From Pastor Liang's mouth, I learned that Zhou Shaolong had a good relationship with an orphan named Meilong in the orphanage, and every time he came here to find her, she just appeared in front of our eyes.
Following the direction pointed by Pastor Liang, I saw a flowery girl of about fourteen years old, with black and beautiful hair reaching her shoulders, her complexion more rosy than frost and snow, and her eyes were black and white, as if she could see clearly. The lake at the bottom is amazingly beautiful. When such a beautiful embryo grows up, she will definitely be able to dominate the crowd. No wonder Zhou Shaolong often comes to her. If I was born ten years later, I would come here every day to do volunteer work.
However, although she is beautiful, her clothes are very strange. It feels a bit like Middle Eastern clothes. It is a wide robe with only the head and palms exposed on the upper body, and only a pair of beautiful feet in sandals can be seen on the lower body. However, although the robe was wide and long, it felt like it was made to measure. And she also wears a very special wooden hairpin, which has an alternative beauty in the weirdness. Is this the legendary non-mainstream? I heard that this thing is very popular among boys and girls nowadays, but she obviously knows how to use this alternative style better than her peers.
Pastor Liang waved to her, and she came over to us. Before she approached, Zhen Zhen asked Pastor Liang in a low voice, "Are there any people from the Middle East donating clothes to you?"
Pastor Liang said with a smile, "Not yet. Meilong's clothes were changed by her donated clothes. In fact, many of the clothes donated by benevolent people didn't fit well. The clothes that the children wore just now were modified by her. Yes. And her hairpins, she made them herself."
"She is so capable at such a young age?" Zhen Zhen was slightly surprised.
"Yes, this child is very capable and can do many things. Alas, what a hard-working child, may the Lord bless her!" Pastor Liang sighed and drew a cross on his chest.
As the so-called "poor children head home early", a bad environment will naturally force people to learn to take care of themselves and the people around them. This is not uncommon. However, why did Pastor Liang keep saying that Meilong was suffering? If it was because she was an orphan, then all the children in the orphanage were orphans, why did she just say that her life was suffering
When we were about to ask this question, Mei Long came to us. She politely greeted Pastor Liang and then gave us a sweet smile. Pastor Liang gave us a brief introduction, and then asked Meilong to greet us, while he continued to teach the children to write.
"Do you know him?" I handed Zhou Shaolong's student ID to Meilong, and she asked nervously, "What happened to Shaolong? He hasn't been here for almost ten days."
"Sorry, he has passed away."
"He, he died? How could this be?" She took a step back unconsciously with a look of surprise on her face. Tears welled up in his eyes, and Chu Chu's pitiful appearance was very lovable.
"Although we know you are sad, we hope you can understand that we must investigate the cause of his death and bring the perpetrators to justice."
She nodded tearfully: "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I want to know if he was here nine days ago, last Friday?" Actually, I said this sentence is a language disorder, because Sunday is the start of a week, and last Friday should have been two days ago. However, a lot of people think Monday is the start of the week, so I just say this, as long as the other person can understand what I mean.
"Well, he did. He comes after school almost every day, but he hasn't come back since that day..." She said, taking out a handkerchief and wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. Nowadays, there are very few people who have the habit of wearing handkerchiefs. Most people are used to using more convenient tissues. Maybe only an orphan like her will have this thrifty habit!
"Can you tell me in detail what happened that day? For example, did he ever get angry with anyone, or did he mention something special to you."
"He went to the basement that day..." Her face suddenly turned cold, and she seemed to remember something terrible, and slowly told us about the situation nine days ago—
The weather was not very good that day, and it started to rain as soon as Shaolong arrived. We taught the children to write and teach together. He suddenly asked me if there was a basement in the church, because he saw a wooden door on the floor of the inner hall. I heard Sister Yuan talk about the basement. She said that before liberation, the orphans received in the courtyard would be put into the basement first, but that was not done after that, and the basement is now empty. However, Sister Yuan didn't like us going to the basement to play, so neither I nor the others in the courtyard had been down there, and I didn't know what it was like down there.
Shaolong seemed very curious about the basement, and kept asking me if there would be anything interesting down there. I told him that I wanted to see it too, but I was afraid that Sister Yuan would be unhappy, so I ignored him and went. to the kitchen to help with cooking. After the meal was done, I wanted to ask him if he wanted to eat here, but I couldn't find him. I wondered if he would go to the basement, so I went to look for him in the inner hall of the church.
As soon as I came to the inner hall, I saw the wooden door of the basement opened, and Sister Yuan was walking out with him. Sister Yuan also said that he should not be so naughty, and ran to the basement, saying that it had not been used for a long time, not only the air was turbid and the ground was slippery, it would be bad if you fell in it.
After Sister Yuan left, I asked him if he had seen anything interesting in the basement. He didn't look very well at the time, and he hesitated when he spoke, only saying that there was nothing down there. However, I always felt in my heart that he was lying, so I pestered him to ask. As soon as the rain stopped, he said he wanted to go home for dinner, got rid of me and ran away...
From Meilong's narrative, it can be known that Zhou Shaolong had been to the basement before disappearing, and he might be able to find some clues there. So I asked her to help find Sister Yuan and take us to the basement to check.
"Sister Yuan doesn't like other people going to the basement..." Meilong's face was troubled, but she sneaked close to me and whispered, "Why don't I take you there, in fact, I also want to see , but don't tell Sister Yuan, she will be unhappy when she finds out."
Although she feels that Meilong is more mature and sensible than her peers, she is still a girl after all. Like most innocent girls, it is difficult to suppress her curiosity about the unknown. Since Sister Yuan might not be willing to take us to the basement, it would be a good idea to let this curious girl take us there.
After agreeing to Mei Long's proposal, she took the hands of Zhen Zhen and I and walked towards the church. For a woman, fourteen may be a dreamy age. Her hands are as smooth as tofu, and it feels comfortable to hold. It's a pity that my mother gave birth to me ten years earlier.
It was past service time, and both Sister Yuan and Pastor Liang went to take care of the children, so the church was empty. There is a movable wooden door about 120 cm long and 80 cm wide on the floor of the inner hall. Its location is not conspicuous, but it can be seen if you walk around the inner hall. Like this church, the wooden door should have a history of hundreds of years, but there is no trace of damage, it seems to be made of good wood. I pulled the iron ring on the door panel, and it took a lot of effort to pull up this thick wooden board. I think Zhou Shaolong was also struggling to open the wooden door.
I suddenly thought of a problem. If this wooden door is closed, even if someone in the basement calls for help, it will be difficult for people outside to hear it. No wonder Sister Yuan didn't like people to walk inside. If something happened inside, it would really be called heaven and earth.
After opening the wooden door, there is a not very long stairway, but due to the angle problem, the light cannot shine into the stairway. So what was in front of me was a stairway with its lower half hidden in the darkness, and it was impossible to see what was going on in the basement.
Zhen Zhen asked Meilong if there were any electric lights in the basement, she shook her head and said she didn't know because she didn't go in, but the last time she saw Sister Yuan come out, she was holding a flashlight. This church should have a history of more than a hundred years, and it is not uncommon to have no electric lights installed in the conditions at that time.
"I know there's a flashlight there, so I'll go get it now." Mei Long said and ran away without waiting for us to agree. In fact, I have a lighter in my pocket and can handle it.
After waiting for about five minutes, before seeing Meilong come back, Zhen Zhen became a little impatient: "This girl ran away there, let's go down and have a look first!"
Anyway, Meilong had never been in the basement before, so she might not be able to help when she came, so I took out a windproof lighter, and with the help of the faint light from the blue flame, I walked into the dark basement with Zhen Zhen.
The basement is much more spacious than I imagined, it should be about 120 square meters, but the height is low, only about two meters high, I always feel that it is easy to bump my head, although I am less than 1.8 meters tall. With the help of the weak light from the lighter, you can see that there is nothing here, only four walls made of simple stone bricks, there are candlesticks on the walls, but there are no candles. The air here is slightly cloudy, and there is a small amount of moss growing on the floor and walls. If you come in alone, it will be troublesome if you slip.
I looked around and found nothing in particular, just as she was about to leave, Zhen Zhen suddenly screamed, pointing at the entrance of the stairs and shouting, "What is that?"
I looked in the direction she was pointing, and saw that there was a black object on the ground moving fast towards us. This thing was dark, about a meter long and half a meter wide, and it was as flat as if it was touching the ground. Because of the lack of light, I couldn't see what it was for a while. It felt like a moving piece of black cloth, and like a squashed black snake.
The black foreign object moved in front of us in a short moment, Zhen Zhen raised her foot and stepped on it, wanting to step on its "head", but its "head" could instantly open a shoe-like hole, It was just that Zhen Zhen's foot fell in the air. Its shape seems to be able to be changed at will, before Zhen Zhen's feet could be lifted, it was already wrapped around the shoes.
Zhen Zhen was taken aback by the vision under her feet, but she is not a vegetarian Sanda champion, she reacted immediately, she took off her shoes as soon as her feet twisted, and jumped back. As soon as the shoes were removed from the feet, they were immediately wrapped by a foreign object, as if the shoes were wrapped in a black cloth. However, when the foreign object came out of the shoe, the good-quality leather sneaker became riddled with holes, as if it had been soaked in a corrosive liquid.
Zhen Zhen and I looked at each other, and we all got a message from each other's astonished expressions - escape!
After the foreign object left the shoe, it attacked us, and it could be divided into three parts, blocking the way from three directions. We had to flee inside, but there was nowhere to escape when we reached the corner. Seeing that they had come to our feet, a strong light shone from the entrance, and I subconsciously covered it with my hands, so did Zhen Zhen. Although my eyes were temporarily unable to see the surrounding scene, my ears were fine, and I heard Sister Yuan's voice: "Why did you run in without telling me?"
When the bright light moved away from us, I saw Sister Yuan holding a flashlight standing at the entrance, and Mei Long was playing with the corners of her clothes uneasily beside her, as if she knew she had made a mistake. Looking around, the black foreign object had disappeared, as if it had never appeared, and there was only one sneaker full of holes left on the ground.
The sudden change made my brain not react. If it wasn't for this tattered sneaker, I would have thought it was just a nightmare, but this is obviously not a dream, but a real thing. Zhen Zhen and I looked at each other, and the other party's eyes also gave me affirmation, this is definitely not a dream.
"Children, you shouldn't be here." Sister Yuan waved to us and motioned us to leave the basement with her.
Zhen Zhen hopped to pick up her sneakers, the shoes were already torn apart, she even planned to put them on. I grabbed the shoes and told her to jump on one foot first. The shoes will be handed over to Yuetong for testing. She glared at me angrily, I responded with a "charming" smile, and she finally gave in, put down her white socks, and left the basement with me, one foot high and one low.
When I got out of the basement, I told Sister Yuan what had happened, and showed her the sneakers that were riddled with holes. Her expression was very sad, she sighed long, and drew a cross on her chest: "May the Lord save these poor souls, Amen!"
"Sister Yuan, what's going on in the basement? Could it be haunted down there?" Zhen Zhen looked at the dark entrance of the basement, it seemed that what happened just now still made her lingering in fear.
Sister Yuan did not answer immediately, but wanted to close the wooden door, Zhen Zhen and I immediately stepped forward to help. After closing the wooden door, she said, "The reason why I don't want everyone to go into the basement is because there are many dead baby girls in it."
"What the hell is going on here? Can you be more specific?" I asked seriously.
Sister Yuan asked us to sit down, and then slowly recounted what had happened in this mysterious basement—
The orphanage was founded by Pastor Smith at the beginning of the last century. At the beginning, a large part of the funds were funded by the church, so the funds were abundant at that time. Because of the sufficient funds, the orphans in the courtyard lived not badly at that time, even better than most of the poor, so many poor people sent baby girls they could not support to the church.
Later, Pastor Smith returned to Heavenly Father's arms, and the war was also happening. The hospital was unable to get in touch with the church, and the funds became increasingly tight. Moreover, the war caused more poor people to send baby girls who could not touch them to the church, and the daily expenses were even greater.
Because there are so many orphans that can't be taken care of at all, but there is a steady stream of baby girls sent. If the baby girl was handed over to the nun by their parents, the nun could explain to them that the hospital was unable to take care of their daughter. Infant's father's surname... I was one of the baby girls who was abandoned outside the church gate at that time. I didn't know who my parents were, only my father's surname was Yuan, so the nun named me Yuan Siqin.
Because it cannot take care of so many orphans, the hospital can only choose to take in the baby girl with better physique, and the choice is to let the baby girl lie naked in the cold basement room for a day. Not only did they have nothing to eat on this day, they couldn't even get a drop of water, and they didn't even have a single piece of warm clothing. Under such harsh conditions, how many fragile newborn girls can pass the cruel test? If you are lucky enough to survive, you will be raised by the hospital like me. This situation continued until after liberation...
"What's the difference between you and murder! Let the baby girls starve to death, it's better to strangle them to death!" After listening to Sister Yuan's narration, Zhen Zhen suddenly became excited.
"May the Lord forgive our sins, Amen!" Sister Yuan did not refute Zhen Zhen's scolding. In fact, it wasn't her fault, because she was also one of the baby girls who underwent this cruel test.
I told Zhen Zhen about this, so that she could understand that she had scolded the wrong person. She awkwardly apologized to Sister Yuan, and then asked another question: "Why are all the baby girls abandoned?"
Sister Yuan sighed again: "There are also many people who prefer sons to daughters. Half a century ago, this kind of thinking was even more serious. Now most of the orphans in the courtyard are girls, and the few boys are some defective."
According to Sister Yuan, the basement was used as a "baby slaughterhouse" for a long time, and there were probably not thousands or hundreds of baby girls who starved to death in it. So, was it the resentful souls of the baby girls who attacked us just now? Did Zhou Shaolong also die mysteriously because of this