When Bright Moon Encounter the Dark Clouds

Did all of Tan Jiao’s friends have overly expressive faces? Within seconds, a myriad of expressions flashed across Zhuang Yu’s face. Ultimately, an expression containing a sliver of strange and secret delight appeared as she sneaked a peek at us. “Sorry for the interrupting.”

Tan Jiao, who seemed thick-skinned at times but sensitive at others, almost instantly explained, “Zhuang Yu, don’t let your imaginations run wild! He was injured yesterday, so I brought him back here to take care of him more easily. He slept in the guest room. Plus, we still need to discuss the case.”

The odd expression still lingered on Zhuang Yu’s face as she nodded and said, “Oh, take care of him more easily.”

Suddenly, I felt that this somewhat abnormal lady seemed more tolerable.

The three of us sat down with me sitting beside Tan Jiao. Zhuang Yu sitting across from us cleared her throat purposefully as if to clear the non-existent air of awkwardness before she said, “Da Zhu, didn’t you tell me to look into if there’s anything special about Zhu Zhihan? Well, since they lived around the area where Xiaohao lived, I went to do some digging. You know my mind has always been sharp and detailed, so when I did a little digging, I found an interesting piece of information. Hear me out, the head of the household is Zhu Zhihan’s grandfather—Zhu Fengxian. He ran a small store in the past and had three children; the eldest son is Zhu Boyu, the second son Zhu Zhongling is Zhu Zhihan’s father, and finally, the youngest daughter is Zhu Jirui—unmarried but currently engaged. The eldest son is 40 this year, the second is 35, while the daughter is 23. Don’t you think their age difference is somewhat fishy?”

After giving it a moment of thought, Tan Jiao said, “Bo, Zhong, Shu, Ji. If he is using this Chinese idiom, then he’s missing Shu. Plus, the age difference between Zhong and Ji is relatively significant.”

[TL note: 伯仲叔季, a Chinese idiom—Pinyin Bo, Zhong, Shu, Ji—which means the order of brothers. Bo is the eldest, Zhong is the second, Shu is the third, and Ji is the youngest.]

She’s sharp-witted.

Zhuang Yu smacked her thigh out of excitement and said, “That’s right! I also felt something was fishy about that. Coincidentally, Xiaohao’s grandmother used to work at the neighborhood committee and recalled that the Zhu family had lost a child in the past. It happened a long time ago, and the child’s name and information have been removed. Some say the child died from an illness, some say he was abducted. There were even some that said that child was abandoned because he was ill. I don’t know the exact reason. I’m not sure if this is the special reason you are looking for, but this is the most I got.”

Seriousness filled Tan Jiao’s face as she looked at Zhuang Yu. “Goddess Yu, you did very well.” Then turned to me and said, “They lost a child twenty or thirty years ago, and now, they’ve lost a child again. What do you think?”

“I know that his ransom request to Zhao Ruixin’s family is definitely out of his usual pattern, and it doesn’t make sense either. However, the sudden change of events is forcing the police to focus more of their resources onto Zhao Ruixin’s family. What if this was all a ruse? Then his real purpose is…”

I did not need to finish my sentence before Tan Jiao met my gaze and asked, “What do we do now?”

“Let’s go to the Zhu family.”

Zhu Zhihan’s home was a self-built four-story building that seemed somewhat old. Evidently, the Zhu family was not extremely wealthy. According to Zhuang Yu’s investigation, Zhu Fengxian’s wife passed away not long after giving birth to their daughter. The eldest son of the Zhu family was stationed in another province, while the daughter lived on her own. As such, Zhu Fengxian and his second son currently occupied the house. Zhu Zhihan was the only grandchild of Zhu Fengxian.

I parked the car on the road across and intently watched the building with Tan Jiao. Zhuang Yu left after staying for a while because she still had exams at night, claiming that nothing in the world was more important than exams.

“What do you think we’ll see here?” Tan Jiao asked.

“I don’t know. But if the Zhu family is that man’s target and the other abductions were merely distractions, then he would surely contact the Zhu family in these few days.”

“Oh.”

She had her thinking face on and those focused yet sparkling eyes, which made her seem totally different from her cute, rabbit-like demeanor at home.

That said, the next second she made herself comfortable and said, “I should have downloaded some shows if I knew we were going to do a stakeout. Police work is really boring.”

I could not help but let out a chuckle.