Chapter 1069 - The Ninth Child [2 in 1] (1/2)

Chen Ge silently sneaked his way to the dam. He slowly approached the pair of mother and son. When he was about five to six meters away from them, he yelled, “Calm down! What are you planning to do!”

At this distance, no matter what kind of rash decision they made, Chen Ge would have enough time to stop and rescue them. Hearing Chen Ge’s voice, the mother turned around to his direction with shock. She appeared to have not expected to run into anyone so early in the morning at a place like this.

“Can we sit down for a talk?” Chen Ge reached his hand out. He stopped where he was and maintained a safe distance so that he would not place too much psychological pressure on the pair. After experiencing so much, Chen Ge was not so different from a trained suicide intervention worker.

“I think you have some kind of misunderstanding.” The woman smiled. She pulled the boy’s hand and wanted to walk away from the dam, but the boy was unwilling. He kept making this grumbling voice and used every ounce of energy in his body to resist. The woman’s voice when she spoke and the expression that she had when speaking were completely normal; she did not appear like those who had been pressed by life to the end of their line.

With an audible sigh of relief, Chen Ge slowly walked toward the mother and son.

“Why would you bring your son over the railing? That is too dangerous. What if either of you slip and fall? The dam is very deep. If you were captured by the water ghosts, imagine how scary that will be.”

“I am so sorry. We will pay more attention to this in the future.” The woman still held the boy’s hand, and when Chen Ge’s approached, she silently moved to stand guardedly before him as if she did not want Chen Ge to see the boy’s face.

“Do not stay too close to the water, especially when you have a child with you.” Chen Ge was not joking about the danger of the water ghosts. Chen Ge had encountered them on his mission before. The little boy was standing at the edge of the water, and he had been reaching out to touch the surface of the water. If a water ghost had reached out to pull into the dam, the consequences would have been unimaginably bad.

After a lot of time and effort, the woman finally managed to drag the boy away from the dam and over the railing. The boy did not appear to know how to speak. The voices that came out of his lips were more akin to mumbles. His hands gripped the railing tightly as he continued to struggle.

“He seems to like water a lot,” Chen Ge commented when he saw this strange reaction from the boy.

“It’s not that. The boy just likes to come to this particular dam to play. I also have no idea why. If he does not get to come to Eastern Jiujiang Dam at least once a day, he will make life very difficult for me.”

“Your child…” Chen Ge’s eyes leaped over the woman to look at the boy whom she was guarding behind her. The boy had a very cute face, but perhaps because he had been crying and struggling, his eyes were particularly red-rimmed. There were blood vessels at the bottom of his eyes, and they were not as clear as a normal boy’s eyes should be.

“I promise to pay more attention in the future.” The woman did not answer Chen Ge’s floating question. It appeared like she did not like discussing her own child with other people. Holding the boy’s hand, the woman told the boy gently, “It’s time to go.”

Her voice was laced with heavy love and concern. It was clear that she adored this child even though he was slightly different from other children.

“I have heard some things about this dam from the manager of this place before. I do not know whether they are real or not,” Chen Ge whispered as if in an afterthought. “He told me that there are water ghosts living inside this dam, and at the bottom of the dam, there is a sunken coffin. Some children saw piles of black grass floating at the side of the water. They went to look out of curiosity, and they shockingly realized that the grass was actually the hair of the water ghosts. When the children got dangerously close to the water, they would be dragged down by the water ghosts and then locked up inside the sunken coffin.”

When Chen Ge said those things, he kept his attention on the boy. Unfortunately, he did not discern any unusual reactions from the boy.

“You still believe these things? The manager probably made up those stories to warn the children from getting too close to the water and to stop them from jumping into the dam to swim and play.” The woman did not believe in talk of the supernatural.

“I have some pictures with me that might prove that the manager was telling the truth.” Chen Ge took out his own phone and found the picture when the police came to the dam to salvage the dead bodies and when they took out the large number of dolls from inside the coffin. The sun was slowly rising. It dispersed the light fog that had lingered on the surface of the lake. The scenery there was actually breathtaking, but unfortunately, no one at the dam was in the mood to admire it. Chen Ge held his phone up for the woman and showed her the pictures that he had saved.

From the perspective of a normal person, Chen Ge would appear to be a very strange fella. Early in the morning, he intercepted a mother and son who appeared to be passing by, and then he started to tell them scary stories and show them horrifying pictures. A normal person’s reaction would be to brush Chen Ge off and come out with an excuse to hurry away, but the mother’s reaction was slightly different. While holding her son’s hand, she kept countering Chen Ge’s statements.

Even when she was given the proof of the pictures, the woman refused to believe any hearsay about ghosts and Specters. If anything, she kept insisting to Chen Ge that all those supernatural stories were made up. Chen Ge initially thought that the woman was just a firm believer in her faith, but soon, he noticed something wrong. The woman eventually started to appear like she was not trying to persuade Chen Ge, but she was feeding herself the words again and again.

Is it possible that she knows something? But she refuses to acknowledge them?

Chen Ge had a good impression of this woman. After going through the many doors during the ghost fetus trial mission, he had a newfound respect for parents who took good care of their children. When Chen Ge was still in an argument with the woman, each trying to convince the other their point of view, the boy started to make a scene again. He gripped the railing tightly and started to shake. He wanted to get close to the water.

“Has something happened to you or this boy here?” Chen Ge turned his attention back to the boy. He felt like he would not get any further information from the parent.

“No, the boy has been like this since he was young. He will only calm down when he comes here. I personally do not understand why.” Once the woman was brought back to the topic of her own son, her voice softened. It was obvious that she harbored no ill intention toward her child, and she did not want others to think that her child was that different from the other normal kids.

“I worked at an orphanage for quite some time. I have encountered a boy with similar condition, but the difference was that the child like to visit haunted houses.” Chen Ge walked to the boy and knelt down beside him. He followed the boy’s gaze and looked into the distance. “Are you looking for something? Is there something that is bothering you under the water?”

The woman did not wish for Chen Ge to have a conversation with her child. She pulled her boy behind her, but the boy refused to let go of his grip on the railing. He cried and resisted. The woman had probably already gotten used to all this already. No matter how big a commotion the boy made, she did not get mad, but the worry at the bottom of her eyes was getting more and more obvious.

“Can you tell uncle what your name is?” Chen Ge felt like he had always been good with children, but this boy before him had completely ignored him. It was like he was locked in his own world, and he only kept only crying and wailing.

“I have toys with me. Would you like to play with them?” Chen Ge opened his backpack and poked his head in to take a look before silently zipping his backpack up again. None of the things inside the backpack seemed appropriate for a child.

“I am so sorry, but we have been here for quite some time already. It should be time for us to go home.” The woman picked up the boy who was still crying, and she wanted to forcibly carry the boy away. Chen Ge kept his eyes on the surface of the water. He dropped this question in the intention of a test. “Are you looking for your past?”

Seeing as the woman continued to carry the boy away, Chen Ge stood up and asked another question, “Are you looking for the ghost fetus’ past?”

He was just trying his luck. He thought that the boy was acting very strangely, but to his surprise, when he mentioned the term ‘ghost fetus’, the boy suddenly stopped crying. It was so sudden that it even startled the boy’s own mother. The breeze caused ripples on the surface of the water. The boy’s eyes moved to fall on Chen Ge for the first time. It seemed like the term ‘ghost fetus’ carried a very special meaning to him.

“Sir, what did you just say?” The woman stopped moving and turned around to accost Chen Ge.

“It was nothing.” Chen Ge’s expression was severe, and he gave off a very unsettling presence. It was like a patient had gone to the hospital suspecting that he had been infected by some horrible disease. Then he was sitting in the consultation room after his inspection, but the doctor held the results and said nothing while looking at him with a serious countenance. That was how the woman was feeling. The more Chen Ge was unwilling to share, the more curious she was because this situation had never happened before.

“Fine, if you do not want to tell, so be it.” After standing there in a stalemate for a long time, the woman bowed slightly to Chen Ge.