I rolled up my sleeves and pressed the little dumpling into the water.
“Don’t move around.”
I was honestly a little angry. I was planning to wash my daughter clean in a few quick strokes. Suddenly, a crisp rhythmic knocking sound echoed in the bathroom.
*Knock, knock.*
Su Liumeng knocked with a polite rhythm. “How much longer are you going to be?”
Si Zhizuo perked up an ear, and the duck in her arms fell into the water. Her twitching ears had already materialized; I could see them as soon as I shifted my gaze.
“Mommy.” Si Zhizuo’s wet arm wrapped directly around me. “Is she trying to peek at Zhizhi taking a bath?”
My eyelid twitched. Since my clothes were already quite wet, I simply let her have her way.
“Uh,” I paused. “You’re so small, what could she possibly be looking at?”
Si Zhizuo huffed. “I don’t care. I’m going to think the worst of her anyway.”
Su Liumeng was outside the bathroom and happened to hear the conversation between mother and daughter. Her mind was currently full of question marks.
‘Why am I in a united front yet still always being targeted by the little dumpling?’
“Wait a moment,” I replied.
Su Liumeng clearly knew what I was doing, yet she actively knocked to remind me. There must be something important she needed me for. I patted my daughter’s back. “Hurry up. Don’t dawdle. Go to bed as soon as you’re done washing.”
Si Zhizuo nodded her head and raised her arms. She was wiped dry in no time.
Yesterday’s pajamas were a little bunny. Today’s pajama style looked more like a cute kitten. It was the result of my careful selection. Looking at my fragrant daughter after her bath, I felt a sense of accomplishment.
‘So cute.’
“Alright, put on your shoes and go to bed.”
Si Zhizuo grumbled in refusal. “Wait a little longer.”
“I haven’t talked to Su Liumeng yet…”
I hesitated for 1 second. “Fine.”
It just so happened that I didn’t know how to explain things to Su Liumeng yet. Having my daughter there to help explain would make it a bit more acceptable.
Su Liumeng was flipping through a book on the chaise longue. The rustling sound of paper was exceptionally clear in the hall. I led my daughter to my wife.
Su Liumeng stopped flipping the pages. Her gaze lingered on the little dumpling’s kitten pajamas for 1 second before she said to me, “I found quite a bit from the files before you entered the orphanage. For now, this is all the information I could get.”
She pushed a dossier and a file in front of me.
‘She found it so quickly?’
I was a bit surprised. The efficiency was good; I had thought it would be impossible to investigate clearly. After all, it was something from 15 years ago, and a big fire had occurred.
I took one of the dossiers and was about to open it. Su Liumeng summarized the results for me ahead of time.
“According to the records, you were born into a fairly wealthy family.”
“Your father, Si Li, was the owner of a listed company.”
“Your mother, Ji Yue, was the only daughter of a famous wealthy businessman.”
Su Liumeng’s eyes showed some pity, and she was reluctant to say the words that followed.
I nervously gripped the hem of my clothes, my small face turning strangely pale. “Go on, I’m mentally prepared.”
“Your father didn’t like your mother. It’s much like the plot of a novel. Because of an arranged marriage set by the two families, your mother liked your father since they were young. It was love at first sight. Later, she drugged him to get pregnant with you.”
“In the end, your father only married your mother due to family pressure.”
“Your mother tried to use you to forcibly bind your father to her side, but your father never looked at you once. Instead, he spent all his time outside with his first love. Eventually, your mother’s unrequited love turned into increasing anxiety and irritability. She abused you at home all day and eventually just locked you in the attic, raising you like livestock.”
“You probably have no memories before you were 2. You only remember being locked in the attic all the time.”
“In reality, you were locked in that small attic when you were about 1.5 years old, and you never stepped out once. No one ever taught you how to speak or other skills.”
“That’s why you were as silent as a mute when you were a child.”
“The turning point came when you were 3 years old.”
“Your mother planned to set fire to the attic, attempting to use your death to awaken your father’s last bit of conscience.”
“Afterward, no one knows exactly what happened, but a group of people started fighting.”
“Your mother stabbed your father’s first love with a knife.”
“She was preparing to ignite the accelerant in the attic, but the fire started burning from the outside instead.”
“By the time the firefighters arrived, they only had time to save you, as you were the furthest from the fire.”
“Your parents, and other relatives, all died in that fire.”
“Some say your mother had already gone mad, and that this was her second planned scenario.”
“She had invited everyone early on, intending to drag them all to hell with her.”
“After all, at that time, neither set of parents clearly opposed the arranged marriage. No one even cared if your father had someone he liked. Everyone only cared about the formal marriage on the surface. Therefore, they were all cold bystanders to this tragedy.”
“Precisely because everyone died, the firefighters who arrived at the time looked at you with pity. You were only 3 years old and had become a homeless orphan.”
“This is the arson case that shocked the world back then, as recorded in the dossier.”
I gripped the dossier with my small hand, which had already turned white as paper. I forced a faint smile toward Su Liumeng.
‘I… don’t care at all.’
“The file contains the follow-up investigation of the case.”
“This catastrophic fire took a full 1 day and night to extinguish.”
“At the scene of the fire’s remains, only the bodies of the others were found. Your mother’s body was not found.”
“So, some suspect this was a complete murder case.”
“The violent arguing you heard outside was also a false impression your mother intentionally created. In reality, she had already prepared to burn everyone to death in secret. The facts matched the speculation; by the time the firefighters arrived, the fire had already become a prairie fire, trapping everyone inside. No one survived.”
“There is another point of doubt in this case.” Su Liumeng paused for 1 second. “According to the investigation afterward, your attic was actually the place furthest from the center of the fire. Compared to the first floor of the other villa where the others were, the danger level was completely different.”
“Theoretically, among the people your mother hated the most, you must have been included. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have locked you, who was only a little over 1 year old, in the attic for 1 or 2 years without seeing the sun.”
“Therefore, some boldly guess that your mother’s conscience wasn’t entirely gone and that she left a final chance of survival for your young self.”
“Of course, it could also just be a coincidence.”
“Maybe your mother didn’t consider that much, which is why you eventually survived.”
“Some also inferred the motive for the case was a romantic grudge.”
“Because your parents’ marriage was arranged since they were children, your mother naturally decided your father was the only man for her in this life. Later, when her love went unrequited, her thoughts became twisted, leading her to the path of drugging him.”
“The motive could also be that your mother’s emotions collapsed, and she saw everyone as the culprit of the tragedy. After all, if the two families hadn’t arranged the marriage, your mother wouldn’t have chased after him without letting go.”
“In short, it’s hard to say who was right or wrong.”
“All of the above are the speculations of this arson case.”
“Of course, it could all be wrong. Your mother might have also been burned to death in that fire, turned into ashes…”
“However, that possibility is very small.”
“Because a person cannot be burned completely clean. There are always some traces left behind.”
“It’s just that after this big fire, no one ever found a trace of your mother anywhere else. The personnel who eventually closed the case could only designate it as an accidental incident with no survivors.”
“And you are the only survivor among them.”
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