The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

“A major car accident occurred at Taichung’s private Lidong University of Science & Technology this afternoon. A second year student of the university was critically injured…”

The evening news flash report broke the silence of the room.

Yu Yin rubbed his face of exhaustion, feeling as if a pressure was pressing down on him from all directions. Sitting next to him was Yu, whose face and body covered in ferric-red colour. Yet he seemingly did not mind it as he quietly flipped through the book on his legs. Yu had absolutely no idea how terrifying the colour covering his body was.

Just earlier, they had followed onto the ambulance to leave behind the blood-soaked site that had been on the news and arrived at the hospital. During the entire journey, the wounded person had been constantly bleeding like water flowing out of a broken bottle, completely unstoppable, making it extremely difficult for Yu Yin to breathe.

This type of scene always made him recall that major car accident from many years ago. No matter how many times he witnessed such things, he would never be able to grow used to it.

The news report was still being broadcasted.

“Alright, now that every news channel has blown this up, may I ask which one of you two children will be the representative witness to give a statement?”

The remote controller was picked up, and the TV was shut off, the room suddenly becoming quieter. A man with a distinctive baby face dressed in everyday clothing raised an eyebrow at the two children sitting before him.

“Are you kidding me, Uncle?” Yu Yin shot an impassive look at the person who seemed exactly like a police officer confronting criminals. The only thing missing was the little light shining on their faces, like in the movies. Yu Yin had been running around for most of the day, and only wanted to hurry up and confirm if his friend still lying in the operating room was alright or not. As a result, his tone was not the best as he said, “You think this imp could give a representative statement? Hah!”

Yu Xia, who shared identical youthful features as his older brother, narrowed his eyes and smiled coldly. “We feed you, house you, and even act as your guardians. You had better show some more respect and obediently comply to my interrogation, little brat!” After speaking, Yu Xia reached out to mercilessly whack Yu Yin’s head.

Yu Yin rolled his eyes. However, technically it did make sense: when adding together the facts that they really were feeding him, housing him, and acting as his guardians, it seemed best to be a bit more cooperative. “Just…earlier, I already gave my record to another officer. I need to say it again?” Such a pain. No matter how much I talk about the same event, it’s not going to change or deviate, so why does every person have to come over and ask about it? So inefficient. If I’d known earlier, I would have recorded an MP3 file for them, then let them replay it however many times they wanted to.

Yu lifted his head to glance at the two other people before burying his face into his book again, acting as if whatever they said had nothing to do with him.

The book was softly flipped to the next page.

“You know what I want to ask, hurry up and talk. Cooperating with a police investigation is the duty of a good citizen.” Yu Xia pulled out a small notebook from his pocket, clicked a ballpoint pen, and posed to take notes.

His questions would not be a repeat of the previous officer’s.

Yu Yin rubbed his face and forcefully beat down his dispirited emotions before slowly opening his mouth. “When Ah Guan was turning out, I saw a leopard cat.”

“Leopard cat?” Yu Xia furrowed his brows. “How are you certain it was a leopard cat?” Don’t all cats look the same? Plus, leopard cards are rarely seen nowadays.

“Obviously. Leopard cats look different from wild cats, and I’m not blind. Of course I could tell!” It took Yu Yin only a second to immediately retort back.

“Fine, you could tell it was a leopard cat. So where is it?”

Yu Yin eyed the imp next to him. “It ran over to him, but then we were rushing Ah Guan to the hospital and I didn’t pay any attention to where it escaped off to.”

Yu Xia studied Yu, who was already immersed in the book, then circled around to crouch in front of the boy. “Xiao Yu, did you see a leopard cat?”

Yu tilted his face up slightly at Yu Xia’s voice, then lightly shook his head.

“As if he could see it.” Yu Yin let out an angry snort as he glanced at the little demon. “That cat doesn’t seem to actually exist.”

“Oh, it’s a ghost.” Yu Xia immediately jotted it down in his notebook. “So why would a ghost cat appear on your friend’s bike? It can’t be as simple as wanting to hitch a ride to get some fresh air, right?” In the end, the ride nearly went straight to heaven — not so simple [of a situation] at all!

Yu Yin rolled his eyes at his uncle, already used to automatically ignoring the nonsensical comments. “If I knew why, I would’ve already become one of those spirit mediums on TV that make six-figure salaries rather than sitting here and talking to you about a cat catching a spin on my friend’s bike.” If he was that godly, he would’ve gone to fish from that sea ages ago!

“Good point.” Yu Xia shrugged and stood up. After confirming there were no further clues, he could only change the topic. “Oh, right, I asked Xiao Yu to go find you so that you could bring him around the area nearby and get a meal together. Did you do it?”

Yu Yin started, having not expected his uncle to start settling this account so soon. “Yea, that…as you know, I rushed over here right after the car accident…”

Yu Xia’s gaze was piercing as he spoke with a smile that did not reach his eyes. “Planning on feigning ignorance now, are you?” Having watched Yu Yin grow up, there was no way he would not know what this little demon’s damned personality was like.

“Sigh…I’m not really feigning ignorance…”

Yu Xia turned to directly ask the other subject. “Xiao Yu, did you go find Ah Yin?”

Yu looked up and nodded.

“Then, did Ah Yin bring you to eat?”

Yu turned his head to look at Yu Yin, who wore an expression of doom. After thinking it over, Yu did not nod nor shake his head.

“Don’t worry, Xiao Yu, just say the truth. Uncle will support you.” Yu Xia shot a fierce glare at the other person on the side.

Just as Yu Yin was convinced that he would be unable to avoid Yu Xia’s abusive punishment, a knock on the door interrupted the predicament in the room. The door then opened to reveal a woman standing outside wearing a head nurse tag. “Officer Yu, the surgery has finished.”

Yu Xia nodded at her. “Thank you, Miss Lin.”

The head nurse nodded and walked in to hand over some documents to Yu Xia. “Because the doctor is still overseeing injections, I came over to inform you of the situation first so that you wouldn’t have to wait for too long.” The head nurse was an old acquaintance of Yu Xia. She eyed the two children nearby before immediately shifting her gaze back. “The urgently delivered student Chen had severe lacerations in various places, as well as shattered bones and fractured limbs. In addition, there was heavy bleeding from the head, as well as multiple fractures in the skull caused by the impact. A few of the bone fragments were embedded into the brain. The just completed surgery already covered initial treatments to prevent infection. We will be observing him for another half a day before performing a second operation.”

“Alright, I understand. I will ask the head doctor questions later. Thank you.” Yu Xia flipped through the patient documents as he thanked the nurse, taking general note of the major injuries before returning the data.

“Oh, in addition, student Chen’s previous coma score of 5 is now at 6. Also, while he was undergoing emergency treatment, he said some strange words that we did not understand.”

“Strange words?” Yu Xia narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“He seemed to have been apologising to someone, constantly repeating the words ‘Jing’ and ‘Sorry’.” The nurse nodded as she continued, “He continued for a long while before finally ceasing. However, perhaps he had simply been repeating himself due to his scrambled conscious.”

Jing?

Yu Yin felt a thought flash through his head, yet was unable to catch hold of it.

“Mm, thank you.” Yu Xia nodded at the nurse. She politely responded and left the room.

The instant the door was closed, Yu, who had been quietly reading the whole time, suddenly jumped up from his chair. He walked over to the softly pat the arm of Yu Xia, who was currently deep in thought.

“Xiao Yu? What’s wrong?” Yu Xia snapped out of his thoughts to glance at the person holding a book out to him. The book had been flipped to a specific page, and the boy was pointing to two words: “Go home.”

“You want to go home?”

Yu immediately nodded in response to the question.

Yu Xia lifted his wrist to check his watch. Seeing that the needles were indicating that it was three in the morning, he finally realised how quickly the night had flown by. “Ah Yin, bring Xiao Yu home first to shower, eat, and get proper sleep. You should do the same; don’t run around.” It was quite late already, and both of them were children so he could not keep them detained at the hospital any longer.

Yu Yin immediately looked at him and said, “My motorbike is parked at school, you know!” He had followed Ah Guan onto the ambulance, leaving his beloved ride back with the guards. How am I supposed to bring the brat home? Walk on two feet? What a joke, our place is still a distance away.

“You can’t walk back? Don’t you love running around all over the place anyways?” Although Yu Xia said this, he pulled out his wallet and passed over two thousand yuan bills. “Don’t wander around. If I find out you were loitering elsewhere again, you’d better prepare yourself [for a beating].”

Yu Yin whisked the bills away and snorted, “Yeah, I know.” He glanced at the little imp and spat out with a tone of extreme reluctance, “We’re leaving!”

The temperature was always very low in the early mornings.

Yu Yun sneezed the moment they walked out from the hospital doors. It had not been cold in the hospital just earlier, but it was freezing as soon as they came outside. He really wanted to curse.

He turned his head to see Yu standing next to him. The boy was not wearing anything warmer, and he was even covered in bloodstains still.

Yu Yin suddenly recalled the little demon reacting to the cat accident only after being yelled at.

For that matter, he should be thanking the imp. This little demon had been the only one daring to charge forwards through the crowd of onlookers to actually staunch the bleeding. Although Yu Yin had no idea where the brat had learned the skill from, the medical staff that arrived later had praised the boy, stating that if it weren’t for his immediate response, Ah Guan would have been long past saving.

As his thoughts came to this point, Yu Yin honestly felt it would be better not to treat the other so poorly. After all, the imp had actually helped, a significant effort compared to the useless bystanders that had been idly watching.

Yu Yin rolled his eyes and let out a faint sigh as he took off his thin jacket and tossed it at the little demon. “Wear it properly, or else we’ll be screwed later when the driver thinks we murdered someone together.”

Yu blankly stared at him for a moment before slowly putting the jacket on.

Without a jacket, Yu Yin found the temperature even more merciless. He rubbed his palms together and breathed onto them. Since it was past midnight, there were not many taxis. He surveyed their surroundings and caught sight of a flashing light outside the perimeter walls. “Come on, let’s go get a cab.” He bee-lined straight ahead with wide strides. As expected, soft footsteps followed behind him.

What a pain, suddenly having to take care of a younger brother for no reason at all. It’s really ridiculous.

However, his father had mentioned that the boy was involved in a case. What kind of case is it…?

He had not heard of any major incidents on the news recently, nor had he heard his father and uncle discussing anything of the sort. Could it be that the incident had not been made public yet?

Or…

They did not have to walk for too long before they arrived outside the grounds where a few taxis were parked. Each car had a driver either listening to the radio to pass the time while waiting for customers, or were sound asleep after growing tired of the wait. It was in the middle of the night, so there were only a few of the more diligent people left behind trying to take the profit from the meager bus fees.

“You boys! Want a ride?” The driver of a taxi closest to them immediately got off his car and called out to them when he saw the two youths walk out. “It’s really cold right now, and there aren’t any buses this late.”

Yu Yin glanced at the man. “Do you know how to get to the Central City Garden Villas?”

“Of course I do. Come on, hop into the car.” The taxi driver waved them towards the car seats with a smile and warmly asked in concern, “You two just came out of the hospital, and it’s so late already. You must be exhausted.”

“We’re still okay, it’s pretty normal.” Yu Yin plopped down onto the window seat while carrying the conversation. “Oh, Boss, could you stop at a fast-food place on the way? We still haven’t eaten yet, so we want to buy some hamburgers for dinner.”

“You haven’t eaten yet? Ah, always eating hamburgers isn’t good for you. Make sure to eat plenty of vegetables to get balanced nutrition.” Once the driver confirmed they were both seated properly, he began to drive. “Is the one next to you your younger brother? He’s quite a good-looker, just a bit skinny. Kids these days are always just a tad too scrawny. They need to eat some more to be healthy.”

Yu Yin stayed silent, simply smiling in response.

The taxi slowly advanced, leaving the hospital grounds and entering the street that had basically no cars or pedestrians so early in the morning. The sky was still dark. Only the lampposts and the car’s headlights pierced through the suffocating darkness.

“Tonight is really strange, there isn’t a single car around. You can typically still see two or three around this time.” The driver turned the steering wheel as he broke the silence in the car.

Yu Yin checked his watch; it was past three. He then looked up at the person in the front seat. “Everyone’s probably sleeping some more because of the cold weather.” He randomly switched topics and asked, “Dàshū ¹, do you always pick up passengers by the hospital?”

“Yep, and it has to be a car registered with a taxi company. Otherwise, the hospital wouldn’t let us wait outside.” The driver shot him a look through the rear mirror and calmly continued to chat, “I just happened to end up getting picked for the graveyard shift, cutting some sleep every day to moonlight and get a bit more work in. I try to earn whatever cash I can. It’s pretty hard to be a taxi driver with how bad the economy is doing right now, and I still have several mouths to feed at home.”

“That’s true…”

Yu Yin stared outside the window and began to space out.

Noticing that he did not appear to intend on continuing the small talk, the driver did not speak again either.

“Yu, what number set do you want to eat?” Moments later, Yu Yin noticed the yellow signboard they were approaching, and lightly pushed his new brother currently watching the scenery out the other window.

Yu turned around to look at Yu Yin for a moment, then shook his head.

“You don’t want to eat dinner?” Yu Yin frowned, somewhat upset. “If you don’t eat, I’ll get yelled at again. If you don’t voice a preference, I’ll just order something random for you.”

Yu studied him for a long time, then finally gave a slow nod.

The car immediately returned to its quiet state.

“I’ll turn on the radio for a bit.” The driver likely felt uncomfortable with the extreme silence, and went ahead to turn on the radio. Immediately, an old Taiwanese song began to play, one that Yu Yin had never heard before. However, the driver occasionally hummed along with the beat.

A few minutes later, the song ended. Yu Yin suddenly felt something on him. When he glanced to his side, he found that Yu had at some point already dozed off, his head now resting against Yu Yin’s arm.

Honestly, Yu did not look as annoying when he was sleeping.

However, when he was awake, those emotionless, unusual violet eyes were extremely discomforting.

“Boy, we’re here.” The driver glanced at the 24-hour signboard and steered into the drive-through. The student part-timer standing at the window immediately stuck his head out with a smile on his face.

“Good evening, I see you’re still hard at work still. Welcome to the drive-through, may I ask what you would like to order?”

Yu Yin rolled the window down, carefully shifting the sleeping Yu to lean back against the seat first before sticking his head out to place the order. “I would like a bucket of fried chicken, and two orders of hamburgers with apple pies. Also, please add a cup of hot coffee.”

The student part-timer quickly inputted the order into the computer. “Will that be all?”

“Mm.” Yu Yin nodded.

“Understood, please wait for a moment while I retrieve your food.”

The student part-timer worked extremely efficiently, handing all their neatly packed food within a few minutes. “Please check if everything you ordered is present.”

Yu Yin took a quick look before paying.

“Thank you for visiting, have a safe trip.”

As the taxi drove out, the car became filled with the aroma [of food].

“Dàshū, please accept this drink.” Yu Yin placed the hot coffee onto the drink holder next to the driver’s seat.

“How could I possibly accept?” The taxi driver kept his focus forwards as he declined.

“It’s fine. We’re having you make a trip so late at night, and it’s good to drink something to refresh yourself,” Yu Yin answered with a smile.

“In that case, thank you.” The driver happily gave his gratitude and did not continue to refuse.

Just as Yu Yin was about to lean back towards his seat, he discovered that Yu had already fallen over in his sleep, now taking up majority of the space in the back and leaving no place for Yu Yin to sit back.

He rolled his eyes in exasperation and placed the paper bag in his heads down next to his feet. “Dàshū, please excuse me, but I’ll have to sit next to you.” As he said this, he carefully began to crawl forwards to the front seat.

The driver caught a glance of the situation from his rear mirror, and slowed down to let Yu Yin safely sit into the seat next to him.

“Your brother is quite tired. Make sure he gets some proper sleep once you’re home, or else he won’t have any energy tomorrow.” The driver kindly changed the channel so that it played a softer music, the sound floating through the car.

“Mm.” Based on Yu Yin’s estimation, the taxi still needed to pass through downtown before they arrived, since their home was on the outskirts of the city centre. It would probably take at least ten more minutes on the road.

“It’s cold. There’s a jacket behind the seat if you want to cover your little brother. It’ll be bad if he gets sick,” the driver said as he glanced through the rear mirror again.

“Oh, ok, thank you.” Yu Yin grabbed the jacket behind the seat and casually laid it over Yu.

The second he turned back around, he froze.

The reflection of a cat faced him from the rear mirror.

It was a bit past three in the morning when the ear-splitting screech of the car braking shattered the silence in the downtown area.

Several sleepy-eyed residents turned on their lights, trying to look outside and see what was going on.

“Holy shit! Where did a cat pop out from?!” After suddenly braking, the driver had not quite calmed down yet. He undid his seatbelt and got off the car to check the front.

Because Yu Yin had crashed into the glass [window] from the sharp halt, he was dizzy for a few seconds. By the time he regained his senses, the driver was already pacing back and forth around the car, muttering non-stop to himself, “Weird, there was clearly a cat that darted underneath the car just now. Why isn’t anything there…”

Yu Yin shook his head, and only managed to clear his mind after waiting quite a while.

In the backseat, Yu had also been jolted awake by the abrupt stop. He rubbed his hazy eyes, confusion written all over his face.

“Here is a report that came in just now. At 3 AM today, a headless female corpse was discovered in T-city. According to the on-site investigation…” The radio emitted static as it broadcasted the news in real-time with indistinct, fragmented transmission in the middle of the night.

Yu Yin turned to glance at the person who woken up from the clamour. “It’s nothing, you can continue resting.”

Yu did not actually lay down and go back to sleep. He looked at Yu Yin impatiently, then went back to looking outside.

“There’s nothing there! To hell with it!” After looking around outside, the driver finally opened the car door to return to the driver’s seat. At some point, the news broadcast had finished, and it was playing music again.

“You hit a cat?” Yu Yin asked as he gave the driver a puzzled look.

He had barely turned around to look earlier when the inertia from the sudden braking had prevented him from seeing anything at all.

“Yeah, a large cat suddenly darted under the car, but I couldn’t find anything beneath the wheels. It probably escaped, how lucky it must be,” the driver replied as he restarted the engine.

A large cat?

Yu Yin knit his brows together with a faint feeling of suspicion.

The taxi’s engine fired up several times, yet the car either did not start at all, or would shut itself back off after sounding out a few times.

“Fuck! I can’t be unlucky enough for the car to have broken down!” The driver cursed out, then got off the car to open the hood. White smoke instantly hissed outwards. After examining the inside, he ran back hurriedly to say, “I’m sorry boys, looks like the car is broken. I’ll call someone else to bring you two back home. I sincerely apologise,” he voiced his apology while bowing at the waist to them.

“It’s fine. Thanks for the trouble, Dàshū.” Yu Yin did not mind; they would just be arriving home a bit later.

The driver immediately called for someone. “The taxi company said they would dispatch someone over, they should arrive in a moment.”

Yu Yin nodded. He then opened the door to go back and sit in the back seat.

Since they needed to wait, they might as well eat their food in the car first. Then they could just go straight to washing up for bed after returning home.

Yu quietly watched him from the adjacent seat.

“Eat something first, you’ve probably been hungry for a while now.” Yu Yin stuffed one of the hamburgers into the boy’s hand, then grabbed one for himself. After tearing the wrapper off and taking a big bite, he asked, “Dàshū, do you want to come and eat something too? You can find someone to go fix the car in the morning,” he shouted out at the driver currently inspecting the car outside.

The driver nodded in response, but continued examining the engine.

Yu stared at Yu Yin for a moment longer before lowering his head and taking small bites of the food, eating extremely slowly.

Yu Yin shot a glance over, then quickly devoured the hamburger in his own hand. Having stayed the entire night at the hospital which forbid even water to be brought in, his hunger had nearly eaten a hole through his stomach.

He took out the drink. Time seemed to stretch as they waited, so Yu Yin could not help but ponder the information he had heard at the hospital earlier.

Who was Jing?

There wasn’t anyone with that name among their mutual friends.

Why would Ah Guan keep shouting “Jing, sorry”?

Yu Yin did not understand, since there were still differences between their lifestyles. It’s probably some girl the rascal’s secretly dating, or someone he wronged somehow.

Yu Yin checked his watch. Approximately five minutes had passed.

Amidst the unusual silence within the car that only had the noise of eating and the rustle of paper, a loud melody suddenly rang out. Extremely startled, Yu Yin immediately pulled out his cellphone. The screen displayed Yu Tong’s name. “Hello? Dad?”

A familiar voice came from the phone. “Your uncle said you two already left the hospital. Where are you now? Do you need me to prepare a late-night snack?”

A faint smile formed on Yu Yin’s face without him knowing. “We’re about to pass through the downtown area, so we’ll be home in a bit. You should go ahead and sleep first, Dad. We already bought food on the way.” He could tell from the voice that Yu Tong had definitely not slept at all either.

“I will be waiting for you two to open the door. Make sure you don’t wander around along the way, understand?”

After a few more reminders from the other end of the line, the call was cut.

As Yu Yin stowed his cellphone away, he saw that Yu had also just finished eating. “Here, Coke.” He fished the drink out from the paper bag and shoved it towards the boy. “You’d better not say you want something else, since I only ordered Coke. There’s also fried chicken and apple pie in the bag that you can grab yourself.”

Just before he was about to continue eating, he heard the sound of an unfamiliar car approaching.

“Boys, the car’s here,” the driver checking the engine outside shouted.

“Ok.” Yu Yin immediately gathered their things together and opened the door to get off the car. Yu followed behind with the drink in hand.

Another taxi had appeared before them. This new driver was much younger, with a head full of dyed, blonde hair and a cigarette in his mouth. He honestly seemed more like a delinquent.

“Old Lin, is your car broken?” The young driver rolled down the window to greet the other driver. “Wanna jump in as well? I can bring you back to the company. You can call someone to fix the car in the morning; there isn’t much you can do so late at night.”

“It’s fine, you bring these two boys home first. Pick me up on your way back later.” The driver put on gloves and began to check the parts underneath the car.

“Ok, be careful then.” The young driver opened the back door of the car and nodded at the other two. “Boys, hop on.”

Yu Yin immediately wormed his way into the car. There was an extremely strong fragrance that made him feel uncomfortable. “Could you please bring us to Central City Garden Villas?”

“Sure. Make yourselves comfortable.”

The young driver smoothly turned the wheel with practiced movements, and the taxi began to move.

Yu Yin subconsciously turned around to look back at the other driver left behind in the night.

And his eyes instantly widened.

He saw the leopard cat sitting next to the open engine cover, the sound of its meows magically reaching his ears.

It felt as if the air was being sucked away.

The next second, the driver, whose head had been lowered to inspect the engine, let out piercing wail of pain as white smoke suddenly swallowed the upper half of his body.

“Stop the car!”

The screech of brakes shattered the silent night a second time.

^{1. Dàshū (大叔) = uncle, not necessarily biological. ↑}