Chapter 335: Stirring Up Trouble

2022-05-20

When this topic came up, Gu Chen’s father grew hesitant, caught between wanting to speak and wanting to stay silent. He let out a sigh, then finally turned to me and said, “Actually, Gu Chen knows about this too, but not all the details. It’s kind of an ugly secret in our village, not something folks usually talk about with outsiders.”

As we walked together towards Gu Zhi’s house, Gu Chen’s father began to share, “The man Gu Zhi suspects is named Gao Dafu. He’s a math teacher at the elementary school in town. There aren’t many villages nearby, and each grade only has a couple of classes—maybe twenty-some kids per class.”

“Now, about Mr. Gao…” Gu Chen’s father scratched his head. “Before it all happened, he was a respected teacher. Tall and thin, quite the favorite among the village girls. Even the principal’s daughter liked him. He graduated from a top university too—about as educated as anyone here gets.”

He paused for a moment, then continued, “Gao Dafu’s one of our own. Some kids from our village attend school in town too. There was a little girl named Hu Ningning. Her parents left to find work when she was very young, so she lived with her grandparents from the start.”

I nodded. By now, we had reached the gate of Gu Zhi’s house.

Gu Chen’s father reached through the hole in the gate, unlocking it with an ease that said he’d done it plenty. While opening the door, he kept talking, “Hu Ningning’s grandparents have trouble getting around, so they couldn’t take her to school. Gao Dafu, as her homeroom teacher, found out and started giving her rides every day on his bike.”

While he spoke, the main gate swung open and Gu Chen’s father stepped inside, calling out, “Brother, are you home? Gu Chen’s back!”

The two of us followed after him. Right across from us to the north, three rooms faced the courtyard. Gu Chen’s father pushed the front door open and went straight in. We followed into a small foyer, with two side rooms leading off left and right. He called out a few more times, but nobody answered. Then, lifting the curtain to the west room, he stepped inside.

By the wall was a double bed. Someone lay there, wrapped up in a blanket. Hearing us come in, the woman on the bed struggled to sit up. She looked to be just over twenty, but she was pale and exhausted, so weak it seemed she couldn’t even stand.

“Oh, Second Uncle, you’re here.” She leaned on the headboard, then noticed me. “Gu Chen’s back as well. And this is…?”

Gu Chen’s father said, “Don’t try to get up, stay there. That’s one of Gu Chen’s colleagues—he’s come to help Gu Zhi investigate. So why are you here alone? Where’s Gu Zhi? And your father-in-law?”

The woman answered slowly, “They went over to that Gao fellow’s place to make a scene again. Gu Zhi says it has to be him, but I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. Gu Chen, you have to find the truth.”

Gu Chen nodded and said softly, “Sister-in-law, just rest. We’re going to find my brother. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“Alright.” The woman nodded, her voice shaking a little. “We’ll be waiting for your news. Our daughter was all we had—we worked so hard all these years just to give Hui’er a better life. Now she’s gone like this, without a reason—I just can’t accept it!”

“We’ll do everything we can,” Gu Chen promised, nodding firmly.

Leaving Gu Zhi’s house, none of us spoke. Gu Chen’s sister-in-law looked to be about twenty-five or twenty-six, which meant she and Gu Zhi must’ve had their daughter around twenty—a common age for having kids in the countryside.

“Should I keep going?” We’d walked a while before I broke the silence. “What happened with Mr. Gao, anyway?”

Gu Chen’s father nodded, “Like I was saying, Mr. Gao used to take Hu Ningning to and from school every day when she was seven and in first grade. That went on for a year, until something happened—something really hard to accept.”

He glanced at me with a strange look, then lowered his voice. “Honestly, it’s hard to even talk about this. One day, Hu Ningning came home and told her grandparents that Mr. Gao… had touched her inappropriately.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Gu Chen’s father let out a heavy sigh, clearly troubled. “I’m not young anymore, but every time I have to talk about this, I feel deeply ashamed. I guess you get the idea. This was a seven or eight-year-old girl, and Mr. Gao was in his twenties!”

“Of course, Hu Ningning’s grandparents would never accept that. But Mr. Gao denied everything. The families started fighting, and eventually the police were called,” Gu Chen’s father continued. “They took Hu Ningning in for an exam—but I don’t really know all the medical terms.”

I nodded for him to go on.

“They tried to get DNA evidence,” Gu Chen’s father said, “but found nothing linking Mr. Gao. The investigation turned up no proof either. When they were questioning Hu Ningning, Gu Hui came forward as a witness.”

“Gu Hui?” I asked. “How old was she then?”

“Four years old,” he said. “Though I’m not sure how Gu Hui even knew about it. She said she saw it at Mr. Gao’s house. The whole village was buzzing with the rumors, but without evidence, the police couldn’t arrest Mr. Gao.”

I ran my hand through my hair, “No evidence at all?”

“That’s right,” Gu Chen’s father said. “In a village like this, secrets never stay hidden. Everyone knew about it, but there wasn’t enough proof to arrest him. People said Mr. Gao was educated and sly—maybe he knew how to cover his tracks.”

The road got tricky and muddy in the darkness. Couldn’t see what we were stepping on, and it always felt like I might slip and eat dirt at any moment.

Gu Chen’s father went on, “One of those kids was eight, the other only four years old. What would they really know about these things? Still, the villagers thought Mr. Gao…”

He finished, “That’s about it. Most folks around here believe Mr. Gao did it. After word spread, he couldn’t stay at the school anymore and wanted to leave, but the villagers wouldn’t allow it.”

I shook my head. “What do you mean, wouldn’t allow it?”

Gu Chen’s father explained, “Hu Ningning’s family obviously wouldn’t let that happen. After what happened, how could they let Mr. Gao walk free—what if someone finds more evidence one day?”

I looked at Gu Chen. “So… they were basically keeping him under house arrest?”

Gu Chen shook his head, “I only heard fragments. I know Mr. Gao was fired, but I don’t know the rest.”

Gu Chen’s father continued slowly, “Either way, they wouldn’t let Mr. Gao leave. He even swore an oath—said he wouldn’t take a single step out of the village until he cleared his name. After that, he shut himself in. Never set foot out of his house.”

I nodded for him to keep going.

He said, “It’s been a year since then. At first, villagers took turns watching him, but they got tired of it. Even Hu Ningning’s family seems to have stopped pursuing it. After all, nothing too serious happened to the girl, and kids forget things quickly—she’s probably moved on by now.”

“Then why suspect him, after Gu Hui’s death?” I asked.

Gu Chen’s father explained, “Because at first, no one wanted to believe it. Mr. Gao seemed decent, plenty of girls liked him, surely he wouldn’t do something like that to a little girl. But then Gu Hui came forward and backed up the claim, and that’s strange.”

“Think about it—Gu Hui was just four at the time. She didn’t understand any of that. It makes sense Hu Ningning might’ve known a little, being older, but Gu Hui had no reason to lie. Gu Zhi thinks Mr. Gao is holding a grudge—he was a promising young man, and a little girl ruined his future.”

“So Gu Zhi suspects Mr. Gao wanted revenge and took it out on Gu Hui?” I asked.

Gu Chen’s father said, “Exactly. In our village, only Mr. Gao could do something like this. Not even a clue left behind this time, just like last year. On that rainy day, everyone stayed indoors. No one saw if Mr. Gao left his house or not.”

I scratched my head. If that’s the logic, Gu Zhi’s accusations seemed built on little more than grief and suspicion. But with your own daughter’s mysterious death, it’s no wonder he’d fixate on a suspect.

Still, whether Mr. Gao really was the killer—or if he ever did what they accused him of a year ago—that’s anyone’s guess.

All we can do is keep investigating. No point in jumping to conclusions before that.

But right now, I couldn’t help feeling curious about Mr. Gao. I wanted to meet this man myself.