1983, Northeast China

Chapter 37 Police Enter Widow's Room

The child wasn't lost, was he?

If someone else had said this, Chen Shi would have just thought they were stupid.

But Gu Cheng, dressed in a police uniform, spoke casually under the brim of his hat, as if Ya Ya hadn't actually been dragged away, and that this matter wasn't worth the effort.

Zhao Defa tapped his pipe twice on the table leg, and the ashes fell to the ground.

"Officer Gu," he said, his voice barely suppressed, "you tricked the child with steamed buns, wrote 'girl' and 'timberman' on cardboard, and the commune even detained the outsider. You're saying the child isn't missing and you're just letting this go?"

"Captain Zhao, I didn't say we wouldn't investigate, but when investigating a case, you have to be careful about the direction, the verification, and the physical evidence. You can't just pin the blame on anyone who calls you a human trafficker," Gu Cheng said.

Li Cheng panicked, "But I heard them talking about a girl, and saying that the horoscopes don't match, so we shouldn't have her!"

Gu Cheng glanced at him, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "Oh? You're the one who eavesdrops behind the small restaurant? What a coincidence, everyone's here at the same time."

Li Cheng blushed at his words, "I was just sheltering from the wind."

"Okay, let's get out of the wind." Gu Cheng nodded casually, his tone very perfunctory. "A few outsiders have had too much to drink and are talking nonsense about birth dates and old ladies getting off the bed. Aren't there plenty of these kinds of superstitious things in the countryside? They hear a couple of sentences and immediately jump to conclusions. If we really investigated based on that, wouldn't we have to search every village for miles around?"

Zhao Defa said, "That child, just letting them be targeted for nothing?"

Gu Cheng sat there, completely oblivious to the problem with his words, legs crossed, speaking in a nonchalant tone, "It's not necessarily about keeping an eye on the kids. Han Changgui, with his gambling, debts, and shady dealings, it's normal for him to offend people. Now that he's dead, the creditors are coming knocking, so it's more reliable to scare his wife and kids than to check their birth charts."

Chen Shi remained silent throughout.

After Gu Cheng entered, he didn't ask any questions about the details and showed no interest in what was going on.

Chen Shi recalled how Liu Dachuan had questioned him. The young policeman didn't talk much, not uttering a single unnecessary word except about the case, but he asked detailed questions, noting down everything, including where the gray cloth was picked up, which direction Huang Er came from, and how many steps away Ya Ya was from the wall.

Gu Cheng is different. He tends to present the conclusion first, then pick out the useful points to add. If you follow his line of thought, you can indeed make some sense.

This is an intentional attempt to avoid it.

Gambling debts, revenge—once he's set his mind on something, everything else can be dismissed as mere country bumpkin speculation.

"What if the buyer specifies it?" Chen Shi asked.

Gu Cheng turned his head. "What did you say?"

"Focusing on only one child doesn't necessarily mean they aren't abductors," Chen Shi said, staring at him. "It's also possible the buyer only wants this one child."

Gu Cheng's smile gradually faded, and the casualness on his face lessened.

He looked at Chen Shi as if he were finally taking a serious look at the seventeen-year-old boy.

"Your name is Chen Shi?"

"Um."

"You've thought a lot." Gu Cheng picked up his gloves again and patted them in his palms. "However... solving cases isn't about thinking. First, make a list of the people Han Changgui owes gambling debts to. As for the others, we'll talk about them after the station finishes questioning them."

Zhao Defa said, "That's not what Officer Liu said."

"Liu Dachuan has his own perspective, and I have mine." Gu Cheng stood up and pushed his chair back. "Everyone has different methods for handling cases, but the underlying principles are the same."

After saying that, he picked up the cotton hat from the handlebars. "I'll let you know if there's any new development here. If there's nothing else, I'll just stop by Tian Guizhi's place and ask her a couple more questions."

Zhao Defa also stood up: "I'll have someone take you there."

"No need," Gu Cheng said naturally. "The second house behind the old elm tree at the east end of the village, the one with a gap in the wall, right?"

That sounded so natural that Chen Shi couldn't help but glance at him.

Kaoshantun isn't large, but Tian Guizhi's house is located on the inner side of the eastern end of the village, with two narrow paths branching off in front of it. Even first-time visitors might not be able to find it properly during the day, let alone now that it's already getting dark.

Gu Cheng, however, seemed oblivious to what he had let slip, and pushed his old-fashioned bicycle out the door. Just before stepping over the threshold, he casually swerved the handlebars to the right to avoid the frozen mud and dung in front of the brigade's house.

That patch of dung was invisible during the day, and even more so at night. Eight out of ten first-time visitors would step on it.

Gu Cheng didn't even look down.

He pushed off with his foot and skillfully turned into the path behind the drying ground.

That road freezes over in winter, and there are stacks of firewood piled up beside it. If someone unfamiliar with the area rides on it, they're very likely to trip over the frozen clods of earth.

Gu Cheng rode very steadily.

Li Cheng stared wide-eyed at the doorway: "Didn't he say it was on his way? Why is he acting like he's coming home?"

Zhao Defa glared at him: "Shut up."

Li Cheng immediately shut up, his eyes still fixed on the east side.

It's not unusual for a policeman to enter a widow's house in the dead of night to question her; the case has progressed this far, so it's time to ask.

But he knew the way, took the back path, and didn't wait for Zhao Defa to lead the way or ask any of the brigade cadres to accompany him, which was not quite right.

Zhao Defa clearly understood as well.

But he couldn't say anything about something that was just hearsay. "You two go back first."

"Uncle Zhao," Chen Shi began, as if he wanted to say something more.

"I know what you're thinking," Zhao Defa said. "The more wrong it is, the more you need to stay calm. If you go now and he sees you, he'll accuse you of obstructing a police investigation and arrest you. What about your sister?"

Seeing that Chen Shi remained silent, Zhao Defa continued, "Go back, I'll keep an eye on things here."

Li Cheng was still unwilling to give up. "Then how will you keep watch?"

"When I was the brigade leader, you were still running around the village naked. Did you need to teach you?"

Li Cheng was speechless for a long time.

As the two stepped out of the brigade's house, a cold wind blew in their faces. Li Chengcai muttered under his breath, "I didn't run all over the village when I was a kid."

"Are you sure?" Chen Shi asked.

Li Cheng thought for a moment, "We can't let the whole village know."

"You go back first? I'll go check the east side."

"What are you looking at?"

"Let's see if that green-skinned bastard has come yet."

"Huh?...Then...should I go with you?"

As he walked to the edge of the drying ground, he looked out at Tian Guizhi's house from afar.

As if she had heard the bicycle bell long ago, Tian Guizhi came out shortly after the bicycle stopped. Her hair was loose and drooping over her head, revealing half of her face.

Gu Cheng pushed the car into the yard, and she even reached out to hold the handlebars.

Li Cheng pointed in that direction, "What...what are those two...up to?..."

Chen Shi reached out and pressed his arm, leading him forward.

Just one glance is enough.

What are you doing? What can a widow do in her room?

I didn't see that they had already finished taking a shower.

Tian Guizhi has always lived a bold and outspoken life in the village, and it seems that her confidence is not entirely due to her brother.

When she saw Gu Cheng, she became quite familiar with him and didn't try to hide it from others.

After taking a stroll, I returned home, and the house was filled with warm air.

Xiaoman lay in the newly made cradle, the cloth bag gently rocking her. She was already asleep, her little mouth occasionally moving as if she was still looking for milk.

Ya Ya squatted by the kang (a heated brick bed), holding the rope with one hand, her little face tense, swaying for a moment, then stopping.

When Chen Xiulan saw Chen Shi return, she breathed a sigh of relief. "How did it go? What did Uncle Zhao say?"

"Uncle Zhao knows," Chen Shi said. "I just got back. Is the door bolted?"

"It's plugged in, I saw it," Ya Ya answered quickly.

Huang Er circled around him. Chen Shi touched the old scar behind Huang Er's ear and said, "Don't run around today, take care of your legs."

Yellow Ear swept its tail across the ground, it was hard to tell whether it was agreeing or disagreeing.

Aunt Wang Er held Huang Er's rice bowl and said, "Stop trying to reason with the dog. If it really listened to reason, it wouldn't have gone into the mountains with your father back then."

She said that, but she placed the bowl in front of Huang Er.

Before eating the yellow fungus, let's look at Chen Shi first.

Chen Shi said, "Eat." Only then did it lower its head.

Ya Ya's eyes lit up. "Uncle, Huang Er really listens to you."

"It doesn't listen to me," Chen Shi said. "It knows the rules."

Aunt Wang snorted, "He knows more than my son."

Li Cheng had just entered the door when he heard this: "Mother, I just got back."

"I'm talking about you."