Zou Shuyang was flipping through the case file of Ding Jing’s disappearance while keeping half an ear on Xiao Tang and Xiao Wang’s phone calls.
The two weren’t having much luck.
Meng Yan’s former classmates seemed hesitant, as if something was holding them back. At first, they were cooperative, but as soon as Ding Jing was mentioned, they began to dodge the questions. One would pass it off to another, who would pass it off to yet another. Eventually, when they were pushed too far, they would simply say, “Oh, it’s been too long. I don’t remember anything. Maybe you should ask someone else.”
And then all Xiao Tang and Xiao Wang would hear was the monotonous beeping of a disconnected call.
After a dozen or so calls, the two were almost used to being hung up on.
Xiao Tang mechanically dialed the next number, and when it connected, he put on his professional expression and tone. “Hello, this is the Jiangzhou City Police Department, Chengxi District Serious Crimes Unit. My name is Tang. Is this Ms. Guan Jie?”
The breathing on the other end of the line hitched. “Yes, that’s me. What’s this about?”
Xiao Tang continued, “Do you know someone named Ding Jing?”
There was a pause, and then a noticeable sigh of relief. “Oh, Ding Jing. Yes, I know her. We used to hang out in high school for a while. Why? Did you find her?”
Xiao Tang regretfully replied, “No, we haven’t. But we have a few questions about Ding Jing that we’d like to ask you.”
There was a sound like something heavy falling to the floor on the other end. After a moment, Guan Jie responded, “What do you want to know? Go ahead and ask.”
This reaction was different from the others!
Xiao Tang’s eyes lit up. He was just about to call Zou Shuyang over when he noticed that Zou Shuyang had already slipped over to his side, listening closely.
Xiao Tang: “…How was Ding Jing’s relationship with Shen Tinglan?”
“Teacher Shen? Teacher Shen was a really good person, and Ding Jing got along with him pretty well. Speaking of which…” Without waiting for Xiao Tang to prompt her, Guan Jie began reminiscing. “Ding Jing didn’t have the best reputation in our class. You know how it is with high schoolers, that age when feelings start to awaken. Any girl who was pretty would end up being the target of all the other girls. Ding Jing was like that—beautiful, from a well-off family, and smart. Almost all the boys in our class tried to impress her. Naturally, the girls in our class resented her for that and would spread nasty rumors about her. Whenever Teacher Shen heard, he’d reprimand us. So Ding Jing’s relationship with Teacher Shen must have been pretty good.”
“What about Ding Jing and Xu Yiran?” Zou Shuyang asked, bringing up a question not on the original list.
Guan Jie fell silent for a moment. “Xu Yiran… Oh, right, her. She was one of those people who liked to be the center of attention. You know the type, right? The ones who always want to stand out. Xu Yiran was the leader of that group in our class. She never liked Ding Jing, but when Ding Jing’s family was still wealthy, Xu Yiran didn’t dare to do much. She’d only cause minor annoyances. But after Ding Jing’s family went bankrupt, Xu Yiran became much more aggressive. Still, Ding Jing’s friends weren’t pushovers, and they managed to fend off most of Xu Yiran’s tricks.”
Zou Shuyang compared this with the statements made by Xu Yiran and others when Ding Jing disappeared. “So, Ding Jing didn’t get along with Xu Yiran, Fan Yuhui, or Zhang Qingying?”
Guan Jie let out a laugh. “You can’t put it like that. Ding Jing didn’t get along with any of the girls in our class except for Jian Mengyan.”
“Jian Mengyan?”
Zou Shuyang absentmindedly repeated the name, and all eyes in the office turned to him.
“Yeah, Ding Jing’s best friend in high school was Jian Mengyan. By the way, have you asked Jian Mengyan about all this? She probably knows more than I do.”
Zou Shuyang, clearly not in the right state to ask any more questions, let Xiao Tang take over. “We’ll definitely ask her. Now, can you tell me if you remember Guo Yuanjia, He Xin…”
Xiao Tang rattled off the names of several students who had died.
Guan Jie sighed. “Of course, I remember them. But why are you asking about them? Didn’t they all die?”
Then, with a sharp intake of breath, she added, “Come to think of it, those who died were all pretty close. Aside from Guo Yuanjia, they were all part of the same attention-seeking group in our class.”
“So, they didn’t get along with Ding Jing either?” Xiao Tang quickly caught the loophole in Guan Jie’s statement.
Guan Jie thought for a moment and then shook her head. “Not quite. Ding Jing really didn’t get along with Xu Yiran and those three, but it was different with the boys. I overheard our classmates discussing Ding Jing’s figure more than once.”
She didn’t need to elaborate; Xiao Tang and the others understood.
Teenage boys are at an age where they’re awkwardly curious about the opposite sex, easily mistaking crudeness for coolness.
Zou Shuyang took a deep breath. “Was there anything unusual the day before Ding Jing disappeared?”
“Unusual?” Guan Jie thought hard, finally pulling something from the recesses of her memory. “Well, there might have been something, but it didn’t seem important. After her family went bankrupt, Ding Jing was always kind of out of it. She had trouble focusing in class. It probably wasn’t related to her disappearance.”
“One last question: Why are your classmates so reluctant to talk about Ding Jing?”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, followed by a hesitant response. “They probably think that their deaths were caused by Ding Jing’s ghost haunting them.”
“Her ghost?” Xiao Tang exclaimed in surprise. “But Ding Jing just went missing, right?”
Guan Jie laughed coldly. “They’re just feeling guilty. Except for Jian Mengyan, the whole class wronged Ding Jing.”
After the call ended, Xiao Tang glanced worriedly at Zou Shuyang. How had this case somehow looped back to involve Captain Zou’s girlfriend again?
Feeling Xiao Tang’s gaze, Zou Shuyang irritably tapped him on the head. Then he said, “Keep making calls. I’m going back to the files.”
He then returned to his seat, buried himself in the documents, and continued searching. Finally, he found it—Jian Mengyan’s name, on the very last statement in the file.
——
June 4, 2012.
The heavy rain had continued throughout the night and showed no sign of stopping by the next morning.
Jian Mengyan sat in the lobby of the Xijiao Police Station, clutching a cup of hot water that a kind policewoman had given her after noticing how pale and shaky she was.
Shen Tinglan sat beside her, glancing at Jian Mengyan’s dazed expression as she stared ahead blankly. There was a thin cut near her nose, now scabbed over. Sighing, he said, “Don’t worry. The police will find Ding Jing.”
After a while, Jian Mengyan suddenly turned to him, her dark eyes locking onto his. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something.
“Mengmeng?”
Seeing the concern in Shen Tinglan’s eyes, Jian Mengyan looked away, fixating on her cup of water instead.
“Jian Mengyan.” The door to the interrogation room behind them opened, and a young police officer stepped out, calling her name. “Jian Mengyan, please come with me.”
Shen Tinglan gently patted her shoulder reassuringly. “It’s okay. Just tell them what you know. Don’t be afraid.”
Jian Mengyan nodded and followed the young officer into the interrogation room.
The sky outside was already dark, and the light in the room wasn’t much brighter. As soon as Jian Mengyan stepped inside, she felt a tightness in her chest, and the scab on her face began to sting.
“Jian Mengyan, you were close friends with Ding Jing?”
Nodding at the officer’s question, she replied, “Yes, we were good friends.”
“When was the last time you saw Ding Jing?”
After a brief silence, Jian Mengyan answered, “The last time I saw her was during the second self-study session yesterday afternoon. Halfway through the session, she told me she wasn’t feeling well and then left.”
The officer wrote this down. “So, the last time you were in contact with her was around 2 p.m. yesterday?”
Jian Mengyan shook her head. “I…”
“What do you want to say?” Noticing that she seemed to be holding something back, the officer offered a gentle smile. “Don’t be afraid. Just tell us what you know.”
Jian Mengyan bit her lip, reopening the scab and causing fresh blood to trickle down her cheek. “When Teacher came to find me yesterday, I guessed that Ding Jing must have gone missing. So I went out to look for her. Later, I got a call from Ding Jing. She said…”
“What did she say?”
It took Jian Mengyan a long time to muster the courage to speak. “She said she found the world boring and wanted to leave.”
The two officers exchanged glances, their brows furrowing in unison. The officer on the left took notes while the one on the right continued questioning. “Are you saying that Ding Jing expressed suicidal thoughts?”
Jian Mengyan nodded. “That’s what she said. But just that morning, she was telling me she wanted to study business in college and rebuild her family’s company. She shouldn’t be thinking like this…”
Seeing that Jian Mengyan was becoming increasingly distressed, the policewoman on the left moved over and gently embraced her, speaking softly. “Was there anything unusual about Ding Jing before yesterday?”
Jian Mengyan’s thin, fragile body trembled slightly as she leaned her forehead against the policewoman’s shoulder. “Ever since her family went bankrupt and Uncle and Aunt Ding were arrested, Ding Jing has been unhappy.”
Bankrupt?
Realizing something, the officer on the right quickly asked, “After her family went bankrupt, where was Ding Jing living?”
Jian Mengyan shook her head. “I don’t know. After her family went bankrupt, Ding Jing became more distant from me. I felt like she was deliberately avoiding me.”
After speaking, Jian Mengyan raised her head, staring at the policewoman before her and asking, “Is Ding Jing… is Ding Jing really dead?”
The policewoman gently patted her on the back, soothing her. “We’ll do everything we can to find Ding Jing.”
But whether Ding Jing was alive or dead, the policewoman couldn’t say for certain.
Ding Jing’s situation was too complicated. Based on the information they had, she had experienced several major upheavals in just half a year—her family’s bankruptcy, her parents’ imprisonment, and bullying from her classmates. It wasn’t impossible that she had reached her breaking point and decided to end it all.
Helping Jian Mengyan out of the interrogation room, the policewoman met Shen Tinglan’s concerned gaze and sighed. “We’ll do our best to find Ding Jing. You should take this young lady home to rest.”
Seeing Jian Mengyan in such a state, Shen Tinglan also sighed, feeling a heavy weight settle in his chest.
Jian Mengyan stared into the distance, her lips moving silently. If someone were to get close enough to her, they would hear what she was whispering— “No, it’s no use. She won’t be found.”
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