Cloud Thinking

"Strange thing?" The little boy on the far right repeated it, looking at the two people on the left. They looked at each other and recalled the past seriously.

"Well, I want to know if you have noticed anything wrong with your dean, or if Jepas, who has been taking care of you, has done anything unusual." Helia explained.

After waiting for a while, the little girl raised her hand hesitantly and said weakly, "I seem to remember that last month, I got up at night to go to the bathroom. I was scared, so I took Bami who was sleeping next to me with me. When we passed by Jepas's room, we found that his door was not closed properly."

"Bami has always liked brother Jepas and always pesters him. When she saw that the door was not closed and the light was on, she thought that brother was busy and wanted to help."

"When I opened the door, I found that there was no one in the room, but the window was wide open and wind was blowing in. Maybe the door was also blown open."

"I was in a hurry to go to the toilet, and was about to leave with Bami when I discovered something very scary..."

"There are only Bami and I in the room, but there are three shadows on the ground..."

After she finished saying this, she was frightened by the little kid next to her who was afraid of grabbing her and screamed. The little boy was frightened by her scream and also screamed. The three of them huddled together and shivered.

Helia: ...

Helia: That guy, Qiqi, must have discovered that someone had broken into his territory, so he deliberately scared the two kids so that they wouldn't dare to break in again.

Pass, next one!

"Sometimes I find that the dean seems to have become a different person." said the little boy.

"What? Tell me more." Helia was obviously interested. She put down her legs and leaned forward. She rested her elbows on her apart knees, crossed her hands and rested them on her chin, looking at the boy seriously.

"It's just a feeling. Sometimes when I look at the dean, I always feel a little uncomfortable." The little boy frowned. "I can't tell what the feeling is, but it's just weird."

Helia: Well said. Don't say it next time. It just keeps me in suspense.

The little one sitting in the middle raised her chubby arms like lotus roots and stared at Helia with big eyes. It seemed that she wanted to say something, but Helia didn't have much expectation. The little one looked so small, what could he know?

"I often see the dean go out to play alone after dark, and he doesn't let us go with him." Asini said vaguely with her mouth missing two teeth.

Helia:?

In the end, it was the little guy she least relied on who gave her the clue she wanted.

"Where did Grandpa Dean go to play?" Helia asked.

"Well... it's at the back, where there are a lot of trees. The dean won't let us get close." Asini replied. She jumped off the sofa and ran to the window of the reception room. She stretched her hands up to grab the windowsill, but because it was not high enough, she couldn't see outside at all. So she turned around and called Helia over, "Sister, come here, come here, I'll show you."

Helia walked over, bent down and picked up Asini. She could tell that the Dulu Orphanage did not mistreat the younger children, and her arms were shaking.

Asini leaned contentedly in Helia's arms, looking at the lush scenery outside the window for a while, and finally stretched out her chubby finger to the east.

"There, there is a muddy road. Every time I followed it, I only got to a big tree before my grandfather chased me back."

"So there's something in the woods, and Dean often stays up at night and sneaks in, right?" Helia asked.

Asini nodded vigorously.

"How long does the dean usually stay in there? Have you ever waited outside?" Helia asked again.

Asini shook her head. "I, Fanny and I waited together, but it was dark, we were scared, and we were cold and sleepy, so we went back soon."

"When the dean found out that you were following him, was he angry with you?" Helia put Asini down. This guy was too heavy for her to carry.

Asini thought about it seriously, and then nodded, "Grandpa spoke fiercely at that time, and he didn't smile. He must have been angry."

"He also asked me not to tell anyone about this."

"Oh? Then why did you tell me?" Helia was a little confused. Could it be that Tarod was taking advantage of even a child and wanted to use Asini to lure her to the forest?

"Because my sister wanted to know, and she brought us lots of food. Fanny and I both like her very much!" Asini replied.

"Really? You were so scared of me just now that you didn't even dare to look at me. I can't tell that you like me very much." Helia didn't quite believe it. Children are naive. She probably would lie if someone coaxed her with delicious food or fun things. Maybe someone had taught her how to deal with people who asked this question before.

"Because, because my sister looked very fierce, and she even kicked the door of grandpa's room..." Asini lowered his head and said embarrassedly.

It turns out that she was also one of the eyewitnesses in the corridor at the time. No wonder he was afraid of her.

"So now you don't think I'm mean?" Helia asked again, "Besides telling me about this, have you told anyone else?"

Asini raised her head and said excitedly: "Hehe! Except for Brother Jepas and Aunt Demary, everyone else knows!" She put her hands on her hips proudly, as if she was proud of it.

Helia: It turns out that this guy is just a leaky mouth, he can't keep secrets... He made her worry so much...

"Did the dean take anything when he went in?" Helia deliberately asked, so she naturally wanted to get closer to the other person. She hugged the person in her arms and sat back on the sofa.

She deliberately glanced at the expressions of the two children opposite her, and they didn't seem very surprised. It seemed that they had known about this for a long time. This also proved what Asini said before, that he had told almost everyone about this matter.

"It seemed like he was carrying something, something big and heavy. I saw that grandpa looked very tired from lifting it." Asini said while recalling, "but it was too dark, so we couldn't see clearly what it was, and grandpa wouldn't let us get close to him."

"Then did you smell any strange smells or hear any strange sounds?" Helia continued to ask. Since she didn't see it, she would ask if she heard or smelled it. After all, her nose was often more sensitive than her ears and eyes.

Apparently Asini had never paid attention to these things, so after Helia asked, her chubby little face wrinkled with thought, and she stroked the non-existent beard on her chin like a little adult, stroking it again and again. It should be that Tarod often did this, and she imitated him unconsciously after watching him for a long time.

"It seems, it seems that I do smell a strange smell, but, but, I can't remember what it is." Asini said a little disappointed, but soon she cheered up again, grabbed Helia's wrist and shook it, "Sister, you can find Fanny, maybe she still remembers it!"

"Could you please call Fanny over for me?" Helia looked at the two children who were sitting quietly opposite her and said gently with an approachable smile.

"Let me go. I seemed to see Fanny playing outside the house just now." The little boy took the initiative to take on the task, got up and ran out.

Soon, the little boy came back with Fanny. Strangely enough, Assini was plump and looked blessed, but Fanny was unexpectedly thin, with a sallow face, and looked like she was malnourished.

Didn't they all grow up in orphanages? Why is there such a big difference? Is Tarod biased? Or is bullying already present in the orphanage?

Oh my god, no way...

"Fanny, Fanny! Do you remember when we secretly followed grandpa to the big tree behind? Did you smell a strange smell at that time?" Asini jumped out of Helia's arms excitedly, pulled Fanny to sit next to Helia, and said anxiously with wide eyes.

Fanny should be slightly older than Asini, at least in terms of mental age, she is definitely precocious. She looked at Asini calmly, and then looked at Helia, staring at her for a while, as if confirming something.

"I was a little curious about what was going on in the hospital, so I asked them. If you still remember, it would have been a great help to me." Seeing her coming, Helia took the initiative to explain.

Fanny then spoke up, "Well, I was close at the time, and I smelled a scent of blood coming from the dean's body, and water was still dripping from the cloth bag in the dean's hand." She remembered the incident very clearly, but Helia couldn't help but doubt it.

"How do you know it smells like blood?" Helia asked. "Asini said it was dark at the time. How did you clearly see the bag in the abbot's hand and see it dripping? Did you remember it wrongly, or is there something else?"

"It's the smell of blood." Fanny said firmly, "When Aunt Demary killed the kitten I adopted, I hid in the kitchen cabinet where the ingredients were stored. I will never forget that smell in my life."

Helia: Oh no! This is another piece of incredible news!

"Although it was dark that night, there was a moon in the sky. With the moonlight, I could vaguely see the outline of what the dean was holding. It was a bag, but I had no idea what was inside."

"Dripping water is my guess. On the way back, I found a water stain on the muddy road, intermittently, as if I was carrying something with water, but the bag had a hole, so it leaked all the way."

"But because the dirt road was so dirty, I couldn't tell what kind of water it was."

Helia nodded, indicating that she understood. "Besides this, do you remember any other abnormalities?"

Fanny glanced at Asini, then looked back at Helia, and replied, "I, after I sent Asini back, I ran back to hide under the big tree by myself, wanting to see what the dean was doing."

"I heard the dean's voice coming from the woods. He seemed to be talking to someone, but because he spoke very quietly and the insects were chirping very loudly, I couldn't hear clearly what he said."

"Then, I heard banging sounds, like..." Fanny ran to the wooden door of the reception room, raised her hand and slapped it twice, making banging sounds, "It was almost like this."

"You..." Before Helia could question, Fanny immediately explained, "Because after a few bangs, the insects in the forest stopped chirping. It was so quiet that I could even hear my own breathing."

"But during that very quiet time, the dean didn't say anything. I heard a few more bangs, and then some crunching chewing sounds. It seemed like something was eating in the woods..."

"I thought about the bag of bloody stuff the dean was carrying when he came. I suspected that the dean had raised some monster in the forest. That monster must be very scary and could not be discovered by anyone, so the dean could only come secretly to feed it in the middle of the night."

"I know some monsters have a very keen sense of smell. Even if I'm standing very far away, I can still smell it." Fanny's pale little face was full of fear. She hugged herself, as if she was back to that night, hiding behind the haystack, trembling with fear at her own imagination.

"So I ran back, but I fell on the way, and they must have noticed I was eavesdropping!"

Helia: If you eavesdrop, you will definitely fall and be discovered on the way out. This is a unique routine in novels:)

"So, did the dean talk to you later?" Helia pulled the frightened Fanny over, half hugged her in her arms, and showed her humanitarian care.