Chapter 2

I took a few deep breaths and forced myself to calm down.

“So what do I do now?”

He thought for a moment, then took something out of the drawer and handed it to me.

“Move out first. Don’t stay at home. Take this.”

I took it and saw that it was a small black voice recorder.

“This recorder was issued to us. The battery lasts a long time, and it can record for dozens of hours.”

“Take it with you when you go back, and keep it on at all times. If she does anything unusual or says anything strange, it’ll all get recorded.”

“We don’t have evidence yet, so we can’t arrest anyone directly.”

I clenched the recorder in my palm, the metal shell cold.

“If she does anything off, call me right away. This is my business card.”

He handed me a business card too.

“Any time is fine, even in the middle of the night.”

I took it and looked at it. East Side Police Station, Officer Miller.

“Officer Miller,” I stood up. “Is moving out enough? Will she find me?”

“Go stay at your parents’ place for a while. Don’t tell her your parents’ address. If she contacts you, just say you were homesick and went back for a few days. Don’t upset her, and don’t let her think you’ve noticed anything. Keep things normal on the surface, understand?”

I nodded and shoved the card and recorder into my bag.

“Also, don’t be alone with her these next few days. Try to stay in public places. If she asks you to go abroad with her, absolutely don’t go.”

I went cold all over. “Go abroad?”

“The old man’s daughter from last time kept saying she wanted to take her dad overseas after she came back. Said it was better abroad and wanted to let him enjoy life there.”

“The old man mentioned it to us once, but we didn’t think much of it then. Now that I think about it…”

He didn’t finish, but I already understood.

By the time I left the police station, it was already dark.

The wind in November was freezing, and I walked down the street with my coat pulled tight around me, my mind a complete mess.

Why did they disappear?

Where did they disappear to?

Where are that old man and his daughter now?

Are they still alive?

My hand was in my pocket, gripping the voice recorder so hard my knuckles turned white.

I started going over every detail from the past ten years.

Lena and I got married in 2014.

Back then, she was twenty-eight and worked as a sales rep for a foreign trade company. She was in terrible health, and at five foot five, she weighed only ninety pounds. She looked like a gust of wind could knock her over.

She had severe stomach problems and was always running to the hospital. She was out of breath after walking just a couple of steps, and the doctor said she was naturally weak and had a poor constitution.

A year after we got married, she said she wanted to go overseas for work.

She said her company had an overseas assignment, and the salary was five times higher than in the country.

When she brought it up to me, she was especially excited, saying that if she went for a few years and saved some money, life would get much easier.

I didn’t agree at the time. We had only been married a year, and with her health that bad, how could I be at ease letting her go overseas alone?

But she had made up her mind. She said it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and if she missed it, it would be gone.

We fought several times, and in the end, she won.

Then came the long-distance relationship that lasted for years.

We mostly kept in touch through SnapChat, sending a few messages every day and calling once in a while.

But phone calls were rare. She said work was busy, and she often worked overtime until midnight, plus there was a time difference, so it wasn’t convenient.

I wanted to video chat with her, but she always said the camera was broken, or that it wasn’t convenient in the dorm because the colleague she shared the room with was already asleep.

I didn’t think much of it then. I figured working overseas really wasn’t easy, and harsh conditions were understandable.

But sometimes, she would go completely out of contact.

The longest time was a full five days with no message at all.

I sent countless SnapChat messages and made countless calls, and she never answered once.

I was so anxious I nearly bought a plane ticket to go find her, and then she finally sent a message back saying the project was behind schedule, she had worked five straight days, and she hadn’t even had time to look at her phone.

I believed her back then.

Now that I think about it, how could a normal person not look at their phone for five days?