Chapter 82: Liu Jingqi''s Origins |
The door opened.
A rather sparsely furnished office appeared before them.
Inside sat a skinny, middle-aged woman wearing glasses and holding a ledger. Dressed in casual clothes, she looked like any ordinary passerby.
She sat behind a desk covered in a layer of dust, which she seemed completely oblivious to.
Cheng Tao looked up, meeting the eyes of the group at the door.
Xu De returned her gaze, studying the woman before him with keen interest.
Her face bore the unique wrinkles of age... but they weren''t kind wrinkles. She looked exceptionally plain; even her aging lacked any distinguishing features.
Standing about one point six meters tall, her figure appeared gaunt.
Upon seeing the figures appear in the doorway, she hastily took off her glasses and warmly stood up to welcome the three of them in.
The door closed. Cheng Tao turned around, directing her enthusiastic gaze toward Lin Yue. She quickly asked, "Hello, are you Ms. Lin, whom we spoke with last night?"
Lin Yue and Xu De exchanged a glance. Xu De gave a slight nod.
Understanding his signal, she calmly replied, "Yes, that''s me."
Last night, she had contacted Cheng Tao under the guise of making a "charitable donation," so the woman''s current enthusiasm was perfectly natural.
"I am Cheng Tao, the director of Jiaqin Welfare Institute."
Cheng Tao offered them seats while pulling several documents from her desk. She patiently explained, "We have three donation methods here."
"One-on-one sponsorship, project support, and general donations to the welfare institute."
One-on-one sponsorship was easy to understand. Project support meant designated funds that could not be misappropriated. For example, if you donated to improve the children''s drinking water, the money could only be used for water treatment.
A general donation meant giving money directly to the welfare institute, leaving its allocation to the director''s discretion.
Of course, while the three methods seemed clearly defined, they were only clearly defined on paper.
If someone wanted to embezzle the funds, it was merely a matter of a single thought.
"There is no rush regarding the donation."
"We would like to first get a specific understanding of the welfare institute''s exact conditions."
Lin Yue wore a gentle smile, her words measured and polite.
"For instance... regarding the children."
Hearing this, Cheng Tao paused before hurriedly saying, "Yes, that''s my fault. I was a little too eager."
As she spoke, she handed the documents to each of the three lawyers. "Our welfare institute currently houses 172 children of varying ages, though the majority are around ten years old. Healthy children make up a small minority."
"Currently, our biggest challenge lies in..."
Cheng Tao sighed. "It lies in feeding the children."
Feeding them?
Did she mean food shortages?
Wang Chao was taken aback. He pondered for a moment before looking up to ask, "Doesn''t the government provide personal subsidies for each child?"
"Why would even basic meals be a challenge?"
As he finished speaking, a faint glint appeared in Cheng Tao''s eyes, but her drooping eyelids made her eyes look extremely small, hiding her exact expression.
She let out a heavy sigh. "The subsidies are small. Pitifully small."
"One child only gets a subsidy of two to three hundred a month. Food, clothing, housing, and schooling all depend on those three hundred yuan. How could it possibly be enough?"
"It''s also been a very long time since anyone in society has made a donation. Right now, the institute... is truly struggling to put food on the table."
For a welfare institute in 2002, they could provide meals, but eating well and staying full was out of the question. It wasn''t uncommon for children to fight over food.
However...
"Director Cheng, are you certain?"
Xu De suddenly spoke up, questioning her claim.
Cheng Tao hesitated, unsure of his meaning, but still nodded. "I am certain."
Xu De nodded slightly and said nothing more.
Seeing this, Lin Yue continued, "Then are there no kind-hearted people coming to adopt children? Usually, people who adopt also make donations, right?"
Cheng Tao replied, "There are, but very few. There are so many orphans, and so few adopting families."
"And they only pick the ones who are pretty, healthy, and young. Those who are filtered out become harder to adopt as they grow older."
"Besides, the majority of the children have underlying issues themselves, so no one is willing to adopt them."
Abandoned infants usually suffered from physical deformities, psychological problems, or illnesses.
Once these three types of children entered a welfare institute, almost no one wanted to adopt them when they were young. After two or three years passed, finding adoptive parents became virtually impossible.
Except...
"Do you have a record of the recent adoption list for the welfare institute''s children?"
Suddenly, Xu De broke his silence. He looked at Cheng Tao with an extremely amiable expression.
Adoption records?
Cheng Tao''s expression stiffened. She stared at the man, unable to grasp his intentions.
According to her decades of experience... this man was a hundred percent an orphan himself; there was practically zero chance he was looking to adopt a child.
But his attire and demeanor... didn''t look like he was poor either. What if he really wanted to see the records and then make a donation along the way?
But there was another problem.
The welfare institute''s records hid certain things...
Cheng Tao''s dark pupils observed him for a moment. Soon, she smiled and said, "Alright, I''ll bring them for your review right now."
As she spoke, she walked over to the desk area. Against the wall stood several filing cabinets. She pulled open the bottom drawer and extracted a few files from inside.
Then, she handed them over to Xu De.
"Please take a look," Cheng Tao said.
Xu De lowered his head and silently read through them, while Wang Chao and Lin Yue leaned in closer.
The information on the records couldn''t be faked.
They clearly detailed the whereabouts of the personnel. Some had left upon reaching adulthood, while others had been adopted by foster parents.
The three read at a moderate pace, the only sound in the office being the faint rustle of turning pages.
"Gulp~"
Cheng Tao swallowed hard, her hands involuntarily clenching into fists.
Until...
"Director Cheng, could you please help me find a personnel list from around 1990, during the tenure of former Director Zheng Tong?"
Xu De lifted his head, a meaningful smile playing in his eyes.
These records...
There was no problem with them.
Normally, if a welfare institute wanted to commit subsidy fraud, they would stuff a large number of children into the institute. If the subsidy for each child was 300, they would squeeze the cost of raising the child below 300 to pocket the difference.
The welfare institute hadn''t taken in many children in recent years, so the probability of them committing subsidy fraud based on headcounts was very low.
But then again...
Pocketing the difference per headcount was the lowest level of skimming money for a welfare institute!
"Director Zheng!?"
Cheng Tao''s heart suddenly skipped a beat, but she forced down the words that sprang to her lips.
She steadied her emotions, looked up at him, and said in a low voice, "Director Zheng retired six years ago. I really don''t know much about his affairs..."
These people... they had not come with good intentions.
"Relax."
Xu De offered a reassuring remark. He didn''t have time to grill her endlessly.
With the retrial of the Number 18 Middle School case only a week away, playing mind games with Cheng Tao wouldn''t do any good and would only waste time.
"Director Cheng, you don''t want to blow things out of proportion either, do you?"
"Rest assured, we just want to look up someone who came out of this welfare institute. Her name is Liu Jingqi."
"She entered the welfare institute 12 years ago, and was adopted 11 years ago by a couple named Liu Hao and Cai Fei."
Looking at Cheng Tao, Xu De spoke slowly, "We..."
"Just want to check her true identity information."
As he finished speaking, Cheng Tao''s pupils constricted slightly. She stared at him for a long time.
For a moment, the office fell into silence again, with no one speaking for a long while.
Finally, Cheng Tao spoke, "Director Zheng has already retired."
"The personnel transfer files from 1990... I really can''t find them."
Could she really not find them, or was she pretending?
Just as Wang Chao was hesitating...
Cheng Tao suddenly spoke again, rattling off a string of accurate information.
"The welfare institute didn''t take in many children in 1990. If you have a photo, perhaps I could recognize her."
This time, without needing Xu De to tell her, Lin Yue immediately pulled Liu Jingqi''s photo from her briefcase and handed it over to her.
Cheng Tao silently took it, looked down, and slightly furrowed her brows.
Seeing this, Lin Yue felt a surge of anticipation.
Obviously, this woman knew Liu Jingqi!
Sure enough.
"I have some impression of this mole near the corner of her eye, but the person I remember wasn''t named Liu Jingqi... She was called Nanmei."
Nanmei!?
Xu De''s heart leapt, but he smiled and asked, "Director Cheng, do you have any more specific details?"
"For instance... how did she end up at the welfare institute, and who brought her here?"
Hearing this, Cheng Tao cast him a deep glance, unsure if he had received some inside information and was knowingly asking the question, or if he was simply guessing.
Her breathing grew a little heavy. After a long pause, she gritted her teeth and admitted, "I remember this child very clearly... She was too unique."
Wang Chao asked, "What made her unique?"
"She... she sold herself here!"
Saying this, Cheng Tao seemed to throw caution to the wind. Her expression turned grave as she sighed and said solemnly, "You... let''s lay all our cards on the table."
"The things Director Zheng did... the welfare institute hasn''t been involved in them since he retired."
Xu De, however, countered, "I said, I''m only here to investigate Liu Jingqi... that is, Nanmei."
"I know absolutely nothing about anything else."
Lin Yue''s expression shifted slightly. She had a vague guess as to what was going on, but now she could only suppress her internal emotions and remain silent.
Wang Chao, meanwhile, nodded furiously. "Yes, yes, we are just here to find Liu Jingqi."
As he spoke, his face revealed shock and confusion. "What do you mean she sold herself here?"
"Does the welfare institute even buy and sell children!?"
Cheng Tao stared at him, suddenly taken aback. Her gaze shifted back and forth between Xu De and Wang Chao, unable to figure out for a long time whether these two actually knew what was going on or not.
A hint of struggle flickered in her eyes. Ultimately, her tightly clenched hands relaxed, and she said, "Six years ago, Director Zheng was secretly buying children. He would occasionally find human traffickers on the sly and buy a few healthy boys and girls."
"I wasn''t involved in this. I only found out later."
"Among them, the ones who caught my attention the most were this Nanmei and the trafficker who came to sell her."
"Neither of those two was from Greenwood City."
"The trafficker and Nanmei came from Guizhou Province... but neither of them was a native of Guizhou Province. The trafficker had just been living there for a long time."
"As far as I know, Nanmei... wasn''t from Guizhou Province either. For some unknown reason, she stayed there for a very long period, from birth until she was five or six, so she had a distinct local accent."
"Anyway, that trafficker told Director Zheng that Nanmei had sold herself to him, telling the trafficker to sell her somewhere else. Finally, she ended up in Greenwood City."
She sold herself to a human trafficker, who then sold her to Greenwood City?
That was a distance of two thousand kilometers!
Moreover...
"What does it mean she sold herself?"
Xu De raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"I don''t know the exact details."
Cheng Tao shook her head. She had only concealed the truth to protect her government position, and it was also to preserve that position that she was now voluntarily speaking out.
But as for the specific details of what Zheng Tong was involved in back then... she truly didn''t know the inner workings.
"From what I know... Nanmei must have done something wrong."
"To run away, she had a trafficker sell her off. At least, that''s how the trafficker described it. What their relationship was, I really couldn''t say."
Cheng Tao concluded.
What kind of crime could she have committed 12 years ago that would cause Liu Jingqi to voluntarily have a trafficker sell her off!?
This...
"How old was Liu Jingqi when she first entered the welfare institute 12 years ago!?"
Lin Yue suddenly interjected, asking the question out of the blue.
The current Liu Jingqi was 16 years old. If you traced back 12 years, that would make her 4 years old.
Could a 4-year-old child accomplish all these things!?
Cheng Tao choked for a moment before considering her answer. "Five or six? I feel like she should have been around five or six years old."
Five or six!?
Suddenly, the pupils of the three lawyers constricted slightly.
If Liu Jingqi was 6 years old 12 years ago... then it was highly possible she was already an adult now!
"Do you have any proof!?"
Lin Yue hurriedly pressed.
If they had proof, they might not need to track down her biological parents.
"No," Cheng Tao shook her head.
Lin Yue let out a disappointed sigh.
Wang Chao, however, was focused on another matter. Frowning, he asked, "If you thought she was 6 at the time, why was she registered as 4 on the household register?"
Cheng Tao replied matter-of-factly, "That''s perfectly normal. It''s just to secure more benefits. Everyone does it."
To make it easier for children to be adopted and to fight for more benefits, welfare institutes would deliberately lower a child''s age by a few years on paper.
In this manner, Liu Jingqi''s age was altered to 4.
"That little beast, she really might be an adult..."
Wang Chao murmured, the image of Liu Jingqi''s arrogant and overbearing face flashing through his mind.
Killing someone and still being so arrogant...
Even trying to use the Minor Protection Law as a legal immunity card, it was simply...
Utterly disgusting!
While she might not necessarily be 18, based on the current situation, they could at least bump her age up to 17. By then, the probability of a life sentence would increase significantly.
"Do you know where in Guizhou Province?"
Lin Yue pressed on. She then reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, asking, "And, what crime did Nanmei commit that she had to sell herself?"
"It should be Lian Mountain County."
Cheng Tao stroked her chin, carefully recalling the details, before finally shaking her head. "As for what crime Nanmei committed... that, I really don''t know."
"But it couldn''t have been anything major. After all, she was only five or six at the time."
Lin Yue thought about it. Indeed, no matter what kind of crime a five or six-year-old committed, it probably wasn''t a big deal.
Finally, Xu De spoke up, "Do you have any photos of Nanmei from that time?"
Cheng Tao remained silent, struggling internally for a long time. Finally, taking a deep breath, she stood up and walked out.
Before long, she returned holding a group photo... or rather, the portrait of a person cut out from the corner of a group photo with scissors.
It was about the size of a thumb, in color, and very blurry, but one could barely make out that it was Liu Jingqi.
"Thank you for your trouble."
Xu De stood up to take the photo, a warm smile spreading across his face, his eyes gleaming sharply as he stared at the picture before him.
Information acquired, clues obtained.
He had no intention of lingering. He immediately said, "If we have any further questions, we will continue to stay in touch with you."
With those words, he led his team out.
Watching the three retreating figures, Cheng Tao opened her mouth, but couldn''t utter a single word, falling into silence.
Meanwhile.
At the main entrance of the welfare institute.
The trio walked out, pulled open the car doors, and slid inside.
"Slam!"
The car doors shut.
The next second.
Wang Chao couldn''t hold it in any longer and asked, "That old director had connections with human traffickers..."
Wang Chao felt a deep sense of astonishment.
"No, what was he doing buying children from human traffickers when he had nothing better to do!?"
Xu De exhaled a breath of stale air and casually replied, "It was for a type of... high-level subsidy fraud method used by welfare institutes!"