Chapter 1 The "Bro"

“Bing-ge sent this?”

Zhang Yuanqing frowned after reading the letter.

What does "change your life" mean? What does "uncontrollable" mean?

Seriously, he didn't explain anything clearly... He turned his gaze back to the black card, examining it repeatedly, confirming that it was just an ordinary card. If there was anything unusual about it, it was the nice feel, the material seemed rare.

Could it be a supreme card for some top-tier club? Only an extraordinary man like me can handle a 36D小姐 (xiǎojiě, young lady/hostess).

Lei Yibing was his best friend since childhood, nicknamed A-Bing. He was two years older than him. Before his grandparents bought a new house, the two families lived in the same hutong (hútòng, alleyway).

Lei Yibing had A-level strength and speed, and C-level intelligence. He had always protected him since childhood, charging forward in fights, taking the beating and covering the retreat. If anyone laughed at Zhang Yuanqing for being a fatherless child, Lei Yibing would stand up for him.

So Zhang Yuanqing always called him Bing-ge (Older Brother Bing).

A-Bing's grades weren't ideal in high school, so he went to college in the neighboring Jiangnan Province. Since then, being separated, they had less contact.

Zhang Yuanqing put the black card in his jacket pocket while taking out his phone to send a message to Bing-ge, teasing him:

"Which club's supreme card is this? At least give me the address or contact information."

He sent the message, but didn't receive a reply for half an hour.

Zhang Yuanqing simply called Bing-ge's phone.

After two "beep beep" sounds, the call connected, and a man's deep voice came from the speaker:

"Hello! I am Lei Yibing's father."

"Uncle Lei?" Zhang Yuanqing was stunned, then delighted:

"Is Bing-ge back in Songhai this week? Let him answer the phone, I need to talk to him."

The other side of the phone was silent for a moment, then a sorrowful voice sounded:

"Yuanzi, I'm in Jiangnan Province. A-Bing is missing..."

Bing-ge is missing?! Zhang Yuanqing stood there dumbfounded. After a few seconds, he asked, bewildered and anxious:

"What happened?"

How could Bing-ge be missing? He clearly sent me something.

"He disappeared the day before yesterday. Your Aunt Zhou and I received a notice from the school yesterday and went there immediately," Uncle Lei said, his tone despondent.

"Did you call the police? What did the people from the Public Security Bureau say?" Zhang Yuanqing said in a deep voice.

Uncle Lei was silent for a long time, then said hesitantly:

"This matter is hard to explain. A-Bing's disappearance is a bit strange..."

Strange? What does that mean... Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback.

Uncle Lei said:

"A-Bing disappeared in his dormitory the night before the day before yesterday. The police retrieved the surveillance footage from the dormitory hallway and found that A-Bing didn't leave the dormitory all night. But the next morning, he was gone.

"His roommates said that they saw him before going to bed, and when they woke up, he was gone. They thought he had just gone out."

Zhang Yuanqing blurted out: "How is that possible..."

Does anyone just disappear into thin air? Even a three-year-old wouldn't believe that.

Zhang Yuanqing suppressed the anxiety in his heart and lowered his voice:

"Uncle Lei, did Bing-ge offend anyone at school?"

His first thought was that Bing-ge had offended someone at school, and that person had some power locally, so the surveillance footage didn't show any problems, because that often meant the school was covering something up.

In this era of information overload, anyone who has been on the internet has heard of similar things.

"The school leaders said they would cooperate with the police as much as possible, and the police told us to go back and wait for news, that they would investigate... Your Aunt and I haven't slept all night."

Uncle Lei's voice was filled with frustration and worry.

Sure enough, that's the kind of answer. Damn it... Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath and comforted him:

"Don't worry, my grandfather and cousin both work at the Public Security Bureau, you know that. I'll ask them later how to handle this kind of thing and what to pay attention to. If you don't understand anything or want to ask anything, feel free to call me.

"Also, you must ask the students at the school. If Bing-ge offended anyone, some of them must know."

Uncle Lei felt a little relieved and said:

"Okay, Yuanzi, don't worry either. I'll tell you as soon as I have any news."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yuanqing felt uneasy, pacing back and forth in the room, worrying about Bing-ge's safety.

People can't just disappear for no reason. If the surveillance footage didn't show anything, then it must have been tampered with. He just didn't know who Bing-ge had offended.

But who could a junior in college offend?

Wait, he disappeared the day before yesterday...

The day before yesterday?!

Zhang Yuanqing was suddenly shocked. It takes 2-3 days for a package to arrive from Jiangnan Province to Songhai. According to the timeline, Bing-ge disappeared on the same night that he sent me the package...

Is this a coincidence? Or is there some connection?

Thinking of this, he instinctively reached for the black card in his pocket, but when he put his hand in his pocket, he suddenly froze.

The black card was gone.

Did it fall on the ground? Zhang Yuanqing quickly looked down, his eyes quickly scanning the floor of the room.

No!

He lay on the ground and looked under the bed. There was a layer of dust under the bed, as well as some coins, pens, buttons, and other debris, but no black card.

The card was gone, and he remembered very clearly that he had put it in his pocket.

How could it just disappear into thin air?

Thinking of Bing-ge's mysterious disappearance, the letter with its strange content, and the black card that disappeared inexplicably, Zhang Yuanqing felt a strange sense of fear and confusion in his heart.

"Could the black card be related to Bing-ge's disappearance? Or is it an important clue?"

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Yuanqing decided to use his "old ailment" to restart his memory.

First, he poured cold water into a glass, took out a bottle of medicine from the bedside table, unscrewed it, then took off his shoes and lay on the bed.

After doing all this, he closed his eyes and remained motionless, visualizing his father's face in his mind.

The condition for the old ailment to be triggered is to calm down and imagine a picture, preferably one that you have seen before, but don't remember very clearly.

This will stimulate brain activity, slowly warm up, and finally, the brainpower will boil.

After many years, his father's face was already blurred, making it the perfect object.

Time passed, and his father's face gradually went from blurry to clear, until every detail was visible. Zhang Yuanqing's heart beat violently, like an overloaded engine.

At this moment, time seemed to flow backward, and the scene from an hour ago flashed by frame by frame, like a movie.

He saw himself unpacking the package, reading the letter, putting the black card into his jacket pocket, and then sending a message to Bing-ge.

From there, for the next half hour, he sat at the table without moving, scrolling through short videos for more than ten minutes, and sending a few lewd pictures to the lsp (lǎo sè pī, old pervert) in the game group.

He saved a few high-quality pictures.

Then he read a novel for a few minutes, and because he kept thinking about the card, he called Bing-ge.

After the call, the crucial moment arrived. He was anxiously pacing around the room, this was the most likely time to drop the card.

In the memory scene, he saw himself pacing around the room with a frown, then reaching out to touch the black card, and discovering that the card was gone.

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly opened his eyes, his face full of horror.

Gone?!

The black card was just gone, disappeared into thin air.

What the hell did Bing-ge send me... In an instant, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Before he could think further, a chaotic noise rang in his ears, like the voices of countless people superimposed on top of each other. The fragmented images in his mind were like an erupting volcano, rushing to the surface all at once.

Zhang Yuanqing felt a warm liquid flowing from his nose, and it felt like steel nails were being driven into his head.

His face contorted as he crawled toward the bedside, his hands trembling as he poured out five small blue pills and stuffed them into his mouth. Then, with trembling hands, he picked up the water glass, tilted his head back, and swallowed the pills and water together.

A moment later, Zhang Yuanqing sat on the edge of the bed, pale and gasping for breath.

At this point, he could basically confirm that Bing-ge's disappearance and the black card were connected.

"Bing-ge disappeared after sending me the black card, and that black card is strange, it's clearly not an ordinary thing..."

This couldn't help but make people think that he might have been threatened in some way, and was forced to transfer the item.

"But why didn't he hand it over to the local Public Security Bureau, and instead sent it to me?"

Am I, a college student who has never killed a chicken or slept with anyone, more reliable than the police officers at the police station?

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly thought of the detail that "the surveillance and the people in the dormitory didn't notice anything unusual."

And to be able to do that, you would definitely have to have a certain amount of power.

Bing-ge didn't hand over the black card to the local Public Security Bureau because... the Public Security Bureau wasn't trustworthy either?

Or rather, the person or force that caused him to disappear, their influence covered the local Public Security Bureau.

"He sent the black card to me because he knew that my grandfather was a retired police chief, and my cousin was a Public Security Captain, with deep roots in Songhai City, and that people from Jiangnan Province couldn't influence me?"

He had to tell his cousin about this.

"Ding-dong~"

At this moment, he heard the doorbell ringing, the doorbell coming from the entrance.

His grandmother's footsteps rang out, crossing the living room to the entrance, and twisting the doorknob.

"Who are you looking for?"

"Hello, we are investigators from the Kangyang District Public Security Bureau. Is Zhang Yuanqing at home?"

The person outside the door replied.

.......

ps: Please collect this, gentlemen. There will be another chapter tonight.