Chapter 60: Inquiring

“Going to restock, Yan Zi?”

“Yes, we’re out of apples and pears at the store, so I’m getting some more.”

“You’re really diligent, going to restock at three or four in the morning every day.”

“If I go late, the good ones are gone. I rely on repeat customers and can’t sell them leftovers.”

Guo Yan greeted her neighbors as she rode her bike. When she arrived, she quickly unloaded the apples and pears from the back seat. After placing the items at the entrance, she removed the window boards, opened the door, and brought out more fruit. As she sorted through the less fresh ones to sell at a lower price, a pair of women’s high-top leather shoes stopped in front of her.

Guo Yan asked casually, “Do you want to buy apples, pears, bananas, or apple pears? Soy sauce, vinegar, and paste are inside.”

“Give me a pound of apple pears, not apples or pears,” the person said crisply, sounding almost confrontational.

A nearby neighbor frowned, about to say something, but Guo Yan looked up and exclaimed in surprise, “Qiao Qiao?”

“Yes,” Lin Qiao smiled and nodded. “I heard you rented a place here to sell things. Business seems good.”

“It’s nothing much. I just saw that this place has a lot of foot traffic and decided to try selling some things. The previous tenants moved out because they found it too noisy,” Guo Yan said, bending to grab some oranges from a box and handing them to Lin Qiao.

“Forget the apple pears; they need peeling. Have these instead.”
After handing over the oranges, she noticed the tall, handsome young man behind Lin Qiao and the Jeep parked nearby. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, “Is this your husband?”

Lin Qiao nodded and introduced them, “This is my husband, Ji Duo. This is my neighbor and childhood friend, Guo Yan.”

“Hello,” Ji Duo nodded politely and greeted Guo Yan.

“Hello,” Guo Yan looked him up and down, then sighed in relief and said to Lin Qiao, “Good, he’s quite young.”

It was clear that Guo Yan was worried Lin Qiao might have married someone much older, given Ji Duo’s rank and the fact that he had a car.

Lin Qiao couldn’t help but smile at her husband before turning to Guo Yan, “Are you busy? If not, I’d like to talk to you for a bit.”

No one expected the situation to take a turn, but after the phone call, Lin Qiao discussed it with Ji Duo, and he decided to come in person.

Since they had Sunday off, they took half a day off on Saturday and arrived the previous night, staying at an inn without disturbing anyone.

Guo Yan knew they both had jobs and would only come back with a reason. “Come in, and let’s talk,” she said, tidying up the items on the floor. “It’s a bit messy here.”

Lin Qiao had heard from Liu Yulan that after her last visit, Guo Yan started selling fruit in town. Initially, she sold by the roadside, but as she gradually made some money and gained regular customers, she rented a storefront to sell soy sauce, vinegar, and locally produced beer and liquor. It was essentially a small shop in the making, and business seemed to be going well. The place was indeed packed with items but was kept very clean. Lin Qiao and Ji Duo were led to a warm kang bed-stove.

Guo Yan was about to fetch water, but Lin Qiao stopped her. “No need to trouble yourself. I just remembered your aunt is from the southern province and wanted to ask about something.”

Liu Yulan’s family wasn’t local, so Lin Qiao followed Guo Yan in calling her aunt. Guo Yan understood immediately, “Yes, she’s from the southern province, from Linshan.”

Lin Qiao wasn’t very familiar with that area, so she looked at Ji Duo.

“It’s not too far, about 370 miles,” Ji Duo said, clearly knowledgeable about the region.

Lin Qiao explained to Guo Yan, “My husband’s friend’s sister went missing in the southern province. We heard your aunt was there at the time and wanted to see if she knew anything.”

“Then we should definitely ask her,” Guo Yan said, putting down the water. “My aunt just went to work. I’ll take you to the vegetable cellar to find her.”

Guo Yan’s aunt worked as a temporary vegetable cellar worker. Guo Yan asked a neighbor to watch her shop and took Lin Qiao and Ji Duo to the cellar. Her aunt was busy with a knife, preparing cabbages for storage. When she saw Lin Qiao, she didn’t stop working. “Qiao Qiao, you’re back.” After finishing her task, she took a break to talk to them.

Guo Yan explained their purpose, and her aunt’s expression became complex and guarded.

Lin Qiao noticed this and exchanged a glance with Ji Duo.

Ji Duo, who was also watching her, showed no emotion on his face. He took out a photo of Shaozhen. “Auntie, this is my friend Gu Shaoping’s sister, Shaozhen. She went missing just after turning eight, wearing a pink floral top, blue pants, and braided pigtails with red ribbons…”

These details seemed etched in his mind, and even after so many years, he could recall every detail accurately.

The more Guo Yan’s aunt listened, the more complicated her expression became, but she remained silent.

Ji Duo continued, “We heard you were in your hometown at the time. We wanted to ask if you saw or heard anything. My friend…”

His voice lowered, “He had an accident while searching for his sister. His parents passed away early, and now only his grandfather, who is over seventy, is left. He’s been searching for her all these years. If you know anything, please tell us. We would be immensely grateful.”

He didn’t mention Yue Hua, focusing on Gu Shaoping and Elder Gu, hoping to appeal to her emotions without risking offending her.

This approach worked. Guo Yan’s aunt looked conflicted, and Guo Yan was moved. “No clues all these years?”

“There were,” Ji Duo said somberly, “but they were all false. A few months ago, I accompanied the elder to the border. He fell ill afterward and is still in the hospital.”

This statement was skillfully crafted, as Elder Gu’s hospitalization was actually due to his nephew and niece-in-law’s actions.

Lin Qiao glanced at Ji Duo without speaking. Guo Yan was already urging her aunt, “Auntie, please think if you’ve heard anything. This is too sad.”

Under the gaze of three pairs of eyes—one deep, one clear, and one urging—Guo Yan’s aunt finally bit her lip and asked for half a day off.

Afterward, she removed her work sleeves and told Guo Yan, “You go back to the shop. I’ll take Qiao Qiao and her husband out to talk.”

Clearly, she knew something. Guo Yan was curious but didn’t remember the events of that year and couldn’t connect the dots. She obediently returned to the shop.

Guo Yan’s aunt took them home.

The house was small, shared with others, occupying only one and a half rooms on the east side. But with a simple household, it was enough. After a moment of silence, Guo Yan’s aunt took a locked box from the writing desk by the kang bed and retrieved a peach pit carved into a flower basket.

“Take a look,” she said, reluctantly handing it to Ji Duo.

Ji Duo recognized it immediately. “This was worn on Shaozhen’s right wrist.”

It was tied with a red string and small, easily lost, so they hadn’t used it as evidence when searching.

Seeing Lin Qiao’s curiosity, he pointed to two uneven carvings on it. “Shaoping carved these when he was young. He ruined over ten before making this one.”

Shaozhen was a posthumous child. Her father died in an accident before she was born, and her mother died in childbirth, leaving only the siblings and their grandfather. Elder Gu, then in his fifties and holding a high position, couldn’t always care for them, so Shaoping took on the responsibility of an older brother, preparing everything for his sister. Because he had to care for his sister from a young age, Shaoping was meticulous and gentle. When they played outside, he would carry Shaozhen in a small basket.

Ji Duo’s eyes showed rare nostalgia. After examining the item, he returned it to Guo Yan’s aunt. “Thank you for telling me this.”

Aunt Guo Yan burst into tears upon hearing this. “I didn’t want to say anything, but with her family situation, I can’t let her grandfather die without closure after raising her.”

If she had insisted she didn’t know, Ji Duo and Lin Qiao would have had to spend a lot of effort investigating, possibly without any results.

Aunt Guo Yan was clearly a kind-hearted person. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have raised the girl so well, provided her with an education, and sent her to college.

“Take this back and show it to the elder,” she said, wiping her face and sitting down heavily on the kang bed. “I found Xiao Hua on my way back from my hometown. It was around July. I received a telegram saying my mother-in-law was seriously ill and I had to return. I didn’t want to go back then…”

She had just lost her child to a high fever. The outside world was chaotic, and the hospitals were staffed with inexperienced young people. No one could save her child, who died in her arms. They only had one daughter, and she felt like her world had collapsed. But with her mother-in-law seriously ill, she had no choice but to return.

“When you’re unlucky, even drinking cold water can get stuck in your teeth. The bus broke down before reaching the destination and couldn’t be fixed. The driver, seeing it wasn’t far, told us to walk. I felt worse and worse, crying as I walked, and accidentally took the wrong path. That’s when I found Xiao Hua.”

The child seemed to have fallen from the mountain, with clothes and pants torn, one shoe missing, and a head wound.

“At first, I thought she was dead. The blood on her head was half-dried. But when I touched her, she was still breathing, so I carried her to the town.”

Walking mountain roads was hard enough for a woman, let alone carrying an eight- or nine-year-old child. She couldn’t find a reliable doctor in town, so a local herbalist treated the child with herbs.

“I waited in town for two days, asking around to see if anyone had lost a child. No one had. When she woke up, she didn’t know anything. I was afraid my mother-in-law couldn’t wait, so I brought her back. She looked a lot like my child, so we raised her as our own.”

She paused and frowned at Ji Duo. “Didn’t you search for the child when she went missing? I saw bruises on her body.”

If she hadn’t seen the bruises and no one was looking for the child, she wouldn’t have thought she was abandoned and taken her in.

Ji Duo’s expression darkened. “Are you sure she had bruises?”

Aunt Guo Yan, in her forties or fifties, stammered, “Yes, they were under her clothes. I saw them when I changed her.”

Lin Qiao understood why he was upset. Elder Gu and Gu Shaoping cherished Shaozhen, and someone else clearly inflicted those bruises. She gently patted the man’s hand to comfort him. This time, before she could pull away, he held her hand, using its warmth to calm himself. “She went missing just a few days before her brother had an accident on the mountain, and her grandfather fell seriously ill while undergoing labor reform.”

Hearing this, Aunt Guo Yan understood. The Gu family had faced consecutive misfortunes, and Elder Gu was in a difficult situation, likely unable to search for the child. She sighed.

Everyone present felt the weight of that sigh. Shaozhen was fortunate to have encountered kind people. What if she hadn’t, or worse, had met bad people?

In the silence, Aunt Guo Yan looked at Ji Duo and then at Lin Qiao, hesitating to speak.

“If you have something to say, please go ahead,” Lin Qiao encouraged sincerely. “We, and the elder, are very grateful for what you’ve shared today.”

Ji Duo, now composed, added, “If you have any message for her grandfather, I can relay it for you.”

This struck a chord with Aunt Guo Yan. She smiled weakly. “You know, we’ve always treated Xiao Hua as our own daughter.”

Lin Qiao understood immediately. She didn’t want Shaozhen to reconnect with her biological family, at least not yet.

Aunt Guo Yan continued, “We’ve never told her about this. My husband and I only have this one daughter. Could you… could you wait a bit longer?” She quickly explained, “It’s not that I don’t want her grandfather to recognize her, but this is sudden. We need time to prepare.”

Ji Duo was silent for a moment before looking directly at Aunt Guo Yan. “I’ll talk to him. No matter what, thank you for today and for all these years.”

This brought tears to Aunt Guo Yan’s eyes. “I didn’t raise her for thanks. Without her, we wouldn’t have known how to get through these years.”

Having a child around, even if it reminded them of the one they lost, gave them hope. No matter how tired they were from work, there was someone to call them mom and dad, someone to massage their legs, someone to show them report cards and say they got first place again…

Leaving Aunt Guo Yan’s house, Lin Qiao noticed that Ji Duo had been holding her hand the entire time.

Ji Duo noticed, too, and after a brief pause, he let go as usual. “Let’s buy some fruit from Guo Yan.”

Their car was still parked there, and they needed to return. Since Guo Yan had helped find the person, it was only right to thank her. With the tension eased, Lin Qiao led the way, taking a shortcut to Guo Yan’s shop.

Passing the town’s middle school, Ji Duo paused. Noticing his gaze, Lin Qiao said, “Sister Yue Hua graduated from here. The school has her on the honor roll. Do you want to see it?”

“Did you study here too?” Ji Duo asked.

This surprised Lin Qiao. “Yes, I did.”

She hadn’t thought about it, as she wasn’t the original Lin Qiao and had already graduated when she arrived. Ji Duo hadn’t seemed like the type to ask such questions before. But he did, and not only asked but also walked towards the school gate.

She followed. It was Sunday, and there were no classes. After greeting the gatekeeper and explaining she was an alumna wanting to visit, they were allowed in.

Compared to the middle school where Lin Qiao currently teaches, the town’s middle school is much smaller. All the buildings are single-story, and each grade in high school has only four classes combined for arts and sciences. Wooden signs hang at the classroom doors, indicating the class numbers. Inside, the desks and chairs are mismatched, and the chalk box on the teacher’s desk is filled with short, worn-down chalk pieces that haven’t been discarded.

Ji Duo suddenly wanted to see what Lin Qiao looked like when she was a student and how she looked while teaching. “When will you give another open class?”

This unexpected question made Lin Qiao turn her head. She found him staring at her intently, with something new in his eyes.

Before she could figure it out, a snowflake fell, catching her attention.

“It’s snowing?” She reached out her pale hand to catch it. “This must be the first snow of the year, right?”

“Yes, it is. Yandu hasn’t had snow yet this year,” Ji Duo replied, his gaze still fixed on her face.

Lin Qiao looked up at the sky, feeling a weight lifted from her heart. Her eyes sparkled brighter than the falling snowflakes.

Ji Duo watched her quietly until she had her fill and turned to him, saying, “Let’s go back before our clothes get wet.” He responded with a low “Hmm.”

Despite their efforts, a bit of snow still clung to their hair when they returned to Guo Yan’s shop.

Ji Duo fetched a towel from the car for Lin Qiao, and they wiped themselves off as they entered. Guo Yan was busy helping a customer with soy sauce but took a moment to ask, “How did it go?”

“It’s good news,” Lin Qiao said, not mentioning Aunt Yue for now. “Thank you and your aunt for your help.”

“That’s nothing,” Guo Yan said, closing the soy sauce barrel and taking the money. She looked at Lin Qiao and Ji Duo. “You’re not in a hurry to leave, are you? Stay for lunch.”

“The elder is waiting for us,” Lin Qiao said, a bit helpless.

Although Elder Gu didn’t know they had come here or about Yue Hua, they wanted to return quickly to tell him and put his mind at ease.

“That’s understandable. You’ve been searching for so many years,” Guo Yan nodded. “Let me pack some fruit for you to eat on the way.”

Guo Yan was straightforward and generous. Lin Qiao was about to decline when Ji Duo quietly asked for a stack of large bills. “How much fruit do you have? We’ll take it all.”

“All of it?” Guo Yan was surprised. “Why do you need so much fruit?”

“To give away,” Ji Duo said. Before Guo Yan could protest, he had already paid and called Xiao Fang to help carry the boxes.

In no time, the row of fruit boxes in front of Guo Yan’s shop was emptied. She wanted to offer a discount, but the couple had already driven off.

“Your friend is quite wealthy and generous,” a neighbor remarked in awe.

Guo Yan held the stack of bills, unsure what to say. “Why is everyone like Lin Wei, always stuffing money at me?”

Lin Qiao understood why Ji Duo did it. He was grateful and felt that a simple thank you wasn’t enough.

As expected, after driving for a short while, Ji Duo asked Xiao Fang to turn around and drop off a whole box of fruit at Aunt Guo Yan’s house. Then he asked Lin Qiao, “Which village is your mom’s house in?”

Finding the person was largely thanks to Liu Yulan’s meticulous work and dedication. She had helped Lin Qiao inquire further, which might have otherwise led to a missed opportunity. Lin Qiao provided the address, and Xiao Fang, who had been there a few times, remembered it. The couple then visited the Yang family, leaving a large box there as well.

Liu Yulan was bewildered, especially since Ji Duo, who didn’t seem approachable, called her “Mom” as soon as he entered and started moving things without hesitation.

Lin Qiao held her hand, “Mom, you were a great help this time.”

Liu Yulan finally felt a bit reassured. “Did you find any leads?”

“Yes, we came to tell you in person so you can be at ease.”

After delivering the fruit, the couple didn’t stay long at the Yang family home. They immediately set off and returned to Yandu before dark, heading straight to the military hospital.

Elder Gu was in good spirits, wearing reading glasses and reading a newspaper. When he saw them, he mentioned he planned to be discharged next week.

Ji Duo handed the fruit to Sister Du. “Wash a few more. My driver Xiao Fang is waiting downstairs.”

Clearly, he wanted to send people out. Sister Du might not understand, but Elder Gu certainly did. As soon as she left, he asked in a low voice, “What’s going on?”

Ji Duo didn’t say anything; they just took out the peach pit carved into a flower basket and a recent photo of Yue Hua from Aunt Guo Yan.

Elder Gu’s eyes were immediately fixed on them. His age-spotted hands trembled for a long time before he picked up the peach pit and the photo, asking hoarsely, “Where did you find these?”

“In Lin Qiao’s hometown.” Ji Duo briefly explained how Lin Qiao recognized the familiar face, contacted her family, and how they confirmed it.

Elder Gu listened quietly, his hands never stopping their trembling. After a while, he asked, “How has Shaozhen been all these years?”

“She’s been well,” Lin Qiao said. “Her adoptive parents only have her as their only daughter and cherish her. She got into college last year and is studying in Yandu.”

“Good, good,” Elder Gu repeated twice, unable to hold back his tears. “Can I… can I see her?”

What kind of emotions must he have felt to ask so cautiously if he could see her after finding her?

Lin Qiao held the old man’s hand, feeling reluctant to tell him what Aunt Guo Yan had said.

But Ji Duo, knowing Elder Gu well, understood he could handle it. “Do you want to recognize her now or just see her from a distance?”

“They raised her as their own daughter. They might not be ready for me to recognize her now,” Elder Gu said, caressing the photo. “If I can see her from a distance and know she’s doing well, I can die in peace.”

“I’ll think of a way,” Lin Qiao said. “I’ll say I just returned from my hometown, and Aunt asked me to bring her some apple pears.”

When Sister Du returned, Elder Gu was already dressed in his coat and hat. “Xiao Duo and Xiao Qiao are here. They said they want to take me downstairs for a walk.”

Every time Elder Gu saw these younger folks, he was in good spirits. Sister Du didn’t suspect anything and simply advised, “Wear something warm.”

After going downstairs, they got into Ji Duo’s car and headed straight to Yue Hua’s university.

The car stopped at the school gate. Ji Duo got out first and was about to help Elder Gu when he heard a familiar voice from a nearby shop, “I supplied you with liquid soap, and you make money from it. Why are you deliberately hiding it in the corner with other containers blocking it?”

He paused.

Doesn’t Xiao Ze have salespeople? Why is he selling liquid soap himself?