Case Files 013

Chapter 152: Fire

As I pushed open the gate, we looked at each other, not knowing how to make of what we saw. Beyond the gate, there was a yard. If not for the fence closing the space in, I would have thought we had walked out of the house and not into it.

Before us were a lot of collapsed beams and bricks. The house that once stood in the yard had fully crumbled. From the ruins, I concluded this was the work of a fire. The beams were burnt and the bricks were charred. These kinds of wooden houses were quite common at Elm Town, compared to the concrete houses at big cities, they were a natural fire hazard. The house before us clearly had been consumed in a big fire. Other than the gate, everything else had been ruined.

"This is the place?" The headmaster breathed out in disbelief. Wang Lulu nodded. "This is the address given to me, but what happened here?"

I frowned and realized things were definitely far more complex than they appeared. This family's house had been burnt down, the daughter had committed suicide and the parents were missing. Had all tragedies descended on this family on the night of New Year's Eve?

Guan Zhenglin walked forward and stood among the ruins. She pinched the ash on the ground. Soon she observed, "This has been like this for a while already, at least it didn't happen in the past few days. Then where had the girl been staying all these time? Why did she choose this day to commit suicide?"

"By the way," I turned to Gu Chen, "Haven't you gone to check the surveillance, how did she get to Rainbow Bridge?"

Gu Chen answered, "She walked there." I nodded and said, "It would take at least 3 hours to walk from this place to Rainbow Bridge. If Fang Xiao Qi really departed from here, then traffic cams would have picked up on her trace. We need to look deeper, this is not as simple as it seems."

The headmaster scratched his head and then asked Wang Lulu uncertainly, "Are you sure this is the place? What are her parents' names?"

Wang Lulu had no idea so I cut in, "Leave the rest to us. We should find that information on Fang Xiao Qi's citizenry database file."

When we returned to the station, we hopped on the internet to check on Fang Xiao Qi. Fang was not a common surname, and there were only 2 people with the name Fang Xiao Qi at Elm Town. After knowing her address, we immediately picked out the correct one. From the file, Fang Xiao Qi was currently 16 and was a student at Elm Town Second Middle School. But under the column for family relationship, there was a surprise waiting for us.

When Fang Xiao Qi was 4, she was kidnapped by a group of human traffickers to a small mountain village near Elm Town. The family who bought Fang Xiao Qi faced the problem of their foreman refusing to pay them for their work. Her adopted father threatened the foreman with his life. He climbed up to the electrical pole to prove that he was not kidding and he definitely wasn't. The wiring at the small town wasn't good and the father was electrocuted and died. The mother was overwhelmed by grief and committed suicide. Fang Xiao Qi was passed around like an unwanted ball before she was officially adopted and settled down. And in the column for adoptee, we came across a familiar name—Hao Ren.

"Hao Ren?" Gu Chen remembered him too. "Isn't he the security guard from Online Serendipity Café? The man who wanted to open a dojo?" Guan Zhenglin gasped, "Things can't be that coincidental, right? Click on the person's picture and see."

Things were indeed that coincidental. Hao Ren, the guard from the internet café, was Fang Xiao Qi's adopted father. From Hao Ren's file, Fang Xiao Qi was not his only adopted child. Hao Ren was 44 years old and his oldest adopted child was Du Zigui, 20 years old while his youngest adopted child was only 8, the name was Wang An. Hao Ren had 4 adopted children and Fang Xiao Qi was one of them.

Seeing that, Gu Chen commented, "This Hao Ren is really a good man. When he arrested the thieves, I already knew that. So many people crowded around to watch the arrest but when we asked for people to give testimony, everyone dispersed…"

I sighed, "Sometimes, it is not that people don't want to help but the risk behind a good act can be quite high."

Gu Chen clearly did not agree with me. "If everyone decides to help, there's no reason for them to be afraid. There is strength in numbers. Do you think the thieves would be bold enough to take revenge on all of them?"

Guan Zhenglin interrupted our debate, "It's already 2 am. If we are to look for this Hao Ren, we'll have to start tomorrow morning.

"By the way, I've asked Sister Mary to help us find more information on Hao Ren and his adopted children." Guan Zhenglin told us, "With this info, perhaps we can find out why Hao Ren's home had been destroyed and why Fang Xiao Qi had to commit suicide." Then Guan Zhenglin turned around to print us a set of documents, "But for now, we can work with these, they are basic information on Hao Ren and his 4 adopted children."

I accepted the file and skimmed through it. Hao Ren, 44, lived at Tai San Temple Alley No. 5. Hao Ren was single but he had 4 adopted children. He adopted them a long time ago. Hao Ren adopted his first child when he was 22. After that, Hao Ren adopted 3 more children. According to the files, Hao Ren treated his adopted children as his disciples and taught them martial arts.

Hao Ren's first adopted son was Du Zigui. He had been with Hao Ren for 20 plus years already and had inherited all of Hao Ren's martial arts knowledge. Hao Ren was poor when he adopted Du Zigui so the latter didn't have any formal education. Based on the files, Du Zigui came out to work since he was very little and was currently working as a mechanic at a vehicle repair shop.

Hao Ren's second adopted child was Zhao Xiaoli, she just reached 18, she was also adopted by Hao Ren when she was very young. Currently, Zhao Xiaoli was studying in another city, she was a very good student. Zhao Xiaoli was a benefactor of the country's scholarship so she lived independently.

Hao Ren's third adopted child was Fang Xiao Qi. She was 16, a secondary school student. Fang Xiao Qi's result was not so bad, she stayed at the school hostel. Fang Xiao Qi was quiet and her only good friend was Mo Yu. For some reason, Fang Xiao Qi killed herself.

Hao Ren's fourth adopted child was Wang An. He was 8, a primary school student. Currently, Hao Ren only needed to care for Wang An. The rest of his adopted children were already able to take care of themselves.

The first 3 adopted children basically grew up together due to how close they were in ago. Wang An was the only exception because when he was adopted, his brothers and sisters were already away at work or at school, so Wang An grew up with Hao Ren's sole company and Hao Ren cherished this boy the most out of all his children.

I frowned as I read through the list. "We should go and find these people tomorrow morning. By the way, this is New Year, there should be no work and no school. But their house has been burnt down so where would they be staying?" I said, "Looks like we have to go on a trip to Online Serendipity, perhaps the boss might know something."

…

The next morning, we found the address of the internet café. When we arrived, the café was still open despite the holiday season. We walked in but didn't see Hao Ren. We found the boss and were told that the place just got a new security guard.

From the boss, we also knew the continuation of the thieves' story. 2 months earlier, Hao Ren sent the 3 thieves into detention. They were released about 10 days later. Ever since then, Online Serendipity never had a day of peace. After they got out, the 3 committed revenge against Hao Ren. They knew Hao Ren worked at Online Serendipity, so they would come to slather the place with shit every night.

The boss knew that the 3 was the one behind the sabotage but he couldn't do anything. There was no proof and the 3 thieves were ready if he wanted to escalate this into a fight. If he ignored them, the shit would chase all his customers away. The 3 had a very simple demand, which was for the boss to fire Hao Ren.

The boss had no other choice but to fire Hao Ren 1 month ago. The 3 thieves even came to watch the firing in person, they wanted to flaunt their victory. They wanted to provoke Hao Ren so that if Hao Ren did anything, they would report him to the police. Unfortunately, even faced with the heavy taunts, Hao Ren didn't do anything. He took his salary and left.

The 3 thieves were not satisfied with that so they shouted that this was not over. Hao Ren would have hell to pay.

Then the boss told us something in regret. The 3 thieves forced him to provide them with Hao Ren's home address. The boss didn't want to deal with these 3 anymore, so he complied with their demands. After that, the boss washed his hands clean of Hao Ren and never heard from him again.josei

The phone number given to us by the boss was similar to the one Wang Lulu knew and currently there was still no answer.

The boss whispered, "When the 3 thieves left, I overheard something."

"What is it?" I asked.

The boss looked around carefully, as if afraid that the 3 thieves were still around, "One of them said that, after they found out about Hao Ren's home address, they would destroy his house."