I See Murders Before They Happen

Chapter 172: Chapter 170: My Name Was Originally Zhu Xuan

”My name is He Qiu. I’m an orphan. I don’t remember my parents. For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived at the Sunshine Welfare Institute in Jinghai City.”

”The director said a homeless man found me in a trash can and brought me to the welfare institute.”

”Even though I was an orphan, the conditions at the Sunshine Welfare Institute were very good. We never lacked for food or clothes. The benefits were good, and people often came to donate money, clothes, books—all sorts of things.”

”I didn’t have parents, but I had the other children. Some of them were annoying and did nothing but cry all day, but those were happy times.”

”When I was nine, the director suddenly called me into her office. A man and a woman were standing inside, and they said they wanted to adopt me.”

”The director told me they were very well-off, much better off than we were at the institute. She said that if I went to live with them, I could study whatever I wanted, and I wouldn’t have to share anything with anyone anymore. Everything would be mine.”

Zhuang Yanzheng listened to her speak.

Su Miaoyi stood outside, wearing headphones, listening quietly as well.

”I couldn’t bear to leave the director or my friends, so I cried a lot that day. Later...”

Zhu Xuan was speaking, but seemed to remember someone and paused. ”In the end, I went with them.”

”Someone persuaded you,” Zhuang Yanzheng stated. ”Who was it?”

Su Miaoyi’s fingers tightened into a fist.

’The one who persuaded her must have been another child from the institute.’

’Someone she was close to.’

Su Miaoyi then recalled a hazy memory of her own—the faint sound of a boy’s voice.

She switched on the microphone beside her. ”Captain Zhuang, ask her if it was a boy from the welfare institute.”

Zhuang Yanzheng heard her through his earpiece. He looked at Zhu Xuan and asked, ”The person who persuaded you, were they also from the welfare institute? Were you two close? Was it a boy?”

Zhu Xuan’s eyes tightened. ”How did you know?”

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t answer.

Zhu Xuan looked at him, suddenly recalling something Zhuang Yanzheng had said earlier.

”’You’re so sure we can’t find any childhood photos of you. Looks like you know about the Sunshine Welfare Institute’s files being destroyed.’”

Her identity had just been exposed, and in her surprise and panic, she had overlooked that statement.

’Perhaps she should have noticed sooner.’

His expression and tone had been grim when he mentioned the Sunshine Welfare Institute.

”Who have you arrested?” she asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng watched her, trying to determine if she was acting or genuinely knew nothing. ”Lu Jing, Huang Haoxu, and Ren Mao.”

Zhu Xuan frowned slightly.

”Aside from Lu Jing, Huang Haoxu and Ren Mao changed their names, just like you did, right?”

”Are they still alive?” Zhu Xuan asked.

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t answer her.

Lu Jing was in prison. Ren Mao had been killed by Huang Haoxu.

Huang Haoxu had committed suicide with a plastic spoon; he was rushed to the hospital but couldn’t be saved.

Zhu Xuan was silent for a moment before continuing, ”Lu Jing was adopted before I was.”

”And then?” Zhuang Yanzheng prompted.

”I left with the couple who said they were going to adopt me,” Zhu Xuan said. ”We went to the airport, took a flight for over ten hours, then a connecting flight for more than six hours, and finally, we took a boat to an island.”

Zhuang Yanzheng’s eyes flickered.

”Adoption?” Zhu Xuan let out a soft laugh. ”We were just taken to a private island to serve as playthings for others.”

Listening in, Su Miaoyi felt the corner of her eye twitch.

”I was only nine years old.” Zhu Xuan was smiling, but her expression was one of utter helplessness in the face of her destiny. ”I saw Lu Jing there, and even some of the other children who had been ’adopted.’ I also saw some of the ones the director told us had gotten sick and passed away.”

”The youngest was seven, the oldest sixteen. There were both boys and girls.”

”And they weren’t just from one country.”

”They’d been brought there in all kinds of ways.”

”There were those of us from the welfare institute, who knew each other. Others had been bought, or kidnapped.”

”Boys and girls alike, every single one was beautiful, intelligent, sensible, and unique in some way.”

”The few of us were the lucky ones. We weren’t played to death. We made it out of there alive.”

Zhuang Yanzheng’s brow furrowed.

Listening from outside, Su Miaoyi felt the hair on her arms stand on end.

’The origin of the children at the institute was suspicious.’

”Children usually end up in an orphanage for a few reasons. Either their parents are dead and there’s no one to look after them, or... they have incurable congenital defects. Or... they’re girls, abandoned by families who favored sons and didn’t have the birth quota for another child.”

Zhu Xuan looked at Zhuang Yanzheng. ”So why was it that at the Sunshine Welfare Institute, the children were all beautiful, exceptional, intelligent, and healthy, boys and girls alike?”

Zhu Xuan sneered. ”The parents of those trafficked children could never have imagined that after everything, their kids would end up in a place like Jinghai City.”

”My name isn’t He Qiu. It’s Zhu Xuan. I’m from Ji City, and my parents were university professors. I was kidnapped, and they died in an accident while they were searching for me.”

”I don’t have grandparents; the address in my file is fake. My parents’ address was at Jicheng University. The address you investigated belonged to a family whose surname also happened to be Zhu, and they had a granddaughter about my age.”

”After the old couple passed away, their granddaughter went abroad to run scams, so I took over her identity.”

Su Miaoyi was utterly stunned.

Zhuang Yanzheng hadn’t expected this turn of events either and was speechless for a moment.

Zhu Xuan looked at him and let out a single, sharp laugh.

Zhuang Yanzheng look up at her, paused, and then asked, ”How did you get off that island?”

”Someone got us out and blew the place up,” Zhu Xuan said.

”Who?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”You arrested Lu Jing and Huang Haoxu. You should know who it was, shouldn’t you?” Zhu Xuan watched him.

”The boss behind Lu Jing and Huang Haoxu,” Zhuang Yanzheng stated.

Zhu Xuan didn’t speak, which he took as a confirmation.

”You were all at the Sunshine Welfare Institute,” Zhuang Yanzheng said, then added, ”He’s the boy who comforted you when you were adopted.”

’So, just as Su Miaoyi suspected, Le Yan’s cover was blown from the very beginning.’

Zhuang Yanzheng’s fingernails dug into his palm.

”He told me that if I got adopted, I’d have parents and a better life,” Zhu Xuan recalled. ”He was always like a big brother to all of us, taking care of everyone. In the end, he was the one who got us out.”

”How old were you when you got out?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”Fourteen.”

”And how old was he?”

Zhu Xuan didn’t answer.

Zhuang Yanzheng asked again, ”And then?”

”After that... those who wanted to stay by his side lived with him, and those who didn’t, left,” Zhu Xuan said. ”I returned to Ji City and went my separate way. I haven’t seen any of them in more than a decade.”

”So, you’re not going to get anything else out of me. It’s impossible. It’s not that I don’t want to tell you; it’s that I genuinely don’t know anything.”

”What was his name back then?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

Zhu Xuan thought for a moment. ”Xie An.”

The name didn’t ring any bells for Su Miaoyi.

”Who else made it off that island?” Zhuang Yanzheng asked.

”I didn’t know everyone. We were just playthings, not on vacation with our girlfriends.”

”Just name the ones you knew,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”Even if I told you, they’ve probably all changed their names and falsified their records. You wouldn’t be able to find them.”

”Just tell me anyway,” Zhuang Yanzheng said.

”I forgot,” Zhu Xuan said with a smile.

Zhuang Yanzheng stared at her.

Zhu Xuan smiled again. ”I’ve told you plenty. I’m tired. I don’t want to talk anymore.”

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