Chapter 44: Midnight Escape

Chapter Forty-Four: Midnight Escape

In a modest dormitory room with eight bunk beds arranged above and below, the beds were simple—mostly just sheets neatly spread out with folded quilts on top, devoid of any extra belongings. Seven of these beds were impeccably tidy, with smooth sheets and neatly stacked quilts. Only one upper bunk near the bedside stood out: its sheet was rumpled and wrinkled, the quilt twisted into a messy bundle, as if someone had just woken up, hurriedly climbed out, and left without tidying up.

“That’s You Xiaoyang’s bed,” Qin Ruonan stated firmly, not posing it as a question but as a certainty. She wasn’t addressing the three curious and anxious boys nearby, but her partner, An Changpu.

Earlier, An Changpu had chatted with the boys, paying little attention to the footprints on the windowsill or the state of the beds. But he knew well that Qin Ruonan’s conclusion was based on solid evidence, so he wasn’t surprised. However, the dormitory leader Niu Geng and the other two boys stared at Qin Ruonan in astonishment, as if she had just revealed a shocking secret.

“How do you know that’s You Xiaoyang’s bed? There are no name tags on our beds!” The dark-skinned boy who had spoken first earlier couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked, “There are eight beds here—how can you guess which one is his?”

“Classmates, police work isn’t based on guesswork!” An Changpu answered with a smile on Qin Ruonan’s behalf, offering no further explanation. Then he turned to Qin Ruonan, knowing she had something else to show him.

Qin Ruonan pointed toward the footprint in the corner of the windowsill. An Changpu’s gaze immediately shifted there, and the three students behind him also leaned in to look.

Seeing the footprint, Niu Geng’s face flushed slightly, his expression tinged with embarrassment. An Changpu noticed this reaction and silently questioned him with his eyes.

Niu Geng scratched the back of his head and said, “That’s You Xiaoyang’s footprint. He stepped there when he jumped out the window on Thursday night. I had planned to show it to him Friday morning when he came back, so he’d recognize his own ‘evidence,’ and then I’d clean it up. But he never returned, so I just left it there.”

He then pointed to You Xiaoyang’s bed. “His bed’s like that too.”

“Niu Geng holding out this long must be a record! Based on his usual personality, he’d probably want to jump on the bed himself to straighten up You Xiaoyang’s mess!” The dark-skinned boy’s remark made even the shy boy beside him chuckle.

Niu Geng looked embarrassed and quickly defended himself. “I just can’t stand living in a dirty and messy place! But I never touch You Xiaoyang’s stuff. He’s too careless! If I help him tidy up once, he treats me like his housekeeper—no cleaning, no picking up, just waiting for me to do it! That’s why this time I wanted to teach him a lesson.”

“No use!” The dark-skinned boy waved his hand dismissively. “I bet he doesn’t care one bit about his bed being like that. When the next dormitory inspection comes around, we’ll lose the ‘Model Dormitory’ award because of him, and you’ll be the one frustrated!”

While the boys were murmuring about You Xiaoyang’s poor dormitory hygiene awareness, An Changpu pulled out his phone and photographed the footprint on the windowsill. Using his height advantage, he also examined the bed above more closely.

You Xiaoyang’s bed was indeed a mess. Besides the wrinkled sheet and the quilt twisted like a tangled rope, a magazine-like item was tucked under the pillow. An Changpu skillfully pulled the magazine out and flipped through it, asking, “What is this?”

“It’s a game guide!” The dark-skinned boy said, his tone filled with surprise—not because the item itself was unusual, but because An Changpu seemed out of touch with current trends. “Everyone’s playing this game now!”

“Oh, really?” An Changpu raised an eyebrow, glanced at the cover showcasing the game characters, and murmured with a hint of nostalgia, “Since graduating from university, I guess it’s been years since I played any online games.”

“This thing…” Qin Ruonan stared blankly at the cover, feeling a vague familiarity, as if she had seen it somewhere before. After some thought and finding no clue, she decided not to get stuck on it at this moment. “Let’s take this game guide back to the station later.”

An Changpu nodded and gestured toward a nearby chair. “Niu Geng, can we sit down and talk for a bit?”

The three boys quickly pulled out chairs and sat down. Judging from their cooperation, they didn’t seem like troublemakers who often gave teachers headaches. An Changpu and Qin Ruonan also sat down, spreading the game guide on the table. An Changpu asked, “You Xiaoyang hasn’t come back since he left Thursday night?”

“Yes. Luckily, our homeroom teacher was sick and absent on Friday, so a substitute came to check on us but didn’t take attendance. Otherwise, You Xiaoyang would have been in big trouble.” The dark-skinned boy’s tone carried some relief on You Xiaoyang’s behalf.

Niu Geng appeared more rational. He frowned, looked at An Changpu and Qin Ruonan, and asked, “Are you police officers? Criminal investigators? What happened to You Xiaoyang? Is something wrong?”

At his question, the other two boys seemed to realize the gravity of the situation. Their expressions grew tense, and they looked anxiously at Qin Ruonan and An Changpu, silently awaiting an answer.

No matter the usual relationships—good or bad—when someone close is in potential danger, everyone naturally feels fear and anxiety.

“You Xiaoyang hasn’t attended class these past two days. The teacher informed his parents, and since they were worried, they asked us to follow up on this matter.” An Changpu replied casually.

The three boys, only fourteen or fifteen years old and without much worldly experience, felt no suspicion in his words. They even relaxed slightly due to his light tone.

“Does You Xiaoyang usually like to play this game?” An Changpu tapped the game guide on the table with his long fingers, casually flipping to a page filled with imposing game characters and rows of data and attributes incomprehensible to outsiders.

Niu Geng didn’t answer but looked at the dark-skinned boy beside him, clearly indicating that this boy was closer to You Xiaoyang and knew more about his affairs than the others.

An Changpu then focused his attention on the dark-skinned boy.

The boy was bold and showed no nervousness under the gaze of others. He nodded and grinned. “Yeah, not just him—I was really into it for a while too. We often teamed up to level up! But then I stopped playing because I couldn’t afford good gear. Without good gear, you can’t advance levels, and it gets boring just wandering through the same few stages. So I quit.”

“You Xiaoyang played all the time? Didn’t he get bored?”

“Of course not! I heard his level is pretty high now, and his gear looks awesome! One time he told me someone wanted to buy his account for a buck, but he wouldn’t sell it. Though I don’t know if he was just bragging!” The boy’s face showed envy as he jabbered on, almost drooling with excitement.

Niu Geng and the other boy listened, looking bewildered, like ducks hearing thunder.

Qin Ruonan recalled the small house where You Zhou and his wife lived and the cramped stairwell. She almost smelled again the foul stench from the stairs. She asked the dark-skinned boy, “Does You Xiaoyang have enough living expenses? Reaching such a high game level must take quite a bit of money, right?”

A snort escaped Niu Geng’s mouth, thick with disdain. “His family probably doesn’t give him much money—enough for food but not for gaming. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have to make money running errands for students in our class to get some perks!”

“What do you mean? Running errands for others to get perks?”

“Well, a few rich kids in our class are spoiled. When it’s too hot, too cold, too windy, or raining outside, they don’t want to go down to the school store themselves. So they send You Xiaoyang to run errands for them. Like, they give him ten yuan to buy two colas, and he keeps the change. Or two people ask him to buy three grilled sausages, and he gets one for himself. Honestly, I’d feel humiliated doing that, but You Xiaoyang seems to enjoy it. I think he saves money for gaming this way.” Niu Geng said with disdain.

An Changpu was taken aback. He thought of Fang Wan, a boy who often borrowed small amounts of money from classmates because his pocket money was insufficient. You Xiaoyang, on the other hand, earned bits and pieces by running errands. Although these two boys had a four-year age gap and no real connection, they shared one thing: a fondness for taking small advantages.

“Does You Xiaoyang often sneak out of the dorm at night to go online?” Qin Ruonan felt she was beginning to understand the real reason behind You Xiaoyang’s declining grades, closely tied to the footprint on the windowsill.

“Occasionally before, but lately more frequently. Sometimes we’re fast asleep and don’t even know when he sneaks out. Recently, though, we always know because he climbs down the drainpipe after opening the window. He leaves the window open, and it gets really cold. We wake up freezing and realize what’s happened.” The dark-skinned boy answered.

Chapter Forty-Four: Midnight Escape

Highly recommended.