The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

“Fire?”

After the police left the pension, Yu Yin and Xiao Yu went inside again. Once the owner couple handed some tasks over to the staff, they led all of them to sit at a dining hall in the back.

“Mm, I just heard a local mention it. Apparently back when the fire broke out years ago at the common person’s shrine, you were the only one in the group not at the scene during that moment.” Yu Yin played with his cup of coffee as he paid close attention to the other’s reaction.

Xiao Yu did not add any input. Still very intrigued by the large-scale painting, he went back to the lobby by himself to go look at it.

Yu Yin honestly could not tell what was special about the painting; it looked pretty similar to the replicas often sold at street stalls outside, just slightly larger. However, since it was rare for Xiao Yu to express interest in something, might as well let him do as he pleased. Maybe Xiao Yu has such a reaction because he had been locked up at home for a long time without much exposure to the outside world?

The couple exchanged a glance, before the male nodded and said, “That is indeed correct. I was the nephew of the glove puppetry group. Since my parents died early, I joined the group leader and learned some handicraft skills, but because of my inexperience, I started from minor chores. Just like usual, I was sent out on an errand to help everyone buy drinks that day. I hadn’t imagined that a fire would have broken out by the time I returned; I didn’t even have the chance to go in. The group leader and everyone else were unable to flee and were burned alive on the stage. This is already an incident from very long ago…”

“What truly perfect timing…” Yu Yin could not locate any suspicious points. He asked again, “So your wife is also someone from the group?”

“No, I am the local neighbourhood chief’s daughter. I got to know him when I went out to study, and later invited their group over after the place got livelier. That’s how I started dating him.”

Yu Yin confirmed they were likely not lying after hearing them talk about things he already knew.

“Is there anything strange about that?” The male owner asked in an impolite and rough tone, clearly somewhat unhappy about this kind of questioning. He looked at Yu Yin and said, “You could ask any local on the street about this, they all know. Was there a need in specifically running back to ask us? You think we have something to do with those missing students, don’t you!”

Although Yu Yin found the owner’s sudden burst of anger slightly unexpected, he quickly replied, “I did not have that intention. But after walking through the shrine today, I think my classmates also went over there, so I wanted to ask if anything had happened there before and some other details. That’s all.”

“They went over there?” The female owner found this surprising as well.

“…Yes.” Based on that group’s nature of doing what they weren’t supposed to, Yu Yin was 100% certain they had gone through there.

“That common person’s shrine has always had a lot of yin, but many people would still go over to pray for winning numbers. So during the most flourishing periods, the gamblers would periodically have various performers on the floor and sing shows for over half a month at a time. They even had strip-teasing. But nothing was left after the fire, nor did it release winning numbers after. Only people unafraid of death still go there.” The female owner paused and furrowed her brows together slightly. “That place is too unclean. Apparently there are ghosts, so locals never dare to go.”

Yu Yin barely restrained himself from informing them that their villa also had a ghost.

If there was an issue with the common person’s shrine, it’s very possible that the group had brought something back with them to the villa. What other reason would there be for the villa not having any problems before?

After thinking this to himself, Yu Yin felt there was still a need to go back to the common person’s shrine and search around there. Maybe he could find some sort of clue.

“So are you done with your questions now?” The male owner was glaring at him with a clearly very unhappy expression.

“Pretty much…may I ask if you guys have any special masks or anything? Or if they sell masks in this area?” Yu Yin was actually just casually asking, but the moment he voiced the question, he noticed that the owner couple instantly shifted expressions at the same time.

“Why do you ask that?” The female owner replied with a slightly stiff tone as she stared at him in astonishment.

“No reason, was just asking since I wanted to buy something as a souvenir to bring back to my friend.” After seeing the doubt on their faces, Yu Yin added, “He’s a mask collection fanatic.”

The female owner seemed to loosen up in relief as she shook her head. “That kind of thing isn’t sold here, but you can go take a look at the night market. It’s just that those are very typical, the masks are simply meant to scare little children. It isn’t anything worth collecting.”

“Alright, thank you.”

Yu Yin finished speaking and stood up. He walked out to the pension front lobby area while scheming to himself.

Xiao Yu was crouched in front of the painting, looking at who knew what exactly. His originally somewhat small body really seemed like a small child’s from a distance when he shrank down in such a way, with the addition of the straw hat.

“What are you doing?”

Yu Yin walked up to the painting and scanned the large, completely ordinary picture. It was just an oil painting of some rural landscape, nothing done by anyone famous. Upon closer look, it even seemed a bit crude.

Xiao Yu looked up and gave a few tugs at something trapped under the painting.

Yu Yin glanced around and, seeing that none of the staff members were paying attention to them, hurriedly exerted some strength to help lift the painting up a bit. Then, the thing was pulled out.

He dragged Xiao Yu to a corner to look closely at it. It was a photo; because it had been squashed by the painting for a long time, it was slightly deformed. However, they could still more or less see that it was a picture of three people.

Two of the people were the owner couple he was just talking to. The other one sitting in the middle was a young girl, at most six or seven years old. She seemed pretty adorable, wearing a flowery, Western-style dress that looked pretty expensive. She had a sweet smile on her face, and even had a small dimple on her right cheek.

It seemed to be a picture of the family of three. The background was that villa front entrance. The door was open, and the inside was dark. The photo had probably been taken right after the building had finished construction – the house appeared very new.

So they were originally going to live in there?

Yu Yin thought back to the cab driver’s words – in the end, they had not actually lived inside the place, and it had been changed to its current state a few years ago. Yu Yin scratched his head, still unable to connect anything together. He stuffed the photo back into Xiao Yu’s hands and then smoothly grabbed a passing staff member. “Excuse me, may I ask if your boss has a young child?”

The stopped staff member was somewhat puzzled, but still nodded. “They do, but I heard that she had an illness and was sent to Hualien to recuperate.”

Yu Yin thanked him. He and Xiao Yu made sure they stowed the photo away and walked out of the pension.

Xiao Yu looked up at the afternoon’s bright sun that had already decreased the amount of people around. He then turned around to gaze at Yu Yin, seemingly wanting to ask where they would loiter around next.

“Let’s just go back to the hotel first…”

Just as he decided this, someone suddenly called out to them.

***

“Huh? Aren’t you the pair of brothers from yesterday?”

The ER doctor stopped his bike and waved at them, “So you two were staying here?”

Yu Yin walked over to greet him and shook his head. “We are staying at a nearby hotel, we just came over here to look for someone. We also just heard someone talk about something involving you, could you chat with us for a bit, Doctor?”

“Involving me?”

Yu Yin passed him the contact card the police officer had given him and flashed a friendly smile. “Mr. Ji was talking about how during the fire at the common person’s shrine years ago, you were also present.”

The doctor saw the name “Ji You Lun” written on the name card and nodded. “That’s right, we’ve known each other since we were children. He was my neighbour’s younger brother; we were pretty surprised when he later became a police officer.”

“Huh? He’s a pretty great person, why do you say that?” When Yu Yin saw the doctor seem to want to break into laughter, he looked around and the group moved over to sit in the provided resting area outside a nearby 7-11 shop to chat.

“Ah Ji used to have a very impulsive personality. He had joined a clique with other children his age, and I heard he often got into fights as well, going around blackmailing people for no reason. His parents were pretty frustrated. Since I was older than him and lived next door, his parents requested for me to watch out for him a bit whenever I could. Later one evening, I had a friend come over. Ah Ji ran over insisting he needed to find a glove puppeteer to get his revenge. When I asked about it more, I found out that he seemed to had accidentally bumped into something belonging to the puppeteer, and had been painfully scolded, so he was unhappy and wanted to teach them a lesson. He refused to give up the idea no matter how I tried to persuade him. My friend and I discussed it for a bit, and my friend was pretty interested in the evening show so he asked Ah Ji to bring us. Who would have thought that it had broken out into a huge fire, nearly burning everyone at the glove puppet show to death…back then, the emergency aid my friend and I attempted was all useless. Even thinking back now, it’s still pretty frightening.” The doctor quietly sighed as he looked out at the field from his seat. “Life, is just like that. Afterwards, Ah Ji suddenly curbed his bad streak, and then passed the police examination. Soon following, he came back here to help out.”

The doctor turned to chuckle at Yu Yin. “Actually, if you want to know anything, you can go search it up at the library here. I remember the glove puppet incident was publicly reported, and it was pretty big news. You should be able to find the information. That glove puppeteer had apparently brought his entire family, as well as some masters and apprentices and whatnot. There were quite a few of them, so it was major incident. However, nobody came to identify the corpses after the event was published. In the end, the area could only spend money to have them buried over at the common person’s shrine.”

“They were buried there?” Yu Yin started and stared at the other in surprise, as he did not recall seeing any tombs or anything.

“There’s a huge area of burial mounds in the back. At first, the nameless bodies were buried there, but the grass that grew in later covered it completely. If you look more closely, you can probably find it.” The doctor shrugged. “It’s gone now, but I heard that the place was already a burial mound much earlier before. Perhaps it also has an ancient tomb.”

Yu Yin nodded and grabbed the drinks Xiao Yu had just gone and bought. He opened his with the doctor and as he drank, asked, “Oh right, is that friend of yours also a local?”

“Oh, no, he’s someone from outside. I got to know him in a past summer camp. I heard that he just came back from overseas recently to work for a period here, and has been transferred to the central district as a forensic investigator. I actually just called him recently.”

At this, Yu Yin nearly spat out his drink.

The world can’t really be that small, right…

He struggled to hypnotise himself with these words in his mind as he looked at the doctor with just the tiniest sliver of hope. “May I ask if you could tell me his name?”

The doctor nodded candidly, not noticing anything odd, and answered with a name that really made Yu Yin want to cough up blood. “His name is Yan Si, he’s a pretty good person…probably.”

Yu Yin let out an anguished moan and wanted to pretty much just collapse on the table and bawl his eyes out.

He had gone around looking for ghosts, but it turned out that someone he already knew actually had knowledge of the inside story!

Xiao Yu, who had just sat down to listen to the conversation, suddenly began to laugh.

“What are you laughing at!” Yu Yin rebuked at first. However, once he realised that Xiao Yu was laughing, he stared in astonishment.

Xiao Yu covered his mouth, still feeling the urge to laugh for whatever reason, and after a few seconds slowly stopped.

Seeing as Xiao Yu smiling was a rare sight, Yu Yin decided not to pursue the matter of him being laughed at just now.

“You two know each other?” The doctor finally asked after waiting for the pair to calm down from their antics.

Yu Yin rubbed his head and after some thought, said, “We’ve met a few times, but I can’t really say we’re close.” Honestly, he really didn’t know what their relationship was. It wasn’t exactly to the extent of being very close, but it seemed a bit weird to say that were not familiar with each other either.

Half-baked [friendship]?

“Mm, he has quite a lot of friends, so I’m not very surprised.” The doctor checked his watch and stood up. “Please excuse me, my shift is about to start, so I’ll be taking my leave first.”

“Ah, thank you.”

After bidding farewell to the doctor, Yu Yin glanced down at the new name card he just received.

“Let’s go flip through some old newspapers,” he said to Xiao Yu.

***

A slight yawn.

It was in the middle of the night. Yan Si had, for once, been able to leave early. Just as he walked out, his cellphone made a strange noise. “Student that was ganged up on, what happened for you to be in such a good mood to call and chat with us?”

He stood outside the office with a data folder in his hand, waiting.

Since his car had been towed away yesterday to collect evidence, he was currently waiting for his chauffeur to bring him back.

A name was spoken by the person from the other end. Yan Si chuckled, “I do know Ah Bai, Zheng Quan Bai, right? You bumped into him at the hospital?” He saw the black car and quickly waved his hand. The other party directly moved to the side to park.

It was an inconspicuous, black, local car. The windows rolled down to reveal Li Zi Hong sitting inside, looking at him with a puzzled expression.

Yan Si gestured that there wasn’t a problem, and he directly went ahead and squeezed into the shotgun seat. “Nope, he wasn’t my classmate…damn it, I was only in elementary school fifteen years ago, alright? I got to know him at a summer camp.”

“No wonder I felt like the ages didn’t quite match up.”

“No really. Ah Bai is several years older than me. Back then, he was a senior high school student about to take his entrance examination.” Yan Si crossed his arms. Since he was in a good mood as a result of being escorted for once, he replied to the other’s question. “I know about the fire you’re talking about. I remember back then, I was in the southern district to look for Ah Bai for a few days. His moronic elementary school student that lived next to him was very fiercely declaring that he wanted to beat up the puppeteer, so we ended up going over to watch the evening show. But halfway through, it suddenly went up in flames. Thinking back now, the fire spread pretty quickly. Although the scaffoldings were nearly all made of flammable material, it only took a few minutes for the entire place to become engulfed in a sea of flames.”

“Huh? So that’s why nobody was able to escape?” There was the sound of papers being flipped from the other end of the phone.

“Mostly because the other scaffolding on the stage suddenly collapsed, blocking the exit. But the people that ran out back then had already caught on fire.” Yan Si narrowed his eyes as he recalled the already somewhat faded memories.

“Was there something to help spark the fire?” Li Zi Hong unexpectedly spoke up from next to him. “In such a situation, it’s possible that something inside was fueling the burning to create an uncontrollably spreading fire.”

“Li — Li-dàgē.” Yu Yin stuttered, clearly having been startled. The flipping sound rang out again. “Nothing, the newspapers only saw that it was an accident. It seems that the electricity generator ignited, resulting in the accident.”

“Ah, there was the smell of gasoline at the time.” Yan Si clapped his hands together as he recalled this matter.

“The electricity generator?”

“Nope, I remember being able to smell it the entire time. The electricity generator was a bit far, plus it was windy that evening. Moreover, the electricity generator was actually still running when the fire broke out; it only exploded after half of it was burned. But the fire actually started before that.” Yan Si looked over at the car slowly passing them as he answered, “But my memory is probably not accurate. The incident happened so long ago.”

“Alright, thank you. I’ll go back to the stage and take a look around there.” Yu Yin’s tone was somewhat helpless.

“Student that was ganged up on, why are you suddenly asking about this? Is it related to your classmates’ situation?” Yan Si was curious about why he had been questioned and wanted to get to the heart of the matter.

“I think it is, more or less. That’s why I’m investigating from the earliest point. But this is really so tragic, burning twenty-one people to death…” Yan Si grinned and coolly said, “Did you misread something? It should be twenty.”

The line was silent for a very, very long time. Yu Yin finally spoke again in an uncertain voice, “Yan Si- dàgē, it’s probably you that’s misremembering? I heard over here that it was twenty-one people.”

“…Strange, I definitely counted that night while I was helping with emergency treatment. There were only twenty people. I think since everyone was in panic at the time and in a rush to finish dealing with the issue, they wrote it wrong.” Yan Si thought about it for a bit before adding, “I’m certain that I didn’t remember incorrectly. They probably did not notice at the time; since there was one survivor, they just assumed the twenty-one people all died. Go back and ask Bai who said it was twenty-one people.”

“I got it, thank you!”

The line was suddenly cut; clearly, Yu Yin was in a hurry to leave.

Yan Si stared at his cellphone for a moment before shutting it.

The car stopped before another red light and Li Zi Hong turned to look over at him and ask, “You are that certain your count was correct?”

Yan Si faintly smiled at his friend of many years and answered, “When twenty people that were burned to the point of having no faces are placed before you, and you try to help give them emergency first-aid only to watch their bodies contort as they slowly stop breathing, you cannot be mistaken.”

The driver nodded, seemingly understanding that feeling from experience. As if to shift away from the heavy topic, he casually asked, “Back in elementary school, you already knew emergency first-aid?” What a formidable elementary school student.

“Honestly speaking, I had wanted to become a doctor since I was a child.” Yan Si chuckled, although it wasn’t clear whether he was speaking the truth or not. Reversing the serious air just now, he said, “Because my mom said being a doctor was the way to earn a lot of money. Also, most of my family was in the medical field, so I would go over to learn some when I had time.”

Li Zi Hong had no way of confirming the authenticity of the statement, nor could he be bothered to pursue it. Instead, he refocused on driving.

“Seeing as you’ve already asked, you must have had aspirations when you were young too? Why don’t you tell me yours?” Yan Si was basically just idly chatting now. He realised that his former roommate had never discussed this kind of topic with him before. “Your dream, the kind you write in essays.”

“…”

“Don’t tell me you wanted to become president?” A good majority of people in elementary school would write either this or an astronaut. “Ah, or did you want to be something like a dad?” Something like wanting to protect the family with mom – it’s actually a pretty realistic wish.

Li Zi Hong coldly glanced at the person whose guesses were getting further and further, and he slowly revealed the truth. “Batman.”

As expected, the person next to him burst out into explosive laughter.

Back then, Li Zi Hong had thought the person next to him was laughing at him.

A while later, he happened to learn of what the guy had been laughing about.

When he was small, he hadn’t wanted to be a doctor at all, nor a forensic investigator.

It was actually a scarecrow.

But at the moment, he did not know about this.

After ordering two drinks at the drive-thru, he started to drive towards Yan Si’s place.

“Oh right, have they not captured that person?” Yan Si was talking about the bastard from the previous night that liked to shoot while driving, causing his car to be towed away and unable to be used.

Li Zi Hong shook his head. Because the encirclement had been too slow, it had allowed the other to escape.

“I just spent a while telling those people that there was no need to follow behind us,” Li Zi Hong said while pointing behind him.

Upon hearing this, Yan Si noticed that there was actually a car following them the entire time. The person inside the car was even a familiar face from the station. “Please, they’re protecting you, you know.”

“…No need. The other party just wanted to teach me a lesson. Now that he has alerted the police, he should have already gone into hiding. For the time being, he will not come to trouble me.” He knocked on the car window, his lips curling into a rare, faint smile. “Which is why I did not change to bulletproof glass.”

“Hey, in any case, the bulletproof glass really did come into use, right?”

“Exactly what was the reason you mentioned before for installing bulletproof glass?” He was actually pretty curious.

Yan Si looked at him. “Personal hobby.”

This time, Li Zi Hong really had no words.

***

“Ah Si said there were twenty?”

Yu Xia found this information a bit unexpected.

After searching around for an entire day without any progress, Yu Yin returned to the hotel to rest with a photocopy of the newspaper. The paper contained a photo of all the people of the puppetry group, calling out for relatives to come and identify the bodies. He had purposely magnified this photo. “Mm, Yan Si-dàgē said it was twenty, not twenty-one. But the paper also has twenty-one written. I went back to ask that doctor after, and he said he’s actually not very sure either. However, there were definitely twenty-one coffins buried. The news reporters only distributed the press release after watching it, so it shouldn’t be wrong. Some other locals also said it was twenty-one.”

Yu Xia rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Have you heard of this situation before?”

“What?”

Yu Xia looked at his family’s children and flipped through the newspaper to remember the people’s appearances as he said, “While counting tangerines, there were five in the beginning. Then, someone heard it was fifty, and as a result, everyone said it was fifty. A few years later, people only knew of fifty, so the memories had been altered.”

“So you’re saying that there should actually be twenty of those dead tangerines…ah, oops, twenty of those dead people, not twenty-one?” Yu Yin felt goosebumps form as he stared at the number printed on the paper.

“No, I’m just pointing out such a scenario exists. If there had really been twenty people back then, why did the extra person go missing? Logically speaking, in a major accident like this, they would have either been rescued out or had gone home. But the person disappeared. So it’s possible Ah Guan truly did remember incorrectly.” Yu Xia pointed at the other photo on the newspaper, an image of lined-up coffins. “Moreover, there are also twenty-one [coffins] in this picture. But if there actually was something wrong with it, it shouldn’t have any relationship with this incident.”

Yu Yin rubbed his head in thought and sighed.

Actually, he didn’t know if there was any connection either, he just had a gut feeling that there was something not quite right.

“But what a disaster to hit that puppetry group. Both the group leader and the son were burned to death together.” Yu Yin said as he pointed at the two photos in the very front page. The pair had somewhat similar appearances. One of them was smaller and written next to their name was the number (15). The group leader was probably in his fourties. Back then, newspapers had already begun to print in color, so one could tell the father and son pair looked a bit alike.

As they focused on the photo, Xiao Yu glanced at the digital clock next to where he stood and suddenly patted Yu Yin.

“Ah oh, right, we need to head out first, Uncle…” Yu Yin also noticed the time and immediately jumped up from his seat to quickly grab his jacket and start walking outside.

“Stop right there.” Yu Xia shouted at them with a frown. “Where are you running off to kill yourself in the middle of the night?!”

Yu Yin chuckled and began to walk backwards to the entrance as he voiced his Plan B. “It’s just…because we couldn’t get any main threads from investigating, I wanted to rent a bike and head out from the villa, then ride the common person’s shrine and back again. If I follow the path Ah Guan and the others went on, I may be able to discover something.”

What he did not mention was that he really wanted to find “something” that was easier to bump into at night, which was why he had chosen this time range.

“I’ve asked Xiao Yu to not follow, but I can’t do much if he stubbornly refuses.” Yu Yin was not lying here. He had originally wanted Xiao Yu to wait for information at the hotel, while Yu Yin headed out by himself. However, that guy wanted to stick to him no matter what.

Yu Xia stood up.

In the second Yu Yin felt he was about to get punched again, he heard the words, “I’ll go together too.”

“Huh?” Yu Yin stared blankly in astonishment at his uncle, whose fists were normally faster. He thought he had heard wrong.

“Rather than having you two go and come back all injured again, I might as well come along. If it’s just the two of you, I won’t allow you to go.” With an absolutely terrifying grin, he said this openly and made it clear that refusal would result in something worse than death.

Yu Yin gulped as he felt chills run through his body. “I’ll rent another bike.”

One could either bow and submit or stand tall, but now was not the time for the latter. If he tried to stand tall, he would definitely be snapped in half instantaneously. Thus, he could only choose to submit. After all, protecting one’s life is more important…

As a result, around ten minutes later, three bikes rode out from the hotel in a line.

For some reason, the small path was covered with a layer of faint, dark fog as they rode through the night.

Under the illumination of the streetlamps, the small road seemed to stretch slightly further. At first, they still saw a few people along the path, but after circling past the woods they did not see anymore passerbys. At such a late hour, the usual tourists looking for excitement had pretty much all gone back to downtown area. It was unlikely for someone to head towards a place they were not supposed to, as the three of them were currently doing.

It had been a very long time since Yu Xia had last gone biking leisurely like this. He relaxed slightly, slowly following behind the other two people as they headed to the place they had just gone to earlier in the day.

They did not ride quickly, so quite a bit of time had passed by the time they reached their destination.

When Yu Yin stopped his bike, he immediately noticed quite a large number of shadows around the common person’s shrine before he even approached the area. It seemed as if many people’s reflections were standing in a circle, swaying back and forth and causing them all to blur together. He did not know what they were.

Only after Yu Xia clapped a hand on his back did Yu Yin realise he had broken out into a cold sweat. “Are we really going?” It was not the first time he had seen such a thing before, but it was the first time he had seen such a strange scene.

“Obviously, why else did we come here?” Yu Xia rolled his eyes, having no fear from the beginning. He directly stepped onto the grounds of the common person’s shrine, with Xiao Yu cowering behind him and clutching Yu Xia’s back as he followed.

Yu Yin scanned his surroundings once more, suddenly getting a sense that this plan wasn’t a very good one at all. However, he could only clench his teeth and start moving towards the black, burned stage.

The black stage was just how it had been in the morning, having not changed in the slightest.

However, the night seemed to increase its eerie atmosphere even further, giving rise to goosebumps before even walking inside.

Yu Xia took out an emergency flashlight from his backpack and slapped it a few times to shine it directly below the stage.

In that second, Yu Yin saw many dark-faced people crouched inside. They all simultaneously lifted their heads to stare at the three of them with slightly green eyes. There were a large number of them all packed together, and an odour that carried the smell of gasoline and some unidentifiable burnt smell assailed their noses.

He yelped and reflexively jumped back.

“The hell are you shouting for!” Startled by Yu Yin’s shout, Yu Xia turned and raised his voice at the other.

“There’s something—” Yu Yin paused to glance inside again. However, he could not see anything there anymore. Yu Yin coughed a few times and quickly tried to calm himself down first. “Inside.”

“No shit.” Yu Xia spat out as he stared at the broken puppets littered through the entire space. He then stepped inside.

In comparison to the adult that charged straight in without any regard to the taboo, Xiao Yu and Yu Yin did not want to go in for once. They exchanged a glance, and only after Yu Xia began to rummage through things inside did they finally harden their resolve and follow in.

Yu Xia had put on gloves and started flipping through the junk on the ground. He searched for a while but did not discover anything particularly worth noting, so he stopped.

Most of the items were just destroyed objects from the fire. Some were trash as well—it seemed that someone had used this place as a garbage dump. There were quite a few drink cans, snack bags, and the like.

Yu Xia scanned the large pile of junk. Although he could more or less tell what they were, Yu Xia was still not an analyst so he could only be certain that this place had indeed suffered from a severe fire. Further details would be hard to determine since it had been so many years ago.

“Uncle, don’t you think it’s a bit cold in here?” Yu Yin had not seen anything again after walking in. However, he felt that it was so cold that it was as if he was inside a cold storage room, and he handed his jacket over to Xiao Yu, who was already hugging himself with his arms.

“A bit.” Yu Xia nodded, having also noticed the drop in temperature.

Yu Xia surveyed the dark space once more to confirm there was nothing special and he turned around. “Let’s go over to the villa first. There’s nothing that can help us here.” According to Yu Yin’s plan, the next place to investigate was the residence that the group of people should have been staying it.

Yu Yin nodded. The moment he stepped out from under the stage, the te