"Restricted Superpower User, Serial Number 1002—’Ji Minghuan’, get up quickly and get ready, the ntor has sothing to convey."
Blinked a few tis.
What t the eyes was the unchanging silver-white ceiling and the ever-present surveillance cara.
The harsh cold light poured down like a bug net over a dining table, making it hard to tell if one was the bug or the al on the table.
Ji Minghuan stared at the surveillance cara for quite a while before slowly looking away.
If the Salvation Society considered redesigning the cara into the shape of a penguin, his morning grumpiness might be halved.
"Kong Youling and Filio will co over soon, get ready," the ntor’s gentle voice ca through the ceiling broadcast equipnt.
"Couldn’t you have inford earlier?" Ji Minghuan frowned as he rose from the bed.
Dragging his skeleton-thin body, he quickly made his way to the entrance.
Looking down, he saw two trays on the silver-white floor, one with toast and milk, the other with toiletries. He bent down, picked up the second tray from the floor, and jogged into the restroom connected to the confinent room.
Turning on the faucet, he rinsed the towel and wiped his face, then applied toothpaste to the toothbrush and brushed his teeth, not sparing even a molar.
Amidst the sound of splashing water, he lifted his head to study the pale, gaunt face in the mirror. Standing on his tiptoes, he compared his height to the mirror’s, realizing he seed to have grown taller...
That’s normal, at twelve, it’s a growth period.
Though being confined in such a place is indeed not conducive to physical growth.
The food from the experinters was nutritious and varied, textbook-level healthy, but in this place, he found everything unappetizing, compared to the roasted sweet potatoes he ate with other kids at the Welfare Institute.
Unless starving, sotis food needs to be shared with soone nearby to taste good, much like how people drink for the atmosphere at night.
Soon enough, Ji Minghuan washed his face, brushed his teeth, ignoring his tangled hair, convincing himself that ssy was a kind of beauty—every lazy person would say so to themselves.
Just as two minutes passed, a sound ca from outside, the tal door opened, Ji Minghuan lay back on the bed pretending to sleep, facing away from the confinent room’s door.
After a mont, a cold hand gently poked his nose, then a gauze-like sensation brushed his cheek, as if soone lowered their head, soft hair accidentally gliding across his face.
"You never used to wake up," Ji Minghuan opened one eye to look at the white-haired girl, his mouth curling into a sly curve.
They faced each other, their noses nearly touching, like small animals eting for the first ti and pressing close.
He was curious why the ntor didn’t prohibit physical contact this ti but temporarily put that question aside.
Kong Youling sat on the edge of the bed, writing with a pencil in her notebook, then lifted the notebook.
It read: "You’re pretending to sleep, that’s not how you sleep."
"You figured it out, you’re amazing." Ji Minghuan sat up, scratching his ssy hair.
Under the cold light, Kong Youling lowered her red eyes, staring at him silently, then after a mont, handed him the notebook.
Curious, he flipped through two pages, seeing her doodles when bored:
An attic under the moonlight, two children sitting on a roof; the clock in the confinent room, seemingly stuck, with a small scribble beside: "Ti passes so slowly, so slowly," accompanied by a cartoon figure, which upon closer inspection was Ji Minghuan dressed in hospital clothes, with fox ears added.
Ji Minghuan looked down quietly for a while, then wrote with a pencil in the notebook:
"Do you have a TV to watch there?"
"They gave many discs and a CD player."
"That’s nice. It’s so boring here, I’m about to die of boredom... What have you watched, tell about it?"
Kong Youling thought for a mont, writing in the notebook: "Masked Rider Ex-Aid, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Code Geass, Kan Rider Amazons."
"Why does it all seem like stuff boys watch?" Ji Minghuan tilted his head.
"Can’t I watch them?" She held the notebook against the lower part of her face, her eyes fixed on him, her pale hair tickling the words on the notebook.
"Of course you can."
"I thought you’d like them too, so I watched them and can share them with you."
"I knew it, if I said I’ve seen them all, wouldn’t you have watched them for nothing?"
Kong Youling paused, then puffed her cheeks slightly, like a little snowman. They used to watch ani together in the computer room, with Ji Minghuan downloading them online.
So she intentionally selected CDs from the Salvation Society officials that they hadn’t watched together, only to hear him claim to have seen them all, he must have watched them secretly!
"Actually, I haven’t watched them," Ji Minghuan said, "I just an, it’s fine to watch what you like. It’s too boring here, no need to do these things for ."
"It’s what I like," Kong Youling paused, shaking her head.
"Oh, that’s good," Ji Minghuan said, "Tell about the plots, it won’t take much ti."
So the two kids sat on the bed chatting about the plots and stories of those ani and tokusatsu series.
Kong Youling doodled in her notebook, while Ji Minghuan silently hugged a pillow, listening.
He occasionally clicked his tongue, using an exaggerated tone to critique the content she narrated: "This ’Kan Rider Amazons’ is so bloody and dark, is this still Kan Rider? This is just like Lu Xun’s ’A Madman’s Diary’, only about eating people."
Kong Youling asked him what he did there, and Ji Minghuan couldn’t say he lay around doing nothing like a dead man every day, so he claid he was exercising enthusiastically, aspiring to be the next muscle pageant champion!
Then he attempted two push-ups on the bed, collapsing like he’d lost consciousness.
Lying on the bed, he turned his face away from Kong Youling’s gaze, actually wanting to say he had been learning to play International Chess and practicing the art of tying knots lately.
He really wanted to share those experiences from outside, say that he had seen Tokyo Tower!
Back when they flipped through travel magazines in the library, Kong Youling looked so focused, her eyes shimring brightly.
Ji Minghuan wrote that when they left the Welfare Institute in the future, they would travel the world together and see it. But he had seen Tokyo Tower first, breaking their promise.
He also wanted to say... the feeling of having a family is quite strange, even if it’s just a fake family, bound to be exposed eventually, but it’s still interesting... having an all-caring brother, and a sister who can’t express but cares for him;
And of course, there’s an annoying dad, a deadbeat dad, a slly dad, a rotten dad, he’d make a small voodoo doll tomorrow in the room to curse him—to not expose himself, he’d specially make a Ghost Bell version doll, so he could only keep quiet!
But whether interesting or terrible, none of these things could be spoken to her, thinking about this, Ji Minghuan’s eyes lowered, silently staring at the silver-white floor for a while... Clearly having soone to share with, yet only being able to keep words to oneself, to a kid, nothing is more sorrowful than that.
Yet he thought again: after leaving this lab soday, he could tell her all he had seen during this ti, sharing everything without missing a beat.
Kong Youling tilted her head, her unblinking gaze on his silent profile, seemingly unsure of what he was thinking. After a while, she suddenly reached out and felt his forehead.
A cool sensation ca from his forehead, Ji Minghuan stood still for a mont and turned back to look at Kong Youling.
"Sick?" Kong Youling wrote word by word, lifting the notebook.
Ji Minghuan shook his head, "Although it’s boring doing nothing here, it’s nice to see you."
The white-haired girl paused thoughtfully, then looked up, her pale hair gently swaying.
" too..." she said soundlessly without writing, "Those shows only beco interesting when watching with you."
Just then, a loud noise drew both their attention, they turned their heads simultaneously.
At the entrance, the tal door swung open, and a boy in a black hospital gown appeared. Standing at the doorway, his head lowered, eyes lifeless and cold.
Reviews
All reviews (0)