Chapter 99.1: Love Welfare Institute (1/2)

After little Bai Liu (6) was baptized, several more children were baptized before it was Liu Jiayi’s turn.

Liu Huai’s move to baptize Liu Jiayi was light. He wasn’t willing to let her stay in the water for a long time and soon fished her out. Liu Jiayi was also good. She took the initiative to roll up her clothes and let the man draw her blood. Liu Huai was a bit sad and finally couldn’t help it. He dropped a cherished kiss on her forehead and refused to let the man take Liu Jiayi’s blood. As Liu Jiayi looked confused, Liu Huai returned to the investor seat below.

Liu Huai sat far away from Bai Liu and them. He sat at the back and couldn’t hear Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang’s conversation. Still, he could probably guess what these two old players were saying. Liu Huai’s expression was tense as he gazed at Bai Liu in the distance.

“Today’s baptism ends here. Investors, please go to the cafeteria of the welfare home to have a meal and take a rest.” The dean smiled like it was the opening of a shopping mall. “In the afternoon, the baptized children will present you with a pure song. It is a chorus performance to celebrate our meeting. The performance place is in front of the church and the performance time is from 3 o’clock to 7 o’clock. Please come on time and listen to the singing.”

Bai Liu looked at the time. It was 11:40 a.m.

***

Mu Ke opened his eyes on the straw bed. Then he quickly got up and looked at the time. It was 11:40! He had been sleeping since Bai Liu left until the present!

Mu Ke gritted his teeth with a bit of annoyance. He really felt that he had wasted time. He might not be able to look through the contents of the archives in half a day and he didn’t know when Miao Feichi would come back. The sooner he entered the archives and remembered things, the better.

Still, the effect of Bai Liu making him sleep was obvious. Mu Ke’s mental state was visibly better to the naked eye.

The safe and worry-free sleep in the morning made him completely relax. Mu Ke went down to the first floor. Sure enough, most of the patients and nurses were now eating in the first floor cafeteria. The patients who weren’t dining were those who had been given medicine by the nurse in the morning. Now the door was closed. As Mu Ke passed by, he could hear the faint chewing sound coming from these patients’ rooms. It reminded Mu Ke of the sound of the monster patient who took a big bite of the blood ganoderma lucidum that night.

Mu Ke quietly kept away from the doors. He remembered the layout of the entire first floor. The medical records room was behind the nurse’s duty room and he could only go there when there was no one in the nurse’s duty room. For example, now or when the shifts were changed.

Mu Ke looked to the left and right. After confirming that there was no one, he took a deep breath and rushed into the medical records room. As a result, he gasped as soon as he entered.

“Okay…” Mu Ke looked at the dusty folders in a daze, wanting to cry. “So many! Why are there so many?! There are more books than yesterday!”

It was the long lost feeling of rushing to review his lessons and memorizing things before the exam.

Mu Ke patted himself on the face and calmed down. He pulled out a file, opened it and started to remember. “Name: Wang Guoqiang. Donated 1.7 million to the Love Welfare Institute in 200X. The child is…”

***

3 o’clock in the afternoon.

The children standing in front of the church pushed and shoved while the investors sat on the seats the children had placed on the grass. The dean also distributed the program to the investors. All the children in this welfare home would perform for them in groups. They were all choral programs and some children sang more than one song. In addition, a group photo would be taken after singing so it would last for four hours.

This operation of going to great lengths to please the investors wasn’t unfamiliar to Bai Liu. During the time when the leaders came to the welfare home, he would have to come out with a group of children to perform. All the teachers racked their brains to make these children act and perform, singing to these leaders from beginning to end. It was because the teachers said that singing was better than talking.

This approach wasn’t wrong. It was a means to seek more benefits for the welfare home. It was just that generally speaking, Bai Liu couldn’t enjoy these benefits. Therefore, he usually felt like a monkey in a circus led out to perform acrobatics, only to receive no money.

Bai Liu never expected that one day, he would experience the children of a welfare home singing to please him. It was a novel experience.

Bai Liu turned over the program on his lap. It was the ‘Happy Day’ song, presented by the newly baptized children.

Little Bai Liu (6) was standing in a corner. He had changed his clothes and very vulgar makeup was painted on his face. His face was red and there was a red dot on his forehead. The tips of his hair were still dripping from the baptism. He stood in the back row, casually humming the song, apparently lazy.

“Happy day, happy day, God saved me and made me happy.

Blood of atonement cleanses my sin, the living water of life quenches my thirst.

Happy day, happy day, God saved me and made me happy.”

The meaning of this song’s flattery was too obvious. It was a happy day for this group of investors, not the group of children.

After listening to the song for a while, Bai Liu soon lost interest. Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang, who were sitting in front of him, simply hugged their chests and dozed off. However, Miao Feichi was still holding the knives in his hands and Miao Gaojiang wasn’t completely asleep. Both of these old players still maintained the basic vigilance but this was undoubtedly a long and tedious performance.

The only exception was Liu Huai, who was sitting in the back row. His eyes never moved away from Liu Jiayi for a second. There was a type of sorrowful feeling in them.

It was four hours. Miao Feichi complained several times about how long it was and whether he could start killing children directly.

Perhaps Liu Jiayi would never know that Liu Huai was looking at her like this. She still couldn’t see.

After they finished singing, there were 15 minutes until the next show started according to the program list. Bai Liu got up and walked around the seats to the church. The sleepy Miao Gaojiang instantly opened his eyes and squinted at Bai Liu. “What are you going to do? It is only the beginning of this thing.”

“I’m going to find my child and see if I can teach him to get out.” Bai Liu answered.

Miao Feichi chuckled. “Yes, you let him go. It is your only chance to clear the instance.”

Miao Gaojiang hesitated a few times before finally letting Bai Liu go. This was in front of the church. Even if Bai Liu wanted to do a sneak attack on the children they reserved in advance, this church prohibited the killing of children. This was why they hadn’t done anything yet.

Of course, Miao Feichi’s still not recovered physical strength was another reason they hadn’t acted.

Bai Liu nodded at the Miao Feichi father and son and walked into the church where the children had gone. Miao Gaojiang watched Bai Liu’s back, his eyes gloomy. “I always feel there is something wrong with this Mu Ke.”

“You are being a bit annoying, Father.” Miao Feichi sat lazily on the chat, looking sideways at Miao Gaojiang. “You have seen his system panel and also checked his phone. This Mu Ke is definitely an ordinary player. His panel doesn’t exceed the B rating and the number of games is only two. He is a pure newcomer. It was bad luck for him to come in and be controlled by Bai Liu. Once we killed Bai Liu, the control was released. What’s wrong with him?”

“He has a broken keyboard in his inventory.” Miao Gaojiang’s brow bones were low, which made his eyes and eyebrows gather together when he frowned. He looked vicious. “I remember. During the two times I inspected his system warehouse, the keycaps that had fallen from the broken keyboard were different.”

The moment Miao Feichi heard Miao Gaojiang saying this, he held his chair and sat upright. Miao Gaojiang had a very careful mind. He was good at noticing some details that ordinary people didn’t notice and at doubting details. Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang had cooperated for so long and he knew that Miao Gaojiang’s doubts generally weren’t aimless.

Miao Feichi received this reminder from Miao Gaojiang and raised his eyebrow. “Father, do you mean that someone is communicating with Mu Ke through the keyboard? Do you still remember which keycaps were removed from Mu Ke’s keyboard?”

Miao Gaojiang frowned even deeper. “That’s the problem. I’m not familiar with the layout of a keyboard. I only noticed that the empty positions of the keyboard have changed. As for which keycaps correspond to the specific position, I just scanned it so I don’t remember it clearly.”

“Generally speaking, the system backpack can only be viewed by yourself and Mu Ke has been with us the whole time. It is impossible for him to pass the keyboard to someone and take it back. In addition, this method of communication is too risky.” Miao Gaojiang’s tone was heavy. “I think it is more likely that someone is sharing the system backpack with him. If someone’s skills allows them to share the system backpack with Mu Ke, this communication method is feasible and extremely hidden.”

Miao Feichi was quiet for a while. There was only one player on the field whose skills were uncertain.

“You mean, Bai Liu isn’t dead? His skill isn’t only control but also sharing the system backpack?” Miao Feichi’s expression also became solemn as his eyes narrowed into a thin slit. “Mu Ke is the chess piece that broke into our side? He is still using the keyboard to communicate with Bai Liu?”

“It is just my guess.” Miao Gaojiang saw the fierce and murderous look on Miao Feichi’s face. “Mu Ke is a player with a C-grade panel. You can kill him whenever you want. It is best not to act impulsively. It is currently the support season and rashly killing an ordinary player who surrendered isn’t good for your reputation. It will affect your approval rate. There is also another important point—”

“The skill of sharing a backpack is already in the category of a ‘rule skill.’ This requires violating the system’s rights.” Miao Gaojiang placed his hands on both knees as he thought about it. “At present, there are only a few people in the game whose personal skills are a rule skill. I think it is unlikely that Bai Liu’s personal skill is a rule skill. If he has such a bug-level personal skill, he can completely resemble the Queen of Hearts and use his skill to restrain us. Bai Liu doesn’t need to be so passive.”

“Still, this possibility can’t be completely ruled out. After all, Bai Liu is a newcomer. It is possible that he is using his personal skill poorly.”

Miao Gaojiang looked at the church that Bai Liu had entered with sinister eyes. “Let’s wait for you to recover and for him to show his feet. Then it isn’t too late to kill him.”

Meanwhile, Bai Liu walked backstage. Little Mu Ke and Bai Liu (6) were sitting face to face, using a paper towel dipped in water to wipe the traces of makeup off their faces. Once Bai Liu walked in, little Mu Ke took two steps back in fear and vigilance. He didn’t recognize Bai Liu as the one who baptized him before.

It was little Bai Liu (6) who glanced at him without changing expressions. He stood up and suggested softly, “This place isn’t suitable for talking. Let’s change places.”

Little Mu Ke instantly realized that this was Bai Liu (6)’s investor who baptized him. He greeted Bai Liu in a slightly embarrassed manner. Then little Bai Liu (6) took Bai Liu away.

Little Bai Liu (6) brought Bai Liu to the overgrown grove behind the church. Bai Liu leaned against the wall and looked down at little Bai Liu (6) who was still stubbornly rubbing the blush off his face. This little boy rubbed it hard and seriously. He didn’t seem to like the smell of cosmetics too much and his frown distorted his facial features.

Bai Liu naturally took the wet paper towel and crouched down to help carefully wipe it off.