Landslide.
For an instant, Shao Wu’s mind went blank. He heard the word but couldn’t make sense of it, as though even everything he’d painstakingly learned for his geography minor had flown clean out of his head.
“I called Sister Xin,” Longlong said, drawing him back. “She said… she hasn’t contacted my brother in a month.”
“Don’t panic. Liangshan Prefecture is enormous,” he said, amazed by how calm he sounded. “It can’t be that much of a coincidence. Besides, it’s all mountains over there. It’s normal for phones to have no signal.”
“But it’s never happened before.”
“When did you first realize you couldn’t get through?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“…When was the last time you talked to him?”
“The twentieth. He sent me my living expenses that day.” Longlong finally burst into tears. “He said he was about to leave for Liangshan.”
“Did he say exactly where?”
“I didn’t ask…”
“Have you asked Grandma?” Shao Wu paused. “Maybe he’s called her these past few days and you don’t know.”
“Grandma…” Longlong faltered. “Grandma, she…”
“What about her?” Shao Wu thought she was afraid of upsetting the old woman, so he said, “Try asking indirectly.”
“She can’t remember,” Longlong sobbed. “She can’t remember things anymore.”
“Don’t cry. Take your time. What do you mean, she can’t remember? Can’t remember anything? Is she ill?”
“Yes,” Longlong cried harder. “She’s ill.”
That afternoon, Shao Wu returned to Yongchuan.
Following the address Longlong had given him, he soon found Grandma. It turned out she’d moved in with Yang Shuyi’s great-aunt. The great-aunt was nearly ten years younger and could look after Grandma, while the two elderly women could keep each other company.
Grandma herself opened the door. She seemed to have gained a little weight. Seeing him, she exclaimed happily, “Xiao Shao! You’ve come!” Her voice was unexpectedly strong and her face rosy.
“Grandma, it’s me.” Shao Wu smiled at her, secretly puzzled. Was she really sick?
“Come in, sit down.” Grandma turned her head and called, “Third Sister, make some tea!”
“No need to trouble yourself. I just…”
“Xiao Shao, look!” Grandma rolled up her sleeve to show her right wrist. “What do you think? Niuniu bought it for me!”
It was a glittering gold bracelet.
“Niuniu?” Shao Wu asked.
“Her granddaughter-in-law,” the great-aunt explained, approaching with a cup of tea and a smile. “My elder sister gets so happy whenever someone gives her anything.”
“This bracelet was terribly expensive,” Grandma said. “I told Niuniu not to buy it, but she insisted.”
“Yes, yes.” The great-aunt smiled. “Your granddaughter-in-law is the best.”
If Shao Wu hadn’t heard what Zou Xin herself had said, he might have wondered whether Yang Shuyi had lied to him and Zou Xin hadn’t been unfaithful at all, and the whole family lived happily together.
“You can tell it’s a good bracelet,” Shao Wu said, pretending to inspect it carefully. “Is it solid gold?”
“What kind of gold?” Grandma asked.
“Pure gold,” the great-aunt explained. “999 purity.”
“I can’t understand the things you young people say anymore.” Grandma lowered her sleeve. “Yes, it’s pure gold! That’s why it’s so expensive!”
“Grandma, do you have Shuyi’s phone number? I changed my phone and lost his number.”
“Shuyi’s number? Of course I do.”
“Could you bring your phone so I can write it down?”
“Sure.” Grandma went to the bedroom and quickly returned with a simple senior-friendly phone. “Find it yourself. I’m getting old; I don’t know how to use these things.”
Shao Wu quickly opened the call history.
A few seconds later, he handed the phone back. “All right, I’ve got it.”
“So fast?” The great-aunt sounded surprised. “You memorized it already?”
“Ah, yes…”
“You don’t know how bright Xiao Shao is,” Grandma said with a smile. “Shuyi told us he often came first in class.”
Shao Wu stood. “Grandma, Great-aunt, I need to go now.” He knew it was impolite, but he couldn’t wait another second.
“You’re leaving already?” the great-aunt protested. “At least drink your tea.”
“I have something to take care of…”
“Students these days are all like that,” Grandma said, standing too. “So busy with school.”
“Hm?” Shao Wu said.
“There you go talking nonsense again.” The great-aunt patted Grandma’s arm and smiled apologetically at Shao Wu.
But Grandma seemed not to hear. She walked him to the door and suddenly lowered her voice. “Xiao Shao.”
Shao Wu’s heart thumped. “Yes, Grandma?”
“At school, spend more time with Shuyi, will you?”
“I…”
“That boy carries too much inside. He never tells us anything when he comes home.” Grandma sighed softly. “His dad’s only been gone a short time. I know he’s hurting more than anyone, but he doesn’t tell us, because he doesn’t want us to worry…”
“…”
Shao Wu watched her, suddenly disoriented.
Grandma continued talking. “Thank goodness he made a friend like you. When you two go off to university, keep in touch, all right? Shuyi wants so much to attend university with you. He said that school you’re applying to, the one… I can’t remember its name… He said it was such a fine university he couldn’t get in.”
Was this something Yang Shuyi had said back in 2009?
“Renmin University,” Shao Wu supplied.
“Yes, yes, Renmin University.” Grandma smiled, then looked worried again. “Sometimes I think, what if I go one day and leave him all alone? How could I rest easy? Longlong’s still little and needs him to look after her, but what about him? Just him, all alone…”
“Second Sister!” the great-aunt called from the kitchen, drawing out the words. “You’re talking nonsense again!”
“All right, all right, I won’t say more!” Grandma answered hurriedly.
“Don’t worry.” Shao Wu looked at Grandma’s clouded eyes and the many age spots on her face. “I’ll go see Shuyi often once we’re at university.”
Shao Wu took the high-speed train straight to Chengdu.
He’d read the short news story over and over: at about six in the evening on March twenty-third, a landslide struck Leibo County in Sichuan’s Liangshan Prefecture. Firefighters were conducting a search and rescue operation. Casualties remained unknown.
CCTV hadn’t covered the story. The link Longlong sent him was from Sina News. On the way, Shao Wu called the county government’s public-service hotline, but no one answered. Forcing himself to stay calm, he reasoned that there were two possibilities if CCTV hadn’t reported it: either this was a small landslide without major casualties, or the real casualty figures were being concealed.
He leaned toward the first explanation. When natural disasters caused deaths, the damage was obvious. A debris flow might swallow an entire village, and with China’s strong local administrative networks, the number of casualties was not usually hard to establish. If the news said casualties were unknown, perhaps the slide hadn’t directly threatened a village or seriously damaged public facilities.
But what if… what if Yang Shuyi and his colleagues happened to be right there? If only one or two people had died, perhaps it wouldn’t count as a major loss of life.
What if Yang Shuyi was one of those people?
Shao Wu had also called Yang Shuyi’s workplace, with no answer there either. Office hours were already over.
When his train reached Chengdu East Station, Longlong called to say she’d bought a flight to Chengdu.
“Even if you come, it won’t help. I’m not taking you there.” For the first time Shao Wu spoke to her with such stern authority. “I’ll have my brother pick you up. Then you stay in Chengdu. You are not to go anywhere!”
Longlong pleaded through her tears, but he repeated himself: stay in Chengdu, don’t go anywhere.
Yet the moment he hung up, standing amid the crowds pouring through the station exit, Shao Wu felt profoundly helpless. He’d ordered Longlong to stay put, but he didn’t know where to go himself. He didn’t even know if Yang Shuyi had gone to Leibo County.
Liangshan Prefecture was vast, all steep mountains and ridges. Where was Yang Shuyi?
Reason told him the best thing to do was remain in Chengdu until morning and ask at Yang Shuyi’s workplace. They might not tell him anything, since he couldn’t prove what he was to Yang Shuyi. Still, he ought to wait. The news said rescue workers were already searching. Perhaps by tomorrow there would be something definite.
But.
Never had Shao Wu understood Yang Shuyi’s feelings eight years earlier more clearly than in that moment. Eight years ago, Yang Shuyi had made his way alone from Yongchuan to Chengdu just as Shao Wu had now. He hadn’t known exactly where Yang Long and Xiaojuan were. He hadn’t known how serious the earthquake was or how many people had died. Maybe he too had imagined his father’s phone was merely out of charge or broken. Maybe he’d told himself it was only a small disaster and tomorrow, tomorrow his father would call home.
Yang Shuyi hadn’t been able to bear waiting. So he’d found rides, walked, crossed hills and mountains, and entered the disaster zone.
And Shao Wu knew he couldn’t wait either. He couldn’t. He prepared himself for the worst: if news of Yang Shuyi’s death really came, he would make certain that it found him on the road, already searching for him.
Elio’s Notes: The supplied Chinese has a small typo here that literally reads “gold table.” The following dialogue repeatedly identifies the object as a gold bracelet, so that’s what I’ve used.