Zhang Yuanqing was delighted in his heart, saying: “Has there been any update from the Hangzhou Branch? Any findings?” The colleagues at the Hangzhou Branch were terribly inefficient—only three days had passed before they produced results. It was obvious that they didn’t take Lei Yibing’s disappearance seriously... He complained silently in his mind. Lei Yibing had been missing for nearly two weeks now. If the Realm Walkers at the Hangzhou Branch had done their duty, they should have provided detailed feedback and sufficient information by the time Li Dongze had entrusted them with the case. Clearly, they believed Lei Yibing had died in the Spirit Realm, rendering further investigation meaningless. “There are indeed some findings,” Li Dongze said after a moment of thought: “Lei Yibing’s personal relationships were relatively simple. He was naturally reserved and independent, not close to his classmates. He stayed low-key throughout school life and rarely caused any trouble. However, after the Hangzhou Branch conducted an in-depth investigation, it became clear that over the past three years, two people who had provoked him both passed away under circumstances that seemed reasonably explained.” Zhang Yuanqing’s brows furrowed tightly as he listened. After Li Dongze finished speaking, he immediately responded: “Not true—Lei Yibing wasn’t particularly sociable or adaptable, but far from isolated. His work style was anything but reserved. I’ve known him since we were children and know him well—he could get very passionate, often skipping over polite phrases like ‘What’s up?’ and just taking action.” As for the incidents involving Lei Yibing possibly killing someone, he didn’t know the details and neither challenged nor evaluated them. “You’re referring to the Fire Master, aren’t you?” Li Dongze couldn’t help but remark, clearing his throat before steering back to the topic: “So, the Lei Yibing you know now is different from what students remember. Do you think there’s a problem with either of them?” Zhang Yuanqing paused and said thoughtfully: “Perhaps it’s Lei Yibing who has changed.” Li Dongze nodded in agreement and analyzed further: “You and he attended the same high school. If he had changed, you would have noticed. That means his transformation began after university. Between graduation and the start of university, he must have encountered something significant that led to this dramatic change. But there are too many potential factors—without more clues, it’s hard to determine what exactly happened.” Zhang Yuanqing agreed with Li Dongze’s assessment but still couldn’t understand one thing: given his close friendship with Lei Yibing, like brothers, he had never been informed about Lei Yibing becoming a Realm Walker. The Spirit Realm didn’t have any erasure mechanism—indeed, if someone wanted to, they could even use a public speaker’s microphone and tour the world promoting it. Though no one would believe that… “Is there anything else?” “There is, though I’m not sure whether it counts,” Li Dongze said after pausing. “Does Lei Yibing have a habit of writing journals?” “How could anyone write journal entries nowadays?” “The colleagues at Hangzhou found his notebook in his dorm room. He didn’t write frequently, but just before he disappeared and before sending you the Character Card, he wrote one entry.” “Where is the notebook?” “It’s still in his university dorm. The Hangzhou Branch team reviewed it and thought the journal entries had little value. However, at my request, they took photographs of it, which I’m now forwarding to you.” Li Dongze explained: “If I’m not mistaken, tomorrow will be the fourteenth day since you stepped out from the She Ling Tunnel.” “Ah!” Tomorrow was the final deadline—either tonight or tomorrow morning would mark entry into the Spirit Realm. “The opening of the Spirit Realm will provide a brief transitional period. Please remember to call me or Guan Ya for updates.” “Got it.” After ending their conversation, Zhang Yuanqing opened his chat app and received Li Dongze’s compressed file. Upon decompressing, he found thirty-some photos. Sitting at his desk, Zhang Yuanqing began reading through the journal entries. Lei Yibing wrote infrequently—sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly—and mostly recorded routine matters. At first, he read carefully. After confirming that earlier entries held little significance, he moved directly to the last photograph. “In the coming semester, I’ll begin my internship. Time flies so quickly—it feels like I’m already stepping into adulthood. Last night in a dream, I recalled childhood memories with Yuanzi in our courtyard—our secret forays through banned books, how we once tricked both my father and his uncle out of their savings, and the games we used to play together.” The content was brief, only a few sentences. Zhang Yuanqing gazed deeply at his smartphone screen. Then he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Lei Yibing had indeed left behind clues! … The next day, Zhang Yuanqing woke up at nine thirty in the morning. “It seems today is the day I enter the Spirit Realm.” He ate breakfast, put on a mask and a baseball cap, and took a taxi to Lei Yibing’s home. His childhood courtyard neighborhood was called Yinping Community—built over fifty years ago. Each building carried the mark of time, with six-story structures, no elevators, and tangled power cables winding around walls in a chaotic pattern. After getting off the taxi, Zhang Yuanqing surveyed the scene casually. Over the past decade, only the exterior had been repainted, and a new guard post had been added at the entrance. Everything else remained unchanged. When he was in middle school, rumors of redevelopment began circulating—people waited and waited, for nearly ten years, until even the sight of demolition crews faded away. Crossing the street, he bought a bag of pomegranates, one pineapple, and three kettles from a fruit shop across the road. He climbed the narrow hallway upward and rang the doorbell at Unit 402. Soon after, footsteps came from inside—the security door opened, revealing a woman in her forties standing there, surprised: “Yuanzi?” She looked pale, with dark circles under her eyes and a thin frame. “I’m Zhang Yuanqing,” he said politely. “I’ve come to see you and Lei’s father.” He silently sighed at the warmth of his tone. The woman glanced at the fruit basket in his hands and smiled warmly, saying: “Come in.” The house was two-bedroom, one-living room layout with over eighty square meters. Zhang Yuanqing sat on the sofa in the living room, holding a warm cup of tea served by Zhou Aunt, listening to her deeply somber account. “I believe the Department of Public Security will eventually find Lei Yibing,” Zhang Yuanqing reassured her. “Your grandmother visited me recently and said Mr. Chen informed her that no news was coming—what a good sign!” Zhou Aunt sighed. She added: “Why don’t you stay for lunch?” “I’ll pass—I have classes later.” He shook his head. As children, Zhang Yuanqing and Lei Yibing had been inseparable; they often shared beds at night and frequently dined together. But today, since he would be entering the Spirit Realm immediately, he wanted to keep his time outside as brief as possible. “Zhou Aunt, I’ll go see Lei Yibing’s room for a while.” He didn’t forget why he had come. Opening the door of Lei Yibing’s bedroom, the small room was furnished with a double bed, wardrobe, desk, and television. As his eyes swept across the space, he finally pulled out a large cardboard box from under the bed. Inside the box were various items: the Xiaowang game console, the Bulong machine, table tennis balls, yo-yo, telescope, water-themed heroes cards, wooden top, pull-out toy, Dragon Ball comic books, and *The Biography of Emperor Sui Yang*, authored by Qi Dongren—someone he remembered. Each small toy carried a story: for instance, the telescope. In those days, there was a red-light district nearby, where at night, beauty salons would glow with soft lights. Elegant women would sit in comfortable chairs behind glass doors, their graceful forms visible through the windows. Once while still in elementary school, Lei Yibing quietly approached him and said he saw Zhang Yuanqing’s uncle entering one of these salons secretly. Zhang Yuanqing didn’t believe it at first—he simply went to find his uncle. The uncle was amazed upon hearing this and paid him twenty yuan as a confidentiality fee. Afterward, the two young boys sat side by side enjoying popsicles and found the arrangement quite promising. So they began sitting outside, waiting for the opportunity—this time, they didn’t spot the uncle but saw Lei Yibing’s father instead. The father was stunned and also gave them a few tens of yuan as a confidentiality fee. Eventually, both the father and uncle changed their behavior and never got caught again. Until one day, Zhang Yuanqing borrowed money from his aunt to buy the telescope himself and began observing from afar—then he earned yet another confidentiality fee. Thus, the box preserved not only Lei Yibing’s childhood memories but also Zhang Yuanqing’s own. Staring at these childhood toys, he felt time slipping by so quickly—the people had changed, while the things remained the same. What was there to feel nostalgic about—hadn’t he reached that stage of reminiscence yet? He chuckled to himself and gently pushed aside the flood of memories swirling in his mind. Then he picked up *The Biography of Emperor Sui Yang*, shaking the pages. As he flipped through it, a piece of paper fell out with two dense strings of numbers written on it. Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing exhaled slowly—his sense of relief was finally complete. These numbers formed a cipher only understood by the two brothers. Influenced by his grandfather’s love for police and detective-themed shows and animated series, Zhang Yuanqing had been deeply fascinated since childhood, imagining himself as an excellent public safety officer. During middle school, once he and Lei Yibing watched an internationally acclaimed detective novel together and found inspiration in one of the cases—why couldn’t there be a secret code between Detective Zhang Yuanqing and his assistant, Ah Bing? So they spent time developing a cipher format: the first digit corresponded to line number, the second also to line number, the third to page number; seven digits formed a group, with the second set of numbers being the reverse of the first… Their very first game of this had used *The Biography of Emperor Sui Yang* as its base. As he recalled the format and cross-referenced it against the book, time passed slowly—eventually, after what felt like an age, he pieced together all the details. First line: Lu Er Ling San; One person, two brothers Second line: Yuanzi, find this—it’s where I left everything behind.