You Yi thought of something else, “There are a total of six tools, corresponding to the six of us, so each person should take one.”
“Do we have to hold it?” Xin Meng looked at the dirty, blood-stained stick with disdain, feeling a bit repulsed.
“This should be a prop,” You Yi said, “If you don’t want to touch it, just put it in your inventory and take it out when needed.”
After thinking for a moment, Xin Meng agreed, “Should we help them put theirs away too, and give it to them if we see them?”
“It’s best not to,” You Yi replied, “You might not encounter them again. If you take them all, and they come back, they won’t be able to find any.”
“Then let’s just tell them when we meet,” Xin Meng nodded, putting her stick away, casually saying, “I’ll take yours too.”
“No, I’ll hold onto it,” You Yi unexpectedly refused.
“What’s wrong?” Xin Meng asked curiously.
You Yi said, “Right now, we don’t know how to use these tools. If we encounter specific conditions, having it in hand might trigger something automatically. If we put it away, we lose that effect and might miss the opportunity to use it, which could be fatal. But since we’re together, one is enough. If we accidentally get separated, you need to take it out immediately.”
“Try not to put away any props that we might need for this game.”
“Got it,” Xin Meng nodded.
They left the storage room, and as they were about to go, Xin Meng turned back for a glance.
Initially, she felt nothing, but knowing that such a tragic incident had occurred inside made her heart chill when she looked back.
They continued deeper, arriving at the next and final room’s door, beyond which was just a wall.
This room was clearly different from the others; just from the door, it was apparent. The other rooms had old yellow-painted wooden doors, very thin, easily kicked in by an adult man.
Only this room had a heavy black wooden door, looking quite upscale.
Above the door was a metal plaque that read: Principal’s Office.
Xin Meng tried to twist the doorknob; the door was not locked and opened easily.
Inside was not too dark, as it was already bright outside. Sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating half the room, while a large amount of dust danced in the light.
“Cough, cough…” Xin Meng waved her hand in front of her nose, choking on the dust.
The furnishings inside were simple. On the left was a large bookshelf occupying an entire wall, filled to the brim with books. In the corner, on the left wall, were two metal filing cabinets with some scattered documents inside.
Directly opposite the door was a large window, and in front of it was a big desk with a genuine leather boss’s chair, which was currently turned 180 degrees, its back facing the door.
A subtle intuition made Xin Meng’s gaze linger on that tall chair back, unable to look away.
Is there… someone there?
Who is it?
You Yi clearly sensed something was off and drew out a dagger.
This dagger was the one modified in the Demon King’s castle, with the magic stone still intact. It had lost its original function, but its razor-sharp edge remained, making it a formidable weapon in You Yi’s hands.
You Yi intended to go ahead to assess the situation, leaving Xin Meng behind, but she insisted on moving forward with him. She also drew out her dagger, and they cautiously approached from either side of the chair, then suddenly lunged forward!
A pair of dark, hollow eyes suddenly locked onto Xin Meng!
Xin Meng’s heart stopped, and she immediately took several steps back!
Once she processed what she had just seen, she halted, realizing her heart was racing, and she had even forgotten to breathe.
A skeleton!
A skeleton that had rotted away to just bones, still dressed in a formal A-line dress, now tattered and torn.
But this style looked extremely familiar; it was the same outfit worn by several people standing at the entrance when the kindergarten opened, as seen in the newspaper earlier.
“Is this… the principal of the kindergarten?” Xin Meng steadied her heartbeat and whispered.
This was the first time she had seen a corpse in a kindergarten.
“It should be,” You Yi replied, sheathing the dagger and stepping forward to examine it. “From the bone age, it appears to be a woman in her forties.”
“How did she die?” Xin Meng inched closer.
“There are no marks on the bones, and the internal organs and skin have rotted away,” You Yi inspected and said, “It’s hard to tell right now. Judging by the position of the body, it’s very likely a heart attack.”
Unable to glean much from the corpse, Xin Meng shifted her gaze to the desk.
The desk was simply arranged with ink, a fountain pen, some paper, and a few books.
Xin Meng carefully circled around the boss’s chair and leaned over to look at the books on the desk.
They were—The Bible, The New Testament, and The Seven Deadly Sins.
“All religious books,” Xin Meng picked up the top book, The Bible, and flipped through it, noticing it had been frequently read, the edges of the pages yellowed from constant handling.
“The kindergarten principal seems to be a devout Christian?”
Not finding anything in the books, he set it down and looked at the papers on the desk.
They were several sticky notes filled with beautiful penmanship.
Xin Meng picked one up to read.
The top line read:
[Original sin is the “crime” that humanity is born with and cannot wash away.]
Xin Meng quickly called You Yi over, “This finally mentions original sin. I thought the name of this kindergarten was strange; maybe there’s an answer here.”
What does the name Original Sin Kindergarten really mean?
Xin Meng continued reading but found a long passage about religious beliefs that he couldn’t fully understand. He could only pick out the highlighted sentences underlined with wavy lines.
Three sentences were highlighted: the first was:
[Since birth, everyone has traces of sin, a naturally distorted heart (malicious intent), making it easy to commit any sin of motive.]
The second was:
[This inherent sinful nature is the root of all actual crimes.]
The third was:
[We do not become sinners because we commit sins; rather, we commit sins because we are sinners, born with a nature enslaved to sin.]
Besides these three sentences, at the very bottom was another line, larger than the others, even somewhat scrawled, reading:
[I want to save them!]
This line not only pierced through the paper but was also surrounded by circles and boxes to emphasize it!
“What does this mean?” Xin Meng was momentarily at a loss, “To save them, who are they referring to?”
He flipped through the remaining papers, but they were all blank, with no other text.
“Come over here,” You Yi called him from in front of the bookshelf.
Xin Meng set the paper down and hurried over, only to see a shelf full of religious books.
But You Yi wasn’t pointing out those; he pointed to one of the books on the top row.
Xin Meng looked up—
Child Criminal Psychology.
He was startled and looked over to find that all the books were about children’s psychological issues and juvenile delinquency!
“Is it because of the previous case?” Xin Meng pieced the clues together, speculating, “A child was beaten to death in the storage room by six other children, so the Christian principal began researching these books, wanting to save those children?”
So far, this was a relatively plausible hypothesis.
But Xin Meng still couldn’t understand why the game provided these clues. Wasn’t this a hide-and-seek game? Did knowing the past of this kindergarten lead to victory?
However, the card clearly stated—unless one side is completely wiped out, victory is impossible.
Looking back, this condition was also quite cruel, practically forcing players to kill. If the opponents were ghosts, that would be one thing, but if they were real children, who could bring themselves to do it?
After playing this game, wouldn’t players lose their humanity and become murderers who would dare to kill anyone?
It felt inconsistent with the usual style of the game.
“Could it be that the children outside are the ones who killed that child back then, and they are beyond redemption, so the players are tasked with punishing the wicked and promoting the good?” Xin Meng speculated, “But that doesn’t make sense; this time there are over a dozen ‘ghosts,’ but only six murderers, the numbers don’t match.”
There were still too few clues, and Xin Meng couldn’t find a more reasonable explanation. He decided to set it aside for now and pulled You Yi to the filing cabinets.
The filing cabinets were made of metal, with four drawers at the bottom and double doors at the top. The doors had two long rectangular glass panes, allowing a view of the scattered documents inside.
Xin Meng pulled on the doors, but they wouldn’t budge!
The doors were locked.
He then tried the drawers below, which were not locked, but there was nothing useful inside; they were all empty.
After checking this one, he moved to the other filing cabinet, which was also locked on top. In the bottom drawer, he found a flashlight. He tested it, and the battery was quite sufficient. Xin Meng handed the flashlight to You Yi, who accepted it without refusal, putting it in his pants pocket.
Besides things that were cumbersome or seemed useless, Xin Meng wished he could give You Yi anything that might be of great use.
In a place like this, one never knew when they might get separated, and he hoped that You Yi could obtain more tools to ensure his safety.
This was a vow he had made in his heart, and he continued to act on it.
You Yi was the kind of person who, just by looking at him, Xin Meng could roughly guess what he was thinking, but he didn’t refuse; a hint of a smile flickered in his eyes before quickly disappearing.
“What should we do if we can’t open these doors?” Xin Meng asked, “Should we break the glass?”
“That would make too much noise and attract unwanted attention,” You Yi dismissed the idea. “Also, we’ve already spent too much time here; we need to leave quickly. We can come back to check the cabinets later; maybe we can find the key somewhere else.”
Xin Meng thought about it and agreed; treating it as a puzzle escape game, the key might be hidden in one of the nearby rooms.
“Then let’s go.”
As he was leaving, he glanced at the paper on the desk, initially wanting to take it with him, but thinking that others hadn’t seen its contents yet, he abandoned that plan, leaving it there for other teammates to see.
So he quickly read through it again, noting the important content, and then returned it to its original place.
You Yi was already standing by the door, waiting for him.
He hurried over, opened the door, and stepped outside.
However, he soon realized that the sensation underfoot was off and looked down.
A ragged doll lay at his feet.
Its tattered body had several holes, with cotton stuffing spilling out.
The eyes, made of two black buttons, had one thread come loose, causing the button to dangle down like a detached eyeball, silently staring at him.
Author’s Note:
Partially referenced from Baidu Encyclopedia~
