Chapter 8: Receipt 6671

The brass key with the red thread turned in the cabinet lock on the second try.

"It opens nothing you are allowed to open yet," Anzhi whispered. "That's what Grandfather said."

"Then he gave you a very good key for nothing," whispered his friend, holding the lantern.

It was one in the morning, and the cellar was cold enough to see their breath.

The twelve drawers slid out one at a time, each with a year inked on a card.

Anzhi started at the bottom with the oldest. Twenty-two years ago, September.

He took out a thin ledger bound in black cloth. The pages smelled of mice and camphor.

It was a private sub-ledger in a heavy, forward-leaning hand.

He knew the hand. It had been on the printed sheet's draft, and on the foundation's vase receipts.

Jiang Zhongping.

"Hold the light lower," said Anzhi.

He ran a finger down the page.

Hospital fees. Obstetric charges for Madam Su. Flowers.

Then, on the fifteenth of September, one line stood alone.

Receipt 6671. Jiang Maternity Hospital, nursery ward. Two identification bands, replacement. Paid in cash. Z.P. personal.

Anzhi read it a second time.

"What's wrong with that?" said his friend. "They lost a bracelet."

"They didn't lose it. Two. A hospital doesn't replace two newborn bands the morning after unless something happened to both babies in the dark."

"A typhoon night," said his friend slowly. "Your Ma always says the power went out in the whole city the night you were born."

"Yes."

"Huh."

Anzhi turned the page.

The next line was dated the first of October.

Nursing support, Q.F.L. Five thousand yuan.

The line under it was the first of November. Nursing support, Q.F.L. Five thousand yuan.

The one under that was December.

He turned the pages with his thumbnail.

It went on for two hundred and sixty-four lines, in the same hand and ink, with the same neat checkmark beside each one.

The last entry was the first of October, this year.

Five thousand yuan. Wuxi, Sunrise Home.

"Twenty-two years of pocket money for a nurse," said Anzhi softly.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Swapped Heir Came Home Hungry from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.