Just as Ruan Qiao was still standing there, stunned and questioning her life, a loud “quack quack” sounded from a distance.
Looking up, she saw a black-and-white quail on the open ground in front of the building, much bigger than a pheasant. It waddled along on its short legs, shaking its rear like a little duck, heading toward the small building.
When it spotted the squirrel and hedgehog, it stopped, flapped one wing to wave at them, and let out a couple more quacks.
Even though Ruan Qiao couldn’t understand its calls, she could clearly see what it meant from its gestures:
“Stop dawdling! Hurry up!”
And the two little creatures immediately proved her guess correct with their actions.
They instantly sped up, even moving faster than the waddling quail, and rushed into the three-story building.
Ruan Qiao quietly stood under the sun for a moment longer, letting the scorching heat force her to calm down.
It was at that moment she fully accepted the reality: she really had been transported to another world.
Thinking about it, she could already handle the idea of crossing worlds, such bizarre things could happen, so it wasn’t impossible for animals to become sentient.
They… must have become sentient, right?
Shivering at the thought, Ruan Qiao instinctively looked toward the small building.
She didn’t mind animals becoming sentient, but the direction they were heading was where the children lived!
She had inherited this orphanage, which meant those kids were now her responsibility.
No matter what, she couldn’t let them get hurt!
With that thought, Ruan Qiao pushed aside her fear and sprinted toward the building.
She had only been delayed a little, but before she even reached the front, she heard a loud crash of a heavy object hitting the ground.
The shock made her freeze in place.
Right in front of her, through a wide-open door, a food crate about the height of a gasoline drum had toppled over.
The lid flew far off, and yellow pellets, like pet food, spilled all over the floor.
The three little creatures that had run inside earlier were all sprawled over the pile of food, munching away hungrily without lifting their heads.
Besides those three, there was an enormous orange Maine Coon cat with long fur and an equally gigantic gray-and-white floppy-eared rabbit, both eating ravenously.
The way the little ones ate made them look like wolves starved for days, full of fierce intensity.
Noticing Ruan Qiao, the cat and the squirrel glanced at her, letting out a couple of warning growls with a mix of cuteness and menace, then went back to eating even faster.
The other three didn’t even lift their heads, as if she didn’t exist.
Yet if one looked closely, they could see the little ones quietly speeding up their chewing.
Looking at the mess on the floor and the five happily eating animals, Ruan Qiao felt her heart pounding, completely not sure of what to do.
She stood there, quietly observing them.
By now, she realized that these little creatures must all live at the orphanage.
After all, they were clearly much more familiar with this place than she was.
Their behavior was as if they were in their own home.
Their home…
Wait, their home!
Ruan Qiao suddenly felt a bad premonition, an utterly bizarre thought rising in her mind.
She furrowed her brows in disbelief.
Just then, the sound of wheels sliding across the floor came from outside, and the little robot appeared beside her.
It was obvious it had just finished charging and rushed over.
The little robot looked past Ruan Qiao and saw the scene inside, immediately letting out an exasperated scream: “Ah! Ah! Ah! You’re crazy!”
It rushed forward to stop them, but the little ones completely ignored it. Its clumsy body couldn’t move them, and it spun around in frustration.
Ruan Qiao thought to herself how lucky it was that it was a robot, controlled by programming.
Otherwise, given the current chaos, an explosion right here wouldn’t have been far off.
The little robot spun around twice, realizing that no one paid any attention to its anger, and stopped.
Then Ruan Qiao suddenly heard its mechanical voice change into that of an elderly woman: “Xiao Wang, Gungun, are you being naughty again?”
Ruan Qiao hadn’t even figured out what was happening yet.
The little creatures, still buried in their food, all stopped simultaneously and reluctantly lifted their heads.
Only the gray-and-white floppy-eared rabbit stubbornly lowered its head again, diving back into the pile to gobble up a few more bites.
“Xiao Huihui!”
The elderly voice sounded again, and this time even the floppy-eared rabbit obediently straightened up.
At this point, what else could Ruan Qiao not understand?
She finally realized—
This orphanage was nothing like the one she had imagined.
And the “children” she was supposed to care for were not little humans at all, but a group of animals.
The revelation shocked her so much that her pupils trembled, and her mind seemed to freeze, leaving her completely unable to think for a moment.
Robot 001 then moved back beside her and handed her a tiny chip, no bigger than a fingernail.
“This is from Ella,” it said softly.
Ruan Qiao took it, stunned.
001 ignored her after that and returned to the little creatures.
It let out exaggerated exclamations:
“Oh my goodness, how much have you eaten?”
“Unbelievable! Ella said you could only have fifteen pieces each per meal, fifteen! You’ve eaten half a month’s worth of food in one go!”
“Wuwuwu, you’re going to go hungry!”
Ruan Qiao had never imagined a robot could express such abundant emotion.
Its words alone made her feel as if she were in a bustling market, noisy enough to make her head ache.
She rubbed her brow, inserted the chip into the slot on her light-brain, and pressed the play button.
In an instant, a blue light screen appeared in the air right in front of her.
An elderly woman with a kind face and a head of silver hair appeared in a wheelchair, waving at her with a smile. Using the same familiar voice as before, she greeted, “Hi, Qiaoqiao, hello. I’m Ella…”
The familiar voice suddenly filled the room, and the little creatures who had been listening to 001’s complaints all turned to face the screen.
The huge little cat let out a soft, delicate meow, surprisingly gentle given its size, and was the first to walk from the center of the room over to Ruan Qiao.
It pressed close against her as it sat down, tilting its head to look at Ella on the blue screen, meowing softly and continuously.
The cat stared at the screen with a kind of dreamy fixation, even reaching out a paw into the air as if it could touch the elderly woman.
Its meows sounded both like coaxing and like whimpering, and before Ruan Qiao even understood why, her eyes began to sting with emotion.
Next to come was the golden-red squirrel.
It seemed to realize that Ella’s image had been played through Ruan Qiao, and completely ignored its previous disdain for her, leaping onto her shoulder in one swift move.
Its little paws clutched tightly onto her T-shirt, carefully avoiding the exposed skin, as if it knew Ruan Qiao was wary of being touched.
The squirrel sat upright on her shoulder, eyes fixed on the screen, letting out urgent, rapid “squeak squeak” sounds.
Its voice was insistent, as if it were desperately trying to express its longing to the elderly woman in the light.
At this moment, none of the little animals paid any attention to 001’s calls for reflection.
The little hedgehog quietly crawled over to Ruan Qiao’s shoes, as if that would bring it closer to the elderly woman.
The other two sat obediently next to the cat, forming a neat row, eyes fixed unwaveringly on Ella in the empty space.
Ruan Qiao bent down, picked up the little hedgehog into her palm, and raised it to her chest so it could have a clearer view of the screen.
Her gaze swept across the little “children,” one by one, and her emotions became intensely complicated.
Looking at these little animals, so extraordinarily humanlike, she couldn’t tell whether what she was seeing was illusion or reality.
It was all so unbelievable.
And yet, she knew—
It was all real.
Ella didn’t say much in the light projection; she simply repeated her gratitude to Ruan Qiao for agreeing to take over the orphanage. She then expressed her hope that Ruan Qiao would treat the “children” well and, if possible, make sure they ate properly.
At this point, Ella’s expression turned apologetic, as if even she felt her request was somewhat unreasonable.
She repeated that, after the new year, the children’s families should start transferring their support funds, which would ease the situation a little.
However, to Ruan Qiao, Ella’s words clearly lacked confidence, and her eyes even flickered slightly. This made Ruan Qiao doubt whether the money would actually come.
Ella also left some other information.
For example, she provided the contact details for Doctor Aisen, who usually treated the children, as well as the address of a charity association and the contact info of their director, Mr. Wei Qiu.
But after giving the numbers, Ella hesitated and advised Ruan Qiao not to seek help from them unless absolutely necessary.
Ruan Qiao frowned. She didn’t know why Ella said that, but she mentally added this Wei Qiu to her blacklist. After all, if someone was repeatedly warned in a will not to be contacted unless necessary, there must be a reason to be wary.
At the time she spoke, Ella’s body was clearly failing. The brief sentences had already drained her, and toward the end, she struggled to even sit upright.
In her final words, Ella thanked Ruan Qiao once more for keeping the children in the orphanage and giving them a home. She again pleaded that Ruan Qiao find a way to give the children more food, so they would have extra energy during their secondary transformations.
By this point, the elderly woman’s eyes were clearly misted with tears. Even through the light screen, Ruan Qiao felt the depth of her urgency and hope.
Once Ella finished speaking, the blue screen vanished.
Around Ruan Qiao, quiet sobs broke out.
Now that she understood the little creatures, despite retaining their animal forms, were actually children, with emotions and thoughts—Ruan Qiao could no longer see them as mere animals.
Seeing them all with bowed heads, quietly sobbing, tears dripping down in large drops, Ruan Qiao was reminded of her own grief when her parents had died in the accident. Empathizing with the little ones, she felt a wave of sadness herself.
She seemed to forget her plushophobia for the moment, reaching out to stroke the head of the large cat next to her, and gently pressing a finger to the forehead of the little squirrel sobbing on her shoulder.
She sighed and said to them, “Come with me.”