Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Half a fingerprint?

Where was it left?

I didn’t ask. I knew that even if I did, he wouldn’t tell me.

After closing the notebook, Officer Dong spoke again. “Sorry, but you probably won’t be able to take this notebook with you. We need to take it back for handwriting analysis.”

“That’s fine.”

“You said you’ve looked through this notebook already, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then do you recognize the first name on the list, Liu Jianguo?”

“I do. He was the doctor who delivered me.”

Officer Dong raised an eyebrow.

“Logically speaking, he died the day you were born. How could you know him?”

I gave a bitter smile.

“When I was little, everyone around me said I was a monster. They said I ate Liu Jianguo on the spot as soon as I was born.”

Officer Dong looked a bit helpless. “Rumors and personal attacks are truly messed up.”

He decided to change the subject. “How about this? Let’s talk about your parents.”

“In what regard?”

“Anything. Start from your childhood, talk about whatever you like.”

Childhood…

A sliding side door with frosted glass was slowly pulled open.

Behind that door, a world filled with coal ash and smog was revealed.

For so many years, I had tried my best to bury the people and events of that world deep within my memory.

Today was the first time I actively recalled them.

I grew up in the countryside.

Almost no one in the village farmed. They couldn’t; the land had been contaminated by coal ash.

No matter what you planted, it had a ‘bitter’ taste of coal ash by the time it was harvested.

Mingshan Mining sustained the entire Mingshan Village.

You could even say it sustained the entire county.

The men in the village all went to work at the coal mine, while the women stayed home to look after the children.

Our village wasn’t originally called Mingshan Village. The name was changed after Mingshan Mining arrived, supposedly to thank the company for its contributions to the county.

They specifically chose a village to name after the conglomerate.

My father also worked for Mingshan Mining.

The difference was that he had followed the group from the city to our village. Later, he met my mother in the village.

They lived in the village after getting married.

My father was a very good-tempered man. He was educated, a university graduate.

His degree was in a field related to mining.

He was highly valued by the coal mine.

Because of that, our family was well taken care of. When I was little, whenever there was something new and trendy from the city, my father was always able to bring it to me immediately.

I had even met the CEO of Mingshan Mining a few times.

He would come to my house with gifts to show his regards.

Every time, he would pat my head and comfort me. “Don’t worry. When you grow up, come work a desk job at our mine. I guarantee you’ll have a worry-free life.”

I would swat his hand away.

Because my mother didn’t like him. She often cursed him behind his back, saying that ever since the mines opened around the village, the fields had gone to waste. She said Fu Mingshan was committing a sin.

Whenever that happened, my father would carry me into the house.

“The child is still young and doesn’t know better. He has a bad temper, nothing like me.”

“Haha, your wife definitely won’t like hearing that. This kid’s features are the spitting image of yours. Don’t go slandering her by implying she gave you a green hat.”

After my father saw Fu Mingshan out and they had left,

He would say to me gently,

“There are many people in this world with all sorts of flaws-some physical, some psychological.”

“Everyone has them. Everyone is the same. It’s just that your flaw is on the surface.”

I was young then and couldn’t take those words to heart. All I could think about was how the other kids in the village bullied me.