Real World (3)
Seventeen years ago.
“Are you new? Nobody wants you either?”
Five-year-old Ming Ming tilted her messy little braids and stared curiously at the refined-looking older boy in front of her.
Nine-year-old Gu Qing: “…”
“You’re the one nobody wants.”
“Everyone here is a kid nobody wanted,” Ming Ming said confidently.
“I’m not unwanted.”
“Only unwanted kids come here,” she insisted.
“…Someone wants me.”
She looked him up and down and concluded.
“You’re not missing any arms or legs, but you still got abandoned. Must be your brain that’s broken.”
Gu Qing: “…”
Damn it. I want to fight her.
He even forgot to snap back with, Then what’s wrong with your brain?
Their pointless argument lasted several rounds before the director stepped in.
“Alright, Ming Ming. Stop embarrassing yourself. Take Brother Gu Qing around and let him familiarize himself with the place.”
Over the next few months, Director Ming would probably regret that decision more than once.
Who would’ve thought two kids who almost came to blows at their first meeting would become inseparable after one afternoon wandering around together?
Gu Qing even wanted to sleep beside her.
But he was nine, and she was five. Her tiny bed couldn’t hold him.
That night, when he sneaked onto her bed, she almost got shoved off the edge.
Half-asleep, she opened her eyes and saw a giant creature occupying her bed, squeezing her into a thin strip of space.
She burst into tears.
In a place like an orphanage, crying spread fast.
One kid cried.
Several kids woke up.
Soon, a whole room was crying.
Gu Qing panicked.
He only meant to cover her mouth. Then he only meant to comfort her.
But when the whole room started crying, he had no idea what to do.
The caretakers and the director rushed in, dragged the real culprit out, and locked him in the small, dark room.
Gu Qing felt deeply upset.
That feeling peaked the next day when Ming Ming casually came to the smal,l dark room to find him, as if nothing had happened.
His little friend was not the same person at night and during the day.
She’d been possessed.
Only he knew the truth.
He looked at her with pity.
She whispered, “Do you want to come out?”
He nodded.
Under her instructions, he successfully broke out.
“Why are you so skilled at this?”
“I’m a regular,” she said proudly.
Gu Qing thought:
Kids who get locked up all the time must be really unwanted… I’m probably the only one who can tolerate you.
You should stick with me.
Once my family situation stabilizes, I’ll take you home.
He asked, “Do you remember what happened last night?”
“Last night? What happened?” she asked blankly.
His expression darkened. “Think harder.”
She thought very seriously.
“Oh! I remember!” She slapped her palm.
“I dreamed about a big monster! It tried to steal my territory! I was so angry I cried in my dream!”
Looking wronged, she added, “The director was really nice. He soothed me for a long time and put me to sleep.”
Gu Qing’s face turned even worse.
She sighed dreamily. “The director is such a good person.”
He locks you in solitary and you call him good?
I planned to take you home and you think I’m the monster?!
He clenched his teeth.
She grabbed his hand happily.
“Come on! I’ll show you my secret base!”
“Nobody wants to play with me. Every time I go there, the director wants to beat me. Brother Gu Qing, will you go with me?”
He stared coldly. “Any benefits?”
She rolled her eyes. “Umm…”
“If you go with me, I’ll be the best friend in the world to you!” she said sweetly.
His ears twitched.
“For real?”
“For real!”
“Lead the way.”
He just didn’t expect… her secret base to be a graveyard.
“…This is your secret base?” he asked in disbelief.
Before he could stop her, she ran ahead happily and picked up a bone longer than her arm.
He trembled.
“Put that down. I’m not joking.”
“Why? You don’t like my secret base?”
Like it?!
He asked with difficulty, “Do you know what this is?”
“Of course I do!”
“You know and you still—” He stopped halfway. “…Wait. If you know, then what is it?”
She said proudly,
“This is the bone of a KFC monster!”
“…”
“…Say that again. What monster?”
“A KFC monster!” she repeated loudly.
“There’s a monster in the city called KFC! It has six wings and three legs! It’s super scary! But there’s a hero named McDonald who fights it like Ultraman! These are the bones the hero left behind after defeating it!”
Gu Qing went blank.
“…Right. And people respectfully call him the ‘Mc Sect,’ right?”
Her eyes lit up.
“You know too?!”
Gu Qing: I know nothing… NOTHING.
“I’ve gone to school. Listen—” he tried to teach her basic reality, but before he could get going, she had already flopped into the dirt and started rolling around.
His eyes nearly popped out.
“Come back here right now!”
She ran back happily and invited him,
“Did you know? If you roll around like this, you’ll glow at night! You’ll be the prettiest kid!”
He backed away in horror.
“Don’t come near me!”
Human glow… that’s ghost fire!
He tried to scare her.
“This is ghost fire. These are the souls of… KFC monsters. If you get too close, they’ll cling to you and possess you.”
…Why are you getting excited?!
He sighed, grabbed her collar, dragged her back, and handed her to the caretaker.
She screamed,
“I’m not bathing! I’m not bathing! This is my soul! Don’t steal my soul! I want to glow! Glow—glow—glow!”
Gu Qing thought silently:
No wonder nobody plays with her.
After that incident, Ming Ming felt he had betrayed the revolution and the organization and swore she would never be “best friends in the world” with him again.
Feeling guilty for reasons he couldn’t define, Gu Qing tried to make it up to her.
He climbed trees with her.
Jumped into rivers to catch fish.
And helped her mess with other “healthy but unwanted” children.
The most troublesome child in the orphanage increased from one… to two.
Still, staying wild with Ming Ming required true courage.
For example, enduring being covered in dust.
Or reaching into grass, thinking he’d touched a snail—only to realize it was a curled-up caterpillar.
Gu Qing froze in horror.
Ming Ming looked even more disgusted than him and wouldn’t let him come near her.
For whom do you think I did that, you heartless little thing?
Her braids, carefully done in the morning, always came loose within hours.
He affectionately called them “radish leaves.”
“Come here.”
“What?”
“Let me fix your radish leaves.”
He patiently braided her hair himself.
“Hey! That hurts!”
From that day on, Ming Ming sported two firm, upright pigtails.
Every morning, Gu Qing came over to re-braid her hair.
No matter how much she climbed or ran through water, those two braids stayed stubbornly intact.
Except… her scalp hurt a lot.
She didn’t like eating fish. She was good at catching fish, but she never ate it.
He noticed she couldn’t remove the tiny bones.
So he carefully removed them for her.
His technique was flawless.
One day she said, bitterly,
“If you take all the bones out, the fish doesn’t have a soul anymore!”
His hand stilled.
“Then I’ll eat the fish, and you eat the soul?”
She looked away awkwardly.
“…That’s not necessary.”
She kept staring at his bowl.
He laughed quietly.
“Call me something nice and I’ll give it to you.”
She called out sweetly,
“Brother Gu Qing!”
“Be the world’s best friend with me?”
She nodded hard.
Satisfied, he handed her the bowl.
She ate like a kitten that had stolen fish.
Years later, Gu Qing kept this memory as the only “sweet candy” in his life.
Whenever he could no longer withstand the bloody struggles of his family, he would take it out in his mind and taste it.
GhostCloudd On WBICDPH Chapter 93