The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Aside from one crucial point, everything fit together.

“Tong!”

It was morning. Just as Yu Tong had completed the procedures to request for detainment, someone quickly ran to catch up with him in the hallway.

“Wait a minute.”

“What is it?” When Yu Tong turned to see his younger twin rush over, he halted and stood in place to wait.

“Take this, I’m sure you’ll find it interesting.” Yu Xia stopped and passed over a piece of paper. “I just discovered this from a comparison that was just completed.”

Yu Tong glanced at the paper and immediately furrowed his brows. “Why are the people related to my case on your list?”

“Heh, I was curious about it too. According to the data, they were at some point in frequent contact with each other. Since it involves firearms, we have to investigate thoroughly.” Yu Xia patted his twin’s shoulder and said, “If necessary, I’ll have to borrow those people from you. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.”

Yu Tong evaluated the unexpected information and mentally made note of it. “Alright, I understand. My case is almost finished, so you should be able to see the people you need very soon.”

“Got it. Then I’ll just skip over it for now and wait for you to bring them to me. That’s all for now then, see you tonight.” With this, he quickly ran off.

Their group was always very busy.

After watching his brother leave, Yu Tong shifted his attention and continued on his way outside.

He believed that it wasn’t much longer now until he would be able to provide an explanation to Chen Yong Hao’s family.

Even if the reality was hard to accept…

***

“Really, ghosts these days don’t show any restraint even when asking others for help.”

It was nighttime, and Yu Yin had just finished his part-time job. He checked the time and saw that it was just a bit past eight; there was still quite a bit of time left.

“Ah Yin, do you want to go grab dinner with us?” His coworkers that had just finished the same shift invited him, “We’ll also being going to karaoke. The girls got coupons that expire today.”

“I have something to do today, maybe another time.”

After turning down the invitation, he went looking for a small shop nearby his workplace to grab dinner. After ordering the food, he began to ponder over the situation while waiting for his turkey rice bowl and side dishes.

Everything was pretty much about to wrap up. There was no doubt about “that person” being the murderer. But he felt like he still needed a very important piece of evidence…

Just as the waiter walked over to put the plates of food down on the table, Yu Yin saw from the corner of his eye an extremely familiar person pass by across the street from the transparent, glass door.

Yu?

He saw the other person holding a piece of paper while looking left and right, seemingly trying to find his way. Yu then randomly stopped a passerby, and after gesturing around a bit, began to head off towards an alleyway.

Why did he come here?

Yu Yin originally wanted to follow after him, but Yu’s figure had disappeared into the twisting alley. Trying to chase him now would be unsuccessful.

Yu Yin repressed his impulsive urge and frowned in thought. He would have to forcefully question Yu when he got home.

After quickly finishing his dinner and wandering around the streets for a bit, he arrived at the entrance of the loans company just before ten.

Because the loans company ended work hours at five sharp every day, even the employees that did linger around for longer never stayed past nine. Arriving now at this time, all Yu Yin saw was the entire company shrouded in darkness, without a single silhouette to be seen. Through the window, he could see that the entire inside was black. The entrance on the first level had been blocked by a metal gate that had been pulled down. It wasn’t hard to imagine the large amount of surveillance cameras that were definitely around too, monitoring the area 24/7.

If he rashly rushed in…he would soon be seized and sent to the station, and probably meet his uncle and the others…

The building was right next to the street. Truthfully, even though it was late, there were still quite a few people and cars passing through. Making any big movements like tearing down the door and sneaking in would be impossible.

Yu Yin gave up on the thought of entering through the front and instead circled around to the back.

If he was lucky, he might find a small door where the fire escape was…

“Sigh, pardon my intrusion.”

With 99% certainty that he would get caught, Yu Yin glanced at his phone that had not given him any more instructions before following the building’s outer wall to walk into the narrow alley from the back.

The entire space was desolate and gloomy, but also very clean.

Walking in this kind of place reminded Yu Yin of the recreation center fiasco from before. The situation was identical, with the only difference being that this place didn’t have piles of machines everywhere.

Oh right…He had heard later that Wang Hong’s father had secretly taken his son away, since he seemed to have quite a bit of influence. When leaving, the police outside hadn’t apparently noticed at all, which became a major oversight. Up until now, their whereabouts had yet to be located.

The alley wasn’t very long, so as he was distracted with his thoughts on how that person had been taken away, Yu Yin had already reached the end.

Just like any other tall building, the back door was also securely locked. His luck didn’t seem to be as good as last time’s, since not only was the back door locked, it also had a thick metal gate protecting it outside as well. Unless he became an intangible form that could pass through walls…

“Alright, I’ve already come here. You can’t blame either if I can’t get in. That’s just fate at work.” He shrugged, deciding that his task for tonight had already been completed, and he cheerfully turned to walk back.

Plop.

Something dropped onto his head.

He subconsciously reached up to touch it. It felt sticky, but because it was just too dark in the alley, he couldn’t see it at all. Reflexively, he tilted his head back to look upwards.

A pale face hanging upside down from the eaves was looking straight at him.

Completely startled, Yu Yin backpedaled in fright and bumped into the wall behind him. Then, the owner of the pale face and shattered skull began to leak out brain fluid onto the ground with a slosh.

He could suddenly guess what had dropped on his head just now…

Damn you!

Before he could finish cursing, the ghost sank back into the eaves. In the next second, Yu Yin saw a figure sway on the second floor. The black silhouette stood next to the second floor window, head lowered to look down where he was.

Because the sky was still very dark, he couldn’t see the face. All he could sense was two glowing, green eyes staring straight at him emotionlessly through the night.

Even though Yu Yin had seen inhuman things like this all the time, he couldn’t help his shivers and he tried to avoid the gaze coming from the glass window.

Amidst the absolute silence, a faint click suddenly came from above, and the window opened.

“No way…hey, wait! Do you think a normal person could jump straight up to the second level from the first floor?” Yu Yin hurriedly protested at the “person” above, but it clearly didn’t care if he had to fly or jump up, and simply turned to vanish into thin air.

At the same time, the few lights that had originally been left on in the building instantly went out. Even the emergency lights were nowhere to be seen.

Power outage?

But that didn’t seem quite right, since even the emergency power source had gone out.

Yu Yin looked up at the opened window. With no other option, he could clench his teeth as he brought over his bike and used it as a stepping support. Then, just like that, he really did enter through the second floor.

The alarms did not go off. It looked like the power really had been cut.

But Yu Yin knew that the delegated security staff would quickly arrive to check out the situation.

After jumping up to the second level, he discovered that the “person” that had asked him to come was nowhere to be seen.

The elevator, lights, and everything else were all gone. Yu Yin, who had spontaneously arrived, obviously hadn’t prepared any flashlights or any other magical item. Surrounded by complete darkness, he could only struggle through by opening his phone and using its weak light to slightly illuminate his surroundings.

Luckily, the inside was very tidy. Otherwise, he definitely would have bumped into random things left and right until he was so dizzy that he wouldn’t be able to figure out where he was going.

A few seconds after he had somewhat gotten accustomed to the lack of light, he heard what sounded like a certain door being unlocked. When he looked over, the door to the emergency stairwell had been opened.

That’s right, without any power, I definitely cannot use the elevator.

Yu Yin carefully navigated his way through the dark towards the door.

After passing through the entryway, the upwards staircase would be on the right.

Was he supposed to go up or go down?

Before he even needed to ask, the sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from the upper half. It was as if someone was in front of him leading the way, but he couldn’t see any figure. Ka, ka, ka came the sound of cloth shoes climbing up the stairs.

Then, Yu Yin followed behind.

***

Yu Yin was sure that “he” must have deliberately brought him here.

There was no obstruction throughout the entire trip to the top level. Even the lock to the rooftop had been opened. If it had just so happened that there was a thief breaking in tonight, they would have been able to smoothly steal everything, leaving nothing behind.

As Yu Yin was thinking this and was prepared to kick open the steel door to the rooftop, he suddenly heard a certain sound coming from its other side. Immediately, he retracted his foot.

Sound?

Why is there someone at the rooftop at this time?

Yu Yin carefully put his phone in his jacket pocket and narrowed his eyes as he listened closely to the voice outside…

“I have nothing to do with you guys anymore! If you’ve already gotten captured by the police, you’d better deal with it yourself. Don’t drag everyone under the water with you. If you really plan on pulling me in, I won’t hold back either.”

It was a very familiar voice.

Yu Yin slowly pushed open the door a bit to see a person leaning behind the wall where the large sign hung from.

“Also, the police will never be able to find out about the matter from back then. As for the issue regarding you guys opening fire outside, you had best take responsibility…what? You want me to bail you guys out? Stop dreaming! Don’t even think of getting a lawyer. I have nothing to do with this!” The person angrily shouted into the phone before cutting the call and furiously scrambling to light a cigarette.

The white smoke was bent into bizarre arcs in the air by the night breeze.

A few seconds passed.

Yu Yin was debating whether or not to directly walk out or just wait until after the other person left, but before he could even decide, the other person made another call that quickly connected. “Hello? Yes, this is Ding Wei Han from Zhong’s Capable Aid. Could I request for you to help me arrange a plane ticket and a hotel…yes, it’s business-related, the sooner the better. I need to go back to America in two days…any price is fine. I’ll leave it to you then, thanks.”

“You plan on fleeing overseas?”

The person standing on the deck that had yet to hang up the phone immediately turned around. The cigarette smoke floating in midair was contorted into unnatural shapes and then floated back to his mouth.

“Mr. Ding Wei Han, are you planning on trying to avoid tax on over twenty million? Moreover, the lottery ticket will expire if not exchanged in within its effectiveness period. How long do you plan on staying abroad?” Yu Yin pushed open the door and slowly walked out with a faint smile.

Ding Wei Han quickly snapped out of his daze and locked gazes with Yu Yin from where he stood against the wall. He said with a professional business smile, “Officer Yu, why are you at our company so late in the night? And what did you mean by your words just now? I don’t really understand. What twenty million are you referring to?”

Yu Yin met the gaze and shrugged. “Oh right, I forgot to tell you, I’m not actually part of the police. The other person you saw before, the one wearing glasses that looks like a university student, is the actual cop.”

Ding Wei Han was momentarily stunned before he narrowed his eyes. “…You were pretending?”

“Oi, oi, from the beginning, I never once said I was a cop. Don’t misunderstand. I’m just someone related to the jumping case, as well as a witness, that happened to get wrapped up into things.” Yu Yin crossed his arms and leaned against the opposite side of the wall. He looked out at the large hanging sign and said, “Wow, this part is really low. If you’re not careful, you could easily fall down by accident. But if something was stuck on the outside, I’m sure it would seem simple to reach out and grab it too.”

Ding Wei Han, who was standing on the other far side of the wall, did not show any change in expression. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”

“Mm, I’m not really trying to say anything. I just had a little “passing thought”; if you are interested, would you like to hear it?” Without waiting for the other person to respond, Yu Yin turned around to continue on his own accord. “If I wanted to get rid of an eyesore of a person here, I would first find something very similar to an object that is very important to him and come up with a way to get it up on the sign. Then I would find an excuse to get him on the rooftop…and then call his attention onto that object. Because the surrounding wall isn’t very high, he would obviously try to reach out and grab it. At that moment, all I would have to do is give him a light pat from behind. I’m sure that anyone without a raised guard would just fall down like that.”

“Your passing thought is indeed interesting. However, if you really did do something like that, it would be classified as murder. Mr. Yu? I suggest you best not do anything so impulsive,” Ding Wei Han said with a cold smile.

“Don’t worry, my family is very strict. Even if I wanted to kill someone, I wouldn’t dare to.” Yu Yin let out a sigh as he looked down at the nearby sign. If he really did do something like that, he would be flayed and slaughtered on the spot by his uncle before he could even get judged by the law.

“But, I don’t think this is an idea that only I would come up with. And of the people who have thought of this, as long as one or two actually execute it, I’m sure that the number of suicide cases in the newspapers would increase by quite a bit.”

It seemed like the truth, yet wasn’t.

Just the slightest cover up was typically enough to easily change a falsehood into reality.

“What do you mean by that?” Ding Wei Han turned to looked at him, his expression slowly started to change.

“Nothing in particular. But I do want to tell you how I became a witness for this case.” Yu Yin smiled and stared straight into the other person’s eyes, which now seemed to be moving with some emotion. “Before it happened, I was unlucky enough to coincidentally bump into Student Chen. He was pretty excited that night, having apparently won a prize…I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. Most people know how to buy lottery tickets nowadays; it’s the current trend.”

“That’s pretty nice. Winning a prize would definitely make anyone happy.” Ding Wei Han snuffed out his cigarette and tossed it off the building.

“That’s right, it’s enough to many anyone go crazy from joy. After all, twenty million is no small sum of money to a family riddled with debt. After using this money to repay all their debt, their family could probably live happily. A family of three living in such a small home is really too unfair…after clearing the debt, they could probably rent out a better house. Or maybe after another few years, once they have been part of normal society for a while, the older brother could smoothly obtain a job with a good salary. And after maintaining that for a while, he could bring his entire family out to travel around the world.”

Yu Yin paused, his gaze locked onto the sign that had been used to gather evidence earlier. It was still in the same unmoving position, silently suspended in the air.

“That’s right, staying alive means having infinite possibilities. But those possibilities all disappear once the life is lost. A person that was so loved by everyone may have become a well-appreciated entrepreneur of some kind…but nobody will ever know now.”

Yu Yin looked over at the other person’s now ashen expression, and the corners of his lips tilted upwards.

“…That’s right…if he had just thought about it a bit before killing himself…and wasn’t so impulsive…”

“I’ve thought about it before. There are often instances of people robbing others for their money.” Yu Yin interrupted, not letting the other person finish speaking. “I really don’t understand. Some people clearly have enough wages to get by, yet why must they still try to take others’ money? Even without that, couldn’t they still continue on with their lives? Planning ahead, traveling, and all that…”

Ding Wei Han abruptly straightened his body and said with furrowed brows. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’m obligated to stay here in the middle of the night keeping you company while discussing life questions. You trespassed into our company tonight. Even the police would need a search permit, so I think I have a legitimate reason to report you. You should quickly find a lawyer.” With this, he began to head towards the rooftop exit. A night breeze blew between the two people.

“Mr. Ding, I think I need to give you a warning: it’s best you be careful when you exchange the lottery ticket. The police already know of its existence, and only one person can obtain it per cycle. On that person’s ticket are fingerprints that belong to me, Yu Yin.” Ding Wei Han stopped in his tracks and turned around. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, really. Didn’t I mention just now that I bumped into Student Chen? That night, I also saw his lottery ticket. If his lottery ticket really did win the twenty million prize, then that particular ticket would definitely have my fingerprints. If it does, then that proves Student Chen previously possessed it…if it’s not him exchanging it, and someone unrelated does it instead, how do you think the police waiting at the lottery ticket center would make the connection?” Yu Yin yawned and lazily voiced this warning to the person’s back.

“Thank you for your advice. If I find who that person exchanging it is, I will pass on your message.” Ding Wei Han shrugged, seemingly uninterested in the topic, and began to head down the stairs.

“Alright. Once you give that lottery ticket in your pocket to another person, make sure you remember to tell them this. Otherwise, it would be an injustice to be mistakenly arrested like that.” Yu Yin took out a piece of gum from his pocket and slowly unwrapped it, before stuffing the wrapper into his bag. As expected, he saw a certain person freeze in place once more. “Mr. Ding, you’re at the company so late; work must be pretty tiring. I’m sure that a typical person wouldn’t dare to carelessly put the twenty million anywhere after that kind of incident…especially since it didn’t originally belong to them. The more I think about it, the more I’m sure that you must be carrying it on you, or you left it at the company. The reason I don’t think it’s at your home is because those thugs are acquainted with you. If you were seen with them at your door, that would be bad.

“Because those hoodlums were seized for shooting guns outside…they were the ones you were talking with on the phone just now, it seems. Aside from specifically coming here to retrieve the twenty million you had kept in the company and connecting with those guys, I can’t imagine any other reason you would be at the company so late, especially on the rooftop where there’s the least chance of someone seeing you.”

Ding Wei Han stood in place, narrowing his eyes at Yu Yin with no other visible expression. He almost looked like a rigid stone statue; it was impossible to guess what his next action would be.

After along while, he walked forwards two more steps towards the door. “Why do you think that I have Chen Yong Hao’s lottery ticket?”

A loud bang was heard as the wind picked up and heavily slammed the steel door back against its frame. The resulting empty but extremely great echo seemed to travel across the entire rooftop.

“Simple. It’s because of the stairs.”

“The stairs?”

Yu Yin nodded and walked over to the steel door to turn the doorknob, only to discover that it was locked. “Tsk…I heard that the upward stairs in your company can be found as soon as you turn right from the exit. If you want to go down, you still have to advance forwards further. But in the surveillance tapes, you immediately turned right upon exiting, which means that you were actually heading up that day, and not down. After learning of the situation, you even ran through the stairs to return to your original spot, which also proves that you had circled around to get out as opposed to directly exiting. That would then differ from your earlier claim of heading downstairs. At that kind of susceptible time, why were you heading upstairs?”

“I don’t think simply turning left or right proves if I went up the stairs. Maybe I did really walk up that day. But because I couldn’t wait for the elevator, I was somewhat out of it. Don’t tell me that it’s impossible for me to accidentally go to the wrong staircase? Perhaps I really did go wrong that day, and then later turned around to run down, encountering the jumping by chance, right?” Ding Wei Han kept eyeing the steel door with no signs of nervousness on his face.

“No, you definitely were heading up that day. Moreover, you had absolutely no plans on taking the elevator.” From his tone, it was clear that the other person had no intention to confess. Yu Yin coldly smirked and said, “Why would someone waiting for the elevator not press the elevator button? All you did was check the elevator meter. That just confirms that you weren’t waiting. The one that received Chen Yong Hao that day was you. My guess is that you must have told him something and had him head over to the rooftop first. Afterwards, you told your colleagues that you were heading down. Instead, you exited to the emergency stairwell and headed up, not down. That action of yours was just to confirm if Chen Yong Hao had obediently gone to the rooftop or not.”

“…”

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze, as if it was slowly solidifying and sinking downwards.

The two people standing on either side of the door stared each other down. The first to speak was the person with a controlled, indifferent expression. “…You notice too many things.”

Heavy thuds rang out from the other side of the door, as if someone was punching at it with all their strength. The violent knocks were like knives slicing through the frozen air, incessantly making noise without restraint. It was as if the entire door was being struck repeatedly with great force, and the subsequent banging didn’t sound like something a human could be doing.

The clamor was so sudden that the two people that were originally standing opposite of each other simultaneously stopped doing so.

Then, Ding Wei Han’s cell phone began to chime endlessly with text message notifications.

Yu Yin opened the steel door with the constant hammering and blew a bubble. He could just barely see the words appearing on Ding Wei Han’s phone screen:

“Give it back give it back give it back give it back give it back give it back give it back–”

The entire screen was filled with the same three words over and over, as if hundreds of people had simultaneously flooded it with malicious intents. Even as Ding Wei Han was holding his phone out, the incoming message notifications did not stop. One text after another very quickly forced its way onto the phone, and soon, it seemed to Yu Yin that the phone would explode from the amount of these three-word texts.

“Motherfucker!” Before Ding Wei Han could even shut off his phone, the entire screen went black as it burned itself out. He furiously smashed his phone onto the ground. The fairly expensive and new electronic was completely destroyed, just like that.

That’s probably worth over ten thousand yuan…

As Yu Yin watched ten thousand yuan being tossed away, he suddenly felt the struggles of living with a typical person’s wages from part-time jobs.

When the phone broke, the knocking on the steel door also went quiet immediately, and the surrounding air felt strange. It was as if that terrifying noise from earlier had never existed.

Soon after, a new sound shattered the silence.

A car could be heard from outside the first level. When Yu Yin glanced down, he saw that the security personnel had finally arrived, and were currently exiting the car.

Crap, how am I going to explain to Dad and Uncle? He had clearly broken in, so he would have nothing to say about being caught… How severely will I be punished…

Just as he was thinking this, another crash was suddenly heard from below, as well the sound of shattering glass. Then, one of the security guards from below cried out in alarm, “Someone jumped!”

Someone jumped?

Yu Yin turned in bewilderment and saw Ding Wei Han still standing next to the steel door. If neither of them had jumped, who had?

The astonished shouts continued from the security staff below.

The night breeze started to grow chillier. The security car that had been collided into now sported a deep dent on its roof, and the unavoidable pieces of glass had forcefully exploded everywhere.

And there was nobody on top of the car.

There wasn’t even a single strand of hair to be seen, or any shadow of a human. It was as if the person had vaporized the moment it had fallen onto the car.

The scattered security staff were all staring at the caved in car roof with bizarre expressions. They were completely at a loss on the lack of a human there. Scratching his head, Yu Yin shifted his gaze.

Even if you’re mad…isn’t this a bit too much…

As soon as he turned around, he instantly saw Ding Wei Han had noiselessly approached him from behind, and was just about to reach out towards him. “What are you doing!” Yu Yin immediately shouted in warning as he leapt out of the way from being the one to fall into the hole below.

“The rooftop walls are pretty low. Although I reminded you earlier to be careful, I was afraid that since it was so late…if you accidentally slipped, I wouldn’t be able to easily save you even if I stood next to you,” Ding Wei Han said with a dark smile as he slightly loosened the necktie from his collar and walked over. “Sometimes, it’s best not to stick your nose into too many things. Who are you to Chen Yong Hao, to care so much about him?”

Please, you think I wanted to get involved?

It was clearly that guy who forced me into it!

Seeing as the other person had already started showing murderous intent, Yu Yin began to back off away from the wall and towards the entrance he had come from. “I think we should sit down and talk this through…”

“The dead cannot speak.”

Upon hearing this classic television line typically given right before a murder occurred, Yu Yin truly realised the situation wasn’t looking good.

He franticly began to dash across the empty space in attempt to get some distance between them and then pulled out his phone from his pocket, which had been open the entire time. “Hello, hello?! Jiu Shen-Gē, did you get all of that? Hurry up and come save me!” He looked at the door that had been locked, pondering if he should just disregard the distance from the alley below and try to directly jump over to the adjacent building’s rooftop.

“I’ve already requested for the patrols to rush over! If you were going to do something like this, why didn’t you ask for us to set up nearby? If your uncle knew of this…ah!” The person that had picked up the strange call so late at night and had been recording the whole time suddenly let out a cry of shock.

A bunch of shuffling was heard from the other end of the line before a different voice came out. “YU…YIN…! What kind of mess did you get into this time?!” An extremely furious roar, much like that of a lion, thundered out from the receiver, forcing Yu Yin to hastily pull the phone away from his ears. “It has nothing to do with me! The ghost summoned me here!” If he had known the situation would end up at such a critical point, he would not have followed the ghost here even if he was beaten up.

“If you can’t outrun him, then just directly push the guy off! We can testify that it was self-defense. If you’re the one that falls off, then you’d better watch out or else I’ll skin your corpse…no, I’ll destroy your ashes! I’m heading over this instant!”

Yu Xia aggressively cut the call from the other end.

I’m so dead. Why was Uncle over at the analysis group’s area?

Before he could really ponder over why his uncle wasn’t at home sleeping, and was instead at the station still, Yu Yin suddenly felt himself stagger as the other person pounced at him from behind. As a result, his phone was also sent flying from the momentum, landing a few steps away. With a crack, it bounced twice before its entire screen went pitch black.

His 4500 yuan!

In both mental and physical pain, Yu Yin was pressed against the ground by the other person. After spending a few seconds to mourn for his phone that had broken again after he had just gotten it fixed, he flipped over to forcefully kick at the person who was trying to drag him off the roof.

Just as Ding Wei Han was getting back up and preparing to grab at the person before him, he froze in place.

The two dropped phones simultaneously started beeping from a constant stream of incoming texts.

One after another, messages were flooding the phones.

It might have been understandable if Yu Yin’s phone was just temporarily malfunctioning, but when he looked over at the other person’s smashed phone, it was also ringing endlessly from the incoming texts.

When he stood up, prepared to dodge the opponent, he discovered that Ding Wei Han’s gaze was actually not on the two phones.

Instead, it was on his face.

It was late at night, so he could very clearly see his own reflection in Ding Wei Han’s wide eyes. But the face that was reflected there wasn’t his.

It was the sinister face of Chen Yong Hao.