Chapter 0981 – Intertwined Pasts
Holding an umbrella, Chen Ge entered the rainy city, he didn’t know if he was doing it for the mission, or if he wanted to help that woman, maybe both.
Taking a car, he headed to the Hanyue orphanage, although it was already past the time for the visit, Chen Ge knew the grandpa who watched the door for various reasons, and was also familiar with one of the orphanage teachers who took care of Fan Yu.
After waiting outside the door for a few minutes, Chen Ge was brought into the orphanage by the teacher.
”Are you here to pick up Fan Yu? This child is doing much better now, and I don’t know what happened, but he no longer locks himself up in his hut, he’s started to try to communicate with others, the paintings he draws aren’t as scary anymore, and he’s started to use other colors besides black and red.” That teacher was very happy, and she kept praising Fan Yu.
Chen Ge didn’t know if Fan Yu’s change had anything to do with the painter from the Psychic Ghost School, it could be that the knot in his heart was opened, or maybe the painter had met Fan Yu after leaving the Psychic Ghost School and sneaking out the door.
Everything was possible, the painter himself was an elusive being.
”I came here this time because of something else.” Chen Ge entered the house with his teacher, he put away his umbrella and took out the photo from his backpack, “Can you take me to see the dean, I have something very important to ask him.”
”The dean has gone home, it’s okay for you to ask me, there’s nothing in this orphanage that I don’t know.”
”What I want to know is what happened ten years ago, at that time this orphanage was still a private orphanage, you should still be in school at that time, right?”
”Ten years ago?” The teacher thought for a while, “Why don’t you ask the caretaker. He’s our longest-standing employee here, and he used to watch the door when it was a private orphanage.”
”Good.” Chen Ge invited the janitorial grandpa inside, and he handed the photo to the old man, “Do you have any impression of this boy?”
”The face isn’t even there, how do you want me to see it?” The janitorial grandpa brought the photo to his eyes, his wrinkles squeezing together, “Who can remember clearly what happened ten years ago?”
”Think carefully, was there a girl in the orphanage at that time who had a bad memory? This boy should be that girl’s best friend.”
Hearing Chen Ge’s words, the wrinkles on the janitor’s face wrinkled even deeper, and after thinking for a while, he suddenly slapped Chen Ge’s arm, “It seems like there was such a girl! Let me see the photo again!”
The janitor took the photo with both hands and looked at it repeatedly for a long time, “I still can’t remember this boy, but I have an impression of the girl you mentioned, she was abandoned by her parents when she was very young, and it was said that the reason for her abandonment was that she had congenital brain insufficiency, her memory was very poor, she lost her memory, and she was very stupid.”
”Congenital brain insufficiency?” This was still a new term for Chen Ge, and it was the first time he had heard it.
”I also heard about it, that girl is very handsome and well-behaved, but she just keeps forgetting things, many children have been adopted, and she is the only one who has stayed in the orphanage.” The janitor slowly recalled more things, “From the age of two or three all the way to her teens, she lived in the orphanage for more than ten years, probably because she missed the best time for treatment, that girl’s illness became more and more serious.”
”At first, she could still remember the names of her friends and teachers around her, and under her teacher’s exercise, she was able to not only live on her own, but also help with some things. Although this girl had a bad memory, she was especially hardworking and never returned the favor when she was bullied, so the orphanage acquiesced to her staying and helping out.”
”But who knew that she later got worse and worse, she couldn’t even remember people’s faces, and only retained the most basic ability to live, and couldn’t do anything slightly more complicated.”
”She was already too old to help with anything, and needed to be taken care of by others, and slowly everyone’s attitude towards her changed.”
”The children in this private orphanage are not very big, so she was especially conspicuous, and then I didn’t know what the leaders of the institution were thinking, knowing that the girl had a poor memory, they still let her watch the gate with me.”
”The leaders said they wanted to find something for her to do, and couldn’t let her become an invalid in the future, but I always felt that what the leaders really meant was that they had given up on her, and even wanted her to wander off.” Speaking here, the janitor sighed.
”Wish him to wander away? How did you see that the hospital authorities had this intention?” If that was the case, then the nature would have changed completely, and Chen Ge felt that Fang Yu’s change might have started from that time.
”The courtyard always assigned me some task of delivering distant pieces, and I ran around, leaving her alone to watch the door. Once when I came back, the girl wasn’t at the door or in the house, I ran all around the orphanage and finally found her under a big tree in the back of the mountain.”
”I was very angry and asked her why she was running around, and she said there was a kite flying very high.”
”I was really a bit scared, luckily that kite ended up hanging on the tree and didn’t fly far.” Even after so many years, moncler outlet store looking back, still some sigh, that girl left a deep impression on him.
”Moncler, while she was watching the door with you, did any boys come to keep her company? Perhaps one that acted enthusiastically toward her?”
”No, she was just alone all the time.”
”That’s hard to do.” Chen Ge looked at the photo in his hand and thought back to the conversation he had just had, trying to find the clues he had missed, “Grandpa, you just said that the first time Fang Yu got lost was when she saw a kite, so she chased after it, according to her kind of character she shouldn’t be running around, but why did she chase after seeing a kite? Does she like kites? Could this kite be some kind of signal?”
”Then you’re overthinking it.” moncler outlet store He was about to say something when his eyes suddenly widened, “Right! The kite! There did used to be a boy in the orphanage who was very close to Fang Yu, that boy was a chatterbox, and seemed to be suffering from some kind of disease as well, he always liked to say the same thing over and over again, it’s fine the first time you hear it, but anyone would get tired of hearing that stuff every day.”
”So the boy found Fang Fish?”
”Yes. Fang Fish has a poor memory, the things that boys say over and over again, she forgets them the next day as well, every time it’s like the first day.” With Chen Ge’s prompting, the grandfather finally remembered something from the past, “The two of them should be considered friends, but their fates were different, Fang Yu’s illness got worse and worse, while the boy’s illness slowly normalized as he grew older. But even if the boy was normal, he still liked to be with Fang Yu, he was three years older than Fang Yu, and he would be the first to rush up to whoever bullied Fang Yu.”
”But what does this have to do with kites? And where is that boy now?” Chen Ge felt that the ghost he was looking for was that boy.
”I forget which year it was, the teacher took the children from the orphanage on a spring trip, and we all flew kites next to a reservoir in the eastern suburbs. The boy and Fang Yu’s kite fell into the woods, they both went into searching, then the boy disappeared, and we only found Fang Yu who was unconscious.”
”Disappeared?” Chen Ge frowned, if the boys disappeared, then his own clues would be broken.
”When Fang Fish woke up, we asked her, she said that she and the boy went into the woods to look for the kite, and saw that there was a path leading to a mansion full of flowers, where there was also a lot of children’s laughter. The kite landed on the fence of the mansion and as they went to retrieve it, a group of kids they didn’t recognize grabbed them and tried to drag them inside. The boy pushed the square fish out at the last minute, and then he closed the door of his own accord.”
moncler outlet online The words may not sound like much to others, but Chen Ge was different; he had been to the hut full of flowers next to the reservoir in the eastern suburbs before!
At that time, he was in elementary school and had just moved from the eastern suburbs to the western suburbs for a full year.
His parents had always strictly forbidden him to go to the eastern suburb of Hanjiang, but that day was a school-organized field trip.
It was also at the Eastern Suburbs Reservoir, and it was the same time that he saw the house in the woods filled with flowers and children’s laughter.
Chen Ge was able to escape that time solely because he was carrying around a muppet that he had made with his own hands, and in that muppet lived Director Luo’s daughter, who was now the guardian spirit of the New Century Paradise.
”It should be the same place!”
Chen Ge hadn’t thought that Fang Yu and that boy had even been there, and their past and his own had created a point of intersection.
”The item drawn this time doesn’t seem to be that simple.” Chen Ge lifted his backpack, but he wasn’t impulsive: “Both of you, I still need you to do me a favor.”
”Go ahead.” That teacher had a good feeling about Chen Ge, thinking that Chen Ge was a very caring person.
”Can you guys look up that boy’s information? I have a date here that might be his birthday.” Chen Ge flipped through the photo and it said December 21st on the back.
”I’ll do my best, but don’t get your hopes up.”
”Please.” Chen Ge said goodbye to the teacher and the janitorial grandfather before opening his umbrella and running out of the orphanage with his backpack.
”It’s not too late to avenge what I did in elementary school.”
He hoofed it and took a taxi to the Eastern Suburbs Reservoir.
”Every time I come to these remote places in the Eastern Suburbs, the weather is bad, it’s either raining or windy.”
The cab dropped Chen Ge off outside the reservoir and fled at speed, and he walked alone on the side of the road for a long time with an umbrella.
The memories of his childhood were a little fuzzy, fortunately not much had changed here.
The river flowed quietly, raindrops dripped down on his body, and the surroundings were pitch black, Chen Ge didn’t turn on the lights because he possessed Yin pupils, it was as if he had become one with the darkness.
”I remember that it was then that I entered this forest.”
Chen Ge didn’t know what had happened in the vicinity of the reservoir over the years, the place had become even more desolate than before, and the original residents had all moved away, and the patch of woods had been connected to the back of the mountain.
Pressing the repeater switch and flipping through the comic book to summon out the headless female ghost and the stench, Chen Ge then entered the forest.
The rain fell on the leaves, and the sound of ticking ticking ticked in his ears, the dense forest and the outside seemed to be two worlds.