CH 140

Actually, in those years, Yan Suizhi had little contact with the various welfare institutions and orphanages. At most, he’d inquire about their situation during his first donation, and the following donations would be under anonymous transfers, such that it was impossible to tell from the account books that these donations were actually from the same person.

In all seriousness, it was a reach to call that one brief encounter ‘fate’, let alone define it as friendship. 

That was why it actually threw Yan Suizhi off when he heard the term ‘old friend’.

“Pardon me, but may I ask who that old friend is?”

The director perched the visioncare glasses on his nose again, his gaze resting on Yan Suizhi again. “A rather interesting gentleman. He had secretly donated significant sums in support many times under different accounts before.”

“Secretly donated under different accounts? Then how did you know that it was him?” Joe was curious. 

This little young master was completely unaware of the connection between Yan Suizhi and the welfare institution. He thought that the director was talking about some kind stranger.

The director briefly chuckled, which gave him the image of an honest and sincere elder. “It’s easy to tell. Maybe not in other places, but it’s very obvious here, because he’s the only one who would donate so generously to this welfare home. I could recognise it the moment I checked the account books.”

The old director pointed at his head. “It’s an elderly’s intuition.”

And all of a sudden, Yan Suizhi found the term ‘old friend’, coming from this elder, was, in truth, very fitting.

Even if they’d only met face to face that one time.

“Actually, the reason that this welfare home can reopen is also thanks to him,” the old director sighed. He sounded downcast. “Because I received a letter from the Probate Office last month.”

“Probate Office?” Joe’s head finally started chugging. He peeked at Yan Suizhi, then at Gu Yan. “Could it be…”

The director shot an inquisitive look at him. 

“…Our dean?” Joe finished his sentence.

“Your dean?” The director gave a start.

“He once went by the initial Y, though I’m unsure if the old friend you’re referring to is him,” Gu Yan said.

“Mr Y…” The director repeated to himself, and the gaze that he turned on them changed. “You’re Mr Yan’s students?” 

It was apparent that even though their encounter was fleeting, the elder had always kept the young man’s appearance in mind. Maybe he had come across his photo in a certain article and found out who he was—that he was a lawyer, and had become Maze University’s youngest dean.

“To have known this alias… you’re not ordinary students, right? You should have a very intimate relationship with Mr Yan?” the director said.

“Mm. Very… intimate,” Gu Yan said. “Apologies for not mentioning it over the call.”

The director waved his hand. “It’s understandable, it’s understandable. So, may I ask what is the purpose of your visit today?” 

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Dfobgf, tf kjr ufclji jcv qbilaf, yea ktfatfg la kjr atf yglfo mbcnfgrjalbc atgbeut mbwwr bg atf rwjii ajix ja atf rajga, atf gfrfgnjalbcr tf xfqa kjr qfgmflnjyif. Pa kjr ilxf agfjawfca joobgvfv ab jc ecojwliljg nlrlabg, klat kjgwat yea jirb xfqa ja j vlrajcmf.

However, it was different now. His smile faded and he appeared more solemn as well. 

The director pursed his lips. It was unclear what was on his mind, but he lifted his gaze after a while, asking, “Who are you making inquiries about?”

They projected the photograph on Cloud Herb Welfare Home’s web page.

It was a group photo from many years back. There were quite a few children in it, standing in three rows. The younger ones were even still being carried, whilst the older ones were in their late teens, on the cusp of adulthood.

The director himself was among them, along with some of the home’s management and caregivers. 

Most of the people were smiling in the photo, interspersed with a few who were too blinded by the sun’s glare to smile.

Yan Suizhi pointed at the boy in the last row and asked, “Who is he?”

The boy in the photo was dressed in a simple shirt and long pants. His head of short hair was spiky, and his hands were folded behind his back. It could be deducible from his lips cracked into a grin that he was smiling, but there was still a lingering sense of gloom in his eyes.

At this time, the skin of his earlobe was still unblemished by that Spade tattoo. 

“This child?” The old director spoke slowly. “I remember that he used to be called Dwayne then, when he was around the age of seventeen. This photo is a bit aged, coming to thirty years back now. The welfare home had only been established for about two years and was just starting to take shape. This photo was our first family photo.”

“I have quite a deep impression of this child,” the director said. “Most children in this photo were from Wine City, but the ones standing behind weren’t.”

He ran his finger over the boy’s figure, then pointed at the two people flanking him. “They were sent here from elsewhere for various reasons. You know, not every child can adapt to the atmosphere of a welfare home or an orphanage, so there would occasionally be transfers here and there. The staff called it moving house, but I don’t think that’s what these children call it in their hearts. They probably felt like vagrants.”

The director said, “I’ve chatted with him before. He doesn’t actually speak much, but when they do, there’s a touch of bragging in it, though that’s actually quite normal. They don’t have many things, so when they occasionally get something nice, they can’t help but want to let everyone know. However, this child was a bit excessively concerned about things like that… how should I put it? It was apparent that he doesn’t like seeing others get better things, even if it was just a fluke. And when he saw people down on their luck, he’d occasionally show a fascinated—almost gloating even—expression. This led to him not being very well-liked, so he usually kept to himself. At that time, I believed that this child’s psyche might be a little abnormal and was worried that he would go off the rails, so I’d talk to him from time to time.” 

He spent a moment in his recollection, appearing a bit disheartened. “But it was very unfortunate that I met him too late. He only stayed here for a year before turning eighteen. As dictated by the alliance laws, he no longer needed to remain under our supervision. I recall that he spent his eighteenth birthday here. The caregivers prepared a cake and presents for him. He looked to be in a good mood before handing in his application to leave the next day.”

“Do you know where he went after that?” Yan Suizhi asked.

“A little,” the director said. “Though these children are no longer under our supervision after they come of age, we will actually still keep in touch. After all, this is considered their home. If they weren’t faring well, we’d do our best to lend them a hand. But some children aren’t willing to bring up this place after they leave. They completely sever the first eighteen years of their lives. He broke off contact after leaving and I only learned of his movements through some contacts. He stayed in Wine City for about a year before moving to Eyrie, where he was from.”

Hearing this, Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan exchanged a glance. 

With the information gradually superimposing, it was unlikely that they had gotten the wrong person.

“Then do you have any recent news about him?”

The director shook his head. “Even the last I heard of him was about twenty-five years back, when one of the caregivers at the welfare home saw him on a space shuttle to De Carma. The child said that he was doing well, going to De Carma on a business trip to help people handle something. But he didn’t give any specifics on what he was doing, nor did he raise the topic. I haven’t heard anything else since.”

He deliberated before saying, “Actually, it’s a bit strange. I’ve some contacts in the government after working in the public sector for so long. To tell the truth, I asked a friend in records administration for a favour because I was worried about that child, but there was no trace of him in the system. It was just as though he had only lived for a few years after coming out of the orphanage, and then disappeared from the face of the universe.” 

“Disappeared?”

Young Master Joe was the most sensitive to this matter.

Almost as soon as he heard words in that tangent, he’d unconsciously wonder, “Could he have gotten genetic modification surgery?”

The old director froze for a moment, tuning out slightly. Then, the regret on his face turned even deeper, for he knew deep down that it couldn’t bode well if someone needed to rely on genetic modification surgery to hide their tracks. 

Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan had found only about twenty photos despite the long timespan that the photos fell within. After Joe and Eunice heard about it, they also searched for herdingbirds in their file database and came up with equally sparse few pieces of information.

Piecing their information together, they could basically confirm that the Sweeper had been active for at least twenty years and was probably still around today.

Perhaps the reason that he remained so elusive was, as Joe speculated, due to genetic modification—changing his skin every time he dealt with some people to be on the safe side.

Investigating someone like this was a very knotty problem. 

The more relevant information they gained the more hope they had.

Yan Suizhi asked, “Do you still have any information about Dwayne saved?”

“There was a file when he was first admitted to the welfare home,” the director said. “But it’s only of his past, before he turned seventeen.”

“Is it convenient to let us have a look?” 

The director said, “It has to be within the rules. I can only show you a part of it.”

“Thank you.”

The file archives were in a ground-floor room on the west side of the same block. The room wasn’t big. There were several photon computers running inside, weakly emitting a fluorescent glow.

“Not all of the staff have arrived yet, so I’m still in charge over here, along with a few other teachers,” the old director said. 

“Teachers?”

“Oh, yes. Those people who you saw when you entered the office just now.” The director said before breaking into a smile. “They’re friends who wanted to give me a hand. We are planning to furnish the classrooms and conduct a weekend academy within the welfare home. It’s always good to teach those children as much as we can before they reach adulthood.”

The old director slowly worked the photon computer.

They politely waited by the side without hurrying him. 

After a while, the photon computer droned and whirred, spitting out holographic paper that contained some photographs, archived documents, and transfer papers.

The director considerately prepared four copies and distributed them out.

Only, when it came to Ke Jin, he seemed completely unaware, still standing at the window with his back to them.

“Um…” The old director was a bit thrown by Ke Jin’s state, neither extending the copy in his hands nor rescinding it. 

The new idea that had just emerged in Joe’s head was disrupted. He nodded at the director, saying, “Thanks. He can just share a copy with me if he wants to see it.”

The first page of the file was a transfer document, showing that Dwayne had lived in an orphanage on Eyrie before the age of ten. The transfer document was followed by a file from the orphanage, which included a section on his experience in the orphanage, as well as his behaviour and some of his preferences.

It was specifically noted that Dwayne was very fond of birds and exhibited excessive dependency on birds. Practically self-taught, he had tamed a herdingbird and brought it with him everywhere. When he was ten, the herdingbird he raised died of an injury, which resulted in him getting into a brawl with a few children over it.

This was the main reason that he was transferred away. 

A letter of admission came immediately after these two documents.

The admission was to an orphanage on De Carma, where the supervision was more high-tech and much better than on Eyrie. Dwayne stayed in this De Carma orphanage until the age of seventeen, when he ran into some more unpleasantness, which led to his transfer to Cloud Herb Welfare Home.

But that wasn’t the crux of it. Yan Suizhi’s gaze paused on the name of the De Carma orphanage, his brows furrowing deeply. “Milan Orphanage…”

He suddenly raised his head, meeting eyes with Gu Yan and Joe. 

Milan Orphanage; where Ke Jin had once stayed.

It was hard for them not to be reminded of the man at large, Lee Connor, the chief culprit behind Ke Jin’s mental condition.

A similar background story, similarly undergoing genetic modification surgery to avoid detection.

Joe whipped his head around to look at Ke Jin. Still unaware, the other’s gaze was fixed on a certain high vantage a distance off. 

They followed Ke Jin’s line of sight and looked over, then saw that a few birds were perched on the outgrowth of branches from a lush and tall tree in the backyard.

They were the most common greyfinch, which, apart from its almost indistinguishable tail plume, looked exactly the same as a herdingbird.