Small Braid took two steps, hesitated, and turned his head twice.
After walking for a while, he suddenly stopped and said, “Is it really appropriate for so many of you to come?”
Sun Ning and Li Cancan, who were following closely, exchanged glances. Li Cancan spoke up, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for just the two of you to go. Yesterday, the girl was scared to tears by both of you. If you go again now, her mother might break both your legs.”
Bai Lixin lowered his head and glanced at his own legs: “…”
‘There’s no need for that.’
Sun Ning quickly took a few steps to reach Bai Lixin’s side. She lowered her voice and said, “I find it a bit strange.”
Li Cancan also joined in.
Small Braid turned to look back again, and his blood pressure almost shot up.
The young man in the middle was walking slowly, flanked by two beauties on both sides. Most notably, the young man in the middle was the most good looking among the three.
‘Why does he get two beautiful women while I’m just a single guy?
Could there be some special attraction between beautiful people?’
Li Cancan also whispered mysteriously, “What’s strange?”
Bai Lixin answered her question, “The players’ reactions are strange.”
Sun Ning agreed, “Yes, exactly. Everyone is experienced, so there’s no need to be so agitated.”
“But look at today at noon, we were surrounded by NPCs, but the players were arguing at the tables like that. Something’s off.”
Li Cancan recalled, “Now that you mention it, it does seem strange. Could it be an issue with the food they ate?”
Sun Ning said, “But they ate the same food as us.”
Li Cancan suggested, “Could it be about the quantity they ate?”
Sun Ning furrowed her brow, looking puzzled. “I don’t know, but it’s not a good sign. Let’s take it one step at a time. We can’t control other people, let’s just ensure our own survival environment.”
Li Cancan agreed, “Okay.”
As they spoke, the four of them had already arrived at Pan Pan’s house from yesterday.
Initially, Small Braid had been walking with great confidence, but when he saw the tightly closed door of Pan Pan’s house, he suddenly became apprehensive. He nervously scratched his head and looked at the three of them. “Um, how about the handsome guy in the middle? Could you knock on the door?”
Bai Lixin, the handsome guy in the middle: “…”
‘Can I avoid this?’
Sun Ning walked over and said, “Let me do it. According to statistical analysis, when facing strangers, women naturally make people relax their guard.”
After saying that, she knocked on the door and called out through the door crack, “Excuse me, is anyone there?”
Soon, there was the sound of the wooden door moving from inside the courtyard. Sun Ning peered through the crack and saw a figure coming out from inside. The person wiped their hands with an apron and asked before reaching the door, “Who is it?”
“Hello, we are the guests from the city who came to help, we’d like to apologize to you,” Sun Ning observed the situation inside through the door frame. She saw the figure approaching and stopping in front of the door.
Just when Sun Ning thought the person on the other side was about to open the door, a mysterious and unsettling eyeball suddenly appeared in her field of vision.
That eyeball was extremely dark, almost to the point where you couldn’t see the pupil, just a complete eyeball.
The eye was only a door frame’s distance away from Sun Ning, and it stared at her without blinking, eerie and chilling.
Sun Ning immediately stood up and took two steps back, stumbling away from the door.
Then the door opened, revealing a woman in an apron standing behind a high doorstep, looking warily at the four of them. “It’s you two again? And you brought two more girls this time? You came yesterday and now today, but this doesn’t seem to be your place, right?”
Sun Ning quickly adjusted her expression and handed a gift she had taken from her backpack to the woman. “It’s because they came yesterday that we’re here again.”
“Yesterday, our comrades offended you, and this time we’ve come specifically to apologize to you. Can we come inside?”
The woman looked at the two girls and then at the man behind them. “Alright, come in. But Pan Pan is sleeping. Be quiet and don’t wake her up.”
The woman led them into the main house, where smoke was rising from the stove in the kitchen. On a table, there was a neatly arranged row of large white steamed buns.
Sun Ning: “Are you making steamed buns?”
The woman nodded faintly. “Yes, please have a seat for a moment, and I’ll come over after steaming the buns.”
As the woman left, the group examined the main house carefully.
Though not large, the room was very clean.
Furniture inside was neatly arranged, and above the sofa, there hung a somewhat yellowed photo frame.
It was a family photo of three: a woman sitting on a chair, cradling a baby in her arms, and a man standing behind her.
Compared to the beautiful woman, the man had a hearty smile.
“Only a family of three? Is the person in her arms Pan Pan’s little brother?” Li Cancan stared at the photo frame. “God Xin, do you know about the tradition of giving girls ‘wishing names’?”
Bai Lixin asked, “What do you mean?”
Li Cancan explained, “Xiao Di, Pan Di, Lai Di, Nian Di…and other names like these. Girls given these names carry a prejudice from the moment they are born.”
“The happiest moment in these girls’ lives is probably when they were in their mother’s womb.”
Li Cancan sat down, saying, “You’ve probably never heard of this, have you?”
Bai Lixin’s eyes darkened slightly. “I’m sorry.”
Li Cancan: “Why are you apologizing? I didn’t have one of those names, and my grandmother loved me dearly. I mentioned this because I feel for these girls. People say all parents love their children, and all children are the same, but there are still differences. Girls with these names never received favor through their names. Their names exist for someone else who might or might not be born.”
“It makes me sad just thinking about it.”
Bai Lixin’s gaze shifted from the photo to the simple shoe cabinet near the entrance. “It seems like there’s no man in their family. All the shoes in the cabinet are women’s and children’s.”
Upon hearing this, the group glanced toward the entrance and indeed saw several pairs of shoes on the cabinet. Among them, only three were for adults, all women’s shoes.
However, there were many pairs of children’s shoes, about six or seven pairs, and all of them were girls’ shoes.
“It seems like Pan Pan’s mother dotes on her daughter, she bought her so many pretty shoes.” Li Cancan sighed with relief.
Footsteps approached from outside, and the four people quickly sat up straight.
Soon, the woman entered.
Upon entering, she spoke, “I’m sorry, I was a bit busy earlier, and I kept you waiting. These are freshly washed pears. They’re very sweet, please taste them.”
As she spoke, the woman placed the tray of pears in front of everyone. “I picked these from the back mountains a few days ago. They have a sweet taste, completely different from what we grow at home.”
With great enthusiasm, she began to place pears into the hands of the four.
A bit surprised by the woman’s sudden change in demeanor, the group looked down at the pears in their hands, taken off guard by this unexpected warmth.
What’s going on?
The woman said with a smile on her face, “I’m sorry about yesterday, I thought you were… well, let’s just say it was a misunderstanding. In fact, you shouldn’t be the ones apologizing, it should be me.”
Sun Ning asked, “Were you worried someone will kidnap your daughter? I heard your son was lost. Do you need our help?”
“Oh,” the woman sat down and untied the apron from her waist. She sighed and looked at the four. “I actually anticipated such a thing for a long time.”
The four were puzzled, and Small Braid asked, “Why? Is it related to the legend of the mountain ghost from the back mountains?”
The woman explained, “My son has sticky fingers and always takes things from other people’s homes. He also frequently hits others and cries for no reason. I’ve tried to discipline him countless times, but he just won’t change his bad habits.”
“You mentioned the mountain ghost, so you must have heard about the mountain ghost stories. The Mountain Ghost catches bad children from the mountainside, and my son is one of those naughty kids.”
“Ever since I knew my son was a bad child, I’ve been waiting for this day. What’s meant to happen will happen.”
Li Cancan asked, “Have any of you seen the mountain ghost?”
The woman replied, “I have, but I couldn’t see it clearly. It was all dark and looked strange and scary.”
Li Cancan seemed to want to ask something else, but she hesitated. She glanced at Sun Ning beside her. After receiving the signal, Sun Ning asked the woman, “Sister, were you abducted and brought here?”
The woman was suddenly stunned, gazing at the two of them in disbelief.
“You can tell us, maybe we can help,” Li Cancan added.
“No, no,” the woman regained her composure. She quickly waved her hand, “You’ve misunderstood. I had a loving relationship with my husband. In fact, like you, I came here from the city. At that time, I had just graduated from normal school and came here to teach. During my teaching, I met my husband, and I chose to stay for him.”
“So you used to be a teacher,” Bai Lixin said, looking at the woman. “Did you teach at the abandoned school in the village?”
The woman was stunned again.
A few seconds later, she said, “Oh, no, that school was abandoned a long time ago. At that time, I was teaching in the village committee compound. The environment was very simple. There was nothing back then. The desks were pieced together from furniture in each household, and we didn’t even have textbooks. I had to copy the contents of the textbooks on the blackboard one word at a time, and then the students would copy them down themselves.”
As the woman spoke, her gaze gradually drifted into memories. “In any case, those were days of strong conviction.”
Bai Lixin asked, “Were there many children in the village at that time?”
“No,” the woman shook her head. “Back then… the total number of primary school students in the entire village was only seven or eight children. But it’s different now, there are more and more children in this village.”
“There are more children, but fewer attend school?” Sun Ning asked a sharp question.
“Because of school mergers, when the children reach school age, they go to schools in the city. However, the city schools are too far from here, so our children stay at school during the semester, only coming home on weekends and holidays. Now it happens to be the kids’ vacation, so they’re all in the village.”
“Oh, I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding,” Sun Ning said skeptically. Then she heard the woman ask a question that made her break into a cold sweat.
“Aren’t all of you comrades from the city? Why wouldn’t you understand our village’s situation? It’s a bit strange.”
Sun Ning’s hair stood on end. “We do understand, but our understanding is limited. Now, we’re just chatting with you to confirm.”
The woman responded with an indifferent “Oh” and then sat silently, staring straight at the four.
The four felt somewhat uneasy under her gaze. In an attempt to ease the awkward atmosphere, Small Braid blurted out a question, “Is your husband not at home?”
After asking, he froze.
‘Why did I ask that?
Why ask such a question to a woman who’s home alone?
She might think I’m some old pervert with inappropriate intentions!’
“My husband passed away several years ago,” the woman replied calmly, glancing at a family photo on the table. “This is the only family photo we have.”
“Why isn’t he in it?” Small Braid blurted out again.
After asking, he froze once more.
‘What did I just ask?’
He looked at the two girls opposite him as if asking for help, but when he looked over, he saw the two girls secretly giving him a thumbs up.
They also wanted to know!
But they didn’t know where to start, so they never asked.
Small Braid, it was really wise of you to come with us!
Small Braid wanted to cry but had no tears.
The woman continued, “He died in a mining accident when he was working in the coal mine. The mine compensated us a lot of money at the time, thanks to that, our lives weren’t too difficult.”
Small Braid looked at the woman with guilt, “I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“It’s okay, this happened many years ago, and everyone in the village knows about it. It’s not a secret. After all these years, I’ve come to terms with it. The dead cannot be brought back to life; we must still live our lives well. Now, it’s just me and my daughter left, and I’m very worried that something might happen to her. That’s why I was so cautious yesterday.”
Li Cancan: “Pan Pan looks quite gloomy. Does she have something on her mind?”
Woman: “I don’t know about that. Pan Pan has always been quite mature for her age. Sometimes, even I can’t understand her. She’s like this from time to time, but it usually passes after a while.”
The four of them couldn’t help but furrow their brows.
At this rate, they didn’t learn anything else except Pan Pan’s family background.
While they were contemplating how to understand Pan Pan’s thoughts, the curtain hanging on the door made a sound. They all turned to see Pan Pan, who should have been sleeping, standing at the door without making a sound.
She had an expressionless face. Her pure black eyes that were so similar to her mother’s, stared inside the room. It was impossible to tell where her focus was.
The woman quickly got up from her chair, went out, and hugged Pan Pan in her arms. Her originally plain face instantly turned gentle.
She gently comforted the little girl, patting her back while asking in a soft voice, “Pan Pan, why did you wake up?”
Pan Pan blinked, and Bai Lixin noticed that her originally pure black eyes were gradually regaining focus.
The girl huddled into her mother’s arms dependently, “I had a nightmare, Mom. I dreamed of Dad and my little brother. They said they missed me and wanted to take me with them.”
The woman’s body stiffened for two seconds, then she gently asked, “And then? Dreaming of Dad and your little brother should have been a sweet dream, right?”
“No, it was a nightmare,” the girl insisted. “They wanted to take me away, but I didn’t want to leave you. It was not a sweet dream at all.”
The girl tilted her head and, without warning, locked eyes with Bai Lixin.
She stared at him intensely, her pitch-black eyes filled with a heavy and eerie atmosphere so unlike the gaze of a seven-year-old girl.
She stared at Bai Lixin for two seconds and then withdrew her gaze, finding a comfortable position in her mother’s arms and closing her eyes.
The woman didn’t have the energy to communicate with Bai Lixin and the others anymore. She stood up and patted the girl’s back gently, apologizing, “I need to put Pan Pan to sleep. We’ll chat again later. Let’s go, I’ll escort you out.”
It wasn’t until the heavy iron door closed behind them that Small Braid shivered. “Why do I feel like this girl is so eerie? I almost screamed when I saw her standing at the door and looking inside. Is this the real-life version of ‘Orphan’?”
*ORPHAN is a 2009 American horror thriller film directed by Jaume Collet – Serra. The movie tells the story of a couple who suffered from the shadow of miscarriage , so they decided to adopt a 9-year-old girl, Esther. However, on the surface, she looks like an innocent girl, but she is actually a nothing like what they think she is.Sun Ning also furrowed her brows. “Something’s not right. Could our initial assumptions be wrong after all?”
“Maybe this is just a normal village.”
“Speaking of which,” Bai Lixin gazed into the distance and then looked at the magnificent mountains ahead. “Have you ever thought about going up the mountain? Climbing a mountain can also be good exercise.”
Sun Ning and Li Cancan exchanged glances and then said in unison, “When should we go?”
Bai Lixin replied: “Early tomorrow morning. It’s pitch dark at night, and if there are any traps or snares in the woods, we won’t see them. Even though we’re players, it might be too much for us. I can see that this mountain is not short; it might take us more than two hours to climb to the top. Let’s set off around 8 a.m., and we should be able to come down before it gets dark.”
“Do you still have food in your backpacks? We cannot rule out food being the cause for the abnormal behavior among the players. If that’s the case, it’s safer to eat the food we brought ourselves. I have plenty here; if you don’t have enough, just let me know.”
Sun Ning and Li Cancan quickly waved their hands, indicating that they had prepared food and drinks.
It was Small Braid who looked at Bai Lixin somewhat embarrassedly and said, “Um, how about you give me some? I will owe you my life! Also, why don’t I join you tomorrow morning to go up the mountain?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘There’s no need to be so dramatic!’
After agreeing on the time to go up the mountain, everyone returned to their residences.
Today was the second day, and everything in the village was the same as on the first day.
In the afternoon, the old woman prepared to go out for a stroll. The mute woman finished cleaning the house and was busy in the kitchen. The two children had gone off to play somewhere.
As the sun began to set, the man pushed the door open and walked in, drenched in sweat and complaining loudly about how tired he was today.
The mute woman seemed used to this. She skillfully put down the dishes in her hands and poured the man a cup of herbal tea that had been cooled in advance.
Small Braid took two steps, hesitated, and turned his head twice.
After walking for a while, he suddenly stopped and said, “Is it really appropriate for so many of you to come?”
Sun Ning and Li Cancan, who were following closely, exchanged glances. Li Cancan spoke up, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for just the two of you to go. Yesterday, the girl was scared to tears by both of you. If you go again now, her mother might break both your legs.”
Bai Lixin lowered his head and glanced at his own legs: “…”
‘There’s no need for that.’
Sun Ning quickly took a few steps to reach Bai Lixin’s side. She lowered her voice and said, “I find it a bit strange.”
Li Cancan also joined in.
Small Braid turned to look back again, and his blood pressure almost shot up.
The young man in the middle was walking slowly, flanked by two beauties on both sides. Most notably, the young man in the middle was the most good looking among the three.
‘Why does he get two beautiful women while I’m just a single guy?
Could there be some special attraction between beautiful people?’
Li Cancan also whispered mysteriously, “What’s strange?”
Bai Lixin answered her question, “The players’ reactions are strange.”
Sun Ning agreed, “Yes, exactly. Everyone is experienced, so there’s no need to be so agitated.”
“But look at today at noon, we were surrounded by NPCs, but the players were arguing at the tables like that. Something’s off.”
Li Cancan recalled, “Now that you mention it, it does seem strange. Could it be an issue with the food they ate?”
Sun Ning said, “But they ate the same food as us.”
Li Cancan suggested, “Could it be about the quantity they ate?”
Sun Ning furrowed her brow, looking puzzled. “I don’t know, but it’s not a good sign. Let’s take it one step at a time. We can’t control other people, let’s just ensure our own survival environment.”
Li Cancan agreed, “Okay.”
As they spoke, the four of them had already arrived at Pan Pan’s house from yesterday.
Initially, Small Braid had been walking with great confidence, but when he saw the tightly closed door of Pan Pan’s house, he suddenly became apprehensive. He nervously scratched his head and looked at the three of them. “Um, how about the handsome guy in the middle? Could you knock on the door?”
Bai Lixin, the handsome guy in the middle: “…”
‘Can I avoid this?’
Sun Ning walked over and said, “Let me do it. According to statistical analysis, when facing strangers, women naturally make people relax their guard.”
After saying that, she knocked on the door and called out through the door crack, “Excuse me, is anyone there?”
Soon, there was the sound of the wooden door moving from inside the courtyard. Sun Ning peered through the crack and saw a figure coming out from inside. The person wiped their hands with an apron and asked before reaching the door, “Who is it?”
“Hello, we are the guests from the city who came to help, we’d like to apologize to you,” Sun Ning observed the situation inside through the door frame. She saw the figure approaching and stopping in front of the door.
Just when Sun Ning thought the person on the other side was about to open the door, a mysterious and unsettling eyeball suddenly appeared in her field of vision.
That eyeball was extremely dark, almost to the point where you couldn’t see the pupil, just a complete eyeball.
The eye was only a door frame’s distance away from Sun Ning, and it stared at her without blinking, eerie and chilling.
Sun Ning immediately stood up and took two steps back, stumbling away from the door.
Then the door opened, revealing a woman in an apron standing behind a high doorstep, looking warily at the four of them. “It’s you two again? And you brought two more girls this time? You came yesterday and now today, but this doesn’t seem to be your place, right?”
Sun Ning quickly adjusted her expression and handed a gift she had taken from her backpack to the woman. “It’s because they came yesterday that we’re here again.”
“Yesterday, our comrades offended you, and this time we’ve come specifically to apologize to you. Can we come inside?”
The woman looked at the two girls and then at the man behind them. “Alright, come in. But Pan Pan is sleeping. Be quiet and don’t wake her up.”
The woman led them into the main house, where smoke was rising from the stove in the kitchen. On a table, there was a neatly arranged row of large white steamed buns.
Sun Ning: “Are you making steamed buns?”
The woman nodded faintly. “Yes, please have a seat for a moment, and I’ll come over after steaming the buns.”
As the woman left, the group examined the main house carefully.
Though not large, the room was very clean.
Furniture inside was neatly arranged, and above the sofa, there hung a somewhat yellowed photo frame.
It was a family photo of three: a woman sitting on a chair, cradling a baby in her arms, and a man standing behind her.
Compared to the beautiful woman, the man had a hearty smile.
“Only a family of three? Is the person in her arms Pan Pan’s little brother?” Li Cancan stared at the photo frame. “God Xin, do you know about the tradition of giving girls ‘wishing names’?”
Bai Lixin asked, “What do you mean?”
Li Cancan explained, “Xiao Di, Pan Di, Lai Di, Nian Di…and other names like these. Girls given these names carry a prejudice from the moment they are born.”
“The happiest moment in these girls’ lives is probably when they were in their mother’s womb.”
Li Cancan sat down, saying, “You’ve probably never heard of this, have you?”
Bai Lixin’s eyes darkened slightly. “I’m sorry.”
Li Cancan: “Why are you apologizing? I didn’t have one of those names, and my grandmother loved me dearly. I mentioned this because I feel for these girls. People say all parents love their children, and all children are the same, but there are still differences. Girls with these names never received favor through their names. Their names exist for someone else who might or might not be born.”
“It makes me sad just thinking about it.”
Bai Lixin’s gaze shifted from the photo to the simple shoe cabinet near the entrance. “It seems like there’s no man in their family. All the shoes in the cabinet are women’s and children’s.”
Upon hearing this, the group glanced toward the entrance and indeed saw several pairs of shoes on the cabinet. Among them, only three were for adults, all women’s shoes.
However, there were many pairs of children’s shoes, about six or seven pairs, and all of them were girls’ shoes.
“It seems like Pan Pan’s mother dotes on her daughter, she bought her so many pretty shoes.” Li Cancan sighed with relief.
Footsteps approached from outside, and the four people quickly sat up straight.
Soon, the woman entered.
Upon entering, she spoke, “I’m sorry, I was a bit busy earlier, and I kept you waiting. These are freshly washed pears. They’re very sweet, please taste them.”
As she spoke, the woman placed the tray of pears in front of everyone. “I picked these from the back mountains a few days ago. They have a sweet taste, completely different from what we grow at home.”
With great enthusiasm, she began to place pears into the hands of the four.
A bit surprised by the woman’s sudden change in demeanor, the group looked down at the pears in their hands, taken off guard by this unexpected warmth.
What’s going on?
The woman said with a smile on her face, “I’m sorry about yesterday, I thought you were… well, let’s just say it was a misunderstanding. In fact, you shouldn’t be the ones apologizing, it should be me.”
Sun Ning asked, “Were you worried someone will kidnap your daughter? I heard your son was lost. Do you need our help?”
“Oh,” the woman sat down and untied the apron from her waist. She sighed and looked at the four. “I actually anticipated such a thing for a long time.”
The four were puzzled, and Small Braid asked, “Why? Is it related to the legend of the mountain ghost from the back mountains?”
The woman explained, “My son has sticky fingers and always takes things from other people’s homes. He also frequently hits others and cries for no reason. I’ve tried to discipline him countless times, but he just won’t change his bad habits.”
“You mentioned the mountain ghost, so you must have heard about the mountain ghost stories. The Mountain Ghost catches bad children from the mountainside, and my son is one of those naughty kids.”
“Ever since I knew my son was a bad child, I’ve been waiting for this day. What’s meant to happen will happen.”
Li Cancan asked, “Have any of you seen the mountain ghost?”
The woman replied, “I have, but I couldn’t see it clearly. It was all dark and looked strange and scary.”
Li Cancan seemed to want to ask something else, but she hesitated. She glanced at Sun Ning beside her. After receiving the signal, Sun Ning asked the woman, “Sister, were you abducted and brought here?”
The woman was suddenly stunned, gazing at the two of them in disbelief.
“You can tell us, maybe we can help,” Li Cancan added.
“No, no,” the woman regained her composure. She quickly waved her hand, “You’ve misunderstood. I had a loving relationship with my husband. In fact, like you, I came here from the city. At that time, I had just graduated from normal school and came here to teach. During my teaching, I met my husband, and I chose to stay for him.”
“So you used to be a teacher,” Bai Lixin said, looking at the woman. “Did you teach at the abandoned school in the village?”
The woman was stunned again.
A few seconds later, she said, “Oh, no, that school was abandoned a long time ago. At that time, I was teaching in the village committee compound. The environment was very simple. There was nothing back then. The desks were pieced together from furniture in each household, and we didn’t even have textbooks. I had to copy the contents of the textbooks on the blackboard one word at a time, and then the students would copy them down themselves.”
As the woman spoke, her gaze gradually drifted into memories. “In any case, those were days of strong conviction.”
Bai Lixin asked, “Were there many children in the village at that time?”
“No,” the woman shook her head. “Back then… the total number of primary school students in the entire village was only seven or eight children. But it’s different now, there are more and more children in this village.”
“There are more children, but fewer attend school?” Sun Ning asked a sharp question.
“Because of school mergers, when the children reach school age, they go to schools in the city. However, the city schools are too far from here, so our children stay at school during the semester, only coming home on weekends and holidays. Now it happens to be the kids’ vacation, so they’re all in the village.”
“Oh, I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding,” Sun Ning said skeptically. Then she heard the woman ask a question that made her break into a cold sweat.
“Aren’t all of you comrades from the city? Why wouldn’t you understand our village’s situation? It’s a bit strange.”
Sun Ning’s hair stood on end. “We do understand, but our understanding is limited. Now, we’re just chatting with you to confirm.”
The woman responded with an indifferent “Oh” and then sat silently, staring straight at the four.
The four felt somewhat uneasy under her gaze. In an attempt to ease the awkward atmosphere, Small Braid blurted out a question, “Is your husband not at home?”
After asking, he froze.
‘Why did I ask that?
Why ask such a question to a woman who’s home alone?
She might think I’m some old pervert with inappropriate intentions!’
“My husband passed away several years ago,” the woman replied calmly, glancing at a family photo on the table. “This is the only family photo we have.”
“Why isn’t he in it?” Small Braid blurted out again.
After asking, he froze once more.
‘What did I just ask?’
He looked at the two girls opposite him as if asking for help, but when he looked over, he saw the two girls secretly giving him a thumbs up.
They also wanted to know!
But they didn’t know where to start, so they never asked.
Small Braid, it was really wise of you to come with us!
Small Braid wanted to cry but had no tears.
The woman continued, “He died in a mining accident when he was working in the coal mine. The mine compensated us a lot of money at the time, thanks to that, our lives weren’t too difficult.”
Small Braid looked at the woman with guilt, “I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“It’s okay, this happened many years ago, and everyone in the village knows about it. It’s not a secret. After all these years, I’ve come to terms with it. The dead cannot be brought back to life; we must still live our lives well. Now, it’s just me and my daughter left, and I’m very worried that something might happen to her. That’s why I was so cautious yesterday.”
Li Cancan: “Pan Pan looks quite gloomy. Does she have something on her mind?”
Woman: “I don’t know about that. Pan Pan has always been quite mature for her age. Sometimes, even I can’t understand her. She’s like this from time to time, but it usually passes after a while.”
The four of them couldn’t help but furrow their brows.
At this rate, they didn’t learn anything else except Pan Pan’s family background.
While they were contemplating how to understand Pan Pan’s thoughts, the curtain hanging on the door made a sound. They all turned to see Pan Pan, who should have been sleeping, standing at the door without making a sound.
She had an expressionless face. Her pure black eyes that were so similar to her mother’s, stared inside the room. It was impossible to tell where her focus was.
The woman quickly got up from her chair, went out, and hugged Pan Pan in her arms. Her originally plain face instantly turned gentle.
She gently comforted the little girl, patting her back while asking in a soft voice, “Pan Pan, why did you wake up?”
Pan Pan blinked, and Bai Lixin noticed that her originally pure black eyes were gradually regaining focus.
The girl huddled into her mother’s arms dependently, “I had a nightmare, Mom. I dreamed of Dad and my little brother. They said they missed me and wanted to take me with them.”
The woman’s body stiffened for two seconds, then she gently asked, “And then? Dreaming of Dad and your little brother should have been a sweet dream, right?”
“No, it was a nightmare,” the girl insisted. “They wanted to take me away, but I didn’t want to leave you. It was not a sweet dream at all.”
The girl tilted her head and, without warning, locked eyes with Bai Lixin.
She stared at him intensely, her pitch-black eyes filled with a heavy and eerie atmosphere so unlike the gaze of a seven-year-old girl.
She stared at Bai Lixin for two seconds and then withdrew her gaze, finding a comfortable position in her mother’s arms and closing her eyes.
The woman didn’t have the energy to communicate with Bai Lixin and the others anymore. She stood up and patted the girl’s back gently, apologizing, “I need to put Pan Pan to sleep. We’ll chat again later. Let’s go, I’ll escort you out.”
It wasn’t until the heavy iron door closed behind them that Small Braid shivered. “Why do I feel like this girl is so eerie? I almost screamed when I saw her standing at the door and looking inside. Is this the real-life version of ‘Orphan’?”
*ORPHAN is a 2009 American horror thriller film directed by Jaume Collet – Serra. The movie tells the story of a couple who suffered from the shadow of miscarriage , so they decided to adopt a 9-year-old girl, Esther. However, on the surface, she looks like an innocent girl, but she is actually a nothing like what they think she is.Sun Ning also furrowed her brows. “Something’s not right. Could our initial assumptions be wrong after all?”
“Maybe this is just a normal village.”
“Speaking of which,” Bai Lixin gazed into the distance and then looked at the magnificent mountains ahead. “Have you ever thought about going up the mountain? Climbing a mountain can also be good exercise.”
Sun Ning and Li Cancan exchanged glances and then said in unison, “When should we go?”
Bai Lixin replied: “Early tomorrow morning. It’s pitch dark at night, and if there are any traps or snares in the woods, we won’t see them. Even though we’re players, it might be too much for us. I can see that this mountain is not short; it might take us more than two hours to climb to the top. Let’s set off around 8 a.m., and we should be able to come down before it gets dark.”
“Do you still have food in your backpacks? We cannot rule out food being the cause for the abnormal behavior among the players. If that’s the case, it’s safer to eat the food we brought ourselves. I have plenty here; if you don’t have enough, just let me know.”
Sun Ning and Li Cancan quickly waved their hands, indicating that they had prepared food and drinks.
It was Small Braid who looked at Bai Lixin somewhat embarrassedly and said, “Um, how about you give me some? I will owe you my life! Also, why don’t I join you tomorrow morning to go up the mountain?”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘There’s no need to be so dramatic!’
After agreeing on the time to go up the mountain, everyone returned to their residences.
Today was the second day, and everything in the village was the same as on the first day.
In the afternoon, the old woman prepared to go out for a stroll. The mute woman finished cleaning the house and was busy in the kitchen. The two children had gone off to play somewhere.
As the sun began to set, the man pushed the door open and walked in, drenched in sweat and complaining loudly about how tired he was today.
The mute woman seemed used to this. She skillfully put down the dishes in her hands and poured the man a cup of herbal tea that had been cooled in advance.
