Episode 88

As usual, Su Jin’s call didn’t get through. Things had been like this for nearly a month now and Su Jin was getting really worried. Ye Yun was a good fighter, but she was all by herself and she was a real troublemaker at times too. There was a real chance that she might offend somebody too powerful for her to fight.

After thinking about it for some time, Su Jin decided to make a phone call to another person. This person not only picked up quickly, but also immediately started ranting at Su Jin.

“Damn you, Su Jin! You FINALLY remember that I exist? Dude, you haven’t called in YEARS! Have you completely forgotten about me?!” The person on the other line was male and he was probably on very good terms with Su Jin.

Su Jin grinned and said, “Well, I’m not doing spectacularly well, you know? I’m too embarrassed to meet you guys.”

“What the hell?! Is that what you think of me? I, Mu Qiuming, do not care for your money! Whether you’re doing well or not is none of my business!” snapped the man before continuing, “Enough of this nonsense. Are you coming over? Or you want me to go over? You’re still in S City, right?”

“No, don’t come over. Even if you do, I don’t have time for you. When I’m done with my work here, I’ll go visit you,” Su Jin quickly interjected.

“Ha! That’s a promise! I’ll send you my address in a while, so if you stand me up, prepare to meet my wrath!”

Mu Qiuming stopped teasing Su Jin and said, “Clearly you’re not calling me to catch up, so…what do you want from me? Spit it out.”

“Help me check where this particular phone number is right now,” said Su Jin.

“Give me the number.”

Su Jin gave him Ye Yun’s number. He was very confident in the abilities of this best friend from his university days. After all, Mu Qiuming was someone who had been headhunted by almost every international tech firm even as a student.

Before long, Mu Qiuming laughed merrily and said, “Not bad! Not bad! Ye Yun’s quite pretty! Are you trying to become a stalker now?”

“She’s a friend and she’s been missing for nearly a month now,” said Su Jin defensively as he rubbed his nose awkwardly. He was so glad that Mu Qiuming couldn’t see how awkward he looked over the phone.

“Done! I’ll send you the address right now. But seriously, dude, I’m so glad to hear that you’re going after a girl,” said Mu Qiuming cheekily.

“Thanks bro! I’ll visit you in B City once I’m done with everything here!”

“I’ll be waiting!”

They hadn’t met in many years, but they were still best of friends. Actually, Su Jin did miss this buddy of his, but he wasn’t doing very well before and was a little embarrassed to meet up with old friends. He was doing well now, but his life was constantly in danger, so he didn’t want to interrupt his old friends’ everyday lives either.

Two addresses were sent to him in quick succession. One was Mu Qiuming’s current address, while the other was where Ye Yun was right now.

“Starlight Orphanage?” Su Jin didn’t expect to find out that Ye Yun was actually at an orphanage within S City. But this orphanage was in the rural part of town, so it wasn’t within the city center.

As far as he remembered, S City had been trying ensure that all social welfare services were located in the city, because the government had placed a lot of emphasis on such organizations. Even commercial buildings had to make way. So he found it very strange that there was an orphanage so far flung from the city center.

Kano Mai suddenly appeared in front of Su Jin. She had just finished her training time in her Personal Hell Domain.

“Mai, I’m going to the suburbs for a while. You’re very tired, so just stay here and rest!” Su Jin said all this to Kano Mai very rapidly, grabbed a jacket and ran out of the house.

He flagged a cab and found himself in front of Starlight Orphanage in slightly under an hour. His first impression of the orphanage was that it was old and rundown.

That really surprised him. Given how the government had been supporting such organizations directly and how the flow of donations had been very transparent in recent years, it didn’t seem possible for any welfare organization to suffer a lack of funds or for their funds to have been siphoned off without anybody noticing.

As he walked closer, he began to stare puzzledly at the signboard. The signboard was crooked and it looked a bit weird.

“It’s written in pencil?” Su Jin finally realized what was wrong with the signboard. The name of the orphanage had actually been written in pencil. If he didn’t look carefully, he wouldn’t have noticed.

He was even more curious about this orphanage now. The orphanage was old and rundown, plus it had a signboard written in pencil. This orphanage didn’t even look like it belonged to this era.

The main gate was really two wooden panels. He pushed it open to find that there was almost nothing inside. It was just a large front yard with a pile of oil barrels.

Swoosh! Su Jin heard the sound of something flying through the air towards him. He dodged to the side and a small stone hit the wooden gate behind him. When he looked at where the stone had come from, he discovered several children huddled together. The eldest looked like he was 15 or 16, and that small stone had been launched from his catapult.

When the children realized that the stone hadn’t hit Su Jin, they quickly scampered off. The smallest child looked about three or four years old and tripped over himself as he ran. The eldest one picked him up and continued running.

Su Jin raised an eyebrow but didn’t run after them. He yelled, “Hello there! I don’t mean any harm! I’m just looking for someone!”

The children ignored Su Jin and disappeared in the blink of an eye. But that wasn’t a problem to Su Jin. He had Psychokinetic Spirit Power and it was enough to locate even the stealthiest murderer in the world.

“My friend has gone missing for nearly a month now. I checked her phone’s last location and it led me here. If she’s here, can you ask her to come out and talk to me? Her family is very worried and they’re all looking for her!” Su Jin continued to shout as he started walking about.

Just then, the eldest child walked out. One of his arms seemed to have been badly injured before, so it hung limply by his side. The boy stared at Su Jin very cautiously and asked, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Su Jin. What about you?” Su Jin kept a friendly smile on, hoping that he would look approachable.

“You’re Su Jin!” The boy let out a long sigh of relief. He quickly passed a phone to Su Jin and said, “Sister Ye said that someone will definitely try to look for her, so if either a person named Su Jin or Tang Ning comes, I’m supposed to pass him or her this phone. There’s one video clip inside here that you must watch.”

Su Jin quickly took the phone from the boy and found the video clip that he mentioned. The first thing he saw on the screen was the glint of a knife, then Ye Yun appeared within the frame. The entire video was barely a minute long, and it was basically Ye Yun fighting a few guys.

He furrowed his brows as he watched the video clip. The men attacking Ye Yun weren’t very good at fighting, but they were very bold and aggressive. Every move they made was meant to be fatal.

Ye Yun had knocked out everybody by the time the clip was almost done. She looked straight at the camera and said, “Tang Ning! Su Jin! Regardless of which one of you ends up watching this, come to Yunshan in Z Province in three months’ time to pick me up! I’ll be waiting!”

After the video ended, Su Jin was even more confused. Who were those people fighting Ye Yun? Why did she want him to pick her up from Yunshan in Z Province only after three months? What was even going on?

“Brother Su, did something bad happen to Sister Ye?” the boy asked Su Jin worriedly.

Su Jin patted the boy’s head and said, “Have you watched this video before?”

“No. Sister Ye said that it was for you to watch,” replied the boy.

“Don’t worry, your Sister Ye is fine. She’s just gone on a holiday and will only be back some time later.” Su Jin wasn’t going to tell the boy exactly what he just watched.

Then he asked curiously, “Why do you know Ye Yun? How are you related to her?”

“Sister Ye often gives us food and clothes. She’s a very nice person!” the boy replied.

That wasn’t the answer Su Jin was expecting, but he wasn’t surprised. Ye Yun seemed very fierce on the outside, but she was actually a very softhearted and friendly person on the inside. It would have been very easy for her to provide for these children since she hailed from a well-to-do family, but she didn’t seem to have taken any money from the family at all.

“This place isn’t actually an orphanage, right?” asked Su Jin.

“Yeah. This is actually an abandoned factory. Sister Ye said that nobody would come here, so she told us to live here,” said the boy with a nod.

Su Jin started processing all this information. It seemed like Ye Yun had purposely arranged for these children to live here. He asked another question, “Are all of you orphans? Why don’t you stay at one of the government-run orphanages?”

“Sister Ye says they’re not safe!”

“They’re not safe?” mumbled Su Jin to himself. He tried to think of a possible reason, but couldn’t. Yet there had to be a reason why Ye Yun found them unsafe.

“How long have you guys known Ye Yun?” asked Su Jin.

“I’ve known her for more than three months, some have known her for two months, some six months. Xiaoyin has known her the longest. She got to know Sister Ye nearly a year ago!” said the boy as he pointed to a girl in the distance.

Su Jin nodded and waved at Xiaoyin. Xiaoyin didn’t seem afraid of him at all. It was as if the children trusted him just because he was a friend of Ye Yun.

“Xiaoyin, were all of you brought here by Sister Ye?” Su Jin asked Xiaoyin gently, afraid to frighten her.

Xiaoyin nodded and pointed to the other children. “Yeah! Xiaoyin came first! They came later!”

Su Jin concluded that Ye Yun brought these children to this place at different times for their safety. She was trying to protect them from something.

“Xiaoyin, what happened to your parents?” asked Su Jin.

Xiaoyin stared at him in surprise before her eyes were filled with tears. Her eyes blinked as her voice cracked, “Daddy and Mommy are dead! They’ve been killed!”

Once she started crying, all the other children started crying as well. The whole place echoed with the sound of their cries as they shouted the exact same thing.

“Daddy and Mommy have been killed!”