Paper Baby - Chapter 12
"Hey, who are you?" a woman's voice came from the door.
"Excuse me, is Yue Wenying here?" I asked.
"Yes, that's me."
A surge of excitement welled up inside me, and I quickly said, "I apologize for bothering you, but I'm Na Duo, a reporter from Morning Star News. I'd like to interview you." With that, I flashed my press pass in front of the camera.
"Morning Star reporter? What kind of interview?"
"It's about... about some of your experiences. Could you go up and talk about it in more detail?"
"Okay, sure."
The security door made a slight sound and opened slowly inward automatically.
They just let me in like that? It seems pretty easy.
I took the elevator to the seventh floor, wondering what I would learn from her.
This time, there was no need for much talk; the door opened as soon as I rang the doorbell.
A blast of cool air wafted out from the door, instantly invigorating me. The woman who opened the door for me wore a knee-length silk slip dress, had a pointed chin, and long, narrow eyes that looked as if she hadn't slept enough and couldn't keep them open, exuding a languid charm.
But why do I feel like I've seen this face somewhere before?
I took out my press pass and business card again and handed them over. Yue Wenying just glanced at the business card, then looked up at me and said, "You...did you interview at the First Maternity and Infant Hospital before?"
I paused, nodded, and then suddenly remembered that the woman in front of me was the nurse I'd eavesdropped on when Dr. Zhang was telling me about the paper baby three years ago during my interview at the First Maternity and Infant Hospital. So she was a midwife. Apparently, their uniforms are quite similar, which is why I hadn't been able to tell them apart. She seemed much more attractive now than when she was a nurse, but perhaps my attention was completely focused on the paper baby back then, and I hadn't noticed her at all.
Yue Wenying smiled and said, "You remembered? Come in and tell me what's on your mind."
I changed my shoes and went into the living room, where I sat down on the sofa. The living room was about fifty or sixty square meters, and all the furniture, decorations, and furnishings were exquisite.
The living room is this big; the whole house must be at least 200 square meters. What's the land price here now? 30,000 yuan per square meter or higher? Where did she get so much money?
"How did you know I lived here?" Yue Wenying asked.
"Oh, I first asked someone to find your parents, and they gave me this address."
When I mentioned her parents, a shadow crossed Yue Wenying's face.
"Actually, my visit to you today is somewhat related to that interview."
"Is it related to that interview, that paper baby?" Yue Wenying blurted out.
I nodded, but hesitated inwardly, wondering how to proceed. Should I ask directly, or take a roundabout approach? This Yue Wenying suddenly left the First Maternity Hospital back then, and now she's so wealthy—there are many suspicious points.
"There is some connection. I still kept in touch with that woman named Huang Zhi after giving birth. At that time, I didn't have enough interviewing experience, so I only interviewed the doctor. In the end, the report wasn't published. If I had known you were the midwife who delivered that paper baby, I should have interviewed you too." I changed the subject and suddenly asked, "But why did you suddenly leave the First Maternity and Infant Hospital? I heard the income and benefits there are quite good."
We need to figure this out before we can decide what strategy to use next.
Yue Wenying smiled, but there was a lot of unspoken meaning in her smile.
"Oh, I was being too presumptuous," I said insincerely.
"There's nothing wrong with saying it. You already know from my parents that I live here, so how can you not guess why?"
"Huh." I really didn't realize what she meant.
She smiled again and said, "I can't afford this kind of house, and the property certificate isn't in my name."
Then, she told me her whole story, like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.
It turns out she was a canary.
The term "canary" refers to a bird that is beautiful to look at and has a lovely song, but is kept in a cage and can never fly away. Over the years, this term has acquired a specific meaning.
I completely misunderstood why she quit her job because I was misled by other information. Actually, it's very simple: she met a wealthy Taiwanese businessman and became his mistress.
Many women willingly become mistresses, and besides money, love is also very important. Yue Wenying was so infatuated with that man that she refused to break up with him even after falling out with her parents. Her parents were intellectuals, the kind who were particularly upright and old-fashioned. Their daughter being kept as a mistress by a Taiwanese man was completely beyond their tolerance, and they were too ashamed to face anyone if it were told. So they simply pretended they didn't have a daughter and cut off all contact with her.
The more intense the love, the shorter its duration. Today, what keeps Yue Wenying in this state is no longer just affection. Most of the time, she lives alone in this big house, lonely and isolated, with no one to talk to. Today I came here so she could have someone to talk to, and since we're strangers, it's easier for us to speak freely and vent our feelings.
After hearing Yue Wenying's story, I finally felt relieved and the first thing I said to her was, "Huang Zhi is dead."
"Huang Zhi, the woman who gave birth to the paper baby, has been murdered."
Under Yue Wenying's shocked gaze, I recounted the whole story in detail. From Huang Zhi's mental breakdown, to my daughter's disappearance and my search for her, to how I found her dead in a small hotel in Shanghai, and how the DNA test matched the stillborn baby found in a refrigerator in South Korea, and so on.
The series of events and their bizarre connections left no one able to make sense of it all. Yue Wenying paused for a moment after I finished speaking before saying, "You now suspect that Huang Zhi gave birth to more than just a paper baby? That another one ended up in the refrigerator in South Korea?"
I nodded: "Because there are no other possibilities. Huang Zhi's pregnancy record only includes these two pregnancies."
“But I was the one who delivered the baby, and she only gave birth to that freak!” Yue Wenying said, her eyes wide.
"How could that be?" I looked closely at her expression; she didn't seem to be lying.
“That was the most memorable one I’ve had in all my years as a midwife, how could I possibly be wrong?” Yue Wenying said firmly. “Besides, if she really had given birth to another healthy baby, we would have given it to her right then and there, how could we have hidden it away?”
At this point, noticing my strange expression, she exclaimed in realization, "So you really do suspect we hid the baby!"
I coughed and said, "This is the most logical judgment based on the facts, and besides, when I went to the First Maternity and Infant Hospital to investigate, Dr. Zhang and you, the two people who know the facts best, happened to be absent..."
"But the fact is that Huang Zhi only gave birth to a paper baby. Any one of the things you just said is very strange, so strange that it cannot be understood normally. So, adding another inexplicable fact wouldn't be unacceptable to you, would it?"
I gave a wry smile: "I was hoping to get some breakthrough from you, but now... Think back, was there anything that struck you as strange?"
"Strange things?" Yue Wenying smiled. "Isn't it strange that someone would give birth to such a thing?!"
Although she said it with a smile, her expression made me feel that even today, when she thinks back to that day, she still feels lingering fear.
"But looking back now, there are indeed some unusual things. Everyone present was stunned at the time, and some small details were overlooked."
"Oh, what kind of things are there?" I couldn't help but sit up straight.
"It's the placenta."
"afterbirth?"
"It's a membrane that protects the fetus before it forms, like an eggshell, but soft. Generally, after the baby is born, the mother is only considered safe after the placenta is expelled. There's a medicine called 'Fetal Treasure Powder,' which is made from the placenta and is very nourishing."
It's very nourishing... This kind of medicine sounds a bit disgusting.
"However, the placenta of a paper baby is larger than that of a normal fetus."
My eyes lit up, and I said, "Like how a double-yolk egg is bigger than a single-yolk egg?"
Yue Wenying nodded: "For a paper baby like this, the placenta was a bit too big when it was born. Another thing is, I've always thought it was just my imagination. I... I think Huang Zhi's belly is a little smaller than when she first came to the hospital."
"Your belly's gotten smaller?" My eyes started twitching involuntarily. What kind of weird thing is this foreshadowing...?
"If I hadn't heard what you just said, I wouldn't have dared to tell you my feelings, because it's simply impossible. I always thought I was overthinking it. But now it seems too bizarre, too bizarre."
I shuddered when I heard her say the word "demon" twice.
"Wait a minute. I just interviewed at the First Maternity and Infant Hospital. I learned that midwives generally don't have contact with patients before delivery. It's other nurses who take care of pregnant women who stay in the hospital before delivery. How could you have noticed the size of Huang Zhi's belly when she was first admitted to the hospital?"
"It's because of a card-playing friend."
"Mahjong buddies? Mahjong buddies?"
“A poker buddy. Wait a minute.” Yue Wenying said, taking out a photo album from the cabinet and flipping to a page to show me.
"This photo was taken a few days before Huang Zhi gave birth. It shows her card-playing friends, and this is the person I'm talking about."
The background of the photo is roughly a corner of a hospital, and there are six girls in it. Actually, there should be five. The one Yue Wenying is referring to is older, at least thirty years old. The six are standing in two rows, and this person is standing in the middle of the back row.
Upon closer inspection, I suddenly noticed that there seemed to be another person standing between this person and the girl to her left. However, that person was extremely short, like a small child, with only a bit of hair showing, and their face was mostly obscured.
My face froze instantly, and a chill ran down my spine.
What's this?
Normally, when a child takes a photo with adults, the child is always in a prominent position. There's no reason for the child to be completely blocked by the adults, leaving only a blurry outline of hair.
Besides, Yue Wenying just made it very clear that this is a group photo of her mahjong partners. Her mahjong partners certainly wouldn't include such a small child!
So who is this person, or rather, what is this?
I'm reminded of those ghost photos circulating online, the ghosts of children appearing out of nowhere behind people...
"What, what is this?" I asked Yue Wenying, feeling my tongue was stiff.
"Ah. This?" Yue Wenying looked at the place I pointed to, then at my expression, and actually laughed.
"This is a little girl. I forgot her name, but she is the daughter of that woman who gave birth."
"Huang Zhi's daughter? Zhou Qianqian?"
"Zhou Qianqian? I think that's the name. That's why I noticed Huang Zhi. My mahjong partner, Xue Ying, is a caregiver who was taking care of another new mother in the same ward as Huang Zhi. This little girl, Zhou Qianqian, is very withdrawn and doesn't talk much to adults, but she gets along very well with my friend. So when we were taking pictures, I tried to get her to join us, but she refused to stand in front and kept shrinking back, which is why the picture turned out like this."
I breathed a sigh of relief. So that's what happened. It really gave me a fright.
"Is it because you, as her caregiver and mahjong partner, get along well with Zhou Qianqian that you noticed her mother?"
"Yes, actually, although this little girl doesn't talk much and always hides in a corner, somehow, you can't ignore her. And it's quite rare to see a mother bring only her daughter to the hospital to give birth. Oh, right..."
Yue Wenying thought of something and said, "Speaking of strange things, Xue Ying resigned not long after that. It was really abrupt. She changed her phone number and disappeared. She used to be very close to the little girl. I think the girl treated her even better than her own mother. So, that's one of the strange things about her relationship with Huang Zhi."
"Shortly after that? How long is 'shortly'?"
"It was probably two or three weeks. She didn't say goodbye to us, her girlfriends who played cards with her and got along with her. She just quit like that."
I thought for a moment and said, "I'll take some photos of these pictures. You don't mind, do you?"
"It's okay, you're done taking the picture."
I took out my digital camera and photographed the picture as clearly as possible.
Leaving aside why this woman suddenly resigned, if she truly loved Zhou Qianqian, she might have continued to keep in touch after Huang Zhi was discharged from the hospital. Considering Datang Village, and the rumors that Zhou Qianqian was often seen with strange outsiders and girls before her disappearance, could it be her?
Leaving Yue Wenying's place, I gained some insights, but I was left with many more questions.
My belly has gotten smaller?
The placenta is too big?
As I was pondering what this information implied, my phone suddenly rang.
"Hello, this is Wang Xuanren."
"Oh, Detective Wang." I was taken aback for a moment, then realized that this was the detective in charge of the case of Huang Zhi's murder.
"I have something to tell you: the murderer has been caught!"
Chapter Ten: The Murderer
"The murderer was caught so quickly? Who is he, and why did he kill Huang Zhi?"