flower and big devil

"My name is Ladoni." The little girl stretched out her intact hand.

It was strange, but Luo Xiu noticed that he probably needed to shake hands with her, but when he reached out to hold the little hand that had already reached under his nose, the other party withdrew his hand. , the black-haired young man was stunned, and awkwardly retracted his hand in a strange arc and touched the tip of his nose: "My name is love——"

"Not interested." Ladoni said blankly.

"..."

"How is it?" Ladoni, who was wearing a red cloak, tilted her head and looked at the black-haired young man in front of her. "You seem to be very interested in Mr. Shoemaker's orphanage. Do you want to visit?"

"is it okay?"

"As long as you donate money."

"..."

"Listen, it's a good deal. I noticed you were talking to yourself just now, and I noticed that you seemed to mention Mr. Shoemaker—it's almost Christmas, and Mr. Shoemaker will come to our orphanage and hold some Charity and then take some kids away and take them to the city to have a better life, you know what that means?"

"What does it mean?"

"If you want to see Mr. Shoemaker in a proper way, unless you have at least five hundred gold coins in your pocket, you will not see even a single piece of Mr. Shoemaker under the watchful eyes of his mean and snobby watchdogs." But now, you only need fifty silver coins, you can stay in the orphanage as a 'donor' for three days, and Christmas is the day after tomorrow, in other words, you can use your fifty silver coins Saw Mr. Shoemaker at the last minute."

"Uh."

"How about it, a good deal, right?"

"But I have no money."

"Oh, what a pity." Ladoni hung the basket on her disabled hand, used her normal hand to brush her hair like a grown woman and made a face, "The conversation is over. "

Luo Xiu: "........."

He now wondered what was wrong with the people in this town! ——At least before seeing these people, he naively thought that the Duke of Darkness was already the most abnormal one in the world in his dream!

"What are you thinking, poor man?"

Luo Xiu accepted the nickname calmly. After all, he has been repeatedly reminded of the fact that he doesn't have a penny since he stepped into the market, so at this time the black-haired young man just curled his lips in a good-tempered way: " Thinking I might have been a frog in a well before."

"Although it's a little too late, it's not easy to recognize yourself. Congratulations, you won't cry if I don't applaud you?" Ladoni finished speaking, and never looked at the person in front of her What a wonderful change in the expression on the face of the "adult being mocked by a six or seven-year-old girl", she turned around and walked towards the direction of the orphanage along the path under their feet, when she took a few steps Afterwards, it was not too unexpected to hear the footsteps of the black-haired young man behind her... Ladoni turned her head and saw the bare feet of the other party stepping on the rough country road at a glance. It's true that the feet that haven't done farm work have become a little dirty. If you look closely, you can still see small wounds on the insteps of the black-haired young man who were cut by the weeds on the side of the road.

The little girl was stunned, and stopped—at the same time, she saw the black-haired young man behind her also stop, so she frowned: "It seems that you really want to visit the orphanage." Look - I've been thinking about getting out of there for some fresh air every day, and today I've met a guy who can't wait to get to that place, what a weird guy."

"Stranger than speaking into the air?" Luo Xiu asked with a smile.

"It's comparable." Ladoni said without thinking, her eyes swept over Luo Xiu's feet unconsciously, "but if you insist on following, I might ask Mammy for a pair of shoes for you , the kind that doesn’t require money.”

"That's really great, Ladoni, you are such a good girl." Luo Xiu said sincerely.

Then his sincerity got another pair of big white eyes, and the little girl straightened the red cloak on her shoulders: "Of course, do you think I'm a money-grubbing person?"

"..."

"By the way, what's your name?"

"Well, my name is Love—"

"Oh forget it, I'm really not interested, I'll call you a poor ghost."

"..."

Arrived at a strange market penniless, got a little yellow book written by Mr. Caterpillar with himself as the protagonist, was fooled by a crane selling candied haws with salmon eyes on the street, and then went to an antique shop The old man got a lot of ridicule in front of him, and was finally charged with stealing because of his greed for weapons (pets). He thought he met Baima Liangren (savior) on the way to escape, but now this The only existence that seems to be a luminous point has become an existence that does not know whether it has ever existed——

But now, Luo Xiu felt that he had the urge to kneel down and call the queen the six or seven year old girl.

This isn't bad at all—looking at the back of the head of the little girl who is only reaching her waist and leading the way arrogantly, Luo Xiu thought, er, of course, it's not bad at all, at least compared to what happened today All in all, if the final outcome is that he won a pair of shoes and no longer has to run around the streets barefoot like a savage, then I'm afraid today is barely a good day.

When they walked down the path, they had walked for so long that Luo Xiu wondered if he had crossed the entire village—and this was a village with a strange name, Alice Cemetery—oh, the truth In fact, Luo Xiu almost thought that the person who gave the village such a strange name was right. The surrounding area was terribly quiet, so quiet that the sound of the wind blowing could be heard clearly from his ears. They seemed to be really In a cemetery.When they passed through countless farms and mills and finally came to a place covered by trees and lost the sunlight, Luo Xiu noticed that they had never seen any other people—even strange animals—as they walked along the way. Compared with the bustling bazaar where people came and went before, this place seems to be another dimension that is completely isolated.

Or another world.

But at this moment, in front of Luo Xiu is the building that looks like Buddha Luomen.

It is still a Gothic building developed from ancient Romanesque architecture and inherited by Renaissance architecture, with high iron railings and mottled walls-although it can be seen that it has been painted twice, but the overwhelming wall-climbing tigers are still there. Destroy their freshly painted walls, revealing a layer of yellowish gray walls under the pink walls; the roof of the building is tall and thin, with a small pointed attic, when the cool wind blows , Standing in front of this building, the black-haired young man felt his heart suddenly sink.

The uncomfortable feeling was the same as when he saw Buddha Lomon—oh no—in other words, it was stronger.

The building in front of him is mysterious and lofty, but when people stand in front of it and look up at him, they can feel a strong sense of sadness——Luo Xiu never imagined that a cold building can also exude a sense of belonging to human beings. complex emotions, and he was really feeling them now.

"I said, it's suffocating here, do you know why? No family in the world will be happy when a child is separated from their parents - many children leave here to go to new families, and more abandoned The child comes here, and the negative energy brought by the latter is far from being able to dispel the sunshine of the former that we can't see clearly." A low voice from a girl sounded from beside him, and the black-haired young man was slightly stunned and then lowered his head Turning her head, watching Ladoni put down the tip of the cloak on her head, her soft curly hair was a little messy when the wind blew by, she turned her head and glanced at Luo with her round and big cat-like eyes Xiu glanced at it, and then continued slowly, "Someone said that facing pink walls for a long time will make people violent and distorted psychologically, but things like painting walls can't help people who actually live in this building." People decided — they're just going to take the leftover paint and put it to good use."

"..." Luo Xiu was surprised why such words would come out of the mouth of a six or seven year old girl.

Ladoni placed the flower basket in her hand by the door, grabbed Luo Xiu's wrist with her good hand and led him around the whole building. They were almost the same as Buddha Luomen when Luo Xiu met The same abandoned garden was found in Uzrock, but Ladoni told Luo Xiu that the backside was a forbidden area, and I heard that there was a small building behind it in the abandoned garden, but this garden was banned as a forbidden area. It has been locked for more than 20 years, and no one has been able to gain permission to enter in all these years.

"why?"

"There is no reason, what Mr. Shoemaker says, we have to obey unconditionally, no one can violate their own food and clothing parents."

While speaking, Ladoni dragged the black-haired young man to a place similar to the front yard with a rampant manner that could not be refused.At this time, amidst the faint laughter, Luo Xiu discovered that there were actually a group of children about the same size as Ladoni in the front yard—there were boys and girls, and they seemed to come from different countries with different backgrounds. color.

The only thing they have in common is that, what makes people feel uncomfortable, those children all seem to be deformed. One of them deliberately saw that his feet were unstable during the game, for example, from the thigh of his right leg. It was empty from the bottom of the root; there was another little girl whose chin was crooked and deformed from birth; the child next to that little girl had only one eye, and the symmetrical part of the other eye was empty and flat, and the other eye was not. She seems to be blind but seems to have never existed; and what Luo Xiu cares about the most is that there is a curly-haired girl who looks normal from beginning to end. She looks extremely cute, but the worst thing is that she Only half of her head—unlike normal people, the part from her forehead up is completely shriveled, like a collapsed sandbag.

They don't seem to feel that the people around them are different from themselves or feel strange because of it. They look like normal children playing together-when seeing them, Luo Xiu even made sure that he saw weird things. Ladoni's eyes lit up, but the strange thing was that the little girl didn't go up to greet them, nor did she immediately join their game, she just stood quietly and watched them.

Yes, those kids seem to be playing a game.

A child squatted in the center, bent his knees and buried his face between his knees, and the other children held hands and circled around him, chanting neatly in childish voices as they circled——

[Wrap up, surround up!

caged bird,

When will it fly out?

dawning night,

The white crane and the tortoise fell down,

Behind you is—who? 】

It seems to be a simple game. When the circle movement and the poem stop together, the child in the middle must guess the child who stops behind him at this moment without seeing it. Who - A monotonous and boring game, but they seem to be having a good time.

Luo Xiu looked at the little girl beside him: "What does this poem mean?"

Ladoni shrugged: "I'm just a child, why do you think I know everything?"

"Oh." Luo Xiu nodded with a dull face, and seemed to be completely convinced by the little girl that he seemed a little ridiculous.

But at this moment, he heard Ladoni beside him say, "But I do know."

Luo Xiu: "........."

"The last sentence of the nursery rhyme has the meaning of 'whoever faces the ghost behind his back at that moment will replace the bird in the cage as the ghost'. Yes, but before Christmas, we will play these games, but instead of the bird in the cage, it is not a scapegoat, but a place to leave here for treatment." Ladoni said, "As I said before, Mr. Shoemaker will come here every year. Come here, take some kids away after Christmas, get treatment in the city and end up being orphaned with a nice home."

Luo Xiu looked at the children not far away. It seemed that it was the last round of the game. The children in the middle couldn't guess who was behind them. Now they started to recite the nursery rhyme again, and started The game of turning around... After the black-haired young man paused for a moment, he didn't know why, and suddenly felt a little hairy on his body. He involuntarily glanced at Ladoni on his body-at this moment, the little girl was using almost Obsessed eyes watching those children playing games.

【—Wrap up, surround up!When will the bird in the cage fly out? 】

Luo Xiu cleared his voice: "I noticed that you call it a ceremony."

"It is said that it is to commemorate a woman who had a difficult delivery here more than 20 years ago and her dead child."

"Women with dystocia?"

【——In the night when it was almost dawn, the white crane and the tortoise fell down...】

"Yes, you also noticed that the frequency of this word in the past twenty years is a bit high, right?"

"……Uh."

"It seems you didn't notice."

"..."

"Although I haven't confirmed it, I suspect that this woman is probably the woman in the abandoned garden. They should be the same person—she happened to pass by here. It was a stormy day, but her baby was about to be born. The kind nuns received her She also tried to help her to give birth to her own baby, but unfortunately she had a difficult delivery. Despite her best wishes, the nuns failed to save her life. The next day, the sky cleared and the nuns When the nuns went to visit the woman early in the morning, they found that she had left, taking her child who had died since birth—of course, some people said that she died that night because of being too shocked, but no People know because in the end no one ever saw that woman again."

"Why should we commemorate her?"

"Please, we are an orphanage here!" Ladoni squinted at the black-haired young man beside her, "And that woman is the only 'mother' that has ever appeared in our place in a symbolic sense! Life or death, she didn't dislike her at all and took him away from this place called the orphanage at the end-oh my God, don't tell me you think we didn't look forward to the day when the biological parents burst into tears Come to the orphanage and tell your sins and cry and beg to take us away - just like a normal adult man would fantasize about a woman sleeping naked in his bed, is this normal?"

The corners of the black-haired young man's lips twitched violently, thinking that this is not normal at all.

Ladoni rubbed her chin and said thoughtfully, "Oh, yes, I heard that woman has a name that fits well with this village."

"Ah?" Luo Xiu turned his head and blinked, "What name?"

"Her name is Alice."