Crimson Instinct

*Bai Li*

The same app FriendsChat once again. Now whoever they were, their modus operandi was beginning to become clear.

I asked, "Do you know what this app is?"

I heard Liao Huifang let out a sigh. She said, "No, I don't. Actually, I tried to download it once I knew its name, but shockingly, I didn't find the app anywhere."

Xin Lei and I had tried to do the same but no luck either.

That was something really strange.

I heard Xin Lei's pitter-patter on her phone. "Did you ask Liao Chuntao about it?"

"I did," she said, "I found it weird and was worried about what sister Chuntao was doing with an app that no one could find on the internet. And she looked panicked and a bit nervous. She just simply diverted the topic. I tried to ask many times, but she would mutter something vaguely that I never got."

That meant whoever introduced her to the app, or her supposed boyfriend didn't want her to tell anybody.

"I even warned her countless times to stay away from such things. They could be dangerous and scam. She really had no idea about these things. Sister Chuntao would nod at me or pretend to agree, but then I would again see her secretly texting on the same app."

I asked, "When did it start?"

"Umm... around forty-five days back, I guess."

For Chu Jie, it was a month back.

"Since that time, she looked really cheerful and happy. That's how it began. At first, I thought that she might be having good days, or perhaps she made a friend, but it was nothing like that."

I heard Xin Lei typing. "What happened on the night she disappeared?"

I sensed Liao Huifang go quiet. Perhaps she was reminiscing the last time she saw her sister, never to return again.

I faintly heard her choke. "On that night, she called me up to say that she would be late in returning home. I asked where she was going because it was odd for her to do that. But she didn't give any clear answer. She hung up, and I tried again and again, but her phone was already out of reach by that time."

"I waited for the whole night, but she still didn't return. I tried her number, but it was of no use. I panicked. I thought sister Chuntao might be in trouble, so I went to the cops."

Then she stopped, and I heard her gnashing her teeth. "The cops said that it hadn't been twenty-four hours since she had disappeared. They asked me to wait. Maybe she would come back in a few hours. And when they knew that I thought she might be with a man, they thought that... that…"

I understood in between the lines. Honestly, that was rude to assume that Liao Chuntao might spend the night with that man and shrug Huifang off.

But well, that was the reality of most of the cases.

"That infuriated me! They were not taking me seriously at all! She was a thirty-year-old adult going with a man who could possibly be her boyfriend. What was more to tell! And then they lodged my report when more than twenty-four hours had gone by. They said that they were investigating, but they didn't find anything! And then...then…"

She gasped, and I heard her break into tears. We gave her a little time to herself.

"... Then they found her d-dead in Langfang. She was...beaten so badly…my sister...Who could be so heartless..."

Silence.

"...I had no idea why she went so far out of Beijing. She didn't travel much either. I kept telling the cops regarding a man who she met online. They were only saying that they were trying their best to find out. I lost all my patience and came to Andingzhen because I heard some of them discussing that she had stopped there."

And then the owner of the hotpot restaurant told us how she met him many times to ask about that mysterious man.

I heard the robotic voice. "So FriendsChat is common between Chu Jie and Liao Chuntao."

I nodded.

"And I am pretty sure it was the same case with the other victims too. There is another common point between Chu Jie and Liao Chuntao that I noticed."

"What?" I heard Xin Lei type.

"They both were quiet people. Alone, doesn't have any friends, have problems in socializing...If we dig into the nature of other victims, I am pretty sure that we would find them roughly to be like Chu Jie and Liao Chuntao too."

I sensed Liao Huifang gasp. "Y-you are right. Chu Jie and sister Chuntao are really similar in that sense."

I heard Xin Lei typing. "So they are targeting people who might be prone to fall in this trap."

"Yes," I said. "They are giving what these vulnerable people exactly need. Chu Jie was bullied in school, his parents pressurized him, too, for good marks and he wanted friends that could understand his troubles, so that woman pretended to be one just like he wished for and even confessed. Liao Chuntao might be secretly yearning for love, so that mysterious man might have pretended to be her friend and then confess as well. He tricked her into believing that he really had fallen in love with her."

I heard Xin Lei type again. "This makes sense. They are fulfilling their emotional needs. They take advantage of their low self-esteem and gain their trust in exactly where they are weak at."

"Right. Living completely alone sometimes gives a sense of worthlessness. 'I can't talk properly' or 'I can't make friends', 'Other people can do it but I cannot' 'I am so useless' such thoughts fill their minds. So when somebody comes and says that they understand them, they are instantly attracted to these people because for them, they have finally found someone they could talk to. And so they get easily fooled."

"And with the internet, it has become way too easy to hide yourself behind a username and anonymously do such things. We have to find out about FriendsChat." Xin Lei typed.

She was absolutely right.

I heard Liao Huifang say, "I might know someone who could help. Actually, by the time I discovered that strange app, it was quite late. Since sister Chuntao wasn't heeding my warning, I thought it was the best if I could prove my claim to her. So I visited my University friend, Qi Qiang."

"Who is Qi Qiang?" Xin Lei typed.

"We knew each other since high school, but we are just really acquaintances. We are in different streams in University, though. I am studying contemporary arts, and Qiang is studying in the computer technology field. In short, he is an annoying tech geek, but I found him useful at that time, so I asked him one favor to find out about FriendsChat."

I raised my eyebrow.

Tech geek?

Liao Huifang went on. "He is utterly lazy and a sleepyhead, constantly sitting in front of his computer desk, staring at many monitors at the same time. But he really knows his way around the internet. He does lots of programming and coding stuff, which I never understand. So I asked him about this app."

This was interesting. Hacking. It was just the kind of help we might need.

Xin Lei asked, typing on her phone. "Did he find anything?"

"Yes. And that is what got me really worried. Qiang gets excited when there is something or anything about the internet. But like I said, it was too late. Big sis already disappeared, and I got his call when I was in Andingzhen."

I narrowed my eyes.

"Qiang was hell-bent on knowing about from where did I get to know about FriendsChat. I said it wasn't me, but sister Chuntao."

"What did he say?"

"That it is really dangerous. There was a reason why it wasn't available in any of the app stores."

"Why?"

"Well, I don't know because he suddenly got excited and cut the call. And I'm trying to reach him since, but I couldn't."