The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Something was wrong.

“Ah Yin, are you home?”

While Yu Yin was deep in thought, pondering why he would see a human head, he heard the sound of a car stopping outside the house, followed by his uncle’s shout.

He checked his watch. It was only just past four. Theoretically speaking, that person outside shouldn’t be home, right? As he wondered this, Yu Yin doubtfully walked out to the front porch.

“Help me grab some things.” Yu Xia walked in while carrying two bags, one large and one small. Before going home, he had already changed into normal clothes before going to the supermarket to buy some things. “I’ll be heading back to the station in a bit. Dinner’s inside, both Tong and I won’t be home until late today.”

“Eh, oh, okay.” Yu Yin accepted the bulging cloth bags and eyed his uncle. “Uncle, you didn’t take today off, right?” Then, his gaze suddenly stopped at the person worming out from behind his uncle.

“No, I just brought Xiao Yu back first. I’m heading back now. Xiao Yu needed to get a few stitches, so take care of him a bit. Don’t let his wound touch water.” Although Xiao Yu had been unwilling to go to the hospital, Yu Xia had still forcibly dragged him to get checked out before returning. He told the now extremely shocked Yu Yin, “He got cut. It will need to be redressed sooner or later, and he’ll have to go back for a check-up in two days. I put the medicine in the bag.”

Yu Yin stared at his uncle, noticing something odd. “Uncle, did you get wet from the rain just now? Your hair seems to be a bit yellow. You didn’t go off to play paintball or anything, right?” He asked, having noticed residual traces of color in the hair.

Yu Xia shot him a vicious glare before forcefully thrusting the bag of food into Yu Yin’s hands. “Who the hell cares? Just take good care of Xiao Yu, got it? I’m going back.”

Before he even gave his family’s son a chance to reply, he immediately turned and walked away.

Yu Yin watched his uncle leave, completely lost as to why he had suddenly gotten so angry. After closing the door and slowly turning back to walk into the house, he saw that Yu had already put down his backpack in that period of time and was watching a language-teaching show on the turned on TV.

Upon seeing Yu, Yu Yin instantly recalled the matter Yan Si and Li Zi Hong had come to talk to him about in the morning. However, he was momentarily unable to think of where to start asking from. It wasn’t like he could just grab Yu by the collar and toss the photos in his face, forcing him to confess everything…he wasn’t his uncle. The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was impossible.

Yu Yin snuck another glance at the other person before deciding to first bring the bags of stuff into the kitchen and look at dinner. His uncle had brought back takeout boxes from a restaurant that only needed to be microwaved before eating. So now, what he had to do was…interact with Yu to boost their brotherly relationship in order to be able to ask the target question.

“Xiao Yu, was school fun today?”

The face that turned to look at him was beyond blank. Yu Yin had a sinking feeling that he had chosen the wrong question to ask. “Eh…alright, did you get to know any new classmates?”

Xiao Yu turned away from the TV and shook his head in response.

“What about the level of difficulty? Do you think you won’t be able to keep up?” Yu Yin sat down on the sofa and tried to show his sincere concern.

Yu thought for a moment before taking out his cellphone and writing out a few words with the stylus. He turned the screen around to show Yu Yin: “They’re too slow.”

“Too slow? You mean the school’s tempo is too slow?” What does that mean? The teacher is slacking off? Yu Yin scratched his head. From what he could remember, he had heard his dad and the others say that Xiao Yu’s class was pretty good. “Did you think the teacher didn’t teach very well when you went in to listen for the first time today?” Yeah right, it’s not just a listening, it’s an actual official class. I’ve been working part-time at a cram school for too long, it’s a bit hard to suddenly change my words.

“They learn too slowly.”

The moment Yu Yin saw this next sentence, he felt his entire back turn cold as he recalled what Li Zi Hong had said about Xiao Yu being extremely intelligent. He also remembered how his dad had once mentioned how Yu was attending an advanced class.

If even an advanced class’s pace is too slow…He recalled that the advanced class would sometimes be way further ahead than other classes. Even as a university student, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to understand their crazy textbooks…although his grades weren’t very good in the first place anyways.

“Eh, if you don’t like it, just bring some other books with you to class next time. You can read some manhuas or even play some video games…” Yu Yin coughed. Without realising, he was currently being a bad example.

Xiao Yu gave him a puzzled look, but still nodded. He was now thinking that the school seemed to forbid students from reading manhua in class.

Yu Yin looked at him, suddenly unsure of what to say. He then noticed that Yu seemed to be a bit dirty for whatever reason. “Why don’t you take a bath first? I’ll go through Uncle’s things so that we can eat dinner in a bit.” He figured that asking after dinner would be better; he needed to carefully think through how he wanted to ask the question as well.

Yu stood up and brought his backpack with him upstairs.

Yu Yin shut off the TV and also stood up. Just as he was about to head into the kitchen, he suddenly noticed a black, blurry shadow standing next to him. He saw it out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned around, there was once again nobody there. But when he stopped, it reappeared.

Yu Yin sighed. Now he truly understood why people sometimes said that one just had to submit to their fate. “Do you need help?” Maybe after he graduated, he really could go and open a business office for cases involving the underworld and whatever. Then he could extort the family members of the deceased. Perhaps he could actually get super rich that way.

But doing such a thing seemed pretty immoral. Forget it, it’s still best to not live too unrealistic of a life.

The minute he asked this question, he saw the pair of feet from the library earlier, the ones wearing the black leather shoes of a high school female student, next to him. Then, he heard the sound of soft sobs.

“Why did you follow me home?” Yu Yin looked at the ground. The black shadow was reflected there, but its color was extremely faint, as if it could disappear at any moment.

It was the shadow of a girl, but her upper half had disappeared. Only the mouth and the chin remained. The hair was roughly waist-long. Her skirt wasn’t rolled up, and her shirt was properly buttoned. She seemed to be pretty dignified girl.

The shadow stemmed out from under the feet, but when he shifted his gaze slightly, the feet and shadow would back off together, making it impossible to see her true appearance.

“Don’t worry, I’ve mentally prepared myself to see scary things, so you don’t need to hide.” He had already suffered enough; a typical person would not see such things as often as he did. He was actually quite proud of himself for staying strong enough to live to this day without being scared to death.

Although he was mentally prepared, the girl clearly was not. The sound continued for a bit before she mysteriously vanished again. He had absolutely no idea what her intention was.

Yu Yin turned around. The shadow and feet had both disappeared.

It appeared that she had already left.

But why follow him here?

The library? It was likely. He had seemed to start bumping into her since leaving the library. If that blurry shadow was it, then this had started ever since he had been over there?

But when he thought about it more, nothing had happened in school recently. Why would something have happened in the library?

If it had occurred ages ago, he should have bumped into it during his previous trips to the library. Although he wasn’t a very hardworking student, he still often visited there. It didn’t make sense for it to not have appeared the past two years or so he had been hanging around in that place.

As he followed this train of thought, he also recalled another fishy matter that had happened today.

That long, black bag.

Because he didn’t have any idea what that girl had wanted, he had not really touched the bag at all. He was afraid there was some kind of expensive item inside; if he accidentally broke it, he would not be able to compensate. It looked like he would have to ask his dad and uncle to bring it back to the station and put it on record once they got home. There have been too many bizarre events happening recently.

And when Yu Yin thought back to how he would have to question Yu about the incense later, his head began to hurt.

Just then, an unusual ringing noise sounded out. He turned around and saw that Xiao Yu had left his cellphone on the table, having forgotten to bring it with him. The faint piano riffs were coming from the phone.

He shouted for Xiao Yu a few times, but the other person did not come down the stairs. Most likely, he was bathing and could not hear. Thus, he picked up the phone to take a look. The caller ID did not have a name, but rather the number “05”.

He uses numbers instead of people’s names?

“Hello, the owner of this phone is currently busy. May I ask who this is?” Yu Yin directly picked up the call without much thought.

“…Ah Yin-dàgē?”

When Yu Yin heard the familiar voice, his face immediately darkened. “Isn’t this Fang Yi Xun?” So the two of them still keep in contact, huh.

“Are you using Ah Yu’s phone because your phone bill expenses were too high?”

That damn brat—

Yu Yin nearly broke the cellphone. “What are you looking for Yu for! He’s in the bathroom!”

“Ohhh, he left school early today, but his class still has evening self-study. His teacher asked if he wanted to go, since the evening self-study period includes some extra lessons.”

“What the heck is evening self-study?” They make people stay late to self-study now?

“Sigh, you obviously were not part of the advanced class in the past.”

“Shut up!”

Yu Yin ended the call and raised his head just in time to see the cellphone’s owner walking downstairs while drying his hair. The gauze around his hand was even dripping beads of water.

“Do you not know to wrap it with a plastic bag?” Yu Yin hurriedly ran over to grab a bunch of toilet paper and absorb all the water from Yu’s hand.

Yu simply looked at him and shrugged.

“That Fang Yi Xun just called your cellphone. You don’t actually want to go to that evening self-study or whatever, right?” When he saw the other person nod instead, Yu Yin could only feel despair.

If Xiao Yu wanted to go to school, it meant one thing: he would have to be the chauffer.

Yu Yin took out the medicine and fumbled to help Yu change the dressing. Although Yu Yin frequently got injured himself, it wasn’t often that he helped tend others’ injuries like this, so he didn’t really know how to wrap it. Anyways, tying it around so that it won’t fall off should be enough.

“Actually, I have something I want to ask you. How about we go out and eat dinner together tomorrow? I probably have to stay pretty late anyways.” He decided that he would find a place with good atmosphere and food to ask his questions.

Yu stared at him for a moment before nodding.

***

“You were seen by Xiao Yu?”

It was evening. The twins were currently eating from lunchboxes next to each other.

“Yeah, since it’s the same school, running into each other was bound to happen sooner or later. But I bumped into him in the corner where those guys gathered. Not sure what he ran to that kind of place for.” Yu Xia was actually a bit suspicious, since that corner of the school wasn’t exactly a location someone would just wander across. From what he could tell, a typical student would leave that kind of place as quickly as possible; there was no reason to specially walk inside.

“You didn’t take a photo with him as a memento?”

Yu Xia’s chopsticks froze as he shot an evil glare over while emitting an aura that clearly said: “Don’t think that just because you’re my older brother, I don’t dare to beat you up”.

Yu Tong coughed and picked up his cup of water. “That Kai Lun you mentioned…for some reason, I feel like I’ve heard that name from somewhere before.” But where? It seemed very familiar, but it also did not seem as if he had heard it recently.

“Don’t a lot of people use that kind of English-based name?” Yu Xia waved it away indifferently and cleaned up the empty lunchboxes. “I didn’t see the one called Big Camel, so I plan on going back again later in the evening. There were comforters there, so I’m sure there must be people staying the night. I’ll see if I can get any useful information to report.”

“In that case, since brother Jiu Shen has already gone home, let me help you with your work, Boss.” A third voice suddenly rang out. Yan Si, who had made the special trip to visit the workplace, had an extremely evil smile on his face.

Yu Xia had no desire to see that guy right now and shot him a supercilious look. “Scram.”

“Oho, but I specially brought hair gel over~” Yan Si tossed over the new hair gel that he had just bought at the store. He very happily swung his arm onto the other person’s shoulder as he said, “Don’t worry, I’m very good at doing other people’s hair. In the past, I often styled the hair of corpses while waiting for them to thaw.”

Yu Xia’s reply was a direct backwards elbow, causing a certain person to cry out in pain as he stood up clutching his stomach. “If that’s all, I’ll be heading out first.” He fiercely swiped the hair gel from Yan Si’s hands, and even stomped onto Yan Si’s foot once before leaving.

Yu Tong shook his head as he looked at his friend whining in pain while holding both his stomach and his foot. “You and Ah Yin both really like to infuriate Xia, huh.” And then get beaten up. Does that mean they are masochistic?

Yan Si sat down onto the nearby chair and sniggered, “Don’t you think Boss is pretty adorable when he’s angry?” More importantly, it’s so easy to irritate him, which makes it amusing.

Since Yu Tong had the same face as his identical twin, he could not agree to the adjective “adorable”, and simply shook his head.

“Like how taking a banana away from a little monkey would make it frantic…hoho, but of course, Ah Tong, you are not adorable. You’re steady.”

Yu Tong was truly grateful that his brother had left before hearing these words; otherwise, the forensic investigator in front of him would quickly end up experience his twin’s unadorable face. Moreover, it would be an experience ingrained into his flesh through pain.

Just as Yu Tong as about to comment, he noticed there was a small disturbance nearby. Then, one of his colleagues on night shift rushed over. He stopped near them briefly to say, “Someone just called the service center to report a body. Its traits match those of the fourth student that went missing, the female.”

Yu Tong stood up. “I will go with you.”

“I’ll voluntarily work overtime then.” Yan Si had a foolish smile on his face as he stubbornly insisted on joining the fun.

“You don’t get any overtime pay.”

“I know, it’s OK.”

About ten minutes later, layers of yellow caution tape were drawn up in a suburban area to keep off the nearby residents that had heard of the news.

Some investigation officers were walking back and forth to take photos of everything nearby.

When Yan Si and the others arrived, the investigators there had just completed their initial searches.

“Someone taking their dog for an evening walk nearby found it.” A police officer walked over and told them, “One of our people noticed that her student ID matched the one your side reported, so we quickly contacted you guys.”

Yu Tong grabbed some gloves and nodded at the other person.

The area was a small suburb on the hillside. There were residents at the bottom of the hill, and some abandoned sightseeing locations on top. There were weeds everywhere; the nearby residents probably took turns to clean up the place a bit to keep away the insects and wild dogs.

Upon walking into the sealed off closure, Yu Tong immediately saw the uniformed girl lying flat down on the ground. She looked like a doll that had its limbs snapped off – her entire body was twisted into an unnatural position.

When he turned on the flashlight, he inhaled sharply.

“The top half of her head is gone.” Yan Si knelt down next to the corpse and flicked off some of the maggots crawling around the lower half of the head. “She has fractures all over her body, and serious abrasions from a large amount of friction. My guess is that her body was tossed from a car. There aren’t any bloodstains here.” He flashed the torch around to reveal the lack of blood traces. There was just a bunch of yellow sand mixed into the dirt and weeds.

Yu Tong stared at the black hair connected to the lower half of the head that had pretty much wrapped around the girl’s neck. He shut his eyes before reopening them. “Based on this, I’m afraid we will have to prepare for the worst regarding the other three as well if they all went missing for the same reason.”

“We’ve asked the people around here. Nobody saw any kind of lost or suspicious car, nor have they seen anything strange in this area the past two days,” the officer that had led them here said. He then guided them around to point out some areas that had been clearly circled out. “There are always dumper trucks passing by here during the day; we already contacted them just now. But since nobody saw any abnormalities, the body was probably abandoned here at night. We will gather all the information in a bit and transfer it over to your side.”

“Thank you for your trouble.”

Yu Tong let Yan Si continue his work while he stood up and walked around by himself once more. He noticed some lights nearby and commented, “This place seems to be pretty close to Ah Yin’s school.”

“Oh, the university and high school are just on the other side,” the officer informed. “Probably about a ten minute drive or so. If you go around that road on the side, you’ll arrive at the hill the university is on. But this place is so remote that it’s unlikely for students to come here.”

“Why? You want to go find Boss?” Yan Si approached them after watching the body get moved away.

“Nothing, really. I was just thinking about how clever this girl was based on her records and wondering how she could possibly end up in this situation.”

Yan Si glanced at the person next to him and yawned. “Then let me tell you this first, so that you can mentally prepare yourself: from what I checked just now, that girl has barely been dead for three days.”

Yu Tong spun around to look at him.

“She did not die immediately after disappearing.”

***

Yu Yin looked at the gradually darkening skies and the scenery passing by him in the reverse direction as he pushed down on his accelerator while a bunch of questions flashed through his mind.

He literally just finished class, why run all the way back to school?

Does he not know that a student’s happiest moment is returning home from school? Yet he wants to go back and see the school again?!

“If Uncle knew you were running back over to attend whatever self-study session, he would definitely get mad. When that time comes, I beg of you to plead guilty by yourself. Please don’t drag me down with you.” A few seconds after Yu Yin shouted this back at the person sitting behind him, he stopped his bike in front of the high school.

Yu took off his safety helmet and jumped off from the vehicle.

“How long is your evening self-study?” Yu Yin glanced at the school that had now become a night school. He didn’t really feel comfortable with letting Yu walk inside alone. The school was very different at night than it was during the day; the students tended to be more troublesome in the evening, so he was a concerned.

Xiao Yu cocked his head to the side and flashed the number nine with his hands.

“Until nine?”

A nod in response.

“Holy crap, is there really a need to go so far? Pretty sure studying until nine would kill you!” After doing some quick mental calculations, Yu Yin concluded that studying at school from eight in the morning to nine in the evening was not humane. “Just forget it, it’s not like you need the evening self-study. Go tell your teacher that it’s not necessary, and I’ll go bring you to the Zhong Xiao Night Market to eat.” Yu apparently already understood four languages and had entered the school with high marks. Plus, he had personally expressed that the school’s pace was slow. What reason was there to attend an evening self-study session that had too slow of a tempo?

When Yu Yin realised this, he felt the urge to drag Yu straight to the teacher to drop this extra class.

Noticing that Yu Yin was planning on charging inside, Xiao Yu hurriedly stopped him and pulled out his cellphone to type a few words. He turned the screen towards Yu Yin to show the words: “I will try it out for the next few days. If it does not work out, I will ask the teacher to drop out.”

“Do you really like studying?” Won’t you die from over-studying like this?

Yu briefly thought this over before nodding in answer.

“Alright, then just take a look first. If it doesn’t work out, just don’t go. The teacher probably does not have the authority to make you “go overtime”, right? Even advanced classes would not go that overboard. Children should be spending more time running around outside.” Yu Yin glanced at his watch and then scanned the area. “I’ll head around to a friend’s place nearby. When you are done with class, give me a call, and I’ll come pick you up.”

Yu nodded once more before grabbing his backpack and walking inside.

After putting away the helmets, Yu Yin noted his general location and backed the motorbike into a nearby alley.

Since it was dinnertime, the residents nearby all had lights on in their homes. Through some windows, he could even see the scene of parents and their children eating dinner together.

He subconsciously stopped in his tracks.

A long time ago, his family had been the same.

When his father was not home, he would at least have his mother sit on the opposite end of the dining table with him. Although the dishes were not necessarily as delicious as a restaurant’s, they were always piping hot, emitting warm steam. The two of them would typically have quite a bit of food, since his mom would often also make late-night snacks for his dad. Once Yu Yin was put to sleep, she would deliver it to the station, and then go home to spend time together.

It was a matter of the distant past. Ever since the person cooking had changed, his dad tried to come home as much as possible, while his uncle also did not spend the night at the station as often anymore.

He actually was aware of all this.

But sometimes, when he saw other families, he would still feel the slightest bit of envy.

Just as he snapped out of his thoughts, Yu Yin suddenly felt the backseat of his bike sink a bit, as if someone had sat down behind him. But when he turned around to look, there was nothing there.

“What in the—”

He automatically began to curse out, but stopped midway.

Under the reflection of the streetlamps, he saw a black shadow projected on the asphalt ground under his feet. There was the faint figure of a girl sitting in the backseat of his bike. She was missing the upper half of her head, and she had long hair.

The girl’s reflected shadow stretched out a hand to point in a direction. Then, while pulling what seemed to be a miming act, she crossed her arms as if playing with a small thing she held in her arms.

Yu Yin stared at the shadow, a million questions materialising in his mind.

What is she playing with?

Suddenly, a blinding light flashed in front of him. Before Yu Yin could even react, he saw the dazzling lights of a car, as well as another reflection on its glass.

The girl missing half her head sitting behind him very briefly appeared. He could see that her pale-white skin was covered in multiple wounds, black blood dripping onto his jacket. The next second, a car that had not managed to dodge in time brushed past his bike, sending him and his bike flying into the wall next to him.

“Fuck! Can’t you see this is a one way street?!” Yu Yin shouted out at the back of the car that was illegally fleeing. He tossed his helmet off and memorised the license plate. Because he had not been able to react quickly enough earlier, and the bright lights had temporarily blinded him, he had not been able to clearly see its outer appearance, but he felt that it had probably been white in color.

Yu Yin looked at the scratch on his beloved bike with an aching heart. He then proceeded to curse the perpetrator and all his future prosperity, before rolling up his sleeves and pants to discover that both his arms and legs had been cut open from the friction, and were now bleeding.

“Damn it!” These pants are new!

Because there had been the sound of a collision, the area’s residents began to walk out to take a look. After confirming that nothing major had happened, half of them went back.

“Was it a white car?” The question sounded out from Yu Yin’s side a few minutes later.

He turned around and saw a middle-aged woman. She had a graceful appearance and seemed to be the motherly type. “Yes, it was driving the opposite direction on a one way street, and nearly crashed into me.” He dusted the dirt off his bike. It looked like he would have to spend more money on the scratch. He was always getting injured or going bankrupt recently. Did I wrong the God of Fortune this year or something?

“That car is always like that. Nearly all of us around this are have gotten into close calls with it. He never thinks of others’ safeties. It’s bound to go wrong some day,” the woman criticised the car that had just did a hit-and-run. She then turned to look at him. “The owner of the car lives close by. Since it looks like you were hit, do you want to go report the incident at the closest police station to get him to compensate for repairs?”

“No worries, I’ll go later.” Yu Yin took out his cellphone to take a photo of his motorbike. He rubbed his arms that stung in pain and decided to first head towards a nearby pharmacy and buy some bandages.

“Are you injured?” The woman noticed his actions and pulled his arm towards her to take a look. She also scanned over his legs. “It seems pretty serious. Why don’t you come over to my home? I can help you disinfect the injuries and do some simple treatment first. I’m a volunteer nurse over at the high school, and I have a first-aid kit at home that I can use to help bandage you up.”

“Eh, will it be an inconvenience for you?” Yu Yin hesitated a bit as he watched her practiced movements.

“It’s not a problem. You’re already injured this badly, there’s no need to hold back. Judging from your appearance, you’re probably a student from the university across, right? Don’t worry, my house is right in front; it’s not very far.”

Yu Yin looked in the direction she pointed at and saw that it was indeed just a short distance. Thus, he nodded and said, “Please excuse me for intruding then.”

Because it was close, Yu Yin pushed his motorbike with him as he followed her and tried to ask some more questions. “Has the owner of that white car lived here for a while? Nobody has tried to report him?”

“They have, he’s been reported many times now. Recently, one of the stray dogs nearby had puppies that would bark in the middle of the night. In the end, that car owner used an air gun to kill quite a few of the puppies. Someone reported him to the police, but he doesn’t seem to be afraid of being punished. He’s probably someone with quite a bit of money.” After Yu Yin parked his bike in front of her home, the woman opened her door. “Oh right, you can just call me Zhang-Āyí.”

“Ok.”

After entering the home, Yu Yin briefly looked around. It was a normal little house, with three floors and a balcony. The living room on top was extremely tidy and clean without any trace of messiness.

“Does your child also study somewhere around here?” He looked at the picture hanging on the wall of the family of three. The child looked a bit like the woman. Yu Yin casually commented, “He seems to be around my younger brother’s age.”

“Yes, he’s part of the advanced class at the nearby high school. He often studies until very late.” The woman smiled as she looked at the picture as well. “He is nearly always in the top ranks in his class, so I never worry about him.”

“Oh, what a coincidence. My younger brother is also a student there.” Yu Yin saw the content expression on her face. He then added, “He’s also part of the advanced class. Though it’s pretty intense to have to go to class at night too.”

“Schools will obviously hope for their students to maintain their grades. However, as a parent, one will always feel a great sense of accomplishment as well. After all, it’s best if your child is outstanding.” The woman grabbed the first-aid kit nearby and opened it. She sat Yu Yin down and then began to disinfect the injuries with skillful movements.

Yu Yin nodded in reply as he watched her concentrate on tending his injuries. Suddenly, he heard the faint sound of footsteps upstairs. “Is there someone still at home?”

The woman paused and stared at him suspiciously for a few seconds.

“Is there not? I thought I heard someone walking upstairs…” Yu Yin hurriedly explained. “I’m not asking for any particular reason.”

“Oh, maybe my son went upstairs then. He sometimes walks around a bit while he studies,” the woman replied somewhat indifferently as she opened a bottle of medicine.

Noticing that she seemingly did not want to continue the conversation, Yu Yin quickly adapted to the situation and shut his mouth although he really wanted to point out that the advanced class had evening self-study right now…but when he thought about it, perhaps not all the students had to go, like how he had been trying to dissuade Xiao Yu from going. Who knew how tiring studying through the night was?

Once the wounds had nearly all been treated, the sharp screech of car brakes rang out from the alley, followed by the sound of an aggressive acceleration.

“There he goes again.” The woman eyed the window and complained in annoyance, “It’s like this every single time. Even when he’s just out buying cigarettes, he drives recklessly and crashes into things. Sooner or later, he will end up killing himself!”

“Hahaha…” Yu Yin laughed dryly as he inwardly noted to himself to write down the license number later and find someone to help deal with it.

The instant the sound of the car outside faded, another noise faintly rang out from behind Yu Yin. It was someone sobbing in extreme grief. Instantly, Yu Yin felt chills shoot down his spine.

The voice was right behind him, a chilly sensation pressed down onto his back. He could nearly smell the rot.

“Sorry, I just remembered that I have something else I need to do, so I will be taking my leave first.” Yu Yin quickly stood up and grabbed his backpack before bidding farewell and racing out the front door before the woman could even respond.

The sky outside was deep in darkness.

The white car had already disappeared at the dark end of the alley and could no longer be heard.

The girl’s crying echoed with the wind before slowly fading away.

***

Xiao Yu looked around the classroom fill