Chapter 75: Doll
Su Min suspected Ming Ming was just not in his room.
Ming Ming gave him a different feeling compared to the other children. He had his own thoughts that no one in his world seemed to understand.
Yan Jing Cai asked: “But how would we know where Ming Ming is? Unless we run into him or ask the director.”
“The orphanage is only this big so how can we not find him?” Xu Yixiang interjected: “I don’t want to stay here anymore. Let’s hurry and leave.”
If she knew that something like this would happen, she would have stopped Yan Jing Cai from coming here. This way, she also wouldn’t have come and things like this wouldn’t have happened.
Su Min said: “Let’s leave this place first.”
They were lucky. As soon as they left the corridor, footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs and the old director soon appeared.
The old director was surprised: “You’re all awake. Going to have breakfast?”
“No, no.” Yan Jing Cai quickly waved his hand, “We’re going back to sleep so we won’t eat.”
The excuse was very reasonable.
The old director disagreed: “It’s not healthy skipping breakfast. You should eat first and then sleep.”
Xu Yixiang immediately yawned.
Yan Jing Cai saw this and quickly rushed over while acting concerned: “Sleepy?”
He turned and said: “You see director? We’re used to sleeping until noon, so we won’t be having breakfast.”
The old director nodded reluctantly: “Okay then.”
Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang breathed a sigh of relief but they then saw him turn over to Su Min and say with a smile: “You should come down with me to eat. We’ve prepared your favourites.”
Su Min was flattered: “...........I’m also pretty sleepy.”
“What sleepy?” The director said with frustration: “Hurry and come down with me. Xiao Chen has already prepared it for you.”
If he didn’t mention Xiao Chen it would have been fine, but now that his name was mentioned he wanted to refuse even more.
Su Min rubbed his eyes, “Director, I didn’t sleep well last night. Do you see my dark circles? I want to go and sleep a little more.”
The old director came over to look and saw that there really were dark circles.
He thought for a moment and said: “Okay then, you can go and sleep. Don’t waste time and sleep well.”
Yang Jing Cai felt that the old director was a little biased.
Why was he so concerned about Su Min? But it was scary being cared for by him so he would rather not say anything.
With the old director there, they couldn’t go anywhere and could only hurry back to their room.
When it was noon, Su Min finally decided to go downstairs.
There was no one there. He didn’t know where the old director was, and Xiao Chen was probably cooking in the kitchen. There wasn’t much to see there, and he didn’t have any intention to check.
Su Min used this opportunity to walk around the orphanage, but he didn’t see anyone.
“Looking for something?”
Hearing the old director’s voice, Su Min turned around, “It’s nothing. Just looking at the places and reminiscing.”
He pointed to the toy in front of the building. It was a very old-fashioned slide. The colour had already faded revealing the grey and white undertones and it had acc.u.mulated a lot of dust. You could tell instantly it wasn’t used for a long time.
Su Min felt more and more certain about his guess.
He asked: “Ming Ming and the others don’t play with this?”
“They do.” The old director reached out to touch it, “Children love this the most. They would spend lots of time on it.”
If that was the case, then why were there so much dust?
Su Min felt that something was off with his response. It didn’t match with the current situation.
He felt that the director was strange. The children had become like that, but he still actedn as if it was normal.
Yan Jing Cai’s should suddenly rang out from upstairs: “Su Min, my phone is broken. Come back and take a look at it.”
Xu Yixiang also shouted: “Hurry and come fix it!”
Su Min: “...........”
He didn’t know how to fix phones so what was the point of going back to look at it.
But seeing that the two of them were shouting more and more loudly, Su Min could only say: “Director, I’ll go take a look.”
The director didn’t notice anything wrong: “Okay, it’s also almost time to eat.”
When he returned to the second floor, Su Min was surrounded by Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang, “Are you okay?”
“How could I not be okay?”
Xu Yixiang said: “You were alone with the director for so long, we didn’t know if anything happened, so we called out to you.”
Su Min said: “Your excuse was great.”
Yan Jing Cai laughed: “Right? Aren’t we clever?”
Su Min: “...............”
“We still need to go down later.” Su Min reminded them, “The director just told me it was almost time for lunch.”
The two of them became nervous again, “Are we going to eat again?”
As soon as food was mentioned, they would panic.
Before Su Min could answer, knocking came from the door followed by the old director’s voice: “Come out for lunch.”
Xu Yixiang: “...........”
Yan Jing Cai: “............”
Such great timing. As soon as they mentioned it, he had come to call them out to eat. The director must be very free since all he’s doing is calling them out to eat.
The three of them came downstairs and saw that the dishes were already served on the table.
This time there were only four servings, and none for the children. Su Min as usual had more in front of him. From the looks of it, it didn’t look strange.
The old director moved his chopsticks, “Let’s eat.”
Today the rice was no longer normal rice. They were rice that Han Qinqin was buried in. They could eat it before, but it couldn’t be eaten now.
But dumping the food out in front of the director was something that they can’t do.
Su Min changed the subject: “Why aren’t the other children eating? I would like to see them.”
“They don’t want to come down.” The director sighed, “Children nowadays are all like this. They have bad temper.”
Hearing this, Yan Jing Cai grumbled inside. What unwilling to come down? It’s because they’ve already disappeared.
The old director really knows how to put on an act.
He had been acting ever since day one, and his lines were all the same. Even now he was still acting.
If not for seeing it with their own eyes, they would have been deceived by him.
The old director was probably hungry. Before they could take a few bites, he had already eaten most of it. The speed was nothing like those you would expect from an old man.
Before he could finish, they suddenly heard a noise coming from upstairs.
Yan Jing Cai listened carefully, “What’s that noise?”
The old director placed down his chopstick, “I’ll take a look.”
As soon as he left, Su Min threw out the food. This time he changed to another place and when he returned the director had not yet returned.
Su Min said: “Let’s also take a look.”
After going up, they didn’t see the old director. They didn’t know if he had entered a room and just had not come out yet.
Xu Yixiang wondered: “There are no children in the rooms so why isn’t he coming out to look for them?”
Su Min said: “The director has been acting very strange towards these children. It’s as if he didn’t know what’s happening to them.”
They stood in the centre of the corridor. There was a window there that faced the front and back doors of the orphanage.
Xu Yixiang patted Su Min’s shoulder and pointed outside, “Do you think that person standing there is Ming Ming?”
Su Min looked over at where she was pointing.
It was the back of the orphanage an there was a small road that led out. He seemed to be holding something while staring at the orphanage. They didn’t know what he was looking at.
A lone child standing in the middle of the yard was a very scary sight.
Su Min squinted, “What is he holding in his hand?”
“It looks like..........a doll?” Xu Yixiang wasn’t certain: “I’m not certain though.”
Su Min looked carefully, “It’s probably a doll.”
Ming Ming was holding onto a doll. They had never seen it around and it had suddenly appeared in his arms.
Dolls held great meaning in horror movies like this.
If the original owner was Ming Ming, then it was okay but if the original owner of it was someone else, then it would be very important finding out what happened between the original owner of the doll and Ming Ming.
As he thought this, Su Min suddenly saw Ming Ming looking over at him.
His eyes met with Ming Ming’s and Ming Ming then proceeded to reveal a smile. Holding the doll, he disappeared from the yard.
The moment he left, the sky also darkened.
Yan Jing Cai shouted, “Why did the sky darken?”
Su Min also saw that the sky had darkened. It was still bright out when Ming Ming was there. It was as if a total solar eclipse had happened.
And it was like those of a game where you could control the brightness of the sky. It was all very strange.
Xu Yixiang suddenly said: “Ming Ming was standing there the whole time and now he’s gone. Something isn’t right.”
All those children in the orphanage had disappeared but only he remained.
“I think the children earlier who disappeared were burned to death.” Su Min surmised: “So they probably weren’t human.”
Only burned people would have skin like that.
Although Su Min had not seen it before, he had seen it in movies many times. There were no chemicals here, so the biggest possibility was fire.
It was quite possible for the ghosts of the dead to remain here even after death and continue living on as if they were still alive because they had not realised what had happened to them. This was very likely.
And the old director as well as Xiao Chen were also likely not human.
That was why they would do those unbelievable things. Because they were originally ghosts, they had power. In addition to their obsessive thoughts from when they were alive, they would do such things.
The old dean’s obsession probably had something to do with wasting food.
As for why there was a fire, it was still a mystery.
Xu Yixiang was about to say something when she smelt smoke. She immediately turned around to check, “There’s a fire there.”
A fire had started from the end of the corridor and it gradually spread over to the centre. They just happened to be standing in the centre.
Su Min didn’t expect himself to experience another fire in a horror movie.
This time, it was different to the one in “University Thriller”. Last time, it was a replay of their deaths, so it didn’t do anything to them but this time it wasn’t the case.
The orphanage was built a long time ago, so it was very easy to burn.
Su Min said: “Let’s go downstairs first.”
Before they reached the stairs, Ming Ming suddenly appeared next to them. He continued to stare at them.
Yan Jing Cai took a step back, “How did he suddenly appear?”
Xu Yixiang covered her nose, “...........He’s blocking us. We have to go past him, or the only other way is to jump out.”
The intense fire roared over from both ends and Ming Ming just happened to be standing at the stairs looking on calmly.
The doll in his arms was dirty and tattered. There was even cotton spilling out from the torn seams.
Su Min and Ming Ming looked at each other.
In that child’s eyes, maliciousness and evil intent seemed as if it was about to pour out. He looked innocent yet terrifying at the same time.
Su Min for a moment even thought that he was the one who did everything.
It was also he who asked for them to come back.
Su Min thought this and suddenly calmed down. He asked: “You sent the email?”
Since it had reached this stage, the movie was probably about to end.
“What are you talking about?” The anxious Yan Jing Cai was in disbelief: “He’s just a child. How can that be?”
Yan Jing Cai thought very simply. No matter how strange things were, it was impossible for a child to do something like this.
He then heard the child’s answer.