Such good-looking children are easily bullied in private welfare homes.

Because this place can't accommodate such beautiful things.

But he seemed to be rarely bullied. Although he was always injured, it seemed that the unlucky people were those who bullied him.

Bai Liu really enjoyed watching this somewhat cruel and eccentric kid fight back against the small group that bullied him.

He was a loner, with a strange smell of mushrooms and strong blood emanating from his body. The backs of his exposed hands were always covered with dense, fresh pinholes, and sometimes blood would seep out of the pinholes, which he would always wipe away without a care.

He hardly spoke or communicated with anyone. Conversely, no one dared to approach and talk to this strange child whose skin was becoming increasingly paler, as white as a vampire.

He didn't seem to care about these things. He always went alone to places where no one else wanted to go and stayed there for the whole day.

And this is what Bai Liu likes to do.

This man was sitting in the church behind the orphanage, in the first row of statues, with an open book, reading carefully page by page with his head lowered. Bai Liu, or rather Bai Liu, was sitting not far from him, with his face supported by his hands, observing this strange guy and the book in his hand with a bit of lazy interest, curiously.

Suddenly, he turned to look at Bai Liu, raised the book in his hand, and said in a very calm tone: "Do you want to read it too?"

Bai Liu glanced at the title of the book, "Slender Man Murder Records," and said, "Okay."

"Will you also invite others to read books with you?" Bai Liu sat next to him and asked him, "Also, I'm curious how you got this kind of book in the welfare home. It's contraband, right? If the director sees it, the woman will go crazy and say that we have violent and bloody tendencies."

There were still pinholes on his hands as he turned the pages. He lowered his head and focused on the book. He did not turn his head to look at Bai Liu, but he answered Bai Liu's questions one by one: "I asked others if they wanted to read it together, but they all ran away screaming after reading the contents of the book. I got the book from outside. I really like reading these horror things."

"Why do you like these horrible things?" Bai Liurao asked with interest.

He said, “Because I think I’m scary too.”

He squinted at Bai Liu and said, "Do you like it too?"

"I like it too." Bai Liu smiled, "I really like watching scary monsters slaughter human players."

Later, the child who read books with Bai Liu found more and more horror books and games from outside to share with Bai Liu.

They hid behind the church and under the statues, and under the protection and indifference of the gods, they secretly played with the horrible contraband that had infiltrated the orphanage, played all kinds of horror games, and read all kinds of horror picture books. Bai Liu had a happy smile on his face - he began to like being with this child.

He is different from Lu Yizhang. When Lu Yizhang plays games with Bai Liu, he will basically give in to Bai Liu. When he loses, he will just smile and stick his head out, saying, "Bai Liu, you are so awesome."

But this guy's competitive spirit is completely inconsistent with his indifferent appearance. No matter what type of horror game he plays, he will kill crazily and then beat Bai Liu to get first place. When Bai Liu is depressed and frustrated after losing, he will occasionally turn away a little uncomfortably, pat Bai Liu's shoulder in an awkward manner, and say, "Come on, maybe you can beat me next time."

Bai Liu will challenge him again soon. This repeated defeat makes him excited. He thinks it is very interesting to play games with this person.

They stayed together all day and gradually became two freaks who were isolated from the crowd.

But soon, the book "Slender Man" was discovered by a teacher during a cleanup. The book was confiscated and reported to the director. The director was furious and called all the children in the institute to stand outside, interrogating them one by one, asking who brought this unhealthy picture book back to the orphanage.

Everyone lowered their heads in silence, trembling, and no one dared to stand up.

So the dean angrily tore up the book page by page in front of everyone.

Bai Liu pursed his lips tightly. He looked up in the crowd and stared at the copy of "Slender Man" that had been torn into pieces by the dean, a picture book that he and that man had read through countless times.

No one admitted who brought the book back. Everyone tried their best to deny it and put the blame on Bai Liu and the strange child.

When the dean pressed Bai Liu about the matter, Bai Liu also denied that this was his sketchbook.

He was the only one who didn't deny it.

He stood calmly in front of the dean, lowered his eyes and looked at the fragments of the picture book on the ground, and asked the dean: "Are you afraid of this book?"

He looked up at the dean: "Or you are afraid of me, right? You think I am a scary monster who will make bad things happen to you?"

The dean seemed a little frightened of him and looked at the pinholes on his body with evasive eyes. He didn't dare to look him in the eye or answer him.

The trouble caused by this book, which shouldn't have appeared in the orphanage, was eventually lifted up by the director, who then put it down gently and let him go.

He always had special privileges with the dean and would not be easily hurt. The dean seemed unable or afraid to do anything to him.

Just as he said, the dean seemed very afraid of him.

Not only the director, but all the teachers here were afraid of him. They were afraid of the smell of blood on him and the alluring scent of mushrooms. Their fear was difficult to conceal, and this fear eventually spread to the children in the welfare home who were good at observing people's expressions.

These kids, who had no idea what was going on, also started to be afraid of him.

The children were hostile to him, rejected him, and beat him. When they realized they couldn't beat him, they looked at him from a distance with terrified eyes, as if he were a monster, and made up all kinds of gossip and horror stories about him that they had imagined.

He turned into a monster that would grow pinholes and bleed.

But he didn't care, he just squatted down calmly and picked up the torn pieces of the book.

After the crowd dispersed, only Bai Liu stood beside him, squatting down with him to pick up the fragments of the book.

They packed up all the debris they had picked up and took it to the church - their safe zone.

Because no children or teachers were willing to go to that place, the church in the orphanage was only open on special days. On those days, many people who looked very rich would come to baptize these children and perform very strange ceremonies.

Bai Liu escaped from every ceremony because he didn't like the way rich people looked at children.

It's like the greedy look one gives to a commodity.

After each ceremony, the pinholes on his body would increase, his face would become paler, and he would become more and more like a bloodless marble sculpture.

Bai Liu and he silently pieced together the torn copy of Slender Man on the table in the church, and right above them, the statue was watching them emotionlessly as they tried to glue together a book that was not worth repairing at all.

"Do you think those people who come here really believe in the existence of God?" Bai Liu suddenly asked, "Do you think God exists?

He still kept his head down calmly, and put the pieces of paper together with his fingertips. He asked Bai Liu: "Do you believe it?"

"I don't believe it." Bai Liu gave the answer straightforwardly. He pointed to the fragments of the sketchbook on the table and said casually, "If there is a god, let him turn this pile of paper into a real tall and thin ghost for me."

Bai Liu was getting a little annoyed with gluing the books together, but the other person was still very patient.

He raised his head and asked: "Were you unhappy when your book was torn just now?"

"No." Bai Liu rejected it quickly.

He looked directly at Bai Liu and continued to ask, "Do you like this picture book? Do you like Slender Man?"

"Absolutely not." Bai Liu rejected it quickly again.

He calmly lowered his head and continued to piece together the pages: "I understand."

Bai Liu rarely felt that he was being suffocated: "What did you know?!"

A month later, Bai Liu finally knew what he knew.

Under the church, an ugly doll that only slightly resembled a tall and thin ghost sat quietly in the first row under the statue, with its back straight.

This doll seems to be made of bed sheets and quilt covers discarded from various welfare institutions. There is a straw stuck on its head, and patches of different patterns and colors are all over its body, making this [Slender Ghost] look poor and clumsy, like a homeless man who is not very skilled in his business.

[Slender Ghost] turned around and looked at Bai Liu who was standing at the door in a daze. He raised the tattered and riddled picture book in his hand, which took him who knows how long to put together, and asked him in a flat tone: "Do you want to read it together?"

Bai Liu calmly sat over and read with him for less than a minute before she buried her head in the table and laughed: "...It's so funny to see your face sticking out of this puppet."

"You need to use a bandage to do the front face." He explained calmly, "I can't find that many bandages. You can use my face. I think my face should be as scary as Slender Man's face."

"I don't believe it. You keep covering your face with your hair. What if your face is scarier than the tall and thin ghost—" Bai Liu took advantage of the other party's inattention. It was inconvenient for him to move in the doll costume. Bai Liu turned around and forcibly lifted up his hair with his hands.

The moment they opened their eyes, the two of them looked at each other strangely and fell silent.

The silver-blue eyes, which looked like white eyes without eyeballs, looked at Bai Liu indifferently, and his face was completely reflected in Bai Liu's deep black pupils - silver, staring intently at Bai Liu's eyes, clear jawline, and pale bloodless lips.

Ten or so seconds later, both of them looked away at the same time.

Bai Liu withdrew his hand that had touched the other person's forehead, squeezed it calmly, and his breathing became slightly faster.

He lowered his head, with one hand hanging under the table and clenched tightly, as if he wanted to stick his eyeballs into the book. He turned the pages one second at a time, and no one knew what he could read at such a fast speed.

"Do I look... scary?" he asked softly.

"It's okay." Bai Liu replied calmly, "It's not very scary."

"Then why is your heart beating so fast?" he asked, "Aren't you scared by me?"

"No." Bai Liu took a deep breath, closed the book, and stood up with his back to him. "Let's stop here today."

"Wait." He gently hugged Bai Liu from behind, put the repaired book into Bai Liu's arms, and said softly: "It's repaired, I'll give it to you."

Bai Liu inexplicably didn't dare to look back. He held the book in his hand, tense his expression, and left quickly.