Chapter 219 Memory - Faceless Orphanage
The world is polluted.

I can't even tell the difference between day and night.

The thick clouds were pressing very low. If you looked up, you could see the lightning like a swimming snake, as if you could touch it with your hand.

The rain dripped down, falling on the branchless tree trunks.

"Holy shit! Where did I get to?"

Lu Mingfei swallowed his saliva.

He looked around the deserted wilderness, bent down and twisted the wet dry grass, shivering from the cold rain.

"Is there such a place in reality?! Why are his memories like this?!"

"It's normal."

Caesar patted his shoulder.

"Like you said before, this isn't just a collection of memories, but a [shell] mixed with fantasy. It's okay if it looks a little weird."

Lu Mingfei shrugged when he heard this.

He looked at Caesar's restored body and asked expectantly, "Boss, can your [Word Spirit] still be used?"

Caesar closed his eyes and quickly opened them again.

"No, no response."

He shook his head, his sea-blue pupils fixed on the spire of the house that appeared behind the dead tree.

"It looks like... our destination is right there."

Boom!

There was a loud thunder.

A strong wind suddenly blew in the distance.

Raindrops as thin as silk threads passed towards me.

Lu Mingfei and Caesar put their palms on their foreheads to cover their eyes.

Soon he was soaked through.

……

As we approached the building.

Lu Mingfei's steps suddenly paused.

He saw——

The dark dead wood outside the wall actually had spots that looked like facial features! The twisted branches looked like hands asking for help.

"Grass!"

He felt hairy all over!
"This guy is definitely mentally ill! Who would imagine such nonsense when they fantasize? Isn't it better to be more truthful, kind and beautiful?"

"I can understand him."

Caesar tentatively touched the tree trunk.

"A lot of people like rain. It's really fun to hide in the safety of your blanket and imagine the downpour and monsters outside."

The corner of Lu Mingfei's mouth twitched.

"Boss, are you..."

He tried to associate Caesar with this hobby, and felt a pang of disillusionment in his heart.

Caesar shrugged and gave a casual explanation.

"Because there was a time when I really enjoyed camping on rainy days."

He took Lu Mingfei through the rain.

In front of me is a magnificent iron gate that looks like a manor.

The paint-spotted sign fell to the ground in front of the door. Caesar squatted down, but he couldn't see the corroded words on it at all.

The two men pushed the door open and squeezed in through the gap left by the chain.

There were bits of wood and glass scattered on the weed-covered path, which made crackling sounds when they came into contact with the soles of my shoes.

At the end of the path was a dark, dilapidated house with green glass covered in cracks.

——It’s exactly the same as yesterday’s dream!
Lu Mingfei swallowed his saliva, feeling like he was walking in an absurd nightmare.

Dark, horrible, and filled with unknown shadows...

Caesar suddenly turned around and looked at him.

"What's wrong, boss?"

Lu Mingfei was puzzled.

Caesar hesitated and sighed, "No, nothing."

Lu Mingfei was completely confused.

But after taking a few more steps, he suddenly discovered...

It turned out that my hand had pulled Caesar's clothes without me noticing...

Lu Mingfei's body suddenly stiffened.

But looking at Caesar's safe back, he struggled for a long time and still did not let go.

……

When I got closer, I realized that the lights in the house were on.

But the lamp was too dim and the light could not penetrate the narrow window.

After Caesar reminded Lu Mingfei to get ready, he knocked on the rotten wooden door.

boom~
boom~
The dull sound had not lasted long when a creaking sound was suddenly heard.

The door opened.

There is a fat woman behind.

She was not tall, probably about 1.7 meters, with medium-length hair, and wore dull sleeves and a bright red apron.

"can I help you?"

The woman tilted her head in confusion.

But Lu Mingfei felt his scalp tingling and almost screamed.

——Because he didn’t see the other person’s face!

The woman's face was blank, without any facial features, and even her skin was not flesh-colored, but grayish white, like tinfoil burned during memorial services.

Caesar didn't seem to be surprised, but said in distress: "Madam, I'm so sorry, we didn't bring an umbrella when we came here. Can you let us go in and hide for a while?"

"Ah, ah... it's possible, but..."

The woman's defensive voice came directly from her chest.

"Excuse me, this is a very remote place in Binhai City. Why did you two gentlemen come here for a trip?"

Binhai City?
Lu Mingfei was stunned.

Wow, it turns out this damn place is in his hometown!

Caesar said calmly, "Ma'am, you know that traveling is more fun when you go to places with fewer people."

"Yeah……"

The woman "sized" them up for a moment, and finally stepped aside: "Excuse me, please come in."

The decoration inside the house was as shabby as the exterior. The light from the chandelier on the top floor could not penetrate the dusty shell. The square dining table in the center was missing three corners, almost forming an ugly oval.

Eleven children of different ages sat there, sipping rice porridge from their bowls.

And similarly, their faces were blank, just like the women's.

"Ma'am, may I ask what time it is?"

The woman raised her wrist: "It's six forty."

Six forty?

Is it synchronized with real time?
Caesar made a guess.

After saying this, the woman pointed to the stairs in the corner.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen. I need to take care of the children here. If you feel tired, you can go to the second floor and find a place to rest... As long as there is no sign hanging, it is an empty room."

"Many thanks."

Caesar nodded in thanks.

After looking for a while, he took Lu Mingfei and stepped onto the wet and rotten wooden boards.

On the landing at the corner of the stairs, Lu Mingfei saw the children on the first floor through the gap in the guardrail. They all twisted their necks and "looked" at him with their gray faces.

He shuddered and quickly looked away.

"Hello, boss."

Lu Mingfei poked Caesar's lower back: "What should we do now?"

"do not know."

Caesar shook his head and stroked his chin in thought.

"However, I do know something about this place in reality."

After the attack on Kassel, he used Gattuso's power to collect intelligence about Su Beixun's past.

"This place is actually called [Binhai Children's Welfare Institute], and it's located in the suburbs of the southwest corner of Binhai City that connects to the neighboring city."

"Ah? Is there really such a place in reality?"

Lu Mingfei was stunned when he pointed at the escalator that could be used to pick out sawdust.

"No, the orphanage where Su Beixun lives is funded by the government. Although it is located in the suburbs, it is definitely not remote, and the conditions are considered average."

"I've seen photos of the place. It's a two-story building. The facilities inside are also acceptable. It's definitely not that bad."

Caesar thought for a moment and made an inference.

"If... this is a mixture of his imagination and memory..."

"That means something must have happened to make this orphanage look so eerie and scary in his memory."

He said slowly: "Perhaps, we can start from this aspect."

Lu Mingfei suddenly realized and said admiringly: "Boss, you are so strong!"

Caesar smiled confidently.

……

Arriving at the second floor, there are rooms on both sides of the long and narrow corridor.

Caesar pushed open one of the doors and found that the space was small and there was only a child's bed inside.

There was a nail on the door of the house, with a wooden sign hanging on it, with a name written on it in black paint.

Caesar walked in.

There is no electric light in the house.

But with the help of the light from the corridor, he saw a line of very large characters written in bright red on the wall next to the bed -

[The monster will be outside the room after 8:30! ! ]

"What is this? A rule? A warning to stay out after 8:30?"

Lu Mingfei also saw this line of words at the back.

He forced a smile, and suddenly he felt a chill as if he had heard a ghost story.

"By the way, Boss... do you have any information about this place?"

"Nothing."

Caesar spread out his palms in distress: "It's an orphanage in a remote country. Even if I try hard to check, I can only find the official information."

The two of them closed the door again.

Check along the corridor one by one.

The eleven rooms with signs are all similar, with the bright red font written next to the bed.

And right in the middle of the corridor, they saw Su Beixun's room.

The two men became alert and pushed the door open to enter.

There was still only a standard children's bed and the environment was dim.

The frequent raindrops hit the window glass.

Caesar searched carefully.

soon.

He actually found a square book under the hard pillow!

——《Exploration of Unknown Archives》

The cowhide cover and the golden font are out of tune with the surrounding environment.

Caesar came to the light in the corridor and opened it.

[Unidentified organism - cannibal. ]

[This world is too vast, and time is like an ocean. We only occupy the smallest island. How many mysteries are hidden in that abyss that is difficult to see? ]

Caesar and Lu Mingfei looked at each other and picked up the pages of the book.

【Have you heard of it? 】

【In 1912, during the Taisho period, such a terrifying rumor was circulated in Japan. 】

【Whenever night falls, the moon is swallowed by the heavenly dog. 】

【When a traveler who has not returned passes through a mountain forest path, he will disappear into an unknown corner. 】

【No one knows what happened.】

[Only the next day, people would always find their disemboweled bodies.]

[It was a man-eating monster... People spread the word about it.]

【And today. 】

[In order to find out the truth, I went to the deserted woods outside the Edo Prefecture with a knife in my hand.]

【Shh...Listen.】

[Something made a noise behind me...]

【I turned my head excitedly. 】

【…】

【the next day.】

[People found my disemboweled body on a tree branch.]

"Is this... a ghost story?"

In this environment, Lu Mingfei felt like he had goosebumps all over his body.

Caesar wanted to turn the page, but found that the pages at the back were all stuck together.

He thought for a moment, put the book back under his pillow, and asked Lu Mingfei, "What did you think of?"

"...Uh, maybe this is a ghost story he heard when he was a child? It was so impressive that he still remembers it now?"

Lu Mingfei racked his brains.

"maybe."

Caesar remained silent.

"Or... a death had occurred in this welfare home? So Su Beixun imagined a cannibal ghost coming out?"

He muttered to himself and immediately rejected it.

"No... If something this big happened, there's no way I wouldn't be able to find out any information."

After thinking for a long time without any answer, Caesar put the matter deep in his heart.

……

Next.

The two found an unoccupied room, and for safety reasons they pushed two beds together and prepared to sleep together.

Can be sudden.

Lu Mingfei thought of something and shouted silently in his heart.

"Hey! Little devil! Are you there? Lu Mingze? Little brother?"

"Stop making noise, brother! You're ruining my movie-watching experience!"

There was a crackling sound in his ears.

Lu Mingfei became furious upon hearing this.

"Fuck! You son of a bitch! Are you eating popcorn in my head?!"

"Hey, what's the matter? Horror movies and popcorn go best together."

The little devil was laughing.

Lu Mingfei had to swallow his anger because he needed help from others.

"Didn't you say you would help me? What should I do next?"

"Well, I'm not sure."

Lu Mingfei could imagine the little devil spreading his hands and talking.

"But, putting that horror story aside for now... I do have an idea about the rule of not going out after eight o'clock."

Lu Mingfei's eyes lit up.

The little devil stopped chewing and said seriously.

"Brother, even if it is the shell of consciousness, not just any memory will do."

"This memory must contain something very important, and it can even affect his behavior pattern."

Lu Mingfei listened quietly without interrupting.

The little devil thought for a moment.

"Perhaps... this memory represents his understanding of the rules?"

Lu Mingfei didn’t understand: “…What do you mean?”

"A person is freest before he is born. After he is born as a baby, he will always be subject to various restrictions, such as rules and regulations, or laws and regulations."

"From a certain perspective, human growth is a process of being gradually tamed."

"It's possible... this rule left a deep impression on him, and it was the starting point for him to be entangled in various constraints."

Lu Mingfei didn't understand what he heard.

"So? What am I supposed to do after all this talk?"

"Hmm... maybe you could try breaking that rule?"

Irresponsible advice from the little devil.

"Or maybe be more violent... just kill the Su Beixun in my memory and see what happens?"

Lu Mingfei's mouth twitched suddenly.

……

Make your bed.

Caesar was going to go downstairs and interact with those kids again. At least he had to find out which one was Su Beixun first.

But just when he was going out.

Lu Mingfei hurriedly called him and repeated what the little devil had said.

He asked earnestly, "Boss, what's your decision?"

Caesar did not rush to answer.

He thought about it and asked another question: "Can we exit now?"

Lu Mingfei was stunned: "Uh... I don't know either."

"Then try it."

Caesar held out his hand to him.

Seeing this, Lu Mingfei quickly took it.

But a minute passed...

Nothing happened.

"It doesn't look like it's going to work."

Caesar frowned and made a decision.

"Just spend the night first. Don't be in a hurry. We still need to wait for Chu Zihang to succeed first."

(End of this chapter)