Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Chu Ya turned off the bedroom light, and Shen Juanjuan tossed and turned under the covers, muttering incessantly.

"What's wrong? You sound like a boiling kettle." Chu Ya asked with his eyes closed.

Shen Juanjuan didn’t make a sound or move. Just as Chu Ya thought he had fallen asleep, Shen Juanjuan suddenly lifted his legs, pushing the blanket high up before slamming it back down onto the bed. He continued to lift and slam his legs.

Chu Ya turned his head to look at him: "What are you doing? It’s time to sleep."

Shen Juanjuan seemed not to hear him. This time, when he slammed his feet on the bed, he also let out a loud cry: "Ah!!"

Chu Ya didn’t say anything but reached out to feel around the bedside. Shen Juanjuan noticed his movement and asked, "What are you feeling for?"

Chu Ya raised his hand, holding something that Shen Juanjuan couldn’t see clearly. Shen Juanjuan asked again, "What do you have in your hand?"

"A clothes hanger!"

"Oh."

Shen Juanjuan stopped slamming his feet against the bed but still couldn’t lie still. With one wave of his hand, he threw the blanket off himself. Chu Ya covered him up again, but he kept throwing it off. Covering, throwing, covering, throwing. His feet no longer slammed the bed but instead propped up against the wall beside him.

After several warnings from Chu Ya, he finally lost patience and raised his hand.

Smack!

The slap landed on Shen Juanjuan’s buttocks.

Shen Juanjuan put his feet down from the wall.

This time, Chu Ya made sure to cover him completely, ensuring no cold air could get near his neck and shoulders.

"Why don't you use the clothes hanger?" Shen Juanjuan asked in the dark.

"Are you going to be picky about how you get punished?"

"But you should use the clothes hanger to hit me!" Shen Juanjuan flung the blanket off again, asking angrily, "Why don’t you use the clothes hanger when you hit me?"

Chu Ya was exasperated by his unreasonable behavior and raised his hand again.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Shen Juanjuan fell silent instantly.

Chu Ya covered him with the blanket once more. This time, Shen Juanjuan didn’t dare to throw it off again and didn’t insist on being hit with the clothes hanger. Instead, he wrapped himself tightly in the blanket, only his head poking out, crying softly.

Chu Ya ignored him, lying down and closing his eyes. Shen Juanjuan’s crying gradually subsided, humming like a mosquito.

After a while, he found it boring and opened his eyes to sneak a peek at Chu Ya. Seeing Chu Ya lying on his side with his back to him, Shen Juanjuan propped himself up and looked at Chu Ya’s face.

"Hmm... hmm..."

"Do you want another couple of slaps?"

"Hmm..." Shen Juanjuan lay back down.

But even after lying down, he couldn’t stay still. He stretched his legs out from under the blanket and started kicking the wall, making a thumping noise. Chu Ya couldn’t figure out what he was doing and reached over to turn on the light.

Under the light, Shen Juanjuan raised his hand to shield his eyes, but his cheeks were flushed red, and his ears were so red they looked like they might bleed. His hair was damp with sweat, sticking to his head.

Chu Ya was momentarily stunned, realizing that Shen Juanjuan wasn’t just being unreasonable; he was running a fever.

"Are you feeling hot?" Chu Ya asked.

"Hmm..."

How could it be so hot in such cold weather? Is he sick?

Chu Ya reached out to touch Shen Juanjuan’s forehead, but the skin felt normal, without any sign of fever.

"Is there anywhere you feel uncomfortable?" Chu Ya asked softly.

Shen Juanjuan looked at Chu Ya with frustration: "Yeah, I feel uncomfortable."

"Where exactly?"

"I feel uncomfortable everywhere, even my hair feels uncomfortable." After a moment, he added, "I’m just very angry, extremely angry."

"What are you angry about?"

Shen Juanjuan showed a hint of confusion: "I don’t know."

"Then what do you want to do now?"

"I, I want to hit the teddy bear."

"You’ve been getting angry a lot lately. You’ve hit the teddy bear three times today." Chu Ya patiently whispered, "When you feel angry, close your eyes and take deep breaths."

He demonstrated: "This is how you take deep breaths."

Shen Juanjuan followed along, laughing as he breathed deeply. He reached out to touch Chu Ya’s cheek, then his own puffed-up cheeks. It seemed his mood had improved, the earlier agitation gone, and the flush on his face fading.

Finally, Chu Ya managed to get Shen Juanjuan to fall asleep. Looking at the sprawled-out child, doubts bubbled up in his mind.

Shen Juanjuan’s behavior was identical to that of a sentinel or guide entering their differentiation period.

Could he really be differentiating?

Chu Ya’s heart raced. If his mental domain were intact, he could investigate with his mental power, but now that he had none, he wouldn’t know even if Shen Juanjuan was differentiating.

Shen Juanjuan clearly realized he was floating in the air, looking down at the small courtyard below. He felt weightless, free to move about in the sky or suddenly swoop down close to the ground. He was like a breeze that could slip through tightly closed windows and climb up to high rooftops. He could be everywhere and penetrate anywhere.

Excitedly, Shen Juanjuan drifted above the courtyard, experiencing this extraordinary sensation. He would dive down like a bullet and then shoot back up just before touching the ground.

When he descended again, he suddenly noticed a dark blob on the roof.

Although it was night, Shen Juanjuan didn't need light; everything appeared crystal clear to him. However, he couldn't make out the shape of the dark object. Its contours were blurry, its lines indistinct, resembling an elongated oval table with four long legs.

A table!

A ghost hiding behind the table!

Shen Juanjuan immediately wanted to flee, but his curiosity held him back, urging him to approach cautiously.

I'll just take a quick look, just one look. I want to see what kind of ghost is hiding behind that table...

He slowly moved closer, trying to peek behind the table. Suddenly, the nearest leg lifted up and swung at him like a steel rod, sending him reeling in terror.

Shen Juanjuan let out a silent scream, spinning uncontrollably as if he had been hit by a whirlwind...

Inside the room, two sleeping children lay on the large bed. Shen Juanjuan suddenly frowned, clutching Chu Ya's arm and mumbling in his sleep. Chu Ya turned over in his sleep, gently patting his back, calming him down so he fell back into peaceful slumber.

This time, Shen Juanjuan found himself in a strange place. The world was vast and dark, filled only with tornadoes and giant boulders colliding and spinning. He didn't know where he was, but he wasn't panicked. It felt familiar, enveloped by Chu Ya's presence, intimate and safe, making him instinctively understand that this was Chu Ya's domain.

The lights from the junkyard shone through the window, casting a grayish-white glow over the furniture. Chu Ya lay wide awake on the bed, his eyes devoid of any sleepiness, filled instead with shock and disbelief.

When the guide's mental energy tried to enter his mental domain, he instantly woke up, thinking it might be someone from Gu Lin. He reached for the dagger under his pillow.

Holding the dagger, he looked around but found nothing unusual. Outside, all was quiet except for the sound of the automated forklifts working at the junkyard.

He could feel the mental energy was very weak, gently probing the outer walls of his mental domain like a kitten playing with yarn, curious yet cautious, touching and quickly retracting.

He also sensed no hostility from this guide's mental energy; rather, it felt familiar and close, almost as if he could hear a child's laughter and the call of "Shen Miaomiao."

Chu Ya's heart pounded wildly as he slowly turned to look at Shen Juanjuan beside him.

The child slept deeply, half his face buried in the pillow, his mouth slightly pplayed.

Is it him? How can it be him? No way...

No, it has to be him!

Chu Ya suppressed his excitement and didn't wake Shen Juanjuan, simply placing the dagger aside and lying back down.

He couldn't sense his own mental domain but could feel Shen Juanjuan's movements within it, along with occasional exclamations of amazement.

"There are so many stones, why are there so many stones?"

"Ah, I'm being swept away by the wind, oh oh oh oh, I'm so dizzy."

"I've been hit by a stone again, hahaha."

"I'm going to hit you too, I'm going to scatter you!"

...

Chu Ya closed his eyes, feeling a slight smile tug at his lips. When the excitement subsided, he opened his eyes and looked at Shen Juanjuan, worry creeping back into his mind.

Originally, awakening as a sentinel-guide pair would make them a priority for military protection. For an orphan like Shen Juanjuan, it provided self-defense and changed his fate. But Chu Ya had seen the two children taken away from White Castle, knowing that entering the differentiation phase wasn't good for Shen Juanjuan. He wished Shen Juanjuan could remain an ordinary child, growing up safely in the orphanage.

Entering differentiation now meant an uncertain future for Shen Juanjuan, filled with both blessings and curses. Chu Ya tossed and turned in bed, his emotions fluctuating between joy and concern.

It wasn't safe for Shen Juanjuan to keep returning to the orphanage every day, but there was no other choice for now. They needed to find another way to obtain food, and then they wouldn't have to go back to the orphanage.

But even if they found food, Shen Juanjuan still needed to return to the orphanage. If Cloud Peak noticed someone missing, it would cause more trouble.

Chu Ya finally fell asleep late into the night, sensing Shen Juanjuan still playing in his mental domain, leaping into the tornadoes and being flung out again.

The next morning, when Shen Juanjuan woke up, he remembered everything vividly but dismissed it as a dream.

"I went to a very strange place after falling asleep, very strange," Shen Juanjuan said, sitting on the bed with his hair tousled, as Chu Ya dressed him.

"Hold your hand up, right arm," Chu Ya said, slipping Shen Juanjuan's hand into the sleeve before asking, "That was a dream."

"A dream?" Shen Juanjuan looked puzzled. "But this dream was... very different."

"Different how?" Chu Ya glanced at him.

Shen Juanjuan struggled to describe it: "My dreams are usually short, but this one was long, and I remember it. It's clearer than dreaming about eating buns."

"What do you remember?"

"I remember spinning in the wind." Shen Juanjuan closed his eyes and shook his head. "I spun and spun and spun..."

Chu Ya finished dressing him in clothes and shoes. "Go brush your teeth and wash your face."

"But I just did that last night." Shen Juanjuan carried his teddy bear, sighing heavily as he walked out of the bedroom, suddenly exclaiming, "Again? Always washing!"

He turned to look at Chu Ya, who watched him calmly, and grumbled as he continued to the bathroom.

"Don't throw the teddy bear!" Chu Ya called out.

Shen Juanjuan placed the teddy bear on the sofa. "Hmph!"

Chu Ya watched him storm out of the main room, sighing inwardly.

Shen Juanjuan had entered the differentiation phase, often becoming irritable and angry. But since they couldn't get suppressants from the abyss, they would need to find a punching bag for him to release his frustrations.

Chu Ya went to warm up the bean cakes. After Shen Juanjuan finished washing up, he went to ride his steel ball car. Chu Ya finished warming the bean cakes and picked up Shen Juanjuan's hat, scarf, and shoulder bag before leaving the house and closing the door: "Let's go."

Shen Juanjuan turned his head and smiled: "Beep beep, da da da, grandpa's little car beep beep... I'll ride for a bit longer."

"Then two more minutes."

"Beep beep, da da da..."

The two left the courtyard, and as usual, Black Wolf appeared from somewhere, following them at a distance. It seemed to be just passing by, but its eyes kept glancing at Shen Juanjuan, only to look away nonchalantly when Chu Ya noticed.

On the way to the welfare home, Chu Ya repeatedly instructed Shen Juanjuan to avoid anyone from Cloud Peak if they came to select children.

"I'm asking you now, what would you do if an officer came to the welfare home?"

"You've asked me this many times," Shen Juanjuan said unhappily.

"This is the last time. If you answer correctly, I won't ask again."

Shen Juanjuan groaned and counted on his fingers: "When they gather us in the playground, I'll hide in the dormitory, cafeteria, bathhouse, or the backyard. If they come to the cafeteria, I'll quickly leave and run from the other end of the passage."

"Right, just don't go to the gathering."

"But there are so many places—the dormitory, the cafeteria, the bathhouse, and the backyard. Where should I hide?"

"Anywhere will do." Chu Ya adjusted his hat and hesitated: "Or find Dean Liu and have him hide you."

As usual, Chu Ya stopped near the welfare home and watched Shen Juanjuan enter.

"Will you wait for me, right?"

Chu Ya was distracted and didn't answer immediately, so Shen Juanjuan frowned: "Shen Miaomiao! Will you wait for me, right?"

"Yes, I will wait for you," Chu Ya replied.

Shen Juanjuan looked at him suspiciously before turning to walk into the welfare home, saying rudely: "Don't try to be like those shameless people, okay? You need to listen."

After taking a few steps, he turned back, waved a hanger at Chu Ya with his short fingers, and warned with a hum.

Chu Ya watched his pouting back, thinking that making a punching bag was urgent—today, not even later.

Shen Juanjuan entered the cafeteria and joined the line for his class, greeting familiar kids while taking out treasures from his bag to share.

The kids gathered around, and Wang Zhusheng, watching from the front, immediately went to his brother, pulling on Wang Chengcai's sleeve: "Brother, look at their little iron box; I really like it."

Wang Chengcai vaguely replied: "That kind of iron box is no good; I'll get you a better one next time."

"No, no, I want that iron box." Wang Zhusheng started to act up, seeing his brother ignore him, he threatened to lie down.

Wang Chengcai grabbed his arm, raised his hand, and shouted angrily: "Do you want a slap?"

"Wah... I want that, I want that."

Wang Chengcai ordered Wang Zhusheng back to his line. When Wang Zhusheng returned crying, Shen Juanjuan grinned at him, shook the iron box, and placed it high in a child's hand.

"I don't care!" Wang Zhusheng wiped his tears.

"Haha..." Shen Juanjuan beamed.

"I'm going to hit you." Wang Zhusheng said angrily.

Seeing his brother wasn't looking, Shen Juanjuan boldly retorted: "I'll stab you one-two-three, one-two-three."

Just as they were about to confront each other, the cafeteria doors suddenly opened, and Manager Chen appeared at the entrance.

But behind him was not a worker carrying buckets, but the rarely seen Dean Liu, causing the children's chatter to cease.

Dean Liu looked anxious, with sweat on his forehead. He stepped aside and said to someone behind him: "They're all here, everyone."

A middle-aged man entered slowly. His face was covered in dust, his rough hands had frostbite, and he wore a dark blue cotton coat with blue letters printed on the pocket.

All the students watched curiously, and the older ones whispered: "He's from the mine; his clothes have the mine logo."

The middle-aged man stopped near Shen Juanjuan. Shen Juanjuan heard Dean Liu whisper: "People from above are coming soon; please keep an eye on things. We had no choice; we finally found your information and managed to bring you here."

The man scanned the room, bit his lip, and seemed to make a decision.

"Dean Liu, you must promise not to tell anyone about me."

"Rest assured, even if I die, I'll take this secret to my grave."

"That's too much, Dean Liu. I trust you, but I just want to be ordinary, and it's been hard keeping it hidden..."

"I understand, I understand." Dean Liu looked at Manager Chen: "Rong Chen?"

Rong Chen immediately responded: "I swear, this will stay with me; I won't tell anyone."

The man sighed slightly, said nothing more, and stood there, while Dean Liu and Rong Chen watched him silently.

"Ouch."

"Ahh..."

Painful cries echoed in the room, and some children stumbled and fell. Shen Juanjuan felt a sudden heaviness in his head, as if something had abruptly entered.

He recognized this sensation; every time Cloud Peak selected children, standing in line on the playground, they experienced this. So he instinctively tensed, bracing for pain.

This time, however, he only felt something clearly entering his mind without any pain. He could even see a vast space within his body, where a silver thread moved around.

Instinctively, he felt wary and hostile toward the light band, wanting to drive it out. But as soon as he aggressively chased it, the light thread retreated and vanished outside the space.

Shen Juanjuan felt the presence in his head leave and blinked in confusion. The other children were squatting on the ground, holding their heads, or just getting up.

The middle-aged man looked at Dean Liu, who hurriedly asked, "How was it?"

The middle-aged man did not respond but lightly tapped his finger twice toward the crowd before turning and leaving the cafeteria. Shen Juanjuan turned to look out the window, seeing the man quickly exit through the main door and get into the welfare home's van parked outside.

The vehicle started, and the van sped away. At this moment, Dean Liu spoke, "Shen Juanjuan, Wang Zhusheng, come with me."

Dean Liu held one of their hands each and led them out of the cafeteria, heading toward the other side of the playground.

Dean Liu walked briskly, forcing the two children to jog to keep up. Shen Juanjuan stumbled but was tightly held by the large hand, preventing him from falling but causing him to spin halfway in the air.

Without waiting for him to regain his balance, Dean Liu continued pulling them forward. Wang Zhusheng kept looking back at the cafeteria, while Shen Juanjuan, jogging alongside, worriedly asked, "Where are we going? Am I not allowed to have breakfast? Can't I eat breakfast?"

Dean Liu, panting as he walked, replied, "You can eat; you'll have your meal later." He then glanced at the bag hanging from Shen Juanjuan's waist, adding, "I'll pack it for you too."

Shen Juanjuan felt relieved and listened to Dean Liu's instructions while jogging. Wang Zhusheng also perked up his ears.

"I'm taking you to a place where you'll stay for a while before being let out," Dean Liu said.

Shen Juanjuan asked, "Can we not stay there for a while?"

"No," Dean Liu refused, his usually kind face now stern. "You two must stay inside quietly without making any noise."

The place Dean Liu referred to turned out to be the welfare home's warehouse. He led them to the far end of the warehouse, gave them a few more instructions, and then hurriedly left the room, locking the door with a click.