Nightmare Light

Chapter 209 The Hidden Passage of the Orphanage
It's too late to say.

The moment Lin Wang shouted "Be careful!", he had already moved.

Caught off guard by the expectant gazes of all the teachers around him, Lin Wang took a step forward, reached out, and grabbed at Dean Shen.

Then, his hand brushed past her and grabbed a chubby little boy next to her by the back of his collar.

"Wow! I'll bite you! Kill me..."

The little boy had a gloomy look in his eyes and a fierce expression. Black tears streamed from the corners of his eyes as he struggled frantically in his hand.

But Lin Wang was too tall and his arms were too long. The little boy struggled for a long time but could only grab Lin Wang's elbows. He couldn't hurt him at all.

"Lin Wang?" Dean Shen was somewhat surprised, looking at Lin Wang and the chubby little child in his arms. "How did you find him?"

“When I came in, the child hid behind me, he tried to avoid me,” Lin Wang said.

"That's normal. Children will hide when they see strangers," said Dean Shen.

“No, a child’s dodging is—hiding behind an adult, but peeking out to look at you curiously.” Lin Wang shook his head. “But this kid hid his whole body behind you, trying to hide his eyes… I suspected at the time that he was already sick, just not showing symptoms.”

"You saw so much in such a short moment?" Dean Shen looked at Lin Wang in surprise, then began to worry, "We'll have to lock up another child... We'll run out of rooms soon..."

At this moment, the chubby child in Lin Wang's arms was crying and making a fuss. Lin Wang glanced at the child a few times, then suddenly glared at him fiercely and shook his hand violently a few times.

"Stop making a scene!"

The child was almost shaken out of shape. After Lin Wang stopped moving, he was stunned for a few moments and actually calmed down!

This was quite unexpected for the teachers—they had tried for a long time before, but they simply couldn't communicate with these sick children!

"Lin Wang, how did you do that?"

"I don't know either. I just saw him making a fuss, so I wanted to scare him a little..." Lin Wang himself was unsure of the reason. "Could it be that his illness isn't serious?"

“No, all the children before, once they started having black tears in their eyes, would become extremely aggressive and unable to communicate,” A-Zhe said. “You are the first child we have met who can listen to adults.”

"Ha, so this kid is a good boy after all?" Lin Wang raised his other hand and flicked the chubby boy's forehead. The boy first bared his teeth at him, but then looked a little scared, shrank his neck, and did not resist.

"Look!" A-Zhe exclaimed in surprise, "Little Baozi really reacts to Lin Wang!"

"Lin Wang can actually communicate with these children..." Dean Shen was also surprised, but then his expression changed, and he glared at Lin Wang, "Then you are not allowed to be mean to the children!"

"..." Lin Wang's face twitched, and he forcibly changed the subject, "The problem now is, the remaining children..."

He paused, not revealing his unspoken meaning, and continued, "And, more importantly, we need to find a way to help them get treatment."

“Treatment…” Dean Shen paused for a moment, “The problem is, how to treat it? The doctor has already come before, but it didn’t work.”

"First, I believe this matter is definitely related to the actions of the defector priests—so this is not a simple illness, but some kind of supernatural problem."

"Secondly, I guess that the defector priest's goal was definitely not our orphanage... but our orphanage should have some kind of 'overlap' with her target location, which made her have to stop here."

He looked around and asked Director Shen, "Does our orphanage have any places that 'exist but the children are never allowed to go to'?"

"Yes, in the cafeteria. They always sneak food there. Last time, Little Baozi ate half a pound of raw flour..."

"I'm not talking about that kind of place!" "Oh." Dean Shen smiled awkwardly, rubbing his stomach. "You mean, those mysterious, eerie old basement places or something?"

"Correct."

“We’re an orphanage, how could there be a place like that!” A-Zhe shouted from the side, glaring at Lin Wang.

"In fact, there really is." Dean Shen hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Huh?" A-Zhe was stunned, extremely confused, and looked at Dean Shen.

Dean Shen, supporting her belly, turned around and walked laboriously toward the side of the stairs: "Come with me."

At this moment, another child started to have a fit, but after Lin Wanglin shook him in his hand, he also calmed down.

He found it troublesome to carry them, so he put one under each armpit, sandwiching the two sick children between his armpits, making them look like a bear that had just stolen corn.

But as comical as it may be, Lin Wang's actions were utterly incomprehensible to the adult teachers—they knew better than anyone how aggressive those children with illnesses were, but now, after being shaken by Lin Wang, they were as docile as rag dolls…

The group followed Dean Shen to the end of the stairwell.

Dean Shen took out the key and unlocked the door.

It was a very common storage room, filled with odds and ends, containing some cleaning supplies, as well as many children's items and toys.

"This... isn't this a storage room?" A-Zhe muttered. "I remember often sneaking into this room to play when I was a kid... I never noticed any secret passages in here, did I? Otherwise, I would definitely have gone down to check it out..."

"Luckily, you're just a weak kid. If you had Lin Wang's strength and physique, you might have found him back then." Dean Shen didn't turn around and gestured to an older teacher to help her move the clutter out of the room.

After moving all the things, she asked two teachers to carry out the storage lockers inside.

Behind the cabinet, the mottled, aged wall surface is visible.

People's eyes widened—right in the center of the wall was an old metal pull ring.

"Huh? Our orphanage has such a fun place?" A-Zhe exclaimed. "How come I didn't find it back then!"

"Luckily you didn't find it back then... and luckily this place is well hidden, otherwise who knows how much trouble you would have caused." Dean Shen complained about his female teacher, then looked at Lin Wang, "Lin Wang, this is it."

Where does this place lead?

"To be honest, I don't know either."

Dean Shen shook his head.

“The buildings in this orphanage are very old—they even date back to the Three Sovereigns period. They have undergone countless repairs and reconstructions, so there are some places that I have never even been to.”

She pointed to the hidden door: "This tunnel leads deep into the building. When I was young, I went down there once with the old director."

"But it was dark and narrow down there, with many branches. The old dean and I... as women, were really scared in that kind of environment."

"Later, we were worried that children might get into danger if they went in, so we turned this place into a storage room and completely hid the door."

(End of this chapter)