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Chapter 29: This place has bad feng shui.
Listening to them chat lively, the Taoist also joined in, “What are you guys talking about?”
“Stop talking.”
Yang Erci’s voice was cold, with a calm tone but an inexplicable persuasiveness, “The temperature here is not right, and it seems to be decreasing continuously. From our initialization until now, the perceived temperature has been decreasing.”
An Wujiu nodded, “The human body cannot withstand prolonged low temperatures.”
“Stuck here, we might all freeze to death.”
But there were almost no objects in the room. Yang Erci approached the display screen, guessing it was a computer, and tried to find a way to start it up but failed.
There was nothing in the room, so An Wujiu tried to start with each other. He found that Zhong Yirou was wearing a white coat, much like a doctor’s outfit. Upon closer inspection, she had a badge on her chest, but it only had a number.
[Containment Center E06]
So he lowered his head to check his own chest, and sure enough, there was a number—[Containment Center A02].
However, his outfit seemed different from Zhong Yirou’s—just a simple suit and shirt. On his left wrist, he wore a white electronic watch, seemingly made of ceramic enamel. But the watch seemed to be broken; the date on it was frozen at 3:20:41 a.m. on October 8th.
An Wujiu pressed the button on the side of the watch, only temporarily turning off the LED characters. After a second, it appeared again, still showing the same time.
He turned to look at Shen Ti, “Do you have a work badge on?”
Shen Ti lowered his head, pulled up the badge on his clothes, and showed it to An Wujiu.
It said [Containment Center A01].
“Sure enough…” An Wujiu grabbed his wrist and found that he also had a similar electronic watch, but it was black. The black watch was worn over black gloves, almost invisible.
His time was frozen at 3:19:51 a.m. on October 8th.
One minute earlier than himself.
“We’ve got the same style.” Shen Ti said.
An Wujiu nodded, seeming to perceive something, and asked the others, “Do you guys also have work badges on?”
After checking, they found that indeed they did. Not only that, but their clothes were also no longer the same as before, and everything was gone.
Except for the Taoist. He wore mustard-yellow overalls over his outer robe; the clothes were not buttoned properly, and inside was still the gray-blue Taoist robe. An Wujiu noticed that he also had a breathing filter hanging around his neck.
After checking, everyone organized the badge information.
An Wujiu and Shen Ti’s employee numbers start with the letter A, and their attire is similar, representing an elite class, with [A01] and [A02] respectively.
On the other hand, Zhong Yirou’s number is [E06]. Despite her attire resembling that of a doctor, another person with an E designation, Nan Shan [E07], dresses like an unidentified worker.
Wu You wore a dark blue full set of lab attire with the number [C04].
Yang Erci’s clothing was similar to Zhong Yirou’s, but she wore sterile operating gloves. Moreover, her employee number, [B05], was different from Zhong Yirou’s.
Among all of them, Josh’s outfit was the most peculiar. He wears a colorful traditional clown suit, almost identical to the Joker on playing cards. However, he hasn’t painted his face as a clown, creating a somewhat dissonant appearance. An Wujiu initially thought he didn’t have a badge, but it turns out he does, with the letter D at the beginning, [D03].
Except for Shen Ti and An Wujiu, the others don’t have watches.
Zhong Yirou thought for a moment, “It seems… there’s no apparent pattern.”
The green light from all sides made their hearts race, and the continuously dropping temperature in the room was freezing their thoughts. The air seemed to carry a strange atmosphere, slowly diffusing and condensing.
“Perhaps there is a pattern,” An Wujiu spoke up. “The holy voice mentioned that this containment center has five floors.”
Shen Ti quickly picked up on his words, “Are you suggesting that the ABCDE on our badges corresponds to these five floors?”
“There’s a possibility,” An Wujiu said cautiously.
While they discussed, Yang Erci had been trying to open the mainframe in the room. When An Wujiu proposed this speculation, she turned her head.
“Saint Sound also mentioned that we are on the first floor.”
An Wujiu nodded, “If these letters represent the floors or indicate that different floors have staff from different levels.”
Yang Erci stood up straight and said to them, “Usually, the overall computer system of research institutions is distributed, with different departments having different permissions. People from other departments cannot access them.”
Zhong Yirou interrupted and corrected her, “This is a charitable organization.”
“It should be the same.” Yang Erci’s face was pale and dignified in the darkness. She looked at Zhong Yirou, then at An Wujiu’s badge. “You are A; try it.”
He wasn’t the only one. An Wujiu pulled Shen Ti, and the two of them walked to Yang Erci, examining the projection keyboard. Soon, the others followed suit.
The projection keyboard was no different from a regular one. Yang Erci tapped on it, but there was no response, and the screen remained black.
An Wujiu also tapped with his fingers, and it didn’t react as they imagined. Shen Ti tried as well, with the same result.
“If they don’t give us anything, how do we get out?” Josh timidly said.
“That’s weird.” Zhong Yirou, unwilling to accept defeat, squeezed a hand through the crowd and tapped the keyboard. Suddenly, the dark monitor’s edge lit up with flowing light.
“Is it you?” Wu You glanced at her. “So, the first floor corresponds to E.”
“The Taoist can do it too, right?” Zhong Yirou grabbed Nan Shan’s hand and tapped on the keyboard.
The monitor lit up, playing a video for them.
It was a story about the origin of an abandoned baby shelter. In the footage, an American man named Cruz Massa was being interviewed.
From the journalist’s questions, it was evident that Massa was an immensely wealthy tycoon with an astonishing number of companies under his name.
“Look at this attire; it seems like something from the old Earth period,” Josh said.
The term “old Earth period” wasn’t an official designation but widely circulated on the internet, almost becoming an official term. It was generally believed to have ended when the two dominant commercial giants, Sartan Corporation and Wan Tong Corporation, overstepped a few political alliances that dominated the world, engaging in labor colonization of most small countries.
However, they were merely in the initial stages of the post-Earth era, an age marked by chaos and turbulence.
Massa in the video vehemently refuted the journalist’s rather heartless questions, facing the camera and saying, “Infants and toddlers are the future of humanity. In promoting the survival and development of all human beings, they have infinite potential.”
He then expressed his desire to establish a vast, clean, nurturing, and loving home.
He presented a beautiful blueprint for everyone, even bringing in the best designers to create a stupa-shaped structure, ensuring that every child leaving there would have a happy future.
He intended to hire the world’s best caregivers and teachers to take care of and educate the children, enabling them to have exceptional intelligence and abilities while maintaining robust health.
From Massa’s responses, it was clear that he was an idealistic philanthropist.
In the final moments of the video, he hoped that the media wouldn’t disturb the growth of these innocent children and urged them not to define them with secular orphan concepts.
“For the sake of humanity.”
He stared directly at the camera, repeating it once more.
“For the sake of humanity.”
The video ended.
Shen Ti felt nothing and subconsciously turned to look at An Wujiu, finding him clutching the clothes over his chest, tightly furrowing his brows, seeming to be in pain.
“Are you okay?” He leaned over, asking with a lowered voice.
An Wujiu shook his head, denying any issue, and released the furrowed brows.
After the video ended, the dark login page appeared on the screen.
[Please input password for E-level administrator:]
“I don’t know the password…”
Zhong Yirou looked at Nan Shan, and it was evident that he didn’t know either.
Nan Shan thought for a moment, suddenly became interested, rolled up his sleeves, and was about to step forward. “How about I input a paragraph of the Golden Light Mantra?”
Wu You grabbed him. “Be serious.”
The Taoist glanced down at him, finding it quite amusing for a child to act so maturely.
The two bickered, and Zhong Yirou casually checked her pockets, finding nothing else. The room’s temperature kept dropping, making it increasingly difficult to breathe.
Yang Erci spoke up, a white mist appearing at the corner of her mouth. “Try entering the last sentence from the video.”
Zhong Yirou had already planned to do so, but the cold beauty spoke first.
“Very clever.” She gave Yang Erci a fake smile, then bent down to enter the English translation of the last sentence from the video.
The screen lit up again, seemingly passing the verification.
While they waited to see what would happen next, laughter from a child suddenly came from outside the door.
Several people turned their heads, and An Wujiu was sure it wasn’t his imagination.
“Someone was outside just now, right?” Josh’s voice trembled. “I didn’t hear it wrong, did I?”
“No,” Yang Erci said coldly. “This is just a large-scale orphanage. It’s normal to have children here.”
“Can’t we ask them for help?” Josh walked to the door and shouted outside, “Is anyone there? Can you hear me?”
Soon, the large screen on the wall flickered twice, displaying a stable image.
Then a line of text appeared.
[Welcome back, E06.]
It turns out this was essentially a surveillance system, with many rooms’ situations displayed in dense grids, but all were quite blurry.
“It’s been a long time since I encountered such a ‘silent’ system.” Wu You spoke up. “No voice at all.”
An Wujiu also found it strange.
The screen soon provided a second piece of information.
[E06, E07, please complete your tasks for today.]
With a click, the door to this surveillance room automatically opened. The heavy steel door slowly opened from the inside to the outside, at an extremely slow pace. The corridor’s light instantly shone in, cold and white, like a sharp blade cutting through the darkness.
“Is it just opened like this?” Nan Shan habitually raised his hand, sleeves pulled together, tucking his hands inside.
“This is just the beginning.” Wu You turned around and walked out with the others. Josh, who was originally standing by the door, didn’t dare to go out directly and followed behind An Wujiu.
An Wujiu didn’t notice, but Shen Ti caught a glimpse of it and stuck close to him. An Wujiu felt crowded, only to see both of them right behind him, just as he turned around.
“Your complexion doesn’t look good.” Josh expressed concern. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Probably just too cold,” An Wujiu casually brushed it off.
After coming out, they found that there were no children in the corridor; it was empty, and they could see the end at a glance.
“Let’s check the next room,” Yang Erci suggested.
Wu You agreed, “Yeah.”
Zhong Yirou didn’t listen, “I’ll walk around the corridor first.”
An Wujiu didn’t follow. He stayed outside the surveillance room, noticing that the corridor’s structure was different from usual. At the end was a corner, and beyond the corner was another long and straight corridor.
The surveillance room was the first room around the corner.
He turned his head and indeed found the safety evacuation map on the wall of the other corridor. It was for the first floor.
An Wujiu discovered that this place was actually a building with a circular structure. The pathways for people formed a closed-loop in the shape of the character “回” (Huí), with the outer circle against the building wall and six rooms on each side (east, south, west, and north). Inside the circular corridor was a large and complete room, nine times larger than the other workspaces.
“Oh, this place’s Feng Shui doesn’t seem good.”
Hearing the voice, An Wujiu turned his head, seeing Nan Shan, who had his hands folded and smiling eyes.
Shen Ti was also beside An Wujiu, “Feng Shui? What’s Feng Shui?”
An Wujiu turned his face to stare at Shen Ti, “Are you not Chinese?”
After asking, he regretted it a bit. He didn’t really look like it… but the name sounded Chinese.
Seemingly caught off guard by the question, Shen Ti blinked twice.
It was Nan Shan who spoke first, extending his index finger to point at the evacuation map, “Look, this is a ‘回’ character. A closed-loop ‘回’ character structure is not good. Buildings are for people to live in, right? People should pay attention to the Qi’s flow. Although this ‘回’ character can counteract the direct Qi flow, it also completely blocks the Qi flow by connecting on all four sides.”
He talked about mystical things; after all, it was his professional field. An Wujiu listened earnestly and asked with great reverence.
“This was made by Americans. Does Eastern Feng Shui also apply to Americans?”
Nan Shan’s eyes immediately drooped, “Uh, well…” He quickly perked up again and continued, “Let me tell you, evil spirits and malicious energies don’t discriminate between East and West. This kind of ‘回’ character structure is paired with evil spirits.” He clapped his hands and then spread them out.
Shen Ti asked, “What do you mean?”
An Wujiu found it strange; these two seemed to be engaged in some kind of ancient language performance.
Nan Shan made a threatening expression, “Of course, it locks up evil spirits and keeps them from dispersing for a long time.”
“Many schools also have such structures,” An Wujiu said. “Perhaps just to save space.”
Zhong Yirou walked along the corridor alone. After passing two corners, she suddenly saw a little girl in the middle of the corridor, about three or four years old. Her golden-brown hair was tied into two small braids, and she looked like she was sitting on the ground crying.
Was she the one laughing just now?
Zhong Yirou walked toward her and tentatively called out, “Little girl.”
Although bold, Zhong Yirou was cautious. Despite the seemingly bright corridor, she had walked for quite a while and only encountered this little girl sitting strangely in the middle of the path.
The little girl looked up, tears still on her little face, appearing genuinely pitiful.
She reached out her arms toward Zhong Yirou, “Sister, I’m so cold.”
“What happened to you?” Zhong Yirou didn’t immediately reach out to hug her. “What are you doing here?”
“I-I woke up and wanted to pee, so I came out…” The little girl cried, “b-but I don’t know how to open the door.”
“Do you know me?” Zhong Yirou pointed to herself.
The girl nodded, “You are the sister who sleeps with us every day.”
It seemed she was indeed one of the management personnel on this floor. Zhong Yirou sighed in relief. Still, she didn’t hug the child; she just reached out to pull her up, “Go back to sleep.”
“Which way?” Zhong Yirou asked.
The little girl pointed to the wall, “Here.”
Her designated position was actually the large room in the middle of the “回” character, as seen in the evacuation map An Wujiu found earlier. However, Zhong Yirou was unaware of the existence of this map.
“Here?”
Wasn’t this just one side of the corridor?
Zhong Yirou squinted and looked carefully, only to discover that there was an invisible door on this white wall, and she could barely see a bit of the door frame.
In the upper right corner of the invisible door, there seemed to be a raised white button.
“Who could see in this state…” Zhong Yirou complained and pressed the button.
A line of text appeared on the invisible door.
[Opener: E06.]
The door slowly opened inward, and the light inside was a warm and soft yellow, decorating the place warmly and comfortably. Zhong Yirou led the little girl inside, and the little girl kept talking to her, “Sister, will you accompany us alone tonight?”
Inside, there were row upon row of small beds, neatly arranged in this basketball court-sized room. Each bed slept a cute child, ranging from very young to seven or eight years old, with different skin colors but all resembling little angels.
The little girl kept asking her questions. Zhong Yirou saw a child close to them turn over, so she made a hushing gesture to the little girl.
“Hush,” she whispered, reminding her to be quiet. “They are all asleep.”
The little girl nodded, showing understanding, and stopped talking.
The children’s beds here were all of the same standard, looking as orderly as a large matrix. Zhong Yirou looked around and found an empty bed, so she led the little girl there.
“Go to sleep quickly.” Zhong Yirou touched her cheek and watched her climb into bed, then covered her with a blanket.
When the little girl closed her eyes obediently, Zhong Yirou prepared to leave this sleeping room.
She walked to the doorway and saw a control panel on the wall. Glancing back, she suddenly saw countless children sitting up in their beds.
Zhong Yirou looked over, and it was the same little girl as before. She whispered to Zhong Yirou, “Sister, it’s so cold.”
Right.
Zhong Yirou then remembered the issue of temperature. She clicked on the panel, and it displayed various adjustment buttons for lighting, temperature, and air humidity.
She opened the temperature setting and found that the air conditioner was set to only 3 degrees. She quickly adjusted it to a comfortable 25 degrees for sleeping.
After completing all this, Zhong Yirou turned her head to look again, and the little girl had already closed her eyes and fallen asleep.
So she came out of this sleep room, feeling a bit strange. The little girl just now should be an NPC. After being guided by the NPC, there should be something different happening, but nothing happened here.
Zhong Yirou walked thoughtfully in the corridor when she suddenly saw An Wujiu.
She raised her hand and greeted him.
“Did you find anything?” An Wujiu asked.
Zhong Yirou remembered, “Oh, I just found the panel to adjust the indoor temperature. I raised the temperature a bit.” She extended her hand and felt, “Is it not so cold now?”
“It seems like it. They are looking for clues in other rooms…”
As she listened to An Wujiu speak, she suddenly felt something was not right.
“Wait a minute, did you smell a very unpleasant odor?” Zhong Yirou asked.
An Wujiu frowned.
Before he could say anything, Zhong Yirou directly turned and went back to the central sleep room. She heard An Wujiu following behind her, so she intentionally delayed pressing the button.
When he also arrived, the hidden door slowly opened.
The warm light from before turned into cold disinfection UV lights, and the children were sleeping on those beds.
The warm blankets were gone, leaving only white sheets covering their entire bodies.
How could this be?
Zhong Yirou, who usually said “it’s so scary,” was now contemplating whether she should immediately leave.
“Where is this?” she heard An Wujiu’s voice behind her.
Suddenly, the children on the beds, each and every one of them, sat up at the same moment, sitting up straight, and the sheets on their faces slowly fell.
Creak, creak, their faces turned around, and in unison, they spoke in unison.
“Sister, it’s so hot.”
“I’m melting.”
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