“Sizzle… Emergency broadcast: Li, a student attending Experimental Middle School, has been confirmed missing. Li left home at 6:45 AM and did not take the bus he usually takes to school…“
“Emergency broadcast: Another junior high school student has gone missing…“
“As of now, a total of six students have gone missing.“
The curtains in Chi Qing’s home were tightly drawn, leaving only the faint glow emitted by the television.
Like a nocturnal animal, Chi Qing sat in the excessively empty living room. Holding the remote control in his hand, he curled up on the living room sofa with his legs bent, the long cuffs of his trousers draping over the insteps of his feet.
The case had shown no progress for a long time. The two of them had barely slept a wink since the crime occurred. Earlier that day, after helping to send Yang Yan back to Tianxin Neighborhood, Xie Lin had returned early from the police station to catch up on some sleep with Chi Qing in his arms.
When he woke up, he found that the person beside him had vanished to who-knows-where.
Chi Qing pressed the playback button, and the news started playing again from the very first report.
“Sizzle… Emergency broadcast: Li, a student attending Experimental Middle School, has been confirmed missing. Li left home at 6:4…“
In the next second, a hand gently rested on top of Chi Qing’s head, ruffling his hair a few times. “Why did you run out here?”
Chi Qing explained, “I couldn’t sleep, so I wanted to watch some television. If there truly were other survivors back then, the news broadcasts from ten years ago might have left behind some traces.”
Only then did Xie Lin notice that what was playing on the television was indeed the news from ten years ago.
Ten years ago, the picture quality was crude. After being copied from the internet, some parts even lagged and had random static noise of unknown origin.
“Are you hungry?” Xie Lin asked. “I’ll go check if there’s any leftover steak in the fridge. They probably wouldn’t go as far as to take the food from your fridge too.”
Having said that, Xie Lin turned into the kitchen, intending to display a bit of his culinary skills. However, the items in the kitchen had been moved by someone. As he pushed open a cabinet door, a pile of crammed pots and pans tumbled out, crashing onto the floor with a loud clang.
It wasn’t the first day Ren Qin had noticed noises coming from upstairs.
Today was her day off, and she had originally planned to get some good rest at home, but she faintly heard a loud crash.
Furthermore, when she walked past Chi Qing’s door yesterday, she noticed that the flower basket she had sent seemed to have been moved and was facing a different direction—almost as if someone had been entering and leaving.
……
There shouldn’t be anyone upstairs.
The more Ren Qin thought about it, the more frightened she became.
Too many bizarre things had happened in this building. If she hadn’t already paid the deposit, and if it weren’t for the fact that she wouldn’t get her deposit back if she moved out before the lease expired, she would have moved out long ago.
“Meow~~”
Little Star, who was temporarily staying at Ren Qin’s place, squatted by the door and let out a meow.
It kept staring fixedly at the door, as if trying to peer through it to see what was outside, or perhaps wanting to go out.
“You also think things are a bit strange, don’t you?” Ren Qin picked up Little Star, stroked its head, and plucked up her courage. “How about we go up and take a look?”
Although the two upstairs had been very nice to her when they were around and had even saved her life, now, one of them was dead, and the other had committed murder…
Ren Qin’s courage was a bit lacking: “Actually… let’s forget it.”
The two people upstairs, entirely unaware of the distress they were causing their downstairs neighbor, were still pondering what to eat. In the end, they casually ordered some takeout and continued watching the news while waiting for their food to arrive.
The news from ten years ago was simply too distant from the present.
Back then, many things were undeveloped, and many common occurrences of that era would no longer happen today.
During the half-hour news segment, the portion concerning the “child abduction case” took up half the time, while the remaining fifteen minutes scattered reports on other social news.
The very last piece of news that day was about the “Huanan Orphanage”: “An anonymous citizen reported that Huanan Orphanage was suspected of abusing children. Following a visit and investigation by the local police, this was confirmed to be true. The director of the orphanage and others have been dismissed and placed under investigation.“
It was a very simple piece of news, yet Xie Lin reached out and covered Chi Qing’s hand, using his hand to press the playback button.
Thus, the television screen rewound, restarting from the beginning of the last news report. The female anchor spoke with clear and round pronunciation: “An anonymous citizen reported that Huanan Orphanage…“
Chi Qing didn’t quite understand why Xie Lin wanted to repeatedly watch an unrelated piece of news.
Moreover, the name “Huanan Orphanage” felt unfamiliar to him. Upon searching the internet, he found that due to the scandal ten years ago, Huanan Orphanage had already changed its name to Red Sun Children’s Welfare House, and even its address had been relocated.
Xie Lin usually liked to twirl his ring when he was thinking, but now with Chi Qing beside him, he would touch whatever was convenient. His fingertips climbed onto the outer rim of Chi Qing’s ear, gently caressing it bit by bit: “If the killer’s very first target back then wasn’t ‘001’ as recorded in the archives, but someone else—and they managed to do it without leaving a single trace and remain undiscovered to this day—then ‘leaving no trace’ itself becomes a clue.”
Hypothetically, if a third, unrecorded survivor did exist, then this clue would actually lie within the context of the puzzle: What kind of person could go unrecorded?
“Furthermore, when most killers commit crimes, it is nearly impossible for them to dare to make such a massive scene on their very first attempt like the killer did back then. Many killers go through a process of simulated crime before actually executing it. The criminal desires that first swell up make them cautious and prudent. They will try some low-risk crimes, or find some vulnerable groups that are easy to target.”
Speaking up to this point, Xie Lin’s hand paused briefly.
“If the first person who reported the case back then wasn’t actually the first victim, then Z might very well be the true first kidnapped child.”
A place where taking a child away would not attract anyone’s attention, where the risk was low, and where there were many children—where would that be?
On the television, the news played once more.
The answer the two of them came up with overlapped perfectly with the three words uttered by the female anchor: Orphanage.
The next day, just as dawn broke.
The first place to become busy at the Red Sun Children’s Welfare House was the cafeteria.
The cafeteria auntie was preparing the meals for the day. Once the children finished their morning exercises, they would enter the cafeteria by class order to eat.
This place looked no different from an ordinary school. There were dormitories, classrooms for lessons, and an activity area resembling a playground. In the corner of the activity area, there was a small set of play equipment, featuring a red-and-yellow slide and a simple swing, which children loved the most.
Some children were playing games together in the play area.
A young girl with her hair tied in pigtails covered her eyes and leaned against the wall, chanting: “One, two, three, we are all wooden men! No talking, no moving!”
“……”
With a few seconds of absolute stillness, a child behind her pointed at one of the other kids and clamored, “You moved!”
“Yes, I saw you move too!”
The child defended himself, “I didn’t! I just didn’t stand firmly just now.”
When Xie Lin and Chi Qing walked into the welfare house, this was the scene they came across.
Looking at every tree and blade of grass in the welfare house, as well as the group of children playing games, Chi Qing recalled a past experience: “I’ve been to a welfare house once before.”
Xie Lin raised an eyebrow, expressing his difficulty in imagining it: “This doesn’t seem like a place you would visit.”
“At the time, I listened to my first psychiatrist. That psychiatrist believed that interacting more with innocent children might benefit my condition. The very next day, I found an orphanage,” Chi Qing said up to this point, looking exceptionally reluctant to share further. “Forget it, the case is more important.”
Xie Lin pulled him back: “What do you mean ‘forget it’? Finish what you were saying. Who stops talking halfway through?”
Chi Qing pursed his lips. After a long pause, he spoke: “Those kids started crying the moment they saw me. In the end, the director escorted me out.”
“……”
It was quite within reason, after all.
By the time the two walked toward the play area, the kids, with their short attention spans, had already switched to another game. Only the boy who had struggled to stand firm during the “wooden men” game remained standing quietly in place, likely feeling aggrieved.
Xie Lin walked over and squatted down to look at him. “Hey kid, why aren’t you over there playing with them?”
Xie Lin spoke with a smile. The child quickly looked up at Xie Lin, and instead of ignoring him, answered defensively to save face, “Because I don’t like playing that game of theirs.”
However, what he did not expect was that the cold-looking, gloomy, yet handsome older brother beside him would spit out a few chilling words: “It’s because you lost the game, isn’t it?”
“……”
The gloomy, handsome brother continued, “Making excuses for yourself is useless. Only the weak run away.”
The child felt as though he could perform a full-blown bawling session on the spot in the next second.
But before his tears could even burst forth, he saw that older brother furrow his brows again. “You’re not about to cry, are you?”
“…………”
Xie Lin felt helpless. He said in earnest, “Even though I won’t mind whatever you say, and I really hope I can hear you speak as much as possible in my limited lifetime, you should still talk less to other people.”
Chi Qing: “……”
In the end, the child held back his tears and pointed out the direction of the director’s office for them. “The building ahead. Director Mama is on the third floor.”
They would call the director “Director Mama.”
To these children, most of whom had never seen their parents since birth, the director, who cared for them the most on a daily basis, was their “mama.”
Inside the director’s office.
“It’s just that these children miss their mothers, so they treat me as one,” Director Liu was in her forties, her black curly hair tied behind her head. She had a slightly plump build and carried a very gentle aura. “For what reason have you two sought me out today? Is there something I need to cooperate with?”
“We want the files of the children who were at the Huanan Orphanage ten years ago. Also, we’d like to ask if there were any cases of children going missing during that period.”
Upon hearing the words “Huanan Orphanage,” Director Liu was momentarily startled. This name was far too distant for her. When she first came to the welfare house, this place was already called “Red Sun,” and she did not know much about Red Sun’s predecessor.
“Files from back then? Let me think, there should be some. But as you know, our welfare house has moved locations and even changed names. I can’t guarantee whether the files in the archive room are complete.”
Saying this, Director Liu led them upstairs, where there was an archive room.
“They are all here. The ones from ten years ago might require some searching.”
According to the regulations, an individual file had to be created for every child upon entering the home. Even if many children were adopted later on, these files would still be kept inside yellow file envelopes. Normally, no one entered or left this place. The windows were also sealed shut, leaving virtually no natural light. Several rows of dim, yellowed archives stood silently on display.
