novelraw Chapter 116: Unlocking
Chapter 116: Unlocking
"Let's go, party time is here!"
The girl holding the doll was naturally Yang Qianqian, her face showing some excitement without a trace of timidity or shyness.
She seemed to painfully pull another hair from the doll's head, then gently blew it toward the bedside.
The golden hair drifted and floated toward the bedside, then gradually grew larger, splitting and intertwining.
Eventually, countless strands of thread seemed to gain flesh and blood, forming a doll that resembled Cheng He in appearance and build, replacing him as it slipped under the covers.
The bed bulged slightly, then showed no further movement, as if the person inside was fast asleep.
"Let's go."
Cheng He looked indifferent, rubbing the ring on his finger, occasionally tracing the pattern on it.
On their first night out exploring, they had been heavily suppressed, their abilities not yet fully recovered. After avoiding the patrolling ghosts in the dormitory building,
they had barely left the dormitory when they directly encountered other ghosts.It was a monster crawling on the ground, with multiple bulging tumors on its body, disgusting and ugly, the skin on its head turned outward as if forcibly sliced open by a sharp knife, leaving multiple scars.
It barely maintained a human shape, with a lizard-like tail swaying behind it.
Although they were careful enough, whether due to bad luck or not, the two of them were still discovered by it.
Yang Qianqian's two puppet doppelgangers were directly broken and eaten by it. The ghost slightly opened its mouth, revealing a long barbed tongue among its sharp yellow teeth.
The monster moved on all fours, its crimson eyes flashing with terrifying predatory light, throat emitting growls as it charged at them again.
Other surrounding monsters were also attracted, their movement speed increasing dramatically after the peace was broken. The dim oil lamps swayed like death knells.
Helplessly, Cheng He and Yang Qianqian could only exhaust themselves retreating to their room, with Cheng He suffering minor injuries.
Today their abilities had recovered more, and with last night's experience giving them some accumulated knowledge, they were determined to find some clues tonight!
If they could find places like the records room or information management office, they could learn many things.
If that wasn't possible, they would go to the classrooms where they had studied these past two days and search through all the orphans' backpacks and storage lockers—they were bound to find something.
Two figures landed lightly on the ground without making any sound. Cheng He 'looked' at Yang Qianqian, making a task gesture, [Which way?]
[Let's go right!] Yang Qianqian made the decision, completely unaware of what awaited them ahead.
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Xu Zisheng approached and saw that the door was indeed locked.
If he forced it open with an axe or something, the noise would likely be considerable, and attracting ghosts wouldn't be good.
After circling around, he found the windows and doors of this room tightly shut, without a single crack.
He considered having the stealthy shadow ghost enter to search for a key, but the tightly closed door seemed to have an invisible barrier that directly blocked the shadow ghost outside.
The thin boy pursed his lips—this was probably the rules at work. Without finding the proper method to open this door, forcing entry would likely be difficult.
The shadow ghost wasn't strong enough yet, but the [Writer] was a different story.
But how could he possibly ask the [Writer] to help him open the door?
Not to mention he wouldn't owe the [Writer] a favor for such a small matter.
He absolutely couldn't imagine the [Writer] sneaking in like a thief.
Although if Mr. Yan was willing to help him, given the personality he'd shown, he probably wouldn't care about these details.
But how could he let the [Writer] handle such trivial matters?!
He would maintain the dignity of an S-class ghost!!!
Xu Zisheng's eyes burned intensely—to be honest, he did have qualifications for lockpicking.
He moved closer, lightly tapping the lock with his finger, analyzing its internal structure by sound, figuring out the best way to pick this lock.
Xiao Gui'an watched Xu Zisheng's summoned shadow ghost return empty-handed and roughly understood the situation.
He wondered if his current spirit form could enter. Although his actual power was insufficient, his hierarchical status was still there, plus he had the NPC identity—it was worth trying.
Xiao Gui'an was already thinking of appropriate reasons, completely unaware that the Cursed Child was secretly striving to maintain the [Writer]'s dignity.
Generally speaking, keys for office doors like this were either kept in a long bunch by whoever managed them,
or as a precaution, spare keys might be under flowerpots or beneath doormats.
He'd float over to check the windowsill.
A portion of dark mist silently drifted away from the [Writer], spreading toward the windows and flowerpots on the other side.
Sitting properly on Xu Zisheng's shoulder, Xiao Gui'an divided his attention, his invisible spiritual power quietly searching under flowerpots and on windowsills.
What was Xu Zisheng doing?
Was he trying to pick the lock?
How was that possible?
Xiao Gui'an had never seen professional lockpickers at work and didn't realize that Xu Zisheng's current expression mirrored the confident look of industry masters who had everything under control.
He watched as Xu Zisheng fiddled for a moment, then like magic produced a wire from somewhere, twisted it, and inserted it into the keyhole.
His fingers manipulated the wire with flexible movements, his ear close to the lock carefully listening to the sounds inside.
Xiao Gui'an: ?
Just then, his spiritual doppelganger actually found a key under a flowerpot in the back.
Look! Xiao Gui'an's spirits lifted—this was when someone with more life experience like him needed to step in. Getting this key was as easy as reaching for it.
Xu Zisheng was still too young, trying to imitate movie tricks.
The spiritual power was about to bring the key back when, the next second, a "click" sounded—the lock was directly opened.
First time unfamiliar, second time familiar.
Then Xu Zisheng persisted diligently and soon managed to unlock the bolted door as well.
The door opened quietly.
Xu Zisheng looked somewhat embarrassed as he smiled at the [Writer], seeming slightly ashamed to display these unsophisticated tricks in front of the [Writer].
Xiao Gui'an: …
Xiao Gui'an silently put the key back, his spiritual power seeming somewhat 'dejected' as it drifted back.
"Let's go." The [Writer] didn't seem to mind these matters.
He just sat quietly. Being with Xu Zisheng now might simply mean he wanted to accompany this human with whom he had some connection on this journey.
He might not be particularly interested in everything hidden within this orphanage.
So unless something threatened Xu Zisheng's life, the [Writer] probably wouldn't intervene.
At least in these aspects, Xu Zisheng needed to demonstrate sufficient ability and temperament—perhaps only then would he be worthy of the [Writer]'s trust and receive investment from an S-class ghost.
This was what Xu Zisheng thought to himself.
The records room was very dark, filled with a strong musty smell and faint odor of cheap ink, somewhat pungent and unpleasant.
It was completely silent inside, as if no one had been here for a long time.
Files were chaotically placed on desks and cabinets, various notebooks scattered across the floor, many cardboard boxes filled with miscellaneous items piled in corners—the entire records room was crowded and messy.
Xu Zisheng closed the door and put away the human skin cloak. His face was somewhat pale, with some cold sweat on his forehead, but he paid it no mind.
He used useless items to tightly seal the door cracks, then went to pull the records room curtains tighter, checking for any omissions.
After confirming everything was secure, a candlestick suddenly appeared in his hand. On it was a white candle with flickering flame—in the weak red light, a strangely shaped shadow flashed past.
Xiao Gui'an floated down from his shoulder, observing everything from nearby.
Looking at the flickering flame, he belatedly realized that Xu Zisheng must have some kind of storage space for items.
He'd mention it to Zero another day, have Zero arrange one for him too.
It looked really convenient, just like a treasure box.
There was no clock in the records room. Xu Zisheng carefully placed the candlestick on the table and picked up the scattered notebooks one by one.
Xiao Gui'an floated to the wall beside him. The wall was covered with photos of various sizes and formats.
But due to long neglect, the photos in the frames were covered with thick dust, making the people in them hard to see.
Like a carved figurine, the [Writer] lightly floated in mid-air, gently raising his hand. Invisible power spread through the air, gradually wiping the dust off those photos.
Memories sealed in the past continuously emerged.
Black dates were printed below the photos. From the earliest to the last one, this was an orphanage that had spanned over twenty years.
Xiao Gui'an looked through them one by one, only seeing familiar faces when he reached the later photos.
Although changed, Xiao Gui'an recognized them at a glance.
The teachers and administrators all sat in the front row, their expressions varied like a complex painting.
Among the teachers he had met, the old woman seemed to have been there the longest, appearing earliest in the later photos.
Then Teacher Xu, followed by Teacher Tang.
As if ostracized, the thin, pale-faced woman stood in the back row, her hands at her sides like a lifeless sculpture.
Standing in the same row were some staff members and caregivers. Those wearing the same caregiver uniforms all looked at the camera, solemn and calm, their faces showing no other expression.
Xiao Gui'an couldn't recognize those caregivers because when he saw them, they were almost always deeply bowing their heads, faces unseen.
Those caregivers were like uniformly manufactured robots from a factory—stereotyped, without individual characteristics.
The orphans were arranged by height from shortest to tallest.
Their eyes looking at the camera seemed somewhat vacant, but they wore smiles with identical curvature, backs straight as boards, hands properly placed in front.
This was completely different from the earlier photos.
The photography location was likely the original form of this building. Xiao Gui'an saw the cross standing at the very top of the house, with a pair of spread wings behind the cross.
Looking from the first photo, one could see that initially the orphanage environment wasn't good—even somewhat terrible—with the building behind being short and dilapidated.
But this didn't prevent the photos from showing a warm atmosphere.
One could see that the teachers standing before the building were full of affection and compassion for the orphans. Almost none of them stood in front of the orphans,
but were all in the back row, standing behind the orphans in an elder's posture.
Their hands gently rested on the orphans' shoulders, giving strength and support.
Younger children sat in the front row on small brought stools, swinging their legs, looking at the camera with somewhat unnatural shyness, perhaps unfamiliar with cameras.
But their smiles came from the heart, some children even making funny faces.
The first dozen or so photos still showed that this had once been an orphanage filled with love and hope.
But as the building behind grew larger and the orphans' clothes improved, everything seemed to gradually change.
In the last dozen or so photos, the orphans' expressions became uniform, their clothes again becoming somewhat ill-fitting, while the building behind them grew unreasonably tall.
The shadow from the massive building loomed down, imprisoning everyone standing in front, making escape impossible.
The only constant was the towering cross, standing high at the very top.
Only the wings behind had long since disappeared to who knows where.
It remained there, enduring wind and rain, always coldly overlooking everything.
Xiao Gui'an's gaze swept over the later photos. Sitting in the very front, surrounded by everyone, was an elderly middle-aged woman wearing thick glasses, with a very kind face that easily inspired goodwill.
For some reason, Xiao Gui'an vaguely felt this face somewhat resembled the Acting Director's, yet seemed completely different.
He looked again at the orphans whose names he knew.
The boy with the birthmark was quite short, seeming not to have grown much, standing in the second row. To his right was the girl named 'Xiao Le'.
Directly behind and to the left stood the honest-looking boy and the gloomy-faced boy he had seen in the room earlier.
They all wore smiles with identical curvature.
Only the boy standing at the far left—the one who had met Xiao Gui'an's gaze earlier, like a lone wolf—showed no trace of smile on his face. He tightly pursed his lips, his stance somewhat unnatural.
Good children are all polite, well-behaved children, aren't they?
A few thoughts flashed through Xiao Gui'an's mind as he drifted back to Xu Zisheng's side, looking up.
But all he saw was a face half-human, half-skull. Under the faint candlelight, it appeared terrifying and ferocious, sending chills down one's spine.
What the hell is this?!