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Chapter 58: Orphan Resentment (Part 18)
Warning: Graphic depictions of violence and a big monster.
Shen Qingqiu frowned slightly after listening but didn’t say anything, as if lost in thought. As Old Sang’s figure was about to disappear down the end of the corridor, Shen Qingqiu finally spoke.
“Follow him.”
It wasn’t a question but a statement.
Xiao Muyu had the same thought. Without hesitation, she stood up and started walking. Shen Qingqiu watched her slender and upright back, feeling an inexplicable tingle in her heart. She quickened her pace to catch up and leaned in.
“Muyu, don’t you think we’re getting more in sync? You can always think of what I’m thinking. You want to do what I want to do.”
Xiao Muyu didn’t stop walking. There was a surprise in her eyes, but it vanished instantly. She responded curtly, “I don’t.”
Shen Qingqiu murmured, “Such a liar.”
Xiao Muyu glanced at her. “I want you to shut up, but clearly, you don’t.”
Shen Qingqiu was left speechless again. The breath she was about to exhale had been forcibly shoved back down by Xiao Muyu. Her mouth was slightly open, her eyes widening just a bit. Rarely, she didn’t show any of her usual charm or cold demeanor. She looked innocently indignant, with a hint of reproach. When Xiao Muyu turned her head and caught sight of this, she couldn’t help but curl her lips.
Shen Qingqiu, trailing behind, muttered under her breath, “Let’s focus on the matter at hand,” giving herself an excuse to back down.
The two followed Old Sang all the way to the back of the orphanage. To their surprise, there was an iron gate there. It was secured with a large, corroded lock. Near the back gate stood a small shed.
Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu hadn’t known about this before. At the moment, they were hiding behind a tree, watching Old Sang and that small house.
*Thud. Thud-thud!*
Suddenly, heavy thuds echoed from inside the previously silent shed. Each strike was harder than the last, frantic and forceful, like someone furiously chopping something. The sound reverberated in the air.
Old Sang looked like he heard the noise as well. Xiao Muyu could sense his fear. It was like an invisible, enormous hand had gripped him by the neck, dragging him like a helpless chick toward the shed.
Xiao Muyu’s expression shifted subtly. She whispered, “Something’s wrong.”
Shen Qingqiu’s face turned solemn. Her left hand reached for the dagger. Her right was free of bandages, ready for action.
The thudding sound abruptly ceased. A figure smashed through the wooden door of the shed.
The sight of the massive figure had Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu freezing in their tracks. The person’s clothing was tattered and barely clinging to their body. A ragged apron hung precariously around their waist, swaying with each movement. The damage wasn’t due to wear and tear. It had been forcibly torn apart by this individual’s enormous body, which towered at a height of thirteen feet.
A hand gripped a colossal cleaver, almost as tall as a person. The massive figure raised it without warning, ready to bring it crashing down on Old Sang’s head!
Xiao Muyu pressed the stopwatch in her hand without delay. The cleaver froze mid-air, hovering above Old Sang’s head. Old Sang stood there, dazed, his face still rigid. However, the uncontrollable terror in his wide-open eyes was etched on his face.
Xiao Muyu wanted to rush forward and drag him from under the blade, but Shen Qingqiu moved faster. Her steps were swift and light, like a leopard leaping into action.
Shen Qingqiu pulled Old Sang away in one fluid motion. Her left foot slammed hard onto the giant’s knee. Using the force to leap upward, she executed a backward somersault before delivering a powerful kick to the massive, plump chin.
The towering figure immediately crashed to the ground like a demolished two-story building. Their enormous cleaver also fell with a heavy thud.
At the same time, Shen Qingqiu plunged the dagger in her hand straight into the knee joint of the giantess. The woman’s joints had grown correspondingly larger with her massive body. It took Shen Qingqiu exerting all her strength with both hands to damage the knee joint.
Knowing time was of the essence, Shen Qingqiu quickly withdrew the blade and repeated the process on the giant’s other leg. When she had crippled both legs, the ten seconds were up.
The woman lying on the ground suddenly jerked her upper body upright. She let out a guttural roar. Foul-smelling saliva sprayed from her gaping mouth. It was so rancid that Shen Qingqiu nearly gagged.
The giantess’s face was now fully revealed. It was none other than Auntie Jiang, the woman who couldn’t cook after supposedly injuring herself from a fall.
Although her lower body was immobilized, her upper body remained functional. Her elongated fingernails tried to claw at Shen Qingqiu.
Xiao Muyu delivered a hard kick directly to Auntie Jiang’s chest. The force of the blow slammed her back down.
The recoil from her kick caused Xiao Muyu to tumble to the ground. She rolled a few times to disperse the force of the fall. Meanwhile, thanks to Xiao Muyu’s kick, Shen Qingqiu had ruined Auntie Jiang’s other knee joint.
Without the support of her legs or her weapon, the once ferocious woman could do nothing but claw aimlessly at the air.
Auntie Jiang was already dead. Someone had turned her corpse into this giantess three times her original size. Even in death, the poor woman found no peace. The transformed corpse, bound to its physical form, was subjected to Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu’s torturous attacks.
Old Sang had regained his senses. His eyes were bloodshot as he looked at the frenzied, zombie woman. He pleaded hoarsely, “Please… put her out of her misery. She’s suffered enough for her sins.”
Xiao Muyu paused. Something caught her attention while Auntie Jiang wildly crawled around on the ground. She pointed at Auntie Jiang’s head and shouted, “There’s something on her head!”
Shen Qingqiu quickly glanced over while dodging. Sure enough, amidst Auntie Jiang’s tangled hair was a protrusion. It oozed milky-white fluid.
Shen Qingqiu’s eyes shifted and she dodged Auntie Jiang’s swinging hand. She leaped to the side, landing in a half-kneeling position behind Auntie Jiang, shouting, “Muyu, hold down one of her hands!”
Xiao Muyu took off her jacket, rolled on the ground, and wrapped it around Auntie Jiang’s left hand. She pulled it taut with all her strength. Simultaneously, Shen Qingqiu grabbed Auntie Jiang’s right hand and stomped hard with her left foot. The right arm broke with a loud crack.
The roar that followed left Shen Qingqiu’s head spinning. She steadied herself and stepped forward. Using her dagger, she pried at the protrusion on Aunt Jiang’s head. With both hands, she forced the object out, bit by bit.
It was a 20-centimeter-long barbed wooden spike made from a locust tree branch.
Shen Qingqiu suppressed her nausea and glanced at it briefly before tossing it aside. She breathed heavily. Beneath her, the giant monster stilled once she had removed the spike.
With sickening crunches, it began shrinking back to human size. The once bloated body deflated and crumpled in on itself. It was a horrifying and repulsive sight.
Shen Qingqiu couldn’t bear to watch any longer. She turned away and walked over to Old Sang, stabbing her gleaming dagger into the ground in front of him. Looking at his ashen face, she said, “Care to explain?”
Old Sang’s lips trembled. Several times he tried to speak, but no words came out. After a long pause, he shook his head and muttered, “I can’t say it, I can’t… they’ve escaped, they’ve escaped.”
Seeing that he was on the verge of a mental breakdown, Shen Qingqiu’s expression darkened. She then glanced questioningly at Xiao Muyu.
Xiao Muyu was about to speak when Old Sang suddenly shoved Shen Qingqiu aside and tried to grab the dagger.
Xiao Muyu, quick to react, snatched the dagger with her left hand before he could. As Old Sang desperately tried to wrest it away, she delivered a sharp chop to the back of his neck with her right hand. He fell over unconscious.
Shen Qingqiu looked on, stunned, then quirked a brow playfully. “So ruthless?”
Xiao Muyu tossed the dagger back to her and stood up. “He won’t be able to say much in his current state. Besides, we’ve already come this far. It’d be child’s play if he spills everything now.”
“So, what do we do now?” Shen Qingqiu agreed with her point. She glanced at Old Sang.
“Something wants him dead. Take him with us; otherwise, that ‘1’ will turn into a ‘0’.” With those words, she made the situation clear.
Shen Qingqiu curled her lip in dissatisfaction. “Making me carry such a big guy on my own? That’s not fair.”
Xiao Muyu glanced at the shriveled corpse nearby. “You managed to flip over something over three meters tall. A guy barely 1.7 meters should be no problem for you.”
Shen Qingqiu gave no comment. She frisked Old Sang around the waist and fished out a key. She tossed it over without caring whether Xiao Muyu could catch it. She grabbed Old Sang by the collar with her left hand, dragging him along like a sack of grains.
Xiao Muyu looked up and caught the key. She turned her head to the sound. The corner of her eye twitched upon seeing Old Sang being hauled across the ground. But she also knew Shen Qingqiu wasn’t going to carry him properly.
“By the way, how were you so sure only one person survived and that it was Old Sang?” Shen Qingqiu asked. She hadn’t yet discussed this matter with Xiao Muyu.
Without turning her head, Xiao Muyu replied calmly, “You told me.”
“Huh?” Shen Qingqiu blinked.
“Among the eleven people in the orphanage, Auntie Jiang was clearly not human, at least not in the eyes of the players. As for the eight children, you could deduce their nature after the game started. Eight children, eight substitutes—living people don’t need substitutes. Furthermore, there’s no way eight people of some repute dying in an orphanage have gone unnoticed. How could any children remain here after that? And if they did, they would be under the care of official personnel, which is clearly not the case here.”
Shen Qingqiu nodded. “Makes sense. The others probably all knew the children weren’t human. But what about Qu Muxi and Old Sang? How were you so sure about them?”
“I already said you told me about Old Sang. His reaction in the cafeteria when you threw the dagger was a very human response. If he were a ghost, dodging your dagger would’ve been effortless. The ghosts in this instance aren’t high-level; they rarely hide their true forms. The idea that he deliberately faked it, to the point where his scalp was sliced off and his skin bled, doesn’t seem plausible. Besides, you can sense he’s alive from his words and actions. And just now, Auntie Jiang trying to kill him further confirms it.
“About Qu Muxi… what’s your take on her?”
Shen Qingqiu shrugged indifferently. “Those kids were very dependent on her. Plus, the diaries Zhang Yangfeng and the others found mentioned a ‘pretty sister’. Someone who appears multiple times in key pieces of evidence in the game isn’t likely to be a random NPC. So, Qu Muxi being an NPC makes perfect sense. Also, it’s illogical for a young woman visiting as an outsider to stay behind and become the orphanage director.
“There’s another critical point—the timeline of the eight men and the eight children’s deaths, and when Qu Muxi became the director. The sequence of these events clarifies everything.”
Xiao Muyu smiled faintly. As expected, Shen Qingqiu had arrived at the same conclusion as her. The timeline was indeed the key.
First, the way the eight men’s corpses ended up clearly wasn’t the work of humans. That left ghosts. Either Qu Muxi or someone among the eight children must have turned into malicious spirits to kill them.
Second, the children must have died before the eight scumbags. If any children had died after those men, the men wouldn’t have fallen into their clutches. Nor would they have stayed in the orphanage.
The same went for Qu Muxi as well. A perfectly healthy person wouldn’t just randomly die. And Qu Muxi couldn’t have become the director unless the original director died. But then came the paradox: if the director was dead and the children were gone, how could Qu Muxi have become the director in the first place?
However, if Qu Muxi didn’t die, it wouldn’t make sense for an outsider who simply came to visit the children and wasn’t involved in their mistreatment to be trapped here, calling herself the director.
Shen Qingqiu spoke in a serious tone, “I don’t yet know the specific reason why Qu Muxi got involved. But I suspect she stayed behind in this orphanage after her death. Eventually, she became the ‘director’ the ghost children refer to.”
“Exactly. Which is why the children call her ‘sister’ instead of ‘director,’” Xiao Muyu added. She glanced around the area. The orphanage wasn’t large. Yet, despite the commotion, no one else had appeared. Clearly, they weren’t aware of what was happening here.
“Also, I mentioned before that I couldn’t remember how I got injured at the start. Just now, I remembered—it was her. The oversized Auntie Jiang threw me out when I first got here. Right in the backyard.”
Xiao Muyu was a bit surprised. “Then there should be something in the backyard as well.” But they had to take things one step at a time. Their first priority was opening the cabinet.
Nothing unusual occurred the entire way to Old Sang’s room. Eventually, Xiao Muyu used the keys Shen Qingqiu found on Old Sang to unlock his door. Inside, they found rows of keys hanging on the wall.
The keys varied in shape, with faded labels attached. Among them were keys to the main building of the orphanage, including those for the storage room and the office. Finally, they found a small key labeled for the classroom.
After some thought, Xiao Muyu took the keys to the dormitory building. The dormitory had three floors. While some room keys were missing, the keys to the children’s rooms on the third floor were still there.
Shen Qingqiu noticed a very old-fashioned key on the wall. She’d never seen ones like this anymore. After some hesitation, she seemed to recall something and took it down.
Xiao Muyu glanced at the key and asked, “Is that for the back gate?”
“Should be.”
Old Sang seemed to be waking up. Considering how far they had gone with their adventure today, Xiao Muyu didn’t dare act recklessly. She quickly closed the door, settled Old Sang, and immediately regrouped with Zhang Yangfeng and the others.
“Did you two get it?”
“Yeah.”
For some reason, everyone felt unusually tense. Xiao Muyu hurriedly warned as they walked, “There’s one thing I must remind you all. Something’s off about Qu Muxi. The danger ahead might not just be the Kagome Kagome game with the eight dolls.”
Hou Liang and the others became even more anxious. They knew Qu Muxi was acting strange but didn’t understand what was going on.
The group hurried back to the classroom to test the small key. With a *click,* the cabinet unlocked.
On the top row was a stack of exercise books left behind by the children.
It was a thick pile. Judging by the condition, some were relatively recent, while others had been there for a long time. Roughly estimating, there were fifty or sixty books, each with a different name on the cover.
“These belong to the previous children?” Huang Junfeng asked in surprise as he examined them.
The top eight notebooks, however, unmistakably belonged to the eight children they had met.
Xiao Muyu opened the first one, which belonged to Big Xiao Mei. She flipped to the latest page, where a line had been written with heavy pressure.
[I wish I were like the heroes in novels, with a sword, with martial arts, so I could kill them!]
Author had something to say:
The main storyline should be roughly pieced together now. There are only some details left to fill in. Once those are added, the plot progression will be complete. Then it will be time to tackle the issue of survival.
Details that currently need to be resolved:
D[Translator]
Hello, I'm D. I mainly translate yuri stories. My language pairs are CN-EN and JP-EN. If you want to commission/request me to translate a story, ping @D in Shanghai Fantasy's Discord server. I don't translate stories over 1 mil character/word count, or ones that contain many NSFW scenes. Support me at ko-fi only if you're able.