Chapter 21 “Little Fish Orphanage”

Chapter 21: Little Fish Orphanage

Panpan ran up to Little Fish and reached out to pull her back—

Didn't budge?

Panpan looked down, skeptically examined her own hand, then tried again, putting more strength into tugging Little Fish back.

Still, nothing moved.

She was using all her might, but Little Fish remained firmly planted in place, even maintaining a puzzled, questioning expression.

"Sister Panpan?" The little kid blinked in confusion, watching Panpan grit her teeth and strain backward, not understanding what she was doing.

Panpan: "…"

She felt like she was seeing a ghost.

In that moment of self-doubt, Little Fish suddenly raised a hand, and Panpan stumbled, nearly falling backward and hitting her head on the ground.

But Little Fish caught her.

Held her steady.

Panpan: "…??"

Mother Director, help me! I think I really did see a ghost!!

She looked at Little Fish in terror, her eyes full of bewilderment.

Though she had only met Little Fish yesterday.

Right now, she felt like she was meeting her all over again.

"Be careful~" The little kid reminded her gently, waiting until she was steady before letting go.

Then she turned around again, holding the documents, and headed inside.

"Wait—" Panpan snapped back to reality, finally remembering why she had called out to Little Fish.

"You can't go in here." Panpan grabbed Little Fish's arm again, but no longer dared to pull her back forcefully. Instead, when Little Fish turned to look at her, she whispered once more, "This place is off-limits. Sister Sangye said the Director is sleeping in there, and we can't disturb her."

But her expression clearly hid a hint of fear.

Fear of the room behind Little Fish—the Director's room.

As if… once you enter, something absolutely terrifying will happen.

Hearing this, Little Fish glanced at the dark, chilly corridor.

"When will she wake up?" she asked softly.

Panpan shook her head, dejected. "I don't know… Even Sister Sangye doesn't know."

"When was the last time the Director woke up?" Little Fish continued, still holding the stack of documents.

Panpan thought for a moment, then lowered her head and began counting her fingers—fingers that were gradually becoming bloody and mangled.

"Yesterday… the day before… yesterday…"

One finger curled down, another half-finger strained to curl, then a pale white bone pressed down…

Until all ten fingers had been counted.

Panpan still couldn't get an exact answer from her memories.

So she looked up at Little Fish.

A flicker of red flashed in her eyes.

Little Fish tilted her head, and somehow understood the meaning of her silence at that moment.

So the little kid generously raised both hands and asked softly, "Sister Panpan, do you want to borrow my fingers to keep counting?"

The red in Panpan's eyes deepened, and she stared intently at the ten pale, delicate, short fingers held up in front of her.

"Can I?" She seemed still rational, struggling to suppress her surging nature.

But her efforts didn't seem very effective.

Little Fish's shiny black eyes fixed on her, then suddenly curved into a smile. She shook her head and hands together. "No, you can't, Sister~"

Panpan was stunned. The sudden and unwavering refusal seemed to short-circuit her already not-so-bright brain.

For a moment, she could only stare wide-eyed at the little head shaking in front of her.

"…Why not?"

She sounded a bit aggrieved.

"Because there's a better way to count~"

The little kid said gently, then, in front of everyone, took hold of both of Panpan's hands.

As dusk deepened and twilight fell, all the people and ghosts, without exception, widened their eyes in horror, staring at the terrifying scene unfolding before the small building—

"One day, two days, three days…"

Little Fish muttered while counting, placing Panpan's bloodstained finger bones one by one on the steps.

Not only that, but she kept counting while sweetly asking her victim, Panpan:

"Sister, was it this day?"

"Sister, is it today?"

"Sister, how many more days?"

"Sister…"

Panpan: "…"

Everyone (and ghosts): "…"

S-so scary!!

Why did they have to witness such a terrifying scene? Just because they foolishly followed and didn't run away in time?!

"M-maybe we should just run?" Cheng Jingjia's voice trembled, already choked with sobs.

Zhao Yu secretly shrank behind a few players, making herself as small as possible so that the other players could hide her completely.

Zhang Hui's face was deathly pale, trembling and shaking, truly scared out of his wits.

Whenever he thought about that afternoon when he actually tried to charge at the boss with a table leg to fight to the death, he felt that being able to breathe and still be alive was such a luxury and a stroke of luck.

Qi Jing was not much better off.

He gulped and whispered to Cheng Jingjia, "Escape? This dungeon is this small. Where could we escape to?"

Forget about escaping—no one would dare even move a muscle, for fear that any rash move would draw the attention of that ferocious boss ahead.

But they were worrying unnecessarily.

Xiao Yu was engrossed in her peculiar counting method, eager to get an answer quickly, snapping off Panpan's finger bones one by one.

The crisp sound of bones breaking gave everyone goosebumps.

This was making a thorough and brutal example of her.

It was a bloody dismemberment for all onlookers.

And the culprit only wanted to help the victim count the days earlier and get an accurate answer sooner.

"...Isn't this also a kind of kindness?" said Tongtong, holding her own head, watching contentedly from the side.

After all, she couldn't be the only victim~

The terror of Xiao Yu needed to be experienced by more kids, so that everyone would have a common topic!

When the players could no longer stand to watch the horrifying scene unfolding before them and were about to break down, Panpan, whose hands were now gone, cried and nodded at Xiao Yu.

"It's, it's this day!" she blurted out, as blood-red tears slid down her pale cheeks.

Xiao Yu stopped.

The little girl crouched on the ground, looked up and sought confirmation, asking, "Sister Panpan, is it really this day?"

Panpan: "..."

A little, a little unsure.

But she didn't dare shake her head.

So Xiao Yu got a tearful and aggrieved confirmation from Sister Panpan.

"Oh, I got it! Thank you, Sister Panpan~"

Xiao Yu nodded cheerfully, then began to carefully count the finger bones she had broken off and laid neatly on the ground.

"1, 2, 3..."

Under the silent night sky, the little girl's soft, sticky child's voice finally stopped at 21 days.

No one knew why she insisted on getting an accurate answer.

Only Xiao Yu herself knew.

She was counting the time that Director Mom had secretly been raising children in this Xiao Yu Orphanage behind her and the other kids at home.

Xiao Yu wasn't satisfied with the answer.

Director Mom didn't stay at Xiao Yu Orphanage every day either.

Then, besides the combined time in the two Xiao Yu Orphanages, where else did Director Mom go?

Xiao Yu stood up, looked around the desolate and dilapidated orphanage shrouded in night, and frowned as she thought: Could it be that Director Mom had secretly opened a third, fourth, or even more Xiao Yu Orphanages?

Xiao Yu didn't know.

But Xiao Yu was already getting upset.

Her mouth pouted so much you could hang a tiny oil jug from it. Even though she was already this angry, she still remembered to pick up the "borrowed" counting tools and return them to Panpan.

"Thank you, Sister Panpan~" the murderer Xiao Yu politely thanked.

Panpan: "..."

Didn't dare accept, yet didn't dare not accept.

In the end, she realized she had no hands to accept.

Panpan suppressed the tears welling in her eyes, sobbed, and said, "S-sorry... I don't have hands... boohoo..."

She finally couldn't hold it in and burst into tears on the spot.

She even said sorry to Xiao Yu.

The circle of onlookers, both big and small: "...!!"

This Xiao Yu is really terrifying!

She even scared a ghost into crying!!

Amidst the crowd of terrified gazes, Xiao Yu scratched her head, gave a shy, closed-lip smile, and said, "Sister Panpan, you're welcome. I'll put them back on for you, okay? I'm really good at reattaching bones. I won't mess them up!"

Xiao Yu wasn't lying. Her movements in attaching bones were just as clean and swift as when she had taken them apart.

The blood-red tears on Panpan's face hadn't even dried before she received a pair of "complete" hands again.

"...This isn't right, is it?" Cheng Jingyi was really crying this time, and through her tears she reminded, "Isn't... isn't it a bit too complete?"

If she remembered correctly, Panpan's original hands weren't this complete!!

"Author's Note"

Xiao Yu refused, fought back, then sewed and patched.

The next chapter will be a VIP chapter! I'll go home tomorrow and start transforming into an octopus, writing like crazy!

Last night I had a dream where everyone in the comments was calling my chapters short [crying]. What a damn nightmare! Even scarier than Xiao Yu [crying][crying]!!