"Can you help Xiaoyu?" The chubby auntie and the old man looked
"I run a haunted house, but please, believe me." Chen Ge looked at the chubby auntie and the old man with complete sincerity.
"A haunted house owner, and you come here spouting nonsense? Get out!" The old man gripped his tai chi sword with both hands. "If you don't leave right now, I'll draw my sword!"
"Please, just give me ten minutes. That's all I ask." Chen Ge pulled out his phone and searched online for the news articles about his cases with the police. "Look at this — see the person standing next to the officers in the photo? That's me. I'm one of the good guys."
"Acts of bravery? Multiple times?" The old man and the chubby auntie held the phone and compared the photo to Chen Ge for a good while before they finally believed him. "What do you want with Xiaoyu?"
"I genuinely want to help her. Could you take me to meet her parents?" After discovering that the woman's body had warmth to it, Chen Ge immediately realized that the ghost he was looking for was the boy in the photograph.
"Xiaoyu grew up in an orphanage. She doesn't have parents."
"Then does she have any other relatives? Who's been looking after her here? And who provided her with this apartment?" Chen Ge felt that in the woman's current state, living independently would be extraordinarily difficult. Someone had to be taking care of her.
"We've never heard Xiaoyu mention anything about family. She was abandoned in the old district ten years ago. She was just a little girl back then, standing all alone in the middle of the road. I and a few police officers brought her to the station. Later on, workers from the orphanage came to collect her, but they didn't want to take her in. I couldn't stand their attitude, so I let Xiaoyu stay with me temporarily." The chubby auntie was forthright and kind-hearted.
"Ten years ago?" That was quite a long stretch of time, and Chen Ge wasn't sure where to begin.
Ten years was a long time for anyone — long enough to forget the joys and sorrows of the past, long enough to lose things once considered precious.
"Has she been like this the whole ten years?" Chen Ge looked toward the woman standing at the entrance of the stairwell. She held the photograph in both hands, her eyes fixed on the faceless boy in the picture. She seemed to be reminiscing, or perhaps simply staring.
"Yes. Xiaoyu suffers from amnesia. To figure out the cause, I went to the orphanage she was previously at and asked around. Those people said Xiaoyu had always had a terrible memory, even when she was very young. She couldn't even remember the names of the other children in her room, was scatterbrained, and always making mistakes." The chubby auntie sighed. "I don't know if they were saying that on purpose, or if the illness really does worsen on its own, but after Xiaoyu came to live with me, her condition deteriorated."
"Her amnesia got worse?"
"Mm. She started forgetting everything, until in the end she couldn't even remember her own name. It was on that day that she..." The chubby auntie stopped here, glancing at Xiaoyu with a pained expression. "It was on that day she began tattooing the name onto her body. That name seems to hold some special meaning for her. No matter what, she refuses to forget it."
"Who gave her that name? The orphanage?"
"No. Apparently, when Fang Yu was abandoned at the hospital, there were two hundred and seventy-one yuan in her pocket, along with a letter. In the letter, her name was Fang Yu." The chubby auntie remembered all of this clearly. She had been deeply invested in Fang Yu's case, personally traveling to many places to look into it.
"That letter—"
Before Chen Ge could even ask, the auntie already knew what he was going to say. "That letter is long gone. The only clue left that could help Fang Yu find her parents is her name — just those two characters: Fang Yu."
"So that's why she tattooed the characters of 'Fang Yu' all over her body? No — you must be missing something!" Chen Ge stood there in the rain. "Parents she's never met wouldn't drive someone to this. Deep in her memory, there's someone she refuses to forget. She believes that person's name is Fang Yu — she doesn't want to forget that person!"
Chen Ge gestured for the auntie and the old man to come closer to the woman. "Do you recognize the boy in this photograph?"
"He doesn't even have a face — how are we supposed to recognize him?"
"Look at his build, his height, his head shape. After Fang Yu moved here, has a boy like this ever appeared around?" Chen Ge spoke rapidly.
"Fang Yu barely interacts with anyone. She just goes for a walk around the city park every night. How could she possibly know a boy like that?"
"She goes to the park every night? Are you certain?"
"Absolutely certain. During the day, Fang Yu never goes out except to see her doctor. Even her tattoo appointments she keeps at night."
"The information you've given me is very important." Chen Ge had come to a realization. "Fang Yu knew the boy in this photograph before she moved here. They went to the city park together."
Fang Yu looked roughly the same age as Chen Ge, and the boy in the photo was seventeen or eighteen. Ten years ago, Fang Yu would have been only a little younger than him.
"Fang Yu lived in an orphanage before, which means the boy in the photograph very likely grew up in an orphanage too. They were childhood friends who grew up together." The rain intensified, droplets sliding down Chen Ge's face. "Ma'am, do you know which orphanage took Fang Yu in previously?"
"It was the Hanjiang Welfare Home. It used to be a private orphanage — very unregulated. It's gotten much better in recent years."
"Hanjiang Welfare Home? That's where
"Fang Yu, I know you want to see the person in this photograph. I'll go bring him to you right now!" Chen Ge gently pressed down on the woman's hands. "Perhaps he wants to see you just as much."
The woman slowly released her grip. Chen Ge tucked the photo away and headed out of the complex through the rain.
"Wait!" The chubby auntie first guided Fang Yu back into the stairwell, then ran after him with an umbrella. "Take this. Who knows how long this rain will last."
"Thank you." His bag held the comic album and the photo, so Chen Ge didn't stand on ceremony.
"Don't thank me. I could see clearly just now — when you tried to take the photo, Xiaoyu was clinging to it with all her strength. It's the first time she's ever cared that much about a possession." The chubby auntie pressed the umbrella into Chen Ge's hands and grabbed his wrist. "Please, you have to help her. Do you understand? On the very first day the child forgot her name, she broke a teacup and used a shard of porcelain to carve the words 'Fang Yu' into her own skin. Every morning she wakes up having forgotten everything, living the same day over and over. She clings to that name no matter what. That's why I took her to get the tattoo — to stop her from hurting herself."
"I understand. I'll get to the bottom of all of this."
Chen Ge looked back toward the stairwell. The woman was still staring blankly at the name on the back of her hand.
For anyone else, ten years was a long time. But for her, it was simply the same day repeated ten thousand times over.