The Missing Daughter – CH 010

Chapter 10. Boyfriend 1

“Boyfriend”
“I’ve never questioned his love for me.”
By Zhen Bai

**

【Recently, a horrific family annihilation occurred in a luxury residential complex.】

【When discovered by property management, both husband and wife were found dead inside their apartment, each with multiple stab wounds. Police investigations revealed recent renovations in the guest bedroom.】

【Upon further investigation, the body of a seven-year-old girl was found in a bedside cabinet under the mattress in the guest bedroom. The girl had multiple injuries, initially determined to be death from abuse… It is understood that the girl was the male victim’s biological daughter, and the female victim was his stepmother…】

【Police initially suspect the crime was committed by someone known to the victim. The suspect had been apprehended, but considering the suspect’s mental state…】

【Currently, the case is under further investigation…】

Although the news footage on TV was blurred, I could immediately recognize that this was our neighborhood.

Moreover, the news had already spread throughout the neighborhood.

Since it was an inside job, it had nothing to do with Xiao An’s security measures. However, the property management, under pressure, still hired an extra security guard and increased patrols daily.

Lianyu complained on the phone, “What’s the use of just patrolling the neighborhood? If the murderer actually gets into the house, no amount of security guards will help!”

Lianyu and I were junior high school classmates. Although we didn’t go to the same school after graduation, we gradually became acquainted after buying apartments in the same neighborhood.

I comforted her, “Don’t worry; as long as you don’t open the door to strangers, are always vigilant around people, and don’t go out at night, isn’t that enough?”

Lianyu choked back tears. “Qingyu…you express yourself quite well, but I really can’t stand it. I feel like I smell like I’m rotting every day.”

I knew she was one of the people who discovered the body, and the psychological trauma hadn’t subsided for days.

Lianyu. “Anyway, I don’t dare live here anymore. The house across is the site of a murder case involving a family wipeout. Who would dare live there? I’ve put up rental and sales ads, but hardly anyone’s called.”

Lianyu had told me before that she was planning a beach vacation to clear her head.

I was originally planning to see her off today and then spend a few days with her there. I even bought the tickets, but this morning I couldn’t find my ID card.

Jiang Shen was coming back in two days, and I couldn’t get away, so I had to apologize to her.

Lianyu didn’t mind. “By the way, when are you two getting married?”

I glanced at my phone calendar. “Two months from now. It’s still early, but I have so much to do. I’ll send you the invitations after they are finished. You have to come back and be my bridesmaid!”

“Of course I have to come! I really envy you. You found your life partner so early, and you are childhood sweethearts! Over the years, my friends have come and gone, but you two have remained the same. But you’d better keep a close eye on him. Someone so handsome, rich, and good to you—everyone’s envious!”

Jiang Shen and I had known each other since childhood. He was only six months older than me. We were neighbors, our families were close, and our kids naturally played together.

In other people’s eyes, he was a top student, the friendly older brother, the most dazzling young man on Shengxia Road. From elementary school to high school, he was always the most talked-about person in school.

But in my eyes, he wasn’t so perfect.

The further you distanced yourself from someone, the more beautiful your fantasies about them became, but the more you understood someone, the more you learned about their flaws.

Jiang Shen and I initially couldn’t stand each other. I thought his grades weren’t as good as mine, and he thought I was crazy.

In third grade, we made a bet: whoever got first place at the end of the semester would win, and the loser would buy the other an ice cream.

Back then, ice cream wasn’t expensive. I couldn’t afford it, not because I was poor, but because my mom was strict and never gave me pocket money, afraid I’d be poisoned by the junk food outside the school and affect my intelligence.

So, I could only get snacks from Jiang Shen.

Unfortunately, I waited until the hottest summer day for my final exam results, but I still hadn’t won the ice cream because we both got 100 in all subjects—a tie.

I said, “Jiang Shen, let’s have another match. I’ll steal the Math Olympiad compilation my dad uses to tutor other kids. I promise you, I didn’t secretly do any of the problems in it.”

Jiang Shen looked at me like I was crazy, his expression seeming to say, “Nie Qingyu, are you insane?”

To maintain my composure for the sake of my popsicle, I continued to provoke him: “Jiang Shen, are you too scared to compete?”

Jiang Shen was silent for a long time, probably not wanting to spend any more time doing practice problems with me. He pulled out two yuan from his pocket. “I give up; you go buy it.”

I righteously refused him. “I have pride. I want to beat you fair and square. Since you won’t compete this time, we’ll continue next semester.”

When the results came out in winter, Jiang Shen had indeed lost; he only scored ninety-nine points.

Even though it was freezing in winter, I insisted on having only an ice pop. Taking a bite, I unsurprisingly shivered uncontrollably from the cold. He draped his coat over me, saying, “If you can’t eat it, do not.”

I continued shivering inside his coat. “No, it’s a promise; you can’t go back on your word.”

I heard Jiang Shen scoff, then say, “Nie Qingyu, you’re crazy.”

In junior high, we went to the same school, which was close by. All the way through high school, Jiang Shen was very popular with girls. Every day, someone would ask me to deliver love letters to him.

Back then, there were more idol dramas than commercials on TV. I was different; I only watched legal programs. But I could understand the other girls’ feelings. After all, Jiang Shen wasn’t bad-looking; you could only imagine him as the male lead in an idol drama, not the murderer in a legal drama.

I was a kind person and found it hard to refuse them, but I couldn’t work for free; otherwise, my drawer would be flooded with love letters. So I started a service: delivering love letters for five yuan each, writing love letters for fifty yuan each, and charging extra for letters over a hundred words.

I could still remember Jiang Shen’s expression every time he received a love letter.

The first time, he glanced at what it was, opened it, looked at the contents, and then threw it in the trash.

The second time, he looked at the color and material of the envelope, confirmed that it was addressed to “Jiang Shen,” didn’t open it, and threw it directly in the trash.

The third time…

The fourth time, he pointed to the words “Nie Qingyu” and asked me, “Is this for me too?”

I reached out to take it back. “Sorry, I think it’s for me.”

This guy was taller than me in middle school, and in high school, he was a head taller. I had to strain to look up to see his expression.

Jiang Shen held the letter out of my reach. He opened it, glanced at it, then crumpled it into a ball, arced it through the air, and dropped it into the trash can full of breakfast scraps.

I wasn’t going to pick it up.

Jiang Shen. “I threw it away for you because I was afraid it would embarrass you.”

Me. “…”

Jiang Shen. “Both the country and Jinjiang have regulations that minors can’t date.”

He patted my shoulder and said, “Understand?”

I glared at him. “I understand, but I’m not dating anyone.”

He took the pink envelope from me for the fifth time. He glanced at the signature, confirmed it was for him, and was about to throw it away when he suddenly pulled it back.

This was good. I wrote it for him; I guaranteed the client would be satisfied.

He opened it, lowered his head, and his fair face suddenly changed color. I couldn’t describe what color it was. After thinking for a long time, I could only describe it as phenolphthalein¹ turning red—not because it was obviously red, but because his skin was so fair, making it stand out.

But when he saw the signature, Jiang Shen’s face looked like it had been smeared with potassium permanganate².

It was a bit dark, but perhaps it was the lighting; I wasn’t sure.

He pulled me to the trash can, looking down at me with a cold smile, and asked, “Are you being very helpful?”

My gut feeling was off, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him I was making money off him. After thinking it over, I could only look at him pitifully. “I’m just a post office collection point, Brother…you won’t be angry anymore, will you? You won’t play with me anymore, right?”

Lianyu often talked to me like that. Every time she looked at me so pitifully and called me “sister,” my heart would soften, and I would forgive her.

I heard Jiang Shen say something, and his face started doing a chemical experiment again, but before I could see if it was red, he turned and left, leaving me standing there by the trash can.

After a long while, I realized what he said:

“Nie Qingyu, don’t be like this; I’m scared.”

He might as well have said I was crazy.

**

Later, Jiang Shen stopped asking me why I was being so helpful, but he would open and read every letter I wrote for him.

After reading it, he would just look up at me, give me two cold laughs, and then throw the letter into the trash can. The process had become a fixed template.

After my clients discovered this, they stopped writing love letters themselves, because they found that my letters were more likely to be opened than their own.

During special holidays, clients would ask me to write the letters for them. I made a lot of money, and my reputation spread throughout the grade. The homeroom teacher called me in for a talk, and the first thing he asked was—

“Nie Qingyu, I heard you’re charging for doing homework for the whole grade? Do you know how serious this is? If your family is poor, you can talk to the teacher. At your age, you should focus your energy on your studies!”

I had no choice but to apologize and explain to the homeroom teacher that I didn’t do homework for others and that my family wasn’t poor. But the homeroom teacher wasn’t stupid; he made me write a guarantee that I wouldn’t do it again.

After I made the guarantee, I knew the homeroom teacher was starting to keep a close eye on me at the back door every day. If I continued, I would be caught red-handed, so I had to stop this lucrative business.

I didn’t forget the source of my blessings, so I used the money to buy Jiang Shen a birthday present.

As Jiang Shen unpacked the complete set of “Five Years of College Entrance Examination, Three Years of Simulation,” he fell silent.

He said, “Nie Qingyu, I have some news for you. I’m not taking the college entrance examination.”

Looking at him, I felt a surge of sympathy. I knew that Jiang Shen’s parents had been involved in an accident six months ago. Someone was taking revenge on society by speeding on the road, killing many pedestrians on the sidewalk, including his parents.

At that moment, words seemed inadequate.

Nothing could help him more than a hug.

I stepped forward and hugged his abnormally thin body, wanting to pat his head, but I couldn’t reach it. So I gently patted his back, comforting him. “It’s okay, it’s okay, Jiang Shen; I’ll always be with you. You’re never alone. But remember, the college entrance exam is the most important opportunity in a person’s life. Don’t give up easily. If you need money, I can ask a teacher for help. The teacher said the government provides student loans.”

He didn’t answer. He just hugged me gently back. Twenty minutes passed like this. I felt that was enough, but I couldn’t find a reason to end this touching embrace of friendship.

The next moment, the head of the teaching department shone his flashlight. Luckily, we were both very alert, like thieves caught stealing batteries by security. The moment we sensed something was wrong, we didn’t hesitate and ran.

When we reached the bottom of the teaching building, we blended into the crowd. The head of the teaching department lost sight of his target. He turned back, only to find a pile of unused practice books and mock exams.

Later, rumors circulated in the grade that someone had been secretly trading study materials behind the school’s rose garden and had been caught red-handed by the patrolling head of student affairs.

**

At that time, I was indeed terrified. Although they had the study materials as evidence, we had spent the entire break alone in a dark place, which was still hard to explain.

It wasn’t until the bell rang that I noticed Jiang Shen’s hand had been holding mine the whole time. My hand was small, his hand was big, Jiang Shen’s fingers were long and slender, and his skin was hot, like a net, trapping my hand inside and not opening it for a long time.

I wondered why I had run so fast earlier…

It felt like a tow truck was pulling me along.

Hearing the bell ring, Jiang Shen let go of my hand but didn’t immediately return to the classroom. Instead, he looked at me and repeated, “I’m not taking the college entrance exam, Nie Qingyu.”

I looked at him, confused.

He said, “I’ve been accepted into Tsinghua University.”

Me. “…?”

I admit I cursed for a moment.

**

After hanging up Lianyu’s call, I opened WeChat.

Jiang Shen wouldn’t be flying back until the day after tomorrow. He said he’d pick up his wedding ring in person, but since this morning, he hadn’t responded to my WeChat messages.

He used to be slow to reply, but he wouldn’t go an entire day without replying.

While looking at my phone screen, a call suddenly came in.

It was Jiang Shen calling.

At this time, he should be abroad. Why would he call me directly?

I answered the phone.

A strange man’s voice came from the other end, saying his name was He Chenghui.

He asked me to go to the city police station.

I asked him how Jiang Shen’s phone ended up in his hands. Had he been caught stealing batteries abroad and deported?

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Ignoring my question, he asked me a few more questions to confirm my identity.

—Nie Qingyu, currently the only person in the world connected to Jiang Shen.

He Chenghui said, “We have a… body here. Based on his phone and ID, we suspect it’s Jiang Shen. We contacted you to further confirm the body’s identity. We might need you to come over. Is that convenient for you?”

He phrased it euphemistically, but I understood.

They found Jiang Shen’s body and called me.

They wanted me to identify the body.

If the number calling wasn’t Jiang Shen’s, I probably would have cursed him as a scammer and blocked this fraudster claiming to be a police officer.

But I couldn’t block Jiang Shen’s number.

Especially now.

Now, he was lying in the city police morgue, waiting for me to see him.