Chapter 43 The hidden truth (Part 3)Title of the Book:Secret: I just want to farmAuthor: Be a FireflyChapter word count: 2886 wordsUpdate time: 2024-07-30 09:47:49
Michael frowned and looked down at the food on the plate in front of him.
In a sense, the food in this welfare home is quite rich, with three dishes and one soup, but this food is not meant for human consumption at all!
The dishes included charcoal-grilled screws, cement-mixed Feneport noodles, fly-tack-stuffed bread, and a bowl of bubbling dark green soup.
Michael was sure that if he really swallowed these "hard dishes", he would lose half his life even if he didn't die.
But I can't not eat it.
It was clearly written on Kru's note that food should not be wasted. If he dared not eat it, the "pig-headed man" not far away might rush up with a machete and kill him in the next second.
If you eat, you die; if you don't eat, you also die.
However, facing this dilemma, Michael did not feel nervous at all. He even thought of a joke.
"Pasta should be added with 42 concrete..."
Michael looked at the children around him very calmly. Everyone had a distorted face. The boy sitting next to him even poured a handful of black screws into his mouth and chewed them with big mouthfuls, making a crackling sound.
"Good teeth..." Michael turned his gaze to Mario who was sitting opposite him, wanting to see how this experienced captain of the Mother Goddess's guards did it.
Mario was silent for a long time, as if thinking. Finally, he frowned, picked up a fork of Fenapote noodles mixed with cement and was about to put it into his mouth.
"In the end, I just picked a soft dish among the hard dishes..." Michael complained in disappointment.
At this moment, the urging voice of the "Pig-Headed Man" suddenly sounded.
"Why don't you eat? Do you want to waste food?"
The "pig-headed man" who had stood beside him at some point put his head close to Michael's ear.
He spoke in a low voice, and placed the hand holding the kitchen knife on Michael's shoulder and shook it. The kitchen knife in his hand reflected the faint sunlight, emitting a chilling chill.
The blood on the kitchen knife kept dripping down, dripping onto Michael's skirt, forming blood spots.
Michael was calm and collected a screw and put it into his mouth.
The "pig-headed man" nodded in satisfaction and took away the hairy and sturdy arm.
The moment the "Pig-Headed Man" looked away, Michael spat the screw back into the plate and his eyes darkened.
The cafeteria only opened for lunch at 7:50. He had to hurry up.
Michael narrowed his eyes and in less than thirty seconds, he integrated all the currently known information.
"Let's assume for now that the only rule in the cafeteria is not to waste food. What I have to do is to avoid this breakfast without wasting food."
Michael suddenly had an idea. "As long as the food is eaten, it is not considered a waste, but there is no rule that I must be the one to eat it."
"Take a gamble. At least I still have a chance to revive."
Michael's eyes changed, becoming as calm as Dongxi in the ocean. He suddenly picked up the plate, and before anyone could react, he poured all the food in the plate into the plate of the boy on the left.
There was a clanging sound.
The boy next to Michael looked at the food in front of him, which was almost empty and piled up like a mountain. His distorted face fell into silence for a second.
Then... he buried his head in his food, chewing until a screw pierced his lips; chewed until cement stuck in his throat; chewed until only the whites of his eyes were left still chewing.
This horrifying scene did not shake Michael's expression, but it frightened Mario, who had been observing him from the opposite side, so much that his pupils constricted.
At this moment, the "Pig-Headed Man" walked up to Michael again, and his eyes under the pink pig mask stared at his weak body.
The "Pig-Headed Man" laughed:
"Amelia is the first one to finish her meal today. Good girl, you can go to class now. I remember you are going to the music room today."
"Well, probably." Michael answered ambiguously.
After making sure that the "Pig-Headed Man" had left, Michael breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair.
There is no doubt that he won the bet.
He didn't notice at all that Mario's gaze towards him became complicated, as if his three perspectives had been refreshed.
Mario thought it over again and again, and finally decided to follow Michael's example, pouring all the noodles and other dishes on the plate that had not yet reached his mouth to the child next to him.
As his heart relaxed, Michael also noticed one thing: the girl he was playing now, named Amelia, seemed... very likable.
He didn't have to think long, because Mario could go too.
The two looked at each other, stood up and stood in the aisle outside the cafeteria, but did not rush to the music classroom.
Mario looked up at Michael, who was a head taller than him. After hesitating for a few seconds, he spoke first: "Your ideas are always...unexpected."
"Will it? I just drew conclusions based on simple logic and executed them." Michael smiled with a sense of relief after taking off the mask.
Mario rubbed his eyebrows, feeling inexplicably irritated, and took out two notes and threw them to Michael.
"I have finished reading the contents above, and I am returning it to you."
Michael reached out and picked up the note that was about to fall to the ground, took out the schedule without any emotion, and continued reading the unfinished part.
[Arrive at the cafeteria before 11:30]
[Lunch from 11:30 to 11:50]
[Class starts from 12:00 to 1:00]
[1:00~4:00 free time]
[4:00~5:00 Listen to stories]
…
Michael didn't read on, just took a quick glance and remembered that there was a prayer activity between seven and eight o'clock, and the rest was basically the same as the single queue in the morning.
"It's really a prison-like schedule." He secretly complained.
After putting away the note, Michael suddenly said, "This orphanage is very strange."
Mario looked a little annoyed and said unhappily, "I think anyone with good eyesight can see the weirdness of this orphanage."
"No, I'm not talking about the weirdness in mysticism, but the weirdness based on real-life logic." Michael retorted in a flat tone.
"Then tell me what's so strange about it?" Mario asked, suppressing his irritation.
"Isn't it obvious at a glance?" Michael smiled. "It's an orphanage. Not only does it provide a separate bedroom for each orphan, it also has classrooms, music rooms, libraries, etc. This is an orphanage built in the Bridge District 20 years ago."
"It's really strange what you said." Mario frowned after hearing this, and the annoyance in his heart was gradually suppressed by thinking.
"Besides these, the bedroom was also very strange. No normal orphanage would padlock the door of a child. It felt like we were not orphans, but, um... prisoners."
Mario turned his head and looked at the children who were still chewing screws in the cafeteria. He said quietly, "I'm afraid there are more secrets hidden here than we thought."
Without waiting for Michael to respond, Mario continued, "But our primary goal is still to leave here. Our top priority in exploring the orphanage must be to find a way to leave here."
Michael hummed and said in agreement: "Then let's analyze our current combat power first. How are you doing now?"
Mario carefully felt his body and said, "My extraordinary abilities have decreased, but not much."
He paused, then continued, "But I don't think we can get out by brute force alone."
Michael made Conan's classic gesture, dragging his elbow with his palm and resting his fingers on his chin, and said, "Do you think this rule note is credible?"
Just like the note says, don't trust anyone.
Michael couldn't be sure what the state of this "senior" who called himself Red Gloves was before he wrote this note?
Would he leave wrong rules on the note without him knowing it?
There are many examples of mental breakdowns in extraordinary events, and they cannot bet on it.
"From these two encounters, the rules on the note are still credible." Mario said, "If we follow these superficial rules now, we will most likely survive. As long as we explore carefully, we will find a way to leave sooner or later."
"We don't have that much time." Michael shook his head. "Even if we don't talk about the other hidden dangers, you can't forget the reason why this orphanage was abandoned."
"Fire..." Mario was enlightened and reacted immediately.
"Yes, the five victims are the survivors of the orphanage fire that year, and now they are here, with us."
Michael said, and raised the note from Kru between his fingers, "When we have free time, we will split up and explore this place."
Mario didn't hesitate for long, and the two quickly reached a consensus.
Michael complained in his heart, "It feels more and more like playing a game. There should be a sound like this at this time: Ding, triggering the main task: explore the welfare home and find a way to escape from here."
At this time, Louisa had also finished her meal and walked out in small steps, followed by several other victims.
Seeing Michael and the other two, Louisa snorted coldly and turned her head away. The group of people seemed to be having a quarrel and walked straight forward without even looking at them.
Michael and Mario smiled at each other.
Being able to see such a normal and innocent scene in such a strange place brought some comfort to the tense hearts of the two.
The two of them smiled and followed Louisa and others all the way to the music room at the end of the corridor on the second floor.Chapter 44 The Dust-covered Truth (Part 4)Title of the Book:Secret: I just want to farmAuthor: Be a FireflyChapter word count: 2499 wordsUpdate time: 2024-07-30 09:49:26
The two came to the door of the music classroom.
The door was open. Michael stood behind the victims and scanned the entire classroom.
The whole classroom gave him a strangely ordinary feeling.
It's weird because the entire music classroom is dotted with extremely thick red, whether it's the pleated curtains that drag from the ceiling to the ground like caterpillars, or the windows with colored glass and the carpet at the door, all are dark red.
The only light source in the room came from a few candles in brass candlesticks. The flickering candlelight was projected onto the blood-like curtains, and the shadows made the picture more three-dimensional and even more disgusting.
Michael always felt that those swaying shadows were like huge worms, crawling silently into every corner of the room. The entire classroom was like a human organ hosting countless parasites.
Ordinary, because there was nothing obviously unusual about the desks and chairs in the classroom, and there were a few ordinary paintings hanging on the walls.
There were no messages written in blood or broken limbs or anything like that. The only thing that was noticeable in the entire classroom was the piano facing the door.
Michael silently repeated several times in his mind the rule prohibiting talking in the music room. He took a deep breath, then walked into the classroom and found a seat in a corner.
Mario followed and sat next to him.
This action was seen by Louisa who was sitting in front of the two men. She squinted her eyes and snorted with contempt, "How shameless."
Children of this age are still ashamed of love affairs. Michael and Mario, a man and a woman, are now sitting together, which naturally seems shameless to them.
Of course, all this is based on the premise that they were born in a less open country, in an era when ideas and concepts were still very conservative.
Anyway, as far as Michael knows, there is no child in this world who starts smoking at the age of eleven or twelve.
Michael ignored Louisa's ridicule, held his chin, and rolled his hair with his fingers out of boredom, waiting quietly for the teacher to arrive.
However, Michael's indifference was seen as extremely arrogant in Louisa's eyes. The girl was so angry that she couldn't do anything about the two of them, so she simply turned her head and stopped looking at them.
Out of sight, out of mind.
As other students finished their meal, they walked into the music classroom one after another, and the small classroom was soon filled with people.
Michael still didn't see the music teacher appear.
Until everyone found a seat and sat down, the piano in the room started playing automatically without anyone playing it.
No, not automatically! Michael tilted his head, and in the limited light, with his eyesight enhanced by the potion, he found two narrow, white arms that looked like dead wood. They grabbed the piano bench at a very tricky angle, and slowly climbed out from the piano cover while playing.
Behind the pale ghost hand were more ghost hands. Michael didn't know how to describe this scene. It was like hundreds of giant centipedes entangled with each other and formed a ball.
With a bang!
Michael's vision went dark for a second, and when he recovered, there was already a "person" sitting on the piano stool.
This "person" has no facial features, and his face is made up of several overlapping hands arranged in the shape of a butterfly. He is wearing a black tuxedo that is extremely exquisitely crafted. The only two arms exposed are kept bent at 90 degrees and placed on the black and white piano keys.
Without a doubt, it is the teacher in the music classroom.
The next second after Michael saw the monster's appearance, he felt a sense of familiarity and hummed in his heart: "Don't drink the soup made by the pig chef... The finger teacher plays the piano..."
While Michael was thinking, the "finger teacher" warmed up, stretched out his skinny fingers, and after two clicks, he pressed the keys.
Unimaginably beautiful music flows from the piano keys, its hands seem to be dancing, each finger seems to have a soul, falling between black and white, playing the music of heaven.
The bent arm and the inhumane protruding elbow shook regularly and constantly, full of strange beauty and speed.
Michael stared at the "Finger Teacher" playing the piano with obsessed eyes, and his mind gradually became dazed.
"…"
Mario beside him suddenly raised his hand and pushed him.
Michael came back to his senses instantly, broke away from the music and regained consciousness.
Buzz——!
The music in the classroom stopped abruptly.
"Teacher Finger", wearing a black tuxedo, stood straight and elegant in front of Mario.
Strangely enough, Michael could read anger from the hand without facial features.
Teacher Finger said coldly: "A discordant note."
Before he finished his words, dozens of earthworm-like ghost hands emerged from the hem of "Finger Teacher"'s silk shirt and grabbed Mario's limbs and neck.
Then...
For the first time in Michael's two lifetimes, he heard the sound of flesh and bones being torn apart. The next second, large amounts of blood splattered all over him, dyeing half of his body red. The pure white and bright red colors collided on his body, creating a very strong visual impact.
Michael pursed his lips, his eyes empty.
However, after Mario died, everything around him became quiet, so suddenly and completely that Michael could not even hear the sound of other people breathing.
Time seemed to stand still at this moment, and only he was unaffected.
The "Finger Teacher" retreated back to the piano bench, and the other children turned their heads one by one. They were like puppets being manipulated, stiffly posing, and returning to the previous moment.
What's even more strange is that the next moment, Mario's body, which had been torn apart, reassembled and recovered.
The moment Mario regained consciousness, time continued to flow.
He was breathing heavily with lingering fear and no longer looked at Michael.
Michael suppressed his doubts and understood the reminder that Mario had made at the cost of his life.
This music... is poisonous!
"But how can I fight against it?" Michael thought, "I can plug my ears with my fingers. No, I can still hear the piano music."
"Or else run away. Well, it's class time now. Leaving the classroom without permission might trigger the instant death flag."
In order to concentrate, Michael repeated the rule in his mind, "No conversations of any kind are allowed in the music room. Conversations..."
Michael's eyes lit up and he had an idea in mind.
A second before the "Finger Teacher" pressed the keys again, Michael raised his hands to cover his ears tightly, and then hummed quickly in Feynaport:
"The sun is shining in the sky, the flowers are smiling at me, the birds are saying good morning, good morning, good morning, why are you carrying a bag of explosives..."
Mario, who also covered his ears, immediately understood Michael's idea. Seeing that the "Finger Teacher" was still playing the piano and had no intention of stopping him, he also howled in his childish voice.
The two of them sang in this loop for about seven minutes without interruption. Finally, the "Finger Teacher" stopped playing, raised his ghost claws in the air, and faced the children in the classroom.
Michael recalled the content of the strange nursery rhyme, "Remember to applaud after listening to it."
Papapapapa, Michael clapped his hands crazily as if he didn't feel any pain. If you didn't know him, you would think he loved this song very much.
Teacher Finger seemed to be shocked by Michael's straightforward applause. After being stunned for about thirty seconds, it spoke for the first time:
"It seems that Miss Amelia likes my playing very much, so you will be the first one to practice today."
"Eh..." Michael stopped clapping and looked dazed.
After sitting for a while, Michael was finally forced to sit on the piano stool under the urging of the strange looks from his classmates.
"Relax, this piece is not difficult."
"Finger Teacher" spoke in a very gentle tone, with his ghost hands on Michael's shoulders, patiently explaining to him the playing techniques of this song.
Michael was calm and composed, and accepted the guidance of the "Finger Teacher" without any fear, which made Mario in the audience marvel.
An hour later, Michael finally waited until the get out of class was over and had his morning free time.
With their emotions in their hearts, Michael and Mario followed the other children and quickly came to the yard.
They saw the outside world.
Michael stood on the stone steps, looking up at the sky, his eyelids twitching, and his voice trembling with an imperceptible tremor:
"This is truly...spectacular."Chapter 45 The hidden truth (V)Title of the Book:Secret: I just want to farmAuthor: Be a FireflyChapter word count: 3479 wordsUpdate time: 2024-07-30 09:54:40
Have you ever seen the sky twisting?
Michael stood on the blue-gray stone steps, looking at the sky above the orphanage, and the first adjective that came to his mind was "twisting".
The sky was filled with mist, and the entire orphanage was shrouded in a thin pink mist. The mist seemed to have life, constantly changing its shape, like twisting tentacles, hovering over this small orphanage.
Even more horrifying is the games played among the children.
With smiles on their faces, they played with the organs removed from their bodies, chewing them raw and having fun.
But the most popular games are still those involving swords and knives.
They took out weapons from who knows where and started fighting. Their innocent faces were filled with evil smiles, which made people shudder.
Mario took a deep breath and said to Michael who was close by: "Let's go check out the gate."
When he spoke, his voice sounded thick and frightened.
"I'll go first." Michael said calmly.
The reason he suggested this was because he was afraid that getting close to the gate would trigger bad options. In this case, the wisest choice was to let one person explore the way first.
As for the selection of people, Mario had already died once to save him, and no one knew how many times they could be resurrected. It was reasonable and logical for Michael to feel that he should take on the responsibility of exploring the way forward.
Mario didn't refuse, but just told Michael to "be careful".
Michael responded with a look and walked towards the gate of the welfare home, getting closer and closer, turning his head to look around from time to time.
However, until his hand touched the iron decoration on the door, no ghost jumped out.
Miguel breathed a sigh of relief, waved to Mario who was at a safe distance, then turned his head to look at the door in front of him.
The door of the welfare home is new, with a shiny gold lock hanging on the hinge, but there is nothing special about it.
"This gold gives me a disgusting feeling." Michael, who was free to speak outside the music classroom, rarely brought up the topic.
Mario, who happened to walk beside him, gave a literary answer, "It's like a collection of human desires."
Michael stretched out his hand, shook the golden lock vigorously a few times, and said in a detective tone:
"After testing, this thing cannot be broken by brute force alone."
Mario leaned in closer, frowned, and said, "Let me try."
Michael let go of his hand and took a step back.
Mario stepped forward and grabbed the golden lock, veins on his arms bulged and his face turned red.
Although he now has the body of a child, the power granted by the potion has not been weakened much. He pulled hard for a long time but the golden lock did not move at all, without even a crack.
Seeing that no monsters came to stop him, Michael immediately proposed another idea, "I'll try to see if I can just climb over this gate."
Compared to Mario, he has only died once and still has enough capital to squander.
Mario shook his slightly sore wrist and gave up his position without saying a word.
Michael spat on the two jade-white hands, then he took a few steps back, took a running start, and with a clang, he hung halfway on the iron gate.
Then, Michael jumped up in a posture that required a lot of body flexibility, and rolled out of the welfare home.
"How do you feel?" Inside the welfare home, Mario put on a serious expression like an adult on his childish face and asked with concern.
Michael calmly brushed off the dust on his skirt, turned around and said:
"I don't feel anything unusual for now... I'm going to explore the way ahead, you wait here."
After getting Mario's affirmative answer, Michael plunged into the thick, thin pink mist.
After he took a few steps out, the vision in front of him gradually turned dark.
…
"Michael, Michael!"
When he opened his eyes again, Michael found himself back in the orphanage, with Mario standing in front of him.
"You're awake." Mario breathed a sigh of relief, barely perceptible, and let go of his hands.
"Hiss, my head hurts." Michael frowned slightly and tapped his temple with his palm.
Seeing this, Mario helped him to a large oak tree and said, "Are you feeling better?"
The moment the light was blocked, Michael relaxed his brows, paused for a moment, and said with a smile: "Thank you, I feel much better."
"Then tell me quickly..." Mario's face became serious again, "What exactly did you just experience?"
Michael leaned against the big oak tree, narrowing his eyes. "Don't be anxious. Tell me what happened after I walked into the fog."
Mario pondered for a moment. "Not long after you left, the other people in the yard suddenly became strangely still, and then you grew out of the soil..."
Growing out of the soil? Michael's mouth twitched slightly, and a picture of himself popping out like a vegetable appeared in his mind. "Haha, it's quite scary."
Shaking his head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts, he said seriously, "It seems that I must have died once. Well, this is probably the reason why Kru warned us not to climb over the wall on the note."
Michael glanced at Mario's puzzled expression and gave an answer before he could speak. "Combining these two death experiences, I found that as long as one of us dies, the people here will fall into stillness and regress to the state a few minutes ago like puppets."
"How do you know what I'm going to ask?" Mario asked with half confusion and half shock in his eyes.
Michael did not answer, but changed the subject and expressed his guess: "I think we must find the key to open the lock and walk out of the door openly to leave here."
Mario said, "Let's take advantage of our free time now and explore the orphanage together."
Michael shook his head, "No, let's explore separately."
"Based on my experience, it's better for us to act together in incidents like this." Mario suppressed the thought of frowning and gave his reasons.
Michael kept his expression unchanged and stated his reasons.
"You should have figured it out. Even if we two join forces, we can't defeat any of the monsters here. If we break a rule, we will be wiped out."
He said without pause:
"Acting separately is not only more efficient, but also the best use of resources. Assuming each of us has twelve lives, if we act together we only have twelve chances to make mistakes, but if we act separately we have twenty-four."
"I understand. Let's act separately as you said."
Mario was stunned for a moment after saying this. He realized that since some time ago, Michael had become more like a captain than him.
Michael ignored the surprise that flashed across Mario's eyes. He stood up and said, "Time is limited. Remember to get to the cafeteria before 11:30."
After some discussion, the two parted ways in front of the fountain. Michael walked into the main building of the orphanage, while Mario chose to explore the area outside the orphanage.
Under the light, Michael lowered his head unhappily and quickened his pace.
Look around to make sure there is no one.
Michael relaxed and walked to the living room which he cared about most.
The reason why he didn't tell Mario the nursery rhyme just now was that he wanted to confirm whether the nursery rhyme in this space had changed.
Michael quickly found the target fireplace. He trotted forward, leaned over and put his head into the unburned fireplace.
The strange thing is that there is no nursery rhyme in the fireplace.
"Was it engraved later?" Michael frowned, dozens of questions popping up in his mind in an instant.
"If it was carved later, who carved it?"
"What was the purpose of the person who carved this nursery rhyme?"
"Is this strange nursery rhyme referring to the truth hidden behind this orphanage?"
…
Michael pulled out his head, feeling full of doubts.
Without wasting any time, Michael spent less than twenty seconds thinking about this long series of thoughts, then turned around and stepped onto the spiral staircase leading to the second floor.
In fact, on the way to the music classroom and the cafeteria, Michael had already memorized the rooms on the first floor, but he had not explored them in depth.
The first floor of the welfare home is very simple, divided into three sections: front, middle and back. The end of the L, or the back section, is the bedroom for the 18 children of the welfare home, and at the end of the corridor is a public bathroom.
The middle section is the cafeteria. There is an inconspicuous small door on the left side of the cafeteria. Michael guessed that it was probably the kitchen. After walking a short distance from the cafeteria, it is the living room where he is now, which is the front section of the first floor.
Considering that there were many rooms on the first floor and time was limited, Michael turned his attention to the second floor and planned to explore there first.
There are even fewer rooms on the second floor. From the music room at the end, there are the library, classroom, and dance room. These rooms are all on the right side. On the left side are the chef, the bedrooms of two caregivers, and the living room.
More importantly, the largest room in the entire welfare home's main building, the director's office, is also on the second floor, right next to the music room.
Michael climbed up to the second floor, thought for a moment, and decided to go to the library first, because there might be newspapers there that could help him confirm the current date.
Michael raced against time, trotted to the mahogany door of the library, pushed it open and walked in.
At first glance, the entire library is decorated quite warmly. The hand-made rough wooden bookshelves are not high and surround the entire library, leaving a spacious circular space in the center.
There were some pillows, a small sofa and a low round wooden table on the open space, which was covered with origami works. If you looked closely, you could see the childish signatures of children on the paper cranes and paper frogs.
Michael carefully closed the door, walked around the bookshelf and found something strange.
Contrary to the feeling of the room, these
Most of the books on the bookshelf are overly mature reading materials, such as "Cultivation of Upper Class Society", "Philosophy and Morality", "Exquisite Dining Etiquette" etc., but there is not a single fairy tale book.
"Are you trying to train all the children in the orphanage into upper-class people?"
Michael was slightly surprised, and he casually pulled out a few books and flipped through them.
Dull, boring and tedious are already his most conservative comments about these books.
Michael shook his head and was about to put the book back when he suddenly found a book between two thick philosophy books that had completely different covers from those old-fashioned books.
Michael took out the hardcover book decorated with red flowers and green leaves, which was very girly.
He turned to the first page, and there were only a few big words written on the front page: "Amelia's Diary".
Amelia... Michael muttered a few words, sat down cross-legged, and read the entire diary carefully.
The diary generally records every day spent by a girl named Amelia, who was kindly adopted by this orphanage after her parents died in an accident.
Amelia's words are elegant yet lively, and through her words one seems to see a lively, cute, smart and playful girl.
"Is this why the adults in this orphanage like her so much?" Michael murmured, dragging his chin.
The last entry in the diary was written on May 1, 1329. Michael immediately remembered that the fire in the orphanage occurred on May 7.
"Then today is May 2nd..."
Michael put down his hand and was about to close the diary when several lines of text written in red ink suddenly appeared on the blank page next to the last entry.
Michael's eyes darkened as he stared at a passage in the newly appeared diary.
"What they play is not music at all, they are trying to brainwash me!"Chapter 46 The hidden truth (VI)Title of the Book:Secret: I just want to farmAuthor: Be a FireflyChapter word count: 2396 wordsUpdate time: 2025-06-13 11:08:01
While Michael was looking for clues, Mario was also busy.
He carefully checked every corner around the main building and made sure that all four sides were surrounded by sharp subway fences without any loopholes.
"Now there's only that place left to visit..."
Mario straightened up and looked towards a small red brick house next to the main building.
The red brick house has a flat roof and the four walls seem to be strictly coated with a layer of varnish. Combined with the square shape, it gives people a very hard and shiny feeling.
"This might be the warehouse of the welfare home..." Mario speculated as he walked to the door handle of the red brick house. He found that the door of the red brick house was not locked.
Mario pondered for half a second, looked around, picked up a not-so-straight broken oak branch, then carefully pushed open the door and walked in.
Mario was tense and took steady steps, holding the dead branch tightly in his right hand to ensure that he could react immediately if he encountered danger.
As soon as he walked into the house, he instantly felt the air around him become gloomy and cold, as if countless resentful souls gathered here.
The "Doctor"'s sensitivity to spirits is not much worse than that of the "Corpse Collector" Extraordinary people at the same level.
Just as Mario was about to open his spiritual vision to explore his surroundings, his spiritual intuition gave him a frantic reminder the next second.
Mario, who had participated in many extraordinary events, understood what this meant and immediately gave up the idea of activating his clairvoyance.
He frowned and quickly scanned the small room.
Although it is called a small room, the area it occupies is actually not too small. It is at least twice as large as the room he lives in now.
But in such a large space, there were only a few brooms and dustpans scattered in the corners.
There is definitely something wrong here.
Mario did not rush forward. He lightly touched the ground with one end of the branch in his hand, and like a blind man, he carefully moved the sole of his shoe and slowly swept the branch around himself.
Bang.
A distinct metallic collision sound was heard in the slightly empty little room.
Sure enough, there was a problem... The expression on the face of the experienced Mario became more and more solemn. He hesitated for a second and continued to poke with the branch to determine the approximate location of the invisible object in front of him.
Then he slowly approached, squatted down, stretched out a finger, and touched it lightly and slowly.
Mario's first feeling was a slight chill. After savoring it for a while, he quickly determined that the object in front of him was a piece of wood.
Mario placed all five fingers on the surface of the wood. Then he consumed his spiritual power and used the extraordinary ability of the "Harvest Priest" to control a certain temperature and humidity in a small range to create the environment he wanted, thereby increasing the temperature difference between the surface of the wood and the surrounding environment.
Under conditions of high temperature and high humidity, the moisture in the air adheres to this invisible object bit by bit, gradually revealing its outline.
"So tall, this thing is almost as tall as me."
Mario's pupils shrank as he looked at the shape of the object and something came to his mind.
His face was cold, and he reached his fingers into the instrument.
"Hiss~" Mario took a breath and quickly retracted his finger.
He turned over his right index finger and stared at the blood slowly oozing out of his fingertips.
There was no doubt about it, he was completely sure what this invisible thing was.
The Iron Maiden, contrary to its name, is made of wood, with only the nails and door hinges made of iron.
This is a human-shaped torture device with two sides connected by iron chains. A person is tied in between and the two sides are then closed. There are many protruding long nails on the frame that will pierce into the victim's body.
The sharp front end of the nail slowly pierced into the body, first the wrist, then the feet and other parts, and then the eyes, shoulders and buttocks where the most blood vessels are distributed.
The pain during the torture was unbearable for ordinary people, but it would not take the life of the person being tortured immediately. It could be said that life was worse than death. Due to its brutal nature, it was abolished hundreds of years ago.
But how could such a lost instrument of torture appear in an orphanage?
As Mario was thinking, he used some of his spiritual power to mobilize the cells to stop the bleeding quickly. In just a few seconds, the skin on his finger was back to normal.
He picked up the branch next to him and repeated the same operation.
A few minutes later, Mario was horrified to find that this seemingly empty room was actually filled with all kinds of torture instruments and...
A dead body.
At the same time, Michael in the library was reading the newly appeared diary.
"March 17th, sunny. This is my third month here. I am saddened by the news that our music teacher, the noble and intelligent Intis man, was fired simply because he did not teach us to play the elegant music that Dean Madeline had requested.
I really, really don't like the high-society music she mentioned. It's too solemn and not relaxing enough. I think music is first played for oneself. If you don't like it, then the music loses its meaning.
I told my thoughts to Dean Madeline, and she reprimanded me sharply, telling me that what they played was not music at all and they were trying to brainwash me!
When I was kicked out of the dean's office, I saw Teacher Shou, but he no longer had his hands. "
What a hellish joke... Michael pulled the corner of his mouth and looked back, but there was not a single word on the remaining five pages of the diary, except for the last page which had faint marks of burning on the edge.
Michael gently stroked the pages of the diary with his fingers. He frowned, took out Kru's note and compared it with the diary.
The materials of these two are exactly the same!
"I think I know where Crewe's paper came from... If that's true, then Amelia's identity is very problematic."
Michael closed the diary and once again had a lot of doubts in his mind.
The contents of the diary that suddenly emerged revealed that the original intention of establishing this welfare home might not be simple.
If you want to know the truth behind the orphanage, you may need to unlock the diary that is hidden behind it.
What to do?
Michael's thoughts paused for a moment, then continued.
First, he had to understand why this page of the diary appeared.
Michael thought hard and soon came up with the answer.
The answer is: He applauded Teacher Finger.
In other words, the nursery rhyme may be the key to unlocking the diary later.
In order to recall, Michael hummed the strange nursery rhyme again:
"Don't open the door when the big bad wolf comes, he puts on sheepskin to deceive the lambs;
Don't take the candy that Dr. Bird gives you, it's sweet at first but bitter later;
Don't drink the soup cooked by the pig chef, because you will get a mouthful of blood in one sip.
Sister Tree told you not to look back, and once the rope was hung, you were hanged;
When the finger teacher plays the piano, remember to applaud after listening;
Don't feel sorry for the little baby, I'll use your skin and bones to sit in the cradle."
When the song ended, Michael opened his eyes again. When one gear of thought turned, more gears would follow. At this moment, his brain became completely active.
He tried to treat everything here as a game. The five empty diaries corresponded to five levels respectively. As long as he completed the tasks according to the prompts given in the nursery rhymes, he could unlock the next five real diaries.
"From the current perspective, the most clear diary task should be the Pig Chef, but the task location is the cafeteria or the kitchen..."
"Ah, never mind. At worst, I can just beat them all up. Anyway, as long as I'm happy, that's all."
Michael noticed that his thoughts were not right.
He was stunned for a moment and took a deep breath. "I'm afraid I'm too tired. Tsk, the weak human body is really troublesome."
Michael shook his head and put the diary away.
There was no point in exploring the library anymore, so Michael turned around and walked towards the door.
When he passed by the wall-mounted mirror next to the door, he stopped and stared at himself in the mirror - his mouth corners raised, revealing his scarlet gums.Chapter 47 The hidden truth (Part 7)Title of the Book:Secret: I just want to farmAuthor: Be a FireflyChapter word count: 2697 wordsUpdate time: 2025-06-30 17:38:29
When Mario returned to the main building of the orphanage with a serious face, he happened to run into Michael who was walking down the stairs.
The two looked at each other, continued to move forward, and walked side by side towards the cafeteria.
On the way, Mario wanted to tell Michael about the warehouse, but Michael stopped him just after he uttered a syllable.
"If you have anything to say, let's finish lunch first."
Somehow, when Mario looked at Michael's calm profile, a sense of fear inexplicably arose in his heart, which made him give up his previous thoughts and shut his mouth obediently.
Once again, Michael and Mario showed their love to two lucky children from an orphanage, and then they went to the corridor and talked in a low voice.
"Let me tell you about my discovery first." Mario organized his thoughts and repeated what he had seen and heard.
"It has been confirmed that, apart from the main entrance, this welfare home has no other back doors, side doors, or small doors leading to the outside world."
"Then, I also found a large number of invisible torture instruments and... a corpse in the red brick house next to the main building."
Mario tried to express everything he had experienced in as few words as possible.
Michael asked suddenly, "Was the corpse a man or a woman?"
Mario was stunned at first, then he said in a calm tone:
"She was a woman, and she died in a very tragic way. She had no limbs, and her abdomen was cut open, but no intact organs were found."
Michael frowned, raised his head which had been lowered, and looked at Mario with a puzzled look.
Mario nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, this way of death is exactly the same as the method used by this serial killer."
Michael lowered his head again. Mario paused, skipped the topic, and continued:
"In addition to this, I also learned from several girls that a year ago, a girl in this orphanage hanged herself on the big oak tree outside the yard because she was ashamed of getting pregnant before marriage."
Michael had a thoughtful expression on his face.
Then it was his turn to tell us what he had discovered.
Michael raised his chin slightly, and said nonchalantly, "Well, I confirmed that today's date is May 2, which is about five days before the fire at the welfare home."
"And then, I found this…"
Under Mario's focused gaze, Michael raised his hand and slowly touched the hem of her skirt...
"Wait!" Mario's face froze and then turned red. He roared, and quickly turned his head away, stammering: "You, you, you, be careful, even if this is not your body, you still... have to understand the situation!"
"Just a few pounds of meat, or are you interested in such an underage girl, Captain?" Michael looked indifferent and even had the mood to tease Mario.
"How is that possible!" Since his reputation was at stake, Mario naturally refuted the argument righteously.
He was also muttering in his heart: "Why does it feel like Michael has suddenly become a different person..."
"I know, I know, turn around."
Mario frowned and turned his head carefully, afraid that he would see something he shouldn't see.
Michael spread the still-warm diary in front of Mario and said, "I found this diary in the library. Do you want to take a look?"
Mario's facial muscles twitched, and after hesitating for a long time, he shook his head and refused, "No, just tell me what you found."
"Okay." Michael shrugged. "This is the diary written by Amelia, now me. The general content is..."
Michael quickly summarized the contents of the diary, and finally, he told Mario the fireplace nursery rhyme.
Michael, who was a little dry-mouthed, swallowed his saliva and then said:
"I also discovered an extremely strange place on the second floor of the welfare home. The other rooms are all about the same size, but the director's office alone takes up almost 1/3 of the second floor.
Also, I checked all other places briefly, and only the door of the dean's office couldn't be opened at all. I suspect the key to get out might be in there."
"In addition to these, the fire in the welfare home is also very strange. I specifically observed the distance between the living room fireplace and the sofa. It is so far away that unless they put the two objects together, it is impossible for them to burn together."
Mario seemed to understand something. "So the cause of the fire in the orphanage was not an accident caused by sparks from the fireplace that burned the sofa, as the police concluded, but was man-made?"
Michael nodded lazily and gave a perfunctory answer, "Probably."
"This..." Mario frowned and asked subconsciously: "Then what should we do now?"
Michael lazily leaned against the wall of the corridor, his hands folded across his chest, and he stretched out two fingers indifferently:
"It's very simple. There are only two things we need to do. The first and most important thing is to find the key to the main entrance of the orphanage. Only in this way can we leave here."
"Second, the reason behind the orphanage may be why you became a murderer twenty years later. We need to find it..."
"Wait, wait, how did you come to the conclusion that I was the serial killer twenty years later?" Mario asked in surprise.
"Ah?" Michael looked at Mario with a puzzled expression, as if to say, "Why would you ask such a question?" He said with a bored tone, "Let me ask you, who is the most normal person in the welfare home right now?"
"The two of us..." Mario hesitated and replied.
"Have you ever thought about why?"
Mario was silent. He had never thought about this question. After all, the world of mysticism was always illogical.
Michael smiled, and suddenly changed the subject: "How long have you not eaten since last night?"
"Uh, twelve hours?" Mario suddenly felt like a fool, answering every question he was asked.
"Then did you feel a little hungry? Also, did you feel any pain when you were killed?"
"None, right?"
"Please tell me your conclusion directly." Mario gave up thinking and humbly asked Michael for advice.
Michael did not keep the secret any longer and said in one breath:
"Irina once showed me a book called The Island of the Heart that was seized from the Psychological Alchemy Society. There is a chapter in this book that details the various manifestations of Beyonders in their dreams... just like us now."
"You mean to say that this orphanage we are in is essentially a dream...but I still don't understand what this has to do with me being the murderer?" Mario continued to ask.
Michael showed a lazy smile, rolled up the hair at his temples with his fingers, and chuckled:
"Since there must be a subject in a dream, and everything in the welfare home is derived from this subject, then one of us, the only one awake, is most likely the owner of this dream."
"What kind of person would dream of such a weird orphanage with so many metaphors and hints in it?"
Michael pulled out his fingers that were tangled in his hair and said calmly, "From a psychological point of view, the person who has this kind of dream is either the victim or the murderer."
Mario suddenly realized something and said in a low voice, "It seems that there must be something hidden behind the fire twenty years ago... So what do you want to do?"
Michael laughed and said, "Haha, what else can we do? Just treat everything here as a game and unlock the other five diaries according to the hints given by the nursery rhyme. We will most likely know what happened back then that led to Leonard becoming a serial killer."
"I see. Next we should split up, right?" Mario pondered. "According to the content of the nursery rhyme, we can infer that the gatekeepers of the remaining five levels correspond to the Pig Chef, Sister Tree, Big Bad Wolf, Doctor Bird, and Monster Baby..."
Michael squinted his eyes and reminded:
"The rules on the note are also a hint. Combined with the nursery rhyme, we can deduce the locations of three of the levels. They should be the kitchen next to the cafeteria, the big oak tree outside the yard, and the washroom."
When saying this, Michael curled his lips. He had already imagined a melodramatic plot by using his imagination as an online writer in his previous life.
Michael, who was getting a little tired of waiting, directly assigned the tasks: "I will be responsible for dealing with the three of them, the pig chef, the bird doctor, and the big bad wolf. The remaining two are left to you."
"Let's put off stealing the key from the dean's office for a while. We still have to get some information from the monster that is currently neutral."
"But Sister Tree and the Monster Baby are more likely to appear at night, but we are grounded at night, what should we do?"
"Simple..."
Michael calmly took out a key from behind him like a magic trick:
"I can just unlock it."Chapter 48 The Dust-covered Truth (VIII)Title of the Book:Secret: I just want to farmAuthor: Be a FireflyChapter word count: 2720 wordsUpdate time: 2024-08-18 06:22:31
Mario opened his mouth in surprise. He recognized at a glance that the key in Michael's hand was Julia's.
He hurriedly asked, "Where did you get this key?"
"Julia's bedroom. Luckily, I found the spare key she hid right away."
Michael spoke nonsense in a serious manner without blushing or feeling any palpitation.
Mario, who was unaware of the truth, was completely impressed by Michael's execution ability, and his last bit of worry disappeared.
Time flies and it's already twelve o'clock in the afternoon.
In the afternoon, they had a dance class. What surprised Michael a little was that the teacher who taught them dance was Laura, one of the two caregivers.
Laura taught very seriously, but she rarely punished students physically, and at most she gave them a few verbal criticisms. She was a breath of fresh air in such a chaotic welfare home.
But students are completely different, they all work hard.
Some people rolled themselves up into a ball and pretended to be a ball; some people shook their heads off while dancing; there were even some who split themselves into two and danced with themselves.
Michael was no longer surprised by this.
After the dance class, he stopped Laura.
"The class is over. Is there anything else you need, Miss Amelia?"
Laura had a very cold expression, completely different from the silly-looking Julia. She stood there like a straight bamboo pole, making people not want to get close to her.
But Michael could see that the other person was actually a good person with a cold face but a warm heart... a good monster.
Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Michael decided to take advantage of his current advantage.
Facing Laura's indifferent face, she had a shallow dimple on her face, and asked with a smile in her voice as if she was holding a piece of candy: "Mom Laura, why haven't I seen Dean Madeline recently? Is she sick?"
This trick was very effective. Laura's expression changed significantly. Although her tone was still cold, she still patiently answered Michael's questions:
"Ms. Madeline has been busy preparing to receive several philanthropists recently. At least in the short term, she will not leave the dean's office."
"Really? That's a pity... I wanted to play the new song I learned for her."
Michael lowered his head in disappointment and sighed, then a pure and sweet smile appeared on his pretty face:
"Thank you, Mama Laura."
Mario, who was not far away, felt a chill on his face, and even his Sequence 7 body couldn't help but tremble.
After that, it was story time. It was pretty normal here, with a group of children sitting around in the library. Julia, who was in charge, would select a few books and read to the children.
Unfortunately, the content was so boring that Michael fell asleep on the sofa for an hour.
Finally... I made it till the evening.
As the light outside gradually dimmed, Julia took a baseball bat and drove all the children back to their rooms like animals.
Ten minutes later.
Michael quietly climbed out of bed, put his ear to the floor under the door, and listened for a while.
After making sure there was no sound outside, he quietly took out the spare key he had prepared and inserted it into the keyhole.
The chain fell and was carefully placed in the corner by Michael, and then the door was opened.
In the dim corridor, everything was silent. The boundless shadow that permeated the space was like a huge mouth from the abyss, reminding the weak humans of their fear of the unknown.
Michael looked calm as usual. He tiptoed to the room that Mario had told him in advance, unlocked it and let him out.
The two of them tacitly did not speak to each other and separated halfway.
Michael recalled the location of the cafeteria and groped his way to the kitchen.
According to Amelia's diary, at this point in time, the Pig-headed Chef should still be preparing ingredients for tomorrow.
At night, a cold wind blew in the yard, and under the dark clouds, ghosts appeared outside the windows.
Michael walked through the dark cafeteria on the blanket, at an unhurried pace, and pushed open the only small door with the light on.
As soon as Michael came in, he saw a tall figure standing in front of a pot of vegetables and fruits in the kitchen, staring at him.
The figure was undoubtedly the "Pig-Headed Man". Unlike during the day, at night he only wore a short vest on his upper body, revealing his hand muscles that were as hard and dark as pangasius.
Even from a distance of several meters, Michael could feel an indescribable sense of oppression enveloping him. The "pig-headed man" exuded an invisible pressure that made it difficult for people to move.
"You're finally here, unknown stranger." The Pig-headed Chef's eyes were no longer as crazy as they were during the day. At this moment, he actually smiled at Michael affectionately.
He should be laughing...right?
Michael's eyes turned, and judging from the current atmosphere, it seemed that the Pig Chef level did not need to be resolved through fighting... Although if a fight really broke out, a hundred of them would not be enough to defeat one person.
At this time, the Pig-Headed Chef tilted his head, sat cross-legged on the ground in a relaxed posture, and sighed to himself:
"Ah, only at this time can I relax a little and not be controlled by Him."
"Who is he?" Michael did not hide his curiosity. He sat down next to the pig-headed chef and asked with his head tilted.
"Hahahaha, you are very bold, bolder than the previous ones."
The pig-headed chef raised his hand and patted his thigh. He laughed for a long time before slowly saying:
"Hehe, He is indescribable, undefinable, and unobservable. Moreover, if you knew of His existence with your current status, you would probably go crazy on the spot and be trapped here forever."
"Tsk, so you didn't know either." Michael showed his inner speechlessness without hiding it.
The pig-headed chef stopped laughing and patted the floor with his hands, "Sit down here."
After saying that, he stood up, picked out two baskets from the corner of the kitchen, carried them to the cooking table, selected some ingredients from them, and began to wash and cut them...
Michael stretched his neck and looked inside, but unfortunately the pig-headed chef's huge body was like a mountain of flesh, and he could not see anything.
He could only tell from the sound that the other party had chosen two large pieces of meat and some vegetables.
A few minutes later, the Pig-Headed Chef turned around and pointed at the pile of ingredients on the cooking table and said:
"I know what you want. Although I really want to give it to you directly, the rules do not allow me to do so, so you must pass a test."
Michael became interested, "What test?"
"One of these two pieces of meat is from a normal animal, and the other is human meat. If you can use one of these pieces of meat and these vegetables to make a bowl of soup that satisfies me, then you'll pass the test."
Hearing what the pig-headed chef said, Michael pushed the issue further and asked with a smile, "Can you reveal the assessment criteria?"
The Pig-Headed Chef's eyes darkened, and he said in a very stiff tone, "No."
Then, without waiting for Michael to continue asking questions, he retreated to the kitchen door, leaving only one sentence:
"You have until the next morning before dinner. If you can't satisfy me, you will be one of tomorrow's ingredients."
With a bang, the kitchen door was slammed shut.
"Oh my." Michael crossed his arms and glanced at the polished kitchen counter. "The soup that would satisfy the pigs won't work if it's slop..."
Michael lowered his head and looked at the girl's sweet face reflected by the cooking table that could be used as a mirror, and he grinned.
"Got it!"
Soon, Michael came out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of steaming soup and sat down next to the pig-headed chef.
"Very quick." The pig-headed chef said in surprise, "But why did you cook two bowls?"
"I haven't eaten for a day, so let's try it as a midnight snack." Michael said with a grin.
"You..." The Pig-headed Chef hesitated for a moment, but still said nothing. He scooped up the remaining bowl of soup, looked into the bowl, and was stunned for a moment.
The soup was a rich red, but no meat was used, just some diced vegetables floating on top.
"You didn't use any meat." The Pig-Headed Chef's voice was muffled, and it was impossible to hear his emotions.
"Oh, yes. I was supposed to use bacon to fry the oil, but I couldn't find any, so I had to skip that step." Michael didn't look panicked at all after violating the rules. He even smiled and picked up the bowl, making a toast gesture: "Try my special vegetable soup."
The pig-headed chef didn't say anything and drank the bowl of thick soup in silence.
After taking a sip of soup, tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, and his voice choked up for a moment:
"You, how do you know how to make this thick soup? Only Amelia...only she would add yam to it..."
Michael listened quietly, put down the bowl of soup, stood up, half turned around, stretched out his arms, held the pig-headed chef's head in his arms, and gently patted the back of his head with his little hands.
Just like a mother comforting her baby, he closed his eyes and said lovingly:
"Because this is what Uncle Javier taught Amelia."
"Amelia always remembers it."