Paper Baby

Chapter 11

As I relayed He Xi's words to the old woman in Shanghainese, I shook my head inwardly. He Xi was really too direct. I had originally wanted to slowly bypass Zhou Qianqian.

"No, I was pregnant three years ago, but I miscarried."

The miscarriage mentioned must refer to the time when the paper baby was born.

"Besides this, have you ever been pregnant? Think about it carefully, it's very important for solving the case."

Without hesitation, the old woman shook her head immediately: "It's definitely not. We're from the same village and live so close together, there's no mistake. Huang Zhi gave birth to Zhou Qianqian three years after she got married. After giving birth, the village family planning committee persuaded her to get an IUD. Three years later, because it wasn't working, she went to the hospital to have it removed. She got pregnant again right after it was removed, but it was the same child she miscarried. After the miscarriage, she developed mental problems, and with such bad luck, what man would dare to approach her?"

I looked at He Xi, and He Xi nodded, saying, "That's right. She had a cervical IUD inserted, and it fits when it's cut open. Most women experience some cervical erosion after childbirth, and having an IUD inserted for a long time can easily lead to inflammation. That's what she meant when she said it wasn't good."

"Definitely, she's only been pregnant twice. With her figure, it's so obvious when she's pregnant, there's no way she can't tell," the old woman said again.

Huang Zhi was thin and frail. While Veronique, being tall, might have had a slight chance of concealing her pregnancy, Huang Zhi was impossible to hide no matter what.

According to the French police's investigation, the two infants died approximately three years ago. Even with a margin of error, Huang Zhi, the child frozen in a Korean refrigerator, could not have been born before Zhou Qianqian. After Zhou Qianqian's birth, Huang Zhi had an IUD inserted. About three years later, after removing the IUD, she became pregnant with a child (likely a typo, should be 6 months old). After that, she developed a mental illness and no man approached her again.

This leaves only one possibility: one of the two dead infants that Kuroro found in his refrigerator was the twin brother of the paper baby, the twin brother who sucked the baby until only a piece of paper remained!

What Huang Zhi said in the hospital three years ago was actually true! She really was pregnant with another child!

What does this tell us?

I simply cannot believe the logical conclusion that a top-tier hospital deliberately stole a new mother's baby.

Whether it was for human trafficking or some other reason, this is a shocking scandal!

Chapter Nine: The Shrinking Belly

I lit a cigarette and leaned against the sidewalk railing.

The cigarettes and the lighter were bought from a nearby convenience store. I rarely smoke, only a few cigarettes on certain occasions, such as when things are difficult or complicated.

Right now, behind me, across a not-so-wide road, is the main entrance of a certain First Maternity and Infant Hospital in Shanghai. Many people are going in and out there, a significant number of whom are pregnant women with large bellies.

I've been here for a long time. Looking at the various vendors dressed in different outfits sitting on the ground selling trinkets, I wonder what signal made them scatter a minute before the city management officers arrived, and then return to their stalls in twos and threes.

The child Huang Zhi was carrying in a Shanghai hospital was found dead in a refrigerator in Seoul, South Korea. What is Veronique, who has already confessed, hiding, or is she simply delirious under pressure? Even if she isn't mentally unstable, it doesn't explain why Huang Zhi's child ended up with her.

Was killing her own child not enough for her? Did she need to buy babies from a child trafficking organization to kill in order to satisfy her twisted psychology? If that's the case, she's already confessed, so why doesn't she confess to everything?

Also, what causes the unusual marks on a baby's body from crawling for a long time? Could these marks be related to the baby absorbing its sibling in the womb? Or are there other, more mysterious reasons?

I believe the key is in the hospital ahead. As long as we can find the "thread" in the First Maternity and Infant Hospital and follow the trail, we can figure everything out.

Is it going to be the same old trick of using my journalist status to investigate? But that doesn't seem to work at the First Maternity and Infant Hospital. Can I find a suitable reason to request access to patient records and other necessary documents from three years ago? Asking various relevant personnel about events from three years ago—is that still considered news?

Moreover, this wasn't just one person's problem. Going further down the line, it involved a group of influential people within the hospital who collaborated to plan and execute the scheme flawlessly. So, would these people allow me, a journalist, to see any materials that could potentially expose the truth?

If I could come up with a perfect answer, I wouldn't be lingering here for so long. But now that I can't think of a perfect solution, I'll stop thinking about it.

I stubbed out my cigarette and headed towards the First Maternity and Infant Hospital. In a place like this, where I knew no way to proceed, the alcohol made me want to act like a brute and just crash into it, to see what would happen. At least I could observe which people's reactions seemed suspicious.

My phone suddenly rang.

"Where are you?" Only He Xi could answer with such a straightforward tone.

"I am on... Chang Le Road."

"Chang Le Road? You're at the hospital?"

"Um."

"Wait for me, I'll be there in a bit," He Xi said before hanging up the phone.

I paused for a moment, then leaned against the railing, took out a cigarette, and lit it.

Fifteen minutes later, I received another call from He Xi.

"Where is she?" she asked as a police car drove past me and turned into the gate of the First Maternity and Infant Hospital.

As I hurried into the hospital, He Xi, dressed in a police uniform, was already standing in front of the outpatient entrance.

“Why are you here? This place is not like Datang Village. It’s unlikely you can get away with an expired police ID.” I said.

"You're here to investigate the paper baby?" He Xi asked instead of answering.

"yes."

"Then let's go in."

He Xi finished speaking and left, turning her back on me, which made me grit my teeth in anger. Would it kill her to explain herself clearly? This style is really... to my liking.

"What are you standing there for?" He Xi turned around and asked.

"Oh...oh." I quickly followed.

We went directly to the director of the Women and Children's Hospital, a man with a slightly balding head who looked like he would retire in a few years.

He Xi immediately showed me her identification upon meeting me. I glanced at it from the side and it didn't seem to be that expired police officer's ID.

The director carefully examined the documents and then handed them back to He Xi.

"Forensic Doctor He, is there anything I can help you with?"

So it turned out they gave me a forensic certificate.

"There is a murder case that requires your hospital's assistance. The deceased was hospitalized for a period of time three years ago, and I need all the examination data you conducted on this patient named Huang Zhi at that time so that I can compare it with her current autopsy results. This is very important to the case."

"Oh, okay, we'll definitely cooperate." The director seemed completely unsuspecting and immediately agreed.

"You speak so eloquently," I said softly to He Xi.

“That’s how it is,” He Xi replied.

The director asked He Xi to wait in his office while he had the relevant materials retrieved and delivered. When he made the call to have this done, his tone and wording were perfectly normal, showing no sign of anything suspicious.

"So, you're here to cover this murder case too?" I had already handed my business card to the director, but he didn't quite understand my intentions.

"Oh, no, I'm friends with Forensic Doctor He. We just bumped into each other at the entrance. But I am indeed here for an interview. Our newspaper wants to do a special report on patient satisfaction at major hospitals in Shanghai. We've heard that the First Maternity and Infant Hospital has done a lot of work in optimizing the medical environment, so I'd like to see it for myself. Ideally, could you send someone to explain to me how each step works?" I couldn't do anything waiting here, so I made up an excuse, hoping to learn something from another source.

The director smiled more. This was a perfect opportunity for hospital image promotion, so he couldn't let it pass. He immediately sent a girl from his office to show me around.

The girl wasn't exactly young, just younger than the head nurse. She'd probably been a nurse for several years before being transferred to the hospital administration office. Honestly, this is probably the best career path for a nurse, much better than working her way up to head nurse.

She enthusiastically introduced this and that to me, making me a little embarrassed. Because this report was completely fabricated, no matter how much she said, I couldn't write it down.

My primary interest was naturally in obstetrics and gynecology. It's rather unusual for a man to be interested in this… but under the guise of an interview, I gritted my teeth and went for it. After a series of questions, I finally understood the entire process for a pregnant woman, from prenatal checkups to hospitalization and delivery. I even visited the nursery and specifically asked how a baby is cleaned after the umbilical cord is cut in the delivery room, and how a nurse in the nursery bathes the baby with warm water.

In short, the procedures were quite rigorous, making it virtually impossible to steal a large number of babies on a large scale.

Actually, when I stood at the entrance of the maternity and infant hospital earlier, I already realized that even if there were cases of baby abduction in such a hospital, it wouldn't happen on a large scale. These days, many pregnant women secretly have ultrasounds; it's rare to see a woman like Huang Zhi who doesn't know the sex of her baby, or whether it's twins, until she's about to give birth. Furthermore, regardless of the hospital registration procedures, the husband usually waits outside the delivery room, and once the baby is successfully delivered, the nurses will immediately show it to the father.

Looking back, successfully stealing a baby required a series of conditions. First, the baby had to be a twin, so one could be hidden and the other kept. Second, the mother had to have never had an ultrasound and didn't know what was happening inside her, which was actually risky, as many people might have had their ultrasounds done at other hospitals. Then, the baby had to be hidden from the mother and the father waiting outside. Finally, the hospital procedures had to be done so that no clues were left.

Such stringent conditions preclude such behavior from occurring on a large scale, let alone forming a dark industry chain, because the cost is too high.

Logically speaking, certain individuals involved would only do such a thing under very rare and special circumstances. It's even possible that they only did it once, like Huang Zhi.

Yes, a special case. This baby was indeed very special, not only sucking his twin brother until he was as thin as a sheet of paper, but also leaving incredible crawling marks at the time of his death. Perhaps this special condition had already appeared when he was born, or perhaps there were other unusual features.

The medical reason, that's the motivation, I guess. I thought of that near-death experience last year, which ultimately forced He Xi to choose rebirth. It made me realize that even medicine can drive people to do such crazy things.

After I had finished all the interviews, I received a text message from He Xi on my way back to the office.

"I can't see the problem."

The moment I saw those five words, I felt a pang of fear. Having achieved such a near-perfect secrecy, should I continue investigating?

"He's no longer here; he went abroad. It's really unfortunate; he just left the day before yesterday." I heard the director say this to He Xi as soon as I entered the office.

"Oh, you're still not done here?" I said to He Xi, though of course, I was saying this to the director.

“No, I wanted to find the doctor in charge of the mother to get more details, but he has already gone abroad,” He Xi replied.

"Is this Dr. Zhang? I spoke to him on the phone just a few days ago," I said in surprise.

"How did you know?" the director asked, puzzled.

“I interviewed him three years ago about this woman who gave birth to a deformed baby,” I explained.

"Oh, I see. Dr. Zhang is a visiting scholar in the United States and won't be back for another six months."

He Xi and I exchanged a glance. What a coincidence!

"Then let's leave it at that. I'll take the photocopies of these materials back with me. If there are any problems, I might have to bother you again," He Xi said.

"Okay, okay," the director readily agreed.

He Xi and I walked out of the office and turned a corner in the corridor. I asked, "Didn't you find anything suspicious?"

“It looks normal on paper. If we had gone to a doctor and asked, the information a person could give us would have been much richer than what we see on paper. But…” He Xi stopped abruptly here, staring at a nurse who was walking towards us until the nurse brushed past us.

"What's wrong?"

“I almost forgot, there’s one more person. In the delivery room, doctors usually don’t do anything; they just watch from the side to prevent any accidents from happening. The midwife is the one who delivers the baby. The midwife who delivered Huang Zhi back then knew just as much as the doctor.” He Xi said, turning and walking towards the inpatient office.

"I'm so sorry, the midwife who delivered this woman's baby is no longer with us," the director told us.

"What?" I couldn't help but ask.

"She resigned two or three years ago, and we don't know where she is now." The director shrugged. "I'm really sorry, I can't help you."

"What's her name?" He Xi asked.

"Yue Wenying".

"Where are you from? Are you from Shanghai?"

"Yes, she's a local."

“In that case, finding her shouldn’t be too difficult,” He Xi said, looking at the director.

"Oh, right. It shouldn't be difficult for the police to find her," the director replied with a smile.

Two days later, one afternoon, I walked into a residential complex. This was one of the upscale riverside residential areas in Pudong. Yue Wenying lived here.

I originally thought that since the two people who knew most about Huang Zhi's pregnancy back then were coincidentally not at the hospital, even the police might not be able to easily find Yue Wenying. Now it seems that this idea wasn't entirely wrong.

I don't know if Yue Wenying is still here, or even if she still lives here. After Yue Wenying resigned, her file remained with the local street office, and it seems she hasn't worked since. All the phone numbers in her file have been changed, but her parents can still be reached. The local police officer in charge of Yue Wenying's parents' area visited their home at He Xi's request, and learned that they had completely severed ties with their daughter. The reason was unknown, and her parents were unwilling to discuss it further. Because of the lack of contact, they don't even have their daughter's current phone number. The address I have is the one on the New Year's card Yue Wenying sent to her parents this past Spring Festival.

It seems that Yue Wenying did something that her parents still cannot forgive and are unwilling to contact her.

He Xi didn't come with me. It's less likely that I, as a reporter, will arouse Yue Wenying's suspicion by conducting the interview. Now she needs to hurry up and study Huang Zhi's body. After all, this body, which is so precious to her, cannot remain in the forensic autopsy room forever; every day that passes is one less day left.

Yue Wenying lives on the seventh floor, where there is a security door downstairs. The owner can see the appearance of visitors through a camera installed on the door, and there is also an intercom for communication.

I pressed the call button for room 702, feeling quite worried that my rash arrival might prevent me from even getting through the door.