Secret Past (5)
Ten years ago, G City, suburbs.
Seventeen-year-old Jiang Yingying has lived in this orphanage for many years. In a year, she will reach adulthood and leave. Most children who grow up here do the same: they leave after turning eighteen.
As for where they went after leaving, no one knew, because people who left here never came back. Whenever a group of people left, new children would come in, and everyone got used to it.
Jiang Yingying didn't know when she came here. She only remembered that she had lived here since she could remember.
The director of the orphanage was originally a woman. Then one night the director suddenly turned into a man named Li, and brought back two boys. The man was responsible for the children's daily life, and everyone called him Uncle Li.
There were both boys and girls in the courtyard, and Jiang Yingying played well with two other girls: Qu Qing, who was two months older than her, and Zhu Zhi, who was four years younger.
When she was ten years old, the timid Jiang Yingying pulled Zhu Zhi and hid behind Qu Qing, watching Uncle Li busy in and out with the two boys.
In her impression, the older boy was taller and more handsome, but the younger boy had a scar on his face.
During dinner, Uncle Li began to formally introduce himself, and hugged the two children, saying that they were his sons and that they would live together in the future.
This made Jiang Yingying feel a little strange at the time, because the two brothers did not look alike.
She didn't think much about it at the time, because the older boy noticed her gaze and was so scared that she quickly shrank back to Qu Qing's side.
But the boy's eyes seemed to remain on her until she finished her dinner.
Life seemed to have not changed much. In fact, the food became better after Uncle Li came, and there were sweet drinks every day.
Not long after, Uncle Li and his two sons began to bustle in and out with buckets of water, saying that they were renovating the basement of the orphanage. Jiang Yingying didn't understand what they were doing.
Several months passed in a flash, and finally one day Uncle Li and his two sons came out of the basement covered in dust and told everyone that from now on no one was allowed to enter the basement and everyone had to live upstairs.
Not long after the basement was completed, Jiang Yingying discovered that her brother, who was only a few months away from adulthood, had suddenly disappeared.
This brother took good care of them. At that time, she innocently asked Uncle Li’s eldest son why this brother disappeared. The eldest son just smiled and gave her two candies, telling her not to ask so many questions.
"He went to a very far place and won't come back. If you miss him, I can be your brother."
At that time, Jiang Yingying had short hair that reached her ears. Although her clothes were a little old, she blinked her eyes and felt that the brother in front of her was very tall and had a very nice smile.
After that, life in the orphanage continued normally. Except for the fact that people often left, there was no change in her life.
It was not until Jiang Yingying was fifteen years old that she learned that Uncle Li’s eldest son was named Li Ming, his youngest son was named Li Ying, and Uncle Li himself was named Li Zhengzhong.
In their later life, whenever Li Ming served food, he would always secretly give Jiang Yingying an egg and ask her not to tell anyone else.
It was also at this time that Li Ming secretly slipped a small box to Jiang Yingying at the corner of the stairs on a hot afternoon. Inside was a pink bow hairpin.
Jiang Yingying raised her head and held the hairpin in the box in front of her. Through the gap between the hairpins, she saw Li Ming's smiling face.
"Does it look good?"
Jiang Yingying bit her lip and nodded, but said nothing.
"I went to the village market today, and I thought this would suit you perfectly. Do you like it?"
Without waiting for Jiang Yingying to answer, Li Ming took the hairpin and clipped it on her hair, and touched her head by the way.
"Very cute, here I give it to you."
Without waiting for Jiang Yingying to react, Li Ming left before her, leaving her alone in the stairwell.
She received the first gift in her life inexplicably. It was not until Qu Qing and Zhu Zhi teased her that Jiang Yingying realized that Li Ming might like her.
Is it love? Jiang Yingying doesn't know either.
Two years passed in a flash, and Jiang Yingying was seventeen years old.
As they began to fall in love, the relationship between her and Li Ming became a little ambiguous. He would bring little gifts to Jiang Yingying from the market every week. Everyone in the orphanage knew that Li Ming liked Jiang Yingying.
Every time Li Ming walked towards Jiang Yingying, someone would make a fuss. She didn't like this feeling. Fortunately, the children in the orphanage were not bad at heart, and her original life did not change much.
On an ordinary day, Jiang Yingying found that a boy was missing again during the day. She ran to ask Li Ming, and Li Ming just said that he had found his biological parents and would not come back.
Jiang Yingying just thought that the boy was the same as the person who disappeared before, so she didn't take it seriously and went back to her room to rest.
But in the early morning, Jiang Yingying suddenly woke up for some reason.
During her time in the orphanage, Jiang Yingying always slept well at night, often sleeping soundly all night long until dawn. But today, Jiang Yingying suddenly woke up in the middle of the night.
There is usually a box of drinks for dinner at the orphanage, and Uncle Li will strictly supervise everyone to drink it, and he will check who has not drunk it by looking at the garbage on the plate.
But for some reason, Jiang Yingying just didn't want to drink that day. While Uncle Li was preparing food and cleaning up, she took advantage of Qu Qing and Zhu Zhi's cover and secretly poured the box of drinks into the flowerpot.
Jiang Yingying got up in the dark and walked towards the bathroom, but just as her hand touched the door handle, she was interrupted by a very faint cry.
The voice was very low and deep. Jiang Yingying retracted her hand and squatted at the door, trying to find the source of the sound.
Jiang Yingying's room was on the first floor, with a window overlooking the courtyard. It was a triple-bedroom apartment, shared with Qu Qing and Zhu Zhi. She listened carefully, but could only hear the steady sound of breathing.
She shook her head, thinking that she was just overthinking. Just as she was about to get up, the crying voice came into her ears again.
This time the sound was louder than the last time. Jiang Yingying heard it clearly. The owner of the voice was a boy, and the voice made her feel somewhat familiar. Moreover, the voice seemed to come from underground.
Jiang Yingying was so frightened that she dared not move. After the sound completely died down, she groped her way back to bed. She buried her face in the quilt, her face covered in cold sweat, and she was completely sleepy.
The sound was so strange that Jiang Yingying even thought she was dreaming.
"What on earth is that sound...who on earth is that..."
Jiang Yingying's mind was in a mess. She comforted herself that it was just an auditory hallucination while curled up in bed and pricked up her ears.
She didn't know how long it took, but the voice never came again. Her thoughts gradually calmed down and her breathing became less rapid.
The suburbs were very quiet at night. Jiang Yingying stared at the dark ceiling and found that she was not sleepy at all. As soon as she closed her eyes, the voice seemed to come into her ears again.
"Is it really an auditory hallucination?"
Her mind was in a mess, so she turned over and faced the wall.
After a long, long time, Jiang Yingying's eyelids finally began to twitch. When she was about to fall asleep, a strange sound woke her up again.
Suddenly, there was a rustling sound outside her dormitory, which sounded like plastic bags rubbing against each other.
Then she heard two voices.
"Brother, why is this so difficult today? How come you suddenly woke up while cutting?"
"How should I know? I guess the medicine is expired."
"I really don't know what Dad was thinking. The imported medicine he used to use was so effective, why did he suddenly switch to this?"
"Stupid, don't you know that business is bad recently?"
"oh..."
Jiang Yingying recognized the voices, which were clearly those of Li Ming and his brother Li Ying!
The content of the conversation made Jiang Yingying shudder. She couldn't understand what the two brothers were doing in the middle of the night.
She curled up in the quilt and covered her mouth with her hands to prevent herself from making any sound.
The conversation between the two people outside the door was still going on. Jiang Yingying no longer had the heart to listen to what they were saying. She just hoped that they would not find out that she was still awake.
When the two passed by the dormitory door, Li Ming's voice suddenly stopped, and Jiang Yingying's heart tightened.
Had I been discovered?
Li Ying outside the door also noticed something was wrong and asked, "What's wrong, brother?"
After a long time, Jiang Yingying's knuckles had turned white from covering her mouth, and Li Ming outside the door finally spoke.
"Nothing, let's go."
Hearing this, Jiang Yingying, who was hiding in the quilt, immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She maintained her previous posture without moving, intending to see what the two brothers were going to do.
The footsteps of Li Ming and Li Ying, accompanied by the sound of plastic rubbing, came to the window of Jiang Yingying's dormitory and stopped again.
At this moment, Jiang Yingying had a premonition in her heart. She always felt that Li Ming was going to open the window. As soon as this idea came to her mind, she immediately buried her face in the quilt and began to take deep breaths to create the illusion that she was asleep.
Sure enough, the next second after Jiang Yingying's breathing became steady, the dormitory window was suddenly opened with great force, and the cold wind from outside suddenly rushed into the room.
Li Ying, still holding the black plastic bag, turned to Li Ming and said, "Brother, what are you doing?"
"Even though they won't wake up, you're..."
Li Ming's hand was still resting on the window frame as he surveyed the quiet room. The three girls were sleeping soundly in their beds, their breathing even and normal.
Li Ying clutched the plastic bag in his hand, looking puzzled.
"Brother...you don't really want to kill Jiang Yingying, do you?"
"Do you really like her?"
Li Ming stared at the bed in the corner. The girl lying on it was breathing evenly, and her drooping eyes contained an emotion that Li Ying could not understand.
"I don't want to kill her, but Dad probably won't agree."
"Let's take it one step at a time."
"What about the other two?"
"Kill him."
Then the window was slammed shut. It was not until the two people outside the window walked away that Jiang Yingying on the bed realized what she had just heard.
Jiang Yingying still maintained her previous posture, even with her hands tightly covering her mouth.
These three people actually... killed someone in an orphanage?!
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