Chapter 73 - Number

The sky outside was very dark, and the lights in the room was still on. Comparing the two, it made it seem as if the sky outside had never brightened up.

Su Min turned over and got out of bed. He checked the time on his phone. It was six o’clock now.

He walked over to the window again and looked at the scene behind the curtains. The sky outside was unusually dark.

Normally the sky would start to brighten at least at six during summer.

Even if it wasn’t hot, six o’clock wasn’t early and the sun should have risen by now.

But the sky continued to look gloomy.

Su Min closed the curtains again and, using the light in the room, he saw that Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang were still sleeping soundly.

He thought for a moment and decided to wake them up.

Yan Jing Cai immediately woke up. He asked in a confused state: “What’s wrong? Did Xiao Chen do something to the food again?”

Su Min snorted. He advised: “Han Qinqin may be in trouble.”

This sentence immediately sobered Yan Jing Cai up. Even Xu Yixiang next to him was woken up, “Something happened to Han Qinqin?”

Su Min said: “So I want to take a look.”

Xu Yixiang rubbed her eyes, “Okay.”

She quickly hopped off the bed. They had been sleeping in their clothes the past few nights fearing that something would suddenly happen.

The three of them went out.

As Xu Yixiang opened the door, she asked: “Did you hear anything? It’s still so early.”

Su Min: “Instincts.”

Xu Yixiang had nothing to say.

She had heard Su Min say this a few times and it seemed to be quite accurate, so she trusted his words.

Ever since the old director discovered Han Qinqin disposing of the food, she had felt that she wouldn’t be let of so easily and that something would definitely happen.

But she didn’t know what would happen.

Yan Jing Cai waited outside and ushered her: “You take a look first in case there’s something we shouldn’t see.”

Xu Yixiang nodded and entered the room.

She turned on the light and saw a mound on Han Qinqin’s bed. She walked over carefully only to see that it was just a pillow.

The room wasn’t very big so you could see everything in one glance.

Han Qinqin wasn’t in the room.

Xu Yixiang’s heart fell. She quickly opened the door, “She’s not here. I don’t know when she left the room.”

Su Min and Yan Jing Cai then entered the room.

Han Qinqin’s bed was a mess. It looked like she had just got up and there weren’t any signs of struggle. No one knew what happened.

Su Min felt more and more certain about his speculation.

“Could she have been taken away by the director?” Xu Yixiang guessed: “Afterall, it was the director who found out about the food being thrown out, so it probably wasn’t Xiao Chen.”

Yan Jing Cai said: “Xiao Chen doesn’t look like someone who would do that. The director was very angry last night. If we admitted to it, I’m afraid we would possibly end up the same as Han Qinqin.”

The two continued to make various guesses.

They came as five but Shi Nansheng was dead and his body had disappeared. Now Han Qinqin had also disappeared.

Sooner or later, it would be their turn.

Su Min spoke up: “Let’s go and find Han Qinqin first.”

“But where?” Yan Jing Cai asked: “There are so many rooms here. We can’t ask anyone, and we also don’t have the keys.”

Su Min asked: “Do you know where the pantry is?”

“Pantry?” Xu Yixiang repeated: “What does this have anything to do with the pantry? Han Qinqin wouldn’t go there herself.”

Su Min shook his head, “We have seen the kitchen and it didn’t look like it could be used to store the ingredients so where could the ingredients have come from? There must be a place for it and Han Qinqin is likely to have been taken away because of that incident with disposing of the food.”

With him saying that, the two understood.

The male and female protagonists were originally not dumb. Shi Nansheng had eaten Xiao Chen’s finger so he died by eating his own hand and now that they found out about Han Qinqin throwing out the food, the cause of her death would probably have something to do with food.

Yan Jing Cai frowned: “But I haven’t seen a pantry here before.”

They didn’t even let him see Xiao Chen cooking.

Xu Yixiang suddenly said: “I think I’ve seen it. Follow me.”

She turned around and left. Su Min and Yan Jing Cai quietly followed behind her to avoid drawing any attention.

After a few minutes, Xu Yixiang stopped in front of a small door.

Su Min had seen this door before, but he didn’t pay it much attention.

“The window in your room doesn’t face the side with the kitchen but the window in my and Han Qinqin’s room faces the back yard.” Xu Yixiang explained: “I have seen Xiao Chen taking things out from here.”

She didn’t think of this place back then when she witnessed the incident with the severed finger and, if it wasn’t for Su Min mentioning it, she wouldn’t have remembered this place.

Su Min looked over, “There’s a lock.”

As soon as he said that, a hair pin was handed over.

Xu Yixiang: “Good luck.”

Su Min: “……..”

He received the hair pin silently. After a while, he managed to unlock it with a soft click.

Su Min carefully pushed open the door.

The inside of the room was cool and dark. Yan Jing Cai turned on the flashlight on his phone and illuminated the interior of the room.

Su Min walked in, “Let’s go in.”

There was the smell of vegetables in this room and they could see a lot of ingredients. Although it didn’t look fresh, it was indeed the pantry.

Xu Yixiang asked: “Is Han Qinqin here?”

There were too many things in the pantry. Not only food, there were also some miscellaneous items here too and it clearly looked like it wasn’t organised.

Su Min wasn’t sure if the hint from the cinema referred to this pantry.

But even if Han Qinqin wasn’t in the pantry, there would at least be some clues here.

Yan Jing Cai was getting ready to go in. When he saw the things on the ground he commented. “Who’s wasting food like this?”

Xu Yixiang casually glanced over, “Be careful not to be heard.”

There was a large bag deep inside the room and it was quite big. It was swelling out there were lots of rice grains laying around it.

Su Min found it suspicious and went over.

The rice bag was about half the height of a person and it rice grains were scattered all around it. The mouth of the bag over was tied shut.

Su Min thought for a moment and reached out to untie it.

The moment it opened, bloody smell spread out.

Su Min immediately knew that Han Qinqin was inside. As soon as it opened, Han Qinqin’s head was exposed.

This scene made him a little uncomfortable.

In fact, it wasn’t too bloody, but her method of death was too cruel. Shi Nansheng’s death was nothing compared to this.

Han Qinqin was buried amongst the rice grains and her mouth was opened wide with rice stuffed in. Even her nose and ears were filled with rice and she was even bleeding.

Smelling something, Yan Jing Cai came over and was incredulous: “……..Is she really Han Qinqin?”

Su Min: “Who else could she be?”

The mouth of the rice bag was large. When Su Min released his hold of it, it opened completely causing the rice inside to also pour out. Han Qinqin’s upper body was also exposed like this.

She looked like she was stuffed full.

Even her clothes were bulging out.

Su Min looked closely and realised that it wasn’t just her clothes, her belly was also bulging. It looked like there were quite a few things in there.

Looking at this scene, it seemed that she was fed to the brim with rice.

It was as if she had triggered her death flag. Shi Nansheng had died like that because he ate Xiao Chen’s finger and didn’t take it seriously.

As for Han Qinqin, she was discovered by the director to have wasted food, so she had died like this.

“Is this the punishment for wasting food?” Xu Yixiang felt sick. “Did the director do this? Is he human?”

Rice was even coming out from her ears.

Yan Jingcai said, “The director isn’t human, Xiao Chen isn’t human……….Don’t tell me it’s just us that’s human in this orphanage?”

Su Min took a deep breath, “It’s better if that’s the case.”

If humans and ghosts were together like in the last movie, it made things more difficult. The ghost’s intentions were difficult to understand, and it was even more difficult understanding the human heart.

Xu Yixiang recovered from her shocked state and advised them: “We can’t leave it like this. Wouldn’t Xiao Chen notice it immediately when he comes over to get rice?”

By then, they would no longer be safe.

“Put the rice back to where it was.” Su Min thought for a moment, “This is something the director did. He definitely is in this together with Xiao Chen.”

Although they were cold-blooded, they couldn’t do anything about it.

There were originally lots of rice scattered on the ground. Xu Yixiang supported the mouth of the bag while Su Min and Yan Jing Cai filled the bag up. They then resealed it.

When they were done, more than ten minutes had already passed.

The one in charge of typing up the bag was Xu Yixiang. This time, she was the one who personally witnessed Han Qinqin disappear from within the bag.

She was shocked, “She really disappeared.”

She didn’t see it when it happened to Shi Nansheng so she didn’t think much of it back then.

Su Min said calmly: “So it looks like the bodies would disappear after they die here at this orphanage.”

Xu Yixiang wanted to say something but was interrupted by him: “Xiao Chen is going to make breakfast. Let’s leave this place first.”

The sky outside was still dark.

The three of them went back upstairs. They didn’t run into anyone on the way. They felt relieved the moment they entered their room.

Although the sky had not brightened yet, they were not sleepy at all.

Xu Yixiang didn’t understand, “Why would the bodies disappear?”

She guessed that it was probably to destroy the body and the evidence along with it, but it had disappeared on its own before her eyes. This wasn’t a game so how can something so unrealistic happen?

“Did we see an illusion?” Yan Jing Cai paced back and forth, “Were the two of them fake all along?”

Su Min shook his head: “They’re real.”

The movie synopsis had mentioned that there were some people returning to the orphanage so that would mean that they’re real. The main question was why the bodies would disappear in the orphanage.

Was there a ghost here that consumed corpses?

Yan Jing Cai asked: “Then why would it disappear?”

The finger eating matter could be explained if they were human, but it was strange that the bodies could disappear. Where could the body have gone?

Su Min: “I don’t know.”

Once they can find out about the reason behind the corpses’ disappearance, they would probably also reveal the secrets behind this orphanage. That would also mean the end to this movie.

Yan Jing Cai and Xu Yixiang were restless.

“Why is there a cross on the orphanage?” Su Min suddenly asked: “Do you remember if the director is Christian?”

Yan Jing Cai who was suddenly asked this thought for a moment, “Christian? I think he probably did but not too much. By the way, I don’t remember there being a cross on the orphanage back then.”

Afterall, this wasn’t a church so it shouldn’t have a cross. When he saw the cross then when he first arrived, he didn’t think much of it.

Su Min mumbled: “And now he became a believer.”

Was that the reason why it was called “The Last Supper”?

They were originally five people. If they included the seven children in the orphanage, the old director and Xiao Chen, it added up to fourteen.

However, Xu Yixiang was a variable. She had returned here with Yan Jing Cai. The old director who had sent out the invitations had only planned for thirteen.

With Shi Nansheng’s death, there were exactly thirteen left.

But as soon as Han Qinqin died, no matter what they did they couldn’t add up to thirteen people. The number of people wasn’t the same as the painting, but would the story be the same?

The old director mentioned in the email that he didn’t have much time left. Was he comparing himself to Jesus?