Chapter 16

“Who took the wood strips away? Go ask the demolition crew!”

Wang Rui strode quickly toward the temporary demolition command post, and Xiao Yuan ran after him.

“We didn’t dare touch anything inside the cordon,” the demolition crew foreman remembered Wang Rui, shaking his head like a rattle-drum, “that day you police dug for an entire day, everyone on the team knew something big had happened, no one dared cross the fence and go inside, I can guarantee it!”

“Did any other people enter this neighborhood?”

“Anyway, I didn’t see anyone come in. This neighborhood has been uninhabited for over ten years, and now it’s been torn down like this, I don’t think anyone would come in.”

“Are there any scavengers or trash pickers around here?” Xiao Yuan asked.

“I don’t know about that... I’ve never seen any.”

Dust and dirt swirled through the demolition site, and the noise was deafening. Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan walked toward the neighborhood gate.

“If there are scavengers around here,” Wang Rui said, “they might often come into this neighborhood, and maybe they’ve seen something.”

“Right! Let’s look... there must be scavengers!” Xiao Yuan was a little excited.

The two searched around the neighborhood, but didn’t see a single person, so they followed the path toward the village.

When they reached the village entrance, they saw a small shop by the roadside, so they went over to ask around.

“Looking for scrap collectors? Yes,” the man in the small shop stood up behind the counter, “what are you two selling? Waste paper, old computers, I buy those too!”

“We’re from the neighborhood over there,” Wang Rui pointed in the direction of the villa area, “it’s been demolished, and there are some building materials left over from when it was going to be renovated, wood strips, plaster and sand...”

“I don’t want those things. Go look for Uncle Hu. He often goes to that villa area to pick up junk, haven’t you run into him before?”

“Seems like we have,” Wang Rui said with a smile, “we always see him when we don’t need him, and when we really need to find him, he’s nowhere to be seen!”

“Ha, that old Hu guy, I can’t say when he works either. Sometimes he goes out only at high noon, sometimes he goes out in the middle of the night to pick things up, and by the time other people get up, he’s already finished and come back!”

“Did he go out this morning? Where can we find him?”

“This morning I was keeping the shop here, I didn’t see him come out. Otherwise, why don’t you go look for him at his home? It’s at the west end of the main road, I’ll point it out to you.”

The man walked out of the small shop and stood in the middle of the road, pointing ahead. “Go all the way to the end up ahead and turn left. The house at the very back of the alley with the red gate is Uncle Hu’s home.”

“Okay, thank you!”

Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan followed the shop owner’s directions and went on.

The village roads were clean, and every household had brand-new two-story brick-and-tile houses.

When they entered the narrow alley, the house at the end had been built very nicely, with a red lacquered gate standing open.

In the yard, a woman in a water-red jacket was squatting in front of the tap, washing a pile of sweet potatoes.

“Who are you looking for?” She looked up and saw the two strangers at the door.

“Hello, may I ask if Old Man Hu lives here?” Wang Rui called out.

“You’re looking for my father-in-law? What’s the matter?”

“We live in the villa neighborhood up on the mountain. There are some discarded building materials that need someone to collect.”

“That old man went to your neighborhood to pick up junk again?” The woman complained angrily, “So embarrassing. Our family lacks neither food nor clothes, we’ve never let him go without anything, but he insists on going out to pick up that junk, and we can’t stop him!”

Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan felt a little awkward, standing stiffly by the doorway.

“What are you shouting about!” An old man with graying hair and a straight back walked out of the main room, smoking a pipe.

He walked straight into the yard and said in a full voice to Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan standing at the door, “You two are selling scrap? I don’t buy scrap, I only pick up junk no one wants.”

“Not exactly, it’s just some discarded building materials. If you want them, you can go haul them away.”

“I’ll go take a look with you.”

The old man walked to the kitchen built of red brick and forcefully pushed a small tricycle.

“Father,” the woman washing vegetables half-squatted and turned around, one hand on her knee, and shouted at the old man, “don’t go bringing back that trash anymore. Look at what our backyard has become! If you’re doing handicraft work, just take money and buy whatever materials you need. Our family isn’t so poor we can’t afford it!”

“Don’t you mind it!”

The old man stubbornly threw down those three words and pushed the small tricycle out the gate.

“You two get on.”

The old man motioned for Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan to sit in the rear cargo bed.

“No, no,” Xiao Yuan hurriedly waved his hands, “you won’t be able to pull us.”

“Should I pedal?” Wang Rui stepped forward.

“You?” The old man looked Wang Rui up and down.

Probably deciding Wang Rui couldn’t pedal the tricycle, the old man’s grizzled beard trembled slightly. He smiled as he handed the tricycle over to Wang Rui, while he himself nimbly sat into the rear cargo bed.

“Xiao Yuan, get on!”

Wang Rui mounted the seat, and with a hard push of his foot, the tricycle wobbled forward.

“Wang Rui, slow down, there’s an old man sitting behind you!”

Xiao Yuan ran after him, and under Old Man Hu’s pulling, he stumbled and climbed onto the tricycle.

“Heh heh, the two of you have pretty good skills. You’re not pale-faced young men who’ve never done any work.”

Old Man Hu stroked his beard and laughed.

“Uncle Hu,” Wang Rui said loudly from the front while pedaling, “you ride a tricycle out to pick things up, if I’m seeing it right, it’s just to move your limbs, right?”

“I’ve worked all my life, I can’t sit still!”

“You go out at night too?”

“I’m old, I can’t sleep! Whenever I want to go out, I go out.”

Old Man Hu seemed to be sitting on level ground, steady as a rock, leisurely smoking his pipe.

Xiao Yuan sat across from Old Man Hu, both hands gripping the iron bars at the side of the cart, admiring the old man who was as steady as Mount Tai.

Wang Rui gave it his all, pedaling the tricycle into the villa area and arriving outside the fenced ruins of Villa 3.

“We’re here, this is it!” Wang Rui stopped the tricycle. “That pile of building materials in the yard, see what you want, and I’ll help you move it onto the cart.”

“This house belongs to you?”

Old Man Hu jumped off the cart and asked suspiciously.

“It’s a friend’s house,” Wang Rui said, one foot touching the ground as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, “it’s been demolished, we’re helping our friend clean it up.”

“This pile of sand and soil in the yard,” Old Man Hu said, “I saw it a long time ago, it was there before the house was even torn down. I was afraid people still wanted it, so I didn’t dare touch it.

I hadn’t seen anyone come to this house for more than a year. I figured the house had been torn down too, and those few wood strips were a pity, so I picked them up and took them back...”

“It’s fine, those wood strips aren’t needed. As for the rest of this pile, see what else you want, just take it away.” Wang Rui said.

“Uncle Hu,” Xiao Yuan looked seriously at Old Man Hu, “you just said that you hadn’t seen anyone come to this house for more than a year. Then more than a year ago, who did you see come to this house?”

“This house used to have people living in it!” Old Man Hu was surprised. “Isn’t it your friend’s house?”

“The owner of this house has the surname Fan,” Wang Rui said, “not very tall, with a chubby round face. Was that the person you saw?”

“No,” Old Man Hu shook his head, “I saw a very tall young man, looked quite proper, always staying inside the house and not coming out...”

Old Man Hu suddenly remembered something and hurriedly waved his hand to explain, “I wasn’t deliberately spying on them! I had always thought this house was empty, and that day when I passed by, I looked through the window and suddenly saw a human shadow inside. It scared me!”

Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan looked at each other in surprise. This old man was an important witness, and they had to ask him to cooperate with the investigation.

“Uncle Hu,” Wang Rui showed his police ID, “we’re from the municipal bureau’s criminal investigation team, and we’re investigating a murder case...”

“What?” Old Man Hu took Wang Rui’s ID, held it up to the light, and flipped through it to look.

“This is my police ID, we’re police.”

“Police?” Old Man Hu glared angrily. “Who are you trying to fool! One moment you say you’re the owner of this house’s friends, and the next you use a fake ID to fool people...”

Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan hurried to explain. After listening for a long time, the old man still didn’t believe them, and said he would only believe they were police if he saw them working at the police station with his own eyes.

Wang Rui immediately invited the old man to visit the municipal bureau. There were many police there who could prove that the two of them really were police, not frauds.

Old Man Hu’s stubborn temper flared up, and he was determined to send the impostors pretending to be police to the police station.

He left the tricycle at the village entrance small shop and got into Wang Rui and Xiao Yuan’s car, still fuming.

On the way, the old man kept a stern face and didn’t say a word.

When they reached the entrance of the municipal bureau and saw the sign hanging outside the gate reading “Municipal Public Security Bureau,” Old Man Hu’s tense expression finally relaxed.

Wang Rui went back to his office to change into his police uniform, and together with Xiao Yuan he accompanied the old man to the cafeteria for lunch.

While the old man still hadn’t finished eating, Wang Rui went upstairs first to find Yan Dongcheng.

“Is Old Man Hu willing to testify now?”

After hearing Wang Rui finish telling the whole story, Yan Dongcheng asked with a smile.

“Yes, Old Man Hu said he definitely wants to help the police solve the case. Xiao Yuan is still accompanying the old man to eat, I came up first to report.”

Yan Dongcheng changed into his police uniform, tidied up the clutter on the desk, and canceled the case analysis meeting originally scheduled for one o’clock.

After waiting half an hour, Xiao Yuan brought Old Man Hu upstairs.

Xiao Yuan was holding drinks and snacks in his arms, his face flushed red and sweat beading on his forehead, as if he had just finished running the two-kilometer race he was worst at.

Yan Dongcheng invited Old Man Hu to sit on the sofa and took out a tin of tea leaves to brew tea for the old man.

“Uncle, are you used to the cafeteria food?”

“The taste is a bit bland,” Old Man Hu said solemnly, “it would be better with more chili and soy sauce.”

“Haha, I’ll give the cafeteria some feedback later.”

“Don’t, don’t,” Old Man Hu said hurriedly, waving his hands, “I only came to eat once, and I’m already giving people feedback. If the cook hears about it, he’ll definitely be unable to make sense of it!”

After those few lines of conversation, the tension in Yan Dongcheng’s heart eased.

This rural old man over seventy had clear eyesight, good hearing, and spoke in a clear, orderly way.