Chapter 111: Love Welfare Institute
A short and unprofessional treatment ended. Bai Liu and Liu Huai were two patients who hadn’t suffered any injuries from the explosion. They had simply lost too much blood so they were quickly carried out of the operating room and returned to their original rooms.
In fact, the nurses wanted to send them to the ICU but it was already filled up with other patients. Bai Liu and Liu Huai’s injuries were relatively minor and they could only stay in their general wards.
For example, Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang were seriously injured and were now in the ICU on the second floor. They were still in a coma and wouldn’t wake up in a short time. Of course, Bai Liu also had the idea of going down to assassinate the two of them. Unfortunately, the ICU was currently full of nurses and he couldn’t enter at all.
In addition, they didn’t have any attack power right now.
Liu Huai’s arms were gone and Bai Liu’s physical strength and health were almost exhausted. Mu Ke was in a better state but he only had six points of health.
Yet even if Mu Ke could use a dagger and Miao Gaojiang lay there motionless, Mu Ke could cut for an hour without breaking Miao Gaojiang’s high defense.
In addition, if they woke up the two people then it could be them who died first. At present, staying put was their best choice because their goal had basically been achieved.
Both Bai Liu and Mu Ke’s rooms were blown up. They couldn’t return there and wards were extremely scarce due to Bai Liu’s explosion. They might end up living with other monster investors. After coordinating it, the three of them were arranged by a nurse into one ward—501 which was Liu Huai’s ward.
Liu Huai lay on the bed while Mu Ke and Bai Liu tore sheets of paper from the books to pad the ground, ready to make do for the night.
Rather than lying down after setting up his bed for the night, Bai Liu took a pen from the drawer and laid the torn paper on his lap, as if he was casually writing and drawing something.
Mu Ke curiously looked over. “Bai Liu, what are you writing?”
Bai Liu answered, “I’m sorting out the current leads, inside and outside of the game.”
“Oh! Talking about a clue, Bai Liu!” Mu Ke suddenly remembered something and reported seriously to Bai Liu. “I found something when looking through the medical records. The Life Recovery recipe said that children with ‘pure blood’ are the best choice. This should mean blood-related children are the best. Yet when looking at the case information, I found that most of the children that investors picked for their blood—”
“Have no direct blood relationship yet the treatment effect was relatively good, right?” Bai Liu wrote something on the paper without squinting. “Those like us who have children directly related by blood are a minority.”
“According to common sense and the actual situation, most investors can’t use children related to themselves. They also aren’t looking in welfare homes for children related to them by blood.”
Bai Liu casually drew a house that looked like a welfare home. Then he drew a few thin ‘investors’ in the welfare home. He wrote a sentence ‘probably no blood relationship’ between the investors and welfare home.
Bai Liu’s pen tapped thoughtfully on the paper. “So a blood relationship is just one meaning of ‘pure blood relationship’ in the life recovery recipe and it might only be aimed at the players whose systems gave NPC children related to us. Meanwhile, this blood purity obviously has another definition for other investors and entrepreneurs in reality.”
“In other words, children who meet this definition in the life recovery medicine aren’t just children related by blood but other children who meet the standard of blood purity. I thought so when reading the medical records.” Mu Ke nodded in agreement with Bai Liu’s statement. Then he was confused again. “I just don’t understand the specific criteria for investors to select the children to draw blood from.”
“I think perhaps blood purity means the blood type of the child should be consistent with the investor. However, the blood type of the child is different from the person who drew the blood, no matter whether it is ABO or RH.” Mu Ke explained and analyzed it very clearly according to his memories.
“I also did a rough memory analysis based on the blood test indexes of all the selected children. Regardless of biochemical indicators, hemoglobin content, background information and geography of the children, I can’t see the standard for investors to select children. In fact, I can’t quite understand the definition of blood purity.”
Mu Ke looked more and more confused. “Then after I read and memorized a lot of the medical records, I found a very strange thing. A large number of children selected to have their blood drawn weren’t healthy…”
“There are all sorts of flaws like defects or congenital diseases, right?” Bai Liu’s eyes were fixed on a certain point on his piece of paper. “You think it is strange why investors don’t choose healthy children and prefer children who have various diseases?”
“Yes.” Mu Ke nodded quickly as he glanced at Bai Liu with a bit of surprise. “How did you know? I only found the pattern after reading a lot of case data.”
“In fact, I thought about this before but I thought it was just a direction that people with abnormal brains like me would come up with. It was so ridiculous. Then Liu Jiayi’s life experience confirmed my idea.” Bai Liu drew a little girl in the welfare home and used a pencil to blacken her eyes. His voice was strange as he continued, “For this pure blood, things like blood type, biochemical indicators and hemoglobin content have nothing to do with it.”
The moment Liu Huai heard Liu Jiayi’s name, he struggled to turn over and sit up. He looked at Bai Liu.
Bai Liu was looking down at the girl on the paper. “This blood purity refers to the children who have ethically maintained a pure blood.”
“They are children who were born from close relatives, so they are full of birth defects.”
[System notification: Congratulations to player Bai Liu’s main identity line for unlocking the hidden side information—the true meaning of blood purity.]
[System notification: Among all the children, there is a special child. Their blood is enough to save an investor player. There is no need for more blood or a corresponding blood relationship. TA is the universal antidote in the game of Love Welfare Institute. Guess who TA is?]
The moment Bai Liu said this, the ward was quiet for a few minutes.
A chill went down Mu Ke’s back. “…No way? These investors deliberately looked for children with congenital diseases?”
Bai Liu casually drew a box and a circle on the paper, connecting them in the middle with a straight line. Then he wrote Aa and another Aa on it. Mu Ke could see with one glance that this was a biological genetics map.
“Generally speaking, every seemingly normal person has a probability of carrying certain invisible abnormal genes. Inbreeding will increase the probability of these invisible genes, leading to congenital malformations. This probability is called the close marriage coefficient.” Bai Liu explained. “I have general medical knowledge but I read some relevant books in order to play games. It is said that reproduction between close relatives will increase the probability of chromosome aberration.”
Mu Ke wondered in a complicated mood what Bai Liu usually looked at when making games… no wonder why most of the games he made couldn’t pass the trial…
“The pure blood children that investors want aren’t directly equivalent to ‘deformed’ children. Inbreeding does increase the probability of malformations but it doesn’t mean that all those with congenital defects are born from close relatives. The conditions between the two are neither necessary nor sufficient.” Mu Ke fell deep into thought. He touched his chin and asked, “In addition, many of these children are nameless and have no background information when they come to the welfare home. How can these investors determine that they are of pure blood?”
“There is a screening mechanism.” Bai Liu slowly raised his eyes. “They choose to adopt children with specific diseases such as albinism or a condition like Liu Jiayi. Then they screen out the pure blood children from these children.”
Mu Ke was a bit confused. “However, the child’s parents and other relevant information aren’t known. How do they filter out the pure blood children? There is no screening method for close relatives…”
“There is a way.” Bai Liu answered lightly. “Haven’t you already seen this screening process?”
Mu Ke was startled. “I’ve seen it…”
He suddenly realized something and turned to look at the paper in Bai Liu’s hand. Bai Liu had just drawn a blood ganoderma lucidum-shaped mushroom.
Mu Ke opened his mouth with some disbelief. “The welfare home poisoning incident..”
“Blood ganoderma lucidum is a fungal mushroom that sucks up children’s blood. It needs the blood of a child with ‘blood purity’ to grow normally so it is a very good screening method.” Bai Liu drew carelessly on the mushroom. “Children can be parasitized by it after eating it and there will be no obvious signs of poisoning. However, children that show slight signs of anemia proves that the blood ganoderma lucidum is sucking the blood of these children. These children meet the standard of blood purity.”
“In reality, mushroom poisoning occurs from time to time in welfare homes. I think it is likely to screen the children who meet the standard. However, the content of the food is controlled so these children don’t die from large-scale poisoning. As for the children who don’t suffer from poisoning after eating it, i.e. the children who meet the standard of blood purity, my guess is that after the investors do a simple check to confirm it on June 1st, Children’s Day, these children will have run away from the welfare home and disappeared.”
Bai Liu’s tone was lazy. “I don’t know if these children ran away alone or if they were chosen by the investors and secretly smuggled to the homes of these investors to act as blood bags.”
Mu Ke got goosebumps. He rubbed his arms and asked hesitantly, “In this case, Liu Jiayi’s poisoning case doesn’t make sense…”
“Yes!” Liu Huai joined the discussion with a dark expression and fear on his face. “When Liu Jiayi’s incident happened, the welfare home had no investors to screen the children. Why was there such a large-scale poisoning case?”
Bai Liu raised his eyes and looked at Liu Huai on the bed. “In reality, the welfare home was on the verge of bankruptcy and no one was willing to take over these abandoned children who are goods. Still, the actual value of these goods is very high. If you were the custodian of such goods, what would you do?”
On the bed, Liu Huai stared at Bai Liu in astonishment. He seemed startled that this person could be so indifferent when comparing children to goods.
Bai Liu continued in an unmoved manner. “If I was the dean of this welfare home, I would want to get more benefits from these goods and automatically start the screening process. This will select the most useful goods while destroying the useless goods that waste resources. Then I will use these selected high-quality goods as bargaining chips to start further contact with new investors.”
Bai Liu glanced at Mu Ke with these words. Mu Ke suddenly remembered that his father had been planning to invest in this welfare home and waved his hand frantically. “My father might not be a good person but if the dean makes this… such a suggestion to him, he won’t accept it! He is a man with a moral bottom line!”
“Really?” Bai Liu lowered his tone and leaned close to Mu Ke. Mu Ke moved back instinctively at Bai Liu’s gaze.
Bai Liu’s eyes looked ghostly and full of a strange concentration in the dim ward. He looked like he wanted to use his eyes to hook out a person’s most shameful thoughts from the depths of their brains.
“If I told your father that these five children will soon be drained of blood by the blood ganoderma lucidum and they will die. If you call the police, I will kill them immediately and you will just be wasting their lives…”
“You are so old and you will inevitably get cancer or another disease. Shouldn’t you prepare a back way for yourself? Your child also has a heart disease. This blood ganoderma lucidum can cure all types of diseases, including your child’s…”
“Just let these children have a good life before they die. In any case, they are deformed children and can’t enter society when they grow up. It will be hard for them to live. They can only live in this narrow welfare home all the time…”
“Some children actually have very serious depression and suicidal tendencies. We used various methods but it wasn’t alleviated. You know, they have congenital diseases and can’t live for long. They are all voluntary. Yes, how can we force these children? We talked to the children well, telling them we will give them cakes and toys in the future. They were all so happy…”
“You will let them live in pain for more than 20 years. The more they grow up, the more pain they will experience. It is better to let them be simple and happy. Moreover, some of them won’t live long even if you don’t do this…”
“This is a welfare home where we do good things…” Bai Liu lowered his eyes and whispered in a voice that seemed to seduce people at Mu Ke, who had shrunk back into a corner out of fright. “We love these children more than you. How can we harm them? We are saving them by doing this. We are making their lives better and sending them to have a better life in their next life.”
Bai Liu slowly raised his eyes and looked at Mu Ke calmly. “Now how would your father choose?”
Mu Ke was numb by Bai Liu’s eyes. He opened his mouth and finally couldn’t speak.
“We can’t expect to use people’s morality to restrain them from obtaining benefits.” Bai Liu retracted his gaze and sat back in his original position. “It is because this will only lead to gaining profits in a way that is a moral style.”
Liu Huai sat paralyzed on the bed. He was stunned for a long time and felt a long-lost fear scratching at his heart. “Bai Liu, Jiayi, was selected by this mushroom to suck her blood. If we don’t find a solution to the blood ganoderma lucidum as soon as possible then Jiayi will…”
Bai Liu was quiet. He didn’t answer Liu Huai’s words but instead returned to his original position and looked down at the girl he had drawn.
The little girl in black and white outlines had her legs curled up. Bai Liu wrote a health volume next to her body— 50 (?)
This meant that Liu Jiayi’s health was unknown and it was constantly being consumed.
The Love Welfare Institute, Wednesday morning, 3:45 a.m.
The handicrafts classroom.
Apart from Bai Liu, the teacher locked up the other four children in this handicrafts classroom at the back of the welfare home.
This handicrafts classroom was located in the welfare home. There were no windows on three walls. The only wall with a window was the hallway one. Opposite was the toilet. Carers and teachers came to the toilet from time to time, making this classroom very suitable as a small prison for locking up the bad children who wanted to escape the welfare home.
There were canvases, glues, cloth heads, etc. that could be used to make handicrafts scattered on the ground. This was the place where they made gifts for the investors previously. However, these things weren’t scattered on the ground due to the children making gifts yesterday. It was due to the angry and anxious Miao Feichi.
He frantically swept everything to the ground before walking around the classroom. Miao Gaojiang was watching him when Miao Feichi suddenly turned to Miao Gaojiang and roared, “You fucking think of a way! Tomorrow, we will be caught to have our blood drawn! Then it is all over! We will be dead!”
Miao Gaojiang wanted to speak when the classroom door suddenly opened. The teacher led back the pale Liu Jiayi and Mu Ke from the infirmary.
Liu Jiayi and Mu Ke had been sent to be checked due to problems. Liu Jiayi had coughed up blood while Mu Ke had heart pain. After the inspection, they were also sent to this handicrafts classroom prison to prevent them from escaping.
The teacher told Mu Ke and Liu Jiayi, “The two of you have no big problems. Just obediently stay here. Once the investors come tomorrow, they will take you to a private hospital to see a doctor. I don’t want to see anyone escaping.”
Then she turned away and closed the door.
Mu Ke gasped and covered his heart as he sat on the ground to rest. Liu Jiayi leaned against the wall with a frown and took deep breaths. Her lips had no color. The two children didn’t look like they were as fine as the teacher said.
Miao Feichi became angry the moment he saw these two useless things. He raised his hand high and rushed forward while cursing, “Damn, if it wasn’t for you, we would have been able to run out!”
After seeing the slap that would fall toward him and Liu Jiayi, Mu Ke instinctively stood up to block Liu Jiayi. He reached for Miao Feichi’s hand and defended them. “You wouldn’t have been able to run out even if it wasn’t for us. There were monsters out there!”
Liu Jiayi leaned against the wall with a weak face and slowly slid to the ground. Her light-colored lips were breathing lightly through the fingers covering her mouth. She looked worse than Mu Ke.
Miao Feichi saw such a weak Liu Jiayi and suddenly gulped. He grabbed at Mu Ke who was blocking him and pulled Mu Ke away. He approached Liu Jiayi step by step, Adam’s apple moving up and down due to his constant swallowing. “Damn, tomorrow I will be eaten. I haven’t had a bite of what I want to eat…”
I am once again holding my annual translating anniversary event for all the novels I have translated. There are two events, a fanart event and a novel reviews event where cash prizes and other prizes will be given. If you aren’t an artist then feel free to check out the novel reviews event where anyone can join as long as you submit a review. You can check out all the details of the event below.
7th anniversary celebration event
Proofreader: Purichan