It was this side of the court which lay in deepest shadow. By altering my position quite slightly I could command a view of the arched entrance on the left with its pale lamp in an iron bracket above, and of the high blank wall whose otherwise unbroken expanse it interrupted. All was very still; only on occasions the passing of a vehicle along Fleet Street would break the silence.
The nature of the danger that threatened I was wholly unable to surmise5. Since, my pistol on the table beside me, I sat on guard at the window, and Smith, also armed, watched the outer door, it was not apparent by what agency the shadowy enemy could hope to come at us.
Something strange I had detected in Nayland Smith's manner, however, which had induced me to believe that he suspected, if he did not know, what form of menace hung over us in the darkness. One thing in particular was puzzling me extremely: if Smith doubted the good faith of the sender of the message, why had he acted upon it?
Thus my mind worked—in endless and profitless cycles—whilst my eyes were ever searching the shadows below me.
And, as I watched, wondering vaguely6 why Smith at his post was so silent, presently I became aware of the presence of a slim figure over by the arches on the right. This discovery did not come suddenly, nor did it surprise me; I merely observed without being conscious of any great interest in the matter, that some one was standing8 in the court below, looking up at me where I sat.
I cannot hope to explain my state of mind at that moment, to render understandable by contrast with the cold fear which had visited me so recently, the utter apathy9 of my mental attitude. To this day I cannot recapture the mood—and for a very good reason, though one that was not apparent to me at the time.
It was the Eurasian girl Zarmi, who was standing there, looking up at the window! Silently I watched her. Why was I silent?—why did I not warn Smith of the presence of one of Dr. Fu-Manchu's servants? I cannot explain, although later, the strangeness of my behavior may become in some measure understandable.
Zarmi raised her hand, beckoning10 to me, then stepped back, revealing the presence of a companion, hitherto masked by the dense11 shadows that lay under the arches. This second watcher moved slowly forward, and I perceived him to be none other than the mandarin12 Ki-Ming.
This I noted13 with interest, but with a sort of impersonal14 interest, as I might have watched the entrance of a character upon the stage of a theater. Despite the feeble light, I could see his benign15 countenance16 very clearly; but, far from being excited, a dreamy contentment possessed17 me; I actually found myself hoping that Smith would not intrude18 upon my reverie!
What a fascinating pageant19 it had been—the Fu-Manchu drama—from the moment that I had first set eyes upon the Yellow doctor. Again I seemed to be enacting20 my part in that scene, two years ago and more, when I had burst into the bare room above Shen-Yan's opium22 den7 and had stood face to face with Dr. Fu-Manchu. He wore a plain yellow robe, its hue23 almost identical with that of his gaunt, hairless face; his elbows rested upon the dirty table and his pointed24 chin upon his long, bony hands.
Into those uncanny eyes I stared, those eyes, long, narrow, and slightly oblique25, their brilliant, catlike greenness sometimes horribly filmed, like the eyes of some grotesque26 bird….
Thus it began; and from this point I was carried on, step by step through every episode, great and small. It was such a retrospect27 as passes through the mind of one drowning.
With a vividness that was terrible yet exquisite28, I saw Kâramaneh, my lost love; I saw her first wrapped in a hooded29 opera-cloak, with her flower-like face and glorious dark eyes raised to me; I saw her in the gauzy Eastern raiment of a slave-girl, and I saw her in the dress of a gipsy.
Through moments sweet and bitter I lived again, through hours of suspense30 and days of ceaseless watching; through the long months of that first summer when my unhappy love came to me, and on, on, interminably on. For years I lived again beneath that ghastly Yellow cloud. I searched throughout the land of Egypt for Kâramaneh and knew once more the sorrow of losing her. Time ceased to exist for me.
Then, at the end of these strenuous31 years, I came at last to my meeting with Ki-Ming in the room with the golden door. At this point my visionary adventures took a new turn. I sat again upon the red-covered couch and listened, half stupefied, to the placid32 speech of the mandarin. Again I came under the spell of his singular personality, and again, closing my eyes, I consented to be led from the room.
But, having crossed the threshold, a sudden awful doubt passed through my mind, arrow-like. The hand that held my arm was bony and clawish; I could detect the presence of incredibly long finger nails—nails long as those of some buried vampire33 of the black ages!
Choking down a cry of horror, I opened my eyes—heedless of the promise given but a few moments earlier—and looked into the face of my guide.
It was Dr. Fu-Manchu!…
Never, dreaming or waking, have I known a sensation identical with that which now clutched my heart; I thought that it must be death. For ages, untold34 ages—aeons longer than the world has known—I looked into that still, awful face, into those unnatural35 green eyes. I jerked my hand free from the Chinaman's clutch and sprang back.
As I did so, I became miraculously36 translated from the threshold of the room with the golden door to our chambers in the court adjoining Fleet Street; I came into full possession of my faculties37 (or believed so at the time); I realized that I had nodded at my post, that I had dreamed a strange dream … but I realized something else. A ghoulish presence was in the room.
Snatching up my pistol from the table I turned. Like some evil jinn of Arabian lore38, Dr. Fu-Manchu, surrounded by a slight mist, stood looking at me!
Instantly I raised the pistol, leveled it steadily39 at the high, dome-like brow—and fired! There could be no possibility of missing at such short range, no possibility whatever … and in the very instant of pulling the trigger the mist cleared, the lineaments of Dr. Fu-Manchu melted magically. This was not the Chinese doctor who stood before me, at whose skull40 I still was pointing the deadly little weapon, into whose brain I had fired the bullet; it was Nayland Smith!
Ki-Ming, by means of the unholy arts of the Lamas of Rache-Churân, had caused my to murder my best friend!
"Smith!" I whispered huskily—"God forgive me, what have I done? What have I done?"
I stepped forward to support him ere he fell; but utter oblivion closed down upon me, and I knew no more.
* * * * * * *
"He will do quite well now." said a voice that seemed to come from a vast distance. "The effects of the drug will have entirely41 worn off when he wakes, except that there may be nausea42, and possibly muscular pain for a time."
I opened my eyes; they were throbbing43 agonizingly. I lay in bed, and beside me stood Murdoch McCabe, the famous toxicological expert from Charing44 Cross Hospital—and Nayland Smith!
"Ah, that's better!" cried McCabe cheerily. "Here—drink this."
I drank from the glass which he raised to my lips. I was too weak for speech, too weak for wonder. Nayland Smith, his face gray and drawn45 in the cold light of early morning, watched me anxiously. McCabe in a matter of fact way that acted upon me like a welcome tonic46, put several purely47 medical questions, which at first by dint48 of a great effort, but, with ever-increasing ease, I answered.
"Yes," he said musingly49 at last. "Of course it is all but impossible to speak with certainty, but I am disposed to think that you have been drugged with some preparation of hashish. The most likely is that known in Eastern countries as maagûn or barsh, composed of equal parts of cannabis indica and opium, with hellebore and two other constituents50, which vary according to the purpose which the maagûn is intended to serve. This renders the subject particularly open to subjective51 hallucination, and a pliable52 instrument in the hands of a hypnotic operator, for instance."
"You see, old man?" cried Smith eagerly. "You see?"
But I shook my head weakly.
"I shot you," I said. "It is impossible that I could have missed."
"Mr. Smith has placed me in possession of the facts," interrupted McCabe, "and I can outline with reasonable certainty what took place. Of course, it's all very amazing, utterly53 fantastic in fact, but I have met with almost parallel cases in Egypt, in India, and elsewhere in the East: never in London, I'll confess. You see, Dr. Petrie, you were taken into the presence of a very accomplished54 hypnotist, having been previously55 prepared by a stiff administration of maagûn. You are doubtless familiar with the remarkable56 experiments in psycho-therapeutics conducted at the Salpêtrier in Paris, and you will readily understand me when I say that, prior to your recovering consciousness in the presence of the mandarin Ki-Ming, you had received your hypnotic instructions.
"These were to be put into execution either at a certain time (duly impressed upon your drugged mind) or at a given signal…."
"It was a signal," snapped Smith. "Ki-Ming stood in the court below and looked up at the window," I objected.
"In that event," snapped Smith, "he would have spoken softly, through the letter-box of the door!"
"You immediately resumed your interrupted trance," continued McCabe, "and by hypnotic suggestion impressed upon you earlier in the evening, you were ingeniously led up to a point at which, under what delusion57 I know not, you fired at Mr. Smith. I had the privilege of studying an almost parallel case in Simla, where an officer was fatally stabbed by his khitmatgar (a most faithful servant) acting21 under the hypnotic prompting of a certain fakîr whom the officer had been unwise enough to chastise58. The fakîr paid for the crime with his life, I may add. The khitmatgar shot him, ten minutes later."
"I had no chance at Ki-Ming," snapped Smith. "He vanished like a shadow. But has has played his big card and lost! Henceforth he is a hunted man; and he knows it! Oh!" he cried, seeing me watching him in bewilderment, "I suspected some Lama trickery, old man, and I stuck closely to the arrangements proposed by the mandarin, but kept you under careful observation!"
"But, Smith—I shot you! It was impossible to miss!"
"I agree. But do you recall the report?"
I had done…."
"There was no report, Petrie. I am not entirely a stranger to
Therefore I took the precaution of unloading your Browning!"
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1
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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Mandarin
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| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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15
benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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intrude
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| vi.闯入；侵入；打扰，侵扰 | |
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pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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enacting
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| 制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的现在分词 ) | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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oblique
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| adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的 | |
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grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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retrospect
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| n.回顾，追溯；v.回顾，回想，追溯 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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29
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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30
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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vampire
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| n.吸血鬼 | |
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untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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42
nausea
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| n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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43
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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44
charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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45
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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46
tonic
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| n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的 | |
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47
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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48
dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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49
musingly
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| adv.沉思地，冥想地 | |
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50
constituents
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| n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素 | |
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51
subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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52
pliable
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| adj.易受影响的；易弯的；柔顺的，易驾驭的 | |
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53
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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54
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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55
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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56
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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58
chastise
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| vt.责骂，严惩 | |
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59
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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jugglery
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| n.杂耍，把戏 | |
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