It's night, children's welfare home.

Xiao Bailiu who was lying on the bed opened his eyes silently, he heard an intermittent flute that was enough to wake him up, but everyone else in his room was still sleeping, running all night exhausted these children enough With the exception of Xiao Bailiu, who was always vigilant, the rest of the children were sound asleep.

Xiao Bailiu got off the bed lightly, put on his shoes, and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall—two o'clock in the morning.

In the collective sleeping room late at night, only the slight snoring of these children could be heard. The children hid in the small beds and covered their soft bodies with quilts. Xiao Muke even covered his head with the quilt, as if he could protect himself in this way.

But in fact, as long as someone wants to, these children can be broken easily. Xiao Bailiu watched as the door of their room was slowly opened, and the wooden door creaked with the rhyme of the flute, revealing the dark and gloomy and empty space outside. corridor.

There was no one outside the door, which opened by itself.

The sound of the flute became continuous and floated in melodiously and cheerfully. The children sleeping on the bed began to frown and wriggle uneasily, as if they had entered some magical dream and began to babble and dance their hands and feet.

Seeing this, Xiao Bailiu calmly shook Xiao Muke awake.

——No wonder he is not affected by the sound of the flute. The way the sound of the flute works is to affect the sleeping child, but Xiao Bailiu only came to this orphanage for the second day, and he sleeps very quickly in a strange and unfamiliar place. Light, Xiao Bailiu wakes up as soon as the flute sounds, so he will not be affected by the hypnosis of the flute sound.

Xiao Muke was gradually awakened by Xiao Bai Liu. He rubbed his eyes, his forehead was covered with cold sweat, and took a deep breath in a daze. It seems that he has not realized that he has woken up, nor has he realized that there is a person standing beside his bed.

Xiao Muke half-closed his eyes, dazedly stretched his feet out of the bed, put on his shoes, and was about to walk into the corridor, while walking, he said blankly: "We are leaving this orphanage, which will draw our blood and kill us ..."

"Be sober, you are just dreaming under the hypnosis of the flute..." Xiao Bailiu grabbed Xiao Muke's wrist, and pulled Xiao Muke who was about to go out to face him, then he narrowed his eyes.

Xiao Muke's eyes are awake, he is still trembling, although there are red marks on his face and he looks sleepy, but his eyes are very clear, and there is a layer of tears because of fear.

"That's not a dream..." Xiao Muke said tremblingly, the dream obviously frightened him a lot, "I saw many nurses tied us to the bed, and they used many syringes from the back of our hands, the back of our feet Then the red blood gushed out along the infusion tube and dripped into a stainless steel tank. Later, we couldn't get the blood out..."

Xiao Muke was so scared that his shoulders shrank, he hugged his shoulders hard: "She, they will also prick our scalp and face with thick black needles like those used to pierce livestock, and tie our necks with rubber tubes to squeeze Press the blood vessels in our faces so they can draw blood."

"...We were tied up until our faces were purple and black, and we were suffocated. We struggled desperately but couldn't escape from the hospital bed..."

With tears streaming down his face, Xiao Muke raised his head to look at Xiao Bai Liu who was calm and unmoved, and stepped forward anxiously, grabbing Xiao Bai Liu's hand and trying to pull him away together: "I swear it's really not a dream! I see What will happen after our baptism tomorrow! Those investors are bad guys! They baptized us and funded us for the blood on our bodies, they didn’t fund us for free, let’s run! Let’s get out of here!”

"Of course they didn't support us for free." Xiao Bailiu said in a cold tone, "There is nothing free in this world, especially for young humans like you and me who don't have much value. The only thing of value is naturally ours. Body, what they invest in us is what we have in our body, what's so surprising about them doing this, isn't it a matter of course?"

Xiao Muke looked at the calm Xiao Bailiu in a daze, and took a step back in a daze and fear: "You already knew that those investors were bad people?"

"They are not bad people, they are just consumers who have the ability to buy our bodies." Xiao Bailiu looked at Xiao Muke, who was obviously frightened, with no waves in his eyes, "And we, human beings who do not have the ability to buy our own, belong to those who can buy us at will. Commodities that are bought and sold can only be bought.”

There was no expression on Xiao Bailiu's face. He said calmly as if explaining an objective truth: "We only have the value of the commodity category, so it is normal to be purchased."

"But the people here want to suck our blood!" Xiao Muke shouted anxiously.

Xiao Bailiu looked at him indifferently: "So? Do you think that the people outside must be good people and will never suck your blood? Maybe they will eat your flesh and do other more terrible things to you What? Do you have the ability to resist? Is there any point in escaping? Before you have the ability to buy others, even if you escape, your products are just from the small shelf of [Loving Welfare Institute] , escaped into a bigger shelf."

Hearing what Xiao Bailiu said, Xiao Muke was completely stunned. He opened his mouth to refute, but he didn't know where to start to refute.

"You already..." Xiaobai Liu paused, "Sorry, how old are you?"

Xiao Muke was about to cry again at what Xiao Bailiu said, he twisted his fingers, and replied to Xiao Bailiu's words with tears in his eyes: "I, I am eleven years old."

"Oh, you are already eleven years old, don't be so naive, Muke." Xiao Bailiu answered the above words indifferently, and then continued, "This orphanage will disappear a group of children every Sunday. , this group of children was obviously selected to disappear, and our group of children are all good-looking, I thought at first that they would be taken away..."

Xiao Bailiu looked at the overly delicate Mu Ke, and his eyes paused subtly on Mu Ke's snow-white shoulders exposed from his pajamas.

Xiao Muke looked at Xiao Bailiu with wide eyes, and asked innocently and confusedly, "What are you taking?"

Xiao Bailiu tilted his head slightly as if nothing had happened, looked away and changed the topic: "...it's nothing."

At the beginning, he really thought that this orphanage was a place for children's sex and pornography, so when his [investor] asked him to protect Mu Ke and Liu Jiayi, Xiao Bailiu's first reaction was this, because from his According to my experience, this kind of place for adopting children is indeed easy to breed such things, but Xiao Bailiu soon realized that it was not such a simple purpose.

This group of dying [investors] wanted something else from them.

Because if it is for the relatively direct purpose of [love, desire], they can start enjoying these children on the first night of their entry, but it has been a day, and this group of [investors] has nothing for them. Take the obvious action and just use the phone to maintain a one-way connection.

Xiaobaixu is guessing—this group of [investors] may not have figured out the purpose of buying their pile of [commodities].

In other words, this group of [investors] is also exploring the functions of their pile of [commodities].

Using them for charity publicity? Psychological comfort before death? Or is it a kind of feudal superstition that there is no way out for survival - thinking that doing good deeds can prolong life?

But these [purposes] are too vague and indirect, Xiaobai Liu feels that there are more core things that determine the [investors] to closely observe and invest in them, and the practice of building the hospital opposite the orphanage makes Xiao Bailiu I thought of a point - for example, they can cure diseases.

This kind of healing includes psychological self-comfort—for example, the church where they will be baptized the next day in the [Loving Welfare Institute], the decoration of this church is very good, and it obviously has a certain symbolic meaning. Doing good deeds and praying for protection is a way to seek virtual healing.

But compared to this, there is a more direct way to treat the disease - that is to directly use this group of children to treat the disease.

Xiao Bailiu looked at Xiao Muke very calmly: "From the first day I came in, I knew that my role should be to introduce medicine blindly, but I don't know which part I used as medicine. Now it seems to be blood."

Xiao Muke shook his head in disbelief: "Since you know they are going to draw your blood, why don't you run away? You were still on the phone with your [investor] last night, chatting for half an hour, are you crazy! He He is not a good person at all, he is a blood-sucking monster!"

Xiao Bailiu looked at Xiao Muke with a cold gaze: "First, the Love Welfare Institute is fully enclosed, and we can't go out except on the open day. Second, if it weren't for my [investor] paying for it last night I'll save you, I won't even look at you if you die in front of me, even if he's a monster, he'll save your monster, you'd better figure it out."

Xiao Muke was at a loss for words, and quickly refuted Xiao Bailiu: "He saved me because of my blood!"

"Impossible." Xiaobai Liu's eyes were dim, but he retorted very simply, "Although I don't quite understand his purpose, he did give up his life, and he must give priority to protecting me and you, as well as Liu Jiayi's. Life, if he wants to draw your blood, he can pay me to do it for him, and you will be drained by me tonight."

Xiao Muke instantly backed up several steps with a pale face, crossed his hands in front of his chest in horror and made a guard posture: "You, why are you like this!"

Xiaobai glanced at Xiao Muke scatteredly, and suddenly stepped forward a bit viciously and spread his hands to threaten Xiao Muke: "How about me? According to your standards, I am worse than my [investor] who saved you." Much worse, ten-year-old Muke."

The ten-year-old Mu Ke was so frightened that he took several steps back and almost fell down, with tears streaming down his face: "Ahh! Don't come here!"

After scaring Xiao Muke once in a wicked way, Xiao Bailiu quickly withdrew his hands and returned to his expressionless face: "Even if all the investors here are blood-sucking, my [investor] is also standing On our side, because it is too easy for him to kill you, he will help us, so you'd better listen to his command and don't act rashly."

Xiao Muke nodded madly, he was so frightened by Xiao Bai Liuyi that his heart felt a little uncomfortable, and he stuttered: "Okay, okay, I understand!"

After confirming that Xiao Muke was obedient, Xiao Bailiu turned around and walked towards the corridor. He stood behind the bedroom door which was opened by more than one thing and poked his head to look at the corridor. Suddenly Xiaobaiu frowned.

In the corridor where the flute is playing, the doors of several rooms are open, and the hanging open lamp is covered with cobwebs. It is gently shaking with the night wind and the sound of the flute. I don’t know where a child is running. The sound of footsteps and light laughter echoed faintly in the empty corridor in the night, giving off a permeating eerie feeling.

But these are not the reasons why Xiao Bai Liu frowned.

"Something came in."

Xiao Muke hid behind Xiao Bailiu, he didn't dare to stay alone, he couldn't fall asleep after waking up, and tried his best to imitate Xiao Bailiu to look at the corridor. Hearing what Xiaobailiu said, his eyes showed confusion: " I didn't see anything coming in..."

"You look up." Xiao Bailiu said calmly, "It's on the ceiling."

After hearing Xiao Bailiu's words, Xiao Muke stumbled, and he slowly raised his head stiffly like a machine with a rusty neck.

The promenade of the orphanage is a deep and high arched type with a width of more than one meter. It is tall and narrow, and there are many colorful animal oil paintings on it. The light of real carnivorous animals is exposed, which is usually what Xiao Muke fears the most at night, but now there are things that scare him more than these animals——

These oil paintings hang many children like bats. These children are covered with blood-stained and dried up infusion bags and infusion tubes. The dense infusion tubes surround the children, and the needles of the infusion tubes are stuck in the wall. These constantly moving and migrating infusion tube needles penetrate the wall to advance.

These children have been completely sucked dry just like Xiaomu Kemeng, the skin on their faces was wrinkled and dry, sticking to their skulls like a piece of dried orange peel, and their hands and feet were all dry. They are extremely thin, like malnourished and malformed big-headed dolls. The eyeballs on their shriveled faces are black and white and frighteningly large. Because the eyelids have shrunk, you can see the complete half of the eye protruding from their faces. .

Translucent infusion bags of various colors are wrapped around them like a floral dress, and they are playing the flute.

But the flute they are playing is not a regular flute, but a very long and large needle tube, which has been drilled to make a clarinet. The wall of the needle tube is still stained with dried blood scabs. A flute with a strange tone came out from under the skin of his mouth.

"The Piper in Colorful Clothes." Xiao Bailiu seemed to have realized something, "So I didn't see the flute player yesterday, but I felt that the sound of the flute was everywhere because the group of flute players were on the ceiling of the house. superior."

Xiao Muke saw that his legs were weak, and he plucked at the corner of Xiao Bailiu's clothes: "I, let's go back to sleep."

Xiao Bailiu didn't care about Xiao Muke at all, he looked up at the group of flute-playing children for a while, and after seeing them enter different open bedroom doors, he followed them out lightly, and Xiao Muke looked at them all. He was about to faint, but let him stay alone in the bedroom with the door wide open, and he was afraid. In the end, Xiao Muke wanted to cry without tears and walked behind Xiao Bailiu. He was still trembling, like an unprofessional follower.

After the group of flute-playing children entered different bedrooms, they turned their big eyeballs that seemed to be about to fall out of their eye sockets in a second, stood on the ceiling, and twisted their heads almost parallel to the ground with a click. He tilted his head to observe the sleeping child below.

Xiao Bailiu hid sideways beside the half-open door, did not go in, and leaned slightly through the crack of the door to observe what the bunch of flute-playing children were going to do.

The child on the ceiling walked around the bedroom. It tilted its head right above each sleeping child and looked carefully, and finally stopped on a sleeping child, as if it had finally locked onto the target. The tentacle-like infusion tube slowly fell from its body, and gently lifted the child's quilt.

Xiao Muke couldn't breathe well, and tightly covered his mouth for fear of yelling.

Soon the child woke up. Like Mu Ke, he woke up from the horrible dream brought by the sound of the flute. There were still tears and panic on his face. When he saw such a terrifying child, he almost screamed out. , but his mouth was covered by the infusion tube.

The child on the ceiling seemed to use the infusion tube to gesture something to the awakened child, and soon the child burst into tears, quickly jumped out of bed, put on his shoes, and followed the child on the ceiling, Xiao Bailiu quickly followed He returned to his room and closed the door, leaving only a small gap to see the scene in the corridor.

Every flute-playing child who entered a different bedroom came out with a smiling child. The child on the ceiling played the flute with an odd tune with a syringe, and the children on the ground lined up humming and followed out one by one. It was like the scene Xiaobai Liu saw yesterday.

But suddenly the line stopped, and all the children on the ceiling tilted their heads and passed through the crack of the door, staring with their lifeless eyeballs at Xiao Bai Liu, who was peeping through the crack of the door, and Xiao Mu who was hiding behind Xiao Bai Liu. Ke frantically tugged at the corner of Xiao Bailiu's clothes, and looked at Xiao Bailiu with eyes that were so terrified that he was about to cry.

Xiao Muke covered his mouth to control himself not to cry. He shook his hands and slowly pointed to the top of their heads.

Xiaobai Liuyi was quiet, he slowly raised his head, and saw a child on top of his head tilting his head, with a pair of eyeballs the size of ping pong balls on his wrinkled and blackened face, staring blankly and intently. look at him.

This child should have come in from the ceiling when Xiao Bai Liu went out just now. The infusion tube directly below it is still wrapped around a child's head. This child and Xiao Bai Liu are in the same bedroom. The face wrapped under the infusion tube looked at Xiao Bailiu and Mu Ke with a strange smile.

Xiao Bailiu slowly opened the door to let them out, and the child bounced away. The child on the ceiling observed Xiao Bailiu and Mu Ke, who covered his mouth and trembled and shed tears for a while, and stroked them with an infusion tube. As if confirming something, he finally retracted his infusion tube with a rustle, stepped on the ceiling and left expressionlessly.

The sound of the flute sounded again in the corridor, humming in the blood-stained needle tube, and the sound of the children who were taken away gradually faded away, echoing ethereally in the corridor, and disappeared at the end of the corridor.

After checking that there were no monsters on the ceiling, Xiao Bailiu quickly locked the bedroom door from the inside.

Xiao Muke was completely collapsed and limp to the ground. He held his heart and exhaled with difficulty, adjusting his heart rate. Just now he was really scared to death, but when Xiao Muke regained his strength and turned his head to look, As if nothing happened, Xiao Bailiu was already lying on the bed and covered himself with the quilt, ready to sleep.

It didn't look like he was almost taken away by a monster just now.

Xiao Muke was speechless and collapsed. He walked to Xiao Bailiu's bedside and lowered his voice to accuse him: "We were almost captured just now! Can you think about it before rushing out next time!"

Xiao Bailiu covered the quilt and closed his eyes. Xiao Muke came over to scold him, but he didn't open his eyes, but explained in a neutral way: "We won't be taken away. I observed it before. The sound of the flute The walking child is very directional."

He noticed this when he was observing yesterday. The sound of the flute hypnotized all children indiscriminately, but only a few children were taken away in the end. Xiao Bailiu was wondering how he did it before. The door of the door was not opened by the sound of the flute. He was observing the corridor through the window in the bedroom. His sight was limited, so he did not see the group of children on the ceiling.

And yesterday no child playing the flute entered the bedroom where Xiao Bailiu was, so he didn't know how these children locked and took the child away.

But Xiao Bailiu felt that he had to figure it out, after all, his [investor] would be very interested in this information, so Xiao Bailiu would venture out.

"However, even if it is directional, how do you know that we are not the kind of children who were taken away?" In fact, Xiao Muke also noticed this. This group of [kids playing the flute] is obviously looking for someone who fits certain characteristics. The child is taken away, but the problem is that they don't know what the other party's criteria for selecting the child are.

Xiao Muke frowned and asked: "Our door is also opened tonight, which means that there are children in our room who are eligible to be taken away tonight. How do you know that we are not?"

"Because today is Tuesday." Xiao Bailiu was finally willing to lift his eyelids and glance at Xiao Muke, "Today is only our baptism day, so we will not be taken away."