CH 522

“A white door?” The white door was very eye-catching in a black room. “The orphanage will lock the naughty kids behind this door?” Han Fei asked. This orphanage built in the cryptic world seemed to hide many secrets.

“Yes, the children hated by the adults will be locked inside this room. They are never seen after they are locked inside the room.” The boy hugged his doll tightly and fear flashed in his eyes.

“Shall we go in to take a look?” When Han Fei’s hand touched the door on the ground, footsteps came from outside but the sound wasn’t coming their way. The boy dragged the doll and ran to the office door to check. The large nurse was holding a lamp as she walked down the corridor. She opened the doors, checking for problems.

“The adult is coming!” The boy stumbled his way back to Han Fei, his hands gesturing wildly.

“There is no place to hide in the director’s office, looks like we have to enter this room.” Holding the doorknob, a strange feeling rose within Han Fei. It was like something was summoning him behind the door. He pulled the door open and a white staircase that led downward appeared before Han Fei. “Let’s go down to hide first.”

Han Fei carried the boy and they walked down the steps. The white door appeared to be like a mirror. It was an opposite world inside the door. ‘The world outside the door is dark, malicious and creepy, but inside the door, everything is painted white. The steps, the wall, the bricks, everything is white.’ Holding the boy’s hand, they came to the end of the staircase. Another white door appeared before them.

They pushed open the door and beyond it was the director’s office in white. Compared to the director’s office on the surface, this office was clean, neat and comfortable.

“There is a replica of the orphanage hidden underground?” Han Fei didn’t touch anything but observed the surrounding. He had very good memory and remembered how everything was placed in the director’s office. “Yes, the placement of every object here is similar to the office on the surface. However, this place is cleaned daily because there is no dirty stain or dust anywhere.” Han Fei walked to the office door. He opened it and looked out.

The pure white door had no trash. There were lights every 2 meters, the place was lit up like morning. The lights were bright but not blinding. The lights had cartoon shapes and they had the sticker that reminded people to save electricity. This made Han Fei feel like he had returned to real life.

‘Such a bright place exists in the cryptic world?’ Han Fei didn’t expect that such a place exist deep inside the creepy orphanage.

“Isn’t this the room used to punish bad children?” The boy hugged the door. He looked at the pretty stickers and colorful paintings on the wall. He was confused.

“Let’s go check this place further.” It didn’t feel oppressive at all walking down the corridor. A faint fragrance lingered in the air. Han Fei and the boy continued to move forward. All the doors had signs. The words had both Chinese and English explanation. In fact, there was even Braille for the blind.

He pushed open the door to the dorm. The room was very clean. The quilt was folded neatly. Everyone had their own little dresser and study table. They were not expensive but clean clothes hung inside the dresser and various books sat on the study tables. Most of the books were donated 2ndhand books but they were treated like treasures by the kids here. “Everyone has pen and new book.” The boy pointed at the tables and his tone was slightly envious. Compared to the dorm on the surface, this place was like heaven. “The rooms on the surface are filled rot and mildew. The quilts are wrinkled and bloody. In comparison, this place is nirvana.” The boy wanted to stay and examine the place further but Han Fei stopped him. “We need to look elsewhere first. This place looks good but we haven’t seen anything living yet.”

Han Fei went to the nurses’ breakroom. The tiles in the room were so shiny they could be used as mirrors. The documents sat neatly on the office table. After staying so long in the cryptic world, Han Fei was very sensitive to things like dairy and documents. Since there was no one around, he grabbed the documents and started to read. The nurses were familiar with each child’s personality, past, and trauma. They even came up with individual treatment methods, they really wanted to heal these poor orphans. “Are they a group of angels?”

The documents were normal. Han Fei wanted to read something else when footsteps came from the corridor. He immediately replaced the documents and then pulled the boy to hide under the bed. He just adjusted the bed when the door of the breakroom was pushed open. A pair of woman’s legs appeared before him. This was a common cliché in horror movies but experiencing it the first time in the game, Han Fei was still quite shocked. The real shocking thing though was the legs were not bloodless, they didn’t float in the air, they didn’t have curses and wounds and there were no human faces stuck to them!

‘Another player? This is impossible!’ The nurse hummed a beautiful song as she changed. Then she grabbed something and left. Han Fei and the boy crawled out from under the bed. He used the back of his hand to touch the clothes the nurse just changed out of. ‘There’s body temperature on this. She’s really a living human?’

Everything in this underground orphanage was so similar to real life that it made Han Fei feel like he had returned to real life. He left the breakroom and followed the nurse quietly. The nurse who changed into sportswear reached the end of the corridor. She opened the white wooden door that led outside and the sunlight shone into the corridor.

‘Sunlight?’ Both Han Fei and the boy were stunned. How could there be sunlight in the cryptic world?

The nurse didn’t close the door. Han Fei and the boy walked over. When they approached the wooden door, they could smell flowers in the balmy wind. Looking down the distance, there was an endless forest beyond the white fence. Animals leaped in and out of view. The brook gurgled as if singing for the kids.

“This is so beautiful…” The boy hugged the tattered doll and looked outside numbly. Han Fei was shocked too but he soon noticed the problem. The birds froze at the same spot, the water droplets of the river froze in the air and would never hit the stream. The breeze blew but the grass would never move. Everything outside the orphanage was painted, this was manmade heaven.

Spirited singing came from the courtyard. With the nurse leading, the 7 children did morning exercises with her. The 7 children wore white shirts and white shoes. They followed their teacher’s movements seriously. The nurse was a good teacher, she encouraged the students and helped them find joy in learning.

“This is the punishment room? But aren’t only bad children can come in here?” The boy was confused. He pulled on Han Fei’s shirt to get an answer. However, Han Fei’s eyes were locked on the children’s shoes. He had seen those white shoes in real life.

“Should we go greet them? They don’t look like bad people.” The boy wanted to play with the other kids. If the other kids were willing to accept him, he’d tell them about his mother. This time, Han Fei was too confused to stop the boy. When he saw the underground orphanage, various possibilities appeared in his mind.

‘024 is white shoes’ number so this should be his orphanage but why would there be the painter’s paintings?’ The paintings on the wall remembered Han Fei of another painting he had seen. The style and sense of reality, it was similar to the painting the painter had left at Ugly Scar’s stairwell. ‘There’s a connection between then?’

Han Fei wanted to get closer to take a look but at that moment, a shadow appeared on the grassland. The painted grass was being wiped away by some kind of power. The shadow slowly assumed the shape of a man. He rammed against the wall. The authenticity of the painting was ruined. Small cracks appeared between the trees and streams.

“What is that?” The nurse soon noticed the problem too. She guarded the kids behind her. She was shocked as she looked at the wall in disbelief. But Han Fei was even more shocked because the nurse’s skin started to crack too.

‘Her skin is painted on too?’ Han Fei quickly stopped the boy. “Wait a minute.”

This situation had never existed in the nurse’s memory. Every day, she followed a fixed schedule. Therefore, when an accident occurred, like the children, she was grasped by panic and fear. The crack on the wall grew wider and the human shadow became clearer. His face was about to squeeze out of the wall.

When Han Fei saw the face, he was shocked. The man trapped inside the painting was none other than Ten Fingers!

This former Pure Hatred looked disheveled. All the human skull tattoos were crying blood. 9 faces were screaming shrilly. ‘Ten Fingers has eaten all 9 of his brothers?’ The thick hatred imbued every corner of the painting. The black flame of his chest burned through the colors of the painting. He wanted to move forward, to walk out of the painting but at the last moment, he was pulled back into the painting.

The painting slowly returned to normal. The green grass grew again, the river flowed and the cracks healed. ‘This is the painter’s talent?’ Ten Fingers’ scream was trapped inside the painting. The people could hear him but they couldn’t interact with each other. After Ten Fingers was sent back into the painting, the nurse’s skin also returned to normal.

“We’re done with the morning exercise, it’s time for breakfast.” The nurse smiled. She had the kids line up and head back into the orphanage. Han Fei led the boy to hide in the room next to the front door. When the group of kids passed, Han Fei heard their whispering.

“I guess we’ll be having potatoes and porridge again, it’s the same every day. I’m bored.”

“It’s still better than what’s outside.”

“Do you feel like your body is getting dull? I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like I’m turning into a machine and I’m not me anymore.”

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask mother?”

“Mother will not tell me the answer, plus she is not my mother! She is… just an emotionless wood. She has never loved us.”

The children entered the canteen and the delicious smell of food drifted out.

“How come our canteen and rooms don’t have windows. We can’t look outside?”

“The teacher said the world outside is not prettier than the painting.”

“But I still want to go outside.”

“Mother is coming. Shush.”

Mother was the nurse. She was responsible, good-natured, gentle, and pretty. But the 7 children were distant from her.

“Let’s dig in.” The nurse smiled. The kids ate happily while she followed her schedule to prepare for the next activity. Han Fei stood at the door and looked at the situation inside the canteen, it felt so familiar to him. In his memory, he had experienced something similar. Or rather, the memory that he had of his orphanage life was similar to this. He would wake up at a fixed time to do morning exercise, eat, study and play…

Han Fei and the boy studied the children from the dark, they observed the kids’ life. It was safe, content, and repetitious. After breakfast, it was morning class. The kids were led unwillingly by the nurse into the classroom. Han Fei observed the lesson through the gap in the door. He remembered the study lesson from his memory. It was not the normal lesson but story-telling. Everyone had different colored textbooks and different textbooks represented different emotions and different treatment methods.

‘I remember my textbook was white…’ Han Fei adjusted his angle and saw a white textbook at the end of the room. But no one was seated there.

After the children and the nurse entered the classroom, Ten Fingers charged against the painting again. He came closer and closer to the exit. His body was burning black, the hatred was about to cover the entire underground orphanage. “You can’t trap me forever. When I’m out, you’ll be the first I consume!” Ten Finger’s vicious voice came out of the painting. He looked down in a direction.

‘Where is he looking at?’ Han Fei followed Ten Fingers’ gaze. He was staring at the room on the most left. Han Fei ignored the other children and headed to the room Ten Fingers glared at. He pushed open the door and was greeted by many white cardboard houses. “These things again?”

Compared to the cardboards houses on the surface, the ones here were more normal. ‘The person Ten Fingers is looking for is here?’ Han Fei opened the cardboard houses until he reached the corner. The place where the red cardboard house was sat a child who was thinner and smaller than the other children. He hugged his knees and curled up at the corner. He buried his head deep inside his knees. Seeing this child, the blood-red memory in Han Fei’s mind surfaced. The child was similar to the young Han Fei. He curled up at the corner and gave no response to outside stimuli. Han Fei nudged the boy but the boy didn’t respond. It was like he lived in a different world.

Han Fei tried many things but failed. Suddenly he remembered the special item he had gained after he finished the cardboard house game on the surface. Han Fei pulled out the white house from his inventory. The house was similar to the one from Han Fei’s memory but the house in Han Fei’s memory was red. Han Fei approached the boy with the white house and slowly lowered the white house over the boy. When the house had completely covered the boy, a young voice appeared from inside the house. “Who are you?”

“I should ask you that question. Why did you make a cardboard house similar to mine?”

“A house like yours?” The boy was confused.

“You dress like me. White shoes, white uniform, your textbook is also like mine, it has a white cover. The book tells the goodness of humanity and other heart-warming stories.” When Han Fei said these things, he felt weird too.

“They wanted me to learn that because they said I am the most possible child to possess the most perfect personality but I don’t know what that is and I don’t want it. But they tell me that if I continue to study, I will own everything and all my dreams will come true. They told me another kid succeeded before me, is that you?” The boy’s voice came from the white house.

“What have they told you?”

“They said I might have a healing personality so they value me a lot. Everyone loved me then. But during the final test, I failed. I didn’t know why. They gave me a number, 024 and then they forgot about me. Did I do something wrong?”

“If there’s a party who is wrong, it’s them.” Han Fei wanted to know who ‘they’ were.

“Really? I thought I was the problem, eventually, even I started to hate myself. I feel no one really likes me and everyone hates and despises me. So I left.” The boy’s tone was rife with complicated emotions. “Then even I left myself. He joined with the other children. He ran around and left me at this corner.”

“You left yourself?” Han Fei’s eyes narrowed. He believed he was about to reach the core of the white shoes’ secret.

“I still remember that day clearly. The nurse and other children glared at me. As usual, I wanted to find a secluded corner to hide, hoping someone would come to find me. That day, the underground door was open. I had never been there before. Children were not allowed to go underground. But I was curious so I went in. I walked down the steps and pushed open a blood-red door. I saw a red orphanage, everything was red.

“I walked deeper and I heard conversations. The adults wanted to seal up the underground orphanage. Soon they left. I hid at the corner and didn’t dare to move. When I wanted to leave, the door was locked. No matter how hard I screamed, no one could hear me. I was in despair. I was so afraid, I hoped someone could notice me but I was trapped underground alone.”

The boy’s voice shuddered, he seemed to be crying.

“Then what happened?” Han Fei asked.

“I looked for other exits. I was very afraid, it was red everywhere. Then I found a white cardboard house inside one of the rooms and I went inside to hide. I didn’t dare to move and cry. I hugged my knees and I shivered.

“After a long time, I saw my other self leave my body. He wore white shoes and talked to some kids I couldn’t see. As he joined them, he moved away from me. I wanted to grab him but he pushed me away. He told me something that hurt me even today.” The boy cried.

“What did he say?”

“He said, ‘no one will come to find you, purity and innocence are the world’s most useless things. You shall forever remain in the white house while I dye the world red for you’.” After the boy in the white house said that the boy with the doll slowly revealed a smile.

“So you represent the Pure Hatred’s purity and innocence? He has left his innocence at his own orphanage.”