Chapter 275

Chapter 275 The Fire Nineteen Years Ago

 

Nineteen years, for Su Rui who had been away for nineteen years, hearing news about Ye Binglan filled him with indescribable excitement.

Su Rui had long known that shortly after he left the orphanage, the entire facility was burned to rubble in a massive fire, with many teachers and children unable to survive. It was a disaster that left people deeply saddened.

Despite the high casualty count, the incident didn’t cause much public sensation. The Ninghai city government at that time suppressed the news, so not many people knew about it.

“I had already taken the afternoon off today to visit the old director, and you happened to come back, so let’s go together,” Ye Binglan said happily.

“Good, but let’s eat first.” Su Rui noticed the fatigue in Ye Binglan’s expression and felt concerned. This girl was great in every way, except she worked too hard.

“Mm-hmm, whatever you say.” Ye Binglan smiled while gazing at Su Rui’s face, her eyes never wandering away.

For Su Rui, who had been searching for news about the orphanage for so many years, waiting a bit longer wouldn’t matter. Though he was excited, Ye Binglan’s health was more important by comparison.

“After we leave the director’s home, I’ll take you for a massage to help you relax,” Su Rui said. “Always staying up late like this, sleep alone won’t be enough to recover.”

“No problem, I’ll listen to you,” Ye Binglan smiled. “But I won’t let a male masseur touch me.”

“Do I count as male? No masseur has better technique than me,” Su Rui said.

“You’ll give me a massage?” Ye Binglan’s smile bloomed like a flower. “Of course that’s fine!”

…

The old director lived in an old-style apartment building in the suburbs. In the rapidly changing Ninghai of today, such buildings were practically antiques, facing demolition at any time.

“Seems the old director isn’t living too well,” Su Rui sighed.

Ye Binglan nodded silently. She had inquired for a long time before finally getting information from a friend at the Civil Affairs Bureau.

In their limited childhood memories, the old director was an important figure. He was already in his fifties back then, kind and gentle. Calculating now, he must be in his seventies.

With complex emotions, the two carried fruit up the dark, damp stairwell to the sixth floor, stopping in front of an old security door.

Su Rui’s hand hovered over the door, showing hesitation.

The closer to home, the more nervous one becomes, afraid to ask who’s there.

“Knock,” said Ye Binglan. She took a deep breath, also appearing slightly nervous. At this moment, the “siblings” shared exactly the same feelings.

Su Rui knocked gently a few times, and an elderly voice came from inside.

“Who is it?”

Before Su Rui and Ye Binglan could answer, the door opened, revealing an elderly man in simple cloth clothing.

Though his hair had turned completely white, his posture somewhat stooped, and his face covered with wrinkles, Su Rui and Ye Binglan recognized him immediately. After nineteen years, some memories remained so vivid, impossible to erase.

“Director!” Su Rui and Ye Binglan called out in unison.

Hearing this greeting, the old man’s body trembled, his cloudy eyes filled with disbelief.

This title had rarely been heard in the past decade or more, so unfamiliar that even he had almost forgotten it!

“Who are you?”

The old director looked at the perfect-looking couple standing at his door with hesitation. He was trying hard to search his memory, but couldn’t recall anything.

Nearly twenty years had passed, and the children had changed too much. He couldn’t recognize them at all.

“Director, I don’t know if you remember, I’m Xiao Bing, and this is my brother, Su Rui.” Looking at the old man from her memories, Ye Binglan’s eyes filled with warmth.

“Director, I’m Shitou. I don’t know if you remember.” Su Rui clearly recalled his childhood nickname. As for the name “Su Rui,” who knows who gave him that.

“Xiao Bing, Shitou? It’s really you?” The old director thought for a long time, his eyes showing excitement again.

“Come in, come in quickly.” The old director hurriedly invited them inside, unable to hide his excitement.

“My brain really isn’t working well as I get older. It took me a while to remember.” The old director rushed to pour them tea but couldn’t even find suitable cups.

In the end, he brought out two bowls and filled them with water, a scene that made Su Rui’s heart ache.

“Director, aren’t your children with you?” the observant Ye Binglan asked.

The room seemed to have only the old director living in it. The lunch on the table hadn’t been cleared away, with only one pair of chopsticks.

“The kids are busy with work, and I live quite far away, so they only come to see me once a month or so,” the old director said with a smile. “My wife passed away from stomach cancer a few years ago, so it’s just me now. I figure my old bones can hold out for a few more years.”

Su Rui surveyed the room’s furnishings, thinking that the old director’s children were truly unfilial, not even thinking to provide their father with better things.

“This is wonderful, truly wonderful. Xiao Bing, Shitou, I can’t believe how grown up you both are,” the old director said, his gaze moving between Su Rui and Ye Binglan’s faces, full of satisfaction. “A fine young man and a beautiful young woman, truly lovely.”

“I remember you two were always together as children, childhood sweethearts. I never imagined you’d grow up to be a couple. What a wonderful match, truly made for each other!” the old director remarked with feeling.

A couple? Made for each other?

Clearly, the old director had misunderstood something.

Hearing this, Ye Binglan’s pretty face flushed slightly, a sweet feeling in her heart. She secretly glanced at Su Rui and saw that he was about to explain.

“Director, Xiao Bing and I are actually…”

Before Su Rui could finish, Ye Binglan quickly interrupted: “Director, how has your health been all these years?”

Su Rui looked at Ye Binglan with surprise. Interrupting others didn’t seem like her style.

“My health is still quite robust. With nothing to do, I walk a lot, and I rarely even catch colds or fevers,” the old director said, looking at Ye Binglan and Su Rui with increasing delight. “After so many years without seeing you, how did you find me here?”

Ye Binglan hesitated, then said, “I happen to have a friend at the Civil Affairs Bureau, so I asked him to inquire, and that’s how I learned you live here.”

She didn’t mention that she had been searching for many years, asking many friends, and only recently happened to discover the old director’s whereabouts.

Because Ye Binglan didn’t even know the old director’s name, and with the Ninghai city government’s cover-up of the fire, many valuable records had vanished.

“Ah, those poor children, I wonder how they all are now.” The old director seemed to recall something and sighed softly.

Orphanage children who entered society as minors became unsupervised youths with no one to care for them. Many ended up in prison. Those who grew up to be like Ye Binglan and Su Rui were truly rare exceptions.

Those children were all the old director’s concern.

Su Rui’s expression changed, and he asked, “Director, do you remember the circumstances of the fire after I left?”

Upon hearing the word “fire,” the old director seemed to recall something extremely painful, and his body began to tremble slightly.

“What’s wrong?”

Su Rui hadn’t personally experienced the fire, so he naturally didn’t know what kind of panic it had caused.

“That fire happened shortly after you left.” Surprisingly, the old director even remembered such a precise timeline.

Su Rui nodded. This matched the information he had gathered from various sources.

“A few days after you were taken away by kind people, a major fire broke out at the orphanage. It was at night, and many children and teachers were sound asleep. All the buildings were burned.” As the old director spoke, the pain on his face became increasingly clear. Despite the many years that had passed, recalling those scenes now still made them vivid in his mind.

“Was it arson?” Su Rui’s tone had become very somber.

“The police filed a case, but it was eventually dropped. Because too many children were burned to death or injured, it was nothing short of a major disaster. If word got out, it would have had a fatal impact on the leaders’ careers at that time.”

Although the old director didn’t explicitly say so, from his words, it was clear that he also believed it was arson!

How could so many buildings catch fire simultaneously at night without human intervention? There were no fire sources near the buildings! Even if the kitchen’s liquefied gas had exploded, it couldn’t have caused such results!

Something any normal person could see at a glance was deliberately overlooked due to government leaders protecting themselves, missing the best opportunity to solve the case and resulting in an unsolved mystery!

A cold gleam gradually gathered in Su Rui’s eyes.

Ye Binglan, being a criminal investigator herself, immediately began analyzing the possibility of solving this case.

“After so many years, it’s probably very difficult to investigate,” Ye Binglan considered, sighing softly.

“Afterward, after the fire, the Fourth Orphanage was disbanded. The teachers and students who survived were relocated to other orphanages. I retired early and have been living like this ever since.”

Su Rui hadn’t known the cause of the fire before, but now that he did, it would be out of character for him not to investigate thoroughly.

“Director, do you remember who was the mayor of Ninghai at that time?” Su Rui hadn’t researched this detail. The mayor from nineteen years ago would likely hold an incredibly high position by now!

“Of course I remember.” The old director didn’t even need to think, immediately responding: “Bai Keqing. He was very young then, had just become the mayor of Ninghai, with a promising future.”

“The Bai family’s third uncle?” Su Rui’s eyebrows raised like two swords about to be unsheathed!