Chapter 1 The First Departure

  I woke up to find it was already 2:30 in the afternoon. I sat up, rubbing my eyes that were still not fully open. It's been almost ten years since I graduated from college, and I've changed jobs one after another. Today, I lost my job again. It's not that I don't want to work hard, it's just that the world is changing too fast. The only thing I have going for me that others don't is that I really do have parents who can support me.

  My old dad and mom are both architects, working abroad for many years. To be honest, if it weren't for the photo on the wall reminding me that I still have parents, I would almost think I came out of a stone crack. Of course, they deposit living expenses into my bank account every month. Only on this day do I really face their photos and say thank you to my parents for their care.

  Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I suddenly heard a "buzzing" sound. This sound is more effective at waking people up than cold water. I stretched out my hand and picked up the phone. It was an unfamiliar number, still an out-of-town number, probably another scam call, but who cares, I'll answer it anyway.

  "Old friend, what's up?" A familiar yet strange voice came from the phone. Familiar because I had indeed heard this voice before, strange because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't recall where I had heard it.

  "Who's there?" I asked, my voice still laced with a sleepy yawn.

  The other party burst out laughing, and this laughter sounded even more familiar: "It's been four or five years since we last met, and you can't even recognize my voice, lazy kid."

  I got out of bed and went to the bathroom, saying: "It's been four or five years since we last met, who are you?"

  The other party was silent for a few seconds, and then said: "I am Wu Feng."

  "I'm coming." I immediately became fully awake, "Your wife's, your mother is really capable, four or five years without appearing, today suddenly popping out, where are you? I'll go find you."

  Wu Feng is my childhood playmate, we are the same age. In the past, we lived in neighboring houses, so I can say that I watched him grow up, of course, he also watched me grow up. When we went to college, because we were admitted to different schools, we moved to different cities. Gradually, our contact became less and less, five years ago, his family moved again, and then there was no more contact.

  "Wu Feng smiled and said: 'Forget it, judging from your voice, you must have just woken up. Why aren't you going to work today?'"

  I sheepishly chuckled and said: "I just lost my job today, I was originally planning to take a few days off before looking for work again."

  Wu Feng said: "That's great, where are you? I'll go pick you up. I happen to have something to talk to you about."

  I told Wu Feng the address and hung up the phone, quickly washing and tidying up the messy house. As soon as I finished, I heard the doorbell ringing "ding ding". I quickly pressed the unlock button. Opening the door, standing at the entrance, after a while, the sound of the elevator came, and two faces appeared in front of me, one familiar and one unfamiliar.

  I was stunned for a second, then retreated back into the house at the fastest speed in my life, shouting loudly: "You brought your object here without saying a word, do you want to kill me?"

  Wu Feng is really not polite at all, bringing people to my home and opening the door to enter. He saw me busy putting on my clothes. I really wanted to punch him in the face. After I finished dressing, they were already sitting comfortably on my sofa. Wu Feng was even more impolite, picking up an apple I had just washed and taking a big bite. The girl was laughing so hard she was shaking all over.

  I glared fiercely at Wu Feng and said, "What's wrong, won't you introduce us?"

  Wu Feng took a look at the woman and then looked at me and said: "What's wrong, don't you recognize her?"

  I looked at Wu Feng, then at the girl. She was probably around 25 or 26 years old and very pretty, especially her big eyes, which seemed like they could produce two kilograms of water if you squeezed them. I hadn't taken a close look when they got out of the elevator earlier, but now that I did, she looked vaguely familiar. I thought for a moment, Wu Feng didn't have a sister, and he was an only child too... who was this? The girl had stopped smiling so exaggeratedly and was just gazing at me with a smile, seeming to appreciate my current bewildered expression.

  After a long while, I turned around and looked at Wu Feng, then said blankly: "Who?"

  The woman laughed again and said: "It's been like this since childhood, always pretending."

  She said "act old". A flash of inspiration in my mind, I shouted again: "Wow, big niece."

  The woman kicked over with one foot, I dodged, didn't dodge past, and kicked my butt. Fortunately, they had all changed into slippers earlier, I took a look at the high heels placed on the soft cushion at the door, thinking: Amitabha.

  This girl was also our childhood playmate, a tomboy named Su Yi, a very cheap name. When we were young, because of this name, we gave her the nickname "Big Niece". Later when we went to high school, she moved away and nobody knew where she went.

  "How did you two end up together?" I asked in astonishment.

  Su Yi pretended to be angry and said: "Correct your words, we didn't walk together, we came together. We are now in a working colleague relationship."

  I took a look at Wu Feng, with an expression of "so that's how it is". Wu Feng looked back at me without giving in, with an expression of "it's always been this way". Su Yi looked at us both, hands on her hips and said: "What? Don't believe it?"

  "Believe me, believe me..." I said hastily, "Why have you two come to find me together?" I deliberately emphasized the word "together", and looked at Su Yi's eyes, which seemed to be piercing through me.

  Wu Feng smiled and said: "Still as sharp-tongued as ever. I heard you just lost your job, we've come to introduce some work to you."

  "Cut it out, you were just listening to me on the phone when I said I lost my job, what's going on?"

  Wu Feng said: "Really, I was originally here to poach you, now it's just right, you're not working either, come with me, I need you to use your expertise."

  I was stunned, Wu Feng rarely lies, this time I can only look at Su Yi, hoping to find a hint of playful expression on her face. Su Yi saw me looking at her and nodded, saying "Really".

  "Really!" I scratched my head and said: "My specialty, what specialty?"

  "Specialized in ancient special building structure." Wu Feng took another bite of his apple.

  "My goodness!" I looked around cautiously and whispered: "Who still uses the structure of ancient buildings nowadays, you're not a tomb raider or something?"

  Su Yi said: "What's wrong with you, have you been reading too many tomb raiding novels?"

  "Wu Feng said: "The specific situation is unclear for the time being, but we are now trying to rescue people."

  "Save people," I said. "You're sick, right? Save people by finding police or hospitals. What does it have to do with me?"

  Wu Feng sighed and said, "The problem is that my people are now trapped in an ancient building that can't be understood. It's been three days today, if we don't rescue them as soon as possible, there will be deaths. And... even the military can't get people out of that situation."

  My mind is a mess, I don't know what to say. The most frustrating thing in life is that you don't even understand what happened, but you have to deal with it. I try my best to sort out the chaos in my head and make sense of it all.

  "Why are your people trapped inside ancient buildings?" I found that now I can only ask this question with little substance.

  Wu Feng said: "I'll tell you about this issue on the way, now the situation is very urgent, we don't have much time. Are you coming or not?"

  "Wait a minute, I have one more question." I held up a finger and said, "Why me?"

  Wu Feng said with a bitter face: "I thought of many people, and finally found that among the people I know, only you can solve this problem."

  "I'm going to pick up some stuff." I made a surrendering gesture.

  "We don't need anything, we just lack time."

  "And your ID card." Su Wei reminded.