Li Yuan walked up to Shen Ke and knocked on the door. The previous irritation was somewhat dissipated now.

He looked at the crumpled piece of chewing gum in 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 thirty years old opened the iron door. She was neatly dressed and there was no sleep on her face. When she saw Shen Ke and Li Yuan, she immediately opened the door and said, "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 am the director of this orphanage."

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

Shen Ke said, looking towards the orphanage. It was already past twelve o'clock, the children had fallen asleep long ago, and the orphanage was quiet. The large dark windows seemed to open one after another. With its huge mouth, just one look at it and you can imagine a scary story in your mind.

Qi Huan had obviously said hello, and Wang Qingwen was very cooperative.

"I only became the director three years ago, but when I was young, I grew up in the Red Star Orphanage. I am quite familiar with the things here. You all know this orphanage by its name. It is very special. It’s the end of the year.”

Wang Qingwen enthusiastically pointed to the old-fashioned window painted with red paint next to it and introduced, "This house is the newest one here. We didn't have money to renovate it, 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, so I'll show them to you."

Wang Qingwen said, leading everyone to the door of a room in the middle of the corridor next to the stairs. This is a two-story building. There are many places on the outer wall that have grown green moss due to the erosion of rain, making it look dirty. Xi's.

"Some of the lights in the corridor don't work well and don't light up very well. Please be careful. Some of the stones on the stone pavement at the door are loose. If you step on them, they will stand up and squirt water from your trousers. We adults find it annoying, but children But I think it’s a rare game.”

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

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

Noticing Shen Ke's gaze, Wang Qingwen hurriedly explained, "This is the tradition of the orphanage. Teachers and children are rated with five-pointed stars. We have many children in the orphanage, but not many teachers."

As she spoke, she began to rummage through the cabinets to find the photo album.

"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 still here. Our old director's surname was Yuan, and the children in the orphanage called her Mother Yuan. .”

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

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

Wang Qingwen said, handing a thick old photo album to Shen Ke.

Shen Ke took it and spread it on his desk. The Red Star Orphanage was built in the 1980s. The photos in the front were all in black and white, and it was only in the past twenty years that they were in color.

Shen Ke was flipping through the pages, and suddenly he paused and pointed at the two adjacent photos. Both photos were colorless and yellowed. Fortunately, the photo paper used to develop the photos was grainy. On photo paper, people are quite clear.

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

No matter which photo, all the children have their hair neatly combed and have a mole between their eyebrows.

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

"Moreover, there are suddenly a lot less children. The top picture is full of children, and the next picture is missing thirteen people."

Shen Ke said, pushing the photo album in front of Wang Qingwen.

Without waiting for her answer, she pointed to the old photo above, "Everyone has a scarf around their neck to celebrate the New Year..."

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

Wang Qingwen's expression changed and he looked at Shen Ke as if he were looking at a ghost.

"Officer Shen, you are so amazing! Can you tell so many things from just these two photos? If I weren't in the photo album, I would have thought that you also grew up in the Red Star Orphanage."

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

Her voice suddenly became much deeper, "You said it exactly as if you were right there."

She stretched out her hand and pointed at one of the little girls with double ponytails, who wore a red silk bow on one side of her head.

"This is me! People nowadays don't pay much attention to the New Year, but we children in the orphanage love the New Year the most."

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

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

"Woven ones are rarely seen now. Mother Yuan would 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 is a beauty mark between the eyebrows. But at that time, I didn't feel stupid. We little girls still felt quite beautiful. "

"We were all very happy when we got a new scarf as a gift that year, but then tragedy happened."

Wang Qingwen said with some regret: "It was cold at that time, there was no air conditioning, and we mainly relied on charcoal pots to keep warm. There were not enough charcoal pots to burn, so some older boys would get a paint bucket and secretly put charcoal fire in it. "

"With just a shake of the hand, the fire started and became warm. There was just a little charcoal, which burned during the day, but was gone when I went to sleep at night. The dean also emphasized repeatedly that you should not light a fire while sleeping."

"But that day..." Wang Qingwen looked at Shen Ke, "It was like being touched by a ghost. The red scarf fell off and fell on the paint bucket with charcoal fire. The charcoal fire in the paint bucket didn't go out for some reason. It ignited."

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