I've already said this isn't a life simulator!

Perhaps you've already fallen into someone's trap.

Chapter Three: Trap

The priest is becoming increasingly enthusiastic, which makes you very uncomfortable, especially after you realize that things aren't as wonderful as they seem, and you start to have some bad thoughts.

You hope it's all just your imagination, you try to comfort yourself that it's all normal, after all, the priest's reasons are very convincing... but you still subconsciously start acting on it.

You try to bond with the other children, but they refuse to associate with you, the "bad kid." You seek help from the nuns, but instead receive warnings and scoldings. Sometimes they even call the priest to discuss punishing you.

Although the priest would gloss over any punishments with a smile, the scolding and constant rejections made you increasingly silent and uneasy, especially after your room was specially moved to a separate room.

This wasn't a privilege; rather, it was more like a punishment, or a mark of being a "bad kid"—all the "bad kids" lived in single rooms, but the buildings weren't located with the other children; they were closer to the church's backyard, where there were only rooms for the "bad kids" and a storage room.

It's very quiet here, eerily quiet. When you learn that there's a cemetery behind the warehouse, you feel a strange fear. The cramped space and single small window in the room make it feel like a small cage.

That night, the priest knocked on your door. Although you didn't answer and locked the door, it was all in vain. The priest had keys to all the rooms, and he still got in easily.

Seeing that you weren't asleep and were even huddled in a corner watching him warily, the priest didn't seem too concerned. He simply smiled and gently asked why you weren't sleeping after the lights were turned off.

You didn't respond to him, but just stared at him warily. He seemed to have just come in to take a look, and after saying "Go to bed early" once more, he closed the door and left.

Because of the priest's arrival, you didn't sleep well. Even though you locked the door again, you nervously stared at the doorway in the middle of the night, too afraid to fall asleep. This left you with tired eyes all day the next day. At this time, the "bad kids" seemed to have officially accepted you. Perhaps it was mockery, perhaps comfort, but in any case, you were just like them—that's what they said.

The teacher from "school" came again. When he saw you hanging out with "bad kids" again, he seemed somewhat displeased. After negotiating with the priest for a while, he seemed to be persuaded by the priest, but he gave you a rather regretful look.

That time, the "school" picked up a few more children than last time, but the children didn't seem to care much. The chosen children cheered, relieved that they had been selected, while the children who weren't chosen saw off the selected children, feeling regretful that they hadn't been chosen themselves.

You and the "bad kids" silently watched all this, watching the "school bus" gradually disappear into the distance. You opened your mouth several times, wanting to say something, but then you looked around at the cheering children, the indifferent nuns, and the ever-smiling priest, and you closed your mouth again.

[As you've vaguely guessed, that "school" is probably fake too.]

The words "child trafficking" suddenly pop into your mind, and you feel a chill and anger towards them, but this feeling quickly subsides, replaced by endless fear and unease.

As the days went by, the priest, seemingly having conspired beforehand, began to act more and more blatantly. He would come to see you almost every night, and the time he stayed began to increase. Although he would leave each time under your watchful gaze, you felt increasingly helpless.

One night, you faintly hear a child crying and a priest talking next door. The sounds are muffled, probably because the room is well soundproofed.

You have a very bad suspicion.

The next day, you noticed that the child next door was almost dragging his tired body as he walked over. His eyes were red and swollen with tears, and the tear stains on his face hadn't been washed off. His gait was also strange.

The other children and nuns, however, turned a blind eye. The children might not have known anything, but the nuns offered no concern whatsoever, merely maintaining the most basic formalities...and sometimes even resorting to direct reprimands.

The other "bad kids" seemed used to this, only saying to the child, "You had a tough night, didn't you?" and after receiving a nod, they didn't pay any more attention.

These things seem to have become so commonplace that the child has even rejected your concern.

You vaguely sense that this has happened many times before, and you didn't know it before simply because you hadn't heard the sounds. This kind of thing might happen every day.

And you could very well be next.

No one will help you, and no one will care, because everyone here is already "used to" this kind of thing; it's "taken for granted" that it happens. You don't even know who around you can ask for help.

Fear, accompanied by despair, swept over us.

However, you didn't give up hope. You thought you should ask the police for help, believing they could definitely help you. Also, thanks to your seemingly innate strong memory, you still remembered the route the priest took you to the police station. So you discussed with a few other "bad kids" you were on good terms with, to see if you could find an opportunity to seek help from the police.

Some children are unwilling and even advise you not to have this idea. They say that if you can leave, it's better to just run away, even if they don't know where they can escape to.

However, some children are willing to help you; after a slight hesitation, they choose to assist you.

After several days of discussion and testing, you have come up with a solution that is roughly feasible.

[The departure time cannot be during the day. From the time you wake up in the morning, all the children will move together under the supervision of the priest and nuns. Although you can move around freely, if there are fewer than a few people, you will be discovered immediately. Therefore, the departure time can only be set at night, and because of the priest, you must move around in the middle of the night.]

The wall behind the warehouse leading to the cemetery is relatively low. Using some of the surrounding debris, you can barely climb over the wall, and then you can slip through the gaps in the iron bars of the cemetery gate to leave.

The priest only goes to the cemetery to clean on Wednesday afternoons, and only once a week. He usually only appears at the cemetery entrance in the morning and evening. He doesn't enter the cemetery at other times unless someone comes to bury someone or visit a grave, so there's no need to worry about being seen.

In addition, you believe it is necessary to take a child to meet with the police officer, preferably with injuries inflicted by the priest, so as to at least confirm the fact that the priest "abused the child."

[As for leaving the room, which should have been the most troublesome step, it turned out to be the easiest, because the priest always left the door unlocked when entering or leaving the room, a habit seemingly developed to make it easier for him to enter and leave the children's rooms. Ironically, it was these "naughty children" who locked their doors to sleep every night.]

In other words, they could have left directly on the night of their "escape." Of course, to avoid suspicion, they had to lock the door before the priest arrived and wait until he had come and left before taking any action, so as to avoid the priest discovering anything amiss.

"To be on the safe side, it's best to wait until the priest begins before leaving," a child suggested. Although this suggestion was hurtful and very inappropriate, it did have a point.

This suggestion was naturally met with opposition when it was first made. Although people were used to "that kind of thing," it was better not to experience it if they could avoid it, since... it would hurt.

However, this suggestion was ultimately adopted because the child who made the suggestion voluntarily took on the responsibility, reasoning that "whoever makes the suggestion is naturally responsible."

You were deeply moved. You could see the difficulty and reluctance he felt in making this decision from his expression, as well as his final resoluteness. In the days following the decision, you almost compensated him, as if that was the only way to make yourself feel better.

The next few days went smoothly. You lived your lives as usual, and the priest and nun didn't notice anything amiss. On the night of the planned event, the operation also went well. You locked the door again, huddled in the corner of the bed, and warily watched the priest as he seemingly entered naturally in the middle of the night. After he left, you waited a while before quietly opening the door and walking slowly down the corridor.

As you passed a room, you heard faint sounds coming from the doorway. You could vaguely make out the voices of a child and a priest. You pursed your lips, knowing it was time to take action.

You knocked on the door of the child's room, the room you had agreed to leave together as "evidence," and softly called out his name to prove your identity with your voice. Then you both quickly left—thanks to the soundproofing here, you could act more boldly and quickly.

Everything went smoothly. You went around to the back of the warehouse, used the piles of debris to climb over the fence, squeezed through the gaps in the iron bars of the cemetery gate, and then, relying on the still-good moonlight and the scattered streetlights, found the familiar road and headed in the direction you remembered leading to the police station.

----------

"Is this really the way out, Wang?"

The young boy wrapped his clothes tighter around himself; the night, growing colder as winter approached, felt especially chilly.

"Of course, I remember."

Xi Wang responded firmly, seemingly exceptionally confident in his memory.

"But it seems like we've been walking for a long time..."

"It hasn't even been an hour yet."

"How about... we just forget about it? It's okay if we don't go... Anyway, the priest gave us a place to stay, food, and clothes, so we can tolerate that kind of thing... right?"

In the end, even his own tone became less firm.

“That’s not a reason for him to do that kind of thing.”

As Xi Wang searched for the path in her memory, she spoke, while tightening her clothes to keep warm. After a short pause, she continued.

"Besides, Wright has already helped us stall the priest, we can't let his efforts go to waste... If we hurry, we can go back and catch him red-handed."

"Yeah...yes..."

The boy seemed to realize what his words had meant, and his eyes unconsciously darted to the side, his tone becoming even more guilty.

"...It'll be here soon, almost there."

Xi Wang spoke softly, seemingly trying to soothe his emotions, or perhaps speaking to herself.

Following the road she remembered for a while, Xi Wang saw a few familiar signs. Overjoyed, she quickly led the boy forward and soon arrived at the place that would surely help her—the police station.

Even late at night, the lights are still on here, and you can vaguely see the police officers still working hard inside, chatting and joking with each other to relieve their ever-increasing drowsiness.

"Great!"

Xi Wang spoke excitedly, her expression showing a hint of relief, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her heart. She then quickly led the boy into the police station, preparing to seek their help.

"Hey little guy, what are you doing here so late instead of sleeping at home?"

When Xi Wang pushed open the door and entered, several police officers on duty noticed the two little ones and asked them in a tone that was half joking and half questioning.

"Officer, we need help."

Xi Wang said very seriously, then gently pulled over the boy with a stiff expression, pulled up his sleeve to reveal the scars still remaining on his arm.

Judging from the depth of the wounds, this falls into the category of abuse. Coupled with the boy's slightly reluctant expression, these wounds are definitely not limited to his arm.

"Oh?"

Several officers looked at you, then at the marks on the boy's hands, and frowned, seemingly displeased that such a young child had been abused.

Xi Wang noticed this and seized the opportunity to tell them everything the priest had done, and that a child was being abused by the priest at that moment.

"This is truly... outrageous, how could such a thing happen?"

One of the officers stepped forward, gently pulled down the boy's sleeve to cover his injuries, and then looked the boy in the eye.

"Child, tell me, can you guarantee that this was all done by that priest, right?"

"…………Um."

The boy glanced timidly at the police officer in front of him, then at Xi Wang standing to the side, who was encouraging him with his eyes. He then lowered his head, nodded slightly, and responded in an almost faint voice.

"...It's unbelievable! That priest actually did such a thing in private!"

The officer, having received the answer, remained silent for a moment before speaking in an almost indignant tone.

That priest seems to have a very good reputation.

The thought flashed through Xi Wang's mind subconsciously.

“Come on, children! We’ll take you back! People like this must be punished!”

But soon, the police officer took the boy's hand and walked him outside. At the same time, apart from those who needed to stay in the police station to continue their shifts, several police officers with indignant expressions led Xi Wang out, which made Xi Wang stop thinking about it.

The police will help us—that's what he thought.

Several police officers took the boy into a police car, while others took Xiwang into another police car.

"Don't be afraid, child, we will protect you."

In the back seat of the car, a police officer smiled and gently patted Xi Wang's back, who looked slightly anxious and nervous, and said softly.

"……Um."

Xi Wang nodded, relaxing slightly.

He didn't sense anything was wrong, nor did he think there was anything wrong with it, after all, "if you have trouble, go to the police" is the right thing to do.

However, when everyone returned to the church, what Xiwang saw was a peaceful and serene courtyard, a priest who seemed to have come out to greet them after hearing the alarm, and police officers who greeted the priest with great familiarity...

They chatted familiarly with each other, seemingly exchanging a few jokes and gossiping about everyday matters. Then, the police officers gently nudged the boy who had been keeping his head down and fidgeting with the hem of his clothes, gestured to the priest, and then pointed to you, who were still in the car.

"........."

The priest looked over at them, a slight smile in his eyes as he gazed at Xi Wang.

!!!

Xi Wang's expression turned to terror in an instant, and realizing something was wrong, he immediately tried to get out of the car and run away.

only……