Chapter 152: The Disappearance of Hao Ren

2022-05-20

As I pushed open the door I couldn’t help remembering a famous comedy skit by Guo Degang. In it, Yu Qian comes home after a show to find his house collapsed, leaving only the security door standing. Yu Qian simply unlocks the door and walks in as if nothing’s wrong. Stepping through our own doorway now, the place was so empty that if not for the surrounding walls, you’d think we’d just left the house rather than entered it.

We stared at each other, baffled. Nobody could make sense of what had happened. Piled in front of us were collapsed beams and broken bricks—the entire house in the courtyard had fallen in. Judging by the charred timber and sooty bricks, the beams had been burned through and the fire had left dark smoky stains everywhere.

Traditional wooden houses like this are common all over Yumu City. Unlike the reinforced concrete of bigger cities, these houses can be devastatingly fragile in a fire. Clearly, a major fire had consumed this one. Now, except for the standing front gate, all that remained was debris and ruins.

“Is this the place?” The Principal stared at the devastation, disbelief etched across his face.

Wang Lulu nodded. “This is definitely the address, but how could it end up like this?”

I frowned, a sense of unease settling in. This felt much more complicated than it looked. The family’s house had burned, the daughter had taken her own life, and the parents were nowhere to be found. Did every misfortune really have to strike them on New Year’s Eve? Were they doomed to never have a peaceful holiday?

By now, Guan Zengbin had stepped onto the wreckage. She crouched to touch the ashes scattered across the ground, rubbing them thoughtfully. After a moment, she spoke. “This must’ve happened some time ago, not just in the last few days. Think about it. If the girl chose to end her life today, where had she been living before? Was it somewhere near Rainbow Bridge?”

“Oh, right.” I turned to Gu Chen. “You checked the surveillance footage earlier—how did she get there?”

Gu Chen replied, “She really did walk the whole way.”

I nodded. “Walking from here to Rainbow Bridge would take at least three hours. If Fang Xiaoqi really started from here, there should be footage. Check again—this can’t be as simple as it seems.”

The Principal scratched his head, looking helpless. He asked Wang Lulu, “Is this really the place? What are her parents’ names?”

I shook my head. “Leave that part to us. Fang Xiaoqi’s records should have all that information.”

Back at the office, we pored over Fang Xiaoqi’s online profile as soon as we could.

Fang wasn’t a common surname and there were only two people named Fang Xiaoqi registered in the whole city. Now that we had her name and address, it was quick work to dig up more. She was sixteen, a student at Yumu City No. 2 High School. But it was her family history that stunned us.

At four years old, Fang Xiaoqi had been abducted and brought to a small mountain village near Yumu City. Later, the couple who bought her ran into trouble with their contractor over unpaid wages. Her father tried to threaten suicide by climbing an electricity pole, but was accidentally electrocuted halfway up.

Her mother, crushed by grief, ended her own life. So Fang Xiaoqi was left an orphan, passed from one person to another, shuffled around until someone finally fostered her and she got some stability. In the record for ‘guardian’, we spotted a very familiar name—Hao Ren.

“Hao Ren?” Gu Chen’s eyes widened. “Isn’t that the security guard from Xianyuan Internet Café? The one who wanted to open a martial arts school?”

Guan Zengbin chimed in, “That’s too much of a coincidence. Let’s check the photos.”

But when we pulled up the pictures, the coincidence got even bigger. Hao Ren really was Fang Xiaoqi’s foster father—yes, the very same security guard from Xianyuan Internet Café. According to his file, he’d adopted more than just Fang. Hao Ren, age forty-four, had fostered four children. The eldest, Du Zigui, was twenty; the youngest, Wang An, only eight.

All told, Hao Ren had taken in four kids, with Fang Xiaoqi being just one of them.

Taking it all in, Gu Chen remarked, “Hao Ren’s honestly a good man. I could tell back when he bravely caught that thief. People like him are rare now. Most folks would rather turn a blind eye than get involved. Lots love watching the action, but when it comes to giving a statement, everyone disappears…”

I let out a sigh. “Maybe it’s not that people don’t want to do the right thing. It’s just that the cost of stepping up is too high these days.”

But Gu Chen shook his head. “If everyone stands together, what’s there to be afraid of? People like that wouldn’t dare to retaliate.”

Guan Zengbin interrupted, “It’s already past two in the morning. If we want to find Hao Ren, we should probably wait until tomorrow.”

“Mary just sent us a dossier with basic info on Hao Ren and all his foster kids.” Guan Zengbin called us over. “With this, maybe we can figure out why Hao Ren’s house was burned down—and why Fang Xiaoqi chose to end her own life.”

She printed out a copy and handed it to me. “Here’s the file on Hao Ren and his four adopted children.”

I took the document and scanned it quickly.

Hao Ren is forty-four years old, living at No. 5, Taishan Temple Alley. He never married but has fostered four children over the years. The first came when he was just twenty-two. Since then, he adopted three more.

Records show Hao Ren treats these kids as his own disciples, teaching them martial arts.

The first child he adopted, Du Zigui, has been with him for over twenty years and learned everything Hao Ren can teach. Back in Hao Ren’s younger days, money was tight, so Du Zigui never attended school. Instead, he started working early and now fixes cars at an auto shop.

The second child, Zhao Xiaoli, is eighteen and joined the family from a young age. She’s off at university in another city now and, by all accounts, does quite well. She earns scholarships every year, so Hao Ren doesn’t have to worry about her expenses.

The third is Fang Xiaoqi, sixteen, a first-year high school student with good grades. She’s a quiet, withdrawn kid with few friends. The only one mentioned is Mo Yu. For some reason no one understands, Fang Xiaoqi took her own life.

The youngest, Wang An, is eight and in second grade. These days, Hao Ren mainly busies himself with Wang An. The other kids are now old enough to take care of themselves.

The older three grew up nearly together, but Wang An joined when the others were off to school or work, so he pretty much grew up alone. Because of that, Hao Ren dotes on him the most.

Frowning at the list of names, I said, “It’s late. Tomorrow morning we’ll go see these people. It’s the first day of the new year—nobody should be working or at school. Still, with their house burned, where are they living now?”

“We should check out Xianyuan Internet Café,” I suggested. “Maybe the boss knows something.”

A quiet night passed.

First thing the next morning, we found the address for Xianyuan Internet Café. When we arrived, the place was still open—but there was no sign of Hao Ren. Asking around, we found out the café had hired a new security guard.

And then we heard the full story.

More than two months ago, Hao Ren turned three people in to the authorities. About ten days after they got out, chaos erupted at the internet café. Those three sought revenge.

It was like having a pest you can’t get rid of—annoying and impossible to ignore, even if it doesn’t bite.

Call the police, and the culprits vanished without a trace. Call for backup, and it turned out these people were well-known locally. Do nothing, and customers ran off scared. All those guys wanted was one thing: they didn’t want Hao Ren working at that café anymore.

Eventually, the boss just tried to keep the peace. About a month ago, he fired Hao Ren.

Even after Hao Ren lost his job, those three came by to gloat, acting like they’d come out on top. They wanted to see Hao Ren lose his temper, but he just took his pay and left quietly.

The thieves felt humiliated and made it clear they weren’t done causing trouble for him.

The boss told us something else: those three specifically asked for Hao Ren’s home address. Not wanting any more trouble, the boss gave it to them.

After that, the boss lost touch with Hao Ren and had no idea where he’d gone.

The phone number he gave matched the one Wang Lulu had, but no one was picking up.

Lowering his voice, the boss said, “I overheard something when those three left.”

“What was it?” I asked.

He glanced around nervously, like he’d had enough of all this. “One of them said, ‘Now that we’ve got his address, I swear I’ll tear his house apart.'”