The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

The bus stopped next to the sign.

“You kids be careful, this area isn’t very safe nowadays.” The driver couldn’t help but give a few words of warning at the two children standing next to the local station sign. “The return bus comes around only once every thirty minutes or so. If you want to go back home, you’ll have to make sure you come here by ten to get on the last bus.”

“Okay, thank you Mister Driver.”

Fang Yi Xun waved at the bus driver as he turned the bus and left. Then, she dropped her excessively glittering smile and turned to look at Xiao Yu waiting next to her. “Let’s go, it’s just up the mountain.”

It was noontime.

Unlike usual, where Xiao Yu had to wait for someone to pick him up, Xiao Yu and Fang Yi Xun had left early to take the bus, transferring several times to arrive at the outskirts. As they went further from the city, more uninhabited mountains of various sizes would come in sight. A portion of them would often have stone-shipping trucks whizzing through, with the occasional person as well. But these were just the few working adults that took scooters down the mountains.

They had gotten off the bus in a decently verdant area that was surrounded by grass and trees. The two of them had been the only passengers on the bus just now, as very few people took public transport during non-commuting hours, let alone to areas this remote.

The driver just now had originally thought they were a pair of lovers skipping school, and had been about to give them a scolding. However, Fang Yi Xun had told them that they were siblings who had come looking for their mother, so the driver fell silent.

The two of them headed along the asphalt road leading towards the mountain area, walking in complete silence.

Xiao Yu would occasionally pull out his cellphone to check the time and glance at incoming calls. His phone was set to silent mode. The screen showed over a dozen missed calls from Yan Si, as well as voicemails that he did not open. He would definitely end up getting a good scolding from the Yu family upon returning, but this was his only option.

“Is someone looking for you?” Fang Yi Xun was walking in front to lead the way. As she patted away some grass burrs, she naturally noticed the other person’s actions. She was supposed to be in school today, so she was even wearing the uniform to avoid getting into un-needed trouble. She had simply added a jean jacket over the uniform to cover the school name and emblem.

Xiao Yu shook his head and put his cellphone away.

After walking upwards for about twenty minutes, they began to see the rooftop of a shrine. As they approached closer, the average-looking, decently sized shrine appeared in its entirety before them.

The elevated shrine had stone steps leading upwards, and the building was around 330 square meters in area. There was even a parking lot set up next to it, as well as seven or eight various sized recreational cars stopped there despite it not being a holiday.

The two exchanged a look and Xiao Yu put on his glasses. Then, Fang Yi Xun began to walk up the shrine’s steps. Before they had even gotten to the front entrance, she saw quite a few people kneeling before the statue of a god in the spacious depths of the shrine. She could not tell if they were giving their greetings to the god or if they were repenting. As they reached the final step, someone from inside the shrine strode out at the exact same moment to stand in front of them.

“Children, this isn’t a school.” The shrine master who spoke seemed affable with his round face and warm smile. Two strings of Buddhist beads were hung around his chubby neck, giving off the fragrance of sandalwood.

“We’re lost.” Fang Yi Xun had clearly thought of an excuse already. She blinked as she spoke with a soft, innocent tone that made her sound pitiful. “Because Mom said she was at a factory here…a weaving one, I think. But we walked for a long time and still didn’t see it.”

The shrine master studied their faces for a few seconds before finally replying, “The weaving factory you just mentioned is on the other side of the intersection. You two came the wrong way. The other road should lead to a factory area, including the weaving one.”

Having not expected Fang Yi Xun to have researched the surrounding area ahead of time, Xiao Yu could only let her pull him around as he kept his head lowered and quietly listened to the conversation.

“Ah! What do we do…we don’t know the roads around here…” Fang Yi Xun wore an expression of panic near the brink of tears. “What horrible luck…”

“Don’t worry. Why don’t you two wait here in the shrine for a bit, and Ābó can ask someone here to bring you over there later?” The shrine master kindly patted Fang Yi Xun’s head and called them into the shrine hall to sit on some chairs off to the side of the counter, bringing them tea.

The hall was extremely quiet.

The large marble surface was maintained so well that its brilliant surface showed their reflections.

The imposing, carved statue of some unknown god being worshipped was set up on the altar. It was about triple the average person’s height, and it wore beautifully embroidered clothing. The plaque outside the shrine had said “Prince’s Palace”, which was likely based on the name of the god.

There were several candles surrounding the large space, the layers of flames flickering as the wax slowly dripped down and accumulated on the stage, waiting to be cleaned up later. There were glowing lights on rotating turrets on both sides of the altar, and there was an enormous incense burner. A large stick of incense stuck out from the burner, emitting a thin wisp of smoke wafting upwards.

Xiao Yu suddenly stood up and coldly glared at the incense burner.

Fang Yi Xun hurriedly pulled him back down into his seat.

The sickly sweet aroma seemed to be touching every person in the hall with its invisible hands before slowly floating outside the door and dissipating into the air.

A middle-aged female stood up from inside the hall, her movements elegant and poised. The perfume she wore had almost blended seamlessly with the sweet scent in the air. She strode over casually to sit next to them. “Is this the first time you two children have come here?” Her soft and gentle tone was that of a caring mother’s.

“First time.” Fang Yi Xun nodded vigorously and added, “We got lost.”

“You’re both around my daughter’s age…” The woman’s voice fell quiet as she slowly rubbed her arms.

After listening to the woman chat with Fang Yi Xun for a while, Xiao Yu coldly scanned the shrine and stood up to walk out of the hall. The clean, fresh air quickly assailed his nostrils.

There was nothing special outside the shrine. The veranda was supported by red pillars and had water faucets. Snaking around to the back led to some small flowerbeds and what looked like other residential buildings.

There was a faint, barely indiscernible sweet scent blowing out from the depths.

He headed down the winding path, slowly nearing the front area.

“What are you doing here!”

As he passed by the flowerbed and was inspecting some grey, roofless buildings, a person suddenly grabbed onto his shoulder from behind.

Even the usually expressionless Xiao Yu couldn’t help but jump in shock, abruptly jerking out from under the other person’s hand.

When he looked behind him, he saw that the person there was the shrine master from before, who had at some point walked in after him. The shrine master smiled and patted his head. “Those are private residences in the back, you must not run around there.” As he said this, the palms wrapped in cloth lightly grabbed onto Xiao Yu in a somewhat coarse manner to start leading him back. “Come, let’s go sit with everyone else. Someone will be able to lead you two back in just a bit. Ābó will also go get some food for you, since children running around always get hungry.”

Xiao Yu eyed the shrine master silently as he allowed himself to be brought back to the shrine. Fang Yi Xun and the woman from earlier were standing outside, seemingly waiting for them.

The woman intimately hooked arms with Fang Yi Xun as she very gently said, “How about I bring them back? The young girl said they lived with their father in the city. I can bring them back to the city bus stop, since the buses around here aren’t frequent, which would make it hard on them.”

As a result, the two of them followed the woman to a black recreational car parked outside with a box of little cakes they received from the shrine to eat on the way. Everything appeared to be nice and perfect.

The instant they got onto the car, Fang Yi Xun instantly smelled the strong stench of incense.

“Can I open the window…”

“No!” The woman sternly interrupted. “Don’t fiddle with my car! You are not allowed to open the windows! Just whose car do you think you’re sitting in! Who gave you permission to touch my things!”

There was moment of stunned silence as the woman seemed to suddenly realise her words just now had been too loud. Before the other two could even respond, she immediately softened her voice again and stroked Fang Yi Xun’s hair.

“My apologies, Āyí spoke too loudly just now. Did it give you a scare?”

“Eh…not at all.”

Fang Yi Xun looked at the woman and complacently shook her head.

Xiao Yu frigidly observed the whole scene from the back seat.

His story was only just beginning to stir.

When Yu Yin awoke, all he felt was the strength completely drained from his body.

There was the light scent of tea in the air.

“What the hell…” With a hand weakly on his forehead, he opened his eyes. However, his vision was blurred at first, and it took almost half a minute for the silhouettes to slowly clear up before him.

The first things he saw were the extremely white ceiling paper and the light.

“Student that was ganged up on, has your soul come back to you?”

There’s that annoying voice…

Yan Si was sitting next to him, flipping through a book. The moment he saw the other person wake up, he automatically glanced at his watch. “I took your cellphone and called your workplace to request a leave of absence already.” After hanging around with them and often bringing Xiao Yu around, Yan Si more or less knew when the other person’s work shifts were. As for the number itself, he had just done a quick search through the cellphone to find it.

Yu Yin covered his eyes with his hand as he found the light somewhat painful. He absentmindedly shook his head, still unable to muster an ounce of strength in his body. “Why are you here…?” He tilted his head to look at the familiar layout and objects around him. This was his bedroom.

“That’s what I should be asking you. Student that was ganged up on, did you go off and get yourself into trouble again? You suddenly fainted at the door, and you’re awfully heavy. It took me forever to get you up here.” Once Yan Si had determined that Yu Yin wasn’t in life-threatening danger and did not have any external injuries, he had brought the person inside the house. The part he did not mention was the fact that he had also stripped Yu Yin from his clothes to exchange them for a set of clean ones, which had taken most of Yan Si’s time and effort.

“Did not…” Yu Yin closed his eyes and slowly felt his body finally relax a bit.

“If you didn’t, then why were your clothes covered in blood?”

“Blood?”

Yan Si put his book down and retrieved the clothes that had been placed on the side. He opened them up to show Yu Yin directly. “There are even bloody handprints. Student that was ganged up on, what exactly did you do?”

Yu Yin slowly re-opened his eyes as he suddenly recalled seeing dark crimson blood all over his body before losing consciousness. He turned his head to look at the completely unwearable clothing that Yan Si held up. It was covered with mottled bloodstains and countless handprints layered upon each other that dyed it a dark colour. It was an extremely bizarre sight.

“I’m not sure either…probably saw something unclean…” Yu Yin subconsciously rubbed his neck. The necklace that Fang Yi Xun had given him was still there. He thought back to the feet that had been on the stairs. Maybe those things couldn’t get close back then because of this necklace?

Since based on his past experience, those things would usually charge straight at him.

However, despite not doing so this time, they had managed to leave a huge burden on his body.

Yu Yin had never experienced anything like this before. He pressed a hand against his forehead as he slowly lifted himself up into sitting position. Yan Si put the clothes down to help him straighten the pillow upright to lean back on.

“Since you’ve been unconscious for a while, I just gave Tong a call.” Yan Si passed over a cup of hot water he had prepared. As someone who worked at a hospital as a side job, he made sure the other person was hydrated. “And do you know what’s going on with Xiao Yu?”

“Xiao Yu…?” Yu Yin’s mind was still fuzzy, and was unable to grasp the meaning of the other person’s question at first.

“He was supposed to come over to my place today, but I couldn’t find him. I called his phone over a dozen times, but there was no answer, so I came around to your place.” Yan Si shrugged. In the end, he had instead seen the university student in front of him pass out after their long awaited reunion, and ended up conveniently there to help out.

“…Xiao Yu is missing?” It took Yu Yin a few seconds to completely understand Yan Si’s words. “Where did that brat run off to this time…” Xiao Yu had only loosened up a bit before running off by himself again.

Yu Yin struggled to retrieve his cellphone from his bed, but discovered that the instant he attempted to exert the slightest amount of strength, his entire body began to shake uncontrollably. He nearly fell off his bed entirely.

Yan Si grabbed him and gave him his phone. “Student that was ganged up on, I really think there is something wrong with your condition. I think it’s best if I brought you to the hospital for an examination.” Yan Si found it somewhat strange, since he had personally examined Yu Yin already, and had not found any injuries or illnesses. Yet Yu Yin’s body was abnormally weak.

“I’ll be fine with some rest.” Yu Yin waved his hand in dismissal, as he had a general idea of what the issue was. He took his cellphone and dialed Xiao Yu’s number several times in succession, with none of the calls answered. All he got was the monotone beeping of the phone. “What in the…” Did he go off by himself to do something without telling anyone again?!

“I’ve already contacted your dad; if the police see him, they’ll let us know.” Knowing Xiao Yu’s unique identity, Yan Si had naturally contacted the police first.

Yu Yin look at his phone and tossed his blankets away. “That won’t work. That brat…” If nobody goes to retrieve him, he won’t come home by himself.

Just as he was about to tumble off the bed, a sound came from the half-open window, as if someone was opening the metal door outside. It was followed by the sound of the front door opening, and someone entering the house.

Yan Si pushed Yu Yin back into bed and stood up to walk out to the hallway. “Seems like he just came back.”

An unusual series of thunks rang out, breaking the silence.

It was as if someone was dragging an object up the stairs that rhythmically thumped against the floor.

Yan Si instantly backed into the room again and locked the door. At nearly the exact same second, they heard heavy footsteps outside in the hallway, followed by a series of banging on the wall.

“Who?” Yu Yin froze as he watched the person that was still able to move grab the desk and push it against the door to blockade it.

“Hurry up and call the police!” Yan Si pulled his sleeves up and searched all over the room, pulling out a baseball bat and pens that belonged to the room’s owner. “How exciting. I feel like something interesting often happens around here when I pay a visit.”

Hearing the heavy hammering against the door, Yu Yin could also tell that the person who had burst into his home was absolutely not someone he knew. Grabbing his phone, he directly called the closest police station to notify the cops.

The noise outside abruptly stopped, and after a brief standstill, all the lights in the house were instantly extinguished, and their surroundings fell into complete darkness.

“Here.” Yu Yin opened the drawer next to him and fished out a flashlight. He called out to the other person as he switched it on.

Yan Si took the flashlight, then dragged Yu Yin underneath the bed. “There are roughly four or five people. A black car is parked outside your house. The police should be here within five minutes; you just stay under there and stay quiet.” As he spoke, he pulled over a bunch of random objects to block Yu Yin up, ignoring the protests.

Amidst the darkness, a loud boom directly pierced through the wooden door. Yan Si propped the baseball bat next to the bed as he turned around and saw a hole that had somehow been broken through the door. An arm was reaching in, attempting to unlock the door.

Yan Si placed the flashlight on the bookshelf. Just as the other person managed to touch the lock, Yan Si swiftly grabbed their wrist and pressed their pressure points. He then flung a ballpoint pen out from its box and forcefully stabbed it down into the weak flesh – a pained wail instantly rang out from outside the door, and the hand was retracted back out. Someone outside began to shout that it was bleeding like crazy.

“Hmph, nobody told you to pull it out. It would’ve been better to keep it in,” Yan Si sneered. Leaving the pen embedded would have at least minimised the amount of blood. The minute the blockage was removed, the blood was would naturally all come spurting out. Hopefully, this guy would get to the hospital in time before the police arrived.

As long as he doesn’t move too much to overstimulate it.

Seemingly furious about the internal attack, the people outside decided to give up on unlocking the door. More violent bangs against the door quickly resulted in a few large holes being smashed in.

With the help of the light from the nearby flashlight, Yan Si was able to see the axe heads and metal pipes breaking through the door as he protected his head. They had chosen to come to this exact room the minute they had barged into the house, without wandering around the first floor. This signified that their target was specifically the student that was ganged up on, and not anyone else in the household.

…He gets into trouble way too easily.

The forensic investigator shook his head and sighed in dismay.

Right as the door fell apart, he turned off the flashlight and hid it underneath the desk being used to blockade the door.

The first person climbed through the whole, stepping onto the surface of the desk and jumping heavily onto the ground.

In that moment, Yan Si kicked out from where he was hiding off to the side, tripping the person from their ankles. He then quickly located the person’s upper body, sending the pen he was holding straight into the person’s neck.

The victim of the surprise attack froze in shock, terrified by the foreign object in his neck left behind by the attack. His body that had fallen to the floor then began to convulse uncontrollably.

“I suggest you get that pulled out in the hospital. You idiotic imps that were just paid to come should just stay put here if you don’t want to lose your lives.” Yan Si had felt the other person’s youthful facial features earlier. Combined with the large movements they had made earlier, he had immediately concluded that these people were just cannon fodder that had likely come as a mere warning.

When the second person was about to come in, having not noticed what had just happened inside, the sound of sirens could be heard approaching from the distance.

This time, their movements were pretty quick. As Yan Si was thinking things through, he lifted his head to see that there were still three or four silhouettes outside the broken door in the darkness. The instant they heard the sirens, they sprang into a noisy clamour, shouting inside: “Ah Zhuang, hurry up and scram, the cops are here!” Then, they fought each other to scramble down the stairs and flee.

Yan Si pushed the handle of the pen into the neck. Although he knew the other person could not see him, he wore his usual smile as he said, “Young friend, it’s best you don’t move. Otherwise, you’ll end up in extreme pain.”

The person on the other end of the pen could not stop shaking. It was evident that they were already terrified out of their wits.

Yan Si rummaged through the desk drawers to find half a roll of bandages. After swiftly tying up the other person’s hands and feet, he stood up to turn the flashlight on.

Under the reflection of the light, he was not surprised to see the face barely looked even twenty years old, pale as the person shivered.

Yan Si opened the window to see a person standing outside the black car. He had only ever seen that face before in the case files before. Back then, this person had only had their photo in Wang Hong’s case files as an outsider unrelated to the case due to his relation as the father.

The other man was likewise staring straight at the window. Possibly seeing that Yan Si was not the room’s owner, the man seemed to pause for a brief moment. Then, before the police arrived, he opened the door of the black car and sat inside.

Yan Si grabbed the baseball bat he had prepared nearby, and after calculating the not-so-far distance, hurled it straight at the very large target: the front windshield of the car. The extremely loud bang gave him immense satisfaction, and when he saw that a crack had split the glass, he was so elated that he nearly let out a whistle.

However, he had no time to whistle as he immediately covered his head and ducked next to the bookshelf.

The window of the black car was slowly rolled down a bit. Then, an arm and a gun reached out from inside. A few seconds later, a bullet was shot through the open window, embedding itself into the wall.

Afterwards, the person left.

***

“Do not provoke the other person next time.”

As the police rushed to contain the scene, these were the first words Yan Si’s former roommate, who had also arrived as quickly as possible, had told Yan Si.

“Hey, I acted pretty moderately. But the accuracy was seriously spot-on; my recent playing of the Wii has actually turned out to be useful.” Yan Si plucked off the small, shattered pieces of wood from his arm as he shrugged nonchalantly. “Oh right, one of them also has a wrist injury. You guys should check hospitals and hospital records; if anyone was pierced by a pen, that’s your person.”

Li Zi Hong shot him a look, then turned to pass on the orders to the other officers to deal with. “Could you please restrain yourself when you act violently? If you really end up killing somebody, you…”

“Don’t worry, I would perform emergency first-aid on them before they died.” Yan Si glanced over at the bawling youth being carried out as he replied in a colder tone, “I really can’t stand those idiotic, young brats who think that doing these things is super cool. Without anything else, they believe that just by gathering a few people, they are undefeatable and dare to do anything. Yet when they are close to death, all they do is cry and scream. I seriously suspect their brains are completely filled with shit; there’s no other reason for being so muddled.”

Li Zi Hong patted his friend on the shoulder, then shifted his gaze over to the bed. There were a few officers clearing away the junk and pulling Yu Yin out from underneath.

“I can walk by myself.” Yu Yin politely rejected the officer’s offer to help him up as he felt his strength start to return. He then surveyed the tragic sight his room now was…At the very least, the door definitely had to be replaced, and he wasn’t sure if the hole in the wall from digging the bullet out could be filled back in. Of course, this wasn’t including the absolute mess inside the room.

The only thing worth rejoicing about was that as a result of Yan Si’s aid, nothing expensive in the house had been damaged. The only damages were everyday objects that could be replaced. Moreover, they had not smashed up any other rooms, so generally speaking, the losses were not severe at all.

“You two go downstairs to rest first. Someone will come and ask you some questions later,” Li Zi Hong said as he noticed that there were also traces of damage outside in the hallway.

“Oh right, why did you come back before Boss and the others?” Yan Si waved his hands as he asked in slight curiosity. His former roommate standing before him had arrived not long after the local police had. He did not believe this guy could possibly be that fast.

“…Didn’t you call my phone saying that Xiao Yu was missing?” Li Zi Hong had dropped by after work to check on that situation, and had just happened to be in time to see this incident.

“Got it.”

The police continued to shuffle back and forth inside the house.

In comparison to the second floor, there wasn’t really any damage on the first floor. Although that was the first area that had been broken into, there was nothing wrong with it aside from dirty footprints on the previously clean floor. On the other hand, the second floor, which should have been the tidier one, now had even its hallway covered in bloodstains.

Contrasting from Yan Si, who ran back upstairs in curiosity, Yu Yin sat down on the sofa to rest after recording his testimony, since he was still quite drained. The hot drinks and simple food that one of his police acquaintances had brought helped him recover quite a bit of his energy. He was no longer struggling to the point where even thinking was difficult, like he had been earlier.

He thought back to the strange house and its dark floor.

Since entering through that back door, he had been unable to shake off the feeling that the house had been very strange. However, he couldn’t contemplate its significance as he usually did, as if someone was preventing him from doing so.

What was that house?

The first floor had been damaged, but the furniture had been well intact. It did not seem like the residents had moved out, nor did it seem as if homeless people had been staying there. It felt like the people inside the house had encountered some trouble, but decided to maintain the house’s appearance from that time, similar to the situation they had seen in the fourth floor apartment.

Moreover, there had been those feet and abnormal shadows. Yu Yin could more or less conclude that it was a haunted house, but he wasn’t sure what was haunting it…A place that could affect his condition this much was definitely not normal.

I might have to go back and take another look.

As he made this decision, he suddenly heard some noise.

When he turned his head, he saw that Xiao Yu had at some point finally come home after running off to who knew where. A police officer led him in as he held what looked like a paper box of food in his hands.

“Where did you run off to?” Yu Yin asked as pressed a hand against his forehead and looked at the person slowly walking over.

Xiao Yu simply stared at him without actually responding. He went into the kitchen to toss the box he was holding into the trash can, then slowly walked back to the living room. “The house was destroyed?” Xiao Yu’s tone was uncertain as he surveyed the strangers walking in and out.

“Wang Hong’s bastard dad hired people to smash up the house. I have no idea where they got our house keys.” The house’s lock had not been destroyed, which meant the other party possibly had their keys. It was no wonder then that they had been able to place a box inside his room last time without anyone noticing. The thought of them being able to enter into the house as they pleased made Yu Yin feel absolutely sick.

This was not the same as before, when they had simply dumped things outside. It was unmistakably clear that the other party could invade their living territory and threaten the safety of their home.

If Yan Si had not been here today, and it had just been him and Xiao Yu alone at home instead, there was no knowing what would have happened.

“…” Xiao Yu bit his lip as his hands curled into fists.

“Whatever, it’s a good thing you came back late in the end. Luckily you didn’t bump into those guys.” Yu Yin rubbed his still somewhat pained temples, feeling fortunate that only he and Yan Si had been present. As a result, he could not be bothered to continue questioning Xiao Yu on what he had run off to do by himself; there was almost no way he would get an answer anyways. Asking further would just lead to more anger – it would be faster to just let the adults come back and ask Xiao Yu. “The police already went off to track down those people. I’ve also called Dad, and he said he would get somebody to change the locks. Also, they will be checking the security cameras. You’d better not think about doing something by yourself again because of this.”

Xiao Yu looked at the person in front of him and nodded after a moment’s hesitation. “Ok.”

“Then promise me.” Yu Yin stretched out his pinky while locking his eyes onto the child before him. “Say that you won’t go do something dangerous by yourself.”

“…” Xiao Yu stared at the finger, frozen as he truly hesitated this time. He shifted his gaze back onto the face of the hand’s owner.

“You can’t?” Yu Yin furrowed his brows as he started to actually grow upset. He lowered his voice as he said, “Then, what kind of dangerous things are you planning? To have a direct confrontation with Wang Zhao Tang? That person is extremely dangerous, even more so than any other person we’ve previously faced. Do you still not understand that?”

With just the two incidents, Yu Yin had no doubts that the other party was not the same as the murderers they had encountered before.

This person did not need a reason to eliminate anyone that he found was an eyesore, nor had any fears about doing so. His car was packed with departed spirits that were still screaming. A person like him that treated human lives as garbage was not one that could possibly be reasoned with.

“He cannot live.” Xiao Yu reached out a hand to grab the university student’s finger. His tone could not be any more serious. “My home was destroyed. Many people are the same.”

“What exactly do you want to do?” Despite hearing Xiao Yu speak so much for once, Yu Yin did not feel intrigued. Instead, a chill spread through his entire body. He grabbed the other hand and said, “No, you have to promise me you won’t go looking for that person.”

“Ok.” Xiao Yu nodded.

Yu Yin directly whacked Xiao Yu’s head. “You’re clearly just trying to fool me.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to bully Xiao Yu!”

Yu Xia just happened to stride into the living room, directly whacking Yu Yin’s head in turn. “And Xiao Yu! You’d better sit here and properly reflect on your actions. I’ll be questioning you when I come back…What the heck are you two trying to do?!” Did these two purposely plan to stir up trouble on the same day? One went missing, the other was a target of revenge. What kind of crazy coordination is that?

Dizzy from having his head beaten up, Yu Yin did not immediately respond.

Yu Xia angrily went to follow the other officers upstairs. When Yu Xia saw how destroyed his house was, he swore something along the lines of those people would be as good as dead, and quickly disappeared at the top of the stairs.

Yu Tong arrived just a bit later. He walked in after parking his car and asked, “Nobody is injured?” He did not go up the stairs to squeeze in with the crowd, instead placing his things down like he usually did upon returning home, and walked straight into the living room. He greeted the officers along the way and then sat down onto the sofa.

“I’m not, although Yan Si-dàgē has a few scratches.” Having been trapped underneath the bed from beginning to end, Yu Yin did not have a single bruise. However, after crawling out, he had noticed that Yan Si had a few abrasions on his body, likely from bumping into various things in the dark. In comparison, the people that had invaded their home sported more severe injuries. The person that had been carried out just now still had a pen embedded in their skin, which had been a horrific sight.

Yu Tong nodded and patted Xiao Yu’s head. Then, he glanced at the convenience store fast food on the table and said, “I’ll go prepare some food and drinks for everyone.” When he said “everyone”, he was including all the officers inside the house too. Since it was already late at night, there had likely been several people who had come to help sort out the situation on empty stomachs.

It would be best to prepare some food for them to bring back to the station.

When he walked into the kitchen, he noticed Xiao Yu also following behind, joining him to help out as usual.

Yu Tong did not say anything, and quickly began to prepare some simple ingredients. At the same time, he spotted the paper box that had been stuffed into the trash can. When he opened it up, he saw that there were several packaged cakes inside that did not appear to be spoiled, and still gave off a faint, sweet fragrance. “Who threw these out…”

“Don’t want it.” Xiao Yu pushed away Yu Tong’s hands and closed the box before shoving it even deeper down the trash can so that the cakes were flattened together with the paper.

“Alright, just remember to throw it into the food disposal next time, and the paper box in the recycling.” Yu Tong did not question it, simply straightening back up to continue his previous actions.

“…Mm.”

A large pot of water was placed onto the stove, slowly coming to a boil.

After sorting out the ingredients with practiced movements, Yu Tong grabbed the broth and ground meat that had been pre-prepared. Then, while his back was facing Xiao Yu, he stopped his actions.

“Although I will not question you all the way like Xia would…” He paused for a moment, faintly hoping that the scent he had just smelled had been his imagination. “But could you tell me where the scent on your body came from, Xiao Yu?”

Xiao Yu stared at the man’s back in front of him.

Because he had rushed home, he had not had the time to change his clothes that were reeking of the sweet aroma. It was faint, and had come from sitting in the woman’s car for the ride back. However, at that very moment, it was as if the smell could not be any more distinct, like an invisible wall separating the two of them.

“Xiao Yu, don’t do anything that would make everyone feel grieved.”

Yu Tong calmly continued to package the food in his hands. He could not describe the feeling in his heart, uncertain of whether it was doubt or worry. All he could do was say to the child that was unwilling to tell them much: “Your brother would be extremely sad, even if he is not your real brother.”

“…Mm.”

This was something he already knew.