The fire burned all night before it was extinguished.
Ruan Chen and Fu Jianzhi sat side by side on the metal bench at the shelter, listening to the whispers of the shelter staff in the distance.
"How pitiful, both parents are dead."
"I heard that her father went mad and set the house on fire."
A staff member came over, squatted down next to Ruan Chen, and asked softly, "Are you the older sister?"
Ruan Chen nodded silently.
“We have interviewed and investigated the nearby residents. Your father had a history of alcoholism and domestic violence. Someone witnessed tonight’s fire and said that he set the curtains on fire. Due to the dilapidated state of the houses in the shantytown, the aging electrical circuits, and the difficulty for fire trucks to enter, as well as other subjective factors, your parents had already died by the time the fire was extinguished.”
The staff member didn't know what else to say.
Ruan Chen stared blankly at a withered potted plant in the corner of the shelter, and said softly, "I understand, thank you, sister."
She thought to herself that she no longer had a mother.
I am now a complete orphan.
Everything was about to get better.
She had it all planned out: take the money, along with Cong Rao and Fu Jianzhi, to rent a small house near the city center. Since both she and Fu Jianzhi were going to school, they could hand out flyers on weekends to earn money to supplement their household income.
And just like that, it all came to nothing.
A sudden wave of sorrow washed over Ruan Chen.
She felt she should die with Cong Rao; she'd had enough of this dark and hopeless existence.
Fu Jianzhi nudged her with her small body, "Sister."
He held Ruan Chen's hand tightly.
He suddenly had a strange feeling that his already frail older sister was about to leave this world with a gust of wind.
Fu Jianzhi awkwardly comforted her, "Sister, we have 30,000 yuan together, which is enough for us to live on. We'll go together, don't be afraid."
Ruan Chen smiled and patted Fu Jianzhi.
She also has a younger brother she adopted.
While laughing, Ruan Chen suddenly burst into tears again.
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The two stayed at the shelter for a few days.
They're just kids, after all, and they adapted quickly.
The staff at the shelter assumed that Ruan Chen and Fu Jianzhi were siblings and began looking for adoptive families for them, ideally families that could adopt both siblings together.
However, after contacting many families who were willing to adopt, they all said they were only willing to adopt a boy, as the girl was a bit too old, and besides... she was still a girl.
Fortunately, the shelter had enough food for the two children, so they continued to care for them as they were.
Ruan Chen had something on her mind; she was thinking about the 90,000 yuan she got from selling Fu Jianzhi.
She had been watching the news for the past few days, and the fire in the slum hadn't caused much of a stir.
Ruan Chen counted the days on her fingers, and on the day the transaction was agreed upon, she quietly slipped out before dawn.
Ruan Chen had already scouted the location. The back door was the passageway for the canteen to purchase food. The chain lock was opened when the goods were delivered in the middle of the night and locked again at dawn.
She didn't call Fu Jianzhi this time because it was too dangerous, and she couldn't run fast with Fu Jianzhi in her arms.
Around 7 a.m., as dawn was breaking, Ruan Chen hid in a corner near her house, observing the people coming and going.
The house had been completely destroyed and was cordoned off. There weren't many people coming and going. Ruan Chen quickly spotted her target—the man who had come to the house to check on the "goods" before.
"Uncle, are you here to see Cao De?"
The man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face looked at the dark ruins with a puzzled expression, and then recognized the person who greeted him as Cao De's daughter.
Faced with such a thin little girl, he didn't hesitate at all and asked, "Where are your dad and your brother?"
Ruan Chen pointed to a passageway not far behind her, "Our house was destroyed in a fire a few days ago, and we've moved to that street up ahead. I'll take you there. But..."
"Just what?" the man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face asked impatiently.
“Dad said he wants me to make sure you’ve brought the money before he can take you there.”
The man with the pointed face and monkey-like features didn't suspect anything and muttered, "It's not like it's the first time they've shipped goods from me. They always make such a fuss about it."
He pulled a bank card out of his pocket and showed it to Ruan Chen. "Here. This bank card has 90,000 yuan in it. Can you take me there now, you little rascal?"
Ruan Chen looked bewildered and curiously took the card. "There's 90,000 yuan in such a small card? Uncle, are you lying to me? If Dad finds out, he'll beat me to death."
The man with the pointed face and monkey-like cheeks sighed helplessly, "Cao De didn't send you to school, did he? This card requires a password to withdraw money from a machine at the bank—look, I was afraid you wouldn't remember the password, so I wrote it down on this white slip of paper for him."
"Oh, I see..." Ruan Chen drawled, grabbed a bank card, and turned to run!
She put on this whole act just to get the password out of her; now she's saved herself the trouble.
The man with the pointed face and monkey-like cheeks realized he had been tricked, but for now he still believed it was Cao De who had ordered him to do it, and he continued to chase after the man while cursing.
He knew the way around here as well as Ruan Chen. Ruan Chen squeezed through the narrow gaps in the walls, climbed onto someone else's rooftop, and then passed through the communal kitchen, quickly shaking off the man.
However, that was just what she thought.
Elysium.
"Brother Le, we beat up the man who was chasing Ruan Chen and threw him out."
Brother Le took a deep drag of his cigarette. "Did you get the information?"
"I asked, and they said that Cao De had sold a boy to him before for 90,000. He came to pick him up today, but Cao De's daughter cheated him out of the money."
Brother Le smiled and said, "This girl is really talented."
"Brother Le, aren't we going to bring her back?"
"Why bring her back? Keep her around, just in case she gets angry with me and kills me too?" At this point, even a seasoned gangster like Brother Le couldn't help but shudder.
She was only twelve years old.
He couldn't help but ask his henchman, "You think that girl, when she was scheming against Cao De... she couldn't have included her own mother in her schemes, could she?"
"No way... Look how much that girl cares for her adopted brother. She's not a heartless person. If Cao De hadn't pushed her to the limit, she wouldn't have done something like this."
Ruan Chen had already memorized the password to Fu Jianzhi's savings book, and transferred half of the money to his savings account as well.
Ninety thousand yuan, forty-five thousand yuan per person, so now each person has sixty thousand yuan.
On her way back to the shelter, Ruan Chen thought quietly. Nine years of compulsory education is free, and she and Fu Jianzhi can apply for subsidies for high school. This 60,000 yuan would be enough for them to go to university if they lived frugally.
The back door was already locked in broad daylight, so Ruan Chen could only enter through the front door—even though she would get a scolding.
She saw a convoy of luxury cars that she had seen on TV parked in front of the shelter, and thought with a touch of envy that one of the children must have been adopted by a wealthy family.
Ruan Chen excitedly ran to find Fu Jianzhi, wanting to tell him the good news, but was stopped by the aunt at the rescue station.
“Xiao Chen, where have you been? Your brother and his family have been waiting for you for ages. If you don’t come back soon, you won’t even get to see your brother one last time.”
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