bookrandom Chapter 284 The Fire 35 Years Ago
Chapter 284 The Fire 35 Years Ago
Among these four people, Zhao Zhixiang, Yu Ming, Chen Hao and Lao Wei, everyone knows that Zhao Zhixiang and Yu Ming have a close relationship, but these two have basically no intersection with the other two.
They hadn't thought they could find out anything, but when they put the growth experiences of these four people together, they unexpectedly discovered a similarity.
These four people were all adopted, and their current parents are not their biological parents. What’s more interesting is that they were adopted in the same year.
After making this discovery, they quickly found out that not only were they adopted in the same year, but they were also from the same orphanage.
When they were adopted, Zhao Zhixiang was thirteen years old, the oldest one, Yu Ming was eleven years old, Lao Wei was ten years old, and Chen Hao was nine years old.
The welfare home where they worked was the predecessor of Sunshine Welfare Home.
Previously, another Su Xiaoxiao had been to Sunshine Welfare Home when investigating Liu Zeyang’s background. After Liu Zeyang’s parents died, he was sent to Sunshine Welfare Home.
At that time, they learned from the old director that this welfare home had a history of more than 40 years, but it had been burned down more than 30 years ago, and the current house was rebuilt on the original site.
Su Xiaoxiao calculated that Zhao Zhixiang and his family were adopted after the fire in the welfare home.
Many people died at that time, only two staff members were still alive, and less than ten children survived.
"It seems that we have to go to the welfare home." Qi Lei looked at the materials. These four people were all from the Sunshine Welfare Home. They had known each other for a long time, but Zhao Zhixiang and Yu Ming had no contact with the others, at least on the surface. Even Chen Hao and Lao Wei were from the same system, but on the surface they had no contact. This was a bit deliberate.
When I came to Sunshine Welfare Home again, I found it was more deserted than before. There were almost no children to be seen. The yard was empty and when the wind blew, it felt a bit bleak.
A staff member was moving things. When he saw Su Xiaoxiao and the others come in, he didn't even raise his eyes and continued busying himself.
They went directly to the dean's office. The old dean was also packing up his things and putting all the unused archival materials into a large cardboard box, preparing to carry it to the yard and burn it later.
Hearing the footsteps, the old dean looked up in surprise.
"Officer Su, it's you." He recognized Su Xiaoxiao and smiled. "Oh, look, there are so many things piled up here that I can't invite you to sit down."
"What are you doing? Why are the children not here?" Su Xiaoxiao pointed at the things piled on the sofa.
"The government has given the land to someone else. I am making room for them. The children have been taken away by other welfare homes. If you come tomorrow, this place may be demolished."
Oh, Su Xiaoxiao hasn’t seen it in the case file. It should be that the old dean mentioned it to her when another Su Xiaoxiao was investigating Liu Zeyang.
The old dean moved the things on the sofa to the floor and asked them to sit down.
"You came to see me for something, right?"
"Yes, we want to ask about the situation of the children who survived the fire more than 30 years ago. How many children survived in total, and where did they go later?" Su Xiaoxiao didn't waste any words.
"Oh, so you really came. I'm afraid no one knows these old things except me." The old director pointed to the large cardboard box on the ground, "I just cleared out these materials and prepared to burn them later. They are all old files. The welfare home is gone, so there is no need to save them."
The old dean squatted down, rummaged through the large cardboard box, found a faded and gray file bag, brushed off the dust on it, and pulled out a few sheets of paper.
Because of its age, the paper has turned yellow and brittle, and paper scraps will fly off if it is touched slightly.
"Only seven children survived the fire."
The old dean handed the paper in his hand to Su Xiaoxiao, who took it carefully and handed it to Qi Lei.
“Where are all these kids now?”
"The fire almost burned down the orphanage, and the children were frightened. We were going to put them in other orphanages, but they didn't want to. Later, the government and some kind people helped us find adoptive families for them. They were already quite old, so it was difficult to find someone to adopt them. This was a blessing in disguise."
"How old were these children?"
"The oldest one is thirteen years old, and the youngest one is eight years old. They are all sensible children."
"How did they behave in the welfare home? Were they bullied?"
When the old director heard Su Xiaoxiao's question, an embarrassed look appeared on his face. Although the welfare home is a welfare institution, not everyone is equal.
Among those children, two were troublemakers. They had been adopted when they were young, but were later returned. They were disobedient, so the staff naturally did not treat them well. It was common for them to be beaten and punished, and it was also common for them to go hungry.
No matter where they are, children who are well-behaved, sweet-spoken and able to create value are popular. Children like them who are undisciplined and cannot be sent out are redundant in the eyes of the staff and are not even needed when applying for sponsorship from above.
More than 30 years ago, unlike now, the conditions in welfare homes were very poor, there was no one to supervise, and the director had the final say on everything.
Sometimes when he saw that the children were punished too severely, he would secretly send them some food. Once he was discovered by the dean and almost lost his job.
These children lived in the most remote and dilapidated house in the welfare home. One of the windows was broken. He asked the director for help several times, but the director said there was no money to repair it. Later, he could only find a piece of cardboard to glue it shut.
In winter, other houses had stoves, but theirs did not, so several children huddled on one bed to keep warm, and their hands and feet were covered with frostbite.
However, as the old saying goes, misfortune may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
It was because of this that they were able to escape the fire. When the fire broke out, they were relatively far away, and because it was cold, they were too frozen to sleep well, and in turn they saved their lives.
Just like him, if he had not returned home that night, he would probably have died in the fire like everyone else.
After listening to the old dean's memories, Qi Lei and Su Xiaoxiao fell into deep thought.
"Who adopted these children? Did they come back later?" Su Xiaoxiao asked.
They already knew four, but they didn't know who the other three were. There was no record in the files and the photos were all of them when they were children.
"To be honest, I can't remember clearly. It should have been in the file, but I don't know why I can't find it. These children never came back after they left. Maybe this place is not a place worth staying in for them."
The old dean was a little emotional.