Chapter 65 - Kitchen

After Xu Yixiang left, Su Min fell silent for a long time.

He then went downstairs and saw breakfast already laid out on the dining table. There was congee and some side dishes. Shi Nansheng and Han Qinqin were already there eating.

The old director invited him over: “Come and have some congee. It’s very delicious.”

Su Min didn’t feel like eating. Afterall, he still didn’t know whether this food was edible or not, “I don’t have a habit of eating breakfast so I’m fine.”

Seeing him say that with determination, the old director didn’t ask again.

Shi Nansheng was very satisfied with the breakfast. He praised: “I often stay up late because I’m drawing and don’t usually have breakfast. This is my first breakfast in a long time. I’ve missed this taste.”

Su Min watched him intoxicated look and the corner of his lips twitched.

He sat around at the dining table for about half a hour before going back to his room to take another nap. When it was almost eleven o’clock, Su Min came downstairs again.

Yan Jingcai and Xu Yixiang had just had a short walk around half of the orphanage.

Seeing that he looked like he had just woken up, Yan Jing Cai invited him: “Do you want to go with us to check out the place we’re stayed at before?”

Afterall, they could still be considered acquaintances.

Su Min agreed: “Okay.”

The orphanage had doors on both sides. Right opposite the main door was a door leading to a rather large backyard.

Just outside the yard was a forest. It was bordered by an iron gate like those at the entrance of the orphanage.

Outside the gates was a road. Su Min couldn’t remember where the road led to.

To the far left of the yard was a small house.

Su Min thought for a moment and asked: “Is that the kitchen?”

Yan Jin Cai looked over at where he pointed and said: “Yes, that’s the kitchen. Don’t you remember us secretly eating in there before?”

The orphanage was designed so that the kitchen was at the back, so it had a window and even a back door. Back then, children liked to sneak in through the back door.

Every time food was getting prepared, a group of children would peek in and watch. Once the old director left, they would sneak in to steal some food so there would always be less food during meal times.

Su Min recalled this matter about the kitchen.

He didn’t know what was going to happen at the kitchen, but he wanted to check it out first.

Su Min suggested: “Take a look.”

Yan Jing Cai also remembered, “It’s also meal time now. I still remember that social worker last night. I wonder if he’s cooking right now.”

Xu Yixiang wanted to refuse but when she saw the two go over, she didn’t have a reason to refuse anymore, “Let’s take a look and then leave.”

She was left with a psychological shadow towards the orphanage after witnessing Su Min’s incident last night.

There weren’t many wild weeds in that area and the path there was very smooth. Very soon, the three of them reached the back door of the kitchen.

The two of them still retained memories of this place, so it was all very familiar.

The kitchen was separate. One side of it was joined together with the fence and there was a front door on one end and a back door on the other. At this moment, the back door was nailed shut with wooden boards.

Those nails were now very rusty. You could see that it had been there for a long time.

Next to the back door was also a small window. Because it had never been opened, it was covered in a thick layer of dust and had also turned a little yellow.

Yan Jing Cai murmured, “I don’t know if we can still see through it.”

The children back then needed to use stones as a booster but now they needed to bend down to look through the small window.

Xu Yixiang twitched her nose, “There’s something fragrant inside.”

Yan Jing Cai’s stomach grumbled. He spoke with embarrassment: “I’m hungry……I’ll go and see what they’re making.”

As he said this, he moved over to the small window and looked inside.

Su Min on the other hand stood behind Xu Yixiang. The two were still a little embarrassed over the incident last night.

Xu Yixiang was afraid of angering Su Min so she didn’t dare say anything.

It was Su Min who took the initiative to break the silence: “You two didn’t bring anything to eat this time?”

Xu Yixiang said: “We brought a few bags of potato chips and chocolate. Two bags were eaten on the way here so there’s two or three bags left.”

Su Min: “…………”

That really is miserable. If there was a problem with the food, then the protagonists would starve to death here.

After the two spoke, they noticed that Yan Jing Cai was standing there not moving.

Su Min was a little doubtful. He walked over and patted his shoulder, “Are you done? Or you couldn’t see anything?”

Yan Jing Cai slowly turned his head. His eyes were filled with horror.

Su Min was very familiar with this expression. His heart fell and he asked, “What did you see?”

Yan Jing Cai could no longer speak. His lips trembled for a long time before he finally pointed at the small window with a pale face.

Su Min mentally prepared himself and leaned closer.

It wasn’t a very clear view of the kitchen because the windows were covered in yellow grime.

The social worker Xiao Chen was busying himself in front of the stove.

If he wasn’t wrong, it was a stove. Because this place was something that was built decades ago, there was no rice cooker or anything. Everything was made using clay.

Since then, nothing had changed. Rice made in a cauldron was also very delicious.

The social worker Xiao Chen was doing something and had his back facing the window so Su Min for a moment couldn’t see what was wrong.

But soon, Xiao Chen turned around. He held a plate in his hands that seemed to contain ingredients that were already cut up.

He poured oil into one of the pans and soon the oil was heated up. He then poured the vegetables in.

Su Min watched on and still didn’t see what was wrong.

Just when he was about to step back, a frightening scene appeared before him. He held his breath and looked carefully in the kitchen.

After Xiao Chen poured the vegetables in causing the pan to emit the hot sound of something frying, he didn’t pick up a spatula. Instead, he used his hand as a spatula and used it to stir-fry the vegetables.

Su Min watched the arm stir around inside the pan.

The fumes from the oil was clearly visible. You could tell at first glance that it was a very hot pan, yet Xiao Chen didn’t’ seem like he felt anything and happily mixed the ingredients.

He looked like a well-paid chef.

After a few minutes, the dish was done. He picked up the vegetables and poured it inside a plate sitting in wait nearby.

One dish was complete.

Su Min: “…………..”

Did a horror movie really need to put so much effort even with the act of cooking?

Su Min moved away from the window and turned aside.

Yan Jing Cai appeared to have recovered a little and the colour of his face had returned to normal. Seeing his calm expression, he asked: “You didn’t see anything?”

Su Min asked: “What did you see?”

Yan Jing Cai hesitated for a moment and said: “I just saw him cutting vegetables and he cut off his own finger. He not only didn’t’ appear to feel any pain, he even mixed his finger in with the vegetables.

That finger was still bleeding. It was very bloody.

Su Min was startled, “So amazing?

Then did that mean that the dish he saw just then contained Xiao Chen’s finger?

“You didn’t see that earlier?” Yang Jing Cai wondered. “Then you didn’t’ see anything?”

Su Min shook his head. “I saw it.”

Xu Yixiang also moved over to listen.

Su Min briefly summarised what he saw: “After cutting up the vegetables, he didn’t use a spatula and used his hand instead.

Yan Jing Cai: “………..”

Xu Yixiang: “………..”

The pair of young lovers were frightened on the spot. They didn’t speak for a long time.

Yan Jing Cai’s eyes were about to fall out. It took a long time for him to find his own voice. He stuttered: “The….then, can we still eat that?”

Xu Yixiang’s face was completely pale. She couldn’t utter a word.

Since Su Min had already seen the terrible food in “Murder Island”, he was able to accept the social worker Xiao Chen’s actions with a little difficulty.

Yan Jing Cai couldn’t help but retch. He asked subconsciously: “Were the food yesterday like that too?”

Su Min: “…….Probably.”

He suddenly felt fortunate that he had already eaten and only had a little bit of rice. He felt that he was very clever bringing along snacks.

The young couple instantly had an ugly expression.

Xu Yixiang covered her mouth and whispered: “I’m scared. Let’s hurry and leave. Don’t stay here anymore…….”

Yan Jing Cai nodded furiously.

Su Min wasn’t against this. Afterall, he felt that he had already seen enough. It was still too early to tell who would be met with an unfortunate fate in the kitchen tonight.

As they left, he glanced again at the small window.

Xiao Chen was working on another dish and appeared to also have the intention to use his hand again. He then seemed to have noticed something outside and turned around.

He then saw him reveal an ambiguous smile towards Su Min.

It wasn’t Su Min’s first time seeing a smile like this and his heart was still calm. Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang next to him were already crying tearlessly.

The three of them were quiet the entire way back to the orphanage.

As for what they were going to do during meal times, they naturally couldn’t eat that. It would be better to starve a little than to eat a finger.

At the bottom of the stairs, the three of them ran into someone.

Han Qinqin was humming a song as she came down. When she saw their expressions, she asked: “What’s wrong? Feeling sick?”

Su Min said: “Just saw something.”

“Something good?” Shi Nanshen just came out from his room on the first floor. He interjected: “Last night I slept pretty well.”

Su Min glanced at him. Internally he commented that he didn’t sleep very well last night and was only able to sleep peacefully with Chen Su’s arrival.

He didn’t know where that young boy Ming Ming went.

Han Qinqin said: “The old director just came over and said we could eat. If you haven’t eaten, let’s go eat together.”

The moment food was mentioned, Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang shuddered.

Yan Jing Cai frowned. He warned: “That, we just went over to the kitchen and saw Xiao Chen using his own hands to cook……It’s best if you don’t eat it.”

He had good intentions, but the content spoken was too unbelievable.

Shi Nanshen laughed out loud: “Are you still half asleep? What kind of idiot would use their hand to cook? If you want to lie, you should make a better lie.”

Yan Jing Cai’s expression was bad. Xu Yixiang tugged at him to stop him from arguing: “Don’t bother with him.”

He snorted and didn’t say anything.

Shi Nanshen suddenly looked behind them, “Director?

Su Min looked back. The old director was standing behind them. When he saw them look over, he said: “Come and eat.”

Han Qinqin just found things strange. Why did they suddenly say something like that? But with someone here, she couldn’t ask about it.

Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang’s expression turned worse when they heard those words.

But it was useless revealing the truth so they could only follow over quietly.

At the table sat three children. They all sat there obediently and looked quite normal. It was just that they were a little too quiet.

Seeing them, the three children all looked up.

Su Min noticed now that there was a girl amongst them. With two pigtails, she sat in the middle and there weren’t any emotions in her eyes.

Su Min sat opposite the young girl.

When the other two children saw this, they appeared to be very unhappy. They glared fiercely at the young girl as if she had done something extremely unforgivable.

As for the girl, she ignored them and revealed a shy smile at Su Min.

Su Min was a little confused, but he still smiled kindly back in return.

Why did he feel like they were jealous………

The back door was pushed open and Xiao Chen entered with the cart. He placed the dishes on the table and said coldly: “Time to eat.”

The last plate was placed in front of Su Min.

Although he didn’t know why this time the food was served separately for each person, the food wasn’t edible anyway.

Xiao Chen revealed a standard stiff smile, “This is yours.”

Su Min calmly looked at the food in front of him and then at Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang. The two of them didn’t dare move.

After Xiao Chen left, the two of them let out a sigh of relief.

Han Qinqin was hesitant, so she didn’t do anything and just decided to observe the situation first. As for Shi Nanshen who didn’t believe in their words, he had already started eating.

Yan Jing Cai stared at him.

At this moment, Xiao Chen once again appeared. Carrying a steaming dish in his hand, he brought it over to Su Min.

Su Min had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, Xiao Chen quickly placed the plate down in front of him.

Su Min spoke up: “……..One plate is enough.”

“Of course it isn’t.” Xiao Chen looked at him with a smile. With a monotonous tone void of expressions, he said, “Eat some more. There’s plenty to go around.”