Chapter 15 — My Daughter's Iron Box

"Are there sufficient pieces of evidence now?"

"Officer Lu asked."

The audio recordings, the bank transfer logs, the call histories you provided, combined with the child's testimony, are more than enough to formally open a deep investigation.

"However, she is stubbornly refusing to confess. She claims she only introduced the girl for casual labor and had no idea the other party operated an illegal employment facility."

Shen Zhiqiang let out a cold, cynical laugh.

She knew Anan was fifteen.

She knew Anan suffered from severe gastric bleeding.

She knew the child had no money and nowhere else to turn.

She even explicitly instructed her older sister to make sure I could never find her.

Officer Lu nodded solemnly.

All of these details will be thoroughly investigated.

In addition, He Jiahao has expressed his willingness to testify as a witness.

Shen Zhiqiang looked startled.

Jia You?

The boy stated that Tang Meiqin instructed him to frame Shen Anan for stealing money.

He also revealed that she had previously threatened him, forbidding him under any circumstances to leak the existence of the voice recorder.

Shen Zhiqiang closed his eyes tightly. He had always dismissed He Jiahao as merely a spoiled, misbehaving child. Yet this time, at the very least, the boy had chosen to stop lying.

"Ensure that he is properly protected."

Officer Lu glanced sideways at him.

"Are you still looking out for him at a time like this?"

Shen Zhiqiang's voice dropped to a low murmur.

His faults are not the reason Anan had to endure such suffering.

Yet he was also just another child used by Tang Meiqin as a weapon.

"Whatever debts exist shall be settled directly with the adults."

The door to the hospital ward suddenly swung open from the inside. A nurse poked her head out.

"Mr. Shen."

The patient wants you to bring her school backpack inside.

Shen Zhiqiang immediately stood up from his bench. He walked up to the threshold, but stopped short of stepping into the room. Gently, he placed the worn canvas backpack onto the small chair right beside the door. Inside the sterile room, Shen Anan lay facing the opposite wall, refusing to look at him. Her voice was barely a whisper.

"There is a hidden lining inside the backpack."

"There is a list concealed inside it."

Shen Zhiqiang felt his heart sink heavily into his chest. Ms. Jiang hurried forward and began searching. Sure enough, tucked deep within a torn fabric seam, her fingers brushed against a piece of paper folded down to the size of a fingernail. Written on the slip were three names. Next to the final name, four chilling words were scotted: Leaving the city tonight.

The very second that tiny slip of paper was handed over to Officer Lu, the expressions of everyone standing in the corridor shifted dramatically. The three names on that list matched precisely with the three missing children who had not been accounted for on the old phone recovered from the docks. One of those names was Yuan Yuan. Only twelve years old. The location noted beside her name was the refrigerated warehouse on the western outskirts of the city. Officer Lu immediately mobilized units to strike at both locations simultaneously. Shen Zhiqiang stood off to the side, his fingertips ice cold. In a sudden flash of clarity, he realized that the Qingqiao warehouse and the Xi He docks were nothing more than temporary transit hubs. These criminals operated like ants moving provisions, shifting vulnerable children from one hidden corner to another. Children who were sick, those who were too compliant, and those whose families had nobody searching for them were treated as the easiest commodities to control. And the real reason Shen Anan had persistently left those tiny paper scraps behind was not because she lacked fear. It was because she knew that yielding to terror was utterly useless. Shen Zhiqiang turned his head to look back into the sickroom. Through the narrow gap in the door, he saw Shen Anan with her eyes closed, her complexion as pale as bleached bone. She was still just a fifteen-year-old child. Yet he had forced her, at the very height of her utter despair, to learn how to leave a trail of survival for others.

By afternoon, Tang Meiqin was hauled into the interrogation room. Shen Zhiqiang refused to go see her. He had already handed over all the surveillance hard drives from their home, the records of Tang Meiqin's secondary credit cards, and all related transfer receipts. His attorney called to ask if he was preparing to file for divorce. Shen Zhiqiang replied with a single sentence.

Prepare the papers.

And simultaneously file a lawsuit against her for violating my daughter's legal rights and interests.

The attorney fell silent for a brief moment.

"Are you certain you want to escalate this to such a degree?"

Shen Zhiqiang stared through the glass at the hospital door.

"This is not about escalating."

"This is about settling accounts to the very end."

After hanging up, He Jiahao sent him a text message. "Uncle, is my mother going to go to prison?" Shen Zhiqiang stared at the words on the screen for a long time. Finally, he typed out his reply. Whatever she has done, she must bear the consequences. He Jiahao remained silent for a long while. Ten minutes later, he sent an audio file. When played, it contained the sound of the boy desperately trying to muffle his sobs.

"Uncle, I am so sorry."

In the past, I always took things away from Anan.

I thought everything she had was given to me by Mom.

"I never knew she wasn't even allowed to eat a full meal."

Hearing those sounds, Shen Zhiqiang felt a suffocating tightness clutch at his chest. He did not offer forgiveness on behalf of Shen Anan. He had no right to speak for her. He simply replied, "Never lie again. He Jiahao sent back a single word. Yes."

As twilight settled, news finally arrived from the western refrigerated warehouse. The operation had been successful. Two of the children had been rescued. But Yuan Yuan was not among them. The warehouse keeper claimed that half an hour earlier, a gray freight truck loaded high with foam packing boxes had driven away. When Officer Lu hurried back to the exterior of the hospital ward, his expression was grave and dark.

Yuan Yuan may have already been transferred out.

Shen Zhiqiang's heart lurched violently back into suspense. Inside the ward, Shen Anan seemed to sense the commotion outside. She struggled desperately to push herself upright. The nurse rushed over to restrain her.

"You must not move!"

Shen Anan's voice trembled uncontrollably.

Yuan Yuan is terrified of the dark.

She cannot survive inside that cold storage.