Every kindergarten group’s performance was pretty much the same—adorable children with delicate features were made up with heavy makeup, then moved like little adults making mechanical motions.
Blue Sky Kindergarten drew the finale slot. After they performed and came down from the stage, they weren’t arranged to take seats but instead lined up at the grand auditorium entrance to form a “train.”
Inside, the leaders deliberated and announced the awards. Blue Sky Kindergarten didn’t win an award, but since everyone who came was a guest, they received a certificate for Best Lead Singer Duo. The kindergarten teacher led Chen An and Cheng Lele to receive the award. After the award ceremony ended and they came out, the Blue Sky children had already been led by other teachers to the back entrance to board their vehicle.
Cheng Lele needed to use the restroom. The teacher led her and Chen An there together. Just as they reached the restroom entrance, someone called the teacher over to sign for receiving prizes. So she said to Chen An: “You wait here for your little sister. The teacher will be right back.”
Chen An casually nodded. Only then did Cheng Lele enter the restroom.
Actually, how could Chen An wait patiently? He had originally thought that after performing, they’d still have a chance to tour the theater. Who knew they’d have to leave right after performing—his heart was anxious. Now the teacher finally didn’t have time to watch him. He shouted toward the restroom: “I’m going to look around and I’ll be right back!”
But his voice was drowned out by the clamor of children gradually leaving. Cheng Lele didn’t hear him at all. When she finished and came out, there was no teacher at the restroom entrance, and no Chen An either.
She stood there waiting for several minutes. Several minutes for a small child felt as long as a lifetime. She waited anxiously, then simply went to find the teacher herself. She thought she remembered the way, but as soon as she started walking, she went in the opposite direction. She walked farther and farther, turned a corner, and spotted a half-closed black door.
Driven by curiosity, Cheng Lele temporarily stopped thinking about unknown dangers. She pushed open the door. Inside hung another layer of black velvet curtain. She pulled open the curtain but didn’t notice that the spring-loaded door behind her, after being pushed hard, automatically closed.
Immediately, Cheng Lele was plunged into darkness. Inside seemed to be a very dark and spacious environment. The emergency exit lights on both sides emitted a glowing green light, like vampire eyes—traditionally, vampire eyes were red, but Chen An had said they were green, so Cheng Lele had preconceived the notion that they were green.
Cheng Lele’s panic belatedly overcame her desire to explore. She turned around and started walking toward the entrance, but that spring-loaded door was a one-way fire door—easy to push open but requiring great strength to pull open. No matter how hard Cheng Lele tried, she couldn’t open it. She was trapped in an enclosed space with nothing but darkness upon darkness. Overwhelming terror surrounded her tightly. She felt that vampires, monsters, and bad guys were all waiting for their chance to strike. She cried desperately, but she had entered an unused screening room. Her voice could no longer crack the walls. On the contrary, the sound-absorbing panels swallowed her cries for help, leaving her helpless and isolated, with every second feeling like an eternity.
Outside the screening room, Chen An was leisurely returning to the restroom. He waited a long time but didn’t see Cheng Lele come out, nor did he see anyone else emerge. He slipped into the women’s restroom to look—it was completely empty.
Chen An assumed Cheng Lele had been picked up by the teacher. He leaned over the corridor railing looking downstairs, saw everyone walking in one direction, and cleverly guessed the direction of the exit. He calmly went downstairs, reached the exit, looked around, and successfully found Blue Sky Kindergarten’s minibus.
He boarded the vehicle. The supervising teacher said: “Teacher Feng is still upstairs receiving prizes. Find a seat and sit down.”
Just as she finished speaking, Teacher Feng entered the vehicle. Upon seeing Chen An, she said anxiously: “Chen An, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Where did you run off to?” She breathed a sigh of relief, but soon she noticed something wrong: “Where’s your little sister?”
Chen An also realized something was wrong and asked back in confusion: “Teacher Feng, didn’t you see Lele?”
When the two compared notes, they discovered that Cheng Lele was missing.
How could this be?!
Teacher Feng was about to lose her mind. Today, with so many kindergarten children gathered together, it was already chaotic enough. If she had mixed into another kindergarten’s group, that would be fine—some teacher would eventually send her back. The fear was that the child had gone out the door on her own to look for someone and gotten lost—that would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
With this thought, Teacher Feng hurriedly ran back to the theater to ask the security guards if they had noticed any child leaving on their own.
“Probably not.” He paused, then added “I think.” After all, throughout the day, everyone coming and going had been children with similar faces. He wasn’t entirely certain.
Chen An’s mind was completely blank at this moment. He wanted to get off the vehicle to find Lele, but the supervising teacher wouldn’t let him. Having already lost one child, if they lost another, she might as well apologize with her death.
Chen An was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, pressed against the car window with half his body leaning out, hoping to spot a familiar splash of color at the theater entrance.
But he waited a long time, and Teacher Feng didn’t come out from inside either.