Lin Yi and Qin Rang

Mi Chuchu looked utterly hopeless, resignedly continuing to tap the Cocoa Beans, though her movements were inevitably much faster. "Why are you making so many Cocoa Beans? Are they for the Orphanage to sell?"

Qin Rang wiped the sweat from his brow and whispered, "Stop talking, or they'll hear us. If they report us, we'll get points deducted again."

"Don't worry, they won't. I have something magical that will prevent them from hearing us. You can speak freely."

The two looked at him with puzzled expressions.

Seeing this, Mi Chuchu cleared her throat and suddenly let out a loud, powerful roar.

"Hey!"

The two children were startled and instinctively looked around, only to find that no one around them was moving at all, as if they really hadn't heard a sound.

Qin Rang's eyes widened in surprise. "Amazing!"

Lin Yi nodded in surprise. "Amazing!"

Mi Chuchu felt a little proud after being praised by the two children, and she made no attempt to hide the corners of her mouth turning up. "Now you can rest assured, right?"

"We're new here and don't know much about this place. Could you tell me about it?"

After what just happened, Lin Yi had developed a better impression of Mi Chuchu. He exchanged a glance with Qin Rang and nodded, asking, "What do you want to know?"

"Well... tell me about these things. Why are there so many Cocoa Beans? Who are they for? What's their purpose?"

Lin Yi frowned. "These Cocoa Pods we've peeled are all going to be processed into Chocolate."

"Right next to the Chocolate Orphanage is the city's largest Chocolate factory. The peeled Cocoa Pod are delivered to the factory. The owner of this Chocolate factory is one of the Orphanage's benefactors; his surname is Xie."

"The Disciplinarian Director said that we have to work for the factory so that the factory owner will give money to the Orphanage and we will have food to eat."

"It sounds like this sponsor is treating you like cheap labor," Mi Chuchu pondered. "It's too tiring to make you do such heavy work; even adults couldn't finish it."

"Mi Chuchu, it's not 'you guys,' it's 'we.' You need to finish your work before you can eat," Qin Rang, patting a full basket of Cocoa Beans.

"Okay, okay, I understand." Mi Chuchu sighed, "Then do you want to leave this Orphanage?"

Lin Yi and Qin Rang paused simultaneously, and both chose to remain silent.

"Hurry up and get it done, it's already this late and we've only got the third basket." Qin Rang changed the subject.

The three of them worked very efficiently, and by 2 p. m., they had collected ten boxes of Cocoa Beans, only needing one more person's share.

The reason it was so fast was because Mi Chuchu used Weird Object to help her; otherwise, they would have been able to work until nightfall.

"Can I move around freely after I finish?" Two more hours passed, and Mi Chuchu asked again, listlessly throwing away the Cocoa Pod in her hand.

"Yes, this is the last box," Lin Yi said. "But the three of us can't leave together; we have to split up."

Mi Chuchu nodded. "Okay, I'll be the last one to go out, you guys go out first."

Qin Rang hesitated, looking at the other empty seats. "Your friends haven't come back yet, shouldn't you help them?"

Mi Chuchu shook her head coldly. "No way. Those three people have fifteen boxes. I'd rather die than deal with this stuff."

Lin Yi hesitated. "Really?"

Mi Chuchu waved her hand. "It's okay, it doesn't really matter whether we stay in the room tonight or not, we're not planning to sleep there anyway. If we really need to do it, we'll wait for them to come back and do it together. I also want to go out for a walk."

A big question mark appeared in Lin Yi's mind, but he didn't say anything more. After handing over the last box of Cocoa Beans, he left first.

Stepping off the second-floor staircase, Lin Yi felt much more relaxed. The sky outside was still bright, and he rarely felt this relaxed.

He waited for a while behind the tree by the door, and when Qin Rang came out, the two of them walked tacitly into the courtyard where no one was around.

The courtyard has many brand-new playground facilities, including various wooden rocking horses, seesaws, slides, and two large swings that sway in the wind.

Lin Yi and Qin Rang sat on the swing, where they could easily observe the two buildings of the Church and Dining Hall, and they could see anyone coming immediately.

"Do you know too?" Qin Rang suddenly asked out of the blue.

Lin Yi blinked. "Don't talk nonsense, they'll hear you."

Qin Rang nodded, then rephrased the question, "There were two steamed buns for breakfast today, how many did you eat?"

Lin Yi hadn't eaten anything that morning as punishment, but he still said, "I only ate one."

"Me too, I wasn't very hungry, so I didn't eat anymore."

007 looked completely bewildered: [Why are they suddenly talking about eating?]

Lin Nieran said, "Idiot, Qin Rang was asking Lin Yi how much he knew, and Lin Yi said he knew half of it. Qin Rang said he knew about the same, and the follow-up matters haven't been investigated clearly yet."

[Huh? How did you figure that out?]

Lin Yi asked, "Then, do you still want to eat?"

Qin Rang countered, "You don't want to?"

"I don't want to." Lin Yi answered decisively.

Qin Rang looked into the distance and said, "But I think, sooner or later, it will be our turn."

Lin Yi frowned and asked, "After you leave... what will happen after you finish eating the steamed buns? If you get hungry, there won't be anything else to eat."

"We can always find something to eat," Qin Rang said. "Besides, we're not the only ones who only eat one steamed bun. We've been here for so many years, but nobody dares to say it out loud."

"If you really didn't want to, you wouldn't have said so much to Mi Chuchu."

After saying that, he stood up. "I'll be with them, Lin Yi. If you don't want to, leave us as soon as possible to avoid getting involved."

I'm leaving now.

Watching his departing figure, Lin Yi lowered his head and swayed on the swing for a while longer.

Lin Nieran, sitting on another empty swing, asked with a smile, "What's wrong, Lin Yi? Why the long face?"

"I'm thinking about what to do," Lin Yi replied. "Brother, they're doing something very dangerous."

Lin Nieran asked with a smile, "That's their business, what are you worried about?"

Lin Yi said, "I know there are many things that are different about our Orphanage compared to the outside world. You simply wouldn't find a monster-like Disciplinarian Director and—"

He started to say, then looked up at the tall building and stopped himself, saying, "If they don't investigate, completing the system's task will be very simple for me, but if they do investigate..."

"If we investigate further, you might be able to leave even faster," Lin Nieran added.

"Does your brother also believe they can do it?"

"Yes, I believe you."

Lin Yi took a deep breath, got up from the swing and walked outside. "I understand, then I'll go with them too."

After leaving the courtyard, Lin Nieran wandered aimlessly around the Orphanage for a while but still found nothing. Just as he was about to leave, he unexpectedly saw several Disciplinarian Director in black uniforms bending over and carrying several black bags as they quietly entered the Dining Hall.

Lin Yi was taken aback and instinctively tried to pretend he couldn't see anything and leave the place of trouble, but when he turned around, he bumped into Wang Ding face to face.

Even as a child, Wang Ding wore black-rimmed glasses, looking mature beyond his years. He lowered his voice and said, "What a coincidence, you're following them too? I'll go with you."

Lin Yi: "Huh?"

"Walk!"