Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The following morning, Qiu Ziyu received an unexpected call from his precinct regarding a homicide case. Consequently, Nan Mu headed to Happiness Orphanage alone.

The gates of Happiness Orphanage were tightly shut. Seeing a fresh face, the security guard made Nan Mu sign in while peppering him with questions before finally calling the Director.

Only after hearing from the Director that Nan Mu was a donor did the guard drop his guard, his face breaking into a welcoming smile.

“I’m so sorry about that. Too many rep- people have been coming by these past few days. The children have been quite spooked.”

The guard’s explanation was vague, but Nan Mu quickly realized what was happening. Someone must have dug up the fact that both Wen Tangtang and Wen Xin were from Happiness Orphanage, leading to the institution being attacked online.

As they spoke, someone walked in from the outside.

“Director,” the guard greeted the person behind him.

Nan Mu turned around to see a woman in her fifties. She was slightly stout, but her eyes were deep and bright, giving her a shrewd appearance. She was followed by three or four staff members.

“President Nan!” The Director hurried toward Nan Mu and shook his hand warmly. “Thank you, thank you so much. On behalf of all the children and staff here, I want to express our deepest gratitude.”

Yesterday, when she received a call from Nan Huan Group saying they intended to donate a batch of supplies, she had been in disbelief. Because of the recent controversy surrounding Wen Tangtang and Wen Xin, many of the children’s adoption processes had been abruptly halted, leaving her in a state of utter distress.

“You’re very welcome,” Nan Mu nodded politely.

Though the young man before her looked youthful, the Director did not dare underestimate him. After receiving the call, she had immediately looked into the history of Nan Huan Group. Unlike those second-generation rich kids who relied on their fathers’ reputations to secure management positions, the casual-looking young man in front of her was a self-made tech mogul. In just ten years, he had built a net worth of tens of billions from scratch.

“President Nan, would you like to take a tour of the orphanage first? We can discuss the details of the donation in my office afterward.”

“Certainly.”

A young woman behind the Director made an inviting gesture. “President Nan, this way please.”

Happiness Orphanage was located in City A. In terms of both funding and facilities, it was considered one of the better-equipped welfare orphanages in the country. Even so, seeing the actual conditions inside was a shock to Nan Mu.

The orphanage wasn’t small, and the buildings were clean and tidy, but because there were so many children, it still felt incredibly cramped.

“It’s been much better these last few years; the conditions were even worse ten years ago,” the Director explained, handing a few toddlers who had run up to her over to the nannies. “There are just too many orphans. Technically, we exceeded our capacity long ago, but if we don’t take them in, where would they go? But if we do…”

She pointed toward the crowded rooms. “Their quality of life suffers. Children this age should have milk in the morning and fruit in the afternoon to keep up with their nutrition. But with so many children, there’s never enough to go around. When the funding can’t keep up, we can only prioritize making sure no one goes hungry.”

“Then there are the nannies. With so many kids, they can’t keep an eye on everyone. When we have money, we hire a few more to help lighten the load. When we don’t, we have to suspend their wages for a few months. But everyone has a family to feed; how long can they hold out? Without money, we can’t hire people. To hire people, we’re forced to skimp on the children’s rations…”

Before coming here, Nan Mu had never imagined that life in the orphanage would be so difficult.

He had originally thought that since Wen Miao and Wen Tangtang were able to attend school and go to university, their basic standard of living must have been fine at the very least.
“Things have improved in recent years, but it was hard to say back then. Sometimes supplies were short, and people went hungry,” the Director said, hesitating for a moment before continuing. “I won’t hide anything from you. I assume you’ve heard about the Wen Tangtang murder case recently?”

Nan Mu’s heart skipped a beat, but he remained silent.

“Wen Tangtang and Wen Xin both came from our orphanage. To be honest, before the news broke, I really never imagined… It might not be what people want to hear, but in my eyes, they were both good children. After Wen Tangtang graduated, she worked at Wisdom Biotech Company, and half of her monthly salary was donated to our orphanage. Wen Xin was even more exceptional-a professor at A University of Science and Technology. In his spare time, he didn’t just send money and food; he even made time to come and give lessons to the children… To suddenly hear that such good children committed murder… I simply can’t accept it. It’s no exaggeration to say that half the credit for how well the children have lived these past few years belongs to them.”

“I’ll be honest with you. Since their incident, several children who were about to be adopted were suddenly returned. Some think our orphanage has bad feng shui, others think there’s something wrong with the character of our children, and some even think the staff here must be of poor character… If your assistant hadn’t suddenly called last night saying you wanted to donate, I would still be worrying myself sick over this,” the Director said, wiping the corner of her eye.

The atmosphere grew heavy. The young woman who had led the way stepped forward and put an arm around the Director’s shoulders, giving her a comforting pat.

Nan Mu watched the children running around the room and fell silent for a moment. “Actually, the reason I thought of donating to Happiness Orphanage was because of a friend. I wonder if you still remember Wen Miao?”

…

The Director led Nan Mu to her office. She rummaged through a cabinet behind her desk and pulled out a stack of old files, flipping through them with her reading glasses on.

“Found it.” The Director handed a yellowed piece of paper to Nan Mu. “Wen Miao, Wen Xin, and Wen Tangtang all came in as part of the same group. I remember that besides them, there were three other children of similar age.”

As Nan Mu opened the file, the Director’s thoughts gradually drifted back to over twenty years ago.

= The Director’s Perspective =

This goes back over twenty years. At that time, I wasn’t the Director of Happiness Orphanage yet; I was just an accountant in the finance department.

I say accountant, but the orphanage’s situation was dire back then. Aside from government funding, there wasn’t much in the way of social donations. Every expense was tightly controlled, and we saved wherever we could. Everyone on staff was stretched thin, trying to do the work of two people.

In addition to my accounting duties, I had to help look after the children whenever the caregivers in the childcare department were overwhelmed.

The day Wen Miao and the others arrived is burned into my memory. I had been working at the orphanage for four or five years by then, and it was the first time I’d ever seen so many children arrive on the same day.

I remember it was late autumn, and the sun rose late. Since it was the end of the month, the accounting work was particularly heavy, so I arrived very early that day. It was still grey dawn, and the streetlights hadn’t been turned off yet.

Before I even reached the orphanage gates, I could vaguely see a row of white shapes lying there. As I got closer, I realized they looked like children, but I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. It wasn’t until I was right next to them that I saw they really were children. Six of them, lying in a neat row right by the entrance. It was a freezing day, yet the children were only wearing thin, white single-layer clothes. They looked a bit like hospital gowns. Their little faces were turned purple from the cold.