Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The endless speeches finally came to an end, and Dean Liu led the inspection team to tour the orphanage while two officers emerged from the corner and stood in front of the children.

Shen Juanjuan recognized these two officers; they would come every now and then, taking one or two lucky children away to Cloud Peak.

He immediately covered his mouth and turned to look at Lin Duozhi.

Lin Duozhi was breathing heavily, as if he couldn't catch his breath, but his eyes were unusually bright.

All the children on the playground recognized these two officers. They all straightened their chests, not making a sound, even the coughing that had been echoing ceased.

Shen Juanjuan felt both anticipation and tension. He knew something would soon invade his mind, making it feel stuffy and swollen. But it would only last a moment, and compared to going to Cloud Peak, that discomfort was nothing.

"Get ready for the mental power check. It will be quick, don't be afraid, don't be afraid."

As the caretaker's soothing voice echoed, muffled groans of pain started to rise from the children. Shen Juanjuan turned to look, but suddenly, there was a loud buzz in his head, as if a heavy hammer struck his skull and a drill whirred inside.

The drill charged through his brain, causing excruciating pain, and just as he let out a cry, it abruptly withdrew.

Though the intense pain vanished, Shen Juanjuan still staggered, falling to the ground. Lying on his back, looking up, his face and lips had lost all color. It took several seconds for him to regain his senses.

He struggled to get up but saw the two officers already heading towards the orphanage gate, followed by a boy and a girl from the senior class.

Shen Juanjuan hadn't cried when he was in pain, nor when he fell, but now, watching their backs, tears streamed down his face.

"Wah..."

The other children around him were also crying, but quietly, only emitting sad, muffled sobs.

"Alright, everyone, disperse and go to the dining hall for breakfast," the caretaker said, softening her tone.

When Chu Ya entered the playground, the older children had already left, leaving only a few younger ones standing still, sniffling and looking towards the gate direction, including the noisy, dirty child.

The child's face was smeared with snot and tears, though silent, the light in his eyes had dimmed, filled with sorrow.

It looked somewhat pitiful.

Chu Ya continued walking but suddenly stopped, opened his leather bag, and rummaged inside.

This time, knowing he didn't like eating outside food, his mother had packed some jerky and chocolate for him.

Chocolate was rare even in Cloud Peak, but since he disliked sweets, he had only eaten the jerky, leaving the chocolate in the bag.

Chu Ya turned towards the dirty child and extended his hand.

Shen Juanjuan was crying together with Lin Duozhi.

First, he saw the colorful wrapper, then the clean, slender fingers. Looking up, he realized it was the handsome boy from Cloud Peak.

Chu Ya stared at Shen Juanjuan, forcing himself not to scrutinize the dirty face, focusing instead on the only clean part—the black, tear-soaked eyes.

After a moment of surprise, Shen Juanjuan's gaze returned to Chu Ya's hand.

He thought he understood Chu Ya's intention and choked out, "Your wrapping paper is very, very pretty, just like the one I found in the garbage dump, equally beautiful."

Chu Ya silently held out his hand, and Lin Duozhi nervously moved closer to Shen Juanjuan.

Shen Juanjuan looked up at Chu Ya again. "Yours is really pretty, without any mud spots. If you stick it on the window with water, it becomes flat."

"You have to wait until it dries before removing it," Lin Duozhi added softly.

Chu Ya remained motionless, and Shen Juanjuan rubbed his eyes, his voice trembling. "Can I show you later? I'm still feeling sad right now."

Chu Ya ignored the new smudge on Shen Juanjuan's face and explained briefly, "This isn't empty; there's food inside."

"Oh, so you—"

"Take this."

"Ah?"

"It's for you." Chu Ya glanced at the thin Lin Duozhi. "Share it."

In shock, Shen Juanjuan forgot his sadness, slowly tilting his head to see the other side of the wrapper, confirming that it was indeed full.

"Are you giving it to us?" Shen Juanjuan asked suspiciously.

"Yes."

"You're giving us food?" Shen Juanjuan asked incredulously.

Chu Ya frowned. "Hurry up, or I'll leave."

Lin Duozhi stood there dumbfounded, but Shen Juanjuan finally reached out his hand.

However, he seemed unsure if Chu Ya would actually give them the food, keeping his eyes on Chu Ya and extending his hand cautiously, ready to retract it if Chu Ya changed his mind.

Seeing the dirty little hand approaching, Chu Ya's forehead twitched, and he said urgently, "Wait."

Shen Juanjuan quickly withdrew his hand, nervously hiding it behind his back.

"Extend your hand, palm open, and don't move."

Shen Juanjuan obediently extended his left hand, and Chu Ya lifted one corner of the wrapper, placing the chocolate in the open palm.

After doing this, Chu Ya turned and walked towards the orphanage gate, hurriedly getting into his vehicle. The two boys watched him until he was out of sight before turning back.

They looked at each other, and Shen Juanjuan bit and tore the wrapper, releasing the sweet aroma of chocolate, making him exclaim silently.

"What's this?" Lin Duozhi leaned forward to the bag's opening.

Shen Juanjuan sniffed and exclaimed with surprise, "It smells so good! This black lump smells amazing!"

"What black lump? Let me smell it."

Shen Juanjuan swallowed audibly. "This might be a hard biscuit."

Someone passed by, and Shen Juanjuan quickly tightened his grip on the bag, hugging the chocolate to his chest. Lin Duozhi hurriedly stood beside him as a shield.

Once that person had gone, Shen Juanjuan looked around warily. "We shouldn't stay here."

Lin Duozhi nodded eagerly. "Okay, let's hide. Otherwise, the older kids will snatch it from us."

The two boys, fearing someone would take their treasure, contained their excitement and moved around for a bit before hiding behind a stack of cement bricks in the corner of the playground.

Shen Juanjuan sat down with his back against the bricks, pouring all the chocolates onto the front of his shirt.

"Round."

"Mm."

"… Wow, it smells so good."

"Let me smell it too… wow."

"I'll count how many there are." Shen Juanjuan extended his fingers to count. "One, two, three, one, two, three."

"Four comes after three," Lin Duozhi said.

"I know. One, two, three, four, one, two, three…"

After counting twice without success, Shen Juanjuan simply divided the chocolates evenly with Lin Duozhi.

Holding their chocolates, the two boys had already forgotten about not being chosen to go to Cloud Peak. Lin Duozhi wanted to return to the dormitory to hide the chocolates, but Shen Juanjuan didn't want to go back yet. After Lin Duozhi left, Shen Juanjuan put the chocolates in his pocket and walked to the fence, looking out.

The convoy from Cloud Peak was still parked outside the orphanage gate. Shen Juanjuan pressed his face against the gaps in the fence, staring at the car Chu Ya was in, while he took a chocolate ball from his pocket. He gently scraped his teeth over it, savoring the dizzying sweetness that exploded in his mouth.

He felt it was too far away to see clearly, so he followed the fence forward, pressing his face against the gaps again, watching the car and nibbling another layer off the chocolate.

Still too far.

A little closer.

…

Chu Ya sat in the car, waiting for those who were touring the orphanage to return. Ever since arriving in the Abyss, he had felt suffocated and depressed, and now the air inside the car seemed to make it even harder to breathe.

"Master Chu, do you need to get out and get some fresh air?" the driver asked considerately.

Chu Ya lowered his eyes. "No need."

"Should I open the window for a bit?"

Chu Ya remained silent, and the driver pressed the button to lower the window.

The window slid down silently, allowing fresh air to enter. Chu Ya naturally turned his head toward the window, then his expression changed, and he became somewhat stiff.

Less than a meter from the car window, behind the iron fence, a dirty child's face was wedged between the bars, his eyes distorted and stretched upward, and his tongue was sticking out long.

Chu Ya's first reaction was that the child was stuck, and he immediately reached for the door handle to get out. But just as he touched it, the tongue and face suddenly withdrew, and the child grinned at him, looking somewhat silly.

It was the dirty child wearing the cotton cap.

Chu Ya was genuinely startled by the child's appearance and felt a bit annoyed. He couldn't understand why the child had come here again, but he wouldn't ask. He simply pursed his lips and sat back down with a stern look.

Without speaking, Shen Juanjuan stood behind the fence, watching him continuously while extending his tongue to lick the chocolate.

"Do you still want to learn how to stick paper stickers?" Shen Juanjuan finally started talking.

Chu Ya ignored him.

"Do you want a black lump? Here."

Chu Ya sat upright, not even glancing at the hand reaching through the bars.

"Don't you want it? You don't want it? It's really delicious. Oh, you gave it to me, so have one too?"

Shen Juanjuan's outstretched hand received no response, so he withdrew it and nodded to himself. "He definitely doesn't want it right now." Then he put the chocolate back in his pocket.

"My paper stickers are all found in the garbage dump. Sometimes I can find glass marbles too. Do you want them? They're very pretty… hmm."

Hearing Shen Juanjuan sniffle, Chu Ya's temple twitched. Just as he was about to tell him to go play somewhere else, Shen Juanjuan exclaimed, "Your thing fell, the cloth tie around your neck."

Paper stickers, black lumps, cloth ties…

Chu Ya was not used to such repeated words and took a moment to react. He reached into his coat pocket and realized his tie was missing. Looking at the piece of light blue fabric on the ground outside the car, he knew it must have fallen when he got in.

The road in the Abyss was covered with gravel and dust. Seeing Chu Ya sitting still, Shen Juanjuan stuffed half a chocolate into his mouth and ran towards the gate. "I'll pick it up for you."

Before Chu Ya could stop him, Shen Juanjuan dashed off and reappeared outside the car, panting.

He picked up the tie, his eyes sparkling as he looked at Chu Ya, extending his hand toward the window. "Here."

"I don't need it." Chu Ya hesitated.

"Huh?"

"Just throw it away."

Shen Juanjuan’s face showed a hint of confusion as he looked down at the tie. "Why throw it away? Is it broken? It doesn’t seem broken." He then straightened the tie and handed it through the car window. "Look, it’s fine."

Chu Ya leaned slightly to the side. "I said I don’t want it! Just throw it away!"

"…Oh."

Shen Juanjuan held the tie and squatted down, carefully placing it back where it was before standing up again, looking down once more, then glancing at Chu Ya.

"But it really is good. I have half a roll of tape; if there’s a hole, I can fix it for you—"

"I don’t like this tie. If you like it, you can have it." Chu Ya interrupted him and pressed the button to close the window.

This time, Shen Juanjuan didn’t hesitate. He picked up the tie, stuffed it into his pocket, took two steps forward, and on tiptoe, shouted through the slowly closing window, "Then I’ll give you something too."

Without waiting for Chu Ya’s response, he quickly ran back to the welfare home.

Shen Juanjuan ran across the playground, through the dormitory building hallway, nearly colliding with an older child.

"Are you blind?"

He was pushed by the older child and fell but didn’t make a sound. He quickly got up and ran out the back door of the dormitory building.

The backyard was enclosed by a fence, now a desolate area that used to be a forest with lush green branches like large umbrellas. Now, it was filled with broken tables, chairs, and iron beds. Not far outside was a graveyard where children who had died young from the welfare home were buried. Through the gaps in the fence, one could see the small mounds of earth.

Many terrifying stories circulated in the welfare home, most starting with: One night, in our backyard…

So the children from the welfare home didn’t like coming here, and there wasn’t a single person in sight now.

Shen Juanjuan crawled under the pile of broken furniture and emerged holding a blue square metal box.

The box had lost much of its paint, and the lid was adorned with a pattern of circular cookies. He opened the lid, revealing colorful wrapping paper, a yellow plastic spoon, a blue transparent medicine bottle, and a small pile of glass marbles.

Shen Juanjuan counted them with his fingers: "One, two, three, one, two, three." Then he chuckled, "You’re all here!"

Not a single marble was missing.

He closed the box, held it tightly in his arms, and ran urgently towards the main gate of the welfare home.

Outside the iron bars, many people had gathered, and the vehicles were already rumbling to life. Shen Juanjuan ran as fast as he could, but by the time he reached the gate, the convoy had already moved forward.

He chased after the convoy, and a caretaker noticed him and shouted, "Which class is that kid from? Why did he come out? What are you running for?"

Shen Juanjuan didn’t respond or slow down. He kept his eyes on the black military vehicle in the middle of the convoy, clutching the metal box tightly to his chest, running until sweat broke out on his forehead and white puffs of breath escaped his mouth.

But the convoy gradually accelerated, and despite his best efforts, the vehicle grew farther and farther away. He cried out loudly, "That person! That person! I haven’t given you the marbles yet!"

"Ouch!"

He stumbled over a stone and fell heavily, the metal box hitting the ground, scattering the marbles everywhere.

Shen Juanjuan lay still for several seconds. When he finally caught his breath and slowly lifted his head, he saw the convoy had disappeared in a cloud of dust.