I started by watching videos, and I chose 10,000 combat power.

Luo Fei found his carriage and seat and put his suitcase in the overhead luggage rack.

I sat down quietly in a window seat.

The high-speed train started smoothly and accelerated, and the city scenery outside the window began to rush past.

Inside the carriage, some people were chatting, some were looking at their phones, and some were resting with their eyes closed.

Luo Fei felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.

He stood upright with his hands on his knees.

His gaze fell on the window, his eyes unfocused. What flashed before his eyes was not the scenery, but his father's desperate cries on the phone and the fear that his sister might be experiencing.

He forced himself to think and sort out the clues.

Yunhai City, a border tourist city, borders Myanmar and has a complex situation.

The younger sister and her classmates, four young girls, were clearly the targets.

He tried using his new phone to search online for information about scam parks in Myanmar and cross-border kidnappings.

The news and posts that popped up were shocking, depicting hellish scenes, making his breathing heavier and heavier, almost crushing the fragile second-hand phone in his hand.

He quickly let go of his hand, placed the phone on the small table in front of him, and swiped the screen with only one finger.

The three-hour drive was agonizing, every minute of it was excruciating.

The bullet train finally pulled slowly into Longhai City Station.

Luo Fei, carrying his suitcase, got off the train and exited the station with the flow of people.

Longhai City is much smaller than Jiangcheng, where he works, and the station square looks somewhat old.

Without stopping, he went straight to the long-distance bus station next door and bought a ticket for the next bus to his hometown, Qingyang County.

It was another bumpy journey.

As night fell, the bus finally stopped at the county bus station.

Luo Fei got off the bus, hailed a motorcycle waiting for passengers outside the station, and told them the name of Liuxi Village.

The motorcycle sputtered away from the county town and turned onto the rural road.

The motorcycle stopped at the entrance of the village.

Luo Fei paid the money, picked up his suitcase, and walked towards the slightly old two-story self-built house at the end of the village.

In the yard, the chickens my mother raised were pacing around.

The door to the house was wide open, and the interior was dimly lit as the lights were off.

Luo Fei's heart sank.

He strode into the main room.

The father, Luo Jianguo, sat blankly on the old wooden sofa, his hands holding his head, his shoulders slumped, as if he had aged ten years overnight.

The mother, Li Xiulan, sat on a small stool next to her, her eyes red and swollen like peaches, clutching a wad of soaked tissues in her hand, silently shedding tears, her body still trembling slightly.

Hearing footsteps, the two of them looked up at the same time.

Upon seeing that it was Luo Fei, the mother burst into tears and staggered to her feet before rushing over.

The father also stood up abruptly, his lips trembling, but he couldn't utter a word.

"Dad, Mom." Luo Fei put down his suitcase and quickly helped his mother up.

His mother was not very strong, but he was still very careful, afraid that he might hurt her accidentally.

Feeling his mother's frail body trembling violently and her desperate cries, Luo Fei felt as if his heart was being repeatedly cut by a knife.

"Xiaofei... Xiaofei, you're finally back... Yingying, she... my Yingying..." The mother was incoherent, crying so hard she almost passed out.

"Mom, don't cry, don't cry, I'm back. It's okay, we'll find a way." Luo Fei gently patted his mother's back, trying to keep his voice soft.

He looked at his father.

My father, Luo Jianguo, was an honest and simple farmer who didn't talk much.

"Dad," Luo Fei helped his mother sit down, then turned to his father, "Give me your phone."

The father seemed to be startled awake, and nodded hurriedly, shakily taking his phone out of his pocket.

Luo Fei took the phone, opened the call log, and quickly found the number that had called his father.

He entered the number into his phone's memo app. He handed the phone back to his father and then asked...

"Besides asking for money, what else did they say on the phone? Did they mention a specific location or any other information?"

He tried to grasp any possible clue.

The father shook his head painfully: "No...no, just those few words, demanding 500,000 yuan, three days, no calling the police...and then there was Xiaoying crying and screaming...and other girls were crying nearby, and men were cursing..."

The mother couldn't help but sob again.

Luo Fei closed his eyes, suppressing the surging violence in his heart.

"The money at home..." he asked.

The father said dejectedly, "All our savings accounts and cards combined don't even amount to 80,000. Even if we sold all the grain we had and those two pigs... it still wouldn't be enough! 500,000... in three days... isn't that going to kill us?!"

An atmosphere of despair once again permeated the simple main room.

Luo Fei took a deep breath; he knew now was not the time to panic.

He must become the pillar of this family.

"Dad, Mom, listen to me."

"Don't worry about the money, I'll handle it. What you need to do now is take care of yourselves and wait for news at home. If that number calls again, answer it and try to delay as much as possible. Just say that you're raising the money and it will take time. Don't provoke them."

"Xiaofei, how... how are you going to solve this? Where are you going to get 500,000 yuan?" The father was both anxious and suspicious.

"I have my own way." Luo Fei didn't explain, nor could he explain it clearly. "You have to trust me. Now, give me the cash and bank cards at home, and I'll go to the county police station. Although they warned us not to call the police, we can't just do nothing. At least... we need to let the police know about this situation and see if they can find out anything."

He needs to give his parents hope.

At the same time, he does need to rely on the police's information channels.

The mother walked shakily into the house and took out several thousand yuan wrapped in an old handkerchief and the family's bank cards.

His father told him the password.

Luo Fei accepted it without hesitation and put it into his wallet.

"I'm going to the county now. You stay home and wait for my call," Luo Fei instructed.

"Xiaofei, you...you have to be careful!" His mother grabbed his hand, tears welling up in her eyes again.

"Mom, don't worry." Luo Fei patted his mother's hand, forcing a reassuring smile, though the smile was incredibly stiff.

He put down his suitcase, carried a change of clothes, and without lingering, turned around, rode his family's motorcycle, and left home.

They soon arrived in the county town.

He knew that calling the police might not be very useful; in cross-border cases, clues were scarce, time was of the essence, and the police often lacked the resources to handle the situation.

But he had to take this step.

In order to obtain even the slightest bit of useful information.

Twenty minutes later, he parked the motorcycle in front of the county public security bureau.

Luo Fei went inside.

The duty room was brightly lit, but there weren't many people, making it seem rather deserted.

A young police officer sat behind the call center.

Luo Fei walked over.

"Hello, this is to report a crime."

The police officer looked up: "What is it?"

"My sister, Luo Ying, was suspected of being kidnapped and taken to Myanmar while traveling in Yunhai City. This afternoon, the kidnappers called my father, demanding a ransom of 500,000 yuan." Luo Fei said succinctly, while taking out his ID card and showing the police the kidnappers' number on his phone.

The young police officer's expression turned serious, and he immediately sat up straight: "Kidnapping? Cross-border?" He took the ID card and phone, glanced at them quickly, and said, "Wait a minute, this is a serious matter. I'll go find our captain."

He picked up the internal phone and whispered a few words.

A short while later, a middle-aged police officer in his forties, with a serious expression and wearing a police uniform, came out from inside.

"Did you file the report? Tell me the details." The middle-aged police officer glanced at Luo Fei and gestured for him to sit down on the chair next to him.

Luo Fei sat down and recounted the situation his father had described on the phone, including when his sister went on vacation, when she went missing, the content of the kidnappers' call, and the threats.

The middle-aged police officer listened while quickly taking notes in a notebook, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"What about your sister's classmates' parents? Have you contacted them? Have you called the police?" the officer asked.

"There's no way to contact them, and I don't know the specifics, but the kidnappers mentioned them on the phone, so they must have been taken hostage together," Luo Fei replied.

The officer nodded, his expression grave: "The situation in Yunhai City is quite complicated. It borders Myanmar, has a long border, and is difficult to manage. Cases of kidnapping and extortion targeting tourists, especially young women, and even trafficking them to scam parks in northern Myanmar or worse, do occur."

His words sent a chill down Luo Fei's spine. Although he had suspected it before, the confirmation from the police made him even more apprehensive.

"This number," the officer pointed to the phone, "we'll immediately try to contact the Yunhai City police to assist in locating it. But you should be prepared, this kind of number is very likely an untraceable virtual number, or a disposable phone number. Even if we find the general area, in Myanmar... there's very little we can do, mainly through diplomatic channels and international police cooperation, but that takes time, and... there's a lot of uncertainty."

Luo Fei's heart sank lower and lower.

He knew the officer was telling the truth.

Time was their greatest shortage of resources. The kidnappers only gave them three days.

"Then... what about my sister's phone? It's her own phone, it must have been turned on before. Can we use her phone number to locate her last known location? Even if it's within Yunhai City, that would narrow down the search area," Luo Fei asked, clinging to his last hope.

The officer glanced at him, seemingly assessing his emotions and intentions.

"We can try to get this information from the telecommunications company. But again, if the phone has been turned off, the SIM card removed, or even destroyed, the last location information might be from before she went missing, which wouldn't be very useful. Moreover, even if the location is somewhere near the border in Yunhai City, we can't be completely sure that she was taken from there; the kidnappers might be creating a diversion."

The police officer's words were cautious and realistic, shattering Luo Fei's last shred of hope.

The conventional approach offers little hope.

"Officers, please do your best." Luo Fei's voice was a little dry. "My parents are on the verge of a breakdown. Any clue, no matter how small, is crucial to us. This is my contact information." He wrote down his phone number and his sister's phone number.

The officer took the note and nodded. "We'll report it immediately and initiate the relevant procedures. You should go home and wait for news, and calm your family down. Remember, if the kidnappers contact us again, be sure to notify us promptly, and try to stall and negotiate as we've already told you; don't try to fight back. As for the ransom... well, you should be prepared for that too."

That last sentence carried a deep sense of helplessness.

Luo Fei understood.

"Thank you," he said, his voice devoid of emotion.

Then, he turned around and walked out of the police station lobby.

Night had fallen, and there were few pedestrians on the streets of the county town.

The streetlight cast his lonely shadow on the ground.

The police response was exactly what he expected.

Reason, procedures, restrictions, time... none of these can solve the imminent crisis he faces.

You can't rely on others.

Conventional methods won't work.

He slowly raised his right hand and clenched his fist.

His eyes turned completely cold.

Take out your phone and open the ticketing app.

Destination: Yunhai City.

The earliest flight is tomorrow morning.

I pressed the buy button.

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