Chapter 62: The Insider

Chapter 62: The Insider

"Are you telling the truth, or are you just throwing up a smokescreen for us?" An Changpu intentionally questioned Gao’s words. He knew full well that now that Gao had spoken, he was definitely trying to distance himself from You Xiaoyang to avoid trouble. The more Gao acted this way, the more An Changpu refused to accept his statements, which was the only way to bait him into saying more.

Gao’s reaction was exactly what An Changpu had hoped for. Upon hearing that his words were being dismissed as a smokescreen, he became anxious. His eyes widened, but he immediately realized what kind of role he was supposed to be playing. His indignation instantly transformed into grievance. Ignoring the age difference, he complained bitterly to An Changpu: "Oh, brother, you really are like a brother to me! You have to have a conscience when you talk! What did I do to deserve being accused of throwing up a smokescreen? Why is it that in this day and age, nobody believes an honest man?"

"Who’s an honest man? You? Since when did the standards for an honest man drop so low?" An Changpu teased him.

Gao didn’t take the bait; his priority was to clear up the matter regarding You Xiaoyang.

"No jokes! Seriously, no jokes! That kid really did find someone else to work for! Otherwise, why would he have stopped doing game boosting for me?" he said earnestly. "At first, I just wanted to see if finding students to do game boosting was a viable path, so I chatted up a few kids at the internet cafe. But you know how it is—living standards are better now, and those little brats have more money in their pockets than I do. I asked a few times, and nobody paid me any mind. But before I even gave up, he came to me himself!"

"Are you saying that, from the beginning, You Xiaoyang approached you on his own to be exploited?" Qin Ruonan asked.

Gao picked at his ear: "Don't use the word 'exploited,' it sounds terrible. We were just meeting each other's needs. The price was something he agreed to. Later, when he didn't want to do it anymore, I didn't give him any trouble. So, it was all consensual. Don't go piling all the responsibility on me; I can't carry that weight."

"Enough nonsense, stick to the point," An Changpu reminded him.

"Yes, yes, I'm sticking to the point!" Gao quickly stopped splitting hairs with Qin Ruonan and brought the topic back to the original matter. "He really did approach me first. Like I said, I’d tried chatting up a few students, but none of them wanted to do it. Just then, I hadn't eaten yet and was hungry, so I asked the internet cafe manager if they sold food. That lousy place didn't sell anything but bottled water. Right then, You Xiaoyang came over and offered to go buy me something. I didn't know him, so how could I know if he’d run off with my money? Ten or twenty yuan is still money, right? So at first, I didn't agree. He said he was going out for food anyway, so he’d buy it for me and I could pay him back. I agreed to that. After he came back with the food, he started pumping me for information about game boosting."

"And then you hired him?"

"It wasn't that fast! As the saying goes, a forced sale is never a good deal. If I’d agreed the moment he asked, he might have caused me all sorts of trouble later."

"How come you didn't play hard to get with others? Weren't you quite proactive before?" Qin Ruonan felt that this man named Gao was like a slippery eel wearing clothes.

"Times change. Before, nobody wanted to do it, so I had to be proactive. Now that someone was handing themselves over to me, the situation was different," Gao said dismissively. "Anyway, I talked to him a few times and watched him play—he was actually quite good—so I agreed to pay him eight yuan. You wouldn't believe it; when I told him I’d pay him eight, the kid was so happy he didn't know which way was up. I guess he hadn't seen much money before."

An Changpu and Qin Ruonan didn't doubt much of what Gao said. When they had visited You Xiaoyang’s school, they had heard from his classmates and roommates about how he would run errands for others, beg for food and drinks, and scrape together pocket money to go to internet cafes. What Gao said—that You Xiaoyang had approached him to run errands in order to get a job as a game booster—fit the boy's personality perfectly.

"Since You Xiaoyang was so satisfied with the price you offered at first, why did he refuse to work for you later?" Qin Ruonan continued to ask about what happened next.

Gao curled his lip in disdain: "That’s what I was just saying. He must have found a better-paying client. Think about it: I’m not the only one who hires people for game boosting. If he had any brains at all, he could have gone out and checked the market. Once he found someone else, he kicked me, his poor boss, to the curb! Anyway, that’s not what he told me himself. He claimed his grades were dropping too much and his teachers were going to call his parents. He said if his parents found out, he’d be in deep trouble, so he had to go back to studying."

"He told you that, and you didn't try to keep him? If You Xiaoyang stopped working for you, you’d be losing a lot of money every month, wouldn't you? Or should I say, with him gone, almost all your income was wiped out?"

"It wasn't that bad. Everyone has friends or relatives they can borrow a few bucks from," Gao said, laughing dryly as he circled back to the money issue. He avoided the topic of his own debts and said lightly, "But I did try to persuade him to stay. I told him to think about it—if he didn't have those eight yuan a month, how would he pay for games, leveling up, and gear later? He just said he didn't need money anymore and told me not to worry about it! Tell me, for a little brat like him to say something so big, and with his parents not knowing and never agreeing to him playing online games, what other reason could there be? He definitely found another client! So, even if he went missing or something happened, you’d be better off looking for the person who was paying him, not giving me a hard time."

"So, all this talk about him having another client is just your own subjective speculation?" An Changpu frowned slightly.

"I'm not just spouting nonsense! After he told me he wouldn't work for me anymore, I did some investigating!"

"You investigated? How?"

"I knew his game account. I discovered that he really wasn't logging in every night like he used to, but he also wasn't studying hard and avoiding games like he claimed. I also noticed he had a lot of new gear. You have to shell out real money for that; you can't just get good gear by leveling up or doing quests! He wasn't that well-off when he was working for me. If someone wasn't giving him money, how could he suddenly be such a big spender? I actually asked him about it once. He wouldn't admit he was working for someone else, claiming it was a gift from a friend. Afraid I wouldn't believe him, he even gave me that person’s game account. I looked it up, and that person really does exist, but when I tried to add them as a friend, I was rejected. I have no idea who they are."

Hearing about the game account, especially one that had dealings with You Xiaoyang and had gifted him significant amounts of equipment, An Changpu and Qin Ruonan immediately perked up.

"Do you remember the account name? Can you write it down?" An Changpu asked quickly.

"This..." Gao scratched his head, looking troubled. He hemmed and hawed, not daring to agree. After struggling for a long time, he finally said, "How could I remember the whole thing? The person’s in-game name looked like alien symbols. I only have a vague impression; I can't guarantee it’s correct!"

"That’s fine. Just write down whatever you remember."

Seeing that he couldn't stall any longer, Gao took the ballpoint pen and notepad Qin Ruonan handed him. He gnawed on the pen for a long while, reflecting, before scribbling and editing until he had written down the keywords he could recall.

Although Gao’s memory wasn't precise, when he wrote down those characters, An Changpu and Qin Ruonan, who were watching from the side, knew exactly what they were looking at. The suspicious account Xiao Ding had discovered earlier matched the characters Gao had written.

Before they left, Gao hesitated for a long time, seeming to want to hitch a ride back to the city with An Changpu and Qin Ruonan, but he couldn't make up his mind. After mulling it over, he decided to stay. As he saw them to the door, he suddenly gripped the note with the phone number An Changpu had written down and asked, "If someone gives me trouble, is it useful to call you?"

"If it’s confirmed that your personal safety is being threatened, the doors of the Public Security Bureau are always open to you. Even if we aren't there, someone will be responsible for handling it and, if necessary, providing you with a certain level of protection," An Changpu nodded, then shifted his tone. "But if it’s a standard debt dispute, perhaps you should consider paying back what you owe."

Gao’s expression wilted. He gave a few dry laughs and didn't ask further.

After getting into the car, Qin Ruonan held the ballpoint pen—now covered in Gao’s teeth marks—between two fingers, looking at it with disgust, unsure of how to dispose of it. Seeing this, An Changpu couldn't help but smile. He pulled out a tissue, wrapped the pen, and tossed it into the small trash bin between the seats.

"If it grosses you out, don't force yourself to keep using it. I have plenty of pens; I’ll give you one when we get back to the office," he said. In the few months they had been working together, he had learned more about Qin Ruonan’s situation. He knew that even though she had a stable salary, she couldn't help but be exploited by her spoiled younger brother. If she didn't give him money, he would resort to demanding it from her younger sister. To keep the burden off her sister, Qin Ruonan would satisfy his demands, making her own life a bit tight; she never spent extra money where she could save it.

Qin Ruonan thought he was just making small talk, so she smiled slightly and didn't respond much: "So, where are we going now?"

"To find You Xiaoyang’s childhood friend! Since that boy knew about You Xiaoyang doing game boosting, it’s possible he might be an 'insider' regarding that 'client'." As he answered, An Changpu started the car and drove away from Gao’s home.

Dust rose from the tires and dissipated in the wind. The taillights grew smaller and smaller, disappearing into the night.