Operation Red Book

Chapter 494: Clown Fear 1

People are afraid of a lot of inexplicable things.

The most talked about one is intensive phobia, in addition to claustrophobia, fear of the deep sea, fear of sharp points, agoraphobia... fear of snakes, fear of dogs, fear of heights, fear of purple, fear of darkness, fear of dolls...

And clown fear.

When Ivy first came across the concept of "coulrophobia" and tried to match her symptoms to the term, the international flight she was on had just broken through a thick layer of clouds and was heading at a steady speed towards the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in the direction of the setting sun.

"When you see a clown, you will feel nervous, trembling, and terrified, which will lead to uncontrollable physiological reactions such as twitching, anxiety, avoidance, etc., which may be caused by excessive mental stress, anxiety disorder, phobia, social phobia or autism..."

"Don't look at those things. You have nothing to do. Focus on studying. If you have free time to think about it, you might as well take out your vocabulary book and look at it."

This was the answer given by Ivy's mother, even though little Ivy didn't ask her at all.

It felt bad to be taught a lesson for no reason, but Ivy was used to it. She put down the book about mental illness and took out a thick, cover-covered high school English shuffled vocabulary book from her pocket.

Although Ivy was only 10 years old at that time and had just entered the fourth grade of elementary school, she had inexplicably caught a viral cold a week ago.

Ivy looked very well behaved. She pointed at the long words that were bolded in the book with her short, fat fingers, and silently recited the pronunciation at the end.

Because she had not yet recovered from her cold, she would always sniff after reading two sentences, and sneeze after reciting two sentences.

This went on for a full half hour, and little Ivy felt that she deserved a round of applause because it exceeded the average concentration time of a 10-year-old.

She planned to take a break before reciting again, just like the break between classes. In the schedule she had arranged for herself, this was the "ten minutes between classes" during which she could relax.

Little Ivy knew what she should do. She didn't make any noise, nor did she disturb her mother who was studying British law nearby. After all, her mother hadn't told her to take a break yet, so she would be being lazy and slacking off.

Ivy sat steadily in her seat, pointing at words with her fingers, her mouth moving constantly, her eyelids half-closed, and her nose twitching, like a "good child figure" that every parent would be happy to buy home.

Gradually, Ivy's fingers stopped moving, and her thoughts flew to the five big blood-red words "Coulrophobia" again.

She was basically certain that she suffered from "clown phobia". She had all the symptoms listed in the book, and it was even serious enough to affect her normal life.

But there were still things she didn't understand. Fear of clowns was only one aspect, which was easy to explain, because she hated the overly bright paint on the clown's face, which covered the clown's entire disguise except for its eyes and mouth.

And the clown's eyes... tired, hateful, and completely unrelated to the corners of his mouth that curved up to the apples of his cheeks, expressing happiness.

And the clown's mouth... is clever and changeable, very different from the greasy and heavy veil or mask.

Such a contrast made her feel sick. She didn't know why, but she felt a wave of nausea rising from the bottom of her heart.

Therefore, she was afraid of seeing clowns, afraid of seeing red mouths and cloudy eyes.

Ivy, on the other hand, is terrified of the terrible disasters that come with the Joker.

This is hard to explain... Ivy checked several books and the Internet several times but couldn't find a reasonable answer.

The disasters that come with the Joker have no cause, no case, and no connection...

Ivy was just five years old when she first met the clown. At that time, a new large shopping mall opened in the city. In order to reward Ivy for winning the first prize in the recitation competition, her mother and father took her to the Maimai Restaurant on the 7th floor of the shopping mall.

Mak Mak Restaurant is a Western fast food restaurant. Its main dishes are hamburgers, French fries and fried chicken, which were very popular among children at that time.

In order to cater to the mainstream customer groups in the market and to compete with KFC across the street, Mak Mak Restaurant introduced Uncle Mak Mak as its image spokesperson as soon as it was established.

The KFC spokesperson is a kind and amiable old grandfather, while Uncle Mai Mai is a clown with a red pompadour, yellow jumpsuit, and a red nose. He can blow balloons, throw colored balls, and give out ice cream...

There is no doubt that Uncle McMahon has brought countless joy and beauty to children all over the world, but not to Ivy.

When she saw the red-nosed clown's weird smile and dark eyes, little Ivy suddenly fell into a panic with palpitations and trembling. At that moment, the whole world seemed to be spinning and pouncing on her like a wild beast.

She used a lot of strength to suppress the trembling in her throat so as not to scream. After finally standing firm, she found that she was out of breath. It was a skill she was born with, but she seemed to have forgotten it all of a sudden, which made Ivy extremely annoyed.

She stood there stupidly, and no one noticed that something was wrong with her.

The clown standing at the door of the store smiled and handed little Ivy an ice cream in a jelly box. The ice cream was white, covered with a layer of dark purple mucus. It could be berries, grapes, but now it seemed more likely to be ripe mulberries.

But no matter what the dark purple mucus tasted like, its color was not good, and it made Ivy feel nauseous again.

She was trembling all over, her eyes fixed on the ice cream in the clown's hand. In the center of the slime were some small black seeds. The surface of the seeds was smooth, the size of fish eggs, and the shape of eyeballs.

I don't know if it was an illusion, but Ivy always felt that the little seeds were about to open their eyes, revealing scary bloodshot eyeballs. The pupils in the middle of the eyeballs were of different shapes, some were completely black, some were orange-yellow, some were scattered, and some were three gathered together...

But even in this situation, little Ivy was still under a lot of pressure. The clown kept promoting the ice cream in his hand, her mother kept urging Ivy to come forward and try it, and her father glared at her with bulging eyes, full of impatience and boredom.

So, Little Ivy made the most important decision of her life:

"I don't want McNuggets anymore. I want KFC."

After saying that, without waiting for the three people present to respond, Ivy calmly broke free from her mother's hand, took big strides and quickly ran into the KFC across the mall.

Faced with her mother's subsequent questioning, Ivy rolled her eyes and made up an excuse: "I like older Kenji Grandpa." She got away with it.

The subsequent meal was not pleasant. During that meal, Ivy had the hamburgers, fries and cola chicken wings as she wished, and even ordered an extra sundae topped with strawberry jam after the set meal.

But her mother's accusations and her father's lectures filled her entire meal. What they said to her was not pleasant to hear, and could even be said to be annoying...

Coupled with the shock of meeting the clown just now, Ivy's taste buds seemed to be overwhelmed by the vortex of fear, and she could only eat mechanically in the aftertaste.

Like a thorn in the back, like a fishbone stuck in the throat, like sitting on pins and needles... these three words appeared neatly in her mind for the first time, like a sharp thorn, piercing her spine and passing through her back...

What’s even more terrifying is that this situation soon reappeared.

The second time was three days later, when she heard a cold piece of news while having dinner in a restaurant:

"In the past week, several food poisoning incidents occurred in the Maimai Restaurant in XX City. Most of the poisoned people were children aged between two and fourteen. Three people have died and more than 3 people have been injured... After preliminary investigation, the police have identified the suspect Wen. It is understood that Wen passed a social interview and entered the Maimai Restaurant a week ago. His job for the week was to play a clown at the door of the Maimai Restaurant to attract customers... The police are currently searching for the suspect in all directions..."

"The clown...ice cream..."

Ivy looked at the red-nosed clown on the TV screen in disbelief, and the spoon in her hand fell next to the bowl as lightly as sand.

At the same time, she found that she couldn't breathe again. Little Ivy's face turned red, so she had to recite slogans to herself in her mind to complete the inhalation and exhalation smoothly.

"Mom..." she called softly, "Dad..."

No one responded. Neither Mom nor Dad heard the news on TV. Even during dinner, they didn't look up at each other, nor did they notice anything unusual about little Ivy.

Like a thorn in the back, like a fishbone stuck in the throat, like sitting on pins and needles...

The third time was even faster. The next morning, when the news reported the McMahon clown incident, Ivy was taken to court by her parents for divorce proceedings.

Everything went smoothly. Since there was solid evidence that Dad had cheated on his wife, both the property and Ivy were awarded to Mom.

The court was very serious. Everyone held their breath before the court started, and after it ended, everyone held their breath twice, except Ivy...

It took her a week to figure out what the word "divorce" really meant.