Coal was taken to the home of his distant aunt, Lylin.
Lylin was Phillips’s cousin.
She lived in an old residential complex in the west of the city, in a two-bedroom apartment, and had a son who was in middle school.
When she picked up Coal, Lylin’s expression was very reluctant.
“Hao-hao, you stay here for now. Auntie has tidied up a room for you.”
That “room” was a tiny, three-square-meter space partitioned off from the balcony.
Coal went in to take a look; inside, there was a folding bed and a plastic stool.
It was almost identical to the balcony partition where his older brother, Haruka, used to live.
He put his schoolbag on the bed and said nothing.
Lylin’s son was named Li Lei, and he was in his third year of middle school.
Seeing Coal arrive, he poked half his head out of his own room.
“Mom, is he sleeping on the balcony?”
“Stop talking nonsense and go do your homework.”
Li Lei curled his lip and retreated back into his room.
Lylin poured Coal a glass of water.
She sat on the living room sofa, hesitating to speak several times.
Finally, she spoke up.
“Hao-hao, you know about your parents’ situation, right?”
Coal held the cup, the steam from the water veiling his face in a mist.
“I know.”
“What did the police say?”
“They told me to cooperate with the investigation and to contact them whenever I have any clues.”
Lylin sighed.
“Don’t be too sad; the dead cannot come back to life.”
Coal did not respond to that.
“Auntie, can I go out for a walk?”
“It’s late at night, where are you going?”
“Just wandering around the complex to get some air.”
Lylin hesitated for a moment.
“Fine, don’t go too far.”
Coal put down the water glass, put on his jacket, and went out.
He did not wander around the complex.
He walked out the front gate, walked two blocks along the road, and boarded a bus.
The city lights outside the bus window receded.
Coal sat in the corner of the back row, holding his phone.
He scrolled to a group chat history—it was the record of his brother’s class group.
A classmate who was in the same class as his brother was on his friends list and had forwarded some screenshots from the class group.
He looked at them one by one.
Mocking his brother, videos of his brother being beaten, calling his brother trash.
Coal’s fingers gripped the edge of his phone case tightly.
The bus arrived at the stop, and he got off.
Coal did not go home; it was still sealed off by the police.
He went to the convenience store across the street.
The owner of the convenience store, Old Man Pom, was over sixty.
He operated from six in the morning until eleven at night every day, and he knew everyone coming and going in the complex.
“Uncle Pom.”
Old Man Pom looked up from behind the counter and recognized him.
“Oh, Coal, where, where are you living now?”
“I’m staying at my aunt’s place.”
“Mm, that’s good.”
Old Man Pom’s expression was somewhat uneasy; his gaze avoided Coal’s eyes, clearly dodging that topic.
Coal bought a bottle of mineral water, then leaned against the edge of the counter and asked casually.
“Uncle Pom, in the days before my brother’s incident, did you see him?”
Old Man Pom’s hand paused on the cigarette pack.
“Your brother, let me think.”
He lit a cigarette and took a puff.
“Two days before the incident, I remember that afternoon, he was walking back from the direction of the school.”
“He seemed to have injuries on his face. I even asked him what happened, and he said it was nothing.”
“And then?”
“Then he went upstairs. Later that night, a group of people came, riding motorcycles.”
“They were shouting downstairs, very loudly. I felt something was wrong and wanted to go out and look, but my wife wouldn’t let me.”
Old Man Pom flicked the ash from his cigarette.
“After that, I heard a lot of commotion upstairs—the sound of things being smashed, shouting—and then it went silent.”
“Do you know that group of people riding motorcycles?”
“They look familiar. They often hang around the school gate, especially the one leading them who dyes his hair yellow.”
Coal’s palms broke into a sweat.
“Uncle Pom, that Yellow-Hair, does he often block my brother?”
Old Man Pom looked at him and hesitated for a few seconds.
“You shouldn’t get involved in these matters.”
“I just want to know what exactly happened to my brother.”
Old Man Pom took a drag of his cigarette, tapped the ash on the counter, and looked at the gray road outside the shop.
“Let me tell you one thing. About half a year ago, there was a time your brother came back from school with his mouth full of blood and his clothes torn.”
“I asked him what happened, and he said he fell, but looking at the way he walked, his ribs were hurting—that’s not something you get from falling.”
“And then?”
“Later, I ran into your mother hanging laundry downstairs, and I mentioned it to her.”
“I asked if your eldest son was being bullied at school. Guess what your mother said?”
Coal looked at him.
Old Man Pom extinguished the cigarette.
“Your mother said, ‘He’s useless himself, who can he blame?'”
Coal stood by the convenience store counter, his fingers slowly loosening one by one from the mineral water bottle.
He thought of the balcony partition where his brother lived, cold as an ice cellar in winter, without even a curtain.
He thought of the photo wall; there wasn’t a single photo of his brother on it.
He thought of how every time his brother came back after being beaten and said he had fallen, he didn’t believe it, but he couldn’t do anything.
“Thank you, Uncle Pom.”
Coal took the mineral water and walked out of the convenience store.
He stood by the roadside and looked up at the building where he used to live.
The window on the fifth floor was dark; there was no light.
Coal walked a distance towards the school.
He circled around near the school gate and asked a few students who were still eating skewers by the roadside.
A boy who was in the same class as his brother recognized him.
“Are you Haruka’s younger brother?”
“Yes, I want to ask about my brother’s situation at school.”
The boy looked left and right, walked a couple of steps to the side, and lowered his voice.
“A lot of people know about your brother’s situation. It’s that Yellow-Hair; he blocks your brother at least once a week to collect protection money, and sometimes he just beats him for fun.”
“Doesn’t the school do anything?”
“They tried once. The counselor talked to Yellow-Hair, but that very night, Yellow-Hair brought people to block the counselor’s car. The counselor was so scared that he never dared to mention it again.”
“What about the others? The other classmates?”
The boy didn’t say anything.
Coal understood.
No one helped his brother.
He thanked the boy and turned to continue walking forward.
Walking to a small road behind the complex, he took out his phone and looked at the screen for a while.
Then he opened his contacts and found the number Vansin had left him.
He didn’t dial it.
He stuffed the phone back into his pocket.
He still wasn’t sure what exactly his brother had done.
If those people who bullied him had indeed disappeared, then something must have happened before his brother’s incident.
He had to find out for himself.
The street lamp at the back gate of the complex was broken; Coal walked on the dimly lit road, his shadow stretched out long.
In a blind spot of the surveillance cameras next to Wenchang University.
A plainclothes police officer arranged by Captain Van was leaning against a utility pole, his gaze following Coal’s retreating figure.
He picked up his phone and pressed the speed dial key.
“Captain Van, Coal snuck out of his aunt’s house tonight. He went to the complex near his old residence and the area around the school, and chatted with a few people. It looks like he’s asking about his brother.”
Captain Van’s voice came from the other end of the phone.
“Keep following him, don’t let him find out. Note down everyone he contacts and everything that is said.”
“Understood, Captain Van. There is one more thing.”
“Speak.”
“He chatted with a student at the school gate for about ten minutes. The student mentioned a person nicknamed ‘Yellow-Hair’ and said this person had been blocking Haruka at the gate for a long time to collect protection money.”
Captain Van was silent for a second or two.
“Huang—that’s one of the four victims who disappeared in the corridor.”
“Yes.”
“Good. Keep watching Coal. Also, make a detailed breakdown of the situation regarding Haruka being bullied at school. Find witnesses, find physical evidence; I need a complete chain of events.”
“Received.”
The call ended.
The plainclothes officer put away his phone and followed Coal’s retreating figure from afar as he walked onto the bus stop platform.