The Disappearance of Xu Li

Su Han pulled his phone out of his pocket.

When he left the patrol station, he had retrieved his personal belongings from the evidence locker: his keys, wallet, and so on.

His phone had been among them.

It had been switched off for several days. Now he pressed the power button.

The screen lit up.

Luckily, it still had plenty of battery.

After the startup animation, the phone began vibrating like crazy.

He opened it and took a look.

Missed calls: 67.

Unread messages: 99+.

Notification sounds from Fetion, text messages, and messaging apps rang out one after another.

Su Han had vanished into thin air for so long, and many of his classmates and friends had no idea what had happened.

His sudden disappearance had left many of them worried.

Classmates, his counselor, and his teachers had all sent him plenty of messages.

He swiped open the screen.

Su Han ignored the flood of messages for now. He had no time to reply.

He went straight to Fetion.

He found Xu Li in his Fetion friends list.

He needed to find out more about that group from Xu Li.

He opened their chat window.

The last message was from five days ago.

[Su Han: We're having an extra meal at the shop tonight. My mom made stewed ribs, so come early.]

[Xu Li: Sure, I'll be there at six thirty.]

There had been no messages after that.

Su Han stared at the screen, then casually typed "Are you there?" and hit send.

But what happened the next second surprised him.

A system notification popped up on the screen.

[Message failed to send. The other party has deleted you from their friends list.]

Deleted him?

Xu Li had actually deleted him?

Su Han's gaze sharpened.

What on earth had happened?

He exited Fetion, found Xu Li's phone number in his contacts, and called her.

But the result was much the same.

A cold, mechanical female voice soon came from the other end.

"Hello, the phone you have dialed is switched off..."

He couldn't get through to her, either.

Su Han had no choice but to hang up. He fell silent for a moment.

Finally, he opened his contacts, found Zhao Kai's number, and called him.

Zhao Kai was Su Han's roommate, classmate, and friend-a true brother Su Han could confide in.

Over the past few days, Zhao Kai had also been the one who had called and messaged him the most.

Since he couldn't find Xu Li, he could only ask someone else for news of her.

This time, the number wasn't out of service. The call went through.

It had barely rung once before the person on the other end picked up.

"Hello, Su Han, is that you? Su Han!" Zhao Kai's voice came through the phone, full of surprise and delight.

"Damn, your phone's finally on!"

"Where the hell have you been these past five days? Your phone was off, and you didn't answer any messages. Do you know how worried we were about you?!"

Su Han held the phone, listening to the familiar voice on the other end.

His taut heart eased a little.

He had endured too much inhuman torment over the past few days.

Now that he knew there were still people who cared about him, it was something to be happy about.

"I'm fine," Su Han said calmly, first reassuring his buddy.

"Something urgent came up at home. I'm still dealing with it."

"What kind of emergency? What are you dealing with?" Zhao Kai grew a little anxious.

What emergency could make someone suddenly disappear for five days?

But Su Han couldn't easily answer that question.

He still hadn't gotten to the bottom of it himself.

The enemy's power seemed too vast, and for now, he could only investigate it slowly on his own.

All the more reason he didn't dare drag his good brother into it.

After both sides of the call had been silent for a few seconds,

Zhao Kai spoke again. He didn't press for answers, only lowered his voice and said,

"I won't ask any more, but we're brothers. If there's anything you need help with, just say the word!"

"Thanks."

Warmth filled Su Han's heart, and he thanked him.

After briefly catching up, he prepared to ask about the matter at hand.

"By the way, have you seen Xu Li at school these past few days?"

"Xu Li?" Zhao Kai paused.

"No. Wasn't she always with you before?"

"Neither of you has come to class these past few days. The counselor even asked me if you two had gone traveling together and told me to contact you."

"Wait, weren't you two together?"

"No," Su Han said. "I only just got my phone back. Hers is switched off, and she deleted me on Fetion. I can't find her right now."

"What's going on?" Zhao Kai was shocked.

"Haven't you two always been close? Why did she delete you? What happened? Did you have a fight?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you. When was the last time you saw her?"

"Let me think..." Zhao Kai began trying to remember.

"The last time I saw her was probably the afternoon you were going home."

Su Han fell silent. It seemed something had happened on Xu Li's end, too.

He changed the subject and asked,

"What did the counselor say?"

"What else could he say? He was looking for you," Zhao Kai said with a sigh.

"You vanished for five days without a word. If you don't show up soon, the counselor really is going to report you missing. Su Han, where are you now? Are you safe? Are you coming to school?"

"Not for now." Su Han declined.

"Put in a word for me with the counselor. Tell him he doesn't need to worry about me for now. Once I've dealt with things, I'll come back myself."

"Okay."

Su Han thought for a moment, then made one final request.

"Zhao Kai, do me a favor."

"Go ahead!"

"If you see Xu Li or hear anything about her, tell me immediately."

"No problem," Zhao Kai agreed without hesitation. "What about you? Where are you now?"

"I'm still dealing with a few things." Su Han gave a vague answer.

Afraid that Zhao Kai would press him about it, he brushed him off with a few more words.

"It's nothing serious. Don't worry too much."

"I'll hang up now. I'll be in touch if anything comes up."

With that,

Su Han hung up without waiting for an answer.

He held his phone, his expression dark.

Xu Li had deleted him, switched off her phone, and hadn't shown up for five days.

The neighbor had taken money to give false testimony, his sister had identified him as the killer, his parents had died horribly, and the killer was still at large.

Xu Li might have taken the money and run, or she might have met with a grim fate herself.

Looking for her now would be no different from searching for a needle in the sea.

He could only give up on that lead for now.

He would go find his sister first.

Su Han still remembered what Zhang Ping had said.

His sister was still lying in the ICU, but Zhang Ping hadn't specified which hospital's ICU.

There was no such information in the patrol station's records, either.

So now Su Han could only look for her himself.

Su Han took out his phone, opened the map, and searched: Jinghai City hospital ICU.

A list of more than a dozen hospitals immediately popped up.

City People's Hospital, Central Hospital, Fifth Hospital...

Su Han settled on his targets and began checking them one by one.