27: Chapter 27 Bad Seeds and Orphans
A sunny Saturday.
Qin Ming stood behind the curtains on the second floor.
He held a glass of iced cola in his hand.
His gaze passed through the glass, landing on the front yard of the newly sold villa next door.
A little girl in an old-fashioned dress sat there.
Esther.
The "9-year-old" girl from Estonia was holding a heavy sketchbook, sitting quietly on the steps.
A black ribbon was tied around her neck, hiding that conspicuous scar.
Her eyes held a calmness that did not belong to her age, even a faint, hard-to-detect trace of world-weariness.
Qin Ming took a sip of cola.
An extremely dangerous, high-IQ psychopath who seduced her adoptive father and hammered her adoptive mother to death.
"Interesting."
Qin Ming watched his own front door open.
Emma, wearing a black lace dress, walked out.
The first meeting of two little monsters.
Emma's steps were light, and her face wore the kind of sweet smile that could melt any adult's heart.
She walked to the fence next door.
"Hello."
Emma's voice was crisp.
Esther looked up.
Her movements were elegantly deliberate, and her fingers closing the sketchbook were long and pale.
"Hello."
Esther responded politely, "I'm Esther. I just moved here."
"I know."
Emma tilted her head, hands behind her back. "My name is Emma, I live next door. You seem very quiet. Do you like drawing?"
Esther glanced at the sketchbook in her hands.
Inside were not fairy tales, but distorted human bodies and burning houses.
But she only smiled gently.
"Just passing the time. It's... much quieter here than the last place."
"The last place?"
Emma blinked and asked innocently, "Was it an orphanage? I heard adults say that children there are very starved for love."
This was a bit provocative.
Directly exposing the identity label the other party was most unwilling to mention.
The smile at the corner of Esther's mouth froze slightly.
In her originally gentle eyes, a look of scrutiny that only an adult would have flickered through.
"Love?"
She repeated the word softly, her tone becoming somewhat playful.
"That depends on who's giving it. Some people's kindness is very cheap and gets in the way."
"People who get in the way are indeed very troublesome."
Emma nodded as if in deep agreement, even taking a step forward and lowering her voice. "I don't like it when others disrupt my life either."
The two "girls" looked at each other.
The air was thick with an invisible scent of gunpowder.
Esther re-evaluated the beautiful neighbor in front of her.
Her intuition told her that this girl was not simple.
That scent of a kindred spirit.
That smell of rot hidden beneath a sweet skin.
"The adults here are very kind."
Esther looked meaningfully at the house where Qin Ming was. "And they're very easy to trust others. As long as you behave well, they'll be very good to you."
This was passing on experience.
It was also testing the waters.
The smile on Emma's face grew even more brilliant; it was the perfect expression she had practiced countless times in front of the mirror.
"Yes, Daddy says I'm his proudest daughter."
She deliberately emphasized the words "Daddy" and "daughter."
Then, a corner of that innocent disguise peeled away slightly, revealing the sharp interior within.
"You'll be very good too, right?"
Esther narrowed her eyes.
She understood the warning.
"I will do what I must do."
Esther stood up and brushed non-existent dust from her skirt, her movements elegant and composed.
"But I don't like it when someone... steals what belongs to me or stares at my family."
This was a counterattack.
In this world where everything but appearances was a lie, they were both staking out their hunting grounds.
"What a coincidence."
The smile on Emma's face didn't change, but her gaze had become blunt and sharp, like a freshly sharpened knife.
"I don't like it when people get close to my father or my brother either."
"They are mine."
"No one can take them away."
This was a nearly pathological display of possessiveness.
Esther nodded slightly.
The oppressive aura belonging to a serial killer faintly emanated from her.
"It seems we are very much alike."
"We both know how to protect what we want."
Emma took half a step back.
She transformed back into that well-behaved girl-next-door.
"Being alike isn't necessarily a good thing."
She said meaningfully, "When some people are too similar, they actually end up hating each other."
"Then it depends on who knows their boundaries better."
Esther held her sketchbook, preparing to turn and go inside.
"Don't cross the line, don't meddle, and we can remain 'good neighbors' forever."
Emma waved her hand, as if seeing off a new friend.
"Sure. I hope we get along well."
On the second floor.
Qin Ming set down the empty cola glass.
With these two time bombs buried together, the future of this neighborhood probably won't be peaceful.
Just then.
The television screen behind him suddenly flickered with static.
The buzzing sound of electricity broke the silence of the room.
"Boss."
Larry's pale, ghostly face flashed across the screen.
"There's a new job."
Qin Ming turned around, a glint flashing in his eyes.
"Speak."
"Seattle, Washington."
Larry's voice was accompanied by a stream of data flickering on the screen.
"An eerie video has appeared on the dark web. It's said that anyone who watches it will die mysteriously seven days later."
"I've already traced the source."
"It's about the legend of Morgan Ranch."
A cruel arc curled at the corner of Qin Ming's mouth.
It's finally here.
Unlike those plastic dolls that can only go around stabbing people with knives.
This is a real vengeful spirit.
You could even say it's a top-tier IP in horror movies.
That woman who crawls out of the well.