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Twenty-Nine

QIANG WEN

What a strange time this is. How curious and how very, very strange. Is Qiang Wen supposed to be excited or sad or scared or maybe all of the above? One second he feels like crying, and the next he wants to hug someone while laughing. And most of all, he misses Xander so much he could wail with the emptiness it brings.

All of this stuff is beyond Qiang Wen. He’s trying very hard to keep pace and pay attention to everything and solve the puzzle, but it’s not so much a puzzle as it is a shattered mess they are trying to put back together. He’s a simple dumpling maker; what does he know of scam artists and social media and “clout,” a word that Vera has used four times in the last five minutes?

So Qiang Wen stands to one side quietly and observes the more energetic people as they debate and discuss with one another. He’s good at observing. He’s been doing that his whole life. His mind wanders gently back to the past, to more peaceful times when he had whiled away many a pleasant afternoon chatting to Xander. Oh, he knows Xander is turning out to have been a scam artist of sorts, but that doesn’t change anything about Qiang Wen’s relationship with him. Xander will always be his grandson, no matter what.

He might have been involved in some really bad stuff, but he was also the guy who made paper flowers for his sister because she had nothing nice in her room to look at, and she once told him that her favorite flowers are daisies. He had smiled as he told Qiang Wen how his sister had the origami flowers in a plastic bottle that she had painted gold and placed on her windowsill.

He knows now that the girl is Millie, and his heart aches at the thought of poor Millie gazing at her window, past the paper flowers and up at the sky, wishing fervently upon any star she could find. Xander had said he wished she could have seen a prettier sight out of her window than the ugly old red building next to theirs. It was only a few meters away and blocked everything else out save for a sliver of sky.

Qiang Wen jumps. “A red building!” he cries.

The chatter around him pauses.

“Xander say there is nothing to look at out their window except for ugly red building. Big building, built really close to theirs, so close that you have to tilt your head to see the sky!”

Tilly picks up his phone and makes another call to relay the information. Adi types on his phone. Riki and Sana watch the comments section with eagle eyes.

“Comments are pouring in like crazy,” Sana says.

“Yeah, we’ve got over a hundred thousand live viewers, by the way,” Riki says, “just FYI.”

“Sounds like an industrial park,” Adi pipes up.

“That makes sense,” Oliver says. “Warehouses and factories built in a cluster.”

“There are over fifty in Oakland,” Adi says, still typing madly into his phone. “I’m just looking at the Google satellite images now.”

Qiang Wen watches the young boy in wonder. It’s marvelous, the kind of information that is readily available these days. His heart could burst with joy at the thought of the world that awaits the younger generation. They will be so much better equipped to face the world than he ever was.

“Got it!” Adi says. “There’s an abandoned industrial park in East Oakland that fits our description.”

Vera gestures at Robin. “Okay, cut the live stream, we go now.”

“What?” Tilly says. “No. Not a chance in hell. Selena will have a squad down there. She’ll handle it.”

“And let us miss fun?” Vera says. “After we do all the work? I don’t think so! Oliver, get your car.”

Oliver gives Tilly an apologetic grimace. “Sorry, but I do want to see how this one turns out.”

Vera is already marching toward the door. “Why you all just staring like statues?” she barks as she snatches her jacket from the coat hook in the hallway.

That snaps Qiang Wen out of his puzzled daze, and he hurries toward Vera. He still isn’t quite sure that he knows exactly what is happening, but he knows one thing for sure: He is not about to sit this one out.

···

In the end, they all go to the location. Qiang Wen is in the back seat next to Tilly, with Oliver driving and Vera in the passenger seat up front. Sana drives the other car, with Aimes, Riki, TJ, and Robin in there. Julia has opted to stay behind with the minors.

This must be a dream , Qiang Wen thinks. And, funnily enough, he doesn’t want to wake up.

“Ma,” Tilly says, “when we get there, you are not to get out of the car. Do you understand me?”

“Why not get out of car? Then how I can see action?”

“You don’t. That’s the whole point. You let the police do their job. We’re just going to be bystanders.”

“I never been bystander in my life. That sound like very boring thing to be.”

“It’s a safe thing to be. Also, Selena says she will end our relationship if any of us gets in her way.”

Vera gasps. “That is emotional blackmail!”

“She learned it from you.”

Vera grunts. “Very good lesson from me,” she says grudgingly.

“They might have guns,” Oliver says.

“Yeah, that’s a really good point,” Tilly says. “These are actual hardened criminals we’re dealing with.”

“I know,” Vera says.

From the rearview mirror, Qiang Wen can see that her face is alight with excitement. He sighs. “Vera, I don’t think they are telling you these things to make you happy. They want to keep you safe. I think you better stay in the car.”

“Of course,” Vera says. “I won’t get in way.”

They all look at her dubiously, but none of them says anything more as the car zooms down the freeway toward their destination.

Surprisingly, Vera stays true to her word. When they get to the industrial park, she stays put inside the car even after Oliver parks. Maybe it has to do with Tilly clinging on to her like she’s the last float in a shipwreck, but Qiang Wen likes to think it’s because Vera has taken their warnings to heart.

Oliver has chosen to remain outside of the industrial park, well away from the action, but Qiang Wen can see that in the parking lot of the industrial park, there are already four police cars with their red and blue lights flashing.

“Oh my,” Vera says, watching as the cops pile out of the car. “They look good, don’t they? Oh, there’s Selena! Ah, she looking very pretty, as usual.” She looks around at the others, as if waiting for a reply from them.

“Yep, she is very pretty, Ma,” Tilly says after a beat.

Qiang Wen and Oliver murmur their agreement.

“You know, she is so pretty, she probably get hit by men all the time.”

“I think you mean ‘gets hit on,’?” Oliver says.

“That is exactly what I just say. And don’t interrupt me, I am saying important lesson.” Vera turns back to Tilly. “If you don’t propose to her fast, she might get impatient and then leave you. Then how?”

“Are we really talking about this right now?” Tilly moans.

“When else to talk about it?”

“Maybe when we are not watching very exciting police raid,” Qiang Wen offers. Although, he thinks, he would like to be present for this conversation as well.

“Yes, exactly,” Tilly says. “Thank you, Uncle Qiang.”

Qiang Wen flushes with pleasure at the honorific.

The next few moments, they watch in silence as the police, with guns drawn, break into one of the industrial buildings.

“Wah, they break down the door like is paper,” Vera says. “Selena is very strong. We will have big and strong grandbabies.”

Tilly takes in a breath, as though to say something, but then purses his lips instead. “Not worth it,” he whispers under his breath.

Qiang Wen pats him on the shoulder.

“You should have park closer,” Vera scolds Oliver. “I can’t hear anything.”

“Yeah, I kind of figured safety would be number one and all that,” Oliver says.

“Haiyah.” Vera opens the door, and they all shout and Tilly pounces on her before she can climb out. “Aiya! Let go of me! You are so heavy!”

“Stay. In. The. Car!” Tilly says.

Vera grumbles but closes the car door once more. Then she rolls down the window. Tilly still holds on to her. Cold night air fills the car. Qiang Wen catches faint shouts from the abandoned warehouse. He doesn’t blame Vera for feeling curious; he himself is dying to know what is going on inside.

It sinks in then, that this is where Xander lived, and a great sorrow fills Qiang Wen. Oh, he understood all right, when they were discussing it, but seeing it in person now—this large, hulking building among other large, hulking buildings that were never meant to be anyone’s living quarters—is something else. The whole area is abandoned, patches of wild grass growing out of the ground here and there, and the entire area is so dark and lifeless it’s hard to believe there are people inside any of the buildings. Seeing it makes Qiang Wen angry at humanity as a whole. The whole place is without soul, a group of buildings built solely for capitalism’s sake and then abandoned without a single thought, only to be taken over by Xander’s captors. For the first time in a long while, Qiang Wen is filled with hatred.

“You okay?” Oliver says.

Qiang Wen blinks, looking over at the young man. “I can’t believe this is where Xander live when he is alive.”

“Yeah.” Oliver gazes out the window. “You helped locate it though. You helped the rest of the people who are trapped in there. I think that was what Xander wanted.”

Tears fill Qiang Wen’s eyes and he nods, not trusting himself to speak. All this time, Qiang Wen has suppressed all of his memories of Xander because they had been too painful, but Oliver is right. He can sense, deep in his gut, that they have done the right thing, and he can only pray that the police have gotten here in time to save Xander’s sister.