The day you discover that your relatives and friends have vanished from your side without warning or trace, the best course of action is to pinch your arm first, just to check if you’re dreaming. I dug my nails in hard until patches of blue bloomed on my skin, yet I still couldn't reconcile the scene before me with the possibility of a dream.

Where in the world had my older sister and Old He gone? Where had Old He made that call from just moments ago? Why had it connected then, but now it was completely dead? A cascade of questions flooded my mind. I desperately searched for an answer, but no logical explanation presented itself, no matter how hard I tried.

Jingle, jingle... The phone rang.

Without even glancing at the screen, I snatched it up and pressed it to my ear, praying it was Old He or my sister calling back.

“Hello, Xiaoyu, did you get to the hospital? Did your sister drink the medicine?” It was Wang Jue calling.

Hearing that familiar voice, completely unaware on the other end, asking if I was alright, a fierce urge to break down and sob overtook me.

“No, they’re both gone…”

“What do you mean gone? Did you go to the hospital?”

“I went to the hospital and the police station. Sis has been missing for three days, Old He hasn't shown up for work, and his phone won’t connect.”

“That’s impossible; he just called a few hours ago! Where are you? I’m already in Xiangcheng.”

I stood rooted outside the police station, completely at a loss beyond waiting for Wang Jue.

A moment later, Wang Jue arrived. I recounted the entire bewildering episode to him in minute detail. He, too, struggled to accept it as truth. He pulled out his own phone and dialed Old He’s number once more, still getting no connection.

The guard in the sentry box kept watching us intently, and I wondered if we had already been placed squarely on his list of suspicious individuals. Wang Jue glanced at the guard and then asked me, “Was this the same guard who said Old He wasn’t here earlier?”

I nodded. Wang Jue took a determined step forward and addressed the guard: “Officer, we are friends of Officer He. A sudden, urgent matter has come up at his home, and we absolutely must inform him directly. Could you possibly help us reach him?”

The guard emerged from the sentry box and inquired, “What kind of trouble is it at his home?”

“It’s serious, and difficult to explain right now. If it weren’t serious, we wouldn't be standing here for so long. Could you do us this one favor?”

The guard retreated back into the guardhouse and picked up the phone to make a call. I mused that navigating this world without a few tricks up one's sleeve was proving quite difficult, and my respect for Wang Jue deepened yet again.

This time, a long while passed. The guard seemed to make more than one call, hanging up one only to immediately dial another. This cycle repeated for nearly ten minutes before he finally stepped out of the booth and told us, “The situation is complicated right now. The Public Security Bureau also wants to speak with Officer He Jiaming’s family to gather some details. You should go find an officer surnamed Wu in Room 104 on the first floor.”

Wang Jue and I entered the office area, skeptical but obliged to comply, heading toward Room 104. Along the way, I voiced every single one of my mounting questions to Wang Jue, and he analyzed each one as I spoke. By the end, we both agreed that the current state of affairs was utterly unbelievable; there was a ninety percent certainty that something terrible had happened. He voiced his own theory: if the news of Old He’s disappearance was true, then the person who answered the phone just hours ago was almost certainly not Old He himself.

As we spoke, Wang Jue and I arrived at the door of Room 104.

I knocked lightly, and the door swung open automatically. A thin, dark-skinned officer was seated behind a desk, beckoning us in.

I took a closer look at the figure, and my heart gave a sickening lurch! It was him again!

That’s right—the one sitting in Room 104 was the same ‘Officer Wu’ who had taken statements alongside Old He during the previous investigation. The ‘Officer Wu’ who had winked at me and let out that strange, knowing chuckle. The ‘Officer Wu’ who bore a ninety-percent resemblance to Hou Dayong.