The missing item was precisely his military shorts.
"Wife, where did my shorts go?" Qin Jian called out from the balcony.
"Missing shorts? How is that possible? They were still here last night!" An Hao said, "Have you checked if the wind blew them downstairs?"
"Impossible!" Qin Jian asserted, "The wind was blowing from the Northwest last night; even if clothes had fallen, they could not have fallen downstairs. They should have fallen onto the balcony."
Even if they had fallen downstairs, it was so early; there were no people coming and going below, the shorts should still be down there.
Qin Jian leaned over to look downstairs and after scanning around, he didn't spot his shorts.
"This is really strange," An Hao came out of the kitchen, "Don't tell me we've got a ghost in the house?"
"Forget it, it's just a pair of shorts. If they're lost, they're lost. Let's not look for them anymore." In any case, he received plenty from the military; missing one pair didn't matter.