Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Su Yu’s family seemed to be quite wealthy.

Although the area where he lived was an old neighborhood, the houses were all townhouses. Each building was three stories high with a small yard enclosed by a fence, offering a glimpse of the scenery inside from the street. Most of the families in the neighborhood had planted flowers and greenery in these small plots.

Nan Mu stood at the entrance to Su Yu’s home. Looking through the fence, he saw a garden overgrown with weeds. The pebble-paved path was covered in fallen leaves, making it look as though no one had lived there for a long time.

There was a doorbell next to the wrought-iron gate. Nan Mu pressed it several times, but there was no movement inside the house.

Left with no other choice, Nan Mu stood below the building and called out Su Yu’s name.

After several shouts, no one emerged from Su Yu’s house, but a young boy from next door poked his head out to see what was happening.

“Are you looking for Brother Su Yu?”

“Yes.” Nan Mu walked a few steps toward the boy. “I can’t get through to his phone. Do you know when Su Yu will be back?”

“Brother Su Yu isn’t here…” The boy was clever, his eyes darting around. He ran down the stairs with a series of thuds and spoke to Nan Mu through the iron gate. “He hasn’t been home for months.”

“Then do you know where Su Yu went?” Nan Mu bent down with a smile. “Or do you have any contact information for his family?”

The boy didn’t answer immediately. He looked Nan Mu up and down. “You want to know?”

Nan Mu nodded.

“I can tell you, but you have to buy me something!”

This was somewhat unexpected. Nan Mu paused. “What do you want?”

The boy held up one finger. “I want a soda.”

Realizing that the person in front of him seemed easy to talk to, he thought about it and held up two more fingers. “Three bottles.”

Nan Mu couldn’t help but laugh and said readily, “Deal!”

=

Nan Mu took the boy to a nearby convenience store, bought three bottles of soda, and opened one for him.

The boy drank nearly half the bottle in one breath.

“Is it that good?”

Watching the boy’s satisfied expression, Nan Mu found it amusing.

“It’s delicious,” the boy sighed contentedly. “But my mom won’t let me drink it.”

He took another sip, turned to Nan Mu, and suddenly offered a compliment. “You’re as nice as Brother Su Yu. Okay then. What do you want to know? Ask away.”

“Are you and Su Yu very close?”

“Of course.” The boy lifted his head proudly and patted his chest.

Nan Mu took out his phone and pulled up a photo of Su Yu and Gu Zhishu. “Then let me test you first. What does Brother Su Yu look like?”

The boy only needed one glance to point out Su Yu in the photo.

Nan Mu gave him a thumbs-up. “Then tell me, what do you know about Su Yu? Let’s see if you’re closer to him or if I am.”

“I know a lot,” the boy said, tilting his head back. “My grandma told me many things about Brother Su Yu, and I heard it all.”

=

Su Yu’s father used to be a long-haul truck driver. Although it was hard work, it paid well. The elder Su was clever and drove the Sichuan-Tibet route. After delivering goods for his employers, he would bring back local specialty fruits on the return trip for Su Yu’s mother to sell at the fruit market, earning a profit from the price difference. Both of Su Yu’s parents were honest people who ran their business with integrity. With a steady stream of new and old customers, their life was flourishing.

About four years ago, on a particular night, Su Yu’s grandmother passed away suddenly. Su Yu’s parents had to rush back overnight to handle the funeral arrangements.

According to the local customs there, the funeral procession was held at night. As fate would have it, a thick fog rolled in that night, resulting in poor visibility. In the darkness, a large truck crashed into the funeral procession. Many people died instantly, including both of Su Yu’s parents.

Reasonably speaking, such an event was a tragic accident that no one could have wanted. However, someone harbored malicious intentions.

There were three brothers in the Su family. Su Yu’s father was the youngest, with two older brothers above him. Setting the eldest brother aside for a moment, the second brother was a complete scoundrel and a deadbeat who was usually lazy and good-for-nothing. On the night of the funeral, he had been sleeping at home after getting drunk. By sheer coincidence, the accident happened, and he was the only one among the three brothers to survive.
Although both brothers were gone, the situations of the two families were quite different. The eldest brother’s wife was from the same village and was still alive; her children were all grown and capable, making her difficult to deal with. Su Laosan’s wife’s family had passed away early, leaving behind an only son, Su Yu, who had just started his freshman year of college. Because he was at school, he hadn’t made it home for the funeral and was completely in the dark about the family situation. Most importantly, Su Yu was not Su Laosan’s biological son; he had been adopted from elsewhere.

In truth, Su Yu’s parents had kept this a well-guarded secret. Since the couple spent most of the year traveling for business, the villagers didn’t know they were unable to conceive. They simply assumed Su Yu had been born while the couple was working on the road and was only brought back once he was older.

Since it wasn’t exactly something to boast about, the family never spoke of it to outsiders, so the villagers all believed Su Yu was the biological son of Su Laosan and his wife. Consequently, when Su Laoer started making a scene, many people were left utterly confused.

Su Laoer wanted his brother’s inheritance, so he caused a stir, claiming that Su Yu was a foundling and not of the Su family bloodline. He argued that Su Laosan’s estate should be divided into three parts: one for himself, one for his own son, and one for the eldest brother’s son. When the eldest brother’s family heard there was a share in it for them-and that they didn’t even have to do the dirty work of protesting-they kept quiet, essentially giving their tacit consent.

Su Yu was only eighteen at the time. Faced with such a situation, he was naturally at a loss. The matter escalated until it finally ended up in court. Naturally, the court ruled in favor of Su Yu. He was a legally adopted child, making him Su Laosan’s son in the eyes of the law. Since Su Yu’s paternal and maternal grandparents had already passed away, he was the sole heir, and the estate rightfully belonged to him.

But a court ruling is one thing; enforcement is quite another.

Su Laoer continued to show up every day to wail and cause trouble. If he wasn’t at the apartment complex, he was at the school. The police were called, and he was even detained, but he simply refused to give up. Su Yu was only eighteen; even a man made of iron wouldn’t have been able to withstand such relentless harassment.

Waves of people from the community center and the police station came to mediate. In the end, it was Su Yu who kept backing down. He kept only the apartment and his parents’ savings. The farmland and houses back in the village, including his father’s truck, were all taken by Su Laoer before the man finally settled down.

But that was only a few years ago. Word was that Su Laoer had already gambled away all that wealth. Just at the beginning of this year, people in the complex had seen him here causing trouble again. So, when Su Yu hadn’t come home recently, everyone assumed he was just hiding from Su Laoer; no one thought anything else of it.

“Roughly when did Su Yu stop coming back?”

“Around May, I think,” the young boy said after a moment of thought. “The weather was getting a bit hot. Brother Su Yu even said he’d secretly buy me some soda once it got really hot.”

Gu Zhishu’s incident happened in April, and then Su Yu disappeared in May…

Could something have happened to him too? Nan Mu rubbed his temples, a headache brewing. “Have you ever seen any friends come looking for Su Yu?”

“No, I haven’t seen anyone come for him.” He suddenly paused. “Oh, wait, that’s not right.”

The boy turned back to look at Nan Mu. “Besides you, someone else came looking for Brother Su Yu this afternoon.”

Nan Mu was startled. “This afternoon?”

The boy nodded. “Around two o’clock, I think. I had just woken up from a nap. I saw her-it was a lady.”

A woman? Zhaodi?

Nan Mu’s heart began to thud wildly. He asked tensely, “What did she look like?”

The boy propped up his head, trying hard to remember. “A tall, thin girl. She was wearing a baseball cap, so I couldn’t see her face clearly, but she had a really nice floral scent on her.”

“Did she leave any contact information?”

“No. She chatted with my grandma for a bit, and after she found out Brother Su Yu wasn’t here, she left.”

Nan Mu fell silent for a while.

Holding onto a final shred of hope, he asked, “Does your complex… have surveillance cameras?”