It has been a month since Othello last stole something.

"Rain again, how annoying," Romeo looked out the window, trying to estimate the time to wake Othello up.

Othello usually comes home late at night, sleeps until lunchtime, and then goes to work after eating. According to him, the work he does is not heavy enough to require breakfast.

Romeo kneaded the prepared dough into shapes, one by one, and put them into the oven. He felt sweet inside, imagining the surprised expressions of the children when they see the bread during lunch. Even the worries caused by economic pressure have dissipated for Romeo.

The rain poured down even harder.

Looking at the chaotic raindrops outside, Romeo decided not to keep track of time and let Othello continue sleeping.

Thinking about his hardships these days, Romeo decided to let Othello rest for a day.

Watching the pancakes in the oven slowly rise and become fluffy and delicious, Romeo felt as happy as seeing children grow up little by little and thrive.

"Romeo, I'm leaving," Hamlet came in without knocking again.

"With such heavy rain, are you going out too?" Romeo thought today was a good day for everyone to stay home and eat bread. "Why don't you stay today? It's a good opportunity to do a big cleaning and we need help."

"I should go out on rainy days...The doorkeeper at the garbage station will become lazy, and the garbage collectors will reduce the frequency of garbage collection. Anyway, I'm used to going out in the rain. It's fine," Hamlet held an umbrella in one hand and a worn-out raincoat in the other, showing his determination.

Hamlet was the leader of the garbage picking activity in the afternoon, leading the slightly older children. This job not only required avoiding the patrols of the garbage station guard, but also quick reflexes and agility. In fact, the orphanage could only collect garbage at the landfill because of Hamlet.

"I'll have the children help you clean. See you tonight." Hamlet closed the door, hurriedly coming and going.

The children had also tried to grow crops, but no matter what they planted, it was very difficult to yield anything near the Ling Lake. Buying seeds was just a waste of money. The cursed child didn't have many ways to earn money.

Romeo reluctantly lowered his eyelids and looked lonely at the fireworks jumping in the fireplace.

At this time, the children were playing and splashing water in the courtyard.

The children splashed water on each other, making their originally clean clothes a mess.

"Stop messing around, quickly seal the leaking spots, Romeo brother will be angry!" a boy with a strong sense of justice shouted at everyone, trying to prevent the situation from getting worse.

"You're still afraid of a man getting angry at your age, so useless." Several girls were excited and, to save face, had to pretend to be tough and assert themselves.

"Humph, the one with the weapon is the king, I hereby dub you my male consort!" A girl picked up a hammer originally used for repairing roofs and playful shouted at a boy who might be her crush, playing a game of playing house.

Without Hamlet's restraint, the children became disorderly.

"I'll start counting! Ten, nine..." Children are children. They just finished playing house and started playing hopscotch, then said they wanted to play hide-and-seek. A clever child wanted to be the ghost, so they closed their eyes and started counting. Other competitive children scattered immediately so as not to get caught.

The child with a strong sense of justice looked left and right and had no choice but to join the hide-and-seek army.

"I say...there's nowhere good to hide inside or outside the courtyard, how about we hide directly in Othello's bedroom? No one would think of that."

"But, isn't Othello sleeping?"

"Oh, he would have left by now! Even if he hasn't left, Othello sleeps heavily, he would only wake up if someone pushes and calls him. After all, he sleeps late," the two children whispered under the eaves, cautiously and stealthily pushed the door and entered Othello's room.

Sneakily, the two children looked around nervously, the sound of even breathing came over. It turned out that Othello was really sleeping on the bunk bed.

"Look! Look what you've suggested, if we wake Othello up, Romeo brother will definitely scold us. Hurry up and leave..." The boy desperately lowered his voice but raised his tone to emphasize the seriousness of the situation to the girl.

"Ah, it's okay!" The girl bit her lip unwillingly and whispered to the boy, "He definitely won't wake up, trust me, just hide for a while."

The girl slowed her pace and tiptoed deeper into the room, avoiding the water droplets that were dripping from the ceiling. She waved to signal the boy to come over as well.

"Sigh..." The boy couldn't resist the stubborn girl and walked over with her.

"Hey, what's this?" The girl pointed at the handkerchief on the bedside table next to her. There were a lot of red powder stains on the handkerchief.

"I know, I've seen it several times. It's what Othello brother smokes every day," the boy replied, seemingly uninterested.

"But is this color a bit darker?" the girl asked.

"I don't know," the boy answered. "I've seen the gatekeeper and janitors at the garbage dump smoking this rolled up with tobacco. They say it smells good."

"But we can't smoke. Romeo brother said we can't inhale this red powder either," the boy added.

"Eh..." the girl elongated her tone and said meaningfully, "Why do you think we can't smoke or inhale this red powder?"

"I don't know... But what Romeo brother and the adults say is always right," the boy said.

"But... do you think the words of our brothers and sisters... the adults... are always right because their bodies are more complete than ours?" the girl questioned.

"Although Romeo brother usually wears a mask, when he takes it off, his face is also delicate and beautiful."

"It's the same with Othello brother, his whole body is intact, and his face is also handsome."

"I haven't seen Juliet sister without her headscarf, so I don't know."

"Maybe adults have a secret that can make themselves become complete again, but they just don't want to tell us," the girl pondered.

"Maybe if we smoke this, like those people at the garbage dump...we can also become normal people, right?" There was a hint of longing in the girl's voice, which made the boy absent-minded for a moment.

"...I don't know," the boy finally answered. He didn't know why, but looking at the girl in front of him, he felt like there was a bottomless pit of sadness in his heart. The overwhelming agony engulfed him, gradually eroding his very existence.

"It's okay, our brothers also smoke. Maybe we will have to smoke as well when we become adults. It won't blame us if we take some. The brothers won't blame us," the girl said, wrapping the red powder on the handkerchief and tucking it into her sleeve.

The boy nodded and left with the girl. They, who were hiding in Othello's room, naturally became the winners of hide-and-seek...

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"Who!? Who the f*ck stole it!?"

"People outside curse us as demons' descendants, but I f*cking think you guys are even worse than the beasts raised by demons!" A group of children trembled in front of Othello, their heads down. Most of them had never seen Othello so furious before, no, many of them had never seen Othello angry at all.

Othello hadn't eaten lunch and went straight to sleep until dinner. Before he could feel happy about Romeo saving him a piece of bread for lunch, he found that the highly concentrated red powder on the bedside had disappeared.

Originally, Othello had a glimmer of hope as he searched everywhere for the handkerchief, but when he found it in the usual place for throwing away garbage, there was not a trace of red powder left.

That was an extremely concentrated level, just a pinch of it would make someone unable to ever leave! Othello had planned to dilute it and slowly smoke it.

Holding the handkerchief in his hand, reprimanding the children who were bowing their heads, Othello felt cold air rushing into his sleeve, making his hands and feet icy cold.

An unresolved dark cloud had silently enveloped the orphanage in the No Smoking Zone.

With a gloomy expression, Othello dared not turn around to see Romeo, who was crying non-stop.