Sister Yan was sowhat tipsy.
But she still imdiately responded to Chen Xiao's question.
"I kept it."
Chen Xiao's eyes grew brighter: "Over a decade has passed, is his luggage... still there?"
Chen Xiao was very worried.
After all, with the passage of ti, hardly anyone would preserve a bag of an old acquaintance's luggage.
Especially soone like Sister Hong, who had clearly wandered through many places.
Would she take Wan De's luggage with her every ti she left?
The outco did not disappoint Chen Xiao.
She had indeed been keeping it safe all this ti!
"During the party, I asked about your relationship with him. Originally, I wanted to give it to his family, but later I realized his family didn't seem to care about him, so I kept everything. But I felt like you really cared about him, I just forgot to ntion it because of the drink earlier."
"Alright, I'll drive and follow you to retrieve it. The items inside might provide great help in finding his whereabouts."
Sister Yan nodded and had the driver she called over drive.
Chen Xiao followed behind, stopping only upon reaching an old neighborhood in the county town.
Sister Yan resided here now.
She had neither married nor gone back to her family.
Having drifted alone for years, accumulating so savings, she opened a massage shop in the county town.
Following Sister Yan upstairs, she took out a leather suitcase from a cupboard in the bedroom.
"He had originally wrapped it in a shabby bag. Later when the bag wore out, I changed it into several different boxes to preserve his things."
Chen Xiao nodded: "So nothing has been lost, right?"
"No, everything is still inside. I originally thought I'd see him again to return it, never imagining that saying goodbye on the train would last so many years. Eventually, I didn't know if the items in the suitcase were a longing or just beca a habit."
Sister Yan lanted, and Chen Xiao didn't rush to open it there.
Most likely, it was mainly clothes inside.
The clothes weren't what Chen Xiao was looking for; he wanted to find items related to Wan De's disappearance.
Even if Sister Yan had seen those items, it wasn't appropriate to ask her about them.
After taking the suitcase, Chen Xiao bid farewell.
By the ti he returned ho, it was already late at night.
Lin Xi, Old Chen, and his mother had not gone to bed, waiting for Chen Xiao.
Seeing him return, Lin Xi looked at the suitcase with delight and asked, "Has Uncle Wan De's luggage really been kept?"
"Yes, it's an unexpected joy, and even more surprising is that Sister Yan said not a single item from the suitcase over the years has been lost."
Old Chen, hearing this, sighed with emotion: "What a girl with a good heart, filled with kindness and righteousness."
Chen Xiao didn't say much, placing the suitcase on the table, he earnestly said: "Dad, later when we open and look through the things inside, you need to take it seriously. When Uncle Wan De left, there was definitely sothing going on. I even suspect his departure wasn't a normal situation but a forced one."
Old Chen also looked solemn, so Chen Xiao opened the suitcase and began taking out the items one by one.
As expected, aside from clothes, it contained so of Wan De's previously favored items.
For instance, a small knife; Old Chen, upon seeing it, had tears in his eyes: "This is what I gave him for his birthday when you were five. I didn't expect he'd still have it when he left."
"And this comb, this mirror, this vain guy who always checks his hair and looks in the mirror, didn't expect he'd carry all these with him."
While rummaging, Chen Xiao suddenly saw a fountain pen lying quietly in the suitcase's pocket.
The brand of the pen was "Hero."
If mory served him right, Chen Xiao recalled, back in the day in Dongzhou, it was a famous brand.
But what did an item like a fountain pen, used by students or intellectuals, have to do with Wan De?
Especially since it seed like the pen had two letters and so small characters etched on it: LX—"Friendship Forever!"
Both the letters and characters were easily recognized, appearing to be manually carved with a sharp tool post-purchase.
The carving was amateurish, clearly done by soone who hadn't learned the craft.
Yet, you could feel the carver's passion and sincerity.
Chen Xiao carefully held the pen, and asked Old Chen: "Dad, did Uncle Wan De ever go to school?"
"He went to elentary school for two or three years but grew up to learn quite a few words."
"Was his handwriting nice?"
"Contrary to his person, his handwriting was illegible."
"Why did he carry this pen then?"
Old Chen shook his head: "I don't know; neither of us were much for writing."
Chen Xiao didn't ask further, and Lin Xi also noticed the letters and small words on the pen.
"LX—'Friendship Forever.'"
"LX should be soone's initials, right? Paired with 'Friendship Forever', could it be another of Uncle Wan De's friends?"
Chen Xiao wasn't sure: "Not necessarily, according to dad, Uncle Wan De wasn't that kind of person, and unless the person called LX especially liked it, he wouldn't give a fountain pen as a gift. Moreover, look at the carving, although imdiately recognizable as amateurish, it was done very earnestly, slightly off but nice."
"Are you saying the pen might have nothing to do with Uncle Wan De?" Lin Xi murmured, then she pulled aside and began discussing possible nas for the initials LX with Old Chen.
Lin Xi suggested nurous nas, but none of them rang a bell for Old Chen.
What's more, there are countless possible nas that two initials could form, with a surna starting with L alone taking quite a while to go through.
Seeing Old Chen had no recollection, Lin Xi had to give it up.
Then suddenly, Lin Xi chuckled: "Hubby, did you notice my na also uses those two initials? L for Lin, X for Xi."
Chen Xiao was stunned: "It really does!"
The surna Lin was quite common.
Alongside Xi as a na, who could truly know how many there are?
Both stopped discussing the topic. After thoroughly examining the suitcase's contents, Chen Xiao found no other suspicious items besides the pen.
The appearance of the pen left Chen Xiao quite regretful.
His regret was that if the pen had been preserved for weeks instead of over a decade, fingerprints could still be verified.
However, over ten years had passed, and no matter how well-preserved, any fingerprints had long oxidized.
Plus, current forensic technology lagged far behind that of later tis.
Thus, Chen Xiao felt regret as well as helplessness.
He stared at the pen, pondering every possible thod.
Finally, he suddenly recalled the photograph Old Chen had hidden away, depicting Wan De's face.
Indeed, Wan De was, as Sister Yan had described, a tall and handso man.
Yet in those days, whether Wan De or Old Chen, life was tough.
Even clothes bore patches.
Such was the common scene in rural Jiang Province in the 90s!
Thinking of this, Chen Xiao fixated on the word 'poverty'.
The word signified people's strong attachnt to their possessions, so the clothes Wan De took with him clearly appeared very old and worn out.
If so, why did he take that final glance outside the train window before stepping off—what view caught his attention?
The scene must have had elents of impending danger.
The danger was likely not newly arisen and had existed for a while!
Had Wan De truly left no trace behind?
With this thought, Chen Xiao couldn't help but remove the pen cap.
After examining the inside of the cap, he twisted the pen barrel open.
After looking inside the tal barrel, Chen Xiao's eyes gradually widened!
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