The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

His voice suddenly stopped.

The entire place was silent. Nobody spoke. Only the faint sounds the phone emitted could be heard.

Yu Tong rubbed his forehead before glancing at Teng Qi, who was standing off to the side. “Mr. Teng, I think I will have to bring this voice message with me as evidence.” With this recording, he could almost guarantee that Chen Yong Hao had not committed suicide.

“Please do as you wish. However, may I transfer the number to another phone?” Teng Qi was still smiling wholeheartedly, with no trace of annoyance to be found.

“Of course you may.” Yu Tong stood up and bowed his head.

“I’m sorry, but we would like to see your rooftop once more.” Yan Si stood up as well and said, “Because there are a few issues, we will need to re-investigate.”

“No problem.” Teng Qi pushed a button on the office phone to call for the lady receptionist.

“Ah, we would like to take the stairs,” Yu Yin hurriedly interjected. Following that, he seemed to see his dad shoot a glance at him, although he might have just imagined it.

Perhaps finding it a bit strange, Teng Qi froze for a moment before nodding. “That is fine, as long as you don’t find it troublesome.”

“I’m fine with whatever.” Yan Si shrugged and turned to head out of the office first.

“Alright then. Please come this way.”

Teng Qi led the three of them towards the stairwell.

It was a typical stairwell design. On the right side of this level’s entryway was the staircase going upwards, and further straight was the one going downwards. The stairwells were very clean, and even had emergency arrows stuck on them.

Yu Yin surveyed the area and confirmed a certain matter.

He had noticed an issue.

Because they were only a few levels away from the rooftop, the four of them soon arrived at the top of the building.

Since Yu Yin had suddenly turned unwell last time, today was his first time seeing the place.

Just like the stairwell, the rooftop was cleaned very well. It was just like any other rooftop, with cement and plastered walls and a floor of insulated boards.

The roof wasn’t large. It was about the same size as the space below and had quite a few plants growing on the further end. Looking down, they could see the large advertisement sign about half a level below.

“This place isn’t bad at all.” Yan Si looked around and noticed the lush plants. He voiced his first impression, “It would probably be a suitable place for a Mid-Autumn Festival barbeque.”

“Our company actually did have a rooftop barbeque last year. Unfortunately, we didn’t have many attendees,” Teng Qi told him with a chuckle.

“Heh, we spent Mid-Autumn Festival at a mortuary last year, which pretty much spoiled all the fun.” The person with an irregular schedule who voiced his thoughts may or may not have been complaining.

Yu Yin really wanted to tell him that his own uncle had spent Mid-Autumn last year attacking someone. By taking advantage of the moment the criminals were having a barbeque, he had seized them instantly. When Yu Yin and his dad had brought over some late-night snacks and mooncakes to the station, the entire interrogation room had smelled like grilled meat.

The poor police that couldn’t even take that day off had to also give an interrogation while enduring the heavenly scent. Every single one of them had been filled with the urge to beat the wanted criminals up.

“Chen Yong Hao fell from over there,” Yu Tong said. He was standing next to the wall in front of them, which just happened to be fairly close to the large advertisement sign.

“There aren’t any marks inside or outside the wall.”

Yu Yin closed in to look outside the wall. Although the wall wasn’t very high, it couldn’t be said to be low either. It reached up to somewhere around his abdomen.

But if someone wanted to jump off, they had to climb up first.

In other words, they should have left some kind of marking behind…

Just when Yu Yin glanced downwards, he froze in shock.

A face was staring straight at him.

It was so pale that he could clearly see its arteries and veins. The face was poking out the window from the level below, facing upwards to look at him directly.

He subconsciously knew that a human couldn’t possibly look up at him like that from a window. Yu Yin felt his back grow cold, but he was unable to shift his gaze.

He immediately knew whose face that was. As the other party’s bulging eyes were locked dead onto him, it slowly opened its mouth to say something. However, it made no sound. As the mouth opened and closed several times, its eyes never blinked once.

Then, he realised that the person below him wasn’t against the bottom the window, but rather, its body was stuck along the top edge of the window…the distance between them was very small, so close that when the owner of the face stretched out hands that were just as pale as its face, they seemed to almost be able to grab onto Yu Yin’s collar.

The abrasions on its fingers then began to spurt out purplish-black blood, slowly causing them to rot.

And the most horrifying part was that Yu Yin could only watch as those hands got closer and closer to his eyes, before they were only a few centimeters away.

“Ah Yin!”

Just as he was about to swat those hands away, someone suddenly grabbed his shoulder from behind to pull him back. “Be careful to not fall down from there.” When Yu Yin looked back, he saw Yu Tong looking at him with furrowed brows.

Yu Yin turned again to look at that same spot below them, but he could no longer see that ashen face.

“Don’t worry. I probably just blanked out for a moment,” Yu Yin smiled at his dad as he nodded in response. He then looked around a bit more. “It seems like this place is often cleaned up by people.” Despite the rooftop being uncovered, it was abnormally clean.

“The cleaning staff come here at the same time every day to tidy it up and take care of the plants, probably around eight or nine in the morning,” Teng Qi explained simply. He said with a smile, “The staircases are also often cleaned up. After all, appearances are very important for a place like ours.”

“Do they wash the sign?” Yan Si, who was standing next to him, suddenly asked a strange question.

“Ah?” Teng Qi looked at him in bewilderment. “No…we invite an external service to clean it from the outside, as our cleaning staff has no means to do it. We request for the service to come in the beginning of every month or so.”

“Ah Si, is there something wrong?”

Yu Tong quickly asked this question when he saw Yan Si’s steadfast gaze on the sign.

“I’m thinking that if it hasn’t rained in the past few days…” Yan Si stretched out his hand to point at the large sign that covered the entire building. “I can guess where the abrasions on Chen Yong Hao’s hands came from.”

Yu Tong was stunned, as he immediately understood what Yan Si was saying.

“He did struggle before dying.”

***

Soon afterwards, a bunch of investigators arrived at the rooftop for a re-inspection.

Because the sign was outside the building, they had also needed to ask for a construction lift to come.

“Tong, there’s something on it.” Jiu Shen, who had come to help out, descended from the lift to show everyone the initial results of the examination. “There’s a small amount of blood showing up, as well as something that may or may not be skin. I’ll go back now to check.” With that, he packed away the samples he had gotten from the sign.

Teng Qi, who was standing below the sign with a bunch of people collecting evidence, interlocked his palms together as he asked, “Mr. Yu, if Yong Hao did not commit suicide, does that mean everyone in our company is a suspect?”

“Ah, that is not necessarily true.”

Yu Tong turned to look at him. “We currently have a general basis, so if we need to later, we will have to trouble the company to cooperate once more.”

“That is not a problem, as long as you have the proper paperwork.”

“I apologise once more for any inconveniences we may bring.”

Because the police had come to investigate again, some nearby residents doing their own work were standing on the sides and pointing in their direction. Just as the investigators were moving some things away, a certain person suddenly leapt out from the crowds and clapped a hand on Teng Qi’s shoulder.

“Did something else happen?” The person who had arrived was Ding Wei Han. He was wearing a suit and was carrying a work bag, which probably meant he had just gotten back. “Why are the police here again?”

“Oh, Mr. Yu discovered an issue, so they performed a re-examination, and are just about to bring that with them.” Teng Qi maintained his usual politeness as he explained to his colleague and nodded in Yu Tong’s direction.

“Issue?” Ding Wei Han looked over at Yu Tong, who was removing his gloves. “Wasn’t the case already closed as a suicide? Why is there suddenly an issue?”

“Ah…actually, the case still hasn’t been closed. We just happened to notice an issue with the rooftop, so we requested for the paperwork needed to re-investigate. We should get the results very soon.” Yu Tong informed with a smile.

“I don’t particularly want to interfere with the police in the middle of a case, but as a loans company, I’m sure that having the police constantly moving around here makes it inconvenient for everyone.”

Ding Wei Han shot a glance at Teng Qi before saying in a tone of discontent, “If possible, please hurry up and finish dealing with the matter quickly.”

Teng Qi chuckled and looked back at him. “I’m sure that if we properly cooperate, Mr. Yu will try to give us some face. Moreover, being acquainted with a few policemen isn’t a bad thing, right, Mr. Yu?”

“It just depends on how you look at it.” Yu Tong didn’t directly reply and instead switched the topic, “Since we’ve already collected the evidence, I think we’ll be able to quickly receive the test results. Once we do, I will contact you again.”

“Alright. If anything comes up, just contact me directly.”

While the two of them were exchanging formalities, Yu Yin and Yan Si were hanging around next to the car. “Student that was ganged up on, I need to go back to the station as well. It seems like there’s something to investigate now.”

“So much for your vacation,” Yu Yin commented with a smirk.

“Hmph, I’ll send a letter of complaint as protest.”

After the exchange, Yan Si got onto the last car to head on his way back.

Yu Yin watched the cars leave for a while before walking over to the others that had been talking for a while.

“Ah Yin, it’s about time we head out as well.”

After affirming his thoughts, Yu Tong waved at his son before turning around to tell Teng Qi and Ding Wei Han, “That’s right, may I ask if Student Chen accidentally dropped anything over here at your place?”

“I do not think so.” Teng Qi shrugged.

“Why do you ask?” Ding Wei Han gave him a look.

“No reason, I was simply wondering if there was anything else that could be used as evidence. It’s not a problem if there isn’t either.” Yu Tong smiled and politely bowed his head to bid the two people farewell.

Then, the father and son got into their car and slowly drove away from the loans company.

Yu Tong didn’t speak.

Yu Yin didn’t speak either.

The two sat in silence for a very long time.

They had both started to suspect a person. After this trip, they could pretty much confirm if their hypothesis was correct or not.

“Ah Yin, I’m going to go around and stop to buy some drinks for Ah Si and the others.”

Yu Tong was the first to break the silent atmosphere. As he said this, he immediately turned to circle around to another road.

It seemed like going back would take a while longer. It would be better to buy some drinks and bring them over first to raise everyone’s spirits.

“Mm.”

Yu Yin was currently in deep thought.

If the stairwell at the company was as he suspected, then why had that person walked that way back when he had taken the stairs?

If he was able to watch the surveillance tapes again, he was certain that he could prove someone was lying.

If it confirmed his guess, then what was the motive for pushing Chen Yong Hao off the building?

Yu Tong stopped the car and walked out to go buy some drinks from a drinks stand.

While he was still thinking from his seat in the car, Yu Tong’s cell phone suddenly rang out a few seconds later. He quickly rolled down the window to shout out at the person standing a short distance away. “Dad, your phone!”

“Help me answer it!” Yu Tong replied while passing over the money.

Just as he was about to check who the caller was, the cell phone suddenly fell silent by itself.

Then, Yu Yin’s phone began ringing instead.

Suspicious, he opened his own phone to see an unidentified number.

Don’t tell me it’s another call from scammers?

Those kinds of phone calls were getting annoying recently. He had heard that Ah Guan’s group were currently playing a new game to compete for who could scam the most scammers.

They must be really bored.

“Hello? This is Yu Yin.” After thinking it over, Yu Yin still answered the call with a frown.

The other end didn’t speak, and the empty noise was a bit strange. It was familiar, like the sound of wind blowing through a vacant tunnel.

Then, the call cut. Before Yu Yin could even close his phone, he immediately received a text.

This scenario was extremely familiar, to the point where he felt that if he dialed back, he would frighten a certain person on the investigation team once more.

This time, the text was different from the previous ones. It was extremely short, with just two words: “Be careful.”

What did he have to be careful of?

***

The car door suddenly opened.

“Who called?” Yu Tong asked as he put down the large bag of drinks he had brought over.

“Who knows? It only rang twice before it cut off. Probably your coworkers,” Yu Yin replied with a smile as he put away his own phone.

Yu Tong simply glanced at him and did not ask anymore questions. He turned the car to head towards the direction of the station.

Upon returning to the station and handing out the drinks to everyone, they returned to the monitor room to watch the surveillance tapes from earlier.

This time, it was just the two of them, as Yan Si had holed up in his office much earlier.

Time passed, second by second, minute by minute. The father and son pair each continued to play the tape over for their own purposes, up until someone interrupted them from their thoughts…

“Tong! The initial comparison is out. The traces gathered from the sign really do belong to Chen Yong Hao.” Jiu Shen quickly walked in with papers in his hand and passed them over. “Also, we discovered some fibers from the same spot.”

“Fibers?” Yu Tong flipped through the booklet as he looked up in confusion.

“Eh…how about I say it this way, a piece of wool was pulled out from someone’s suit.” Jiu Shen massaged his sore shoulders as he said, “I believe that the suit should be light grey and made of good material that wouldn’t be cheap.”

Yu Tong quickly glanced through the fresh report and immediately turned back to look at the tape. “Alright, I think I know who was wearing a light grey suit made of good material that day.”

“Does that lock down the criminal suspect then?” Jiu Shen’s eyes lit up as he quickly squeezed over.

“Pretty much.” Yu Tong glanced at his son, who was currently sprawled across the table. “Ah Yin, what do you think?”

Yu Yin snapped out of his daze and smiled, “It’s probably the same as what you suspect.” With that, he fast-forwarded the tape up to the part where everyone seemed to scatter in fright. He began to play the scene starting from after Chen Yong Hao had fallen off the building. “He’s leisurely carefree, and even walks back just to join the fun. I thought that simply going down to the first floor to watch would be faster.”

“I think he was probably not below at the time, but above.” Yu Tong chuckled and put down the report as he cheerfully stated, “If we have more definite evidence, we could expose his tail.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Having stared at a screen for the entire day, his eyes were starting to hurt.

“Do we need more evidence to prove he was above?” Yu Yin lifted his head to look at his dad, before realising in shock that the sky outside had at some point already grown dark. “I’m screwed!” He immediately leapt up from his seat and checked his watch. It was already 6:40 PM.

“What’s wrong?” Jiu Shen asked in bewilderment after watching Yu Yin leap up so quickly it was as if his butt had caught on fire.

“I forgot that I had arrangements to meet with a friend at seven. Dad, I won’t be going home for dinner tonight, bye-bye.” He hurriedly stuffed his belongings into his backpack and raced out of the office without bothering to wait for any reply.

Crap, will I be able to catch up to Chu Jin He in time?

He had been too caught up by the tape and had nearly forgotten about this matter.

Yu Tong watched his son’s frantic figure retreating. Although he found it very strange, work was still more important. Having reached a critical point, he didn’t bother to think too much about what was up with the youngster.

He simply retracted his gaze to shift it back onto the screen.

The tape wasn’t enough evidence to prove if the person had gone up to the rooftop. He needed more information to help break through the bottleneck.

“Tong, it seems to me like he was gripping something when he walked out?” Jiu Shen suddenly said, his attention focused onto the monitor.

“Gripping?”

Yu Tong replayed the scene, and as expected, saw that the target’s left hand was indeed clenched into a fist. The corner of something white was barely peeking out from the cracks between his fingers.

In the next second, he quickly reached his hand into his pocket and rushed out from the camera’s scope.

Yu Tong grinned.

He had found both the evidence and the lost item.

***

In reality, after exiting the building and getting on his bike to head out, it was already almost seven.

Even after taking some back roads and adding some extra speed to rush to Chen Yong Hao’s home with much difficulty, it was already a bit past the time.

Because the body had been sent back for re-examination, the funeral hall had been temporarily dismantled. There was only some white cloth left still hanging at the entryway, and some gifts on either side of it.

Chu Jin He was standing in the open hall, with half a cold cigarette in his mouth with impatience. It seemed that he had probably waited for a while.

“You smoke?” Yu Yin parked his bike and stood at the doorway with furrowed brows.

“Just a bit.” Chu Jin He tossed the cigarette into an empty can and walked out. “Aren’t you a bit too slow?”

“There was traffic on the road…rush hour.” Yu Yin randomly blurted out an excuse as he replied in a somewhat helpless tone. He then switched the topic, “The text asked you to come here, but have you seen anything?”

Chu Jin He shook his head. “From the beginning up until now, I haven’t seen anything else that can move aside from you.”

“What about mosquitoes?” There are really too many of them in this area.

“…”

Yu Yin reached out to pat his shoulder. “I was just joking, don’t be so serious.”

The other person frowned and immediately swatted the hand away.

“That’s right, you seem to be pretty close to Chen Yong Hao.” Yu Yin leaned against the wall and rubbed his stomach. Since he had rushed straight over, he hadn’t eaten dinner, and having run around for the entire afternoon, he was so hungry that he was feeling a bit of stomach pain.

Chu Jin He shot him a glance before leaning against the opposite wall. He pulled out a bag of chocolate cookies from his bag and tossed it over. “I’ve known him for over four years. We used to work for the same company. A bit over two years ago, my dad fled and left behind a debt that added up to about seven or eight hundred thousand. It wasn’t that big, but it wasn’t small for my family’s income either. My mom owned a noodles stand, and earned barely twenty thousand a month. I only got around ten thousand at most from my part-time job and didn’t have much left after subtracting tuition fees. Unfortunately, that bastard only added more fuel to the fire, and managed to owe that sum within half a month. The hoodlums came to our home and smashed up the stand, demanding repayment. After the stand was already gone, they then went to my workplace to stir up trouble, causing me to lose my job too.”

Chu Jin He bitterly laughed, “It was then that Yong Hao just happened to hear of my family matters. He gathered and borrowed money from various places, and in addition to his own savings, helped me clear the debt. He said that he knew how hard it was to live while owing a debt, and since he already owed so much, he would just lend me some first to repay mine and get a fresh start.”

This simple and short exchange immediately allowed Yu Yin to understand why Chu Jin He had been so persistent with this matter.

“These past two years, I’ve been going to work somewhere else. Even though I’ve already repaid my debt, I don’t think I could ever repay this matter in any way. That’s why, this is probably all I can do now. No matter whether it’s for good or bad, I have to try it out.” Chu Jin He faintly smiled and shrugged.

Yu Yin didn’t say anything in attempt to comfort him, nor did he interrupt, and just silently listened. He then ripped open the bag of cookies and gulped it down.

He wasn’t involved in the matter, so he didn’t really have anything to say here.

He was simply a passing traveler that had suddenly been wrapped into it all.

“I say, it’s already seven-thirty.” Chu Jin He refocused and looked around. The alley was still just as empty as before; there weren’t even any stray dogs to be seen. “I wonder what exactly we are supposed to be doing here.”

“It can’t be to just chill, right…oh yeah, where’s Chen Yong Hao’s family?” Yu Yin suddenly recalled that the mother and sister should be here too.

“Didn’t you see a lot of people that first day? Among them was a relative that had recently moved overseas. They had an empty house, with furniture and everything still there, so they temporarily lent the space to the two of them to stay in for a few days. Since this funeral hall was taken down, it’s not exactly an appropriate place to live,” Chu Jin He informed him. “Also, the relative helped them apply for a subsidy to see if it could help improve their living situation a bit. The younger sister also wants to attend classes, and a few people are helping her look for external funds to help support her…although they don’t have much money, they’re temporarily helping to cover some of her school fees right now.”

It seemed like these people had probably helped quite a bit.

Yu Yin amended his poor first impression of them.

Just as he was about to say something, the bag of cookies in his hand suddenly slipped, and the bottom of the aluminum foil bag somehow ripped without warning. The small cookies all fell out and scattered across the ground. “Crap.” He immediately crouched down to clean up the dirty cookies.

“Why did it suddenly rip?” Chu Jin He also bent down and lowered his head to help clean up the floor.

“I have no idea.” Yu Yin flipped over the bag to check it. To his bewilderment, it didn’t seem as if the bag had ripped, but rather, had been torn apart.

The question was, what had torn it?

Just as the two adult males were bent down picking up the cookie remnants from the ground, they suddenly heard a series of profane greetings slowly near them from a distance off.

When they listened more closely, it seemed to be a drunkard ceaselessly ranting obscene language. They could also hear some other voices trying to placate the drunkard from the side.

Upon hearing the string of curses, Yu Yin’s expression immediately darkened, as he instantly identified the voice. Chu Jin He also froze.

“Don’t raise your head, pretend to keep picking it up.” After staring blankly for a moment, Yu Yin immediately yanked down on Chu Jin He’s arm, signaling for him to lower his head more.

If they were to rashly dash inside now, they might instead attract these people’s attentions, and even infuriate them. So it was best to pretend they didn’t know anything.

Fortunately, they were facing the wall as they were picking up the cookies and were not facing the road.

The hoodlums all seemed to be drunk, with one of them more so than the rest. It was the guy that had tried to pick trouble with Yu Yin before. The other two were unsteadily supporting him as they walked, while one other walked in front, his footsteps not very stable either.

The second they passed by them, Yu Yin and Chu Jin He practically broke out in cold sweat.

Luckily, the other party didn’t notice them, and the sound of angry shouts gradually grew more distant.

As soon as they turned the corner, Yu Yin immediately stood up and noticed a person standing at the end of the dark road, waving at him. The streetlamp was clearing shining on the person, but they had no shadow.

The pale white hand was extremely conspicuous in the dark of the night, and it slowly disappeared from sight.

“It’s them!” Chu Jin He threw down the cookies in his hand and suddenly began to run towards the corner in anger.

“Oi, oi! Wait a minute, why are you suddenly chasing after them!” Yu Yin immediately stopped him. He glanced back at the spot through the corner of his eye, but the thing had already vanished. Only the dim shadows from the streetlamp could be seen on the ground.

“There’s definitely something fishy about those guys. Yong Hao must have wanted me to come and follow them!” Chu Jin He was suddenly filled with baseless self-confidence, completely convinced this was right without any signs of doubt.

“If you go after them, you’ll get beaten to death…hey!”

Desperate to chase after their tail, Chu Jin He pushed Yu Yin away with determination and began to run after them, as if possessed.

There weren’t many residents in this are in the first place. Most of the houses were older, single-story homes, so the street at night seemed especially desolate. Moreover, the sound of running was extremely obvious here.

After cautiously turning the corner and walking for a while, Yu Yin saw the home that Chu Jin He had told him about last time.

It was a small, single-story home with some trees planted in the front yard. But the house did not have doors or windows, and did not seem like a place anyone would live in.

He pulled on Chu Jin He, who still wanted to advance further, and signaled him to be quiet. The two of them then circled around the wall to walk towards the back.

The people inside were angrily shouting very loudly, so they weren’t afraid of being unable to listen in.

In the beginning, the drunkard was still randomly lashing out with a constant stream of curses directed at someone else’s mom. Then, as if someone had placated him, he began to calm down a bit.

It was at this moment that Yu Yin stole a few glances from the back. The house itself wasn’t suspicious at all. It was completely vacant, and its entirety could be seen with a single glance. It didn’t even have any furniture. It was probably just their resting place.

But the front yard was a bit weird. The dirt underneath their feat seemed to be fairly fresh…

“Fuck! How long are those cops going to be investigating for!”

Just as Yu Yin was trying to figure out what was off about the scene, the drunkard roared out in anger.

He immediately pushed Chu Jin He lower to the ground, afraid of being noticed.

“Someone’s dead. I think things will be pretty tense for a while…it’s best to be more careful.” Another person said with a lowered voice as they tugged at the drunkard.

“Fuck you! It’s not like he hasn’t died before!” The drunkard’s voice was extremely loud, as if afraid the others wouldn’t hear him. He was immediately subdued by his companion next to him, who pleaded for him to be quieter.

Yu Yin and Chu Jin He wordlessly exchanged calm glances.

It seemed like these people weren’t simply just some hoodlums fooling around.