Mystery

Shen Ke, who was knocked on the door by Li Yuan, turned from embarrassment to anger before, but now it can be regarded as being blown away.

He looked at the crumpled piece of chewing gum in the palm of his hand. The fluorescent green outer packaging seemed to carry a not-so-good curse on his birthday, no, it was a blessing.

Li Yuan thought, and put the chewing gum into his trouser pocket.

The door opened, and a woman about 30 years old opened the iron door. She was fully dressed and her face was not sleepy. When she saw Shen Ke and Li Yuan, she immediately opened the door, "Officer Shen and Officer Li, right? Xiao Qi called us."

"Is he okay? The voice on the phone is very hoarse. By the way, my name is Wang Qingwen, and I'm the director of this orphanage."

"It's nothing serious. Dean Wang looks very young. How long have you been in this orphanage?"

As Shen Ke said, she looked towards the orphanage, it was already past twelve o'clock, the children had already fallen asleep, and the orphanage was quiet.The large, dark windows are like gaping mouths, and you can imagine a horror story just by looking at them.

Qi Huan obviously said hello, and Wang Qingwen cooperated very well.

"I only became the dean three years ago, but when I was young, I grew up in the Red Star Orphanage, and I am quite familiar with the things here. You all know the name of this orphanage, it is very strange It's the beginning of the year."

Wang Qingwen enthusiastically pointed to the old-fashioned red-painted windows next to him, and introduced, "This house is already the newest one in our place. We didn't have money to renovate, so we bought some paint and painted it ourselves." brush."

"There are old photos in the office. Xiao Qi said you might want to see them. I'll show you."

As Wang Qingwen said, he led everyone to the door of a room next to the stairs in the middle of the corridor. This is a small two-story building. Green moss grew on many parts of the outer wall due to the washing of rainwater, making it look dirty. Xi's.

"Some of the lights in the aisle are not in good contact and not very bright. Be careful. Some stones on the stone road at the door are loose. If you step on it, it will lift up and spray water on the bottom of your trousers. We adults find it annoying, but children But I think it’s a rare game.”

Wang Qingwen took out a large bunch of keys, looked at them a few times, and selected one to unlock the door of the dean's room.

As soon as the lights were turned on, Shen Ke saw the photos of the teachers on the wall, and the red five-pointed stars behind each teacher.

Noticing Shen Ke's gaze, Wang Qingwen hurriedly explained, "This is the tradition of the orphanage. The teachers and children's evaluations are all posted with five-pointed stars. There are many children in our orphanage, but not so many teachers."

As she spoke, she began to rummage through boxes and drawers to find photo albums.

"I found it, here it is! This photo album is very precious. It has been there since the establishment of the orphanage. At that time, the first old director was there. Our old director's surname was Yuan, and the children in the orphanage called her Mama Yuan." .”

"Mother Yuan would take a group photo of the children every year during Chinese New Year. There was nothing to see in the orphanage, and this small building was new at the time, so I took pictures in front of it every time."

"Although the small building is old now, this habit has been preserved."

As Wang Qingwen said, he handed a thick old photo album to Shen Ke.

Shen Ke took it and spread it out on the desk. The Red Star Orphanage was built in the 80s of the last century. The photos on the front are all in black and white, but they were not in color until the last 20 years.

Shen Ke flipped through the pages, suddenly paused, and pointed to the two adjacent photos with her fingers. These two photos have no color and have turned yellow, but fortunately, the photo paper used to develop the photos is the kind of grainy On photo paper, people are fairly clear.

In the photo above, everyone wears a scarf around their necks, but because the photo is black and white, the color of the scarf cannot be seen clearly.

No matter which photo, all the children's hair is neatly combed, and there is a mole between the eyebrows.

"Did there be a fire in the orphanage this year? I see that the small building is still clean in the photo above, but there is a black thing on the wall in the next photo."

"Besides, there are suddenly a lot fewer children. The top one is densely packed with children, and the next one is missing thirteen people."

As Shen Ke said, she pushed the photo album in front of Wang Qingwen.

Before she could answer, she pointed to the old photo above, "Everyone wears a scarf around their necks, for Chinese New Year..."

Shen Ke paused, "So the scarves are all red? Did the orphanage receive donations that year?"

Wang Qingwen's face changed, and he looked at Shen Ke as if he was watching a ghost.

"Officer Shen, you are amazing! Can you see so many things in just these two photos? If it wasn't for me in the photo album, I would have thought that you also grew up in the Hongxing Orphanage."

Wang Qingwen looked Shen Ke up and down, and found that she also had a pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth, and she shifted her gaze to the photo with a complicated expression.

Her voice suddenly became much lower, "You said it word for word, as if you were at the scene."

She stretched out her hand and pointed to one of the little girls with twin ponytails, who wore a red silk bow tie on the left and right sides of her head.

"This is me! Nowadays people don't pay much attention to the New Year, but we children in the orphanage like the New Year the most."

"When I entered the orphanage, I was older, and my appearance was not outstanding. Boys in the orphanage are easier to be adopted, and girls are not so good, so I spent many years in the orphanage."

"During the Chinese New Year, people in the street will come to condolences, give us delicious food, and sometimes there will be caring people. Our Red Star did receive a donation that year, which was a batch of red hand-woven scarves."

"Wool knitting is rarely seen now. Mama Yuan will put on clean clothes and scarves for us, and then take out her treasures, a box of rouge and a lipstick."

Wang Qingwen said, pointing to his cheek, "One side is red, like a monkey's butt, and there are beauty spots between the eyebrows. But at that time, I didn't feel dirty. We little girls still felt very happy. "

"We were all very happy to have a new scarf as a gift that year, but then tragedy happened."

As Wang Qingwen said, he sighed a little: "It was cold at that time, there was no air conditioner, and we mainly relied on charcoal pots for heating. There were not enough charcoal pots for burning. Some big boys would get a paint bucket and secretly put charcoal fire in it. "

"When you shake your hand like that, the fire is lit and warm. There is only a little bit of charcoal, which burns during the day and disappears when you sleep at night. The dean also repeatedly emphasized that you can't light a fire while sleeping."

"But that day..." Wang Qingwen looked at Shen Ke, "It was like touching a ghost. The red scarf fell off and landed on the paint bucket filled with charcoal fire. The charcoal fire in the paint bucket did not go out for some reason. and it ignited."

"One of my friends passed away, and two others were injured. Because of this incident, the Red Star Orphanage was almost closed. It costs money to treat injuries, and it costs money to repair the house..."

"The yard was looking for adoptions everywhere. During that time, all the friends around me left one by one."