Ever since he sent me that strange message, "Alpha F,"

Almost simultaneously, I replied with a question mark. Half an hour later, he responded with "It's nothing."

Later, his replies became increasingly delayed. He said he had switched jobs and was busy beyond belief.

Sometimes he would post on his Moments with messages like "Good morning, start working hard" or "In a meeting," accompanied by pictures of the company's orchids or a half-cup of latte on his desk, showcasing his busy life.

He stopped meeting up with us for drinks and didn't chat anymore.

To be honest, I was a bit angry at first.

Then came the day he forgot my birthday party and hung up on my call.

He even mistook someone else's photo for mine.

One abnormality after another made me think more about it.

So, I quickly had a private chat with Zhou Jin.

"Old Zhou, don't you think Zhang Jiao is acting strange?"

"He switched jobs, right? When people leave our company, they get super busy. How else do you think they make money?"

"Zhang Jiao seems reserved on the surface, but he's more emotional than anyone. You know how he never forgets us, right?"

Zhou Jin didn't reply for a long time.

He knew better than anyone.

The three of us, Zhang Jiao was the last to come to the orphanage. On the day he arrived, the institution was distributing oranges, but there were none left for him.

Zhang Jiao was too young and shy to speak up to the caretakers, so he just sat there watching the other kids eat. Five-year-old Zhou Jin broke his orange in half and shared it with Zhang Jiao. Inspired by Zhou Jin's generosity, I also broke my orange in half and gave it to him.

Zhang Jiao gave us a simple, silly smile.

About half a month later, a family came to adopt Zhou Jin.

Zhang Jiao and I were a bit sad, while Zhou Jin tightly held our small hands, promising to buy us toys when he got to his new parents' home.

On the day that family came, Zhang Jiao happened to get into a fight with two other kids outside.

He even ended up with two scratches that drew blood.

Normally docile and reserved, Zhou Jin saw this and immediately dropped his school bag, running out to fight those kids.

While chasing and hitting them, he shouted, "How dare you hit my little brother Zhang! I'll beat you to death!"

Because of this, he missed the meeting with the adoptive family.

They thought he wasn't ready to join a new family and ended up taking another child instead.

This incident caused Zhou Jin to miss out on joining a complete family because of Zhang Jiao.

He didn't mind too much, but this event quickly brought the three of us closer together.

In this world, we were each other's only brothers.

"Damn, it's kinda true," Zhou Jin said after a long silence, raising his head.

"Then maybe..."

"You're not saying we should call the police, right?" he interrupted me warily.

"Of course not!" I said, nervously scratching my head. "I finally got some stability with my kids' programming class. If we bring in the police, and they find out I'm unlicensed, I…"

I had resigned over a year ago and started a children's programming training class with a friend. But lately, the education sector has been under tight scrutiny, and we have been operating illegally without the necessary qualifications.

"I don't want to either… I… I embellished some details on my resume for the company before. I don't want to get the police involved."

"Did Zhang Jiao have any recent problems or unhappiness?" I changed the subject due to the heavy atmosphere.

"No way. We both had it pretty good at our old company. The boss liked both of us. What could have gone wrong with him?"

I quickly recalled Zhang Jiao's recent changes, and that mysterious message popped into my mind again.

"Did he ever send you a message saying 'Alpha F'?"

"What?"