The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

In the end, Teng Qi ended up driving up to a standalone garage in front of a townhouse.

He studied the quiet children in the car for a moment before opening the garage door with his usual smile and smoothly parking the racecar inside. “Those things should not follow us to this place. We should all rest here for a bit first.”

Once everyone got off the car, he led the group into the large house.

Yu Yin scanned the surroundings full of nearly identical villas in this small residential area. He re-assessed the person that had brought them to this place before following behind.

When they stepped through the front door of the four-story villa, the first thing Yu Yin saw the instant the lights were turned on was an unfathomable painting of a god. The canvas seemed to be quite aged, as it was slightly yellowed and also sported some old markings. The god depicted was likely a god of war, as it held a golden spear in its hand and carried a sword at its waist. It wore a plate of black and gold armour along with a helmet, and a fierce lion stood by its side. Surprisingly, the painting did not give off a frightening or murderous feeling, but rather an extremely dignified and stately ambience. The most eye-catching part was the pair of blue eyes on the painting.

“What is that?” Yu Yin pointed at the art as he turned to look at the house owner, who had walked to the small bar in the back.

“Oh, that is our ancestor.” The one who replied was Fang Yi Xun. She plopped down onto the sofa as she said, “Ah Yu’s home is supposed to have one too.”

Yu Yin instantly spun to shift his gaze to Yu, who was currently studying the painting in curiousity. “Does your home have one?”

Yu shot a puzzled look at Fang Yi Xun and shook his head.

“His generation doesn’t have it for some reason. I inspected his house before, and did not see any paintings.” Teng Qi walked over with some prepared drinks, turning on some music on the way. The music quickly filled the quiet space, more or less dissipating the eerie feeling from before. “Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that the previous one or two generations did not have it either.”

Yu Yin stared at Teng Qi, then back at Yu with the feeling that they were keeping something from him. He rubbed his face and asked, “Exactly what relationship do you guys have?” He had the feeling that Yu had been privately communicating with the other two on many an occasion now, based on how natural their responses to each other were. Yu Yin knew that Yu did not seem to like approaching strangers; even if Fang Yi Xun could not quite count as one, Yu was not even trying to avoid Teng Qi. That alone showed just how familiar they already were.

“Mm…the simple answer is that the Teng family and the Shaodi family were originally families that had shared close relations with each other for many generations. However, the families broke away from each other for an unknown reason a few generations ago. The more complicated answer is that my mother was among the visiting friends that his father killed.” Teng Qi smiled faintly at Yu Yin’s expression of extreme astonishment as he continued to speak casually, as if discussing a matter that was unrelated to him. “I am Yi Xun’s cousin. Basically, the three of us were originally from the same family.”

Teng Qi figured that at this point, there was no meaning in hiding this from Yu Yin any longer.

Shock was not enough to describe what Yu Yin currently felt. All that flashed through his mind was the realisation of why Fang Yi Xun had spoken in such an unfriendly manner before. It was no wonder that Yu was always hanging around her.

In the end, he was just an outsider after all.

“Excuse me, I need to get some fresh air.” Yu Yin rubbed his head that was now starting to hurt again. The truth he had heard just now was a bit too shocking; his emotions were a complicated mess and he did not particularly want to look at any of these people at the moment.

“Please, go ahead.” Teng Qi maintained his smile as he let the other walk out the front porch.

Noticing that Yu Yin was looking slightly off, Yu grew somewhat concerned and wanted to follow as well. However, Fang Yi Xun stopped him. “It’s not like he has a car. He’ll come back in later. You should just think about whether you want him to know everything or not. After all, you originally didn’t want to drag him under.”

Yu looked at her and sighed.

“The less outsiders know, the safer it is. If you do not wish for him to get involved, we can obviously come up with an excuse.” Teng Qi passed over the drinks in his hand and said, “Although I do not wish for the two of you young ones getting too mixed up into this matter either.”

“We haven’t done anything yet.” Fang Yi Xun shrugged. “You, on the other hand, should not keep any progress from us.”

“That person is not someone you two can deal with. I have my own plans. If there is any progress, you will all know of it.” Teng Qi’s smile widened as he rubbed her head a bit, before she swatted his hand away.

Yu thought it over for a bit longer, but still felt as if this wasn’t quite right. He put his drink down and stood to walk over to the front porch.

He felt that he should say something. Yu Yin’s expression just now had given Yu an uncomfortable feeling…

But upon opening the door, the one that was stunned was Yu.

The small neighbourhood of villas was quiet, with no sounds of people to be heard.

He was welcomed with the sight of empty space, with nobody else to be seen.

***

Yellow tape was drawn up all around the complex.

“Achoo!” Jiu Shen sneezed behind his face mask as he stood up from the ground he had been dusting off, while stretching his stiffened muscles. “What in the world is in here…” He grumbled as he walked over while pulling the face mask off. He stood at the top of the building, staring down at the streets.

As the night approached, the light from the setting sun shone down on the rooftop that had been almost entirely dyed orange. The place where the incident had occurred in the morning was right below where he was looking at. The dark-coloured ground still had traces of dried bloodstains, and its current state was still a ghastly sight.

He sneezed and rubbed his face. He seemed to smell a strange odour, but it was very faint and he could not tell what it was from.

“Is something wrong?” Liao Yi Ma was also waiting on the rooftop. He snuffed the cigarette in his hand as he moved over to inquire in concern.

“Probably allergies…achoo!” Jiu Shen gestured that he was fine as he glanced back at the roof that they had nearly finished examining. “Alright, the next place should be the room downstairs…achoo! Damn! Which room did that person who fell vertically live in…” He tidied up his work case and circled around twice to confirm that there were no other items of interest left.

“The sixth and seventh floors both are. The seventh floor bathroom was used to make drugs, and there are some smuggled objects inside as well. Make sure to stay cautious; a few companions of the one that died have not been captured yet. Other people already went in this afternoon, do you still need to go again?” Liao Yi Ma asked as he helped to pick up some items.

“Getting one or two more looks would be more thorough.” Jiu Shen pinched his nose as he still felt the urge to sneeze. He walked forwards and continued to speak, his voice sounding very strange as he said, “It’s fine if you head back first, there are still others downstairs. I heard that you guys need to give statements?” Jiu Shen had just learned of this through a phone call.

“Going a bit late won’t matter. There are still a few people taking their turns right now.” Liao Yi Ma shrugged.

Jiu Shen nodded and refocused back onto searching for evidence. He sneezed once more and began to walk down the apartment stairs. “Oh right, did you really not see what happened back then?”

Liao Yi Ma sighed. “I really didn’t. There seemed to be an issue with my wireless connection at the time, as my reports weren’t being transmitted. Since there was a suspicious sound, all of us split up to investigate. Before I had even noticed, Boss had already gone up and apparently bumped into that guy. The two of them seemed to be fighting on the rooftop; by the time I ran up to assist, they had already fallen down.”

“Oh, weird. The rooftop was pretty clean; it didn’t seem like any wrestling had occurred. And why didn’t Tong report immediately…it was said that he had opened fire, and there were gunshots on his body as well. In that case, why were there no bullet shells on the rooftop just now? Did somebody touch anything up there before me?” Jiu Shen grabbed his own work case and stepped through the entrance of the seventh floor.

“There shouldn’t have been.”

Liao Yi Ma stood at the doorway, watching the investigation officer enter the home.

Jiu Shen circled around the residence a few times and crouched close to the ground as he began to search for something. “Help me turn off the light, thanks.” As he reached out for his work case, he looked under the sofa nearest to him.

He did not know who switched the room’s lights off.

But in that second, when Jiu Shen shone his flashlight under the sofa, he saw half of a face at the far end. “Ahhh—”

Someone instantly grabbed his shoulder and pushed him away, before using one foot to kick the sofa over. With a loud bang, the light suddenly shone to reveal the situation inside the room.

Jiu Shen crashed onto the ground on the other side. He saw the other person had their gun pointed towards where the sofa had just been. There was a large, old poster with half a person displayed on it; the face he had seen just now was part of the poster.

Before he had even processed what was going on, the person holding the gun up directly slammed the butt of the gun onto his head. “Look properly before shouting next time!”

“Argh…” Jiu Shen clutched his aching head as he quickly crawled up to face the person who had magically appeared. “Bo-boss…you scared me to death. I thought something else had appeared.” He had bumped into way too many unscientific existences recently, to the point where he felt like he was about to lose his mind.

Jiu Shen let out a bated breath as he looked down at the poster on the ground.

Ah, he destroyed the scene of the crime…oh well, it’s best to not argue.

The sofa slowly slid down onto the ground from its place on the wall that it had been flung to, ending with a tragic thud.

“What’s written on it?” Yu Xia put his gun away as he studied the old poster. It was a poster used for electoral propaganda. The head was even larger than that of an actual person; in the darkness, it had seemed as if someone had suddenly appeared to be staring straight at Jiu Shen, which is what had frightened him.

Jiu Shen turned to see that there were a few words written out in marker on the back of a tiny section of the paper that had been flipped over. Unlike the paper itself, the marks were much newer.

“Give me a minute.” Jiu Shen quickly tossed his tools away to take a few photos before turning the poster over completely. There were two lines of characters written behind the yellowed propaganda poster. “Let me see…’W6/9:00/M837’ and ’12:00/M839 feed dog’…what is this?” When he picked the poster up, something fell down from it. He looked at where it had dropped on the ground; it was a small thumbtack.

“Might be the location and time for other transactions.” Yu Xia looked around and noticed the door next to the sofa. “Here.” He pointed at the door where there was a small hole around eye-level.

“It was probably placed there as a note originally, how did it fall under the sofa…? Seems like the time hasn’t passed yet, or else it wouldn’t be stuck up there…” Jiu Shen muttered the questions to himself as he sealed up the poster and walked over to take photos of the door as records. “Ah, my allergies are fine now.” He had just noticed that he had stopped sneezing.

Ignoring his rambling colleague, Yu Xia walked back to the doorway. “You head back first.” He somewhat curtly said to Liao Yi Ma, “Everyone is waiting to question you, what are you still loitering around here for?”

“Eh, ah, I’ll head over immediately…Boss, if you find anything out….” Liao Yi Ma’s expression was complicated as he bitterly smiled, “Please, we all really want to know what happened.”

“Hurry up and scram!”

“Ah, what’s this?” Jiu Shen picked up a small object that was slightly larger than a coin from where the sofa had been. The two other people outside were immediately drawn to Jiu Shen’s actions. “Seems to be glass. It’s round.” He shrugged, indicating that it was probably not anything very useful. He picked up the tiny, round piece of glass and placed it into the bag used for evidence.

Picking up more things is better than picking up less; taking anything suspicious is only proper.

Liao Yi Ma shifted his gaze away. “Alright, I’ll head back first then. Boss, make sure to contact us if there’s any progress!” He patted Yu Xia’s shoulder and quickly bounded down the staircase to leave.

Yu Xia kept his eyes on his colleague running down the stairs for a while. He then turned to discuss something with the officer at the door before returning back into the room. “Is there anything strange?”

Jiu Shen eyed him. “There’s tons. The hospital said Tong had gunshots on his shoulder, but I didn’t find any shells on the rooftop—”

“Ah Si said that there was a bullet in the head of the guy that died. The others all confirmed that they only heard the sound of gunfire once,” Yu Xia interrupted the other’s words. With narrowed eyes, he said, “Where do you think the gun wound on my brother came from?”

“If [the bullet] was embedded, and it had only been shot once, then the gun could only have been fired at close range…the two must have been extremely close to each other, and in that moment, the bullet would first have passed through Tong’s body before striking the other guy’s head. Because it lacked enough power, it stopped inside the skull in the end. If they were wrestling with each other, this situation could be possible…wait! So that third bastard might have stolen away my bullet shell!” Jiu Shen immediately leapt up from the ground, instantly realising why he had failed to find anything after searching the rooftop for the entire afternoon. “Weird, Ah Yi said he only saw Tong and that dead guy there?”

“They might have escaped through another apartment from the rooftop.” Yu Xia glanced up at the darkening sky and coldly dismissed, “You go back first. I’ll bring the preliminary data to you later. Other people have already searched through this place in the afternoon anyways, so searching won’t make much of a difference.”

“Alright.” Jiu Shen nodded and shut his work case, locking it with the safety code. As he walked out of the door, he thought back to the topic again and turned back around in unease. “Boss, I know you’re very angry right now, but please don’t kill the perpetrator the instant we find him. At least wait until he’s been transferred before getting rid of him.” Although his boss appeared to be calm and collected, that was actually what the most frightening part was…It’s like how people say ‘dogs that bite don’t bark’ or something like that. Jiu Shen was somewhat afraid that the second they found the criminal, they would be directly transferred to the morgue.

Yu Xia’s reply was a fist slamming down onto Jiu Shen’s head.

Jiu Shen gripped his head and fled in tears.

Yu Xia glared at the person fleeing down the stairs before turning back a few seconds later. As he shifted his gaze, he just happened to see someone walking down. It wasn’t someone from the police, and the other person was also stunned for a brief moment when they locked gazes.

“This is Mr. Jiang, the resident from the eighth floor,” the officer next to Yu Xia said in a soft voice.

“Please excuse me. I noticed that the elevator was not moving from the first floor, so I took the stairs because I figured someone was using it…did I interrupt anything?” The person wearing a tidy suit smiled in apology. “Jiang Zheng Hong.” Without any prompting, he passed over a name card first.

Yu Xia eyed the card briefly, which had the occupation of something like a night-shift manager written on it. “Yu Xia, I’m responsible for this case. Did you see or hear anything this morning?”

The man scratched his head with a troubled look on his face. “Those of us working night-shift typically sleep at four or five in the morning, and sleep pretty deeply through the day, so I really did not hear or see anything. I truly apologise for not being able to help…I have already told this to the other police gentlemen as well. If possible, could I go to work first? If you have any questions, you can find my cellphone number on the name card.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.” Yu Xia moved aside to let the other person leave. He then carefully inspected the small piece of paper in his hands and memorised its contents before placing it into his wallet.

Then, he sighed lightly and rubbed his face.

“There’s a coffee shop nearby. If you don’t mind it, perhaps you can go there and take a rest,” the officer next to him kindly informed.

“Thanks.”

He undoubtedly needed rest to properly deal with the incident.

Then, I have enough energy to beat that person to death for daring to make a move on my brother!

***

Yu Yin woke up feeling dizzy and intense pain.

When he blurrily opened his eyes, he saw a fuzzy silhouette crouched in front of him, their mouth opening and closing constantly while speaking. It took him a while before he finally realised that the person was asking him if he was okay and if he was hurt anywhere.

He remembered being outside the door of Teng Qi’s home.

The lights flickered around him, and a few seconds later, he felt a stabbing pain in his eyes.

“Did anyone report the hit-and-run to the police—”

“Student, are you able to stand?”

Several people were around him, and there were also the sounds of engines and constant honking from cars around them.

Only after a long moment passed did he finally realise what was wrong. His memories ended at him standing in front of Teng Qi’s front door; he had absolutely no idea why there were suddenly a bunch of people around him. He could not connect the thoughts or figure anything out. When a very familiar face suddenly appeared from the large crowd, he finally let out a pained cry.

“Ah Yin? Why are you here?” Ah Fang had been playing around the streets when he had been drawn over by the commotion here. He squeezed through the crowd until he knelt down next to Yu Yin to see the bleeding head wound. Glancing up at the people around, Ah Fang asked, “Did anyone call the ambulance?!”

Several good-willed people quickly replied that they had, asking Ah Fang if they were related, before bursting into discussion about what had occurred just now.

Yu Yin struggled to pick out the details from the mess of voices. While crossing the road, he had been hit by a scooter, whose driver had fled…when he turned his head with difficulty, he saw two pale children standing amidst the crowd, the light passing through their nearly translucent bodies. They were quickly swallowed into the tides of people.

“Can you stand?” Ah Fang carefully with a tug after noticing that Yu Yin did not seem to have any extremely serious injuries.

Yu Yin moved his limbs a bit. Although they hurt, he could still move them, which meant it was likely flesh wounds. He nodded, letting the other person help him up. “I…”

“A scooter ran a red light just now and hit you. But fortunately, you were hit by the scooter first, or else the bus on the lane next to him that was also illegally crossing would have crashed into you and killed you for sure.” Ah Fang had no idea if he should be calling Yu Yin lucky or unlucky. He supported Yu Yin over to the sidewall to an emptier area. When the spectators saw that Yu Yin did not need much other help, most of them quickly dispersed. The ones remaining continued to kindly wait with them for the ambulance.

Another two minutes or so passed before the ambulance sirens gradually approached from the distance. However, because of the mass of cars and people, it was difficult for it pass through.

While waiting, Yu Yin’s mind slowly cleared up. He finally noticed that this street was where he and Yu had bumped into Teng Qi and Fang Yi Xun earlier – how had he ended up here?

Then, the scooter’s rider that had fled was dragged back. However, his face was deathly pale as he shouted that he had only run through the red light because he had been chased by a little ghost…

Yu Yin took a deep breath. He had absolutely zero recall on how he had gotten here. However, seeing as his feet were stiff and in pain, he could at least confidently say that he had definitely walked over himself unconsciously. He just had no idea what the reason for doing so was.

With the help of Ah Fang and some of the bystanders, Yu Yin let the ambulance bring him to the nearest hospital. He noticed that there were a few police cars outside the hospital for some reason, with a few familiar-looking faces. However, before he could identify them, he was sent to the emergency room.

From the initial examination, the doctor on duty declared Yu Yin did not have any critical injuries. However, the doctor decided to have Yu Yin stay a night for further observation. After hooking him up to an IV drip, the doctor left.

“Do you need me to contact your family?” Ah Fang walked over with a form in his hand, having stayed to help with a few procedures.

Yu Yin held his head in his hands and bitterly smiled. “No need. Ah…if it’s not too much trouble, could you help me call Li Lin Yue?” The only person he could think of that he knew would definitely come over was that woman.

“What about your brother?” Ah Fang recalled that the brothers had been pretty close.

“Don’t call him!” Yu Yin tossed the bloodstained bandages from his hand into the trash can next to him. He had not forgotten why he had walked out in the first place. “That damn brat.” He went so far to keep me away, while I was genuinely and wholeheartedly treating him as my actual younger brother.

“Eh…it’s no trouble at all. Yi Tai told me to bring enough money while going out today, and also said that I would probably stay outside today. I think it’s likely that his words were referring to you. If you don’t want the two Officer Yu’s to know, it’s probably better if I stay with you tonight.” Ah Fang scratched his head as he filled out the blanks on the form before automatically bringing it out with him to finish handling the formalities.

After the nurse came to bandage his wounds, Yu Yin stood up.

The emergency room was livelier than expected at night in terms of both those that could be seen and those that could not be seen. There were a few other things floating back and forth between the injured patients, occasionally pausing for a bit before blankly moving around again. They seemed unable to leave this place.

Yu Yin had not expected to suddenly be able to see them so clearly. When he spotted a face that had somehow half rotted away, he shifted his gaze and began to follow the wall towards a quieter area of the hospital.

After general services hours, the hospital was almost unusually quiet. The only sounds that could be heard were the whirring of machines coming from some unknown corner.

He heard soft footsteps approaching from behind him. Then, they crossed past him and began to run to the opposite side of the corridor. One of the young children stopped and waved at him before turning to go up the stairs.

Yu Yin could hear low voices conversing from the corridor. He shook his head to shake away some of the dizziness and began to climb up the stairs, one floor after another. With each step, he felt various gazes on him from above. Some were out of curiousity, but some were of an emotion he could not discern.

Finally, he arrived at the floor.

Before he had even entered the hallway, he heard a faint clamour. By the time he arrived, the two children had already stopped before a certain room, and they raised their heads to look up at him.

He could hear the usual noise of an electricity-powered machine.

The door quietly opened automatically to reveal a path forwards. With a single glance, he could tell who was lying in the bed without even needing to turn on the lights. It was the familiar outline of the face he had seen growing up all these years.

Yu Yin held his breath. He did not dare to walk inside, fearing that doing so would turn it into reality. Instead, he took a few steps backwards and re-shut the door.

He finally knew why nobody had picked up their phones all day today, and why Yan Si had left his home so hastily.

Something bumped into the door from inside, and a filled-out medical record form softly slid out from under the door’s crack, landing right next to his shoe.

Aside from the injured patient’s name, there were also the times of two surgeries and the listing of all the various wounds.

Yu Yin bit down hard on his hand, afraid of making a sound and attracting the attention of others. Although he did not know why there was suddenly nobody around here, there should logically be nurses or others from the station around here. His injured head could not come up with any reason for these people disappearing, nor did he want to really want to think about it.

A small, ice-cold hand tugged at a finger on his other hand. The small child was urging him to leave now.

“Wait…wait a minute.” With a lot of effort, he managed to suppress his voice to the smallest volume possible and rummaged through his pockets to pull out the amulet he had borrowed from Yu before. The small child immediately leapt away as far as possible. “Wait…” Yu Yin pushed the door open again and saw footprints all over the floor. He tied the object around the wrist of the person lying in the bed. At least this way, the chances of bad things nearing this person would be significantly lower.

“Please…don’t let me see you…”

He shakily walked down the hallway.

Yu Yin was not certain whether it was because he was injured or whether it was due to another reason, but his entire body was freezing, and he was so dizzy that he could barely form coherent thoughts. As if understanding what he was trying to think about, the two transparent children pulled him by the corner of his clothes towards another direction, as if leading him to where he wanted to go.

The amount of people along the way gradually decreased.

No matter whether it’s Yu, Dad, or Uncle, they all refuse to speak when they get into trouble!

He did not know how far they brought him, but he saw almost no people throughout the entire trip. There were flickering shadows all over the place under the dim streetlamps, shadows that he had never seen so clearly before.

With no people around, the street was now being used by another party. He was like an oddity that had accidentally entered another world.

One of the children bared its teeth at their surroundings and let out a faint hissing noise. The dark shadows that had originally been trying to approach them instantly vanished.

He felt very tired. His legs were extremely sore, and his eyes that might have already cried out tears were a bit painful. There was an acidic, sour taste in his throat. His cellphone rang, but he immediately turned it off. It might have been Ah Fang calling him…or even if was someone else, it did not matter.

Finally, the two children stopped walking and disappeared, leaving him standing outside an apartment building. One side of the apartment was closed off with yellow tape, and he could even see the dark-coloured stains on the ground hidden in the shadows.

The moment he saw this place, he instantly knew where it was. He could even see the “person” struggling to crawl up from the ground next to the dark splatters. Its face was stuck to the ground, and its limbs wriggled about as if it had no bones. If it were not the fact that he could see it so distinctly, he might have thought it was some kind of invertebrate creature moving around the ground.

“Ah Yin? Why are you here?” A shocked voice rang out from behind him. The sound of quick steps raced over and stopped next to him. “Heavens, were you hit by a car? How did you get these injuries?”

Jiu Shen had never imagined the other person to appear in this place. He put down the case in his hand and began to pat down Yu Yin, his face deepening into a frown. “You have a fever!” He quickly took off his own jacket to cover the other with it, and looked around. “I’ll give Boss a call…”

“Wait…” Yu Yin grabbed Jiu Shen’s phone. “No need, I’m fine…”

“You call this being fine?” Unable to spot any shops nearby, Jiu Shen quietly cursed to himself. He had only come back to this place because he had still felt there were a few suspicious points, and wanted to search around another time. However, the police that were scheduled to come had not arrived yet. It looked like he would have to place his work aside for now. “I’ll bring you to the hospital…” He picked up the work case he had put down next to him and began to push Yu Yin, who appeared to be in a terrible state, towards where his car was parked.

But after walking a few steps, Yu Yin refused to move further. He turned around and looked at Jiu Shen with a very somber expression. “Jiu Shen-Gē, what exactly happened?”

When Jiu Shen heard the question, he nearly choked on his own breath. “That…” If he was the one to break the news, he would definitely be beaten to death by Boss. Then, refusing to let go so easily, Boss would somehow revive him and beat him to death once more. The thought could not be any more frightening. Moreover, he did not think he was the right person to be telling Yu Yin.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll start telling you what’s around here. Firstly, there’s a face stuck to the ground next to you…”

“I’ll talk, okay?” Jiu Shen quickly dragged Yu Yin towards his car and stuffed the person into the front seat while he sat down in the driver’s seat. “Don’t do it again! I really hate that trick!” Why do I keep suffering like this?!

Yu Yin chuckled and rubbed his temples as he stared at the person staring the engine. “What happened?”

“Eh…Ah Yin, you must realise that there is an extremely great risk in our line of work…so, that’s why…” Jiu Shen took a deep breath. If he had a choice, Jiu Shen would have truly wanted to avoid being the one saying this. “According to the current site investigation, we suspect that Boss and the person whose face is stuck on the ground were pushed down by someone. It is very likely that the opponent had another helping hand on the rooftop while they were wrestling with each other. The helping hand fired a gun at them, forcing them to fall down. I have a feeling that Boss saw who it was…this matter has not yet been revealed to the media…”

As the person next to him spoke, Yu Yin struggled to understand the words through his muddleheaded mind. When he finally looked up and saw a figure reflected in the window behind Jiu Shen, it was already too late for him to shout out a warning.

The driver’s seat door was abruptly yanked open by someone. Before Jiu Shen could even react, he was forcefully dragged out of his seat and thrown onto the ground in front of the car door.

After being tossed onto the floor, Jiu Shen felt the other person kick him in the stomach and start to pull him very far away from his car. Amidst the pain and being dragged, he tried his best to identify the other person. They were over 170 centimeters tall, and definitely a male. A female would not be able to drag him so powerfully like this…they wore dark sunglasses and a safety helmet, as well as a face mask. It was impossible to gauge their appearance. The long-sleeved clothing also completely covered any distinctive traits.

After being pulled around the corner. Jiu Shen saw the other person pull out a utility knife that glinted coldly under the illumination of the streetlamps.

“Hand over the object you took today.” An extremely low and muffled voice spoke from behind the mask in an emotionless tone. A tool that he often used casually at work was now being pressed against his neck as a fatal weapon, drawing a painful cut into his skin. “Or else you’ll become the third dead body.”

Jiu Shen started in alarm. “Third?” He struggled to turn around, but the other person punched him, causing him to lose all energy. “What do you plan on doing to Boss—”

“Who’s there?!”

A shout came from the other side of the street. The person immediately picked up their cellphone. “Is this the police? I have here…”

“Doing a job that requires one to exchange their own life is not worthwhile.” The helmet-wearing man left these final words behind before turning around and disappearing off into the dark street.

Yu Yin, who had managed to walk over with much difficulty, only saw the black shadow vanish on the other end of the street. He turned to meet the gazes of the two children that had come along to watch out of curiousity. “Follow him.”

One of the children disappeared into the darkness.

“Are you two alright?” The man who had just notified the police ran over. It was the eighth floor resident who had left the building earlier.

Jiu Shen pressed his neck and stomach, shaking his head as he stood up while leaning against the streetlamp next to him as support. “That guy was definitely the person that made Boss fall…”

“Seems a bit serious. You two should come over to my home first.” Jiang Zheng Hong glanced towards the direction where the attacker had vanished before hurriedly taking Jiu Shen by the arm to help him walk towards the apartment. There was the scent of alcohol lingering on Jiang Zheng Hong’s body.

“…Are you perhaps the manager of a nightclub?” Jiu Shen asked a completely irrelevant question.

“If you would like to become a consumer, I can offer you a 20% discount.” Jiang Zheng Hong did not refute the words, but smiled politely instead. “However, what we need first is something else.”

Jiu Shen turned his head and spotted the utility knife that had fallen to the ground. There was still scarlet blood on the blade.

Before he even said anything, Yu Yin immediately ran back to the car to help bring over his work case and a camera. After taking a few photos and picking up the object, he finally felt more at ease and allowed the other person to bring him to the apartment.

Yu Yin, who was walking behind the other two, turned to glance at the dark street. It was a black colour that felt as if it could corrode away the heart, that concealed the murderer that had escaped.

He really detested that colour.