Chapter 7

Chapter 7

“What did you run back for just now?” Captain Liang asked me when we returned to the entrance of the residential complex.

“I remembered something. One day after school, Ruoxi said someone had come to pick her up and even bought her something to eat.”

“That happened?” Captain Liang was startled. “No one mentioned anything about that. Didn’t her parents say she always went to school by herself?”

“I just asked. Her parents said they’d never picked her up.”

“Did Wu Ruoxi ever say who it was?”

“She only mentioned it in passing at the time. I really can’t remember.”

“At her age, she wouldn’t just follow a stranger. And this person not only brought her back to the complex, but bought her snacks too. Could it have been someone she knew?”

“Could it have been her grandfather?” I asked.

“It’s possible, but didn’t you hear what Zhou Xia said? Wu Ruoxi’s grandfather doesn’t have much contact with their family. He doesn’t seem like the type to pick the child up from school. Anyway, we’re headed to her grandfather’s place now. Let’s ask him first.”

On the way, I asked Captain Liang, “If it wasn’t her grandfather, will it be hard to find this person?”

“Hard. We’ve questioned so many people around her home and her school, and no one has brought it up.

“That means, as far as her being picked up goes,

“there were no witnesses at all.”

On the way to Ruoxi’s grandfather’s home, the sky darkened and a torrential rain began to fall. Traffic started backing up ahead.

No one in the car said a word.

Captain Liang said,

“More than ten years ago, when I was first assigned to the local station, I worked on a missing minor case. It was a girl too.

“At the start, it was just like this. Everyone threw themselves into it, worked day and night, convinced the child would be found soon. Every night in our meetings, we set targets-first twenty-four hours, then forty-eight hours, seventy-two hours…

“I watched the colleagues around me, myself included, go from full of confidence to utterly discouraged…”

“Was that child ever found?”

“No…” He sighed. “For the first few years, the family came to the station every so often to ask if there was any news.

“Later, maybe they felt there was no hope anymore, and they never came again.

“But I still remember it. Everyone at the station who went through that case remembers it.

“It’s been more than ten years… Every so often, we still get together again, hold another meeting about it, and go through the leads all over again…

“You know, with this case, I’m actually scared.

“I’m scared that because we overlook some clue again, another girl will be doomed forever.

“This girl has already been missing for more than thirty hours…”

“That won’t happen, Captain Liang! Wu Ruoxi is smart. Heaven will watch over her. We’ll find her soon!”

“I hope so. This time, even if it kills us, we have to find her.”

Ruoxi’s grandfather lived in a corridor-style apartment building in an old workers’ residential compound. Although it was daytime, once the rain started, the stairwell turned pitch-black, no different from night.

When we climbed to the fourth floor, we saw an old man standing on a ladder, fixing the light in the hallway.

The old man turned to look at us. Captain Liang shone his flashlight over and studied his face carefully.

“Are you Wu Qishu?”

“I am.”

“Oh, we’re from the local police station. We came to ask you a few questions… You’re fixing the light, right? No rush. We’ll hold the ladder for you. Finish fixing it first.”

Wu Qishu had it done in a few minutes. When he climbed down, Captain Liang made small talk.

“Uncle Wu, I saw in the file that you’re almost seventy, but you’re nimbler than we are!”

“I’m used to it. I’ve been fixing things myself all these years.”

Once inside, we found that although his home was old, it was kept neat and orderly.

It was a one-bedroom apartment with a living room, not very large.

The only sofa in the living room was covered with a quilt and a pillow. At a glance, it was clearly being used as a bed, so we all remained standing to the side.

Wu Qishu said, “It’s fine, have a seat. This is where I sleep. I like sleeping on the sofa anyway-it’s convenient for watching TV.”

Since the questioning might take a while, we sat down after all and had him sit as well.

“Why are the police looking for me?”

Captain Liang said, “Before coming here, we learned that your wife passed away some years ago. Are you still living alone now?”

“Yes. I’ve always been alone.”

“How is your relationship with your son and daughter-in-law?”

“We keep in touch like normal. They’re busy, so aside from New Year’s and holidays, they usually don’t come over, and I don’t interfere with their lives…

“What is it? Did they do something wrong?”

“No. We came today mainly because of your granddaughter.”

“Xixi?” The old man lost his previous calm and instantly became agitated. “What happened to her?”

Captain Liang made up an excuse. “Oh… the community noticed that she often helps out at a braised deli stall, so they asked us to look into her family situation.”

“Yes, that did happen. That braised deli stall belongs to her mother. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with that, right?”

“Her stepmother, you mean. How is her relationship with her stepmother?”

“Pretty good. Xixi hasn’t had it easy. She’s been sensible ever since she was little. Fortunately, Zhou Xia married into the family and gave Xixi a complete home. From the bottom of my heart, I’m grateful to her.”

Captain Liang fell silent.

I noticed it too. Clearly, compared with what Zhou Xia had told us earlier, her and Wu Qishu’s views of each other differed in certain ways.

Moreover, Wu Qishu seemed to care deeply about this granddaughter, and he also cared about their family’s affairs. That was not quite the same as Zhou Xia’s claim that the two sides barely had any contact.

After a brief silence, Captain Liang said, “That’s true. For a child from a single-parent family, having a complete home makes a world of difference to their upbringing. But the prerequisite is that the stepmother truly treats the child well.”

“Zhou Xia… she’s not a bad person. She doesn’t have children of her own. She and Wu Xing planned to have another one, but they never succeeded, so Xixi is their only child. She’s done a lot for this family and for Xixi. It’s just that both of them are too busy. Sigh, it’s hard to make ends meet these days.”

“Uncle Wu, you seem to be in good health, and you’re living alone now. Have you never thought about going to their place to help the young couple out, maybe look after your granddaughter?”

“No, no… I shouldn’t disturb them.”

Wu Qishu’s voice suddenly grew very small, as if… there was a hint of resentment in it.

“Then have you ever helped take care of Ruoxi in private? For example, picking her up after school?”

“No!” Wu Qishu’s voice was firm.

But that sudden shift in emotion had already given him away.

He was lying.

“Not even once?”

“Never.”

Captain Liang was starting to get angry. We were in a hurry to find the girl, and although the person before us was an elder, he was clearly hiding something. Captain Liang stood up and headed toward the bedroom.

“We’d like to take a look around your home. Is that all right?”

“Let’s not. There’s nothing to see.” Wu Qishu suddenly got up and tried to stop Captain Liang, but I had already strode over and pushed open the bedroom door that had been left ajar.

The scene before me gave me a huge shock.

“Captain Liang, look!”