Chapter 4

Mu Qin suddenly understood something, and he said in fright, “As far as I know, tarot cards have a distinction between upright and reversed. An upright card symbolizes an increasing influence or a positive meaning while a reversed card symbolizes a receding influence or a negative meaning. Foreign fortune-tellers like to use these kinds of things to divine a person’s fate and fortune.”

Han Li also understood at this moment. She suddenly reached out to grab the reversed tarot card from Mu Qin’s hand and threw it onto the ground with an unsightly expression, “In any case, it’s fine to just throw this kind of trash card away. I don’t want this kind of effect!”

Qiu Zijia finally found a chance to mock Han Li. He laughed maliciously, “Many prop cards in games are bound, and you can’t throw them away just because you want to throw them away. If this killing game also binds, the card will still unwittingly return to you even if you throw it away.”

“Bullsh*t.” Han Li shot Qiu Zijia a glare and threw the reversed Fool card onto the ground under her foot before stomping on it a few times with force.

After that, the four of them continued to explore the orphanage with an optimistic and careless attitude. They mainly searched in the dormitory area in the orphanage where the children lived. On the first floor, they searched through the offices, the infirmary, the storage room, and the laundry room.

They found nothing in the storage room where keys would most likely be kept. The storage room only contained rows of completely empty, rust-mottled cabinets.

Because this was an abandoned building, there was basically nothing left in the rooms. The unusable tables, chairs, and wooden boards were piled in a corner. They were rotten and moldy, breaking as soon as they were stepped on. There were some children’s clothing scattered on the ground and covered in a thick layer of dust.

The stucco was breaking off in multiple areas. The ceiling was also stained with many black watermarks due to flooding and other causes. The scene was dilapidated and barren. The orphanage had already been abandoned, but magically, the electricity was still operating normally. Mu Qin and the others were still able to turn on the lights in the rooms.

It was just that the lights were too dim and turning them on was no different from leaving them off. Some lights were constantly flickering because of age and disrepair, making this desolate place more eerie and horrifying as if this were the world of a terrifying horror movie.

Big men like Mu Qin were still okay exploring such a gloomy and frightening place, but as a female, Han Li found it a bit intolerable. So when the group went to the second floor to continue exploring, Han Li told Qiu Zijia and Mu Qin, “How about you guys keep checking, and I will wait for you guys in the corridor?”

Qiu Zijia firmly opposed this, “We must not separate. We must act together.”

“Dea atbrf gbbwr jgf abb raloilcu.” Ljc Ol rtbbx tfg tfjv jcv rajecmtis tfiv tfg qbrlalbc. Vtf tfiv tfg mtfra klat jc jqqfjgjcmf bo reoobmjalcu, “P vbc’a kjca ab fcafg. P offi ilxf P mjc’a ygfjatf. Po kbgra mbwfr ab kbgra, P’ii pera obiibk sbe uesr ab fjmt gbbw jcv kjla obg sbe ja atf vbbg. Tbe uesr fzqibgf atf gbbw, jcv P’ii rajcv ja atf vbbgkjs kjlalcu. Qtlif P’w kjlalcu, P mjc fnfc xffq j ibbxbea obg sbe uesr… lo rbwfatlcu lr mbwlcu bnfg, P mjc lwwfvljafis kjgc sbe uesr.”

After Han Li said this, the others all thought it was a good idea. They agreed to her request after a few moments of discussion. Once they reached a conclusion, they went to the second floor of the living complex. The second floor appeared to be the children’s activity room. There were small concert halls, small entertainment rooms, and a toys’ room for these orphans to play in.

Qiu Zijia first opened the door of the activity room, walked two steps into the room, and glanced around before telling Mu Qin, “The facilities in this orphanage are quite complete. What should be here are all here.”

Mu Qin followed him in and also took a few glances. This activity room should be used by younger children. There was a ping-pong table as well as some sports equipment, but all of this equipment could not be any more rotten.

Han Li followed their previous agreement and waited at the door. After searching through the room, they discovered there was nothing of much value and quickly retreated to continue to the toy room next to it.

The toy room was completely reserved for little kids. The floor was purposely installed with wooden flooring, and there were also rainbow tiled carpet. The room was filled with a variety of toys. It was practically a paradise for children.

However, because it was abandoned, the toy room was ruined beyond recognition. The wooden floorboards creaked when stepped on, the rainbow tiled carpet seemed to have been burned by fire and a large patch was blackened, and all the toys were damaged in some way… as if they were damaged by someone’s act of violence. Dolls and toy blocks were all unbearably shattered under a violent blow.

All of the toys that were destroyed beyond recognition were piled into the corner. In the pile, there was a stuffed bear with only a single eye remaining. There was black-grey stuffing spilling out from its stomach, and the bear was sitting at the top of the toy pile. Its angle made its head face the entering Mu Qin and others dead on, just like it was using its remaining eye to silently gaze at them.

The little bear silently sitting at the peak of the toy pile seemed to give Qiu Zijia a fright. His expression became unpleasant in a split second, and he angrily cried, “Which b*stard piled the toys like this! That scared me!”

Mu Qin shot a disapproving look at him, “Isn’t it just a pile of toys…”

Qiu Zijia stressed, “You don’t understand. What scared me wasn’t the toy. It was the atmosphere!”

Mu Qin was still a little bit puzzled. He only felt that the tattered toys evoked some of his sparse memories.

Mu Qin was also an orphan before, and he had stayed in an orphanage. Although he did not stay for a long time, he still grew up at the orphanage until he was around 3 years old before being brought away by his adoptive parents.

Mu QIn could no longer clearly remember the things that happened when he was three. There were only some scattered fragments, such as the little bear doll in front of him… He remembered when he was in the orphanage, as long as he cried, someone would put a little bear toy similar to this one in front of him to coax him.

Thinking of this, Mu Qin could not help but taking a step forward to take the little bear doll down to see, but someone was one step ahead of him.

Cheng Guoxu, who had been silent until now, suddenly reached out from behind Mu Qin first and grabbed the bear.

Mu Qin was startled by Cheng Guoxu’s abrupt action. Struck dumb for a moment, he turned his head and looked at Cheng Guoxu. He saw Cheng Guoxu was carefully examining the bear doll in his hands.

After examining it for half a day, he looked up and told Mu Qin, “These… are the toys produced by the toy factory where I work.”

Cheng Guoxu’s words caused Qiu Zijia, who had been startled, to react. He moved his head closer to look at the little bear doll that Cheng Guoxu held and asked, “You mean this little bear? You said it was produced by your factory?”

“It’s not just this bear.” Cheng Guoxu twisted his head and looked at the toys piled in the corner, “The rest basically all are. Our toy factory produces those kinds of counterfeit toys, so we make almost everything. Only, the toys we make are all marked with our factory’s unique seal. I can recognize them at a glance.”

Cheng Guoxu rarely said so many words at once. Qiu Zijia listened carefully and replied thoughtfully, “Then, this situation is very interesting.”

Mu Qin did not understand and asked Qiu Zijia what he meant, “What’s interesting?”

Qiu Zijia replied to him, “I was just thinking about a question. Mu Qin… do you still remember the name of the orphanage you stayed at?”

Mu Qin said, “Don’t remember… I left the orphanage when I was only three. There’s basically no impression of it at all, and my adoptive parents also did not tell me the name or address of the orphanage after they adopted me. Of course, I also did not consider asking about it.”

Qiu Zijia found that he could not find the answer from Mu Qin, so he could only personally explain, “I have an older brother.”

Mu Qin could not understand why he would change the topic to his older brother and told Qiu Zijia, “Get to the main point.”

“He isn’t my blood-related brother, but rather adopted by my parents.” Qiu Zijia spoke, “Before I was born, my mother was diagnosed with infertility, thus they adopted my brother. Yet a few years after adopting my brother, my mother unexpectedly became pregnant and conceived me.”

“Naturally, this isn’t the main point. The main point is… that older brother of mine. He appears to have been a child adopted by my parents from a place called “Iris Orphanage,” and he passed away many years prior. A few years after I was born, he committed suicide.”

Mu Qin thought he could already guess Qiu Zijia’s meaning, but he still directly sought confirmation from him, “What are you trying to say?”

“Don’t you think it’s strange?” Qiu Zijia pointed at himself, “My brother was from this orphanage.”

He then pointed at Cheng Guoxu, “And the factory where this guy works provides this orphanage with the toys it needs.”

Immediately after, he lowered his voice as if he didn’t want to let Han Li, who was waiting outside, hear and whispered, “In addition, the female teacher outside, didn’t she say before she was a kindergarten teacher? That woman’s expression has been off since the moment we started searching these rooms. I bet she has an impression of the orphanage. Who knows, maybe her job as a kindergarten teacher was actually here, and she may have even taken care of these orphans.”

“Finally, there’s you. Although you said you can’t remember, but you probably were one of the orphans who stay here… , the probability is great.”

Mu Qin thought about it and laughingly replied to Qiu Zijia, “Wonderful inference, but is there any significance? Other than proving the group of us all have some connection to this orphanage.”

Qiu Zijia immediately awkwardly shook his head, “I temporarily can’t think of the significance, but maybe it will become a clue. After all, throwing us to this kind d*mnable place, they should have some sort of motive.”

Mu Qin praised him, “You’re so smart, worthy of a science major.”

The praised Qiu Zijia was pretty pleased, modestly touching the back of his head, “How so, this kind of thing, as long as you understand the basic information, you can also easily make this inference.”

They completely searching this room during the time they spoke and faced that mountain of toys piled in the corner. They swiftly pushed the whole thing over and thoroughly inspected each toy.

Yet, even after searching for half a day, they did not discover any valuable clues. The group decided to leave this room and go to the next room. Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu left the room one after another while Mu Qin brought up the rear.

Just as he was about to walk out the door, he thought of something. He remembered that little bear doll from earlier.

Not knowing what mysterious force was compelling him, Mu Qin wanted to turn around and take a look at the room. He wanted to look at the little bear toy that had been casually placed on the table by Cheng Guoxu. But when Mu Qin turned and looked, he saw a frightening scene.

The toy room that had been rummaged into a giant by Mu Qin’s group, now, in the blink of an eye, was restored to its original appearance as when they had first entered.

The tattered toys were still piled in the old spot in the corner, and that stuffed bear was still sitting at the peak of the toy mountain. It used its single button-eye to watch Mu Qin.

This bizarre scene scared Mu Qin so much he quivered fiercely. He opened his mouth to call back the people who just went outside, but he had just opened his mouth and hadn’t yet called out when Qiu Zijia outside the room cried out first.

“Mu Qin, that female teacher disappeared!” Qiu Zijia anxiously yelled from outside.

His one sentence let Mu Qin snap out of it. He temporarily forgot about the strange matter of the toy room and quickly walked outside to the corridor to see. Outside, there were only Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu present. There were no traces of that female teacher named Han Li.

BunnyGod: the female teacher >:(