The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

In the end, they still ended up returning to the villa.

Because it was afternoon, the sky was very bright and nothing unusual occurred.

Likely due to the fact that the police were concentrated on searching [for people] now, there were not any other people outside the villa. At most, he would occasionally catch sight of a patrolling officer pass by on a scooter.

When Yu Yin opened the front door of the villa again, he realised suddenly that this seemed to be the first time he had come here this “early”. The previous times had all been wandering around in the middle of the night.

Xiao Yu suddenly tugged at him from behind with his eyes locked onto Yu Yin’s back, appearing a bit uneasy.

“…Don’t worry, they even said themselves that we could enter and exit freely. At worst, we’ll just have to pay them back for any destroyed floorboards.” He shot a backwards glance at the bag of tools he was carrying. He had borrowed them from the hotel staff; apparently they usually used these objects to modify the hotel’s landscaping.

Since this matter was extremely urgent, Yu Yin could no longer wait until his uncle’s side completed the investigation. By his calculations, in the many days that had already passed, those people would be on the verge of death by now even if they were not originally dead. No matter what, he had to first confirm whether his guess was correct or not, even if he had to pay money. He would even be willing to bet his entire life’s savings for this.

After locking the front entrance to ensure nobody would come in for the time being, Yu Yin walked straight towards the double bedroom on the first floor.

The surroundings were extremely quiet.

A noise that sounded like rats running around came from underneath the floor.

For some reason, he believed that Yi Tai’s instincts were not wrong. The floor had always been very loud, and although they had noticed the sound from the very beginning, they had not paid it much attention.

If this house had issues, it very likely stemmed from here.

Yu Yin gave the already unlocked door a hard yank to open it. The first thing that met his eyes was a black shadow sitting on the bed. The instant the door opened with a bang, the shadow vanished completely. He quickly kicked the short bed off to the side, then began to use the borrowed tools to pry out the floorboards one piece at a time.

Xiao Yu also knelt down to help pull the wooden boards off after seeing that Yu Yin truly planned on digging up this room.

The enormous house was filled with the constant sounds of splitting wood.

Over an hour later, they had managed to completely clear away the wooden boards around the bed, tossing them all over the place. After the floor had been destroyed, traces of ugly, ash-grey cement were exposed.

Yu Yin touched the cement and noticed that the entire chunk of grey cement was ice-cold. It was so abnormally cold that he nearly retracted his hand; it was like a chunk of ice rather than cement.

After throwing aside a few more boards, Xiao Yu stared at the cement floor next to him and froze for a moment. He then gave Yu Yin a hard slap on the shoulder to force him to look in the same direction too.

There were black spots on the cement ground alongside the ice-cold region. These were not ordinary stains from old age, but bizarre streaks twisted like worms.

Yu Yin rubbed the marks to discover that they were not just made of colour; these marks were depressions. Although he was not sure if they had been carved out or decayed away, they were extremely unusual and covered the whole area.

He had Xiao Yu stand off to the side before taking up a sharp pick from inside the bag and heavily striking the ice-cold cement ground a few times. The cement did not seem to be very thick, as it quickly cracked. After breaking it into more pieces and digging a bit further, he reached the dirt layer underneath. This layer of dirt that was nearly just as frigid made Yu Yin furrow his brows.

He was a bit astonished at how thin the cement layer had been. After all, house construction had to follow specific regulations. Yet this place was clearly different.

After digging at the dirt layer for a while more, he finally struck something. He prodded it a few times and noticed that it sounded like there was a plastic bag.

Yu Yin and Xiao Yu exchanged a look, and without speaking a word, simultaneously reached their hands out together to drag out what was likely a plastic bag. Because it was a bit old, the bag suddenly ripped from the force, revealing a waterproof cloth used to set up canopies.

“Looks like he was buried vertically…” Yu Yin discovered that the object seemed to be stuck length-wise into the ground, as opposed to sideways. Although this slightly frustrated Yu Yin, he could only spend some more time to dig away the dirt around it.

By the time the sky outside the window had nearly turned a red-orange colour, he finally dug out a large hole.

The two people grabbed onto the waterproof cloth and once again combined their strengths to pull the object upwards. This time, it shifted position, and a few minutes later, began to inch upwards bit by bit.

It was a large object slightly taller than Yu Yin.

Actually, he had more or less already had an idea of what it was before he had even dug it up. It wasn’t just him either – Xiao Yu had likely come to the same conclusion after seeing it.

The wrapped object was extremely chilly, just like the dirt, as if it had literally been pulled out from a freezer. Their fingers were actually slightly red from being frozen.

Xiao Yu stood up and turned on the light in the room.

After tilting it upwards, they saw that the object had been well secured with a red, nylon rope looped around at least a dozen times and knotted very tightly. Yu Yin used scissors to cut the rope open and flipped the waterproof cloth away. The item underneath was surrounded by many layers of some unknown material, and as Yu Yin tore away each layer, an indescribable stench began to escape.

When Yu Yin tore away the final layer, the coarse cloth already drenched in black, the rotting flesh inside was also ripped aside. A black liquid began to flow outwards.

Yu Yin covered his mouth and made a beeline to the bathroom to vomit.

Xiao Yu remained in his original spot instead of dashing out as well. He quietly took out a handkerchief from his backpack and used it to cover his nose and mouth. But the stench was so strong that the handkerchief barely weakened it.

Under the light, the object exposed from inside the wrapping was a corpse, as they had expected. However, only half of the corpse had rotted away. The entire body was immersed in dark, ice-cold water. The flesh had turned black, and there was a strange, viscous fluid on it.

If I’m not wrong, this should be the twenty-first person we were looking for. But this looks to have only died approximately five or so years ago…

Xiao Yu touched the frigid dirt and guessed that the low temperature had probably preserved the body. However, it was uncertain how the condition had been brought about.

What attracted Xiao Yu’s attention was the thick and heavy coat the body wore, and the mask on its no longer discernible face. It was undoubtedly the appearance of that “thing” that had attacked them.

“This smell is really terrible.”

Xiao Yu spun around to see a third person standing at the doorway.

***

When Yu Yin walked out of the bathroom after nearly vomiting his guts out, the first thing he saw was someone who should not have appeared in this place.

“What did you come here for?” He quickly ran over and slapped Yi Tai on the shoulder. Yi Tai, who had arrived without anyone noticing, turned to smile at Yu Yin. “Oi! Shouldn’t you be properly resting in the hospital?”

“Mm…I could not really calm down without personally coming over to deal with things.” Yi Tai gave this strange response as he glanced at the corpse that had been placed on the ground. He then deliberately covered his nose.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Yu Yin could not understand at all. His brain was now lightheaded from the stimulation of the fierce stench, and simply catching another whiff of the stink made him want to race back to the bathroom. The smell of the dead bodies he had encountered in the past had never been this terrible; this was basically a toxic gas, its fumes enough to knock anyone out. He looked around and grabbed a jacket of unknown origin from the living room to cover the bottom half of his face. Otherwise, he would really pass out.

Yi Tai did not respond to Yu Yin’s question. He just quietly studied the corpse in the waterproof cloth.

Xiao Yu picked up a shovel and crouched down to poke at the area next to the body. A faint sound rang out as he drew out a small plastic bag.

This one was not wrapped. After prodding it a few times, the object inside rolled out. It was a dagger, with red bloodstains of unknown origin, mixed together with a dark fluid to form an even stranger sight.

“The mask was probably tied on by someone else.” Yi Tai neared the rotting body and grabbed a tool to push the head over to the side, revealing the knots tied behind.

“I’ll call my uncle.” Yu Yin really could not bear the smell any longer. Although Xiao Yu seemed to still want to fiddle with the body, Yu Xia dragged him out of the room. He then picked up his cellphone to take a few photos and dialled Yu Xia’s number.

While he waited for the line to connect, he became stunned at the scene that unfolded in front of his eyes.

Yi Tai remained inside the room alone, standing next to the corpse with a focused gaze. His expression was unusually cold, to the point where it could practically send chills down one’s spine. A few seconds later, he raised his foot and stomped it down hard onto the masked face. His action was so natural and smooth, it was as if he was just stepping on the accelerator while driving.

The body’s head made a strange noise, and both the mask and face collapsed inwards. It was a strange, shocking, and slightly amusing scene.

Yi Tai swept his foot against the ground before turning around to face Yu Yin, who was currently so astonished that he wasn’t quite sure how to react. “Just some proper reciprocation,” he said with a smile, as if he had simply crushed a cockroach. “You can give any explanation you prefer regarding the damage to the body. Even telling the truth would be fine, I don’t mind.”

Because his attitude was excessively natural, Yu Yin was not quite able to process anything. Only after Xiao Yu patted him hard on the back did he realise that the phone had already connected, with the person on the other end shouting at him in anger.

He quickly described the general situation and stated that they had found the body, then immediately cut the call.

Yi Tai did not appear to allow any more questions. Without a word, he flashed past to head towards the bathroom to wash his shoe.

Yu Yin honestly did not want to know what the face under the mask looked like now. He suppressed his urge to vomit again and pushed Xiao Yu out to the entrance hall to wait. While there, he also opened some doors and windows to let the fresh air circulate through. A few minutes later, Yi Tai also walked out into the entrance hall to wait together with them. He showed no intent or desire to return to the hospital.

Soon, the sound of police cars driving down the road could be heard through the night.

***

After the villa was surrounded by yellow tape, the three of them were called over to one side.

“Didn’t I tell you not to do anything reckless?” Yu Xia directly slammed a punch down onto Yu Yin’s skull. After arriving with the police, he had fiercely charged straight over to strike Yu Yin’s head and scold him.

“Ah…but I found something, right?” Yu Yin cradled his pained head and cowered in endless grievance from being nearly smacked onto the ground by his own uncle. “Also, I accidentally stepped onto its face…”

He had decided to cover up for Yi Tai for some reason. After all, purposely damaging the body was technically a crime. Although doing this was very improper, it was still his final choice.

Yu Xia waved his hand in dismissal to indicate it was not a big deal. After all, this child had knocked heads with a corpse before. It would be fine as long as it was noted in the records. “And you, why did you run away from the hospital?” This time, the criticism was directed at Yi Tai, who was sitting nearby drinking a cup of water.

“I have a habit of exercising and running at night,” was Yi Tai’s infuriating response.

After beating up his own family’s child that clearly was not afraid of dying, Yu Xia’s expression remained fierce as he indiscriminately gave a good lesson to all three of the children who had come to dig up a body. Then, he let someone else bring them away to provide statements.

Unable to hide the news, the media was soon drawn over. Reporters surrounded the villa, and flashes of light were particularly dazzling under the black night sky.

Yu Yin turned to look off to the other side, where he saw some pension staff members that had been contacted by the police. However, he did not see the owner couple. The staff members were completely lost as they were being questioned, simply shaking their heads and saying they did not know anything. The police continued to make calls, but they were unable to contact the owners.

Yu Yin suddenly caught sight of the pension owner standing in the far, far corner outside the meddlesome crowds around the surrounding yellow tape. The male owner’s gaze was locked onto him with an extremely frigid expression.

“Uncle, I’m going to go out for a bit.” When Yu Yin saw the other person suddenly turn to leave, he quickly shouted these words out and began to give chase. Xiao Yu also ran to follow behind.

“Stop right there!”

Just as Yu Xia was about to run after as well, Yi Tai turned to look at him with a strange smile out of nowhere. “Officer Yu, someone is calling for you over there.” As he said this, he pointed at an officer inside the house that was currently waving at them.

Yu Xia shot Yi Tai an exasperated look before waving over an officer to send Yi Tai home. Yu Xia then turned and walked into the house.

On the other side, Yu Yin left the circling crowds and saw the pension boss quickly walking into the darkness at the end of the small path. Without much thought, Yu Yin ran towards the same direction with Xiao Yu in tow.

After chasing the other person for a while, they circled past the small woods to discover that the boss’s final destination was the common person’s shrine.

He was standing in front of the black earthen stage.

Yu Yin felt the surrounding temperature dip, and he began to rub his arms together. The owner did not move at all from his spot, waiting for them as if he had known for sure that they would follow.

After surveying the area, Yu Yin noticed that the short, old man from earlier was nowhere to be seen – he had probably run off somewhere else to pick things up. He re-focused on the pension owner and tried speaking. “Why didn’t you go over just now? The police were looking for you, you know?”

“How much do you know?” Xie Qing Hai did not give any greetings, instead simply cutting straight to the point with this question.

Seeing how the other showed no traces of joking and held an extremely determined gaze, Yu Yin mentally prepared himself.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. If you’re referring to that thing I just dug up, it was merely the result from a string of coincidences.” Yu Yin shrugged and chided the other with an extremely unwilling attitude, “If you’re going to hide something, you should hide it properly. Seriously, I wasted a ton of time digging it out.”

“How did you know I put the body there?” Xie Qing Hai questioned as his gaze locked onto the two students in front of him, his tone extremely cold.

Yu Yin chuckled. “I didn’t say you were the one that buried the corpse.”

“There’s no point in bending my words. If I was able to kill one back then, I can kill the two of you now as well without a problem.” Xie Qing Hai swaggered towards them as he pulled a covered fruit knife out from his pocket. He withdrew it from its plastic sheath, inching forwards with an empty expression.

“Are you sure you only killed one person?” Yu Yin hid Xiao Yu behind him as they began to retreat in the direction of the common person’s shrine. He narrowed his eyes and asked, “If you really only killed one person, then why did all the glove puppetry group’s people follow you into the villa? There are so many places for them to go to, so why had they waited for this specific moment to join up with those students and enter your house?”

He had thought this matter over many, many times, but had never been able to understand.

The corners of Xie Qing Hai’s mouth stiffly pulled upwards. He breathed hard through his nose with an unnatural expression on his face as it began to twitch in an irregular rhythm that gave him a somewhat sinister appearance. “Looks like you really know quite a bit…I was against Yu Fen letting you go in and search from the beginning…forget it, it’ll be fine if I clean up now…there’s still time…” His words were choppy, sometimes quiet and sometimes loud, making it very difficult to hear.

The silver blade was raised high up in the air. A smile formed on his face, as if the time of execution had already arrived.

“It’ll be fine, there’s still time.”

***

Yu Yin grabbed the chair next to him and tossed it over.

He no longer had the time to worry about the things in the shrine possibly protesting. He grabbed a table and flung it hard to one side as well. The table made an ear-splitting sound as it was horizontally shifted at a sharp angle. The vase sitting on top crashed down, its recently filled water splashing all over the surface of the table and spreading all over it.

“That wasn’t our fault…” Xie Qing Hai absent-mindedly murmured as he stabbed the blade into the plastic vase and swept away the other objects around it. He then began to push the table in front of him bit by bit.

Yu Yin grabbed this chance to start running to the back of the shrine with Xiao Yu. The moment he stepped outside, he froze. The exit was now filled with…non-humans standing there. The black shadows surrounded them in a circle, their green eyes focused on them.

Xiao Yu did not know why they had stopped, and he pushed at Yu Yin several times. A loud sound rang out from behind them as the table seemed to be torn apart, the bang resounding through the night.

The black shadows seemed to have been waiting specifically for them. They ignored the danger coming from behind and began to wave at the two of them.

“Screw you! Can you not tell what’s good for you?” Yu Yin fiercely lashed out, believing that living people were more threatening than dead people. He dragged Xiao Yu over to where there was a gap. “I’ll come back later and pay you bastards back!” Not helping is fine, but trapping us here? Are you kidding me?!

The black shadows continued to move about restlessly. However, the tip of a blade suddenly dispersed them.

As Yu Yin ran out of the shrine, he saw some blurry silhouettes in the empty lot nearby. He could not tell if these looked familiar, or if they were…?

Xiao Yu suddenly stumbled behind him, nearly causing Yu Yin to tumble down with him. When he turned around to pull the person back up, he saw the shadows from earlier tugging at Xiao Yu’s clothing in the opposite direction, refusing to let go.

“Are you guys mistaken about something? The one you’re looking for is me, not him! You can do whatever you want after this matter is over, just hurry up and let go now!” Yu Yin roared at the wretched shadows. Cracks suddenly formed like mouths on their faces as they all rose up to show something red inside.

He could hear someone laughing next to his ear, and a chill brushed past.

In an instant, all the shadows dispersed. In its place was the edge of a blade piercing straight down towards Xiao Yu’s skull.

Yu Yin acted faster, quickly yanking Xiao Yu back towards him to evade the blade. Just as he was thinking they might be doomed, Xie Qing Hai suddenly made a strange noise before collapsing onto the ground in front of them. The fruit knife originally being stabbed in their direction let out a sound as it was stomped on by another person.

“I must remind you…that I am unfortunately still suffering from injuries. Could you two not run so quickly?” Yi Tai, who had caught up with them after, bent over to pick up the fruit knife. He spun the knife in his hands as he turned around and forcefully kicked Xie Qing Hai, who was just about to crawl back up. The kick landed on the chest, and the victim immediately started coughing, unable to get back up or struggle back for the time being. “Also…Ah Yin, if you are in this much danger every time, I recommend you best learn some self-defense to help.”

He turned the knife around to pass it over to Yu Yin handle-first. Yu Yin accepted the knife and nodded in slight embarrassment. “Thank you.”

Yi Tai crouched down and tugged at Xie Qing Hai’s clothing, using it to tie the other up so that he was unable to move. Xiao Yu took out his cellphone and, upon seeing its recording function still on, sighed in relief.

Yu Yin looked down at Xie Qing Hai, who had already stopped struggling back. He took off his jacket to wrap up the knife before sighing. “You weren’t buying drinks back then during the fire, right?” The person lying the ground gazed back coldly, but then suddenly flashed a strange smile. “What are you talking about?”

Since it did not seem as if he would reveal any information, Yu Yin continued with a sigh, “Alright, then why did you want to kill him? Exactly where does your hatred for him come from…” When he thought back to how the corpse had been buried, and the scene after taking it out, he began to feel nauseous again. The dead body’s stench seemed to have stuck onto them; even now, he could still faintly smell the nauseating stink.

“Of course I wanted to kill him…that brat dared to…with my daughter…” After saying a few indistinct words, he quieted down again.

“Where is your daughter?”

This question seemed to suddenly stab Xie Qing Hai. With a roar, he suddenly shook off Yi Tai’s restraint on him with a mysterious influx of strength, then staggered to stand back up and charge straight towards Yu Yin.

Before he could even react, a chair smashed down onto Xie Qing Hai’s head, causing him to fall unconscious onto the ground.

“It’s you damn idiots again!” The old, short man barked in anger with a fuzzy tone, chair clutched in his hands. “And there’s another one too!”

Yu Yin noticed that the old man had seemingly come out from under the black stage. He quickly stumbled over to the other, and smelled the strong scent of smoke. “Mister, did you drink too much alcohol?”

“Just a jar of rice wine.” The old man waved Yu Yin off and crouched down to survey Xie Hai under the dim lights. “And here I was wondering who was running around so loudly in the common person’s shrine. Turns out it’s this big boss…but why, it’s not like today’s a day of worship…did you come to visit your friends from that group? Haha…I told you ages ago that you should forget visiting…sending them to their deaths yet coming to pay respects…” He laughed heartily as he patted the shoulders of the person on the floor.

“Forget it, forget it, can’t pay respects anymore…”

Yi Tai exchanged a glance with Yu Yin. He knelt down to softly ask the old man, “May I ask whose deaths he caused?” The short, old man crooned and shot Yi Tai a sideways glance. “I guess telling you little monkeys doesn’t hurt…this big boss fought over a girl with someone backstage on the day of the show…then used a jar of something to hit him, and everything caught on fire…look, he comes here every year to pay respects…but it’s useless…burned so many people to death…”

“You saw them fight back then?” Yu Yin was shocked. He inwardly berated himself for not asking for more details earlier, otherwise they wouldn’t have needed to run around in another circle.

“Of course…who did you think was helping them pick up trash and buy drinks…” The old man leaned on Yi Tai to stand up. He pointed at the person on the ground and said, “He…brought a woman backstage. That woman…sat down on the trunk storing puppets…the group leader blew his top and…they fought very fiercely…fighting on stage, fighting backstage…then he grabbed a bottle and smashed it on the leader’s body, and the flames broke out with it…”

“What was in the bottle?” Yu Yin hurriedly asked.

The old man waved his hand in dismissal, indicating he did not know. He then grabbed the chair and began to stumble back towards the black stage with it.

The others all looked at each other and sighed in unison.

Yi Tai glanced down at the already unconscious person on the ground. This time, he used the jacket to tie up the feet as well. He then turned to look at Yu Yin and say, “Then, I’ll leave this person to you, Ah Yin.”

“Huh? You want me to carry him back?” Yu Yin felt his legs grow weak as he stared at the person who was probably at least 70kg.

“I am an injured person.” There was a very mild smile on Yi Tai’s face.

Xiao Yu looked at Yu Yin with the words “I’ll collapse” written all over his face.

Yu Yin let out an anguished wail. He was really starting to think chasing over to here had just been looking for trouble.

“I was joking. Let’s call Officer Yu and ask him to bring people here.” Yi Tai patted Xiao Yu on the shoulder while maintaining that mild smile he had used while deceiving others without batting an eyelid.

When Yu Yin heard this, he finally remembered that they had cellphones, and quickly went over to one side to make the call.

Xiao Yu studied the person on the ground for a while. After confirming that he would not wake up anytime soon, he turned to discover Yi Tai looking at his own palm with a thoughtful expression.

Noticing the gaze on him, Yi Tai returned it with a faint smile. “It’s nothing, I was just thinking that the old man’s body and hands were very chilly. I hope he does not catch a cold in this weather.”

In unison, their gazes turned back to the black stage. They could still vaguely hear the sounds of some drinking and burping.

Soon after, the police that had received the news arrived in the empty lot in their cars.

Consequently, Xie Qing Hai was arrested.