Chapter 45

Zhang Yuanqing's heart leaped at the mention of Bingge, and he said:

"Have the Hangzhou branch got any results? Did they find anything?"

The colleagues at the Hangzhou branch were too inefficient, taking three days to produce results, clearly not taking Bingge's disappearance seriously, he complained inwardly.

Bingge had been missing for nearly half a month. If the spirit realm walkers at the Hangzhou branch had conducted a thorough investigation, they should have been able to provide feedback and sufficient information when Li Dongze was commissioned.

Obviously, they believed that Bingge had died in the spirit realm, and there was no point in investigating further.

"Indeed, we found something," Li Dongze paused for a moment before continuing:

"Lei Yibing's social circle is quite simple. He is introverted and keeps to himself, not close to his classmates. He is very low-key at school and never causes trouble. However, after a thorough investigation by the Hangzhou branch, it was discovered that in the past three years, two people who had provoked him both died in some reasonable manner."

Zhang Yuanqing's brows furrowed as he listened. Once Li Dongze finished, he immediately countered:

"That's not right. Bingge isn't exactly smooth-talking, but he's far from being introverted. He's not low-key at all. I've known him since we were kids, and I know him well. When he gets angry, he doesn't even bother to say 'What are you looking at?' before he acts."

As for the alleged killings by Bingge, without knowing the details, he neither refuted nor commented.

"Are you talking about Huoshi?" Li Dongze couldn't help but comment, coughed, and brought the topic back: "So, the Lei Yibing you know and the Lei Yibing the students remember are different. Who do you think is the problem?"

Zhang Yuanqing was silent for a moment: "Maybe it's Bingge who has the problem."

Li Dongze hummed in agreement and analyzed:

"You and he went to the same high school and university. If there was anything unusual, you would have noticed. This means that Lei Yibing's change started in college."

"During the time between high school graduation and the start of college, something must have happened to him, causing his personality to change drastically. But there are too many factors, and without more clues, it's impossible to speculate."

Zhang Yuanqing agreed with Li Dongze's analysis but was puzzled by one thing: given their brotherly relationship, Bingge didn't even tell him after becoming a spirit realm walker.

The spirit realm has no mechanism to erase memories. If you wish, you can even travel the world with a megaphone to promote the spirit realm.

Although no one would believe it...

"Is there anything else?"

"There is, but I'm not sure if it counts," Li Dongze pondered for a moment before saying: "Did Lei Yibing have the habit of writing a diary?"

"Who writes a diary these days?"

"The colleagues in Hangzhou found a diary in his dormitory. He didn't write very often, but he did write an entry the night before he disappeared, the night before he sent you the character card."

"Where is his diary?"

"The diary is in his university dormitory. The colleagues from the Hangzhou branch checked it and thought it had no value. However, at my request, they took photos and I will send them to you now." Li Dongze said:

"If I remember correctly, tomorrow is the fourteenth day since you came out of the 'She Ling Tunnel.'"

"Right!"

Tomorrow is the deadline. Either enter the spirit realm tonight or tomorrow.

"There will be a brief buffer period when the spirit realm opens. Remember to call me or Guan Ya to report."

"Got it."

The two ended their call. Zhang Yuanqing opened the chat app and received the compressed file from Li Dongze.

After decompressing it, he got about thirty pictures.

Zhang Yuanqing sat at his desk and read the diary. Lei Yibing didn't write very often, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, and mostly about trivial matters.

Zhang Yuanqing read carefully at first, but after confirming that the earlier entries had no value, he flipped directly to the last picture.

"Next semester, I'll be interning. Time flies. Before I know it, I'll be leaving university and entering society. Last night, I dreamed of my childhood with Yuanzi in the alley, of secretly reading banned books with him, of tricking my dad and his uncle for pocket money, and of the games we played together."

The content was brief, just a few sentences.

Zhang Yuanqing stared deeply at his phone screen, then leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

Bingge must have left me a clue!

The next day, Zhang Yuanqing woke up at 9:30 AM.

"It seems the time to enter the spirit realm is today."

After breakfast, he put on a mask and a baseball cap and took a taxi to Lei Yibing's home.

The alley where he grew up is called Yiping Community, built half a century ago. Each residential building bears the marks of time, all six stories tall with no elevators, and tangled cables wrapped around the walls.

Zhang Yuanqing got out of the taxi and scanned the area. After more than a decade, except for the new paint on the exterior walls and the addition of a guard booth at the entrance, nothing had changed.

When he was in junior high, there were rumors of demolition in this area. People waited and waited, but after nearly ten years, there was still no sign of the demolition team.

Zhang Yuanqing crossed the road, bought a bag of loquats, a pineapple, and three Keitt mangoes from a fruit store on the opposite street.

He climbed the narrow staircase and stopped at the door of apartment 402, ringing the doorbell.

After a moment, footsteps were heard from inside, and the security door opened. A woman in her forties stood at the door, surprised.

"Yuanzi?"

She looked a bit pale, with heavy dark circles under her eyes and a gaunt face.

"Aunt Zhou, I came to see you and Uncle Lei," Zhang Yuanqing said in a gentle tone, sighing inwardly.

Aunt Zhou's gaze fell on the fruit in his hands, and she smiled with relief, softly saying:

"Come in."

The house was a two-bedroom, one-living room layout, about 80 square meters. Zhang Yuanqing sat on the sofa in the living room, holding a cup of warm water Aunt Zhou had poured, listening to her speak with deep sorrow.

"Aunt Zhou, I believe the Security Bureau will find Bingge," Zhang Yuanqing comforted her.

"Your grandmother came to see me a few days ago. She said that Old Chen told her that no news might be good news," Aunt Zhou sighed, then continued:

"Stay for lunch."

"No, I have class later," Zhang Yuanqing shook his head.

He and Bingge were inseparable as children, often sleeping together and sharing meals. But today, he might enter the spirit realm at any moment, so he wanted to minimize his time outside.

"Aunt Zhou, I'll go to Bingge's room for a while."

Zhang Yuanqing didn't forget why he was there.

He pushed open the door to Bingge's bedroom. The small room contained a double bed, a wardrobe, a desk, and a TV. His gaze quickly swept the room and finally pulled out a large cardboard box from under the bed.

The box was filled with various items: a Game Boy, a Tamagotchi, a yo-yo, a telescope, Water Margin hero cards, a wooden top, a whistle, and a Dragon Ball manga. The author of "The Amorous History of Emperor Yang of Sui" is Qi Dongyeren.

Each of these toys had a story. For example, the telescope: there used to be a red-light district nearby. At night, the hair salons would light up with alluring lights, and the women would sit on the sofas inside, their graceful figures visible through the glass doors.

One time, when Bingge was still in elementary school, he quietly told him that he saw Zhang Yuanqing's uncle sneak into a hair salon.

Zhang Yuanqing didn't believe it and went to find his uncle. The uncle was shocked and gave him 20 yuan as a hush money.

Afterward, Zhang Yuanqing and Bingge, while licking ice cream, thought this business was quite profitable.

So, after school, they would squat by the roadside to keep watch. This time, they didn't catch the uncle but caught Bingge's father.

The father was also shocked and gave them a few dozen yuan as hush money.

Later, the father and the uncle reformed and were never caught again. One day, Zhang Yuanqing stole his aunt's pocket money to buy a telescope and observed from a distance.

And he earned more hush money.

So, the box contained Bingge's childhood and Zhang Yuanqing's childhood.

He stared at the toys from his childhood, feeling the passage of time and the changes in people.

What am I sighing about? I'm not old enough to reminisce, he mocked himself, pushing the memories back into his mind.

Then, he picked up "The Amorous History of Emperor Yang of Sui" and flipped through the pages.

With the sound of the pages turning, a piece of paper fell out, covered in two rows of densely written numbers.

Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing slowly exhaled, feeling a weight lifted from his heart.

The numbers on the paper were a code that only the two of them could understand.

Influenced by his grandfather, Zhang Yuanqing was fascinated by crime dramas, detective anime, and novels as a child, dreaming of being a capable security officer.

In middle school, he and Bingge watched a famous foreign detective novel and got inspired by one of the cases, thinking that the great detective Zhang Yuanqing and his assistant Bing should have a secret code.

So, they spent time developing a code system.

For example, the first number corresponds to the line number, the second also to the line number, the third to the page number, with seven characters per group. The second group of numbers is the reverse of the first.

And the first time they played this game, they used "The Amorous History of Emperor Yang of Sui" as the template.

Zhang Yuanqing recalled the code format while comparing it with the book. Time passed slowly, and after a long while, he finally pieced together all the content.

First row of numbers: 6203; One life, two brothers

Second row of numbers: Yuanzi, find it, I left everything there.