Chapter 67: Setting the Goal: The Sprint for a Legal Identity

Three days later.

City First People's Hospital.

The venetian blinds in the ward filtered out most of the glaring sunlight.

Lin Xuan sat on the edge of the bed, bending over to tighten the laces of his sneakers.

The mobile phone on the bedside table buzzed.

The caller ID showed Officer Chen.

Lin Xuan pressed the answer key and held the mobile phone to his ear.

"Mr. Lin, are the discharge procedures done?"

"In progress. Are the results out?" Lin Xuan asked.

"They're out. We extracted Li Mingda's DNA sample and uploaded it to the National Anti-Trafficking DNA Database for blind matching."

"The match came back empty—no missing persons reports, no matching relative information."

Officer Chen paused for two seconds, then gave the final conclusion: "For now, the police are classifying her as an abandoned child of society."

Hearing this, Lin Xuan turned his head to look at Xiao Sizi, who was sitting on the other side of the hospital bed.

Xiao Sizi had already changed back into the outfit she had arrived in.

She folded the blue-and-white striped hospital gown into a neat square, smoothing out the creases at the collar with her palm bit by bit.

She moved very slowly, ears perked, listening for any movement from Lin Xuan's side.

"What's the next step?" Lin Xuan looked away.

"We'll issue a certificate stating that her biological parents cannot be found."

"During this period, as the person who found her, you can temporarily act as her provisional guardian and look after her."

"But for her household registration issue, you'll need to contact the civil affairs department." Officer Chen finished his instructions and hung up.

Lin Xuan slipped the mobile phone into his pocket and picked up the canvas bag on the floor.

"Let's go. We're heading home." He beckoned to Xiao Sizi.

Xiao Sizi hopped off the hospital bed, walked quickly to Lin Xuan's side, and gripped the hem of his shirt with both hands.

……

Back at the rented apartment.

The air carried a stale, stuffy feeling from not having been aired out for days.

Lin Xuan tossed the canvas bag onto the sofa and, without resting, walked straight to the desk.

He flipped open the personal computer screen and typed a few words into the search bar: Adoption Section of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China.

The page jumped, and dense legal provisions popped up.

Lin Xuan dragged the scrollbar, reading word by word, sentence by sentence.

"Article 1098: An adopter shall simultaneously meet the following conditions: has no children or only one child; has the ability to raise, educate, and protect the person being adopted; does not suffer from any disease considered medically unsuitable for adopting children; has no criminal record detrimental to the healthy growth of the person being adopted; and has reached the age of thirty."

Lin Xuan's fingers, which had been tapping the keyboard, stopped.

He was twenty-six this year—the hard requirement killed it.

But he didn't give up, continuing to scroll down through special clauses and local regulations.

Then he created a new file in the document, listing the required supporting materials one by one: proof of single status, certificate of no criminal record, physical examination report, income statements, property certificate or long-term lease contract.

After finishing this, Lin Xuan picked up his mobile phone and dialed his college classmate Liu Kai, who was now a practicing lawyer.

"Old Liu, taking on a case," Lin Xuan said straight out.

"Didn't you quit your job? Where's the case coming from?" The sound of papers being flipped came from the other end of the line.

"Help me run through an adoption procedure. A non-relative abandoned infant, a girl, six years old."

The other side went silent for five seconds, then burst out in an exclamation: "Are you crazy? You don't even have a partner, and you want to adopt a child? And you're not old enough!"

"I know the age is a hard limit, so I need you to help me check the civil affairs bureau's foster-care policy, or take the special channel for de facto orphans."

"Oh, and money isn't an issue."

"This isn't about money!" Liu Kai sighed. "Adopting an abandoned infant of unknown origin—the procedure is extremely cumbersome."

"First, you have to publish a notice in the newspaper seeking relatives, for a full sixty days."

"During those sixty days, the civil affairs bureau will team up with the local police station to conduct a strict asset audit and background check on you."

"You have to prove you can support her, and that you won't sell her off!"

Lin Xuan looked at the provisions on the personal computer screen: "You just draft the notice seeking relatives and help me run the procedure."

"The rest of the certificates, I'll handle."

……

The Sky Screen stretched across the nine heavens.

The Tang Dynasty timeline, Taiji Hall.

"Outrageous!"

"My legitimate eldest daughter, the Tang Dynasty's Jinyang Princess—to get a proper status in a later era, she has to endure such red tape and exploitation? Post notices across the realm for sixty days? And have her family's assets audited?"

Li Shimin's chest heaved.

Zhangsun Wuji stepped out of the ranks, bowed, and offered counsel: "Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Though this later-era law is cumbersome, it carries an unshakable, solemn strictness."

Wei Zheng followed right after, holding his tablet of office with both hands: "Your Majesty, the Duke of Zhao speaks reason. The laws of later eras do not bend for human sentiment, nor do they grant favors through imperial authority."

"Even adopting a single girl child requires asset verification, public notice, and layer upon layer of checks."

"If our Great Tang also had such strict household registration and adoption laws, the tragedies of trafficking and forcing the good into servitude across the realm would surely be reduced by nine-tenths!"

Li Shimin's fury gradually subsided, and a complex emotion welled up in his heart.

"Rule of law… greater than human sentiment." Li Shimin mulled over these words.

In the Great Qin era, within the Xianyang Palace.

Black banners snapped loudly in the wind.

Qin Shi Huang Ying Zheng stood on a high platform, his gaze blazing.

Li Si stood in attendance at his side.

Below the great hall, several Tingwei officials who championed Shangjun's laws trembled with excitement.

"Your Majesty!" an old Tingwei threw himself to the ground in a kowtow, pointing at the Sky Screen, "Shangjun's reforms of the past established the mutual responsibility of the Five and Ten, and registered the household census."

"We ministers thought this was already great governance."

"Seeing the laws of later generations today, we now know what the ultimate form of Great Unity truly is!"

Li Si stepped forward: "The laws of later generations stripped away all privileges."

"No noble could privately grant commoner status, no powerful family could hide population figures from the record."

"The truth of one's identity is decided solely by the state's laws; this is the true culmination of Legalism!"

Ying Zheng waved his sleeve.

"Convey my imperial decree!"

"Order the Tingwei to revise and repair the Great Qin's 'Tianlü' and 'Household Laws'."

"Strip the old aristocratic families of the right to arbitrarily grant slave or commoner status!"

"Within the borders of Great Qin, all changes in household status shall be under unified state management."

"Those who resist shall be punished as if they had disrupted the law!"

Modern times, a rental apartment.

Lin Xuan hung up the phone, reached out to rub his dry eyes, and spun his office chair.

A faint sound came from the kitchen doorway.

Xiao Sizi held a broom in her hand.

The broom handle stuck out a section taller than she was.

She dragged the broom with difficulty, scraping it across the living room floor.

She swept a few times, felt it wasn't clean, and put the broom down again.

She turned and ran to the bathroom, grabbed a rag from the counter, soaked it in water, and wrung it until half-dry.

Standing on tiptoes, she leaned over the coffee table and wiped the glass tabletop with force.

She wiped with extreme effort.

Lin Xuan snatched the rag from Xiao Sizi's hand and threw it onto the coffee table.

"What are you doing?"

Xiao Sizi's shoulders shrank back slightly.

She withdrew her hand, clasped it behind her back, and lowered her head to look at the water stains on the floor.

"Brother is sick, it cost money."

Xiao Sizi's voice was very small, carrying a barely perceptible tremor, "Sizi can work."

"I can sweep the floor, I can wipe tables, and I can also wash clothes."

"In the future... in the future I will only eat half a bowl of rice at every meal. Brother, don't kick me out."

She feared becoming a burden.

She had understood the words "abandoned infant" and "trouble" in Lin Xuan's phone call.

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