17 night market

Not that I held out a lot of hope but when the man called Chen Sulan, who was Ling Bingchen and Xiao Jie's roommate they informed, came back telling us that he was last seen eating ice cream with me in the afternoon, a twinge of disappointment hit my guts.

Hacker's relationship with his parents has always been out and out violent. I had told him to passively rebel like me but Hacker was too straightforward to lie or manipulate. So running away was common, getting beaten was common and so was being MIA but he was always reachable. Even if his phone got taken away, he would make it a point to leave a message in game, or even send a work mail through the PC in his room. Hacker was someone who hated wallowing in his sorrows alone; he always called someone to accompany him. So I know something very drastic must have happened to him for him to go off alone this time.

This was the moment that I realized that we had done everything we could think off. We were out of all ideas, we had checked every place we could think off, we had contacted everyone but it was useless. He was nowhere. Sheer panic started building up inside me as I tried my best to stop myself but my heart just seemed to keep running forward and I couldn't keep up.

My mind started becoming dizzy as images of Hacker getting killed, kidnapped, hurt kept attacking my brain. Visions of worst case scenarios coming true kept digging into my conscience as I gasped. The sound was loud enough for Ling Bingchen to turn to me. He held up a hand to check what was wrong and I immediately moved back, avoiding him but staring at him through blurry, tear stained eyes.

"Qiu Yu." His voice seemed like it was coming from too far.

"Qiu Yu, look at me." He said his hands still suspended in air. "Don't panic, it'll be over. I'm going to touch you now, okay? Look at me! Look at my hands! It's empty, okay? I'm just going to pat you so you can calm down."

Somehow what he was saying reached my head as I tried my best to understand him and let him help me. But it seemed like it won't stop. My chest seemed so heavy and something seemed like it was pulling me down towards a friendly kind of darkness; a kind of darkness that would take everything away from, all my sadness and pain.

"it's okay, it's okay. Breathe. Remember to breathe. In and out, in and out." Ling Bingchen patted my back with on hand, pushing Chief away from his other, who was looming over me worriedly. He shook his head at her.

"Do you want to go out?" I shook my head. "Talk?" I shook my head again.

"Okay, then I'm just going to hug you and we'll stay like this." He said while turning his body more towards me, the hand on my back moved up to my head to tug it towards his chest, wrapping me up as he shushed me.

We were shivering, or was it just me? I don't know but the vibrations kept on coming and sobs suddenly racked up my body as I hid further inside his chest holding on to his shirt tightly. I was ashamed, angry, sad, I don't know. I had always been able to stop things from escalating but it got too much. I had never had an attack in front of anyone before. I always made it a point to run away before it got out of hand but what can you do in a situation where you are not the one at stake but someone else is?

What if I did something wrong and that is why Hacker could not tell me where he is and what happened to him?

"Did I hurt him?" I asked, hyperventilating. "I hurt him, didn't I? I was wrong. I was wrong."

"You didn't. I promise. It's okay. It'll pass."

"I'm stuck. I'm stuck." My breath was short and only seemed to get shorter.

"You're not. This is temporary. Breathe, Yuyu."

Ling Bingchen was so nice. His body was warm. His hands were warm. His breathe was warm. His words were warm. He was warm and his warmth was so nice. I didn't deserve it.

I don't know how long we stayed like this but when I came to, I realized the flurry of emotions had passed and that I was still and staring into nothingness still wrapped in his embrace.

"Do you want to drink your tea?" Ling Bingchen asked, his chest vibrating with his voice. I nodded my head, letting go of him as I took the cup from him.

I looked down focusing on my tea as I avoided looking at the others who were around the table and had witnessed everything right now. They probably had questions too but didn't know how to ask without sounding rude about it. Nor could they be insensitive about it and ignore it to move on to talk about the original problem. So an awkward silence ensued until it was broken by the store bell jingling as someone walked in.

Zhao Jingchen was a man who I didn't have a face to put to until he walked up and introduced himself.

"Are you Ju Linping's friends? I'm Zhao Jingchen, the owner of Zephyr Esports."

"Yes, Mr. Zhao. I am Lian Qian, the one who called you." Zhao Jingchen nodded at Lian Qian before asking, "What's the situation now? And where are his parents?"

���Where could they be? Must be at home thinking about another way to make Hacker into their gold-digging copy." Chief muttered sulkily.

"Where's the laptop?"

"Here." I said, opening the bag to take the laptop out.

"I can't find him but I can trace his phone's location. I hope he's stupid enough to keep the device on him." Zhao Jingchen said as he took the seat Lian Qian emptied. His words were like god's miracle as new hope rose inside all three of us as we looked at each other, our eyes shining anew because we all knew that Hacker WAS that stupid.

We all stayed quiet staring at Zhao Jingchen as his hands flew over the keyboard. In between he picked up Lanyard's tea and drank from it. Lanyard went to remind him that she had drunk from it but Chief gave her a look which made her stop.

"Here it is."

The second he said it, we all just rushed out. Chief snatched the laptop from him running out towards the parking lot where the car was. Ling Bingchen was sitting on the outer side so I would have to wait for him to give me way, so I simply stepped on the table jumping out and running after Chief and Lanyard.

"Wait for us you can't drive in this condition!" Xiao Jie screamed at my back.

"Wait I'll go after them. You guys pay." Ling Bingchen said before turning to Zhao Jingchen," Did you bring a car or should I take mine out?"

"I drove."

"Wait I want to go with," Xiao Jie stepped up in front of Ling Bingchen.

"Now is not the time. I'll call you, stay with Sulan."

Ling Bingchen caught up to me taking the car key from my hand.

"Wen Lili, Lian Qian, sit in Zhao Jingchen's car." He shouted gesturing to the car off the side where Zhao Jingchen was already opening the door.

"Where's your car?" He turned to me. I led him to the parking lot and we quickly drove out to follow Zhao Jingchen closely.

The car moved steadily and as I watched the familiar roads and the landmarks pass by I realized that we were going towards my house.

Suddenly I remembered that we had gone to the night market by the lake near my house just last week and had fallen in love with a small stall that sold kebabs. We had all loudly promised that we would come back often, drunk from the dozens of beer we drank. The huge hangover the next day had become the most distinct memory so I had forgotten the night market but it seems like Hacker hadn't.

Stupid, I hit myself on the forehead softly which made Ling Bingchen turn and give me a weird look.

The night market was crowded with people screaming and laughing. We went straight towards the stall where he had eaten the barbeque. The stall overlooked the lake and people sat in the courtyard or stood near the railings protecting people from falling into the water.

And as we rushed forward towards the small table at the corner where we sat the other day, as we had thought, sat Hacker with a plate of kebabs and a dozen cans of beer, bleeding from his head.