Chapter 46: Zhang Zhiguo
"Little Han, wash your hands, it's time to eat."
Soon, the meal was ready.
The three of them sat down to eat together.
Unexpectedly, at the dining table, Zhang Zhiguo didn’t bring up anything related to ten years ago or topics about work at the Disaster Management Bureau.
Instead, he kept asking Han Su if his cooking had declined.
Han Su answered by eating two large bowls of rice, clearly very satisfied. Zhang Zhiguo also looked very pleased.
After the meal, Cui Qiao went to do the dishes.
The kitchen clanged noisily, but Zhang Zhiguo acted as if he couldn’t hear it. He slowly took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one.
He didn’t rush to speak. Han Su simply brought him a can of cola.
There was no tea at home, only the cola bought along with the instant noodles.
He placed it in front of Zhang Zhiguo, then sat quietly across from him, waiting.
Zhang Zhiguo glanced at Han Su and nodded slightly. Secretary Cui Qiao, who was busy with the dishes, immediately looked as if she’d been liberated.
She stood up, shook the foam off her hands, and then turned to step outside the house.
No one knew what she did, but the lights inside the room suddenly began to flicker, as if there was some poor connection.
Even the high-end television inexplicably turned on, though with no signal—the screen kept flashing.
However, when looking out the window, one could see that only their own unit experienced this change.
The rest of the building remained brightly lit.
"Is this really necessary?"
Han Su looked on and couldn’t help but let out a helpless laugh.
He certainly understood that Secretary Cui Qiao had followed him here to sweep the room of any surveillance cameras and eavesdropping devices, all for this conversation with Zhang Zhiguo.
But seeing that even before the conversation began, Secretary Cui had to stand guard outside and use her ability to create a barrier—it seemed a bit excessive.
"Of course, it’s necessary."
Zhang Zhiguo gave Han Su a look and nodded lightly. "Once you're more familiar with this circle, you’ll understand. Sometimes, the danger isn’t just about someone overhearing a conversation."
"Sometimes, the conversation itself is already a dangerous act."
"……"
Han Su listened quietly, reaching out to take the cola in front of him.
With a hiss, he pulled the tab open and pushed it back to him.
Zhang Zhiguo looked at the cola, put down his cigarette, letting it burn between his fingers, and looked at Han Su thoughtfully. "Little Han, your performance at the Disaster Management Bureau exceeded my expectations. I admit I underestimated your Innate Ability. You deserve to know some things."
"It’s obvious this matter means a lot to you. Actually, it’s the same for me. All these years, has there been a single day I didn’t think about this case?"
Han Su was already starting to feel nervous. "Then…"
Zhang Zhiguo slowly opened his mouth, the corners of his lips forming something like a bitter smile. "In fact, even my joining the Disaster Management Bureau was related to this case."
"Back then, you saw how I was—desperately trying to investigate this case. But to be honest, at the time I didn’t believe your talk about monsters or anything like that."
"I preferred to believe that someone had drugged you, or used some other means that affected your brain. After all, back then you already looked dazed and confused, unable to clearly explain your identity or your family's information."
"As for the kidnapping, it seemed even less credible."
"……"
Han Su found it understandable, and cared only about one thing. "What happened afterward?"
"Afterward…"
When Zhang Zhiguo brought up this question, his expression dimmed slightly, and he spoke in a low voice. "At the time, I tried everything I could—at the school, the school bus company, the underground forces in Qinggang, even the families of some of the victims—just to find clues related to the kidnapping case."
"But strangely, there were no clues."
"Or rather, all clues disappeared in an eerie way, as if the road suddenly ended midway."
"However, I still uncovered some bizarre things. For instance, I once collected the timestamps of when you disappeared from surveillance and when you reappeared. I even conducted a detailed simulation of the entire kidnapping case."
"I even thought what you said made sense and submitted a report."
"But after that report was submitted, everyone around me thought I’d gone mad. My superiors told me to rewrite it. I refused. As a result, the Public Security Bureau forcibly put me on leave."
"But even then, I still used my own contacts and connections to continue the investigation, until someone came to me and asked if I was willing to work in a new department."
"……"
Han Su stirred slightly and said, "Secretary No. 5?"
"Exactly!"
Zhang Zhiguo looked rather serious. "At the time, I even thought I’d run into a scammer, because there is no Secretary No. 5 in Qinggang."
Han Su could guess what Zhang Zhiguo had been thinking at the time. So, was it because he had gotten too close to these matters during the investigation that he caught the attention of Secretary No. 5?
"And after that?"
"After that, life was no longer something ordinary people could live."
Zhang Zhiguo let out a low sigh and said, "At that time, the Disaster Management Bureau wasn’t fully established. Many people had to juggle several responsibilities. I, too, finally came face to face with those bizarre and absurd things that should not exist in reality."
"I have to say, the impact on me back then was so great that it even caused me to doubt myself. I temporarily set aside the kidnapping case you all were involved in."
"I worked with the people Secretary No. 5 sent, investigating, recruiting, establishing regulations, and encountered more and more irrational things. Everything I once trusted, finally crumbled apart..."
"……"
Listening to Zhang Zhiguo recount all this, Han Su couldn’t help but be a little surprised.
"According to you, the Disaster Management Bureau has only existed for five or six years?"
Zhang Zhiguo gave him a look and said, "To be precise, it’s three years. In the years before that, it didn’t even have an official name. It was just a group of us fumbling around, busy here and there, trying not to lose our minds."
This left Han Su with a somewhat unexpected impression: ‘I knew Zhang Zhiguo wasn’t ordinary, but I didn’t think he would turn out to be a founding member of the Disaster Management Bureau?’
Zhang Zhiguo didn’t try to guess what Han Su was thinking. He simply shook his head slowly and said, "Of course, I always kept your kidnapping case in mind. At that time, I had even come to fully believe everything you said."
"My feelings then were the same as yours were a week ago when you questioned me:"
"If so many bizarre things can exist in this city, then why couldn’t the monster that kidnapped the children be real?"¹
"But just when I tried to categorize that kidnapping case as one of the bizarre phenomena requiring focused investigation by the Disaster Management Bureau, I received a warning."
Han Su slightly focused his attention. "What kind of warning?"
"Very simple—just a criticism."
When Zhang Zhiguo spoke of this, his face was expressionless.
But Han Su knew him.
Perhaps this was when this old detective felt most dissatisfied but had no choice but to appear numb:
"Someone from above said that the Disaster Management Bureau’s energy was limited, and should be focused on more urgent and meaningful work, not on believing a child’s nonsense…"
"……"
Han Su said nothing but suddenly recalled how he felt a week ago.
Unconvinced. Unwilling.
Why could those things exist, yet the monster kidnapping case was always dismissed as a figment of his imagination?⁷
"Back then, the Disaster Management Bureau was sorting through all the bizarre, strange, and unexplainable cases and clues that had occurred in Qinggang in recent years. My job at the time was to include your kidnapping case into the list."
Zhang Zhiguo continued, his voice full of helplessness. "But because of that one sentence, the kidnapping case was excluded, never entered into the queue for investigation."
"At that time, I even thought the information I had gathered wasn’t persuasive enough, and I was still thinking of collecting more and resubmitting the report."
"But the way things developed afterward was not what I had expected."
"……"
At this point, Zhang Zhiguo finally lit that cigarette.
Amid the swirling smoke, his gaze seemed a bit weary.
"Your kidnapping case had wide-reaching effects."
"It wasn’t just me who submitted a report. Many investigators and data collectors who entered the Disaster Management Bureau around that time also tried to submit reports, believing it might be related to our work."
"But…"
He paused before sighing, "Without exception, all of them were rejected."
Han Su slightly lifted his head. "No other explanation?"
"At first, no."
Zhang Zhiguo slowly shook his head. "It was just that our reports didn’t seem persuasive enough to convince those above."
"Until later, someone thoroughly collected all the information and submitted it again. But this report was different from ours. It didn’t confirm a link to the bizarre. On the contrary, it concluded that it had nothing to do with our work."
"Indeed, this is also the work of an Investigator—to first define the nature of the case, then decide whether to follow up."
"I never saw that report, but I believe it must be full of holes. I can hardly imagine someone speaking such nonsense with such certainty."
"However, that report received approval from the higher-ups. From then on, there was no longer any possibility of this matter being included in the sequence. We were even criticized and forbidden from investigating the case any further."
"……"
At this point, a hint of anger even appeared on Zhang Zhiguo’s face. "I, and all the others who opposed it, understood."
"The more complex and incomprehensible a problem is, the simpler the answer often is. Why is it so difficult to define this kidnapping case?"
"Of course, it’s because someone doesn’t want it to be defined!"
"……"
Han Su deeply understood that sentence. He slowly raised his head and said, "Uncle Zhang, then, the one who doesn’t want this case to be defined as a bizarre event—is actually…"
"Don’t ask."
Zhang Zhiguo shook his head and looked seriously at Han Su. "Or rather, I don’t know the answer either."
"I was personally recruited by Secretary No. 5, so I basically know all the big figures within the Disaster Management Bureau and those who can influence it. But the person who signed off on that report—I can’t even begin to guess who it is.”
"I just knew, from that moment on, that there were things I could not accomplish."
"……"
Han Su could imagine Zhang Zhiguo’s state of mind at the time. He could even understand his choice, and thus showed no emotional reaction.
He simply smiled and said, "Uncle Zhang, if that’s how it is, then I’m only interested in one thing—who wrote the report that was submitted upward and ruled out the bizarre nature of the kidnapping case?"¹
"It was a seasoned Investigator."
Zhang Zhiguo’s gaze deepened slightly as he slowly said, "His identity is something you can easily find out. Once you have the clearance, you can check it yourself. But I think—it might not matter."
"He was probably just someone doing his job."
"……"
Han Su said nothing, only drumming his fingers absentmindedly on his leg.
He already clearly understood what Zhang Zhiguo was trying to tell him.
So now, this Investigator was also someone he couldn’t afford to provoke?
"But that’s not the main point."
Unexpectedly, Zhang Zhiguo spoke again, his expression grave. "At the time, I naturally understood the meaning from above, and I knew what a smart move would be, but…"
"…after all, I’m not a smart man."¹
Seeing his serious expression, Han Su felt a slight chill in his heart. "Then you…"
Zhang Zhiguo slowly said, "Even though I understood the meaning from above, I did not give up."
"All avenues of investigation had already reached a dead end. I could no longer access some of the high-level logical resources within the Disaster Management Bureau. But after some deliberation, I still found a new direction for the investigation."³
"That is—your mother."
"……"