Chapter 149
Many children sang together; their singing was ethereal and eerie, floating in the air and even piercing into the blurred fog.
They sang and danced, very excited.
The little monster also swayed happily from side to side, humming something like "stay with it forever", as if it had already determined that they would be left behind.
Lu Jiamu asked it: "What game do you want to play?"
The little monster stretched out his arms and shouted excitedly: "We have many games to play every day!"
After yelling, it calmed down a little, tilted its head and folded its arms, as if thinking for a while, and then said awkwardly: "I like you very much, I can just let you play some simple games with us."
Although it didn't have a normal human face, seeing its body movements were full of hesitation and embarrassment, Lu Jiamu decided to wait quietly for it to think about it for a while.
The little monster seemed to think for a long time with great difficulty: "In the welfare home, the game that adults play most with us is hide-and-seek."
When he heard the word hide-and-seek, the little boy subconsciously shrank for a moment.
Lu Jiamu patted the little boy on the back to comfort him: "Is this the only game?"
The little monster nodded excitedly: "Our time is limited, and I like you very much, so you only need to play a game with me."
This little ghost seems easy to communicate with and quite reasonable, but it is a ghost after all, and it is possible that it may change its mind at the last minute, so it is best to ask as many questions as possible now.
Lu Jiamu first asked: "What does limited time mean?"
"Because before dawn..." The little boy laughed a strange laugh with an ambiguous meaning, and his malice gradually emanated from him. "In the orphanage, the adults have to give in to the children! In the past, when the uncles and aunts were about to leave, if they had not won the game, they would say they had already lost."
It sounds like something will happen in this ghostland at dawn. The game of hide-and-seek that the little ghost wants to play also has a time limit.
If that's all, then so far, it doesn't sound that difficult in a literal sense.
"What if we win?"
The little boy tilted his head and looked at him again: "If you win, you can leave."
Lu Jiamu tried to reason with it: "If you win the game, you will get a reward from your brothers. But if your brother wins the game but gets nothing, don't you think that's unfair?"
This was the first time the little monster encountered someone who dared to bargain with him. This time he was quiet for even longer, as if he was trying hard to think about the intention behind his words.
After a while, it asked tentatively: "So, what reward do you want?"
"If my brother wins the game, then you can tell him the history of this welfare home and your identity. Have a chat with him before dawn."
The little monster felt that what he asked for was just something that didn't matter to him. And no matter what the adults said, they would always lose in the end. Let them play with him with unnecessary expectations, maybe the game would become more interesting.
Thinking of this, the little monster became unbridled and cheerful again, nodding readily: "Okay."
"Besides hide-and-seek, what other games do you usually play in the welfare home?"
"There are so many!" The little monster was very happy to see that he asked, "We play hopscotch, rubber band, eagle catches chicken, and statues. Brother, do you want to play all of them with me?"
Lu Jiamu knew very well that in such a strange place, the so-called "game" could not be understood with common sense from the outside world, but occasionally it could be understood through the literal meaning.
If you understand these games simply according to their literal meaning, they all seem to be brutal in their own way.
After all, hide and seek sounds the most harmless.
"Brother didn't mean that." Lu Jiamu was afraid that it would suddenly change its mind and want to play all the games, so he rationally didn't ask what the other games were. "I'll only play this one game with you tonight. You mean what you said, right?"
"Of course." The little monster happily put his hands behind his back and swayed back and forth, "Good children always keep their promises."
Although I don't know if the ghost's words are reliable, at least it has promised so now. Lu Jiamu asked again: "What are the rules of hide-and-seek?"
"Have you never played hide and seek? Do you want to play another game?" The little monster looked a little confused. "We hide and you catch us. If anyone is caught, we become ghosts."
If you get caught, you'll become a ghost.
It sounds like it is just describing the rule of normal hide-and-seek: "The first person caught becomes the catcher in the next round." However, this is not the outside world, and these childish words certainly cannot be interpreted according to common sense. There must be some kind of murderous intention hidden behind them.
But even so, it is better than game names like hopscotch, where the malicious intent has already surfaced.
To be cautious, Lu Jiamu continued to ask about the details of the rules, trying to learn more in advance: "In your welfare home, what does it mean to be caught? Does it count as being seen, or does it require being touched, or controlled?"
The little monster didn't answer but asked, "Brother, have you never played hide and seek?"
"I have played it. It's just that the rules of the game may be slightly different in different regions. In order to play with you better, I have to ask in advance."
This time, the little monster was not as easy to talk to as before. It seemed that it did not understand Lu Jiamu's question at all, and asked him if he did not know how to play hide-and-seek, and if he did not know how to play, should he change the game or something.
It seems that the real rules of this game must be very complicated and it is what it wants to hide. It will not answer if you ask it again.
But in the ghost territory, it is impossible to negotiate very good terms with the ghosts.
Lu Jiamu glanced at the old man, seeking his advice.
The old man calmed down quickly. But he had never really communicated with ghosts before, and his thinking logic could not keep up with Lu Jiamu's, and he could not quickly turn to strange places by following ordinary words, so he could not hear anything serious yet.
Seeing Lu Jiamu looking at him, the old man immediately pretended to be confident and said, "Hide and seek? Hide and seek is good. When I was young, I could always hide until the end."
He had no objection, so there was no time to lose. Lu Jiamu smiled and nodded to agree with the little monster: "Okay, then let's play hide and seek together."
The little monster laughed: "Okay! Then you need to count silently to one hundred seconds, and then come find us!"
After saying this, the children who were originally singing and dancing in a circle in the distance dispersed and ran into the building shouting loudly.
The little monster followed them, running and repeatedly saying loudly: "You must count to 100 seconds before you can move. This is the rule. Not a second less!"
Seeing that it cared so much, Lu Jiamu immediately promised it: "Okay, don't worry, it won't be less than a second."
The two of them stood there and started looking at the time with their watches. Afraid of breaking the rules and angering it, they were obedient and no one dared to move.
After the little monsters disappeared, Lu Jiamu asked the old man, "What will happen at dawn?"
The old man said: "Because someone claimed that fires are all black, we didn't find it at night until dawn. It is said that the fire was put out at six o'clock in the morning, and nothing was left inside."
Maybe this means that this place will disappear at six o'clock, and if they don't win the game before then, they will disappear along with the orphanage.
After a while, Lu Jiamu suddenly asked, "Are you really good at playing hide-and-seek?"
The old man was already very nervous. Hearing him talking nonsense, he looked at him speechlessly: "If you weren't in large numbers and that guy was so fierce, would I have been caught by you? Can't you see whether I'm strong or not?"
Lu Jiamu said in an ambiguous tone: "But having more people and good coordination is also part of strength. You being caught is just a result."
The old man rolled his eyes, feeling that he was not just talking trash to kill time, there might be something else behind his words. He guessed that he might be reminding him that he should focus on teamwork and not act on his own, or he might be hinting that they would face a lot of monsters and they should be careful.
After all, there were more than a dozen little kids singing underworld songs.
"Well..." The old man smiled awkwardly, "If you can fight in a group, don't fight alone. I understand this. I won't complain."
After hearing what he said, Lu Jiamu stopped talking to him.
The second hand ticked away one second at a time. After counting to one hundred seconds, the two people moved at the same time and walked towards the constantly twisting building.
Once you enter the room, you will find that the environment is actually much more stable than it appears from the outside.
The first floor was a long, dark corridor with many closed rooms on both sides. It was impossible to tell what they were used for.
The whole space was silent.
The old man was still a little afraid of the little monster's appearance just now, and he felt a little flustered when it became quiet: "So, what should we do first?"
As soon as the old man finished speaking, a small white face appeared in their peripheral vision.
The two of them immediately turned around and saw a ghost that had not hidden for some reason and was standing at the corner of the stairs, peeking at them like a thief.
Seeing that it was discovered, the ghost made a small screaming motion and turned and ran away.
The old man couldn't tolerate its bad behavior, so he rushed out on the spot, climbed up the handrail like a monkey, and climbed vertically to the second floor.
I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but the ghost didn’t hide immediately on the second floor, nor did it continue to run to other places.
Instead, it ran into a room right in front of the old man and slammed the door shut, allowing him to see clearly where it was hiding, as if afraid that he didn't know.
Such a provocative behavior immediately angered the old man, and he cursed: "Damn little bastard..."
He was furious and wanted to pull out this ignorant ghost, but after taking two steps, the evil rage was diluted by the weird appearance of the ghosts he just saw.
He felt that he should not be too reckless, as recklessness could cost him his life. Things that he did not understand should be handed over to people who understood to make judgments, which was a good start to showing team spirit.
The old man paced back and forth, waiting for Lu Jiamu to come up, then pointed to the door and said, "He ran in here."
The layout of the second floor is similar to that of the first floor, with a long corridor connecting many rooms with closed doors on both sides.
Lu Jiamu walked towards the room the old man pointed to.
The old man hid behind him and complained as he walked: "It didn't run away earlier or later, it just ran in when it saw me coming up. I think it was deliberately luring us. Is there something bad in there? What do you think we should do?"
Lu Jiamu observed carefully, then moved closer to the door and listened carefully.
This door looked exactly like the other doors, and no sound could be heard from inside. It seemed that even if there was something bad inside, it would be impossible to tell what it was from the outside.
Lu Jiamu put the little boy down and glanced back at the old man: "Get out of the way."
The old man didn't understand what was going on and took two steps to the side with the little boy. Lu Jiamu reached out and opened the door.
Nothing strange or frightening came out of it.
There were a few bunk beds piled up in a mess in the room, but at a glance, the room was empty except for the beds, and there were no little ghosts.
The old man peeked inside and was surprised at the simple and rough way he handled the situation. "Hey, you just opened the door? Aren't you afraid of what's inside?"
Lu Jiamu did not explain to him why he would not normally get hurt, but it was the people hiding behind him who were more likely to get hurt.
He simply analyzed: "Even if it deliberately led us to this room, how bad can it be in such a bad place? On the contrary, at least it ran into this room right under our noses. Before we looked away, it should still be inside."
"In fact, we didn't hear how this game of hide-and-seek was played from beginning to end. It's inside now, and finding it can help us clarify the rules. You wait at the door and don't let it run out. I'll go in and find it."
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