I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 104: Chapter 104: No Clues

The officer continued, ”We received the report and rushed to the welfare institute at once. We pulled the surveillance footage from inside the institute and found that the five children went missing after going to the restroom together. They went in and never came back out.”

”Are there any other exits in the restroom?” Liou Wenxin asked.

The officer replied, ”The restroom only has a small ventilation window, and it’s very high up. A child couldn’t reach it, and even a regular adult would struggle to climb that high. People don’t just vanish into thin air, so we’re all in agreement: an Evolver was involved.”

”Additionally, we checked the surveillance footage from the areas surrounding the welfare institute and found no sign of the missing children.”

Four days had passed, and the authorities had made no substantive progress on the case.

All they could confirm was that an Evolver had committed the crime. Dongli University had sent a few evolution scientists over earlier, but they hadn’t been able to offer any useful suggestions either.

Liou Wenxin looked at Su Ze. ”What do you think?”

Su Ze said, ”We should see the scene for ourselves first.”

Soon, the car stopped at the entrance of the Sunshine Children’s Welfare Institute. Su Ze and Liou Wenxin got out and immediately saw the sign for the ”Sunshine Children’s Welfare Institute,” decorated with patterns of clouds and flowers.

Beneath the sign was a large iron gate. Behind the gate lay a fairly spacious courtyard with a lawn that had a slide and other playground equipment for children.

A group of five and six-year-olds were playing on the grass. Several officers stood in the courtyard, but the children weren’t the least bit shy around them, chasing each other and playing with innocent smiles on their faces.

When the officers in the courtyard saw Su Ze and Liou Wenxin, they hurried over to open the iron gate and welcome the pair inside.

After a few pleasantries, Liou Wenxin got straight to the point and asked to see the restroom where the children had disappeared.

Led by an officer, Su Ze and Liou Wenxin entered the welfare institute.

The moment they stepped inside, a haggard-looking middle-aged woman who appeared to be in her forties or fifties came forward. ”Professor Liou, I’m counting on you.”

The officer made the introduction. ”This is the director of the welfare institute, Ms. Wu Qin.”

Liou Wenxin gave a slight nod. ”I’ll do my best.”

Wu Qin led the way for Liou Wenxin, explaining as they walked, ”Up ahead is the children’s indoor activity area, the sleeping and resting area is in the back, the cafeteria is to the left, and the restroom is at the very end...”

Su Ze followed silently behind them. Along the way, he saw many children with physical disabilities. Some were unable to care for themselves, and some had no mobility at all.

These children all required round-the-clock care, but the welfare institute was clearly understaffed. Some of the older children took the initiative to help look after their younger brothers and sisters.

As they passed the rest area, Su Ze suddenly heard a familiar, slightly surprised voice call out, ”Senior Su Ze!”

Su Ze turned his head and saw Han Xiaoke waving at him.

Han Xiaoke finished dressing the child in front of her, then hurried over. Upon seeing Liou Wenxin, she broke out in a joy ten times greater than when she had seen Su Ze, exclaiming excitedly, ”Professor Liou!

”This is wonderful! With you here, Professor Liou, we’ll definitely find Xiaomeng and the others!”

Su Ze got the picture. ’He’d originally thought Han Xiaoke was his fangirl, but it turned out Liou Wenxin was her true idol.’

Wu Qin fondly patted Han Xiaoke’s head and said to Liou Wenxin, ”The person this child admires most is you. To become someone like you, she specifically applied to major in Evolution at Dongli University. She’ll be heading there to register in a few days.”

Wu Qin’s face was filled with pride as she spoke about Han Xiaoke. It wasn’t easy for their welfare institute to produce a top student accepted into Dongli University.

Han Xiaoke looked a little shy and said in a low voice, ”Professor Liou, in the future, would it be okay if I came to you with questions about Evolution?”

”Of course,” Liou Wenxin said with a warm smile, adding Han Xiaoke as a friend on her social account on the spot.

The group finally arrived at the restroom. Su Ze went in first to look around. The men’s and women’s restrooms shared a single entrance, and the camera outside had only captured the five children going into that entrance, making it impossible to determine whether they had disappeared from the men’s or the women’s side.

Wu Qin said, ”The welfare institute has two restrooms in total. After the incident, we temporarily closed this one.”

Su Ze and Liou Wenxin went into the men’s and women’s restrooms respectively to investigate. Both sides had only one high ventilation window, which was also extremely narrow—too small for a normal-sized adult to pass through.

An officer standing nearby said, ”Our initial theory is that an Evolver used a special ability to sneak into the welfare institute’s restroom from the outside and took the five children. But we still don’t know what skill the perpetrator used to get in. Also, the surrounding surveillance cameras didn’t capture any suspicious individuals before the incident.”

”An Escape Technique?”

The first thing that came to Su Ze’s mind was an Escape Technique-type skill. ’But even someone like Mr. Ya, who specializes in Escape Techniques, couldn’t get away with five children at once. If he used an Escape Technique, he’d have to transport the five children out in several trips.’

Liou Wenxin added, ”A body-altering skill like the Bone Shrinking Skill could also do it. The criminal might have entered and exited through the small restroom window.”

The officer said, ”The evolution scientist who came yesterday also proposed those two possibilities.”

Su Ze thought for a moment, then said, ”Even if we determine the method the criminal used to get in, that won’t help us find the children. Have you investigated why the criminal would abduct these five children?”

The officer nodded. ”We’ve thought about it from that angle, too. At first, we considered human traffickers, but after learning the specific circumstances of the five missing children, we’ve basically ruled out that possibility.”

Wu Qin explained from the side, ”Of the five missing children, only one is healthy. The other four have congenital diseases.”

Han Xiaoke also chimed in, ”There aren’t many true orphans in our welfare institute. Most of the children here were abandoned as infants, and over ninety percent of them have congenital diseases, disabilities, or deformities.”

The officer continued, ”The missing children range from three to seven or eight years old. They were all abandoned, and no one even knows who their biological parents are, so revenge is an unlikely motive.”

It was no wonder the investigation had hit a dead end. They had no useful clues—they knew neither the criminal’s method of entry nor the motive for the crime.

Liou Wenxin pondered for a moment, then suddenly looked at Director Wu Qin and asked, ”Did the five children show any unusual behavior before they disappeared?”

Wu Qin thought back carefully for a moment. ”There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary. If I had to say something, it’s that those five weren’t kids who usually played together. I did think it was a little strange that the five of them went to the restroom together.

”But friendships between children can form quickly, so it might not mean anything.”

Liou Wenxin said, ”Could I see the files for those five children?”