Operation Red Book

"Dad? Mom?"

Joshua looked at the two blurry figures in front of him and called out hesitantly.

The figure turned around and the picture gradually zoomed in on Joshua, allowing him to see his parents' faces clearly.

The distorted world around him was changing, and the scene gradually became familiar. This was Joshua's bedroom in the 21st century.

On the narrow wooden bed was an orange couch, and on the soft carpet were two large piles of books, all detective novels from a series.

The wooden desk was cluttered, with a laptop playing light music, resting on top of the new textbooks issued by the school.

There was a family photo hanging on the wall, showing Joshua, about five years old, grinning with his mouth open.

On either side of Joshua stood his father, who also had flaxen curly hair, and his mother, who had long straight hair and wore black-framed glasses.

Joshua looked at the family photo on the wall, then turned back to look at the couple smiling gently. He blinked in disbelief, and sadness welled up in his heart.

Joshua's vision blurred, tears had already filled his eyes. The vision in his left eye suddenly brightened, followed by his right eye. By the time he realized it, he was already in tears.

"Josh! Come here and hug your mommy!"

Joshua's mother's gentle voice flowed into Joshua's heart like a stream. He raised the corners of his mouth and ran over happily.

Instead of the warm and strong embrace as imagined, Joshua penetrated the bodies of the two people. The characters and scenes quickly distorted and deformed, and turned into the living room at home.

It was snowing heavily outside the window. The house was spacious and bright, with Christmas decorations everywhere.

Two old men appeared behind Joshua. They looked sad, with frowns on their faces. Tears rolled down their cheeks, wetting Joshua's clothes.

Joshua's mother hugged Joshua and kissed his forehead.

Joshua noticed that his mother's eyes and nose were red, and she was obviously trying hard to suppress her sadness. His eyes also turned red.

"Josh, mom and dad have to leave. I'm sorry I can't spend Christmas with you this time."

"It's okay, Mom." Joshua replied hoarsely, "You and Dad have already given me several gifts. Thank you."

Joshua's mother smiled, picked up the suitcase in her hand, turned around, wiped her tears, and left the door without looking back.

"Mom! Dad! I miss you so much!"

Joshua suddenly broke down and let his tears flow. He ran towards the closed door, but couldn't open it.

Watching his parents going away, Joshua turned the door handle more anxiously, tears falling one by one, and soon he burst into tears.

The door still did not open, but instead distorted its shape, gradually moving away and becoming blurred in front of Joshua's eyes.

The scene changed to a junior high school, and Joshua immediately realized that this was the principal's office.

An angry man appeared in front of Joshua. He pushed the door open heavily, rushed over and punched Joshua in the face.

Joshua's head was hit to the side and blood was flowing slowly from his nose.

"You said my son was blackmailing you for money? Ridiculous! My son has more money than I can count!"

The man's rough voice sounded in his ears, but he didn't hear it clearly.

Joshua felt his head buzzing. He opened his mouth but said nothing.

The man wanted to continue beating him, but the principal, who was sitting on a leather chair, hugged him around the waist.

The principal flattered, "Minister! Minister! I'll take care of it. Please take a rest. Don't tire yourself out!"

At this time, Joshua's grandmother also opened the door indignantly.

She walked around the office with a sullen face, raised the cane in her hand, and hit the man and the principal again and again.

"You bastards, how dare you hit my grandson? I've never hit him before!"

The man and the principal didn't dare to fight back. They could only run away while cursing Joshua and grandma.

"Expel him! Expel him!"

"Yes, expel him!"

The principal followed the man's lead, and after he shouted "expelled" loudly, the scene in front of Joshua became blurry again.

"The next scene should be high school."

Joshua put his hands in his trouser pockets and muttered to himself.

This is the basketball court after school. The sun hangs weakly in the sky, baking everything on the earth to unbearable heat.

Joshua was hit once in the abdomen, followed by another in the shoulder, knee and forehead.

Hendry's fat and big-eared face was grinning grimly in Joshua's sight, and next to him were the tall and thin Mark and Zhongni, who was sniffing his nose and had a smirk on his face.

Joshua was hit hard in the chest by the basketball thrown by Mark. He grimaced in pain, covered his chest and slowly squatted down.

"How dare you look up? You little skinny chicken, you're so slow in picking up the ball, it's ruining my fun of playing basketball!"

"You played badly, that's why you lost to Nick," Joshua defended himself in a low voice.

“What the fxxk!”

Hendry grabbed the basketball from Zhongni and smashed it hard into Joshua's back.

"Today I'm going to teach you a lesson, you disgusting piece of trash..."

"Bang--"

The door of the basketball court was kicked open, and Ivy walked in dragging the basketball hoop with an unhappy look on her face.

She looked at Joshua who was squatting on the ground, and then at the other three people who all looked confused.

Instead of meddling in other people's business, she walked straight to the basketball pole and slammed the basketball hoop heavily to the ground.

"Bam—"

The loud noise echoed around the basketball court, stirring Joshua's heart.

"You banana-flavored bitch, can't you see what's going on right now?"

Hendry challenged Ivy who was fiddling with her phone. The three of them had grins of triumph on their faces, which Joshua found both ugly and disgusting.

Ivy was still looking at her phone, but her eyes had turned from the phone to Hendry.

If looks could kill, then Hendry should have been reborn five times, Joshua thought.

"Pardon?"

Ivy put away her phone, picked up a basketball and slowly walked towards Hendry.

"I say, you...Chink!" Hendry said, pulling his eyes with his fingers, making a discriminatory gesture.

"Hahahahahaha!"

The laughter of the three people was really harsh. Joshua felt angry and breathed heavily.

Ivy was still walking slowly with the basketball in her arms. She remained silent, and the sound of her sneakers clattering against the floor was amplified several times in the empty basketball court.

"You know what? I have an idea now."

Ivy stopped in front of Hendry, a sneer on her face.

"I'm going to make you look like that for a week."

After saying that, Ivy smashed the basketball in her hand hard into Hendry's left eye.

Hendry was knocked backwards, and Ivy grabbed Hendry's collar with her left hand and hit Hendry's right eye hard with her right hand.

Then, Joshua's eyes became blurred and distorted again, and the last scene stopped at the scene of Ivy fighting with three people.

The sky and the earth were endless, and there was thick, impenetrable fog everywhere.

Joshua suddenly felt tired, his eyes became heavy, and he sat down gently on the ground.

Still feeling very tired, he slowly lay down, closed his eyes as he recalled those distorted images.