"From now on, this is your room."
This is what the person behind the Society of the Undead said to Mianmian when she was brought here on the first day.
"This guy is completely different from other children. He doesn't cry or make trouble. The gloomy look in his eyes when he saw me is really disgusting..."
"I heard he was a wild child picked up by the president from the trash. No wonder he smells so bad..."
"I haven't heard her speak before, so she's still mute, right?"
"I don't care about taking care of this kind of child, whoever cares about you will care about it..."
"It doesn't matter, people with this kind of character problem are just cannon fodder..."
…
Several administrators nearby gathered together and murmured, all looking at the girl with contempt and disgust.
The girl was wearing stained tattered clothes and her face was dirty. The only thing that impressed people was the pair of ruby-like shining eyes on her face.
The girl held a broken doll in her arms and turned a deaf ear to the bad words spoken by the people over there. She just looked up at the house in front of her and firmly remembered the house number 'No. 14'.
She knew that this would be her home for a long time to come.
The girl was different from the other children who were abducted and snatched here. She was the only child who took the initiative to appear in front of these people. She also pretended to run away and was captured again, so that she could be successfully sent here.
Of course she knew that this was a very bad place, and the consequences of entering here would probably not be good, but she also understood that this was the only place in the Cook Islands where she could eat well, sleep well, and not suffer from hunger and cold every day. The place.
No matter what she will encounter in the future, at least for now, she will be more comfortable staying here than wandering outside.
In the following days, Mianmian began her closed life in this underground factory.
There are more than a hundred children in the same batch as her. She is always the most active one during meal time every day. The contrast between her voracious eating appearance and her sweet appearance, coupled with her withdrawn and cold personality, makes her She gradually became a 'weirdo' in the eyes of other children.
"Bangdang..."
At meal time that day, the plate she had just put food on was accidentally knocked over by a passing boy.
"Sorry, sleepy weirdo, you have nothing to eat today! Hahaha!"
Facing the ill-intentioned sneers of several little boys, the girl just looked at them indifferently, and suddenly punched the leading boy in the face, then threw him to the ground, ignoring the punches and kicks of the other children next to her. Keep scratching the boy's face...
Half an hour later, the girl with a bruised nose and swollen face picked up the food that fell on the ground one by one. Ignoring the little boys next to her who were scratched into cat-like faces and were all breaking down and crying, she sat back at the dining table and continued to calmly nibble on the food. Dusty rice balls.
When she was outside, she had to compete with wild dogs for food every day. Compared with those wild dogs, the little boys in front of her were too weak. They were as weak as those small domestic dogs that only knew how to fight against humans. When they barked, they were louder than anyone else. Fierce, more timid than anyone else when it comes to fighting.
Since then, no other child has dared to mess with her, and her title among her peers has been upgraded from 'Sleepy Monster' to 'Red-Eyed Witch'.
Of course, not everyone hates her. For example, the new No. 15 next door, a little girl named Louise, does not look at her through colored glasses, and Mianmian does not mind showing some kindness to her.
The coldness is just her disguise, because she knows that this will allow her to survive better here.
The closed life in the underground factory is simple and boring. Apart from completing some tasks assigned by the administrator every day, you can basically do nothing the rest of the time. This is of course a kind of torture for other children with a free nature, but it is a great deal for Mianmian. Convenient because she suffers from severe narcolepsy, a rare disorder that requires her to sleep for more than 16 hours a day.
So when other children were playing, she was sleeping, and when others were doing tasks, she was also napping. Except when eating every day, few people could see her awake.
But what no one knows is that she also has an innate special ability: she can enter other people's dreams while she is asleep, and follow the dream owner to experience everything in the dream from the perspective of a bystander.
Dreams are always much better than reality, so for her, every day's real life is just a bad nightmare. Only when she sleeps is the real beginning of her day.
However, I don’t know if it is because of the special environment she is in. Since entering here, the scope of her dream travel has been greatly restricted.
She began to frequently come and go into the dreams of certain people, especially the dreams of a little girl. She would enter the same girl's dreams seven or eight times out of ten times she fell asleep.
It was a little girl with a bob haircut. When I saw her for the first time, she was wearing an exquisite and gorgeous kimono, being led by her parents to walk in the bustling night market, watching the fireworks blooming brightly in the sky.
Surrounded by strange things that she had never seen before, Mianmian followed the girl curiously, following her point of view. Unexpectedly, the girl in front of her noticed it and suddenly turned around and gave her a bright smile.
Mianmian was frightened. In other people's dreams, she was always a spectator. No one could see her, and no one had ever noticed her. This was the first time that someone had interacted with her in a dream. , she was so frightened that she ran away.
Since then, she began to enter the girl's dreams repeatedly. After many observations, she determined that the girl could indeed see her existence and even talk to her.
After a simple exchange, they knew each other's names. The girl's name was Ye Rumeng, who lived in the Land of Forgotten and was a fool.
With similar hobbies and complementary personalities, they quickly became good friends, and the fact that they could meet in dreams every day became their shared secret.
Mianmian would follow Ye Rumeng's dreams every day and experience various things she encountered during the day.
Ye Rumeng has parents who love her, a prosperous family, kind teachers, relatives and friends, so her dreams are almost the same as reality, because reality is happy enough and there are not many wishes that need to be filled with dreams. .
All this makes Mianmian envious and longing for her. She sometimes thinks that the two of them are so similar. If their birth environments were exchanged, maybe she would become a sunny and cheerful girl like her, instead of being like now. He is so gloomy and sensitive that he has even lost the ability to laugh, and all he can think about is calculation and survival.
'Mengmeng is herself in another world'. Whenever she thinks of this, Mianmian will instinctively feel a sense of satisfaction, as if all the happy moments experienced by the other person will be conveyed to her in real time.
In the deep darkness of the underground prison, the dream world is like a light of redemption, illuminating her life.
While other children were tortured to the point of mental breakdown by a repetitively repressed life, her mental state was unusually stable.
This kind of life lasted for four years.
The children in the surrounding rooms changed one after another, but she, like a 'nail house', firmly rooted in Ward 14, began to enjoy the life here.
However, as time went by, Mianmian began to be dissatisfied with just being a spectator in the dream. She wanted to stand next to Mengmeng, wear beautiful clothes like her, and walk in the sunshine.
Especially recently, Mianmian learned some special news from the dreams of several administrators: the people here seemed to have finally had enough with her as a 'nail-biter' and decided to arrange a 'final experiment' for her in the near future.
As an 'old bastard' who has lived here for more than four years and can occasionally peek into the administrator's dream, Mianmian certainly knows what the 'final experiment' refers to.
That is the final destination of these children who are imprisoned here, which is basically equivalent to the meaning of 'death'.
Of course Mianmian didn't want to die, and after four years, she had already considered an escape plan: her ability to enter dreams not only allowed her spirit to enter, but her body could also enter the real dream world, but only if she stayed in her backpack. Go to sleep in space.
As for the backpack space, as far as she knows, there is only one in the entire underground factory. There is a storage box just above the Gu pool. Open the box and the backpack space is connected below.
However, above the Gu Pond is where the people behind the scenes live, and it is also where the 'monster' lives. Normally, she has no chance to get close to it.
Only during the final experiment will the child undergoing the experiment be sent to the high platform, and that is her only chance to escape!
Mianmian had secretly planned everything for her escape. It couldn't be said to be flawless, but the success rate was at least 70%.
The question is, after she really escapes, where should she go?
"Can you...take me in?"
On this day in the dream, Mianmian mustered up the courage to ask Mengmeng this question.
"What?" The girl looked at her in confusion.
"I mean...if I appeared in your world, could I...live with you?"
"Really?" The bob-haired girl's eyes lit up instantly.
"Um……"
"sure!"
Ye Rumeng nodded hurriedly: "I will definitely explain everything to my parents and let them adopt you! My father is a very open-minded person. He will help you with your identity and certification, so don't worry."
The girl's answer proved that she had not just thought about it on a whim, but had already considered similar things. She was fully aware of Mianmian's situation and had even secretly consulted her family about it.
The girl's answer made Mianmian relax, and she smiled for the first time in a long time.
After all the plans were prepared, Mianmian began to look forward to the day of the experiment.
Whenever she thinks about leaving here soon and starting a new life in another world, her heart beats faster, and she feels endless anticipation in her heart.
And this day came faster than expected.
A few days later, Mianmian was transferred to the West District Hospital. She was placed in a double dormitory with another roommate, who was another experimental subject who would conduct the final experiment with her.
Mianmian was indifferent to this, because she was already focused on escaping, and no matter who came, it had nothing to do with her.
As a result, when her door was opened that day, what was thrown in was a very familiar figure to her.
Looking at the little girl with a bloody head and bruises on the ground, Mianmian suddenly felt an unprecedented anger after being shocked.
She walked up to the person behind the scenes at the door, clenched her fists, and glared at the figure in front of her. She could no longer control her usually indifferent expression, like a she-cat protecting her calf, her face was ferocious, and her whole body was shaking with anger.
"What a surprise!"
The person behind the scenes looked at Mianmian with the same surprise, and his expression quickly turned into an interested smile: "You actually show this kind of emotion? This is really interesting... It seems that the 14 groups of experiments can be more Looking forward to it!”
"Snapped!"
The door was shut mercilessly.
Mianmian hurriedly ran to the girl behind her to check her injuries.
"Mengmeng, how are you?"
The weak and bruised girl in her arms showed a happy smile to her.
"Mianmian, I finally see you..."
"Do you know where this place is?" Mianmian was angry and helpless, why could she still laugh at this time.
"I know this is a bad place... But, my parents are dead, I have no one to rely on, and the only relative I have in the world is you. As a result, they brought me to you. That's not all. Is it worth being happy?" the girl said with a smile.
Mianmian was silent, feeling even more guilty. She knew clearly that she had harmed Mengmeng, the person whose soul was in sync with her... She should have thought earlier, who else was more suitable to be her experimental subject than Mengmeng? If it hadn't been for her, Mengmeng wouldn't have been targeted, let alone her family.
"Mengmeng, run away!" Mianmian suddenly said firmly.
"escape?"
"Yes, we will be thrown into a place in a few days. At that time, I will let you inherit my body and abilities. I will become a shadow ghost and help you stop other people. You only need to take the opportunity to get into that box. , and then try your best to fall asleep and escape!" In an instant, Mianmian modified the escape method she had planned before and transferred it to Mengmeng.
"and this!"
Mianmian took out a small bag with a zippered collar from under the bed. Inside was a map fragment shrouded in black air: "I picked this up in the garbage dump. It contains something very important to the Fool. Those people said this thing cannot be Stay, because it will attract fools, so I picked it up from the garbage dump."
"Take this and go find an organization called the Dragon Group and ask them to protect you!" Mianmian whispered.
"Dragon group... what is it?" the little girl asked blankly.
"I don't know either. I overheard their conversation in my dream and mentioned that this organization can make people in the Society of the Undead fearful. If you give them something, they should have the ability to protect you," Mianmian said.
This was originally the escape route she had left for herself, but now it was all transferred to the little girl, but she didn't feel bad at all. The moment she saw that her experimental subject was Mengmeng, she no longer cared about her own life or death. Getting her out of here alive was more important than anything else.
"What about you?" Mengmeng did not forget Mianmian.
"I...it doesn't matter anymore. There is one less of me and more than one of me in this world. It's all the same..."
Mianmian smiled bitterly, how could a person who has stayed in darkness his whole life dare to step into the light rashly? Everything I had been looking forward to for so long was just a dream after all.
In order to ensure that Mengmeng could escape, Mianmian taught her everything she planned many times in the next half month.
Half a month later, the two were finally taken to the top of the Gu Pond. In front of the man behind the scenes, they were pulled into the shadow of the underground and fell into a world full of twisted lines.
An indescribable sense of oppression came from all directions. The two girls instantly covered their heads and fell to the ground. However, the shadows under them seemed to be attractive, gathering together, and finally connected between the two. Together.
Both of them were shaken by the pain that hit them, but Mianmian still forced a smile: "Don't be afraid, Mengmeng, I will let you survive. No matter what I become later, Don’t be afraid, even if you turn into a monster, I will definitely protect you..."
"This little bit of pain is nothing to me..."
Mianmian smiled dryly and began to try to absorb the pain in Mengmeng's shadow and apply it to herself.
However, she soon discovered that she had not been able to absorb the shadow. Instead, her shadow was getting shorter, and the pain on her body was also rapidly decreasing.
Mianmian looked at the girl opposite in surprise: "Mengmeng, what are you doing?"
"It turns out that this is the pain you have been suffering. It's because I was too naive..." The little girl looked at her weakly and forced out a dry smile.
"Stop! If this continues, both of us will die. Are you going to waste the opportunity I created for you?" Feeling that the pain in her body continued to decrease, Mianmian suddenly became anxious. Every bit of her loss was lost. The pain will be felt on the girl opposite.
"It won't be wasted..."
The girl fell to the ground, her body huddled in pain, but she still forced a smile: "I definitely can't do such a complicated thing... So, it's better for you to escape..."
"...Don't be afraid, I will help you take away all the painful memories... You have to take my memories with you into your dreams, and then live..."
Along with the girl's increasingly weak voice, the shadow under Mianmian's body began to be quickly drawn away.
The pain receded like a tide, and Mianmian suddenly felt more relaxed than ever before. At the same time, a huge wave of sleepiness came over her. She tried hard to stay awake, but she still couldn't resist the strong reaction of her body and gradually closed her eyes...
…
"It's surprising, isn't it?"
On the high platform, the person behind the scenes stood above the shadows, watching the various changes in the two girls in the shadows, and spoke to the Magan man behind him with a somewhat excited tone.
"These two children are like the same person in a parallel world. One was born to stand in the light, and the other was born to stand in the shadow. It is a combination made in heaven... I have a hunch that today, the best child in the history of our church will be born. A piece of work!”
