It took nearly three hours to travel from Beishan Cemetery to the eastern suburbs of the city where the Xingfu Orphanage was located.
By the time Gong Fang arrived at the wasteland near the old site of the orphanage, the sun had completely set, and night had fallen.
It was the fifteenth of July, a full moon hung high in the sky like a bright pearl, its diffuse rays of light casting a layer of hazy and blurred radiance on the curtain of night.
It was as if specks of white frost were sprinkled on the exposed pebbles and clods on the surface of the dark wilderness, on the twisted and strange tree shadows that looked like the claws and tentacles of beasts, and on the corner of a gray-white building that was faintly visible deep in the forest.
The continuous rain in recent days had turned the leaf-covered path into a muddy mess. Gong Fang walked along the forest path, his steps alternating between deep and shallow, each step making a slight noise on the ground.
In the quiet night, this sound was particularly noticeable.
“This damn place!” He, who almost slipped and fell, quickly steadied himself by holding onto a tree next to him, and couldn’t help but curse.
For this remote place that he had hardly ever visited and had already become blurred in his memory, if it weren’t for accurate positioning and navigation, Gong Fang might never have come here in his life.
He squinted his eyes to look at the vague gray-white wall at the end of his line of sight, and rummaged through the few memories in his mind. “Is it there…”
“Wu——”
Suddenly, a strange sound floated out from the gray-white wall, as if someone was crying. Immediately following was another eerie sound, as if someone was laughing.
These cries and laughter mixed together, were picked up by the drifting night wind from the end of the path, passed through the dense forest, mixed with the sobbing sound of the night wind, and circled around Gong Fang’s ears.
Gong Fang shivered from head to toe.
He remembered, he remembered what this place was!
“——That’s the Seventh Hospital of Yuanyang City!”
——Also known as the rumored mental hospital.
It was said that the Xingfu Orphanage and the Seventh Hospital next door were originally one entity. More than sixty years ago, this place belonged to a very prosperous large hospital, covering a very wide area.
But that war which swept across the world destroyed everything.
When the war subsided, and Yao Country was back on track, this area had become completely desolate and was designated as a suburb.
Since there were already more and better hospitals in other areas, it seemed unnecessary to rebuild a hospital in the suburbs. The Yuanyang city government simply used the original hospital garden as a boundary and completely separated it into two parts.
The buildings to the west of the garden were converted into the Seventh Hospital, specifically for patients with severe mental abnormalities. The remaining small part of the buildings to the east of the garden became a place to shelter war orphans, which was later renamed the Xingfu Orphanage.
The distance between the two was only four hundred meters.
Thinking of this, the image of the only time he had visited the orphanage and was frightened by a madman who ran out of the mental hospital next door resurfaced in his mind after many years, and Gong Fang’s face turned paler than the moonlight.
[…Back then, she accidentally saw a man volunteering there, thought he was diligent and kind, so when this man pursued her high-profile at school, she agreed so quickly.]
At this moment, he suddenly remembered what Yuan Yao had said before.
Gong Fang didn’t understand at first, but at this moment, returning to the old place, an experience from more than twenty years ago suddenly surfaced from the depths of his memory, making him realize with a start.
——Back then, Gong Fang’s target was just a girl in his department with a good family background. He heard that she was very kind-hearted and would volunteer at the orphanage on weekends. In order to win the girl’s heart, he joined them to volunteer.
However, this only volunteering experience gave him a deep lesson–a little madman who suddenly ran out of the mental hospital next door. Even now, Gong Fang dared not admit that he was quite scared by a little girl who looked only seven or eight years old.
This fear even made him give up his original pursuit plan and never set foot in the southern suburbs again.
It was shortly after he returned to school after volunteering that he suddenly noticed that the girl with the most outstanding family background in the school seemed to look at him differently and had a few good feelings for him.
Even if this good feeling was not much, and he was not clear about the origin of this good feeling, it did not prevent Gong Fang from firmly grasping this opportunity and seizing this pie that fell from the sky!
“So that’s how it is…”
It was not until this moment that he understood the cause of all this.
The gentle and beautiful face in his memory flashed by.
“How silly…”
“Wu——” “Wu——” “Hee hee——” “Roar!”
The terrifying and eerie strange sounds echoed in the night, and Gong Fang, who was immersed in his memories, was startled back to reality.
The phone in his pocket suddenly rang!
[As you wish, the third round of the game officially begins! Please reach the Xingfu Orphanage on foot within ten minutes.]
Through the muddy path between the trees, the fork at the end of the path pointed to two directions, the right side was the gray-white building group hidden in the night, and the left side was a ruin that had been burned down for the most part, which was also the old site of the Xingfu Orphanage.
Collapsed buildings, wall roots completely blackened by smoke, residues of unknown burned objects between collapsed bricks and stones, a large area of scorched earth without a single weed…
When Gong Fang crossed the position where the original gate was, this was the scene in his line of sight.
Perhaps the only thing that was still relatively intact was a few small buildings on the far west side. Although it seemed to have been burned half, and was blackened, it seemed to have retained some existence due to the special building materials.
[——Welcome to the Xingfu Orphanage. Our short but meaningful journey has finally come to an end!]
A passionate voice, like a tour guide’s commentary, suddenly came from behind Gong Fang, startling him.
“Who! Who is it?!”
He turned around and found that on the side of the gate pillar that had been burned down to only a section, not far from the corner of the ruins, and even further away on half of the wall, someone had installed one after another loudspeakers at some point. The passionate voice was coming from the loudspeakers, echoing in all directions.
The other party was like a dutiful tour guide, introducing everything here to a first-time visitor.
[The Xingfu Orphanage has an ordinary yet happy name. Fifty years ago, the chairman of the Yuan Group was blessed with a daughter. In order to do good deeds and accumulate blessings for his newborn daughter, he sponsored a hundred orphanages across the country in one go. The Xingfu Orphanage, with its ordinary and happy name, stood out among several local orphanages and won the only sponsorship quota in Yuanyang City.]
[His daughter did not let him down, growing into a gentle and kind person. After growing up, she actively participated in her parents’ charity work, always paying close attention to the development of these hundred orphanages. Especially the local Xingfu Orphanage, she would visit once a year, having intimate and open conversations with the children, fulfilling each of their wishes.]
[The Xingfu Orphanage became a truly happy orphanage. The angel in the fairy tale books had a face in the children’s hearts. This place was their heaven.]
(TL: 幸福 ‘Xingfu’=happiness; well-being; bliss; felicity etc.)
Although the sound quality of the loudspeaker and the mobile phone microphone was slightly different, with a little discernment, this voice obviously belonged to the man who called himself [K].
This voice was initially low and gentle, with a dreamy and bewitching breath, as if one was about to unconsciously sink into the sweet dream he wove, but just as you were about to completely sink, his tone suddenly changed.
The more gentle and dreamy the feeling he gave people before, the more eerie and strange this voice sounded now——
[But a fire five years ago turned heaven into hell. They wailed and screamed, swallowed by the ruthless fire, and from then on became wandering ghosts in hell.]
[They linger here, unwilling to leave.]
[They are waiting for someone.]
[——Now, this person has finally arrived!]
Thump!
Accompanied by a sound like the background music of a horror movie, a cold wind blew, brushing against Gong Fang’s skin exposed outside his sleeves. The faint chill seemed to crawl all over his body with his skin, making him shiver.
“Hee hee, it’s you~”
It seemed like a voice was blowing over his scalp with the cold wind. Gong Fang shivered and turned around on the spot. His gaze suddenly swept behind him, but there was nothing behind him.
At this moment, he was already sweating profusely.
He finally exploded. “Enough! Stop playing tricks! I’ve already done what you said, what else do you want from me? This has nothing to do with me! Nothing to do with me!”
At this moment, Gong Fang should have been full of anger, like a bull ready to gore someone at any time, but combined with his sweaty reaction at this time, he seemed indescribably guilty.
He looked around blankly on the ruins full of scorched earth, as if he was talking to a ghost wandering nearby. “Are you going to give Xiao Tian back to me? Where is Xiao Tian? You didn’t do anything to him, did you? I want to see Xiao Tian!”
“Oh, finally can’t help but start worrying about your son?”
The young man’s melancholic voice drifted from around.
“Let me guess why you would react like this.”
“——Because you know very well what you have done.”
“——You don’t have the confidence to be forgiven again.”
“——You start to worry that everything you’ve done will be retaliated against your son in the same way.”
“——You’re finally scared.”
“Enough, enough, enough! Stop talking!!”
Gong Fang surrendered with a bitter smile. “What exactly do you want me to do? As long as you don’t hurt my son…”
“Within five minutes, enter the building two hundred meters to the northwest, and you will see your son.”
As soon as these words came out, Gong Fang didn’t say another word, took a glance at the charred building not far away, and ran straight towards it.
“Huff…huff…”
His body, already in its fifties and accustomed to a life of luxury, was panting heavily under such torment. He was catching his breath while pushing open the deformed iron gate.
Inside the house that had been burned to the ground, a projection screen suddenly appeared on the wall, which was particularly eye-catching.
The young man’s voice came out from it——
“Five years ago, this was the warehouse where the Xingfu Orphanage stored food, and it was also the origin of that fire.”
Gong Fang was suddenly startled and instinctively wanted to turn around and leave. Like a rabbit that had fallen into a trap and was fleeing in panic.
“Dad!”
A tender call suddenly came from behind him, making Gong Fang freeze on the spot.
It took nearly three hours to travel from Beishan Cemetery to the eastern suburbs of the city where the Xingfu Orphanage was located.
By the time Gong Fang arrived at the wasteland near the old site of the orphanage, the sun had completely set, and night had fallen.
It was the fifteenth of July, a full moon hung high in the sky like a bright pearl, its diffuse rays of light casting a layer of hazy and blurred radiance on the curtain of night.
It was as if specks of white frost were sprinkled on the exposed pebbles and clods on the surface of the dark wilderness, on the twisted and strange tree shadows that looked like the claws and tentacles of beasts, and on the corner of a gray-white building that was faintly visible deep in the forest.
The continuous rain in recent days had turned the leaf-covered path into a muddy mess. Gong Fang walked along the forest path, his steps alternating between deep and shallow, each step making a slight noise on the ground.
In the quiet night, this sound was particularly noticeable.
“This damn place!” He, who almost slipped and fell, quickly steadied himself by holding onto a tree next to him, and couldn’t help but curse.
For this remote place that he had hardly ever visited and had already become blurred in his memory, if it weren’t for accurate positioning and navigation, Gong Fang might never have come here in his life.
He squinted his eyes to look at the vague gray-white wall at the end of his line of sight, and rummaged through the few memories in his mind. “Is it there…”
“Wu——”
Suddenly, a strange sound floated out from the gray-white wall, as if someone was crying. Immediately following was another eerie sound, as if someone was laughing.
These cries and laughter mixed together, were picked up by the drifting night wind from the end of the path, passed through the dense forest, mixed with the sobbing sound of the night wind, and circled around Gong Fang’s ears.
Gong Fang shivered from head to toe.
He remembered, he remembered what this place was!
“——That’s the Seventh Hospital of Yuanyang City!”
——Also known as the rumored mental hospital.
It was said that the Xingfu Orphanage and the Seventh Hospital next door were originally one entity. More than sixty years ago, this place belonged to a very prosperous large hospital, covering a very wide area.
But that war which swept across the world destroyed everything.
When the war subsided, and Yao Country was back on track, this area had become completely desolate and was designated as a suburb.
Since there were already more and better hospitals in other areas, it seemed unnecessary to rebuild a hospital in the suburbs. The Yuanyang city government simply used the original hospital garden as a boundary and completely separated it into two parts.
The buildings to the west of the garden were converted into the Seventh Hospital, specifically for patients with severe mental abnormalities. The remaining small part of the buildings to the east of the garden became a place to shelter war orphans, which was later renamed the Xingfu Orphanage.
The distance between the two was only four hundred meters.
Thinking of this, the image of the only time he had visited the orphanage and was frightened by a madman who ran out of the mental hospital next door resurfaced in his mind after many years, and Gong Fang’s face turned paler than the moonlight.
[…Back then, she accidentally saw a man volunteering there, thought he was diligent and kind, so when this man pursued her high-profile at school, she agreed so quickly.]
At this moment, he suddenly remembered what Yuan Yao had said before.
Gong Fang didn’t understand at first, but at this moment, returning to the old place, an experience from more than twenty years ago suddenly surfaced from the depths of his memory, making him realize with a start.
——Back then, Gong Fang’s target was just a girl in his department with a good family background. He heard that she was very kind-hearted and would volunteer at the orphanage on weekends. In order to win the girl’s heart, he joined them to volunteer.
However, this only volunteering experience gave him a deep lesson–a little madman who suddenly ran out of the mental hospital next door. Even now, Gong Fang dared not admit that he was quite scared by a little girl who looked only seven or eight years old.
This fear even made him give up his original pursuit plan and never set foot in the southern suburbs again.
It was shortly after he returned to school after volunteering that he suddenly noticed that the girl with the most outstanding family background in the school seemed to look at him differently and had a few good feelings for him.
Even if this good feeling was not much, and he was not clear about the origin of this good feeling, it did not prevent Gong Fang from firmly grasping this opportunity and seizing this pie that fell from the sky!
“So that’s how it is…”
It was not until this moment that he understood the cause of all this.
The gentle and beautiful face in his memory flashed by.
“How silly…”
“Wu——” “Wu——” “Hee hee——” “Roar!”
The terrifying and eerie strange sounds echoed in the night, and Gong Fang, who was immersed in his memories, was startled back to reality.
The phone in his pocket suddenly rang!
[As you wish, the third round of the game officially begins! Please reach the Xingfu Orphanage on foot within ten minutes.]
Through the muddy path between the trees, the fork at the end of the path pointed to two directions, the right side was the gray-white building group hidden in the night, and the left side was a ruin that had been burned down for the most part, which was also the old site of the Xingfu Orphanage.
Collapsed buildings, wall roots completely blackened by smoke, residues of unknown burned objects between collapsed bricks and stones, a large area of scorched earth without a single weed…
When Gong Fang crossed the position where the original gate was, this was the scene in his line of sight.
Perhaps the only thing that was still relatively intact was a few small buildings on the far west side. Although it seemed to have been burned half, and was blackened, it seemed to have retained some existence due to the special building materials.
[——Welcome to the Xingfu Orphanage. Our short but meaningful journey has finally come to an end!]
A passionate voice, like a tour guide’s commentary, suddenly came from behind Gong Fang, startling him.
“Who! Who is it?!”
He turned around and found that on the side of the gate pillar that had been burned down to only a section, not far from the corner of the ruins, and even further away on half of the wall, someone had installed one after another loudspeakers at some point. The passionate voice was coming from the loudspeakers, echoing in all directions.
The other party was like a dutiful tour guide, introducing everything here to a first-time visitor.
[The Xingfu Orphanage has an ordinary yet happy name. Fifty years ago, the chairman of the Yuan Group was blessed with a daughter. In order to do good deeds and accumulate blessings for his newborn daughter, he sponsored a hundred orphanages across the country in one go. The Xingfu Orphanage, with its ordinary and happy name, stood out among several local orphanages and won the only sponsorship quota in Yuanyang City.]
[His daughter did not let him down, growing into a gentle and kind person. After growing up, she actively participated in her parents’ charity work, always paying close attention to the development of these hundred orphanages. Especially the local Xingfu Orphanage, she would visit once a year, having intimate and open conversations with the children, fulfilling each of their wishes.]
[The Xingfu Orphanage became a truly happy orphanage. The angel in the fairy tale books had a face in the children’s hearts. This place was their heaven.]
(TL: 幸福 ‘Xingfu’=happiness; well-being; bliss; felicity etc.)
Although the sound quality of the loudspeaker and the mobile phone microphone was slightly different, with a little discernment, this voice obviously belonged to the man who called himself [K].
This voice was initially low and gentle, with a dreamy and bewitching breath, as if one was about to unconsciously sink into the sweet dream he wove, but just as you were about to completely sink, his tone suddenly changed.
The more gentle and dreamy the feeling he gave people before, the more eerie and strange this voice sounded now——
[But a fire five years ago turned heaven into hell. They wailed and screamed, swallowed by the ruthless fire, and from then on became wandering ghosts in hell.]
[They linger here, unwilling to leave.]
[They are waiting for someone.]
[——Now, this person has finally arrived!]
Thump!
Accompanied by a sound like the background music of a horror movie, a cold wind blew, brushing against Gong Fang’s skin exposed outside his sleeves. The faint chill seemed to crawl all over his body with his skin, making him shiver.
“Hee hee, it’s you~”
It seemed like a voice was blowing over his scalp with the cold wind. Gong Fang shivered and turned around on the spot. His gaze suddenly swept behind him, but there was nothing behind him.
At this moment, he was already sweating profusely.
He finally exploded. “Enough! Stop playing tricks! I’ve already done what you said, what else do you want from me? This has nothing to do with me! Nothing to do with me!”
At this moment, Gong Fang should have been full of anger, like a bull ready to gore someone at any time, but combined with his sweaty reaction at this time, he seemed indescribably guilty.
He looked around blankly on the ruins full of scorched earth, as if he was talking to a ghost wandering nearby. “Are you going to give Xiao Tian back to me? Where is Xiao Tian? You didn’t do anything to him, did you? I want to see Xiao Tian!”
“Oh, finally can’t help but start worrying about your son?”
The young man’s melancholic voice drifted from around.
“Let me guess why you would react like this.”
“——Because you know very well what you have done.”
“——You don’t have the confidence to be forgiven again.”
“——You start to worry that everything you’ve done will be retaliated against your son in the same way.”
“——You’re finally scared.”
“Enough, enough, enough! Stop talking!!”
Gong Fang surrendered with a bitter smile. “What exactly do you want me to do? As long as you don’t hurt my son…”
“Within five minutes, enter the building two hundred meters to the northwest, and you will see your son.”
As soon as these words came out, Gong Fang didn’t say another word, took a glance at the charred building not far away, and ran straight towards it.
“Huff…huff…”
His body, already in its fifties and accustomed to a life of luxury, was panting heavily under such torment. He was catching his breath while pushing open the deformed iron gate.
Inside the house that had been burned to the ground, a projection screen suddenly appeared on the wall, which was particularly eye-catching.
The young man’s voice came out from it——
“Five years ago, this was the warehouse where the Xingfu Orphanage stored food, and it was also the origin of that fire.”
Gong Fang was suddenly startled and instinctively wanted to turn around and leave. Like a rabbit that had fallen into a trap and was fleeing in panic.
“Dad!”
A tender call suddenly came from behind him, making Gong Fang freeze on the spot.
