Chapter Twenty: Rob the Rich to Aid the Poor

Chapter Twenty: Robbing the Rich to Help the Poor

A high school boy spoke of having “pulled a robbery” in such a casual tone, as though he were saying he had merely hiccuped. He seemed either unaware of how serious the matter was, or else knew perfectly well that robbery was a crime and simply did not care.

Before finding Zhuang Quan, Qin Ruonan and An Changpu had already spoken with the head of the school’s moral education office and learned something of the boy’s background. His parents had worked abroad for years to earn money; he was a long-time left-behind child who had lived with his grandparents since childhood, raised by the old couple in place of his parents. His grandparents were both very elderly, and because Zhuang Quan was the only grandson in the family, while other children had their parents by their side, he himself could go year after year without seeing his father and mother. The old couple could not bear even to speak a harsh word to him.

Because Zhuang Quan had always been so unruly, the school had once sent a teacher to visit his home. But when the teacher saw the boy’s aged grandparents sighing and pleading on his behalf, they could not bring themselves to say much. The trip had been for nothing, and afterward Zhuang Quan’s conduct remained as bad as ever. Whenever he made trouble and got himself into a mess, no matter how he was criticized or educated, he would simply stiffen his neck and say nothing, neither accepting nor yielding.

He was a block of stubborn, unmanageable meat. That was the impression Qin Ruonan and An Changpu had formed before ever meeting him. Now that they had seen him in person, a few brief exchanges only deepened that impression.

“Tell us how you ‘pulled a robbery’ and got that cellphone,” An Changpu said, dragging his chair a little closer to Zhuang Quan. He did not put on a stern face to scare the boy, but smiled instead, trying to soften the undisguised wariness on the boy’s face.

“What’s the point of all that crap? I already said I robbed it! You probably found the thing too. If you want the details, go ask the brat who got robbed! Don’t ask me! I don’t remember!” Zhuang Quan did not seem nervous at all. He crossed one leg over the other and said carelessly, “If you’re going to take me away, then hurry up and do it!”

Everything about him gave off the air of a seasoned delinquent who had been in and out of detention more than once.

Then, all at once, he turned suspiciously to study An Changpu and Qin Ruonan, muttering in confusion, “What unit did you two transfer in from? How come I’ve never seen you at the police station before?”

An Changpu had been preparing to coax him further, but Qin Ruonan reached from behind and tapped his shoulder, signaling him not to speak yet. She sat upright and faced Zhuang Quan squarely. In a cool, stern voice she said, “It’s normal that you’ve never seen us. We’re not from the local station. We’re homicide detectives from the city bureau.”

Zhuang Quan was stunned for a moment. Then he curled his lip in scorn. “What’s the big deal? It’s not like I robbed some kid from the mayor’s house or the governor’s house. Just one little thing, and you bring out homicide detectives to scare people? How impressive. Anyway, let me be clear: I sold the phone, and the money’s all gone. Even if you want me to pay, I’ve got nothing.”

“The child you robbed is neither the mayor’s son nor the governor’s son. He’s an ordinary boy, just like you. His parents are ordinary citizens. But as for what happened the day you robbed him, I can only ask you, because that boy is missing. Since you robbed him, no one has seen him again,” Qin Ruonan said, her expression grave and unmoving.

While she was speaking, Zhuang Quan kept his eyes fixed on her face, trying to read the seriousness of the situation from her demeanor. Hearing her now, and seeing that unsmiling, unsparing face, he said nothing, but his body could no longer remain still; he shifted uneasily in the chair.

After a while, under the gaze of the two detectives, a trace of unease finally surfaced on Zhuang Quan’s face.

“I didn’t kill anybody! I’ll own up to what I did, but if I didn’t do it, don’t pin it on me! I just robbed a bit of money. That kid’s life or death has nothing to do with me!”

Though his tone still carried resistance, the words signaled that he was willing to talk, that he wanted to clear himself. Hearing this, Qin Ruonan quietly let out a breath of relief, and An Changpu shot her a look that said, Good.

“We also hope this has nothing to do with you. But now that the boy you robbed has disappeared, we can’t prove that yet. It depends on whether you still want to act tough at a time like this, or tell us exactly what happened.” Qin Ruonan fixed her eyes on Zhuang Quan and spoke word by word. “You were young before. A few petty misdeeds never led to anything serious. Your family wouldn’t bear to discipline you, and the school was tolerant. But this time, whatever the facts may be, so long as you can’t prove you had nothing to do with it, once you become entangled in this case, believe me, your grandparents, your parents, even your school, won’t be able to keep you out of trouble.”

Zhuang Quan fell silent. Every now and then he reached up and scratched his head, as if deeply troubled.

“Is there some difficulty? Don’t feel burdened. As long as you tell the truth, we won’t falsely accuse you.” Seeing that Qin Ruonan’s pressure had already caused his emotions to loosen, An Changpu also offered timely encouragement.

Zhuang Quan widened his eyes, but his words were no longer as reckless as before. “Easy for you to say. My record’s already bad enough. Even if I tell you something now, you might not believe me anyway!”

“In this world there are no eternal good people and no eternal bad people. A good person may do something wrong in the next second, and a bad person who has erred before can still truly repent and begin again. Besides, the things you did before don’t mark you forever as a bad person,” Qin Ruonan said, her tone softening considerably. It no longer carried the same force or pressure as before.

“Fine, then I’ll tell you! It’s not that I’m a coward or that I don’t have the guts to take responsibility. It’s just that I didn’t do anything, and I’m not about to take the blame for somebody else!” Zhuang Quan straightened his back and deliberately said it with stubborn defiance, but in truth he had already decided to tell everything as it was. “But let me make one thing clear: I can’t go around finding so-called witnesses for you cops all day! I can only tell you what happened that night. You’ll have to figure out the rest yourselves! Don’t go wrongly accusing me!”

“Good. Go on. I’m listening.” Qin Ruonan nodded and agreed at once.

“I actually didn’t know that brat at all. It’s just that money was tight for me lately, and it was his bad luck to run into me. Anyway, whoever’s money I robbed, it was still robbery. I’d even been planning to find some junior-high kid and hold him up after evening self-study, but running into him saved me the trouble.” Zhuang Quan deliberately affected a casual tone, darting glances toward An Changpu and the others, especially Qin Ruonan, straining to maintain his composure.

“Time, place. Be specific.”

“It was a little after seven in the evening. I can’t remember the exact time. Anyway, it was before eight. Junior high hadn’t let out from evening study yet. I didn’t want to go to evening study, so I went out for a walk. Like I said, I was planning to wander over toward the junior high and ask one of those kids for some pocket money when they came out. But I met that boy halfway there. He was pretty short, buying skewers from a barbecue stall on the roadside all by himself in the dark, and when he pulled money from his pocket, it came out in a fistful. I looked and thought, this kid’s got something. Why make a fuss? I’ll take him.”

An Changpu noted the time Zhuang Quan mentioned in his notebook and continued asking, “Which barbecue stall?”

“I forgot.”

“Think carefully!”

“Probably around the water plant. There’s a little side street there. If you go through it, you get to the junior-high division of Fifth Middle School. On both sides of that street there are either stationery shops or snack bars, and internet cafes and the like. Anyway, it’s lively. That’s the place.”

“How much did you take from him altogether?”

“Not much. Around a little over a hundred yuan, probably not even two hundred. I thought it was too little, which was why I took his phone too!” Zhuang Quan said, then seemed to recall more details and hurriedly added in his own defense, “And I didn’t lay a finger on him that day! I blocked him in a corner while he was carrying his skewers and eating as he walked, not paying attention to his surroundings, and asked him for money. He was almost scared out of his pants then. If I hadn’t threatened him, that kid might have burst into tears on the spot. You tell me, if he was already that scared, why would I bother hitting him? No need for that! It’s not like I’ve got so much strength I have to go looking for somewhere to use it!”

He stopped and looked at Qin Ruonan. His chest rose and fell a little too sharply, the involuntary quickened breathing of someone nervous.

Qin Ruonan watched him, just about to speak, when Zhuang Quan cut in ahead of her.

“I’m telling you, I’m a really good-hearted guy! He was so little, I even left him about twenty yuan so he’d have money to take the bus home!”

“You’re awfully kind-hearted, aren’t you?” Qin Ruonan asked, not quite smiling.

After all, Zhuang Quan was still an underage boy. At the question, his face reddened at once. “That kid had no idea where he got all those coins from—fifty-cent pieces, one-yuan coins, handful after handful, all loose change. I thought carrying it would be a pain and take up too much space, so I left it for him.”

“And after that?”

“After that I went to play billiards! I’ve got people who can vouch for that! You can ask the owner of the billiards hall! Or the people there playing, either way. I go there all the time, so they all know me. As for where that kid went after that, I have no idea! Anyway, the second I let go, he bolted like a rabbit.”

An Changpu asked again about the billiards hall’s exact name and address, recording everything in turn, then could not help asking, “You’re not that old yourself. Why not study properly? Instead you go out copying other people and robbing money, and you even pick on kids younger than you. Do you really think that’s something to be proud of?”

“What’s not to be proud of?” Zhuang Quan rolled his eyes. “I’m not bullying the weak! I only ever pick the ones who look decently dressed, the kind you can tell come from rich families. That’s what I call robbing the rich to help the poor!”

That single line almost made An Changpu laugh in exasperation. “What kind of robbing the rich to help the poor is that?”

“They’re rich, so I rob them. I’m poor, so I’m helping myself,” Zhuang Quan answered with perfect righteousness.