Chapter 76: Childrens Welfare Home (1/2)

Meanwhile, Lu Yizhan and his colleagues were investigating the disappearance of the children from the welfare home.

“Say, this matter should be under the supervision of the criminal investigations department or some special department right?” The expression on the face of Lu Yizhan’s colleague wasn’t very good. “Look at the surveillance of the children disappearing. This isn’t something we can handle!”

“Four children heard the sound of a flute early in the morning last night. They lined up and went out to the playground to play. The evilest thing is that these children didn’t seem to be hypnotized or sleepwalking. They specifically avoided the surveillance. This shows that the four children were all conscious. They played on the swings in the playground and then one hour later, these children suddenly disappeared from the surveillance!”

The colleague started to swear. “Damn, the children are gone but the playground equipment is still moving. I couldn’t sleep well after watching the surveillance last night…”

Lu Yizhan’s colleague couldn’t help rubbing the goose bumps on his arms. “Now there are five children left. They were originally supposed to be transferred to another welfare home. Then the hospital suddenly made trouble, saying that everyone has to stay in this welfare home for investigation. It’s too damn weird!”

Lu Yizhan frowned. “Let’s go to the dean first.”

“The dean? I don’t think she will say anything.” Lu Yizhan’s colleague murmured. “This old woman never reported the missing children at all! If it wasn’t for the subsequent mushroom poisoning incident that resulted in the death of children and upgraded this case to a higher level, we wouldn’t have come here and found that the number of children wasn’t right. No one would know that these children are missing!”

“Then we have to go and ask.” Lu Yizhan’s tone was calm. “She must know something.”

In the dean’s office, Mu Ke’s father discussed the donation with the dean before going to talk to others. There was only the old dean left in the dean’s office. The old dean sat in a chair and looked at Lu Yizhan who came to her. “You asked me why I didn’t report the missing children?”

Lu Yizhan nodded and the old dean suddenly laughed. She opened a drawer with trembling hands, pulled out a pile of documents and handed them to Lu Yizhan “Young man, are you new here? I reported it every time they disappeared. Yet did I ever get a child back? Thus, I stopped reporting it. In any case, this welfare home is about to close down.”

Lu Yizhan frowned and read the documents the old dean handed him.

The oldest report was from 10 years ago. All of them were reports of missing children but the final investigation result was that the children ran away by themselves so there was no follow-up.

“Every year, our private welfare home will hold a performance on Children’s Day for the kind-hearted people who invested in our welfare home, so that the bosses who spend money can see the situation of the children they raised. However, children will always go missing after the annual Children’s Day performance. The investigation result is that the children ran away on their own.”

The old dean spoke very slowly. “At that time, you police officers suspected that our welfare home was abusing the children so that they wanted to run away from home. Then the investigation found that they weren’t abused. Even if the children ran away, we didn’t do anything extraordinary to the children. There was no such thing as selling human organs or pedophilia. The police investigated thoroughly but nothing was found.”

The old dean raised her eyes. “It is very common. Children run away from home and disappear.”

“It is hard to find missing children. These small children are just like grains of rice falling into a sea of people. Looking for the children who are trying to avoid you is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Thus, every year they disappear.”

Lu Yizhan’s colleague couldn’t help interjecting. “However, this time the surveillance showed that the children were sitting on the swings and then disappeared! This isn’t a case of them running away!”

“The thing you said is too strange. How can it happen? It is because our surveillance system has been used for a long time and is old.” The old dean downplayed it. “Perhaps it is broken?”

Lu Yizhan’s colleague choked up and felt he was going to have a heart attack. He wanted to sternly question the dean but was stopped by Lu Yizhan.

Lu Yizhan asked calmly, “It is our fault for not finding the children but you should still report it, right? It seems you haven’t reported it for more than a year? I checked the documents and there hasn’t been any for the past few years. You said that children go missing every year. So what is the truth of the matter?”

The old dean was silent for a few minutes. Then she turned around and found a large file bag from the bookcase behind her. It was covered in dust. She blew off the dust, opened the strings tying it shut and pulled out a thick book that looked like a photo album from it.

The first page showed ‘The 200X Children’s Welfare Home Art Show’. This was obviously the archive of this private welfare home.

In the photo, dozens of children stood in a restrained and awkward manner beside a group of men in suits and leather shoes. They showed cute and fake smiles that they had been taught thousands of times and had small lipstick marks on their foreheads. Their lips were painted red in a gaudy and old-fashioned manner.

“Children go missing every year but I don’t report it every year.” The old dean looked at the children in the photos and stretched out her tone. “Even if someone invests in this welfare home and it can last a year or two, it won’t be long before it will go bankrupt. Therefore, it is okay to tell you about these old things.”