The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

“The mother of the victim from that past school violence incident is called Zhang Mei Ning. She holds a volunteer position at the high school.”

Yu Tong quickly matched Yu Xia’s steps as he read off the information in his hands. “Her husband had an extramarital affair two years ago. He assumed a post in the northern region and never returned. According to the information, it was just the mother and son living together. Even on the day the child passed away, the husband did not come back. According to the case records, her son briefly woke up in the hospital at some point, and the only words he said were: ‘coloured eyes’. He never woke again afterwards. Even up until today, they have not been able to identify the perpetrators.”

“That Zhang Mei Ning is the one that captured the students. Big Camel’s group were the perpetrators.” Yu Xia smoothed his hair and turned to the lockers to quickly pull out clothes to change into, as well as a gun. “He Wang Hong mentioned that they had gone overboard and killed someone. In the past, they had worn coloured contacts, and during that period, it was typical for students to end up in the health office with injuries. Even the people from the health office approaching them first was not strange. That’s why nobody noticed her.”

“…Wait, that other girl and Xiao Yu have no relationship at all. Why did she kill the girl?” Yu Tong suddenly stopped in his steps.

Yu Xia spun to face him. “Xiao Yu?”

Yu Tong abruptly remembered they hadn’t told Yu Xia of this matter. Knowing it was a fault on his part, Yu Tong sighed and told his twin about some of the more important matters that had occurred in the past two days.

After hearing this, Yu Xia had a deep frown on his face. “Why didn’t you all tell me about something so important?”

“We weren’t sure if Xiao Yu had really fallen to Zhang Mei Ning’s hands or not. After all, they had never crossed paths, and it was very possible he had just left our home…don’t forget that Xiao Yu has done that kind of thing in the past.” Yu Tong reminded his twin next to him that Xiao Yu had left home before. Moreover, it was just recently too.

Yu Xia stood still and contemplated this for a bit. “Where’s Ah Yin?”

“Hm? Shouldn’t he be at school around this time?”

“Give him a call.” Yu Xia felt that something was fishy as he said, “I suddenly realized that the brat has been too cooperative recently.” Typically speaking, any time something happened, Ah Yin would always jump out and run around going after things they could not see. Yet he had not done so this time.

After being prompted, Yu Tong immediately knew what his twin was thinking. Aside from that doll, he had indeed not heard his child pay any mind to this case…which was likely not true.

“Oh, how rare to see Boss over here at this time.” As the twins were standing in silence, Yan Si randomly appeared in the doorway with a bunch of reports he had been bringing around everywhere.

“You arrived at just the perfect time!” As his brother was making the call, Yu Xia stepped forward to grab Yan Si’s collar. “Has Ah Yin recently visited you at all to look at any bodies or photos…don’t turn your head! Tell me the truth!”

Yan Si had originally planned on half-assing his answer, but noticed the strange expressions on the brothers’ faces and scratched his head. “He has, he came over to look at some photos of that female student before, saying that he was recently seeing her everywhere. He even transferred a paranormal photo to brother Jiu Shen that had the thing’s figure captured. Ah Yin also seemed to have seen something where the car collision occurred, but he didn’t elaborate.”

Yu Xia and Yu Tong exchanged glances, simultaneously coming to the same conclusion.

“What’s wrong?” Yan Si asked as he noticed their synchronized actions and expressions.

Yu Tong held up his palm to have the two of them quiet down for a bit as his cellphone rang for a very long time. Finally, he heard the line connecting. “Ah Yin? Where are you right now?”

The other end of the line maintained a few seconds of silence before it gave a click as someone hung up.

Yu Tong put his phone away. “Ah Yin’s cellphone is not in his possession.” Based on his experience, a connected cellphone that was hung up like that meant the owner was in trouble.

“That brat definitely went running over to Zhang Mei Ning’s by himself. I’ll head over immediately. Tong, you go tell the others about this. And Zhang Mei Ning definitely has someone helping her, or else she wouldn’t possibly be able to drive while tossing out that body!” Yu Xia quickly charged out of the door after saying this. When he reached the doorway, he turned to give one last glance at Yu Tong. “The doctor at the health office also has the surname Zhang. Check their relationship!”

Yan Si watched the figure disappear into the hallway right after speaking, and then turned around to see the other twin urgently calling the others to rush over to Zhang Mei Ning’s. “The new report from Jiu Shen’s side just came out.” Yan Si waved the things he had brought over and said, “Nothing was found on the white car, but an initial scan was done on the DNA of the white car’s owner. It was discovered to be identical to the unidentified person on the fourth floor.”

Yu Tong froze and whirled around to look at him. “He’s that person?” He had not expected the white car’s owner to have any relationship with the fourth floor incident. He quickly walked over to take the report and flip through it.

“My previous roommate was also shocked. Who would’ve thought it would be so coincidental? Apparently, Jiu Shen’s comparative analysis was pretty interesting, since he hadn’t imagined two completely different cases sharing a match. Also, the trunk of the white car had traces of…mm, drugs. It appears that he likely used the car often for business transactions, so he has been detained already.” Yan Si finished his report and crossed his arms. “An unexpected profit!”

“It really is unexpected.” Yu Tong read the report and exhaled. They had not imagined the missing people case would go full circle to another case on their hands. It was too unexpected.

“To make it even more shocking, I compared Xiao Yu’s family’s case and the one from the fourth floor and discovered they had too many coincidental commonalities. Aside from the houses having similar layouts and possessing shrine tables, they had both killed their families due to losing rationale from taking drugs. The thing we hadn’t found was an inhalation type drug; the bodies of Xiao Yu’s parents had damaged respiratory systems. One of them also had long-term damage to the nervous system…they must have lost function of their facial nerves and damaged some organs. Because the body on the fourth floor had already been damaged, I made a trip over to where the sole survivor is. That child being kept alive also showed similar symptoms, but very light.”

Yan Si paused here before continuing, “My previous roommate hypothesizes that the two families must have been using incense for a long time. That incense would release an inhalation type drug upon being burned, which would give rise to an addiction. After a while, they would probably start experiencing effects like hallucination, getting high, and such. That was why the children in the fourth floor residence were so agitated, simultaneously affecting the adults. But we currently do not have any evidence we could investigate, so it is all a temporary conjecture.”

Yu Yin had later called them to confirm Li Zi Hong’s idea. Although they knew the incense had been taken by Xiao Yu, Yan Si chose not to inform the others of this yet, due to certain apprehensions.

“The residence of that white car’s owner also has a shrine table. If we can take some incense from his place, we should be able to figure out what’s going on.” Yan Si added this last comment as he eyed the person in front of him for his thoughts.

“…Xiao Yu does not show any of the effects you mentioned.” Yu Tong thought back to the situation back when they had first met. “Because his parents showed responses to drugs, aside from doing detail examinations on the bodies, we also checked Xiao Yu. However, he didn’t have any positive results from the drug test. If we go off your conjecture with the incense, then why…?”

He suddenly remembered something.

Back when they had first discovered Shaodi Yu in the beginning, he had been locked inside the bathroom.

If Xiao Yu’s body did not show any reactions to drugs after such a long period of time, Yu Tong could only come up with one explanation.

The parents from the fourth floor had shown violent behaviour towards their children. If they were using the same incense, the same situation would have panned out in Xiao Yu’s home. What would happen in a family that had lost control?

The air inside the bathroom was circulated, so even if the scent of the incense floated inside, it would immediately get swapped back out—

They had locked their own child in the bathroom during that whole period of time.

***

The sound of water continuously echoed throughout the narrow space.

He stayed in the darkness for a very, very long time. At first, he felt hunger, but now his whole body was in pain, and with the lack of food and water, his entire body had grown heavy and his mind was a mess. Any time he woke up even just slightly, he felt pain flood his entire body, as if he was being burned in flames.

Then, he heard the sound of a door opening.

In the darkness, his hearing ability was particularly sharp. He could only vaguely see something black being tossed in front of him, then the sound of something heavy falling, and the splash of a viscous fluid.

The air in this place was filled with the stench of blood and death.

The blasting sound of a machine had continued whirring from when he had first entered up until now. The stuffy air made this place even more suffocating.

A small light was flipped on. In that moment, he saw a female collapsed next to him. Her face was already wan and contorted, drained of any colour. Her throat that had been slashed open by scissors was continuously bleeding out, staining his body.

“Only two people left.”

Zhang Mei Ning’s voice came from above. Then, the scissors dripping with blood appeared in his vision. “The last two people are left. Now my child can rest in peace, you murderers.”

Xiao Yu could not muster the strength to turn around. He lay on the floor and blinked in pain, trying to get used to the light. However, he could only see his own reflection in the wide eyes of the body in front of him.

She had only just died not too long ago.

Xiao Yu could nearly envision just how much the girl had struggled while her arteries had been cut. He weakly tried to toss the images from his mind.

The body tossed on the ground next to him also had its hands tied and tape covering its mouth so that it was unable to resist or cry out. Before dying, she must have been wriggling her body around to no avail, unable to escape the shadow of death.

Back on that day he had parted with Fang Yi Xun, he had originally planned on going back to look for Yu Yin and tell him everything. However, he hadn’t imagined he would bump into Zhang Mei Ning. Due to her persistence on the excuse of treating his hand injury, he had followed her home and then been tied up and kept here for who knew who long. This place had blood everywhere.

Dried blood, thick and flowing blood, and an industrial, large-scale refrigerated cabinet.

Xiao Yu looked at the body, and his mind suddenly cleared.

He would very possibly be killed like this very soon. He would not be able to do the things he wanted to do and would not even get the chance to give his explanations. Instead, he would just mysteriously die with someone he did not even know.

He was not afraid of death. He had faced and witnessed it plenty of times. However, he did not want to die right now.

“Do you want to say anything?” Zhang Mei Ning crouched down next to him with an absent-minded smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll slowly watch you until you are on the verge of death before helping to end it, just like the ones before you. That girl just did not deserve my help at all, so I let her die by herself first.” She wiped the scissors on Yu’s clothes, the cold silver revealing itself after the blood was wiped away. It glinted from the reflection of the small light’s glow. She then ripped off the tape on Yu’s face.

“It’s not like you can speak anyways.”

Zhang Mei Ning put her scissors down next to him and went to open the refrigerated cabinet.

Yu’s eyes instantly widened.

It wasn’t that he had not guessed the cabinet’s use, but during this period of time, he had never seen it opened. The device that originally was used to store food now had three bodies stuffed inside. Each body had red cloth wrapped around its face, concealing their final moment of death.

The bodies had all been broken at the joints and stuffed inside the refrigerator in extremely unnatural positions. For some reason, each corpse seemed to be missing a part, such as a finger or a chunk of flesh.

With a great amount of effort, Zhang Mei Ning lifted the corpse on the ground up and stuffed it into a space on the bottom part of the refrigerator. After kicking it a few times, she managed to push it inside with her foot. While breathing hard, she took out a red cloth to wrap it around the girl’s face like the other three bodies. Finally, she reclosed the refrigerator door.

Xiao Yu took a few deep breaths, the chilly air instantly waking him up upon entering his body. He noticed what seemed to be stairs outside the door. This appeared to be a basement, which was why the air did not really flow anywhere. There weren’t even windows.

“What about this one?”

Just as Xiao Yu was pondering how to first free his hands from the rope, a low question came from the top of the stairs.

“Just lock him up together with this one here. Who asked him to know too much?” Zhang Mei Ning said, and then someone else walked down.

When Xiao Yu saw the school doctor, he wasn’t actually too surprised. However, when he saw the person the school doctor tossed down next to him into the pool of blood where the girl had lay just now, Xiao Yu’s eyes widened.

“You went too hard.” Zhang Mei Ning crouched down to inspect the wound on Yu Yin’s head.

“Since he’s going to die anyways, who cares how hard I went?” Although the school doctor said this, his expression was still somewhat at a loss. “Is this ok…someone uninvolved…?”

“We can’t let him go back now. This child has already raised suspicions. Even if we don’t want to kill him, we have to.” Zhang Mei Ning stood up and pulled a out a small bag of incense from next to the refrigerated cabinet. She lit the incense and placed it next to the refrigerator. The sweet scent quickly filled the narrow space. “These people have to be buried with my son, or else my son will be too lonely by himself.”

The scent returned Xiao Yu to his senses in disbelief. This was the scent they were currently pursuing.

“You have to be more careful. You even stole that white car two days ago and killed a child with it…although I said I would help you sort it out after, I think the police will suspect us sooner or later. Once we finish our revenge, let’s go back home together, just us father and daughter, okay?” The old school doctor suggested in a low voice.

“When the people that should die are killed, I’ll go back with you.” Zhang Mei Ning smiled and nodded.

As Xiao Yu listened their conversation, he suddenly went rigid as the person lying next to him silently opened his eyes. Amidst the initial pain, the person revealed an expression of matching shock, before it finally shifted into one of understanding.

The father and daughter pair did not notice Yu Yin had woken up, and after speaking a bit more in hushed tones, they walked upstairs together. The door shut, isolating the inside and outside of the room.

The dim light flickered.

***

Yu Yin let out an indistinct groan.

The injury on his head from being heavily smashed twice was still bleeding. As soon as he had opened his eyes, he had been attacked by dizziness. His entire body had no energy, so even though he was not tied up, it was very difficult to move.

Xiao Yu, who was lying next to him, finally showed an expression of fear and concern. This made Yu Yin chuckle, which in turn made him grimace in pain.

How to describe his feelings? He felt as if he had gained some kind of victory, so his current mood could be described as “content”. Even the fact that his skull had nearly been shattered was no longer important.

The violet eyes glared at him in a criticizing manner, as if saying: “How could you laugh in this kind of situation?”

“Oh…so it was just in her basement…” Simply saying these few words caused a rush of dizziness and nausea, so Yu Yin shut his eyes and laid in place for a short while to let the unbearable discomfort pass.

After reopening his eyes, he tried to move his fingers to pick up the abandoned scissors on the ground. Enduring his pain, he cut off the ropes on Xiao Yu’s hands.

Xiao Yu’s condition was a lot better than his. He appeared to have just been starved for two days; at least he hadn’t had his skull bashed in. This made Yu Yin feel slightly relieved. He had really been afraid of not making it in time, and only finding a corpse in the end.

The last thing he wanted was to see someone he knew in the other world.

Once the ropes on his hands were cut, Xiao Yu immediately picked up the scissors to cut the ropes on his feet as well. He then tossed the murder weapon and immediately ran over to inspect the wound on Yu Yin’s head to see all the flesh had been mutilated. But luckily, the school doctor had not intended to kill him with the blow. Although the injury was heavy, it was not life-threatening at the moment.

Although if they stayed in this kind of environment for a long period of time, he knew Yu Yin would definitely end up going to the other side before him. Actually, lying on the ground of such a dirty room could possibly cause an immediate infection.

They could not stay here for long.

“I think I have candy in my pocket…” Yu Yin closed his eyes. Luckily, he was a more gluttonous type of person.

Xiao Yu took out two, now blood-stained packets of candy from the pocket and stuffed them in his mouth. After waiting for his energy to recover slightly, he stood up and picked up the scissors again. After wiping them, he stowed them away.

As Yu Yin lay on the ground, trying his best to keep himself from passing out, he heard the sounds of crying and wailing from the refrigerator on the side. Male and female voices gradually grew louder with the sounds of banging from inside.

Clearly also hearing these sounds, Xiao Yu went over to open the refrigerator. The bodies inside were still twisted together.

“Take off the red cloths…” Yu Yin struggled to look over as he said this. However, he didn’t know what would happen either, since these bodies hadn’t been good people before they were killed. He wasn’t expecting them to be of any help.

But he had a vague feeling that the reason these guys were still lingering around was very possibly because of whatever Zhang Mei Ning’s son had done. That white face had been filled with hatred, still seeking revenge after the incident where the car had killed a high school student.

Both mother and son carried identical desire for revenge.

As Xiao Yu untied the red cloths on each body, he momentarily seemed to sense ice-cold things brush past him before disappearing outside the staircase doorway. The entire basement was filled with a powerful, freezing wind.

The corpses without the cloths all sported identical expressions contorted in terror. One could imagine how merciless the murderer had been.

Not long after those things ran away, they heard a bunch of noise coming from above. Many people were banging on the house’s door, giving rise to a loud clamour upstairs.

Soon afterwards, the basement door was opened. The first one to charge in was the school doctor, who saw that Xiao Yu had already released himself from the ropes. Although extremely shocked, he quickly ran over to yank Yu Yin up from the ground and held a fruit knife against his artery. “Get over! Now!”

The strict command made Xiao Yu temporarily freeze. Then, Zhang Mei Ning also raced down. Her face no longer sported her usual indifferent smile. Instead, it was twisted sinisterly, having lost control of her mind.

Yu, who had not yet completely recovered his strength, did not resist as a kitchen knife was held against his neck. He let Zhang Mei Ning drag him upstairs, with the school doctor and Yu Yin following behind.

The bangs echoed through the entire house.

In the next second, the door was slammed open. Yu Xia immediately saw them and pulled out his gun. “Police! Put the people down! Or else I’ll open fire!”

“Ah Yin!” Yi Tai and a few other university students stood behind Yu Xia, having followed after him in concern. After seeing the situation inside the house, they did not get close.

“Move aside, or else I’ll kill him.” Zhang Mei Ning coolly declared as she pressed down slightly on the kitchen knife against Xiao Yu’s neck, causing him to bleed slightly.

Yu Xia narrowed his eyes and took a few steps backwards, but did not lower the gun in his hands.

“Dad, hurry up and start the car.”

The school doctor nodded and dragged Yu Yin towards the back door.

As Yu Yin was being pulled away, he saw a bunch of blurry, humanoid shadows pounce onto Zhang Mei Ning’s back. Mournful screams came out from the throats of those black things, and their hands grabbed at her hair, causing her body to fall backwards.

Zhang Mei Ning stiffened, and her grip on the kitchen knife loosened. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xiao Yu pulled out the scissors and thrust them down. The blood-curling scream erupted next to his ear.

“Mei Ning!” The school doctor howled out. The fruit knife that had been lowered slightly from Yu Yin’s body suddenly went flying, and it fell outside the back door.

Yu Xia, who had done the sharpshooting, quickly charged forwards to kick the blade away. He then yanked Xiao Yu over and pushed him towards Yi Tai and the others before swiftly holding down the woman that had been wounded on the abdomen.

The school doctor gritted his teeth and pushed Yu Yin outside the door. After jumping out after, the doctor picked up the fruit knife that had been sent flying earlier and pressed its tip against Yu Yin’s neck. “Hurry up and let me Yue-er go! Or else I’ll make sure he dies with my daughter!”

Yu Yin, who had been pushed out and then knocked down to the ground, nearly passed out from the pain on the spot. As his mind went black, he felt himself bump into something cold, and then memories that did not belong to him suddenly exploded in his mind.

“He” was beating up a girl. Then the girl was stuffed into a cardboard box and buried under the dirt.

Only this brief scene flashed past before the ice-cold tip of a blade was pressed against his throat, as if about to send him to the next scene on the spot.

Before Yu Xia could respond, the school doctor suddenly fell backwards, and the tip of the blade left Yu Yin’s neck.

Yu Yin watched as a child came running from a corner and pounced onto the school doctor. The pale body was translucent. When the doctor was knocked down, that same white face broke out into a naughty smile, and his brother following behind began to giggle. After the two of them ran in circles around Yu Yin, they disappeared off to the other side of the wall.

The school doctor did not get any more second chances.

The university students charged forwards to secure him against the ground.

The sound of sirens quickly approached, and several equipped officers burst in, quickly controlling the chaotic situation.

Yu Yin’s vision was filled with stars and black dots as he seriously felt on the verge of dying. All he could hear was the sounds of people talking and some sirens, probably from the ambulance. He sensed some people next to him, so Yu Yin struggled to open his eyes once more with much difficulty. He saw Xiao Yusitting next to him, broken down and crying. The backdrop seemed to be from inside the ambulance.

He saw Xiao Yu’s hands were covered in blood as another ambulance stopped next to them.

“Not like I haven’t had my head beaten in before…” Yu Yin felt as if he needed to comfort Xiao Yu. As he squeezed out these words, the ambulance workers hurriedly tried to stop his bleeding and told him to stop speaking. They then stuffed an oxygen mask on his face.

The tears began to pour out from Xiao Yu’s eyes even harder than before. He then blinked a few times and opened his mouth.

Although the voice was very faint, Yu Yin heard it.

“Ah Yin, Ah Yin…” The weak voice came from the violet eyed person’s mouth, exceptionally clear even amidst the noisy surroundings.

He felt a feeling of content for a second time today.

Man, if I had known this could force him to speak, I think getting hit another few times would’ve been worth it.

But he still had a complaint.

“Call me Gē…no manners…”

He raised his hand to softly knock Xiao Yu’s head. And his memory stopped there.

Yu Yin fell completely into the darkness.

***

After putting up yellow tape, several officers stood outside to stop the reporters trying to charge inside.

The machine in the basement was still running.

“These ones all died from excessive blood loss.” After investigators finished their check, Yan Si inspected the bodies that had been taken out of the refrigerated cabinet and laid out on the ground. “Look, they all have cuts on their necks, which caused them to bleed to their deaths. They also have several major wounds, but none are fatal.” He studied the twisted bodies and tried to find other traces.

“…This is Yin Yin,” Yu Xia said after seeing the newest female corpse.

No wonder Big Camel couldn’t find her. She was already over here.

Yu Xia couldn’t help but feel some regret when he recognized the person. Not too long ago, he had seen Yin Yin chow down on her snacks while smoking in the room and walking back and forth. Only a short period of time had passed, but now she would never be able to speak again, never be able to smoke those cigarettes.

But when he thought about it more, if they hadn’t noticed it earlier, the ones lying on the ground here would probably be Yu Yin and Yu.

When Yu Xia realized this, he felt chills go up his spine.

“Ah, I guess that means your case has been broken. You don’t have to come back as a high school student anymore~” Yan Si whistled, although he felt some slight regret about this. Thus, he turned around and tried negotiate. “Boss, let me take a photo as a memento. You look pretty good in a high school uniform.”

Yu Xia’s only reply was a kick towards the bottom.

“What are you guys playing down here?” Yu Tong came down the stairs and just happened to see his younger brother kick the other person’s butt.

Yan Si, who had nearly fallen forwards into an intimate encounter with the corpses, hurriedly regained his balance. A few more inches, and he really would have gone down on the bodies.

“I just received the statements from the school doctor. Their capture of Xiao Yu was a mistake. Since Zhang Mei Ning saw Xiao Yu and Xia with some of Big Camel’s people, she mistook him as one of them.”

“No wonder she kept staring at his eyes the first time she saw Xiao Yu.” Yu Xia nodded to indicate his understanding.

“Also, half a head was found upstairs. It was already nearly rotted all away and had been wrapped in several plastic bags and hidden in the ceiling boards. The same red cloth was wrapped around it. So, Ah Si, could I trouble you for this too?” Yu Tong informed them. What he didn’t mention was that the half of the head had been removed by Jiu Shen while wailing in anguish.

“Did they say why they killed her?” Yu Xia turned to ask. From the beginning up until now, they had never figured out what part this girl played. She had clearly never had any relationship with Big Camel, and based on the testimonies from her friends and family, she did not wear contacts either. Zhang Mei Ning had no reason to kill her.

Yu Tong shook his head. If Zhang Mei Ning’s end did not say anything, it could possibly stay an eternal mystery.

“Are Ah Yin and Xiao Yu in the hospital?” Yu Xia showed worry as he truly felt the urge to punch his family’s child in the head. They had clearly told him several times not to take these risks, yet the outcome just ended up getting more and more serious. How exactly was that happening?

“Xiao Yu is fine, he’s just a bit weak from being shut in for several days. Ah Yin is currently in surgery, and will likely need to be watched in the hospital for a few days.” Yu Tong had also just received this news from his colleague’s call. He sighed and said, “But the strange part is that Ah Yin seemed to be speaking during the trip. He wanted the ambulance workers to pass his words to us.”

“What?”

“He said the doll’s owner was a girl buried under the ground, and that she is likely still alive, so that we should hurry up and rescue her,” Yu Tong said, concerned about the matter.

“Big Camel did tell Yin Yin to get rid of a girl, but we couldn’t figure out where, and we have no way of asking now.” He looked down at the body on the ground. She had already brought the secret to a place nobody could access. “Even if they truly did burry her, we have no way of finding her.”

He felt powerless.

“We don’t have any clues at all?” Yu Tong restlessly asked.

Yu Xia shook his head. “All we know is that it shouldn’t be too far, since Yin Yin always moves about nearby. If she really did get rid of the person, she probably would not have stayed relatively close by.”

“I’ll immediately request for a comprehensive search.” Yu Tong quickly went upstairs, knowing that they were tight on time.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Yu Xia quickly took off all his equipment and handed it to his coworker. “Ah Si, I’ll leave this place up to you.”

Yan Si glanced at him. “Don’t worry about it, Boss.”

“Mm.”

Yu Xia walked up and circled around the front door filled with reporters. Covered by his colleagues, he left from the back door.

He began to walk in the direction of the little house where Big Camel’s group was.

Five minutes later, when he walked into the empty house, both Big Camel and Kai Lun were already there, as if knowing he would come.

As soon as he walked in, Kai Lun secretly shook his head once before stating, “Ah Wang was seized the police. He was caught while selling the goods.”

Yu Xia noticed something wrong with Kai Lun’s expression. He knew it was likely his identity had been exposed.

Big Camel coldly glared at him. “Damn police!”

“If we hadn’t seen you enter Zhang Mei Ning’s home with a gun, we would have actually thought you were a comrade.” Kai Lun suggestively hinted before then continuing to say, “Ah Xia, hurry up and scram.”

“First tell me where Yin Yin buried that person,” Yu Xia’s tone hardened as his gaze locked onto Big Camel.

“That bitch took my money—”

“Yin Yin is dead, just like your other companions. The bodies are all in Zhang Mei Ning’s basement. Where exactly did you bury that girl?!” Yu Xia pressed, interrupting Big Camel’s words.

This time, Big Camel laughed instead. “Fuck, do you think I’d tell you?!”

Several figures appeared around the house. Yu Xia noticed that they were all Big Camel’s people; he had seen some of them before in the brawl. It seemed like it was impossible for Big Camel to let him pass easily.

“That girl took my things, burying her is already letting her off easy!” Big Camel darkly hissed. With absolutely no intention of revealing any information, Big Camel maliciously declared, “Go look for her. Don’t you police love running around for things the most? If you can walk out of here today, take your time searching!”

“Is this what you want?”

A delicate voice that did not belong to Yu Xia rang out from behind. Fang Yi Xun walked inside with a long, black bag in her hands. When Big Camel saw what she was holding, his expression instantly changed. “Where is my senior! If you want this thing, you can go ahead and take it, but return my senior!”

“Fang Yi Xun.” Big Camel recognized her. He spat out, “We should both just mind our own businesses. If you hand that thing over, everyone will benefit.”

“Furry Dog is back.” Fang Yi Xun brought up an entirely unrelated topic and glanced at him. “Some of his people also returned with him. The people in the university contacted him. This time, the university students will help Furry Dog. I won’t give this thing to you until you hand over my senior. You’d better do it, or else I’ll find Furry Dog to combine forces.”

“That bastard…” Big Camel let out a low roar of anger. “Alright, hand it over and I’ll tell you!”

“Don’t give it him.” Yu Xia grabbed the girl’s arm.

Fang Yi Xun gave him a look before smiling and continuing her advance. She then placed the bag in Big Camel’s hands.

After opening the black bag and seeing the delicate, humanoid doll clothed in blue, Big Camel broke out into a satisfied smile. “That’s right, it’s this damned doll.” He pulled something out from the bag. In the next second, he smashed the humanoid onto the ground and beat it heavily to break it.

Fang Yi Xun turned away and tightly clenched her fists.

Big Camel raised a flash drive and passed it over to Kai Lun. “Destroy it.”

Kai Lun took the flash drive and seemed to hesitate for a bit, but still destroyed it in the end.

“Where is my senior?!” Fang Yi Xun immediately questioned, unable to look at the broken doll on the ground.

Big Camel cruelly laughed. “How would I know? Yin Yin never said what she did to that girl! I only know that she got rid of her!”

“You detestable—!” Fang Yi Xun took a step forwards to hit him, but Kai Lun immediately obstructed her. Yu Xia also quickly grabbed her and pulled her back.

At the same time Fang Yi Xun made her move, the five or six people outside came in and surrounded them.

“Big Camel, don’t make a move against the police.” Kai Lun glanced at them and said, “If you want to go over to Boss Wang’s side, don’t drag the police with you.” Big Camel shot an evil glare at Kai Lun before turning and walking out of the house.

“Go!” Kai Lun gave Yu Xia one final look. As he brushed past, Kai Lun stuffed a small piece of paper into Yu Xia’s hands. He then loudly declared, “Hurry up and go look for that girl. Don’t waste any more time here.”

After the two of them left, Big Camel’s subordinates retreated out as well.

Fang Yi Xun restrained herself from chasing after them. She simply watched the group of people make a hateful noise as they disappeared off the other end of the road.

Yu Xia picked up the doll’s head that had not yet been stomped on. All it had was a slight abrasion. He passed it over to Fang Yi Xun. After accepting the small head, Fang Yi Xun’s tears finally spilled over the rims of her eyes.

“My senior really worshipped the police officer named Yu Xia.” She raised her head to look up at the person standing in front of her. “She cut out a ton of newspaper and magazine articles, saying that she had been rescued by this police officer before. She only dared to secretly write letters to him.” Yu Xia wordlessly patted Fang Yi Xun’s shoulders before walking around in a circle. However, he did not discover anything. Just as he was about to give up on looking here, he suddenly noticed an envelope underneath the old sofa.

The envelope was extremely plain and simple, but he recognized it.

All the anonymous letters he received used that kind of envelope.

He picked up the envelope and opened it. There was no letter inside, just a few blades of grass and some dirt. There were also some fragmented pieces of metal stuck on the grass.

Yu Xia immediately made a call.

Seven hours later, the police dug out a cardboard box from underneath an empty piece of land around ten meters away from the iron house.

There was a dying girl inside the cardboard box, who was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Yu Tong pulled out the long, black bag in his living room.

“These are a pair of dolls my senior and I bought together.” Fang Yi Xun opened the bag to reveal a smashed doll with an identical humanoid appearance. “Big Camel has seen it before, I couldn’t use any other doll to trick him.”

They were at the Yu residence. Li Zi Hong and Yu Xia were also watching as she pulled out the doll.

Fang Yi Xun nimbly disassembled the doll and pulled out a flash drive from inside. “If I hadn’t beaten up Big Camel’s lackeys a bit, I wouldn’t have known they were looking for a flash drive. Luckily, I managed to trick him.”

Li Zi Hong took the flash drive and inserted it into a computer. The flash drive only had a single video file.

After opening the file, the first thing that came out was the sound of arguing. Then, a scene appeared. Although it was shaking around violently, it was still clearly visible. There were a lot of people, male and female, and they were all laughing as they kicked at a boy. It was raining all around.

“Fuck, Yin Yin, why are you filming!” Someone in front of the camera lens held up their fingers in a peace sign.

“As a memento…”

“Idiot!”

The boy on the ground facing the lens originally struggled back violently, but he slowly weakened. As the group of people continued to wildly beat him up, the resistance gradually turned into powerless twitches.

“Fuck, he didn’t die, right?” Finally, someone noticed the boy had stopped moving.

Then, An He and some others appeared in the scene. They checked the boy’s breathing. “He’s still alive. Let’s hurry and scram, his home is close by. Come on, let’s go!”

“Should we call an ambulance?” He Wang Hong’s voice was slightly hesitant.

“Fuck that, you idiot!”

The high school students abruptly dispersed.

Before Yin Yin turned off the camera, the scene shook once more. Yu Tong, who was staring at the display, noticed another girl’s figure seemingly appear in the back of the alley.

“The unrelated girl that died.” Li Zi Hong also noticed her and said, “She saw the perpetrators. Zhang Mei Ning probably captured her because she said she had witnessed the event, and then forced her to say who was there.”

“So she believed that the girl, who had not informed the police, was also to blame.” Yu Tong signed.

Once the file finished playing, Fang Yi Xun picked up the doll. “Weird, did you guys take the doll out?”

“What’s wrong?” Yu Xia turned to look at her.

“The shoes are really dirty.” Fang Yi Xun lifted the doll to point at its feet. Everyone could see that the shoes on its small feet were covered in dirt and grass, and the doll’s hands also had traces of dirt on them.

Everyone had stiff, blank expressions, unable to come up with an explanation.

“I’ll leave the flash drive with you guys and bring the doll back to my senior. She’ll definitely be very happy.” After cleaning the doll up a bit, Fang Yi Xun said, “She really loved this doll…luckily, my doll’s head only has a small crack. Once I save up enough money, I can buy it a new body.”

“Regarding that, since it helped us break the case, I can request for public expenses to cover that if you don’t mind,” Yu Tong suggested as he saw from the girl’s expression how much she treasured the doll.

Fang Yi Xun shook her head. “It’s fine, I’ll use my own money and bring it home.”

“Please tell your senior on my behalf that I wish for her fast recovery. I’ll be going over for a formal investigation in the next two days.” Yu Xia told her, “And I’ll formally ask for her name and listen to anything she wants to say.”

“Okay, my senior will definitely be very happy about that.” Fang Yi Xun smiled and said, “She has always treated you as her idol.”

“I think I’ll need to properly teach her why she shouldn’t meddle with other people’s businesses like Ah Yin does. It’s best to tell her that face to face.” Yu Xia deeply believed this as he contemplated how to teach it to avoid the risk of having an unrelated person get involved.

Fang Yi Xun rolled her eyes at the damned baby face.

“…Can’t you be a bit more romantic?”

Man, how did my senior end up liking this kind of person?

***

He saw an identical scene from within the darkness.

Time seemed to rewind to when he was outside the library, facing the glass. There were many people on the other side of the glass, male and female, old and young.

However, they did not differ in weight, and they were colourlesss, as if he was watching a shadow play. Everyone was stuck on there, like a sheet of paper or some other material. The black shadows opened their countless eyes that did not hold any emotion.

Then, from within the crowd of people, a girl missing half her head waved at him. He unconsciously began to walk forwards in curiousity. He wanted to get a closer look at those things, but as he neared the girl, he was pushed back by a group of things.

Two children stood below him, furiously shaking their heads. They then continued to push him backwards.

Thus, Yu Yin woke up.

It was the third day after the case had concluded. When he awoke, all he saw was Xiao Yu on a small bed meant for family members to look after him, curled up and reading a book. As soon as Xiao Yu noticed Yu Yin had awoken, he quickly ran over to press the bell for a nurse.

About ten minutes after waking up, Yu Yin saw his clean-shaven head in the mirror. His head was still wrapped in bandages.

“You’re still being monitored, so don’t move around randomly,” the doctor that came in to check on him said. He was satisfied by the lack of infection after the surgery, and he relayed a few more instructions.

After watching the doctor leave, the room returned to its previous silence.

Yu Yin spent three minutes sighing in anguish at his shaved head. He then shifted his gaze over to where Xiao Yu stood next to his bed, hurriedly trying to prepare his liquid style food. Thus, he recalled what had happened after he had been dragged onto the ambulance. “Hey, hey, say something else for me.” He broke out into a drooling-type smile as he spoke in a tone that sounded as if he was abducting Xiao Yu. However, the voice that came out was unexpectedly weak to the point where even he thought it sounded like a mosquito’s buzz.

The violet eyes met his, and Xiao Yu showed something similar to a complaining expression.

“I heard you speak, so no point in continuing to pretend.” Yu Yin was feeling pretty pleased about this, and he chuckled, “Go on, hurry up.”

Xiao Yu sighed and sat down on the chair next to the bed, tilting his head as he looked at Yu Yin.

“Forget it, I won’t force you. I heard that you were really shut-in even in the past…honestly, don’t heavily injured people need encouragement to recover faster…” Yu Yin grumbled with a deflated expression.

“…Uncle Xia said…he’d come and hit you…” The faint voice continued from next to Yu Yin, nearly causing him to flip out of his bed.

“What the—! Is it my fault again?!” I’m the one that got my head smashed in!

Xiao Yu nodded.

Yu Yin let out a wail of anguish.

He was truly innocent this time…

Xiao Yu opened his mouth, but then furrowed his brows and pulled out a pen and paper still.

Yu Yin was a step faster. He directly whisked away the pen and paper and placed them underneath his pillow. “I don’t care who else you use writing to communicate with, but from now on, you are only allowed to speak with me.” Privilege, privilege, I have to get some privileges for myself.

Xiao Yu simply stared at the person in front of him, unable to do anything else. He simply nodded before passing over the food he was holding.

Of course, Yu Yin wasn’t going to have the other person feed him. With Xiao Yu’s help, Yu Yin sat up and stirred his congee that was already diluted with broth. “Oh right, what happened with Zhang Mei Ning’s situation in the end?”

Five minutes passed, but Yu still kept his mouth shut.

“You damn clam shell.”

It was fine, he had plenty ways to make the other speak.

***

Yu Xia looked at the woman in front of him.

Xiao Yu had injured her slightly that day with his attack, but it had merely broken the skin and had not been fatal. As a result, after her injuries had been dealt with, they initiated the interrogation as per usual procedures.

“I heard from the court that you don’t have any intent on repenting.” Yu Xia’s gaze was slightly doubtful. “Typically speaking, the court determines your sentence based on your condition.”

“I have no need to repent.” Zhang Mei Ning indifferently smiled. “I don’t have any regrets. Even if it happened a second time, I would still have killed those pieces of garbage. My only regret is having not acted quickly enough and letting a few escape.”

Yu Xia shook his head at her. “You are sad about your child dying, but wouldn’t the parents of the children you killed feel the same?”

“The day I lost my son, the police said it was possibly a result of school violence and had found a few possible children. However, because my son had been soaked from being outside in the rain the entire night, there was no evidence. Those parents only said it couldn’t possibly be their beloved children.” Zhang Mei Ning paused, seemingly absorbed in her own thoughts. “Children are their parents’ responsibility. If you are thinking of the next generation, you have to take up the responsibility for disciplining the new society. If your children are not how you want them to be, why even let them be born? I tried my best to train my child to go to school, enter the advanced class, be courteous, be intelligent. As a mother, I gave everything I could. But just because someone other people’s children didn’t like how he looked, they ganged up on him and beat him to death. Let me ask you this: did my child only come into this world to be killed by a bunch of children that didn’t take responsibility for themselves, nor had their parents take responsibility for them?

“You might say that what I did was not any different from what they did, which I admit is true. They didn’t understand the pain of losing someone, and only knew how to say they felt regret. Then why can’t I also make them experience the pain of loss, the feeling of the entire world crumbling down? I can just tell them I feel regret after I decided to have them die because I didn’t like how their children appeared either.

Zhang Mei Ning directly met Yu Xia’s gaze with a smile that almost seemed relaxed. “So I don’t feel regret. The court can sentence me however they want, though it’s best to have me never leave. As long as I am able to leave, I will continue searching for the remaining people and make them compensate for my son with their lives.

“Until the day I die.”

Thus, the black doors behind Yu Xia shut.

He was not sure if it had been the correct decision for him to come looking for her today. After all, they were supposed to try to understand her state of mind. But what of it?

Perhaps even people a hundred times smarter than them did not know that society could collapse because of those that lost their sense of morals and responsibility.

Five years ago, on this day, he had three cases under his belt. Now, five years later, he had eight.

After another five years, what would happen?

And how many people that should take responsibility would there be?

By that time, would something other than a life be lost?

Yu Xia pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. It was what Kai Lun had secretly handed him. He had never returned it to Kai Lun. Based on what he had said back then, it seemed like he had followed Big Camel to the other side.

He would have to find the time to understand their situation over there.

He looked down on the paper. Written on it was an online game server and a character name.

After walking for around five minutes, he arrived at an internet café without many people. He bought the game disk at the front counter and went through the usual process of making a new character in the same server.

Once he inputted Kai Lun’s character name, he quickly found the other’s response.

“I’m in the south.” He opened a black-coloured mail to read the short message. “Big Camel is currently walking closely with the guy above the white car’s owner. I’ll tell you later if I find anything.”

Yu Xia thought about it for a moment before replying, “The white car’s owner is confirmed to be related to another one of our cases. He admitted to selling the incense to the residents of the fourth floor in that incident. However, he doesn’t have any relation to Xiao Yu’s case. If you can get contact with that incense, please let us know.”

“OK.”

After the exchange of messages, Yu Xia exited the game, thinking that he could toss the character over to Ah Yin or Jiu Shen to practice with it.

When the computer’s monitor went black, he saw someone standing behind his seat. The face was a bit blurred so he could not distinguish the facial features, but he was certain it was a girl.

She wore a high school uniform, her neck still dripping blood. She raised her arm to slowly wave a pale hand at Yu Xia.

Yu Xia coldly snorted and stood up. When he turned out of the cubicle, there was nobody behind him.

After paying, he walked out of the internet café and looked around, spotting a cake shop.

Earlier, Yu Tong had called to tell him Ah Yin had woken up and was currently wailing about how he wanted something else to eat…he wasn’t sure if cake was allowed, but it didn’t matter much as long as he used water to wash it down and dilute it to the point where it could count as a liquid food.

As Yu Xia pondered this, he walked into the cake shop and took a six-inch cake out to go. Just as he walked out of the shop, he happened to bump into a school instructor.

“Student, are you skipping class?”

The only reason he didn’t punch the instructor right then and there was because his mood was pretty good today.

After flashing his ID and sending the foolishly blind instructor away, Yu Xia walked towards the hospital. Because Ah Yin had also worked hard this time, Yu Xia would not hit him.

Then, he stepped inside the location his family members were in.

In a place Yu Xia couldn’t see, a shadow continued to wave at him until it disappeared in a corner of the street.

People would continue to live their usual daily lifestyles until the next incident occurred.

“The next news report brought to you is regarding the case involving high school students disappearing in succession…”