Edited by Cloud Chip Cake.
“During my middle school years, my parents were transferred to work in Haidu, and we settled there. Before that, I had been living in Zhongdu City.”
Xiao Jinyu immediately recalled a conversation from half a month ago, when he first met this Extermination Squad member from Haidu. This person had mentioned originally being from Zhongdu.
But he never imagined that Jiang Wentao was actually an adopted orphan. Not only that, but his parents had adopted him from an orphanage located in Zhongdu City, which had since closed down.
All these coincidences didn’t make Xiao Jinyu hesitate.
Seeing the middle-aged couple was about to head towards their son’s room, Xiao Jinyu asked, “Excuse me, are you Jiang Wentao’s parents?”
The man turned around first, asking, “Yes, who are you?”
Xiao Jinyu replied calmly, “I’m Jiang Wentao’s… colleague. I just learned that Jiang-ge was adopted. Please don’t misunderstand; I don’t have any special opinions about adoption. In fact, I’m an orphan myself. I’m also from Zhongdu City, and the orphanage I stayed at also closed down. So, I wanted to ask, do you remember the name of that orphanage?”
Upon hearing that Xiao Jinyu was Jiang Wentao’s colleague, the parents relaxed a bit. Jiang’s mother thought for a moment and said, “I remember it was called something like ‘Kang…'”
Xiao Jinyu interjected, “Kangde Orphanage?!”
Jiang’s father affirmed, “Yes, yes, that’s the one! It’s called Kangde Orphanage!”
At the nurse station, the young nurse neatly organized the registration forms, making a crisp sound.
Xiao Jinyu felt a mix of emotions but remained silent for a moment.
“May I accompany you to visit Jiang-ge together?”
…
Due to the previous incident involving logic factors related to the logic skill Relativity, Haidu Affiliated Hospital had stopped admitting new patients. Over the past two days, most patients had been approved for discharge. The entire inpatient department was now empty, and the User Committee arranged individual rooms for the ten Extermination Squad members who had been attacked.
Inside the spacious and bright single rooms, a soothing melody played softly.
In the center of one such room was an adjustable single bed. A sturdy man with a pale complexion had thick bandages wrapped around his neck as he chatted with his teammates on his phone.
Suddenly, he heard the door open and turned towards it.
Jiang Wentao was well aware that his parents were coming from another district to visit him. Since becoming a user, he faced numerous dangers every day and was always prepared for sacrifices. To avoid worrying his parents, they had not been living together, hoping that this way, they would be better prepared if the worst were to happen.
Seeing his parents’ worried expressions, Jiang Wentao tried to sit up, but the effort it took was visible. Then, he noticed a young man entering the room right behind his parents.
Huh?
Jiang Wentao paused, then saw that following closely behind Xiao Jinyu was Su Jiuzhou.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
…Huh?!
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Vbbc, Aljcu Qfcajb ifjgcfv ogbw tlr qjgfcar kts Wljb Alcse tjv mbwf.
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After all, he just had his throat cut the previous night. While the strong constitution of a level three user allowed for rapid recovery, speaking passionately still caused him to struggle for breath, and his voice sounded weak.
Jiang’s mother, concerned, said, “Take it easy! Your neck is still injured; don’t rush to talk.”
Jiang Wentao hadn’t told his parents that his throat had been cut; he had simply mentioned it was a neck scrape.
“Got it, Mom,” Jiang Wentao nodded lightly. He was about to speak when he saw the serious expression on the young man’s face.
Xiao Jinyu stared at him intently and asked, word by word, “What is impossible? Why is it impossible?”
This wasn’t just one question but two.
First, what did impossible mean? What exactly was impossible?
Second, why was it impossible for him to be from Kangde Orphanage? His mother had worked at Kangde Orphanage, and after it closed, she kindly adopted him and officially registered him. His information had always been in official records, and he had even attended primary and secondary school… How could that be impossible?
Jiang Wentao understood Xiao Jinyu’s current anxious state. He took a deep breath, calming his irritated throat, and looked at Xiao Jinyu seriously. He spoke slowly, “I didn’t expect, Xiao Jinyu, that you were also related to Kangde Orphanage. I am 29 years old this year. In 2027, when Kangde Orphanage closed, I was already ten years old. I entered that orphanage when I was seven. Like most orphans, who lost all their relatives in the radiation incident, I was sent to Kangde Orphanage because I had no blood relatives to take care of me.
“And when I say impossible, it’s because I am a hundred percent sure… you absolutely are not an orphan from Kangde Orphanage!”
Jiang’s father listened quietly, also observing Xiao Jinyu. Unfortunately, he had only visited the orphanage a few times when he adopted his son, and after nineteen years he didn’t have much memory of the other children there.
Jiang Wentao continued, “I stayed at Kangde Orphanage for three years and left when I was ten. My memories are very clear. Initially, we had over a dozen children in our orphanage. Over time, some children found their lost relatives and left; others were adopted. By 2027, when the orphanage was struggling financially and about to close, only four children remained.”
Jiang’s father added, “Yes, I remember now, there were only four left.”
Jiang Wentao said, “Among those four children, there were two girls named Maomao and Lingling. They definitely couldn’t be you, Xiao Jinyu. That left only me and another boy. I don’t need to say it, but the other boy…” He sighed, feeling helpless. “Well, he was older than me. When the orphanage closed, he was already sixteen years old. Xiao Jinyu, if he’s still alive today, he would be 35 years old. So…”
Jiang Wentao didn’t continue.
Xiao Jinyu understood his meaning.
Under the bright fluorescent lights, Xiao Jinyu remained calm, his eyes slightly lowered in silence.
For a while, no one spoke, and the air became eerily quiet.
Su Jiuzhou stood with his hands in his pockets, looking at him.
Initially, he had followed out of curiosity and because there was nothing else to do at the moment. Now, he got an unexpected answer.
After a moment of silence,
“Do you remember everyone else from the orphanage where you left at ten?” Su Jiuzhou’s low, steady voice broke the silence.
Jiang Wentao turned to look at him upon hearing his question. He carefully recalled and nodded earnestly. “Yes, Colonel Su. I was quite smart from a young age, and my academic performance was good. Plus, I spent a full three years at Kangde. Unless it was one of the children who only stayed at the orphanage for a couple of days before being taken away, I definitely remember everyone else.”
Su Jiuzhou continued, “He was born in December 2025, and you entered Kangde Orphanage in 2025 as well. During that time, do you recall any infants under the age of three being brought in?”
Jiang Wentao smiled wryly, “The reason I’m so certain about this impossibility also has another crucial reason. Our orphanage only accepted children aged seven and above who were able to take care of themselves at a basic level.”
Su Jiuzhou was momentarily stunned, and he discreetly glanced at Xiao Jinyu.
Xiao Jinyu raised his eyes and calmly met his gaze. The next moment, he turned to Jiang Wentao and asked calmly, “Do you still remember my mom?” The young man remained composed, swiftly taking out his phone from his pocket and finding a photo of his mom.
His reaction was lightning-fast, showing little shock or confusion. Instead, after a brief moment of silent bewilderment, he began to analyze and process the current situation.
Skipping over recent photos of his mom, Xiao Jinyu quickly found a picture from nineteen years ago. It showed his mom smiling in a white dress under the ivy, a photo he had found among her belongings last month after clearing out the ivy. He had taken a picture with his phone at that time as a record because the ivy was in the background. Little did he expect that this photo would be relevant now.
When Jiang Wentao took the phone and had a look at it, he exclaimed, “Sister Xiao-Wen!” He looked up at Xiao Jinyu. “This is Sister Xiao-Wen, the one who used to play with us often. Sister Xiao-Wen is actually your mom?!” He quickly continued, “No, you can’t possibly be be Sister Xiao-Wen’s biological son. Colonel Su just mentioned that you were born in 2025. I remember that when I was nine years old, which was in 2026, Sister Xiao-Wen came to the orphanage. She didn’t have children, and she didn’t start dating until after the orphanage closed. Xiao Jinyu, is your mom named Xiao-Wen?”
“…Her name is Luo Yuanwen.”
“Then she must be Sister Xiao-Wen. I’m sure of it.”
Xiao Jinyu added, “My mom registered me after the orphanage closed, stating that I was from there. She told the government that I was from the orphanage, and all of this was verified by the Zhongdu Users Committee.”
“But you definitely aren’t from the orphanage, I can assure you of that.”
“Is it possible that you are mistaken, or that your memory is faulty?”
Jiang Wentao was left speechless.
Xiao Jinyu, however, seemed to grasp the truth. He quickly said, “After all, it was nineteen years ago, and memory errors are possible. Also, you may not know that last month, we found a dangerous pollutant at the site of the old orphanage. It was a patch of ivy, and it has since been collected by the Haidu Logic Research Institute and classified as Pollutant 002.”
“Pollutant 002?!” Jiang Wentao exclaimed, then thought for a moment. “I remember the ivy. There was a large patch of ivy on the west wall of the orphanage dormitory building. Are you referring to that?”
“Yes.”
“So, you mean to say that this pollutant had been secretly hiding in the orphanage, and my memories may have been influenced by it, causing me to misremember things?”
“That’s right.”
After a long silence, Jiang Wentao glanced at his mother.
His mother was initially puzzled but then slapped her forehead. “Oh, I remember now. There was a photo. When the orphanage was down to just four children and about to close, Chenggang and I were the first couple to adopt. After we decided to adopt Wentao, the orphanage staff took a photo of us. The director, the other children, us, and Wentao were all in it.”
As she spoke, Jiang Wentao’s mother pulled out her phone and searched through her albums. “Ah, here it is. I saved the photo electronically on my phone. There were indeed only two boys who looked about ten years old. Take a look.”
After a few seconds, Xiao Jinyu silently took the phone from Jiang Wentao’s mother.
However, the anticipated change did not occur. Xiao Jinyu looked at the unfamiliar smiling boy on the phone screen and handed it back without comment.
…
Xiao Jinyu calmly gazed at Jiang Wentao. “I may indeed not be an orphan from your orphanage, but I am certain that I once lived in Kangde Orphanage. The patch of ivy on the west wall of the dormitory building, and the colorful mosaic glass window in the room. Jiang Wentao, do you remember?”
After a moment of thought, Jiang Wentao nodded. “I remember! Indeed, the small rooms we lived in had mosaic glass windows for every window.”
“So, I must have lived there.”
“Sister Xiao-Wen adopted you and claimed you were an orphan from the orphanage… It doesn’t make sense. You truly are not from our orphanage. But why would Sister Xiao-Wen say that…”
Suddenly.
Jiang Wentao slowly lifted his eyes, and he hoarsely exclaimed, “Ah!” as he stared intently at the young man in front of the bed.
He stared, as if he had never seen someone so strange and intriguing.
The next moment, Xiao Jinyu and Su Jiuzhou asked in unison, “What did you remember?”
Xiao Jinyu paused, glancing at the man beside him.
Before long, Jiang Wentao, with a strange look, seemed to feel that what he was about to say was too absurd but still had to say it. “Could it be… that you are the rumored ghost of our orphanage?”
Xiao Jinyu: “…”
Su Jiuzhou: “…”
Xiao Jinyu focused and asked, “What ghost?”
Jiang Wentao clarified, “I’m not insulting you. It’s just that shortly after Sister Xiao-Wen arrived, there was indeed a rumor in the orphanage that the dormitory building was haunted. Occasionally, late at night, you could hear the laughter of a baby, which was particularly eerie. Later, people claimed to see the shadow of a child flashing across the corridor.
“…Everyone said it was haunted.”
Xiao Jinyu’s gaze gradually became serious.
–Have you ever thought that perhaps your initial encounter with your mother wasn’t at the orphanage?
But rather, before that.
A long, long time before that.
New mystery
How will xiao Jinyu will find out about his biological mother 🤔
Keep thinking
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
I
Want
Answers!
I don’t think i can bear this mystery
Haha, who knows, maybe Xiao Jinyu is a logic factor. Now that would be an absurd twist…🤣😂😅