Chapter 1 Christmas Gift

  It's Christmas again, which is Wu Hui's least favorite holiday. Five years ago on Christmas Eve, his fiancée disappeared.

  Wu Hui sat in front of the desk, looking at Jing Ran's photo, and asked in his heart again and again, "Jing Ran, where are you? Jing Ran, where are you?" This sentence, these five years, he had already forgotten how many times he had asked himself, and could no longer distinguish whether he was asking himself, or Jing Ran, or the heavens.

  The sky outside the window is gray and hazy, a sign that it's going to snow. I'm afraid this Christmas will be a big snowy one. Snow is good, it can cover up all the secrets that people don't want others to know.

  Wu Hui had a bad feeling, he felt that something was bound to happen this Christmas, something beyond his control.

  Zhang Qiang stood outside Wu Hui's door, knocked a few times, but no one responded, and he didn't hear any movement inside. He worried that Wu Hui might get into trouble because every Christmas he would do something crazy.

  In the second year after his sudden disappearance, he actually ran to the rooftop and stood at the edge of the roof, standing in the wind. If Zhang Qiang hadn't found him, he wouldn't have known how long he would stand there or what consequences it would bring.

  The next day he had a high fever and was unconscious for a long time. Fortunately, under Zhang Qiang's careful care, he woke up.

  In the third year, Zhang Qiang found him in a basement, where he was wearing a single layer of clothing, curled up on the ground with various empty wine bottles beside him. He planned to drown himself to death, perhaps drowning would bring him relief.

  As a result of what he did, he got severe stomach disease. Now his stomach will hurt so much that it's almost unbearable if he doesn't eat on time.

  On the fourth year, he lay on the rooftop on Christmas Eve, waiting until the snow buried him. Fortunately, it didn't snow much that year, or else he would have really suffocated to death.

  After lying in the hospital for a week, Wu Hui seemed to have forgotten about the previous events and returned to his usual self. Zhang Qiang also never mentioned anything that had happened before.

  It's Christmas again this year, and Zhang Qiang thought of the things that happened in previous years. He hastily pushed open Wu Hui's door, and when he saw Wu Hui sitting there in a daze, he finally let out a sigh of relief. Although he hadn't done anything crazy, he was still a bit worried.

  "Wu Hui, Wu Hui? Are you okay?" Zhang Qiang called out to him a few times.

  When Wu Hui heard Zhang Qiang's voice, he moved his body and looked at him. However, Wu Hui's eyes were very strange, as if he didn't recognize him, his gaze passing through Zhang Qiang's body to look somewhere else.

  "Wu Hui? Wu Hui?" Zhang Qiang called out again, slowly walking forward.

  Just as Zhang Qiang thought Wu Hui had done something crazy again, Wu Hui finally spoke up, "What's going on?"

  "Ah?" Wu Hui opened his mouth to speak, but it was as if Zhang Qiang suddenly forgot what he should say.

  Seeing Zhang Qiang didn't speak, Wu Hui noticed that Zhang Qiang was holding something in his hand. "What's that you're holding?"

  Thanks to Wu Hui's reminder, Zhang Qiang finally remembered what he was looking for Wu Hui for. "Oh, I have a letter for you." Zhang Qiang handed the letter in his hand to Wu Hui, who was somewhat curious - in this day and age, who still sends letters?

  "Letter?" Wu Hui was also somewhat surprised, after all in this era of electronic messaging, who still writes letters?

  Wu Hui took the letter and held it up to the light, inside seemed to be a card, with some doubt tore open the envelope, and indeed inside was a card, on which there was an address.

  Who sent him this letter? Wu Hui only discovered that there was no sender's address on the letter, and there was no postal stamp. This was someone who had specifically put it in his mailbox.

  "What's written?" Zhang Qiang didn't know what was written on the letter, but he saw Wu Hui take out a card from the envelope. Could it be that someone had sent him a Christmas card?

  "There was only one address on the card, a very detailed address. After inquiring, it was found to be an old apartment building in a suburb of Lincheng."

  "What does this mean?" Zhang Qiang walked up with some curiosity and saw the address on it. Was it someone's prank?

  "It seems someone wants me to go to this place." Although Wu Hui didn't know who sent him this strange letter, one thing was certain: the sender hoped Wu Hui would go to this address.

  With just this vague address, Wu Hui is going, isn't it too dangerous? "What are you planning to do?"

  Wu Hui held the card with two fingers and waved it in front of him, "Since someone wants me to go, there must be something they want me to see. If I don't go, wouldn't that be disappointing them?"

  Zhang Qiang felt that Wu Hui had made a very bad decision, "You don't even know who the sender is, and this place is in the suburbs. You really want to go? It's very dangerous, I disagree."

  Wu Hui pushed his glasses and put the card on the table, "If he really wants me to go to that place, even if I don't go this time, he'll have another chance next time, there's always a way to make me go."

  Zhang Qiang saw that he couldn't persuade him, so he proposed a condition: "If you want to go, then I'll go with you; otherwise, I won't agree."

  Since the last thing, Wu Hui found that Zhang Qiang was more and more not abiding by their agreement. In that case, he didn't want to say anything else either. "Alright."

  Wu Hui agreed that he could follow along, Zhang Qiang happily grabbed the keys and stood at the entrance with Wu Hui's jacket, waiting for him. It had been a long time since they last took action together, and he really missed the old feeling.

  Wu Hui didn't let Zhang Qiang follow him, he was worried that he would be in danger. However, five years have passed and it seems that he overthought it. After the previous two cases, he found that not having Zhang Qiang by his side was really inconvenient.

  Already accustomed to the tacit understanding and cooperation between two people, it takes a long time to get used to partnering with others.

  Wu Hui reluctantly walked over, Zhang Qiang helped him put on his coat, extremely flattering, afraid that Wu Hui would change his mind and not take him out the next second.

  The two arrived at the underground garage, Zhang Qiang naturally walked to the driver's seat, and Wu Hui sat in the passenger seat. In the past, whenever the two went out, it was always like this, no one said anything, but it was just so natural.

  Zhang Qiang was in charge of driving, while Wu Hui sat in the car and thought about the case, the two cooperating tacitly.

  As soon as Zhang Qiang went out, he took out the card with the address written on it, entered the address in the navigation system, reversed the car out of the garage, drove onto the main road and headed towards the place indicated on the card.

  Zhang Qiang kept observing Wu Hui from time to time, after all today is Christmas, worried that he would do something crazy again, so today no matter what must take good care of him.

  Wu Hui stared out the window, lost in thought. At this moment, a small snowflake slowly floated down from the sky and landed on their car window. Wu Hui leaned forward to take a closer look at what it was.

  When he leaned his head against the window, I saw clearly that it was indeed a snowflake, but soon melted.

  "Is it snowing?" Zhang Qiang asked while driving and looking at Wu Hui's movements, he also saw the falling white dots.

  Wu Hui nodded, "En, it seems like it's going to snow." He opened the car window and the cold wind outside instantly filled the car, causing Zhang Qiang to shiver.

  Right after that, snowflakes fell one by one, more and more, very soon the sky was filled with snowflakes, it seems this snowfall will be quite big.

  Five years ago, it was also a heavy snowfall. Three people originally planned to go out and build a snowman, but unexpectedly, on that day, the fate of three people underwent an earth-shaking change. Thinking back to what happened at that time, Zhang Qiang's heart still has lingering fear.

  Because he had gone through such a terrible experience himself, he was more worried about Jingran, and didn't know if she could still hold on after all these years.

  It's been only half an hour, and the car has entered the suburbs. There are fewer people here, and it's not as congested. Zhang Qiang stopped the car by the side of the road. The navigation shows that the residential area is nearby, but he can't see it anywhere.

  Maybe this community is really too old, the navigation has already forgotten it. Wu Hui asked Zhang Qiang to look ahead and see if the navigation shows that it's here, then this community must be around here.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, after walking out for a short distance, I saw several dilapidated buildings that seemed to be on the verge of collapse. This should be considered a dangerous building and should be demolished.

  Wu Hui told Zhang Qiang to find a place to park the car, he got out of the car first to take a look, and Zhang Qiang reminded him not to run around alone, but to wait for him to come over.

  I didn't expect that Lincheng still had such a small district, if you don't look carefully, it would be mistaken for a dilapidated building. This is a five-story building, from the scattered windows, there are still signs of people living here.

  There is a family's anti-theft window that is on the verge of collapse, with only the lower right corner still connected to the window frame. This year's heavy snow should break off the last bit of connection.

  Looking at this old and dilapidated building, I suppose the people living inside must be some elderly folks. Young people have probably moved to the city and bought new houses. Some of these elderly folks have lived here their whole lives and are used to it, so it would be very difficult to get them to move out.

  The main gate of the community is old and rusty, with rust spots all over it. It's estimated that this gate hasn't been locked in many years. There are no security guards or surveillance cameras. The surrounding area has no buildings either, making this place extremely dangerous.

  Zhang Qiang finally found a place to park the car, and quickly ran to Wu Hui's side. Looking around at the surrounding buildings, he furrowed his brow, having a very bad premonition about this place.

  "Go on in." Wu Hui saw Zhang Qiang arrive, and together they walked inside. The residential area was old and dilapidated, but the building numbers could still be vaguely seen from the buildings.

  At the very edge, in front of a building, Wu Hui stopped, this should be Building 17, the courtyard walls surrounding the neighborhood had long since collapsed, wanting to enter this neighborhood was an effortless thing.

  As they entered the building of Unit 1, a musty smell hit them in the face. Zhang Qiang suspected that this place was not really habitable and wondered if someone had played a prank on them by bringing them here.

  The handrail of the stairs is covered with dust, and no one has wiped it clean for a long time. A thick layer of dust has accumulated on the stairs, and there are black things scattered all over the place, probably accumulated over the years.

  "Arrived." Wu Hui stood in front of a door, this was the address on the card: Building 17, Unit 1, Room 502.