Chapter 177
Chapter 177
Everyone silently crowded around the little mud-brick hut. Some stared into space, some caught up on sleep, some picked at the wall, and one… read a novel.
Kong Xianya was exceptionally carefree.
She neither held grudges nor used her brain.
But something seemed wrong with her now. Luo Yunmeng had just awakened and yawned. When she saw Kong Xianya holding her phone with a devastated expression, she curiously asked, “What’s wrong?”
Her voice was not loud, but in a place quiet enough to hear a needle drop, it seemed deafening.
The Pen Spirit clicked her tongue from the branch and shot her a murderous glare.
Luo Yunmeng hurriedly covered her mouth, though her curious gaze remained fixed on Kong Xianya.
Kong Xianya looked up with empty eyes. Her first words were, “I was wrong.”
Everyone: ??
“I never should have opened this masterpiece out of curiosity. Sure enough, curiosity kills the cat. It kills me. Kill, kill, kill!”
“What masterpiece? I’d love to hear the details.”
Kong Xianya shuddered. “I don’t know whether you’ve heard of *I’d Give You My Life*. It’s only twenty-eight chapters, but twenty-eight years might not be enough to recover from reading it…”
Luo Yunmeng might be pursuing a doctorate, but she was no bookworm. “Forget it. I can’t bear the suffering of this mortal world.”
As the conversation continued, they forgot to control their volume. This time, the Pen Spirit could not sleep at all. She sat up on the branch, her bare feet swinging above Qiao Yu’s head. “So noisy. It isn’t even dark yet.”
Qiao Yu fell silent. “Ren Yan, you have three seconds to move those stinking feet. Otherwise, the first thing I do after we leave is dance on your grave!”
The Pen Spirit shrugged, floated down from the tree, and stood before Qiao Yu. “You’re so petty.”
“Yes, I’m exactly that petty. I usually repay grudges on the spot.”
“My grave doesn’t even have Wi-Fi. Could you install it when you visit?”
Qiao Yu sneered. “Are you so old that your memory is failing? I already said I’m petty. Why would I pay to install Wi-Fi for an old woman like you? If you aren’t awake yet, go outside and drink some northwest wind until you clear your head.”
The Pen Spirit trembled with rage. “Your mouth is the thing that should be sealed with tape! Luo Yunmeng, shut the door and bring me tape!”
Luo Yunmeng shot over, closed the door, and respectfully presented her clear tape.
The Pen Spirit had backed herself into a corner. She found herself an excuse. “I don’t want wide tape.”
Luo Yunmeng immediately produced two more rolls. “I also have narrow and medium-width tape!”
The Pen Spirit looked at Qiao Yu staring directly at her, slowly accepted the tape, and tore off a strip. Then she slapped it over Luo Yunmeng’s mouth and greeted the stunned woman. “Hello, easy target.”
Luo Yunmeng: …
Qiao Yu ignored the Pen Spirit’s behavior of bullying the weak while fearing the strong. He used his little stick to write softly on the ground.
In the past, he had only known a few numbers and simple characters with few strokes. Now he could write anything.
Without thinking, he wrote “Shang Yan,” then unconsciously wrote “Yuan.” The moment he finished, discomfort abruptly welled in his chest. He did not know whether he was tired from writing or simply disliked the name. Before he could erase it…
A sneakered foot reached over and stomped twice on the final name.
Dust covered the neat letters until their original shape was no longer visible.
Only then did Qiao Yu look up at Shang Yan. “What are you doing?”
Shang Yan froze too. He withdrew his foot and suppressed the sudden fire in his heart. “I was bored.”
“You stomp on what I write because you’re bored? Are you asking for domestic violence?”
Shang Yan looked away, his voice slightly nasal. “Can we not do something so uncivilized?”
Qiao Yu’s inexplicable mood vanished. He dropped the stick and listlessly glanced toward the mountain behind them.
Heavy footsteps sounded outside the courtyard almost instantly.
Acting on reflex, Qiao Yu ran to the collapsed wall, stepped on its protrusions, and climbed over to the back mountain.
Luo Yunmeng and the others froze, then copied him and jumped down behind the wall. They had barely made it over when the door crashed open.
Aunt Deng’s booming voice echoed across the empty courtyard. “Qiao Yu! Where did you wretched brats run off to?”
No one answered. Only the sound of objects being thrown around came from the other side of the wall, each crash full of rage.
During the commotion, Luo Yunmeng instinctively looked behind them.
Her eyes widened, and she hurriedly covered her mouth.
Among the layered waves of flowers, one gaunt figure after another moved through the poppies, harvesting their seed pods like walking corpses.
Their cheeks were hollow and their eyes empty. They looked like bones wrapped in a thin layer of dried skin, making it impossible to tell whether they were human or ghost.
“A kindhearted person is here to adopt a child. Are you sure you won’t come out?”
Aunt Deng sounded anxious, but no one answered her.
Shang Yan frowned. Silently, he looked at the person beside him holding his breath. His amber pupils resembled shattered glass reflecting dim light.
The breeze swept past. Stray strands of black hair hid the emotions in his eyes, while his fingers quietly hooked around Qiao Yu’s cold fingertips…
“Annoying brats! Don’t let me catch you!”
Aunt Deng finally left, but no one dared speak.
The frozen atmosphere filled everyone with foreboding.
Considering Qiao Yu’s reaction today and what he had said to the female ghost Maria the previous night, the person coming to adopt a child might very well be a pedophile.
So the orphanage was using charitable donations as a cover to traffic children and… drugs.
In the absolute silence, only the fiery sea of flowers behind them swayed soundlessly, every seductive movement full of temptation.
“Qiao Yu… Those people?”
Luo Yunmeng tugged at Qiao Yu’s sleeve, her voice trembling.
Qiao Yu blinked. His calm gaze passed over the numerous Ghost Shadows in the flower field and turned toward the mountaintop. In a small building hidden behind the flowers, a slight figure wearing a mask carried goods.
Kong Xianya narrowed her eyes and recognized him. “Isn’t that… the streamer whose mouth the Slit-Mouthed Woman cut during One, Two, Three, Freeze?”
Qiao Yu did not speak. He silently watched.
After moving the goods, the streamer ran into the flower field and began harvesting poppy seed pods like the Ghost Shadows, a walking corpse reduced to a machine for labor.
“No one is supervising him. Why is he working so hard?” Luo Yunmeng voiced her confusion.
Qiao Yu narrowed his eyes as well and pointed at the streamer. “Do you see those festering sores on his body?”
Luo Yunmeng made a questioning sound, then nodded.
“People who use drugs for years don’t merely die young. Their bodies develop problems too. Rotting skin is one symptom.
“And those Ghost Shadows… They were all free labor here while alive.
“The director also used drugs to control the neighbors outside the orphanage. No one dared report her profiteering. At critical moments, they even helped conceal the truth and warned her.
“From the town mayor down to ordinary residents, everyone became the director’s obedient dog.”