Zhang Guochang was taking a nap in his room, but he didn't fall asleep. The landline phone in the living room rang, and my son quickly picked up the phone. The call was brief, and he hurried out after responding with "um" and "oh." Zhang Guochang heard the sound of the door closi

Zhang Guochang was taking a nap in the room, but he did not fall asleep. The landline phone in the living room rang, and my son quickly picked up the phone. The call was brief, and he hurried out after responding with "um" and "oh." Zhang Guochang heard the sound of the door closing...

It was July 5, 2004, after 2 noon. After receiving a phone call, 17-year-old Zhang Wenhong left his home in Tongchuan District, Dazhou, Sichuan and has not been heard from since. Zhang Guochang speculated that his son had run away from home. He later found clues from the letters written by two classmates to Zhang Wenhong. One of the girls wrote in the letter, "Why don't you go to high school? Are you leaving Dazhou? Then how can I find you... Is it okay if you don't leave?" The time was March 2004.

Later, Zhang Guochang went to Beijing, Shanghai, Taiyuan... In these cities, he was "pushed by a force to search aimlessly." Now, at the age of 67, he no longer has the energy to go out to find his son, and his grief and suffering are even worse. What's more, he always suffers from insomnia and often wakes up when he falls asleep.

On the afternoon of November 10 this year, the sun was slightly white, and many elderly people were sitting together on Binhe Road in Tongchuan District, Dazhou, drinking tea, playing chess and cards. Zhang Guochang didn't like such "noise". He practiced playing the erhu at home, and the music score was turned to the song "Abba, Amma". Talking about his missing only son, he put his arms on the table and tried to restrain his emotions, but the tears still rolled down...

▲ Zhang Guochang practiced erhu at home

Mysterious phone call

Zhang Wenhong The day he just left home For several days, Zhang Guochang did not search immediately. He thought his son just went to play games and stayed at a classmate's house and didn't want to come back. He was very angry and thought that if he couldn't control it, let him go.

It was the summer vacation after the high school entrance examination. After repeating the exam for a year, my son's grades were still not satisfactory, so he could only attend an expensive private school. A few days ago, Zhang Guochang took his son to see a private school he was planning to attend. My son has no objection to continuing to study.

A few days after his son left home, Zhang Guochang received a call at home. A girl tentatively asked: Uncle, does Zhang Wenhong still want to go home? Zhang Guochang didn't hear anything strange. He told the other party in a calm tone, Come back as soon as you come back. Where will he go if he doesn't come back?

▲Photos of Zhang Wenhong before his disappearance

Then, Zhang Guochang went to work and told his colleagues that "his son is coming back again." He also expressed his helplessness and distress in educating his children. Zhang Guochang worked at Dazhou Second People's Hospital from 1980 until his retirement. He is progressive in his work and a responsible person. He still has a stack of various awards from hospitals to provincial level at home.

The girl's phone call made Zhang Guochang feel at ease for a few more days. He expected that his son was really just going to play. It wasn't until half a month later that Zhang Guochang started to panic, and then he went to inquire about his son's classmates, went to the school to inquire, and went to the police station to report the case...

Zhang Guochang knew that his son was playful and liked to play games, but he had only stayed away from home for the whole night before that. The next day, she even knelt down to apologize to him and admit her mistake.

▲The back door of the school Zhang Wenhong once attended

He later checked the "mysterious phone call" his son received before leaving home. The number came from a public phone near Dazhou No. 1 Middle School where his son attended. No one knew who made the call. He later received a call from the girl. When he thought about it a month later, he couldn't remember which day or number it was.

Zhang Guochang asked all over, but couldn't find any clues from his son's classmates. Zhang Wenhong disappeared suddenly without warning or leaving any clues.

Zhang Wenhong’s junior high school classmate Li Qingying later asked her classmates, and no one said they had asked Zhang Wenhong to go out on the day of the incident. In the eyes of several close classmates, Zhang Wenhong has a cheerful personality and is friendly to others. He has no other circle except socializing with his classmates.

Li Qingying once learned from Zhang Wenhong’s mother that Zhang Wenhong wore slippers and a shirt when he went out. Zhang Guochang could no longer remember what kind of clothes and shoes he was wearing. He only remembered that his son was wearing black "Brazilian pants" with wide trousers. He took nothing with him when he went out, no money, and no ID card.

disappeared after running away from home

Zhang Guochang was deeply impressed by the "Brazilian pants" because in August 2004, the Dazhou Traffic Police Department published an announcement in the local newspaper to find the source of the body. The notice stated that the deceased was wearing Brazilian pants, the same pants his son was wearing when he left home.

When he went to identify the body, his legs were so frightened that he could no longer climb the stairs when he arrived at the traffic police station. The deceased in the traffic accident was dressed and built similarly to his son. His face was difficult to identify, but he had a longer beard. The traffic police also told him that the forensic doctor determined that the deceased was in his thirties.

Zhang Guochang later found clues to his running away from home in his son's letters. Among them were two letters written by Li Qingying. In addition to asking Zhang Wenhong if he could "not leave" on March 12, 2004, she also advised in a letter a month ago, "Don't tell me that you have read this." I will be angry if I stop studying during the semester." Another boy named Zhang also wrote in a letter in April of that year, "I heard that you are running away from home? Please tell me..." The classmate later told Zhang Guochang that Zhang Wenhong had said that he wanted to go to Guangzhou.

During the correspondence, Zhang Wenhong repeated his studies in the third grade of junior high school, Li Qingying returned to Guang'an, Sichuan with his father to study, and a classmate named Zhang returned to his hometown in Bazhong to repeat his studies. In the more than 10 letters that have survived to this day, several teenagers talked about their studies, daily trivial matters, and their ignorant and tangled love.

▲Photos of Zhang Wenhong before his disappearance

The group photo was taken by Zhang Wenhong and another girl on a minibus. Li Qingying remembers that several classmates got together on the weekend to play at Li Qingying's aunt's house 20 kilometers away from the city. They pooled together the fare of 2 yuan each and cooked and ate at her aunt's house. They were very happy along the way.

Another boy with the surname Ni who is close to him is now working in Chengdu. He still remembers that trip to another town. Like Li Qingying, he couldn't remember the name of the girl in the photo. When Zhang Wenhong resumed his studies, he was a freshman in high school at the same school, but the two still often played together. A few days before Zhang Wenhong disappeared, they played arcade games in an alley, so he went to the police station to record the incident.

Father's Regret

Zhang Guochang still vividly remembers everything about his son when he was a child. He said his son was very cute and smart when he was a child. When he was two years old, he got lost on the street. He remembered his father's name and the hospital where he worked, and was brought back by kindhearted people.

Because both the couple had to work, the son was sent to daycare when he was over 1 year old. When he goes to daycare, his son always pesters his father to carry him away. Zhang Guochang deliberately trains his son to be independent and wants his son to walk on his own. When his son didn't want to go to daycare, Zhang Guochang told him that he had to be "conscious" when going to school. The son didn't understand what he meant, and the next day he asked his father, "Why didn't you treat my foot today?"

▲ Zhang Guochang and his wife

In this family of three, the mother dotes on her son, while the father is particularly strict. Zhang Guochang said that his life experience of coming out of the mountains of Bazhong through reading convinced him that he must educate his son to read well, but his son seemed to be less and less interested in reading.

He wants to cultivate good habits in his children. He will scold his son for not folding his quilt or throwing his shoes around. When he was older, he went to play games secretly. He retrieved his son from the game hall and spanked the child's butt with his hands. What made him even more angry was that his son once actually secretly changed the score on the paper...

After entering junior high school, Zhang Guochang never beat his son again, but his son became increasingly alienated from his parents. He doesn't talk to adults, doesn't go out with his parents, and shuts himself in the house when he comes back from school.When he was in the third grade of junior high school, he did not want to go back to his hometown with his parents after his grandfather passed away. After his parents left, he made an appointment with some classmates to play at home all night.

Thinking about it now, Zhang Guochang felt very regretful. He believed that it was because he had been too harsh in disciplining his son that he became rebellious and decided to leave home. After reading his son's letter, he got a glimpse of his son's heart. He said that he never understood his son at that time and did not know how to educate his son. In the end, it was counterproductive.

There has been no news about his son for 20 years. Zhang Guochang has assumed many possibilities. But he believed that his son just had unresolved problems, or that his life was unsatisfactory and he was too embarrassed to go home. He said that if he had the chance, he would like to sincerely say sorry to his son and ask his son to forgive him.

Searching and Waiting

In November 2014, he got lost at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, and a kind-hearted staff member took him to the subway entrance. The subway station was crowded with people. He didn't know how to buy tickets electronically and couldn't find the staff. In the end, he had to crawl through a hole, but his backpack was stuck and he couldn't move. He could only take out his things one by one before getting on. After three days of searching for the subway in Shanghai, he looked on the map and saw that he had not yet left a small corner of Shanghai. After sitting in the hotel for a long time, he dragged his heavy body back home.

In 2008, Zhang Guochang had a dream. He dreamed that his son was in Pengxi County, Sichuan. This is an unfamiliar place name. He only found it on the map. He went to Pengxi County to look for it for a week. Before that, he saw the news about black brick kilns in Shanxi, and took an all-night train to Taiyuan to look for...

Now, 67-year-old Zhang Guochang no longer has the strength to go out to look for his son, but the torment and misery in his heart is even worse, and he often Insomnia, I finally fall asleep but always wake up in the middle of the night. He could not tell his wife about such grief. His son had been away from home for so many years, and he had always carefully protected his wife's hopes.

After graduating from school, Zhang Guochang worked and settled down in Dazhou, where he lived for more than 40 years. This city was so familiar to him, and it contained a sorrow that he could not express. In the 1990s, he had the opportunity to be transferred to work in Bazhong, but he gave up after filling in the application materials. On the busy Binhe Road, he murmured to himself, maybe when he went to work in Bazhong, such a thing would not happen...

still lives on the top floor of a high-rise elevator apartment in the old city. Standing at the window, you can see Dazhou No. 1 Middle School where his son once studied. Zhang Guochang often dared not look at it. It only takes more than 10 minutes to walk to the school, but he has not dared to go around the school for more than 10 years.

▲ Zhang Guochang did not dare to pass by the school where his son once attended

A 17-year-old boy disappeared mysteriously, leaving his relatives and friends with endless thoughts. Li Qingying remembered that Zhang Wenhong had a crush on a girl at that time, and she walked a few streets with him to buy gifts. She also remembered that Zhang Wenhong once spent 20 yuan to buy a big greeting card for the girl.

Not long ago, Li Qingying dreamed that Zhang Wenhong himself was back, still smiling like a child.

Red Star News reporter Yang Ling Zhang Yang

editor Guo Yu editor-in-chief Wei Kongming