The street in front of Star Dreams had been unmaintained for many years. There was a patch of ground where the tiles were missing, revealing the ground underneath. It had also been raining often recently. If anyone wasn't paying attention and stepped there, the bottom of their shoes would be covered in mud.

Gan Qing saw that other than the dried-up muddy handprint on the stone steps, there was also a footprint in that mud puddle. It wasn't a whole footprint, it was formed by the heel of a foot and the print was very deep.

Whether it was the strength exerted to make the footprint or the angle of the turned-up mud, neither looked like it was due to a random passerby scraping off the mud on their heel. Instead, it looked like a person had been pulled until they fell to the ground and was dragged away by someone, and had dug their heels in while struggling. Gan Qing's gaze moved to the mud handprint on the stone steps—the person who was dragged away might have realised that struggling was futile and had unconsciously reached out to grab something. They had first grabbed at the ground but couldn't get a grip, so they grabbed the steps and left a handprint.

Looking closer, the handprint on the stone steps seemed to have a trace of blood.

Gan Qing lowered her head and searched for a while. In a corner, she found a button. There was still a wisp of thread wound through it, like it had been torn off by force.

"Boss Meng," Gan Qing turned her head and asked Meng Tianyi who was preparing his ingredients next door. "What time did you close shop yesterday?"

"Yesterday? I closed early. It has been colder these two days and there are less customers," Meng Tianyi said. "Should've been before ten p.m."

Gan Qing continued to ask, "Was there anyone fighting around here yesterday?"

"No, it was pretty peaceful the whole day. Why?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Gan Qing walked around the footprint and handprint on the ground, suspecting that she was being overly suspicious. It could have been some drunkard who fell down here and hadn't been able to stand up even after doing the doggy paddle for some time.

She opened the door and reached out to turn over the wooden sign that said Closed. But once she touched it, the sign fell down, breaking into two halves.

Hearing the noise, Meng Tianyi came over. He picked up the broken wooden sign and looked at it, and immediately frowned. "It was split into two by hand—what does this mean? A challenge against the store? Or is someone picking a fight with you?"

Gan Qing was bewildered. "A challenge… against a small accessories shop? Do you think it could be the sundry shop next door?"

"To hell with you, can you be serious?" Meng Tianyi didn't laugh. His face grave, he glared at her. "Did you fight with anyone recently?"

"How is that possible? If I bumped into muggers on the street and didn't have cash with me, I'll voluntarily use my phone to transfer money to them. Grandma Zhang starts praying everything she sees me." Gan Qing spread her hands in resignation. She took both halves of the wooden sign and worried over how to glue them back together. "Which great hero was flailing drunkenly around here? Picking a fight with me—just look at the way I am, what can anyone get by picking a fight with me?"

Meng Tianyi glanced at her and felt that the statement was true.

The two of them pondered over this matter for a while, unable to make heads or tails of it. Without any clues, they could only get back to their own work. Right then, a few police came over in a hurry. The one in front was holding up a photo and asking questions. Yu Lanchuan followed behind them.

Meng Tianyi looked up. "Hey, Little Master Yu, Officer Yu?"

Yu Yan took off his police cap and wiped the sweat on his face. He ran over, panting. "Boss Meng, it's good that you're here."

"Did something happen again?"

"You don't say but it's that unlucky kid from the last time." As Yu Yan spoke, he dug out a photo of Liu Zhongqi. "This kid, he threw a tantrum with his family yesterday and ran away from home. The tracking on his phone was traced to this place. Have you seen him?"

Meng Tianyi went closer and looked carefully. He shook his head. "No, he doesn't look familiar. Wait, let me ask—Gan'er!"

Gan Qing was right in the middle of poking a contact lens into her eye. An eyelash accidentally got into her eye and the feeling of having a foreign object there made her tear up. Hearing Boss Meng call for her, she poked her head out, her gaze hazy from tears. "Yes?"

She hadn't yet had the time to put on that unconventional makeup. The colour of her lips was very light and her face extremely pale. All the redness on her face was concentrated around her eyes, standing out prominently against the plain white background. It made one think of a flower blooming unexpectedly in the snow.

For some reason, Yu Lanchuan's eyes met hers. Subconsciously, he looked away.

"Can I trouble you to take a look at this kid?" Yu Yan quickly passed the photo over. "Do you have any impression of him?"

Gan Qing took a long look. "Isn't this the-"

Yu Yan said, "Yes, yes. He's the one who was caught in the porcelain scam the other time. You even helped to make a police report. His name is Liu Zhongqi! Have you seen him around?"

Gan Qing shook her head.

Yu Yan let out a heavy sigh.

Just as he was turning around to look for the next person to ask, Gan Qing suddenly called out to him hesitantly. "What did you say his name was?"

"Liu Zhongqi, 'zhong' as in the second son in the family, 'qi' as in-"

Gan Qing fished out her phone and opened up the "Zhong but not Qi" account that she had just added. "These two words?"

There were no CCTVs at Mudpool Backlane. They could only determine via the Wechat messages that around ten p.m. yesterday night, Liu Zhongqi had come here. There were a few ominous marks at the shop entrance and also a button. The good-for-who-knows-what brother Yu Lanchuan spent five minutes looking at it and still could not be sure whether the button was his younger brother's.

If it could be said that these were not enough to determine whether or not the child had left willingly, then the phone they found in a rubbish bin one hour later gave the answer to this question.

The phone had been smashed onto the ground forcefully. The screen was cracked into splinters and the body of the phone itself was broken apart.

The police's alert level increased. The case of the teenager running away from home in a fit of pique turned into a kidnapping case.

Due to that, they didn't have to bother opening the shop or making food today. The area in front of Star Dreams was barricaded, with a large group of police going in and out.

Gan Qing turned the chat log over to the police and was also asked some questions. After the questioning, this was no longer any of her business, so she took her leave of Boss Meng and prepared to go home. When she reached the intersection, she saw Yu Lanchuan on the phone.

The first impression Yu Lanchuan had given her was from his conduct that day when his shirt was unbuttoned and his chest on display. His eyelids had been lowered and he carried himself like he was someone important, as though there was a row of cameras behind him waiting to capture the image of him being flirtatious.

He was a radiant young master.

But when this "young master" was on the phone, he was polite and restrained, the polar opposite of the pandemonium around him. Gan Qing heard him say, "...I'm really very sorry. I really have something urgent to take care of at home and can't leave-"

Before he could finish speaking, he was cut off by the person on the other end. From a few steps away, Gan Qing saw Yu Lanchuan tore off his glasses in a rage and tossed it onto the roof of the police car. He pinched the bridge of his nose repeatedly, his face looking like he wanted to slay someone, yet his tone was as courteous and mild as before. It was as though his mouth was separated from his body and was operating on its own. "I know… Yes, I understand. How about this, when I go back to the office, I guarantee that I will immediately-"

The other end of the call started making a yapping sound, going on and on without stopping.

Yu Lanchuan fell silent. He looked up with an expressionless face, squinting at the eye-burningly clear sky.

When he was done listening to every word from the other side, he finally drew a deep breath. "...Okay. I will contact the people in my department to handle this. Please wait a moment."

Following that, he started making calls. He oversaw his department from far, ordering his subordinates to do work. He made someone revise the materials, then made another person attend a meeting in his place. Gan Qing saw him lean against the police car with his eyes closed, explaining in great detail to his colleagues the important points of the meeting, his fingers constantly rubbing the arms of his glasses.

When he was done with his long speech, Yu Lanchuan's mouth was parched. He thought back for a while, confirmed that he had not missed out anything, and finally told his colleague, "All right, that's all. Thank you for your hard work, off you go."

Out of courtesy, his colleague asked, "Director Yu, did something happen to your family? Is everything okay?"

Yu Lanchuan said, "My…"

My younger brother has disappeared and is suspected to have been kidnapped.

There was a snapping sound; Yu Lanchuan had lost control of his hand and snapped one of the arms of his glasses.

"...It's not a big problem." He swallowed those words back in. "When it's settled, I will go back to the office. Keep in touch at all times."

There was nothing to say. This was just losing a chuuni younger brother, even if his own mother died, so what?

His colleagues would only perfunctorily say "My condolences." The sweet-talkers would, at most, add a "Let me know if there's anything I can do." In their hearts, they would certainly be grumbling—Why is it that the busier we are, the more problems his family has? Our superior's mother died, so doesn't that mean we need to give a token of our feelings? Ai, funerals and weddings always happen at the end of the month. Trouble only comes when you're poor.

The whole world was spinning at a high speed; everyone had to run themselves to the ground to survive.

Another person's disasters and calamities, another person's birth and old age and sickness and death—those were all uninvited guests that brought trouble.

Yu Lanchuan put down his phone. He noticed Gan Qing standing a few steps away from him and nodded at her. "I'm sorry to have troubled you."

Gan Qing didn't know why but in a moment of impulse, she blurted out, "You can ask Old Master Yang for help."

Yu Lanchuan looked at her in surprise.

With her reminder, Yu Lanchuan finally remembered. Rumour had it that before the country was liberated^[1], Old Master Yang, who always had a staff in his hand, had once been the leader of Beggars' Sect. Later on, society changed and these sects and clans fell out of fashion. Those who ought to work found work, those who ought to retire retired. Now, most of the Beggars' Sect veterans only kept a few patches on their clothes as a nod to tradition. They typically lived ordinary lives and only occasionally conducted publicity activities such as "Begging in a civilised way; asking for alms while resisting the morning and evening rush hour" or get involved in and mediate territory fights between beggars.

But with this network that reached all corners, they could get information very quickly and effectively.

The question was, how did she know?

The moment the words left her mouth, Gan Qing regretted so much she nearly bit her own tongue. She quickly smiled, then left as swiftly as though the soles of her feet were oiled.

Slipping into the small alleys of Mudpool Backlane, Gan Qing's steps suddenly paused. She remembered the bald man who had tailed her at this spot the other day. She couldn't be blamed for not remembering this earlier, nearly a month had passed since it happened. During this period, she had been busy trying to survive, her mind occupied with finding a place to rent. Petty matters like this had completely slipped her mind.

She dug out the two halves of the wooden sign from her bag and thought. Could it be they were really targeting me?

The bald man she was muttering about was at that moment clutching his hungover head and squatting in a corner, like a large mushroom that had been soaked until it expanded.

His comrade, the scarred-face man, paced in circles like a donkey pulling a millstone, heaving a sigh every time he completed a circle. Right at that moment, the disabled man limped in hurriedly. Before he could even catch his breath, he saw Liu Zhonqi trussed up in the corner and nearly sprained his other foot.

The disabled man was seething with anger. With large strides, he staggered over to the bald man, raised his hand and rained blows on his head. "Are you crazy? What the fuck were you thinking yesterday! Did you piss your brains out when peeing?"

The bald man covered his head and scuttled away. "Er-shixiong, ai, shixiong, don't hit me. I was wrong…"

"Shiniang is already so old and she has to stay at the hospital the whole day to take care of Da-shixiong. She's so tired she can't even stand up straight and you, not only are you fucking useless, you even got drunk and stirred up shit. You troublemaker, I'm gonna beat you to death!"

After this band of people was thrown out of their rental, they came to this urban village to stay.

This place had long since been decided to be demolished, but a few residents refused to budge and demanded higher prices. All these while, they could not come to an agreement on the amount of compensation and were still holding out in a half-dead state. The other residents who had taken the compensation had mostly moved away. Seeing that this place wasn't going to be demolished anytime soon, they secretly collected money and rented these rundown single-story houses to non-locals.

The bald man had a drinking problem. He had been drinking on that very day when he went to corner Gan Qing. For a period of time before this, his shige and his shiniang were watching him so he curbed himself to a certain extent. The night before, neither of them were there. He had a craving for a moment and, unable to restrain himself, had gone out and gotten thoroughly inebriated. Then, the more he had thought, the more he felt vexed about what happened at Mudpool Backlane the last time.

Alcohol could bolster a coward's courage. The bald man threw the old madam's exhortations far behind him and drunkenly went to challenge the shop. In the end, his efforts were futile—the shop had long since closed for the day.

The bald man howled resentfully and split apart the wooden sign on the shop's door with his bare hand. Just as he had decided to break the glass, he heard someone say from beside him, "What are you doing? I'm going to call the police!"

Liu Zhongqi, his entire person brimming with righteousness, had not learned his lesson from the previous encounter. He had not learned to "Meddle not in other people's business, be prudent and cautious." Hence, this time, he ended up becoming an indignant rice dumpling — trussed up, mouth gagged, tossed in a corner — and was trying to use his eyes to shoot these large pieces of trash to death.

T/N:

[1] Liberation 解放 refers to the establishment of the PRC in 1949. This term is used a few times in this story.