Chapter 7 — My Daughter's Iron Box

Half an hour later, a call came through from the district police station in Linshui.

Old Shen, we have checked the security footage near the old bus terminal. At 9:46 PM exactly seven days ago, a white van did indeed stop there. In the lower right corner of the windshield, there was a red amulet for safe travels pasted on. A middle-aged woman and a frail young girl stepped out of the vehicle.

Shen Zhiqiang felt as though his breathing had been abruptly cut off.

Was that little girl wearing an old school uniform?

The officer flipped through the digital images. She had a gray jacket draped over the outside. In her hand, she carried a plastic bag. She could not walk steadily.

Shen Zhiqiang's throat tightened painfully.

"It is my child. Where did that car go afterward?"

It drove toward the direction of the old northern bus terminal of the county. Then it entered a blind spot in the coverage.

Darkness fell across Shen Zhiqiang's vision. The county of Linshui possessed two bus terminals. The old bus terminal had long since been half-abandoned and ceased normal operations. The old northern terminal was even more chaotic, surrounded entirely by demolition zones and temporary warehouses. By the time he rushed to the police station, it was nearly one in the morning. Welcoming him was an officer bearing the surname Lu. Officer Lu laid out several photographic stills cropped from the surveillance footage onto the desk.

"Are you familiar with this woman?"

Upon seeing the photograph, Shen Zhiqiang froze completely in place. The woman in the picture was over forty years old, possessed short hair, and wore a purple coat. He had met her before. Several years ago during the Lunar New Year holiday, Tang Meiqin had brought her home to share a meal. Tang Meiqin had claimed she was a distant cousin who engaged in minor trading. On that day, Shen Anan had been washing dishes in the kitchen, and that woman had stood by the doorway watching for a very long time, even smiling as she remarked that this little girl was quite nimble with her hands and feet. At the time, Shen Zhiqiang had merely found those words grating to his ears, giving them no further thought. Looking back now, a chill ran straight down his spine. Officer Lu observed his reaction closely.

"You recognize her?"

Shen Zhiqiang clenched his teeth. She had dealings with my wife.

"Officer Lu immediately recorded the statement. What is her name?"

Shen Zhiqiang shook his head. "I do not know." But my wife certainly knows.

Officer Lu had just opened his mouth to speak when the duty telephone nearby suddenly rang loudly. The assistant officer listened for a few moments, and his expression shifted dramatically.

"Officer Lu, someone has filed a report from the area around the old northern bus terminal." They say a young girl has collapsed inside one of the buildings slated for demolition. Next to her is an iron lunchbox with the character Shen written upon it.

Shen Zhiqiang sprang violently to his feet. The chair behind him was knocked over, crashing heavily onto the floor. Officer Lu instantly snatched up his car keys.

"Let us go."

Rain continued to pour relentlessly. As the police vehicle roared out of the station gates, Shen Zhiqiang sat in the back seat, his two arms tightly clutching that iron lunchbox. Within his heart, only a single thought remained. "Anan, your father is coming for you this time." Yet halfway through the journey, the police radio crackled to life.

The person is no longer at the scene. The reporter stated that a car had already arrived and taken the little girl away beforehand.

Inside the police cruiser, an absolute silence descended. Shen Zhiqiang heard the heavy thumping of his own heartbeat, each successive rhythm growing heavier than the last. Officer Lu pressed the radio transceiver.

"What kind of vehicle?"

Static hissed from the other end of the line. A black sedan. The license plate was obscured by mud, making it unclear. The witness only saw someone lift the little girl into the back seat.

Shen Zhiqiang abruptly grabbed hold of the backrest of the front seat. "Have those people kidnapped her again?"

Officer Lu did not answer immediately. He instructed the driver to accelerate. Ten minutes later, the police car halted at the demolition zone behind the old northern bus terminal. There, only a few half-demolished structures remained. Rainwater dripped incessantly from shattered eaves. The ground was a chaotic mixture of mud, broken glass fragments, and rubble. The person who had reported the incident was an elderly garbage collector. The old man wore a sheet of plastic over his shoulders, still carrying half a sack of discarded plastic bottles in his hand. He pointed toward a corner on the ground floor.

Right there just now. I saw the little girl curled up against the corner of the wall, her face as pale as a sheet of paper. I called out to her, "but she did not respond. So I ran over to the grocery store to borrow a telephone and call the police. When I came back, the car had already driven away."

Shen Zhiqiang lunged toward the spot indicated by the old man. In the corner lay a gray jacket soaked entirely through with water. Beneath the jacket rested an iron lunchbox. The container was so ancient that its paint had peeled away, and the rim was dented and deformed. On the lid, a single character had been scrawled with a ballpoint pen: Shen. Shen Zhiqiang squatted down, but his hands trembled too much to touch it. He recognized this lunchbox. It was the one Shen Anan had used back in elementary school. When her mother was still alive, she would steam eggs inside it every single morning. Later, when the household purchased new food containers, this old box was tossed into the cupboard. Shen Zhiqiang had never known that she had actually brought it along with her. Officer Lu donned a pair of gloves and opened the lunchbox. Inside, there was no rice. There was only half a piece of hardened, dried mantou, a crumpled sheet of paper, and a blister pack of stomach medication softened and ruined by the rainwater. Shen Zhiqiang stared fixedly at the medicine pack. It was for stomach ailments. On the paper, several broken lines of text were written. If anyone sees this note, please do not blame the person who took me out. She is merely a hired worker. "I simply could not walk any further." "I want to return to school." Written up to that point, the ink had dissolved and blurred into a smudge beneath the rain.