Chapter 74: Scorched Black
Su Min still felt that something wasn’t right with his guess.
The old director didn’t give him any strange impression the past two days, but the child Ming Ming instead was very mysterious.
He had previously suspected that Ming Ming wasn’t human, but he also seemed to be human.
Yan Jing Cai was puzzled: “We don’t have anything to do with Christianity. Why did you ask that?”
Su Min answered: “Just asking.”
“That’s right, we said that we won’t be having breakfast.” Xu Yixiang suddenly spoke up: “We can look for the children here.”
So far, everything was still unclear.
Su Min glanced at the sky outside. It was still dark, and it showed no signs of brightening, “Let’s wait a little more.”
As soon as he said that, the sky outside suddenly brightened,
It could be said that it happened very quickly. In the blink of an eye, the sky was clear and bright. All the dullness and overcast from earlier was completely gone.
Su Min found this even stranger.
Could the sky be controlled as well?
Yan Jing Cai didn’t notice the changes outside. He looked at his phone and said: “It’s surprisingly almost eight now.”
Su Min returned to his senses, “Then let’s go.”
Eight o’clock wasn’t very early. They had already told the old director that they wouldn’t be having breakfast so logically speaking they probably wouldn’t do anything to them. Afterall, when they said that they weren’t going to eat, the director didn’t force them.
What the director hated was wasting food.
The children lived on the right-hand side of the building. After going along the corridor, past the stairs and over to the other side, the children’s rooms awaited.
Xu Yixiang whispered: “How do we know which room is being used?”
There were several rooms here and they couldn’t check them all. It would easily expose them if they did that.
“Just look at the dust to tell.” Su Min pointed at the closest door. “There’s dust there so it means that it hasn’t been opened for a long time. It also has a lock.”
Yan Jing Cai understood instantly.
The doors to the rooms that were used would be opened often so there wouldn’t be dust there. Furthermore, rooms that weren’t used would be locked so they should just look for the unlocked rooms.
Looking down the corridor, the third last door appeared to be unlocked.
Yan Jing Cai: “Are we just going to go in?”
Xu Yixiang: “I’m afraid of seeing something that shouldn’t be seen.”
Both Shi Nansheng and Han Qinqin had died very gruesomely. In the event that there was something that shouldn’t be seen in there, it would be even more terrifying.
“We will have to see.” Su Min said, “In any case, we still need to check to see if they’re in there.”
And most importantly, they needed to see if they were still alive.
If no one in this orphanage are human, that is to say, the email was sent out by a ghost, then the purpose of asking for them to return was probably to make them die here.
If there are still humans here, then that would be another matter.
Su Min reached out and opened the door.
“Why does this room smell burnt?” Just before he entered, Yan Jing Cai couldn’t help but comment: “Did I smell wrong?”
Xu Yixiang didn’t notice it but, with Yan Jing Cai’s words, she really did smell something burnt. It’s just that this smell was also a little strange.
She guessed: “Were the children playing with fire?”
The lights were not on, and everything was dark. The curtains where pulled shut so they didn’t know how many children were sleeping in the room.
Su Min reached out to search for the light switch.
Before he pressed it, a hand touched his.
No matter how brave Su Min was, he was startled by this. Once he recovered from this shock, he quickly turned the lights on.
The room suddenly brightened.
Su Min turned over to look at his hand only to see nothing on it. There also wasn’t a child standing by the switch.
So who touched his hand earlier?
Xu Yixiang saw that Su Min was deep in thought and called out to him: “What’s wrong?”
Su Min shook his head, “It’s nothing.”
He stored that question away and looked around the room. It looked like three of the beds in this room were occupied as the blankets were bulging and he could see the children’s heads poking out.
Yan Jing Cai lowered his volume, “They’re still sleeping.”
Su Min stepped forward quietly and walked over to the closest bed. It was one of the children earlier that was jealous of the young girl. He still had his eyes closed.
He watched the child for a while and didn’t see anything wrong.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, the child suddenly turned over revealing a dark patch on the back of his neck.
Su Min subconsciously stopped, and his eyes remained fixated at the black patch.
He bent closer and a familiar scent reached his nose. The child was still sleeping soundly and didn’t seem to feel anything.
Su Min’s heart sank.
He walked over to the remaining two beds and saw that the exposed skin of the two other children were in an even worse state. It had been scorched black and the skin had scabbed up. It looked as if it was about to peel any moment.
“What’s going on?” Yan Jing Cai mouthed, “Why are their skins like that? Are they sick?”
Xu Yixiang dragged him out, “Let’s leave first.”
She didn’t feel safe staying in the room too long. She was afraid of the old director suddenly appearing.
Su Min nodded, “Let’s go.”
The smell only disappeared after they reached the corridor, but he couldn’t forget the scene he saw just then.
All three children’s skins were scorched black. The only difference was that the degree was different. The jealous one was the lightest while the remaining two could be said to be completely scorched.
The old director mentioned earlier that they were sick. Was he referring to this?
Su Min felt that things weren’t quite right. He recalled the appearance of the young girl who fell from the building. She didn’t seem to have any scorched skin.
Xu Yixiang asked: “Do you still want to look?”
Su Min wanted to confirm something, “Let’s look.”
The next unlocked room was the second last one. When they pushed open the door and entered, the smell was even stronger.
This time, nothing happened when he turned on the lights.
There were two children sleeping in this room. When Su Min looked closer, he saw that their skins were the same.
After leaving the room, Yan Jing Cai couldn’t help but comment: “It looked like they were burnt. Don’t they feel painful?”
Xu Yixiang guessed: “The director probably didn’t want us seeing them because of this. Because something had happened, and they wanted to hide it.”
She felt that her guess sounded very reasonable.
The only question was, why did he call them back? If they didn’t come back, they wouldn’t find out about the secrets here and they also wouldn’t have to kill people to hide that secret.
Su Min reminded them: “There’s still one more child.”
And that child was Ming Ming.
Xu Yixiang shuddered, “Do we still need to find Ming Ming? I’ve always felt something off about him.”
Yan Jing Cai said: “Since we’re already here, we might as well.”
There was the last room left in the corridor and it also just happened to be unlocked.
The three of them entered.
After turning on the light, there was a bed in there that still held traces of being slept in but there wasn’t anyone on it. They didn’t know where the child went.
“Did he find out about us coming so he ran away?” Yan Jing Cai asked: “Did he go and call for the old director?”
Xu Yixiang glared at him: “Stop jinxing us okay?”
This room looked like there was only one person staying it in and it looked quite desolate. There were also some drawings on the wall.
Su Min counted it. There were thirteen people drawn.
There were adults and children. In total there were six adults and seven children.
Excluding the variable Xu Yixiang, it just happened to match with the current situation.
The number also matched with the people in “The Last Supper”. Who was the one who drew this? Ming Ming?
How did he know about the number of people? Or did the movie deliberately set him up as an all-knowing character like those grannies and grandpa’s that often appear in horror movies?
Su Min thought this, but he felt that it didn’t seem right.
“What’s so interesting about those drawings? Children like to draw like that all the time.” Yan Jing Cai moved over, “He’s not here. Let’s go.”
There were very few things in this room. You couldn’t even see a toy in sight.
Su Min wasn’t clear about Ming Ming’s treatment here at Happy House but he guessed that it probably wasn’t good.
It wasn’t unusual for characters like this to exist in a movie.
Su Min said: “We can go now.”
Xu Yixiang quickly dragged Yan Jing Cai out the room.
There was no one in the corridor but they were worried about the old director suddenly appearing.
If he tried to make them eat again, they would really cry.
Yan Jing Cai asked: “What time is it?”
“I didn’t bring my phone.” Xu Yixiang responded with frustration: “Didn’t you bring your phone? Check it yourself.”
Yan Jing Cai searched his pocket. His phone wasn’t there.
He wondered: “Did I leave my phone behind after taking those photos?”
Earlier he had taken some photos and was planning on going back to take a good look at it but his phone had disappeared.
Su Min thought for a moment, “We’ll wait for you out here. Hurry and look for it.”
Xu Yuxiang urged: “Hurry.”
Yan Jing Cai didn’t know where he left his phone and could only search through all the rooms. Eventually, he found it in the first room.
But when he was about to go out, his eyes suddenly widened.
...........
Xu Yixiang was still nervous outside, “What should we do about lunch today? Continue to pour it out? Where to though?”
Su Min said: “Change to another place.”
“Will the director watch us?” Xu Yixiang furrowed her brows, “After seeing Han Qinqin doing it, he probably will suspect us.”
Su Min spread open his hands, “Then we have no other options.”
He could still eat a little. Afterall, there weren’t any strange things added to his food but for the two protagonists.........
Su Min could only feel pity for them.
Xu Yixiang: “I can see it in your eyes.”
Su Min: “.........Sorry.”
He couldn’t stop Xiao Chen from cooking. He may have come from the north and might be good with his hands. If he mentioned anything, he may end up being served as food.
As they spoke, Yan Jing Cai ran out in panic.
“Those children are gone! I just went in and they were gone!”
They had clearly seen the children earlier but, over the span of just a few minutes, they had disappeared like Shi Nansheng and Han Qinqin’s bodies.
Xu Yixiang said: “What nonsense are you spouting?”
Su Min’s expression changed. “Really?”
He quickly walked over to the room. The three children originally sleeping there were gone. This was the same with the other rooms.
If they hadn’t seen them with their own eyes, they would have thought that everything was just their imagination.
Xu Yixiang followed closely and, when she saw the empty rooms, she could only feel a chill run down her spine. This sudden disappearance was quite bone-chilling.
The corpses had disappeared earlier but now even living humans were disappearing.
She couldn’t help but wonder if they would also end up suddenly disappearing.
Yang Jing Cai gripped tightly onto his phone and gasped as he guessed: “With them disappearing as well, were they also corpses all along?”
Afterall, Shi Nansheng and Han Qinqin’s corpses had disappeared earlier.
Su Min thought for a moment, “Let’s go find Ming Ming first and see if he had disappeared or if he’s just not in his room.”