The little girl stood at the door, holding a broken brick in her hand.
“How did you end up here?”
She looked worried and frightened, her hand holding the brick trembling slightly.
Gu Zhan said, “Let’s get out of here first.”
They worked together to close the detention room door and wrapped the iron chain with a padlock around it, disguising it as if the door hadn’t been opened at all, then ran toward the big tree in the backyard.
It seemed that this area wasn’t frequented by people, and once they reached the tree, the girl visibly sighed in relief.
“You still haven’t told me why you were locked in the detention room.”
Gu Zhan replied, “Because I didn’t go to lunch that day.”
“Why?” The girl’s eyes widened, “How could you not go?!”
Gu Zhan countered, “Why? Is it mandatory to eat this meal?”
The little girl stammered, “Well... of course it’s mandatory! If you don’t go to lunch, the nun... the nun will get angry."
Gu Zhan furrowed his brow and asked, “What kind of place is this? A school?”
The little girl murmured, “This is our home.”
“…”
She seemed to enter some strange state, her mind wandering. No matter how much Gu Zhan asked her about it afterward, she just kept repeating that one sentence.
“This is our home.”
Home?
Was a home where you got locked up for two days for not having lunch?
Gu Zhan had no choice but to say, “Do you remember the little bird you rescued? I hung them in the tree.”
“Mm, the bird…” Mentioning the bird finally brought a spark back to the little girl’s eyes. She asked, “Where is the bird now?”
Gu Zhan looked up at the treetop. It had already been two days, and he wasn’t sure if the bird was still alive.
The two climbed the tree together, with Gu Zhan in front, looking toward the basket at the treetop.
To his surprise, the little bird was indeed alive, and even a larger bird had come.
The big and small birds snuggled together in the makeshift nest Gu Zhan had made for them, creating a warm scene.
He told this to the little girl, and she finally smiled.
“That’s wonderful! It’s reunited with its mom!”
The girl said, “The nun said that children who can be with their mothers are good children, and they will definitely be happy.”
Her words were a bit strange, and combined with the earlier sense of incongruity, it made Gu Zhan ponder.
Just then, the lunch bell rang again.
The girl hurried down the tree and said to Gu Zhan, “Come with me to the cafeteria; you can’t be late again.”
Gu Zhan replied, “But I should be locked in the confinement room now. Isn’t it wrong for me to swagger into the cafeteria?”
The little girl bit her nails and whispered, “Being able to escape from the confinement room is your skill; they won’t mind. Come on, let’s go eat.”
Gu Zhan was pulled along by her as they ran toward the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was next to the church, and a little further ahead were rows of single-story buildings.
From the style of the windows, it appeared to be a school.
When they arrived, many children were already coming out of the single-story buildings.
These children, both boys and girls, varied in age from three or four to eight or nine years old.
They had even come out of the same classroom.
Gu Zhan was finally certain that this was not a school.
The children didn’t play or fool around; they silently formed a line and walked into the cafeteria.
Once inside, each child took their seats in an orderly manner according to their serial numbers. At first glance, they didn’t look like a group of children but rather a group of puppets… or perhaps, robots.
Soon it was Gu Zhan and the little girl’s turn, and they took their seats according to the order.
After all the children were seated, nuns dressed in black and white came to distribute food to them.
Gu Zhan noticed that many children were still outside and hadn’t come in. They didn’t wait either and returned to their classrooms.
It was as if they knew that waiting wouldn’t get them any food.
Gu Zhan followed the other children to eat, but each mouthful of food only heightened his hunger rather than satisfying it.
The aroma of the food made him feel even hungrier.
Once the children finished their meals, they stood up in order to return their trays.
Gu Zhan didn’t speak and quietly followed the little girl. After returning the trays, the two walked toward the “classrooms” in the single-story buildings.
Upon entering, they found it indeed resembled a classroom. The content from the last lesson was still written on the blackboard, untouched.
It was the kind of ordinary elementary school material one would expect.
However, combined with the varying ages of the children in the classroom, it seemed a bit odd.
Gu Zhan spent the day in class with them, and only in the evening did their classes finally come to an end.
After the teacher left, the children finally had their free time, and the once quiet classroom became noisy.
At that moment, Gu Zhan noticed that the little girl who had been sitting next to him was missing.
He guessed she had gone to check on the little birds, so he stood up to look for her by the big tree.
But before he could leave the classroom, the dinner bell rang again.
Gu Zhan had to abandon his search for the little girl and once again followed the other children into the cafeteria.
After finishing dinner, Gu Zhan still hadn’t seen the little girl.
Frowning, he headed straight toward the confinement room.
The iron lock at the door of the confinement room seemed to have been replaced with a thicker one, even harder to break.
Gu Zhan approached and knocked on the iron door, asking, “Are you in there?”
“Um…” A faint sound came from inside, followed by the little girl’s voice, tinged with tears. “It’s you! Please save me; it’s so scary in here.”
Gu Zhan looked around and noticed that the area outside the door had been cleaned up, leaving nothing behind.
And his star compass watch, which he had been wearing before entering the book world, was also gone.
“Just wait a moment.”
Gu Zhan said this as he stepped away from the iron door.
He went to find something to break the lock.
The iron lock had been specially reinforced, and he knew that it wouldn’t yield to ordinary means. After searching for a while, he gradually moved closer to the cafeteria.
He recalled that during lunch, they had served ribs, so the cafeteria must have tools for processing ribs. If he could just get inside and steal a tool…
Gu Zhan quietly approached the back door of the cafeteria. By now, it was night, and the cafeteria was silent, devoid of anyone.
He was still just a child, and his small size made it easy to sneak in.
Fortunately, the cafeteria door wasn’t locked; with a gentle push, the kitchen door opened.
But at that moment, he suddenly heard adult footsteps behind him.
Gu Zhan’s heart sank, and he hurried forward, hiding under a table.
The door he had just pushed open was pushed again, and with a loud “bang,” the lights turned on, filling the room with bright light.
Gu Zhan’s shadow fell to the ground. To avoid being discovered, he could only move towards the corner of the room.
The person who had entered the room was now at the table.
From Gu Zhan's perspective, he could only see the other's legs.
He wore gray pants and cloth shoes, his clothes stained with grease.
A little higher, he could see a corner of a white chef's uniform, also similarly greasy.
“Bang!”
The chef placed something heavy on the table.
Only then did Gu Zhan realize that the table was made entirely of metal; the iron surface made a loud "clang" when struck.
“Bang!” Another heavy thud echoed. The chef seemed to be busy with something.
After waiting for a moment, the chef suddenly turned and walked to another corner of the room.
After a brief silence, he returned, dragging an axe behind him.
“Bang!”
“Bang bang!!”
The chef stood at the table, raised the axe high, and struck down violently onto something on the table! The sound of bone and flesh breaking filled the air.
With each swing, the metal table trembled!
Gu Zhan was under the table; each swing felt like it was aimed at him!
“Bang!”
As the chef continued his actions, a thick smell of blood began to fill the room.
Blood and bits of flesh splattered from the table, hitting the chef's body and legs...
Now, Gu Zhan understood where the grease on the chef had come from.
Blood slowly dripped down the corner of the table, making one wonder what had been chopped up on the surface.
“Bang!”
Another heavy blow fell, and finally, the room returned to silence.
The chef threw the bloodied axe aside, muttering a curse before turning to leave.
Gu Zhan’s gaze was fixed on the blood-stained axe, and he remained motionless.
Sure enough, less than five minutes later, the chef returned.
He brought many baskets and dumped them on the ground, then started tossing the meat chunks from the table into the baskets.
The ribs, now smashed beyond recognition, were unidentifiable in terms of the animal they came from.
Given their size, they were definitely not pork.
Gu Zhan dared not think further, especially since he had just eaten in the cafeteria at noon.
After collecting all the ribs, the chef turned and left.
This time, he turned off the lights and closed the door.
Once the sounds of the chef had completely faded, Gu Zhan finally crawled out from under the metal table.
As he passed the edge of the table, a drop of thick liquid dripped from above, landing on his forehead.
The strong smell of blood hit him instantly, and Gu Zhan quickly wiped the drop away.
He found some rags in the room and wiped the blood off his hands, then used them to clean the blood off the axe.
Then, he picked up the oversized axe and left the kitchen.
The axe was too heavy to carry properly, so Gu Zhan had to drag it along the ground.
The heavy axe left a deep mark on the floor as he moved.
Eventually, he reached the isolation room, where a little girl was still waiting for him. As soon as she heard the noise, she asked, “Did you find a way to open the door?”
“I did,” Gu Zhan replied to her. “You need to move aside a bit.”
“Okay, I’m moving aside.”
Gu Zhan raised the axe and swung it at the door.
For a brief moment, he felt like he had transformed into the chef from earlier, striking down not on the iron door, but on something bloody and fleshy!
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The sounds of chopping echoed loudly in the night, and Gu Zhan knew he was running out of time.
The lights in the nearby building, which had been off, began to turn on one by one, as if someone was coming.
The iron door had already been breached, and the people inside could see Gu Zhan’s face.
“Bang!”
With one final crash, the iron door finally split open.
Gu Zhan dropped the axe and reached out his hand toward the girl.
The little girl hesitated, looking at his hand with fear.
Only then did Gu Zhan notice that his hands were still stained with blood from swinging the axe.
Though he had wiped the axe, it wasn’t clean enough.
He had been too focused on chopping down the door to notice.
“Hurry up, they’re coming!” Gu Zhan urged as the girl remained hesitant.
She likely realized that if they were discovered, it would be over.
With a determined bite of her lip, she grasped Gu Zhan’s hand and squeezed through the gap in the door.
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