Chapter Fifty: The Mysterious Stone

The fat man tossed his laptop bag onto the back seat, his face showing signs of impatience.
“How about we take a walk around Shanda? Maybe it’s one of those ‘hidden under the lamp’ situations. We haven’t found anything anywhere else, so maybe this Cheng Zhi is hiding out at Shanda, and that’s why we haven’t uncovered anything.”
Zhou Yi nodded.
He started the car without further words; there was no better lead for now, so this was all they could do. As he drove, he asked,
“How did your investigation go today?”
The fat man shook his head, looking as wilted as a frost-bitten eggplant, completely spiritless.
“Three companies. One of them is just a shell, registered at a demolished building site. The other two, belonging to Li Mei and her mother, share an address near your medical school. No signs, I snuck in to have a look—empty, nothing there.
I got chased around twice by an old man before I managed to lose him; he probably thought I was a thief. As for Li Mei, after last night's news, we've made things harder for ourselves. She’s nowhere to be found—didn’t go to work, didn’t return home, she’s vanished.”
This outcome didn’t surprise Zhou Yi in the least. These days, the power of TV news was unparalleled. With heavy snow, everyone stayed home, and without the internet, TV was the only entertainment. So the news must have spread everywhere.
But Su Yongming hadn’t called, which Zhou Yi found unexpected. After causing the accident, Li Mei hadn’t fled, but was released by the traffic police. Now that this incident had blown up, the traffic police were under a lot of pressure.
“Are you sure the people you found are reliable? Did you ask at the traffic police station?”
The fat man bounced his leg, a sly grin on his face.
“Don’t worry, I hired a security company. Told them it was for a debt collection job, picked retired soldiers—top notch. I had them drive out to keep an eye on Li Mei’s father, Li Yugang, and any news from Li Mei’s family will come through them.
I went to the traffic police station first thing. A whole bunch of reporters swarmed the place—TV stations, newspapers, all sorts. No official report, everyone pretending to be deaf, but now they’re desperate to know the truth. That’s the way this profession always is. Sounds like they want to detain Li Mei, but they can’t find her.”
Zhou Yi frowned deeply; the car was already entering the Shanda campus.
The fat man stuck a pass under the windshield, brightly colored and stamped with the city government’s entry permit, looking quite official.
The gate guard glanced at it, didn’t even try to stop them, and the car rolled straight into the campus. Just before, Zhou Yi had felt his wristwatch heating up at the gate, but now, checking his wrist, he felt nothing at all.
Pulling over, Zhou Yi got out. This was the parking lot behind the main building. Rows of bicycles crowded the east side, only a few sedans parked here.
The fat man followed, unsure of Zhou Yi’s intentions.
Looking around, the chilly courtyard was deserted—clearly class was in session. Zhou Yi climbed the steps and entered the teaching building through the side door.
The fat man, still puzzled, followed Zhou Yi’s lead, waiting under the sign introducing the teaching group. The computer science department was in the building behind. Zhou Yi didn’t hesitate, heading out and around the small path; before reaching the last computer science building, he stopped at the comprehensive laboratory building.

The fat man came up beside Zhou Yi, lowering his voice,
“We’re just waltzing in like this—aren’t we being a bit too obvious? If he’s watching from the shadows, it’ll be even harder to find him later. Besides, this isn’t the right place yet, is it?”
Zhou Yi shook his head. There was a feeling he couldn’t describe—he just wanted to come in, as if something inside beckoned to him, even drawn by the air in the building.
Standing in the corridor, Zhou Yi closed his eyes. That sense of summons seemed to hover overhead. Without pausing, he grabbed the fat man’s arm and headed upstairs.
“I don’t know if he’s here, but I feel there’s something upstairs, as if it’s calling to me. I have an urge to rush straight towards it.”
The fat man blinked, patted himself, and tossed a stick of gum into his mouth, as if that might ease his confusion.
“I don’t feel anything. Is there something special here? Or maybe your control panel is more advanced than mine, a different search mode?”
Zhou Yi shook his head; he couldn’t explain it either. He strode quickly toward the stairs, climbing from the first floor straight to the fourth. Standing in the fourth-floor corridor, Zhou Yi gestured for the fat man to stay put and walked ahead alone.
The fat man looked around; only two mops stood at the stairwell, one already broken. He hurried over, grabbed the mop handle, and cautiously followed Zhou Yi.
There seemed to be no one around. The doors bore signs: Microcomputer Room, Archives, Geological Materials Room, Science Laboratory.
The fat man stopped before a door with no sign, grabbed the handle, and twisted it; the door didn’t budge, clearly locked.
He glanced around. The sound of twisting the lock echoed down the corridor. He eyed the laboratory warily; passing by the door, he could hear people inside—quite a few, in fact.
Zhou Yi, refusing to give up, tried the back door, which was sealed shut. Between the front and back doors, he found a window, tugged it sideways experimentally—and it opened.
Without a second thought, Zhou Yi grabbed the sill, jumped, and flipped himself inside.
The fat man shuddered; Zhou Yi was usually so steady, yet now so impatient.
But for them both, their fortunes rose and fell together. There was no point complaining. Gripping the mop handle, he hid by the back door, ears pricked for any sound.
Seeing the corridor empty, he followed Zhou Yi, climbed through the window, and quickly closed it behind him.
Zhou Yi landed on a desk inside the room.
The place was filled with cabinets, large and small—steel, wood, and many huge chests. It resembled a warehouse, though none of the boxes or cabinets had any labels.
The fat man stood nearby, not daring to move.
Zhou Yi hopped off the desk. The sense of summoning was even stronger now; his heart raced, breath quickened. He scanned the room, finally fixing his gaze on a camphor chest.
The chest resembled a bridal dowry box from the pre-liberation era, with a rusty brass lock on the latch. Judging by the rust and dust, it hadn’t been opened in at least twenty years.

Zhou Yi approached, searched himself, and found the bunch of keys Su Yongming had given him. Four or five keys hung from it, along with a nail clipper and an ear pick.
Zhou Yi opened the nail clipper, used the file to probe the lock, and tried several times, sweating from his forehead.
At last, with a click, the lock sprang open, and Zhou Yi couldn’t help but smile.
The fat man gawked, quickly took the keys, and helped Zhou Yi wrestle the rusty brass lock free.
Zhou Yi took a deep breath, trying to steady himself, then lifted the latch.
Inside the chest lay a stone—black, rounded, and inscrutable.
“What is this thing?”
Zhou Yi shook his head.
“I have no idea.”
Though he said he didn’t know, in that moment, Zhou Yi felt a rush of comfort throughout his body. He reached out and touched the stone, as if soaking in a bath, a sensation of floating bliss.
Just then, the campus bell rang. The fat man nearly collapsed in fright, hurried to the door, and glanced at Zhou Yi, who stood motionless, eyes closed, hand on the stone.
He had no idea what Zhou Yi was doing, but now his only concern was to keep Zhou Yi safe.
Footsteps echoed from the corridor; the fat man’s heart leapt into his throat. He gripped the mop handle, raising it toward the door.
Who knows how much time passed.
The footsteps faded, then the bell rang again. The fat man’s palms were sweaty; he wiped them on his shirt from time to time, occasionally glancing back at Zhou Yi, who still held the stone.
Tiptoeing, the fat man crept to Zhou Yi’s side, leaned over the chest, and peered inside. Just a pitch-black stone—how could someone touch it for so long?
At that moment, Zhou Yi opened his eyes and glanced at the fat man.
For reasons he couldn’t explain, the fat man shuddered under Zhou Yi’s gaze.
It was like staring at Waldner back at the base, legs turning weak, almost kneeling. Only when Zhou Yi looked away did he finally relax.
“Does this stone have anything special about it?”