Tang Yutao took off his glasses, wiped them with the corner of his shirt, put them back on, and said, "Sigh, seeing how you treated San San, I thought you were a master of romance, a ruthless scumbag. Who knew you were actually a pure virgin... What 'seventy-two styles'? Just pretend I didn't say anything..."
Chen Yunqi didn't like the description "pure virgin," and his expression was clearly displeased. Tang Yutao didn't notice and wanted to say something more, but Huang Yelin returned, so he had to give up.
The CT scan showed that Huang Yelin's brain had not suffered any obvious damage. The doctor wrote a diagnosis, gave some instructions on what to pay attention to, and then discharged him to go home.
After leaving the hospital, Tang Yutao suggested going directly to the train station to take the next train back to Qinghe Town. Chen Yunqi, however, had other ideas; he wanted to take Huang Yelin to the police station to inquire about Huang Youzheng's whereabouts.
Tang Yutao considered it for a moment and agreed. He first called the leaders of the Education Bureau and asked them to make an introduction, then took Chen Yunqi and Huang Yelin to the Public Security Bureau.
Because they had been notified in advance, they were immediately received upon arriving at the police station and identifying themselves. The police officer handling Huang Youzheng's disappearance case was surnamed Zheng. Considering that Huang Yelin was a minor, he had a policewoman take him to the cafeteria for lunch. In the office, Officer Zheng poured them tea and then explained the general details of the case to them.
Similar to what was previously known, a year ago Huang Youzheng traveled to the county seat with other villagers, then took a bus alone to Jiaoyuan County. After receiving the village head's missing person report, they contacted the Jiaoyuan County Public Security Bureau, visited Huang Youzheng's relatives and friends in Jiaoyuan, and searched places such as bus stations and small hotels, but found no one. The Haiyuan County Public Security Bureau also conducted a search in its local area, but to no avail. With limited police resources, a lack of key information in the case, and insufficient evidence to suggest that he might have been murdered, Huang Youzheng was ultimately added to the national missing persons list.
In the year that followed, the police did not receive any reports of suspected crimes, and no trace of the person was found during several anti-trafficking and investigation operations.
As for the other two disappearances mentioned by Chen Yunqi, Lan Fuming's case is basically similar to Huang Youzheng's, but for the same reason, no case can be filed for investigation, let alone combined with other cases.
Officer Zheng sat facing Chen Yunqi, took a sip of tea, and said, "This situation is quite tricky. With only one or two people missing, we can't possibly search day and night. We can only keep an eye out when there's a unified large-scale investigation. I suggest that if you have time, you also go to Jiaoyuan to look for them. If you can provide sufficient evidence to file a case, it will be much easier for us to take action."
Tang Yutao muttered under his breath, somewhat dissatisfied, "If we're going to investigate... what's the point of having the police..."
Officer Zheng heard this and looked displeased, but still said politely, "Tianyun Village is quite special in our area. It's notoriously poor, the roads are difficult to travel, and the children who have lost their parents have a hard time surviving. You've had a tough time working for these children, but please understand our procedures."
Chen Yunqi put down his teacup, stood up, shook hands with Officer Zheng, and said with a smile, "We understand the situation, thank you. This child's family is indeed in dire straits, and now they have lost their only source of income."
Officer Zheng nodded hurriedly: "Yes, yes, these children are indeed pitiful."
“So we will consider your suggestion,” Chen Yunqi said, his smile fading and his expression turning serious. “If we get any leads, we may have to bother you again. Please contact us immediately if you have any new developments.”
"Of course, of course, absolutely, it's our duty," Officer Zheng replied repeatedly, respectfully seeing Chen Yunqi and Tang Yutao out the door.
The policewoman brought Huang Yelin back. Huang Yelin knew that the teachers were helping him find out where his father was. He couldn't help but want to ask, but seeing that Chen Yunqi and Tang Yutao both had sullen faces, he had no choice but to hold back and obediently followed Chen Yunqi into the car to go to the train station.
"Damn it, if we hadn't asked someone to put in a good word, I don't know how these cops would have dealt with us." Tang Yutao, sitting in the passenger seat of the taxi, suddenly blurted out, startling the driver who glanced at him sideways while driving.
"Don't be angry. Officer Zheng has been very kind to us. Besides, what he said is true; the current situation doesn't allow for filing a case. Let's try to find someone in Jiaoyuan ourselves when we have the chance."
"Huh?" Tang Yutao turned to look at him. "You're really going? Aren't you going home?"
Huang Yelin looked out the car window, pretending not to hear them. Chen Yunqi knew what he was thinking, so he smiled and said, "We won't go back for now. Let's help our little Huang Yelin find his father first."
"This is like finding a needle in a haystack," Tang Yutao said, not caring about the students' presence when he swore. "If you can't find it, are you just going to stay here forever?"
Chen Yunqi pondered briefly before calmly saying, "How will I know I can't find it if I don't try? I will do my best."
Tang Yutao shook his head helplessly and said nothing more.
Huang Yelin's big eyes were filled with tears. He stared at the scenery rushing past outside the car window, biting his lip and trying hard not to let the tears fall.
Chen Yunqi wanted to pat his head and tell him that everything would be alright, but he never reached out his hand.
He told himself that he could never again express his feelings to anyone without realizing it.
There's only one train a day from Haiyuan through Qinghe Town. They went to the police station and wasted time, so they missed the train. They had no choice but to buy tickets for the next morning and find a hotel near the train station to stay in.
Counting the days, Christmas was just two weeks away. Tang Yutao excitedly dragged Chen Yunqi to the department store to shop. Although the department store in the county town wasn't big, it was much more impressive than the small shopping mall in Qinghe Town. There was even a simple little amusement park at the entrance, with a wooden sign that read in a crooked hand: "Entrance fee: three yuan, unlimited time."
Huang Yelin was already eight years old, but he was also attracted by the crudely made wooden horses and rocking chairs, and stood outside the fence watching the four- or five-year-old children playing inside.
Seeing his longing look, Chen Yunqi was about to take out his wallet to buy a ticket for him to go in and play when Huang Yelin tugged at his sleeve and said, "Teacher Chen, I'm not going. I'm a big kid now."
Chen Yunqi leaned down and carefully examined his face for a while, then said, "I don't think he's very big; he's still a child. Really not going?"
Huang Yelin nodded and said, "Yes, really."
After saying that, he thought for a moment and said, "If we have the chance to come again next time, I would like to let Huang Xiaoya go in and play."
Chen Yunqi patted him on the shoulder: "No problem."
Chen Yunqi and Tang Yutao led Huang Yelin into the mall. He looked at the dazzling array of goods with curiosity, but didn't dare to run around. He followed behind the teachers somewhat awkwardly.
Although it was called a shopping mall, it was actually made up of individual stalls run by individual vendors. Tang Yutao found a Santa hat in one of the stalls and, as if he had discovered a new continent, called Chen Yunqi over to take a look.
The hats were made of pulp, of very poor quality, and even bled color after being handled for a while. Tang Yutao asked the shopkeeper how many hats he had. The shopkeeper said there were only two displayed outside, and another package in the warehouse. He hadn't counted them, but estimated there were about thirty. Upon hearing this, Tang Yutao quickly told the shopkeeper to go to the warehouse and get them. He slammed the money on the counter and said with great magnanimity, "I'll take them all!"
Chen Yunqi frowned as he looked at the red stain on his fingertips and said, "Why did you buy so many hats? Are you going to dye your hair?"
Tang Yutao said discontentedly, "How can you be so unromantic! I want all the children to wear Santa hats and sing hymns together!"
Looking at his serious expression, Chen Yunqi imagined him wearing a little red hat, leading a group of children also wearing little red hats, singing on the earthen slope, and suppressed a laugh, saying, "Okay, okay."
I'm really looking forward to Barbie's Christmas episode!
Carrying a large bag of hats, they continued to wander aimlessly. As they passed a boutique, Tang Yutao said, "I'm going to pick out a gift for Song Feifei. Do you want one?"
Chen Yunqi asked, "Are you going to give me a gift?"
Tang Yutao sighed: "Your thought process is a bit peculiar. Why would I give you a gift? Huh? Why?"
Chen Yunqi thought about it very seriously for a few seconds before answering, "Because I pity you for never having been in a relationship?"
Tang Yutao slapped his forehead. "I believe you, I believe you," he said, pulling Chen Yunqi into the store. "I believe you're straight now."
"Brother, I'm asking you, do you want to pick out a gift too?"
Chen Yunqi was somewhat puzzled, "Me? Who should I choose?"
"Of course it's for San San!" Tang Yutao rolled his eyes.
Chen Yunqi said somewhat helplessly, "You already said I'm a straight man, so why would I buy a gift for San San..."
“Just because you’re straight now doesn’t mean you’ll always be straight.” Tang Yutao picked up a wooden comb and tried it on his hair. “I think San San will turn you gay sooner or later.”
Chen Yunqi was a little angry. Tang Yutao had just warned him yesterday not to provoke San San, but he kept repeating the same joke over and over, ignoring Huang Yelin who was watching them with a blank expression.
He stopped talking, frowning as he looked at Tang Yutao with icy eyes.
Tang Yutao realized he had gone too far with the joke, so he stopped teasing and started to whine, "Oh, okay, okay, I won't say it anymore. Don't look at me so fiercely, it's scary."
Chen Yunqi felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
“I meant well. We eat at their house every day and don’t pay for the meals. Li Hui and I are thick-skinned and it doesn’t matter to us,” Tang Yutao continued, “San San even helps you fetch water every day, so it’s not a big deal for you to buy him a small gift.”
Chen Yunqi then softened his sharp gaze, pondered for a moment, and said, "What you said makes sense."
He looked at the row of small ornaments on the shelf and asked Tang Yutao, "What does San San like?"
Tang Yutao almost blurted out "I like you".
Fortunately, he held back and said to Chen Yunqi, who was seriously picking out a gift, "We're from the mountains, we haven't seen many nice things. You have good taste, the earrings you bought for Third Aunt last time were quite nice. Just pick one."
The boutique sold items popular with young people in the county town: phone cases, keychains, ornaments, and various cheap jewelry. The styles were all tacky, and Chen Yunqi didn't like any of them. After browsing for a long time, he finally found a small night light shaped like a rabbit's head. It could be turned on with a light tap after inserting a lithium battery, and it could change colors after being tapped twice.
Chen Yunqi thought the little rabbit's cute and adorable appearance was somewhat similar to San San, so he paid for it, asked for a fancy wrapping paper, carefully wrapped the lamp, and put it in a bag.
The gift Tang Yutao picked out for Song Feifei was a notebook, an extremely old-fashioned design. It had an orange-red plastic cover and a landscape painting on the title page. Chen Yunqi hadn't seen this kind of notebook in many years; he vaguely remembered his grandfather having a similar one, filled with densely packed records of his party dues and household expenses.
Chen Yunqi was very puzzled by this. Although he had never pursued a girl, he at least knew what girls generally liked.
While packing his notebook, Tang Yutao said with a smirk, "You don't understand. Song Feifei isn't an ordinary girl. She wouldn't look down on vulgar things."
He didn't say anything about Chen Yunqi's rabbit lantern, but he secretly thought to himself, "Damn, you picked the proper gift for your girlfriend."
Chapter Twenty-One: Alienation
Christmas gifts should be given on Christmas Day, of course. After returning to school, Chen Yunqi put the nightlight in a cardboard box under his bed.
Inside the cardboard box, San San's blue T-shirt was still neatly folded. He had already washed the clothes, but hadn't had time to return them to San San yet.
After returning from the county town, Huang Yelin seemed like a different person. He sat up straight and listened attentively in class every day, and he no longer got into fights with his classmates every now and then. Although he still often didn't finish his homework, his accuracy rate on the questions improved significantly, showing that he had put in the effort and worked hard.
Every day after school, Chen Yunqi would clean and change the dressing on his wound. Children have a strong metabolism and heal very quickly; the scab formed in less than half a month.
Originally, according to the doctor's advice, the time it would take to remove the stitches should be determined by the doctor during the follow-up visit based on the wound's healing progress. However, Huang Yelin refused to make a special trip down the mountain to the county town. Chen Yunqi couldn't persuade him otherwise, so he had to check the wound several times over and make sure that it was healing properly before removing the stitches himself.
Not only Huang Yelin has changed, but San San also noticed that Chen Yunqi seems to have changed as well.
On the day he returned, San San planned to lead the horse down the mountain to pick him up, but he said in a message that Huang Yelin was much better and could walk on his own, so he didn't need to be picked up.
After returning from work in the afternoon, he went to the school to call Chen Yunqi for dinner as usual, but to his surprise, Chen Yunqi was not there. Tang Yutao said that Chen Yunqi had taken Huang Yelin back to Group Six not long after arriving at the school.
San San wasn't in a good mood all evening. She found Li Hui's talking while chewing food particularly noisy and annoying, so she put down her bowl after only a few bites and said she was going to herd the horses.
It's getting colder and colder.
San San led the horse listlessly along the path, and every few steps they could see some rough logs piled up by the roadside. The mountain people cut down the trees but didn't carry them home. The trunks were heavy and took up a lot of space, so they simply threw them away. When they needed them, they would take one or two logs to chop into firewood or keep them to burn into charcoal for the winter.
Lost in thought, he wandered aimlessly until he found himself at the place where he and Chen Yunqi had picked up Sheng Xiaoyan.
Too lazy to tie the horse up, I simply threw the reins on the ground and let it eat wild grass or dry branches on its own.
With no one around, he sat down on a large rock, recalling the way Chen Yunqi had spoken to him while smoking that day. He also thought about how Chen Yunqi had initially refused to pick him up, and then hadn't come to see him immediately after returning home. He was unhappy about this, but couldn't find a legitimate reason. Huang Yelin's injuries weren't minor, but they weren't serious either, and given the situation at home, it was only natural that Chen Yunqi would personally escort him home, given his personality.
As for why we didn't want him to pick us up, it was probably because we felt sorry for him having to go up and down the mountain so frequently over a few days, and we were afraid he would get tired.
He secretly tried to exonerate Chen Yunqi, but when he came to his senses and was about to go home, he found that the horse had already run away.
When San San got home, he received a good scolding because the horse was lost. He still had to go haul the grain the next day, so late at night, San San's father had no choice but to put on his coat and go out to borrow a horse from someone else. San San's mother couldn't understand why San San, who was usually so reliable, seemed so absent-minded today, ignoring her nagging.
That night, Chen Yunqi stayed at Huang Yelin's house and did not return.
That night, San San tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep. She stared at Chen Yunqi's name in her phone's contact list for a long time, but finally couldn't resist sending him a message:
"Brother, are you asleep?"
It took a long time for the message to show as successfully sent. San San buried his face in the blanket and waited anxiously. Afraid that his parents next door would hear, he dared not turn on his phone to ring. Worried about missing Chen Yunqi's reply, he kept turning on the screen and checking repeatedly until he gradually couldn't resist the soreness in his eyes and drifted off to sleep. He still hadn't received a message from Chen Yunqi.
Chen Yunqi replied to the message the next morning.
San San brought his phone with him to work in the fields for the first time. He didn't usually get any messages, so when he heard the text message notification, he knew it was from Chen Yunqi without even looking. He immediately dropped his hoe, made an excuse to go to the toilet, and hid behind a big tree to secretly check the message.
"I went to bed early last night. Is something the matter?"
San San stared blankly at his phone, reading the message over and over again, finding the cold attitude conveyed between the lines unacceptable.
Is there something I need?
He asked himself the question.
It was a cloudy day, but the light from his phone screen still felt incredibly glaring. The three-word question kept echoing in his mind, relentlessly challenging him. He realized he'd never known that he and Chen Yunqi could only contact each other when there was a specific reason.
Those inexplicable premonitions seemed to be confirmed by those three words. He suddenly felt panicked and somewhat unwilling. He couldn't figure out when or what he had done wrong to cause Chen Yunqi's attitude towards him to change 180 degrees. Just three days ago, when they parted at the foot of the mountain, everything was fine. Chen Yunqi had even held his hand and was so gentle with him.
"Teacher Chen, will I still have my lesson?" San San asked in a huff, sending the message. Children from the mountains are inherently spirited and stubborn; that energy surged into their minds, their thoughts almost spiraling out of control, their fingers almost ignoring their commands.