——————————

"That guy named Bai Liu has been acting more and more weird lately..." The children huddled their heads together and discussed in low voices in fear.

After the director said Xie Ta had escaped from the orphanage, they transferred the fear from Xie Ta to Bai Liu.

The other children in the welfare home looked with fear and curiosity at Bai Liu, who was sitting at the end of the long table, far away from the others, eating in silence - this was the seat where Xie Ta had eaten before.

"New here, your name is Lu Yizhan, right?" A child made a face at another child who looked older and had a good-looking appearance. He pointed at Bai Liu and said, "The child sitting at the very end is Bai Liu. Remember to stay away from him."

Young Lu Yizhan looked back in confusion: "Why? Did he do something?"

"Because he's a monster!" The child who was speaking made threatening gestures with his hands and made strange howling sounds. "He ate his only friend. Of course, his friend is also a monster, a bleedin' pinhole monster. If you make friends with him, he'll eat you too!"

The child threatened the roadside station in all seriousness.

Lu Yizhan frowned and looked at Bai Liu who was sitting at the end of the long table. Bai Liu seemed normal and even too thin. He didn't think there was anything to be afraid of or wary of about this child.

Bai Liu looked like he had never eaten enough. The flesh on his cheeks was sunken. He seemed really hungry and ate very quickly.

But——Lu Yizhan’s eyes fell on Bai Liu’s plate. There was still a piece of bread, the staple food, on his plate that had not been touched, and it looked like he was not going to touch it.

After Bai Liu finished his meal quietly and quickly, he took the bread that he had not touched a single bite and walked around the back of the church to the vicinity of the lake.

Lu Yizhang followed Bai Liu to the church and stopped. He looked at the mysterious child Bai Liu with more and more confusion, or curiosity.

What on earth is this person doing?

Why do these children in the orphanage reject him so much?

night.

Lu Yizhan, a new child in the welfare home, was assigned the bed that Xie Ta had slept in before. When he was ready to sleep, as soon as he lay down, Lu Yizhan turned around and saw Bai Liu standing at the head of his bed with a quilt in his arms, an expressionless face.

Lu Yizhan was startled, and sat up in panic, covering his chest with the quilt: "Bai Liu, what are you going to do?!"

The other children in the bedroom were also frightened by Bai Liu's sudden appearance, and they ran away screaming: "Bai Liu is here to eat us! He's coming to eat us!"

Lu Yizhan was still able to maintain his composure. He looked at Bai Liu, who was standing motionless at the head of his bed with a pile of bedding in his arms. He tried to figure out what Bai Liu meant. Lu Yizhan pointed at his own bed, then at the bedding in Bai Liu's hand, and asked tentatively, "Do you want to... switch beds with me?"

Bai Liu looked at Lu Yizhang quietly. He seemed to be in a bad mood. His eyes were scattered and there was a dark dark spot under his eyes. When he heard Lu Yizhang asking him, Bai Liu nodded slowly.

Lu Yizhan breathed a sigh of relief - he really came to change the bed.

Lu Yizhang didn't care who owned the bed. He kindly gave his bed to Bai Liu and reminded her to change it back the next morning - because the teachers here recognize people by their beds. Children can change their beds secretly, but if they are discovered, it is not a good thing to do in accordance with the rules.

After discussing with Bai Liu the time to change back tomorrow morning, Lu Yizhan picked up his bedding and went to sleep in Bai Liu's bed.

Before leaving his bed, Lu Yizhang looked back at Bai Liu. He watched Bai Liu make the bed without saying a word, then he lay on the bed quietly with his eyes closed, holding a strange, thin, faceless doll.

Bai Liu doesn't look like a child of his age who would sleep with a doll in his arms, but he obviously cherishes this doll very much. Not only does he give most of his bed to the doll to sleep on, he also covers the doll with the quilt, leaving half of his body exposed.

It was obviously a bit cold at night, but Bai Liu didn't seem to feel hungry. He also didn't seem to feel cold. He fell asleep soon while holding the doll.

But it was a doll that, judging from the perspective of an ordinary person, did not need to be cherished and protected so much - it had many patches, was roughly made, had threads on the edges, and had no face, like a semi-finished product.

Bai Liu curled up into a small ball and slept beside the doll's hand. The doll's body was placed by Bai Liu so that it was curled up and hugged him. The two of them were tightly pressed together, as if - as if they were sleeping in a very narrow, oval bathtub.

It's a... very strange sleeping position.

This strange sleeping posture of the doll attached to it made Lu Yizhan want to laugh. After taking a closer look, he retracted his gaze and walked towards Bai Liu's bed.

Lu Yizhan judged in his heart - Bai Liu was really a strange child.

But it seems that they are not as difficult to get along with as other kids say. They are quite reasonable.

Lu Yizhan is paying more and more attention to Bai Liu, a child who is described as weird and eerie by others.

On the seventh day after arriving at Lu Yizhan, Bai Liu almost fainted at the dining table. It was Lu Yizhan who first noticed that something was wrong with him. He gave him a piece of candy and forced him to eat half of his meal - Bai Liu obviously had hypoglycemia.

This person didn't eat properly at all. He left a lot of food every day and secretly left it there. No one knew what he did with it. Every time he came back at night, his mental state became worse and worse.

Lu Yizhan was a little worried about Bai Liu, and he began to share his food with Bai Liu intentionally or unintentionally.

But most of the time, Bai Liu would refuse with a cold face and say, I don’t need it.

At the same time, a strange and eerie atmosphere began to spread in the orphanage. More and more children ran away. Some of them really ran away, and some were "forced" to run away. Lu Yizhan keenly noticed that something was wrong with the atmosphere - this orphanage did not seem as glamorous and safe as it seemed.

As more and more children disappeared, Lu Yizhan became more and more worried. After he discovered that Bai Liu also began to have a bloody smell as if his blood had been drawn, Lu Yizhan finally made up his mind to take Bai Liu and the other children and escape.

One time before going to bed, Bai Liu came to Lu Yizhan to change beds. Before leaving, Lu Yizhan calmly grabbed Bai Liu's arm, whispered in his ear what he had discovered, reminded Bai Liu that the orphanage was not safe, and asked him if he wanted to run away with him.

"I know a public welfare home that's safer than here. We can go there." Lu Yizhan said softly, "It's close to the police station. Someone will protect us there."

Bai Liu replied indifferently: "No."

"Why?" Lu Yizhan was a little anxious, "Something is really wrong here!"

Bai Liu lowered her eyes and looked at him, her pupils without any focus, and her tone was very dull: "I'm waiting for someone to wake up. When he wakes up, I will take him away with me."

Perhaps it was curiosity, or perhaps it was Lu Yizhang's eagerness to take Bai Liu away. After another baptism, Lu Yizhang finally broke his principle of not prying into other people's secrets easily. He followed Bai Liu into the back of the church, a place that Bai Liu never went to.

The area behind the church has always been a restricted area in the welfare home. The director strictly forbids any children to go there, saying that it is unsafe there as it is undeveloped jungle shrubs and a small lake that has not been built or renovated. Children can easily drown or get stuck in mud if they go there, so the church is usually locked to prevent these children from going there.

But Bai Liu seemed to have found a secluded path that led directly to the back of the church.

Lu Yizhang followed Bai Liu. He watched Bai Liu skillfully and nimbly sneak in through a broken window behind the side door of the church, then cross the church, go out from the back door, and walk without hesitation into the lush bushes behind the church that could swallow Bai Liu in an instant.

Bai Liu skillfully moved around the foot-cutting bushes and stone obstacles, and finally he stopped beside a small lake, or pond, filled with duckweed.

Lu Yizhan hid behind the grass and trees, full of doubts - what was Bai Liu doing in this pond? Swimming?

Under normal circumstances, Bai Liu would definitely be able to notice Lu Yizhang following behind him, but long-term hunger had caused his condition to deteriorate severely, and his attention was greatly consumed, so he did not realize that someone was following him not far away.

Bai Liu took off his clothes defenselessly with his back to Lu Yizhan, revealing his ribs and dazzlingly white back. He bent down and placed the bread in his arms on the dry clothes, then turned around and dived into the pond.

Lu Yizhan was hiding in the bushes, observing quietly. He had a feeling that he would soon figure out what Bai Liu had been doing these days.

But Lu Yichen waited and waited for almost several minutes, and Bai Liu didn't float up. Lu Yichen realized something was wrong. Without even having time to take off his clothes, he dived into the lake and searched everywhere for Bai Liu in the dark bottom of the lake. Finally, he saw Bai Liu with his feet swallowed by mud and sand, and his hands hanging in the water. Bai Liu showed obvious signs of drowning.

Lu Yizhan held his breath and swam over quickly, grabbed Bai Liu's shoulders and lifted him up.

Bai Liu seemed to be dragging something, but his strength was too weak. With the help of Lu Yizhan, Bai Liu managed to drag it out. Finally, Lu Yizhan, holding one in each hand, pulled both Bai Liu and the thing he was trying to drag out out of the water.

Lu Yizhan lay by the lake, gasping for breath.

Bai Liu's whole body was convulsing physiologically. He swallowed a few mouthfuls of lake water and took a long time to calm down before he leaned over and climbed up from the ground.

Just now, Bai Liu almost drowned at the bottom of the lake. Due to hypoglycemia and weakness, it is difficult for Bai Liu to do physical activities of this intensity.

"What are you thinking about?!" Lu Yizhan panted and scolded Bai Liu angrily, "If you can't drag it out in one go, don't you know to come up and take a breath before dragging it down again? Do you have to drown yourself in the water?!"

After saying that, Lu Yizhan turned around and looked at the thing that he and Bai Liu had dragged out - this made Lu Yizhan stand up subconsciously, and his face turned ugly.

Lying next to Bai Liu was a corpse with a clean face and ropes tied around the ankles to prevent it from sinking.

"You hid the body in this lake?!" Lu Yizhan was really going crazy, "You are really brave. No one will find it here. What kind of body is this?! Why do you drag it out every day?!"

Bai Liu knelt silently beside Xie Ta, as if he didn't hear Lu Yizhang's words. He broke the bread that he had left untouched on his clothes into pieces, just like feeding fish. After crushing it, he rubbed it into Xie Ta's cool lips with his fingertips.

He told Lu Yizhan with his actions why he came here - he came here to feed the corpse under the water.

Lu Yizhan fell into an eerie silence. He stared at Bai Liu with wide eyes as he calmly fed him the bread.

Bai Liu patted the bread crumbs on his hands, then he looked up at Lu Yizhan and explained calmly: "He is a monster, but not a corpse. He is not dead, he will come back to life, so I can't let him go hungry."

"Do you know, Bai Liu?" Lu Yizhan's expression and tone were extremely complicated, "You look more like a monster now."

As he spoke, Lu Yizhang's gaze fell on Xie Ta's body. The corpse's right hand had already begun to rot, and one could imagine how long Bai Liu had been "feeding" it.

"Whether he is a corpse or a monster, you have to let him go." Lu Yizhan felt like his brain was about to explode. He squatted down, held Bai Liu's shoulders and looked at him straight in the eye, trying to explain the current situation in a way that Bai Liu could understand. "When you grow up, you can avenge him and find the murderer who killed him, but now, you can't bury yourself and him under the water."

"He's not breathing, his heart isn't beating, and we don't know when he'll wake up." Lu Yizhan sighed, "Bai Liu, you can't continue sleeping with him."

Xie Ta was still lying quietly on the ground, the needle holes on the back of his hands had not healed yet, but in a trance, Bai Liu seemed to see Xie Ta opening his eyes and saying to him, "Leave here, Bai Liu, we will meet again one day."

We will meet again in the endless horror games and stories we have watched, played, and shared.

So now, let me leave, and let you leave too. There is a farewell before there is a reunion, Bai Liu.

Bai Liu murmured to himself: "You swear that we will meet again?"

Xie Ta smiled faintly. He held Bai Liu's hand with his right hand, which had already decayed to the point of bones. "I swear."

Lu Yizhan turned his head in confusion. He looked at the motionless body of Xie Ta with a bit of fear: "Bai Liu, who are you talking to?"

Bai Liu slowly loosened his grip on Xie Ta's hand, he lowered his eyes, water on his body kept dripping to his feet, then Bai Liu took out a small knife from his pocket and cut the rope tied around Xie Ta's ankles. Bai Liu picked up Xie Ta's body with great effort and difficulty, walked towards the pond step by step, and then calmly put Xie Ta into the water.

Shetta's hair fluttered as she sank into the water.

Bai Liu watched intently, and just as Lu Yizhan breathed a sigh of relief, he saw Bai Liu blink twice, and it seemed that two drops of water fell on her eyelashes.

Then Bai Liu took a deep breath and jumped into the pond again.

"Bai Liu!" Lu Yizhan shouted in shock, and he jumped down right after him.

Bai Liu moved his limbs vigorously, and he reached out to reach Xie Ta who was submerged in the water.

He watched the mud and sand quickly engulf Shetta's face like the inevitable darkness that was coming.

The black mud climbed up Sheta's nose, lips, chest and arms like vines, and finally only one shockingly white hand was left loosely exposed outside the mud.

Bai Liu tried hard to grab that hand.

The touch of the hand was cool and warm. He felt Sheta's hand squeeze him tightly, then loosen and finally disappear completely to the bottom of the lake.

Bai Liu put his hand into the mud and sand. He stubbornly wanted to dig through the mud and sand to look at the eyes again, but Lu Yizhan grabbed his shoulders tightly and started to pull him up with gritted teeth.

Bai Liu's lungs were running out of oxygen. The air seemed to be sucked away and quickly disappeared into the water. Foam kept bubbling up from Bai Liu's mouth and nose, but he didn't seem to feel suffocated. He just stared with dilated pupils, mechanically digging at the bottom of the water, searching for the person whose life had been completely swallowed up by the darkness.

A picture book that was broken and pieced together again, a doll set full of patches, an unfulfilled promise, and a face that is always hidden by hair.

What Shetta left him was always incomplete.

These imperfections seemed to remind Bai Liu that Xie Ta was not real.

Will this person really come back?

Does this person really exist?

Did this person...really appear?

Or was this just an illusion that he, Bai Liu, a child who was considered mentally ill by everyone, had imagined in order to fill his loneliness and was willing to hold his hand?

If there is no God in this world, then why is there a monster who will always wait for him in the church to read books with him, play horror games that no one likes with him, make dolls for him, and hug him?

[Bai Liu, why are you willing to believe in the existence of monsters, but not in the existence of God? ]

[Because God hasn’t been easy on me.]

Bai Liu stared at the pitch-black bottom of the water with his eyes wide open. He opened his mouth unconsciously and bubbles gushed out of his mouth.

He said, "Shetta, I'm leaving now. Goodbye."

Bai Liu felt that before Xie Ta left, he seemed to have not said goodbye to him formally. Without a farewell, there would be no reunion. This was what Xie Ta had just said, so Bai Liu jumped down. He wanted to say goodbye to him seriously.

The water that poured into Bai Liu's mouth and nasal cavity began to suffocate him, and snowflake-like foam rose from the corners of his mouth.

Bai Liu's eyelids drooped slowly. His limbs lost strength and spread out backwards, floating in the water like a dead duckweed.

He was caught in a dizziness of white light.

In the white dizziness, Bai Liu saw countless flashbacks of memories. At the end of the dazzling white light, there was a person sitting quietly and tall in the first row of the church. He was wearing Slender Man's tattered doll costume and holding a picture book of "Slender Man Murder Record" in his hand, which was pieced together from pieces. He was reading slowly, page by page.

The man seemed to have noticed Bai Liu who was sitting diagonally behind him. He raised the book, as if he wanted to ask Bai Liu who was sitting next to him if he wanted to read with him.

But in fact, before the man turned around, Bai Liu was ready to agree to this man's request to read a book together.

Because Bai Liu liked the book very much, although the book looked a little tattered, Bai Liu didn't care. He had been sitting behind the man, accompanying him, and secretly reading it page by page for a long time.

But the moment the man turned his head, the white light disappeared.

Lu Yizhan's worried face appeared in front of him. He patted Bai Liu's face and called his name: "Hey! Hey! Bai Liu!"

Bai Liu coughed and spit out a lot of water. He woke up drowsily and lay on his back on the ground with his eyes blurred and his chest rising and falling silently. Lu Yizhan, who was covered in water, stood beside him, gasping for breath exhaustedly with his hands on his knees.

"Bai Liu, if we want to leave here, we have to change your name." Lu Yizhan said, "To prevent the teachers of this orphanage from finding you again. Your previous incident was too big a deal. If other orphans recognize you, it will be difficult for them to accept you due to the obstruction of the teachers of this orphanage."

Bai Liu was silent for two seconds and said, "I don't accept too many name changes."

Lu Yizhan was startled: "Why?"

Bai Liu turned on his side, staring at the pond with lifeless eyes, his voice hoarse: "...I don't know, I always feel that maybe someone...will come to find me using my original name."