Chapter 19

Chapter 19

After expressing my thanks, I left the hospital and headed straight to the local welfare institute.

I contacted the director of the welfare institute under the guise of being a self-media blogger, claiming I wanted to conduct a brief interview to see if I could help secure some social assistance for the facility.

The director happily agreed to meet.

“Director Wang, I heard that back in the day, our welfare institute took in quite a few disabled infants like me. How are they doing now?”

“Most of them are working independently now. Quite a few of those children even send us money regularly. They’re all good kids.”

“How many disabled children like that did we take in back then?”

She thought for a moment. “Three.”

Three?

If it was only three, Doctor Chen wouldn’t have used a phrase like “quite a few,” would she?

“No others?”

“There were some abandoned girls as well, but as for those with physical disabilities, there were only three.”

Then where did the other disabled children go?

“Actually, there’s a personal matter I’d like to trouble you with. My name is Lin Geng, and my adoptive father was Lin Youfang. I wanted to ask-was I adopted from here by my father?”

“That’s easy enough. Wait a moment while I check the records.”

Director Wang flipped through the files for a long time before slowly shaking her head.

“No, the name Lin Youfang isn’t on the list of adopters.”

“Then do you know where else such an adoption process could have been handled?”

“There shouldn’t be anywhere else. Our county only has this one welfare institute. Unless it was an abandoned baby found by an individual who went to the police station to handle the adoption procedures themselves.”

“All right, thank you.”

Leaving the welfare institute, I went to the nearest police station’s household registration center.

I checked my own identity information.

Under the strange gaze of the clerk, I received the answer I was looking for.

The household registration data showed that I was the biological child of Lin Youfang and Shen Yufen.

I wasn’t adopted.

Where exactly did things go wrong?

Finding the answer should be simple enough; I just needed a paternity test.

But my mother had already been cremated, so DNA couldn’t be extracted from her ashes.

There was one other place that had my mother’s DNA information. Officer Dong had it. He had mentioned that my mother’s hair was found at the scene of Sun Congjun’s death.

Just as I pulled out my phone, I saw a call coming in from Officer Dong.

I answered quickly.

“Perfect timing, Officer Dong. I have something to discuss with you.”

“You go first.”

“I’ve found out that I might not be my parents’ biological child.”

“Uh, and?” For a moment, he didn’t react to how my biological status could possibly be connected to this bizarre case.

I had no choice but to explain in detail.

When my mother was pregnant with my older sister, she went to the county hospital to give birth, and it was highly likely that a medical malpractice incident occurred.

This led to my mother’s miscarriage and perhaps even the loss of her fertility.

This could indeed serve as a motive for my mother to commit murder.

“Additionally, there’s a very strange phenomenon. I was clearly adopted, yet the records at the registration center show I’m their biological child. Is that even possible?”

“What?” Officer Dong fell silent for a moment. “Either the officer handling the registration back then made a blunder, or the hospital pulled some kind of stunt. There’s no other possibility.”

We set that issue aside for now. Everything would come to light once the DNA test results were out.

“Why were you looking for me?”

“Fang Chuan has been found.”

“Found?”

“It’s a body.”

If Fang Chuan’s identity was confirmed, then the person who died in the coal mine…

“When are you free? Let’s meet and talk.”

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes. “I’ll head back now. Let’s meet at my house.”

I hadn’t gone more than a few steps when my wheelchair slipped, tipping over sideways onto the ground.

I didn’t want to get up. I just lay there on the ground and cried.

Kind passersby helped me up and asked if I needed help, but I just waved them away and sat on the ground alone.

Weeping silently.

I wasn’t crying for my father; after all, he had been dead for so many years that the initial grief had long since passed.

I was crying for the shattering of hope.

I was crying for the injustice of the world.