I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 496
Chapter 496: Phantom of the Past
Walking through the gates of the orphanage into the courtyard, I looked ahead at the familiar yet unfamiliar slope. The small round-toed shoes on my feet made a “tap tap tap” sound on the cold ground.
The weather in November was already starting to get a bit chilly. Today, I was wearing a blue and white sailor-style top paired with a light blue skirt. Underneath, I wore an additional layer of “bare-leg pantyhose.”
“Bare-leg pantyhose” is considered a piece of clothing exclusively for girls. If a girl with well-shaped legs wears them, it looks very nice, as if there’s an extra layer of skin. It makes fair skin look even whiter and enhances the graceful shape of the legs, making them appear more delicate and smooth.
Moreover, since bare-leg pantyhose are essentially a type of tights, they also have a certain warmth-keeping effect.
If the bare-leg pantyhose are particularly thin, they look like flesh-colored stockings. From a distance, it might give the impression that the person isn’t wearing any socks at all. Therefore, bare-leg pantyhose are usually paired with a pair of short socks.
Today, I wore short socks with lace trim, known as “lace socks.”
These socks, when paired with uniform-style leather shoes, look very cute and youthful.
Of course… that is, if you don’t notice the little devil wings and tail hidden behind me.
I had tied my hair into twin tails and was walking on the familiar little slope in this sky-blue school uniform with lace socks and leather shoes.
To the right of the slope was a large playground with lots of sports equipment—parallel bars, badminton courts, basketball courts, climbing frames…
It is said that if you go a bit further, this orphanage was once a school.
A school for treating “internet addiction” or “various addictions.”
Back in those days, online games and certain martial arts novels were considered dangerous influences, so similar “rehabilitation schools” started popping up like mushrooms after the rain.
The “Internet Addiction Rehab School” at the Medicinal Botanical Garden was born in such an environment. The surroundings are beautiful, far from the city, and completely surrounded by the original forest, making it feel like a prison—even if a child managed to run away, they wouldn’t get far and wouldn’t be able to return to the city.
Fortunately, that school was later blown up.
Yes, you heard right, “blown up.”
No one knows who the principal crossed, but I’ve heard from some of the elderly folks living nearby that on that day, a large group of people dressed in black, armed with speakers, bulldozers, and various explosives, stormed into the school without a word. They drove all the students out, blasting music while demolishing the school.
To the rousing sound of the music, the teaching building and the office building were torn down, and then those people in black called in excavators to flatten the entire site.
Later, that principal ended up in prison, the number of Internet Addiction Rehab Schools in Shenzhen City gradually decreased, and this place was turned into an orphanage.
So… here in the orphanage, we get to enjoy some of the “legacy” left behind by that rehab school.
For example, the playground, sports fields, and various libraries.
“Tap, tap, tap…”
I walked up the slope, the cute shoes of my school uniform making a dull sound.
That’s because the road beneath my feet had grown some moss.
Perhaps because this path hasn’t been used much recently, and with all the trees around blocking the wind and rain, sunlight doesn’t reach the ground, making it lush and green with patches of “pearl grass” here and “green moss” there.
“Hahaha… Come and catch me…”
“Slow down! If you fall and roll all the way down, not even the gods can save you!”
As I walked up with Xiao Mo, it seemed that some sounds from more than a decade ago echoed in my ears.
“What are these?”
“Moss.”
“Can you eat it?”
“Are you an idiot?”
My gaze fell on the reeds beside the slope.
“Jia Junpeng! Don’t drink tap water like that!”
“Can’t you turn off the faucet when you’re done with the water!”
Wearing slippers and sporting a crew cut, the director seemed to once again raise his stick and run towards the kids playing with the faucet nearby.
“The director’s coming, run!”
“My shoe fell off!”
“Ah… don’t hit me!”
Then, the director, holding his stick, arrived at the faucet and turned off the water.
I looked over at the faucet, now completely rusted.
In my memory, every summer when we were kids, a few of us would play with water and have water fights near this faucet.
Of course, the director didn’t want us wasting water like that, so he had a few people seal the faucet with a metal mesh and lock the opening of the mesh with a padlock.
But it only took a few days for us mischievous kids to figure out how to break through that metal mesh.
Someone sneaked into the director’s house while he was resting, pressed the outline of the key for the metal mesh lock onto a piece of paper, and brought it out.
Then, a few of us went nearby, found a soda can, and used scissors to cut out a key shape based on the outline we had traced.
At first, the key made from the soda can didn’t fit, so we kept adjusting it, slowly refining it until it finally worked with a small iron rod to “click” the lock open.
At the time, we kids treated this key like a treasure, taking turns keeping it safe—one week you would keep it, the next week I would.
Every time the director went out and there weren’t many people at the orphanage, we’d use that key to open the lock and start playing with the water.
Over ten years ago, I was just an ordinary boy who knew nothing.
“Why don’t we go to the back hill and dig a patch of land to plant some sweet potatoes?”
“Planting potatoes works too! Then we can dig them up and eat them! We’ll just use this water!”
“I agree!”
In a daze, I seemed to see my past self reflected in that faucet.
Those memories, those moments, those joyful times.
“Where’s Yaoyao?”
“She… left.”
“Then how are we going to divide into teams this time? We’re short one girl.”
But as we kids gradually grew up, our friends either passed away due to illness or were adopted by nearby families.
Familiar faces became fewer and fewer, and the summers grew hotter and hotter.
“No problem, I’ll team up with Ali!”
“Yay! The sweet potatoes Ali planted are ready to be dug up. Let’s cook sweet potato soup today!”
“……”
I walked over to the faucet beside the slope.
By now, the metal mesh from my childhood memories was gone, and the lock that we had pried open countless times had vanished without a trace.
It was completely rusted over.
I was certain that even if I tried to turn it on now, no water would come out.
“Nuo’er…”
Xiao Mo looked worried. “Are you remembering something bad?”
“Mm… no.”
I shook my head, turned around, and gently took Xiao Mo’s hand. “Let’s go.”
We continued walking up the slope until we reached a large open space at the top.
This open space used to be the flag-raising platform of the “Internet Addiction Rehab School,” but it had now been converted into a playground for the children.
“Xiao Mo.”
As one memory after another surfaced in my mind, I pulled Xiao Mo closer and rested my head against her chest.
“Let me lean on you.”
“Just for a little bit…”
“……”
……