Chapter 25: Orphanage

Orphanage

The street was dim with light and shadow, water dripped softly, and dark, damp moss grew quietly in the hidden corners.

Wen Ya covered her mouth and nose, frowned tightly, and then followed closely behind several tall, burly sentinels.

"Ah Ya, we just need to go; why do you have to go yourself?"

The man closely following behind her scratched his head, somewhat unwilling to let Wen Ya step into the gloomy place, even though Wen Ya was an A-rank Guide who had seen many brutal scenes.

Wen Ya stared straight ahead, "Not killing a chicken to warn the monkeys, just showing a little color—do you really think Guides are weak and the White Tower incapable?"

Her eyes flashed with coldness.

The personnel involved had already been subdued by the sentinels, but according to Wen Li, she still had many companions.

To avoid exposure, the young children were all hidden in the winding alleys of the slums.

Fu Guang was left to guard these criminals together with her teammates.

Perhaps knowing they had committed heinous crimes, the sentinels kneeling on the ground bit their lips, revealing nothing.

Fu Guang sat in the courtyard of the planet master sent by the Federation, the wind chime made of jade in the pavilion tinkled as it swayed in the breeze.

She indifferently watched the dying sentinels struggle, while Shang Ze and Bai Gao stood behind her; the others had gone out to search for evidence.

"Wen Li, can you face me?" The lead sentinel, subdued by Bai Gao, knelt on the ground with his hands bound behind his back.

"You were originally an orphan; I painstakingly raised you, providing you with good food and drink." He spoke ever more calmly, as if it were truly so.

"Even if you have any complaints to tell your brother, what would he refuse you?"

The sentinel was the planet's largest merchant, and the hotel where Fu Guang stayed was his property.

Originally neat and tidy, the sentinel now had torn clothes, blotches of blue and purple on his skin, a face punched by someone unknown, with dark eye sockets and a bloody, mangled visage.

Huh, it's downright an eyesore.

As he spoke, the injured muscles on his face twitched, and he let out a soft 'heh'.

Wen Li, who originally trembled at the sound of a man's voice as a reflex, suddenly became strangely calm after hearing that soft 'heh'.

She could still recall how the man used to speak calmly and loftily.

With half-closed eyes, he coldly watched her collapse and weep, as if she were a mischievous child who didn't understand anything.

"Little Li, as long as you differentiate into a Guide, power and money will be within easy reach—what else could you be dissatisfied with?" He said in a coaxing tone.

"As long as you obediently stay by my side, everything will be at your disposal." He said calmly, in a tone of having everything under control.

"Little Li, listen obediently and don't make your brother angry." He laughed, yet could hardly conceal his impatience.

"Wen Li, even if you go to the White Tower, you cannot escape my grasp." His utterly cold voice still rang in her ears.

Wen Li gritted her lower lip in hatred, blood flowing freely.

Her hoarse voice shouted, "Don't call me that—you're not my brother, I don't have a brother thirty years older than me!"

"It's clearly you who stripped control of my life, yet you act like you're giving charity—utterly disgusting!"

"I can live just fine without you!"

Wen Li's emotions overflowed, she burst into tears—clearly everything came with conditions, yet it was spoken so righteously.

……

The orphanage's signboard, long neglected, creaked in the wind as if about to fall.

Wen Ya gazed at the low bungalows, the swings covered in spiderwebs.

The elderly person who had always lived here said, "Since Er Dan differentiated into a sentinel and made a career, I heard a brand-new orphanage was built in the city center; after taking in the former orphans, this place was abandoned."

"There are still a few elderly who refuse to leave."

Creak.

The door hanging on the frame was pushed open; a withered hand rested on the edge as she stepped out to look at the dust‑laden woman who still appeared extraordinary, and behind her stood one tall, burly sentinel after another, exuding a fierce aura.

Her leisurely steps paused, she lowered her gaze and sighed, "Has this day finally come?"

She turned her head, and her aged voice echoed in the empty courtyard: "Children, guests have arrived."

The door opened and closed again; several children with heads like radishes ran out, boys and girls, all about seven or eight years old.

A girl with her head full of braids shouted loudly, "Is Sister Wen Li here?"

Her face bore a hint of childishness, her pure gaze sweeping over the few people.

Wen Ya noticed several of Fu Guang's sentinels stationed in the high air; they glanced over and then flew off.

"Sister Wen Li sent me to pick you up to go to the central city as guests—okay?"

"Okay, I'll listen to the pretty sister." The little girl turned her head to glance at her grandmother's expression, then replied.

……

Wait for Wen Ya to bring the people back.

The leading man vehemently denied imprisoning orphans and coercing guides in their differentiation period.

"Guide Sir, have I made a mistake in rescuing orphans?"

"As for guides, aside from the two of you, I truly have never seen any other guides in my life."

He kowtowed, his tone somewhere between crying and not crying.

"You are the noble White Tower Guide; whatever you say is right."

As if resigned, he kowtowed on the ground; no one noticed his distorted face and eyes filled with killing intent.

Those guides never discovered by the White Tower have died; it was once regretted that they died early, but now it seems truly fortunate.

With no one to contradict them, no one can define their guilt!

Wen Li, you wait.

A sentinel kneeling in the rear, clearly lacking the composure of the leader, had bloodshot eyes, stared fixedly at Fu Guang, a picture of utter viciousness.

It's precisely because this guide arrived that everything is completely over.

A hiss.

The Sentinel let out a miserable cry, blood spotting the verdant branches and leaves.

"My eyes!"

Bai Gao shook off his hand, his gaze cold, "If the eyes are useless, they're not needed."

He shifted his long leg, his military boot pressing on the Sentinel's spine; the Sentinel's miserable howl turned fierce, accompanied by faint bone creaks, and immediately he bore the sound of being about to shatter under maximum force.

The Sentinel lay on the ground like a dead dog; if the force on his spine increased a bit more, he could die directly.

Fear made him forget the pain of losing his eyes, and the shadow of death enveloped him.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me."

Wen Li's eyes widened wide, filled with fear, and also with the grim pleasure of a criminal about to die, making her whole body tremble uncontrollably.

Fu Guang lifted her gaze, coldly saying, "Bai Gao, don't kill him."

Bai Gao heard, swiftly retracted his foot, "I'll spare your life for now."

He glanced over the remaining few; the other Sentinels lowered their eyes, as did the newly brought ordinary old man.

The woman's hair was streaked white, her skin dark, her face covered in winding lines, deep grooves; she knelt there, her back bent, head lowered, saying nothing.

Her complexion was dim, her eyes dead, a look of resignation to death.

Seeing the Sentinel being tortured, her cracked, dry lips parted; a tear slid from her lifeless eye, blooming on her gray clothing.

She then lowered her head even deeper, her ragged clothes unable to cover her thin, frail shoulders.

If only I had known earlier, if only I had known earlier, alas.

Fu Guang had long noticed this sole ordinary woman, her fingers broad, her face weary, standing out conspicuously among the noisy Sentinels who insisted they were blameless.

She lifted her chin and asked Wen Li, "Who is that?"

Wen Li's eyes instantly turned red; one could see she was fighting back tears, not letting them fall, and she forced a smile that looked worse than crying.

"She is my grandmother, and also his mother." She pointed to the hungry wolf ahead wearing sheepskin.

A pitiful person who aids the tyrant in his wickedness.