Chapter 115: The Phone Number

Moreover, as far as I know, Wang Wenshan has only one son. He is currently working in Australia and would never come back to deal with something like this. If Wang Wenshan really did appear, the first thing he would do would be to report to the Institute of Archaeology and have the case closed at the police station. In short, this man could not possibly be Wang Wenshan’s son. In that case, this agreement could not really have been signed by Wang Wenshan—or, perhaps, he had been forced to sign it.

The director sitting before me saw that I had been deep in thought for quite some time, so he began asking me a whole string of questions: what relation I had to Wang Wenshan, what evidence I had that the document was a forgery, and so on. I could not answer him. After all, it was difficult to say exactly what my relationship with Wang Wenshan was. The son of an old friend? A student? Neither description seemed quite right.

Still, I had one simple solution: call the police. Yes, call the police. I took out my phone and dialed He Ming directly—the deputy captain of the criminal police in Kashgar, who had been responsible for investigating Wang Wenshan’s disappearance. I was certain this was an important lead.

He Ming was an exceptionally conscientious police officer. When he heard the news, he became extremely excited and told me over the phone, “Comrade Gao, this lead is extremely important. I’ll leave for the capital immediately and contact the local police there. This is wonderful. Thank you—truly, thank you.”

I repeatedly told him there was no need to thank me; it was only what I ought to do. After all, in his eyes, I was Wang Wenshan’s student, so it was perfectly natural for me to care about my teacher’s affairs. He would not suspect anything else. Although my reasoning was not particularly sophisticated, I believed that with the police involved, the truth would soon come to light. Perhaps we might even be able to find Wang Wenshan.

For the time being, I set Wang Wenshan’s matter aside. With the police involved, there would surely be results soon. Just as I was once again preparing to think about where to go next, Anna called. She still seemed unable to settle down and wanted to know whether there had been any progress. I thought about it for a moment. She was probably growing anxious. Since I had nothing else to do at the moment, this was the perfect opportunity to study the two characters Li Ling had left behind.

There was no internet connection at Anna’s hotel, so after finding her there, I located a nearby cybercafé with a relatively fast connection. I opened a browser and typed in “Dragonhead.” A huge amount of information appeared, covering all sorts of subjects. The sheer volume left me somewhat dazzled.

Anna was not particularly proficient in Chinese. She could barely manage smooth communication, let alone read so much Chinese. I explained the search results to her, and she frowned. We then began discussing the matter.

The cybercafé was enormous, but the area where we were sitting was very quiet. We had a private booth, and there was hardly anyone else online nearby, so I spoke without worrying about being overheard.

“Anna, I suspect that ‘Dragonhead’ might be the name of an ancient tomb. If that’s really the case, things will be difficult. We have no idea where the place actually is.”

Anna shook her head. “Yun, don’t you think it could be a person’s name or a place-name? Teacher Li wouldn’t have sent those two words for no reason.”

Anna’s Chinese was limited, and it took me a while to understand what she meant. Li Ling would never have sent only those two characters as an opening message. “Dragonhead” was merely the beginning; the rest had probably not been typed out. We had already analyzed that possibility earlier. Therefore, those two words were likely the key name itself—in other words, they might very well refer to a place or a region.

I quickly opened the browser again and searched for “Dragonhead.” I discovered that there were several counties across the country called Dragonhead County. There were even more towns and villages with Dragonhead in their names. With so many possibilities, there was no way to narrow them down or investigate them one by one. Besides, we still had yet to determine whether the two words referred to a place at all.

The situation truly felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. The two of us fell silent and remained that way for a long time. After taking a sip of mineral water, I forced myself to calm down and began thinking carefully once more.

If “Dragonhead” was a place-name, then the location might well have a long history. Anything connected to Li Ling would inevitably involve historical elements. Moreover, the entire affair seemed to revolve around the ancient Li Kingdom, and Li Ling had returned to China because of it. Her disappearance was therefore very likely connected to the same matter.

If Dragonhead was indeed a place-name, then it was probably a location with considerable historical importance. This greatly reduced the scope of our search, but it still felt no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.

I could not think of any better approach, so I took out my phone and prepared to ask Black Sunglasses for help. Just as I was about to make the call, Anna suddenly pressed down on my hand.

“Oh! I just remembered something,” she said. “Teacher Li’s phone number wasn’t a local number!”

I was startled and hurriedly asked what she meant. Anna told me that the messages Li Ling had sent her were extremely strange. At first, they had come from an unfamiliar number. Anna had been puzzled from the beginning. After getting off the plane, she had tried calling Li Ling’s number, but the call would not go through. That was how everything that followed had begun.

Unable to find Li Ling, Anna had no choice but to seek help from the Institute of Archaeology, and later from the police, but neither had been able to resolve the matter. Eventually, Anna remembered the text message from the unfamiliar number. As she looked at it, many thoughts occurred to her.

After all, Anna was an exceptionally intelligent woman, and a woman’s intuition was often remarkably accurate. That number was indeed the key.

For one thing, Anna had no friends in China. The few people she knew were affiliated with the Institute of Archaeology, but she had never given them her number. Among the Chinese people who knew her phone number and might have sent her a message, the only likely possibility seemed to be Li Ling. The phone had been prepared for Anna by Li Ling specifically for use within China, so only Li Ling should have known the number.

Once Anna realized this, she set out to find the owner of the phone number in order to verify her suspicion. Sure enough, her investigation revealed that the registered owner of the number was Li Ling. This was what had later caused Anna’s unease and concern.

As soon as she finished speaking, I hurriedly pulled out my phone and examined the number. If it was not a local number, did that mean Li Ling had obtained it in the area where she was staying? If we could determine what place the number belonged to, then combined with those two words, it might provide us with an extremely valuable lead.