The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Upon regaining consciousness, the first thing Yu Yin felt was the intense pain from his head.

They were sharp pangs that made him feel as if his head would explode. He suddenly thought of an overripe watermelon bursting. He wondered if his spinning watermelon brain would splatter everywhere as well.

“Ugh…”

He weakly lifted his hands to press down on his head. Then, something wet and warm licked him without warning from his side.

He forcefully pried his eyelids open to see a dog right next to his face, its drooling tongue currently licking him. There was also a cat on his stomach that made it look like using humans as seats was a very rational thing to do.

Seeing him open his eyes, Fish Jerky’s eyes lit up and it began to lick even more vigorously.

“What are you doing here…” He covered his face with his hand and tried to push away the large dog’s energetic saliva attack. Then he saw a pair of feet walk over.

“You’re awake? Do you feel discomfort anywhere?” The owner of the dog and cat across from him smiled.

Fish Jerky stopped giving a saliva facial wash and sat down, gazing at Yu Yin in hopes that the other would jump up and play with it.

He pushed aside the cat’s butt on his stomach and received an unhappy meow in return. Then, he slowly began to recover his strength. Once he waited until the pain in his head had mostly subsided, he managed to sit up with Ye Huan En’s help.

He was still in Yan Si’s home, though Ye Huan En might have moved him. The last thing he recalled was collapsing at the front door, but he was now lying in the living room instead with a pillow under his head as well.

After glancing at the clock next to him, he discovered that an hour had already passed since he had lost consciousness.

“Drink some water first.” Ye Huan En placed a cup of warm water in his hands and took a seat next to him. “I received your call.”

So that call ended up going to Ye Huan En…makes sense. Because of the dog and cat, he had saved Ye Huan En’s number in the frequent contacts log. “…Sorry for disturbing you.” However Yu Yin could not figure out how the other person had appeared here.

“Don’t worry about it. When you called, I happened to be cleaning up some things. It was just that the call was a bit strange, so I called Xiao Yu. He said that you should be here, so I felt there was a need to run over and check out the situation.” Ye Huan En looked at the other person’s pale complexion. As someone uninvolved, he did not know what had happened. “As soon as I arrived, I saw that both the inner and outer door were open, and you were collapsed at the front entrance. So I came in without permission and moved around some of the items inside the house.”

“So that’s what happened…Ah! Did Yu say anything?” Yu Yin felt terrified when he realised that the other person had called Yu.

“No. In reality, when I called him, it was to tell him that I wanted to leave Fish Jerky at your place for the next two days. I also had some things I wanted to ask you about, but your cellphone wouldn’t connect. I asked if you were next to him to pick up the phone, but he replied that you had come to Yan Si’s home to grab things.” Since the situation in the phone had truly been a bit unusual, Ye Huan En had not openly brought it up either.

Yu Yin sighed in relief and let go of his guard. “Thank you, Ye-dàgē. When you said that the phone call was a bit strange earlier…” If he had fainted, it would have at most been a silent call, wouldn’t it? Why had the other rushed over so urgently? He didn’t think that his final mosquito-like cry for help would have successfully reached the other end of the phone.

“You’ll know when you hear it.” Ye Huan En took out his cellphone, placing it on speaker function and putting it down on the table.

It was a recording.

At first, it was Ye Huan En’s voice, asking a typical question when answering the phone. However, what followed afterwards was many seconds of stillness and silence. Yu Yin could basically figure out the moment he had lost consciousness after dialing.

The silence lasted for ten seconds. Just as he was wondering why Ye Huan En had not hung up the phone, he suddenly noticed the static sound of interference in the background. Moreover, it sounded as if it was slowly approaching from afar. It was not clear at first, but the noise slowly grew louder, until it began to echo through the entire living room.

In the end, it sounded as if the phone had been placed right next to the source of the noise. The interference was so clear that it practically seemed like it was right where they were.

Roughly a few more seconds passed before another sound came from the mechanical noise. It was like a low animal’s cry…a bit like a moo from a cow. However, Yu Yin quickly realised that it was a human voice that seemed to be stretched out as if being played in slow motion. It repeated the same sentence without end—

—Wasn’t—me—It—wasn’t—me

All the noises came to a sharp halt.

Ye Huan En’s recording lasted a few more seconds after the noise from Yu Yin’s side had cut out, before finally stopping.

“You should have any idea yourself, right?” Ye Huan En looked at the stunned young adult as he petted the large dog next to him. “Although I don’t know these things well, I think it’s better if you stay on guard. It doesn’t sound like anything good.”

“…I know, thank you.” Yu Yin rubbed the back of his head, which still slightly hurt. Then, after some thought, he asked, “Ye-dàgē, did you see anything when you arrived?”

“I didn’t see anything if you’re asking about strange points.”

The ghost’s methods this time seriously doesn’t look like the good kind. But it’s fine as long as it doesn’t involve others. As Yu Yin rejoiced about this, he casually shifted his line of sight and abruptly spotted a male sitting in the corridor outside the door that had been opened for fresh air. The other party smiled at him before vanishing into thin air.

“So that’s what it was…” There were times when ghosts chased away other ghosts too, especially ghosts that protected people.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” Yu Yin quickly finished drinking his tea. After confirming that his head had mostly recovered, he decided to quickly return to the hospital.

Originally, Ye Huan En wanted to help bring him there. However, he still politely declined. He had gone through all the trouble to go home and bring his motorbike over, and ditching it here would make moving around inconvenient later, so it was still better if he drove over himself.

Still somewhat worried about Yu Yin’s condition, Ye Huan En waited until Yu Yin had finished gathering his things before leaving the house, even following behind Yu Yin in his car for a while. Once they arrived within the perimeter of the hospital, Ye Huan En finally waved and left.

***

“Jiu Shen, don’t sleep on the floor.”

When Ah Liu passed by a certain person’s workspace with documents in hand, he directly stepped onto the human body curled up in a C-shape on the ground. It took a few seconds for the person that was stepped on to start moving. “What data are you running?” Ah Liu glanced at the search results that popped up on the desktop screen. He placed his things down to go over and found that it was the fingerprint identification result. “…Done? How is it so quick? How long have you been running it?”

“Huh, ah?” Jiu Shen fumbled as he crawled up from the ground to lean against the table as he replied somewhat dazedly, “Not very long…Ah Yin asked me to check them this afternoon…weird…”

“Seems you found two.” Ah Liu pulled over a chair to take a seat and opened the data page. “Both female. One is already dead, the other is missing. Were you not terrified when you went to the hospital today? I heard that things are really strange on Prosecutor Li’s side.”

“…Don’t remind me again.” Jiu Shen instantly woke up and rubbed his face. He had no desire to recall those frightening little handprints. They were way too scary. Usually, bruises from pressing down with excessive force would spread from the outside in. However, those handprints were the opposite; they seemed to reach from inside out. In reality, the injuries were much more severe than what they appeared to be – it was completely illogical. Just thinking about the layers upon layers of marks made goosebumps crawl all over his body. Thus, he shifted his attention back onto the screen. “Which two?”

“The one that is already dead is called Hu Xin Lei. The one that is missing is Yang Cai Qian.” Ah Liu glanced through and shifted aside to make room for his colleague. “Hu Xin Lei died twenty-six years ago. Her body was found in a mountain area. At the time, it was determined that she had likely fallen down into the ravine by accident. When a mountaineering group found her, it had already been several days after her death. The body had already been mostly eaten by the animals in the mountain, and it took them a long to find the body’s identity…weird.” He stared at the photo in the case file and furrowed his brows in confusion.

“The deceased wore sandals while hiking?” Jiu Shen similarly spotted this, tilted his head in thought. “That doesn’t seem very likely…the ravine’s location is pretty deep inside.”

“Yeah, that’s so strange. But it might just be a beginner’s mistake too.” Despite saying this, Ah Liu did not think it was too likely. However, when he saw the soles of the feet in the photo, it was clear that the deceased had worn the sandals to walk for a good portion of the trail. The abrasions on the feet were very obvious. The solid-coloured sandals that had dropped on the side had a store’s brand name on them.

“These shoes look super expensive. Brand name…all the items scattered around her are brand named. Why was this person hiking while wearing these things?” The layout seemed more like she was going to stroll through a department store. There were not many people that could wear such things over twenty years ago, especially considering the girl’s age was still quite young. Jiu Shen checked the data – she was only twenty years old, likely a university student. However, the strange part was that per the records, the girl’s family had been only moderately affluent at the time. It was not a background that would let her purchase so many brand name things like this. It seemed that they could not find any suspicious points or evidence back then either, so the case had been closed as an accident…Look at the information like this made it seem bizarre.

“The other one looks simpler. Yang Cai Qian went missing around ten years ago at the age of twenty-five or twenty-six. She worked at an accounting firm and moonlighted for extra income. Seems like she lived frugally, and she would often do volunteer work as well. Most of her saved money was sent back to her family or donated to help others. The records say that she went missing while on vacation. After the weekend, neither her company nor her family could contact her, and she still has not been found up to this day.” Whether it was for better or for worse, the previous person’s somewhat older data could still be searched in the database. It was fortunate that the information had been entered when everything had been digitized, or else they would have had to spend quite a bit more effort. Ah Liu printed out the data of both girls and clipped them together before passing over to his friend. “Do you want to sleep a bit more? Your complexion is looking more like a…”

“A dried-up human! Definitely a dried-up human!” Jiu Shen refused to hear any word that started with “g”. He immediately rebuked, “I’ll just reply to Ah Yin about the results and then go sleep!”

“Take care.”

Ah Liu took his documents and returned to his own workspace. He rushed through his work a bit and massaged his neck.

There would always be a lot of work and there would never be enough time. This was likely what described their current situation.

He shook his head in faint amusement. Right before the sky completely brightened, he spared some time to walk out of the cement building with the intention of breathing the fresh, morning air and buying a coffee. Before heading out, he even made a special trip to the break room to confirm that Jiu Shen had obediently crawled back in to sleep. Then he walked out to a somewhat far breakfast shop.

When he returned half an hour later, he distantly spotted someone crouching next to the outer gates. Then, an inspector went over to talk with that person. Ah Liu immediately recognised the inspector as someone that seemed to work with Gu Wen Ying. He stayed in his spot, waiting until the inspector finished speaking and left before walking over.

The person crouched outside was the outsider child, likely having also come out to get some air.

“Which one do you want: matcha or rice milk?” Ah Liu rummaged through his paper bag after some thought to pull out a warm cup. “Rice milk then, looks like there’s a high chance you’re on an empty stomach. Drinking tea will give you a stomachache.”

Dong Feng accepted the cup, relishing the warmth. “Thank you.”

“Do you want to come over to our side to get some sleep?” It seemed likely that he hadn’t slept much either, so Ah Liu kindly asked this question.

“No need, I can sleep in Officer Yu’s office.”

“What did the inspector say just now?”

“Nothing, he just asked me what my connection with this case was, since he saw me coming in and out. I said I didn’t have any [connection], and that I was a relative of Officer Yu’s, so he left.” Dong Feng had not wanted to say too much to a stranger, so he had muddled through his sentences with the inspector. Whether they looked into it or not was their business.

Ah Liu understand the general situation. He then recalled something else. “Do you know about the fingerprints Ah Yin brought?” Recently, the three children would always be mixed together, so perhaps he would know. As expected, Dong Feng nodded at the question.

“Mn.”

“Then I might as well tell you too.”

Dong Feng’s eyes narrowed more and more as he listened to Ah Liu describe the results. Finally, when the other person finished speaking, he asked, “The other one is Hu Xin Lei, not Xin Xiang?”

“It’s Hu Xin Lei.” Ah Liu raised a brow. “Is there another girl?”

“…Not sure yet. Thanks for letting me know.”

***

When Dong Feng stepped into the police station with the cup in hand, there was quite a bit commotion inside.

There was extremely loud noise coming from the room where Zheng Zhong Hui had been detained. From a distance, Dong Feng could see several officers shouting at and suppressing the violent male. But for some reason, the berserk suspect’s strength had increased significantly, and he was momentarily unable to be restrained. Even suspects from other cases outside were taken aback by this, trying to look in and see what was happening.

“That wasn’t me—!”

Mixed in with the roars was the sound of Zheng Zhong Hui flipping a chair over. The handcuffs on him had actually snapped, possibly due to being pulled at or another reason. The situation inside the room was complete chaos.

“What happened?” Dong Feng put down his cup and went over to ask Xiao Wu off to the side, who had a massive bruise on his face.

“Not sure. The inspector went in just now to ask a few questions, and he suddenly went crazy. Hurts like hell.” Xiao Wu cradled his punched face. It felt as if his teeth had nearly been knocked out, as both his face and teeth hurt. “Don’t get too close. Boss and the others should be arriving soon.”

Indeed, he spotted the inspector from before standing in a corner of the room, the person’s eye also now sporting a bruise. Dong Feng had no idea what words had infuriated the man so.

Dong Feng did not plan on getting involved in the mess, especially under violent circumstances. Thus, he also hid behind Xiao Wu.

Right when he moved back, Zheng Zhong Hui suddenly screamed angrily for some reason, his brute force so great that he managed to shove aside the three officers next to him and charged out. Seeing the situation, Xiao Wu immediately pounced forwards to block the man, but was likewise fiercely shaken off. Like this, the man plowed out covered in blood, the ground covered in flying blood droplets. He did not seem to pay it any mind either. Reaching out, he grabbed Dong Feng and viciously held him against the ground.

“Stop!”

“Hurry and take him off!”

Dong Feng had been knocked so hard that his head was spinning, his vision blurred. He could hear the various cries around him as multiple people raced over to try dragging Zheng Zhong Hui away. However, the man continued to grip Dong Feng’s neck with a single hand, making the officers afraid to use too much force.

Then he noticed that the suspect’s other hand was rubbing his hair.

He opened his eyes to see the man, whose face was half-covered in blood, actually crying. Tears dropped from those swollen eyes, as well as the snot from his face. Blood and water mixed together, making the man look even more sinister.

“Sorry…sorry…Cai Qian…”

The man’s crying was full of anguish. Then he retracted that hand to place it on his neck too.

“But you still must die.”

The cold, fruitless sentence was subsequently followed by the two hands exerting full strength to start seizing Dong Feng’s [ability to] breathe. Now, Zheng Zhong Hui was truly determined to strangle him, with bloody eyes full of murderous intent and absolutely no trace of fooling around.

Right before Dong Feng was about to be choked to death, he heard a cry of alarm from the side. Then his neck was let go as the enormous man that had been sprawled over him was completely kicked away. The instant those fingers reluctantly parted, they forcibly tore away a layer of his neck’s skin as well. Then, Dong Feng was pulled up and moved very far away.

“Quick, go grab a first-aid kit…Are you alright?!”

Dong Feng coughed hard several times and slowly recovered his vision to see Yu Tong next to him. On the opposite side was Yu Xia restraining the suspect, as expected. After the suspect’s actions had been forcibly stopped, the surrounding officers had rushed forwards as well to truss the man up very tightly.

Dong Feng covered his bloody neck and slowly breathed, then hurriedly pushed Yu Tong. “…Reporters.”

The disturbance had been too great, drawing over the reporters that had been drinking tea outside in the corridor.

“Xiao Wu, block them.” Yu Tong had also taken note of the person trying to use a camera. He shot his colleague a look before supporting Dong Feng over to an empty office. Someone came in with a first-aid kit.

When Yu Tong finished disinfecting and was bandaging, the office door was opened. Yu Xia walked in and shook his hand that sported several light scratches. “What the hell, something happens when I was just trying to nap for five spare minutes.”

Yu Tong saw Dong Feng’s contemplative expression and somewhat suspiciously asked, “Is something the matter?”

“He definitely just said Cai Qian…” Although Dong Feng had been almost gripped to death, he had undoubtedly heard the very familiar name. “It can’t just be a coincidence, right…”

“Cai Qian? Yang Cai Qian?”

At Yu Xia’s sudden question, Dong Feng’s eyes widened in faint surprise. “You know?”

“Ahh, didn’t we say he had been taken in by a local organisation? Earlier, my friend collected and gathered some information and mentioned that while under their care, a social worker would come read books to the children every other weekend or two. She would frequently buy snacks over as well. Her name was Yang Cai Qian, and she took special care of Zheng Zhong Hui. However, she stopped going the year he was adopted, and seemingly went missing after leaving home. Nobody knew what exact circumstances were.” Yu Xia pulled his cellphone out as he spoke, then passed it over to show Dong Feng a text that had been sent only half an hour ago.

Dong Feng stared at the message for a very long time, then abruptly stood up. “So that’s how it was…”

He understood.

That ghost story.

***

He had committed murder.

They had committed murder.

Yu Yin woke up with a start when he discovered someone moving next to him. He immediately clutched his backpack on instinct and darted away.

A senior that looked in his fifties had appeared next to Yu Yin. Upon noticing the other was awake, the senior also seemed startled for a moment, before muttering something and leaving with a baffled expression.

Is he some patient’s relative?

I didn’t see that person when I borrowed the family break room to sleep yesterday, but he also seems a bit familiar… Yu Yin tilted his head in thought and suddenly remembered having met that senior once at the ER. Probably a wandering patient then.

He rubbed his face and finally realised that Yu was no longer in the room. It seemed that the other had woken up much earlier. Yu Yin eyed the time; though it was not yet noon, he had overslept.

“Yo, student that was ganged up on. You’re finally awake. I was thinking you’d sleep until noon and directly [wake up to] eat lunch.”

Yan Si walked in from outside, seemingly in a pretty good mood. After some thought, Yu Yin accepted the paper bag being passed to him and asked, “How’s Li-dàgē?”

“He woke briefly in the morning. As expected, he’s quite robust and sturdy. But he fell back asleep after saying a few sentences.” Yan Si sat down nearby and massaged his own slightly aching shoulders. “After being beaten silly, my old roommate completely forgot everything that happened before nearly dying and said he didn’t know anything. However, he did remember being shut in several places, and mentioned some other trivial matters.” Speaking of which, Yan Si was pretty dissatisfied about that. For some reason, as soon as that guy had woken up, the first thing he had done was roll his eyes at Yan Si and say something like it would be a loss if he died before Yan Si…Is that something a person should say when they first open their eyes and see their good friend?!

At least show that you’re touched!

Forget it. Seeing that the guy’s head was still unclear, Yan Si decided to forgive his old roommate’s nonsensical babbling.

Yu Yin opened the paper bag to find a slightly cold hamburger. As he chewed on it, he pulled out his cellphone and belatedly discovered multiple texts. Not only had Jiu Shen sent some to him, but his uncle had as well…Why did Uncle text me? It honestly is completely unlike him.

Upon closer look, he found that the contents were not written by his uncle, but by Dong Feng, who had likely borrowed the phone to send the text. The message asked him to bring those paper fragments over to the police station.

Paper fragments?

Yu Yin’s mind blanked out for three seconds before he abruptly made the connection that this was referring to those ghost stories.

Why does he suddenly want those fragments?

Although he did not understand, specially sending this text meant that it was truly essential to some extent. As Yu Yin mentally complained about Yi Tai’s crazy instincts, he stood up. “I’m going to head back…” Before he could finish speaking, he spotted Yu had at some point returned and was now coming over to lean over him and look at the text.

Then, Yu suddenly flipped out a small bag from his own bag. At closer look, it was actually those paper fragments and the bag Yi Tai had given him.

“You actually brought it out?” He patted Yu on the head and took the papers. Yu had likely wanted to bring them to Jiu Shen and the others at a suitable time, though the chance probably had not come yet.

Seeing that they were about to open another wormhole or entrance to a different dimension, Yan Si said, “Then you two can head over together. I’ll wait until my old roommate’s condition improves a bit before returning to report to Boss.”

After shooing away the two little ones, Yan Si sat down in the empty room.

The space was extremely quiet.

“It can be determined from the injuries the attacker’s height, power, and even possibly their age. Even without Xiao Dong-zai’s brain that can auto-copy things, seeing and remembering two people’s appearances after a few times is good enough.” Yan Si played around with the phone in his hands before opening it to download a sent cut-off image. “Speaking of which, was the one that beat my friend you or the other person?”

Standing at the entrance of the resting room was the middle-aged man in his fifties that had left earlier only to return again.

“…What did that person tell you?”

Yan Si shrugged in response to the muddled, aged voice.

“Hurry up and say it.” The other party seemed a bit anxious as he walked inside and locked the door before blocking it. “You-you guys have gotten everything wrong this entire time. The ones truly harmed weren’t them, but us. That person you guys captured is the true perpetrator! He killed many people, beyond what you can imagine!”

“Oh, I don’t care about the progress of the case. That’s Boss’s business. I care more about the abrasions on your fists and the traces left behind from a scuffle. I’m also very curious about the cut on your face and the bruises on your body.” Yan Si turned and stood up.

“On an additional note, I’m currently off work.”

***

“That ghost story is true.”

Before Yu Yin arrived, Dong Feng first wrote a portion of the contents from memory to hand over to Yu Xia. “But not in the way the story seems to be.” He had already noticed some things when he had initially read the clippings. Rather than a ghost story, it was more like a “story”…no, not only a “story”.

Yu Xia glanced through the reproduced version before passing it to Yu Tong next to him. “How is it?”

“It is indeed not a mere story.” Yu Tong nodded in agreement. After taking it, Yu Tong immediately recognised it as the material from the papers he had seen on that first day of bringing Dong Feng back home. It was only now that he suddenly realised where the recent wounds his son were from. Although he had wanted to ask the reason that day, he had truly been too busy and had simply figured he could handle it once the matter at hand was drawn to a close. Who would have imagined the two were related?

“That has the sequential timepoints,” Dong Feng lazily said as he sprawled across the table.

“How long has it been since Ah Yin received this?” Yu Xia asked with furrowed brows as he picked Dong Feng back up off from the table.

“…Since the day I was sent back by you guys?”

“That should be right, I’ve also seen this before.” Yu Tong nodded and handed the paper back to his brother. “I’ll go contact the local organization to clarify the matter. I’ll have a comrade from that region help do a search too and see if we can find any related information.”

“I’ll contact them.” As the one that had a wider range of connections, Yu Xia took the paper and left the office with his cellphone.

Yu Tong stayed inside the office to study that ghost story. He carefully reread it a few times then walked over to turn on a computer and entered some of the data to start a search.

At the moment, the only thing they could be certain of was that Yang Cai Qian’s story might actually have other people. If this story was assumed to be a case, then the contents would actually be significantly more serious than Li Zi Hong’s abduction.

“At least four people can be confirmed as already dead.” Yu Tong let out a sigh.

“And it’s been a few decades.” Dong Feng looked up at the ceiling from where he was curled up in the seat.

“Mhm…but from the description, it doesn’t seem to be too old either.” Yu Tong put the paper down and began to consider the possibilities. The contents of the story mostly described recent things as opposed to things from Yang Cai Qian’s period. “Seems like that restaurant owner probably embellished it quite a bit.”

“…I guess.” Dong Feng shifted his gaze to tilt his chin towards the door. “That Zheng person outside is one of the people related to those involved. Why not continue asking him? We might be able to gain more clues.”

But even though he said this, the man’s mental state was clearly very unstable. After the huge commotion from earlier, the suspect had been locked up with more reinforcements and would not return to a state where he could be questioned anytime soon. Yu Tong smiled faintly as he planned to go ask about the situation again later. If it really wasn’t possible, they would just have to request for the assistance of a specialist.

“Tong.” After finishing various calls, Yu Xia pushed open the door and walked it. “Go drop by the hospital. Ah Si said another suspect just appeared over there…one of the two that had been captured on the surveillance cameras.”

“Is he still there?”

“He ran,” Yu Xia coldly replied. “Ah Si said just as he was about to slice the man in half, the person fled. But we can have the hospital’s camera footage and the street surveillance footage sent over, so you head over. I also just had someone go ask for Yang Cai Qian’s data. According to that ghost story, it might have been a university hiking society, in which case we might be able to find something from the school or students.” It was just that it had been a while, so they weren’t sure if they could find any of those students.

“Understood.”

After Yu Tong left, Yu Xia was just about to continue handling other matters when he saw Dong Feng stand. “What do you want to do this time?”

“…Go sit near the suspect?”

“…Sit back down. How much do you want to die?” Yu Xia seriously could not understand how Dong Feng could be suicidal enough to love provoking the suspect all the time.

Dong Feng thought to himself for a moment. Then he surveyed the surroundings and said, “Then give me a blank notebook, a cap…or scissors would work too.”

“I’ll give it to you if I think it’s reasonable.”

“Tch.”