Newspaper Boy

Chapter 2: Disappearance

"Sent by Bing-ge?"

Zhang Yuanqing finished reading the letter, his brows furrowing.

What does "change your life" mean? What does "impossible to control" mean?

Really, not even explaining clearly... He turned his gaze back to the black card, examining it repeatedly, confirming that it was just an ordinary card. If he had to say something unusual, it was that it felt nice in his hand, and the material seemed rare.

Could it be a supreme card from some top-tier club? The 36d小姐姐 can only be handled by a remarkable man like me.

Lei Yibing was his childhood best friend, nicknamed A-Bing, two years older than him. Before his grandparents bought a new house, the two families lived in the same alley.

Lei Yibing had double A for Strength and Speed, and C for Intelligence. He always had his back, charging ahead in fights and staying behind to cover the retreat. If anyone mocked Zhang Yuanqing for being a fatherless child, Lei Yibing would stand up for him.

So Zhang Yuanqing always called him Bing-ge.

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

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

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

He sent the message, but half an hour passed without a reply.

Zhang Yuanqing simply dialed Bing-ge's phone.

After two "beeps," the phone connected, and a man's deep voice came from the speaker:

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

"Uncle Lei?" Zhang Yuanqing was taken aback, then happily said:

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

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line, followed by a sorrowful voice:

"Yuanzi, I'm in Jiangnan Province. A-Bing has gone 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 even sent me something.

"He went missing the day before yesterday. Your Aunt Zhou and I received the school's notice yesterday and rushed over immediately." Uncle Lei sounded dejected.

"Have you reported it to the police? What did 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 stunned.

Uncle Lei said:

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

"His roommates said 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: "That's impossible..."

Do people just disappear into thin air? No three-year-old would believe that.

Zhang Yuanqing suppressed his anxiety 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 wouldn't show anything, because that often meant the school was covering something up.

In the age of information explosion, anyone who has been online 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 answer... Damn it... Zhang Yuanqing took a deep breath and reassured him:

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

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

Uncle Lei felt a little relieved and said:

"I understand, Yuanzi. Don't worry either. I'll tell you the news as soon as I get it."

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

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

But what could a junior in college possibly offend?

Wait, disappeared the day before yesterday...

The day before yesterday?!

Zhang Yuanqing was suddenly startled. It takes 2-3 days for a快递包裹 from Jiangnan Province to Songhai. According to the timeline, Bing-ge disappeared the night 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 floor? Zhang Yuanqing quickly looked down, his eyes scanning the floor of the room.

No!

He got on his hands and knees and looked under the bed. There was a layer of dust under the bed, as well as some coins, pens, buttons, and other miscellaneous items, 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?

Connecting Bing-ge's mysterious disappearance, the letter with strange content, and the strangely vanished black card, Zhang Yuanqing felt an inexplicable fear and bewilderment.

"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 pills 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 actively triggering the old ailment is to calm down and imagine a scene, preferably one that you've seen before, but don't remember very clearly.

This will stimulate brain activity, gradually warming it up, eventually causing brain power to boil.

After many years, his father's face had long been blurred, making it the perfect object.

Time passed by, and his father's face gradually went from blurred to clear, finally showing every detail, and 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 back frame by frame like a movie.

He saw himself opening the快递包裹, reading the letter, putting the black card in his jacket pocket, and then sending a message to Bing-ge.

Here, for the next half hour, he sat at the table without moving, scrolling through short videos for more than ten minutes, and sending several erotic pictures with the LSPs in the game group.

He saved a few high-quality pictures.

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

After making the call, the critical moment had arrived. He was anxious and walked around the room, which was the easiest time to drop the card.

In the memory scene, he saw himself pacing around the room with a frown, then reaching for the black card, only to find 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, his scalp felt numb.

Without time to think, he heard a chaotic noise in his ears, like countless people's voices overlapping, and fragmented images in his mind surged up like an erupting volcano.

Warm liquid flowed from Zhang Yuanqing's nose, and it felt as if steel nails were being hammered into his head.

His face twisted as he crawled to the bedside, tremblingly poured out five blue pills and stuffed them into his mouth, then tremblingly 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, panting, his face pale.

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

"Bing-ge disappeared after sending the black card to me, and that black card is strange, obviously not an ordinary thing..."

This inevitably led to the thought that he may have been threatened and had to transfer the item.

"But why didn't he give it to the local Public Security Bureau, but instead sent it to me?"

Does a college student who hasn't even killed a chicken and hasn't slept with anyone more reliable than a police officer in the警署?

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

And to be able to do that, one must have some power.

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

Or rather, 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 that my grandpa was a retired police chief and my cousin was a Public Security Captain, and that I had considerable connections in Songhai City, so the people in Jiangnan Province couldn't influence me?"

He had to tell his cousin about this.

"Ding-dong~"

At this time, he heard the doorbell ring, the doorbell coming from the entrance.

His grandmother's footsteps rang out, passing through the living room to the entrance, and she turned the doorknob.

"Who are you looking for?"

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

The person outside the door responded.

.......

ps: Please bookmark, gentlemen, there will be another chapter tonight.