At the hottest time of the year, Ming Han received his high-school admission letter. Because of the murders several months earlier, many students who had originally planned to advance directly into the high-school division had chosen other schools. Ming Han, however, was staying.
“Where are you going for summer vacation? I want to go to the beach!”
“The beach will be scorching right now. We should go up to the plateau instead, somewhere cooler.”
While his classmates eagerly discussed their holiday plans, Ming Han slipped the letter into his canvas bag and quietly headed for the classroom’s back door. As he pushed it open, he heard a few classmates he barely knew talking about him in low voices.
“I heard Bu Shenghan is advancing straight into the high-school division too. I thought he’d definitely transfer.”
“So did I. Didn’t the police call him in for questioning loads of times? I heard the case had something to do with him too, and he still dares to stay. Tsk.”
“Hey, have you noticed? I think he’s gotten taller! Before the entrance exams, he only came up to here on me!”
“Only by a few centimeters, right? He’ll never get very tall. He looks like he’s hardly seen the sun in his life.”
Their voices faded behind him. Ming Han went down the stairs without a change in expression and nearly collided with Teacher Gu, who was hurrying up.
“Xiao Han, why are you leaving already?” Teacher Gu knew he disliked his surname, so in private she never called him Bu Shenghan. “Isn’t your class having a get-together?”
“I have something to do later.” Teacher Gu was one of the few teachers Ming Han liked. He lifted his face and smiled. “Teacher Gu, I got into high school.”
She rubbed his head vigorously. “I knew you would! Our Xiao Han is so clever. Getting into high school would be easy for you!”
Ming Han immediately pulled away and protested, “Don’t press on my head. I won’t grow tall.”
Teacher Gu struggled not to laugh. “Let me see. It hasn’t even been half a month, and you’ve already grown!”
“Not enough.” He turned his face away. “I’m only a little over one and a half meters.”
“Don’t worry,” she reassured him. “Boys shoot up in high school. Who knows? By the time summer vacation is over, you might be one meter eighty!”
Ming Han pressed his lips together in a smile, his eyes sparkling.
She chatted with him for a while before remembering to ask, “School’s out now. What do you need to do? You won’t get many more chances to gather with these classmates.”
“I’m going to the police station,” Ming Han said.
Teacher Gu jumped. “Did they summon you? Has something happened again?”
He shook his head. “I’m the one looking for them.”
She knew Ming Han had always had a mind of his own. Since he would not explain, she did not press him, merely reminding him, “If anything is troubling you, come to me. Your teacher is always here to back you up!”
“You’re nagging.” Ming Han sounded impatient. “Worry about yourself first. You have your professional-title examination next month.”
Teacher Gu was so exasperated that she retorted, “Nagging!”
Standing outside the local police station, Ming Han narrowed his eyes against the blinding midsummer sun. After the two students had been murdered, he had been brought here several times, questioned repeatedly in a different little room each time.
“Isn’t that Student Bu?” The officers all recognized him by now. “What brings you here?”
“I’m looking for Chen Zheng,” Ming Han said.
The officer looked bewildered. “Huh?”
“Chen Zheng,” Ming Han repeated seriously. “The officer who came to investigate last time.”
No Chen Zheng worked at their station. The officer was at a loss. “Has something else happened at your school? Come on, you can tell me about it too.”
“Nothing happened. But I’m looking for Chen Zheng.”
The young boy was stubborn yet composed, and he spoke with remarkable steadiness. Since he had supplied important leads before, the officer called over the station chief. The chief had at least heard Chen Zheng’s name. “Officer Chen doesn’t seem to be one of ours. I think he was sent here from somewhere else to help guide the investigation.”
“Sent from where?” Ming Han asked.
“Well, I don’t know that. You’ll have to ask at the municipal bureau.”
Ming Han thanked him and headed for the door. The chief stopped him. “What exactly do you need him for? You can’t just stroll into the municipal bureau the way you can come into our station.”
Without looking back, Ming Han called, “Thank you, Chief!”
The chief and the other officers exchanged looks. “Just look at that kid!”
By the time Ming Han took a taxi to the municipal bureau, it was noon, and the sun was blazing. He tried to go inside but was stopped by a guard. There was not a scrap of shade nearby, and the guard had so many questions that within minutes Ming Han’s clothes were soaked with sweat. He was fair-skinned, only just beginning to grow, and almost alarmingly thin. Drenched in sweat, he looked like a porcelain figurine that might shatter at any moment. The guard was so startled that he hurried him inside to enjoy the air conditioning. Half an hour later, a member of the Criminal Investigation Division arrived. Ming Han recognized the officer and immediately asked about Chen Zheng.
The officer could not quite understand why he was searching for Chen Zheng, but told him anyway. Chen Zheng studied at the Public Security University and had long since returned to the capital.
Although Ming Han came from a wealthy family, he had never been outside Han Province. For as long as he could remember, family life had revolved around his mother, Ming Xiaotian. Her illness came and went, preventing her from taking him traveling the way other parents did. His grandparents had devoted their energy to caring for her as well.
To Ming Han, then, the capital was an unimaginably distant place.
“Hanhan got into high school!” His grandmother greeted him in the garden, took his admission letter, and put on her reading glasses to inspect it carefully.
“Grandma, you’re so dramatic,” Ming Han could not help saying.
She laughed. “Of course this is worth celebrating! Let me see. With these marks, you can even get into the advanced class.”
Ming Han started toward the house. His grandmother handed the letter back and said quietly, “Show your mother too. She’s in quite good spirits today.”
Ming Han paused, then nodded.
Ming Xiaotian was in the study. She had fallen asleep with a book in her arms. Ming Han crouched on the floor and watched his mother. She had been a delicate beauty in her youth, but years of illness had tormented her. Even asleep, there was something unbalanced about her.
He did not know how long he watched before she awoke. As soon as she opened her eyes, he instinctively recoiled and sat down on the floor.
For once, Ming Xiaotian smiled. Just like any loving mother, she held out her hand. “Hanhan, you’re home. Grandma said you went to collect your admission letter?”
Ming Han hurriedly produced it. “Mom, I got in.”
Ming Xiaotian took it gently. “Good. That’s my good boy.”
Ming Han sat down beside her cautiously. Her tired voice was a little hoarse. “Will you take humanities or science in high school?”
“Science.”
“Science is good. Boys who study humanities are no good.”
“…Mm.”
That evening was one of the few occasions Ming Han could remember when Ming Xiaotian had seemed like a mother. He picked up the book in her hands. It was another mystery novel. Remembering how she had beaten him hysterically not long ago for giving the police information about the murders, he nervously asked again, “Why do you like reading these books?”
This time Ming Xiaotian did not fly into a rage. Instead, she said something Ming Han would not understand until many, many years later, after he learned what crimes Bu Yangyun had committed.
“Mom hopes the heroes in stories can come into the real world.”
Ming Xiaotian talked nonsense almost every day, but those words came straight from her heart. She knew whom Bu Yangyun was conspiring with. He was not the only one who had driven her to the edge; there was also the Heaven-Measuring Ruler. She was powerless against them. She wanted the heroes from her mystery novels to step into reality.
His grandfather came to call mother and son to dinner, and the meal was a happy one. “Where would you like to go during the holidays, Hanhan?” his grandfather asked. “Grandpa will pay. How about going abroad? High school will be busy. You might not have much time to travel overseas.”
Ming Xiaotian was immediately triggered. “Don’t go abroad! Don’t go abroad!”
His grandfather instantly realized his mistake. Ming Xiaotian had met Bu Yangyun overseas, and Bu Yangyun still spent a great deal of time abroad. “All right, all right! Hanhan won’t go abroad!”
“I want to go to the capital,” Ming Han said.
“The capital?” his grandmother exclaimed. “That sounds wonderful! If Grandpa is contributing, Grandma will contribute too.”
Ming Han received a generous sum for the journey. But neither grandparent could get away, and they did not trust him to travel such a distance alone, so they booked him on a group tour and repeatedly instructed the guide to keep a close eye on him.
For his first two days in the capital, Ming Han could not find a single chance to slip away from the tour group. On the third day, their destination happened to be near the Public Security University, and he finally managed to escape.
“Chen Zheng? Goodness, kid, do you know how many people we have here? How am I supposed to know which one you mean?” Once again Ming Han ran into trouble at a security gate. The university was guarded even more strictly than the Nanshan Municipal Bureau. There was no way he could sneak in.
As he paced anxiously outside, a teacher came over to ask what was wrong. By coincidence, the teacher had taught Chen Zheng’s year. He said regretfully, “Chen Zheng went back to Han Province for his internship. I can ask exactly where he’s working.”
Ming Han waited a while longer and learned that Chen Zheng had been assigned to the Luocheng Municipal Public Security Bureau.
The teacher still wanted to chat, but Ming Han took off running. That very day, he told the tour guide there was an urgent problem at home and he had to return early. The guide had not particularly enjoyed looking after a minor and was relieved to see him go. He even offered to help book a cheaper plane ticket. Afraid of giving himself away, Ming Han declined and booked his own flight to Luocheng.
The fierce Luocheng sun sent transparent waves of heat shimmering above the roads. Wearing the sun hat issued by his tour group, Ming Han circled the municipal bureau in mounting impatience. The provincial capital’s bureau was huge, with several entrances, and uniformed officers were everywhere. He had no idea where to find Chen Zheng.
“Are you lost?” An officer stopped him. Seeing his hat, the officer mistook him for a visitor from out of town. Ming Han shook his head quickly, his heartbeat growing faster.
He wanted to see Chen Zheng, though he did not know where that powerful desire came from. He had traveled to the capital and then secretly come to Luocheng without telling his grandparents, all to see this one person. But now that a meeting might actually happen, he panicked.
He did not know what he would say when he saw Chen Zheng, or whether Chen Zheng would laugh at him.
Of course Chen Zheng would. The last time they met, Chen Zheng had made fun of how short he was.
He wanted Chen Zheng to see that he had grown taller, but what were a few centimeters worth? He was still only a little over one and a half meters, and every officer here was much taller than he was.
He stepped back unhappily and slowly lowered his head. Just as the officer was about to bring him inside the bureau, he turned and ran away.
Nanshan City and Luocheng were both large cities, but Luocheng’s bustle had a romance and an artistic spirit Nanshan lacked. Ming Han checked into a hotel near the municipal bureau and leaned against the window, feeling the hot night wind on his face. Luocheng was like Chen Zheng, he thought. Chen Zheng was romantic and artistic too.
Having more or less settled into Luocheng, Ming Han did not dare loiter openly outside the bureau during the day. He only approached after sunset. In daylight he either watched from his window or wandered the surrounding streets.
He was observant. Before long, he discovered a side entrance opposite the Criminal Investigation Division building, where the detectives came and went. With his cap pulled low, he sat at a rice-noodle stall diagonally across the road, managing to stretch a single bowl of noodles over two hours. If he had not been a minor, the vendor might have suspected he was plotting something against the police opposite.
Finally, on his fifth day in Luocheng, he saw Chen Zheng.
Chen Zheng had just returned from a town, apparently from some investigation. The police car was covered in mud, and his uniform and those of his colleagues were filthy. Ming Han stared without blinking until Chen Zheng entered the office building and disappeared from sight.
Chen Zheng seemed different from the way he had been in Nanshan City, though Ming Han could not say how. During the Nanxi Middle School case, Chen Zheng had been a student who came to observe. Now he seemed to be the person everyone relied on, with colleagues gathered around him.
Chen Zheng was still studying, still a student, so why did he seem to be getting farther and farther away? Ming Han had finally grown a little, while Chen Zheng had not grown at all, yet the distance between them felt like an endless stretch of wilderness.
He felt a little angry, though he could not figure out exactly what he was angry about.
Over the next few days, Chen Zheng did not go away on another assignment. Ming Han saw him outside the bureau every day, sometimes at noon when he finished eating with colleagues and joked with them under the trees, sometimes at night when he returned from fieldwork and bought a drink from a nearby stall.
Cold refreshments sold best in summer. More than once, Ming Han saw Chen Zheng buying iced porridge. Chen Zheng was always surrounded by people and was so generous that he frequently treated everyone. A group of young trainee detectives would crowd around the stall, eating, laughing, and fooling around. By the time they left, half the stall’s toppings would be gone.
Ming Han had been raised by his grandparents, and his grandmother did not let him eat just anything from street stalls. After the noisy trainees left, he approached the vendor and bought iced porridge for the first time.
The vendor pointed at the many ingredients and asked what he wanted. Ming Han stood there blankly, not knowing how to answer.
The vendor laughed. “You want everything?”
Ming Han nodded, then immediately shook his head. “Which kind did he just eat?”
“Officer Little Chen? He likes mild flavors, so he only adds brown sugar. That won’t do for you, kid. How about a full helping of fruit?”
“I don’t want fruit,” Ming Han said indignantly. “I like mild flavors too!”
The vendor shrugged and made him a bowl of brown-sugar iced porridge. Ming Han carried it back to the rice-noodle shop. Shaved ice, sago pearls, and ice jelly melted in his mouth, cool and lightly sweet.
On a whim, the tour guide called the Ming household, and Ming Han’s secret trip to Luocheng was exposed. His grandmother did not scold him. Once she had confirmed he was safe, she simply told him to come home when he had enjoyed himself enough. Ming Han had wanted to stay in Luocheng and keep watching Chen Zheng, but he grew uneasy when he learned that Ming Xiaotian’s condition had worsened, and hurried back.
As he checked out of the hotel, he thought of taking one last look outside the municipal bureau. But a police car drove right past him, and Chen Zheng was sitting in the front passenger seat. He was heading out on an assignment. Ming Han stood where he was and watched the vehicle disappear into the brilliant sunlight. Somewhere inside his heart, a seed pushed hard against the dark soil above it.
Because of Ming Xiaotian’s illness, his grandparents had no energy to ask why he had suddenly run off to Luocheng. The atmosphere at home was tense. Ming Xiaotian frequently screamed and flew into frenzies. His grandmother hired two caregivers, and doctors came to the house several times, but Ming Xiaotian showed no improvement.
That summer, which was especially difficult for the Ming family, Ming Han began to grow taller. No longer was it the slow growth of before. Now he shot up like bamboo shoots after the rain, with no sign of stopping.