Chapter 46: The Invisible Connection

Chapter Forty-Six: The Invisible Connection

Qin Ruonan felt somewhat unfamiliar with the term, while An Changpu had a vague understanding of the “profession,” though he knew little about it. His astonishment stemmed mainly from the fact that a middle-school boy like You Xiaoyang would take on such work, rather than from Qin Ruonan’s simple lack of knowledge about what game boosting involved.

“Is this accurate? Did You Xiaoyang tell you this himself? Does his family know?” An Changpu asked Wu Donghai in quick succession, his brow furrowing.

Wu Donghai hurriedly shook his head. “He said he only told me. He didn’t tell anyone else. If you two weren’t police officers, I wouldn’t have told you either! A person has to keep his word. Otherwise, who would still regard you as a friend?”

Although the boy possessed a delicacy of thought at odds with his appearance, whenever he spoke, a childishness appropriate to his age quickly revealed itself. Judging by his expression, however, he was completely unaware of it. On the contrary, he seemed to believe that his words and actions made him look like a true man, and a faint pride unconsciously showed in his manner.

Qin Ruonan took out the game guidebook discovered beneath You Xiaoyang’s pillow. Pointing to the cartoon characters on the cover, she asked Wu Donghai, “Is this the online game You Xiaoyang usually played?”

Wu Donghai looked at it for a few moments before reaching a conclusion and nodding.

Qin Ruonan then took out her phone and found a photograph stored on it. She had taken it earlier, when she and An Changpu had first gone to Fang Da’s home to meet Xia Ying. At the time, she had slipped into Fang Wan’s room to inspect the surroundings, and the photograph clearly showed several small models arranged on the desk.

“Take a look. Are these little figures from the same game You Xiaoyang played?” She handed him the phone.

Wu Donghai accepted it and shook his head after only one glance, rejecting Qin Ruonan’s guess. “No. I played You Xiaoyang’s game for a few days too, and it definitely didn’t have characters like these! They’re certainly from different games. Look—the character designs are obviously different.”

“You played that game too? Why did you stop?” An Changpu could tell that Wu Donghai still took a keen interest in online games.

Wu Donghai rubbed the sole of his shoe against the ground, looking embarrassed. “How could I have it as easy as You Xiaoyang? He lives at school, so his parents can’t keep an eye on him. I commute. Every day when I get home, my parents watch me like hawks. If I dared to play secretly again, my father would skin me alive!”

“Then do you know anyone who’s especially familiar with characters from online games?” Qin Ruonan still refused to give up on determining whether the models were game characters.

Wu Donghai thought for a long while before saying, “Well… why don’t you ask at that little supermarket across from the school gate? They sell all kinds of game cards, and the owner plays games himself. I’d say he knows quite a bit. You could try asking him.”

After thanking Wu Donghai for his cooperation and assistance, An Changpu and Qin Ruonan walked straight out of the school gate, crossed the road, and headed for the inconspicuous little supermarket opposite.

“What’s going on?” An Changpu asked, curious about Qin Ruonan’s persistence in finding out about the cartoon characters in the photograph on her phone.

Qin Ruonan repeated what she had seen in Fang Wan’s room that day, then said, “Fang Wan claimed he was going to evening tutoring, but actually stayed out all night. After wandering around alone for a while, he disappeared. You Xiaoyang, meanwhile, climbed out of his dormitory window in the middle of the night to go online, and then he disappeared too. Before You Xiaoyang vanished, his most obvious characteristic was his obsession with online games. That suddenly reminded me of the little figures on Fang Wan’s desk. I thought that if they also happened to be characters from an online game, then perhaps online gaming was the invisible connection between the two missing boys.”

“It’s possible. But if these two children really are connected, that wouldn’t be good news.” An Changpu sighed. He pushed open the supermarket door and walked in, with Qin Ruonan close behind.

A wind chime hung above the door, and it jingled as the door moved. The supermarket was cramped. Two densely packed rows of shelves made the passage between them even narrower. At the far end stood a small counter, behind which a man sat with his back to the entrance. Hearing the wind chime, he called out without turning around, “Pick out what you want. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

When An Changpu and Qin Ruonan reached the counter, they saw from behind that the man was completely absorbed in a game on his computer. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he rapidly controlled a character on the screen. Both An Changpu and Qin Ruonan were outsiders when it came to online games, so they could only stand silently behind him, with no idea when he would finish.

Not even two minutes later, a flash of light resembling flames swept across the screen. The man unhappily struck the keyboard, then slowly turned around. He was startled to find two people standing rigidly in front of the counter. After examining them in surprise, he asked, “What do you want to buy?”

“Nothing. We just wanted to ask you something.” An Changpu smiled at him, took the phone from Qin Ruonan, and showed the photograph to the shopkeeper. “Could you tell us whether these character models belong to an online game?”

The request was somewhat baffling. Fortunately, the shopkeeper was a warmhearted man. There were no customers at the moment, and he had just finished a “battle” in his game, so he had time to spare. He took the phone from An Changpu and glanced at the photograph. Immediately, he nodded and pulled several cards from beneath the counter. They looked like phone top-up cards, but their designs were much more vivid and flamboyant.

“Yes, they’re from this game. Do you want to top up your account or something?”

Qin Ruonan’s gaze fell on the cards. “What are these used for?”

The shopkeeper gave her an odd look. His tone became somewhat impatient, as though she had just asked the stupidest question in the world.

“Top-up cards, obviously.”

“Does this game have a guidebook?” Qin Ruonan asked, taking out the game guide she had brought with her.

The shopkeeper nodded but neither moved nor spoke.

“Could you take it out and let me have a look?” Qin Ruonan asked.

Only then did the shopkeeper’s expression soften slightly. He bent down, rummaged through the cards again, and placed several with different designs on the counter, putting the earlier ones away.

Qin Ruonan picked them up and examined them. Selecting four cards with different designs, she asked, “How much are these four worth individually?”

At last, her question piqued the shopkeeper’s interest. Pointing at them one by one, he said, “This one is worth one yuan, this one three, this one five, and this one one. Do you want one of each, or…?”

“Thank you. Sorry to trouble you.” Qin Ruonan nodded politely to the shopkeeper, took An Changpu by the arm, and turned to leave, leaving the shopkeeper glaring at their backs with a livid expression and simmering resentment.

“Why did you suddenly start paying attention to the denominations of those top-up cards?” By then, An Changpu was almost certain that Fang Wan and You Xiaoyang might share an interest in online games, but he did not understand why Qin Ruonan had suddenly shifted her attention from the character models to the values of the cards.

As she got into the car, Qin Ruonan told An Changpu that they needed to return to You Xiaoyang’s home once more. Only then did she explain, “When we were at You Xiaoyang’s house earlier, talking with him and his parents in his bedroom, I noticed several of those game top-up cards on his desk: three worth one yuan, two worth three yuan, four worth five yuan, and three worth one yuan. Altogether, they were worth fifty-nine yuan. For a middle-school student—especially one from a family with limited financial means—that isn’t a small amount. We need to go back and ask about it.”

“You remembered exactly what all twelve cards on You Xiaoyang’s desk looked like, including how many there were of each design, while we were talking with his parents?” An Changpu asked, finding it difficult to believe.

The last time Qin Ruonan had displayed her astonishing photographic memory was when she had investigated the murder of a transgender person in the Lu Min case. In order to win the cooperation of several elderly witnesses, she had reconstructed a chessboard exactly as it had been after seeing it only a few times before someone deliberately scrambled the pieces. An Changpu had not been present then and had never witnessed that scene, which was why he was so astonished that she could remember the designs on several game top-up cards.

If he had known that Qin Ruonan could remember the positions of all thirty-two chess pieces without the slightest error after only a short time, he probably would not have made such a fuss over the designs of twelve cards in four different denominations.

Qin Ruonan did not look particularly pleased with herself. Instead, she appeared slightly bashful. She nodded and said modestly, “My mind isn’t especially quick, so I can only make up for it with a good memory.”

“That counts as an extraordinary gift, doesn’t it? Whoever becomes your boyfriend or husband in the future will really have to stay on his toes. Otherwise, if he makes a mistake, won’t you remember it for the rest of his life?” An Changpu joked casually as he drove toward You Xiaoyang’s home.

Qin Ruonan shot him an annoyed look. “Having a good memory and being petty aren’t the same thing. Don’t confuse them and ruin my reputation. If no one wants me, I don’t want to end up lonely in my old age.”

An Changpu burst out laughing. “Actually, the longer I spend with you, the more I realize what an interesting person you are. You have the makings of a deadpan comedian. Not bad, not bad. I like it!”

Although Qin Ruonan knew perfectly well that his “like” did not mean what she wished it meant, her face still flushed involuntarily.

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