Chapter 51: Shadows of Innocence

According to logic, a foster daughter is at most a left-behind child. While she may lose her parents’ love, if they are generous with money, her life won’t be too miserable.

However, the grandfather entrusted by her foster parents turns out to be a beast.

When her foster parents left, she was twelve years old. Although still young, her good looks had already begun to show. At that time, she was a lively girl, but after her parents had a younger sister, she felt neglected and became somewhat quiet and shy. Despite this, her academic performance remained top-notch.

It wasn’t until her homeroom teacher noticed that the usually diligent and high-achieving student appeared dazed in class and her grades plummeted that the teacher investigated and discovered that the grandfather caring for her had been abusing this only twelve-year-old girl.

Although he was incapable of the most severe actions due to an accident that injured his lower body years ago, it was a common occurrence for him to exploit her while she slept, taking advantage of their non-blood relationship. The most despicable act was when the granddaughter woke up one time, and he covered her mouth and threatened her, saying that if she dared to speak out, he would send her back to the orphanage.

He claimed that if others knew about this, she would be the one to be scorned, unable to attend school, and would be the target of blame.

At just twelve years old, she had no opportunity to engage with electronic devices while living in the orphanage. After being adopted, her foster parents never allowed her to use a phone or access the internet, wanting her to focus entirely on her studies. During computer classes at school, she only learned the basics under her teacher’s guidance, so her knowledge in this area was minimal.

Due to her vigilance and resistance, her grandfather was unable to succeed in his attempts after that, but sometimes she would wake up in the middle of the night to find the old man she called grandfather sitting at the edge of her bed, looking at her.

Gradually, she became afraid to sleep. She wanted to stay at school for boarding, and her grandfather agreed, but when she considered telling someone, she was too frightened by her grandfather’s words to speak up.

If it weren’t for her homeroom teacher’s diligence and attention, who patiently asked her about her situation after noticing something was wrong, perhaps she would eventually have suffered severe abuse.

Ultimately, the teacher finally got the truth out of her. Furious, she could hardly contain herself and wanted to confront the old man whom this twelve-year-old girl referred to as grandfather.

Afterward, the teacher contacted her foster parents and informed them of the situation.

Her foster mother rushed to care for her, and her foster father took leave to return home.

Upon bringing her home, she keenly sensed something was off. The affectionate gaze her foster father once had for her was now replaced by coldness and impatience. She later learned that her grandfather had told her foster father that she had been trying to seduce him in order to get more pocket money.

She cried and argued back, how could a twelve-year-old girl, so inexperienced in the ways of the world, possibly stand a chance against a shameless old man?

Moreover, this old man had never remarried since the death of his wife in his youth and had always presented himself as a respectable man deeply devoted to his late wife.

She certainly didn’t know that this man who had been inappropriate with her had his own issues and didn’t know how to defend herself.

Choosing between her biological father who had raised her and a foster daughter with only a few years of acquaintance was an obvious decision for him.

At twelve, she was sent to a boarding school where she was given a monthly allowance. During holidays, she still had to return to the house with her grandfather.

Her foster father believed he had been more than fair to a foster daughter who would seduce at such a young age.

However, less than a year later, he received the news that his foster daughter had attempted suicide and was stopped by a teacher.

After an examination, she was diagnosed with tendencies towards depression and self-harm.

By then, both of them had settled into their jobs. They had brought their elderly father home to help care for the little girl. The child’s boundless energy was tiring for an old man, let alone to care for a teenager who tried to commit suicide and had once attempted to “seduce” him.

After discussing it, her foster parents concluded that this foster daughter was a regrettable mistake. If there had been any affection before, it turned into disgust when she “seduced” her grandfather for pocket money.

The only reason they kept her was that the law didn’t allow them to abandon an adopted child after having a biological one.

Both of them were a high school teacher and a public servant. They had no good impression of a foster daughter who disregarded her own life attempting to end it.

If they brought her home and the doctor diagnosed her with depression and self-harm tendencies, that would be one thing, but what if she caused harm again?

They both worked during the day, and the house only had a child and an elderly man; what would they do if harm befell them?

But if they disregarded her, there would be no place to put her.

Ultimately, they decided to send their foster daughter to the local mental hospital until she was well again.

They didn’t believe there was anything wrong with this decision. The monthly costs for the mental hospital were quite substantial, and their foster daughter could receive good treatment there. As foster parents, they believed they had done enough.

However, the distance of kindness did not extend even half a thought to check if this mental hospital had any dark history.

Nor did they inquire why their foster daughter wanted to commit suicide or if she had faced bullying at school.

The hospital had a poor reputation in the community, much like taking a child who loved video games to a doctor who declared it a sickness needing hospitalization.

Originally, this little girl, who wished to leave the world because of being neglected by her parents and abused by her grandfather, seemed trapped within a wall.

Desiring to die yet unable to, longing to escape yet powerless, she yearned for her foster parents to come see her, to hear her say she was not sick, but the “busy” adults never came.

In the end, she was forcibly administered medication for an extended period. The hospital staff, to prevent them from behaving like “mental patients,” fed them medications that would make them drowsy and sleep all day, and at night, “mental patients” of course had to be restrained to sleep.