Not long after, the day came when the rich people came to the church to perform some very strange sacrifices.

Normally, the dean would call him to church one day in advance, and then he would not go back to his normal bedroom to sleep that day, but sleep in the church.

Bai Liu twisted and turned while holding the book "Slender Man" that he had given him. Finally, he got up and walked carefully to the church on his shoes.

The church was locked by the dean, but Bai Liu had been in that church for a long time and knew some small passages that could be used to sneak into the church, such as a broken small window blocked by a curtain.

Bai Liu climbed into the church through the window. With the help of the moonlight, he searched for the other person on the bench. Finally, Bai Liu found him behind the statue.

The moment she saw him, there was no emotion on Bai Liu's face.

He curled up in a bathtub that was slightly smaller than his body. The bathtub was full of blood. His face, which was white and almost transparent, was half soaked in blood. He could not even feel his breath. There was even a layer of white frost on his eyelashes. There were stye holes on his hands, feet and forehead that were still oozing blood.

"Xie Ta." Bai Liu called his name for the first time.

Xie Ta slowly woke up in the bathtub. He opened his eyes and saw Bai Liu. He stretched out his hand as if ready to touch Bai Liu, but something in the bathtub moved. A thorny vine covered with mushrooms stretched out from the blood and tightly wrapped around Xie Ta's neck, wrists and ankles. The second before Xie Ta's fingertips touched Bai Liu, it wrapped him tightly and imprisoned him in this bloody baptismal pool.

"What are you doing?" Bai Liu heard his own voice asking calmly.

Shetta said, “Baptism, this is the ritual before the blood is drawn.”

"Those people came to draw your blood, right? They need your blood to save them." Bai Liu continued to ask calmly, "You have been drained of so much blood, you will die, right?"

"No." Xieta looked at Bai Liu, "I am a monster, so I will not die."

As Sheta spoke, he exhaled a breath of white air - this was enough to show how cold his body temperature was at the moment.

"Will you feel cold sleeping here?" Bai Liu asked.

Shetta shook her head honestly: "I don't feel it."

Bai Liu stepped one foot into the blood. He knelt down and forced himself into the space where Xie Ta was curled up. Bai Liu's warm body temperature was transmitted to Xie Ta from a distance through the blood. Xie Ta blinked slowly, and the frost on his eyelashes melted with Bai Liu's breath.

He could feel the cold now because Bai Liu was so warm.

Then Bai Liu calmly opened the book that Xie Ta gave him, which he had brought with him, and asked him, "Do you want to read it together?"

They slept together in the dirty, bloody baptismal font, looking at the statues overlooking them, chatting aimlessly without any taboos.

“What is the meaning of baptism?”

"Baptism means that God bestows blessings on His most beloved, new believers."

"You consider this a blessing?"

"...blessings to themselves."

"You really believe in this? You don't really think there is a God, do you?"

"Um."

…

Bai Liu curled up in Xie Ta's cool arms and fell into a deep sleep. When he woke up the next day, he was in his own bed without a trace of blood on his body.

Shetta came back in the afternoon, looking even paler than before.

This time the needle holes spread to his face, and the backs of his hands and feet were shockingly purple from repeated blood draws.

Bai Liu silently used the bandages he stole from the infirmary to wrap around the needle wounds that were still bleeding.

Shetta looked at him quietly, and suddenly said, "After you remove this bandage, your Slender Man doll will have a face."

Bai Liu's lips were pressed into a straight line.

The group of wealthy people who wanted to draw blood came more and more frequently, and Shetta's appearance became less and less frequent. Even if he appeared occasionally, the pungent smell of blood and mushrooms on Shetta's body made people feel unacceptable.

Once Sheta appears, the children will stay away from it and keep waving their hands in front of their noses in disgust, as if they want to fan away the strange smell and the Sheta together.

Xie Ta seemed to know that he smelled bad. He rarely appeared in front of Bai Liu and just looked at him from a distance. Occasionally, Bai Liu walked over to look for Xie Ta, and Xie Ta disappeared.

When he didn't want to contact anyone, it was as if he didn't exist, and no one could find him, including Bai Liu.

Bai Liu started to interact with adults outside and do some gray areas that were suitable for children. He could make a lot of money from this.

As long as he had enough money and ability and was well prepared, he was sure that he could take Shetta away from the pursuit of these investors and escape from this orphanage - although it was a very immature and naive plan.

A vague feeling of uneasiness and urgency made Bai Liu realize that if Xie Ta didn't leave now, he might never be able to leave again.

But Bai Liu's affair was still exposed.

The child who exposed Bai Liu huddled behind the dean, his face showing fear and excitement. He swallowed several times before he raised his hand tremblingly and pointed at Bai Liu, whose face was emotionless: "I saw him making...some weird deals with that adult! He helped some adults do bad things! I saw it! Those adults even gave him money!"

"Did you do such a thing! Bai Liu!" The dean looked at him sternly.

Bai Liu did not say anything to deny it. He just turned his head away nonchalantly and stared at Xie Ta who was sitting in the crowd, in trance and silence.

He didn't explain what he had done - because there was no point.

These people didn't care what he did or ask what he did, and they just sentenced him guilty.

Of course, what he did was not a good thing.

The teachers were just afraid of him—afraid of this weird kid who hung out with Shetta, became more and more spooky, liked to read gory stories, and always looked at other people as if they were slaughtered animals.

So naturally, he was punished, but Bai Liu was still in the mood to absent-mindedly judge the measures these teachers used to punish people - there were only a few of them, and it was not the first time he was punished.

But when the teacher came over and grabbed Bai Liu's arm, trying to pull him away, Xie Ta put one hand on the back of the chair and suddenly stood up shakily.

His expression and tone were as calm as ever: "I asked him to do it."

Now these teachers were completely furious.

Compared to Bai Liu, they were more afraid of the taciturn Xie Ta. They surrounded Xie Ta but cautiously left a one-meter gap in between them, forming a vacuum circle.

The dean questioned him cautiously, fearfully, and condescendingly: "Why did you let Bai Liu do such a thing?"

They never doubted that Xie Ta didn't do it. Just like the process of convicting Bai Liu of guilt before, they pronounced him guilty decisively.

Because he is a monster, and Bai Liu is a bad boy who hangs out with monsters, everything they do is natural.

Xie Ta glanced sideways at Bai Liu who was being pulled up by the teachers. He raised the corner of his mouth very abruptly and lightly. At the moment when Xie Ta smiled, Bai Liu felt that his silver-blue eyes must be very gentle and curved beautifully, but unfortunately they were blocked by his hair and he could not see it.

Xie Ta confessed his crime in the same gentle tone he used when he gave the book to Bai Liu.

He said, "Because I want to contact someone outside and then run away with Bai Liu."

"How dare you run away!!" the dean screamed hysterically, "Do you know how much trouble you will bring to us if you run away? We have already entered the second round of screening! Those investors will not give money without your blood!"

The children scattered in panic, and they chattered fearfully:

"Blood?! What blood? The blood that flowed from his needle hole?!"

"He really is a monster!"

After the dean realized that she had let the cat out of the bag, she subconsciously covered her mouth. The next second, she looked at Shetta fiercely, and she grabbed Shetta's slender wrist and walked towards the church.

"Everything you have is given by this orphanage, and yet you still want to escape!" The director's anger overcame her fear, and she cruelly sentenced Shetta to punishment. "I think we have given you too many privileges. You should receive some education. I will lock you up in the church tonight for baptism!"

After saying that, she dragged Shetta's wrist and left.

Bai Liu struggled to get past the noisy children and teachers. He struggled to chase after Xie Ta from the crowd and stretched out his hands to grab Xie Ta who was being taken away from him: "Xie Ta!"

Shetta turned around to look at him. The wind blew up his curly hair, revealing his beautiful silver-blue eyes, which looked like a lake after the snow melted.

Bai Liu stared blankly at Xie Ta's silver-blue eyes, which didn't look sad at all, but were calm and seemed to be very satisfied, reflecting him wholeheartedly in her eyes.

Xie Ta also reached out his hand to him, holding Bai Liu's hand that was trying to grab him from the crowd, and interlocked their fingers.

The cool and warm touch allows you to feel the swollen pinhole scars on the back of your hand.

"Bai Liu." He smiled lightly and held Bai Liu's hand tightly. "Don't be afraid. I am a monster. I will not die."

"Let go!" The dean rudely pulled apart their clenched hands.

Bai Liu gritted her teeth and didn't want to let go, but Xie Ta quietly let go of her hand, and the tight grip fell away at the touch.

Xie Ta shook his head at Bai Liu, asking him not to chase him. Then he turned around and walked calmly and habitually with the dean towards the church that he was already very familiar with.

Bai Liu was never a very obedient child. A few minutes after the dean took Sheta over, he sneaked and carefully entered the church through the broken window covered by the curtain. Bai Liu hid behind the curtain, curled himself up into a small ball, and peeked at Sheta and the dean standing under the statue from the edge.

Shetta was wearing pure white clothes, holding swaying white candles in his hands, and standing barefoot in front of the statue. He tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and recited the prayer slowly.

The dean stood next to Shetta, holding a whip and looking at him coldly.

After reading the prayer, the dean stepped forward and stared at him: "Next is baptism, but today, because you have the idea of ​​betraying God and running away, today's baptism must be thorough, to completely cleanse the evil and filth in your body!"

Shetta lowered her eyelashes and said, "It can't be washed clean."

"I am evil itself, which cannot be faced." He said softly.

The dean was stunned for a moment, then his expression became even more gloomy.

She snatched the candle from Shetta's hand and pushed Shetta into the swaying baptismal font. She held the candle and smiled cruelly and triumphantly, as if she had finally defeated the demon that she had been afraid of for a long time, and had a crazy feeling of surviving a disaster.

The dean breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Shetta, who was submerged in the water. She raised the candle and placed it flat on the baptismal font. She said coldly, "You can only get up after the candle has burned out. Do you understand?"

Tears fell drop by drop into the clear water, condensing into small white flowers, like some kind of sacrificial flowers, floating one by one just above Sheta who was lying with her eyes closed on the bottom of the water.

The baptismal font was like a coffin that was too small for him, confining him tightly and twisting him.

When no one noticed, the statue facing the baptismal font moved, and the expression on the pure white marble face turned into a very human accusation, as if it was accusing the child in the baptismal font of being naughty and wanting to escape from the protection of God.

[You are an evil being, a fallen god. You cannot leave God's confinement. You should not think of escaping just because of a child you have deceived.]

The statue rebuked coldly: [Tawil, you know that the child was deceived by your evil. He is not the new believer you are looking for.]

Tawil's eyelids moved underwater.

[No, I don’t consider him as my new believer]

The statue asked coldly: "What do you think of that child? He has seen your eyes. He is not far from crazy."

[You should kill him, otherwise he will become an evil monster like you and destroy the world. You know, everything you pollute will lead to this consequence.]

Tawil's fingers folded on his chest moved slightly: [I think of him... as someone I want to read books with forever]

[But you know it’s not possible, Tawil, kill him, kill this child you have defiled!] God commanded.

[I can't do it] Tawil refused calmly, [Please kill me, I can't kill him].

The statue's expression turned angry: [...You were banished here and yet you still dared to disobey God's orders. You should be punished and sleep forever!]

It opened its hands above Tawil, and the water at the bottom of the baptismal font became heavy, sticky, and cold, like flowing ice that turned into spikes and flowed inside Tawil's body. He frowned, but soon relaxed his brows.

Xie Ta curled up his hand under the water and held Bai Liu's hand. His trembling eyelids stopped moving.

The warmth of Bai Liu's palm still remained in his palm, but that warmth gradually dissipated under the cold water and stopped along with his breathing.

His fingers, which had been clenched tightly to retain the warmth, slowly loosened, and Shetta's body floated up under the water.

"Thank, Xieta?!" The dean took two steps back in panic, then stepped forward and touched Xieta's breath. She was frightened and dropped the candle in her hand. In her hurried steps, she stepped out the candle's flame, and also extinguished the only light in the church.

"It's over..." The dean fell to the ground in a trance. She pulled her hair crazily and muttered to herself in disbelief, "Isn't he a monster?! He didn't die even after being drained of so much blood?! He didn't die after being baptized so many times, why did he drown this time!?"

"It was just a few minutes?! The candles weren't even burned out!" The dean's expression became more panicked. She kept shaking her head, as if Shetta would come back to life if she didn't admit it. "No, it's impossible! Impossible!"

"He's dead, what should I do?!" The dean knelt in front of the baptismal font in despair.

She could not imagine that the death of this child would bring her such a deadly fear.

The dean looked down at Shetta's flawless face in the baptismal font and muttered to himself, "If I drown Shetta, those people will drain my blood. I must find another child to replace him!"

Bai Liu, hiding behind the curtain, looked at the dean's hysterical roar with an emotionless face.

There was a strange determination that made Bai Liu watch quietly - Xie Ta said that he was a monster, he would not die, he must be pretending to be dead to fool this stupid dean.

Wait a minute, after the dean leaves, Bai Liu will walk up, and Shetta will stand up from the baptismal font, give him that rare smile, and maybe even lift up her wet hair, look at him intently with her silver-blue eyes, and ask him how he got here.

The association of these scenes made Bai Liu's heart beat slightly faster.

The dean didn't dare let the investors know that she had killed Shetta. She moved Shetta's body out of the baptismal font and secretly carried it out of the back door of the church. She tied stones to Shetta's hands and feet, and then threw her into a small lake in the barren grass behind the church - the lake was connected to a river outside.

After several flows, Sheta's body will flow into the river with the lake water, and then into the sea with the river water.

But Bai Liu would not let Xie Ta go that far.

Bai Liu followed the devastated dean in silence without saying a word. The dean looked like he was going crazy. If he showed up now, it seemed that this hysterical dean would not mind dealing with one more child's corpse.

Bai Liu came out only after she fled in panic. He buried his face in a small lake covered with emerald green duckweed, dived into the water, and stretched out his hand to reach Xie Ta, whose bottom of the lake was gradually sinking with the mud and sand.

The lake was deep, the duckweed was green, and Sheta was sinking quickly.

The black mud and sand were like some kind of creature that devours human corpses. It quickly covered Sheta's body and greedily tried to drag him into hell.

But Bai Liu resisted the urge to cough as the dirty lake water poured into his mouth, nose and ears. He gritted his teeth and grabbed onto Shetta, who was swallowed by the mud and sand with only one hand left. He pulled with all his strength until he had used up the last breath of air in his lungs. Bai Liu felt like his brain was burning from lack of oxygen.

But he finally pulled Xie Ta out. Bai Liu untied the heavy stones and ropes that were tied to Xie Ta, hugged him and swam upstream.

After reaching the shore, Bai Liu propped himself up with his hands, looked up at the starless sky, and gasped for breath. Duckweed hung on his face and under his eyelids, and his body was soaked. Cicadas were chirping in the surrounding grass. It was indeed a very miserable scene.

But Bai Liu suddenly chuckled with some pleasure for some reason. He kicked Xie Ta, who was lying on the ground with his eyes closed, and asked him, "How do you know that I want to take you away? What if I work for those adults and earn money just to spend it on myself?"

Bai Liu looked at Xie Ta with an uncomfortable and casual smile on his face: "Are you being a little too self-indulgent, Xie Ta?"

There was duckweed on Xie Ta's face, and he still hadn't woken up. Bai Liu first sat up, then squatted. He lowered his eyes to look at the motionless Xie Ta, then reached out to lift the hair that was stuck to Xie Ta's forehead because it was wet.

This person is really beautiful.

Bai Liu's fingertips slid from Xie Ta's long, water-beaded eyelashes all the way down, across his straight nose, and finally landed on his incredibly white lips and the most beautiful pair of silver-blue eyes, as if they had only been shown to him and only looked at him.

"Xie Ta." Bai Liu's voice was very soft. He bent down and put his ear to Xie Ta's chest, staring straight ahead. "If you don't wake up, I'm going to give you artificial respiration, and I'm going to bite you to death."

—No heartbeat, no breathing, no body temperature, no sign that Sheita would wake up.

"I'm serious." Bai Liu buried his head in Xie Ta's arms, and his fists clenched gradually until his fingertips turned white.

Bai Liu could smell the strong, familiar smell of blood and the smell from the bottom of the water mixed together on this person, a breath of approaching death.

Bai Liu hugged Xie Ta's shoulders more and more tightly, clasped her arms and hugged Xie Ta tightly, and the water droplets dripping from their bodies merged together.

"I don't think you're being too sentimental." Bai Liu leaned her head on Xie Ta's shoulder and said softly.

He rested his forehead against Shetta's heart, lowered his head and blinked slowly, a drop of water dripping from his eyelashes that were covered with duckweed.

Xie Ta's head leaned on Bai Liu's shoulder without any strength. He did not respond to Bai Liu's painting, and his eyes were still closed. Only the cold water in his hair dripped into Bai Liu's clothes, reminding him that he was still there.

They hugged each other, their hands intertwined. Bai Liu leaned on Xie Ta's shoulder. His voice was very calm, without any ups and downs:

"Didn't you say you were a monster? If you live like a monster, I will admit that you are a monster."

"You're like this, it scares me, Shetta."

A drop of water slid down Xie Ta's eyelashes, like a tear falling on the back of Bai Liu's hand.