The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Yu Yin slowly turned his head to get a clear look of the object he had pulled off earlier.

A protective amulet with unknown writing shattered in his hands.

Screams of agony echoed throughout the bathroom.

Yu Yin lay on the ground, energy entirely drained and body filled with otherworldly pain. His entire chest burned as if on fire. He could only watch as the arms holding Wang Hong head smashed it into the glass repeatedly without end in a frenzy. The completely shattered glass flew into the walls, splattering blood everywhere. It was a terribly horrifying sight.

That person had no intentions of stopping.

“St-stop!”

Yu Yin swallowed down his pain as he shouted at the person on the other side of the mirror.

The hands abruptly froze for a second, then remained unmoving with Wang Hong’s head tightly in their grip.

Yu Yin saw that the man that had been acting so fiercely before was now immobile, unable to fight back or even let out a groan anymore. Wang Hong’s eyes had already rolled back to show the whites; he was clearly unconscious. Glass shards of various sizes were embedded into his face and skull, blood flowed everywhere.

The butterfly knife had been dropped on the ground, and now lay quietly in a pool of blood.

“Don’t kill him…or else nothing will be known…” Yu Yin coughed, taking in a deep breath before continuing, “The related people are all dead already, so they can’t be questioned about the details of the case…” Everyone that had been involved in the case had gotten into accidents. If Wang Hong also died, there would be even one less place to look for evidence.

The white hands slowly loosened their hold, causing Wang Hong to collapse onto the ground.

As Yu Yin let out a sigh of relief, the bright bathroom lights that Wang Hong had turned on earlier suddenly all went out. All he could hear was a series of crackling sounds as the wires in each bulb burned out, leaving only the faint light coming from outside.

In the darkness, another person appeared next to Wang Hong’s side. A leopard cat paced around the person’s feet as it continuously meowed eerily.

“You’re Lin Xiu Jing, aren’t you?”

As soon as Yu Yin spoke, the person instantly vanished on the spot, as if he had been imagining it the whole time and there had not been a person there from the beginning.

“I know you’re Lin Xiu Jing, and I want to help you somehow…so please, don’t do this anymore…” He stayed on the ground, looking up at the dark ceiling, saying as if speaking to himself, “My dad and uncle are both policemen, they can help.”

The thuds of footsteps resounded from all around, as if someone was pacing back and forth in contemplation.

“So, let it go.”

The instant he said these words, Yu Yin heard a distant, unnatural scream that lasted for a long time before it finally came to an abrupt stop.

Then, all the sounds and shadows disappeared.

He turned his head to see the only thing left in the darkness were Wang Hong’s twitching fingers.

The sounds of police sirens shook the skies outside.

***

The sirens continued to blare on the street.

After receiving a report, the police station nearby had quickly dispatched police to arrive at the scene. The police and investigators blocked off the area with yellow tape before quickly making their way inside.

It did not take long for the nearby residents to be drawn over, watching from outside. They even began to whisper things about the place among themselves…

“Student that was ganged up on, have you kicked the bucket?”

The sudden question floated out from inside of the arcade centre, a stark contrast to the suspicions [being voiced] outside. It was such a blunt question that it made anyone question if this was the person’s actual thoughts.

Yan Si had come along after receiving the incident reporting and was currently crouched near the ground to inspect Yu Yin with a makeshift first-aid kit in his hands. He fished out some medicine and bandages and helped temporarily wrap the wounds.

Yu Yin sat up with his back against the wall. He rolled his eyes and retorted, “Go to hell.” If it weren’t for the unbearable pain in his chest, he would have given the middle finger as well.

“So lively still – it seems like you won’t die just yet.” Yan Si shrugged and glanced over at the bloodstains and mirror shards around them. “But the one they just sent to the hospital didn’t have a hint of liveliness left. Judging by the gash in his skull from the mirror plus the large amount of shards still stuck in his head, the hospital will be quite busy for a while.”

They had been notified by a phone call. The minute they had arrived, they had found the two people collapsed in the bathroom. One had been severely beaten up, covered in wounds. The other had lay in a pool of blood after their head had slammed into the mirror.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but does your face just always ask to be hit, student that was ganged up on? Why is it that every time I see you, you’ve been beaten up?” Yan Si seriously asked a suspicion that had been weighing on his mind these past few days. “So, how is getting beaten up? Anything about the experience that you want to share?”

“Go to hell.” Yu Yin, who was still in extreme pain, responded with the same three words as before.

“So rude!”

Compared to the two people casually chatting with each other, Yu Xia, who was leading the raid of the shop, was not in the mood to join in on their fun. After handling the matters at hand, he charged straight over to demand angrily, “Ah Yin, did you forget what you promised?!” The baby-face was filled with fury, giving off a terrifying aura.

His colleagues that had been ordered to search around nearby tried their best to keep their distance as much as possible, afraid of the volcanic eruption between the adult and child pair that could possibly spill over onto them as well.

After all, the fact that the police station was managed by this demon king was already pitiful enough. They had no desire to provoke even more fire onto themselves and end up ruined for the rest of the day.

“Ah…since I injured my head, my memory isn’t great.” Yu Yin scratched his chin and chuckled, “Didn’t you know that people with head injuries are more likely to forget things…”

“Yu Yin!” Yu Xia had the strong urge to kick the boy several times. Just as he was about to, however, Yan Si raced forwards to hold him back so that the legs could only attempt to hit their target. “You damn brat! You think you can mock with your uncle? Just wait and see how I teach you a lesson!” Unfilial! Seriously the most unfilial child on earth!

“Ok, that’s enough. He’s still injured after all.” Yan Si, who still held the morals of his doctor profession and did not desire for more trouble to stir up, forcefully dragged Yu Xia off to one side. The other officers nearby stared at Yan Si in what was practically reverence. “Even if he doesn’t die from being kicked like this, he’ll definitely end up halfway there.” Based on what he knew of the Yu family’s demon king, this was a very likely possibility.

“If I kick him enough to stay in bed for three months, maybe he’ll be a bit more obedient!” Yu Xia glared at the frustrating brat sitting on the ground, wanting nothing more than to use his legs to send the boy flying to the heavens.

“Uncle, this won’t happen a second time.” Yu Xia quickly begged for mercy, smiling in attempt to win favour.

“You think there’ll be a second time?!”

“Not at all.”

The argument between the parent and child finally came to an end.

“Luckily, Xiao Yu acted pretty quickly. The instant he heard sounds inside, he immediately ran over to the nearest convenience store to notify the police. If he hadn’t, I think you would’ve died here without anyone knowing,” Yu Xia stated, thinking back to the call he had received a bit earlier while he had been patrolling in a different area.

Yu obviously could not speak. However, he had written on a piece of paper to request for the store worker to help make the call. That had been the only reason they had managed to send Wang Hong to the hospital for emergency treatment as he was barely breathing.

Yu Yin eyed Yu, who was standing at the bathroom entrance. Reaching out a hand to give the boy a wave, Yu Yin said, “Thanks.”

The other person only stared back at him for a moment, then turned to walk out.

“Boss, there’s a trace of blood here!” Suddenly, one of the investigators shouted from the back door. A few more helpers immediately rushed over to start testing other places nearby. “Here as well…”

“The woman’s watch next to the door also has traces of blood.”

“Alright, turn this entire place upside down and search!”

Yu Xia immediately shouted at all the police officers, “Don’t let even the tiniest clue go!”

“Yessir!”

***

The next time Yu Yin woke up, it was already afternoon of the next day.

He was lying on a hospital bed, without any idea when he had gotten there. It was possible that he had fallen unconscious on the ambulance, since he did not recall getting off the car. He had been extremely dizzy afterwards, which might have been the residual effects of the drugs. He had no idea what had happened.

When he did awake, all he could smell was disinfectant and medicine, and the walls around him were white…It was a single room, identical to the ward he had previously sneaked out from.

His chest was much lighter than before, and he could move slightly now. It looked like his injuries were not too severe.

Yu Yin turned his head slightly and saw that Yu had followed him once again, now sleeping against the bed. The surroundings were absolutely silent.

Yu Yin let out a sigh as he stared up at the white ceiling.

Finally, the incident had come to an end.

Yu shifted next to him, then sat up slightly, blinking his hazy eyes.

“Sorry for waking you up.” Yu Yi chuckled as he glanced around. They were the only two in the room.

Yu shook his head and stood up to pour Yu Yin a glass of water, bringing over a few pills as well.

In that gap of time, Yu Yin stretched to reach the remote control on the dresser next to the bed. He turned on the hospital’s TV, flipping through several channels before finally finding the news.

“Our next broadcast is the news report. Yesterday, the police seized and raided a large-scale, illegal arcade centre, finding hundreds of banned gambling and pornographic machines. According to the report, part of the arcade centre’s staff were involved in a rape and murder case. The police are currently summoning related persons to understand the details of the incident. We will continue tracking any progress made.”

Yu Yin sat up halfway to stuff the pillow behind his waist. As he watched the news on the TV screen, he accepted the pills passed to him, tossing them into his mouth. “Speaking of which…exactly where was Lin Xiu Jing’s body tossed? Why haven’t they found it yet?”

They had already gone to the outskirts, but they had found Xie Li Yu there instead. In that case, where had Lin Xiu Jing’s remains been discarded?

Yu sat down next to him and wrote some words down on a piece of paper. He passed the paper over to show Yu Yin the huge words written on it. “Xia forbid you from taking a single step outside of this room.”

Yu Yin rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. I can’t be bothered to drag this injured body around either, you know.”

Yu stared back suspiciously.

“Careful, or I’ll hit you!” Yu Yin waved a fist before turning to another news channels. Most were still reporting about the arcade centre being seized. There were almost no mentions of the murder case. Seems like Uncle’s group didn’t officially share the information with the media. Guess they’re waiting until they find the body before making any decisions?

As Yu Yin contemplated this, a growling sound suddenly rang out. Yu Yin instantly felt embarrassed, since the sound was coming from his stomach. “Crap, I’m hungry…going out to buy food isn’t illegal, right?” He glanced at the little supervisor his uncle had assigned to him.

Yu shook his head and pointed at himself. He then began to walk towards the door, indicating that he would go buy the food.

Yu Yin shrugged. He did not really want to run around anyways.

When the door closed, he continued to flip through the TV channels. Since the media reports were all more or less the same, there was no reason to continue watching. He could just ask his father or uncle later to get some more details.

If the body had not been discarded on that mountain…

No, it must have been dumped there, or else there wouldn’t have been those traces of them walking around.

But in that case, why had they not located it on the mountain?

Was the body divided into multiple parts?

No, his instinct was telling him that the corpse had likely not been split up in this case.

When he thought over all the events, there was no way the corpse could have been split, as it would not have matched the timing [of the events]. Moreover, the driver had not carried anything like that…In other words, if they had spent the time to split up the corpse, Lin Yu Da would not have needed to transport them.

In most cases of dividing up the body, the pieces would be discarded in multiple different locations.

Plus, the fact that Wang Hong had told the two people to make the trip together made Yu Yin believe that this case definitely did not involve scattering the corpse, but rather discarding the whole body.

As he pondered over this, he heard something at the door.

Yu Yin looked up to see Yu carrying convenience store bags. He closed the door and walked over to the small table next to the bed to take the items out of the bags. There had not been many options at the convenience store. There were only a bento box, two rice balls, and two drinks on the table.

“If Dad knew you bought a bento box from a convenience store for an injured person to eat, he would lecture you like crazy,” Yu Yin said in amusement. He accepted the bento box being passed over and quickly opened it to shovel two bites into his mouth.

Yu sat down next to him, watching him for a second before tearing open the wrapping of a rice ball.

“By the way, where’s everyone else?” It took Yu Yin not time at all to demolish most of the bento box. As he chewed on some dry and unappetising meat, he voiced his question.

Then, a bundle of newspaper was placed in front of him.

The newspaper’s main headline was regarding the arcade centre.

Looks like Dad is probably too busy handling the case to show up?

Yu Yin opened the newspaper to read the article covering all the events that had been traced back. It was much more detailed than what he had just seen on the TV, and there were also a few schematics that the writer had added themselves.

The contents stated that the police had acted extremely quickly. After searching the entire arcade centre, they had officially requested the higher-ups to order for the centre to be closed down, also bringing away many related persons to interrogate.

Apparently, the blood traces found were not all identical.

However, after Wang Hong had been brought away, nobody knew of Zhao Yu Heng’s whereabouts. It was as if he had evaporated into thin air – they could not locate him at all.

The last person’s whereabouts were unknown…

Yu Yin suddenly had a very bad premonition.

That person should still be alive, right?

When Yu Yin thought of this unknown, he began to feel his hairs stand on end. Could it be that Lin Xiu Jing really was set on not letting anyone go, and she went after him to get her revenge?

He was convinced that he would need to go back to the outskirts.

The next day, the first one to visit was surprisingly not either of the two people holding the title of “guardians” in the Yu family, but rather the person holding the title of “Passerby A” who frequently moonlighted at the hospital.

“Hi, student that was ganged up on.”

Yan Si walked into the ward carrying an entire basket of fruit. He smiled and waved as he greeted, “Your guardians are both wrapped up with a whole bunch of things right now, and I just so happened to be extremely free, so I decided to come by and help them check if you’re still alive.”

Yu Yin directly gave him the middle finger.

“Oi, how rude. At least say thanks to the to kindhearted Dàgēgē that came to see you with fruits.” Yan Si handed the basket to Xiao Yu and very naturally pulled over a chair to sit down next to the bed.

“Dà – gē – gē?” Yu Yin snorted in a tone that seemed to say: Are you kidding me? “Don’t bother trying to act all young, old man.”

“Young – friend, Dàgē is only a few years older than you~” Yan Si replied with a respectful smile. He then pulled out something from his backpack. “Here, I borrowed this for you to help pass the time.”

Yu Yin accepted the average-sized kraft paper envelope. When he opened it, he discovered a few photocopied reports inside. “These are…”

“Shh, these were illegally done. Don’t go telling your dad and uncle, or else I’ll never help get these for you again,” Yan Si blinked as he warned in a way that hinted this would not happen again.

The reports inside the folder contained all the related information regarding the deceased and injured victims related to the case.

It included Xie Li Yu, who had been discovered in the pit on the mountain, as well as Wang Hong, whose status was still unknown after being sent to the hospital.

“Why did you give me these?” Yu Yin did not immediately flip through them. Instead, he placed the items back into the envelope, waving it around as he said, “I’m not that close with you, old man. There’s no need for you to have risked yourself just to bring me these.”

Yan Si smirked. “As expected of a child from the Yu household. Although you seem the type that would get easily sidetracked, you’re actually quite prudent.”

“Who are you calling ‘easily sidetracked’!” Yu Yin coldly retorted as he tossed the envelope back at the other person.

“You! Or else why would you repeatedly get beaten up, student?” Yan Si accepted the envelope and pulled out two photos from inside. “Alright, honestly speaking, I wanted to show you these.”

“Don’t test me next time. My temper isn’t much better than my uncle’s,” Yu Yin replied as he grabbed the two photos and glanced at them.

“I can tell.” Yan Si shrugged without showing any particular reaction.

Yu Yin thumbed through the photos. One was of a corpse already swollen and riddled with maggots. The other was the scene of the hanging suicide.

“One of those is Xie Li Yu…the one that smashed heads with you. You already recognise the other one. The photo had originally been missed, and was taken later.” Yan Si pointed at the photos as he said, “The one from the scene of the hanging captures this area of the room. Look at the reflection of the mirror in the far corner.”

Yu Yin followed his words and saw that in the most unsuspecting corner of the small room, there was a table with an upright mirror on it, the round, red kind that grandmothers used. Most of the mirror had a glare. There was only a small corner that reflected something else.

A woman’s shadow.

Although it was extremely fuzzy, Yu Yin could clearly see the person in the mirror grinning. The corners of their lips were angled upwards in a chilling way.

He recalled his uncle mentioning that there had not been any females at the scene that day.

Yu Yin turned his head to look at the person who had brought the photos.

“As for the other one, his cause of death was accidentally falling. However, there was an interesting thing on his hand.” Yan Si pointed at the second photo and gave Yu Yin a meaningful look.

This photo was a close-up of a specific part of the corpse, specifically the hand.

“That’s…” Yu Yin narrowed his eyes. Yu quickly came over to examine the photo as well.

In the close-up photo of the corpse, the wrist area clearly had visible dark bruising, as if someone had forcefully gripped it. Because they were aged, they were clearly much more festered than other areas.

As Yu Yin thought this over, Yu swiped the photo and sat down to inspect it more closely.

“So why did you purposely show me these two photos?” Yu Yin shifted slightly as he questioned the person in front of him.

“Nothing much. According to the autopsy results, I can tell you with absolute certainty that one died from suicide, while the other died from an accident. But the photos seem to be a bit unnatural, so I could only ask the people at the police station, who told me to try asking an amateur specialist like you to see if you had any different opinions.” Yan Si shrugged as he took back the photos from Yu.

“I’m sorry to say, but I’m not anything close to amateur specialist. If you would like an analysis, please mail this to a TV station; they would have professionals to help you. You even mentioned that yourself last time.” Yu Yin expressed his disinterest as he lay back down. “But I never thought that a forensic scientist would find these kinds of things of interest too.” He thought they would prefer pursuing scientific evidence.

“When a dead body is missing, anything is of interest.” Yan Si picked up an apple from the dresser and smoothly began to peel it. “Did you know that a large amount of blood was detected at the arcade centre? Based on the records, whoever bled out that much could not have survived – unless they had immediately provided blood transfusion. The woman’s watch that was found was already verified by a family member to have belonged to Miss Lin Xiu Jing without a doubt. There were also some bloodstains on the watch that we are have currently requested for the family members’ cooperation to test for a match.”

“What did the staff members that were brought back say?” Yu Yin lazily asked as he switched on the TV.

“They were all the same – stubbornly refusing to speak. No idea what is keeping their mouths shut, but they don’t dare to speak. They just said that they were hired, and didn’t mention anything else.” This was the most troubling part, although Yan Si was not involved with it. Yan Si eyed Yu Yin before handing over a sliced apple. “With regards to that, they are currently still in investigation. At the moment, they’ve discovered a few account books containing records of debts and loans from some of the employees, so they might look into this further.”

“That’s true. Also…” Just as Yu Yin was about to say something, Yan Si’s cellphone suddenly rang. “Excuse me while I step out to answer this call.”

After Yan Si walked out, Yu Yin finally revealed an attitude completely opposite from the previous indifference.

The police still had not located the body.

After seeing the two photos just now, he was almost certain that the two people had not died by suicide or by accident, but had been murdered just as the others had. There was simply no way to close the cases as murders.

After all, in all the history of cases, there had never been one of a ghost murdering people.

He had noticed that from the very beginning, there was someone that had not shown any reaction aside from taking the photos. “Yu, what do you think?” He turned to ask the violet-eyed youth currently holding fruits and looking at him.

Yu froze for a moment, then put down the plate of fruit he was holding and wrote in his notebook: “Xie Li Yu had no reason to go up the mountain by himself.”

“Sigh, you think the same then. There’s no way anyone would purposely go to a place that deserted, unless there was something unsightly there and he wanted to confirm if it was properly dealt with or not…But the question remains: didn’t we already go there that day? The police had searched there as well yet didn’t find Lin Xiu Jing’s body. I have no idea what’s going on there.” Yu Yin propped his chin up with his fist as he scratched his head. He really could not think of what place he could have overlooked that could hide a corpse.

The door was suddenly pushed open.

“Sorry, but I have an urgent matter to go to right now.” Yan Si hung up the phone as he walked in, looking slightly rushed. He grabbed his backpack and quickly began to walk out. “Student that was ganged up on, make sure you recuperate properly. Don’t run around, or else [your injuries] will become more severe. See you next time!”

As soon as he finished speaking, he automatically ran off without waiting for Yu Yin to respond.

“Hmph.” What exactly did that guy even come here to do? Yu Yin shot a glare at the closed door, then snorted, “Why does everyone think I’ll secretly run away?”

He turned to see Yu staring fixedly at him.

This one too.

Please! I only just got injured. It’s not like I want to go out everywhere and worsen my condition either. Do these people all think I’m masochistic?

Yu moved to grab the notebook and hold it up for Yu Yin to see the words: “Yu Xia said you cannot take a single step out of this ward.”

“Sigh, I know, I know. Then could I trouble this Xiǎogē ¹ to buy me a drink? The room only has fruit and boiled water, I want something cold!” He had drunk enough boiled water to cause dropsy. He needed something cold and slightly sweet, an unhealthy canned beverage.

Yu placed the notebook down and grabbed his wallet as he walked out.

Yu Yin turned off the TV showing an extremely distasteful variety show and leaned back onto the soft pillow.

If Xie Li Yu really did go to check on the body, only to die there, then…

As he was pondering more deeply over the events, he heard a familiar meow. It was very close, just under his bed. However, it was not as eerie as before, but rather more like a normal cat’s meow.

Yu Yin immediately shot up into sitting position on his bed and saw the leopard cat silently appear in front of him. It then jumped up from the ground and sat at the edge of the bed.

This was his first time seeing the leopard cat at such close proximity.

Judging from the slightly swollen body, it was evident that this cat was no longer living. The large, round eyeballs were filled with a startling amount of veins, while the pupils carried a slightly ash-coloured haze.

Now that he was looking closely, it gave off a slightly oppressive aura.

“You’re not here to warn me that the one about to die is me, right?” As Yu Yin gazed at the leopard cat, he felt an unfathomable urge to joke.

Because the leopard cat before him had no enmity towards him, he was a bit braver.

The cat stared at him for a long while without any reaction. Finally, it jumped back off the bed and began to walk out the door. It really looked as if…it had come specifically to find him.

“You know where Lin Xiu Jing is, don’t you?” Yu Yin immediately sprung out of the bed as well, grabbing the jacket hanging on the nearby sofa and pulling open the door to run outside.

The leopard cat did not look back, its pace not too slow or too face as it walked in a straight line out of the hospital.

Yu Yin abandoned the elevator and ran down the stairs, afraid of losing sight of the cat’s silhouette.

He had a feeling that the leopard cat’s appearance was to end everything.

And this was very likely the only chance.

After running out of the hospital gates, Yu Yin immediately flagged a nearby taxi. “Driver, follow what I say…” Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt someone pull his clothes.

He turned his head to see Yu standing behind him.

“Hey, it’s not that I want to break my promise, but I really have to leave the hospital right now…” Yu Yin met the gaze of those violet eyes, growing anxious as he saw the leopard cat already walking out.

He did not know when it had started, but he had the sense that if he lost it now, there was no need to even attempt to chase after it again.

“You have to understand, I’m not trying to cause trouble. It’s really very important this time,” he said earnestly as he met Yu’s eyes.

Yu tilted his head in contemplation for a moment, then finally released his hold. He waved the wallet and the convenience store bag in his hands which contained the food and drinks he had just purchased.

Yu Yin suddenly felt happy enough to laugh. This guy’s actually not that hard to communicate with after all.

“Let’s go!”

^{1. Xiǎogē = Little “older brother” aka Yu Yin is slightly mocking Yu since he’s younger but acting as a guardian on Xia’s behalf right now. ↑}