Everything Would Slowly Become Clear

The guardhouse was filled with smoke, and the security guard specially made room for Mr. Ye Bei, bringing him a fruit platter, snacks, and tea.

Ye Bei immediately waved his hand and took out two cans of Worry-forgetting Tea from his bag.

"I have it, I have it."

As soon as Su Xingchen sat down, she took out her phone and interrogated the uncle who was searching for his child as if he were a criminal.

"Name."

The uncle nervously replied, "Jiang Zhengchu."

Su Xingchen: "Age."

Uncle Zhengchu: "Fifty-nine"

Su Xingchen: "Place of origin."

Uncle Zhengchu: "I'm from Zhoucun, Shandong."

Su Xingchen: "Do you have any siblings?"

Uncle Zhengchu: "I belong to the Zheng generation. My two older brothers are named Zhengguo and Zhengwei, and my three younger sisters are named Zhenghua, Zhengmei, and Zhengfang. I am the third oldest among the six sisters."

Ye Bei couldn't stand it anymore.

"Brother! Stop it! They're looking for their child, not their father."

Su Xingchen shrugged, giving off a "you do it if you can" vibe.

Xue Ming pushed the snack box towards Uncle Zhengchu and then asked.

"Uncle, could you describe the child in detail, how old was he when he went missing, where he was lost, where he has been over the years, and if anyone has helped you?"

Uncle Zhengchu pulled a thick leather book out of his bundle. The cover was curled at the edges, and many scraps of leather had fallen off.

He licked his Thumb, opened the notebook, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.

I took out a missing person poster from the book. It had a photo of the little boy, along with his name, height, and the clothes he was wearing when he went missing.

"This is my son. He went missing when he was four years old. He was wearing a blue, red, and white striped wool sweater, a Transformers-themed jacket over it, and red children's shoes (I don't remember the brand). He was also wearing denim overalls."

Xue Ming: "Anything else? Please be as detailed as possible. In what situation did you get lost?"

Uncle Zhengchu: "After I was laid off from the steel factory, I had a fight with my wife. My wife wanted a divorce and secretly took our child back to Pingxiang, Jiangxi. She fell asleep on the train, and the child disappeared."

Xue Ming: "Do you remember which station it was?"

"I don't remember." Uncle Zhengchu shook his head, his emotions very calm. "She just took a nap, and when she woke up she had already reached the final stop. It was too late to look for her then."

Apart from Uncle Zhengchu, the other three remained silent.

Finding someone in a headless case like this is probably as difficult as climbing to heaven. There are so many people and so many families in China. The child that Uncle Zhengchu is looking for should be twenty-two years old this year. If he had grown up healthy, he would probably have become someone else's son and developed feelings for someone else long ago.

"I've been traveling along this railway for years. In the early years, I begged many human traffickers, wasting a lot of money, giving them gifts and red envelopes, all in an attempt to find out where my baby was, but..."

Ye Bei interrupted, "You expect criminals to have a change of heart? Impossible."

Xue Ming added, "Only the law, handcuffs, and bullets can make them obey, serve their sentences, and confess."

Su Xingchen sighed, "You've worked hard."

"It's not hard work, it's not hard work." Uncle Zhengchu chuckled awkwardly, his smile revealing a guilty conscience and unease. These three young men were like three different flames, their expressions varied, but their words were all radical and sharp.

Uncle Zhengchu was just an ordinary person; he didn't have such a powerful reputation or such a brave spirit.

He continued, "I always have to try. The local police are very good, and the people are very kind, but they can't help me, so I go to human traffickers—I'm very clever. These people take my money and gifts, and they must think I'm easy to fool and bully. They always have recordings left on my phone. I've cooperated with the police many times, and each time we've caught a few people. Unfortunately, it's very, very difficult to find these people. I've only done it about ten times. With the Special Campaign Against Organized Crime, it's become increasingly difficult to find them."

Ye Bei gave Thumb: "Awesome!"

Xue Ming dared not imagine—such an experience of venturing alone into a dangerous place is something that ordinary citizens might never encounter in their entire lives. But for Uncle Zhengchu, who had been searching for his relatives for eighteen years, these dozen or so battles of wits with criminals seemed to be nothing more than trivial matters on his journey to find his family.

After a long silence, Su Xingchen finally spoke, "Have you been searching for your son? Haven't you ever thought of giving up?"

When Uncle Zhengchu heard this question, which sounded like a dissuasion, he just smoked and remained silent for a very long time.

Su Xingchen immediately explained, "I'm not asking you to give up, Uncle, I didn't mean that—it's just that I think you deserve a better life. I see you all alone, and I'm afraid Aunt really did divorce you later. You said you have so many brothers and sisters, but they weren't by your side. This path has cost you too much and yielded too little. Based on your own experience, even if you were laid off, you could go back to your hometown, find a job, and continue living with your wife. That would be much better than what you're experiencing now."

"No, not this one." Uncle Zhengchu frowned, then suddenly began waving his hands. "No, no, no, I came to ask you where my son is, not to listen to your lectures."

Xue Ming grabbed Su Xingchen's hand, her tone icy. "He knows what he wants, Brother Xingchen."

Ye Bei grabbed Xingchen's other hand. "He knows, he knows everything. He knows very well that he's fifty-nine years old, and the sum of our ages is only enough for him to call me 'good brother'—stop with the nonsense, let's get down to business."

Before Su Xingchen could change her mind and ease the awkward atmosphere...

Uncle Zhengchu then began to recount his experiences and past journey.

"You all have hobbies, right? Everyone has them, like learning music, playing video games, riding motorcycles, or watching movies. There's so much time; you can do these things after get off work, right?"

Jiang Xueming: "Yes."

Uncle Zhengchu hurriedly explained, "Finding my son is my hobby. I can do odd jobs while searching for him. I can do it. I'm doing it very well. I'm really doing it very well."

He rolled up his sleeves, revealing his large knuckles. His nails were clean, without any grease or dirt, indicating that he regularly bathed and scrubbed his hair to take good care of his body, cleaning away iron filings and grease.

"Look, I used to work in the steel coil workshop at the factory. I know how to protect myself. Later, I worked on diesel engines and repaired tractors. I had it all planned out. Many human traffickers said that rural areas prefer to take in boys to support them in their old age. They need tractors to transport goods and build houses. I thought, food, clothing, housing, and transportation are the foundation of people's livelihood. If I start with transportation, I can go very far and take care of my hobbies. Finding my son shouldn't be difficult."

A mischievous cat jumped out from Ye Bei's chest and sat down next to the table, head down, eyes lowered, lips pursed, listening quietly.

Uncle Zhengchu continued, "I've met so many people and been to so many different places."

He flipped open the yellowed papers and pointed to each name.

Starting from Shandong, the route passes through railway stations and cities along the Jiangxi route.

As you turn the page, you see individual names and accounts.

Countless people have helped him; there are nearly 1,300 names.

From small things like steamed buns and mantou to large cash loans of several thousand yuan.

"There are definitely more good people than bad people." Uncle Zhengchu nodded vigorously. "I don't have much, so I do odd jobs to earn money for food, drink, and travel expenses. I have an inexhaustible supply of energy!"

Turn to the next page, and you'll find the warranty and repair stations for various diesel-powered tractors.

From Wǔqiáng Power Co., Ltd.., Ltd. in Hengyin City to Jiangxi Yellow River Machinery Manufacturing Plant.

He worked as a mechanic at forty-eight different diesel engine factories, drove reliable tractors along countless mountain roads, and traveled between villages and cities.

"Don't worry about me," Uncle Zhengchu said with a smile. "My salary is very high, more than 12,000 yuan a month at most. I've also repaired diesel engines for sand dredging vessels. That was when I was richest, and I saved it to buy a house and a car for my son. I'm good at these kinds of jobs, both quickly and well. I was thinking that if he can't drive, I'll be his driver. People who can drive tractors are usually very good at driving cars."

Ye Bei: "Have you ever thought about blending into a family?"

"No need." Uncle Zhengchu understood what the kind person meant and was about to refuse.

Ye Bei quickly explained, "What I mean is, with someone to help you, with your wife, children, relatives, and friends all helping you search, there's strength in numbers, there's always a way—Hengyin is a place with convenient transportation in all directions. There used to be many human trafficking cases in Pingyang County, and I've received guests like you before, who were also looking for their children. Asking friends or relatives to inquire is always better than searching for a needle in a haystack alone."

"I've thought about it too." At this point, Uncle Zhengchu scratched his head. "After the divorce, several suitable men wanted me to be their partner. There were about four or five in total."

Su Xingchen's eyes widened. "Four or five?"

"Hey," Uncle Zhengchu pursed his lips, looking rather embarrassed, "They all pursued me relentlessly, and I couldn't keep them—I'm always out and about, and I rarely come home throughout the year. I can't let them live like widows, can I?"

At this point, the story becomes more complicated and lengthy.

"The first one was a girl at the dry cleaner's shop. She had a daughter, and her husband had run away gambling. She was raising her child alone, which was very difficult, so I stayed with her for half a year. At first, it was just companionship, but later she kept asking for more and more. She complained that my heart wasn't at home. She not only wanted money but also my time, and told me not to go see my son, so I broke up with her."

After finishing one cigarette, Uncle Zhengchu lit another.

"The second one was in Guizhou. She was a very lively woman who worked as a kitchen knife operator. Her husband was having an affair, and she cut off his hand. She had to pay over 100,000 yuan in compensation. After she got out of jail, she couldn't find a job, so she did odd jobs at a cold storage and fresh food market and a restaurant in Guiyang. She said I was good-looking and had a kind of persistence that other men didn't have. She wanted to remarry me and have a baby with me—but later she would talk in her sleep at night, always mentioning my child. She couldn't stand it, so she broke up with me."

Ye Bei whispered to Xingchen, "This life experience is too bizarre."

Xingchen and Ye Bei said calmly, "It's precisely because of Uncle Zhengchu's persistence that this journey has been shaped."

Uncle Zhengchu started talking about other women again.

"I was in Guangzhou, and during my break after work, I went from Zengcheng to Pazhou to see a Jacky Cheung concert. A girl in her early twenties grabbed me and wouldn't let go, saying my outfit looked like a model's. I was forty-four at the time, a country bumpkin like me, what did I know about fashion? I was entangled with this girl for half a month in this ambiguous way. I told her to be a decent person and find a healthy and positive boy around her age. She followed me everywhere I went, which was really a headache—she said everyone around her was so immature, unlike me, who was so practical. So I agreed to go to Taiping Restaurant on BJ Road for a meal, as a date, and told her about the restaurant, which was a place that the great revolutionary leader had visited. I told her that I should study for the rise of China and work for the happiness of the people. After the date, I packed my bags and ran away. Later, I realized I must have hurt this girl's feelings, and I felt sad for a very long time."

Uncle has a typical northern physique, with shoulders so broad they could almost block a door, and he's about 1.85 meters tall.

Even at fifty-nine years old, he looked like an old bear.

"I followed the Jiangxi railway line to AH and then to Hangzhou. There was a female reporter, around 30 years old in 2010, from Nantong. She was very interested in my story. She interviewed me and made a lot of money from the story we wrote together. She told me that we should get married and then look for our son together. That way, she could keep making money from her news and also do good deeds. I was overjoyed at the time. Later I found out that she had lied to me. When the newspaper published the December news, I couldn't see the missing person notice anymore, and she had found other material. Then she lost contact with me."

These stories are only a very small part in the notebook.

"I rented a place in Hengyin, and the landlady started negotiating with me again. She owns over thirty properties and earns more than 40,000 yuan a month from rent. She wanted me to be a sub-landlord so I wouldn't have to work outside. We'd get a marriage certificate, and I'd collect the rent, take care of the tenants' plumbing, property management, furniture repair, and light bulb installation during the day. I even learned how to install internet and set up Wi-Fi. At night, I'd just take care of her. I only had one request: to find my son. At first, we got along well, but then her two sons graduated and came home to drift through life. They didn't get along with me and kept making things difficult for me, looking down on me and giving me unnecessary tasks. I had less and less free time and couldn't go out anymore. I didn't want any conflict with them. I figured if my son came back, he'd also have conflicts with her family, so I broke up with her."

Su Xingchen: "Bad woman"

"No, she's a good woman, she knows everything." Uncle Zhengchu explained, "She knows everything. She's helped me so many times, and she even helped me find my son. Now she occasionally sends me a red envelope every month and asks me out to dinner, but I don't dare to accept. I'm afraid that if I accept, I won't be able to leave."

Ye Bei: "Anything else?"

Uncle Zhengchu asked in confusion, "These are all the relationships I've experienced; there haven't been any others."

Ye Bei: "No. I mean, are there any other clues?"

"I not only lost a son, but my wife probably lost a daughter too." Uncle Zhengchu frowned and explained to the three of them in detail, "When she filed for divorce, she was already quite pregnant. She's always been very careful and a thrifty person. Before I was laid off, we agreed to divorce and go our separate ways. She found a buyer in the timber business, and at forty, she was going to have a child for him before she could settle down and marry him. The reason we argued was because of this—the child in her belly wasn't mine. It was half-siblings to my son."

At this point, Uncle Zhengchu offered cigarettes to the two distinguished guests.

"She was pregnant at the time, an older mother, risking her life for a smoother path in life. Her emotions were also unstable. We had long since lost our feelings for each other. It was just that when we talked about dividing the family property, she got angry and I got angry too. She took our son and ran away. In the end, the son was lost. She was so angry that she went into premature labor. She gave birth to a baby girl at the railway hospital in Pingxiang, but she was also taken away. It was as if she was being targeted by human traffickers who followed her all the way."

Ye Bei: "And then?"

Uncle Zhengchu: "There was no 'later' in the story. She felt ashamed and was so angry that she wanted to commit suicide. Fortunately, her new husband is a good man and they lived a good life together. I've been searching for her ever since."

Su Xingchen: "Did you hear that?"

Ye Bei: "I heard you."

The two of them looked at Xue Ming.

"Did you understand?"