Nighttime, Children's Welfare Home
Bai Liu (6) lay on the bed and silently opened his eyes. An intermittent flute melody had awakened him. Everyone else in the room was still asleep. The children had been running around all night and had exhausted themselves. They were all sound asleep—except for Bai Liu (6), who was always alert.
He quietly climbed down from the bed and put on his shoes. Then he glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. It was 2 a.m.
In the dormitory late at night, only the children's faint snoring could be heard. They were curled up on their beds, their small bodies covered with quilts. Even Mu Ke had pulled the quilt over his head, as if trying to protect himself.
In fact, if someone wanted to, they could easily harm these children.
Bai Liu (6) watched as the door to their room slowly creaked open. The wooden door moved in rhythm with the flute, revealing the dark, eerie corridor outside. There was no one there. The door had opened by itself.
The continuous, melodious, almost cheerful sound of the flute drifted in. The children sleeping on the beds began to twist uneasily. Their hands and feet moved as if they were trapped in some enchanted dream.
Seeing this, Bai Liu (6) immediately shook Mu Ke awake.
No wonder he hadn't been affected by the flute. The sound worked only on sleeping children. Bai Liu (6) had just arrived at the welfare home and slept lightly in unfamiliar places. The moment the flute began to play, he had awakened—thus avoiding its hypnotic effect.
Mu Ke gradually woke after being pushed. He rubbed his eyes, his forehead damp with sweat, breathing heavily in confusion. He stared at Bai Liu (6), who stood at the head of the bed, still half-trapped between sleep and wakefulness.
Mu Ke half-squinted, drowsily swung his legs off the bed, put on his shoes, and started walking toward the corridor. His voice was dull and distant.
"We have to leave this welfare home. They'll draw our blood and kill us…"
"Wake up. You were dreaming under the flute's hypnosis." Bai Liu (6) grabbed Mu Ke's wrist just as he was about to step outside. He pulled him back and narrowed his eyes.
Mu Ke's eyes were clear now.
He was trembling. His face was flushed from sleep, but his gaze was sharp, a thin layer of tears gathering from fear.
"It wasn't a dream…" Mu Ke's voice shook. The vision had clearly terrified him. "I saw nurses tying us to hospital beds. They stuck syringes into the backs of our hands and feet. Blood flowed through infusion tubes and dripped into stainless steel containers. Later, there was no more blood left to draw…"
Mu Ke shrank in fear, hugging himself.
"They used thick black needles—like the ones for livestock—on our scalps and faces. They wrapped rubber tubes around our necks to press on the blood vessels so it would be easier to draw blood…"
"We were tied down and suffocated until our faces turned purple. We struggled desperately, but we couldn't escape…"
Tears welled in Mu Ke's eyes as he looked at the calm, unmoving Bai Liu (6). Panic rose in him. He grabbed Bai Liu (6)'s hand, trying to pull him along.
"I swear it wasn't a dream! I saw what will happen after tomorrow's baptism! Those investors are bad people! They're funding us so they can drain all our blood! They aren't helping us for free. Let's run—please, let's get out of here!"
"Of course, they aren't funding us for free." Bai Liu (6)'s tone was icy. "Nothing in this world is free—especially not for children like us, who have little value. The only valuable thing about us is our bodies. Naturally, that's what they invested in. What's so surprising about that? Isn't it obvious?"
Mu Ke stared at him in shock. "You already knew they were bad people?"
"They aren't bad people," Bai Liu (6) replied calmly. "They're consumers with the ability to purchase our bodies." His emotionless eyes were fixed on Mu Ke.
"We're the ones without the ability to buy ourselves. We're commodities—bought and sold at will. We exist only as goods. So it's normal to be purchased. They're going to draw our blood!" Mu Ke shouted.
Bai Liu (6) glanced at him indifferently. "So what? Do you think the people outside are any better? Maybe they'll draw your blood too. Maybe they'll eat your flesh—or do something worse. Do you have the ability to resist? Does escaping change anything? Before you gain the ability to buy others, escaping doesn't matter. As merchandise, you'd just be moving from a small shelf to a bigger one."
Mu Ke was completely stunned. He opened his mouth to argue, but no words came.
"You…" Bai Liu (6) paused. "How old are you?"
Mu Ke's eyes filled with tears again. He twisted his fingers and sniffed. "I-I'm eleven."
"Oh. Eleven." Bai Liu (6)'s voice remained indifferent. "Don't be so naïve, Mu Ke. Every Sunday, a group of children disappears from this welfare home. They're clearly selected. All the children in our group are exceptionally good-looking. At first, I thought they were taken to…"
His gaze briefly lingered on Mu Ke's delicate face and the pale shoulder exposed from his pajamas.
Mu Ke blinked innocently. "Taken to do what?"
Bai Liu (6) tilted his head and changed the subject. "…Nothing."
Initially, he had suspected the welfare home was involved in child exploitation. That had been his first thought when his investor told him to protect Mu Ke and Liu Jiayi. From experience, such places often bred that sort of business.
But he soon realized it wasn't that simple.
These dying investors wanted something else. If it were merely for lust, they would have acted the very first night. Yet a day had passed, and they had done nothing overt—only maintaining one-way contact through the phone.
Bai Liu (6) suspected the investors themselves might not fully understand why they had purchased these "goods." Perhaps they were still exploring their purpose.
Charitable publicity? Emotional comfort before death? Some desperate superstition—that doing good deeds might prolong their lives? Yet these explanations felt indirect.
Across from the welfare home stood a hospital. That fact led Bai Liu (6) to a more direct possibility. The children could be used as medicine.
That might include psychological comfort—like the baptism ceremony at the church inside the Love Welfare Institute. The church was lavishly decorated, clearly symbolic. Perhaps the investors sought some kind of spiritual treatment through charity and prayer. But there was also a far more practical method of treatment. Using the children's bodies directly.
Bai Liu (6) looked at Mu Ke calmly. "From the first day we arrived, I knew my role was to be medicine. I just didn't know which part of me would be used. Now it seems to be blood."
Mu Ke shook his head in disbelief. "If you knew, why didn't you run? You even talked to your investor on the phone for half an hour last night! He isn't a good person—he's a blood-sucking monster!"
Bai Liu (6) stared at him coldly.
"First, the Love Welfare Institute is completely enclosed. We can't leave except on Open Day. Second, if my investor hadn't paid me to protect you, I wouldn't have cared if you died in front of me last night. Even if he's a monster, he's the monster who saved you. You should understand that."
Mu Ke froze, then protested, "He's saving me for my blood!"
"Impossible." Bai Liu (6)'s eyes darkened slightly. "I may not understand his true purpose, but he did give up his own life. He prioritized saving you, Liu Jiayi, and me. If he simply wanted your blood, he could've paid me to help him. You would've been drained tonight."
Mu Ke's face turned pale. He stumbled backward, crossing his arms protectively over his chest. "How can you say something like that?!"
Bai Liu (6) looked at him, then suddenly felt the urge to tease him cruelly. He stepped forward, spreading his hands as if to grab him. "How can I?" he echoed softly. "By your standards, am I worse than the investor who saved you, little eleven-year-old Mu Ke?"
Mu Ke stumbled back several steps, nearly falling as tears streamed down his face. "Ahh—don't come closer!"
After thoroughly scaring Mu Ke, Bai Liu (6) withdrew his hands and returned to his usual expressionless demeanor.
"Even if all the investors here are bloodsuckers, my investor is still on our side. It would be too easy for him to kill you. Since he's helping us, you'd better listen to him and stop acting rashly."
Mu Ke nodded frantically. He was still shaken by Bai Liu (6), and his chest felt tight with lingering fear. "Y-Yes, I understand!"
After confirming that Mu Ke would behave, Bai Liu (6) turned and walked toward the corridor. He stood behind the bedroom door—which had been opened by something—and looked out.
Then he frowned.
In the corridor, where the flute melody echoed, several bedroom doors stood open. The hanging lamps, draped in cobwebs, swayed gently in the night breeze. Along with the flute came the sounds of children running and faint laughter, echoing clearly through the long, empty hallway.
But none of that was what made Bai Liu (6) frown. "Something is coming in."
Mu Ke hid behind him. He didn't dare stay alone, nor could he fall back asleep. Summoning his courage, he followed Bai Liu (6)'s gaze into the corridor. Hearing those words, he became confused. "I don't see anything…"
"Look up," Bai Liu (6) said quietly. "At the ceiling."
Mu Ke's neck moved stiffly, like rusty machinery, as he slowly lifted his head.
The corridor had deep, narrow arches more than a meter wide. Colorful oil paintings of animals decorated the curved surfaces. At night, the animals looked ghostly, their painted eyes seeming to gleam like real predators.
Normally, that sight alone terrified Mu Ke. But now there was something far worse. Dozens of children hung from the arches like bats. They were entangled in bloodstained IV bags and tubing. The dense tubes wrapped around their bodies, with needles embedded in the walls. They moved by repeatedly stabbing the needles into the surface, dragging themselves forward.
They looked exactly like the children from Mu Ke's nightmare. Their faces were shriveled and dry, like sun-dried orange peels stretched over skulls. Their limbs were thin and frail, like malnourished dolls with oversized heads. Their eyes—huge against their withered faces—stared blankly. Their eyelids had shrunk so much that half of each eyeball bulged grotesquely outward.
Translucent IV bags of different colors draped around them like floral skirts. And they were playing flutes. But these were no ordinary flutes. They were oversized syringe barrels, with holes drilled along the sides. The needles were crusted with dried blood. When pressed against their thin, cracked lips, the instruments produced a strange, piercing melody.
"The Pied Piper," Bai Liu (6) murmured, realization dawning. "No wonder I couldn't find a flute player yesterday. The sound came from everywhere because they're on the ceiling."
Mu Ke's legs went weak. He clutched the hem of Bai Liu (6)'s clothes. "L-Let's go back to sleep…"
Bai Liu (6) ignored him entirely. He stared upward, watching as the flute-playing children slipped into different open bedrooms. Without hesitation, he followed.
Mu Ke nearly fainted at the sight. But the thought of being left alone in a room with the door wide open terrified him even more. Trembling and tearful, he followed behind Bai Liu (6) like a reluctant shadow.
Inside the rooms, the flute children stood upside down on the ceilings, their massive eyes rolling as if ready to pop from their sockets. They twisted their heads at unnatural angles, almost parallel to the ground, and observed the sleeping children below.
Bai Liu (6) hid beside a half-open door. He didn't enter. Instead, he leaned forward slightly, watching through the crack.
One of the ceiling children moved slowly across the room, tilting its head as it examined each sleeping child. Finally, it stopped above one bed.
As if locking onto its prey. The tentacle-like IV tubes descended and gently lifted the child's quilt.
Mu Ke nearly suffocated from fear. He clamped both hands over his mouth to stop himself from screaming.
The sleeping child woke abruptly, clearly jolted from a nightmare induced by the flute—just like Mu Ke had been. Panic flooded his face.
Then he saw the creature above him. He almost screamed—but an IV tube instantly covered his mouth. The ceiling child made strange gestures with the tubing.
Moments later, the awakened child broke into delighted laughter. He eagerly jumped out of bed, put on his shoes, and followed the creature outside.
Bai Liu (6) quickly retreated to his own room and shut the door, leaving it open just a crack to observe the corridor.
One by one, each flute-playing child entered a different bedroom and emerged with a smiling child. The creatures played their grotesque syringe-flutes while the selected children lined up, singing cheerfully.
They walked away in a neat procession—just like the scene Bai Liu (6) had witnessed the previous day.
Suddenly, the procession stopped. Every ceiling child tilted its head in unison. Their lifeless eyes turned toward the crack in the door where Bai Liu (6) was watching.
Behind him, Mu Ke tugged frantically at his coat, tears brimming in his eyes. He covered his mouth tightly, terrified he would make a sound. Then Mu Ke slowly raised a trembling finger and pointed upward.
Bai Liu (6) paused before lifting his head. A child with a crooked neck, shriveled face, and ping-pong-ball-sized eyes was staring directly at him. It must have entered their room earlier.
IV tubes still trailed from its body, wrapped around another child in their bedroom. That child now stood beside it, smiling blankly. The creature watched Bai Liu (6) and the trembling Mu Ke. Its lips stretched into a strange smile.
Slowly, Bai Liu (6) opened the door wider. The creature bounced out into the corridor with its chosen child. But before leaving, it hovered above Bai Liu (6) and Mu Ke, brushing them lightly with its IV tubes—as if confirming something.
Then, expressionless, it withdrew and crawled away across the ceiling.
The eerie flute melody resumed, echoing through the bloodstained syringes. It gradually faded, along with the singing voices of the departing children, until everything disappeared into the darkness at the end of the corridor.
Bai Liu (6) carefully checked the ceiling once more.
When he was certain the monsters were gone, he quickly locked the bedroom door from the inside.
Mu Ke collapsed onto the floor.
Clutching his chest, he struggled to steady his breathing and calm his racing heart. He had almost been scared to death.
When he finally recovered and looked up, he saw that Bai Liu (6) was already lying in bed as if nothing had happened. He lifted the quilt and prepared to sleep, completely unbothered.
Mu Ke was speechless. He walked over and lowered his voice to scold him. "We were almost taken just now! Can't you think before rushing out like that?!"
Bai Liu (6) had already closed his eyes. He didn't even open them when he replied calmly. "They won't take us. I've observed that the flute targets specific children."
He had noticed this the day before. While the flute's sound could hypnotize all the children, only certain ones were taken. Previously, he hadn't understood the selection method. His own door hadn't been opened yesterday, and his view from the bedroom window had been limited—he hadn't seen the creatures on the ceiling.
Now he understood. And he needed confirmation. After all, his investor would be very interested in this information. That was why he took the risk.
"Even if it's selective, how do you know we're not among the chosen ones?" Mu Ke asked anxiously. He had noticed the pattern too—the flute children were clearly looking for specific traits. The problem was that he didn't know the criteria.
"Our door opened tonight," Mu Ke continued. "That means someone in our room qualified. How did you know it wasn't us?"
"It's because today is Tuesday," Bai Liu (6) replied, finally opening his eyes to look at him. "Today is our baptism day. So we won't be taken."