Chapter 17
CHU SHUZHI’S last text message sat on Guo Changcheng’s screen, urging him to stay away from the resort no matter what happened, and more importantly, to prevent anyone else from going there.
Guo Changcheng tried to call him and tell him that Zhu Hong had run off, only to find that the call wouldn’t go through. He tried sending messages and leaving voicemails, but they too got no response, as if they were rocks sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
It was as though everyone else in the world had disappeared, leaving his poor little self behind, helpless and alone and at a complete loss about what to do. Guo Changcheng pulled the car over on the roadside, where he hemmed and hawed for a good, long while before finally gathering enough courage to follow the GPS into the nearest town.
Once there, he made a beeline for the local police station, but well before he reached it, he could see a huge crowd clustering around the building’s entrance. They were completely blocking the road. Guo Changcheng honked once, but no one paid any attention. An old lady was leaving the station, leaning on someone who was helping her. Her hair was pure white, and she seemed unsteady on her feet. Even with someone holding on to her, she managed to trip and stumble, falling against the hood of Guo Changcheng’s car.
Alarmed, Guo Changcheng got out of the car at once. The old woman’s friends and family scrambled to help her back up, as did the police officer who had followed her out. Their voices rose in a great clamor, and the old lady started crying loudly, as if none of them were there. Her sobs only got the crowd more worked up. Guo Changcheng heard one angry voice declare, “I have no clue what cops these days even do. According to them, they’re not responsible for this, they’re not responsible for that, and they can’t solve anything. Why does the country even bother keeping them around in that case?”
“Exactly!” exclaimed someone else. “Just look at this poor lady! It’s been just her and that one son for so long. They depend on each other. If anything happened to him, would she even be able to go on?”
This tactless question hit the old woman right where it hurt most. Her weeping became even more hysterical.
The officer who had followed her out was a young woman around the same age as Guo Changcheng. Like him, she looked like a recent graduate…but at the moment she was also representing the government, which meant all of the questions and pointed fingers were aimed at her. Face red and at a complete loss, she said haltingly, “We have to follow procedure. An adult must be missing for over forty-eight hours before…”
Angry cursing drowned her out at once. “Rules and procedures are set in stone, but people aren’t!” someone cried. “The missing might still be alive now, but you guys want to wait forty-eight hours! Anything could happen to them in forty-eight hours! It would be too late! Their corpses would be long cold by then! But you’re still not going to do anything? Young lady, ask yourself, what’s the difference between your inaction and murder?”
The young officer thought that was all perfectly reasonable and made sense, but the fact remained that this was a small local police station with limited manpower. What was more, rules were rules. No matter how reasonable she thought the crowd’s requests were, she couldn’t just go against regulations. She was overcome with frustration. Tears began to swim in her reddened eyes.
The whole thing was quickly giving Guo Changcheng a headache. The crowd was saying all sorts of things and all talking at once, as worked up as a pitchfork-wielding mob. Then the old woman who was still crying on the hood of his car suddenly passed out, eyes rolling back in her head.
Guo Changcheng hurriedly pushed his way through. “Excuse me—sorry—please make way.”
He pulled his work ID and keys from his pocket. Flustered, he tossed his ID to the woman’s friends and family. “Take my car and drive her to the hospital!”
The relative who’d caught his badge stared at it. “Huh?”
Guo Changcheng looked at what they were holding. “Oh! Sorry, wrong thing. Take these.”
He quickly traded the car keys for his ID, which he then handed to the female officer beside him. “Comrade, can you take me to your supervisor? It’s urgent.”
She looked at his ID in confusion, then suddenly straightened up. “Are… Are you the higher-up from Dragon City?”
“No, no, I’m not a higher-up. My office sent someone here two days ago to investigate a death. Your station should already have all the paperwork. But our colleague went missing yesterday. Our boss is already at the crime scene. He told me to come here and check in with you guys.” Guo Changcheng finished speaking and wiped his brow, which had gotten sweaty despite it being the dead of winter. Then, with rare competence, he asked the crowd, “Are you all here to file reports? All for missing people?”
Many people nodded.
“Oh…” he said. “Oh, so how did they go missing?”
It was like he’d poked a hornet’s nest. The whole crowd exploded into speech at once; the wall of noise was like five thousand ducks simultaneously yelling at the top of their lungs. The overwhelming noise almost made Guo Changcheng pass out. He pressed a hand firmly against his pants pocket, afraid that his fear of people would activate the little stun baton in his pocket and accidentally hurt the innocent crowd.
But to his own surprise, he didn’t feel as afraid as he’d expected.
That was just how Guo Changcheng was. Whenever he wanted to ask others for help, he felt like a tremendously ignorant nuisance. Naturally, that made him afraid of whomever it was, and that grew into a fear of all communication, whether speaking aloud or even just making eye contact. But at a time like this, when he realized that the people in front of him required his help, his words always flowed far more smoothly.