You Yi looked at him deeply.
Just when Xin Meng thought the other party would either persuade him or ignore him, You Yi unexpectedly changed his tone and said, “Then let’s go together.”
Xin Meng was overjoyed and didn’t bother to think about why the man was so agreeable this time; he pounced over and hugged him.
You Yi tied one end of the rope around both of them, while the other end was tied to the safe.
The safe was made quite heavy to prevent it from being moved entirely, and although it might still not be able to fully bear the weight of two men, there was no other heavier object in the room to tie the rope to.
You Yi kicked through the glass, and as the sound of shattering echoed, a heavy thud mixed in, the sound of the security door being smashed down!
The children rushed in!
You Yi held Xin Meng’s waist, grabbed the rope with one hand, and jumped out fiercely!
The sensation of weightlessness instantly enveloped his entire body. Xin Meng immediately hugged You Yi’s neck tighter and glanced back at the room as they began to fall, seeing six or seven children all drawn into the finance room, rushing towards them!
But the two had already fallen down along the rope. You Yi seemed quite experienced in such situations; even while carrying a heavy load, he managed to maneuver skillfully, pushing off a few times against the outer wall, and safely landed on the ground.
They untied the rope and looked up. The children who had missed their target were crowded at the windowsill, looking down with fierce expressions, letting out unwilling howls.
At this moment, looking at their faces, there was no trace of the innocence and cuteness of children left.
A little girl in a red dress quickly threw her head back and howled, being the first to leave the windowsill. The other children followed suit, with a few baring their teeth at them before leaving, as if to say—
“Just wait, we’ll come find you!”
“Back inside!” You Yi pulled Xin Meng, who snapped back to reality and immediately followed him back into the building.
It was clearly impossible to stay on the first floor with the other party; being outside made it easier to be caught. It was better to return to the many rooms inside the building, where it would be harder to be searched.
The two rushed up to the third floor and ran into the right corridor.
Perhaps because their earlier actions had drawn away the vast majority of the enemies, this time they had a clear path and did not encounter any other children.
“Phew, that was thrilling.” Xin Meng was pulled into a room by You Yi, who closed the door. Leaning against the door panel, he gasped for breath. “Will they search here?”
“Not for now,” You Yi replied. “For the same reason, they won’t leave players with no way to survive.”
They surveyed the room they were in, which was also spacious and filled with childlike decorations. Over thirty small wooden beds were neatly arranged, covered with uniform blue sheets and small blue quilts. Some of the quilts were neatly made as if no one had slept in them, but the vast majority were a bit messy, as if the children had just woken up and rushed out of the room without having time to make their beds, full of the breath of life.
However, the thick layer of dust cast a shadow over it all.
“Are we hiding in this room? Isn’t it a bit unsafe?” Xin Meng looked uneasily at the door behind him.
Perhaps to allow visibility of the children sleeping inside from the outside, this door was only half wooden, with the other half made of transparent glass.
“No, let’s wait here for a moment. You check if there are any props in the room. If I tell you to crouch down, you hide in the gap between the beds,” You Yi instructed.
Xin Meng nodded, seeing You Yi cautiously turn his face to look outside, he understood his meaning and took the opportunity to quickly scan the room.
He didn’t check the wooden beds first but walked along the wall, where there was a row of low cabinets. On the top shelf, over thirty stainless steel cups were densely placed, each with a small paper label stuck on with transparent tape. Normally, the labels should have the names of the cup owners.
Upon closer inspection, Xin Meng found that the labels did not have normal names but were instead—
Number One, Number Two, Number Three…
Is this a student number?
Soon, he discovered a special cup among them, labeled “Number Eighteen,” but the number had been crossed out with a large red X.
What is this…
He curiously picked it up to take a look, but the cup itself was unremarkable, just an ordinary stainless steel cup, with no expected bloodstains or dirt, both inside and out were clean.
He could only put down the cup and open the drawers one by one.
Most of the drawers contained toy fragments or the remnants of stuffed animals, mixed with dust, with nothing of value.
However, Xin Meng patiently opened each one, and in the second-to-last drawer, he found a newspaper.
“I found a newspaper!” Xin Meng exclaimed joyfully, pulling it out to show You Yi, but You Yi suddenly lowered his voice and hissed, “Crouch down!”
Xin Meng had no time to think and reflexively crouched down, slipping between two beds, his entire body almost lying flat on the ground.
Soon, he heard very faint footsteps in the corridor outside.
Pat, pat, pat…
The uneven footsteps grew closer, sounding a bit unsteady due to their childishness, yet more terrifying than anything else.
You Yi was still leaning against that half door panel, breathing as low as possible, his head positioned straight, eyes lowered, not looking outside anymore.
Xin Meng’s body tensed up with anxiety, his fingers involuntarily gripping the bed sheet that hung down to the ground in front of him.
A ghost child was not particularly scary, but what had just happened made them realize that even the slightest movement could attract the attention of all the other children, like poking a hornet’s nest, and the fact that they were indestructible was the truly terrifying part!
Moreover, the previous rope could not be retrieved, and the escape route through the window could not be used again unless they returned to the finance room to collect the rope, but given the current situation, that was clearly not a good option.
The footsteps stopped at the door.
Are they coming in?
Xin Meng’s nerves were tightly wound; he could almost feel that the other party was definitely pressing against the glass door, peering inside!
His feeling was correct. You Yi’s lowered gaze shifted slightly, and with a light, almost imperceptible glance, he swept over the glass beside him, seeing a low black shadow tightly pressed against the door. The faint yet real weight pressed down on the door panel, causing it to sink slightly.
An eerie silence ensued.
The child did not enter, nor did they leave.
Xin Meng held his breath, a chilling sense of fear causing cold sweat to soak his back.
Pat, pat, pat…
Finally, the footsteps slowly receded, and the weight on the door panel disappeared.
Xin Meng let out a sigh of relief, his body slightly moving forward, revealing a pair of eyes to look at You Yi at the door. You Yi shook his head at him, and Xin Meng immediately retracted his head, continuing to lower his breath and remain completely still.
Pat, pat, pat!
The footsteps sounded again!
Almost the moment Xin Meng pulled his head back, that child rushed back!
The footsteps were unusually hurried, each step quickening Xin Meng’s heartbeat!
The child pressed against the glass again!
Xin Meng struggled to suppress his rapid breathing caused by his racing heart, trying to shrink his body and make no sound.
This time, the child only looked for a short while before leaving, but having learned a lesson, Xin Meng still dared not move until about two minutes later when You Yi said it was safe. Only then did he relax, nearly collapsing to the ground, taking a moment to gather himself, and pushed against the floor to stand up.
As he stood up, he inadvertently glanced at the side of the bed and noticed numbers carved into the wooden railing—Three.
He turned to look at the other side, where there was also a number—Four.
The beds also have numbers?
Are they corresponding to the cups?
After thinking for a moment, he decided to stand up first, holding the crumpled newspaper in his hand, and ran over to You Yi to look together.
The first few pages of the newspaper also had no useful information and did not mention the kindergarten, only in a corner of the legal section was a small news piece that closely resembled the previous message:
“Recently, at a certain kindergarten in our city, an incident occurred due to an accident. A three-year-old child suffocated to death during a nap after rolling over and having their pillow cover their mouth and nose. The specific case is under investigation.”
Even the reporting style was very similar; it was clearly a clue.
However, this time it was described as “an incident caused by an accident,” using different wording from the previous “mysterious” description. Was it really an accident? Or…
“Since the newspaper is here, the child mentioned on it must have died in this room,” You Yi said. “Did you find anything else?”
Xin Meng thought for a moment and told him about the numbers he discovered, “The cups have codes, and Number Eighteen has a big red X on it. I just found that the beds also have numbers; I don’t know if they correspond.”
“Hmm, they should be related,” You Yi nodded. “You go look for it; I’ll keep an eye on the outside.”
Xin Meng bent down and quickly searched for the corresponding Number Eighteen bed, wanting to see if there were more clues.
In the entire room, there were over thirty children’s beds, and Number Eighteen was roughly in the middle. When Xin Meng saw the railing, he found that the “Number Eighteen” was also marked with a red X.
He didn’t know what this meant.
That bed was one of the few neatly made beds in the room, the quilt laid out very flat, showing no signs of anyone having slept there, but Xin Meng felt something was off. Looking again, he realized that there was no pillow on that bed.
Could it be that he guessed wrong? Was it not the child on this bed who suffocated from the pillow?
After circling around, finding nothing else, Xin Meng turned to look at You Yi, who was staring at him intently with his brown eyes. Feeling slightly reassured, he thought for a moment, grabbed a corner of the quilt, and lifted it.
“Oh my God!”
The sight that met his eyes made Xin Meng gasp in horror!
He saw a half-decayed corpse lying face up in the center of the bed, with flies the size of mung beans and white maggots crawling in and out of the black, rotten flesh. A nauseating stench hit him in the face, and Xin Meng felt a wave of nausea, nearly throwing up!
He quickly covered his nose with one hand, instinctively throwing the quilt back.
The smell of decay filled the entire room, drawing You Yi over. You Yi lifted the quilt to take a look underneath. “It’s the child from the newspaper, the one who suffocated to death.”
