Chapter 18: The Mute
There are three buildings in the orphanage, none of them are tall. The middle building has three floors, and the rest are two floors.

Shaxi Zhenji led the two people straight to the building on the far left. According to her, the building on the right is the restaurant, and the building in the middle is the place for study and living.

When you enter the building, the first thing you see is a red banner that reads "Achieve Yourself, Help Others". There is a staircase on each side of the building, and judging by the signs on them, it should be divided into male and female sides.

"If you want to spend some time with the kids, I'll go to the right and wake up the girls. I'll leave the boys to you."

Su Beixun nodded and asked, "Do they have one room each?"

"Two people in a room." Shaxi Zhenji explained, "We used to be a village here. Although most of the people have left, we definitely don't lack houses... There are not many orphans here, so one person can live in one room. But for mental health, it's better to have someone to keep you company."

Su Beixun didn't ask any more questions and took the vodka to the left side. There were several rooms next to the stairs, but only three of them had slogans on them. It seemed that no one lived in the others.

Pushing the door open, the room was completely different from what Vodka had imagined.

The room is covered with sky blue wallpaper, and the floor is covered with cushions in the same color. The frosted glass windows provide good lighting, and even if the curtains only leave a gap, it does not appear dim. The overall atmosphere is warm and healing.

The bed was not the iron two-story bed he had imagined, but a Mickey-colored solid wooden low bed, one on the left and one on the right, covered with a soft silver-white quilt.

There is a solid wooden cabinet at the end of each bed, and in the middle is a large brown table and two stools.

Su Beixun saw Vodka's surprise and explained, "It's normal. The facilities of the orphanage sponsored by Jiang Gu Yichuan can't be bad."

"Then why are you looking from the outside..."

Vodka suddenly stopped asking halfway. He remembered what Su Beixun said about Jiang Gu Yichuan deliberately hiding something, and he immediately believed it most of the time.

Su Beixun didn't care what Vodka was thinking. He walked to the left and gently shook the child on the bed. Vodka walked to the right with stiff hands and feet and followed suit.

Not long after, the child in front of Su Beixun woke up while rubbing his eyes. He looked at Su Beixun in a daze and asked in a daze, "Who are you?"

Su Beixun replied: "We are here as guests."

The child suddenly became nervous: "Are you here to adopt us?"

Su Beixun smiled and said, "How did you guess that?"

The child was obviously unhappy: "Every time a stranger comes to the orphanage, they take one of us away... The director said they all went to enjoy their lives, but why don't they ever come back to see us?"

He looked gloomy, but suddenly he was stunned, jumped out of bed and ran barefoot to Vodka: "Stop! Don't bully Rui!"

Vodka, who had been listening to their conversation, came to his senses and saw the child in his arms looking at him with his dark eyes. He quickly let go of him and took a step back.

The child put his hands in front of Vodka and shouted, "It's pitiful that Rui can't speak. Please don't bully him anymore."

Su Beixun pulled the bewildered Vodka aside, squatted down and said gently: "I will apologize to Rui on his behalf. Brave little boy, can you tell me your name?"

"My name is Lin."

"Don't have a last name?"

Lin nodded, "The director's mom said that only when you're adopted do you get a last name."

"Yeah."

Su Beixun stood up and looked past him at Rui.

The child named Rui had a blank expression on his face, as if he didn't care about his surroundings. Even though he was shaken by the vodka just now, he didn't resist after waking up. He sat obediently on the bed, like a motionless rag doll.

"Can you open your mouth so I can see?"

Rui looked up at him, but his eyes were unfocused. He seemed to be in a daze, and after a long while, he slowly opened his mouth.

Su Beixun raised his eyebrows, turned around and looked at Vodka. Seeing that he frowned slightly, he knew that he had recognized him too.

During this time, Rui kept his mouth open, even when Su Beixun stopped looking at him. He didn't shut his mouth until Su Beixun said it was okay.

"Can you guys get dressed by yourselves? This brother and I have to wake up the others."

Lin patted his chest and said, “Don’t worry, we are not children. We usually dress ourselves.”

Su Beixun nodded: "Then don't leave after you get dressed, stay in the room obediently, and wait for others to be called, and then we will leave together."

After closing the door, Vodka spoke first: "It's a cut!"

"Yes." Su Beixun nodded, "His tongue was cut off directly from the back half... However, it is not certain that this incident is related to the orphanage."

Without giving it much thought, the two continued to go to other rooms to call for help.

There were three rooms on the first floor and four rooms on the second floor, with a total of fourteen boys. But what surprised Su Beixun was that three of them had their tongues cut off!

Gather all the children at the entrance of the building to meet Shaxi Zhenji who has been waiting there.

Su Beixun asked: "Dean Shaxi, I found that several children's tongues..."

Shaxi Zhenji nodded, looked at a few of the children lovingly, and said, "They all appeared inexplicably near the orphanage in the past few years. I don't know who did such a cruel thing to them!"

Su Beixun didn't ask any more questions, and went to the restaurant on the right with the child together with Shaxi Zhenji.

On the way, Su Beixun seemed to sigh: "Since the village here is empty, Director Shaxi has never thought of moving the orphanage to other towns."

Shaxi Zhenji nodded: "I thought about it a long time ago, but firstly, I didn't have enough funds, and secondly... maybe we have been here for too long, and everyone knows it, so there have always been children abandoned here in recent years... If we move away, they will really be finished." They chatted all the way and walked to the door of the restaurant. Su Beixun used the excuse of having finished breakfast and pulled Vodka aside.

Vodka touched his head and asked in confusion: "What's wrong?"

Su Beixun said to him, "Just tell me later that you want to adopt the child named Rui."

Vodka suddenly became anxious: "No, didn't you say it was just an excuse?!"

Su Beixun rolled his eyes: "But we haven't figured out anything yet... However, those three children whose tongues were cut off must be special. You can adopt one and see how Jiang Gu Yichuan reacts."

Vodka didn't want to agree: "But...but..."

Su Beixun was helpless: "If you really don't want it afterwards, just send it back."

Vodka opened his mouth and at this moment sincerely felt Su Beixun's indifference. The gentleness he had shown towards the child just now seemed to be all a disguise.

Seeing that Vodka stopped talking, Su Beixun didn't care what he was thinking and went straight to Shaxi Zhenji to express his intentions.

Shaxi Zhenji was a little surprised: "You mean, your cousin wants to adopt Xiaorui?"

Su Beixun nodded and said with a smile: "That child is very well behaved, my cousin likes him very much."

Shaxi Zhenji probed: "But, Xiaorui's tongue... I'm sorry, I want to know why? If you can't sincerely accept this, I won't agree!"

Su Beixun nodded in understanding and said, "As you can see, my cousin has always been a quiet person, so he doesn't care whether Xiaorui can speak or not."

"This……"

Shaxi Zhenji was somewhat moved. If possible, she certainly hoped that the children could have a good home.

But remembering Jiang Gu Yichuan's previous instructions, she still said, "Of course, but could you please wait for a while?"

Jiang Gu Yichuan once told her that if someone came here to adopt a child, please tell him and he would investigate the identity of the adoptive person to avoid the children being entrusted to the wrong people.

This was the first time that someone other than Jiang Gu Yichuan came to adopt a child, so she wanted to call Jiang Gu Yichuan as agreed.

After listening to the explanation, Su Beixun narrowed his eyes slightly, but smiled and said, "It should be."

Shaxi Zhenji left the restaurant to look for a phone.

At this time, Lin came over stealthily and asked, "Big brother, have you decided who you want to adopt?"

Su Beixun nodded and said without hiding anything from him: "It's Rui."

Lin was obviously relieved and said, "Rui is very well behaved, and we have annual physical examinations. He is very healthy. You will not regret it."

Su Beixun was a little curious: "You seem to be afraid of being adopted by someone else?"

Lin nodded and said seriously: "I can't leave, I still have to wait for my brother here!"

"What happened to him?"

Lin's expression was gloomy, and his eyes were misty. "He's lost. One night two years ago, he suddenly disappeared. Everyone said he ran into the forest. The director's mother called the police, but he was never found."

As he spoke, tears began to flow down his face.

Su Beixun felt a little overwhelmed: "But, it's been so long. If he could come back, he would have come back a long time ago. Who knows, he might have already..."

"Impossible!" Lin clenched his fists and glared at him angrily, like a little lion whose sore spot was stepped on: "Zero must still be alive! I can feel it, he must still be alive!"

Looking at Lin running away crying, Su Beixun sighed: "Vodka, now I finally understand your feelings of not wanting a child!"

Vodka is dull.

I didn't have to wait too long before Shaxi Zhenji came back after making the call.

She apologized, "I'm sorry, Mr. Jiang Gu said he just found a suitable adoptive parent for Xiao Rui not long ago, so..."

Su Beixun said with some regret: "Really? That's really unfortunate... In that case, we won't bother you anymore."

Shaxi Zhenji bowed repeatedly and escorted the two out the door.

After walking a distance, Vodka asked, "Are we going back now?"

Su Beixun stopped and shook his head, "Of course not!"

Vodka scratched his head: "But, we didn't find anything..."

"That's you!" Su Beixun found a relatively dry piece of land, sat down and leaned against a tree, and said with a smile: "I do have some guesses."

Vodka immediately looked over curiously.

　Sorry, sorry, I went to visit my grandfather during the day, so I didn’t write much.

　　Considering that it's New Year's Eve today...you will forgive me, right?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)