When Selina took Aisha from Bruce, it was already quite a strain, after all, Aisha was not a baby. Holding a three- or four-year-old child was taxing, and Selina, being smaller in stature than Bruce, found it even more challenging to control an excited Aisha.
Just then, the aerial acrobat performance, after a brief intermission, entered its climax. The dazzling aerial manoeuvres thrilled Aisha to the point of frenzy, and she sprang forward with such force that Selina couldn't hold her back.
Aisha launched herself onto the front row seats, then climbed to the ground and wriggled under the seats of the front row. Selina pursued her on the same path.
Yet, Aisha sped away as if she had unlocked some superpower, darting through the layers of seats, vanishing almost instantly.
Selina completely lost sight of her and had to search row by row.
At the same time, backstage, a small shadow scurried past. The ringmaster sensed something and turned sharply but saw nothing.
At this point, the ringmaster, armed with a saw, approached the stake that secured the rope for the aerial acrobat performance.
In the aerial acrobat performance, ropes used for swinging are hung from an even higher rope. The ringmaster, holding the saw, approached the stake securing the highest rope with a cruel smile.
The ringmaster began to saw through the thick rope, cursing as he sawed. But just as the rope was about to break, a small figure appeared and bit his arm.
Aisha wasn't there to do justice; she was just bored and was naturally interested in things that moved. As the ringmaster sawed, his arms moved up and down. In the dark backstage, his arm was the only thing moving, so Aisha bit him without giving it a second thought.
Unfortunately, Aisha was too light, and her bite too soft, just like when she bit Bruce and Selina's arms. Besides leaving a row of bite marks, it didn't do actual harm; it only made the ringmaster's arm hesitate for a moment.
The thick rope, which was already sawed to its limit and was just hanging on, finally snapped.
But it was this brief delay that allowed Bruce, who had just come out of the restroom, to get closer to the stage.
The moment the rope snapped, the two people hanging from it began to fall. But for such a long rope to be completely released from the other end, it would take a few seconds. Bruce rushed onto the stage and, in the shadows of the curtain, grabbed the flying rope.
But he was alone, and the two people falling from the end of the rope were heavier; his weight wasn't enough to stop their fall. Bruce had anticipated this problem before grabbing the rope, so he wrapped the rope around his arm twice with one hand and grabbed the curtain with the other.
With a fixed point, the rope stopped pulling out, and the Graysons hanging on the other end were left hanging in midair.
Suddenly, Bruce heard the sound of sharp intake of breath. He turned his head to see the boy, who claimed to be the Grayson family heir, standing backstage.
His eyes were wide open, his mouth agape, staring at Bruce with sheer astonishment on his face.
From the audience to the stage was a certain distance. Several rows of seats were in front of where Bruce was. Bruce completed a series of actions within a few seconds, including jumping over the seats, rushing up the steps, grabbing the rope and the curtain.
His quick response, fluid movements, and precise execution made it look less like a heroic rescue and more like an artistic performance. To onlookers like Little Grayson, Bruce seemed to be glowing.
Bruce sighed and said, "Stop standing there. Come and help with the rope."
The shocked Little Grayson realized that his parents were about to fall. The shock on his face turned into anger. As he helped Bruce pull down the rope, he said, "It must be the ringmaster! He's had it in for my father for a while now!!"
After a while, the rope was returned to its original position, and the two performers were back on the platform. They came down and thanked Bruce.
Mrs. Grayson was already in tears. Little Grayson angrily said, "It must be him! Let's go settle this with him!"
"Don't go! Dick! Come back!" Mrs. Grayson called him, but the boy named Dick had already run off. But in the end, Dick was called back by his mother.
"Can someone explain what just happened?"
At this point, Mrs. Grayson was on the brink of a breakdown, clinging to her husband and weeping non-stop. Mr. Grayson was also a bit dejected. As ordinary people who had just experienced a life-and-death crisis and the terror of hanging in mid-air, not knowing when they might fall, they were totally devastated.
As if searching for an outlet for their feelings, Mr. Grayson said to Bruce, "...I know it was him. It was that ringmaster. We didn't want to work here either, but we had no choice."
"There should be quite a few circuses on the East Coast, why don't you go there?"
Mr. Grayson sighed and said: "You probably don't follow these kinds of things, do you? My father, Old Grayson, the former aerial acrobat, made a major mistake during a performance. Not only did he fall from mid-air, but he also hit the edge of the stage props. He…"