Chapter 2 - Disappearance
"Sent by Brother Bing?"
After reading the contents of the letter, Zhang Yuanqing furrowed his brows.
What does it mean to change one's life? What is too difficult to handle?
Really, he couldn't be less clear. He turned his attention back to the Black Card, examining it over and over again, confirming it was just an ordinary card. If there was anything special about it, it was the pleasant feel and apparently rare material.
Could it be some top-tier club's VIP card? Indeed, only a unique guy like me could handle the 36D ladies there.
Lei Yibing, his childhood friend and known as A Bing, was two years older than him. Before his grandparents had bought a new house, both families lived in the same alley.
Lei Yibing was strong and fast with an A rating, but with a C in intellect. He had always looked out for Zhang Yuanqing, leading the charge in fights and being the last to retreat. If anyone mocked Zhang Yuanqing for being fatherless, Lei Yibing would stand up for him.
That's why Zhang Yuanqing always called him Brother Bing.
A Bing's high school grades were not impressive, so he ended up attending a university in the neighboring Jiangnan Province. Since then, separated by distance, their communication had dwindled.
Zhang Yuanqing slipped the black card into the pocket of his windbreaker jacket and picked up his phone to tease Brother Bing with a message:
"Which club's VIP card is this? At least give me an address or contact information."
After sending the message, there was no reply for half an hour.
Zhang Yuanqing then decided to call Brother Bing directly.
After two rings, the call connected, and a man's deep voice came through the speaker:
"Hello! I am Lei Yibing's father."
"Uncle Lei?" Zhang Yuanqing was stunned, then quickly said with joy:
"Is Brother Bing back in Songhai this week? Let him take the call, I need to talk to him."
There was a pause on the other end, followed by a voice heavy with sorrow:
"Yuanqing, I'm in Jiangnan Province. A Bing, he's gone missing."
Brother Bing missing?! Zhang Yuanqing stood in shock, and after a few seconds of bafflement and urgency, he asked:
"What happened?"
How could Brother Bing go missing? He had just sent me something.
"He disappeared the night before last. Your Aunt Zhou and I received a notice from the school yesterday and came right away," Uncle Lei said, his emotions low.
"Did you report it to the police? What does the Public Security Bureau say?" Zhang Yuanqing asked with a heavy voice.
Uncle Lei was silent for a long time before hesitantly saying:
"It's a bit complicated, A Bing's disappearance is quite strange."
Strange? What does that mean? Zhang Yuanqing was puzzled.
Uncle Lei continued:
"A Bing disappeared from his dormitory during the night before last. The police checked the surveillance in the dormitory corridor and found that A Bing hadn't left his room all night, but by the next morning, he was gone.
"His roommates said they saw him before they went to sleep, and when they woke up, he was nowhere to be found. They thought he had just stepped out."
Zhang Yuanqing blurted out in disbelief, "How is that possible?"
Could a person just vanish into thin air? Even a three-year-old wouldn't believe such a story.
Pushing down the anxiety in his heart, Zhang Yuanqing lowered his voice and asked:
"Uncle Lei, did Brother Bing offend someone at school?"
His first thought was that Brother Bing had crossed someone at school, and someone with local influence made sure the surveillance didn't show anything---this often suggested a cover-up by the school authorities.
In this era of information explosion, anyone who had ever been online had heard of similar incidents.
"The school leaders said they would cooperate with the police as much as possible, and the police told us to go home and wait for news, saying they would investigate. Your Aunt Zhou and I haven't slept all night," said Uncle Lei, his voice tinged with disappointment and worry.
The expected response: damn it. Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath to calm himself and reassured:
"Don't worry for now. You know my grandpa and cousin work at the Public Security Bureau. I'll ask them how to handle this and what to look out for. If you have any questions or need advice, feel free to call me."
"Also, you must ask your classmates at school if Brother Bing has offended anyone. Surely someone would know," Uncle Lei said, feeling a bit relieved.
"Understood, Yuanqing. Don't worry about it too much. I'll let you know as soon as there's any news," he continued.
After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yuanqing felt restless. He paced back and forth in his room, worried about Brother Bing's safety.
People don't just disappear without reason. If the surveillance didn't catch anything, it must have been tampered with. He just didn't know who Brother Bing could have possibly offended.
But what could a junior in college have done to offend someone?
Wait, the disappearance happened the day before yesterday.
The day before yesterday?!
A shock went through Zhang Yuanqing. It takes 2-3 days for an express package to travel from Jiangnan Province to Songhai. By that timeline, Brother Bing disappeared the night he sent me the item.
Was it a coincidence? Or was there a connection?
At that thought, he instinctively reached for the black card in his pocket. But when his hand slipped in, he froze.
The Black Card was gone.
Did it fall on the floor? Zhang Yuanqing quickly looked down, scanning the room's floor.
Nothing!
He dropped to the ground to check under the bed. There was a layer of dust, some coins, pens, buttons, and other small items, but no black card.
The card had disappeared, even though he distinctly remembered putting it into his pocket.
How could it just vanish into thin air?
Linking Brother Bing's mysterious disappearance, the strange content of the letter, and the eerily missing Black Card, Zhang Yuanqing felt an inexplicable surge of panic and bewilderment.
"Could the Black Card be related to Brother Bing's disappearance? Or is it a crucial clue?"
Taking a deep breath, Zhang Yuanqing decided to use his "old ailment" to reboot his memory.
He poured some cold water into a glass, took a medicine bottle from the nightstand, unscrewed it, and then lay down on the bed after taking off his shoes.
After preparing everything, he closed his eyes and lay still, visualizing his father's face in his mind.
The condition for triggering the old ailment was to calm down and imagine a scene, preferably something once seen but not clearly remembered.
This could stimulate brain activity, slowly warming up until the mind was boiling with energy.
Years had passed, and his father's face had become a blur, the perfect subject for this exercise.
As time ticked away, his father's face gradually shifted from vague to clear, and Zhang Yuanqing's heart thumped wildly, like an overloaded engine.
In that moment, time seemed to rewind, and the scenes from an hour ago played back like a movie, frame by frame.
He saw himself opening the express package, reading the letter, and placing the Black Card into the pocket of his windbreaker jacket. Then he sent a message to Brother Bing.
For the next half-hour, he sat motionless at his desk, scrolled through short videos for several minutes, and exchanged some lewd pictures with friends in his gaming group.
He saved a few quality images.
Then he read a novel for a few minutes, but with the card on his mind, he called Brother Bing.
After the call, at the crucial moment, he became agitated and walked around the room, a likely time to lose the card.
In his memory, he saw himself pacing with a furrowed brow and then reaching for the Black Card, only to find it gone.
Zhang Yuanqing's eyes snapped open, his face a mask of horror.
Gone?!
The Black Card had just disappeared into thin air.
What on earth had Brother Bing sent him? In an instant, his scalp tingled.
Before he could think further, a cacophony of noises filled his ears, like the voices of countless people overlapping, and fragmented images in his mind erupted like a volcano, flooding his consciousness.
A warm liquid trickled down Zhang Yuanqing's nose as his head felt like it had been pierced by a steel nail.
His face contorted in pain, he crawled to the bedside, his hands trembling as he poured out five small blue pills and stuffed them into his mouth. Then, shakily, he picked up a glass of water and tilted his head back to swallow the pills and water together.
Moments later, Zhang Yuanqing was sitting on the edge of the bed, his face pale as he gasped for breath.
By now, he was fairly certain that Brother Bing's disappearance was somehow related to the black card.
"Brother Bing went missing after sending me the black card, and there's something eerie about it---it's obviously not just an ordinary item."
This inevitably led to the suspicion that he might have been threatened and had no choice but to transfer the item.
"But why didn't he hand it over to the local Public Security Bureau? Why send it to me instead?"
Could it be that I, a college student who has never killed a chicken or been to bed, am more reliable than the police officers?
A sudden thought struck Zhang Yuanqing: "No one in the surveillance and dormitory staff noticed anything unusual."
To achieve that level of discretion, one would need a certain amount of power.
Did Brother Bing not hand over the black card to the local Public Security Bureau because even they couldn't be trusted?
Or perhaps, the person or force that caused his disappearance had influence over the local Public Security Bureau.
"He sent the black card to me because he knew my Grandpa is a retired police chief and my cousin is the head of the Public Security team. With their deep connections in Songhai City, could it be that the people in Jiangnan Province can't reach me?"
I need to tell my cousin about this.
*Ding Dong~*
Just then, he heard the sound of the doorbell, echoing from the entrance.
Grandma's footsteps immediately followed, crossing the living room to the entrance, where she turned the doorknob.
"Who are you looking for?"
"Good day, we are investigators from the Kangyang District Public Security Office. Is Zhang Yuanqing at home?" responded the person outside the door.