Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Although Shen Juanjuan was still sad, he finished eating the entire sweet potato and even licked the crumbs off his fingers. Feeling better after eating, he picked up a teddy bear from the bed and kissed it.

It was a dark brown stuffed bear with sparse fur, revealing the mesh fabric underneath in patches. It was missing an arm, and its left ear was hanging loose, threatening to fall off at any moment.

Shen Juanjuan tucked the bear behind his back as he left the room. He dared not bring his toy to the orphanage; the older kids would snatch it away. So he only played with it here.

He began a solo gunfight among the metal blocks. Sometimes he shot to the left, quickly pulling his head back and pulling the hat's earflap down to his mouth, pretending it was a walkie-talkie: "I'll rush out; you cover me." Other times, he crawled on the ground, rolling left and right to dodge the invisible bullets.

After playing for a while, he would sneak glances at the older kids until he saw they had left the junkyard. Then he ran over quickly.

The garbage transporter came once a day, and unmanned forklifts moved the trash into the processing area. The older kids had already sifted through the surface layer of garbage, but Shen Juanjuan poked around with a stick and found nothing. Disappointed, he slid down the garbage pile, returned to the office, put away the teddy bear, locked the door, and dejectedly headed back to the orphanage.

Actually, cutting through the middle of the abandoned town would save a lot of distance, but after sifting through the junkyard, everyone always climbed through the adjacent metal fence and circled around the town before leaving.

The children at Angel Orphanage loved the junkyard but also feared the town next to it. There were plenty of ghost stories about the abandoned town, though fewer than those about the backyard of the orphanage—about a sixty-forty split.

The reason for the twenty percent difference was that most of the children had never been there, so they couldn't imagine the scenes as vividly as the backyard of the orphanage, which brought them more direct fear.

Shen Juanjuan wasn't afraid of the orphanage's backyard. He didn't know what the ghosts looked like, but they never hit him or took his food. Why should he be afraid?

But he was afraid of the abandoned town.

Those dark windows, dim rooms, and empty streets made his heart race, and he couldn't help but want to run far away.

He didn't understand why he was afraid of this place or that it was actually his fear of loneliness and death.

Despite his fear, Shen Juanjuan was also curious about the abandoned town.

As he walked along the metal fence toward the orphanage, he would quickly turn his head to look again and again.

From the gaps between houses, he could see the buildings across the street, the metal signs embedded in walls, the iron decorative benches fixed outside shops, and the flat cement sidewalks.

These items, although covered in dust, still showed their original beauty, more beautiful than the orphanage and even the descriptions of Keke Town, making him wonder what it used to be like.

But looking too much made him scared, so he would quickly look away and hurry forward.

Shen Juanjuan returned to the orphanage but didn't immediately crawl through the hole beside the laundry room. Instead, he hunched over and darted past the fence by the orphanage gate, carefully searching for his lost glass ball.

It had taken him a long time to collect these six balls, and he couldn't lose any. He planned to give them to his brother when he next visited the orphanage.

Shen Juanjuan had said it so many times that he naturally started calling Chu Ya "brother."

This path was exposed, but the sides were covered in thick dust, making it hard to spot the glass ball. He searched with a small stick and finally found one, happily putting it in his pocket. But just then, he heard a loud shout from behind: "Who's there?"

Shen Juanjuan froze, slowly turning around to see a supervisor standing in the front yard, pointing at him through the fence.

He tried to run, but the supervisor shouted again: "Stay right there!"

Shen Juanjuan stood frozen, half-bent forward, covering his face with his hands, only peeking through his fingers.

The supervisor angrily opened the gate, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him back.

"Rebellious and thick-skinned, caught you this morning, and now you're sneaking out again."

Shen Juanjuan's toes touched the ground as he tried to wriggle free: "Actually, you've got the wrong person. I'm not Shen Juanjuan."

The supervisor slapped his hand away: "How did you get out?"

Shen Juanjuan remained silent.

He had been caught several times before when sneaking out through the hole, knowing he couldn't reveal the iron bars' secret. Otherwise, he'd never get out again and face retaliation from the older kids.

"Tell me, how did you get out with this gate locked?"

Shen Juanjuan blinked but remained silent.

The supervisor who had caught Shen Juanjuan was the head supervisor. As they passed, other supervisors greeted him: "Supervisor Chen." Their gaze fell on Shen Juanjuan, and they chuckled: "Caught again?"

"Yes, caught again, hehe," Shen Juanjuan replied, slightly embarrassed.

"You should check the gate lock later; it might sometimes be loose, allowing these cheeky ones to escape," said Supervisor Chen.

"Alright, I'll check it."

Amid a group of younger kids following and watching, Shen Juanjuan was led back to the punishment room.

"Will I be let out before dinner? Right? I'll get dinner, right?" Shen Juanjuan asked loudly through the door crack.

Supervisor Chen ignored him, shooing away the younger kids, and the sound of footsteps and voices faded away.

Alone in the punishment room, Shen Juanjuan wasn't anxious. He took out the tie and wrapped it around himself, gently caressing it and admiring himself in the window glass. Finally, he sat in the corner, happily sniffing the chocolate in his pocket.

His dorm mates occasionally came to talk to him through the window, including Lin Duozhi, Tang Yuanyuan, and Chen Hongliang.

"Did you feed your puppy earlier?" Lin Duozhi asked.

Shen Juanjuan leaned on the window frame: "No, I couldn't find it."

Tang Yuanyuan asked: "Did you check under the bed?"

"I did. It scratched my sofa to pieces."

"What about the bathroom and laundry room?"

Shen Juanjuan replied: "There are no bathrooms or laundry rooms there. It ran out of the hole, and it's really fast."

Chen Hongliang looked up at Shen Juanjuan: "I think it must be a quantum beast, taken back into the sentinel's mental realm."

"Ah! Isn't the quantum beast a duck? The quantum beast in Lili's Adventures is a duck." Shen Juanjuan and Lin Duozhi hurried to correct, "The duck is the quantum beast."

Tang Yuanyuan: "We don't have sentinels or guides here; only Cloud Peak has them."

"There are some. The seniors say there are some in Keke Town."

"There aren't."

"There are." Chen Hongliang's loud voice boomed.

Tang Yuanyuan and Chen Hongliang argued for a few moments before getting into a scuffle. Shen Juanjuan watched through the window bars for a while, then continued chatting with Lin Duozhi.

"How long will you be in here this time?" Lin Duozhi asked.

Shen Juanjuan shook his head: "I don't know."

"Will they let you out for dinner?"

Shen Juanjuan looked puzzled: "I don't know."

"Ah—ah—" The two fighting nearby were still at it.

Lin Duozhi said, "Then I'll go back first; our class is about to go to the entertainment room to watch TV."

"Watch TV, oh, we can watch TV today." Shen Juanjuan stomped his foot in frustration, making the stool he was standing on wobble, "I can't watch; I'm locked up and can't watch TV."

Lin Duozhi turned to look at the fighting kids: "It's time to watch TV."

The two kids who were pulling each other's hair immediately separated: "Is there going to be a cartoon today?"

Tang Yuanyuan, with her messy hair, said, "I want to watch Episode Ten of Lili's Adventures; the quantum beast appears in it."

Chen Hongliang: "I also want to watch Lili's Adventures."

"I really like Lili's duck quantum beast."

"Me too."

Shen Juanjuan pressed his face against the window bars, enviously watching them return to the classroom, feeling as if a little cat was scratching inside him.

The orphanage had only one television, and each class could watch it once a week. Although the same few cartoons were played over and over, the children still looked forward to it.

However, Shen Juanjuan wasn't too disappointed, after all, even though he couldn't watch TV, he had found a glass ball.

Sitting in the corner, Shen Juanjuan played with the glass ball, bored, reciting lines from the cartoon, occasionally glancing at the sky, looking at the black land floating above his head.

"...Psychic attack, quantum beast, attack..."

When Shen Juanjuan looked up again, the sky was pitch black. The streetlights shone through the window bars, casting a pale light on his face, making his long, curly eyelashes appear lighter. The temperature dropped further at night in the abyss, and he huddled in the corner, shivering, his breath forming white mist.

He hadn't been let out for dinner, but now he had passed the hungriest stage and only felt cold, so cold that chills seemed to seep into his bones. He fished a chocolate out of his pocket, trembling as he fed it into his mouth, the sound of chewing echoing quietly.

Eating the chocolate, wearing his scarf, Shen Juanjuan gazed at the dark sky. Although he couldn't see Cloud Peak anymore, he felt that his brother must be lying on a soft bed, covered in thick blankets, telling stories from the cartoons to the older children at the Cloud Peak orphanage.

The water heater rumbled, and the people around it sighed in relief.

"We've been working on this thing all day, finally got it fixed. Now the orphanage will have hot water," one of the caretakers said, relieved.

Another caretaker began packing up tools: "There's no way around it; only Cloud Peak had the part. We submitted reports multiple times, but there was no response. By the way, do you know why the supplies department suddenly delivered the part to us?"

"Why?" the others asked.

"I accompanied the young master Chu from the inspection team to wash his hands. I was worried he might get angry if he caught a chill from the cold water. But he didn't say anything, just washed his hands several times with cold water. After leaving the bathroom, he made a call, and his expression and tone weren't good."

The others pressed, "What did he say?"

"He was walking ahead, and his voice was low, so I couldn't hear clearly, but I heard him mention the water heater."

"That must be why the supplies department immediately sent us the part."

...

Several caretakers left the bathroom, whispering as they walked across the playground. Caretaker Chen, looking at the darkened school building, suddenly stopped and changed his expression: "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"I spent the whole afternoon fixing the water heater and forgot about someone still being locked up!"