Bai Liu casually tore out a piece of paper and wrote his phone number on it, placing it on Liu Jiayi’s bedside table. “I can help Liu Jiayi survive her first game but only if her soul is sold to me. That is the only way I can help her get through the first game.”
It was only by getting Liu Jiayi’s soul that Bai Liu could help Liu Jiayi manipulate the panel.
Liu Huai roared. He grabbed the piece of paper and prepared to throw it in Bai Liu’s face. “I won’t allow it!”
“I think that you gave up your right to custody when you placed her in the welfare home. You aren’t her legal guardian.” Bai Liu looked at Liu Huai without any fluctuations. “Thus, I don’t think you have the right to decide for Liu Jiayi.”
Bai Liu’s casual words completely enraged Liu Huai. His eyes showed a red color due to his extreme range but he just smiled. “Bai Liu, do you know my desire that caused me to enter the game?”
“I want her to see the light.” Liu Huai took a deep breath and turned his head to stop looking at Bai Liu. “Go. I won’t entrust her to someone like you or her future will be very dark.”
Liu Huai’s eyes were a bit red as he declared, “I’ve had enough of being controlled so her life can’t be controlled by you.”
“I was controlled by Puppet Zhang to betray Brother Si… the person who lost their best friend and most tacit teammate at that moment wasn’t only Brother Si.” Liu Huai lowered his head so that the expression on his face couldn’t be seen. His voice was hoarse as he continued. ”You won’t feel good if you are forced to hold a blade and become the one who hurts others. Thus, I won’t let her fall to my level.”
Bai Liu’s voice was quiet. “Controlling a young girl brings no value to me. My best friend wants to save your sister. That is the only value in me doing so.”
Liu Huai turned to look at Bai Liu with amazement.
Liu Jiayi also turned her head ignorantly, her foggy eyes showing a strange fragility on her pointy and thin face. She was held by Liu Huai and seemed like an obedient butterfly bound by someone’s tentacles. She rubbed Liu Huai’s chin with her head as if to appease Liu Huai’s emotional fluctuations.
Bai Liu saw Liu Huai’s suspicious eyes and said nothing else. He calmly turned around, opened the door of the ward and left.
Lu Yizhan was standing at the corner of the stairs while waiting for Bai Liu. He was smoking and there was a pile of cigarette butts in the trash can next to him. It wasn’t known how many he had smoked. Lu Yizhan’s eyes lit up when he saw Bai Liu approaching. “How is it? Do you have any ideas?”
Then Lu Yizhan saw Bai Liu’s expression and paused.
Bai Liu always showed a smiling face whether he was in a normal or happy mood. There were no signs on his face when his emotions went up and down but something heavy and depressing would appear in his eyes. This was generally because he encountered something he couldn’t understand and fell into deep thought. Simply put, Bai Liu’s mood wasn’t very good at this time.
“What’s going on?” Lu Yizhan couldn’t help lowering his voice. “Were you scolded? I heard Liu Huai yelled at you in the ward. The surveillance couldn’t hear what you were saying but the families of some victims are actually very emotional. Don’t take it to heart.”
“Sometimes I can’t understand the emotional logic of humans.” Bai Liu’s eyes were a bit scattered which was one of the signs that he was still thinking.
“It is strange,” Bai Liu muttered to himself. “I can’t understand some of Liu Huai’s logic. He should be a very selfish person by nature but Liu Huai can go this far for her even though the law doesn’t require him to raise her.”
Bai Liu didn’t suspect that Liu Huai was lying to deceive him. A person’s subconscious reaction couldn’t deceive others. Liu Huai was afraid of him but kept holding Liu Jiayi in his arms and protecting Liu Jiayi from Bai Liu. Still, he soon recovered from this.
Bai Liu glanced at Lu Yizhan. “It isn’t the first time I’ve encountered this type of self-dedication that confuses me. Let’s go to the welfare home as soon as possible.”
Bai Liu went to the children’s welfare home with Mu Ke.
Mu Ke had come to Bai Liu’s house very early but Bai Liu was called away by Lu Yizhan to the hospital in the early morning. Fortunately, Bai Liu came home to pick up some things and saw the young master Mu Ke sitting in front of his house, holding his legs eagerly.
The young master had knocked on the door but it hadn’t opened. He probably thought that Bai Liu was sleeping and didn’t even dare call him on the phone. Therefore, he stood by Bai Liu’s door and waited for Bai Liu to get up.
In addition, Mu Ke was sent here by his father who Bai Liu had often seen on TV. Mu Ke’s father waited in front of Bai Liu’s door with Mu Ke. Even this Father Mu respected Bai Liu and knew that Bai Liu was probably still sleeping, so he chose to wait at the door with his son.
Bai Liu came home and saw Mu Ke and his father waiting at his door. They didn’t even dare speak loudly. They had lowered their voices and were whispering out of fear of disturbing Bai Liu’s sleep.
It wasn’t known what Mu Ke told his family but this big boss had no doubt that Bai Liu was Mu Ke’s life-saving benefactor. He seemed to think that Bai Liu was taking Mu Ke away for two months for medical treatment. Bai Liu didn’t ask how the young master Mu Ke fooled his father. In any case, the big boss believed that Bai Liu was a genius doctor who was Mu Ke’s salvation. He thanked Bai Liu for helping his son.
After learning that Bai Liu was going to the children’s welfare home to care about children, the big boss who had no concept of money immediately said he would also do good deeds for his son’s upcoming treatment and would donate money to the welfare home. He personally drove a Maybach worth more than 10 million yuan and took Bai Liu and Mu Ke to the welfare home in a high-profile manner.
At the welfare home, Mu Ke didn’t follow his own father but obediently walked after Bai Liu. His eyes kept secretly gazing at Bai Liu like a cat who wanted to stick to its owner but hadn’t yet received permission. Bai Liu could perceive Mu Ke’s strong anxiety which wasn’t good for entering the game. He was obliged to comfort this overly tense young master so he acquiesced to Mu Ke sticking to him.
Bai Liu greeted Lu Yizhan. He said that he and his friend Mu Ke would go into the welfare home to see the situation inside. Lu Yizhan went in with his colleagues to investigate.
Since Mu Ke’s father said he wanted to donate money, Bai Liu and Mu Ke were received respectfully by the dean of the welfare home.
The dean of the welfare home was an elderly grandmother. There were many old spots on the top of her nose and both sides of her cheeks. It reminded Bai Liu of livor mortis. The old dean’s eyes were muddy and her body was hunched over. There was the smell of rotten fungi coming from her body and she looked at people like they were a piece of goods. This made Bai Liu feel slightly uncomfortable.
Mu Ke’s father followed the dean to discuss the donation while the old dean had a teacher show Mu Ke and Bai Liu around the welfare home.
This was a dilapidated welfare home whose architectural style was from 10 years ago. Three low buildings formed a triangular circle. The outer and inner walls of the buildings were rotten, revealing the moss-covered walls inside. The middle area surrounded by three buildings was like the playground of a small kindergarten. There were iron horses, swings and a seesaw with faded paint and rust.
These devices were old and swayed alone in the muddy grass. Due to the wind, the seesaw moved slightly, the empty seat on the right rising up and down again. The swings also swayed regularly with increasing amplitude. There was a creaking sound like someone was sitting on it.
The teacher who led the way paled and he didn’t dare look at the playground. He shrank back and walked quickly to the outermost one of the three buildings. Bai Liu followed behind and saw the outside of the building. He noticed there were two faded gold medals hanging outside the building that said ‘National Top 10 Children’s Welfare Home’ and ‘National Minors Protection Cash Unit.’
Bai Liu glanced at the date of the award under the medal. It was more than 10 years ago which was how long this welfare home had been established.
The teacher in front introduced the welfare home to them. “Our welfare home is an old one. It covers an area of 25 acres and a building area of nearly 10,000 square meters. There are professional education classrooms for disabled children, musical instruments, teaching classrooms, an internal school doctor’s room and so on. There are over 300 beds and we can accommodate 300 children with over 200 caretakers….”
Bai Liu looked around and raised his eyebrow. “25 acres, nearly 10,000 square meters, 200 caretakers?”
Bai Liu hadn’t seen any of the so-called caretakers since entering. Perhaps this welfare home didn’t have any caretakers at all. The teacher paused and his words became intermittent. “That was when it was just built. Then… part of it was sold. Our welfare home was reduced to a certain size due to funding problems and most of the workers were dismissed.”
“Originally, there were 46 children left in our welfare home. On this year’s Children’s Day on June 1st, we rehearsed a performance for the investors behind the children’s welfare home. However, funding a welfare home for 10 years is really too much money. So… this year, they decided not to fund us. We couldn’t find any sponsors for the time being…”
Bai Liu’s tone was calm. “You have 46 children here and 37 are in hospital. There are nine remaining. Why don’t I see any of them? Can the remaining nine come out to meet us?”
The teacher paled again. He twisted his fingers and remained silent. It seemed he didn’t want to let the children out. There was a problem. Bai Liu’s eyes narrowed.
Mu Ke and Bai Liu exchanged looks. The young master understood and coughed. Then he took two steps forward and raised his chin with a certain amount of arrogance. “We are initially planning to donate 10 million to you. This is a children’s welfare home. It isn’t too much to ask to meet the children of the welfare home, right?”
The high number of 10 million clearly touched the teacher guiding them. His eyes and lips trembled slightly. A long time passed before he seemed to make up his mind. He turned to Bai Liu and Mu Ke and asked, “You really want to donate 10 million?”
Mu Ke really seemed to think 10 million was a small amount of money and he nodded without hesitation.
The teacher took a deep breath before speaking quickly and in a low voice. “The nine children can’t come to see you. Only five can.”
“What about the remaining four?” Bai Liu frowned.
Undisguised panic appeared in the teacher’s eyes. He lowered his head and whispered, “The other four children disappeared last night. They sneaked out at night to play on the swings and seesaw but disappeared while playing. However, the swings and seesaw moved all night…”
The wind blew violently in an instant. The various equipment in the children’s playground behind Bai Liu were blown by the wind and the temperature in the yard dropped sharply. The cold wind made the seesaw rise and fall faster and the swings to swing higher.
The swings and seesaw stopped moving at the same time. The swings came to a standstill in the wind and the seesaw hovered in a strange manner, equal like a scale. It was as if someone playing on it had suddenly jumped down, held the equipment in their hand and stared at them.
Soon, the seesaw hovering like a scale fell to the left at an abnormally slow speed and something rolled down the seesaw. Bai Liu looked down and discovered a doll with its head missing. The thing that rolled down was the doll’s head.
This doll whose head rolled down wore a white shirt and black pants. Its limbs and head were broken. There was a strange smile on the doll’s face and a poor-quality necklace that looked like a coin hung on its chest.
The doll was dressed exactly like Bai Liu’s current outfit.
Proofreader: Purichan
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