The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

He had not been able to figure anything out.

“No, there’s nothing for kids to see!”

The morning following He Mu Yan’s incident, which was a Saturday, the four of them were gathered together eating breakfast in the dining room. It was at that moment when Yu Yin requested from Yu Xia, who was affiliated with the case, to go see He Mu Yan’s body.

He had been unable to stop thinking about what had happened with the visitor at seven. It did not feel like a dream, and even less like a hallucination, but rather an event that had actually occurred.

Naturally, Yu Xia was completely opposed to it.

Although Yu Xia knew what the little demon was thinking, Yu Xia always kept business and personal matters separate, and would never agree to such a thing.

“Please, it’s not like I’ve never seen that kind of stuff before. Plus, last night’s incident really bugs me. And it’s not like taking a look will kill me.” Yu Yin frowned, but continued to plead in a respectful tone

“Ah Yin, you should also know that people that have hung themselves are not a pleasant sight. Your uncle is afraid you’ll get frightened.” Yu Tong spoke as he served soup to everyone, also refusing to let Yu Yin go.

“Doesn’t matter, I have to personally confirm it with my own eyes!” Yu Yin stubbornly resolved to go see He Mu Yan’s corpse, and refused to give up. “Or else I won’t be able to eat or sleep properly because all I can think about is that dead person!”

Yu continued to quietly eat his breakfast without taking any part in the argument.

“Hmph! I refuse to believe you can see it if I don’t let you!” Yu Xia’s anger flared. Damn brat, you think you can take a look just because you want to? All I have to do is give an order to my co-workers, and I swear you won’t be able to catch a single glimpse.

Yu Yin also grew upset. “Even if you don’t let me go, I could still sneak in or something. I’m sure I could still see something!”

“You…!”

“That’s enough, no fighting during mealtimes!” Yu Tong coldly declared before the two began to exchange blows. This caused the adult-and-child pair to instantly shut their mouths.

By the time the argument ended, Yu had very slowly finished his breakfast already. He pulled out a notebook and carefully wrote some words inside, passing the notebook over to show Yu Xia.

“Can we borrow detailed photos of the corpse to look at?”

He knew that Yu Yin only wanted to confirm how He Mu Yan had died.

After reading this, Yu Xia glanced over at Yu and his tone softened a bit. “If it’s just photos, then it’s fine. I can borrow some from my colleagues after work. That should be good enough, right?” The last sentence was directed towards Yu Yin.

“Hmph.” Yu Yin turned his head away.

Yu Tong couldn’t help but smile helplessly at the two people with childish tempers.

Yu Yin is clearly my son, yet why does he seem more like Xia?

It seemed that discipline still had a significant impact.

“Tong, I still have tasks to do, so I’ll head out first.” The argument had wasted too much time. Yu Xia hurriedly finished eating, drank his soup, then quickly grabbed his backpack and bounded towards the door. “For some reason, there’s been more incidents than usual these past few days. Not sure I’ll be able to come home on time tonight.”

“Did you remember to bring a bento box?” Yu Tong asked in reminder as he did every day.

“Yeah, yeah!”

Yu Xia rushed outside as soon as he responded.

A few minutes later, Yu Tong also began to tidy up the table.

“Dad, I’m going to stop by the hospital.” Yu Yin organised his thoughts as he helped clean the table as well.

“Mm.”

Yu Tong tilted his head in thought. “That means you won’t be at home today. In that case, I’ll bring Xiao Yu with me to work.”

“Huh?” Yu Yin froze, having not expected such a response. He then quickly looked at the frail figure currently carrying some plates into the kitchen.

“Won’t-won’t bringing him with you to work be inconvenient?” Although Dad’s already transferred to the administrative group, wouldn’t it still be a bother? And the police station isn’t somewhere people can just use as a daycare…

Yu Tong gave a puzzled look at his son and slowly said, “I thought you did not like Xiao Yu following you.” Especially after Yu Yin had rejected the adoption so much the other day. Yu Tong had assumed that his son still had not come to terms with it yet.

“Of-of course I don’t!” Yu Yin shouted back as soon as he got over his astonishment.

“Then wouldn’t me bringing Xiao Yu to work perfectly match your interest?” Yu Tong began to sense something was different after seeing how quick Yu Yin’s rebuttal was.

“Fine, go ahead and bring him out with you.” Yu Yin shrugged, indicating he did not care.

He honestly did not think anything of it. Although he did not dislike Yu, he also did not enjoy having someone stuck to his back and following him everywhere. If Dad brings Xiao Yu out, it’ll actually be easier for me to deal with things!

Yu Tong gave his son an odd look as he nodded. “Mm.”

Thus, the morning passed by smoothly.

As the morning ended, all the members of the Yu household went off on their separate ways.

“Xiao Yu, are you ready?” As the last ones to leave, Yu Tong stuck his head back in to ask the person still inside the house. He then walked out to the front yard to open the garage and start his beloved car.

Soon after the car had warmed up and a CD had been inserted, the door next to the other seat was pulled open.

“Did you lock the door?” Yu Tong reflexively asked as he watched the youth place some books in the car. The boy nodded. “Those types of books again, I see. Can you actually understand such difficult texts?” He stared at the original texts on the seat with slight doubt.

Yu nodded and fastened his seatbelt.

“That’s great. Next time when things get busy, I might ask you for a little help; that Ah Yin has just barely been getting by in humanities…I really hope he doesn’t fail this semester.” As Yu Tong recalled the warning slip for cutting classes that he had previously received, he could not help but feel that this semester was a lost cause.

Yu simply blinked back at him without any further indications. After a while, he shifted his gaze back and flipped through the notebook he typically used for communications.

The car slowly slipped out of the garage. Yu Tong adjusted his mirrors, then turned the car out onto the road with practiced movements. Their house was on the edges of the city, while their workplace was the police station at the city centre. As a result, it always took some time to commute back and forth. Moreover, since he and Yu Xia were in different units, they left home at different times in the morning.

A clear, melodious tune drifted through the car.

Yu flipped to a specific page and pulled out a piece of paper inside. After inspecting it closely, he furrowed his brows slightly and clipped the paper back in place, then fell deep into his own thoughts.

Soon after the car departed, a cellphone rang.

“Hello? This is Yu Tong speaking.” Yu Tong turned on the bluetooth and quickly answered. One of his colleagues’ voice came from the other end, asking him to turn around and head over to another place to check something out instead of going into the office.

Yu turned around to watch Yu Tong speak on the phone. Finally, the latter hung up.

Yu Tong cut the music off and turned the wheel. “Xiao Yu, we’re going to go somewhere else. Something just came up and I need to head over there first.”

Yu nodded and did not express any objection. He picked up a thick book and placed it on his lap as he began to flip through it.

“You’ll damage your eyes like that. Don’t read in the car.” Yu Tong stretched a hand out to close the book, then began to rummage through his work bag for something. “What…” Before he could finish his sentence, he paused as he fished a silver object out [from the bag].

Yu shifted forwards to look.

“Strange, when was this placed in my bag? I haven’t done any field work for a very long time now. Xia probably placed it there by mistake.” Yu Tong glanced at the small object in his hand, then tossed it over. “Here, Xiao Yu, keep this on you.” He passed the item over.

Yu accepted it and after a brief moment’s thought, placed it into his pocket.

“What was the piece of paper you were looking at just now?” Yu Tong asked, casually choosing a random topic.

As he spoke, he noticed the rider sitting next to him suddenly clutch the notebook and curl up like a kitten that had gotten its tail stepped on. It was extremely obvious that he refused to answer.

“Alright, I won’t ask,” Yu Tong quickly comforted with a smile.

Yu turned to look at the scenery flashing by outside the window, then glanced at the person concentrating on driving. He flipped the notebook back open to read the piece of paper again.

It was an address.

An address he had copied down from a certain person.

***

It was afternoon when Yu Yin walked out of the hospital.

Ah Guan was still the same. He was in observation, and could not have visitors. However, since Yu Yin was a related person, the head nurse had divulged some of the details to him. Yu Yin later got the bandages on his wound changed as well, and left soon after.

It was Saturday, so there were a few more people in the hospital than before. Most were family members visiting patients. There were also many more taxis driving in and out of the area.

From the corner of his eye, Yu Yin spotted a relatively familiar taxi parked outside the walls.

“Mister, want to jump on?” As Yu Yin neared the car, the young taxi driver immediately called out to him. When he saw who the person approaching was, he started slightly. “Young man, it seems that fate keeps bringing us together.”

It was the blonde taxi driver that had dropped them off in place of Lin Yu Da a few nights ago, who also recognised Yu Yin immediately.

“Hello.” Yu Yin nodded and leaned against the car window to start chatting. “By the way, what happened to Mr. Lin afterwards?”

Lin Yu Da had been transferred to a private hospital for treatment per the taxi company’s arrangements, and Yu Yin had forgotten to ask his uncle which hospital it was. As a result, he had never heard any news after that.

“Old Lin…sigh, it’s quite tragic. His face, hands, and torso were all severely burned. The doctors said it was so serious that if there are complications due to infection, they might need to amputate. Luckily he ducked pretty quickly, so his eyes are still fine. Otherwise, everyday life would become seriously difficult.” Now that they were talking about the events from that night, the young driver shook his head and sighed. “Just recently, someone magnanimously hired car service from him for several thousand, and he even treated everyone to late night snacks. Old Lin is really a good person, who would’ve imagined such a thing to happen?”

He truly is a good person…

Yu Yin could not help but sigh as well. “If possible, could you tell me which hospital and ward Mr. Lin is currently staying at? Since we were also brought together, I wanted to pay him a visit.” Moreover, he had some matters to ask the man about…

“Yes, of course it’s possible.” The young driver easily agreed. He reached into the car to write down on a piece of paper and passed it over. “Old Lin’s mood hasn’t been the best recently, so you should go chat with him if you’re free. He recently had a huge fight with his kid, so he’s been too mad to go home. He’s pretty lonely all by himself.”

Yu Yin nodded and stuffed the paper into his pocket.

“I’ll go over later, thank you.”

“No need for thanks!”

After bidding farewell to the young taxi driver, Yu Yin glanced around and pulled out the arcade centre business card. Since he was already near the hospital, he figured he would walk around Ah Guan’s workplace too.

He just felt like it was a necessary trip.

The address on the business card was only five minutes away from the hospital. After crossing a few streets, he saw a decently large game centre appear before him.

There was a black automatic door in front. However, standing before it were two burly chaps wearing suits. Anyone nearing the door would be stopped by them for ID verification. It was not a place that anyone could enter, as some people were rejected even after the inspection.

After observing from the corner for a while, Yu Yin gathered the courage to approach the entrance. As expected, the two people immediately stopped him within steps.

“Young friend, you don’t look familiar. Are you of age?” One of the men asked.

“I’m already in university, what do you think?” Yu Yin smirked back without a trace of trepidation. “Want to check my ID?”

“You cannot enter this place if you’re not yet eighteen. Let me take a look at your ID.” The person reached out a hand.

Yu Yin fished out his driver’s license from his wallet. The large man scanned over it quickly before returning it. “What did you come here for?”

“Obviously…to let loose. Also, I was introduced by someone to this place.” Yu Yin passed over the business card with Wang Hong’s name printed on it.

The moment they saw the name card, the two men’s attitudes instantly reversed. “So you were introduced by Boss? Please, come in.”

Yu Yin was somewhat taken aback by the abrupt politeness. However, without paying it much mind, he collected his things back and stepped directly through the automatic door.

The instant the black glass door opened, a wave of ice-cold air that carried a sweet fragrance with it welcomed him. Yu Yin frowned and subconsciously covered his nose with his hands. Only after the smell had dispersed did he relax.

The ear-deafening music rang out from the arcade, multiple songs mixed together. The entire arcade centre seemed to be shaking.

He now regretted not bringing a pair of earplugs with him.

He glanced around and noticed a place to exchange coins. With no real intention to play, Yu Yin pulled out a few hundred bills from his pocket and walked over to the counter. Moments later, he carried the coins over to one of the video games.

This place was filled with various types of gaming devices, such as the usual arcade games, shooting games, dancing games, etc…But if it were truly such an innocent place, he would not have been questioned outside just now. With this thought in mind, he used the business card to ask some questions to a few other people engrossed in playing. After walking around the walls, he arrived at an area that was mostly filled with gambling and erotic-style games.

Yu Yin was certain that if he called his uncle right now, there would definitely be police searching this place immediately.

He glanced around and headed straight over to an empty counter to sit down. Immediately, one of the staff members approached him. “Mister, is this your first time here? Would you like any service?”

They were naturally more guarded when facing unfamiliar customers.

“Don’t bother, I mastered these kinds of things ages ago,” Yu Yin came up with a random excuse, then purposely tossed some coins in a machine to make a show of playing.

Fortunately, his uncle often inspected these kinds of things. Yu Yin had often snuck away to play them as a kid, so he was actually quite skilled at them.

“Understood. If you require any service, please notify our staff members.” The person was quite polite, and immediately left.

Yu Yin looked at the flashing monitor in front of him and let out a sigh.

He had come in, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do or why he had even bothered sneaking in.

“Hey, are you new here?” A middle-aged man who was originally focused on playing mahjong at the gambling table suddenly approached him inquisitively.

Yu Yin glanced at the man who was completely covered with the smell of smoke that instantly disgusted Yu Yin. “Yep, I was curious so I came to play a bit.”

He pretended to focus on his cards. It wouldn’t be long before he won, and he would be able to immediately run over to change his winnings into cash.

“You play pretty well.” The middle-aged uncle studied the monitor for a while before adding, “But, I recommend you switch machines.”

Yu Yin furrowed his brows and glanced around. There were other places around, but he could not understand why the other would make such a suggestion. “I’m playing this one quite well though, and I’m on a roll right now. Are you just jealous?” As he said this, he won another round.

“Oi, I’m saying this for your sake!” The middle-aged man raised his voice as he abandoned his game and turned to say, “Anyone that’s played long enough knows that the machine you’re playing has issues. Nobody wants to touch it.”

“Has issues?”

“Yeah, it often glitches or eats extra tickets. Quite a few people that played it ended up with tragic losses and were beyond furious!” The middle-aged man studied the cards on the monitor and waved his hand. “It was still fine without any problems up until recently. Ever since that regular girl player stopped coming, the machine has been malfunctioning. Boss even had people come inspect it several times, but it couldn’t be fixed, and they never figured out why either.”

“Girl?” Yu Yin started. It seemed like he was on the verge of grasping something. “What girl?”

The middle-aged man gave him a strange look. “Ah, a girl that’s around your age. She has long black hair and a delicate face. She used to come frequently, saying that she was waiting for her boyfriend to get off work. To kill time, she’d play around here. At some point, she stopped coming.”

Long black hair?

“Do you know her name?” Yu Yin quickly asked.

“Name?” The middle-aged man’s face scrunched up in thought. “…Never really paid attention…and it’s not quite coming to mind right now…”

“Was her name Jing?”

At the prompt, the middle-aged man clapped his hands together. “That’s right! She was called Ah Jing, Lin Xiu Jing. I used to sit next to her and chat.”

Lin Xiu Jing…

Yu Yin’s brows knit together. Was this the “Jing” that Ah Guan and the others had been referring to?

Could it really be that lucky of a coincidence…

“Thanks, Dàshū.” Yu Yin gave most of the remaining coins on the table to the middle-aged man, then began to space out in thought while staring at the monitor.

If this Lin Xiu Jing is Jing, then the long-haired girl I saw last night was…

Before he could finish the thought, the skin on his scalp began to crawl.

In that instant, the monitor in front of him abruptly went black.

A blurry face flashed across it.

It was for less than a second.

A pale face with indistinct features, the eyes glaring at him. It then vanished instantly.

The monitor switched back on, restarting the card game.

This time Wang Hong’s silhouette was reflected.

“Ah Guan’s friend? Why are you here?”

Wang Hong, who was wearing a wireless earpiece, was standing behind him and had clearly been watching him for a while. There was no trace of surprise in his question, just pure inquisitiveness.

Yu Yin was certain that the two people outside had reported him after showing the business card.

He stood up with the coins and smiled faintly. “No special reason. I heard about He Mu Yan last night, and Ah Guan’s condition hasn’t changed either, so I suddenly wanted to drop by here to take a look. I didn’t see you, so I decided to just play some games.” He turned to see the tickets that had been churned out, an extremely large amount. He had definitely earned his money back.

The corners of Wang Hong’s lips turned up to form a professional smile. “If you want to come, let me know and I can welcome you properly as well as introduce you to some of the more interesting things. This kind of boring machine isn’t any fun. There’s a newer batch inside that just started beta testing. I heard it’s quite decent.”

“It’s fine, I’ve more or less broken even already.” Yu Yin smiled back, then leaned against the counter. “Oh, right, did you know that He Mu Yan asked Ah Guan for my home address? He called last night and said he would pay me a visit at night. I waited for him for a long time but he never came, and only found out from the news afterwards that he had died. I’ll never know why he wanted to meet with me.”

For a second, a strange look seemed to flash in Wang Hong’s eyes. However, he covered it very well, his smile unchanging without revealing any clues at all. “I did not know of such a matter. But Ah Guan and Ah Mu have always been very close. Maybe Ah Guan wanted to introduce you two together.”

“I see.” Yu Yin nodded, “In that case, I’m sure He Mu Yan was a pretty decent person. It’s a bit of a pity that he committed suicide at such a young age.”

Wang Hong simply maintained his smile and did not reply.

Noting that the other would not speak, Yu Yin decided to retreat for now. “I’ve finished playing here, and I’ve arranged to eat with a friend, so I’m done for the day.” He waved the tickets and coins in his hand. “What do I do with these?”

Wang Hong scanned the tickets and the number of remaining coins. After a quick calculation, he turned on his earpiece and said, “Yu Heng, bring a thousand in cash over here.”

Soon after, a youth around Yu Yin’s age walked over.

He had gauze on his face, seemingly injured. The fearful expression he wore seemed somewhat out of place with his hairstyle.

Yu Yin eyed the nametag: Zhao Yu Heng.

Wang Hong grabbed the cash and passed it to Yu Yin. “Here, I’ve changed it for you.”

“Thanks.” Yu Yin accepted the bills and stuffed them into his pocket.

“Let me escort you to the door.” Wang Hong shot a look at the staff member and they immediately left without daring to resist.

Ah Guan wasn’t like this while working here too, was he?

Yu Yin could not help but wonder this after seeing how terrified everyone here was of Wang Hong.

Just as Wang Hong turned to walk out, Yu Yin saw the machine’s monitor flicker. A transparent hand reached out in attempt to grab Wang Hong’s clothing, but it retracted half a second later.

What does that mean?

“Is something wrong?” Wang Hong immediately turned around to ask after taking a few steps and noticing that Yu Yin was not following behind.

“No-nope.” He quickly caught up.

The two of them turned several corners and quickly arrived before the black glass door, one behind the other.

“Next time you come, you can let me know first and I’ll give you a discount,” Wang Hong smiled as he stood at the doorway.

“Ok, I’ll definitely come back again.” Yu Yin grinned back in response. He took two steps forward and stopped before the glass door. The black glass door instantly slid open. He turned around to say to Wang Hong, who was watching him, “Oh, right, do you know…someone named Lin Xiu Jing?”

Wang Hong was clearly startled for a moment.

“Sorry, never heard of the name.”

“Oh.”

The instant the black glass door was about to to close, Yu Yin squinted and saw that on the other side of the door…

Wang Hong was grinning.

An extremely cold, twisted grin.

What was Lin Xiu Jing’s relationship with Wang Hong’s group?

As Yu Yin walked down the arcade centre’s front steps, the suspicions rose in Yu Yin’s mind.

Wang Hong’s attitude clearly indicated that he knew this person, so why did he lie?

Yu Yin took out his notebook to write down Lin Xiu Jing’s name, as well as the information he had just learned. As he circled around the street to walk towards the hospital, the cogs in his mind began to spin.

These people, including the taxi driver Lin Yu Da…don’t appear to have any relationship with each other, yet seem to be indistinctly linked.

Putting the taxi driver aside, the others all at least share a relationship.

Wang Hong is the young boss of the arcade centre, while Ah Guan and He Mu Yan are his lackeys. Also, the Lin Xiu Jing girl used to often visit the game centre to wait for her boyfriend.

Yu Yin suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He had forgotten to ask who Lin Xiu Jing’s boyfriend was!

However, with the current circumstances, it would be very difficult to turn back and ask. Wang Hong would definitely be suspicious.

Although, since he had asked [some things] just earlier, Wang Hong was likely already wary of him.

Amidst his thoughts, the cellphone in his pocket suddenly rang out loudly. Yu Yin pulled it out and saw that there was no number displayed on the screen, so he did not know who was calling.

“Hello? This is Yu Yin speaking. Who is this?” His phone number was rarely given out. The only ones that would call him were normally his friends or his dad and uncle.

The other end was extremely quiet.

A few seconds later, he slowly began to hear the sound of what sounded like a woman’s moans.

Yu Yin frowned. Which bastard is trying to pull this kind of distasteful prank on me!

Just as he was about to hang up, another sound came from the receiver – a sound that could not be more familiar.

The cries of a cat.

Meow…meow…meow…The calls were slow but shrill, as if the cat was meowing right next to his ear.

Yu Yin instantly felt goosebumps form all over his body. He quickly pressed the button to end the call several times, yet the cat’s sounds were still there, and gradually growing louder.

“Be quiet!”

He shouted straight at his phone.

The meowing did not stop. Just as he was about to turn off the phone’s power, an intense pain exploded across his back.

Yu Yin let out a pained shout. The cellphone fell from his hands and crashed onto the ground, and as the display shut off, the meowing also ceased. He stumbled forwards several steps and spun around to see two thugs with wooden bats. One of them was very close to him; it was evident that this person had been that one that had just struck him.

“Who are you guys! Trying to mug me in broad daylight?” Yu Yin resisted the pain and shouted maliciously at the two thugs, hoping that someone outside the alley would hear.

The two thugs exchanged a look with each other, their smiles twisted oddly.

“Teaching you a lesson for meddling too much!” One of the two thugs said as he charged forwards and swung down at Yu Yin’s leg.

Now with his guard raised, Yu Yin immediately dodged to the side. However, because of the intense pain from his back, his barely successful dodge ended up with him running into the alley’s walls.

Seeing his weak stature, the two thugs raised their clubs about to give him a relentless beating.

Naturally, Yu Yin couldn’t possibly meekly get beaten up. He calmly judged [the movements] to evade while trying to leave the alley.

The several times he did not successfully dodge, the bats made their marks on him, the growing pain fueling his anger.

As he neared the alley’s exit, one of the people took advantage of Yu Yin’s lapse in concentration to swing down towards his head—

“Fweet—”

The piercing sound of a whistle suddenly rang out, causing the two thugs to jump. “Run! The cops are coming!” They immediately tossed their bats aside and sprinted to escape from the other end of the alley.

Seeing this, Yu Yin heaved a sigh of relief as he fell to his knees.

The police, huh…

He raised his head, and then stared blankly in shock.

Standing at the entrance of the alley was not the police at all.

The person that hurriedly ran in to help him up was the person who should have followed his dad to the office: Yu.

“Why are you…ack…it hurts!” As Yu Yin’s injuries were touched, his words were cut off, nearly replaced by tears.

Yu shook his head and pointed towards the hospital, then supported Yu Yin out of the alley.

Yu Yin lowered his head to see a whistle hanging against Yu’s chest. No wonder it sounded so real.

And for just a second, he felt the sudden urge to laugh out loud.