The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Xiao Yu flipped over the medical book in his hands before sitting down next to the counter and swinging his feet.

“I’ve asked my colleague to check the records on the little girl you called Shuang Shuang. Her birthname is Su Tong Shuang, and their family is one you could say is more heavily focused on in that area.” Yu Tong had picked up the call and come over to the office to also grab some case files. He told his son, “Shuang Shuang’s mother passed away in a car accident four years ago. Her father, who was also traveling together, ended up severely crippled on his lower half and was classified as handicapped. He handled documentation at a non-government agency. Around a year following the accident, the father began to date a new woman, and they then got married. Apparently, the woman has been living together with the father-daughter pair and taking care of them both.”

Yu Yin, who had come to meet Yu Tong and had asked about the matter while there, couldn’t help but feel a shadow of doubt about the girl’s history. “Did the stepmother beat her?”

“The records never mentioned that, and the other neighbours had never reported anything either. But I called the local police to let them know to keep an eye out.” Yu Tong thought to himself for a bit before then informing his son about another issue. “Since you had mentioned a suit, I also noticed in the files that Shuang Shuang’s mother was originally a counter saleswoman, but their uniforms would change style every year. The one you described should be the winter uniform from four years ago; since the sales counter sold some well-known clothing brands, the staff’s suits were not cheap either. They had all been custom-tailored by the company.”

“So the one that the student that was ganged up on saw was the mother?” Yan Si had found it surprising to see the office so lively for once, and had come over to join the chat carrying a few cups of coffee and some snacks while he was waiting for some corpses to defrost. “You know, the type that follows her daughter after getting run over. Doesn’t the student that was ganged up on see these kinds of things pretty often?”

“Not that often, thank you very much.” Yu Yin shot Yan Si a glare before taking one of the coffees and contemplating the possible reasons for the unusual existence. “I mean, that’s possible too…Ah, or is it that the mom came out because the little girl was being beaten?” Yu Tong smiled and forcefully clapped a hand down on his son’s shoulder and gripped it tightly.

Yu Yin nearly fell to his knees from the pain and he quickly nodded. “I know, alright, it’s not like another homicide case or anything…”

“Even if it was a homicide case, I would still have to ask for you to please not intervene. A student’s duty is to obediently study.” Yu Tong exerted more strength into his grip. After the last few incidents, he had started to agree with his brother’s opinion. With an excessively warm smile, he said, “Your professor called today specifically to inform me that you are close to failing school, yet you still skipped class today. Don’t tell me you were planning on informing me that you plan on starting supplementary classes during your breaks now?”

“I’m sorry, I’ll obediently study.” Yu Yin hurriedly begged for mercy. Finally, the other person loosened their hold and Yu Yin rubbed his aching shoulders.

“Please properly study with Xiao Yu and read more books, or do something else that benefits your body and mind. There will be others to handle cases, do not get involved anymore.”Yu Tong gave a long hard look at his child. As time had passed, he had truly started to believe that it was not a good thing, and he had revised his past mindset of turning a blind eye because his son could help others ascend.

For certain reasons, he had gone straight to Teng Qi to ask for guidance on this matter. The latter had said that, simply put in common terms, humans were made of three finer spirits and seven baser instincts. As a result, if something bad wanted to harm a normal person, they would definitely first destroy their inner constitution; the closer the person neared death, the more easily they would fall into the state of being “spirited away”. This was also why people would often hear of the deaths of their friends and family after seeing their image.

As the body’s soul grew more unstable, they would not only get closer to the other world, but also show external signs. One such example was how Fang Yi Xun had seen the “death’s image” right before the person had crossed over the boundary to the other realm; another example was how Jiu Shen had been “summoned” in a dream. There had also been the true “vision” of the death that Yu Yin had previously witnessed before. These were all signs that the soul had begun to drift away.

And as a person’s soul started to waver, their mental condition would worsen as well, until the point when their body’s balance would crumble. That moment was the best opportunity for malicious things to make their move.

As a result, a vicious soul would most often use methods to destroy the constitution of their target’s soul in order to retrieve a normal person that was still full of vitality. Things like frightening them and injuring them were the most common practices.

In other words, it was the equivalent of how any person could entrap another person at a low point of their life.

After hearing this description, Yu Tong had felt his entire body grow cold.

He had not known how dangerous approaching those things were, nor the fact that helping them could still end up causing them to feel more hatred or use it as a pretext to trap them.

In their obliviousness, he and his colleagues had nearly caused his child to lose his life by allowing him to enter and exit crime scenes as he pleased.

When Yu Tong reached this conclusion, he could not shake away the chills in his heart.

Due to his profession, he had too naively assumed that helping others could not be a bad thing, and had therefore not bothered purposely stopping his child from acting. However, he had forgotten that even helping the living could possibly result in calling more resentment and harm to the self, an act that often occurred at the station.

Perhaps Yu Xia, who had always been against the child entering the crime scenes from the very beginning, had been the one in the right.

“Dad?” Yu Yin tilted his head in confusion and waved a hand in front of Yu Tong, who had started spacing out without warning. “What are you thinking so deeply about?”

It took a few seconds for Yu Tong to snap out of his daze and notice that there were suddenly three sets of inquisitive eyes focused on him. “Eh, nothing much. I was just thinking of how Xia and I had dealt with Jiang Zheng Hong’s case.” After the incident. Jiang Zheng Hong had been extremely cooperative and had handed over a lot of the information he had researched himself that had allowed Yu Xia to directly squash the middle circles. He was currently heading towards the upper circles now for investigation.

Yan Si had also heard some rumours about the situation, and he grinned upon hearing Yu Tong mention the topic. “Isn’t there supposedly a little blossom attached to you too? That cutie Xiao Hai seems to constantly hang around your place!” Every time Jiang Zheng Hong dropped by, the young girl would be right behind him. The rumours had spread all over the station; even those in the forensics department all knew about it.

That young girl was really too brave and fierce!

Hearing Xiao Hai’s name, Yu Tong couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. He had been somewhat perplexed recently by her, as he had suddenly understood how Yu Xia had felt while being adored on by a high school girl.

“What’s wrong with Xiao Hai?” Yu Yin curiously asked a certain rumour-loving forensic investigator while taking a sip of coffee. Just hearing the name made Yu Yin quake a bit.

“Oh? Did your Dad not tell you?” Yan Si glanced at the embarrassed target of affair and sniggered as he asked, “Ah Tong, did you not bring those 999 roses back home?”

“Pfft!” Yu Yin instantly spat out all the coffee in his mouth and hurriedly grabbed some tissues.

“…I gave them to some female colleagues to sell for charity, the funds are being donated to orphanages.” Yu Tong, who had been truly at loss about this situation, looked up at the ceiling as he let out a sigh.

“Wait, wait, what roses?” Yu Yin asked in shock after cleaning up the coffee. As the son, Yu Yin could only stare at his father in horror.

“…” Yu Tong had absolutely no desire to recall the situation.

“Apparently, the ‘sexy-cutie’ Xiao Hai has been disturbing the police station, cough, to call on some single police officer brothers and gather a huge amount of information regarding Ah Tong. Last week, she even had a small truck deliver over 999 roses to her revered cop…” But anyone that wasn’t blind could say that those red roses were not intended to just show respect to an officer! The sheer number of 999 was already so ridiculous; plus that’s not to mention that there was an extremely cute pair of lovey-dovey stuffed bears that came with it. No matter how you look at it, this was clearly a ploy to chase after a girl…no, chase after a crush.

Yan Si was extremely disappointed that he had not been present when this had occurred. He really wished he could have witnessed such a grand occasion and caught a few photos to keep as mementos as well. After all, this kind of sensational circumstance rarely occurred!

How should I describe it? Young people’s passions are so wild these days.

Yu Yin could only stare at his father in shock with a dropped jaw, unsure of whether to laugh or scream. His father simply drank his coffee to conceal his embarrassment.

“D-dad… don’t tell me you…” Xiao Hai was even younger than Yu Yin; although in terms of external appearances, it would not seem to be a relationship where the man was significantly older than the woman. Yu Yin was completely torn between laughing and crying at the situation.

Why did the two adults in his family always attract young girls?

Yu Tong lightly coughed unnaturally and put his cup down. “I’m thinking it’s just a joke…” Like how people would send dead chickens, cats, mice to the station as pranks on the police, or objects like hammers…That’s probably all…ah…

It was during moments like these when Yu Yin was truly envious of how extremely thick-headed and slow the twin brothers could be.

“Would someone really spend that much money on a joke? Those hundreds of roses must have been expensive!” Yan Si wrapped an arm around his friend’s shoulders and chuckled, “Lady-killer, any plans on advancing to the next stage of life by experiencing love a second time? You guys seem to be pretty compatible, and visually pleasing to the eye when together; how nice it is to be a lovely young couple.” It was just that the male was a bit old, at least twice the female’s age.

But what harm was that? If nobody said anything, outsiders would never even know!

“I am very content with my current life, and although Ah Yin’s mother may not be in this world anymore, she is still in my heart.” Yu Tong smiled and swatted Yan Si’s arm away. With no intent to continue biting the bait, he changed the subject. “When the young girl’s interest fades, the situation with naturally settle without doing anything. But Ah Yin, you should not run around outside after you bring Xiao Yu home. Do not concern yourself with Shuang Shuang’s situation, do you understand?”

Yu Yin hurriedly nodded, still unable to get over his shock.

Turning around, he noticed that the corner of Xiao Yu’s mouth were unexpectedly tilted upwards behind the book he was studying, as if unable to keep himself from laughing over the topic just now as well. However, the expression quickly returned to its usual blank state.

Yu Yin was actually quite happy about the fact that Xiao Yu had been expressing emotions more frequently these days.

“Then I’ll head back to work first. You two go obediently eat dinner.” Yu Tong rubbed Xiao Yu’s head and quickly left in a rush after realising that he had spent too much time here.

Yu shut his book.

Yu Yin could see from his spot not far away that the book that Yu had been reading this entire time was titled “Diagrams of the Human Body”.

So he can understand even these kinds of books just by flipping through them?

***

After politely refusing Yan Si’s invitation to dinner, Yu Yin really did obediently bring Xiao Yu together with him to head straight home.

When he was still parking, Xiao Yu immediately rushed off first to run into the house and turn on the lights.

This was something he had started to consistently do recently. He would always return back to the front entrance afterwards to wait for Yu Yin.

When thinking back and doing the math, it had already been over a year since Xiao Yu had first arrived at this household.

Yu Yin sighed with emotion as he parked his bike. In that not quite so long yet not quite so short period of time, too many things had happened, perhaps because he had not received the divine blessings onto the past year for his antenna connection with ghosts. Looking back, he realised that the frequency of being dragged into various bizarre incidents had been way too high.

However, these events were also the reason his relationship with Xiao Yu had grown amazingly.

In the beginning, he had entirely rejected Xiao Yu, but now they were possibly on the level of being on good terms with each other.

By the time Yu Yin stepped inside the house, Xiao Yu had already placed his slippers there in front.

Xiao Yu would sometimes also clean up the house when alone, tidying everything up very neatly, enjoying such chores just like Yu Tong. After finishing it all, he would typically go to the living room to watch the TV or read a book.

“I bought you a book.” Yu Yin rummaged through his bag and pulled out a brand-new book to pass over to Xiao Yu. “I heard it’s a best-seller that reached the top places in various large bookstore ranking lists the instant it was released. Don’t just constantly read weird reference books or textbooks, or else your brain will rot away. You should read novels or manhuas once in a while to relax a bit too.”

Although Yu Yin said this, he actually rarely read such books himself. He typically chose to look at design-related books instead, or just watch TV, movies, and animations. As a result, he had been somewhat lost while trying to choose a book, ultimately just taking one of the highly recommended ones to bring back.

Xiao Yu accepted the book with a cartoon-style art on the cover and carefully rubbed the picture.

“Don’t like it?” Crap. He had even looked around and seen many high school students purchase it before choosing it. Wonder if I can bring it back and exchange it for another?

“…Do like it.” After flipping over the book and touching its cover, Xiao Yu looked up at Yu Yin while quietly giving his reply.

“It’s great if you like it. I’ll get my wages in a few days, so we can go buy some games and look for a few novels or manhuas while we’re at it for you to read,” Yu Yin said as he brought the dinner he was holding into the living room.

“Mm.”

“You go ahead and eat dinner first, I’m going up to take a quick shower.” Because he had been with the little girl for a while today, he had quite a bit of filth on himself. After trying to pat away some of the dirt on his clothing, he decided to just go and clean himself up first.

Xiao Yu nodded and turned to face the sofa.

Yu Yin swung his bag onto his back and began to go up the stairs. But the moment he began to go up, he noticed an odd smell waft down from above.

It was the faint odour of blood and rotting flesh mixed with the air. The higher he climbed, the stronger the smell seemed to gradually become. The dark, second floor hallway was filled with the smell.

This odour was not a foreign one.

Yu Yin felt his body stiffen and goosebumps form, and it only took a few seconds for the rational part of his mind to forcibly keep him from continuing his ascent. It was as if the space above would bring him back to the scene of the pension, isolated and helpless, with only glowing green eyes surrounding him.

It was the smell of life and death.

Yu Yin gripped one arm with the other as he compelled himself to slowly go up the stairs and turn on the lights in the second floor corridor.

The moment the hallway was lit up, he saw that there was nothing there. The warm, yellow lighting that had been installed by the house owner seemed to be unusually dark, as if concealed by shadows spying on him from all directions.

He knew that the successive near-death experiences had possibly left behind some trauma in his heart, as the current feeling coursing through his body was making him tremble as a fully-grown man.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Yu Yin pressed the strange amulet that Fang Yi Xun had given him as he comforted himself. He did not want to run back down to alarm Xiao Yu unnecessarily, so he gathered his courage to slowly walk towards the source of the smell: his bedroom.

As he opened the door and turned on the lights, he expected to see something again in that instant the shadows were replaced by the light. However, once everything brightened up, he instead sighed in relief, the tension in his mood slowly relaxing. There was nothing inside the room, although the window had been opened.

He had always, from a young age up until now, had the habit of closing the bedroom window when he was not inside the room. This had been something he had started doing as a result of occasionally seeing ghosts wandering back and forth outside.

Yu Yin put his bag down and walked in a circle around the room, discovering that several items seemed to have been moved. For example, there was the design periodical that he had not read for a while that had been pulled out and tossed onto the ground.

He quickly noticed a giftbox on his table that did not belong to him. It was about the size of a basketball.

I don’t think a ghost could’ve brought this kind of thing. Yu Yin quickly walked forward to open the box. The foul stench that assailed his nostrils caused him to immediately retreat and gag.

There was a dead cat stuffed inside the box.

There were already maggots in the body; it appeared that the set-up had been prepared a while in advance before being brought over.

At nearly the same time, Yu Yin’s cellphone began to ring.

While pinching his nose and putting the lid back on to close the box, Yu Yin pulled out his cellphone and saw the unrecognisable number on the screen. “This is Yu Yin.”

A cold chuckle came from the other end, which was then followed by a human voice a few seconds later. “What do you think of the present?”

“…I have no interest in receiving presents from men, especially ones that are of such poor quality that they might as well go into the gutter.” Yu Yin slowly retreated to stand with his back against the wall right next to the window, barely slanting his body to glance outside.

There was a black limousine stopped outside their house; he had no idea how long it had been parked there. He had not noticed it when he had returned home just now.

“What exactly do you want?” It had been a while since he had heard from this person. Yu Yin had even been secretly rejoicing over this fact, thinking that the person had at least feared the consequences with Yu Xia and Yu Tong. However, it now looked like this had been too naïve of a thought.

“All I wanted to do today was tell you this: I can bring you to the darkness to keep my son company any time I want, but it’s just much too boring that way.”

The car doors opened on the black limousine, and a man wearing a suit stepped out into the night sky to look dead-on at Yu Yin’s bedroom. The voice coming from the other end of the line said, “If my son couldn’t die comfortably, why should I let you get an instant death?”

“Your son basically died by his own hands. When all is said and done, it has no relation to me. If you insist on bothering me, there’s no reason for me to just quietly comply, Wang Zhao Tang – Mr. Wang.” Yu Yin stared straight back at the man as he replied with a cold tone.

After the paint vandalism incident, Yu Xia had requested the case to be transferred over, so they obviously knew what the other person’s complete name was, as well as the fact that this person had invested in opening special locations all over Taiwan. However, the main base of operations was in the southern district.

“…Let’s just wait and see.”

The line was cut, leaving behind only the emotionless electronic beeping.

The man standing outside in the darkness waved in the house’s direction, then turned to re-enter the car. The engine was started up again and the car smoothly drove through the night, disappearing on the opposite end of the street.

Yu Yin shut his cellphone and stuffed it back into his pocket in irritation. The instant he turned around, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

Xiao Yu had at some point arrived, and was standing at the doorway with tightly clenched fists as his body shook slightly. It was as if he was expending all his effort to suppress his intense waves of emotions as his violet eyes glared unwaveringly at the gift box on the table.

“It’s him…” Two words that could not be spoken more quietly wedged out from tightly clenched teeth. Xiao Yu’s expression was somewhat blank and empty. “It’s him…”

Although Yu Yin had no idea what the other was thinking, he could tell that Xiao Yu was extremely upset, and hurriedly dragged him out of the room. Then, Yu Yin gently patted Xiao Yu’s back while trying to calm him down. “It’s fine, absolutely fine. That person can’t do anything at all, and there’s none of that incense here. Just take a deep breath first and calm down…That’s right…good boy, Xiao Yu…”

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong here. I’ll deal with that box and make sure nothing that scary will ever happen again.” Yu Yin suddenly felt as if he was soothing some kind of animal as his own emotions instantly calmed, his anxieties dropping with it. “I’ll tell Dad, Uncle, and the other people at the station to help me deal with it.”

No way, am I actually well-suited to go become a childcare assistant?!

Li Lin Yue’s previous warning caused his thoughts to shift to a completely different direction as he inwardly thought back to that specific woman. However, as he tried to bring Xiao Yu out, the hand that was patting the other was suddenly grabbed, and a sharp pain immediately followed.

He was stunned to discover that Xiao Yu had bit down fiercely onto his hand and dashed down the stairs.

Yu Yin stared at the bleeding hand that now sported a clean row of teeth marks into the flesh, as deep as a dog’s bite. The pain seemed to pierce through to his bones, so deep that he couldn’t help but shudder.

“Xiao Yu, stop right this instant!”

When Yu Xia returned home, he was welcomed by the sight of the older son bullying the younger son.

As a result, he instantly seized the older son to give a beating.

“Told you not to bully Xiao Yu!” How many times do I have to repeat it? Just how stubborn can this rascal be?!

“He was the one who started it this time!” Yu Yin covered his head as he rolled away from the undeserved beating. It took him a while before he suddenly realised something wrong with the other person’s timing. “Why are you back so early today, Uncle?” It’s only seven?

His uncle often refused to come home until midnight or so, and it was mostly as a result of being shooed back by someone else, like his dad.

Yu Xia hung his jacket [on the tack] in the front entrance before kicking Yu Yin off to one side. “Had to cooperate with the analysis group to collect blood samples today. They seem to be testing something. There wasn’t really anything else going on, so I just came back first.”

In reality, it was because many people had begged for him to go home first, including the superiors on top who had run over to jump in for some reason. All he had done was run a bit under a thousand meters to catch up to a scooter and forcefully beat the wanted criminal up, it wasn’t anything odd.

Yu Yin wordlessly studied the person who had just recently been heavily injured. Yu Xia’s jeans had been brand-new upon leaving the house in the morning, but were now ripped in multiple places. His clothes were completely covered in dirt too. No matter how slow-witted Yu Yin may be, it was easy to guess that the other person had definitely ignored the doctor’s requests to rest for a few months more without vigorous activity, which was why his colleagues had made him come home.

“What is that smell?” Yu Xia’s sharp nose immediately picked up the abnormal odour as he looked up at the two children that had been home.

Yu Yin gave a quick explanation of what had happened earlier. “I’ll toss the cat’s body outside in a bit…”

“No need, I’ll ask someone to come over and deal with it.” Yu Xia’s expression was extremely dark after hearing about the incident. He called the station to contact someone related [to the case], then turned his attention back to the children.

“Wang Zhao Tang is an extremely slippery person. There were actually a lot of his subordinates included in the information that Mr. Jiang had supplied, but had their ties all completely severed. Although we know that he is a manufacturer of that product, we don’t have any major evidence so we can’t touch him at the moment.”

Actually, all he wanted to do was drag the person back and give them a good beating first, then figure out what to do after.

However, the drug dealing affair had too wide of an influence, including the event involving Jian Jin Quan that had just happened recently. Knowing that it was a serious matter, the station had requested for Yu Tong and Yu Xia to keep a low-profile on the incident and prevent it from going public.

It didn’t take long before several police officers arrived. After questioning Yu Xia and then doing a thorough search through Yu Yin’s bedroom, they left with the cat’s body.

Yu Yin was paying close attention to Xiao Yu the entire time, who was standing wordlessly next to him.

Xiao Yu’s expression had not changed at all, no longer with the tension from before. However, he gave off a very strange air.

For some reason, Yu Yin felt as if there were a few shadows that were barely flickering next to Xiao Yu. The colour of the figures was extremely faint, and when he tried to look more carefully, they suddenly vanished, as if he had just been imagining it all. However, when he unintentionally shifted his gaze over again, the shadows would reappear, disappearing once more when he concentrated on them.

Illusion?

No, probably not.

After Wang Zhao Tang’s appearance, Yu Yin had realised something.

According to Yu Yin’s many years of observations and experiences, he knew that the probability of seeing ghosts appear back and forth was typically very high when there were major incidents involved. Often, the dead would cling onto the living.

He had never seen the Xiao Yu’s murdered family members lingering around Xiao Yu, and he had not seen any around Wang Zhao Tang either…the only things around Wang Zhao Tang were other types of ghosts that had tragically died.

The places that should have logically had ghosts did not.

Why?

A sharp sear of pain from his hand suddenly snapped Yu Yin out of his thoughts as he abruptly remembered that he had not treated Xiao Yu’s bite on his hand. Although it wasn’t like he would get rabies or anything from it, he still needed to disinfect it. When he flipped it over to look at it, he saw that the area around the teeth imprints had already started bruising and swelling, radiating hot waves of pain.

That little demon’s unrestraint is on a whole other level!

As he inwardly cursed at Xiao Yu, the police officers all left. Yu Yin had the other two family members go downstairs to eat first as he rushed to first clean and wrap the injury.

Leading Xiao Yu down the stairs, Yu Xia turned into the living room to see some kind of manhua or other type of book tossed onto the sofa. “Is that your book?”

Xiao Yu nodded from behind and ran forwards to grab it. He then carefully placed it into the little backpack he always carried with him.

No matter how Yu Xia looked at the book, it did not seem to be the type Xiao Yu usually read, and he inwardly thought to himself that it had likely been the older son that had brought it from somewhere random. He did not question it.

Since there were only two portions of dinner prepared, and Yu Xia had no intention of going back out to buy food after coming back spontaneously, he turned to walk into the kitchen and cook an instant meal of some kind. But just then, Xiao Yu passed in front of him to turn on the gas stove and put things on it with extremely natural, practiced movements.

Yu Xia knew that the younger child was more willing to do housework. During the past year or so, aside from Yu Yin, Xiao Yu had stuck closer to Yu Tong a bit, although mostly in the kitchen only.

With no plans to stop him, Yu Xia sat down at the small table on the side and studied the petite figure busily working. “Xiao Yu, it’s already been over a year since you came to our home, and it’s been a while since you became and adult and passed the age restrictions of a minor. Have you gotten used to living here?”

Xiao Yu stopped and turned around to look at Yu Xia with a slightly puzzled expression.

“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to chase you out. Back when Tong and I had taken you in, we had already decided to treat you as our own child. Ah Yin thinks the same. But we don’t know what you think about it.” Yu Xia crossed his arms. He felt the need to clarify things up, as he spoke in a less piercing tone. “I know very well that you are not dumb or a shut-in. But the first anniversary since your home [was lost] has passed already, yet you haven’t expressed anything, which makes me wonder if you’re planning something.”

He and Yu Tong had mutually reached a tacit agreement that if Xiao Yu wanted to go back or do something after the anniversary, they would wholeheartedly support it. However, as time passed, the person who should have indicated something had instead lived peacefully as usual, as if he had no relation to all that had happened in the past.

How could such a cruel incident stay forever hidden inside the heart without hurting him?

Yu Xia’s instincts from many years of experience with investigating and prosecuting criminals told him that such a situation was far from good.

Shaodi Yu had shown no signs of injury or trauma, let alone any other symptoms. It was as if the incident had not happened to him at all. The youth was as “cold” as he had been that day when Yu Xia had pulled him out of the water, not caring in the slightest about the matters that had unfolded in his original household…or perhaps it wasn’t that he did not care at all.

Yu Xia had encountered a similar case before.

It was a tragedy where a male with a diagnosed mental illness had suddenly broken into a house and murdered a family of three. The sole survivor had been a son that had been out at a summer camp.

In this society, the ordinance towards those that were mentally ill had a certain level of tolerance. Even though the man had killed others, it was likely that he could be exempt from certain sentences, as if he was wearing a protective charm. Yu Xia had also seen people fake mental illness before to utilise this status pickpocket and steal, with their penalty ultimately being overruled with a lawsuit. These kinds of people would then continue to commit crimes over and over, while the police had no way of doing anything.

It was a gap.

That man had been sentenced to stay in a mental hospital his entire life under observation. When he walked out of the courthouse, he had sported a smile of victory…but it had not lasted long.

The high-school boy that had approached among the crowds of reporters stabbed a fruit knife into the man’s heart, forcing the smile to freeze on the man’s face for eternity as he breathed his last.

The teenage boy had been abnormally calm, the extreme sorrow causing him to resolve to kill the perpetrator personally as punishment.

Yu Xia saw that boy’s shadow from that moment behind Xiao Yu’s body.

However, Yu Xia did not know what exactly Xiao Yu was planning.

For a period of time, he and Yu Tong had tried having Yan Si and Li Zi Hong watch over Xiao Yu. However, Xiao Yu had maintained his ice-cold temperament as usual, simply reading books quietly and not communicating much with people. They had all noticed that Xiao Yu would only respond once in a while when with Yu Yin. Although the responses were a mix of positive and negative ones, they could already be counted as quite a lot in number.

Yan Si had said that this meant Xiao Yu had acknowledged that there was something highly important attached to the “student that was ganged up on”, although at the moment they were uncertain of what that part was.

Yu Xia turned around to see the violet-eyed youth blinking his beautifully coloured, gemstone-like eyes, then crossing in front to grab a few eggs and vegetables from the fridge to continue his work on cooking a delicious meal.

“…At the senior high school back then, how exactly did your hand get cut?”

Xiao Yu did not respond to the question.

The pan on the fire sizzled from the hot oil.

The pattering of steps sounded out from the stairs, breaking the somewhat stiff atmosphere. Yu Yin then walked down wearing slippers as he was wiping his dripping wet hair with a towel, jumping off before the last few steps.

“You guys still haven’t eaten? The food’s already gone cold.” As he said this, Yu Yin also walked into the kitchen and grabbed some fruit juice from the fridge. “Smells great, why does Uncle’s food look more appetising than ours?” That aroma is just too attractive, my stomach is already growling from it.

Xiao Yu tossed the content in the frying pan for a bit before shooting a look at Yu Yin. “Want some too?”

“We’ve already bought dinner though. How about you just make one extra portion for the two of us to split? That way we won’t overstuff ourselves.” Yu Yin was glad that they had just bought some noodles from a street vendor as opposed to a huge meal, or else he would have been very reluctant to turn down the delicious cooking.

“Ok.”

Xiao Yu grabbed another portion of ingredients and turned his back towards the uncle-and-nephew pair. Under the cover of the shadows, the corners of Xiao Yu’s mouth tilted upwards slightly.

The quickly prepared meal was soon steaming on the table.

***

Yu Tong, who was on night duty, stared at the takeout boxes of food on the table, unsure of whether to laugh or be angry.

Takeout boxes were very typical; they were the kind from a certain well-known restaurant that was just slightly higher quality and more expensive. However, it was something that officers could usually afford to eat.

This was all something that he could accept.

When a man typically sees several large roses dusted with gold glitter on top of the takeout boxes, the preceding points all become insignificant. This was what he truly believed.

“Wow, the scent of roses is really strong.” Jiu Shen, who had similarly also on night duty, stepped into the office, only to have the fragrance of roses instantly assail his nose. “Is it those high-quality, custom roses again? Apparently a single one of those is already quite costly. That young miss, Xiao Hai, must have quite a bit of money.”

Yu Tong no longer had the energy to even smile about it. He sat down on the office chair and placed the transfer documents on the other side of the table. “Children these days are very hard to communicate with…I’ve already called her multiple times to request her to stop sending things…” At this point, he had been laughed at by nearly every single person at the station.

Aside from being attacked by a truck of roses, he suspected that Xiao Hai had already figured out exactly when his work hours were, as there were always lunchboxes appearing while he was on night shift, and snacks during his day shift. Each time would be accompanied with a flower. All the departments knew that someone was pursuing the male officer, one that was old enough to be the suitor’s father.

He had no idea why Xiao Hai was so persistent. Moreover, with her business, it was more logical to avoid the police out of fear instead. How did she have the inclination and state of mind to play these tricks?

Jiu Shen coughed twice. “It’s hard to predict a girl’s thoughts.”

It’s actually not hard to guess as much as the fact that they are so distorted, it’s impossible for others to pinpoint. No matter how Jiu Shen looked at it – up, down, left, right, front, back, horizontally, vertically, or angled – Jiu Shen felt like using flowers and gifts as a mode of attack was something that a man would do to pursue a woman instead. Why was it reversed with Xiao Hai?

Females of the new generation are really powerful!

Yu Tong rubbed his pained temples, feeling somewhat powerless.

He had carefully calculated the cost of the flower and bento boxes and returned them to the girl. But in the end, the things she sent gradually increased in quality. When he plainly told her he did not need the gifts, she generously said that he could re-gift them to others; since she just wanted to show appreciation to the hardworking Mister Cop, she did not care who actually ended up taking the gifts.

This matter had already caught the attention of the higher-ups too, since Xiao Hai’s identity was a bit unique. The supervisors had all intentionally or otherwise warned him not to let the matter get too big.

Having lived a smooth and steady life for dozens of years now, this was the actually the first time Yu Tong had ever been given a warning by the supervisors. And it was just because someone, a girl in fact, was constantly attacking him with flowers. It was to the point where even external reporters were beginning to stir.

He had no idea if it would be reported as a unique laughingstock of a romance in the police world, or as a bribe received by the officer.

“I think I’ll try to arrange for her to come out tomorrow to talk to her plainly.” Yu Tong sighed helplessly, believing that it had already caused a lot of troubles. He placed the roses emitting an unbridled scent into a vase placed on a female colleague’s desk.

Fortunately, everyone at the office had already left for the day aside from a few on night shift. Otherwise, he would be teased all over again.

He opened the lid of the bento box. As expected, it contained three layers of extremely exquisite dishes.

Although he felt perplexed by it, he still sat down and split the food with Jiu Shen, who had not eaten yet either. He had no intention of wasting the food.

“Oh right, did you come looking for Xia? He already left early to go home.”

“Is that so? That’s fine then, I was just going to give him the analytical results. I’ll tell him by phone later, it’s nothing important.” Jiu Shen drooled at the luxurious dishes. Grabbing a sushi roll, he said, “After careful analysis and testing of the things we took from the middle circles of the drug dealing network, Ah Liu and I confirmed that it’s the same type as the one found in Xiao Yu’s home, but with higher volatility and purity in terms of quality. We believe that this substance has been split into at least three types already. The earliest type was the volatile mass that Wang Hong used in the air conditioning of his electronic game centre. The incense burned in Xiao Yu’s home and the cigarettes we found recently shared more or less identical composition and caused similar symptoms. Also, the formulation recipe of the goods that were seized from the criminals captured at the building complex were derived from the cigarettes. Our hypothesis is that the one from the air conditioning was the first one developed, then the incense. Once it was confirmed that lighting the incense increased its volatility, it was used in cigarettes. The one from the air conditioning should have been a product still in development, so it had not been spread outside. The entertainment areas that have been searched recently did not have anything similar.”

Yu Tong nodded upon hearing the simplified oral report. These findings were pretty much the same as what they had originally guessed. It was highly likely that Wang Hong had only managed to get a pre-released product because of his status.

They were currently uncertain of how many incense sticks had been distributed, and to what extent it had spread.

The captured sellers from the middle circles had mostly claimed that they did not know where the supply had come from, and had simply passed it on to distribute among the lower circles. They did not know who bought them or who was using them.

This kept the investigation work from progressing.

Perhaps multiple users had accidentally bought the incense like the pension owners, unknowingly getting addicted, and ultimately suffering radical changes in temperament.

The impact was impossible to determine, and its hidden dangers were even harder to grasp.

“When I discovered them selling the incense, there seemed to be two methods: one was having it flow into the market through Buddhist shops that sell gold paper; the other seemed to be through people helping [the users] set up shrines…Xiao Yu’s home and that fourth floor home had pretty much identical shrines, right? Could it be that they are also using some kind of religion as a means to keep the baseline sales steady?”

Everyone had been focused on this case recently, and Jiu Shen had naturally looked through the photos from all the related cases, which had led him to this discovery.

“That is a possibility.”

Yu Tong believed that there was definitely a reason for choosing “incense” as the form.

And this reason was a crucial point for them.