Wang Xiaoshu’s home was in Wangjia Village, below Qingyu Town, about five kilometers away.
The village was small, with only a few dozen households. Most of the residents were elderly people and children, while the younger adults had all gone elsewhere to find work.
Wang Xiaoshu’s house stood at the very back of the village. The original two adobe rooms had collapsed in the earthquake, but the government had allocated funds to rebuild them. The replacement was a two-room bungalow with red-brick walls, white plaster, and concrete floors. It wasn’t anything fancy, but at least it provided shelter from the wind and rain.
When Liu Yutong and the others arrived, Xiaoshu’s grandmother was lying crookedly on a wooden bed against the wall. She was so thin that she looked like skin stretched over bones, with deeply sunken eye sockets. Her eyes were half closed, and she mumbled something indistinctly.
“Xiaoshu’s grandmother is having another episode.”
Principal Zhou sighed from the side and explained in a low voice, “The old lady is lucid sometimes and confused at other times. From the looks of it, she probably only has a few months left.”
Liu Yutong sat down beside the bed and gently took the old woman’s hand.
“Grandma, I’m Xiaoshu’s older sister. I’ve come to see you.”
The old woman’s cloudy eyes shifted slightly. In a slurred voice, she asked, “X… Xiaoshu… Dashu… Has Dashu come back?”
Liu Yutong’s nose stung, and an indescribable sadness welled up inside her.
She took an envelope from her bag and placed it in the old woman’s hand. It contained five thousand yuan.
“This is a little something from me. Use it to buy some nutritious food.”
The old woman seemed to have no idea that she was holding money. She continued mumbling, “Dashu… Has Dashu come back?”
Liu Yutong thought to herself that although the old woman was so confused she could no longer recognize people, she could still remember her grandson’s name.
Not knowing what else to say, Liu Yutong could only explain once again that she wasn’t Xiaoshu.
The old woman’s hand was thin as a withered branch, yet she still clung tightly to Liu Yutong’s hand.
“Dashu, my eldest grandson… W-when did you come back? Why has your hair grown so long?”
“Grandma, Dashu will come back. He went to buy you something delicious. You need to take good care of yourself. If he comes home and sees how thin you’ve become, it will break his heart.”
The old woman seemed to hear her, though perhaps she didn’t. She continued mumbling indistinctly, her voice growing softer and softer, until she gradually closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Liu Yutong gently placed her hand back beneath the quilt, then stood and walked outside.
In the courtyard, Wang Xiaoshu had already been brought home. The moment he saw Liu Yutong, his eyes reddened.
“Sister, does that mean you can’t find my brother?”
Liu Yutong walked over and patted him on the head.
“Xiaoshu, when did your brother go missing?”
Wang Xiaoshu thought for a moment, his voice muffled. “Almost a month ago. My brother was still at home when I went to school that morning, but when I came back in the afternoon, he was gone.”
“Did you report it to the police?”
“We did.”
“The police came and asked us some questions. They also put up missing-person notices in town, but they still haven’t found him.”
“Mm.”
Liu Yutong turned to Yun Cheng. “Go around the village and ask every household if anyone knows what happened before or after Dashu disappeared.”
“Yes.”
Yun Cheng led several people out of the courtyard and split up around the village to gather information.
Liu Yutong continued asking Wang Xiaoshu questions.
“Xiaoshu, where did your brother usually like to go?”
Wang Xiaoshu thought about it, then pointed toward a stream at the foot of the mountain.
“My brother liked playing by the stream. He also liked going to town on market days to watch people play the ring-toss games. But he could always find his way home on his own.”
“Was anything unusual about your brother on the day he went missing?”
“My brother…”
“…”
Liu Yutong spent nearly an hour talking with Wang Xiaoshu before Yun Cheng finally returned.
“Young Lady, we found out a few things.”
“Go on.”
“Two people with intellectual disabilities have gone missing from this village in the past six months. One is Wang Xiaoshu’s brother, Wang Dashu. The other is a twenty-four-year-old named Cheng Erdan, who was born with an intellectual disability. However, Cheng Erdan’s family doesn’t seem willing to talk about it. They appear to be deliberately avoiding the subject.”
“Avoiding it?”
“They seem to think that losing him might actually be a relief—that it would be better if he were gone.”
Liu Yutong furrowed her delicate brows.
The words sounded harsh, but she knew that for many impoverished rural families, a child who was unable to work and needed constant care was indeed a heavy burden.
If the family no longer wanted to search for him, she couldn’t really condemn them.
“Did you find any other leads? For example, whether they came into contact with anyone before disappearing, or whether they rode in any vehicles?”
Yun Cheng shook his head. “The villagers all said they hadn’t noticed anything. Those two were always wandering around on their own, and since the village is mostly populated by elderly people, no one paid particular attention to where the two mentally disabled men went.”
Liu Yutong thought for a moment before saying, “Have the people we have stationed in Jingchuan keep a close watch for any news. Also, find out their physical descriptions and, if possible, get photographs printed on some flyers.”
Two people with intellectual disabilities had disappeared from the same remote village, one after the other.
One family had stopped searching after only a few days, while the other was still waiting for their missing family member to come home.
No matter how she looked at it, something about the situation seemed wrong.
Unfortunately, she had too little information at present. Even if she wanted to investigate, she had no place to begin. For now, she could only have people keep watch.
Hopefully, she was just imagining things.
“All right.”
Yun Cheng nodded and turned to make the arrangements.
Liu Yutong looked back at Wang Xiaoshu and comforted him. “Xiaoshu, your sister will help you find your brother. You need to study hard and take good care of your grandmother, understand?”
Wang Xiaoshu nodded vigorously. “I understand. Thank you, Sister!”
After giving him a few more instructions, Liu Yutong said to Principal Zhou, “Principal Zhou, I’ve seen Xiaoshu’s situation. From now on, I’ll have someone deposit a monthly living allowance into his account. I hope you can help keep an eye on him.”
Principal Zhou hurriedly nodded. “Director Liu, you can rest assured. I’ll personally make sure everything is taken care of.”
“And as for the other students at the school whose families are struggling, please compile a list for me. I’ll sponsor them all at the same time.”
“Of course, of course! Director Liu, you truly have a heart of gold.”
Liu Yutong waved her hand dismissively. She glanced once more at the old woman lying unconscious on the bed, then let out a soft sigh and turned to leave the Wang family home.
…
A hotel suite in Jingchuan City.
Yang Xin stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, a cup of tea in his hand as he gazed out at the unfamiliar city.
He was already in his early thirties, and he increasingly carried the polished air of a successful young executive.
But only he knew that just two years ago, he had been merely a small-time manager in Wushui County, dragged into a car by The Young Lady. Back then, he had spent every day trembling with anxiety, afraid that one careless move might get him stabbed by some local gangster.
Yet in just two short years, he had transformed from a timid little office worker into the president of the Commercial Retail Business Group of Wanlonghui Group, overseeing the conglomerate’s largest business division. Under his command were countless brick-and-mortar outlets, including Wanlong Plaza, Wanlong Commercial Street, Wanlong Supermarkets, Wanlong Convenience Stores, Yuyuefang Restaurants, and more, with tens of thousands of employees under him.
Two years ago, this was something he wouldn’t even have dared dream of—at the very least, he had never imagined he could rise so quickly, or climb so high.
Everything he had was given to him by The Young Lady.
Without The Young Lady’s promotion and trust, he might still be racking his brains over what to do after losing his job.
Yang Xin took a sip of tea, forcing down the emotions stirring in his mind.
This afternoon, he was due to attend Jinchuan City’s investment promotion forum. In the evening, he had a special dinner to attend—an invitation from Qi Tianhu, chairman of Tiger Might Group.
Yang Xin knew a little about Qi Tianhu. The man was a local kingpin in Jinchuan City and certainly no pushover.
Just then, his assistant knocked on the door from outside.
“President Yang, President Xu has arrived.”
“Send her in.”
The door opened, and a sharp, capable-looking woman in her thirties walked in.
She wore a cream-colored business suit. Her features were not breathtaking, but her outstanding bearing more than made up for it. In particular, her alluring, almond-shaped eyes were always slightly narrowed, giving people the impression of a blade concealed within its sheath.
This was Xu Shishi, president of Wanlonghui Group’s Supply Chain and Logistics Business Group.
She was also the only president among the group’s six business divisions who had not risen from within the company’s core ranks. She was a top-tier professional manager whom Liu Yutong had recruited from a multinational logistics giant.
Before joining Wanlonghui, Xu Shishi had already risen to the position of vice president of that multinational company’s Longguo division. With an annual salary in the tens of millions and real authority in her hands, she was renowned throughout the industry as the Iron Lady.
Yang Xin hurriedly set down his teacup and went forward with a smile.
“President Xu, you’re here. Please, have a seat!”
“President Yang, you’re too kind.”
