Reborn a day later, I emptied my enemy's possessions beforehand.

Li Guoqiang thanked him and drove over.

Sure enough, after turning right at the third intersection, you'll see a three-story villa.

The exterior walls are covered with light yellow tiles, the porch pillars are Roman columns, the wrought iron gate is half open, and a few withered leaves have fallen on the steps at the entrance.

The branches of that big locust tree stretched out and shaded half of the courtyard. The area under the tree was empty, without even a stone bench.

Li Guoqiang parked the car on the side of the road and got out with Wang Lei.

The two walked to the wrought iron gate and looked inside.

The courtyard was paved with bluestone slabs, and a few weeds grew out of the cracks between the slabs. There should have been a small flower bed or a stone table and benches in the center of the courtyard, but now there was nothing there, only the bare stone slab ground.

"Zhou Fuxiang!" Li Guoqiang shouted at the top of his lungs.

No one answered.

He called out again, louder: "Zhou Fuxiang! Are you home?"

The courtyard was quiet, except for the occasional bark of a dog in the distance.

Wang Lei reached out and pushed the wrought iron gate. The gate wasn't locked and creaked open.

The two went inside, and sure enough, there was nothing in the yard, not even a flowerpot.

Li Guoqiang strode to the front door of the villa. The door was ajar, leaving a gap about the width of a hand.

He reached out and knocked on the door, then called out again, but there was still no response.

Li Guoqiang and Wang Lei exchanged a glance, then pushed open the door and went inside.

The main room was large, but empty.

There was no furniture, no appliances, no paintings, not even curtains.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, illuminating the bare cement floor and making the whole room almost blindingly bright.

A person lay motionless on the floor directly opposite the door, dressed in a dark Tang suit, with gray hair, face up.

Li Guoqiang walked over quickly, squatted down, and reached out to check the man's breathing—he was breathing, steadily and evenly.

He then looked at the man's face. His complexion was normal, not bluish or purplish, and he did not appear to be poisoned or suffering from a sudden illness.

He reached out and nudged the man's shoulder, not with much force, but enough to wake a sleeping person.

"Grandpa, wake up."

The person did not react.

Wang Lei also squatted down and helped to push him, his voice louder than Li Guoqiang's: "Old man! Wake up!"

The man's eyelids twitched.

It moved again, and then slowly opened its eyes.

His eyes were initially unfocused and cloudy, as if he had just been dragged out of a very deep sleep, and it took several seconds for them to slowly focus.

He saw the two policemen in uniform squatting in front of him, his mouth opened slightly, his body jerked up, and he sat up, supporting himself on his arms.

"You—you're police officers?" The old man's voice was dry and hoarse, his lips were cracked and chapped, and his eyes swept back and forth between the two men's faces with a bewildered unease.

"We're from Wolong Town Police Station." Li Guoqiang remained squatting, trying to keep his tone calm. "Sir, are you Zhou Fuxiang?"

"I am Zhou Fuxiang." The old man nodded, his gaze sweeping around as if looking for someone. "What do you want with me?"

"We received a notification to come and check on your family's situation," Li Guoqiang said, not directly mentioning the case, but asking a question first.

"Why are you sleeping on the floor? It's so cold there."

Zhou Fuxiang paused for a moment, looked down at the hard cement floor where he was sitting, and then looked up at his surroundings.

His brows furrowed, his mouth opened, and his expression changed from blank to confused, and from confused to even more confused.

His lips moved a few times, his voice muffled as he spoke:

"How did I end up on the ground? I remember just talking to Hai Bing..."

He suddenly raised his head, his gaze sweeping urgently across the entire main room, as if searching for someone:

"Where's Hai Bing? Where's my son? Where is he?"

Li Guoqiang and Wang Lei exchanged a glance but neither answered.

Zhou Fuxiang's gaze swept around the empty main room, and suddenly he seemed to be struck by something, his whole body stiffening abruptly.

His pupils dilated, his mouth opened even wider, and his voice suddenly rose eight octaves, becoming so shrill it was unlike anything an old man could produce.

"Where are my things? Where's my sofa? Where's my coffee table? Where's my TV?"

He suddenly got up from the ground, moving faster than a man in his seventies. He staggered and almost fell, but managed to steady himself by holding onto the wall.

His gaze swept from the main room to the dining area—which was empty.

Looking from the dining room towards the kitchen—through the open door you can see the kitchen is also empty; the cabinets, refrigerator, and stove are all gone.

"Where are my things!" Zhou Fuxiang's voice had completely changed, becoming shrill and loud, with a trembling tone of disbelief and near collapse.

He stumbled up the stairs, and Li Guoqiang and Wang Lei quickly followed.

Second floor, master bedroom.

The bed is gone, the wardrobe is gone, the bedside table is gone, the curtains are gone.

Zhou Fuxiang stood at the door, looking at the empty room. He felt completely drained, his legs went weak, and he had to hold onto the door frame to keep from falling.

He then turned and rushed towards the dressing room—

His clothes were gone, his shoes were gone, and all his collection of pocket watches, silver coins, and jade pendants were gone.

He then rushed towards the storage room—

The door was open, and the inside was completely empty. All the cabinets on the three walls were gone, and not a single cordyceps, wild ginseng, deer antler, or lingzhi mushroom remained.

"Where are my medicinal herbs!" Zhou Fuxiang's voice was already choked with sobs, tears welling up in his cloudy eyes and streaming down his wrinkled face.

"I spent over 500,000 yuan on that wild ginseng! Over 500,000 yuan! I couldn't bear to eat it! It's all gone! All gone!"

He stumbled downstairs, rushed out of the villa's gate, and ran into the yard.

The spot in the yard where his silver-gray BMW 5 Series used to be parked is now empty. Most of the dust on the ground has been blown away by the wind, leaving only shallow tire tracks.

Zhou Fuxiang stood in the empty parking space, his legs went weak, and he sat down on the ground, bursting into tears.

"My car! My BMW! Who stole my car too!"

Li Guoqiang and Wang Lei stood behind him, looking at each other in bewilderment.

Li Guoqiang squatted down, trying to keep his voice calm, but the seriousness in his tone remained undiminished:

"Zhou Fuxiang, stop crying. Think back, when was the last time you saw anything in your house? Who came before you fell asleep?"

Zhou Fuxiang's crying subsided a little, but he was still sobbing, his shoulders heaving.

He wiped away his tears and snot with his sleeve, looked up at Li Guoqiang, and said in a broken voice:

"My...my son...Haibing...he just came by...he said he had something urgent to tell me..."

I told my friends to leave first... and then... and then I don't remember anything... and when I woke up, this was it..."

Li Guoqiang frowned and asked, "Just now, exactly when?"