Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Chapter Nine : 1

The moment she stepped out of the high-speed train carriage, Guo Xiaofen regretted not bringing enough warm clothes. The weather forecast had predicted that this sudden cold wave would be the worst in southern China in a decade, and it was certainly true. A layer of shimmering silver tinge covered the station floor, signs, and railings. The LED screen, at some point malfunctioning, scrolled a string of incomprehensible characters with a shaky gait. Gusts of wind sliced ​​through the ceiling, pouring down like knives slicing noodles, relentlessly driving the temperature lower and lower.

Needless to say, her exposed skin, like her hands and face, was freezing; her entire body was so cold she suspected all her clothes were see-through, and even her toes, covered in shoes and socks, ached from the cold. She turned up the collar of her trench coat, tucked her hands into her pockets, hunched her neck, and limped behind Ma Xiaozhong out of the station exit into the empty station square. Apart from a black police car and an old man in a military overcoat selling boiled tea eggs, there wasn’t even a dog. Underfoot was the frozen, leaden-gray concrete, and above was the same leaden-gray sky, as if a layer of ice had been draped over the concrete and hung upside down.

Ma Xiaozhong grumbled as he pulled out his phone and made a call. Before he could say more than a few words, a gray Tucson, perfectly matching the awful weather, appeared and pulled up in front of them. The driver jumped out; he was a short man in a brown leather jacket, with thin cheeks and a sharply defined face. His eyes were somewhat sunken, but his mouth protruded slightly, and his smile looked like he was trying to hold up a broken umbrella—awkwardly awkward.

Ma Xiaozhong opened the car door, let Guo Xiaofen sit in the back, and went to sit in the front passenger seat himself. After the short man got back into the car, he introduced them to the others. The short man’s name was Xiao Chunhua, a detective at the county public security bureau. A few years ago, he had completed a month-long internship at the Wangyue Garden police station, where Ma Xiaozhong treated him like a brother. Before coming to the county town this time, he specifically called Xiao Chunhua to ask for his help, and Xiao Chunhua, of course, eagerly came to assist him.

“This damn weather, it’s freezing!” Ma Xiaozhong turned on the car heater, leaned back in his seat, and asked Xiao Chunhua, “Did you find Dong Yue, the one I asked you to look for?”

“I checked, but her phone is always off. I’m still looking…” Xiao Chunhua said as he drove, “There are so many young people returning to their hometowns lately. The higher-ups are asking us to strengthen management, but it’s not that easy. With so few people in the county bureau, we can’t even keep track of everyone…”

“They are all young people who have been trained in big cities. Don’t treat them like a burden. If used properly, they are all valuable assets.” Ma Xiaozhong took out a pack of cigarettes, was about to offer one, glanced back at Guo Xiaofen, and put the cigarette back in his pocket.

“So what if they are talented? They can’t get a foothold there, and it’s even harder for them to find jobs back home. State-owned enterprises and government agencies are already saturated with filled positions, and private companies are mostly family-run. You don’t share their surname, so even if you’re incredibly capable, you won’t get a boss’s chair…”

“Then what can we do? We can’t just watch them drift aimlessly in society, can we?”

“That’s why it’s a headache,” Xiao Chunhua said with a wry smile. “But actually, it’s not that bad. The government provides a lot of support for their self-employment, with subsidized loans and tax breaks, but after a year or two of hard work without any results, some young people get discouraged. They feel like they’ve fought tooth and nail outside, only to return home and still be a failure. More and more people are turning to alcohol and drugs, giving up on themselves, and going to ‘ghost towns,’ living like ghosts…”

“What’s a ‘ghost town’?” Ma Xiaozhong was taken aback.

“Years ago, the county government, driven by political achievements, recklessly took out loans to build new towns. Skyscrapers rose from the ground, leaving behind a mountain of bad debts and bad loans. In the last two years, the government has been cracking down on the real estate and financial markets. Those new towns were abandoned halfway through construction, completely deserted, neglected, without water or electricity. At night, they were pitch black, like ghost towns in the suburbs. Homeless people, unemployed youth, and even fugitives flocked there. You know Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, right? These new towns are just new Kowloon Walled Cities.”

“That’s outrageous! If this continues, won’t they become lawless zones? It could easily lead to serious trouble in the future!” said Ma Xiaozhong.

“The future? It’s troublesome enough now!” Xiao Chunhua said. “Gambling, prostitution, drugs, and fraud gangs all flock there; it’s like a sewer.”

“They need to arrest them sooner rather than later. It’s like washing clothes; if you wash them immediately after they get dirty, you can remove them. But if you leave them for too long, it’s like a brand—you can’t get them clean.”

“I agree, but we don’t have enough police! Just maintaining order in the old city is exhausting enough. The new city is in the suburbs, already a no-man’s land. Now that it’s abandoned, nobody wants to stir up this hornet’s nest.” Xiao Chunhua looked at Ma Xiaozhong curiously. “Police Chief, you’re always out in the world; how come you don’t know this?”

“I’m just a shut-in in the big city; I don’t know what’s going on outside.” Ma Xiaozhong tapped his head. “By the way, where do we go now?”

Xiao Chunhua glanced at her watch: “It’s almost five o’clock. It’ll get even colder after sunset. I’ll find you a restaurant for a meal, then you can stay at a nearby hotel for the night. I’ll pick you up again tomorrow morning. If we get any news about Dong Yue, we’ll go look for her together.”

Ma Xiaozhong said, “Okay,” and continued chatting with Xiao Chunhua about local security matters, while Guo Xiaofen seemed somewhat uneasy. Although the car’s heater was humming, the cold wind outside still hissed and seeped in through the window cracks, squeezing out any remaining warmth they had managed to build up. Her hands and feet, which had been inactive for a long time, were initially icy cold, then numb. Next, the numbness crept into her heart, leaving it feeling empty and hollow, as if a hole had been gouged out…

She turned her gaze to the outside of the car window: the county town at dusk was as desolate as an abandoned ancient city in the desert. The buildings along the street, of varying ages and heights, and the low, dilapidated brick houses hidden behind them, were all dark and lifeless. There were almost no pedestrians on the street. A minibus painted with advertisements for painless abortions drove by slowly, looking eerily strange.

Perhaps it was because of the cold weather and the lack of customers, but the shops along the street closed early, even the busiest commercial street next to the county government: banks, post offices, and insurance companies were locked up, and the black windproof curtains hanging at the entrance of the department store drooped like the eyelids of a person with myasthenia gravis, with no one coming or going.

Only a row of carts selling kebabs, roasted sweet potatoes, and roasted tofu puffs lay across the front of the movie theater, their charcoal fires flickering. A female fruit shop owner dumped a box of frozen pears into a trash can, her indifferent expression revealing a hint of malicious mockery, as if she had been hoping for those pears to die and they had finally died.

As they approached the park, a deafening blast of square dancing music suddenly erupted. Looking closer, they saw only three middle-aged women, their clothes bundled up like dumplings, dancing haphazardly. This sparse, elderly group was dancing to Rocket Girls’ “Calorie.” They swung their thick arms, twisted their plump waists, and swayed their sagging hips, meticulously executing each dance move in the ugliest possible way. Especially when they shouted along with Yang Chaoyue from the loudspeaker, “Burn your calories!” their powerful, upward thrusts, if not for the dim, gloomy sunset, possessed a certain heroic grandeur, almost as if they dared to challenge the heavens and earth.

“Stop!” Ma Xiaozhong suddenly pointed to the street and said to Xiao Chunhua.

“What’s wrong?” Xiao Chunhua quickly pulled over.

Ma Xiaozhong jumped out of the car and ducked into the only clothing store that was still open.

Just then, Guo Xiaofen stretched her stiff fingers, took her phone out of her pocket, and showed Xiao Chunhua an address: “Is this place far from the county town?”

“Not far,” Xiao Chunhua said.

“Then, can we go here tomorrow?”

Xiao Chunhua nodded: “No problem.”

Just then, Ma Xiaozhong returned. As soon as he got in the car, he tossed a thick, dusty pink wool coat into Guo Xiaofen’s arms and said to Xiao Chunhua, “Drive.”

Guo Xiaofen glanced at the back of the short, stout man’s head; his occipital bone, raised like a hillside, was undeniably hard.

She slowly draped the wool coat over her shoulders.