Chapter 252 Don't Use Me as a Raft: The Secret of the Orphanage
The welfare home was in complete chaos.
On the other end, the tape recorder was stopped, and the nursery rhyme came to an abrupt halt.
Chen Jingjing and the others were busy asking Anna what had happened.
"What are you doing here? Didn't you go to Germany with your sister?"
Not long after the winter break ended this year, Anna's older sister took her to the school to complete the formalities, saying that she wanted to take her younger sister to work and live in Germany.
In recent years, more and more Romanian people have gone to work in German-speaking areas, and people have gotten used to it.
The class even held a farewell party for Anna.
Although Anna has a low IQ, she is able to take care of herself, doesn't cause trouble in class, and has basically never given anyone any trouble. Moreover, the teachers have always guided her, so everyone likes this fair-skinned, clean-cut girl.
"Where's your hair? Why is it so short? Ha! Did they kidnap you and sell your hair for money?"
Anna's hair is so beautiful.
Perhaps because she doesn't use her brain much and doesn't have the problem of hair loss, her blonde hair is especially beautiful, and countless people envy her.
Now, her hair looks like it's been chewed by a dog; it's frighteningly short.
This is why Chen Jingjing didn't recognize her until she heard her call herself Anna.
The reporters, snapping out of their shock, quickly swarmed around, frantically taking pictures.
My God! This is such shocking news. What happened to this poor girl?
Unfortunately, Anna has intellectual disabilities. After experiencing intense emotional trauma, all she can do now is hug her familiar classmates and wail, repeatedly saying, "I didn't make a fuss, I want to go home."
No matter who poses the question, there is no answer.
Wang Xiao stood by the window of the auditorium, the marble floor reflecting a bluish-white light. For a moment, it inexplicably reminded people of the bluish-green underworld passage simulated by lasers on the stage of "Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister" earlier.
She looked up and saw the hollow eye sockets of the intellectuals in the mosaic on the dome, now chiseled away, staring at her with what seemed like a mocking smile.
Anna, surrounded by the crowd, was still crying.
Honestly, compared to hoping she would give him the answer or find her sister who might still be in Romania, Wang Xiao felt it was more reliable to dig out the prop master and find out the truth.
I want to see him alive or dead.
She'd dig this bastard out no matter what.
Even if she can't find the person, she has to act like a victim.
She was wronged; she was also framed.
Neither the license plate in the movie nor the incident at the orphanage today was her doing.
So, everyone has their own grievances and debts, Mr. Popescu, you and your nephew can go find whoever you need to find, just don't bother me.
I still want to make some money in Romania. Am I crazy? Have I offended you, Minister of Culture?
"500,000 lei." She tapped the faded mahogany podium, her finger pointing to the relief of the coat of arms from the time of Ceaușescu, issuing a reward on the spot: "Find someone in Neril, cash on the spot."
Although the Romanian lei has also plummeted in value, 500,000 lei is now roughly equivalent to 750 US dollars.
However, given the current general income level in Romania, it is still a considerable sum.
The crowd immediately stirred.
Even the reporters who were originally trying to uncover the inside story about Anna couldn't resist and joined the search team.
The auditorium was instantly more than half empty, except for the high school students who were still with Anna and the orphans who had been arranged by the welfare home to watch the performance. The latter was still shaking his head from time to time, devoutly holding the bread in his hands, eating it bite by bite.
The adults walked back and forth around them, shouting and yelling, but they didn't disturb them in the slightest.
It's as if the flow of time has forgotten them; they remain only at their own point in time.
"Block the door!" someone shouted excitedly. "Don't let him escape through the front door."
The gatekeeper was a drunken old man, his rubber boots screeching on the ground. He muttered between burps, "I swear on my mother's grave! Not even a cockroach crawled out!"
As he spoke, his spittle sprayed out, forcing the reporter to back away, as they really didn't want to be bothered by his foul stench.
"Then how about climbing over the wall?" the person who had shouted earlier asked, still unwilling to give up, offering another possible escape route.
The old gatekeeper grinned, revealing a set of uneven, yellow teeth, his tone full of mockery: "Good idea, give it a try."
Tang Jianguo looked at the electric fence surrounding the high wall, shook his head, not at all afraid of losing face as a great hero: "I can't do it, I can't get over it."
The Guardian reporter present gritted his teeth, utterly disgusted: "What kind of welfare home would install an electric fence? Is this a welfare home or a prison?"
No one else answered his question.
The gatekeeper's eye seemed to be a prosthetic, its dull grayness giving him a piercing glance before he revealed a set of yellow teeth in a sinister smile: "Perhaps it's to prevent children from being stolen. Don't you think that's right? Mr. Reporter, aren't children the treasures of this country?"
Those who were anxious to find the prop master ignored the old drunkard's sarcastic remarks and immediately concluded loudly: "So, he's still in the orphanage!"
Many reporters became excited.
Even without the lure of 500,000 lei, they were still excited because they had stumbled upon an exceptionally good problem.
The vanished prop master, the mentally challenged girl who appears like a ghost—God, this is even more thrilling and bizarre than Inspector Mordor's movies.
"Search!" a reporter suggested. "Quickly guard the entrances and exits to prevent anyone from escaping in the chaos."
Others echoed this sentiment.
The orphanage director tried to stop them: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is inappropriate. You will frighten the poor children."
However, no one paid him any attention: "No, there might be criminals and murders hiding here. If we don't catch the killer, the children will be in danger. Who wants to team up with me? We'll split into groups of three and search separately. We must find the culprit."
Wang Xiao also led his bodyguards along.
Yes, she paid for it. Normally, she would be entitled to sit comfortably in her warm office, sipping hot coffee with milk, and waiting for news.
But looking at Minister Popescu's face, which was as black as the bottom of a pot, even he had joined the search team. Could he really just sit back and do nothing?
No, the people can't fight against the officials; she has to be more proactive than them.
One by one, the cold, dilapidated doors were opened. The other side of the orphanage, which had been carefully cleaned and tried so hard to hide, was suddenly revealed to everyone.
What kind of nursery is this? The room, which is at most 30 square meters, is crammed with as many as 50 metal bunk beds.
God knows how they managed to shove it in.
The infant, who couldn't walk yet, was tied to the bed rails with strips of cloth and could only struggle in vain.
The howling winds of Bucharest's winter winds pierced through the broken windows, mingling with the dripping sounds of frozen, cracked heating pipes, as if they were crying on behalf of the children.
"My God!" the reporter exclaimed in disbelief at what he was seeing, accusingly, "How could you treat children like this?"
"It's me, it's me!" A disheveled caregiver rushed over, her white coat stained with fresh, suspicious yellow stains, and she was even angrier than the reporter. "If there were just one more door, I would be thanking God."
The reporter tried to correct her: "But, ma'am, you shouldn't treat the children like this. They are not mentally ill, and they shouldn't be tied up."
“Then you do it.” The caregiver looked at him like he was an idiot and gave him a mocking smile. “My dear reporter, please demonstrate how to take care of 50 babies at the same time. Good heavens, you must be an angel sent by God, you surely know how to do it.”
The reporter was rendered speechless by the questions and could only retreat step by step.
Xiao Gao and Xiao Zhao had already checked the nursery and shook their heads at the boss; there was nothing there.
Good heavens, please get out of here.
Which son of a bitch said that children's poop and pee don't smell? Let him/her come in and stay for 10 minutes and see for themselves!
Wang Xiaochong nodded to the caregiver and said softly, "Thank you for your hard work."
There were no helpers, no support, only people standing on a moral high ground constantly making various demands.
Who wouldn't break down in this kind of environment?
The caregiver paused for a moment, then sneered, "No, I'm not tired. This is what I deserve."
Wang Xiao had neither the energy nor the patience to comfort the distraught worker, so she nodded again: "We will increase the number of diapers, and we will donate diapers regularly in the future."
The childcare worker's eyes suddenly reddened, and her voice abruptly choked up: "Then please give the children better diapers. God, they don't even know what good ones are."
Wang Xiao nodded: "Okay, we'll bring the softest and most comfortable ones."
The reporter was also at a loss for words, overwhelmed by the nursery worker's tears, and could only futilely emphasize: "We will appeal for donations, more social donations."
Then, feeling utterly disheveled, they retreated and hurried to the next room to search.
However, the situation in the adjacent children's room wasn't much better. The wooden plank bed stretched from the doorway all the way to the window, and when you lifted the sheet, you could see that urine had seeped into the mattress.
What's worse than the terrible environment is the condition of the children inside. They are all big-headed and thin, like Little Radish Head in the movie "Red Crag," with bright red rabbit eyes.
Because conjunctivitis is currently prevalent.
Okay, these are actually easy to solve. Sufficient food and basic medical and health care will solve the problem.
What's truly perplexing is the children's mental state. Although there are many toys donated by various sectors of society piled up in the corner, not a single child goes to play with them. They are either biting their hands, shaking their bodies, or one child even suddenly jumped up and banged his head, causing blood to seep out.
The reporter at the front jumped in fright.
He instinctively rushed forward, reaching out to hug the child in an attempt to stop him.
However, the little boy went berserk and, instead of calming down, he bit the reporter's arm viciously, like a wild beast.
In the movie, the demon child Nezha gradually loosens his grip on his mother's teeth as he feels her love.
In real life, an orphan who has developed severe psychological problems desperately tried to bite off a piece of flesh from a reporter's arm.
Thank goodness it's winter. Even the rather unconventional reporter put on a leather jacket, otherwise he might have been splattered with blood.
The caregiver muttered complaints, "Why are you stopping him? You can't stop him," as she raised her hand, pricked the child's arm with a needle, and quickly injected a vial of medicine.
Other reporters who rushed in upon hearing the commotion exclaimed in shock, "What are you doing? What did you give the child?"
The caregiver expressionlessly pulled out the needle: "Sedative."
"My God!" the questioning reporter screamed, "How could you give such a young child a sedative?"
"Otherwise what?" The caregiver ignored the idiot and gestured with his chin toward the reporter who was groaning from the bite. "Would you rather have your colleague bitten to death?"
The medicine finally worked; the boy who had bitten the reporter released his mouth, and the unfortunate reporter was finally able to save his arm.
Looking at the bloodstains seeping from his arm, Wang Xiao sincerely suggested, "You should get vaccinated as soon as possible. Take the child with you and see which types he needs."
In such an environment, who knows what germs the children have contracted?
The reporter who had just questioned the caregiver stared wide-eyed, finally finding his tongue, and stammered, "Are all the children here like this?"
Good heavens! Were those children they saw in the auditorium already the best of the best?
He thought that the welfare home had deliberately put it out there to evoke public sympathy and encourage more donations of supplies.
“Of course there are pretty and cute ones.” The caregiver had already taken the sleeping boy with practiced ease, tossed him onto the communal bed, hastily wiped his bleeding forehead with some medicine, and without even putting on a band-aid, casually covered him with a stained blanket, saying indifferently, “But they won’t stay long.”
"Why?" The reporter immediately took out his notebook, ready to take notes.
The caregiver looked at him like he was an idiot again: "When you go to the market to buy vegetables, don't you pick the best ones? Who would want rotten tomatoes?"
The reporter instinctively retorted, "Madam, children aren't vegetables at the market."
Without saying a word, the caregiver reached out and picked up the boy from the blanket, pretending to hand him to the reporter: "Then, please take this vegetable back with you."
This time, the reporter fled in disarray once again.
Wang Xiao also slipped away without hesitation.
If the caregiver forces the boy into her arms, she can't just let go and throw him away on the spot, can she?
The reporter was still standing there with a camera.
Their unwillingness to take the case didn't stop them from taking photos and then using them to morally blackmail this wealthy Chinese businesswoman.
After searching around, everyone was in a sorry state.
Wang Xiao felt that if she had to use two idioms to describe this group of people, including herself, it would definitely be "Lord Ye's love of dragons" and "Why not eat meat porridge?"
Oh no, she should be excluded. At least Lord Ye (a character from Journey to the West) believed he truly loved dragons, while she knew she'd never really liked children.
The group exchanged awkward glances, deciding to skip the embarrassing part and jump straight to the point: "Did you find it?"
One after another, everyone shook their heads. Apart from seeing just how terrible the living conditions of the orphans in the welfare home were and how desperate the children were, they gained nothing else.
"Here!" someone suddenly shouted, "The door here is locked."
Everyone then perked up and quickly ran down in the direction of the sound to investigate.
I must say, this place is indeed very suitable as a locked room in a detective movie.
Because if it weren't for someone accidentally finding the way, even if people on the ground heard the sound, they wouldn't be able to enter without the guidance of the person who stumbled upon it.
"Look!" the first person to find it exclaimed excitedly. "This place is so remote, yet the footprints are still fresh, which means someone has been here recently. Could it be that prop master, or perhaps his murderer?"
The adrenaline of everyone in the group surged, and some even displayed perfect gentlemanly manners, calling out: "Ladies, stay in the middle, don't get separated. Gentlemen, please take good care of the ladies next to you."
A fat man with a pimple-covered face immediately approached Lyuba, but was startled by her glare and quickly moved away in small steps.
If the occasion hadn't been inappropriate, Wang Xiao would have burst out laughing.
Just as she relaxed slightly, a dark shadow suddenly flashed past her.
Before she could scream, Lyuba had already led her to the side.
When she came to her senses, there were already four or five boys standing at the entrance of the air-raid shelter dug during the time of Ceaușescu.
Compared to their thin and dull companions, the boys, who were also wearing the uniforms of orphans from the welfare home, were obviously much taller and stronger.
Like angry cubs, they stood firmly in front of the door, arms outstretched, preventing the adults from trying to open it: "Don't come in, this is our secret base!"
The adults tried to persuade them: "Hey boys, there are bad guys hiding here. We need to catch them so you're safe."
The boy in the lead tilted his head and glared fiercely at the adults: "You're the bad guys!"
The director of the orphanage rushed over, raising his arm with a pleading look: "God, ladies and gentlemen, please don't upset the poor children. They're not kittens or puppies who can just be fed. Children need to be respected; they have their own little secrets."
The chubby supervisor who ran alongside him chimed in, "Yes, UN child experts have said that we should respect and protect children's inner world, as it is an important part of their recovery and development."
As she spoke, tears streamed down her face. "Please, please, don't hurt these poor children anymore. They... they're already so pitiful."
The boys in front of the door cried out and tried to push through the crowd: "Mommy, dear Mommy, don't cry, we are good children."
Wang Xiao silently stepped back, narrowing his eyes.
Something's not right. The air-raid shelter is wrong, the orphanage is wrong, Anna is wrong, the prop master is wrong.
Something was off from beginning to end.
They wove together, forming a dense net to capture their prey.
Damn it!
Wang Xiao cursed inwardly. She hated being used as a pawn more than anything else in her life, and yet she still fell for it this time.
She quickly approached the Minister of Culture, who was in the shadows, and whispered, "Mr. Popescu, I'd like to speak with you."
The Minister of Culture sneered, wishing he could skin her alive: "What do you want to talk about? Miss Wang, is this what you want?"
"No, no, no," Wang Xiao hurriedly whispered in protest, "I think we've all been fooled."
Once back on the ground, she spoke urgently, "From the moment someone used your nephew's license plate in the movie, we've all been led astray. He exploited our desire to clarify the facts and avoid negative public opinion, guiding us step by step to this point. The prop master's disappearance was a trap, a trap that led us to open the air-raid shelter door with the reporters."
"Once the doors are open, with so many reporters here, especially many from foreign newspapers, then what's inside, what the person behind it wants to expose, will be completely exposed, well, unstoppable."
"The entire public opinion crisis will erupt, and no one can stop it or suppress it."
“I think this is not what I want to happen, nor is it what you want to see.”
"I am a friend of Romania, and I don't want to see it get caught in a media storm."
It is obvious that the welfare home is hiding a huge scandal, a scandal that is enough to ruin the reputation of the welfare home and to embarrass the Romanian government.
Wang Xiao respected the courage and determination of the person behind the scenes to expose the scandal, and also admired their shrewdness.
They set traps step by step, and she walked right into them.
But this clever man crossed the line and violated her taboo.
She hates being used as a pawn, becoming someone else's weapon.
What will she gain after the scandal at the welfare home is exposed? Will she become a hero in the eyes of the public?
No, not necessarily.
National pride is a very delicate matter. The saying "don't wash your dirty linen in public" applies all over the world.
She's a foreigner, and she's brought a group of foreign journalists to expose scandals in Romania. Will Romanians really see her as a hero?
They are more likely angry, angry that she has embarrassed Romania.
Don't think it's impossible.
People are easily swayed by emotions and throw reason to the wind.
Last year in Cluj, Romania, a fraudster founded a company called Caritas, which raised funds by promising investors eight times their initial investment in three months.
This old-fashioned scam naturally aroused the reporter's suspicion.
Foreign journalists immediately questioned this and wrote several critical articles. Instead of being alarmed, the residents of Cluj launched a wave of nationalist fervor to defend the fraudsters.
The 200,000 people of Cluj were all indignant and collectively condemned the sinister intentions of foreign journalists in preventing them from becoming millionaires, wishing they could give them a good beating.
This is modern-day Romania. (Note ①)
Putting aside the public's reaction, would the Romanian government welcome itself as the whistleblower?
No, absolutely not.
The government will be embarrassed, and then they will take their anger out on her for making trouble out of nothing.
What does this have to do with you? Why are you making such a big fuss over nothing?
Don't spout nonsense about being used by others.
The current situation is that without you, the government wouldn't have been caught off guard and fallen into such a crisis.
What a mess! You still want to be all high and mighty in Romania? What kind of pipe dream are you having?!
Get out! Get as far away as you can. Romania doesn't welcome a traitor like you.
Wang Xiao was never a chivalrous woman who cared nothing for fame or fortune.
On the contrary, she is a businesswoman who reeks of money and always puts her own interests first.
Why did she do something that offended both the Romanian people and the authorities?
The moment she realized the trap, she made up her mind: "Mr. Popescu, I think it can't be the journalists who are going into the air-raid shelter now."
The Minister of Culture narrowed his eyes: "Miss Wang, don't you think it's a bit late to say this now?"
Wang Xiao seized the opportunity to flatter the other party: "I believe in your wisdom, Minister. You must have already noticed and prepared for the underhanded tricks I can see. Now, with just a little more effort, we can definitely turn the tide."
shit!
She cursed inwardly, "It's one thing for a foreign businesswoman like me to not understand the power struggles in Romania, but for a high-ranking government official to be led around like an idiot like this, and you still have the nerve to talk to me like that!"
What a useless snack.
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Note ① The reference material is the article "Financial Speculation Activities in Romania" published in the February 1994 issue of the magazine "Today's Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe", author: Zhou Mingde (translation).
I forgot to include the information for the Romanian nursery rhyme that appeared in the previous chapter.
Dormi, dormi, frumos micule,
Vntul bate-n ramuri,
Mama ta-i departe, micule,
Nu te trezi din somn...
It means: Sleep well, sleep well, my lovely little baby.
The wind gently rustled the branches.
Your mother is far away, my little one.
Don't wake up from your dream...
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