DA chapter 32

 

The director didn’t give the man a chance to refuse. She patted his shoulder and said softly into his ear, “Perform well.”

His lips turned pale as if demonic whispers had entered his ears.

After giving this instruction, the director clapped her hands. “The rest of you, come with me.”

Since none of them had been selected, everyone hurried to leave. Zhang Tudou copied the director’s gesture, lightly patting the man’s shoulder.

The meaning was obvious: Take care, but don’t do anything stupid.

Everyone else filed out, and the once-crowded reception room emptied in an instant. The chosen man looked ashen.

The director closed the door, blocking everyone’s view of the reception room. She tapped her cane and began reviewing their performance, clearly dissatisfied.

Most people let her words go in one ear and out the other, focusing instead on the closed reception room.

So far, it remained very quiet inside. No terrifying sounds or desperate screams came out.

Because it was so quiet, those outside felt even more uneasy.

What exactly was happening inside? Was being chosen good or bad?

Just as everyone became restless, there was a click, and the door to the reception room opened.

Everyone immediately turned toward the sound. Lin Jia also lifted his head.

The director stopped lecturing the children and looked over with concern.

The couple walked out of the reception room, followed by the chosen man. Everyone noticed that his face was no longer pale and that he no longer looked frightened.

Lin Jia noticed something else—his clothes had changed. He looked more closely and saw that he was wearing new clothes.

The moment the couple stepped out, they called to the director. The “adults” went to discuss adoption matters, leaving the “children” with one last chance to interact.

“Xiao Wei, what happened?” Zhang Tudou immediately asked the moment the three NPCs left.

Xiao Wei clearly did not want to answer. He replied perfunctorily, “Nothing much.”

The others stared closely at him, trying to determine if he still belonged to the human category. Xiao Wei glared back at their probing looks. “Got a problem?”

Alright—he’s most likely still human.

Assuming that Xiao Wei was refusing to explain because he wanted to get back at Zhang Tudou for abandoning him, someone from another team asked, “What happened inside?”

Xiao Wei answered, “Nothing.”

That only made people more anxious. “That couple didn’t do anything to you?”

Xiao Wei sounded impatient. “What do you think?”

He was standing there perfectly fine and wearing new clothes. His previous clothes were soaked with cold sweat and smelled terrible after a whole night.

Someone else asked, “Then what did they say to you?”

Xiao Wei had completely lost his patience. “I already said nothing happened. Stop asking. So annoying.”

Lin Jia sensed that Xiao Yao was about to lose his temper, so he held him back and shook his head slightly.

After all, Xiao Wei had been chosen by the adoptive parents. If anyone did anything to Xiao Wei, they would very likely be jumping straight into a death trap themselves.

Clearly, Yan Xu’s thinking matched Lin Jia’s. Though he usually took the lead everywhere, he surprisingly said nothing. Only when the others persisted did he smile and say, “Have you all lost your shame?”

Despite their anger, no one dared to speak back to Yan Xu.

Just then, the director and the couple returned, so everyone could only swallow their resentment and fall silent.

Lin Jia noticed the smile on the director’s face. She beckoned Xiao Wei over and told him to behave after he went to his new home.

Seeing that the director intended for the couple to take Xiao Wei away immediately, Lin Jia spoke up. “Director.”

The director looked toward him.

Lin Jia said, “It’s getting dark. Wouldn’t it be unsafe to go home now? Why not leave after dawn?”

If they had let the couple leave, the three Fishman questions today would have been wasted.

The director looked at the sky. Indeed, dusk had appeared.

She naturally understood the couple’s situation and knew they had driven a long time to reach the Welfare Institute. Driving while tired is unsafe.

But she hesitated slightly—nighttime…

Never mind. As long as she went to the rooftop more often, everything would be fine. Hadn’t these children stayed safe, too?

With that thought in mind, the director invited the couple to stay one night at the Welfare Institute and leave the next day.

The couple declined politely at first, but Yan Xu spoke up at that moment: “Safety first.”

Safety first.

That was true.

“Then we’ll trouble the director.” After thinking for a moment, the couple nodded in agreement. The wife glanced at Xiao Wei, her eyes full of affection. “We want to stay with the child.”

“Of course, no problem.” The director agreed. “Please come with me.”

The director was about to lead the new family to their room for the night. Before leaving, she turned to the others and said, “It’s getting dark. Don’t wander around. Go back and rest.”

Even though they were all reluctant to leave empty-handed, they had no choice but to return to their rooms under the director’s order.

Once the director had walked far enough ahead, Lin Jia took the documents he had hidden in Xiao Yao’s hood and handed them to Yan Xu, who was standing motionless.

This person had clearly been waiting.

“You’re pretty perceptive.” Yan Xu said something that could have been praise or sarcasm, then flipped through the personnel files Lin Jia had organized.

Lin Jia explained, “There are eleven orphan records in total. All were born in 2003 and adopted in 2010.”

Xiao Yao listened from the side. He knew Lin Jia was searching for the little girl’s file, yet he felt he had missed something.

He understood why “adopted in 2010” was a filter, but why was “born in 2003” also a condition?

“Filtered perfectly. All eleven files have records of returned adoptions.” Yan Xu kept flipping through them, then frowned at one section and clicked his tongue.

Lin Jia guessed the sound came because the return adoption records were too brief. But that was normal. Just as disciplinary records could affect school admissions, schools often removed them before graduation to avoid future impact.

Likewise, to avoid affecting their chances of being adopted again, the files contained only simple notes about the returns, without stating the reasons.

The only relatively detailed parts were the descriptions of how the children first arrived at the orphanage.

Among the eleven files, one child’s mother had died in a car accident. The mother had held the girl tightly, which is why the girl survived.

However, she also lost her only family and was sent to the Welfare Institute.

There were also children who were abandoned by the roadside right after birth and then brought to the Welfare Institute by kindhearted strangers.

There were also children born with physical defects who were cruelly abandoned by their parents. However, after receiving social donations, the children were no different from normal people.

No matter how much was written, the words were still lifeless. There were no photos in the files, so it was impossible to guess which file belonged to the little girl.

Lin Jia told Xiao Yao to leave first while he waited for Yan Xu to finish reading. Yan Xu understood that Lin Jia intended to continue cooperating and told Deputy Director Chen to leave first as well.

Gradually, only the two of them remained in that corner.

Yan Xu asked, “What is the new cooperation content?”

Lin Jia: “Captain Yan can guess.”

Since the couple who had adopted the little girl before had already stayed overnight at the Welfare Institute, tonight was an opportunity that could not be missed.

They had already been in Fish Belly for two days. The Fishman mutation speed was fast, and they could not hold on much longer.

When the sky was completely black, Lin Jia walked out of the room. His room was near the corridor. When he looked up, Yan Xu was already waiting for him.

The corridor was silent. The two looked at each other, and neither spoke.

They headed toward the room where the couple was staying. Fortunately, the director had arranged for their room to be far from the office. Lin Jia guessed that the director did not want the couple to hear her movements at night.

This made things more convenient for him and Yan Xu.

From outside, dim yellowish light was still shining from the couple’s room.

Yan Xu stepped forward and knocked on the door. Soon, movement came from inside.

“Who is it?”

Yan Xu glanced at Lin Jia.

Lin Jia said, “Looking for Xiao Wei.”

The door opened. The husband looked at Yan Xu and Lin Jia standing outside. “Looking for Xiao Wei? But Xiao Wei isn’t here right now.”

Yan Xu and Lin Jia immediately sensed that something was wrong. This couple had clearly requested to stay with Xiao Wei, yet now they were saying that Xiao Wei was not there.

Lin Jia lowered his gaze and noticed that the husband’s belly was larger than an average middle-aged man.

“Who is it?”

At that moment, the wife came to the door as well. Likewise, her belly was protruding, as if she were mid-pregnancy.

The husband turned his head and replied, “Children from the Welfare Institute are here looking for Xiao Wei.”

The wife looked regretful. “Oh, Xiao Wei isn’t here.”

Yan Xu asked, “Where is he?”

The wife touched her belly and said gently, “Xiao Wei… He’s in a very safe place.”

“Oh.” Yan Xu answered perfunctorily.

He didn’t continue the topic, but instead asked, “Is Xiao Ting doing well?”

Hearing Yan Xu ask that, Lin Jia frowned in disgust.

Xiao Ting was one of the eleven files. Yan Xu was fishing for information to find the little girl’s file.

A very clumsy level of fishing for information.

“Xiao Ting?” Both the husband and wife looked confused. The wife asked, “Is she also a child from the Welfare Institute?”

Yan Xu: “Wasn’t Xiao Ting adopted by you?”

“You seem to have made a mistake.” The wife smiled and said in unison with her husband, “We don’t know Xiao Ting.”

It looks like Xiao Ting could be ruled out.

Seeing that Yan Xu and Lin Jia still showed no intention of leaving, the husband asked, “Is there anything else you need?”

“Is Xiao Ling doing well?” Lin Jia asked.

Although he criticized Yan Xu’s poor fishing skills, Yan Xu had already succeeded. Copying was the simplest method—there was no need to think harder.

After asking, Lin Jia waited for the couple’s answer. He did not expect to hit the mark immediately. Ruling out one among eleven files was good news.

However, the couple did not answer for a long time.

They looked at Lin Jia with open mouths, as if they wanted to say something but stopped themselves.

Lin Jia pressed his lips together.

Great luck—his experiment had hit the target dead center.

In an instant, the couple’s expressions changed from hesitation to terror.

Their mouths opened wider and wider. Lin Jia could even see hair in their throats.

Yan Xu realized that Lin Jia had hit the target and immediately added, “Xiao Ling was the child you adopted before, right?”

“That child… that child…” The couple opened their mouths wide, both answering in unison, “Ghost… ghost…”

Lin Jia asked, “Xiao Ling is a ghost?”

“That child… that child… ghost… there is a ghost…”

Their mouths had expanded to an unnatural size, preventing them from speaking properly. Lin Jia had to listen carefully to catch a few words from their muffled sentences.

He glanced at Yan Xu beside him from the corner of his eye. Judging from Yan Xu’s expression, he also could not catch many keywords.

Now was not the time to confirm keywords. Lin Jia tried to extract more clues.

“Was Xiao Ling returned because of a ghost?”

Using the Fishman question-and-answer pattern, he asked the couple, who were unable to speak normally, in a way that made it easier for them to respond.

The couple nodded in terror.

“That child…that child…”

“There is a ghost…”

“We didn’t want to either…”

 

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