Chapter 180

When he said the date June 6, Li Qingyao's head buzzed. She tried to calm down and listen carefully.

"Are you sure it was June 6st? Why do you remember it so clearly?"

Tang Botao rubbed his head and said, "It's rare that someone is in trouble. I did a good thing and it left a deep impression on me. And I saw my aunt write down the date in her workbook, so it left a deep impression on me. The time to get off work every day is fixed, so it can't be wrong."

6 month 1 number.

When Tang Botao saw Liu Tingmei at midnight on June 6st, she was not dead yet and was even living alone outside.

For a moment, Li Qingyao's chest seemed to be blocked by something sour and astringent, and he couldn't even utter the words he wanted to ask next.

At this time, Tang Botao's mother also slapped her thigh and said, "I remember now. Your aunt mentioned this matter. This child met the person the police were looking for in the middle of the night and acted on his own. Police comrade, this woman has done nothing wrong, right? My son is very honest and he knows nothing."

Tang Botao glanced at his mother unhappily: "How could she commit a crime? She looks like a holy war angel."

Seeing that Li Qingyao looked unhappy, Xia Yongze asked, "Why did you send him to your aunt?"

Both mother and son looked at him a little timidly.

"My aunt works at the neighborhood committee."

"His aunt is from the neighborhood committee."

Li Qingyao slowly exhaled and finally asked, "When you found her, was there anyone else around her? Or did you see anyone else nearby?"

"No. The road was empty. There was no one except her."

"What about the ground? Is there anything unusual? Is there someone lying there and you didn't notice it? Can you remember it?"

Tang Botao was startled, then thought about it and shook his head: "Probably not. After I found her, I looked around, worried that she might have dropped something or something, but there was nothing. If there was someone lying nearby, I would definitely find it. My eyesight is 2.0."

-

Li Qingyao asked Tang Botao to take them to the place where Liu Tingmei was found that night.

Unexpectedly, it took them almost 15 minutes to arrive. This location was quite far from both Yuanan Clinic and Building 17. If they walked further, they would be out of Chaoyang Home. The convenience store where Tang Botao worked was just outside the community, so he passed by this road.

It was completely dark at this time, and there were sparse street lights around. Li Qingyao stood where Tang Botao pointed out, holding a flashlight and looking around.

To the east and west are residential buildings of Chaoyang Home, to the north is a primary school, and to the south is a factory that looks small.

If everything Tang Botao said was true, why did the mentally retarded Liu Tingmei walk such a long way alone that night? And why did she faint here after getting injured?

Li Qingyao's intuition told him that Tang Botao's words were credible.

-

Tang Botao's aunt lives in Building 23 of Chaoyang Home, and she is at home now.

My aunt looked about 47 or 48 years old, with a round face and a cheerful and enthusiastic look. After listening to their explanation, my aunt thought for a moment and said, "I remember this incident! That night, Bo Tao knocked on the door in the middle of the night and scared me. This kid is too fierce. I didn't even know to call the police. Later, I saw that girl, she was so beautiful, and I wondered if she was his girlfriend..."

Tang Botao blushed: "Aunt, don't go off topic. There's no way I can find such a beautiful girlfriend. Don't even think about it."

"Okay, okay, let's get back to business. I saw that the girl was conscious and her wound had been bandaged, so it shouldn't be a big deal. I let Botao go back first. We've seen this a lot in our work with residents, and we're afraid that the girl might have some difficulties. With Botao being a boy around, she's embarrassed to speak up. I thought she was someone's girl who had a quarrel with her family or was bullied by someone and ran out in the middle of the night. But this girl only answered one question for every three, and she was even talking nonsense. Then I realized..." Auntie pointed to her head, "She seems to have some problems."

Li Qingyao nodded.

"That would be a huge responsibility, and I didn't dare to take her in, so I said I would call the police and find her family to send her back. But the girl seemed to have regained her consciousness." The aunt sighed, "She knelt down and begged me, stammering that she couldn't go back. It seemed that her family forced her to marry a 48-year-old man in exchange for a dowry. It was a different era now, and I was so angry that I didn't call the police for the time being. Then I looked at her ID card again, and her name, appearance, and address all matched what she said. I remember her last name was Liu... Liu, Liu..."

"Sister Liu Ting. Does she have her ID card?"

"Yes! That's her name! She has her ID card. I felt sorry for her and she was very weak, so I let her stay here for one night. Although she's slow-witted, she looks like she can take care of herself and she's an adult, so she doesn't want to go home. I know sending her home would be like returning to hell, so I respected her wishes and didn't call the police. Wasn't that right? This girl must have escaped from her marriage in the countryside. Since she came to our Chaoyang Home, I'll help her if I can."

"and after?"

"She stayed at my place for two days. Seeing me cleaning and cooking, she seemed to understand things and came to help me. She was very skillful. But her brain was sometimes good and sometimes bad. She didn't talk much. She couldn't explain why she fainted on that road that night. She said her head hurt when she thought about it. It seemed that she really couldn't remember it. Sometimes she cried. When I asked her why she was crying, she said she didn't know. One time I saw her stabbing herself with a syringe. I was shocked. I didn't want her to be a drug addict. She said she had diabetes and had to get injections every day. I looked at the medicine bottle and it was indeed for diabetes. I looked for it. I thought that this was not a solution, she had to have a place to stay. Later, I had an idea and sent her to Dahai Welfare Home. I knew Director Song Hui there, she was a kind person, their welfare home specializes in taking in children with brain problems, some of them are in their 20s and their families don’t care about them or give them money, but they still live in their welfare home, and they support them. Liu Tingmei has hands and feet, and she is that old, although her brain is a little slow, it is much better than those with cerebral palsy. She can work and can be used as a half-caregiver. It shouldn’t be a problem for her to get enough food and clothing and pay for medical expenses there.”

"Is sister Liu Ting willing to go to the welfare home?"

"She was in a daze all day, and I didn't know what she was thinking. I sent her there and she left."

-

Li Qingyao and Xia Yongze left Tang's aunt's house at 10 o'clock at night, holding the contact number and address of Dahai Welfare Home. Although they walked further and further away following Liu Tingmei's footsteps that night, Li Qingyao had a feeling that they were getting closer and closer to finding her.

It turned out that she was wrong. Liu Tingmei was not dead and seemed to have escaped from those three men.

She had so many things she wanted to ask her.

However, even if they found Liu Tingmei who was still alive seven years later, could she really answer? Would she answer?

-

The next morning, Li Qingyao and Xia Yongze rushed to Dahai Welfare Home.

This is a non-public welfare home funded by caring people, which specializes in taking in children with autism and cerebral palsy whose families are unable to take care of them.

The current director's surname is Su, and she is a woman in her fifties. After listening to their explanation, Director Su shook her head and said, "I only took over the welfare home in 2018, so I don't know what you are talking about. But if Liu Tingmei has ever been to our welfare home, it must have been entered into the system. I have no impression of the name Liu Tingmei, and I probably haven't seen it in the system."

Li Qingyao's heart sank.

Dean Su opened the computer in front of them, and there was indeed no record of Liu Tingmei in either the records from seven years ago or now. Li Qingyao checked the people who came to the hospital seven years ago, and there were only two children with cerebral palsy, one aged 5 and the other 7, who could not be Liu Tingmei.

"What about Director Song Hui?" Li Qingyao asked, "She should have been the one who took in Liu Tingmei back then."

Dean Su looked complicated and said, "She hasn't worked here for a long time."

"Do you have her current contact information or work address?"

Dean Su wrote an address on a piece of paper and handed it to them.

Chengnan Women's Prison.

"Seven years ago, Song Hui was sentenced to life imprisonment." Dean Su said, "You police officers should be able to see her. You can ask her for details."

I thought there was a ray of hope, but after a twist, I found myself plunged into the fog again.

Li Qingyao asked: "Can we walk around the welfare home?"

"Of course. But be careful not to disturb our teachers and children. They are very timid and some of them lose control of their emotions easily."

It is called an orphanage, but in fact it is made up of three houses and courtyards connected together. The decoration is simple, and more than 2 children live together in a crowded place. The children, the youngest is seven or eight years old, and the oldest is in their twenties. They have lived in the orphanage for more than ten years. Li Qingyao noticed that some of the children's shoes had holes on them, but they were washed very clean. Boys accounted for about 3/1, and girls accounted for 3/.

In addition to the children's usual dormitories and activity rooms, there is also a reading room and a game room. The reading room is filled with tear-resistant cloth books, most of which are very old. The game room is also filled with mostly plastic and plush toys, with no small toys to be seen, probably because they are afraid that the children might accidentally swallow them.

Li Qingyao was already thinking about donating part of her salary next month to them. Just as she was about to leave the game room, she suddenly caught a glimpse of something in the corner, and she stopped still.

She had seen that thing.

Among the information collected by Chen Pu, there are some photos of the old man who owned the doll stall that Li Jincheng bought that night. There were five or six dolls of the same model on his stall.

The doll was only half the length of an arm, with a cute round pink face, brown curly hair, a white silk skirt, and red leather shoes. The workmanship was not fine, and even a little rough.

The doll in front of him looked very old and worn. Someone had ripped off its curly hair, leaving only a small part. Its face was painted black, and its white skirt had turned gray. Li Qingyao squatted down, took it out of the pile of toys, looked down at it for a while, and turned it over.

On the bald side of his head where the hair had fallen out, someone had written three crooked words in black pen:

Lee Chin-cheng.