The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

At 1:30 PM, Yu Yin’s cellphone went off in class.

Yu Yin mentally cursed himself for forgetting to change his phone to vibrate mode as his professor shot him a look and his classmates began to snicker. As he walked out of the classroom, he noticed that the caller ID on the screen was Yan Si. Since Yu Yin had classes all through the evening today, he had left Xiao Yu over at Yan Si’s place.

But why is he calling me at this time?

“Yan-dàgē?” Yu Yin stopped outside the classroom and answered the call in confusion.

“Could you pick up Xiao Yu in the afternoon? I just got called in for work. Or should I leave him at a friend’s place for you to pick him up after you get out of school?”

“Huh? Right now?”

“Mm…it’s a really important job…”

Yan Si’s tone was strange, contrasting greatly from his usual playful and laidback tone. It seemed as if something had occurred. Yu Yin furrowed his brows and replied, “I’ll head over right now. Did something happen?”

“Nothing really, how long will it take you to get here? I just ordered some food delivery, you guys can leave after eating.” It sounded as if he was gathering his things. He turned to speak to someone in his home before turning back [towards the phone] to say, “I’m heading out in ten minutes. I gave the key to Xiao Yu, so help me lock the door when you guys decide to leave.”

“It’ll probably take around twenty minutes or so.” …It should be possible if I race a bit. Yu Yin turned to gesture at Ah Guan, who was sitting at the edge of the classroom, to help him get his belongings.

“OK, then I’ll head out five minutes later. Don’t ride too quickly,” Yan Si said, seemingly knowing what Yu Yin was thinking. Then, the line was cut.

Yu Yin shrugged and walked into the classroom to request for taking leave from the professor he was well acquainted with. He grabbed his backpack and quickly ran over to the parking lot.

Yan Si’s tone just now seemed a bit off, but I can’t really tell how. Maybe he’s just a bit tired from work? I’ll have to ask Xiao Yu if he knows anything when I get there.

After Yu Yin decided on this course of action, he raised his head and his footsteps came to a sudden stop.

He had no idea when they had appeared, but a bunch of blurry shadows were now swaying around on the path to the parking lot. Then, he felt a sear cross his eyes, as if something stabbed him, and he began to feel a faint pain.

Yu Yin rubbed his eyes, but then forced himself to stop after discovering that the force just increased the pain. Then, he saw the shadows that stood an unknown distance away slowly fade into the air and vanish completely.

Those shadows felt strangely familiar…am I overlooking something?

“Forget it, I’ll think about it later.” Once the piercing pain in his eyes lessened, Yu Yin rushed over to his motorbike. After tossing his things into the trunk, he started the engine and began to head straight towards Yan Si’s place.

He recognised the manager and nodded in greeting. Yu Yin discovered that the “For Rent” advertisements stuck onto the complex’s mailboxes had increased even more than before. After the water tower incident, a portion of the residents had immediately fled after their leases were up, absolutely horrified by the fact that a corpse had been in the water tower. As expected, someone as unshakeable as Yan Si was a rare sight.

Actually, a bunch of spiritualists and Buddhists had gathered for meetings in this building several times after the incident, yet none of them had seen anything out of place. Technically, there should not have been any more problems with the area, but a typical person would still find it hard to accept.

While thinking about these trivial matters, the elevator door quickly arrived at Yan Si’s floor and opened its doors.

Either due to calculated timing or by pure coincidence, the front door opened just as Yu Yin was about to press the doorbell. Xiao Yu stood at the doorway blinking at him for a moment before letting him in.

“Did Yan-dàgē say what kind of work had him so urgently rushing out the door?” Yu Yin walked into the house and noticed that the projector screen was pulled down, silently displaying a film. They had likely been interrupted while watching a movie.

Xiao Yu shook his head and pointed at the takeout boxes on the table. There were also some scattered movie discs that had not yet been unpackaged, some of which were the newest Blu-Ray editions.

“Wolverine? Didn’t we watch it at the theatre when it was showing?” Yu Yin sat down at the table, instantly recognising one of the movies among those that had not been watched. During the break, he had dragged Xiao Yu to the movie theatre to watch the premiere.

Xiao Yu shrugged and sat on the other side to start opening the takeout boxes.

It seemed like he had wanted to finish the movies. No wonder Yan Si had said to lock the door when we decide to leave. This [request] wasn’t actually odd, since they had often visited Yan Si in the past as well. Sometimes, he would spontaneously end up leaving midway just like this and would ask them to remember locking the door when they left in a very laid-back manner. He wasn’t afraid of his expensive installations being carried away by them.

There were a bunch of half-eaten snack packs discarded on the table. After clearing them away, Yu Yin grabbed a takeout box…although honestly speaking, he didn’t have much of an appetite, having just eaten lunch.

He thought to himself: At least Yi Tai isn’t amazing to the point where he knew I would end up eating a second meal.

Xiao Yu was completely focused on the large screen.

Yu Yin followed his gaze to the main character’s movements on the screen. Suddenly, the screen seemed to blur in front of him…from what he could remember, the main character should have run into a farm just then. But for some reason, the fuzzy scene seemed a bit familiar.

As he was studying the backdrop in the movie, a bout of dizziness hit him out of nowhere, and the intense ringing in his ears cut off the sound from the film.

The ringing didn’t continue for long, abruptly stopping after half a second. He then seemed to hear someone murmuring words next to his ear as an ice-cold breeze blew past him.

The person next to him laughed.

Yu Yin woke up from pain.

He had absolutely no idea when he had lost consciousness. Only after someone slapped his face was he shocked awake. The first thing he saw after opening his eyes was Xiao Yu sitting next to him, one hand still raised while the other was gripping onto his shoulder. There was a slightly different expression on Xiao Yu’s normally calm face, and he finally seemed to feel relief upon seeing Yu Yin wake up.

Yu Yin felt a sharp pain in his forehead. He shook his head as he crawled up. “How long was I out?”

“Ten minutes.” Xiao Yu thought to himself for a minute before shooting Yu Yin another worried glance. He then turned to shut off the television and began to tidy things up. It was very evident that he was planning to head home.

“What in the world…” Yu Yin instinctively glanced at his watch. He had no clue what had happened to himself just now; all he vaguely remembered was half-consciously thinking how the scene in the film had seemed very familiar. But he wasn’t clear about anything that happened afterwards…Do I unknowingly have anemia?

Yu Yin subconsciously began to feel that there was something wrong, although he was not quite sure what.

After cleaning up everything, Xiao Yu urgently pushed him out to head home.

Yu Yin did not fight against Xiao Yu’s goodwill. After confirming his own condition was okay for the moment, the two locked Yan Si’s front door without a word and went downstairs to get the bike and race back home.

He had originally thought everything would be alright after that.

But when he later recalled back to this moment, he would realise that there had been something peculiar throughout the entire day, as if something had come knocking on their door, for better or for worse.

***

Yu Yin stopped outside his home’s front door, rather than opening the garage door and pushing his bike in like he usually did.

He jumped off his motorbike with an expression of shock. His house’s front door was dripping with blood, and the heavy stench of blood was mixed together with the odour of paint. Nearly the entire metal door as well as the surrounding outer walls were dyed crimson. An unknown animal’s mutilated body parts were scattered on the ground. And the most eye-catching part was the thing nailed into the garage door.

It was a cat, its neck twisted and skinned.

Yu Yin took a few deep breaths to clear his mind. He then noticed a few large characters written next to the cat’s body. However, the person who had left those words behind was undoubtedly an idiot, as they had splashed blood everywhere after writing it in paint. The entire section was red, which made it difficult for a moment to figure out what had even been written.

Truthfully, he had seen this kind of thing happen as a violent demand for repayment, or as an act of revenge. However, it was beyond bizarre for it to happen at his doorstep.

“I…have…returned…”

Xiao Yu studied the mostly indiscernible words before turning to look at Yu Yin with an expression of bewilderment. “Who?”

“Who knows who it is.” He instinctively felt it was probably someone his uncle had offended, possibly some chewed up bigshot or a gang leader…Ah, maybe it’s a certain elected legislative representative. But in the end, there were countless people who had been captured by his uncle. The perpetrator had not left a signature, just the message that they would return. The entire situation was extremely unusual. Yu Yin noticed the residents nearby starting to point in their direction, so he called Yu Tong. However, the call was never picked up, and the result was the same when he tried to call Yu Xia instead. In the end, he could only call another officer he was more familiar with to request for them to come handle the situation. “The front door can’t be opened like this…” He inspected it closely. The smaller side door had also been affected. Before the police arrived, it was best if he did not destroy the state of the crime scene.

About five minutes later, the nearby police quickly rushed over first. After asking them a few questions, they went off to interrogate the neighbours.

“Someone said they saw two or three thugs come inside a black van and do this.” After a period of time, most of the residents had been questioned. Officer Fang returned to where Yu Yin was to say, “Do you guys want to go sit at a nearby drinks shop? You can go back in once we collect the evidence.”

Yu Yin nodded and watched the other people currently taking photos of his front entrance and bagging items. “Oh right, Zhuang-Gē, we have security cameras at our front door. You can go check them…also, do you know what my dad and uncle are busy with today? I called them a ton of times just now, but nobody picked up. Jiu Shen-Gē doesn’t seem to be there either.”

The expression of the officer referred to as Zhuang-Gē changed into a slightly unnatural one. After struggling to speak for a few seconds, he finally answered, “Your dad had to unexpectedly take a business trip, and Boss Xia is in a self-review meeting right now. That’s probably why their phones are not on. Jiu Shen and the others were on a major case this morning, and should still be at the site right now.”

“Zhuang-Gē, you don’t seem very confident of your words.” Yu Yin narrowed his eyes at the familiar face in front of him. “If my dad went on a business trip, wouldn’t he have called back first?”

“Eh…I’m not really sure about that, we’re not in the same group after all…it seemed to be a sudden thing. Just ask your old man later to find out more,” Officer Zhuang hastily answered. He then patted Yu Yin’s shoulders and said, “You should just bring Xiao Yu to somewhere nearby for drinks. We’ll try to get things done here as fast as possible. I’ll call you again later.”

Yu Yin studied the person in front of him for a moment. Although he found the other person’s mannerisms suspicious, he could not bring himself to continue questioning. “Alright, thank you for your trouble then.”

The officer sighed in relief. After leaving a few more words behind, he returned back to call out and tell the others to hurry up.

Yu Yin exchanged a glance with Xiao Yu and shrugged. He restarted his motorbike engine as he pondered which nearby shop was more convenient…Ah, actually, I’ll just bring Xiao Yu to the desserts place as originally planned. We won’t be able to come home for another half an hour at least anyways, plus my physical condition seems fine now. After deciding on this, Yu Yin grinned slightly and turned the handles to circle around towards the other direction.

Before they left, he seemed to catch a glimpse of a male among the surrounding crowds wearing a suit and sunglasses. The person seemed somewhat familiar, but also completely alien at the same time. The other person’s line of sight also met his, but it shifted away a few seconds later towards the home’s front door. Then, the person finally disappeared amidst the gathered mothers and aunties from the neighbourhood.

Yu Yin did not think much of it. After leaving the road his house was on, he abandoned the noisy crowds and headed in the other direction.

He could just talk about the other matters with his dad later when they came back.

***

“According to the initial examination, the emergency personnel on the ambulance discovered some traces of internal bleeding and marks of a gunshot on the shoulder, in addition to Officer Yu’s injuries from the building fall…”

The currently reporting officer lowered his head while flipping through his records and secretly watching everyone’s expressions darken. He really wanted to shove this burning report off to someone else so that he did not have to continue feeling scared witless while speaking.

After the short report, the representative of the group who had come to understand the situation coughed twice.

“So, who was it that fell down?” They had temporarily borrowed the conference room in the hospital. Many people were either sitting or standing there, most of them being the main members of the attack today. A portion of them were still covered in blood, having not had the time to change clothes. The people sitting at the head of the table were their supervisor and direct leader. Their expressions were stormy as their piercing gazes swept across the subordinates, finally landing on the person next to the door who sported an identical face to the person currently in surgery.

Said person crossed his arms and leaned against the door as he coldly snorted, “I’m Yu Xia.”

The group leader slammed his palm down on the table and jumped up, already starting to feel the acid in his stomach boil. He pointed at Yu Xia and shouted without restraint, “Bastard! Nobody cares if you two switch to resolve trivial things, but you dared to swap to deal with a case this critical? Do you have any notion of discipline at all?!”

Yu Xia walked over and likewise slammed a hand down on the table in front of his fearful colleagues. The bang was even louder than the group leader’s had been, causing the table to shake. “Screw you. If you hadn’t forced me to stay in the station today to listen to your shit, would we need to have switched places? You clearly knew that we were closing in today, because that bastard would run again if we didn’t catch him. I even warned you to come before 8:30 so that I could swap back. And in the end, you were late because you were eating breakfast! Do you have any concept of time?!”

“My breakfast is none of your business! And I wasn’t late because I was eating breakfast! Don’t you know that my work hours start at nine, not six?!” The slam on the table was forcibly louder than Yu Xia’s this time. The group leader then slid back down onto his seat, before shaking his hand under the table.

The supervisor, whose surname was Hong, coughed twice, pretending to not notice his coworker’s actions next to him. “So, it was Yu Tong this morning going in your place, is that correct?” He was trying to figure out how to report all this to the bureau chief, a headache-inducing disaster…

“Yes.” Yu Xia very angrily turned to spit out his response.

“Mm…there are a lot of reporters waiting outside the hospital for information right now. At the moment, we have sealed the information off. You’d best figure out exactly what happened before the reporters get any news, or else this matter won’t just involve you. We, and the brothers sitting here right now, would all get in trouble. Do you understand?” Hong Qi Wei stood and looked at the subordinate they had protected all this time with a serious expression. “Yu Xia, this incident is a massive one.”

“…I’ll submit the preliminary report tomorrow morning.” Yu Xia obviously knew how critical the matter was. He crossed his arms and then spat out, “I’ll head to the scene immediately after I see my older brother.”

As if acting in response to Yu Xia’s words, two knocks came from the conference room door the instant he finished speaking. It then opened as the officer standing guard outside poked his head in. “Sorry for the interruption, but the initial surgery was just completed. The nurse has asked the family member to go over.”

“Yu Xia, you go over there first. Everyone else, return to the station in different groups.” Hong Qi Wei glanced at his watch and stood up first. It was now several hours past noon. “You are all to write me reports.”

All the police in the area let out quiet groans.

“Don’t draw any attention when you leave. If any of you get caught by the reporters, you’re dead meat.” Yu Xia made sure give his colleagues a warning before leaving the conference room.

After the incident had occurred in the morning, their unit had quickly been split into two batches, with the smaller group being sent to the hospital while the larger group had been sent to detain the person from the scene and bring them back to the station.

Yu Xia obviously knew that his superiors – the supervisor and the group leader – had rushed over here immediately out of concern, and had even made sure to close off any information leaks. After all, he was still stuck in another case at the moment for what would likely be a very long time. This point alone was the reason he felt grateful towards them from the bottom of his heart.

“If something happens, call us,” the supervisor said before leaving.

Yu Xia nodded and quickly walked towards the floor the surgery room was on. But the moment he stepped out of the elevator he saw Yan Si – a person that should not have appeared in this place.

Yan Si likewise froze upon seeing Yu Xia. But then he raised a hand to speak first. “Let me explain; the main surgeon is my senior. I just decided to circle over out of concern about the situation, I’m not here for work. They just moved into a patient room, you can just follow me.” With that, he walked forwards to act as the guide.

“You should go look at that corpse first.” Yu Xia followed behind with furrowed brows as he thought of the other person who had fallen from the building. “I thought that job had been assigned to you.”

“Oh, on my way here, I asked for someone in the lab to tell me the preliminary status.” Yan Si stopped in front of a vending machine in the hallway to buy two canned drinks, handing over one of them. “Luckily I wasn’t the one on the scene; I heard that guy’s face had to be dug out with a shovel.”

Although the victim had only fallen from the eighth floor, [the damage] had been quite significant since he had landed face-first.

“…”

“Based on the critical injuries, he had likely already lost consciousness by the time he had fallen off. I also suspect that he may have been nearly dead before he had even crashed.” He paused to take careful note of the expression of the person walking behind, before continuing, “There were signs of what is suspected to be bullet holes in the remains of the body’s destroyed skull.”

“A police gun?” Yu Xia narrowed his eyes.

“That’s not it, the caliber is different. I heard that its measured caliber was larger than those provided to the police. It’s very possible that the shot had not been fired by our side. There is probably a third party. At the moment, that’s all the data. I’ll tell you everything else later once I go back and dissect the body.” Yan Si stopped in front of a door and tilted his head in thought before spinning around to face the other person, who had stopped as well. “…Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Yu Xia looked at the guarded room and took a deep breath. “Don’t let Ah Yin and Xiao Yu know about this for now.”

“We knew you were going to say that, so nobody has told them yet. You should think carefully how you want to deal with this, especially with that rascal Ah Yin. Although he may look scatterbrained, he can be really terrifying sometimes. I think they’ll find out pretty soon.” Yan Si truly felt this way. The student that was ganged up on could connect with spirits; who knew if he would learn of something bizarre from some kind of strange thing again? Then he would end up magically appearing in some place, advancing bravely to uncover the situation they wanted to temporarily hide.

Yu Xia began to crack his knuckles as he met Yan Si’s gaze.

“No, I’m not telling you to beat him to death.” Yan Si coughed to stop the person from possibly bringing rise to another case.

After the joking around stopped, Yu Xia turned to open the door. He put on a separate coat and surgical mask before stepping inside. Because it was a special circumstance, the hospital had specifically called him here.

He stood next to the bed where his twin brother lay, still in deep sleep having just finished surgery. There was no trace of blood left in his pale face, and he did not show any kind of response…

Yu Xia slowly closed his eyes.

“Don’t worry, I will find that person and let you personally deal with him.”

Then, he re-opened his eyes and turned to walk out of the patient room.

Having not expected Yu Xia to leave so quickly, Yan Si frowned wordlessly.

“I’ll have to trouble your senior for the rest.” Yu Xia reached out to knock the other person on the shoulder before walking towards the direction of the elevator. Right as he stepped inside, a voice came from the hallway—

“If you need any help at all, contact me again.”

The elevator doors quietly closed.

***

Yu Yin looked backwards.

Since afternoon, he had felt as if something was constantly next to him. However, aside from the two odd instances of his eyes hurting, he had not seen anything strange. It might have just been him being too sensitive.

Xiao Yu was quietly humming a song as he walked next to Yu Yin.

Since the end of summer, Yu Yin had noticed that Xiao Yu had started changing more and more. Aside from showing more expressions and speaking more, he would occasionally hum a few melodies that he had heard on TV, just like now. After they had finished eating a ton of desserts, the soft humming that usually lasted for a dozen seconds or so had now gone on for over twenty seconds, although it quickly stopped.

“Gladiator?” Yu Yin was enjoying himself quite a bit as well as they casually strolled down the bustling street at night. He automatically brought up the song that had been hummed just now. “The song that played when the main character died, right?”

Xiao Yu glanced at him and nodded.

“I really liked…the home he returned to at the end.” Yu Yin thought about it for a bit before smiling in slight embarrassment. “Probably because I feel that one day, Dad will meet my mom again in a similar place…or maybe I can too. It would be nice if everyone ended up in a place that warm and beautiful after dying. Same with you and Uncle…that would be great.”

His memories of his mother always stopped at that beautiful back facing him, and the old, aged photo on the table. The only other things he knew were bits that Yu Tong or Yu Xia had told him. The female head of the family had left the world so early, before she had managed to leave any deep impressions in his young mind. Thinking about it would make him feel quite sad sometimes.

And deep within his mind were also some fuzzy memories he did not want to touch, like the day when the sky had reflected the scarlet blood…

Suddenly, Yu Yin snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that the person who had been walking next to him just now was nowhere to be seen. He stopped and turned to see Xiao Yu standing at the intersection, having not crossed the crosswalk. His line of vision was not pointed at Yu Yin, but in the opposite direction instead. There was also a terrifying expression on his face that Yu Yin had never seen before, as if he had seen some kind of person he harbored extreme hatred for.

The next second, Xiao Yu began to race in that direction.

“Xiao Yu! Stop!” Seeing the abnormal reaction, Yu Yin immediately crossed the street, not caring that the pedestrian light only showed two seconds remaining. Ignoring the multiple glares and sounds of honking, he quickly chased after Xiao Yu. “Help me catch that high school student!”

Xiao Yu ran faster than Yu Yin expected, pulling a large distance between them in a blink of the eye. As a result, he could only shout out, causing a few pedestrians to dash off to one side and make way for them. A few others reacted more quickly, likely thinking it was a robbery, and tried to help capture Xiao Yu. However, Xiao Yu flashed past them so quickly that they only managed to barely grab a tiny corner of his clothing. There was no way they could actually stop him.

Yu Yin did not know what Xiao Yu had seen. However, while in pursuit, his vision suddenly blurred again as those black shadows appeared once more, swaying between the people [on the road]. When he passed by them, dark red slits appeared on their faces, curling up in a mocking grin. The sinister chuckles drowned out the sounds of the people and cars, and the road he was running on disappeared.

He gradually lost his sense of direction.

When he abruptly realised what those familiar-looking shadows were, his vision suddenly brightened. His pursuit after Yu stopped in the middle of the road, right in front of an oncoming black, recreational car. The driver’s honks pierced the air as the pair of eyes behind the glass widened. The driver then shouted in terror from inside the car, as if he was the victim.

Yu Yin could not tell if he had been hit by the car or not, but a great force suddenly pushed him off to one side. Then, his senses seemed to be dragged back from a distant place, and his mind instantly cleared. At the same time, he saw the girl who had just bumped into him.

“Damn it, why do I have to do this kind of thing?!” Fang Yi Xun shook her head as she instantly jumped back from his body, then pressed down on her left wrist that was now in slight pain after crashing into the street. “You okay?”

Yu Yin blankly stared at this person who had appeared in this place for some reason. He stood up as a few passerbys asked him questions of concern, and he thanked each of the people nearby before focusing on his “saviour”. “You…”

“Shh, follow me first.” Fang Yi Xun glanced back briefly before swiftly dragging him through the crowds and running past a bunch of honking cars towards the opposite street.

As soon as they crossed over, Yu Yin discovered that Yu had already been caught by another acquaintance.

“Are you not aware that there are reporters following behind you? Hurry up and get into the car!” The capturer, Teng Qi, ignored Xiao Yu’s struggles to escape, and raised his head to gesture at a sports car behind them. Fang Yi Xun opened the door, and Teng Qi yanked Yu over and pushed him inside.

Now that Teng Qi had mentioned it, Yu Yin realised in shock that there really was someone pursuing them. He immediately recalled that there were still a few reporters near his home who had never given up. Plus, there was the paint incident from this afternoon. Without much thought, he directly got into the shotgun seat.

The silver, streamlined racecar turned around the street, instantly shaking off the people who had nearly caught photos of them from behind, and they instantly sped off into the night onto another road.

Once they had gone a distance away from the city, the number of people and cars began to drop. Only then did Yu, who was being restrained by Fang Yi Xun in the backseat, slowly stop resisting.

“Drink something.”

After turning on some music, Teng Qi, who was in the driver’s seat, used one hand for turning the steering wheel smoothly through a traffic light while the other hand reached out to the office bag next to him. He searched around for a canned drink before tossing it to the person sitting next to him.

Yu Yin grabbed the canned drink and studied it closely. The sticker on it said it was plum wine. “You guys can drink alcohol at work?!”

“That is hers.” Teng Qi pointed at the high school girl behind, who leaned forward to bite the finger. However, Teng Qi retracted it before she could.

“Whatever, I’m fine anyways.” Yu Yin smiled and returned the wine to its original location.

Teng Qi shot him a sideways glance as he adjusted the rearview mirror. “It’s really been a while, you two.” Although he had heard of their matters, it had definitely been quite a while since they had last met. He had originally been planning to pay them a visit at their home in a few days.

After confirming that Yu would not try to rush off the car anymore, Fang Yi Xun shifted her body forwards so that it was between the two front seats. “This lady rescued you. Shouldn’t you be saying something?” She asked as she pushed at Yu Yin’s shoulder.

“Thanks to the both of you.” Yu Yin obediently thanked them. He looked around at the mostly empty road, somewhat recognising the area. It did not seem to be the way back to his home, although Teng Qi likely did not harbor any ill intent towards them. As a result, Yu Yin did not ask any questions; the other party surely had their own plans.

Teng Qi nodded and glanced back through the mirror again. “It seems like there were reporters following you just now, so I’ll bring you two to my home first before sending you back later. Do you need to call the two Officer Yu’s?”

“I’ll tell them later.” Yu Yin truly felt as if today was very bizarre. Aside from the things that had happened at school, there was also the house being sprayed with blood and paint, being unable to contact his dad and uncle, and now Yu going crazy for an unknown reason. He suddenly felt as if the day had been extremely long. “Xiao Yu, what exactly were you running for!” The moment his thoughts landed on Yu, he remembered to question the incident from just earlier.

He was clearly fine a second earlier, why did he suddenly look as if he had seen a nemesis?

“He…!” Yu’s eyes were wide as he tightly clutched the seat of the racecar. His response was accompanied with an intense expression on his usually calm face.

“Who?” Yu Yin pushed Fang Yi Xun’s face away to look behind at the backseat.

“The person…with incense…”

“You mean the person who sold the incense to your family?” Yu Yin was shocked. He had not imagined that the actual enemy had appeared.

Yu nodded furiously.

“That…”

Before Yu Yin could finish speaking, Fang Yi Xun abruptly screamed from her seat, interrupting the conversation in the car. “In front, in front! Quickly stop the car—”

Her shout cut off as a person suddenly appeared in front of the racecar. All Yu Yin saw when the headlight flashed on the face was deathly pale skin. Then, a loud bang rang out as they collided, shaking the entire car as it urgently braked and skidded out at a sharp angle.

Caught completely unexpected, Fang Yi Xun and Yu, who had not worn their seatbelts, ended up being tossed and piled together.

Yu Yin, who had crashed into the dashboard in front, clutched his head as he felt on the verge of passing out from the extreme pain.

“Shit!” Teng Qi slammed on the steering wheel and opened the door to exit the car. The others inside looked in front and soon followed suit.

“Why did someone suddenly run out?!” Fang Yi Xun looked around at the closed metal doors on both sides of the empty street while rubbing her mouth; the crash just now had made her bite through the skin on her lips.

The door next to the driver’s seat was lightly opened, and someone silently sat in its seat.

“Outside…” Yu Yin could not finish his words—or rather, he was so stunned that he could not make any response.

A lump of black shadow was sitting in the driver’s seat. A blood-red smile faced towards them under the faint glow of the streetlamps amidst the darkness.

“There’s nothing outside!” Teng Qi’s voice came from behind the car.

Fang Yi Xun held her breath, completely shocked as well.

More black shadows were now faced in their direction outside the driver’s seat.

The first one to react was Yu. He pulled Fang Yi Xun aside and dove into the front seat, forcefully pushing the black thing off the car. Since it likely did not expect Yu to have the ability to touch it, the thing actually ended up falling out.

Teng Qi sensed the abnormality in the car and immediately returned back to sit in the originally vacant seat.

“Drive!” Fang Yi Xun shouted, banging on the seat as she saw the black shadows quickly begin to surround the car.

Teng Qi slammed down on the accelerator of the still running engine. The racecar zoomed away from the area, leaving the black shadows far behind them, until they blended into the dark night.

“What were those things?!” Yu Yin took a few deep breaths. After checking behind them and seeing that the things were not chasing after, he finally relaxed a bit.

“Nothing good, for sure.” Fang Yi Xun patted her chest, having not quite recollected herself completely yet either.

Teng Qi glanced at them from the driver’s seat. “Sorry to interrupt you two from your moment of shock, but do you know what we just bumped into?”

Fang Yi Xun and Yu Yin simultaneously turned towards him.

“There was a person just now…” Yu Yin stammered.

“I don’t think it was a person. Honestly speaking, I did not see anything on the road just now.” Teng Qi glanced at the backseat. “What about you, Xiao Yu?”

Yu blinked his violet eyes and shook his head. It was evident that he had not been as frightened as the other two. “Nothing at all…”

They all looked at each other in dismay and fell silent.