Chapter 93
Chapter 93
Hearing this conversation, Jiang Li suddenly understood everything.
No wonder the children in the Orphanage never lived past the age of seven. This was the reason.
As for many of the Orphanage staff, they had died long ago. Most of them were Aberrations.
Otherwise, how could the Vice Dean have managed to ‘swallow Aunt Xiaoyu’s head in one bite’?
So… did Green Infant and Red Infant develop heart disease because of the water pollution as well?
And the Little Shota’s cleft lip and palate, the Black Kid’s congenital asthma…
Following this logic, the reason Yingying suffered from ‘pituitary hormone disorder’ was likely the same.
As for why Yingying could live for over thirty years…
It was most likely because she was indeed beautiful and was frequently adopted by outsiders, meaning she spent most of her time away from Binjiang District.
By moving back and forth like that, Yingying had barely managed to survive.
Just as she was thinking this, Jiang Li bumped into someone.
It was Green Infant.
Green Infant was carrying his massive burlap sack, looking dusty and disheveled, with a hint of piteousness about him.
“Brother, do you have to go?” Green Infant pouted, looking unhappy.
Red Infant nodded. “I have a Mommy now. If Mommy leaves, I must follow her.”
Green Infant asked with a face full of sorrow, “Will I have a Mommy too?”
Red Infant hopped down and gave Green Infant a hug. “You will. Just wait a little longer; you’ll definitely have your own father and mother too.”
The two children embraced in the rain, bidding each other a reluctant farewell.
At that moment, Jiang Li caught a glimpse of the contents inside Green Infant’s burlap sack.
Since they were outdoors, she could finally see what was inside by the natural light.
Inside that burlap sack, the Little Fatty Girl’s right foot had six toes.
In addition, there was a back of a hand covered in scales, an ear split into three lobes, and an eye on the sole of a foot…
Jiang Li was shocked for a moment.
Only now did she realize she had misunderstood Green Infant.
Green Infant used ‘helping children realize their wishes’ as bait to make them pay with body parts.
He wasn’t harming everyone; he was protecting them.
He didn’t want the outside world to think that the children in the Orphanage were all ‘freaks.’
Letting outsiders believe the children were ‘children with disabilities’ sounded much better than ‘freaks.’
Looking at it this way, Green Infant must have sensed that the river water outside had been artificially polluted.
That was why he had said things like, “The people outside are wicked, I don’t want everyone to be adopted.”
Furthermore, when the little girl ‘Lili’-who had just arrived at the Orphanage and hadn’t mutated yet-approached Green Infant to make an exchange, he had been considerate.
Even then, Green Infant had considered not affecting Lili’s normal life. He only took Lili’s vocal cords instead of cutting off a hand or a leg.
Taking the vocal cords was to make Lili a ‘child with a disability’ so that wicked people wouldn’t want to adopt her.
He didn’t take Lili’s limbs because her mutation wasn’t deep yet, and Green Infant didn’t want to ruin her normal life.
Only now did Jiang Li realize she had misunderstood Green Infant all along.
After Green Infant and Red Infant finished their farewells, Jiang Li stepped out of the Orphanage’s back gate.
At the gate, Jiang Li saw the Little Boy in the raincoat who often stood with Granny Liu.
“Oh, I forgot about you.” Red Infant looked at the Little Boy.
Jiang Li asked Red Infant in confusion, “Who is he?”
Jiang Li saw Red Infant wave his small hand, and the Little Boy instantly turned into a puddle of black mud.
“He’s a Clay Figurine I made. There’s a Granny Liu in the Orphanage who is very wicked and often bullies children.
“I sent Granny Liu into the Funeral Hall and sealed her in a Coffin.
“But I was afraid that if I wasn’t paying attention, Mommy would be snatched away by Granny Liu.
“So I made a Clay Figurine. Every time Granny Liu appeared, the Clay Figurine would come out to help Mommy.”
Red Infant smiled craftily and explained a few things to Jiang Li.
Hearing Red Infant say this, Jiang Li’s heart warmed, and she tossed him three hearts.
Red Infant’s eyes sparkled. “Wow!! Thank you, Mommy!!”
He happily began devouring the heart.
Jiang Li took Red Infant and boarded the car where “Uncle Xue” was waiting outside.
Once in the car, having eaten and drunk his fill, Red Infant fell fast asleep.
Jiang Li took a small blanket from the seat and draped it over him.
Inadvertently, she brushed against the candy wrapper in Red Infant’s hand.
Upon touching Red Infant’s “Dream Fragment,” Jiang Li was sucked in by a powerful force.
Inside Red Infant’s dream, Jiang Li stood bewildered in an open clearing.
This scene… was the main entrance of the Orphanage.
It was pitch black and freezing cold.
It was a winter night.
In this scene, Jiang Li saw Green Infant and Red Infant.
The two three-year-old twins were huddled by the door of the Orphanage, their breath coming out in white puffs as they rubbed their tiny hands together, shivering from the cold.
The rain was pouring down, yet the children were dressed in nothing but thin, flimsy clothes.
“Brother, did Mommy and Daddy not want us anymore?” Green Infant asked Red Infant, his body curled into a ball.
Red Infant patted his shoulder to comfort him and gave Green Infant his favorite candy.
Forcing himself to stay calm, Red Infant said, “No. Mommy and Daddy are just… just busy for a while.”
“Don’t be scared, Brother is here.”
Red Infant stroked his younger brother’s head and took off his own coat to put it on Green Infant.
Green Infant wrapped the coat tightly around himself and said obediently, “Brother, winter is so cold. I don’t like winter. I only like summer.”
Red Infant responded with a smile. “Okay. You like summer; I’ll remember that.”
At one in the morning, the “Sunshine Orphanage” had long since closed its doors.
In a place like the outskirts of the city, especially on a winter night, no one passed by at all.
By the latter half of the night, it began to snow.
Red Infant fell asleep.
Snowflakes drifted onto Red Infant’s eyelashes.
His eyes were tightly shut, and his lips had already turned pale from the cold.
Green Infant woke up and saw his brother suffering. Unable to bear it, he took off the clothes he was wearing and put them back on Red Infant.
That night, Red Infant survived, but Green Infant died.
The scene shifted to the next morning.
In this weather of “sleet and snow.”
Red Infant held his brother’s ice-cold corpse, weeping heart-wrenchingly.
In the cold winter, the climate suddenly became abnormal.
Dark clouds loomed, and winter rain fell incessantly.
Yet, the sky constantly echoed with the sound of “summer thunder,” completely out of season.
Summer was Green Infant’s favorite season.
Every time Red Infant cried out, the sky responded with a flash of lightning and a roar of thunder.
It felt as if the dead younger brother was responding to his older brother.
From then on, there were no sunny days at the Orphanage, only an eerie, freezing winter and thunderstorms.
Red Infant placed Green Infant’s body inside a bundle.
He secretly brought his brother into the Orphanage and hid him in a small room that belonged only to Green Infant.
In that small room, he stockpiled many, many candies.
They were all the kinds his brother loved to eat.
In that room, his brother seemed to… come back to life.
But the brother who came back was different.
Every time Red Infant went to visit him, his brother was so happy.
Even though Red Infant’s contamination grew more severe with every visit.
But for the sake of seeing his brother, Red Infant accepted it gladly.
As the days passed,
Red Infant was also completely contaminated, turning into an Aberration, just like his brother Green Infant.
Inside the Orphanage, Red Infant opened his own “Candy House,” filled with all sorts of candies that Green Infant liked.
And Green Infant started a “Limb Exchange” business…
This dream was very long.
Jiang Li had entered Red Infant’s “Dream Fragment” and witnessed it all as a bystander.
She emerged from the dream.
She looked at the sleeping Red Infant beside her.
In his sleep, Red Infant’s face was already covered in tear tracks.
Jiang Li pulled the weeping Red Infant into her arms and held him tight.
“It’s okay now, it’s okay…”