Chapter 127 Orphanage
That night, Yu Sheng slept soundly.
Perhaps because there were too many things going on recently and he had consumed too much energy, he fell asleep quite quickly. But after falling asleep, he began to have a lot of weird dreams - sometimes he dreamed about the museum, sometimes he dreamed about his hometown in his memory, and sometimes he dreamed about the Black Forest. He felt like he woke up several times and even heard Irene talking in her sleep, but those times when he woke up seemed to be just another weird dream.
This uneasy sleep lasted until the second half of the night, when he suddenly felt a sense of relaxation in his mind. All the chaotic and indistinguishable dreams seemed to be tamed suddenly, and he slept peacefully in a smooth and comfortable light dream until the next morning.
Then when he opened his eyes, he saw two Ires pressing on his arms, one on the left and one on the right. Both arms were numb and had no feeling.
Yu Sheng took a long time to slow down, and finally pulled his arm out with all his strength. The numbness, itching and pain made him grimace.
Irene also woke up with Youyou. She sat up with her messy hair and rubbed her eyes. "Good morning... Yawn, why did you sleep so restlessly yesterday?"
Yu Sheng was shaking his arms in a bad mood, but when he heard the little doll muttering, he was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized: "Did you help in the second half of the night?"
"Your dream disturbed me," the two Irenes muttered at the same time as they stood up and tidied each other's clothes and hair. "It was really annoying, so I went in to calm you down."
Yu Sheng drooped his arms, his expression a little subtle, and after a while he coughed twice: "Ahem, thank you then."
"No big deal - come and help me comb my hair."
"You pressed on my arm all night, and it's still numb. You can do it yourself," Yu Sheng shook his arms helplessly, "I bought you two small combs, which are on the bedside table. Anyway, it's very convenient for you to comb each other's hair with two bodies now."
"oh."
The two puppets crawled to the bedside table together, found the small comb that Yu Sheng mentioned, and began to comb "each other's" hair in turn while mumbling: "Your human bodies are really inconvenient. They break down easily. If you press or touch something, it will either be numb or painful. You see, our puppets are much more convenient. They don't make a sound even when they break into pieces..."
Yu Sheng listened to Irene's mumbling in a daze, but didn't pay much attention to what she was mumbling.
The bright morning sun shone through the window. Two identical Gothic dolls sat in the sun, taking turns combing each other's hair and tidying up their clothes. To be honest, if you could shut their mouths, this scene would be so beautiful.
Yu Sheng was a little lost in thought as he watched this scene. Suddenly, he couldn't help thinking, now that the two dolls woke up in the sun, they were already so beautiful. If they really made a room full of Irene, then...
What a commotion.
The beautiful imagination in Yu Sheng's mind stopped at the scene of Irene crawling all over the ground, wriggling in the dark, jumping up and down and squeaking. He immediately shook his head: What a pity that this doll has a mouth - now it has two.
After cleaning up and washing up, Yu Sheng's arm finally recovered. He went to the kitchen to make a simple breakfast (it was actually not very early), fed the raccoon who had just woken up and was wandering around the house looking for food, and then prepared to go out to keep the appointment at the address Little Red Riding Hood left for him.
"Should I bring some gifts or something?" Yu Sheng suddenly remembered this before leaving. "This is my first visit after all. It would be inappropriate to go empty-handed."
"It seems so?" Irene had already climbed into Hu Li's arms and prepared to "disguise" as if she were familiar with it. When she heard Yu Sheng's words, she raised her head again, "Bring some biscuits and candies? She seems to have a lot of children over there..."
“Isn’t that a bit too cliché?”
"You can't just give each person a tube of blood when you meet them - that would be unconventional, and they would have to call the police."
Yu Sheng thought about it and felt that Irene was right.
So he took Hu Li and Irene (P2) out. Before taking a taxi, he went to a small supermarket at the intersection and bought a bunch of candies and snacks. Then he hailed a taxi on the side of the road and took a taxi to another city according to the address left by Little Red Riding Hood.
By the way, Irene (P1) stayed at home and watched TV - this doll is now really getting more and more familiar with life with two bodies.
Jiecheng is very big, but fortunately the address left by Little Red Riding Hood is not too far away. After spending more than half an hour on the road, Yu Sheng and his party arrived near their destination.
After getting off the bus, the first thing Yu Sheng felt was... there were few pedestrians around.
And the further we walked along the address left by Little Red Riding Hood, the fewer people there were on the road.
The place where they got off the bus was an intersection of the main road. When Little Red Riding Hood sent the address, she also specially marked the short walking route after getting off the bus. Yu Sheng left the main road and walked along a quiet and slightly old road into the old residential area behind the commercial district. This place looked a little newer than the urban area where No. 66 Wutong Road was located, but not much new. After walking for about ten minutes, he noticed that there was no passerby nearby.
Then, he saw that the end of the path suddenly opened up and a large building appeared in his sight.
It was a "compound" consisting of two townhouses and several small building structures. The gray-white buildings looked quite old. A high wall surrounded all the buildings. The wall once seemed to have brightly colored paintings, but now most of them have become mottled and fallen off, leaving only faded wall paint.
A fence gate that seemed to have been specially reinforced stood in front of Yu Sheng, but what attracted Yu Sheng's attention more were the several familiar metal obelisk devices arranged along the wall on both sides of the fence gate.
That's the "node" set up by the Secret Service.
The reason why there were so few pedestrians along the way and they gradually disappeared was found.
The entire “base” of “fairy tales” is cognitively isolated according to foreign standards.
A red figure came into Yu Sheng's sight. He saw Little Red Riding Hood walking out of the sentry box inside the fence gate. The girl opened a small door next to it and walked towards him quickly.
"You guys got here earlier than I thought."
Little Red Riding Hood came in front of Yu Sheng with a slightly complicated smile on her face - she seemed very welcoming, but also a little nervous and reserved.
It was the first time that Yu Sheng saw such an uneasy look on the face of this precocious high school girl.
"I was worried about being late, so I left home a little early." Yu Sheng smiled and nodded, looking over Little Red Riding Hood's shoulder to the entrance of the "compound".
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On the wall next to the fence gate, a few metal characters that were originally attached to the wall have fallen off and are damaged, but the remaining traces are still there, and the words "XX Welfare Home" can be vaguely distinguished. Apart from this, there are no other signs in this closed compound.
An orphanage, hidden deep in the city, which even requires "nodes" to be blocked...an orphanage.
Yu Sheng was not surprised. Before coming, he had actually guessed something.
"Come with me. I've already told my family." Little Red Riding Hood turned sideways and made an invitation. "I don't have any classes or other work today. I can show you around."
Yu Sheng and Hu Li followed Little Red Riding Hood and walked into the large courtyard which looked a little old but not dilapidated.
When passing by the sentry box, Yu Sheng noticed a girl dozing off inside. She looked about the same age as Little Red Riding Hood.
"That's 'Cinderella'. She always looks sleepy during the day, but she's actually very alert," Little Red Riding Hood introduced casually. "During the daytime, there are actually special 'security guards' here, who are staff sent by the board of directors. But on weekends, the 'parents' here take turns to stand guard. The so-called parents are actually older children, like me."
"Someone sent by the board of directors?" Yu Sheng frowned, with some surprise in his tone.
"'Fairy Tale' is an independent organization, but a group of orphans who never grow up and a group of younger children will eventually encounter many practical problems that cannot be solved. On the other hand, in order to identify the children affected by the 'curse' as soon as possible and concentrate them in safe facilities, government organizations such as the Council must step in," Little Red Riding Hood explained slowly, "so we established a cooperative relationship -
"Nominally, this orphanage is run by the Borderland Council. They provide the venue and some funding, and regularly send 'employees' to help us solve many practical problems such as social identity, children's schooling, and outpatient medical treatment. But in reality, the orphanage is governed by the 'fairy tales'. We accept the children sent here and use our methods to minimize their loss of control. Or... even if they are out of control, we have to keep things under control within these walls."
Little Red Riding Hood paused for a moment and concluded with one sentence: "In short, the ordinary is ordinary, and the extraordinary is extraordinary."
Yu Sheng listened quietly, and walked through the open space inside the wall with Little Red Riding Hood. After thinking for a moment, he shook his head slightly: "It's not quite what I imagined."
"Only after you actually come into contact with it, you will find that all the seemingly strange current situations have reasonable reasons behind them," Little Red Riding Hood said calmly, "At least for us now, this is the most comfortable state - we can live at the pace and in the way we like, and many things are under control. For the managers of the borderland, 'controllability' is the reward they expect most."
"No, I mean... I thought it would be the Secret Service that would handle these things. I thought they would be your 'management department'. After all, they are the professionals in the supernatural field."
Little Red Riding Hood paused for a moment.
"...The Secret Service also deals with us frequently. You are right, they are indeed experts in handling extraordinary events, but in most cases, we can handle the 'extraordinary events' that occur in this facility by ourselves, and do not need additional help," she said slowly, "So the relationship between the Secret Service and us is generally limited to 'business dealings'. On the contrary, when it comes to the 'life' of most members of the orphanage, we are closer to the 'ordinary people' sent by the Board of Directors."
Yu Sheng thought thoughtfully: "Is that so..."
"Yes," Little Red Riding Hood nodded, "After all, there are not only 'parents' like me in this big yard. There are more people here, who are actually just children who have nightmares."
(End of this chapter)
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