Chapter 63: The "Coal Tycoon"

To find You Xiaoyang’s childhood friend, Wu Donghai, the obvious first place to look was the middle school he attended. Judging by the time, evening self-study should have been in progress. Yet when An Changpu and Qin Ruonan drove to the school, they found themselves empty-handed.

“Evening self-study has been canceled?” An Changpu stared at the dark school building in bewilderment.

“Of course. It’s been canceled for several days now!” The elderly security guard on duty was wrapped in a thick military coat, sitting inside the guardroom and warming himself beside an electric heater. Apparently annoyed that An Changpu and Qin Ruonan were standing at the entrance and letting the cold wind in, he answered them rather impatiently. “A student went missing, didn’t he? I heard this is already the second boy to disappear. The school was afraid it wasn’t safe, so they canceled evening self-study for the time being. Once classes end in the afternoon, everyone goes straight home while it’s still light. The students who live on campus are kept in their dormitories and aren’t allowed out. Are you looking for a day student or a boarder?”

“A day student.”

“Oh, that makes things difficult. Do you know which class he’s in? I have the homeroom teachers’ phone numbers here. If you want to find him, you’ll have to see whether his homeroom teacher knows how to contact his family!”

The question left An Changpu momentarily at a loss, and he had no answer. Qin Ruonan, however, relied on her remarkable memory and recalled how they had gone to find Wu Donghai under the guidance of You Xiaoyang’s homeroom teacher, Teacher Zhao. She was able to provide Wu Donghai’s grade and class.

The guard searched through his address book for quite some time before finding the contact number of Wu Donghai’s homeroom teacher. He copied it down for An Changpu and Qin Ruonan, then immediately shut the door and refused to speak to them any further.

Once they had obtained the homeroom teacher’s phone number, the guard’s unpleasant attitude no longer mattered. Whether they could find Wu Donghai now depended entirely on how well his teacher knew him.

When they got through to the homeroom teacher, the grim possibility An Changpu and Qin Ruonan had anticipated was confirmed. Wu Donghai was the sort of student who neither stood out nor caused trouble: his grades were average, and his classroom performance was equally unremarkable. He had never displayed any exceptional talent that would impress a teacher, but neither had he caused any major headaches. As a result, aside from knowing that he was a student in her class, his homeroom teacher knew nothing at all about his personal or family circumstances.

“At the last parents’ meeting, one of Wu Donghai’s parents did come. We had everyone sign in by name, so we knew that every student’s parents were present and that no one was absent. But afterward, his family left without taking the initiative to speak with me. I was surrounded by so many other parents asking questions that I didn’t have time to speak with each of them individually.” Perhaps because a student from the school had already gone missing, Wu Donghai’s homeroom teacher felt somewhat uneasy admitting that she knew nothing about his family. In order not to appear an incompetent teacher, she naturally felt the need to explain herself before proposing a solution. “How about you wait for my call? I’ll ask some of the students in the class.”

At this point, there was no other choice, so An Changpu agreed. The two of them waited in the car. About twenty minutes later, Wu Donghai’s homeroom teacher called back. After asking several students, she had managed to obtain Wu Donghai’s home telephone number.

After thanking the teacher, Qin Ruonan called Wu Donghai’s parents, introduced herself and An Changpu, explained the purpose of their visit, and asked whether Wu Donghai was at home and whether they could speak with him. His parents already knew that their son’s childhood friend had been missing for some time, so they agreed at once and gave her their address.

The two officers hurried over. Wu Donghai’s home was not far from the middle school, in a residential development built only a few years earlier. Its surroundings were clearly much better than those around You Xiaoyang’s home.

When they knocked, Wu Donghai’s mother opened the door. She warmly ushered An Changpu and Qin Ruonan inside, then called for her husband to boil water and make tea. She was exceedingly hospitable. Wu Donghai had seen them before, but when they met again, he showed no particular reaction. He merely greeted them before returning to the sofa to watch television.

“You two should rest for a while and have some tea,” Wu Donghai’s father said. He glanced at the clock on the wall and asked in a low voice, “Look, it’s already twenty past seven. The national news will be over in another ten minutes. Why don’t you talk to him about You Xiaoyang after it ends?”

“Yes, our boy watches the national news every day,” Wu Donghai’s mother added from the side. “We heard that watching it regularly helps improve a child’s political studies. Especially if he starts building up his knowledge now, he’ll have a stronger foundation by the time he reaches high school.”

Since both parents had put it that way, Qin Ruonan and An Changpu could hardly quibble over ten minutes or so, and they agreed. The four adults sat in the living room in silence. Wu Donghai’s parents were somewhat nervous and curious about the criminal police coming to their home, but they were adults and understood how to restrain their curiosity. Neither of them asked questions.

“Your son and You Xiaoyang have known each other since childhood. You must be quite familiar with You Xiaoyang as well?” An Changpu asked Wu Donghai’s father in a low voice.

Wu Donghai’s father nodded. “Yes. Those two boys loved playing together when they were little. Our boy may be bigger than other children his age, but he’s simple-minded and honest. You Xiaoyang was clever and always took Donghai along with him. Before we moved, the two of them were inseparable on their way to and from school.”

“Officer, may I ask something presumptuous? Do you think something might have happened to You Xiaoyang?” Wu Donghai’s mother asked anxiously.

“We have no way of reaching a conclusion yet,” Qin Ruonan replied.

Wu Donghai’s mother sighed. “I hope that child is all right. Otherwise, it would be such a shame! He’s clever, does well in school, listens to adults, and never gives anyone trouble. If anything really happened to him, it would be terribly tragic.”

Qin Ruonan nodded silently, seemingly agreeing with her. Inwardly, however, she was somewhat surprised. You Xiaoyang truly was an unusual boy. At school and at home, in front of his classmates and teachers as well as his relatives and elders, he played two entirely different roles. Though his grades had plummeted so badly that he had been transferred out of the advanced class, and though he often went to Internet cafés to earn spare change by running errands for classmates, sometimes even climbing out of his dormitory window at night to go online, he still presented himself to everyone outside school as an obedient, sensible, model student.

Wu Donghai’s parents did not feel it appropriate to ask anything further. Perhaps because You Xiaoyang was not their own child, their concern had its limits. The conversation came to an abrupt end, and all four adults sat quietly with Wu Donghai as they watched the news.

At last, the broadcast ended. Wu Donghai rose silently from the sofa, turned toward his father, and asked, “Dad, would it be all right if they talked to me about Xiaoyang in my room?”

His father did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked toward An Changpu, apparently hoping to hear some of the news himself.

An Changpu nodded and said, “That would be best.”

Hearing this, Wu Donghai’s father had no grounds to object and quickly agreed. Wu Donghai led An Changpu and Qin Ruonan to his room and shut the door firmly behind them.

“Thank you for helping me,” he said after closing the door.

“Why didn’t you want to talk about You Xiaoyang in front of your parents?” Qin Ruonan asked curiously.

“How should I put it?” Wu Donghai scratched his head awkwardly. “I suppose I wanted to make preparations for both possibilities. Xiaoyang is missing now. If he comes back safe and sound someday, and people find out that he used to skip class to go online or earn money by leveling characters in online games, he’ll definitely be punished. But if… if he never comes back, then he’ll already be gone, and people will still criticize him afterward. That would be too cruel.”

His answer was far beyond what Qin Ruonan had expected. She had not imagined that this unremarkable-looking boy could be so mature, or that he would consider his friend’s welfare so carefully. At first, she had assumed Wu Donghai simply did not want anyone to know about the things he and You Xiaoyang had done together, such as playing online games, because he was afraid of getting himself into trouble.

Qin Ruonan smiled at Wu Donghai, her impression of him improving considerably. “We came today to ask you about You Xiaoyang’s online gaming. Do you know whether he later stopped earning money by leveling game characters?”

Wu Donghai shook his head. “I really don’t know. I thought he had continued doing it secretly.”

“Do you know that You Xiaoyang had a friend in the game who often gave him high-level equipment?” An Changpu asked from the side.

“Oh, I know about that.” Wu Donghai did not disappoint them and gave an affirmative answer. “He mentioned that person to me before. He said he got lots of excellent equipment from him without having to pay anything. He thought it was great.”

“Did he ever say who that person was, or why he gave him all those items?”

“I asked him. He said the man was apparently a coal mine owner, extremely rich, and very generous. In Xiaoyang’s view, he was the kind of person who had more money than sense, so taking advantage of him was no big deal. At first, I thought Xiaoyang was boasting. I didn’t believe anyone could be that generous. Later, he even took me out and showed me the two of them chatting in the game. I played that game too back then, and Xiaoyang wanted to introduce me to the man so I could get some benefits as well, but I refused.”

“Why did you refuse?”

“For one thing, I’m not very clever to begin with, and my grades aren’t very good. If I stopped studying seriously, I’d fall even further behind. For another, I always felt that accepting things from that man would leave me indebted to him. When a pie falls from the sky, it’s better not to pick it up without thinking.” Wu Donghai spoke with an uneasy expression.