The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

For an instant, he stopped breathing.

The now green eyes were pointed towards him, but appeared to be looking through another world. Then, the grandmother’s face returned to its usual appearance. That strange smile completely disappeared without a trace, making it seem like it had just been an illusion. “Ah He…haven’t seen the twins across us in a while…The one with the blouse always gave us good things to eat…where did the other one go…”

“They returned to their hometown. Didn’t the Mr. Jiang wearing the blouse already tell you that?” The man spoke to the elderly in bed with a low voice, as if appeasing a young child. He did not dare to speak too loudly in fear of frightening her.

“Ah, the other one…”

When Yu Yin heard their quiet exchange, he found the contents very odd. “By Mr. Jiang, do you mean the Jiang Zheng Hong on the eighth floor?” He has a twin?

The man turned to look at Yu Yin and slowly nodded. “My mother usually goes to the rooftop to water the plants and dry clothes under the sun. The Mr. Jiang that lives in the eighth floor of the building across occasionally goes up there too. Sometimes he brings some food for my mother, saying that his workplace has plenty of leftovers…He probably knows our financial situation isn’t the best, so he often gives us take-out.”

“Then, may I ask you a question? Does Mr. Jiang have a twin?” Yu Yin furrowed his brows together. Why did he remember Jiang Zheng Hong saying he was alone, without any other relatives?

“That’s right, it’s been a while since we saw the other one. In the past, my mother would often bump into the two very similar-looking Mr. Jiang’s on the balcony. The other one doesn’t dress as well, and is on the skinnier side. He wasn’t as approachable as this Mr. Jiang and would often just turn and leave upon seeing my mother for some reason. Later, we saw him going in and out of the apartment a few times as well. But it’s already been a very long time since we saw that one.” The man glanced at the still mumbling old woman, and then pressed the bell for the nurse.

When Yu Yin heard the other’s words, he felt goosebumps instantly form all over his body.

“Do you know what the other Mr. Jiang’s name is?” If Jiang Zheng Hong really did have a twin, he no longer dared to think about who that face in the ceiling boards belonged to.

He had always assumed it had just been his imagination; after all, a living person could not appear in that kind of place.

“It seems to be Zheng something…”

“Is it Zheng Wei?” Yu Yin quickly asked, recalling the name Jiang Zheng Hong had previously mentioned.

“Yes, I think one was Zheng Hong, and one was Zheng Wei.”

Before Yu Yin could continue asking questions, he was interrupted by the muttering grandmother suddenly trembling and convulsing around. “Mr. Police, shot a gun…”

“Did you see what happened on the rooftop?” Yu Yin hurriedly went over to the bed to help the man hold down the convulsing old woman.

“Fell down, pushed down…so terrible…”

The ward’s door was slammed open with a bang, and several nurses plus a doctor ran inside. “I’ll have to ask family members to please go to the side.” He pushed the two to the wall and swiftly drew the curtains around the bed, blocking it from their sight.

From where he stood outside, Yu Yin could hear the a few sentences such as, “Blood pressure can’t be increased”, “Patient’s pulse is weak”. The old woman’s whimpers grew quieter and quieter, until they became identical to the sound from the sutra player.

The man next to him choked up. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes and rushed straight out the door.

“Āmā ¹, can you hear my voice?”

The nurse’s question floated through the air.

For a second, the noise from the sutra player abruptly cut off.

The pink curtains around the bed were suddenly torn open from the inside. The nurses and the doctor behind were nowhere to be seen. The withered old woman stood before him, a faint green glow in her hollow eyes.

“Aren’t you going to come too?”

A cold grin unfolded on her face.

Yu Yin suddenly returned to his senses, discovering that he had broken out into a cold sweat. There was still clamour coming from behind the pink bed curtains, and both the noise of the machines and the quiet sound from the sutra player had never stopped. Only the old woman’s groans had ceased.

He turned and walked out of the ward, brushing past the man who now had the scent of smoke on him as he staggered back to the sickbed.

Then came the sounds of crying from inside the room.

The nurses at the nurse station shook their heads silently.

Past where the nurse station was, Yu Yin saw the grandmother standing across at the end of the hallway. With a sincere smile, she waved a hand at him, then vanished from his sight in the blink of an eye.

He suddenly did not know why he was standing there. The bizarre shadows inside the corridor passed by him, with some stopping to look at him before leaving again. It was as if he was actually the strangest existence.

He reached out his hands that were now trembling for reasons he did not know, and rummaged through his things to find the name card he had gotten from Jiang Zheng Hong. After turning on the cellphone and ignoring the multiple missed texts that appeared on the screen, he directly dialled the number on the card.

It took a few rings for the line to get picked up. The other person’s voice seemed a bit muddled; from the sounds of it, it was as if he had been woken up halfway through his sleep.

“The grandmother that lives in the apartment across from you has passed away.”

The other end of the call was silent for a few seconds. “I understand.”

Before the other person could hang up, Yu Yin quickly asked about what he had just heard. “Do you also have a twin brother? That grandmother kept saying that you had a twin brother, but you said before that you didn’t have any relatives.”

“I do not have a brother. Good-bye.”

After hearing the click from the phone being hung up, Yu Yin stared at his phone for a while before turning it off again. Then, he turned to the nurse station to inquire about another ward’s number.

The nurse hesitated at first, unwilling to tell him. However, after he showed his ID, the other person finally gave him a floor and room number. The nurse on duty then quietly told him that the police had demanded for no visitors to that room, so it was possible that he would not be able to visit the patient upon arriving.

After thanking the nurse, Yu Yin began to climb up the stairs.

He felt as though he had touched upon numerous scattered points, but they did not seem to have much relation with each other. It was very possible that the grandmother, the true witness of the situation on the rooftop, was currently waiting for him to join her. He did not have any way of asking her about it anymore.

What did her last few words mean?

Who pushed who down?

As he turned out from the stairwell, he just so happened to see a familiar person enter the elevator.

“Yan-dàgē?”

Coming to visit a patient?

Standing next to the forensic investigator was a woman he had never seen before. The two were chatting and laughing together.

He fell silent as he watched the elevator doors close once more.

***

Jiang Zheng Hong yawned.

“It’s not this one.” He shook his head while keeping his eyes locked onto the recording device.

Jiu Shen pressed the stop button and gave a perplexed look to Li Zi Hong next to him. “We’ve already played the voices of everyone in the group of people we caught.” He shrugged. Yu Xia walked over from the balcony and leaned against the sofa without speaking.

“Are you certain that none of the voices you heard just now are a match?” Li Zi Hong asked, nearly sighing, as he felt that they might have gone through a pointless struggle. He watched their sole witness stand up and walk over to the mini bar to prepare drinks.

“Mhm. Because of work, I can more or less remember both faces and voices. The ones you had me listen to just now definitely did not include the ones I heard that day.” Jiang Zheng Hong brought over a few glasses of fruit juice and placed them in front of each person. He cooperatively added, “The officer that fell from the building had a voice that was very similar to this Officer Yu. The one that died had a lower voice; I had greeted him a few times before. But the third voice was one I had honestly never heard before.” He took a sip of his juice as he tilted his head to ponder something over. He then continued, “That day went like this; while I was looking through my account book on the balcony, I heard some noises. At first, it was the sound of running footsteps and some other soft noises. Following that was Officer Yu shouting, ‘This is the police, freeze’. Then there was a few seconds pause, and then the one that died suddenly shouted, ‘Get rid of him’. After the gunshot, another person cursed in Taiwanese, “Fuck, how did this happen”…and there were some thuds as well. Finally, I heard Officer Yu say, ‘What are you doing’, and then they fell down.”

After hearing these words, Li Zi Hong and Yu Xia were immersed in deep thought.

“Ah, then did you hear any sounds of fighting?” Jiu Shen quickly asked.

“No, I did not; I just heard them run up. If they had been fighting, it would have been very loud.” Jiang Zheng Hong denied the possibility of any wrestling. He then paused to think something over before asking, “Was the officer that fell off the building saved?”

“He is currently trying hard to continue living,” Li Zi Hong replied, shooting Yu Xia a glance. He then continued, “We plan on finding the perpetrator before he awakes, and clear this case along with it.”

“Then I hope that you will be able to resolve the incident in the next few days.” Jiang Zheng Hong stood up with an amiable smile. “Oh right, if you all are heading back, would you like to bring some snacks as well? Our shop always prepares too much food. The neighbour that originally helped me finish it has passed…throwing it away would be a bit of a waste. It can be a return for the favour of me cooperating with you.”

Since it was put that way, Yu Xia and the others could only silently accept the wrapped-up paper boxes.

“If we learn any new clues, we will have to come trouble you again.” Yu Xia stopped Jiang Zheng Hong from seeing them off. As he watched the door close in front of them, words began to form on his mouth. But before he could voice them, Jiu Shen’s cellphone abruptly went off.

Jiu Shen hurriedly grabbed his cellphone and ran into the stairwell, apologising to the other two while answering the phone. “Ah Yi, we’re at the Mr. Jiang’s door on the eighth floor…I’m heading back now…mm, yeah…”

Yu Xia ignored the person chatting on their phone, his lingering gaze stopping on the elevator that was on the first floor. He pressed the button and said, “There are some questionable points now. Why did someone write in the reports that they heard the sounds of wrestling that time? Both Ah Si and Jiang Zheng Hong have verified that Tong had not been in any intense, close-contact [fight] with that drug user back then…”

“You know, rather than that, there’s something else that bothers me.” Li Zi Hong narrowed his eyes slightly.

“The words my brother said at the end, right?” That sentence had also stood out distinctly to Yu Xia. He immediately brought it up, “’What are you doing’…sounds like words he would not say to a stranger. It feels like…”

“The elevator is here.” Li Zi Hong interrupted Yu Xia’s conjecture. After the doors opened, Li Zi Hong stepped inside the narrow space first. “Jiu Shen, how did the testing go on your side?”

Jiu Shen paused from his actions of stowing his phone away. It took him a minute to finally realise what the other person was asking about. “Ah, there…there was nothing on anyone’s clothing.”

“Mm…”

“But several people had washed their clothes, probably because crouching there all day had gotten them sweaty. They had tossed their clothes into the wash the instant they returned home; when I was collecting them, I even got some clothing that was still damp…Speaking of which, I feel like one person’s clothes were washed particularly cleanly. There weren’t even traces of sweat stains on it. They probably bleached it. I hadn’t thought he would like cleanliness so much…it’s no surprise that he’s someone who has a wife…” Jiu Shen clapped a fist against his palm as began to think out loud to himself.

“Which people washed their clothes?” Li Zi Hong interrupted the other’s rambling, cutting straight to the main point.

“Lu Ba, Ah Yi, Ah Quan, and Yan Qiang all washed theirs. There were also a few drivers that did too, although nothing strange came out of the testing, so I don’t think it would be them, right?” When the elevator doors re-opened, Jiu Shen had just taken a single step out before someone stepped inside and nearly crashed head-on into him.

“Hey…? Ah Yin?”

“Ah! What are you guys doing here!” Yu Yin was momentarily stunned when he saw the three people walk out of the elevator in a line as he was heading over to find Jiang Zheng Hong. He stared in shock as the elevator doors closed behind them, and the entire corridor seemed to instantly dim.

“How many times have I told you not to wander around this kind of place?! Are you unable to understand human language?” Yu Xia drew up his sleeves with a fierce expression.

“It’s all just a coincidence…seriously, trust me.” Yu Yin quickly backpedaled a few steps and seized Jiu Shen to hold in front of him as a shield.

“Ah Yin, what about your sense of loyalty!” Jiu Shen instantly struggled to break free. The other had actually dared to use him as a way to block Boss’s fists. Trying to drag me under with you?!

Li Zi Hong lightly coughed from where he stood further behind. “I’ll go to the car first and wait for you there.”

“Don’t just ignore those in need…Anyways, I just wanted to look for Mr. Jiang to discuss something. Did you guys know he has a twin brother?” Yu Yin dodged Yu Xia’s fist, and stopped them all before a second fist came at him. “A grandmother that’s a neighbouring resident here died in the hospital today. But both her and her son said they had seen Mr. Jiang’s twin brother before…”

“Jiang Zheng Hong is an only child.” Li Zi Hong interrupted Yu Yin’s words. Instead of leaving as he had planned, Li Zi Hong narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he said, “We’ve checked all his data, including the fact that he was born in the northern district and studied there. In the end, because his parents died together in a traffic accident, he was left alone without any other relatives.”

“That can’t be. Those residents clearly said they had previously seen the brothers together in the past. They looked very alike, although the other was skinnier. His name was Zheng Wei.” Yu Yin actually found this very odd too, which was he had wanted to ask Jiang Zheng Hong in person. But after hearing Li Zi Hong’s words, he felt the situation was even stranger. “Oh right, and the last time I came here, I saw a grandmother come looking for him. They seemed to be discussing about that Zheng Wei’s matter…” He gave a general summary of what happened that day. The more he spoke, the more suspicious he grew as he faced the three adults in front of him.

“Zheng Wei…?” Yu Xia contemplated this for a moment, before pulling out his cellphone to call the station and request for someone to look up this name.

“Is it possible that his brother was being raised by another family? Why else would he have another set of parents…It seems that Jiang Zheng Hong often sends them money.” Yu Yin watched the others as he carefully made this guess.

“His birth records should not have been counterfeit, he is undoubtedly an only child.” Li Zi Hong and Yu Xia exchanged a look, also finding the situation fishy. “That’s strange…”

Just as Jiu Shen was about to say something, his chance was interrupted as something like the sound of gunfire abruptly shattered the quiet apartment space, the blast echoing down several floors from above.

“Which family’s child is so poorly educated to be letting off fireworks inside…”

Before Jiu Shen could finish speaking, Yu Xia punched him and said, “Someone fired a gun! Hurry up and report to the headquarters!” He then immediately bounded to the stairwell, instantly flying up several floors.

“Jiu Shen, you and Yu Yin return to the car first.” Li Zi Hong pressed the elevator button only to discover that at some point, the elevator had been stopped at the eight floor this whole time without budging.

The other person is in the elevator?

Yu Yin felt a stab of pain in his eyes.

A bizarre sound came from the other end. When he turned around, he saw that thing from outside had at some point started climbing towards them by writhing its flesh along the ground in an abnormal posture. The unidentifiable black fluid continuously dripped onto the ground as its body moved without stopping.

The other two people clearly could not see the extra “moving object”. As Jiu Shen urged Li Zi Hong to go on the car first, he failed to notice that thing nearly about to grab onto his foot.

“I think it would be better if we all just went up together instead. It’s safer with more people.” Just before that thing could actually grab onto Jiu Shen, Yu Yin hurriedly cut across and pushed Jiu Shen back a bit.

As if cooperating with his words, the elevator doors suddenly opened before them with a ding, revealing the round space inside.

“Ah Yin, it might be very dangerous up there…” Jiu Shen said while looking at Yu Yin with a strict expression as he was being pushed into the elevator.

“Jiu Shen-Gē, I’m not trying to scare you this time, but it’ll also be very dangerous if we don’t quickly go up.” He noticed that thing was probably targeting them. Although it did not move very quickly, after being dodged a first time, it had shifted and turned to reach out towards Li Zi Hong.

Yu Yin did not know what would happen if they were touched by it, but he could tell that those eyeballs within the pile of rotting flesh were filled with malice. From that alone, Yu Yin knew that the further they were from that thing, the better.

“What thing?” As Li Zi Hong was also pushed into the elevator, he stared blankly at Yu Yin slapping the button to shut the doors.

“Ah!” It took Jiu Shen a few seconds to realise what Yu Yin was talking about. He immediately retreated backwards, although he could not go very far before he violently collided into the wall, causing the elevator to shake. “Which one! It’s not the one outside, right? Why would the one outside be…”

“I don’t know!” Yu Yin immediately reached out to try and speed up the door-shutting process, and just happened to see a finger that had barely managed to crawl inside in time was snapped off by the elevator doors. Then, the segment of rotted flesh went rigid and stopped moving.

He turned around to see Jiu Shen’s expression of extreme fear. In contrast, Li Zi Hong’s expression had not changed at all. As the elevator began to rise upwards, he finally asked in suspicion, “Is it aiming for us?”

“Eh…I’m not sure, I’m not amazing enough to the point where I can communicate with the spirit world with words yet,” Yu Yin smiled and replied with a nonsensical answer.

Li Zi Hong stared at Yu Yin for a few seconds, thinking that there was something strange about him. But just as he was about to ask, the elevator suddenly shook again.

“It wasn’t me this time!” Jiu Shen instantly denied in a high-pitched voice when he saw the other two look in his direction.

As if helping to clear his name, the elevator shook again. This time, they could clearly feel the tremors slowly come from the bottom of the elevator, as if something had bumped into them from underneath.

A quiet noise echoed through the space below the elevator, followed by another fierce collision into the elevator floor and a few other tremors.

“It followed us up!” Jiu Shen was practically glued onto the wall now, trying to get as far from the floor as he could possibly get.

“What kind of thing is it?” Li Zi Hong was abnormally calm as he looked at Yu Yin, the only person who knew what was happening below. Li Zi Hong then pressed the emergency button, and the entire elevator swayed two more times before the lights then turned off.

“It…should just be whatever the corpse you guys last saw was.” Yu Yin grabbed onto the railing with a faint feeling of doubt. Although they were police, Jiu Shen and Li Zi Hong had never come into direct contact with this dead person, let alone Yu Yin himself. Logically speaking, “it” should not be coming after them with this amount of hatred.

“Uwah! Something dripped onto me!” Jiu Shen was now in absolute terror as he suddenly leapt up, crashing straight into the prosecutor next to him. “There’s blood—!” He wiped off the thing that touched his face, and upon close looked, noticed that a tiny bit of blood now stained his palm.

“Calm down a bit…” Li Zi Hong quickly reached out to grab Jiu Shen, who was nearly about to break a wall through the elevator. He had the profound realisation that he would never be able to get onto the same elevator as this person ever again. And regretfully, the current, non-conforming situation had not yet ended, as the elevator violently shook once more. Then, the tightly shut doors unexpectedly opened.

The indicator light was stopped on the eighth floor.

The instant Jiu Shen saw the light, he nearly flew out the elevator. Those short seconds in the elevator had nearly become the last few seconds of his life. “You guys hurry up and come out too!” Seeing that the one of them was looking upwards while the other was looking downwards, neither with the intention of stepping out, he gathered the courage to hurriedly go back and drag them out as well.

The elevator doors closed.

“It seemed like there was something above us just now.” Li Zi Hong patted down his suit and discovered a drop of crimson blood as well. He glanced at the other two and said, “Jiu Shen, keep the bloodstain!” He took off his jacket and tossed it over at the other person, who had not yet recovered from his lingering fear. When Li Zi Hong turned around and saw the elevator already heading back down, he immediately began to chase after it down the stairs without a second thought.

Just as Yu Yin was about to follow, he caught a glimpse of the half-open door to the eighth floor residence. There were some faint voices talking from inside. “Uncle?” He lightly pushed the door open, instantly welcomed by the sight of the floor dyed with blood.

“Don’t come in!”

Yu Xia was carrying the blood-soaked owner while holding up his phone with his shoulder to call both an ambulance and make a report. After shouting at Yu Yin, he continued to quickly try and stop the bleeding. “Call Jiu Shen over. He was shot.”

Jiang Zheng Hong clearly sported multiple injuries, his entire body limp on the ground. Splotches of red expanded outwards from his body and seeping outwards. The floor that had been extremely clean when they had left just earlier was now mostly blood-red, a somewhat terrifying sight.

Without Yu Yin’s call, Jiu Shen immediately squeezed past and entered. “Ah Yin, help me guide the others here, and explain the situation to the rescue personnel.”

“Ok…Li-dàgē just ran downstairs, what about him?” Just as Yu Yin was about to run downstairs, he thought of the other one that had run down earlier, and stopped after two steps to voice this question.

“He can protect himself, hurry up and go!”

Yu Yin gave an affirmative response. As his footsteps picked up the pace, he caught a glimpse of the ceiling board being pushed open again as the green face watched them indifferently.

Then, it disappeared.

After Yu Xia heard the sound of Yu Yin’s footsteps leave, he confirmed that they had stopped the bleeding from all the wounds and turned to look back at Jiang Zheng Hong, whose vision had already started to grow unfocused. “Did you see the face of the shooter?” Yu Xia quietly asked a few times, but the other person did not respond. The dark red blood now almost dyed his clothes completely.

They could hear sirens outside the window, gradually approaching from the distance.

“Three shots, all the bullets are still here.” Jiu Shen swiftly summed up the current situation after checking the inside of the home and confirming there were not other people hiding inside. He exhaled sharply and asked, “How are Mr. Jiang’s injuries?”

“Very bad. Gunshots straight through the shoulder, chest, and abdomen. I think the other party was seriously trying to kill him, or…” Yu Xia stated his opinion through gritted teeth, but was interrupted as a hand drenched in blood suddenly grabbed Yu Xia’s clothing, cutting off their discussion.

Jiang Zheng Hong spat out a few violent coughs before struggling to take several deep breaths and weakly focusing his blurred gaze on them. “It was that person…my hand…”

His voice was too faint, and both Jiu Shen and Yu Xia had to lean in very closely to hear his words. “Are you saying the person from the rooftop? Why was he here?”

“Mm…I was tricked…opened the door…because that person showed…”

Jiang Zheng Hong did not finish his final sentence before he somewhat unwillingly closed his eyes gradually, as if in a slow-motion film.

At nearly the same time, several rescue personnel pushed the half-closed door open and bluntly requested for the two of them to stand off to one side as they performed emergency first-aid.

The red drops continuously flowed downwards, forming a boundless circle as they fell to the ground.

Yu Xia rubbed off the other person’s blood on himself that was still wet and even warm to the point where his whole body felt hot. He then raised his head to see one of Jiang Zheng Hong’s hands fall off the stretcher crowded around by people as he was lifted up. The previously tightly clenched fist slowly opened, as if using its own consciousness. A small, blood-stained fragment of glass fell from his hand and silently landed on the ground, only to have one of the rescue personnel step on it.

Only now did Yu Xia discover that there were actually many fragments around the area, all of them the color of the glasses. At the time, Jiang Zheng Hong was probably just about to clean up the glasses he had offered to them during their visit, and had been attacked before he could even finish tidying up.

Consequently, he suddenly realised what Jiang Zheng Hong’s last words just now had actually meant.

The perpetrator was injured, cut by the broken glass pieces on Jiang Zheng Hong’s hands.

“Did you see Ah Yin?”

After handing over the handling of the incident location to the officers that just arrived, Yu Xia followed the rescue personnel downstairs and immediately noticed Yi Ma and a few other coworkers from his small group that had likely come by a later car. They had forcefully stopped the elevator at the first floor and were currently blockading the area off with the officers.

“Ah Yin?” Jiang Jin Quan glanced around. “I just saw him leading the rescue personnel earlier. How did he suddenly disappear?” He had even greeted Yu Yin just earlier upon entering.

“Ah, he might have gone out with the ambulance. I think I saw him help the ambulance staff escort the victim onto the car.” Liao Yi Ma walked over from where he had been providing assistance. He clapped a hand on Jian Jin Quan’s shoulder to push him aside a bit as he asked, “Boss, what happened this time?”

“It’s possible that Mr. Jiang was shot by the criminal suspect we are currently searching for. You…” Yu Xia’s words were cut off before he could finish, interrupted by the sound of commotion coming from the elevator’s side.

A few officers were standing inside the elevator and anxiously looking up at the air vent. They had brought over a ladder from somewhere and opened the vent. A series of strange, almost beast-like noises were coming out from the darkness, and an arm stuck out to throw down a flashlight. Then, someone’s upper body poked out. Upon closer look, it was Li Zi Hong, who had come chasing down earlier. “There are bloodstains on the elevator, call the investigation officers over.” As he said this, his body swayed as he jumped off completely and landed on the floor.

When he had raced down from the eighth floor, he had not been able to catch up to anything. All he had seen was the elevator stopped at the first floor, and the air vent that had not been closed in time behind the open doors.

As expected, someone had been up there that time.

Li Zi Hong was not very happy that they had missed it the first time.

“The gun wasn’t found?” Liao Yi Ma glanced over at Li Zi Hong’s ice-cold face as he discussed matters over with the other police, then lowered his voice to ask, “Why did he kill Mr. Jiang? Did Mr. Jiang actually recognise the culprit?”

“Are you vacationing at the beach right now? Why do you care so much? If you have the time to be asking questions over here, you should go scram and check any monitoring records!” Yu Xia roared in an extremely nasty mood, causing his other two co-workers to immediately run off instead of voicing their questions.

The blood all over him had already started to dry up, turning cold and hard. The sticky feeling on his skin had already permeated through his body.

“Boss, do you want to change clothes…” Liao Yi Ma walked a distance over to timidly pass a bag over. “You look pretty terrifying. These were bought at a nearby market, just bear with them for a bit. Otherwise, you’ll scare off all the media that runs over later.” Just as he finished saying this, they heard the disturbance of interrogative questions come from outside.

Yu Xia swiped his hand to grab the bag, smoothly tossing off his shirt and throwing it over to the investigation officer as he changed into the brand-new, blindingly white T-shirt. “How much money?” He noticed the bag still contained the receipt with three prices on it. “Sanitary napkins?” There were two other codes on it that he could not understand.

Liao Yi Ma blankly stared at him for a bit, unsure of what he was looking it. After a few seconds, he abruptly came to a realisation and hurriedly grabbed the receipt back before chuckling in embarrassment, “That’s…something my wife told me to help her buy while I was there…I don’t need the money, I just bought it while I was passing by anyways.”

Yu Xia gave him a doubtful look, but someone called out to him just then, so he did not ask any further and walked over to someone else.

“Aren’t you a bit too short-sighted? Don’t women need to use night-types and day-types? Just one bag isn’t enough, you know. If it were my wife, she would have slapped you the instant I went home with that.” Jian Jin Quan leaned over to glance at the numbers on the receipt, sniggering as he shot the other a wink.

“Slap, my ass. Go back to work.” Liao Yi Ma pushed him away with a laugh. When Yu Xia turned around to glare at them fiercely upon hearing the two’s conversation, they quickly shrank back to look for surveillance tapes.

The media blocked out by the police outside were taking countless photos, as they could only hope that they would be able to capture something.

Li Zi Hong grabbed his documents bag someone brought over to him as he walked over to Yu Xia with his clothes covered in dust. “I’ll hand the management of this side to you all. Bring me the information later.” He glanced at the time; he had already missed a court case. Although he had reported it to them in advance, it would still be a bit troublesome to sort out after going back.

“Understood.” Yu Xia had several officers escort Li Zi Hong away, then turned back to see the others that just happened to be searching the elevator, and he instructed them to go up to the rooftop to see if there were any traces of someone fleeing. As he was busying himself with all this for a while, he saw Jiu Shen run down the stairs from where he should have been collecting evidence above, with a somewhat panicked expression.

“Boss, I just thought of something. I need to immediately go back to the lab—” Jiu Shen prepared to bravely charge out, ignoring the crowds of reporters outside. But he suddenly stopped in his tracks and walked back. “While I’m at it, let me borrow your watch for a bit. Take it off and give it to me, quickly!”

Without even waiting for Yu Xia to give consent, Jiu Shen hurriedly reached over to grab at the other person’s watch himself.

“What are you trying to do?” Yu Xia pushed Jiu Shen’s head far away with his palm, glaring as he unfastened his watch. “Did you find something?”

Jiu Shen suddenly fell silent for a few seconds. “I’ll tell you about it after I go back…Did Ah Yi say where he sent your watch for repairs?” He asked as he accepted the sports watch.

“No. It was probably the original manufacturer.”

“I remember Boss once saying that there was a problem with the strap and lens, right?” Jiu Shen flipped the watch back and forth before stowing it away into his work case.

“Mm, it dropped while chasing after the criminals, and the glass on the outer shell is a bit loose. Also, the strap sometimes snaps open by itself.” Yu Xia stared at Jiu Shen as he gave a quick run-down of the watch’s condition. He then closed his eyes and shook his head. “…If you’re going to go look into something, help me stop by another place too.” He rubbed his temples, feeling slightly tired.

“Where?”

Yu Xia gave him the name, a place he had just seen.

Jiu Shen’s expression turned even uglier upon hearing it. “Alright, I understand.” He gripped the watch inside his back, hoping that his thoughts were mistaken.

He lifted his work case and took two steps forward. Feeling uneasy, he turned to glance backwards once more. The taped-up scene looked identical to the sight he was familiar with. He turned back around and strode out from the area.

In that moment, he seemed to catch a glimpse of Xiao Yu among the crowd. However, the other person soon vanished into the dark shadows around the corner, as if just a figment of his imagination.

“Was it not him?”

***

The surgery room light was still on. Since they had not been able to contact any family members, the police had attempted to contact the shop [he worked at], and a young lady calling herself Jiang Zheng Hong’s co-worker arrived, showing a name card that said she was an “afternoon shift manager”. She could not have been much older than Yu Yin. Her hair was a mix of dyed browns and blacks, and there were a few tattoos of unknown origin inked on her pale white arm.

After arriving and communicating something with the hospital, she completed the procedures on his family’s behalf.

Yu Yin, who had come along on the ambulance earlier, watched the person sloppily exchange a few short words with the police before coming to plop down on the empty seat behind him off to his right side. She then extremely inelegantly placed her feet on the back of the seat in front of her. The black, leather shorts she wore nearly showed half her butt, and she ignored all the glares that the nurses shot towards her. “Hey, are you the police, or Ah Hong’s friend?” The girl casually asked as her tasseled, high-heel boots tapped his shoulder.

“Probably his friend, I guess.” Yu Yin dusted his shoulder off and changed his seat to another vacant one nearby in disgust.

“Oh – I see. Looks like you’re a university student, am I right? You can try coming over our place to work. The salary’s pretty good, you know, and it can be adjusted to 150% more. Tips are divided, and performance is calculated separately; if you’re a consumer, you’re even more welcome. You can bring a name card over and get 30% off, and you can introduce the place to your classmates too. Our place counts as relatively clean, you know.” The girl put her feet down and tossed a name card over to Yu Yin. This time, she leaned forward on the back of the chair as she said, “A lot of students from different schools come. It’s not a bad place to bring girls and form relationships with them. The room are large, and the food is great. Most importantly, it’s costs are affordable enough for students.”

Yu Yin glanced at the name card and saw that it did not actually have the girl’s real surname on it. Instead, it simply said “Xiao Hai”, and a cellphone number. Yu Yin knit his brows together and stowed it away.

“Don’t worry, our shop doesn’t have anything bad. Aside from drinks, food, and music, we don’t sell anything else.” The girl named Xiao Hai pulled out a piece of aluminum foil from her pocket to toss a piece of gum into her mouth. “Tsk tsk, what a fate though. I thought those cowards wouldn’t go looking over there, but those money sharks still chased him all the way and even opened fire…”

“Wait, what do you mean those money sharks opened fire?” Yu Yin could not help but interrupt the other person. “Jiang-dàgē was shot because he got involved with a case. Did the police not tell you that just now?” He shot an extremely puzzled look at the police currently reporting back on the phone.

“Say what now? That cop just told me to go help him do some procedures. What crazy case did Ah Si get involved with? What kind of person shot at him? You can go ahead and tell me, I’m not afraid. As an elder, I’ll make that guy take a hike and bow down to accept his punishment,” Xiao Hai said with a ton of rural slang mixed into her words. She slapped the back of the chair, the noise causing others to glance over as well. “Fuck, whoever touched the shop’s people must be tired of living.”

“They’re currently still investigating. None of us know who fired…What was the loan shark matter you mentioned just now? Jiang-dàgē doesn’t seem to be lacking in money at all.” Moreover, Yu Yin felt like Jiang Zheng Hong likely earned quite a bit, something that could be guessed just from the pile of money he had handed the grandmother that day.

“Ah Hong doesn’t owe anything. That idiot earns even more than I do. The people on the night shift have salaries that would make anyone vomit blood. If I didn’t have to lead the afternoon shift, I would transfer over too.” Xiao Hai snorted in disapproval and answered, “It’s the other one that owes.”

Since it seemed like she did not want to tell him too much, Yu Yin thought over his words carefully and attempted to ask, “Is the one you’re saying owes money that Zheng Wei…? I saw his mother last time, is their whole family on the run?”

Xiao Hai’s expression changed as she realised the other person actually knew of this too. She sneered, “Their whole family is evading a creditor. Isn’t that usually the case? Little Wei touched ‘that’ thing and ended up owing a massive amount of money, and he was fired from his job too. The sum owed was so much that even after that idiot Ah Hong sent out money, the debt still wasn’t repaid. In the end, he just fled; those loan sharks have been searching everywhere for him, threatening to kill him if they found him…and they also said that if they did not find him, they would go searching for his parents to repay the debt.”

“Did Zheng Wei take drugs?” Yu Yin was not an idiot; he obviously had a general understanding what Xiao Hai was talking about.

Xiao Hai scratched her head. The corners of her mouth on her pretty face tilted up into a bitter smile, although there seemed to be some other complicated emotions behind it too. “Ah Hong was introduced by him. Later, after Ah Hong’s great performance record and his promotion to night shift manager, a white-faced devil came one day selling that thing, claiming that if it was put in the air conditioning, it would get customers addicted. Obviously, he was kicked out. In the end, Little Wei managed to somehow get a hold of that person’s test samples, and became more and more addicted. In the end, he went to get even more drugs, and it ruined him to the point of looking like a ghost. After he was fired, I heard that he was still living at Ah Hong’s for a while, though I haven’t heard any news recently.” She paused for a moment, then lowered her voice so that the nearby police could not overhear. “After that guy left the rotting debt behind, those cowardly loan sharks originally mistook their target, coming to the shop all the time to stir up trouble while demanding for Ah Hong to return the money. They only stopped daring to come again after I taught them a good lesson. I, their elder, also warned them to never come back, or else I’d beat them up again.”

“Do Jiang-dàgē and Jiang Zi Wei not share the same parents?” Yu Yin quickly stopped her train of thought to ask this question after noticing the contradiction in her words. This had been bugging him for a long time as well.

Xiao Hai glanced over at him and laughed. Although it started out modestly, it turned into a hearty laugh a few seconds later, until she was laughing very openly. Finally, the nurses furiously gave her a warning, and she stopped. “I just knew you were going to ask that. Damn, those two look just like twins, don’t they? When I, their senior, first started working, I’d get fooled all the fucking time. But Ah Hong was a very courteous and upright person, while Little Wei did things dishonestly. It became easy to tell them apart after only a few days.” She wiped away the tears of laughter and chuckled a bit to herself before continuing, “But, Student, those two guys have absolutely no blood connection. One is named Jiang Zheng Hong, and the other is called ‘Tang’ Zheng Wei.”

The “Tang” was like a bolt of thunder that struck Yu Yin’s head. He instantly felt goosebumps form all over his body, his shock so great that he could not register any of the mocking words the girl next to him continued saying.

He suddenly recalled a topic he had once heard spreading among his female classmates—

Do you believe that in this world, there are three people that look identical to you? Like twins without any blood relation.

This naturally explained several suspicious points.

Yu Yin thought back to when Jiang Zheng Hong denied having a sibling, and then that face he had seen in the ceiling. It was possible that face was…

“It’s been ages since I saw Little Wei.” Xiao Hai took out a cigarette box. She tapped it twice, but after thinking some more, returned it back to her pocket. “Touching that kind of thing is bad; everyone in the network has been talking about how people that touch it don’t end well.”

Yu Yin did not respond to these words. He was still thinking about the bizarre events that had occurred, and he did not even notice when Xiao Hai’s cellphone went off.

If the one in the ceiling was Tang Zheng Wei, then is he…

“Hey! Looking for you.” After picking up the phone and saying hello, Xiao Hai suddenly hit Yu Yin’s shoulder from her seat behind.

Stunned, Yu Yin somewhat angrily turned around in pain, “What are you doing!”

“I just said they’re looking for you. Your classmate!” Xiao Hai pushed the phone in her hands towards him.

“My classmate? Why would my classmate call you?” In half doubt, Yu Yin took the phone. When he heard the voice on the other end, his eyes widened. “Yi Tai?”

“Don’t turn off your phone, could not find you.” The voice being transmitted sounded a bit tired.

“Eh, sorry…Wait, no, why did you call this person’s phone!” Actually, what Yu Yin really wanted to ask was: How the hell did you know this person was next to me, to have called her and asked for me?

“…Did you not know that Xiao Hai is Ah Fang’s younger sister?”

“Eh!” He suddenly felt like today had just been a constant chain of surprises. He directly spun around to look at the owner of the cellphone. The girl, who was not feminine in any way, was still chewing gum. “What’s your last name?”

“Fang, duh.” Xiao Hai rolled her eyes back at him.

“She’s younger than us by one year. Ah Fang said she dropped out of high school to follow a business owner,” came the simple and short explanation over the phone. “Ah Yin, you have to be careful these next two days. Do not go up to any rooftops. I’ll finish dealing with things on my end by tomorrow.”

“Huh? Where are you?”

There was no reply to his question, just the beeping of the line being cut, followed by the constant sound of static.

“You know my brother’s friend?” Xiao Hai asked doubtfully after taking back her phone.

“Didn’t you just say he was my classmate?” Yu Yin impatiently huffed back. Now that he was taking a closer look, he discovered that this person really did have a faint reflection of Ah Fang. She was just too much of a hooligan.

“Hah, that’s true too.” Xiao Hai shrugged as she dropped her phone back into her pocket and leaned forwards on the chair again. “You know, when that Yi Tai-Gē first visited the shop with my brother, he called me a repellent, hah.”

“Repellent?”

Xiao Hai chuckled, saying that she had no idea, but that she guessed it was probably related to how she was both reckless and very fierce.

Yu Yin studied the girl for a moment, but did not continue chatting.

The girl’s wild personality was a bit too strong, with a possible type of bloodlust too. Her background was likely complex, and she was not the type of girl that one would want to become friends with.

Just then, he suddenly realised in shock that since Xiao Hai’s appearance, their surroundings had become unusually “clean”. The things that he would often see in the hospital were not nowhere to be seen.

Repellent, huh…?

^{1. Āmā (阿妈) = mother/older woman, not necessarily biological. ↑}