Li Yuan stepped forward to knock on the door, Shen Ke, who was annoyed and angry before, can be regarded as being blown away at this moment.

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

Li Yuan thought and put the gum in his trouser pocket.

The door opened, and a woman about thirty years old opened the iron door, she was dressed neatly and there was no sleepiness on her face, as soon as she saw Shen Ke and Li Yuan, she immediately opened the door, "Officer Shen and Officer Li, right?" Xiao Qi called us. ”

"Is he alright? Listening to the voice on the phone is hoarse. By the way, my name is Wang Qingwen, and I am the director of this orphanage. ”

"It's not a big deal. Dean Wang looks very young, how long has he been in this orphanage? ”

Shen Ke said, looking towards the orphanage, it was already past twelve o'clock, the children had already fallen asleep, and the orphanage was quiet. The large swarthy windows are like open mouths, and a casual glance at them can make up a horror story.

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

"I only became the dean three years ago, but when I was young, I grew up in the Red Star Orphanage, and I'm quite familiar with things here. You all know the name of this orphanage, it's been a long time. ”

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

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

Wang Qingwen said, leading everyone to the door of a room next to the stairs in the middle of the corridor, this is the kind of two-story small building, the outer wall has many places because of the rain, green moss grows, and it looks dirty.

"Some of the lights in the aisle are not in good contact and not very bright, so you should be careful. Some of the stones on the stone pavement at this entrance are loose, and when you step on them, they will warp up and spray water from the legs of your trousers. We adults find it annoying, but children find it a rare game. ”

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

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

Noticing Shen Ke's gaze, Wang Qingwen hurriedly explained, "This is the tradition of the orphanage, and the evaluation of teachers and children is all attached to the five-pointed star. We have a lot of children in the orphanage, but not so many teachers. ”

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

"Found it, here! This album is particularly valuable and has been around since the orphanage was founded. At that time, she was still the first old dean, and our old dean's surname was Yuan, and the children in the orphanage called her Mother Yuan. ”

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

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

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

Shen Ke took it and spread it out on the desk, the Red Star Orphanage was built in the eighties of the last century, and the photos in front were all black and white, and they were not colored until the last twenty years.

Shen Ke flipped through it, suddenly paused, and pointed to the two adjacent photos with his fingers, both of which were yellowed without color, but fortunately, the photo paper used to wash the photos was the kind of photo paper with a grainy feeling, and the person was quite clear.

In the photo above, everyone has a scarf around their necks, but because it is a black and white photo, the color of the scarf is not clear.

In either photo, all the children's hair was neatly combed and there was a mole on their eyebrows.

"Was there a fire in the orphanage that year? I see that in the photo above, the small building is still very clean, and there is an extra black thing on the wall in the next photo. ”

"And, all of a sudden, there were a lot fewer children. The top one is densely packed with children, and the next one is missing thirteen people. ”

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

Without waiting for her to answer, she pointed to the old photo above, "Everyone has a scarf around their necks, and they ...... for the 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 like a ghost.

"Officer Shen, you are really a god! With just two photos, can you see so many things? If it weren't for me in the 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 a pair of eyes, a nose and a mouth, and shifted her gaze to the photo with a complicated expression.

Her voice suddenly became much lower, "You spoke verbatim, as if you were there." ”

She reached out and pointed to one of the little girls in a double ponytail, with a red silk bow on her head, one on the left and the other on the right.

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

"When I entered the orphanage, I was older and not very good-looking. Boys in orphanages are more likely to be adopted, girls are not, so I spent many years in orphanages. ”

"During the Chinese New Year, people from the streets will come to condole, bring us good food, and sometimes there will be caring people. We did receive a donation that year, which was a batch of red hand-woven scarves. ”

"It's rare to see wool now. Mother Yuan would dress us cleanly, put on scarves, and pull out her baby, a box of rouge, and a lipstick. ”

Wang Qingwen said, pointing to his cheek, "There is a red lump on one side, like a monkey's buttocks, and there will be a beauty mole in the center of the eyebrows." But at that time, I didn't feel dirty, and we little girls thought it was quite beautiful. ”

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

Wang Qingwen said, a little embarrassed: "At that time, it was cold, there was no air conditioning, and I mainly relied on charcoal pots for heating." Some big boys will make a paint bucket and secretly put charcoal in it. ”

"With a shake of the hand, the fire rises and warms up. The charcoal is just a little bit, it is burned during the day, and it is gone at night when it is time to sleep. The dean also repeatedly emphasized that you can't make a fire when you sleep. ”

"But that day......" Wang Qingwen looked at Shen Ke, "it was like touching a ghost." The red scarf fell off and onto the paint bucket with the charcoal fire. The charcoal fire in the paint bucket, for some reason, was not extinguished, and it was lit all at once. ”

"One of the friends died, and two others were injured, and because of this incident, the Red Star Orphanage was almost closed. It costs money to treat injuries, and it costs money to repair a house after it burns down......"

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