Chapter 95: Loving Welfare Home

It's night, Children's Home.

Little Bai Six, lying on his bed, opened his eyes noiselessly, hearing the intermittent sound of a flute that was loud enough to wake him up, but the others in his room were still asleep, the night's run having exhausted the children, who, with the exception of Little Bai Six, who was always alert, were all sound asleep.

Little Bai six got out of bed very gingerly, put on his shoes, and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall - 2am.

The only sound that can be heard in the group bedrooms late at night is the soft snoring of the children, who hide in their cots and cover their soft bodies with blankets, little Muke even covers his head with the blanket as if to protect himself.

But really, someone could easily break these children if they wanted to, little Bai six watched as the door to their room was slowly opened, the wooden door twisting and creaking with the rhythmic foot of the flute, revealing the dark, dank and empty corridor outside.

There was no one outside the door and this door opened by itself.

The sound of the flute began to become continuous, drifting in languidly and cheerfully, and the children sleeping in their beds began to wrinkle their brows and squirm restlessly, as if they had entered into some magical dream and began to murmur and dance their arms and legs.

Little Bai six calmly shook little Muke awake.

--It is no wonder that he is not affected by the sound of the flute. The sound of the flute works on sleeping children, but little Bai six is only on his second day at the orphanage, and as he is a light sleeper in a strange and unfamiliar place, little Bai six wakes up as soon as the flute sounds, so he is not affected by the sound of the flute. The sound of the flute does not affect the child.

Little Muke was nudged awake by little Bai six, rubbing his eyes, his forehead covered in cold sweat, and taking a deep, dazed breath as he woke up and looked at little Bai six standing at the foot of his bed in a bit of a daze, as if he hadn't reacted to the fact that he was awake and that there was someone standing at the foot of his bed.

Little Muke, half-smiling and dazed, stretched his feet out of bed and put on his shoes to walk down the hallway, saying dully as he did so, "We're leaving this orphanage, this orphanage will draw our blood and kill us ......"

"You're awake, you're just dreaming under the hypnosis of the flute ......" little Bai six took little Muke by the wrist and pulled little Muke, who was about to walk out the door, to face him, then he narrowed his eyes.

Little Muke's eyes were awake, he was still shivering, and although his face was a little sleepy with the red marks of sleep, his eyes were clear and glistening with tears from fear.

"It wasn't a dream ......" said little Muke, shivering, the dream clearly frightening him, "I saw a lot of nurses strapping us to the bed and they stuck a lot of syringes through the back of our hands, the back of our feet into them, and then red blood gushed out down the IV tube and dripped into a stainless steel jar, and then we couldn't get any more blood out ......"

Little Muke's shoulders shrank in fear and he clutched himself hard: "She, they would also stick our scalps and faces with very thick black needles like those used to stab livestock, and tie rubber tubes around our necks to squeeze the veins in our faces so that they could draw blood."

"...... We were bound and suffocated with purple and black faces and couldn't escape the hospital bed even when we struggled desperately ......"

With tears streaming down his face, little Muke looked up in fear at little Bai six, who was calm and unmoved, and stepped forward a little anxiously to grab little Bai six's hand and pull him with him: "I swear it wasn't a dream! I saw what's going to happen after our christening tomorrow! Those investors are bad guys! They're baptizing us and funding us for the blood in us, they're not funding us for free, let's run! Let's get out of here!"

"Of course they are not funding us for free." little Bai six spoke in a cold tone, "There is no such thing as free in this world, especially for young humans like you and I who don't have too much value, the only thing of value naturally is our bodies, they invest in us for what we have in our bodies, what's so surprising about them doing that, isn't it a matter of course? "

Little Muke looked at the very calm little Bai six in a daze and took a step back in a bit of dumbfounded fear: "You knew all along that those investors were bad?"

"They're not bad people, they're just consumers who have the ability to buy our bodies." little Bai six looked at the obviously frightened little Muke with no ripples in his eyes, "Whereas humans like us, who have no purchasing power of our own, are commodities that can be bought and sold at will, only purchased."

Little Bai six, with no expression on his face, said flatly as if he were stating an objective truth: "We only have the value of a commodity category, so it's only natural that we get bought."

"But the people here want to suck our blood!" Little Muke shouted down in a very anxious voice.

Little Bai six looked at him lightly: "So what? Do you think that the people out there are always good people and will never suck your blood? They might eat your flesh and do other, more horrible things to you? Do you have any power of resistance? Is there any point in your escaping? Until you have the ability to buy people, even if you escape, you're just a commodity that has escaped from the small shelf of the [Caring Home] into a bigger one."

When he heard little Bai six say this, little Muke was completely dumbfounded. He opened his mouth to retort, but he didn't know where to start.

"You've ......" little bai six a pause, "I'm sorry, how old are you?"

Little Muke, who was about to cry again at little Bai six's words, twisted his fingers and sobbed back to little Bai six, "I'm, I'm eleven years old."

"Oh, you're eleven years old, don't be so naive, Muke." little Bai six picked up the above indifferently and then continued, "This orphanage was built to disappear a group of children every Sunday, this group of children was obviously selected to disappear, and the children in our group were all good looking, I thought at first that they were going to be taken to... ..."

Little Bai six looks at the overly delicate Muke, his eyes pause subtly over Muke's snowy white shoulders exposed from his pyjamas.

Little Muke looked at little Bai six with wide eyes and asked simply and confusedly, "What are you being taken to do?"

little Bai six If nothing else, he tilted his head slightly and averted his eyes to digress, "...... nothing."

He did think at first that the orphanage was a place for child sex, so when his [investor] told him to protect Muke and Liu Jiayi, that was little Bai six's first thought, because from his experience, such dirty places do tend to breed such things, but soon little Bai six realised It was not such a simple purpose.

This group of dying [investors] wanted something else from them.

Because if it was for a relatively straightforward purpose like [lust, lust], they could have started enjoying the kids on the first night they entered, but already a day had passed and none of the [investors] had taken any visible action against them, still only maintaining a one-way contact by phone.

Little Bai Six is guessing - this group of [investors] probably didn't even figure out what they were buying their pile of [merchandise] for themselves.

In other words, this group [of investors] is also exploring the capabilities of their pile [of goods].

Use them for charity promotion? Psychological solace before death? Or maybe it's a feudal superstition that you can't survive - thinking that doing good deeds will prolong your life?

But these [purposes] were too subtle and indirect, little Bai six felt there was something more central that dictated [investors] to watch and invest in them closely, and the practice of building the hospital across the street from the orphanage made little Bai six think of a point - like they could cure the sick.

This ability to heal includes psychological self-soothing - for example, the church in this [loving orphanage] where they were to be baptized the next day, which was nicely decorated and obviously had some symbolic meaning, and [the investor] could perhaps seek a virtual healing by doing good deeds and praying for God's refuge in this way.

But there is a more direct way of healing than this - and that is to use the group of children directly.

little Bai six looked calmly at little Muke: "On the first day I came in, I knew my role was supposed to be a medicinal elixir, I just didn't know which part of the medicine I was in, and now it seems to be blood."

Little Muke shook his head incredulously, "If you knew they were going to draw your blood, why didn't you run? You were on the phone with your [investor] last night, making small talk for half an hour, are you crazy! He's not a good person at all, he's a monster who sucks people's blood!"

Little Bai six looked at little Muke's gaze colder: "Firstly, the Love Welfare Home is fully closed, we can't even run out except on open days, secondly, if it wasn't for my [investor] paying me to save you last night, I wouldn't even have looked at you more if you died in front of me, even if he was a monster, he would have been the monster who saved you, you better get that clear. "

Little Muke was speechless and quickly retorted to little Bai six: "He saved me for my blood too!"

"Impossible." little Bai six's eyes were obscure Buming, but the retort was crisp, "While I don't really understand what he's up to either, he did give up his life to prioritise saving mine and yours, and Liu Jiayi's, and if he wanted to draw your blood he could have paid me to do it for him, and you would have been drained by me tonight. "

Little Muke instantly took several steps back with a white face and crossed his arms over his chest in a guarded pose in fear: "You, how did you ...... do that!"

Little Bai six gave little Muke a scattered glance and suddenly stepped forward a little nastily and opened his hands to threaten little Muke: "How am I? By your standards, I'm much worse than my [investor] who saved you, little ten year old Muke."

Ten-year-old Muke was so frightened that he took several steps back and almost fell over, his eyes bursting into tears: "Aaaaaah! Don't come any closer! "

After scaring little Muke once in a mischievous manner, little Bai six quickly withdrew his hands and resumed his expressionless look, "Even if all the investors here are bloodsuckers, that [investor] of mine is on our side because it would be too easy for him to kill you and he will help us, so you'd better listen to his command and not act rashly."

Little Muke nodded furiously, his heart a little unsettled by the little Bai six's startling shock, and he stammered, "Yes, yes, I know!"

After making sure that little Muke was listening, little Bai six turned to the corridor and stood behind the door of the bedroom that had been opened by more than one thing to look into the corridor, and suddenly little Bai six frowned.

The doors to several rooms in the flute-flecked corridor were open, the hanging open lamps stained with cobwebs swaying gently with the night breeze and the sound of the flute, and from somewhere the sound of children's running feet and soft laughter echoed indistinctly in the long, empty corridors of the night with an oozy eeriness.

But these are not the reasons for little Bai six's frown.

"Something's coming in."

Little Muke hid behind little Bai six. He was afraid to stay alone, but when he woke up, he couldn't sleep, so he imitated little Bai six and looked into the corridor, and when he heard what little Bai six said, he looked confused: "I didn't see anything come in... I didn't see anything come in..."

"You look up." little Bai six spoke calmly, "On the ceiling."

After hearing little Bai six's words, little Muke stuck for a moment, looking up stiffly and slowly like a machine with a rusty neck.

The long corridor of the orphanage was a deep, high, narrow archway about a metre wide, with many colourful oil paintings of animals, which looked ghostly in the night, as if they had the light of real carnivores in their eyes, which was usually what little Muke feared most at night, but now there was something more frightening than these animals --The animals are usually what little Muke fears most at night.

These oil paintings show children dangling like bats, these children are covered in blood-dried IV bags and tubes, densely wrapped around the children, and the needles of the tubes are stuck into the walls, and they move forward by the needles of these constantly moving and migrating IV tubes stuck into the walls.

The children, like in Little Muke's dream, had been completely sucked dry, the skin on their faces wrinkled and dried up, clinging to their skulls like a piece of dried orange peel, their arms and legs thin and skinny, like malnourished, stunted dolls, their eyes looking black and white and frighteningly large on their dried-up faces, as the eyelids had shrivelled up and could be seen protruding from their faces complete with half an eye.

Translucent infusion bags of various colours look like a floral dress wrapped around them while they are playing the flute.

But the flute they were playing was not a regular flute, but a very long and large needle, with holes drilled in it for a harp, the walls of which were still stained with dried blood crusts, making a strangely pitched flute sound under their thin, dry mouths.

"The Piper in Colour." little Bai six seemed to have an understanding, "So yesterday I didn't see the flute players, but then it felt like the flutes were everywhere in all directions because these flute players were on the ceiling of the house."

Little Muke looked so weak that he tugged at the corner of little Bai six's shirt, "I... let's go back to bed."

Little Bai six didn't care about little Muke, he looked up at the flute playing children for a while, saw them enter the different open doors of their bedrooms and then gently followed them out, little Muke was about to faint watching them, but he was afraid to be left alone in his bedroom with the door wide open. Bai six, still shaking like an ungrateful follower.

Having entered the different sleeping rooms, the flute-playing children, spinning their eyeballs so large they seemed to be about to fall out of their sockets next, stood on the ceiling, twisted their heads with a click to an angle almost parallel to the floor and cocked their heads to observe the sleeping children below.

Little Bai six sidled up next to the half-opened door, not entering, and leaned slightly to watch through the crack to see what the pile of flute-playing children were up to.

The child on the ceiling walks around the sleeping room, cocking its head at each sleeping child right above it and finally stopping at one sleeping child, as if finally settling on a target, it slowly drops its tentacle-like IV tube and gently lifts the child's blanket.

Little Muke looked so breathless that he covered his mouth in fear of screaming out.

The boy soon woke up, apparently from the same horrible dream as Muke, from the sound of the flute, with tears and panic on his face, and almost screamed at the sight of such a horrible child, but his mouth was covered by an IV tube.

The child on the ceiling seemed to gesture something to the waking child with the IV tube, who soon broke into tears and quickly jumped out of bed, put on his shoes and followed the child on the ceiling. little Bai six quickly retreated back into his room and closed the door, leaving only a small crack in the door to watch the scene in the corridor.

Each flute-playing child who entered a different sleeping room came out with a beaming child, the child on the ceiling playing a flute in a quirky tune on a syringe, the children on the floor lining up and humming and following one by one out, just like the scene little Bai six saw yesterday.

But suddenly the procession stopped, and all the children on the ceiling were suddenly craning their heads through the doorway, staring with their dead eyes at little Bai six peeping through the doorway, and little Muke, who was hiding behind little Bai six, was frantically tugging at the corner of little Bai six's coat, staring at him with a look so frightened that he was on the verge of tears. little Bai six.

Covering his mouth to control himself from crying out, little Muke shook his hand and slowly pointed to the top of their heads.

Little Bai six A silence, he looked up slowly and saw a child above him with his head cocked, a pair of eyes the size of ping-pong balls on a wrinkled, blackened face, staring at him with unseeing eyes.

The child had come in through the ceiling just as little Bai six had gone out, and the IV tube directly beneath it had the head of a child wrapped around it, a child who had been sleeping in the same room as little Bai six and was now looking at little Bai six and Muke with a strange smile on his face as he was wrapped under the IV tube.

Little Bai Six slowly opens the door to let them out, and the child bounces away. The child on the ceiling leans over to observe Little Bai Six and Muke, who is shivering and tearful, for a moment, stroking them with his IV tube as if to confirm something, then finally rustles back his own tube and leaves with a grimace on the ceiling.

The sound of the flute rang out again in the corridor, whining through the blood-stained syringes and fading away in time with the humming voices of the children taken away, echoing ethereally in the corridor and disappearing at the end of it.

After checking that there were indeed no monsters on the ceiling, little Bai six quickly unlocked the door of the sleeping room from inside the door.

He covered his heart and exhaled with difficulty to adjust his heart rate, he had just been scared to death, but when little Muke recovered and turned his head, little Bai six looked as if nothing had happened and was already lying in bed with the covers up and ready for sleep.

It didn't look at all like it had just been nearly taken by a monster.

Little Muke was speechless and devastated as he walked over to little Bai six's bed and accused him in a low voice, "We almost got caught just now! Can you think before you rush out next time!"

little Bai six covered up with his eyes closed, and when little Muke came to scold him, he did not open them, but explained nonchalantly, "It will not take us, I have observed before that the child this flute takes is very directed."

He had noticed this when he had observed it yesterday, the flute was indiscriminately hypnotic to all the children, but only so many of them ended up being taken away, before little Bai six had wondered how it was done, his door had not been opened by the flute yesterday, he had been in his sleeping room watching the corridor through the window and had a restricted view, so he had not seen the group of children on the ceiling.

And since no flute-playing children had entered the sleeping room where little Bai six was yesterday, he had no idea how these children had locked up and taken the children away.

But little Bai six felt he needed to find out, after all, that [investor] of his would surely be interested in this information, which is why little Bai six ventured out.

"But, even if there is a point, how do you know we're not the kind of kids that get taken away?" In fact little Muke sensed this too, the group [of flute-playing children] were clearly looking for children who fit a certain profile to take away, but the problem was that they didn't know what criteria this other party used to select children.

Little Muke questioned with a raised eyebrow, "Our door was open tonight too, which means we also had children in our room tonight who were eligible to be taken, how do you know we weren't?"

"Because it's Tuesday." little Bai six finally spared a glance at little Muke by lifting his eyes, "It's just our baptism day, so we won't be taken away."