Chapter 41
Ke Qian’s hometown was in Hebei, not too far from Beijing. However, in these past few years, all of China’s small and medium-sized cities, without exception, had been undergoing a process of demolishing buildings and relocating the inhabitants, in order to build boringly uniform commercial housing or new townships. Ke Qian’s earliest registered permanent residence, a hostel based in an old factory which had gone bankrupt, had long since been razed to the ground, and a new housing community had sprung up on the same land. Moreover, they had no idea where his old neighbours had gone. Jian Yao asked around the small community, including the neighbourhood committee, but no one knew anything about the Ke family, and she was unable to obtain any pertinent information.
Only the lake opposite the housing community, with its rippling blue-green waters, remained as clear as before.
Perhaps, in this era of rapid economic change, the only constants are the mountains, lakes and rivers, under whose watchful gaze we live.
Next to the small lake, there was a large wetland, lush with greenery. It had obviously been well conserved.
They then visited the second address they had: the home of Ke Qian’s grandfather, in the same county. According to the family details which Ke Qian had provided when he enrolled for university, his only relative was his paternal grandfather. His grandfather’s address was also listed as Ke Qian’s place of residence.
This time, they found the place with relative ease. It was an old house in the old town. Green tiles, grey walls, a two-bedroom single-storey house. A big padlock was on the door.
Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan knocked on the door for an eternity, until an older woman emerged from the house next door. She asked, “Who are you looking for?”
Jian Yao said with a smile, “Dajie, we are Ke Qian’s friends from Beijing. We’re here on vacation and remembered that he mentioned his old home was here, so we thought we’d come and take a look.”
Bo Jinyan hid his smile as he eyed his increasingly slick criminal investigator wife.