Chapter Forty-Nine: The Internet Café [Bonus Chapter as a Thank You]

Yes, an item costing around one thousand yuan is neither a small sum nor a fortune. For those from wealthy backgrounds, it might not even cover the cost of a single lavish meal, but for a family with a low income, it could be enough to cover an entire month's living expenses. Who could have been so generous as to buy a child such an expensive yet impractical set of online game character figurines?

Fang Da’s family situation was one of being neither destitute nor particularly comfortable. They were not so poor that they had to pinch every penny, but they were far from the level of being able to disregard a thousand yuan.

As he himself had said, Qian Yuling’s financial situation was much worse than his. Otherwise, she would not have been unable to fight for custody of Fang Wan all these years, nor would she have been behind on child support payments. Even if she had the desire to fight for custody, as Zuo Dali had previously suggested, finding a way to make Fang Da appear negligent in his guardianship would clearly be more consistent with her reality than spending large amounts of money to curry favor with her son.

As for Xia Ying, Fang Da, as her husband, understood her personality well. Since Fang Wan had once played a prank on her, she had actually gone so far as to put laxatives in the child’s food as "revenge." Given such a temperament, how could she have spent a large sum of money to please Fang Wan without letting her husband know?

Unless there was another possibility: that the set of figurines was a counterfeit, crafted with such meticulous detail that not even the series of intricate features found on the authentic set were missing. However, if that were the case, it would bring about a host of other doubts.

First, there was the matter of price. Even setting aside the correlation between the quality of a reproduction and its cost, a full set of even low-end models would cost two to three hundred yuan. Fang Wan’s weekly allowance of one hundred yuan had to cover his daily meals. When Qin Ruonan searched online for information on the figurines, she discovered that they were mostly sold as complete sets and rarely broken up. Where would Fang Wan have gotten two to three hundred yuan to buy a full set at once and display it at home?

Secondly, to replicate the authentic features without a single omission meant this was no ordinary knockoff; it could be considered a high-end reproduction. While the price of such high-quality fakes was not as exorbitant as the originals, they were still at least half the price—meaning a full set would cost at least five or six hundred yuan. For Fang Da, this was still a significant amount; even if he skipped lunch every day and spent nothing else, it would take him about a month to save that much.

The small change Fang Wan obtained by asking his classmates was neither fixed nor frequent, so it was impossible for him to have raised much money that way.

Therefore, it was highly likely that both Fang Wan’s set of figurines and the game recharge cards found in You Xiaoyang’s home had been paid for by someone else. This mysterious payer was likely closely linked to the disappearance of the two boys.

At the same time, the connection between the two youths—online gaming—was becoming increasingly clear and certain.

"Did Fang Wan like to play online games when he was at home?" Qin Ruonan asked Fang Da.

Fang Da shook his head blankly; he did not look as if he were denying it, but rather as if he were truly ignorant of the facts.

He said, "I don’t know much about those things on the computer. Occasionally, when I go online to check stocks, I have to have Xia Ying set it up for me. We only have one laptop in the house, kept in the bedroom I share with Xia Ying. Aside from me checking my stocks, Xia Ying is usually the one using it. Fang Wan did pester me to buy him a laptop, but I thought he was still too young. If he started messing around with those things so early, he would be even less inclined to study, so I didn’t agree. I don’t know if he played games secretly behind our backs, but at least at home, Fang Wan had no computer to play on, and he wasn't allowed to go online."

Halfway through his sentence, Fang Da suddenly stopped. He hesitated, gestured for An Changpu and Qin Ruonan to wait a moment, and fished his phone out from a pile of debris on the coffee table. The phone was covered in cigarette ash, which he hurriedly wiped off with a look of embarrassment before skillfully dialing a number.

This call was to Xia Ying. This was evident not only from Fang Da’s tone and the content of his speech, but also because the room was so quiet that An Changpu and Qin Ruonan could hear Xia Ying’s voice through the receiver. Her tone had changed little, but the pitch was far from the coquettish manner she had displayed when they met earlier. Even if the specific words were unclear, the tone made it obvious that her dissatisfaction with Fang Da had not subsided in the least.

Fang Da’s attitude was remarkably submissive—like a frightened dog with its tail between its legs. He waited for Xia Ying to vent her frustrations on the other end for a long while before tentatively and cautiously asking about Fang Wan.

A moment later, he hung up with a dejected expression, slumped back onto the sofa, and let the phone slip from his hand to the floor.

Fang Da made no move to pick up the phone; after the call, he seemed even more broken.

"Xiao Ying said she knew that Fang Wan would sneak out in the middle of the night to play and then sneak back in. She once saw him coming back from outside when she got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, but she never asked the child where he had gone, nor did she tell me. She said she didn’t want to get involved in Fang Wan’s business, and it didn't matter to her what he did. I had all these reprimands right here on my lips," he said, gesturing to his throat, "but I swallowed them back. I, his own father, didn’t fulfill my responsibilities; I never cared about the child myself, so what right do I have to blame his stepmother? What was wrong with me back then? Why was I such a jerk?"

As he spoke, Fang Da clenched his fists and began to beat his own head. An Changpu quickly stepped forward to stop him, and after some persuasion, they were finally confident enough that he wouldn't do anything to harm himself to take their leave.

"Fang Wan had no computer at home to play on, and Xia Ying saw him sneaking out at night and sneaking back in before dawn. You Xiaoyang jumped out of his dormitory window in the middle of the night to go online and was even secretly doing game leveling services. Putting it like this, these two boys must have frequented internet cafes! Should we start by checking the internet cafes near Fang Da’s house and You Xiaoyang’s school to see if we can find out who they interacted with?" Qin Ruonan asked after they left Fang Da’s house.

"The step is correct, but before that, I need to find an expert to help us two laymen!" An Changpu pulled a note from his pocket with the game account information that You Xiaoyang’s childhood friend, Wu Donghai, had written down. "You know Xiao Ding from the cybercrime unit at our station, right? He’s a gaming master. I heard he even participated in competitions and won prizes a few years back! Since neither of us knows anything about online gaming, finding him is definitely the right move."

This was not a bad idea. Delegating tasks to those who were skilled would yield twice the result with half the effort. If the two of them tried to crack it on their own, they would likely only get half the result with twice the effort.

An Changpu immediately called Xiao Ding. Xiao Ding was indeed a gaming enthusiast; as soon as he heard the request, he readily agreed without hesitation. An Changpu read him the account details to write down, exchanged a few polite pleasantries, and hung up. He then joined Qin Ruonan to search for internet cafes in the vicinity of Fang Da’s home.

Unlike You Xiaoyang, Fang Wan was younger, only ten years old. Consequently, his range of movement and his courage were naturally more limited than those of the fourteen-year-old You Xiaoyang. Since Xia Ying had seen Fang Wan sneaking home in the early hours of the morning, the most likely places for him to have gone were the internet cafes relatively close to home.

Qin Ruonan and An Changpu scouted the area around Fang Da’s neighborhood. This zone was primarily residential, with no schools or commercial districts nearby, so there were not many internet cafes. Within a few blocks, they only found three. To avoid alerting anyone, they did not make a scene or reveal their professions, simply looking around the three cafes as ordinary patrons. It was already past four in the afternoon, and school buses could be seen on the road, taking primary school students home.

If he hadn't gone missing, Fang Wan would have been one of them at this moment. But now, he was nowhere to be found, dead or alive, leaving everyone feeling deeply anxious.

"Don't think too much about it, watch out for the ice under your feet!" An Changpu said, noticing Qin Ruonan staring distractedly at a passing school bus. He patted her shoulder. It was already winter, and the standing water on the ground had turned into slippery ice; one careless step could lead to a fall. "We’ve already checked the first two cafes. They are quite strictly regulated. Not to mention kids, they wouldn't even let us adults in to play without showing our ID cards. It seems the only one left is the last one!"

"Don’t be so optimistic just yet. It’s still broad daylight, so these cafes will naturally follow the rules to avoid trouble, but it’s hard to say what happens at night," Qin Ruonan noted with reservation.

"That makes sense," An Changpu said, rubbing his chin and nodding. "Regardless, let’s go check it out."

At the third internet cafe, Qin Ruonan’s prediction came true. They were just as strict about ID cards; anyone unable to produce one was forbidden from entering. An Changpu and Qin Ruonan, playing the role of "un-ID'd" individuals, were turned away again.

"Let’s go. It looks like you were right. If we want to know which nearby internet cafe Fang Wan frequented and who he met there, we’ll have to come back at night to see," An Changpu checked the time. "Let’s head over to the area near You Xiaoyang’s school to check the situation there, then come back later."

"You go drive; I’ll wait here and take the opportunity to contact Qian Yuling to confirm if she knows anything about those figurines," Qin Ruonan agreed with An Changpu’s plan. "We can also stop by a shop that sells game models on the way to have someone appraise whether Fang Wan’s set is genuine."