Chapter 6

Chapter 6

There was nothing off about Zhou Xia’s reaction. Those words had clearly touched a sore spot. With tears in her eyes, she said, “Now that she’s missing, people are bound to suspect that I, her stepmother, did something to her.

“But all these years, I’ve always felt sorry for Ruoxi. Precisely because I’m her stepmother, I’ve done everything I can to treat her well, to make up for the pain of not having her real mother around.

“There are plenty of bad stepmothers in this world, that’s true. But not every stepmother is bad.”

Captain Liang thought for a moment and decided not to continue on that topic.

“How is your relationship with Wu Xing? Do you two fight?”

“We do. When a poor couple lives together, everything becomes a source of misery. Whenever either of us is under too much pressure, we start arguing.”

“Has Wu Xing ever hit you?”

“Yes.”

Zhou Xia answered very calmly.

In 2016, domestic violence wasn’t condemned as fiercely as it is now, but I still wanted to provoke Zhou Xia a little.

“Wu Xing hit you. Did that ever make you resent him, his daughter, or this family?”

To my surprise, it enraged Zhou Xia.

“I just told you all that, and it turns out the reason you came here today was to prove I’m some vicious stepmother! That I’m the one who made the child disappear! Is that it?!”

Captain Liang hurried to smooth things over. “No, of course not. To solve a case, we have to understand the situation clearly.”

“I told you, fighting with Wu Xing is just fighting. Isn’t that what married life is like? What does any of that have to do with Ruoxi?”

She turned the question back on Captain Liang.

“The child has been missing for an entire day. Didn’t you say you needed to understand the situation clearly? Well? How much have you understood now? When can you find Ruoxi?!”

“We’re working on it. Right now, every other task at the station has been put on hold. Everyone is searching with all their strength.”

“What about the cameras in the neighborhood? What about the traffic cameras on the road outside? Can they show how Ruoxi was taken?”

Captain Liang shook his head. “We’ve checked all the footage. There wasn’t much coverage to begin with, just scattered bits here and there. If the other party came prepared, the cameras wouldn’t have caught anything.”

“Then what about the blood? The blood on the underwear, on the bed?”

“The results aren’t out yet, but the forensic lab said… it’s most likely Ruoxi’s.”

Zhou Xia covered her face and burst into tears.

“Then that means she really was raped?! She’s only ten years old! How could that beast do such a thing? Why did he hurt Ruoxi?!”

In the end, Captain Liang still asked about the point that had struck him as suspicious today.

“Why did you choose such a faraway school for Ruoxi back then? Weren’t there several closer ones nearby?”

“That’s just how we chose at the time. I wasn’t running a business before, so I was in charge of taking her to and from school every day. Later, when Ruoxi got older, she started going by herself.”

“Oh… all right.”

When we were leaving, there was some movement from Wu Xing’s room. It seemed he had woken up.

But he didn’t come out, and it wasn’t appropriate for us to go in and question him.

Zhou Xia saw us to the door. Captain Liang said to her, “No matter what, you still have to trust the police. Don’t put up any more missing-person notices for now. If we get any leads, we’ll let you know.”

Zhou Xia’s mood had improved a little from earlier. Her eyes were red as she looked at us.

“Thank you. You’ve worked hard.”

Just as we were about to turn and leave, Zhou Xia glanced back toward the bedroom and said to us, “You know… ordinary people like us have such bitter lives.

“Once something happens, every bit of value in a person’s life gets taken away.

“Does one terrible thing make all the beautiful things that happened before it lose their meaning?

“Now Ruoxi is missing.

“All the effort our family made in the past… does that mean it’s all gone?”

For a moment, neither Captain Liang nor I could speak.

We more or less understood what Zhou Xia meant.

Captain Liang said to her, “Wait for news. We’ll find the child.”

After we left the neighborhood, Captain Liang lit a cigarette and remained silent for a long time.

I asked him, “Do you think Zhou Xia is suspicious?”

“That woman understands reason and cares about feelings. She’s been so good to the child, and now that the child is gone, she’s more heartbroken than anyone. How am I supposed to suspect her?”

“But what if everything she’s showing us is fake?”

Captain Liang looked at me and said, “You’re still young, and you’ve never solved a case. All you know are those villains and antagonists on TV, the ones who are brilliant at pretending.

“But in reality, people don’t have only one side to them. They aren’t simply good people or bad people. Everyone is flesh and blood. They aren’t performing. They’re truly living their lives.”

Captain Liang was right.

I turned my head and glanced at the duty room in the distance.

For a moment, I seemed to see myself sitting there all alone.

Wu Ruoxi was the same as always, pushing open the door to the duty room with her little friends.

She stood beside me, laughing loudly as she pointed and commented on my screen.

“That skill shot was way off. Why don’t you let me play for a bit?”

I looked up.

“You already ate everything on the desk, and that still wasn’t enough to shut you up?”

“Haha, then you can eat mine. When they picked me up today, they bought me a bunch.”

She generously pulled snacks from her schoolbag and shared them with us.

Wait…

Hold on!

She said who picked her up?

I seemed to remember that one day, she had said:

“So-and-so” bought me a bunch when they picked me up today.

I left Captain Liang behind and rushed back to Ruoxi’s door again.

When Zhou Xia opened the door, I saw Wu Xing was already up, sitting in the living room. Both of them looked at me.

“What is it? Is there something else you need to ask?” Zhou Xia asked.

“I forgot to ask something just now. Does Ruoxi go to and from school by herself?”

Zhou Xia nodded.

“Neither of us usually has time. She takes the bus by herself.”

“In the past two months, neither of you picked her up even once?”

Zhou Xia said no. She turned to ask Wu Xing, and Wu Xing also said he hadn’t.

“Then could someone else have picked her up?”

“No. She’s never had anyone pick her up. Why?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to confirm.”

As I turned to leave, I couldn’t suppress the excitement in my heart.

This had to be a crucial lead.

As long as we followed this lead,

we would definitely find Ruoxi!

Definitely!