this kiss was pure, without any sexual elements, and she didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed about it.

They held hands and walked in the cemetery, talking about things in the small town and their respective lives.Those painful tombstones turned a warm gold in the setting sun.Julian subconsciously approached the tombstone engraved with the name of Birkes Molatov. He really wanted to tell Elena its story, but when he took her to the monument, he found that There is nothing on the monument, just blank.Julian was stunned, and Elena, who didn't know why, urged him: "What do you want to tell me?"

"Wait..." He touched his forehead, almost unsteady on his feet.

"What's the matter with you? Are you uncomfortable?" she asked.

"No...no..." he muttered, and then he came back to his senses and said to her, "I'm sorry, I have to leave, something happened suddenly, I can't be with you anymore. I'm very sorry, but I have to go. Goodbye , Elena." As he spoke, he walked towards the door, and when the last two words were finished, he ran and quickly disappeared behind the wall.

Irene didn't stop him much, in fact she was still immersed in the wonderful feeling just now, she was intoxicated by the kiss that Julian pressed on her forehead, she was intoxicated by the rough but warm feeling in his palm.She stood alone in the cemetery, looking at the direction he had just left, and said softly, "Julian..."