Chapter Twenty-One: Report

Chapter Twenty-One: The Tip-Off

After finishing their discussion with Zhuang Quan about what had happened that day, Qin Ruonan and An Changpu still needed to verify whether the alibi he had given after the robbery held up. Although Zhuang Quan and Fang Wan’s disappearance were not necessarily connected, the robbery itself was at least confirmed. Before leaving, An Changpu contacted the officer from the precinct responsible for the Eighth Middle School district to come over and take care of the remaining matters, and only then did he leave with Qin Ruonan.

“Zhuang Quan is still so young, yet he already has quite a record. I wonder how this one will be handled,” An Changpu said, somewhat regretful for him. Boys their age were usually blank sheets of paper, but because this one had never been properly restrained or corrected, he had become the sort of hardened little veteran who had been in and out of trouble more than once.

Qin Ruonan did not share his compassion. After a quick calculation, she said, “If he’s telling the truth and never laid a finger on Fang Wan, then at worst it’s an unarmed robbery. That’s not nearly as serious in itself. And since he’s not yet eighteen, he won’t face especially heavy punishment. Whether he changes his ways or not has nothing to do with how severe the lesson is, but with whether he can truly understand in his heart how absurdly wrong this kind of behavior is. If he keeps thinking it’s perfectly natural to rob from others and enrich himself from their poverty, then any amount of punishment is wasted.”

“That makes sense! Didn’t expect it. You really can argue a point in a proper, convincing way,” An Changpu said with a grin. Then, remembering how Qin Ruonan had just made that roughneck yield so quickly, he asked in curiosity, “Speaking of which, you handled Zhuang Quan pretty well just now. I was still wondering whether I should keep negotiating with him the way we deal with those slick little punks, and then you said a few words and he caved. I was worried you being harsh with him would only make him more resistant, but it didn’t!”

Qin Ruonan smiled faintly. “Zhuang Quan is more like a big kid. He’s not the same as those slippery little punks. Their slickness is something they’ve learned through years of experience. A kid like him, who won’t respond to either softness or hardness, has been indulged into that state. Think about his family: his parents aren’t around, and he’s the only grandson in the house. His grandparents are terrified he’ll be mistreated, so they protect him no matter what. At school, since they can’t get the parents to cooperate, the school’s attitude toward Zhuang Quan’s borderline behavior is also ambiguous. That’s basically the same as encouraging him by default. So he’s gotten used to everyone around him taking that attitude, and he acts like a piece of stubborn meat not because he’s afraid of responsibility, but because he genuinely doesn’t understand what serious consequences are. He’s heard too many people coaxing and persuading him already; it doesn’t impress him anymore. What he needed was someone to spell out exactly how serious the problem was, and let him know that once things got out of hand, no one would be able to protect him.”

“Not bad. You’ve got a real knack for this. You understand kids’ psychology so clearly. Did you study it in depth?”

“No. Did you forget I have that hopeless younger brother? He just turned eighteen this year. He’s pretty much the same as Zhuang Quan, except he never had the nerve to rob younger students.” Mentioning her brother made Qin Ruonan somewhat helpless. “At home, my parents spoil him rotten, and at school, because they’re afraid of damaging the school’s reputation, the administration often hides fights that don’t lead to serious consequences, or incidents like extorting money and belongings from younger students. They handle things privately inside and cover them up outside. Over time, those troublesome kids discover that their outrageous behavior won’t be punished, or that the punishment is no more than an itch. That’s why they don’t care.”

“So your family’s always been the one playing the villain for your brother, huh?” An Changpu had heard enough to catch on. “Having a younger brother like that must be exhausting. Still, it’s lucky for him that he has a sister like you. Otherwise, who knows what he’d be like now.”

“I just hope he can think of me the way you do,” Qin Ruonan said with a trace of bitter amusement. She shook her head, signaling that she did not want to discuss her family affairs or her useless younger brother any further.

An Changpu cooperated and did not press her.

Before long, the two of them had verified through the pool hall Zhuang Quan had visited that on the night Fang Wan went missing, Zhuang Quan had indeed rushed there to play pool shortly after eight and stayed until very late before going home. Meanwhile, shopkeepers along the street by the waterworks also confirmed that they had seen Fang Wan wandering nearby alone with a backpack that same evening, sometime between seven and eight.

Leaving aside any motive or intent, it was already highly implausible that a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy could abduct a ten-year-old child sometime after seven, quickly subdue and hide him, and then less than half an hour later leisurely head off to a pool hall and play until deep into the night.

So, apart from “having carried out a robbery,” Zhuang Quan could basically be ruled out as being connected to Fang Wan’s disappearance.

Following instructions, Fang Da dutifully issued the missing-person notice through every available channel. At first, everyone had only hoped to widen its reach and improve the chances of gathering leads, never expecting many people to respond in earnest. Yet for some reason, perhaps because Fang Da had overdone it by adding a line in the newspaper notice promising a reward for useful information, once the alert went out, responses began trickling in at first and then came flooding in from all directions, overwhelming everyone and far surpassing all expectations.

Unfortunately, most of the information that left the police and Fang Wan’s family in a frenzy turned out to be false alarms or nothing more than wild speculation, or even entirely fabricated “clues” invented for the reward money. This left An Changpu and Qin Ruonan rather frustrated. The attempt to seek the public’s help had not only failed to provide enough useful assistance, it had become a source of chaos instead, wasting a great deal of energy and time.

As for the person who had initially phoned in that early-morning call claiming to provide information on Fang Wan, only to lead An Changpu and Qin Ruonan out to a barren stretch of land in the suburbs, he was eventually identified after a thorough search.

He knew nothing about Fang Wan’s disappearance and had no knowledge whatsoever of the child. The purpose of his call had been nothing more than to toy with the police.

According to the investigation, this man had once been involved in a brawl. The circumstances were not serious, and no real injuries resulted, but he had still been detained for fifteen days. He felt that he had fought because the other party was in the wrong and that he himself had been wronged, so he had been fully justified in striking back. Yet he had still been locked up, and that left him nursing resentment. After being released, he had wanted all along to find a chance for “revenge,” but when it came to actually planning and carrying out anything truly serious, he lacked the nerve. Just then he saw Fang Da’s missing-person notice on television, which mentioned that the police earnestly requested the public’s help in the investigation. Seeing an opportunity, he deliberately waited until dawn before making a call to report a false lead.

While uncovering the truth behind the incident, the police also discovered that besides this prank, he had made numerous false emergency calls to the police and fire services. In the end, the man who wanted to “get back” at the police had no choice but to drink the bitter brew he himself had made.

Two days later, the temperature in City C plunged, and the first snowfall of the winter began. Along with that snow came another worsening blow to the case: Fang Da’s attitude.

At first, when he filed the report, he had cooperated enthusiastically. But little by little his attitude cooled. He became less hopeful and increasingly resentful. When he called the public security bureau or came in person, his words were full of dissatisfaction. After so many days with no sign of his son, he began to place the blame squarely on the police.

“It’s all because of you people! You’re inept! We ordinary citizens pay taxes every year to support you, and for what? A bunch of useless trash? Such a big child can just vanish like that, and you still can’t find a trace after all these days! Even in foreign countries, if a dog goes missing, they can find it in this amount of time! But look at you!”

That day, Fang Da finally lost his temper in the major-crimes office. He glared at everyone there, practically bristling with rage, and while speaking he even pounded a nearby desk with his fist as if to bolster his fury.

“I don’t know how capable the police are abroad, so I won’t make any random judgments. But I’d guess that if a child went missing overseas, the parents wouldn’t go four or five days without even realizing it, would they?” An Changpu looked at Fang Da with a half-smile. Seeing him freeze at the words, he stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder. “Being anxious or frustrated is normal. We understand that. But at a time like this, lashing out blindly at others serves no purpose. If there’s anything we should be blamed for, we won’t shirk it. But if something isn’t ours to carry, we absolutely won’t accept the blame.”

Fang Da shot him a glare, knocked away the hand on his shoulder, and left in a huff.

“Just now you were pretty forceful up front. Why did you soften again toward the end?” Only after Fang Da had gone did Qin Ruonan speak to An Changpu. Up until then she had been quietly clenching her fists, restraining her anger. She was furious and contemptuous of Fang Da’s irresponsible habit of putting the blame on others.

“It’s never wrong to leave someone a little room,” An Changpu said, not taking it too much to heart. After Fang Da left, he did not remain gloomy over the matter. “When people are anxious and powerless, they always want to vent by blaming others. Just like right now, we can’t find the child. Would you dare say you haven’t cursed in your heart, ‘If it weren’t for irresponsible parents like you, we wouldn’t have been unable to find the child for so long’?”

Qin Ruonan was caught by his words and had no answer for a moment, so she could only sigh and change the subject. “Come to think of it, that’s strange. The father has already come here to make a scene, so why has Fang Wan’s mother, Qian Yuling, seemed to disappear? She hasn’t made a peep.”

“That is odd. By common sense, the mother should be even more anxious and less able to keep calm than the father,” An Changpu said, equally puzzled.

As if answering their question, just as they were finishing work and preparing to leave, the phone on Qin Ruonan’s desk suddenly rang.

“Hello, is this Officer Qin? This is Qian Yuling!” The caller, who had been mentioned only moments earlier and had been out of contact for many days, suddenly took the initiative to call. “I want to report something! I want to accuse Xia Ying of secretly harming my son Fang Wan!”