“What?” Xiaotao asked, full of doubt. “Why would Xu Gang hide the person he hated the most in his wife’s tomb?”
“To mislead us, perhaps!” I answered.
Xiaotao made a brief phone call, and when she hung up, she told me, “What a bizarre coincidence! His wife was buried here in this cemetery!”
She then asked the person in charge to lead us to Xu Gang’s wife’s tomb. There were a bunch of withered lilies placed on the tomb. The photo above it was of a gentle and beautiful long-haired woman. I sniffed at the flowers and stated, “Xu Gang was here shortly before his death.”
“Pry the tomb open!” ordered Xiaotao.
The officers did so with a crowbar. When it was opened, one of them shouted, “There’s something in there!”
It was a small box, placed right beside the remains of Xu Gang’s wife. He must’ve left it there. None of the officers dared to touch the box. They feared that it could be a bomb.
“You cowards!” snapped Xiaotao. “I’ll do it!”
“No!” I held Xiaotao’s arm to stop her. “Let me do it!”
I slowly opened the box. There were fourteen syringes inside it, as well as a note that read, “Well done, Detective Song! You are as good as you’re rumored to be. These are the antidote to the hibernation drug.”
I was a little shocked that Xu Gang could predict my being there. There were fourteen syringes here to save the researchers. Evidently, Xu Gang didn’t realize that one of them had committed suicide.
The officers' expressions turned strange when they found out what was inside the box. They said nothing, but I could guess what those expressions meant. They were thinking that since the researchers were now saved, there would be no need to go on looking for the rich lady.
I asked them to take the syringes to the lab and test them. If there were no problems with them, then they could go ahead and inject the antidote into the researchers’ bodies. It was already dark by then, so Xiaotao told me to go back to my dorm and resume our search the next day.
The next morning, I went straight to the police station after getting up. Xiaotao was already there waiting for me. She informed me that the researchers were all safe and in stable condition now. Their statements matched what Xu Gang told me. Then, Xiaotao asked me, “Where should we search for the rich lady today?”
“Will it just be the two of us?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Xiaotao sighed. “It’s the end of the year, and the task force members are all exhausted, so I told them to rest today. Besides, we don’t necessarily need lots of people to find the rich lady.”
“Okay,” I said. “Then let’s go to the lady’s company, and then her house!”
The rich lady had been missing for close to a month by now. Her company had since weathered the storm and re-stabilized. The board of directors were in the process of electing a new president. When the directors spoke to us, they hinted subtly for us to end the search for their former president.
This disturbed me. The rich lady used to be the most important person in this company, yet now her employees had forsaken her and were eager to replace her. She was slowly rotting away somewhere in the dark, and the world outside seemed to have forgotten her.
We left the company and went to the rich lady’s house. We stumbled into a few people there. They were people who had set their eyes on the rich lady’s mansion. When those people found out that the rich lady had gone missing, they knew that the mansion would be auctioned sooner or later, so they came here to take a look at it before deciding to buy it in the future.
“Will I be forgotten this way too if I go missing?” Xiaotao wondered gloomily.
“Being forgotten is a fate that no one can escape,” I said. “But I will remember you as long as I live.”
Xiaotao smiled, then sighed again. “Oh, if only I had some spare time. I’d really love to go out with you on a proper date sometime.”
We both entered the rich lady’s mansion. It had been cleaned up a long time ago, but that was fine because we didn’t come here to find clues, only to find inspiration about where to go next. I looked at their family portrait and asked Xiaotao, “Where does her daughter go to school?”
“An exclusive private boarding school,” replied Xiaotao.
“Does she know what happened to her parents?”
“Most probably, yeah. It’s been quite a while after all, so I’m sure someone must’ve told her. I hear she’s been adopted by her relatives.”
“Let’s go and meet her!”
“Now? But it’s the weekend! I don’t know where her relatives live!”
I was about to call it a day, but then it occurred to me that we should just try our luck and go to the girl’s school anyway. Perhaps we could find some clues there.
The school was a combination of a junior high school and a high school. It had sophisticated infrastructure and looked nothing like the school that I went to. It felt like I was visiting those schools in movies and TV dramas. I’d never imagined that such a school would actually exist in real life.
Xiaotao sighed when she saw a couple in high school uniforms walking slowly along a tree-lined road.
“Look at them,” she commented, “Don’t they look cute? I never thought I’d see such a scene in real life! How I envy them!”
“You envy them for being students of such a nice school?” I laughed.
“No, I envy their youthful vigor. Life is so carefree when you’re young! Anyway, do you play basketball?”
“I’ve had balls thrown at me before, but I’ve never played in my life.”
“I’ll teach you then!” Xiaotao laughed. “Come on! Let’s go to the school gym! Maybe we can find some clues there!”
There were a number of high school boys playing basketball at the gym. Xiaotao strode up to them and asked for the ball. They were a bit surprised at first, but relented. Xiaotao then effortlessly did the one-step and three-step lay-up. The boys then screamed and shouted in awe.
“That was awesome!” they yelled.
Xiaotao returned to me with her cheeks flushed, and she asked me, “Were you impressed? Did you fall in love with me when you see how cool I looked?”
I blushed to the roots of my hair when I heard that. Xiaotao was only joking when she said it, but I noticed that she’d turned as red as a tomato herself.
Then she suddenly gasped and exclaimed, “Hey, you’re taller than me!”
“You just found that out?”
“You’re always so shy and timid, so I never noticed it.”
After saying that, she stepped closer to me. I was so nervous I could hear my own heartbeat—but no, it wasn’t just mine, I could hear Xiaotao’s heartbeat too. Her face inched closer to mine. I couldn’t take my eyes off her bright round eyes and her long eyelashes.
I held Xiaotao’s arms with my hands. I could hear her breathing shorten. Xiaotao closed her eyes. Just when I was about to do the bravest thing I’d ever done in my life, the boys started to chant, “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”
The romantic atmosphere disappeared like a puff of smoke. Xiaotao spat in anger, “Those freaking bastards! Let’s go!”
We continued walking around the school. It was almost noon by then, so I suggested we have our lunch in the school cafeteria to save money and time. I was about to borrow a meal card from a student in exchange for money, but the employee working at the cafeteria saved us this procedure. “Just pay me with cash,” he said.
So we bought ourselves a hearty meal there. To my surprise, the food was delicious—exquisite, even—it was much better than the food served in some restaurants! Plus, the price was really affordable too. It was a far cry from the kind of food I was used to back in my highschool.
As I ate, I wondered aloud, “Now that her parents are gone, can the girl still study here?”
“Her mother already paid the complete tuition fees for her to study here till she graduates high school, so she’ll be fine.”
“That’s good to hear,” I nodded. “At least she won’t have to worry about moving to another school.”
“I’m not sure if she’ll be okay, though,” said Xiaotao. “She used to be her parents’ precious daughter and they treated her like a princess, and now she’s got no one left. It must be a rude awakening for her. Besides, the school is full of spoilt rich kids. I worry that she’ll be bullied for what happened to her.”
“That’s true…” I sighed.
School wasn’t always a safe place for children. Sometimes, it could be even more hostile than adult societies. Most people got through it just fine, but for some, their school experience could leave them traumatized well into their adulthood.
Once we finished our meal, we went to the girl’s classroom. We found out that she was in second grade. There were only twenty students in her class, and the classroom looked spacious and not crowded at all. The walls were covered with colorful pictures of animals and flowers. They were preparing for New Year’s Day and the festive mood was tangible from the decorations in the room.
The classroom looked fine and there was nothing else to see there, so we decided to leave. Just as we were stepping out of the door, a thought came to me.
“How many days will school be closed for New Year’s Day this year?” I asked.
“I think it’s around five days,” replied Xiaotao. “It’s right next to the weekend.”
“Come on! We have to check the classroom one more time!”