Chapter 4: Half a Hairclip
13, 17, 26, 31, 49, 2…
The boy sat at the table with his head lowered as he silently ate the rice in his bowl. However, he couldn’t keep himself from secretly looking up to sweep a glance across the people around him.
He had noticed many days ago that this place he was trapped in held many children of similar age captive. The oldest wasn’t over eighteen, while the youngest seemed to be in their preteens. Regardless of boy or girl, all of them wore the same pure-white gown he did. And every single child had a black number tattoo on the inside of their left arm.
Just like the five people currently sitting next to him. These four boys and one girl were people that he ate at the same table with every time, yet they had never exchanged a single word, or even taken a good look at each other’s faces.
They kept quiet, obediently lowering their gazes to stare at their own bowls of rice and the two dishes next to them. The food today consisted of bok choy and potatoes with a few slices of beef mixed in.
The massive room was dead silent, so quiet that the only thing to be heard was the occasional clattering of chopsticks against bowls.
Two white-clothed men with facial masks patrolled back and forth between the tables and benches.
This place could be defined as a cafeteria.
He ate here twice a day: once for lunch and once for dinner. Breakfast was specially delivered into each individual “prison cell”. However, he never knew who it was or when they brought in breakfast, since whenever he woke in the morning, he would immediately spot the glass of milk and slice of bread at the door.