Chapter 42: Searching

Chapter 42: Searching

The days of the New Year seemed to pass in a blink.

Zhou Liao spent most of his time at various business dinners and receptions. Because of the interests shared between their families, Chen Xian was usually present as well.

Afterward, Chen Xian secretly checked the surveillance footage and found that Zhou Liao had been carried back by a tall man around noon. Chen Xian also asked the staff on duty that day, but unfortunately, there were too many residents coming and going, so they didn't have a clear memory. They only remembered that Zhou Liao was indeed carried back by someone, without much recollection of the person's face.

The surveillance footage wasn't particularly clear either, and the person wore a cap and a mask, making it even harder to see their face. Only the figure looked somewhat familiar to him.

He suddenly recalled when he chatted with Ling Yang before, she mentioned that the person was very tall, similar to Qin Zhan. Chen Xian couldn't think of anyone else in their social circle who was as tall as Qin Zhan, considering both he and Zhou Liao were already quite tall for the region, standing at about 184 and 186 centimeters respectively, while the rest of their friends were average height.

"Does Zhou Liao not like talking anymore?"

While Chen Xian was lost in thought, his father patted him on the back from behind and whispered.

"No, maybe he just doesn't like these occasions."

"I noticed he has changed a lot, seems more composed."

Chen Xian remained silent. Zhou Liao didn't seem composed; he seemed distracted. Several times when Chen Xian spoke to him, he felt Zhou Liao was slow to respond, his thoughts sluggish, as if something weighed heavily on his mind, yet he wouldn't say anything when asked.

"Maybe."

Chen Xian saw someone approaching Zhou Liao to talk. He quickly picked up his wine glass and engaged in conversation, appearing fine.

After a while, when the person left, Zhou Liao took a sip of his wine and put the glass aside.

"Zhou Liao."

Hearing his name, Zhou Liao turned to look at Chen Xian.

"I heard from the people downstairs in your neighborhood that you were brought back by a man."

Zhou Liao's hand stiffened. He had also checked the surveillance footage to confirm that it was indeed Qin Zhan who brought him back.

"So what?"

"Who is that man? Why are you being so secretive?" Chen Xian observed the exhaustion hidden beneath Zhou Liao's neat appearance, wondering what he was doing at night, looking as if he hadn't slept. "And why haven't you told me why your voice message sounds like AI-generated?"

"It was my own voice. Why do you keep saying it's AI?" Zhou Liao raised his eyes.

"If it was real, then why did you avoid video calls with me all this time? There were no signs of living in the registered homestay in City Z." Chen Xian frowned and lowered his voice. "Tell me the truth, are you being held captive or controlled by someone? You told me before that someone was following you."

Zhou Liao clenched his fists: "I don't understand what you're talking about. If I were kidnapped, would they bring me back? Is there such a thing as kidnapping?"

"That's because I sent a message saying I would report it. Your WeChat account clearly isn't you."

"You don't understand. Nothing happened. I just took a leave of absence."

"Why are you protecting that person?"

"Do you think whatever you believe is always right?"

"Of course. All the clues prove I'm right, including your strange behavior now." Chen Xian felt a surge of anger. "Are you brainwashed? You're not Zhou Liao at all. Look at yourself!"

Zhou Liao's grip on the wine glass became unsteady: "If I'm not Zhou Liao, who am I? I've said it before, no one kidnapped me, no one controls me, the voice message was mine, and I took a leave of absence voluntarily. Also, I don't want to tell you where I am. Does it matter if I'm in City Z? Can you stop imagining things?"

"I'm fine, very fine. Do you understand?" Zhou Liao lifted his head, revealing dark circles under his eyes.

"Fine, fine, fine. You're doing great." Chen Xian was almost laughing out of frustration. He still didn't believe Zhou Liao's words. He knew the whole situation best, and Zhou Liao's bizarre behavior since returning made it impossible for him to believe nothing happened.

Now, he cared less about whether Zhou Liao was truly in trouble and more about what had happened during that long period.

All he needed to do was find the person who brought Zhou Liao back that day.

Their conversation ended in discord. From that day on, Chen Xian began a cold war with Zhou Liao, feeling that his concern had been met with ingratitude.

Zhou Liao clearly had no time to deal with him. His emotions were uncontrollably erratic, and he preferred to be alone in his room, glad no one was prying into his past.

After the last dinner party of the New Year, Zhou Liao stood between Zhou Jianlin and Liu Mingzhu. People kept approaching them, fawning and greeting them. Zhou Liao mechanically maintained a smile and repeated the same responses.

"Yes."

"Uncle Wang asked about your future plans," Liu Mingzhu narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Yes." Zhou Liao repeated, then suddenly came to his senses, "Sorry, I didn't hear clearly."

"No problem." The person smiled awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable with Zhou Liao's repeated inattention, "Young people might stay up late during holidays."

"I currently have no plans, just focusing on finishing my studies."

"I heard from President Liu that you might be sent abroad, but you're staying here to finish?"

"Abroad?" Zhou Liao was clearly hearing this for the first time.

"Isn't that the plan?" The person seemed puzzled, thinking it had been agreed upon.

Liu Mingzhu smiled: "We haven't discussed it yet; it's just an idea."

Zhou Liao's nerves tightened; he wanted to find Qin Zhan: "I won't go abroad."

"It's just an idea." Zhou Liao's sudden statement left Liu Mingzhu's smile cold, and her lips quickly dropped.

"I won't go."

"Is it up to you?" Liu Mingzhu's temple throbbed, not wanting to make a scene in public.

The other person sensed the inopportune moment, exchanged a few more words, and quickly found an excuse to leave.

After they were the only three left, Liu Mingzhu looked back at Zhou Liao. "What were you doing just now?"

"Zhou Liao, we want you to go abroad for your own good." Zhou Jianlin patted his shoulder. "With you taking a semester off here, if you want to return to school, you’ll have to wait for the new academic year. Your mother and I think it’s better to transfer your credits to Australia and continue with their S1 term."

"I won’t go abroad..." Zhou Liao felt as if a heavy stone was pressing on his chest, making it hard to breathe.

"If you don’t go abroad, who knows what you’re up to here? Do you think I haven’t noticed something is wrong with you?"

Zhou Jianlin pulled Liu Mingzhu aside, but she suddenly squatted down and pulled up Zhou Liao’s pant leg, revealing the scar on his ankle that had not fully faded.

"I ask you, who did this?"

"I told you, I twisted it myself."

"Do you think I’m stupid? This is clearly from being hit by something heavy!"

Liu Mingzhu raised her voice. After Chen Xian mentioned it that day, she had been deliberately observing Zhou Liao. She noticed that he walked slightly unevenly, which she initially thought was her imagination. It wasn’t until she saw him going downstairs that she confirmed it.

Later, when Zhou Liao came out of the bathroom in a bathrobe to get water, she vaguely noticed the scar on his ankle. A twisted ankle would never leave such a mark; it looked more like a healed crack.

She hadn’t doubted Zhou Liao’s previous explanations, but from a woman’s intuition, she knew something was very wrong with her son. Even though they rarely communicated, she could sense the issue.

The current Zhou Liao seemed like a soulless zombie, with his body and mind in different worlds.

"No one hit me." Zhou Liao lowered his voice, sounding somewhat restrained. "I twisted my ankle and fell, landing on a broken iron rod, which caused the cut."

"These details aren’t important." Zhou Jianlin sighed. "Your mental state is terrible, and everyone can see it. After taking a semester off, you won’t be able to keep up with the normal pace at school. Going abroad isn’t meant to kill you; think about it carefully."

Zhou Liao looked at the ground and said nothing more.

After returning home, Zhou Liao made an excuse to get something from Chen Xian and drove away.

He followed the phone number and address sent to him, driving for nearly an hour and a half before arriving. At night, the town was pitch black, with almost no one outside. Only a few people came out to look when they heard the sound of the car.

Since they rarely saw luxury cars or well-dressed city dwellers like Zhou Liao, those who came out whispered among themselves.

The phone number sent to him by the other person rang endlessly as an empty number, and he used this number to search for Qin Zhan’s WeChat, finding an initial account with no ID or profile picture, as if it were unused. Listening to the cold robotic female voice repeatedly stating it was an empty number, Zhou Liao felt he was about to give up.

"Young man, who are you looking for?"

"Is Qin Zhan here?"

"Qin Zhan... which one?" The man clearly hadn’t heard the name before.

Zhou Liao stepped forward and showed him the address. "Is this the right place?"

"Oh, the house up ahead hasn’t been lived in for a long time. They moved away ages ago."

Looking in the direction the man pointed, Zhou Liao felt everything was wrong. It didn’t match the appearance of the warehouse area he had seen twice before.

Everything here was unfamiliar, yet he had no clue about Qin Zhan's address. He had run around the outskirts of the main city countless times, only to feel like looking for a needle in the sea. His memory of that place was confined to the warehouse, and no matter how he described it to others, no one seemed to recognize this so-called place.

What he didn't expect was that the address Qin Zhan registered was completely different from the location of the warehouse.

"Moved away?"

"Whom are you looking for?" The elderly resident of the household came out upon hearing the noise.

"Qin Zhan."

"Qin Zhan? With the surname Qin, he lives in that house up front, right? It was him and an old man before, wasn't it?"

Upon hearing someone knew about Qin Zhan, Zhou Liao's heart suddenly began to beat a little faster: "Yes."

"What do you need him for? Doesn't he have no friends?"

"There are some things."

The elderly person expressed some doubt: "He hasn't lived here for a long time; he moved away after becoming the district top scorer in the high school entrance examination, along with the elders in his household."

"Which mother?" The elder brother clearly had no recollection.

"Oh dear, do you remember that his old man was mentally ill? As a child, he chased you with a pig-slaughtering knife. Later, his mentally ill mother bought him a wife, who was also beaten and ran away. He used to torture his own child with a burning stick every day. Then one day, for some reason, whether he was drunk or something else, he fell into the river and drowned. We all said it was karma, right?"

Listening nearby, Zhou Liao was sweating coldly all over his body. His gaze suddenly became somewhat blurred, with the only clarity left being the grotesque scars on Qin Zhan's waist and abdomen.

"Oh, now I remember, I've been working outside and came back less often, I've almost forgotten."

That child is indeed pitiable. From a young age, he has been somewhat introverted, and none of the children in the town would play with him. Coupled with the fact that his father was also like that, he had even fewer companions. He was constantly isolated and abused, yet despite such dire circumstances, he excelled academically.

"However, it is said that he has some peculiar habits, such as a fondness for mistreating animals or something of that nature."

"Forgotten the old days; anyway, I don't talk to people or deal with them. I remember he wasn't this strange before his mother left."

"So why are you looking for him, young man?"

Hearing these words, Zhou Liao's expression turned somewhat unpleasant: "How long ago did he come back last time?"

"Last time? It seems like a month or two ago? His grandmother came back to commit suicide, which caused quite a stir in town, and a bunch of police officers came, and he came too, only that once in so many years." The old man counted on his fingers, "It must have been over a month ago, I'm not sure if his grandmother is still around."

"Gone."

"Ah? Didn't make it... Well, it's no wonder, it's so cold in the dead of winter."

Zhou Liao held onto the last glimmer of hope: "Do you know... where he moved to afterwards?"

"I'm not sure, perhaps he lives on campus."

"So, does no one have any news about him now?"

"That means no one would know for sure. That family is quite peculiar and doesn’t socialize much with others. You might have to ask his school."

The information Zhou Liao had now was the same as what Qin Zhan had registered at his school, which was also the address on his ID card and household registration.

"Okay, thank you."

The person in front of him saw Zhou Liao’s somewhat dejected expression and didn’t know what had happened.

"What’s wrong? Did something happen again?"

"No."

Throughout the journey, Zhou Liao didn’t know what he was thinking. His emotions were extremely suppressed, and he felt like he was on the verge of collapse during these days.

Not being able to find any clues about Qin Zhan plunged him into a state of confusion and the pain of being abandoned for the second time. His head hurt, and it hurt even more when he thought of Qin Zhan, especially those words just now. Looking back to their initial past, Zhou Liao couldn’t remember why he found it fun to torment Qin Zhan.

He hated Qin Zhan’s gaze, in which he saw the attitude Liu Mingzhu had towards him since childhood.

Contempt, indifference, disdain.

He resented the shadow Liu Mingzhu cast over him but couldn’t resist her in any way. So he took pleasure in taming Qin Zhan to vent his anger.

Because Qin Zhan was different from Liu Mingzhu. He came from a humble and lowly background, born to be trampled upon like an ant.

Zhou Liao looked at the wide road of the overpass before him, and his eyes unconsciously turned red.

By the time he returned home, it was very late. Liu Mingzhu didn’t say anything when he came back; she was sitting in front of the computer talking on the phone, while Zhou Jianlin was smoking on the balcony.

Zhou Liao took a shower and turned off the lights after he finished. In the darkness, he took out a thin rope because he hadn’t had the chance to order handcuffs yet.

He tied the rope tightly around his wrist, mimicking how Qin Zhan had locked him up in the past, and checked it again. After confirming that it wouldn’t come loose, he looped the other end around the post of the bed.

"Snap."

The bedroom light suddenly turned on, and Zhou Liao realized that Liu Mingzhu was standing at the door. She looked at him, and the emotion in her eyes was hard for him to read under the light.

After a long moment, he heard Liu Mingzhu’s voice, trembling with restraint.

"What are you doing?"

"If you still refuse to say anything, wake up tomorrow and go to the hospital with me."