Chapter 2

Although the house was a hundred meters away, that family and mine really were neighbors.

No one else had built a house nearby. Homes in the mountains were spread far apart.

And children weren’t allowed to run too far from home.

So my only childhood friend was the girl next door.

Her name was Duong Hieu Niem. Her family called her Niem Niem. She was an incredibly sweet little girl.

I must have been playing in the mud with her since I was three or four.

We were best friends until she moved away when she was about six.

But sixteen or seventeen years had passed, and most of my memories were blurry.

I still remembered the games we used to play.

Throwing stones, hopscotch, catching dragonflies, chasing butterflies…

When we couldn’t agree on what to play, we used rock, scissors, paper to decide.

First to win two rounds.

There was a reason I’d never played best-of-three with anyone since.

I’d done something terrible to Niem Niem.

That day, we couldn’t agree on what to play, so we played rock, scissors, paper again.

I won.

But I was in a bad mood and didn’t want to play our usual silly games.

I chose “go exploring in the mountains.”

It was only a small hill not far behind our houses.

But Niem Niem was scared. She didn’t dare go, since we would have to sneak away from our parents.

I told her I’d won two out of three. If she didn’t listen to me, I’d never play with her again.

That only made her more afraid.

There were no other children around. I was the only friend she had.

So in the end, she went up the mountain with me.

That was how we got lost.

Worse, when Niem Niem couldn’t walk any farther, I told her to stay where she was while I went to find help.

But I got lost, too. I couldn’t find the way back down.

It was dark by the time my father found me.

I told him to look for Niem Niem, but he said her parents had already found her, too.

And then I never saw her again.

At that, Officer Li frowned and asked, “What do you mean, you never saw her again?”

I answered honestly. “Starting the next day, I was grounded. I wasn’t allowed outside. I don’t know how many days passed before I was allowed out again, but by then, Niem Niem’s whole family had moved away. I asked my father where they’d gone, and he said he didn’t know. My father passed away from illness last year, too…”

Officer Li nodded. “Then we’ll have to find the Du family to learn what happened.”

He clearly didn’t trust me.

His next words were, “We’ll stop by the village committee first and ask around.”

I had no objection.

After we parked in the village committee courtyard, he told me, “Wait in the car.”

So I waited for a full hour.

I had no idea what he and the village committee staff discussed.

But when he came back, his expression was even darker.

“Sixteen years ago, another family moved away, around the same time as the Du family. Du Zhicheng was Du Hieu Niem’s father. I’ve sent someone to look for him. We should be able to reach him soon… So, are you ready to tell us everything?”

I stared at him in surprise. “Tell you what?”

Officer Li started the car. Over the rough rumble of the engine, he quietly said:

“You’re lying. You’re hiding something, aren’t you?”

At that, my heart gave a little jolt.

But I immediately realized that even that question contradicted itself.

If he still couldn’t tell whether I was hiding something, how could he conclude that I was lying?

So I threw the question back at him. “I’m not hiding anything. What do you mean, another family moved away?”

He probably hadn’t expected me to stay so calm.

After a pause, he said, “There was another family that moved away around the same time. The people at the village committee don’t know exactly what happened anymore, and the old village head who handled things back then has died… No, counting the following six months, there were three families in all, including the Dus.”

He kept driving, sneaking glances at me from the corner of his eye.

Then I understood. “That’s right. About six months later, my father took me to the city for school. He wanted to look for work, too… Back then, everyone was leaving home to find work. I was a child in a single-parent family; my mother had died early. You can verify all of that. It doesn’t count as me hiding anything, does it?”

He nodded and said nothing more.

I knew he still suspected me.