Holding the umbrella, Chen Ge entered the city in the rain. He had no idea whether he was there for the mission or to help the woman. Perhaps it was both.
He took the bus to Jiujiang's Children's Home. Even though it was already past the visiting time, due to various reasons, Chen Ge knew the guard at the door and one of the teachers who took care of Fan Yu.
After waiting for several minutes, Chen Ge was led into the Children's Home by the teacher.
"Are you here to pick up Fan Yu? The boy's condition has improved a lot. I have no idea what has happened to him, but he no longer locks himself up in his room and tries to communicate with others. His drawings are not as scary as before. Other than black and red, he has started to use other colors. "The teacher was very happy, and she kept praising Fan Yu.
Chen Ge did not know whether Fan Yu's change had anything to do with the painter at the School of the Afterlife or not. Perhaps the knot in his heart had been unraveled, or perhaps the painter had snuck out from the door after leaving the school and met Fan Yu.
Anything was possible. The painter was an existence that could not be understood.
"I'm here for something else." Chen Ge entered the room with the teacher. He put away the umbrella and took out the picture from his backpack. "Can you bring me to meet the headmaster? I have something important to ask him."
"The headmaster has already returned home. You can ask me anything. There is nothing that I do not know about this Children's Home."
"I want to know something that happened ten years ago. At the time, this Children's Home was still a private orphanage. You should still be in school, right?"
"Ten years ago?" The teacher thought about it. "How about you go and ask the guard? He has been here for the longest time. When it was still a private orphanage, he was already the guard. "
"Okay." Chen Ge invited the guard into the room and handed the picture to the old man. "Do you remember this boy?"
"He doesn't even have a face. How am I supposed to look at him?" The guard held the picture close to his eyes, and his wrinkles squeezed together. "Who can remember something from ten years ago?"
"Think about it. Was there a girl with a bad memory at the orphanage? This guy should be the girl's best friend. "
Hearing Chen Ge's words, the wrinkles on the guard's face deepened. He thought for a while and suddenly patted Chen Ge's arm. "I think there was such a girl! Let me see the photos again! "
The guard held the picture with both hands and looked at it for a long time. "I still can't remember this boy, but I do remember the girl that you mentioned. She was abandoned by her parents when she was very young. According to legend, the reason for her abandonment was due to a congenital lack of brain function. Her memory was very poor, and she was very forgetful."
"Congenital brain dysfunction?" This was a new term for Chen Ge. It was his first time hearing it.
"That's what I heard. The girl is very pretty and well-behaved, but she's forgetful. Many children have been adopted, but she's the only one who's been staying in the orphanage." The guard slowly remembered more things. "From the age of two to ten, she lived at the orphanage for more than ten years. Probably because she missed the best treatment period, the girl's illness worsened.
"Initially, she could still remember the names of her friends and teachers. With the teacher's training, she could not only take care of herself, but she could also help out. Even though the girl's memory was bad, she was very diligent. She never fought back when she was bullied, so the orphanage allowed her to stay and help out.
But who would've thought her condition would get worse and worse. She couldn't even remember people's faces, and she only had the basic ability to survive. She couldn't do anything that was slightly more complicated.
"She was already old, and she couldn't help much. She needed someone to take care of her, and slowly, everyone's attitude toward her changed.
"The children at this private orphanage were very young, and she stood out like a sore thumb. I don't know what the leader was thinking. He knew that the girl had a bad memory, but he still asked her to guard the door with me.
"The leader said that he wanted to find something for her to do so that she wouldn't become a useless person, but I have a feeling that the leader's real intention was to give up on her. He even hoped that she would get lost." At this point, the guard sighed.
"Hoped that she would get lost? How did you know that was the leader's intention? " If that was the case, then the nature of Fang Yu's life had completely changed. Chen Ge believed that was when Fang Yu's change started.
"The leader gave me some missions to deliver mail. I ran around and left her to guard the door alone. One time, when I came back, the girl was not at the door or in the house. I ran all around the orphanage and finally found her under a big tree at the back of the mountain.
I was very angry at the time. I asked her why she was running around, and she said there was a kite flying very high.
"I was really scared. Thankfully, the kite ended up hanging on the tree and didn't fly too far." Even after so many years, the old man still sighed when he thought about it. The girl had left a deep impression on him.
"Sir, when she was guarding the door with you, did any boys come to accompany her? Maybe they were very friendly to her? "
"No, she was always alone."
"This is going to be difficult." Chen Ge looked at the picture in his hand and thought back to the conversation earlier. He tried to find clues that he had missed. "Sir, you said that the first time Fang Yu got lost was because she saw the kite and chased after it. Based on her personality, she shouldn't be running around, so why did she chase after the kite? Does she like kites that much? Could the kite be some kind of signal? "
"You're overthinking it." The old man was about to say something when his eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, right! The kite! There was a boy at the orphanage who had a good relationship with Fang Yu. The boy was a chatterbox, and he seemed to suffer from some kind of disease. He liked to repeat the same thing over and over again. It was fine the first time, but anyone would get sick of hearing the same thing every day. "
"So, that boy found Fang Yu?"
"Yes, Fang Yu has a bad memory. She would forget the things that the boy repeated the next day, and it felt like it was the first day." With Chen Ge's reminder, the old man finally remembered something from the past. "They should be friends, but their fates were different. Fang Yu's illness worsened, but the boy's illness slowly returned to normal as he grew older. However, even if the boy returned to normal, he still liked to hang out with Fang Yu. He was three years older than Fang Yu, and he would be the first to confront anyone who bullied Fang Yu. "
"But what does that have to do with the kite? Where is the boy now? "Chen Ge had a feeling that the ghost that he was looking for was the boy.
"I can't remember which year it was. The teacher brought the children from the orphanage on a spring outing. They were flying kites next to a dam in Eastern Jiujiang. The boy and Fang Yu's kite fell into the forest. The two of them went into the forest to look for it, and then the boy disappeared. We only found the unconscious Fang Yu. "
"Disappeared?" Chen Ge frowned. If the boy had disappeared, then his lead would be cut off.
"After Fang Yu woke up, we asked her. She said that she and the boy went into the forest to look for the kite. They saw a small path that led to a house filled with flowers, and there was the sound of children laughing. The kite fell on the fence of the house. When they went to retrieve it, a group of children that they did not know grabbed them and tried to drag them into the house. At the last moment, the boy pushed Fang Yu out, and then he voluntarily closed the door. "
Other people might not have thought much of what the old man said, but Chen Ge was different. He had been to the little house that was filled with flowers next to the dam before!
At the time, he was in primary school, and he had just moved from Eastern Jiujiang to Western Jiujiang for a year.
His parents had forbidden him from going to Eastern Jiujiang, but that day was a school trip.
It was the same Eastern Jiujiang Dam, and it was the same house filled with flowers and children's laughter.
Chen Ge was able to escape death that time because he had a doll that he had made himself. Inside the doll lived Director Luo's daughter, the current guardian spirit of New Century Park.
"It should be the same place!"
Chen Ge did not expect Fang Yu and the boy to have been there as well. Their past had crossed paths with his own.
"The item that I've won this time does not appear to be that simple." Chen Ge picked up his backpack, but he did not act rashly. "Gentlemen, I need you to help me with something."
"What is it?" The teacher had a good impression of Chen Ge, and he thought that Chen Ge was a kind person.
"Can you find the boy's information? I have a date here. It might be his birthday. "Chen Ge turned the picture, and the date written on the back was December 21st.
"I'll try my best, but don't get your hopes up."
"Thank you." After saying goodbye to the teacher and the guard, Chen Ge opened the umbrella, grabbed the backpack, and ran out of the Children's Home.
"It's not too late to take revenge for the things that happened in primary school."
He did not stop and called a taxi to Eastern Jiujiang's dam.
"Every time I come to a place like this in Eastern Jiujiang, the weather is always bad. It's either raining or windy."
The taxi dropped Chen Ge outside the dam and then sped away. He walked alone by the roadside with the umbrella.
The memory of his childhood was blurry, but thankfully, the place had not changed that much.
The river flowed quietly, and the rain fell on his body. The surroundings were dark. Since Chen Ge had Yin Yang Vision, he did not turn on the lights. It was as if he had melded into the darkness.
"I remember that we entered this forest."
Chen Ge had no idea what had happened to the dam in the past few years, but the place had become more deserted than before. The original tenants had all moved away, and the forest had become connected to the back of the mountain.
Pressing the play button on the recorder, he flipped through the comic to summon the headless woman and Foul Odor. Then, Chen Ge entered the forest.
The rain fell on the leaves, and the sound of dripping echoed in his ears. It felt like the forest and the outside world were two different worlds.
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