by Mi Lei
"I'm coming with you," she stated.
"No way!" He pushed her out of the way. As he rushed onto the street, he spotted a group of lights in a corner of the village. The sound of voices echoed from that direction. Fang Mu looked up at the Dragon Tail and then back to the lights. He decided to first investigate what was going on in the village.
Fang Mu ran through the village and arrived at a tall tree where a group of villagers had gathered under its barren branches. The flickering glow of their torches reflected off the snow, casting both tree and villagers in a disturbing half-light. Fang Mu could only make out that they were standing around the silhouette of a man, lying in the snow. He could guess what they were looking at. The who, however, came as a shock.
As he approached, he saw Lu Haitao's victim: It was Lu Sanqiang, the short, talkative man who had driven him to the village. The body lay face up. Its arms were outstretched and its legs bent. The left side of the face was badly mangled, revealing a deep crater where the skull should have been. The corpse was surrounded by footprints and cigarette butts. By the looks of it, any evidence the villagers had not managed to destroy outright was contaminated to the point of uselessness.
Fang Mu quickly walked over to examine the body more closely. Before he could reach it, one of the villagers grabbed his arm and demanded, "What do you think you're doing?"
Fang Mu pushed the villager aside. "Who found the body?" he asked in a harsh tone. "When was it found?"
Startled, the villagers stood dumbfounded for a moment. Finally, one of them said, "We don't know. The village head told us to come and see the body. That's why we're here."
Fang Mu bent down next to Lu Sanqiang's still form. There was no visible life. Lying in the snow, the body had long since grown cold. He'd have to rely on the corpse's rigidity to guess the time of death. It was a rough estimate, but better than nothing. Scowling, he took a closer look at the victim's head. As he examined the gaping wound, his frown deepened.
He stood up and took a torch from one of the villagers. He lowered the torch to illuminate the snow and carefully examined the area around the body. After a turn around the corpse, he looked up at one of the villagers and asked, "Which direction did the village head go?"
The man pointed toward the Dragon Tail. "That way."
Fang Mu snatched a branch off the ground and used it to draw a circle around the corpse. "None of you cross this line until I return," he commanded. "And don't let anyone touch the body. Got it?"
Fortunately, his actions and energy had left enough of an impression to get a stunned nod out of most of the gathered villagers.
Fang Mu clenched his teeth as he looked up at the dark silhouette of the mountain looming over him menacingly. Torch in hand, he rushed to meet it.
The thick, fresh snow made each step a struggle. Fang Mu had planned on quickly pushing through the dense vegetation at the foot of the mountain, but he'd made it less than half way up when his muscles began to grow heavy. He rested his back against a tree and struggled to catch his breath. When the air stopped burning in his throat, he wiped the sweat from his brow and took the moment to look for any sign of movement among the trees.
Judging by the rigidity of the body, Lu Sanqiang had been dead for at least six hours. But if that was the case, someone should have discovered the corpse during last evening's celebrations. Furthermore, the wound looked like it had been caused by a hammer. If Lu Haitao had gone into hiding after returning from the city, why would he be carrying a hammer? Finally, if Lu Sanqiang had been killed with a blunt object at the scene, Fang Mu should have found large amounts of blood spatter. But there had been none.
Therefore, the body had most likely been moved.
But who had brought the body to the tree? Lu Haitao or someone else? And why?
The unmistakable crunch of footsteps on snow snapped him back to the moment. Between each step, he could hear soft panting. He turned and immediately spotted a shadowy figure stumbling through the thicket.
"Who's there?" he shouted, picking up a thick branch.
"Fang…. Elder Brother Fang, is that you?" It was Lu Haiyan.
As she approached, Fang Mu could see that her face was flushed with exertion and covered in sweat. She looked very happy to see him.
"I finally caught up with you," she said between panting breaths.
"Why did you follow me?" he demanded. "Didn't I tell you to wait at home?"
"No way." Her voice and eyes were firm. "I'm going to help my little brother."
"Help him?" He squinted at her. "Your brother killed someone."
"But he is my brother!" she cried out. "I'm afraid…afraid they'll hurt my little brother."
"They won't. You don't need to worry," he consoled her. "Once the village head finds him, he will hand him over to the law. Then, everything will come to light. But..." Fang Mu hesitated for a moment, "there is one thing I don't understand. Your little brother was just out for some fun; why did the village head look for him in the first place?"
Lu Haiyan's body began to tremble. "Let's move; it will be dawn soon," she said and turned back toward the mountain.
Fang Mu did not challenge her. Raising the torch, he followed closely behind as she trudged on.
After another painful half-hour, they had finally reached the foot of the Dragon Tail. The mountain's precipitous face towered above them into the steel-gray sky. It looked insurmountable. Wiping the dampness of exertion from his face, Fang Mu scanned the mountainside. He suddenly tugged at Lu Haiyan's arm.
"Look," he said, pointing at the mountain.
Above them, a string of lights was slowly moving up the steep slope.
Lu Haiyan did not hesitate. She rushed off, up the steep slope. "We'll find my brother there!" she shouted back at Fang Mu.
She had almost disappeared within the trees in front of them before Fang Mu followed her up the slope.
It wasn't easy. Not only was the ascent steep, overgrown and gravelly, it was also covered in loose snow. Stumbling, Fang Mu did his best to keep up with Lu Haiyan. After about a hundred feet, he heard her cry out.
He cursed under his breath and started to run. He held the torch high above his head to see what had happened.
Lu Haiyan had come to a sudden stop, her body twisted at an awkward angle amid the trees. Fang Mu rushed to her side. When he saw what had happened, he breathed a panting sigh of relief.
In her charge up the mountain, the young woman had managed to get her hair caught in the branches of a tree.
Desperate to move on, Lu Haiyan twisted her head and tore at the branches. She winced in pain, but her hair remained stuck.
Fang Mu jammed the torch in a nearby tree and did his best to help. The uncoordinated tangle of their four hands only managed to get Lu Haiyan's hair even more thoroughly stuck. Angry and anxious, she started snapping of branches with no regard for her hair or her head. Finally free, she turned back to the slope ahead, only to slip on the loose rocks. She hit the ground with a thump.
The impact knocked all remaining strength right out of her. She struggled to get back on her feet in the snow, but her body betrayed her. Tears streaming down her face, she collapsed in the thick snow. Fang Mu reached down to help her up, but she just grabbed hold of his arm and clung to it as if it were the last beam of her sinking ship. He pulled back, but she wouldn't let go. With a quiet sigh, he let her drag him to the ground and endured her tight embrace.
In-between sobs and wails, she stammered, "What do I do?" Her words drowned under a wave of tears. "…What can my brother...?"
Even though he was wearing a thick, padded jacket, Fang Mu could feel her nails dig into his arm, and through them, he felt all her despair and hopelessness. Right now, he was the only thing on that forsaken mountain she could hold on to—he, a stranger she had only just met yesterday. He wasn't sure whether to feel touched or dismayed; probably both. With an inward sigh, he gently placed his hands on her shoulders.
It took a few more minutes for
her sobs to subside. As she regained her composure, she withdrew and quietly picked the broken twigs and bits of branch from her hair. Somewhat embarrassed and at a loss for words, he retrieved the torch and watched her in silence.
The young woman looked miserable. Her hair was tattered and torn and her face was covered in smears of dirt and dried tears. The mink fur coat, too, had suffered irreparable damage. Seeing him look at her, Lu Haiyan lowered her head and turned away.
After she had sorted her hair, she jumped back to her feet, wiped her face, and quietly said, "Let's go."
"Do you know which way?" Fang Mu asked.
When she nodded, he handed her the torch. "You go ahead then," he told her, and then he added, "and watch your step."
Her face tinting pink, she took the torch.
The further up the mountain they went, the thicker the forest grew. Surrounded by the trees and the endless white, Fang Mu soon lost all sense of direction. Fortunately, Lu Haiyan was not so easily disoriented. She relentlessly forged ahead, winding her way up the mountain.
As they ascended, they closed in on the string of lights. Eventually they could almost make out the flames of the individual torches dancing in the dark. The torch-bearers were still slowly moving up the mountain; obviously, they hadn't yet caught Lu Haitao, otherwise they would have long since headed back.
It was a much needed boost of confidence for both of them. For Fang Mu, finding Lu Haitao would mean a chance to unravel the secrets of Lu Village. For Lu Haiyan it simply meant hope for her little brother. Her mind and eyes fixed straight ahead, she never stopped. Fang Mu suddenly realized that she was no longer heading toward the lights. In fact, she was going in the exact opposite direction.
"Wait!" he called out behind her. After a few heaving breaths, he asked, "Isn't that the wrong way?"
"No." She didn't look back. "This is a shortcut."
With mounting concern, he noticed that they were heading further and further away from Lu Haitao's pursuers. It soon became clear that Lu Haiyan wasn't interested in catching up with the other villagers; she was leading him somewhere else entirely.
It was enough to rekindle all of Fang Mu's suspicions. He continued to follow Lu Haiyan, but at a slight distance and always cautious of what the rugged terrain around him might hide. Before he could make the decision whether to turn back or confront her, his thoughts were interrupted by a beeping from his jacket.
It was the sound of a text-message arriving on his cell phone. Instinctively, he reached for his pocket, and then froze.
There was no signal up there.
How was he receiving a message? And from whom?
When he pulled the phone from his pocket, he realized that he'd never turned off his phone's Bluetooth. Another Nokia phone had sent a message to his cell phone using the connection. He quickly accepted the message and moments later, a picture appeared on his phone's screen.
The picture was grainy, dark, and blurred. At a first glance, Fang Mu had no idea what he was looking at. He turned the screen upside-down and to each side, but it all failed to put the picture into perspective.
It hit him like a flash. Of course he knew who had sent the message.
He quickly punched in the response, "Where are you?" and searched for a nearby Bluetooth device to connect to. As soon as he found the other Nokia phone, he sent the message. Then, he scanned the trees, waiting for the telltale beep of the other phone. But there was only silence.
Lu Haiyan had turned back to him. She was staring at his cell phone as she cautiously approached. "What's up?"
"Someone sent me a text," Fang Mu replied without further explanation.
"How?" She incredulously took the phone from him. "There's no signal up here."
"Yeah, he used Bluetooth." The words held no meaning for her. "And as far as I know, there is only one person on this mountain who has both a cell phone and knows how to use Bluetooth."
"Who?" She stared at him in nervous confusion.
"Your little brother."
Immediately, the young woman's eyes popped wide open. After a few seconds of stunned shock, she grabbed the phone tighter and began punching its keys.
"What did he write? Where is he? Is he safe?" she demanded breathlessly.
Fang Mu took the phone back from her and opened the picture. "Do you know what that is?"
She stared at the blurry image for a good minute, and then shook her head. "No idea."
As the phone's screen began to dim, the contours of her face disappeared on the small screen. Soon, he could only see her eyes, reflecting the flickering light of their dying torch.
The phone's backlight lit up again. Another Bluetooth message was being sent. Again, it contained a picture. Before Fang Mu could see what it showed, Lu Haiyan had already snatched the phone and was staring at the screen. Looking over her shoulder, he could see that like the last one, this picture was almost certainly taken with the sender's phone camera. This time, he had at least used the flash. Unfortunately, the image itself was still blurry and almost impossible to make out.
"What's he doing?" Lu Haiyan stared at the phone in utter confusion. "What's wrong with these pictures?"
"There's only one explanation." He gathered his thoughts. "His hands were shaking."
A cry escaped her. "Is he…?"
"No." Fang Mu squinted at the string of lights, slowly growing smaller in the distance. "They certainly don't have him. He has to be close by."
With a sigh, she let herself fall back against a maple tree. "That's good..." she mumbled. "Yes, that's..."
Fang Mu turned in a circle and stared out into the darkness. After giving it another moment of thought, he told Lu Haiyan to take the cell phone and stay put. He then walked into the thicket. He cupped his hand to his mouth and projected his voice best he could without actually shouting. "Lu Haitao... Lu Haitao."
The darkness between the trees remained silent.
Unwilling to give up, he stooped down below the branches and wove deeper into the thick brush, continuing to call the young man's name. There was no answer.
Then, he thought he heard a noise from Lu Haiyan's direction, but when he looked back, she was still standing there alone, phone in hand.
Where could her brother be hiding? he wondered. Bluetooth had a range of about 50 feet. They had to be right on top of him, so why was he not answering?
Suddenly, Lu Haiyan cried out.
Fang Mu hurried back to her. "What happened?"
She held up the device. "Your phone… The light's out."
Fang Mu took the phone and checked the battery. It was empty. "Did your brother send another picture?" He shook his head, looking down at the now lifeless phone.
"No," she replied sheepishly, as if it was her fault that the battery had run out.
He cursed, then quietly instructed, "We'll split up and search. Your brother has to be here somewhere." He stepped away.
"Let's not," she instantly replied.
"Eh?" He stopped in his tracks. "You don't want to look for him?"
Lu Haiyan was completely composed. She pointed at the torch and said, "Our torch is almost burnt out and there are steep cliffs all around. We might fall to our deaths, but we won't find my brother."
They were unable to continue their search and they certainly didn't have enough light left to make their way down the mountain. Lu Haiyan led Fang Mu to a small, sheltered cave. There they decided to wait out the night and then descend at daybreak.
Together they huddled in the cave, silently staring at the sputtering flame of the torch as it fought its last battle. Lu Haiyan had curled up, hugging her legs to her chest. In the last light, Fang Mu could see that her stare was full of worry. Small tears glinted in the corners of her eyes.
He shared her concerns. Lu Haitao probably hadn't realized just how close they had come to finding him. He'd likely just sent those pictures the moment he saw an open connection; there was no way he could have known of Bluetooth's limited range.
&
nbsp; What was he trying to communicate?
Whatever it was, it must have shocked Lu Haitao to the bone.
"How did you meet my brother?" Lu Haiyan asked out of the dark.
After weighing the risks, Fang Mu decided to tell her the entire story. She listened in silence, sobbing quietly.
"Idiot… Such an idiot ..." she mumbled as he spoke.
After he finished his account, he let the cave fall back into silence. After a while, he asked, "All your brother did was go to the city; what's the big deal?"
"The village head won't let us go to the city. Normally, its only Lu Dachun and his guys who are allowed to go and buy the things," she explained.
"Why?" He finally wanted to get to the bottom of this peculiarity.
"You saw it. Our village is small and far away from everything. In the past, things were really bad for us. We struggled just to feed ourselves. Some years ago, the village head called a meeting…" Lu Haiyan curled up even tighter. "...He said that from now on we would be provided with everything we desire, under one condition..."
"That no one leaves the village?" he guessed.
"Yes," she confirmed with a sigh. "Everyone agreed and he kept his promise. Soon, we had all the things we had ever dreamt of, and lots of things we never even knew existed. And more just kept coming. We didn't have to work in the fields anymore, and we were never hungry again. But it cost us; no TV, no telephones. We are completely cut off."
Fang Mu could hardly blame them. Offered a life of abundance, what meaning could freedom have to the poorest of the poor?
"At first, it was all good and everybody was happy. But after a while, people started whispering that there had to be more to life than food and drink," she continued.
"People like your brother?" he asked.
"Yes." There was pain in her voice. After a moment of silence, she continued. "One time, when Lu Dachun was delivering the goods, he accidentally dropped a magazine from the city. Lu Haitao took it and hid it. He went through it a million times, then he told Mom and me that he wanted to go see for himself. My mom was terribly frightened and said that he couldn't, but the next day he was gone. He only left us a note."