The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

“How is this related to Li-dàgē’s matter….?”

After reading the slightly strange story, Yu Yin seriously could not figure out why Yi Tai had given him this seemingly irrelevant material…Wait, could this be the next one in line?

Yi Tai couldn’t be trying to stir things up at this kind of time!

Moreover, this story seemed extremely difficult to deal with. He swore that he would rather die than go to this kind of place. If it was real, he absolutely refused to go.

As he internally grumbled to himself about his mysterious friend with an antennae, Yu Yin suddenly noticed that Yu and Dong Feng seemed to both be very focused on reading the other materials. “Is something there?” I beg of you, please don’t have some other trouble suddenly pop up out of nowhere. Right now, he just wanted to concentrate on ways to possibly help find Li Zi Hong.

“Not sure yet.”

Seeing that the pair was interested in the same thing for once, Yu Yin could only make sure not to disturb them for now. Although he wanted to ask Dong Feng about the progress of the case, he would have to wait a bit and ask later.

He glanced at the time and decided to just stand up and go to the kitchen to reheat the congee from earlier while also preparing some late-night snacks. If he was alone, he would have just eaten something random. But these two little ones still needed to eat more. Yu was currently shooting up taller; this was precisely a time when he needed more nutrients. The other one had finally started showing some flesh after much difficulty; in order to prevent it from disappearing again, he naturally needed to keep an eye out for this person.

Yu Yin opened the fridge and found that Yu Tong had helped prepare some dishes and placed them in plastic containers, as expected. Although Yu would usually cook too, now that they had more people at home, Yu Tong would still prepare some extra reheatable food in small containers for fear of them eating carelessly. These foods could be quickly prepared just by heating in a pot or microwaving.

After placing the food onto the stove and closing the lid [of the pot], Yu Yin began to space out.

Honestly, it wasn’t as if he had never encountered those black figures before.

If these contents were true, then those people in the story were probably no longer here…having not immediately been accounted for. These materials had already been passed around in so many versions. No matter what was done now, it was already too late for the people in that story. This was different from the previous incidents, as it had long since missed its favourable timing.

Yu Yin shook his head and decided not to recall that matter – it wasn’t a cheerful memory. He turned on the faucet to rinse his face and clear his mind. When he opened his eyes, he suddenly saw that his hands were crimson.

Both hands were covered in dirt, leaves, and thick, sticky dark-red.

“Don’t come right now…” He shook his head strongly, refusing to be distracted at this moment. At the very least, he wanted to confirm if his friend was safe or not before he could focus on helping others.

However, when he [closed and] opened his eyes again, Yu Yin saw that his hands were still full of blood. Then, an unusual noise came from outside the small kitchen window. When he automatically turned his head, he barely spotted what seemed to be a human shadow sway outside the fence, but with a blink of the eyes, the fence quickly returned to their undisturbed state.

The sound of the pot boiling over broke the silence. He forcefully wiped his hands that were no longer dyed any colour, then hurriedly turned off the fire. Fortunately, the food had not been burnt, and it was now giving off a warm aroma.

A faint smell that did not belong to the food wafted over.

Yu Yin scratched his head in slight annoyance. “Since it was given by Yi Tai, it’s not like I’ll completely refuse to help. Wait until we finish our matter here, and then I’ll help you guys take a look. Does that not work? Please give me a bit of time to complete my own business first. I’ll definitely help afterwards.”

After that, all the smells and illusions disappeared.

In that moment, Yu Yin suddenly felt bit of self-loathing.

Despite feeling elated to help more…having helped quite a bit from the beginning until now, someone was requesting for aid at this moment yet he was selfishly wanting to confirm whether one of his own people was alright before getting into the mood to assist others. All of sudden, he felt that he was also a despicable human.

“I’m seriously such a pain in the ass.” He let out a sigh and reached out to grab dishes for the food. Just then, a faint noise abruptly came from his where his fingertips were. When Yu Yin reflexively curled his hands into fists, the white dishes completely exploded. Before he could even figure out what kind of situation this was, he felt a stabbing pain from his hands, as well as a series of bursting noises in quick succession.

“What happened!”

Hearing the noise, Dong Feng and Yu ran into the kitchen. After seeing the exploding dishes, Dong Feng immediately yanked off Yu’s thin jacket to dump onto the plates so that the shards could not shoot out.

At the same time, the lights in the kitchen and living room made an abnormal noise and simultaneously went out. Their surroundings sank into pitch-black.

Amidst the darkness, Yu Yin could vaguely hear something like some animal hissing in extreme rage, furious and practically directed right at him without trying to conceal the bare malice and resentment. Without thinking, he immediately pressed Yu and Dong Feng down so that his body lay over their heads. The next second, there was a rupture from above and various broken pieces from indiscernible sources dropped down.

“Don’t go too far!”

When he roared this at the darkness, the disturbances instantly calmed down. The corridor and living room lights lit back up. Yu Yin moved aside and discovered that what had exploded and fallen down were broken pieces of the kitchen light’s bulb and covering, which now littered the ground. He had no idea how he would explain later when the adults returned home.

While he was still contemplating how to escape reality, Yu grabbed him and dragged him out of the kitchen.

Now that he was being pulled like this, Yu Yin finally noticed the various sharp pain coming from all over his body. Aside from his wounded hands from the burst plates just now, there were multiple lighter cuts on his exposed skin.

Yu hauled him [away], then helped shake off the finer pieces in his hair.

“What in the world was that?” Dong Feng patted off the fragments from his own frame as he walked out from the kitchen after them. He then casually pulled out some napkins and gave them to Yu for use. “Ghosts?”

“Should be, but no idea what they’re in a rampage for.” That sense of hatred was too intense. Yu Yin rarely encountered something like this that was entirely targeted towards him. For a moment, he had thought the thing would kill him…Does a minor delay really warrant such viciousness? It’s not like I murdered anyone’s entire family!

“How many? Four or five?”

“How would I know,” he huffed back in exasperation. Seeing Yu’s worried expression, he did not protest as he was tugged into the living room.

When they arrived at the doorway of the living room, they were stunned.

The French windows on two of the walls had been torn away and ripped apart, and there were dark brown words crookedly scrawled all over the large slabs of glass—

Do not interfere.

***

He heard the voices of someone speaking.

However, it seemed a bit faint. After a short bout of dizziness passed, he finally had a bit of strength to open his eyes.

The space had become larger, and it clearly felt wider than last time…Right, not too long ago, he had vaguely felt like he’d been moved. Although the location had changed, the surroundings were still dark. Replacing the ice-cold floor was a piece of material made of unknown fur, isolating him from the low temperature from before.

Despite this being the case, the slightest movement still caused an intense dizziness and nausea.

He figured that it had to do with the wound on his head. While he did not understand or remember how he had gotten injured, based on his previous repeated awakenings, he had undoubtedly been hurt. The injury could be severe, or perhaps he had a mild concussion.

As he pondered over this a few times, a dull pain surged forth again, causing him to involuntarily let out a low groan.

Then he noticed the speaking nearby cut off sharply, followed by a series of rummaging noises. The actions were quite rough, and there were even loud thuds of tables and chairs being flipped over and crashing down, accompanied by heavy, unfriendly footsteps.

Even though he did not know why he was in this kind of situation, he could still intuitively determine that the other party might be dangerous to himself. Moreover, the unknown person that had been by his side the previous several times was no longer anywhere to be seen. He was alone in the darkness. There were a few water bottles and something like food within his reach. There was also something heavy in his pocket. It seemed like this person would be away for a period of time.

The noises came from “below”.

Not far from him, and practically right underneath him.

After searching around for a while, the speaking started again. Perhaps infuriated by something, there was profanity snarled this time too, as well as the shattering of glass objects.

When he heard the obscene language, he recalled the girl he had met up with that day. She honestly was not lacking in personal qualities and had no reason to compare with others. She would comprehend this one day.

His consciousness was blurred a bit at the edges by the dull pain again. He heard the verbal abuse below him. Because it was too loud, he could clearly hear it from above, which allowed him to barely gather his focus again to carefully discern the conversation.

“Fuck! Where’s it hidden?!”

“He couldn’t have told the cops about it, right?!”

“He shouldn’t have the guts to. He absolutely would never tell the police. Even if he did, he doesn’t have any proof that we did it. We can say it was that woman’s scoundrel. The police can’t find it. On the contrary, he’s the real perpetrator; he’s the one the police want to capture. He wouldn’t go looking for the cops.”

“But who exactly was that one that’s with him…”

Based on his assessment of their voices, these two people were on the older side.

“Who cares about his identity? Just need to find them and do them together. We have nothing to have qualms about now. We just need to do things a bit more cleanly. Everyone played a part during the incident that year. You’d better not think about avoiding blame either.”

“But how could the police have searched for him like this to have immediately dug him out?”

“Who knows!”

“Before the cops find their way here, we need to quickly find that thing!”

For some reason, he kept thinking that the voice was a bit familiar.

He tightly clenched his hands into fists and tried to shift his body, but his strength had not recovered to the point where he could make any larger movements. In addition, every time he shifted, the dull pain immediately turned into an intense one that practically made it impossible for him to breathe.

After waiting for the pain to pass, the people below seemed to have more or less finished. He heard the footsteps walk in the same direction, followed by a slam of a door. Then, everything fell silent once more.

He shut his eyes, the exhaustion in his body starting to pressure him back into deep sleep. Suddenly, he thought of a certain bastard that would definitely be blabbering nonsense if they knew his current circumstances. That wasn’t even factoring in the fact that he still owed the other person a day. Who knew what troublesome matter he would be requested to do to make up for the missed appointment?

He sometimes wondered whether he had committed some kind of sin [before] to be constantly getting wrapped up [in trouble] in this life. It was likely due to being in society now that he exercised some restraint. But when he thought back to the numerous messes he had been dropped in back in the dorms, he got angrier the more he recalled it. Understanding was one thing, but in reality, emotions were an entirely different story. It always seemed like if he died from dubious means like this without having punched that person in the face at least once, it would be too great of a loss.

He propped his body up with all his energy and his back immediately bumped into something hard. He slowly reached an arm out to feel around; it seemed to be a wall. The entire space was so short that that he could not sit up completely. He probed around in the darkness and quickly made contact with the boundaries, which were walls that were just as cold. He moved his body so that he leaned against the very edge. These actions used up the little bit of energy he had gathered from his momentary anger, so he could only sprawl back on the cloth. After the weakness and head pain passed, he would search for anything on him that he might be able to use to save himself.

Just as he was struggling to continue thinking things through without falling back asleep, an explosive noise abruptly burst out from below, which no longer had any people. The bang struck somewhere very close to him.

A gunshot.

Several more gunshots followed, all striking the spot where he had just been laying. Two or three bullets penetrated through, letting a faint glimmer of light shine in.

“There really is something there!” One of the two people spoke up below.

It seemed that they had not left after all.

He kept his eyes locked on the light and held his breath.

“Could it be a rat? I saw several running around when we came up here earlier. Look, some fur dropped down.”

“Get a ladder over here so we can go up and take a look.”

While he was wondering how to avoid the encounter, more commotion came from underneath. Unlike the gunshots from earlier, it sounded like glass or porcelain shattering, multiple of them rupturing in quick succession.

“Fuck! What the hell is this?!”

Apparently receiving quite a scare, the person below roared out a string of curses, which was followed by hurried footsteps and a door being swung open. The other party had practically bolted out to escape.

He struggled to get closer to the light, searching for a way to leave this place.

The next second, the hole was blocked. Something materialised out of nowhere to cover the hole and light, and the entire space returned to pure blackness.

A chilling object pressed against his back. Small, freezing hands reached out from behind, stopping his movements and cutting off noise so that he was once again isolated from his original world.

Finally, he fell back into the darkness.

***

“Ah Si, what are you doing?”

It was late at night, the time to close the shop. Yang De Cheng stared at the annoying visitor that was still lazing around his restaurant instead of getting lost. The personnel had already closed shop for the evening and left work ages ago. Yang De Cheng had finished preparations, gotten ingredients ready, and even checked today’s accounts, yet this guy was still stuck in the same place spacing out.

“In the past two days, I think I’ve experienced a bit of the lifestyle of having a wife run back to her family home.” He felt hollow and lonely.

“What?” Yang De Cheng had no idea where such a conclusion had come from. He mixed a drink and placed it in front of the person that was not leaving. “Well, if it’s someone like you had a wife run back to her family home, it definitely would be your fault, not the wife’s. But has there still been no news on Xiao Li…? Sigh…” He sat down across from Yan Si. Actually, he was also quite concerned about their missing friend. Although he wasn’t in a related field, he knew that when it came to searching for missing persons, time was gold. Many days had already passed, yet neither family members nor close friends had received any extortion or warning letters. It really made one feel uneasy.

“That’s right, who knows if he’s eating properly, dressed warmly, drinking water when thirsty…Aren’t these the same thoughts one would have after their wife runs away? Usually when by their side, you don’t feel much, but as soon as they are gone, it suddenly feels very lonely.” Yan Si rested his chin in his hands as he turned to look out the window at the dark skies and let out a sigh. “But at least when a wife runs, you know where to find her. It would have to be either her family home or with a pretty boy…If a friend is abducted, you can only sit and wait for news. There wasn’t any letter left behind though even though break-ups have texts. Isn’t the abductor too unprofessional? Shouldn’t they have left a threatening letter or a blackmail call?”Thanks to the abductor, he was now sitting here and reflecting on all his past actions. If he had known such a thing would happen, they should have done everything they had been strictly instructed not to do back when they had still been young.

Indeed, life had to be lived [to the fullest] as early as possible. Who knew when one would just disappear?

Yang De Cheng impassively listened to the person’s nonsensical analogy with the sole thought of whacking him with a pot to clear his mind a bit. “Are you actually worried?”

“I am…I even scheduled all my vacation. From now on, I will focus hard on getting my old roommate back.” He had pressured his junior to let him use up all the accumulated vacation days at once. Yan Si played with the cup next to him as he said, “Then when the criminal suspect is given to be dissected into pieces, I can earnestly go back to work.”

Despite these words, Yang De Cheng believed that his friend was probably not thinking of suddenly carrying out examinations at this kind of time. Although Yan Si usually joked around, Yang De Chang was absolutely certain that Yan Si was the type of person who, upon seeing his other acquaintances get into trouble, would seriously and carefully work while still maintaining that annoying attitude on the surface. Only Xiao Li was different. The friendship between them had always been unlike others.

If it weren’t for the current circumstances, he would definitely be taunting this guy’s ostrich syndrome. However, right now, they could only silently wait. “Looks like you’re a normal person too.”

“I’ve always been a very sensible and affable normal person.” Yan Si chewed on the apple slice from the mixed drink as he narrowed his eyes at the outside. “By the way, my old roommate has also learned self-defence techniques before. It should be fairly unlikely for him to have randomly been dragged away.” Especially if the opponent carried enmity, as that guy’s alertness would not be stupidly tricked just be a few words.

In that case, why did that unlucky bastard run out and get captured?

Yan Si was fixated on the reflection in the glass until he took out his cellphone and looked through the short texts on it. In the first two days of [Li Zi Hong’s] vacation, he had called and the two had chatted over the phone. Afterwards, even though the other person had not wanted to receive texts, they would still reply with a few words. But ever since three days ago, there had been no more responses to the texts. At first, Yan Si had assumed Li Zi Hong was ignoring him as usual, and Yan Si had been busy at the time too, thus not thinking much about it.

He shook his head. Just as he was about to call a certain imp that had been wasting away at the police station to watch surveillance footage for an entire day, he finally noticed the time displayed on his phone.

“You’ve only just now realised it’s already past two?” Yang De Cheng yawned and massaged his aching shoulders as he stared out at the deserted street. Aside from patrol cars, he really hadn’t seen any people. Today was peaceful and quiet for once.

“Your work preparations take quite a long time.”

“No shit, do you think money is easy to earn? There are some ingredients that have to be prepared the night before, because there won’t be any time to do it the next day. Of course, there’s boiling soups too. In the past, before I had helpers assist, I would have to stand around for the entire night,” Yang De Cheng huffed back in exasperation. He glanced at the mostly empty drink glasses and decided to just stand up and grab his jacket. “Let’s go, I’ll drop you off. You still need to go to that junior’s tomorrow morning, right?”

“Yep, though he’s probably at the home of the student that was ganged up on.” Earlier, Yan Si had heard rumours of [someone] collapsing on the road again.

“Got it.” Yang De Cheng twirled his car keys as he quickly tidied up the table and turned on the security system. “Don’t worry, Xiao Li will definitely be alright.” Thinking more positively, no news might be good news. Perhaps their friend was currently finding a way to come back as well.

“…I also think he should be fine. I’ve always believed he has a strong vitality based on his face. But the outside of the castle is probably covered in thorns, so the knight can’t pass through while the great demon king stands on the other side and laughs.”

“…There’s something seriously wrong with you. Just quickly scram back home and sleep.”

***

When Yu Yin woke up, it was still very early.

It was around five or so. The sky outside the window had not yet brightened.

It had taken them a lot of effort the previous night to clean up the entire kitchen, as well as sweep away the glass in the living room. Without any conversation, they had each gone to bed early.

However, just before falling asleep, Yu had come over dragging a pillow and blanket, looking as if sleeping alone might lead to being killed by the ghost. Then when Yu Yin had wanted to check the doors and windows again before sleeping, he had discovered Dong Feng holding a pillow and blanket, prepared to sleep in front of his bedroom door. In exasperation, Yu Yin had grabbed the two younger ones to sleep all together in Yu Tong’s bedroom instead, where there was a larger bed.

But even if it was on the larger side, three grown males trying to sleep in it was still a struggle. Just rolling over could result in one of them falling off.

In the end, Yu Yin had no idea how he had ended up sleeping on the floor of his old man’s bedroom.

Fortunately, his house had a spare mattress. Otherwise, it really would have been a bit sad.

After waking up, he found that Dong Feng and Yu were for once sleeping very deeply, wrapped in their own blankets. The scene was very similar to that of small animals sleeping together. The realisation dawned on him that, even if their brains were terrifying, they were really no different from normal people when asleep.

After quietly leaving the room, Yu Yin washed up a bit and stood in the living room to stretch his sore waist. Afterwards, he found the business card that Yi Tai had given him. Since it was still very early, calling did not seem very appropriate. He sent a text message to the person instead, planning on getting into contact again later.

Although these things probably did not have any relation to the missing person’s case, the hostility yesterday had been too intense, forcing him to make some time to understand the situation. Otherwise, the disturbances would make it impossible for him to concentrate anyways.

As he was contemplating whether to go and cook something for breakfast first, he unexpectedly received a reply text from the other party immediately.

Yu Yin had no idea if it was because the restaurant opened early for business or if the other person naturally woke up early, but he was somewhat astonished as he grabbed the cellphone sitting next to the window. Just now, he had sent the other person a self-introduction, basically just saying that he was Yi Tai’s friend and had gotten some information and a business card from Yi Tai, so he wanted to ask a few related questions.

The other person’s reply was very short and simple: I know, Yi Tai mentioned that someone would handle this matter. Go ahead and ask any questions you have.

Yu Yin thought this over for a moment, then decided to directly ask in his reply text if it was convenient for them to speak over the phone.

About one or two minutes later, his phone rang. It seemed like all of Yi Tai’s friends had very straightforward personalities.

“Hello, this is Yu Yin.” Judging from the other person’s voice, they seemed to be slightly older than him. As Yu Yin gave a greeting, he opened the French window to walk out into the courtyard so as to prevent their chat from disrupting the two sleeping upstairs still.

“Morning. You can just call me Baku,” the other person quickly replied. Yu Yin could hear quite a few birds chirping in their background.

The voice sounds as if it’s in the thirties or forties, but it’s quite a bright voice. Yu Yin thought this to himself. “Hello, Baku-dàgē. I wanted to ask you about those clippings…”

“You wanted to ask about one of them specifically, right? The one that’s longer, and somewhat aged. I submitted that one to a magazine in the past, and even earned 5000 yuan for it.”

Yu Yin had not expected to hear this kind of answer. He was stunned for a few seconds before hurriedly asking, “So you created it?” Do made-up ghosts pop up these days? Isn’t that too excessive?!

“No, someone else told it to me, about six or seven years ago. It was a visiting hiker. At the time, the magazine was soliciting contributions, and the gentleman said I could send this when I asked. I made some minor embellishments and revisions to make the story more complete, but that is basically how it was.”

“So the matter you have to deal with is the one in the clipping?” The Eastern district was too far. Although he had visited before, going at this time was truly not appropriate. Yu Yin internally assessed last night’s incident and decided that he would still wait until the business here was done with, then make the trip later if needed. He would just need to find an excuse.

Damn it, I even swore that I wouldn’t go.

“Ah, you’re mistaken. That’s not it.” A light chuckle came from the other end of the line. “That was something I had posted on the restaurant walls for customers to see. Yi Tai wanted me to scan and send it to him, saying that it might be used to handle some business. The matter I wanted to request was something else.”

Don’t tell me there are two different things in total?

Yu Yin felt all light fade from his eyes.

“The situation is like this: I only returned to my hometown here a few years ago to accept the restaurant business. After I reorganised it, I discovered that guy’s restaurant was strange. A woman’s crying could always be heard after closing shop at night, and on the next day, there would be markings, leaves, and soil traces left behind from being walking around. It was really annoying. We tried to ambush it many times, but we could not see anything no matter what. Even rats aren’t that hard to capture.”

“…What did the original homeowner say?”

“The boss ran away and can’t be found.”

“…”

“But I asked around nearby. A mother that used to help cook around here said that a girl used to stay at this restaurant…there used to be several rooms upstairs that the landlord rented out. Now, I’ve already renovated it as a lodge for tourists. There are even DIY crafts made by indigenous people there. Student, if you have the time to come to the mountain here, remember to drop by our place to have fun. We receive all of Yi Tai’s friends for free. You children from the city have probably never eaten wheel bitter gourds before, have you? Or fig—”

“Dàgē, let’s get back to the main point first. I’ll discuss bitter gourds with you next time.” But, what is that? Yu Yin was puzzled for a moment and decided to ask the two upstairs later after they woke up. Perhaps Yu would know.

“Ahaha, right. So that girl lived here over a dozen years ago – it’s been a very long time already. She had a little boy with her. The two stayed for a night, and when the boss was cleaning up the room the next day, he discovered that the girl had left her money and bag. A few days later, there was constantly the sound of a girl crying coming from the room. Several guests that have stayed the night were frightened.”

“Did Yi Tai say anything after going over?”

“He said he had no way of dealing with it, that it wasn’t something he could interfere with. But he said that someone would soon come and help, and also said that if it is actually resolved when that time comes, I should treat you guys for free. Don’t worry, even if you can’t resolve it, I would still welcome you without charge.”

“I understand, thanks. I’ll ask you again if I have any other questions.”

“OK, sure.”

After hanging up the call, Yu Yin turned his head to look at the ripped curtains. He heaved a sigh as he walked back into the house, which was still quiet.

He suddenly felt that there was something odd. Yu should have already woken by this time; usually, by the time Yu Yin woke up, Yu would already have finished preparing breakfast to eat. But the latter still had not come downstairs today.

With the nagging feeling of strangeness, he decided to go up and take a look. But just then, he spotted Yu coming down, though the other did not appear to have just woken. “What’s the matter?”

Yu froze, then shook his head as he turned to head towards the kitchen.

Yu Yin walked to the end of the staircase and looked up to see Dong Feng standing at the top with a complexion still an unsightly shade of white. “You two didn’t fight, did you?”

“It’s nothing.”

***

He felt like there really was something.

After Yu finished cooking breakfast and prepared the dining table, the atmosphere was still weird.

“That’s right, do you guys know what wheel bitter gourds are?” In order to break the gloomy and strange mood, Yu Yin hurriedly thought of this question.

“Red eggplant,” Yu quietly stated these two words.

“Wild eggplant. A type of indigenous vegetable that’s very bitter.,” Dong Feng responded with this sentence as he turned his cup of oats around.

“You two are talking about the same thing, right?” Yu Yin was not too certain, so he could only ask again.

“Mn.” Dong Feng turned his head and narrowed his eyes. “Why ask about this?”

Yu Yin told the two younger ones about the phone call just now, then paused as he studied each of their contemplative expressions. “Since the timing isn’t the best, I was thinking we should still wait until after Li-dàgē comes back before taking a look at the situation.” After all, they currently could not even fend for themselves, let alone help others. He really did not know why Yi Tai had chosen this kind of timing.

Dong Feng similarly did not plan on caring about this matter at the moment either, and did not say much.

“So far…Eastern district…”

“What did you say was far?”

Yu Yin whipped his head around and was shocked to discover that Yu Xia had unknowingly come home at some point and was now standing at the living room entrance, staring at Yu Yin with a terrifying look. “Eastern district?”

“Nothing, nothing, you misheard, Uncle. We were talking about how after Li-dàgē returns, we should all find time to relax. After all, there have been so much stuff going on recently. Going a bit further, like Eastern district or the outlying islands would be pretty good.” Yu Yin hurriedly switched the topic. Noticing that Yu Xia seemed exhausted, he said, “Right? Going someplace far without having to worry about anything for a period while we all go out and have fun together for two or three days would be great.”

Despite thinking that the other person’s expression was not honest at all, Yu Xia could not be bothered to expose him and simply turned towards Dong Feng. “The person was captured; they laid in wait and seized him early this morning. The videotapes did not capture him bringing Prosecutor Li away, so the only thing we know is that he followed Prosecutor Li around, and can only detain him per procedure right now. My brother is currently dealing with him. The others are investigating the places he stayed at.”

“Then was Li-dàgē found?” Yu Yin immediately stood up.

“No, he denied having met with Prosecutor Li and refused to answer any questions.” Yu Xia glanced at the French windows on the ground and furrowed his brows. “What’s with the living room French windows and your injuries?” If he was not mistaken, the curtains they had set up had been torn open—neither cut nor trimmed, but actually with traces of having been ripped open. As he recalled, they had used a heavier cloth when they had switched the French windows last year; it should not have been easy to tear apart in a single movement like this. Moreover, their child was covered with band-aids, and there seemed to be minor cuts in the areas that were not covered.

“…A greeting from a different world.” Before Yu Xia could charge over and beat him, Yu Yin darted behind Dong Feng’s chair first. “It has nothing to do with the incident this time, nothing at all. I’ll take responsibility for changing out the French windows. Has that person not mentioned Li-dàgē’s whereabouts at all?”

“Yes, Inspector Gu should be arriving soon too. I came to grab some things; I’m heading back immediately.” Yu Xia had planned to spare five minutes to take a shower as well, so without wasting any time, he directly headed upstairs.

“Can we follow?” Yu Yin asked as he also went upstairs. He had checked his watch; it was still early, and he did not have many classes now as a third-year university student.

“Do whatever you want.”

Yu Yin looked back to see Yu quickly finish his breakfast, then bring the empty bowls into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for Yu Xia to take out with him.

Dong Feng stared at the stirring oats in his cup, seemingly deep in silent thought.

“Do you want to come together too?” Although Yu Yin was certain what the other person’s answer would be, he still casually asked this as he returned to his seat.

“Obviously.” Dong Feng coldly shot him a sideways glance as he pulled out his cellphone. When he saw the text he had just received, he cursed, “Why does he know my number?!”

“Who?” It looked like Dong Feng was about to blow up. Yu Yin went over to take a look and saw a somewhat familiar string of numbers.

Dong Feng instantly turned off the power with a cold snort, then went to pack his bag.

It was at this moment that Yu Yin remembered that it was Yan Si’s phone number.

As he was about to go over to help, a piece of paper suddenly fluttered down next to him. Upon closer look, it was the clipping of the original magazine submission. However, there were now many black fingerprints that had appeared on the empty backside [of the paper].

“Do you guys want help or not?” They had already made such a horrible mess of his home yesterday, and had still come today. Yu Yin was honestly perplexed.

A drop of blood-red smudged on the paper and began to spread.

The next instant, the paper made a faint noise before it was suddenly ripped apart into dozens of small scraps that fell to the ground.

“I don’t mind if you guys appear. But if you truly need help, don’t do these kinds of things.” He was already annoyed enough.

As soon as he said this, a splitting crack suddenly came from the table as the cup that Dong Feng had just been spinning earlier exploded into pieces. The oats that had not been drunk spilled all over the table.

“…” What the hell do they want?

“What happened this time?” Having finished tidying his things, Dong Feng returned to the living room and furrowed his brows upon seeing the paper fragments scattered across the ground.

“Tried to communicate, received an ass response,” Yu Yin huffed back in a bad mood.

Dong Feng crouched down to look at the pieces of paper and quickly arranged them back into their original appearances on the floor. He then cocked his head to the side to stare doubtfully at the fingerprints on them. “The ghost’s?”

“Should be.”

Dong Feng stretched his hand out. “Camera or cellphone.”

Yu Yin really wanted to respond with, “Don’t you have your own,” but he still obediently handed over his cellphone, then watched Dong Feng take photos of the papers.

“Bring these to your friend to inspect.” Dong Feng tossed the phone back at its owner, then yawned and rubbed his eyes as he went ahead to wait at the front entrance.

Yu Yin stared at his cellphone, then back at the paper scraps on the ground with a single thought.

If those ghost bastards dare to explode my cellphone, I will definitely flog their corpses as revenge afterwards.