Chapter 7
Under Su Ci’s perception, the corridor wasn’t as empty as it appeared.
Within a faint red mist, a thin and small figure dressed in ragged clothes huddled in the corner.
The blood-red particles in the mist seemed to gather around the figure, forming a denser fog than the surrounding area. Anyone seeing this eerie sight might either flee in terror or feel a chill in their heart. However, Su Ci remained unnervingly calm.
He broke the silence and asked the figure, “Why are you following me?”
“Hungry… hungry…”
The plaintive cry echoed in the blood-red corridor, chilling like the wail of a ghost.
Hungry? Su Ci raised an eyebrow. He didn’t even have enough food for himself.
“I suggest you check the kitchen.”
Although the young man’s voice was gentle and pleasant, his words carried a cold detachment.
Su Ci recalled seeing this child near the kitchen earlier in the evening. Surely, the boy knew there was a freezer full of meat in the storage area, and with meal prep scheduled for 4586 later that night, the staff might still be around.
Hearing Su Ci’s words, the child stopped wailing and stiffly turned his head.
It seemed he had been stuck in this posture for a long time, as the movement of his bones made a dry creaking sound, almost as if his head might snap off his neck at any moment.
As the child turned, Su Ci could see a black-red eye filled with bloodshot veins peeking out from beneath a curtain of thick bangs.
The child’s gaze fixed on Su Ci. In the red mist, his presence was strange and terrifying.
But to Su Ci, the child looked a little dull.
Seeing no immediate response and noting that the boy remained curled up silently in the corner, Su Ci sighed. Slowly, he lifted his foot and walked toward him.
As Su Ci approached, the denser blood-red particles around the boy dispersed slightly, allowing him to see the child more clearly.
The boy appeared to be even younger than Number Five, perhaps three or four years old. His face, obscured by his bangs, was dirty and expressionless. His entire body was filthy, as though he hadn’t bathed or changed clothes in years. His shoulder-length black hair was matted and tangled, and his tattered clothing had long since lost any identifiable color.
Compared to this child, the other young ones at the fostering center, though deprived of freedom, were at least clean and well-cared-for.
“Are you also one of the fosterlings here?” Su Ci crouched before the boy and spoke gently. “Number Six? Seven? Invisibility? Is that your ability?”
That didn’t seem quite right. Su Ci had seen Number Six and Number Seven in the dining hall earlier that afternoon. Though he couldn’t recall their appearances clearly, they didn’t look as pitiful as this.
Or perhaps…
“Are you Number One?”
The child didn’t respond. Unlike the silence of Number Three, this boy’s stillness was hollow and lifeless—like the barren earth itself.
Initially uninterested in involving himself, Su Ci found his mind unexpectedly shifting.
He reached out and took hold of the child’s wrist.
Under his palm was an icy, almost ghostly touch. However, Su Ci was certain this child wasn’t a spirit. The delicate bones beneath his grasp felt so fragile that it seemed a slight squeeze might break them.
At that moment, the boy’s hollow expression finally flickered with a trace of emotion.
The black-red eyes blinked, then mechanically lowered to where Su Ci held his wrist. Slowly, his eyes widened in shock.
He abruptly looked up at Su Ci, his gaze filled with astonishment. His lips parted as though to speak, but only emitted a hoarse, unintelligible sound: “Hhh… hhh…”
Su Ci continued to study the boy’s wrist, noting how it seemed even thinner than his own joined fingers. He wondered if pulling the child to his feet would snap his arm in two.
With this in mind, Su Ci released the boy’s wrist. Instead, he slid his hands under the boy’s arms, one on his back, lifting him gently but securely. He even gave him a light bounce to adjust the weight.
The child instinctively clung to Su Ci’s neck.
So light.
Su Ci weighed the boy in his arms. Though he had no prior experience carrying children, he could tell something was wrong—this child was alarmingly underweight.
The boy stared at Su Ci, his astonishment giving him a more vivid and lifelike expression. For the first time, he looked like an actual child.
Su Ci carried him into Room 303.
Night had fallen, and the room’s temperature had dropped significantly. The heater kicked in, filling the space with warmth. Even the faint blood-red mist that had followed them seemed to fade, unable to breach the room’s confines.
Placing the boy on the ground, Su Ci rummaged through the remaining nutritional packs and picked out the mixed vegetable flavor—the one he liked the least.
The mixed vegetable flavor could be described as a blend of mashed carrots, green peppers, corn, Chinese cabbage, and cucumbers.
Su Ci didn’t like it at all, but thankfully there were only three packets of this flavor.
He walked to the kitchen to prepare the nutritional drink. Meanwhile, the boy standing beside the coffee table kept his eyes fixed on him.
When Su Ci poured the powdered drink into a glass and appeared to glance in his direction, the boy quickly averted his gaze, pretending nothing had happened.
Lowering his head, he noticed the wrist Su Ci had just held earlier. Then, he looked down at his palm.
Earlier, when Su Ci had lifted him and his arms had instinctively wrapped around the man’s neck, he had touched his skin…
It was warm. A sensation he had never experienced before.
The boy raised his head, the single black-red eye visible beneath his heavy bangs taking in the bright and spacious room.
The tiny blood-red specks that usually made him so uncomfortable…
Were gone.
By then, Su Ci had finished preparing the drink. Carrying the glass, he walked back and set it on the coffee table, sliding it in front of the boy.
The deep green liquid emitted faint wisps of steam and exuded a mild, refreshing fragrance.
“Drink it,” Su Ci instructed.
The boy glanced at the glass of deep green liquid, then looked up at Su Ci, shaking his head slightly.
“What’s this? Being picky?”
Su Ci’s tone was displeased—this wasn’t a habit he wanted to encourage.
The boy shook his head again, this time with more emphasis, and reached out to grab the glass. Yet, when his fingers actually closed around it, he froze, his eyes brimming with astonishment.
He could touch it.
This realization shook the boy to his core. He let go of the still-warm glass and tentatively reached out to touch the edge of the coffee table.
And then… he grasped it.
The boy couldn’t help but look up at Su Ci, his gaze overflowing with joy. Despite his pitiful, disheveled state, the glimmer of happiness lent him a touch of cuteness.
“Yes, you’re holding it.”
Su Ci squatted down before the boy again, his gaze now more serious as he looked at the corner of the coffee table that had disappeared upon the boy’s touch.
The boy’s state—more precisely, the state he had been in before touching Su Ci—was all too familiar. Although Su Ci hadn’t noticed it earlier, it wasn’t too late now.
Staring at the boy, Su Ci asked, “Are you… a newly born spirit?”
The boy’s joy dimmed as he registered Su Ci’s question and the seriousness in his expression.
Standing where he was, the boy pulled his hand back from the table edge, clasping it uneasily to his chest.
Su Ci noted the boy’s emotional shift. Though his expression didn’t change much, Su Ci could sense the boy’s confusion and helplessness, which only deepened his own curiosity.
Could it be that he was too young, his consciousness only recently formed, and thus he knew nothing?
Su Ci studied the boy closely.
The boy stared back at him, his black-red eye still threaded with bloodshot veins. Yet, the traces of confusion and vulnerability in his gaze made him seem far less frightening.
Gradually, the furrow in Su Ci’s brow began to ease.
Su Ci’s lips curved upward, revealing the first genuine smile since his awakening.
Truly… fascinating.
He was deeply curious about what could have brought forth such a fragile spirit.
All things possess spirits, but for inanimate objects to awaken consciousness from chaos is infinitely harder than for living beings born with innate intelligence. Precisely because of this difficulty, the spirits of inanimate objects are usually far more powerful than ordinary life forms from the moment of their birth.
That made this weak spirit in front of him highly unusual.
The arduousness of the process meant that objects capable of birthing spirits were rarely ordinary. Yet, Su Ci couldn’t sense anything particularly extraordinary in the vicinity that could have given rise to such a being.
Su Ci smirked. It was a shame that his current weakened state made it impossible to discern the boy’s original form. Still, it wasn’t a big issue.
After all, raising a child couldn’t be too hard, could it?
Yes, Su Ci decided to keep the boy. It was rare to encounter a spirit of a similar life form to his own, and he couldn’t just leave the child to live in such a miserable state.
Meanwhile, the boy had no idea what Su Ci was contemplating. He simply stared at Su Ci’s smile in a daze.
He was a “nonexistent” existence—no one could see him, no one could touch him, and he could hardly touch anyone or anything.
Until now, he had seen many smiles in the fostering center. Some were beautiful, others ugly. But he had never seen one that was truly…
Directed at him.
The boy gazed into Su Ci’s eyes and saw his own reflection in those bright, curved black pupils. For the first time, he saw his own image so clearly.
At that moment, Su Ci picked up the glass from the coffee table and pushed it back in front of the boy.
“Drink it. It won’t taste good if it gets cold.”
The boy blinked, obediently extending his small hands to cradle the glass. He was so tiny that it looked as though he was hugging the glass to his chest.
He felt the warmth radiating from the glass and the liquid inside.
It was a sensation he had rarely, if ever, experienced in his life. Unable to help himself, the boy hugged the glass tighter. He didn’t take a sip immediately; instead, he cautiously raised his eyes to glance at Su Ci several times before finally lowering his head.
Pressing his mouth to the rim of the glass, he lifted it with difficulty, tilting it until the liquid began to flow toward his lips.
He had seen many people do this at Base 24. Now, he could finally do it too.
Su Ci observed the boy, half-expecting him to end up splashing the drink all over his face. To his surprise, the boy not only managed to drink the nutritional liquid successfully but did so with an unexpected grace.
After tasting the mixed vegetable flavor, the boy smacked his lips thoughtfully. Instead of showing any signs of dislike, his expression was one of enjoyment and satisfaction. Then, without hesitation, he picked up the glass again and gulped down a large mouthful.
The way he devoured the drink made it clear—he hadn’t eaten in a long time.
Poor little guy