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

"Who hit me! Who hit me!"

Xia Guilan's voice was shrill and trembling, and tears streamed down her face.

Before Li Zhigang could answer, his gaze swept across the entire living room.

His mouth opened, and the wounds on his swollen face were pulled by the change in his expression, making him wince in pain, but he didn't care about the pain—the living room was empty.

The sofa, coffee table, TV, stereo, and the mahogany display shelf he bought for over 200,000 yuan—all gone.

All the porcelain, jade, and ornaments he had collected over the years on the display shelf were gone.

"What... what's going on?" Li Zhigang suddenly stood up, staggered, and almost fell.

He stumbled into the dining room—the table was gone, the chairs were gone.

I rushed to the kitchen—the cabinets were gone, the refrigerator was gone.

I rushed to the bedroom—the bed was gone, the wardrobe was gone, the safe was gone.

His safe! It contained gold bars, cash, and those important contracts and documents!

"Call the police! Call the police now!" Li Zhigang's voice changed, becoming sharp and urgent, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Xia Guilan had already searched the ground for her phone, but couldn't find it.

Her phone is missing, and Li Zhigang's phone is missing too.

The two searched every corner of the living room and bedroom, but found nothing.

"Where's the car? Is the car here?" Xia Guilan suddenly remembered something and pulled Li Zhigang towards the back door.

The two men rushed into the garage—the black Audi A8 was gone, and the white BMW X3 was gone too.

Li Zhigang stood motionless in the empty garage, like a stone statue.

Xia Guilan stood beside him, covering her mouth with both hands, tears streaming down her face through her fingers.

"Let's go find the security guard to borrow a cell phone." Li Zhigang's voice suddenly became calm, abnormally calm, like a stagnant pool.

The two people walked out of the villa through the back door, crossed the yard, walked out of the wrought iron gate, and walked along the road in the community towards the main gate.

They encountered several neighbors doing their morning exercise on the street. When they saw the two of them, they all looked at them with surprise, but no one went up to ask them anything.

Upon arriving at the entrance of the residential compound, Li Zhigang borrowed a phone from the security guard and dialed 110.

……

Chengbei Branch.

The phone on Captain Fang's desk kept ringing.

He sat in a chair with a notebook open in front of him, covered in dense writing.

With each phone call he received, he added a stroke to his notebook, and with each stroke, his brow furrowed more deeply.

Zhou Hailong, male, in his forties, lived in the Emerald Mansion villa in the eastern part of the city. His house was emptied, he had injuries, and his mobile phone and car were stolen.

Zhang Wenbin, male, about fifty years old, lived in Villa No. 1, Binjiang, Chengnan. His house was emptied and he suffered severe injuries to his lower body. Captain Fang underlined this word. His cell phone and car were also lost.

An Baojun, male, in his fifties, lived in a villa in Xiangxieliyuan, west of the city. His home was emptied, both legs were broken, and his mobile phone and car were lost.

Li Zhigang and Xia Guilan, a married couple, lived in a townhouse in Fuli Garden, north of the city. Their home was emptied, and both of them had swollen faces with obvious slap marks. Their cell phones and car were also missing.

Captain Fang closed the notebook, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

Four new reports were filed, adding to the previous reports from Sun Guiying, Wang Jinshan, Zhao Shuzhen, Zhou Dongsheng, Zhang Lijuan, Sun Guiwu, Ma Hongxia, Sun Guixiang, and Liu Hongbo, bringing the total to—he silently added in his mind—nine.

Nine houses were emptied.

All nine victims claimed to have seen the same person before the incident: Zhou Haibing.

After meeting Zhou Haibing, all nine victims inexplicably lost consciousness, slept for a day and a night, and when they woke up, their homes had been emptied.

All the money from the nine victims was transferred to Sun Guiying's card, and then from Sun Guiying's card to the company accounts of Hao Yuzhu, Kong Zhiqiang, and Liu Changhe.

Seven of the nine victims sustained injuries.

The methods used to punish those who were slapped, whipped with belts, had their legs broken, or were even castrated were increasingly ruthless.

Captain Fang opened his eyes, sat up straight, picked up the phone on the table, and dialed the emergency call center number:

"The other victims who came to report the crime later were taken directly to the main conference room."

Everyone was waiting in the main conference room.

He put down the phone, took a deep breath, stood up, and walked out of the office.

In less than an hour, the conference room was full of people.

Sun Guiying sat on a row of chairs against the wall, her face swollen, barefoot in men's slippers, head down and silent.

Wang Jinshan sat next to her, his face also swollen, his arms crossed over his chest, his face ashen.

Zhao Shuzhen sat on the other side of Wang Jinshan, her face still wet with tears, her hands twisting a crumpled tissue.

Zhou Dongsheng and Zhang Lijuan sat in the opposite row.

Zhou Dongsheng was still wearing that tattered T-shirt, and the scars all over his body looked particularly shocking under the fluorescent lights. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and remained motionless.

Zhang Lijuan sat next to him, wearing a coat she had borrowed from the police station—a policewoman had taken off her own coat and given it to her because she thought it was inappropriate for her to wear a nightgown—she clutched the hem of the coat in her hands, her eyes red and swollen.

Sun Guiwu and Ma Hongxia, a married couple, sat in another row.

Sun Guiwu's injuries were no less than Zhou Dongsheng's; his T-shirt was tattered, and his exposed skin was covered in purplish-blue marks.

His eyes were bruised, and there was a scab of blood at the corner of his mouth. He looked like he had just been carried off the boxing ring.

Ma Hongxia sat next to him. Her face was unharmed, but her complexion was as white as paper, her lips were bloodless, and her hands were trembling.

Sun Guixiang and Liu Hongbo, a married couple, sat together.

Sun Guixiang's face was swollen like a pig's head, and although Liu Hongbo had no injuries, his face looked extremely ugly.

The door to the large conference room opened again, and Zhou Hailong walked in.

His injuries were even more severe than Sun Guiwu's. His clothes were tattered and torn. When he walked, his arms hung stiffly at his sides, and he dared not move them, probably because the injury to his shoulder was too painful.

He also had injuries on his face—a bruise on his left cheekbone and a cut at the corner of his mouth.

But the most shocking thing was the ligature mark on his neck, a dark red ring, as if someone had strangled him with something.

As soon as Zhou Hailong entered the room, he saw Sun Guiying.

He paused for a moment, then strode over, his voice loud and urgent:

"Sister-in-law? What are you doing here? What happened to your face?"

Sun Guiying looked up and saw her younger brother covered in wounds. Her eyes immediately welled up with tears, and her voice became hoarse and strained:

"Hailong, did you see your older brother yesterday too?"

Zhou Hailong's expression changed.

His lips trembled, and his voice suddenly dropped, as if someone had grabbed his throat: "Big brother? Big brother...he went to find you too?"

"I've looked." Sun Guiying's voice was very soft, as if it were drifting from a great distance.

"Then I fell asleep, and when I woke up, this is what happened to me."