Chapter 31 “Little Fish Orphanage”

Chapter 31 "Little Fish Orphanage"

"This game is very simple." Tongtong's light-colored pupils reflected the uneasy look of the human in front of her. She smiled, her eyes crinkling, and urged innocently, "Uncle, are you ready?"

Qi Jing took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself several times before nodding calmly: "I'm ready. Let's begin."

With that, he lowered his head to observe the several boxes covered with black cloth in front of him.

All these boxes were draped in identical black cloth, making it impossible to see what was inside from any angle. The rules of Tongtong's game were also simple: Qi Jing just needed to find the item she specified from among these boxes and take it out to win.

Like Bai Ye, Tongtong gave Qi Jing three attempts for the five boxes.

Qi Jing clenched his fingers, took another deep breath, and then reached into one of the boxes.

His fingers passed through the black cloth without any resistance, as if entering another space through an air wall.

Before Qi Jing could fully register this sensation, his fingertips were touched and wrapped around by something soft, slippery, and sticky.

Almost instantly, the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He shook off the creature violently and instinctively tried to pull his hand back.

"Don't move!" Liu Ren, who was watching nearby, felt his eyelids twitch but still stopped him just in time: "Only three chances, don't waste them!"

Qi Jing, who had nearly been scared out of his wits, barely stopped himself from pulling back. He looked at Tongtong with a shaken expression, meeting her eyes, which were full of amusement—she was clearly enjoying the show. Goosebumps crept up his arms and spine as he asked in a trembling voice: "Are there... living creatures in there?"

Tongtong nodded happily: "Yes~ They're all my little pets! Don't be afraid, they're very well-behaved!"

Qi Jing: "..."

Liu Ren: "..."

At that moment, Liu Ren silently crossed this little game off his mental list as he looked at Qi Jing's bloodless, pale face.

Not knowing what was inside was already terrifying enough, and now it turned out there were even more unknown living creatures packed inside?

And they were the "little pets" raised by a bratty little ghost—just hearing that description was enough to make one's scalp tingle!

Who would dare play this? Even if he had ten times the nerve... he couldn't do it!

But while he could cross off the game, Qi Jing had already been forced into it with no way out.

Tongtong wanted Qi Jing to find her favorite glass ball among the boxes.

Logically, searching for an inanimate object among living creatures shouldn't be too difficult.

But that was only if those living creatures didn't actively touch him, crawl around, or hide that glass bead inside their bodies.

And there were five boxes here...

Qi Jing felt his mind go blank. His hand was already pulled up to the top, but he could still feel something soft, cold, and slippery slowly sliding across his fingertips!

Seeing him frozen like a stone statue, standing there dazed with only a layer of goosebumps on his arms, Liu Ren took a deep, silent breath and quietly stepped back a few paces.

Then, thinking "better him than me," he urged in a low voice: "Just bear with it. Make up your mind and end this torment quickly."

After saying this, Liu Ren shivered uncontrollably, feeling that this instance was more terrifying than those high-level instances the veteran players talked about.

Other instances want your life; this one is different—it not only wants your life but also tries to drive you insane before you die!

Hearing this, Qi Jing's already grim face twisted even further, the muscles in his face seeming to contort for a moment. He suppressed his terror and gritted out: "Shut up!"

Liu Ren: "..."

Fine, I'll shut up.

Not only did he shut up, but he also secretly took two more steps back, afraid that Qi Jing might lose his sanity out of fear and casually pull something out of the box to hurl in his direction.

Qi Jing had already forgotten how many deep breaths this was. He finally made up his mind, instinctively closed his eyes, and as if throwing caution to the wind, suppressed the fear deep within, thrust his hand down, and groped wildly in the box.

Tongtong watched calmly, waiting patiently.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

At the fifth second, Qi Jing abruptly pulled his hand back, his whole hand convulsing and trembling. His face pale, he staggered back several steps, as if the black box in front contained some unknown, extreme terror.

He braced his trembling hand on the wooden table that held the boxes, bent over, and began to retch uncontrollably from physical nausea.

The sound of the man's dry heaving in the darkness was eerily chilling.

Tongtong's face scrunched up as she looked at him, thinking he was a boring coward.

If Little Fish were here to play...

Tongtong couldn't help but think, if it were Little Fish, he definitely wouldn't be afraid of the unseen little animals in the boxes.

Little Fish was the most awesome Game King!

Little Fish was only five years old; this grown-up was many, many years older than him.

He couldn't even compare to Little Fish—coward! Scaredy-cat!

Tongtong stared at Qi Jing, and without him knowing, she seriously crossed him off her list of potential parent candidates.

Tongtong didn't want a cowardly daddy, because such a daddy wouldn't be able to protect her and keep her from being bullied.

But the game continued.

When the human in front of her was no longer going to be her new daddy, Tongtong could focus more on enjoying the show.

She watched his fear, his struggle, his near breakdown.

Humans were so much fun~

-

After parting from Cheng Jingjia, Zhao Yu deliberately began making her selections.

In the end, among all the children, she chose Song Pingan's game, which no player had tried yet.

When Song Pingan saw her coming over, he seemed very happy. But even when he smiled, he was still an introverted, shy child, with two small cute dimples on his cheeks. His delicate, cute features made it hard to tell at a glance whether he was a boy or a girl.

"Sister, do you want to play my game?" Song Pingan asked softly, nervously.

Zhao Yu looked at his cautious, probing expression; her eyes darkened for a moment before she calmly asked: "What are the rules of the game?"

A smile bloomed on Song Pingan's face as he said happily: "Sister, my game is really simple... it's just to reassemble a broken little monster. As long as you complete half of the little monster's body, you win."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu's first thought was: This game doesn't rely on luck.

Then she noticed the words "little monster" in what Song Pingan had said.

She wasn't afraid but instead silently laughed at herself.

Monsters? Compared to vicious people, monsters might be a lot more pleasant to look at than people.

Thinking that, she gave a slight nod to Song Pingan and snapped, "Then let's begin."

Song Pingan did not announce the start of the game immediately. Instead, he said cautiously, "Big sister, the little monster is a really good little monster. If you don't like it, please don't hurt it, or else parts of it will disappear."

Weird. Zhao Yu frowned impatiently and snapped: "I know. Let's start."

She needed to quickly gather more clues about the murderer, so that she could have more say in the team.

Hearing her say that, Song Pingan didn't delay any further. He told Zhao Yu to hold out her hand, and he himself reached out to touch her fingers.

The next second, the pair—one adult and one child—who had been standing there vanished together, leaving only a writhing dark shadow silently changing in the night, as if it were devouring and digesting some delicious food.

-

Little Fish was woken up by a scream.

She yawned, the little one still dazed with sleep. With messy hair, she sat on the bed hugging the blanket, staring blankly into space.

It was pitch-black both inside and outside the room.

But Little Fish could see perfectly fine.

She yawned again. The sleepiness slowly faded. The little one rubbed her eyes and slowly got out of bed.

Putting on her shoes, she pushed open the door and went outside.

At that moment, Little Fish Orphanage was bustling like never before.

Little Fish stood under the eaves at the door, her gaze a bit dazed as she watched the adults and children. After a long while, she turned around and brought a small stool from inside the house. She sat under the eaves, resting her cheek on her little hand, tilting her head to quietly watch the bustling crowd.

It was as if she were an outsider watching from the sidelines of this orphanage.

Yet clearly, all the noise at this moment was caused by her alone.

-

Xiaoyin frowned at the person before her and gestured angrily:

"Don't scream, you woke up Sister Xiaoyu!"

The little girl was in a bad mood; even the gestures of her tiny hands seemed annoyed.

Huang Xiannian: "..."

At that moment, he couldn't be bothered to figure out what the child meant by her gestures. He only felt that he was scared out of his wits!!

He carefully selected from among a dozen children and finally chose Xiaoyin, who seemed the most harmless.

He even made many guesses in his mind, ruling out many dangerous games, before finally picking Xiaoyin's game.

A very simple little game, and it fit the characteristics of Xiaoyin, this little ghost, because the game was called "No Talking."

The game required him not to make any sound no matter what he saw.

Once he made a sound, he would lose the game.

Huang Xiannian truly thought he would be fine. He wasn't the kind of person to make a fuss over nothing, and moreover, he didn't think a child could come up with anything terrifying.

He even cheated by covering his mouth with his hand in advance.

He had taken every possible precaution before letting Xiaoyin start the game.

But the next second, he regretted it.

Because what he saw was not something a child had imagined.

It was simply a picture.

He saw himself.

He saw a "himself" submerged straight in water, for who knows how long, already bloated into a giant corpse, with bulging eyeballs staring fiercely at him.

That soul-piercing fear, that spine-chilling shock that hit his skull in an instant—Huang Xiannian couldn't keep his sanity. He was terrified, so scared that his own eyeballs bulged out, and he could only rely on screams to release this indescribable horror.

In the moment he locked eyes with his underwater self, he even felt as if he had died once more.

That suffocating feeling of being unable to breathe forced him to immediately choose the simplest way: a hoarse scream to prove he was still alive.

"You failed."

Xiaoyin shook her head at him regretfully, ignoring his attempts to stop her, too late. She reached out and stuffed a small paper ball into his trembling palm, then ran on her own toward Little Fish under the eaves.

"Author's Note"

Little Fish baby, who doesn't get grumpy when woken up and just obediently spaces out on her own.

Thank you babies for the nutrient fluids and throwing thunder tips. The annoying rules on JJWXC—these aren't shown in the new chapter, only show up in real time in the chapter where the tip was given, but I see them all. Mwah mwah mwah~

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