Chapter 110: Liu Jingqi's Origin

Chapter 110: Chapter 81: Liu Jingqi’s Origin

The door opened.

A rather spartan office appeared before them.

Inside, a thin, middle-aged woman wearing glasses sat holding a ledger. She was dressed in casual clothes and looked utterly unremarkable, like any random person on the street.

She sat at her desk, which was covered in a layer of dust that she paid no mind to.

Cheng Tao looked up, her gaze meeting those of the group at the door.

Xu De met her eyes and sized her up with keen interest.

Her face bore the wrinkles of age, but they weren’t the kindly sort. She was plain-looking; even her aging was unremarkable.

She was about five-foot-three and looked gaunt.

Seeing the figures at the door, she quickly took off her glasses and stood up, warmly ushering the three of them inside.

CLICK!

The door shut. Cheng Tao turned, her warm gaze settling on Lin Yue as she quickly spoke.

“Hello, you must be Ms. Lin, the one who contacted us last night?”

Lin Yue and Xu De exchanged a look, and Xu De gave a slight nod.

Understanding her role, she replied impassively.

“I am.”

She had contacted Cheng Tao the previous night on the pretext of making a charitable donation, so the woman’s enthusiasm was perfectly normal.

“I’m Cheng Tao, the dean of the Jiaqin Welfare Institute.”

Cheng Tao motioned for the three of them to sit. At the same time, she pulled several documents from her desk and explained patiently.

“We have a total of three donation options.”

“One-on-one sponsorship, project support, or a general donation to the institute.”

The one-on-one option is self-explanatory. Project support involves dedicated funds that cannot be reallocated. For example, if you donated to improve the children’s drinking water, that money could only be used for improving water quality.

A general donation to the institute gives the dean discretion over how the funds are used.

Of course, while the three options seemed clearly defined, that was only on the surface.

If one wanted to embezzle the funds, it would be easy enough to do.

“We’re not in a hurry to donate just yet.”

“We’d like to get a better understanding of the institute’s environment first.”

Lin Yue said with a polite smile, her words measured and proper.

“Specifically… about the children.”

Upon hearing this, Cheng Tao paused, then said quickly, “You’re right. My mistake. I got a little ahead of myself.”

As she spoke, she handed one of the documents to each of them.

“Our institute has a total of 172 children of various ages. The largest group is around ten years old. The healthy children are in the minority.”

“Our biggest challenge right now is…”

Cheng Tao said, “…providing enough food for the children.”

‘Food?’

‘A food shortage?’

Wang Chao was taken aback. He mulled it over for a moment before looking up to ask, “Don’t you receive individual government subsidies for each child?”

“Why is just feeding them a challenge?”

At his words, a flicker of something appeared in Cheng Tao’s eyes, but her eyelids drooped, narrowing them so he couldn’t get a clear read on her expression.

She sighed and said,

“The subsidies are small. Pathetically so.”

“A child only gets two or three hundred a month. Food, clothes, housing, school fees… all of it has to come from that three hundred. How could that possibly be enough?”

“And we haven’t had a public donation in a long time. Right now, the institute… is truly struggling to make ends meet.”

In an orphanage in 2002, the children could get food, but getting enough to eat their fill, let alone eating well, was impossible. It wasn’t even uncommon for them to fight over food.

But…

“Dean Cheng, are you certain?”

Xu De suddenly interjected, questioning her.

Cheng Tao paused, unsure of what he meant, but she still nodded. “I’m certain.”

Xu De nodded and said nothing more.

Seeing this, Lin Yue continued, “Then don’t any kind-hearted people come to adopt the children? Usually, families who adopt will also make a donation, right?”

Cheng Tao said,

“There are, but very few. There are so many orphans and so few families willing to adopt.”

“And they only pick the ones who are cute, healthy, and young. The ones who get passed over become harder to place the older they get.”

“Besides, many of the children have issues of their own. No one wants to adopt them.”

Abandoned infants are often physically disabled, have psychological problems, or suffer from illnesses.

Children with these three types of issues are rarely adopted when they’re young, and after just two or three years pass, their chances of finding a family become virtually zero.

However…

“Do you have a record of recent adoptions from the institute?”

Xu De suddenly spoke up, his expression perfectly amiable as he looked at Cheng Tao.

‘Adoption records?’

Cheng Tao’s expression froze. She looked at the man before her, completely unable to gauge his intentions.

‘Based on her decades of experience, this man was one-hundred-percent an orphan himself. There was basically zero chance he was here to adopt a child.’

‘But his clothes and bearing… he didn’t look like some pauper. What if he really just wanted to see the records and might make a donation while he was at it?’

‘But then there was another problem.’

‘The institute’s records… had a few things to hide.’

Cheng Tao’s dark eyes stared for a moment. Then, she smiled.

“Of course. I’ll get them for you to look over.”

With that, she walked over to a few filing cabinets leaning against the wall by her desk. She pulled open the bottom drawer and took out several files.

Then, she handed them to Xu De.

“Please, take a look,” Cheng Tao said.

Xu De lowered his head to read them in silence, while Wang Chao and Lin Yue leaned in to look as well.

The information in the records couldn’t be faked.

They all clearly listed the individuals and where they went; some had left after reaching adulthood, while others had been adopted.

The three of them read slowly, and the only sound in the office was the RUSTLE of paper.

GULP.

Cheng Tao swallowed hard, her hands clenching unconsciously.

Until…

“Dean Cheng, could I trouble you to find one more thing for me? I’m looking for the personnel list from around 1990, during the time of the former dean, Zheng Tong.”