Chapitre 69: What Are These Numbers?
The car was driving quietly through the city toward the house of the Lee family. Chen leaned back and closed his eyes.
A conversation with Madame Wang made him recall the events of fifteen years ago. And the day he first met Elena.
. . .
15 years ago. The Orphanage of St. Magdalen.
The man got out and looked around. The orphanage was located outside the city on a high hill. Around there was green grass, trees, the sun was shining brightly, and the birds were babbling.
Cheerful laughter of the kids was heard everywhere.
The atmosphere was truly wonderful; only the man was completely indifferent to all of that. His life had been empty and meaningless for him for a year. A year passed since he had lost his wife and son.
He went inside the building, walked over to the principal's office, and knocked.
"Come in," he heard a female voice from the room.
The man opened the door and went into the office.
"Hello, my name is Chen Lee. I called you about the adoption," he introduced himself.
"Yes, Mr. Lee, I remember you. But tell me, are you sure you want to take this particular child? This girl, let's say, is a bit strange. I'm afraid you won't be able to handle her."
"Mrs. Principal, do not worry, everything will be fine. I insist on the adoption of this particular child. Can I see the girl?" Chen asked.
"Of course. Come on, I'll show her to you. She should be in the garden."
The principal and Mr. Lee went outside, and she led him to a small garden behind the orphanage building. Under one of the trees, a girl was sitting alone and drawing something on the ground with a small twig.
"Mr. Lee, you can talk to the child for now, and I will prepare the necessary documents," the principal lady said and left the man alone with the girl.
Having returned to her office, she immediately picked up the phone and made a call.
"Hello, sir! Hello, this is from the Orphanage of St. Magdalene. One man came here who wants to take the child. That girl that you brought and asked to keep an eye on... Yes, he is from Lee Pharmaceuticals... Well, I understood, I will let him take the girl. Sir, what about our agreement? Will you continue to support the orphanage, even if the child is taken away? ... Thank you, sir! I will do everything as you ordered!"
The principal happily hung up the phone and began to prepare the documents for the adoption. Her happiness knew no bounds. She, at last, could get rid of the problematic child and at the same time save additional funding, which was not taken into account anywhere and went straight into her pocket.
Anyway, she made the right decision when she agreed to abide this crazy girl. In such a cheerful mood, the woman began to fill in official papers.
Meanwhile, Chen approached the girl, who was calmly drawing on the ground, and began to look at her. She was small and looked very fragile, but she was still taller than his son. If Jun was alive, he would have been only one year younger.
Elena noticed the shadow of the man behind her and turned her head.
"Hello," she said with a quiet voice.
Chen was taken aback, not expecting the child to contact him first. He came closer, crouched down next to Elena,
"Hello. And what are you drawing?"
"Lightning," the girl replied even more quietly.
The man looked at the drawing on the ground. Two lightning bolts were depicted on it, next to each other.
"Hmmm, do you like to draw lightning?" Chen tried to start a conversation with the child, but he felt completely unconfident.
"No, I don't like them. They are very scary."
"You're right, you should be afraid of the lightning if you are in a forest or in a field during a thunderstorm. In other situations the lightning is absolutely not scary because we live in the city," the man decided to calm the child.
"No, uncle, that lightning is not terrible. Only these two are terrible," Elena replied to him as if he had said something utterly silly.
Chen looked at the girl in surprise and scratched his head, "*Damn, I don't understand anything*."
"*Uncle is not to blame. Others also say that something is not right with my head*," Elena reassured him.
The man's eyes widened with great surprise, "*Do you know how to speak Chinese? Where did you learn it from?*"
"*We had a boy living in the orphanage for a week, he talked like that, and I learned from him*," the girl replied as if there wasn't anything special.
"*Did you learn to talk like that in a week?*" Mr. Lee didn't believe his ears, it was impossible. But Elena only nodded her head in response.
The man fell silent, looked at her attentively, and then said quite seriously,
"*To be honest, today I came here to take you with me. My name is Mr. Lee, but you can just call me Chen. I'll be your dad on paper, but I think we can become friends, to begin with. What do you say? Are you ok with this?*" President Lee asked her and tensed up a bit, waiting for the child to respond.
Elena looked at him and said, "*Are you sure that you need a daughter who has something wrong with her head?*"
The man lost his speech by an unexpected question, "*Did someone tell you that something is wrong with your head? Or do you think so yourself?*"
"*No, I don't think so*," the girl replied having thought a little.
"*Then this is enough for me, the opinion of others does not interest me*," Chen Lee said and patted the girl on her head.
Elena, having heard the man's words, looked at him once more and smiled.
They returned to the orphanage building together, Elena went to her room to pack her things, and the man went to the principal's office.
The woman had prepared all the necessary documents by that time and handed them over to Mr. Lee along with a small piece of paper.
"What is this?" He asked, seeing six numbers on a piece of paper - 280498.
"This is the date of birth of the girl," the principal replied.
"Why do I need it? Isn't her date of birth indicated in the documents?" The man asked, not understanding the value of this piece of paper.
"I already told you, this is no ordinary child. You will understand everything when the night comes," the woman answered and told him about some details.
Once back in the car, Chen looked at the girl again. There was indeed a wound on her left forearm, but the numbers 280498 were written on top of it.
"Why do you need to write a birthday on your arm? Don't you remember it?" he asked Elena.
The girl immediately covered her arm with her hand, and turned away to the window, "It is necessary," she answered coldly.
The man decided that he should not force the child to tell him what she doesn't want to share yet. On the way home, he told Elena a little about himself, about his house, where and how they would live, where she would study.
When he arrived home, he showed the girl her new room and said that if she wanted something, he could buy it for her. But the girl was unpretentious, and she had enough of what was already in the room.
The most unusual thing began at night. Chen suddenly woke up from the loud cry of a child. He flew into Elena's room and saw the girl beating hysterically and scratching her arm.
He immediately remembered what the principal had instructed him to do in such a case. The man took the girl to the bathroom and washed out the numbers that she had on her arm during the day. As soon as he did it, the girl instantly calmed down and fell asleep quietly.
When she woke up in the morning, in the first place, she took a pen and wrote back the same numbers. This went on for several months, and then suddenly stopped, and it seemed that the child had completely forgotten what happened.
Chen Lee also decided not to attach special importance to this, and also soon forgot about these sleepless nights.
And just now, while he was driving home in a car, he suddenly remembered what had happened so long ago.
'Hmm, has it really been fifteen years already? I cannot believe that time has flown by so quickly,' he thought.
"President Lee, we have arrived," the driver told him, parked at the gate of the house.
"Wait, take me to another place first," Chen said and gave the address to the driver.
"What is it there, Sir? This place is quite far," the driver asked his boss. He was quite surprised by such an order from him.
"There is my daughter's favorite pastry shop there. She loves cakes that are cooked there," President Lee answered and smiled.
The driver smiled in response and drove to the specified address.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone