The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Xiao Yu started as he also noticed the abnormality, then subconsciously swerved his bike away a bit.

“Uncle…” Yu Yin weakly wailed as he glanced at Yu Xia, who was the closest yet did not show any reaction.

The moment Yu Xia sensed the extra object, he abruptly braked and pulled out his gun to point it at the thing. However, in the blink of an eye, all they saw was a boundless, empty field that never contained the so-called “fourth bike” from the beginning.

“Weird.” Yu Xia narrowed his eyes and persistently turned around to look several more times. However, that thing had truly vanished completely.

Although it could have been written off as a figment of imagination if it had been just one person, all three of them had simultaneously seen it, which meant it definitely had been there.

Yu Yin and Xiao Yu stopped a few seconds later and quickly went back. “It’s gone.” Yu Yin finally heaved a sigh of relief once he could no longer sense it. It had probably been frightened away by his uncle. After all, there was a gun and a police officer’s fiercer intimidating aura…Wait, we originally ran over here to see if we could draw out anything. Can we still find it after chasing it away?

Yu Yin scratched his head when he realised this point, unsure of what to do next.

Yu Xia stowed his gun away once he could not sense anything unusual any more, then tilted his chin at the other two in front of him. “Let’s keep going.”

Thus, they got on their bikes once more and continued to advance towards the villa.

Soon after, the dark villa appeared before them again. Just like their last visit, the entire villa had a very dark and profound presence, as if it was not an existence from this world.

But unlike the previous time, a person stood in front of the villa, the thin body so frail that it felt as if the darkness could swallow it whole.

Yu Yin instantly knew who it was. “What are you doing here?” He jumped straight off his bike to grab the somewhat absent-minded Li Lin Yue. When she saw him, the corners of her mouth tilted up to form a faint smile for some bizarre reason.

“To come back.” Li Lin Yue turned to face the dark villa and raised her head to look upwards. “To come back here.”

Yu Xia noticed that she was still wearing the patient’s uniform from the hospital, and her arm was bleeding slightly from where she had been injected with a needle. He walked over and said, “You ran away from the hospital?”

Li Lin Yue did not reply to Yu Xia’s question. She pushed Yu Yin’s hand away and stumbled over to the villa’s front steps. The moment she stopped, the front door made a soft sound and slowly opened a small crack.

Without any trace of surprise, Li Lin Yue’s expression did not change as she pushed the door open and quietly hummed some unknown song as she stepped into the entrance hall.

The other three exchanged glances with each other and decided to first quietly watch for any changes. Yu Yin followed in first, then Yu Xia, and finally Xiao Yu.

The house was absolutely silent. All they could hear was the soft humming coming from the person walking at the very front. She did not hesitate to turn on the lights and headed straight up the stairs.

Upon entering the villa once more. Yu Yin subconsciously glanced at the troublesome double bedroom. When he looked over, his mind went blank for a few seconds. The hole was gone; there wasn’t even a hole large enough for ants to crawl through.

The pension staff fixed it?

His mind focused on the question for only a few short seconds before he went off to chase after Li Lin Yue as she walked up the stairs. Then, they came to a stop in front of the fourth floor bedroom.

Each room still contained the items the students had brought along, mostly clothes.

Li Lin Yue had seemingly not come back to grab her things. Instead, she indifferently glanced at a certain room and stepped inside. She then opened the wooden-framed window that had been designed to keep the rain out.

In the next second, Yu Yin suddenly realised what she had returned to do. Because her movements had been so natural, as if she was just doing what she was supposed to be doing, he had missed the critical timing.

“Stop!”

Just as her feet stepped onto the window [ledge], Yu Yin lunged forwards from behind to grab onto his friend about to fall down. Yu Yin nearly fell forwards from the momentum as he was slammed into the window frame. An indescribable, sharp pain erupted from his shoulder, nearly causing him to loosen his grip for a second.

Li Lin Yue was already half suspended in mid-air, the upper half of her body taut against the dirt wall outside the window. She turned her head and suddenly smiled at Yu Yin. “You too.”

Before Yu Yin could figure out what she was saying, his mind suddenly blanked as he felt his body turn cold and someone pushed him hard from behind.

Yu Yin completely lost his center of gravity and before he could even regain his senses, he began to tumble outside as well. Then, a certain force grabbed onto him from behind.

“What the hell are you two trying to pull?!”

An explosive roar came from directly above him.

“You’d better hold on tight!” Since Yu Xia had been checking the other floors, he had arrived a step later. When he walked inside, he saw the two children holding onto each other, about to jump off the building together, and he reflexively raced forwards to grab onto Yu Yin as he was falling down. “Ah Yin! Don’t let go!”

The yell snapped Yu Yin out of his daze, and he finally noticed how dangerous of a situation they were in.

Li Lin Yue, who he was holding with the upper half of his body, was basically suspended mid-air. He personally only had his butt and feet left inside the window, which wasn’t much better. Yu Xia, who was grabbing onto him, had one hand wrapped around Yu Yin’s waist and one hand gripping his shoulders to keep them from sliding down any further.

“Un-uncle!” Yu Yin shouted in panic at the person holding onto them. He was really frightened this time.

“Be quiet!” Because the force of the weight was no small amount, Yu Xia’s brows knit together as he bellowed, “Shut your mouth and keep a good hold! Otherwise you’ll die, just wait and see! Xiao Yu, hurry and go look around, see if you can find any rope!” Now the downward force was pulling on his arms and starting to drain his energy. He could only hold on and try to maintain this position for the time being.

Xiao Yu nodded and frantically ran out of the room.

But the minute he stepped out, he suddenly retreated back inside.

At first, Yu Xia had no idea what was going on. But then he heard the faint sound of footsteps coming from outside the room, and his expression changed.

When he turned around, he saw a person wearing a strange mask standing at the doorway, a blood-soaked dagger in its hand.

***

Yu Yin was also in shock, although he had not noticed the commotion behind him.

Li Lin Yue, who was in his grasp at the moment, started laughing non-stop for some reason. It seemed as if she had entered a bizarre state after losing her entire spirit. But what had stunned him wasn’t this matter, but the fact that after falling down, he could see a bunch of people standing in the vacant lot before the villa…there was a large group of people closely packed together, and half of them were familiar faces.

Ah Fang, Ah Guan, and the others who they had not been able to find no matter how hard they had tried, were all standing below. Their necks stretched upwards to show their blank faces, as if coldly watching a matter completely unrelated to them.

Then he noticed that the other half of the crowd was comprised of dark shadows that locked their green gazes on them as well.

It was very hard for Yu Yin to regard this as a normal scene.

“Let’s go down?” Li Lin Yue stopped laughing and hugged his neck as she suddenly began to struggle against him.

Alarmed, Yu Yin snapped out of his daze and clutched her more tightly. “Don’t move around!” If we fall down from here, there’s no other possible end except death!

He had absolutely no way of determining if the faces below were alive or dead. They did not seem like living people, but rather a neat line of dummies moving in unison to watch their show.

“Let’s go down.” Li Lin Yue’s absent-minded expression suddenly reversed into a frigid one as she violently used one palm to strike his neck. Her sharp nails mercilessly left behind five bloody cuts on his neck, with such powerful force that she nearly removed a layer of skin. “Let’s go down.” She repeated these words while continuing to frantically scratch the person holding onto her.

Yu Yin nearly burst into tears from the pain as he quickly dodged the third attack. “Stop fooling around!”

He could see his own blood drip onto Li Lin Yue’s plain and simple clothing.

Looking past her shoulder, Yu Yin was met with the horrifying sight of the row of people below reaching out their hands to lightly wave at them, as if calling them down. The action was so rhythmic that they almost seemed mechanical as they waved in exact unison, down to the second.

“Uncle!” He was really terrified now.

He did not know why Yu Xia did not respond from above, but after a while, the force pulling on him increased. It was evident that there was another power helping, and they were pulled back up above the wall, bit by bit.

With the support on his upper body, Yu Yin immediately shoved the girl who had nearly peeled off all the skin on his neck back inside first. Then he looked down and saw two of the black things walk out. Their glowing green eyes remained locked onto him above, and they slowly began to crawl up the outer wall one after the other.

“Holy shit!” He quickly reached out to climb back inside the room by himself. The moment he actually touched the floor, he immediately shut the window and locked it. Then he turned back, only to become shocked once more.

Li Lin Yue had fallen unconscious on the floor after he had tossed her in. Her hands were covered in Yu Yin’s blood.

And Xiao Yu was grabbing onto the paper door. Yu Xia, who had just been holding him, exhaled and immediately turned to press against the frame of the paper door that was being heavily banged at.

This scene seemed way too familiar.

A black silhouette appeared outside the paper door.

The next second, a dagger pierced straight through the paper door, nearly stabbing Xiao Yu. But this time, he quickly dodged it to avoid being cut again.

“I’m giving you a warning – you’d better immediately drop your weapon and surrender! Or else you’ll be responsible for the consequences!” Yu Xia declared, his temper having already exploded. He guarded Xiao Yu as they retreated back several steps. Right after he shouted out the warning, the wooden door was slammed open with a bang. The person wearing a strange mask stood looking at them from the doorway while making muffled panting sounds. One of the eyes behind the mask had rotted away, an eerie, dark green fluid flowing out from the rim. It dripped onto the mask, which only made the image stranger.

The instant Yu Yin saw the thing, his head throbbed with pain, causing him to let out a groan.

“You guys get out first!” The instant the other person waved their blade down, Yu Xia reacted first and directly kicked the disconcerting mask. He then used one hand to grab onto the other person’s head, slamming their face straight down into the ground.

The crash loudly echoed through the entire room, and the dagger was sent spinning across the floor from the impact, finally coming to a stop at the edge of the wall.

Xiao Yu grabbed the chance to immediately run out of the room. When he saw that the door outside the staircase had been locked, he tugged as hard as he could on the lock. However, no matter how much he tried, he could not open it. It had probably been locked from the other side.

Yu Yin picked up the unconscious Li Lin Yue as he saw Yu Xia grab onto the head of the person he had just driven into the ground, forcefully turning their face around.

But the instant the two of them saw the face, they both stared in stunned silence.

Rather than a human face, it was just a mass of black.

There were no facial features to be seen, just a deep darkness like the night.

Yu Xia’s shock only lasted a few seconds. Once he heard the unknown thing make a strange noise, he immediately snapped out of his daze and saw that the body held down under his foot was starting to slowly turn around in an extremely unnatural posture under its thick jacket, as if trying to match the black head that Yu Xia had jerked around. The body made a series of cracking sounds as the bones seemed to break while the body turned to face their direction.

“Uncle! Hurry up and run!” Yu Yin watched in horror as another shadow appeared outside the window. With one person on his shoulder, Yu Yin quickly dragged Yu Xia away, stopping him from punching the thing under him again, and they ran out to the hallway.

Xiao Yu was standing next to the staircase door. He looked at them in panic, the lock in his hand having not budged at all.

“Move aside.” Yu Xia directly fired his gun at the lock and kicked open the door. There was still absolutely no sound coming from the empty space below, and the pitch-black color seemed to have engulfed the entire lower level so that they could not see the lights they had turned on earlier.

Another sound rang out from behind.

The “thing” had placed its mask back on its face and grabbed its dagger. It was now staggering out of the room.

Yu Xia tossed another kick at it, forcing it back into the room. He then opened fire at the body underneath the thick clothing. Unexpectedly, it did not seem as if the bullet hit flesh. Instead, it was almost like it was swallowed into the body, leaving no trace behind.

Yu Xia backed out of the room and urged the other two at the staircase to quickly leave.

Xiao Yu glanced down at the black space below the staircase and raced down first.

***

They could hear the sound of many people’s whispers.

As Yu Yin and Xiao Yu tumbled down to the first floor, they reflexively looked over at that double bedroom in unison. Its door had already been beaten to a pulp, and there were bloodstains of unknown origin on the paper fragments.

But unlike last time, they saw someone collapsed inside the room.

“Yi Tai!” Yu Yin instantly recognised who it was. He shoved Li Lin Yue into Xiao Yu’s arms and did not give a second thought as he leapt over the destroyed paper door and strode into the room.

At the same time, a bang went off in his head as it suddenly throbbed in pain, like someone had just hammered it in. The pain was so bad that he collapsed onto his knees.

Something abruptly fell onto his hands, carrying with it the thick stench of blood.

Yu Yin clutched his head and took a few deep breaths before barely opening his eyes to see the person originally collapsed on the floor was now gripping his hands.

Through the intense pain, he seemed to hear a very weak voice:

“Get out…”

Xiao Yu tossed the unconscious Li Lin Yue aside and ran into the room. He dragged Yu Yin across the floor and pushed him out of the double bedroom that was now filled with a strange odour. Then he turned back around again to pull the person on the floor out as well.

Once Yu Yin retreated outside, the intense pain slowly ebbed away over time. After his consciousness cleared, he looked over at Yi Tai, who was laying next to him.

For some reason, Yi Tai’s body was covered with blood. Upon closer examination, he was sporting severe cuts, some that nearly went to the bone, and the dark red blood was profusely gushing out from the wounds.

But strangely enough, while the fresh blood was warm, some of the cuts had pretty much scabbed over already. It didn’t seem like a typical state of injury.

However, he did not have the time to contemplate this.

Heavy thuds thundered down from the top of the staircase. The door was thrown open above, and Yu Xia jumped straight down a dozen or so floors like a cat. “Ah Yin, what in the world is that crazy thing!” Yu Xia pointed at the door of the second floor that was now being banged again. He stowed away his gun and quickly walked over to pick up Yi Tai from the ground and toss him over the shoulder.

The slightly warm blood instantly soaked through Yu Xia’s clothes.

“How would I know what that is! Do you think I’m a spirit medium or an expert at dealing with paranormal phenomena?!”

Yu Yin shouted back without a second thought after being thrown into a state of panic again and again.

“Isn’t your only strength being able to know what those things are?” Yu Xia’s voice grew louder as well.

“Well, it’s not human!” Yu Yin roared back as he pulled Li Lin Yue up from the ground.

“No shit!”

“If it’s obvious already, why ask!”

Xiao Yu, trapped between the two arguing, pointed at the thing now standing at the end of the staircase after smashing down the door.

Amidst the panic, Yu Xia sensed the person on his back suddenly grip his shoulder. “Close him back up.” Yi Tai, still barely conscious, pointed at the completely decimated door of the double bedroom. “Key…”

“What key?” Yu Xia hurriedly asked, unsure of why the other person was saying this.

“I have the key, a spare!” Yu Yin quickly pulled out the key ring that he had not yet returned to the pension owners.

Only the upper half of the door frame had been smashed; the bottom half was still intact. But now that Yu Yin had gathered up the courage to look more closely, he discovered that there seemed to be something silver hidden inside the keyhole, blocking it.

He temporarily put Li Lin Yue down, and both he and Xiao Yu went up to try digging the blockage out.

Almost simultaneously, Yu Xia also put down the person on his shoulders to face against the freakish person that had caught up to them. He used one hand to grip the wrist brandishing the dagger as he swung it down and flipped the unidentifiable humanoid onto the ground.

On the other side, after struggling for quite a while, Xiao Yu managed to dig out the small, silver chunk of metal from inside the keyhole.

It was half of a key.

Yu Yin exchanged a glance with Xiao Yu before stuffing the key half into his pocket despite not knowing where it had come from. He then grabbed the key he possessed and shoved it in, and noisily pulled open the door.

Yu Xia grabbed the opportunity to kick the humanoid that was just about to turn around again, tossing it into the double bedroom. Then he fired a shot at it as it tried to crawl back up, the impact forcing it to collapse onto the ground again.

Yu Yin hurriedly closed the door and very quickly turned the key counterclockwise.

After it rang with a click, he raised his head only to be shocked once more.

Before them was a complete door that had never been broken.

***

The sign outside the operating room lit up.

Only after the sky had almost completely brightened up the next morning did they gradually start to hear the sounds of people walking around the hospital.

After bringing both Yi Tai and Li Yin Yue to the hospital, Yu Yin sat outside the operating room and dozed off. He was patted awake by his uncle, who sat down next to him with a bag of breakfast. There was also the local officer that was always with him.

Yu Yin’s and Yu Xia’s conditions were not very good either. Yu Yin had his entire neck wrapped in bandages, while Yu Xia had strained his hand from the sudden force while catching him, and his entire hand had been wrapped up. It would likely take a while to completely recover. The only one that had not really been harmed much was probably Xiao Yu, who was currently asleep against Yu Yin.

“If I wasn’t looking at your appearances right now, I would find it really hard to believe what you guys encountered.” The officer—Ji You Lun—actually still found it somewhat incomprehensible after listening to Yu Yin’s simplified explanation. But the people of the southern district were pretty superstitious, and religion had quite a profound influence here, so he more or less took it all in. “And what is the current status of the student you rescued out?”

Yu Xia glanced at him and rubbed his forehead. “He has thirteen cuts from a sharp weapon, but although his wounds are very deep, they’re not life-threatening. It may or may not be because he dodged them just enough.”

That can’t be. On closer thought, it was impossible. Even if not fatally injured, it had taken quite a few days to find him. If he had not starved to death, he would have at least bled to death.

So exactly what is that place…?

Yu Xia remained in deep thought, unable to figure it out. Anyways, since we’ve rescued him out, we can just wait until he wakes and ask him.

Yu Yin woke Xiao Yu up and opened the paper bag of fast food, splitting up the portions.

The atmosphere outside the operating room was unusually quiet. It was as if everyone wanted to say something but was unwilling to break the silence.

Another half an hour or so passed, and the operating room light went out. Everyone stood up to look at the doctor that walked out after a while.

“His injuries are very severe. Most of the wounds are infected, but he is currently not in any life-threatening condition. However, he may need to stay under observation with the intensive care unit for a few days. If possible, please contact his family members as soon as possible to come over and complete some procedures.” The night shift doctor eyed the nurse standing next to him before telling Yu Xia, “Honestly, any later and he might have been sent directly to the morgue next door.”

“What’s the detailed status?” Yu Xia went straight to the point, ignoring the other’s trivial complaint.

“Thirteen cuts, all of them very similar. They were probably created by the same thing.” The doctor took the notes from the assisting nurse and said, “Actually, several cuts nearly cut the nerves and veins. The most severe wound pierced through the left ventricle, almost killing him. He’s pretty lucky to have dodged it. After the observation period, he should be able to slowly recover if it does not get infected.”

“Can we now…”

“At the moment, you cannot interrogate him. I’ll contact you when he awakes,” Zheng Quan Bai informed, cutting off Yu Xia’s intended question.

Yu Xia nodded to indicate he understood.

“Zheng-Gē, could you help give me medical report first? I need to bring it back to the station to put on file.” Ji You Lun had also been standing off to one side to wait. He furrowed his brows slightly as he said, “If he was injured fatally, then the other people might…”

Be in an unfavorable condition too.

He really wanted to voice this, but he swallowed his words when he realised that Yu Yin and Xiao Yu were still there.

Yu Yin touched the bandage wrapped around his neck, knowing more or less what the other had not spoken out. He tugged at the person standing in front of him. “Uncle, I actually think the others might still be alive.”

“Why do you say that?” Several people suddenly turned towards him with doubtful expressions.

“Uh…sixth sense?”

“Screw your sixth sense.” Yu Xia slapped Yu Yin on the head.

Yu Yin clutched his head with the feeling that he had been wronged, “Ah, it really is a sixth sense…” How do I convince someone that can’t see? It must be so nice to be unable to see, all you have to do is throw punches.

It felt like he was just ill-fated.

“Well, I’ll go back to the station to give my report first, the higher-ups are still waiting for news. You guys just rest here for a while.” Ji You Lun grabbed the documents he needed and quickly left.

For some reason, Yu Xia felt like the two people that had known each for many years did not seem very friendly with each other. However, he had no intent on pursuing this matter, and instead crossed his arms to ask the doctor still waiting with them. “May I ask you a question? Are you certain there were twenty-one back then?”

“Huh? Why is Officer Yu also asking this question? Originally, there were definitely twenty-one; the coffins were the same. Ah Si called to inform me [of the situation]. I have no reason to lie to you,” the doctor replied with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

“Ok, thanks.”

After receiving his answer of affirmation, Yu Xia recalled another matter. “How is the current state of the female student we brought back?”

The doctor scratched his head with an embarrassed expression. “That one’s condition isn’t very good. Her mind is in disarray. Actually, the nurse inside just said she woke up at some point, but all she did was scream that she needed to go, so we injected a sedative into her system to temporarily put her back to sleep. Right now, she’s in another room. If you want to go see her, make sure you don’t alarm her.”

“Alright.”

The doctor mentioned he was still busy, and told them that they could borrow the resting room to rest if they needed. He then went ahead and took his leave.

They were the only ones left in the hallway.

Yu Xia rubbed his face as he looked outside the window at the already bright sky.

What had occurred last night actually surpassed the scope of what he could handle. Rather, it was not something the police could deal with.

He was not sure what the dagger-carrying thing was, or what the circumstances of the house were, and he had the sudden feeling that the situation was an exceptionally thorny one.

Yu Xia turned to see Yu Yin and Xiao Yu blinking at him.

“Uncle, how should we go about this next?” Yu Yin cautiously spoke up, with a general idea of what his uncle was troubling over. He seemed afraid to provoke his uncle again.

Yu Xia met their gazes with only one thought in his mind.

“We demand an explanation from whoever the house belongs to.”