Translator: CinderTL
Fatty's lips moved as if he wanted to ask something, but he ultimately stopped.
There was no doubt that the Doctor was one of those children.
"Where did they end up going?" Fatty asked. "I mean, all those children."
"Finally, a larger institution contacted us, willing to take them in. At the time, I was a volunteer in the small town, and I got along quite well with him. That day, he fell ill, so I took him to the hospital for a check-up. As a result, I missed the moment when all the children were sent away."
"So, only the Doctor was left?" Fatty suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of panic.
He knew that the Doctor wasn't emotionally detached; he had just buried his feelings too deep. Even to this day, he hadn't forgiven the parents who had abandoned him.
He often referred to himself as an orphan. At first, Fatty thought the Doctor was just being dramatic, but over time, he began to sense something was off.
When the Doctor said those words, the light in his eyes dimmed.
No one likes to be abandoned.
Left in a corner, like a bag of unwanted trash.
On the day the Doctor returned to the orphanage, he opened the Gate and found himself alone. All the children were gone, each with their own new homes.
Every bed was neatly made, still carrying the warmth of his companions.
Fatty thought that the Doctor must have had a sleepless night.
Lin Wan'er's thoughts also returned to that day. Her expression changed slightly but quickly faded. "With only one child left, there was no need to continue the orphanage, so I took him in."
"I took care of him while looking for a suitable adoptive family," Lin Wan'er smiled. "But in the end, work got too busy, and the search for adoption slowly fell by the wayside. A few years later, the child grew up, and it became even harder to find him a home."
If it were anyone else, Fatty would have felt uncomfortable hearing someone use the term "sell" to describe a child. But Lin Wan'er was different.
Fatty understood that it wasn't because she was too busy to find an adoptive family; it was just an excuse she made for herself. She had grown attached to the Doctor over time and couldn't bear to let him go.
Moreover, he could imagine how difficult life must have been for such a beautiful single woman, dragging around a burden like the Doctor.
Now he understood why Boss Lin treated the Doctor so harshly, squeezing every penny out of him. Given the Doctor's personality, he didn't run away or fight back.
At most, he would sneak out to earn some quick cash to improve his life.
Who could truly hate the person who gave them the only light in the darkness?
Boss Lin was to the Doctor what the Doctor was to Fatty.
Without the Doctor, Fatty would have long been dead in his Nightmares, his ashes scattered who knows how many times.
If the Doctor needed him, Fatty would do so without hesitation.
Lin Wan'er exhaled and gently placed her hand on her cheek. "Looking back now, taking him to the hospital that day was the right thing to do."
Fatty immediately nodded, moved. "Boss Lin, you're truly a good person. Meeting you was the greatest fortune in the Doctor's life."
He naturally assumed that Lin Wan'er had discovered the Doctor's virtues during their subsequent interactions, leading her to develop genuine feelings for him.
"I think so too," Lin Wan'er said, seemingly finding Fatty more agreeable by the minute. "But we're not talking about the same thing."
Fatty was taken aback.
"I'm talking about those children who were adopted by large institutions," Lin Wan'er continued, her expression turning peculiar. "Later, when we checked, we found that the credentials they submitted to us were fake. There was no such company."
"After realizing we had been deceived, we immediately went to their company. The staff from the welfare institute had conducted on-site inspections, and they had even prepared suitable living spaces for these children in advance. But when we arrived, we found that the company... had vanished."
"Vanished?" Fatty couldn't comprehend.
"The entire building was empty, all traces had been destroyed, and we couldn't find any valuable information."
"Of course, those children disappeared along with it. We searched for several years, but they seemed to have evaporated into thin air. Some suspected they had been taken abroad," Lin Wan'er pursed her lips, pausing for a moment. "But we have no evidence, and the police have made no progress."
Although Fatty didn't understand much about companies, making an entire company and all its employees disappear didn't seem like a simple task.
The Doctor had taught him that as long as someone has lived in a place, they would inevitably leave corresponding clues. The so-called perfect crime is just a more thorough elimination of traces.
Clearly, there was a whiff of conspiracy here.
It seemed their target was these children.
But who would be interested in these dozen or so children?
And such unlikable children at that.
A conspiracy theory began to form in Fatty's mind. He recalled recent hot news and crime movies he had watched, and the first thing that came to mind was organ trafficking.
Those people had their eyes on the children's bodies, but before he could express this thought, Lin Wan'er seemed to read his mind and shook her head slightly. "No, that's too troublesome and not cost-effective."
Indeed, if it were just for money, the scale of this operation seemed too large. The investment and return were disproportionate, and they would be risking their lives.
Judging by their methods, these people were not ordinary.
The waters behind this were likely very deep.
If it wasn't for money, then what were they after with these children?
And why were they all children considered socially awkward and emotionally detached? Even the couples who came to adopt them said that such children might grow up to become monsters... monsters!
Monsters!
The word "monster" flashed through Fatty's mind and seemed to take root there. Then, the word "monster" felt like a knife, stabbing him sharply.
This also led him to a new line of thought.
Could it be that they wanted these children? No, they wanted these children to grow up and become monsters!! Cold sweat began to form on Fatty's forehead, and for a moment, he felt a bit dazed. Instinctively, he found this speculation too terrifying.
A single Doctor was already so difficult to deal with, let alone if more than ten Doctors appeared together. And after his imagination ran wild, it was more than ten completely corrupted Doctors.
They wouldn't possess the most basic emotions like the Doctor did, because in their world, there was no Lin Wan'er to be their guiding light.
Keep going!
(End of the Chapter)
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