The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Yu Yin had not expected to see Xiao Hai again so soon.

In the early morning following that hectic night, the first person he saw upon opening the door of the guest bedroom, his temporary quarters, was not Xiao Yu or his uncle. His jaw dropped to the floor from shock, and he instantly snapped awake.

“Yo, morning.” Xiao Hai waved very naturally, not showing any abashment that one typically displayed upon visiting another’s house for the first time. “Ah, I brought a present over. Also, tell me where Mr. Cop’s bedroom is.”

“Present?”

Before Yu Yin could wrap his head around this, a voice shouted out from the bottom of the staircase. “Xiao Hai! Could you please come down?”

Xiao Hai rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. She grabbed hold of Yu Yin’s collar and said, “Exactly which room is Mr. Cop’s?”

“Eh, Dad’s should be the one next door, and Uncle’s is across…” Because Yu Yin wasn’t sure who she was referring to, Yu Yin immediately confessed this in surrender, fearful of the girl.

Satisfied, Xiao Hai let go [of his collar] and clapped a hand on his shoulder, dragging him downstairs with her. “Mr. Cop, your home is so neat and tidy! And the room was seriously smashed up. I’ve already brought those people to you – if you want me to beat them up or kill them, it’s not a problem!”

Stumbling from being dragged down the stairs, Yu Yin caught sight of Yu Tong standing at the foot of the staircase with helplessness written all over his face.

“I am very grateful for your help, but as a girl, acting like that is too dangerous. Please do not do such things in the future.” Yu Tong sighed as he watched Xiao Hai obediently jump down the stairs. He could feel a headache coming on even though it was still early in the day.

“Nah, don’t worry, I got people to help. Even if there were forty of them, I could catch them for you.” Xiao Hai pushed Yu Yin away and curiously peeked into the kitchen upon smelling the aroma [from it]. “It smells great. What are you cooking, Mr. Cop?”

“Breakfast. We can eat it all together in a bit.”

“Awesome! My mom rarely cooks. My bro and I used to always buy from convenience stores outside. You’re such a great housewife, Mr. Cop. Really, it’s like you’re the kind of person who…can pretty much do anything…”

“…My name is not Mr. Cop.”

Yu Yin listened to the two talking as they began to walk towards the kitchen. He had no idea why he had been dragged down the stairs so early in the morning. With a yawn, he managed to take two steps towards the living room before seeing something wriggling around on the floor of the entrance hall…human bodies. There were four people, their hands and feet all tightly bound by iron chains with locks. They had cloths stuffed inside their mouths, and one of the people even had bandages around the back of their hand, covering a seemingly fresh wound.

He suddenly knew what the present was.

Seeing as there was still a bundle of metal bars, axes, and baseball bats next to the people, they were probably the group that had attacked them yesterday.

He just would have never expected Xiao Hai to magically find all these people in a single night and manage to drag them all to their home.

“I’ve already given them a strict warning not to lie, or else they’ll get beaten over and over until they can’t do anything else. So don’t worry, these brutes will definitely listen to the cops.” Xiao Hai walked out of the kitchen to make this declaration, a bowl of some food in her hands.

When he walked over, Yu Yin saw that it was the mung bean soup that had been in the refrigerator. It had likely just been reheated, as it was currently steaming. “It’s not right to beat people up on your own accord like that.”

“All I’m doing is cooperating with the police and helping you guys catch wanted criminals.” Xiao Hai gave him the middle finger and turned to walk into the living room.

As Yu Yin followed behind to enter the living room as well, he nearly fell at the sight that welcomed him.

Xiao Yu was sitting on the sofa with a book and the TV was switched on. This was a very normal scene. The abnormal part was the flower-scented air, and the extremely large, scarlet roses placed on the table. They were a special type of flowers that filled the entire surface of the table with incomparable unrestraint.

“…The flowers were carried over with the criminals?” Yu Yin coughed as he pointed at the flowers on the table. He did not bother to count them, as the damned number of 999 suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Oh, I heard that these are edible roses that were grown organically. I figured that you guys could just eat them if you didn’t like keeping them there.” Xiao Hai plopped down onto the sofa and lied down on it horizontally, completely uncaring of the fact that she was wearing very short pants. In the end, she took up most of the space on the sofa.

…The problem isn’t whether we can eat them or not.

Yu Yin could feel his face start to twist in frustration, and he suddenly felt a great amount of pity for his dad, who had already been attacked like this once before at the station. A certain part of his dad was probably already dying from the assault. “Why do you always like sending 999 flowers?”

Xiao Hai bit down on her spoon as she looked up at him. “That’s actually something I asked one of my bros. He said that it’s already in song: ‘Long ago, I planted for you nine hundred ninety-nine roses’, so if I wasn’t sure how many to get, 999 definitely wouldn’t be wrong.”

“Pfft!” Xiao Yu instantly spat out the milk he was drinking, then hurriedly tried to wipe the drink off his book.

Yu Yin, who had already mentally prepared himself, was not actually shocked. “Ha…hahaha…” That bro of yours has either never dated, or is definitely messing with you. What kind of idiot could give such bad advice!

If Xiao Hai finds out, will that bro of hers end up turning into a corpse of an idiot instead?

“What are you laughing at?” Xiao Hai narrowed her eyes at Yu Yin as she drank the last of her soup and placed the bowl onto the ground.

“Nothing.” Very afraid of the bowl being flung at him, Yu Yin quickly turned back to the kitchen and shouted, “Dad, do you need to call someone to deal with this?” He was naturally referring to the thugs.

Yu Tong stuck his head out and said, “I already called. They will send people over later to take them in. Come and help me carry food out.”

Upon hearing the request for help, Xiao Hai and Xiao Yu immediately raced over one after another.

Soon afterwards, Yu Xia also woke up and came down the stairs. He did not have much of a reaction to the people tied up in the entrance hall…aside from giving them overdue beatings.

After breakfast ended, a few officers came to bring the thugs and their tools of crime away, and left after getting a testimony from Xiao Hai. Since they couldn’t get much out of her, they simply handed her over to Yu Tong and Yu Xia to deal with.

Following that, everyone left to go their own ways.

“Xiao Yu, Prosecutor Li will be coming over in a bit. Don’t go out and run off by yourself again, do you understand?” Standing in the entrance hall, Yu Tong spoke in a serious tone to the youth who had just gone missing yesterday.

Xiao Yu hugged his book and nodded.

“You’d better keep your word.” Yu Yin frowned and shot Xiao Yu a look.

“Mm.”

After watching everyone leave, including the unexpected visitors that had dropped in today, Xiao Yu locked the front door and retreated back into the quiet house.

The scent of the roses filled the entire space.

He tilted his head to look at the flowers and was reminded of the fact that there were many strawberries in the fridge that had been brought back from people as they returned home the past few days. There were quite a few other fruits as well.

There was still a while until his arranged meeting with Fang Yi Xun.

They had agreed to meet up with that woman in the city. The woman had said that since they had all formed a close relationship together, she wanted to invite them to go to the shrine and drop by her house to chat for a bit.

They had agreed.

***

“Why are you following me to school!”

Yu Yin looked back at Xiao Hai, who had followed him out the whole way, which not only horrified him but also made him feel threatened. As a result, he finally stopped the wild wolf and protested, “Sigh, you should just go home and sleep. Seems like you probably didn’t get much rest last night.” He had learned later that the afternoon shift was from five to eleven at night, while Jiang Zheng Hong’s night shift was from eleven to four in the morning. The customers were different in each time period, and the amount of work was quite burdening.

The two people leading as the managers would stay behind to deal with the finances and clean up between shifts after their set work hours. By the time Xiao Hai got home, it was always close to midnight, so she would usually sleep in until the following afternoon.

After midnight, she had gone off to capture people to bring them over to the Yu home first thing in the morning. It was clear that her activities the previous night had been extremely extensive.

“The awesome me is perfectly awake, I don’t need your nagging.” Xiao Hai waved a hand in dismissal as she glanced around. “So, you and my bro come here to study, huh.”

“You’ve never gone?” Yu Yin paused to stare at the girl.

“Nope, I started working after senior high. There was no place for me in school and all that. I know studying is great, but my brain isn’t any good, so no matter how much I studied it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Thought that I might as well start doing something I find interesting – the earlier I found it, the less time I’d waste,” she answered as she walked out from the garage and curiously surveyed the campus.

“Your family’s fine with that?” Yu Yin had a hard time imagining how Ah Fang’s parents could allow a pretty girl to run off and work at a nightclub after graduating high school to live such a chaotic area.

“Oh, my pops said it’s fine as long as I don’t beat anyone to death.” Xiao Hai gave a somewhat off-topic reply before crossing her arms and thinking it over a bit more. “But my relatives talk pretty badly about it, saying that a girl that does these things means they’re uneducated and have run away from the family. All I want to do is fucking slap them into a wall like a painting. They can’t even take care of their own children, yet they’re trying to take care of someone else. Oh right, I’m only good with working, but I still watch out for my bros and the club hasn’t run into any issues. Everyone in the business all come buying from me. I don’t commit murder or arson, drink or beat up children, gamble or take drugs, race cars or break glass. I look after so many things, yet does none of it count?”

Yu Yin coughed. “Eh…it’s still better to study a bit more.” He figured that the older generation probably weren’t open-minded to the point where they could silently watch their young relative run off and work at a night club.

Xiao Hai blinked her large, pretty eyes and thoughtfully responded, “There are hundreds and hundreds of different types on people in this world. I’m just the type that doesn’t get along well with books. But in my opinion, living through this path now is meaningful and interesting. I do what I need to do, and as long as I don’t threaten others’ lives, I’m not letting down my parents. Those studious people you guys talk about often don’t do anything after becoming adults; they don’t work, they beat up their children, their wives, their husbands, their parents, their relatives…If they live too comfortably, they can’t see how horrible others’ lives are, and they just assume everyone else is their slaves. They steal their parents’ money to race cars or beat people up. Are they really any better than me?

“I know that I’m walking down an unpopular path, but at least I’m not going against my conscience. I remember my own name, use my own earned money to eat and drink. All the things I own were bought from my work. I only teach others a lesson when they encroach on our shop first. I continue living with an undying spirit. Am I really worse than those great political officials that spend their days taking others’ money behind the scenes, bring destruction onto others, or pretend to be impressive on the outside but actually gamble and take drugs in private?”

Yu Yin shifted his gaze away from Xiao Hai, whose head was tilted high and chest was puffed out. For a moment, he really could not rebuke her.

He suddenly understood why Ah Fang and his family were not concerned about Xiao Hai working there.

She gave off an intensely dazzling aura that was nearly impossible to ignore.

Maybe those things under the shadows don’t dare to get close to her because she’s so powerful and upstanding?

“Ah, but I really respect Mr. Cop. His work is fucking hard to do. In the past, cops were highly regarded, but now it’s a whole other matter. They need to be people’s advocates, they need to be sensitive to others’ needs, they need to be friendly and un-threatening. It’s so depressing.” Xiao Hai dug out a lollipop from her pocket and popped it into her mouth. She did not seem to mind the questions as she strolled around the campus.

Yu Yin wordlessly gazed up at the sky, uncertain of whether he should stop her or give her a tour. Just as he was about to call Ah Fang, he saw that little girl standing in the corner of a hallway just a few steps away, staring in their direction.

After Xiao Hai had walked a certain distance away, the little girl ran over and hugged his legs.

“Shuang Shuang, why do you keep running out?” Yu Yin grabbed the little girl by the shoulders and asked curiously, “Shouldn’t Daddy need your help? When Āyí isn’t home, you should be good and stay home instead of running all over the place.”

The little girl clutched his pants, appearing very upset as her expression darkened. She replied in a low, muffled tone, “If Daddy needed me, he wouldn’t have looked for Āyí. Only Mommy loves Shuang Shuang best. They would always fight and argue before, but Mommy would never yell at Shuang Shuang. Daddy sometimes got mad at me when he was in a bad mood. So it’s fine even if I’m not home.”

Yu Yin patted the little girl on the head and picked her up. “But you can’t always come looking for me either. Dàgēgē has classes and work, and can’t play with you every day. How about this? Dàgēgē can introduce you to a police-zǐzǐ, so that you can go to her when you’re bored and want to play. Ok?”

“No!” Shuang Shuang shouted loudly. “As long as I have my secret base, I’m fine!”

A person who had come back from hearing the commotion brought Yu Yin out from his predicament.

“Huh, who would’ve thought there would be kids in the university too?” Xiao Hai strode back over and glanced the young child in Yu Yin’s arms. She took out another lollipop from her pocket to pass it over. “Hi, Xiǎomèimei ¹. I’m Xiao Hai.”

“Xiao Hai-zǐzǐ.” The little girl responded back intimately as she grabbed the lollipop.

Yu Yin glanced at the older and younger females, somewhat astonished by how well they got along together. The little girl had previously been very different with the female cop, acting crazy fierce.

“Are you this guy’s little sister or his daughter?” The female bluntly asked while pointing at Yu Yin’s face, completely ignoring his glare in response.

“Shuang Shuang is Ah Yin-dàgēgē’s best friend.” Shuang Shuang’s eyes widened as she touched one of the earrings on the other female’s ear, seemingly in friendly terms. “Because Dàgēgē said I could come back and bring him to my secret base, Shuang Shuang wanted to bring him to show Shuang Shuang’s treasure. It’s very pretty. Does Xiao Hai-zǐzǐ want to come too?”

“Treasure? Sure.” Xiao Hai happily agreed. “It’ll be more fun if everyone goes together.”

“…Could you please consider my opinions too?” What is wrong with these two? Did they really just decide by themselves that I have to go to that haunted house again today?

Just as he was about to protest, Yu Yin suddenly realised that this was actually a good opportunity. Since Xiao Hai was a huge spiritual repellant, it would likely not be as dangerous as it had been that other day if she was there. Based on his past experience, those things would instantly vanish without a trace the minute they saw Xiao Hai, as if they were fleeing from the King of Hell. If that house really did have anything, this was likely a great chance to get a closer look.

With a mysterious surge of motivation, he swallowed his original words down, instead changing them to: “Then let’s go.”

Thus, they really did move out.

They arrived before the bizarre house a second time. Yu Yin’s evaluation of it was not any different from before.

Strange, as well as sinister.

Xiao Hai jumped off the car and surveyed the house with her arms crossed. “Weird, why do I feel like this place looks a bit familiar…?”

“You’ve been here before?” Yu Yin asked, staring at the spiritual repellent next to him in astonishment.

“Oh, not really. But this address and section of road is really familiar. I think I’ve heard it from somewhere before.” Xiao Hai threw off her jean jacket and glanced around. Then, she turned to follow the little girl into the backyard.

Yu Yin intentionally followed behind the girl.

Xiao Hai did not sense anything strange, directly entering the yard.

In that instant, Yu Yin distinctly heard various, odd sounds scatter away from the yard. The deserted space was filled with unusual sounds of running that passed through the cement walls, disappearing inside.

He had a feeling that bringing this spiritual repellent really was the best idea.

After the little girl wormed into the house, Xiao Hai pushed at the stuck door with furrowed brows. “Isn’t this too stingy? I’ve never seen any house have a door stuck like this. Is something behind blocking it up?”

“…No, it’s probably a defect.” Having been here before, Yu Yin obviously knew that there was nothing inside.

“It’s hard to walk like this though.” After tugging at it a few times, Xiao Hai began to forcefully kick at it. After a few attempts, the stuck door really did loosen up, and with a few stiff creaks, the back door was opened with a bang.

In that same second, a sharp, piercing scream rang out from inside. It wasn’t just one person, but several people shouting out in extreme horror inside.

Yu Yin, who was standing outside, felt an intense stab of pain shoot through his head. As the sound echoed through his ears, all his strength instantly left his body and he collapsed, as if something heavy had smashed down onto his head.

His vision was filled with crimson.

After falling to the ground, he noticed that the entire house behind the doorway was covered with blood everywhere. The ground was flooded with a thick, fresh layer of dark red blood. It looked like some cheap paint had been knocked over and had spread in all directions, avariciously swallowing up the originally spotless white marble.

His head hurt, his entire body was in pain. It felt as if someone had stabbed his body with a knife in multiple places, causing him to twitch uncontrollably.

There were many feet running around inside the house. Someone was chasing after them.

The knife rose and fell. A pinky finger dropped into the pool of blood. A silver ring was drowned by the red, before being kicked off to the opposite side [of the room].

Fear.

The fear was overflowing, almost nauseating.

Someone lay in the pool of blood, their large eyes still filled with tears meeting his gaze. It was clear from the enlarged pupils just how terrified they were. There was a person that was not afraid, relentlessly attacking a chunk of flesh that was no longer alive. The bones were shattered from the blunt force, their original shape no longer recognisable. The veins that had burst out from the rotting flesh were spurting out blood without stopping.

The feet never left his vision.

There were originally many in number, but they gradually decreased.

The screams were still there.

He could no longer tell which voices were coming from the house and which were coming out from his own mouth. The feeling of death was so close. It was like the person carrying the knife was breathing lightly right next to his ear. The stench of blood had sunk all the way into his bone marrow, impossible to erase.

“Yu Yin!”

Someone shook him. The voice shouting his name was distant and unreal. He couldn’t tell if it really was his name or not. All he saw was red.

With a smack, he felt a sharp pain come from his face.

Instantly, all his senses came back. The colour of blood slowly began to fade away.

“Did you not hear me just now? Holy shit, you don’t have epilepsy, do you?!”

Xiao Hai’s voice rose out from the screams. It was clear and unique, covering the shouts and wails and causing them to gradually weaken.

He grabbed the hand on his shoulders. With a forceful cough, his conscious and vision finally cleared up. “I’m…fine…”

Xiao Hai was crouched down next to him. She sighed and said, “Fuck, you nearly scared me to death.” She had thought this guy was on death’s door, and she had just been about to call the ambulance.

Yu Yin closed his eyes and forced himself to take a few deep breaths. Once the fresh air filled his body, he opened his eyes once more and let go of Xiao Hai’s hands. Surprisingly, he was not feeling badly like he had yesterday, nor did he feel drained of all strength. Aside from the bruises caused by falling to the ground and the intense headache from earlier, he was able to move around fine.

After confirming he was really alright, Xiao Hai helped him back up into standing position. “If you’re really not fine, you’d better speak up. I can call someone to drive over.”

“Mm, thanks.” Yu Yin pressed a hand against his forehead to check himself for any issues. Finding none, he smiled at Xiao Hai.

“Don’t just scare others like that. Even the impressive me can get frightened.” Then, as if trying to conceal her panic. Xiao Hai stepped into the house without any hesitation.

There were no screams this time. Yu Yin watched Xiao Hai step inside the dark house that now had a faint bit of light. When he looked more closely, he noticed that the sunlight was shining into the room from the back door, bringing some warmth with it as well. Even the outside through the windows were glowing a bit. This completely reversed the strange eeriness from yesterday.

“Holy crap, can this place get any stuffier? It’s like there haven’t been people living here for several centuries.” As Xiao Hai said this, she reached out to open a few windows. The breeze instantly whooshed in along with the sunlight. The rotten stench that had been sealed in for so long was slowly pushed out, replaced by fresh air.

When they walked into the room, the first thing they saw was Shuang Shuang sitting at the foot of the staircase. Her expression was one of boredom as she waited for them. The pile of junk around her had been pushed aside already.

“You guys took so long, Shuang Shuang waited forever.” The little girl giggled when she saw the other two enter, and stood up. For some reason, she did not express any reaction to the commotion outside from earlier.

“Did you not hear my crazy loud shots outside just now? We were busy.” Xiao Hai also found the lack of response odd, shooting the little girl a doubtful look. The latter shook her head and said she hadn’t. Then, she broke out into laughter as she dashed up the stairs.

Yu Yin studied the staircase. It had accumulated a very thick layer of dust, but there were quite a few footprints mottled all over it. Aside from those of the little girl that had just run up, there were others with unknown origins. Beneath the dust there were also deep, black footprints.

Xiao Hai bent down to wipe some dust off, drawing across the black footprint. “Fuck, it’s blood…Ah, I remember now. This place is a haunted house.”

“Haunted house?” Yu Yin was not exactly surprised to hear this, having more or less come to this conclusion himself already. However, he was slightly taken aback by the fact that Xiao Hai seemed to know this place. “Have you heard about this place before?”

“There were a few rumours before. A guy in the shop next to us was dared by someone to come sleep a night here for five thousand. In the end, he was found the next morning trembling outside, claiming that all he heard throughout the night were screams of ghosts. There were bloody handprints on his body underneath his clothes, and his physical condition was extremely bad. He ended up sleeping for a whole month, and nearly rolled over to the other side.” Xiao Hai stepped onto a stair in curiosity. Ever since she had first heard of this haunted house, she had always found it intriguing. “Later, some others were betting eight thousand for people to come, but nobody wanted to try. If I had known earlier, I could’ve earned eight thousand.”

Yu Yin really wanted to pull apart his own clothes to ask Xiao Hai if they were the same, just like how horror movies typically played out. However, Yu Yin did not have the courage to. Aside from the fact that he did not have the clothes he had worn yesterday, he mainly preferred not to have himself turned into mincemeat, knowing that Xiao Hai was the type who would beat him up into a pulp even if there was a ghost involved.

“But a huge incident happened here before. I think it was likely kept under the covers, since there were no reports in the news. I heard that the old man of this house hacked his entire family and their visitors with a knife, then lit himself on fire and burned to death.”

Xiao Hai’s words instantly shook Yu Yin.

He stopped in his tracks. “…Was there only one survivor?”

“Oh, you know about this too? Guess since your dad is a cop, there’s no reason you wouldn’t.” Xiao Hai shrugged before going forwards to enter the second floor area.

The rustle of panicked footsteps quickly vanished from the second floor.

Yu Yin stared at the gloomy house. He truly could not imagine what kind of lives the people here had gone through, especially how “he” had been living. What in the world happened…

The second floor corridor was just as drab, without any windows or light. There were three rooms around them. Further up was a third floor with a similar layout, and that was the end of the staircase. The air around them was filled with an indescribable stench the entire way.

“Here, here.” Shuang Shuang waved at them after walking up to the master bedroom at the very end.

There wasn’t much junk in front of the bedroom. Aside from the first floor, the entire house was actually very well-organised. The objects were all placed in an orderly fashion, and it was not hard to tell that the female owner or another resident had cleaned it up tidily.

But now, many of these objects were completely covered in dust, some layers thicker than others. A few also sported fingerprints.

The master bedroom on the second floor was a fairly large room with a spring mattress in the middle and two bedside tables on either side. The little girl ran in and sat on one side on the bed. She then opened the [drawer of] the dressing table and pulled out a small box, showing it off to them. “This is the treasure Shuang Shuang found in this house. It’s Shuang Shuang’s treasure.”

Xiao Hai took the box and opened it up to take a look. A transparent, faint glow poured out from the box.

It was a necklace comprising of a carved cylinder made of silver or some other alloy with a violet gemstone embedded in it, saturated with a calm colour. It gave an unfathomable sense of calm.

When Yu Yin saw the colour of the gemstone, all he could think of was how similar it was to a certain other colour, the one of a certain person’s eyes. The more he stared at the stone, the more he felt that it was identical.

“Isn’t it super awesome? This is the treasure that Shuang Shuang found.”

***

This house was the Shaodi family’s residence.

Or more precisely, it had been.

He stood at the end of the road, looking up at the section of the wall that was not covered by the other houses.

“Is that your house?” Fang Yi Xun was sitting next to the car door, her hands clasped behind her back as she kicked her feet back and forth while looking outside. Nothing special stood out among the bunch of ordinary, unsuspecting houses.

Xiao Yu turned his head away, ignoring Fang Yi Xun and focusing his gaze on the woman who had just walked out from the convenience store across the street.

The woman’s name was Shen Shu Ning. She lived just two streets away. She was divorced, and had two children: a boy and a girl. The boy was working elsewhere.

The girl was attending high school in another part of the country. Neither of the two children came home often, so the woman typically lived alone in the townhouse. She was an average office worker that would go visit the shrine during her holidays to help out with various tasks or offer prayers, and she would stay for the entire day whenever she did visit.

The woman jogged over to them with drinks and food in both her arms. Xiao Yu helped to take half of the items from her as she approached.

While complimenting Xiao Yu for what a good child he was, the woman stuffed all the items into the car that was filled with sweet fragrance. As the car door opened, the scent was diluted a bit, but it quickly grew strong again once everyone sat inside and the doors were re-shut.

With her head still spinning from what had happened the last two days, Fang Yi Xun secretly held her breath as she glanced at Xiao Yu, whose expression naturally remained unchanged. For some bizarre reason, he was able to tolerate the smell completely.

Since they had not stayed in the shrine that first time [they encountered the scent], she had not noticed anything. But after sitting in the car for a long time afterwards, she had instantly discovered something off upon returning home.

The fragrant and sweet smell stuck to her clothing filled her nose, making it impossible for her to sleep well at night. No matter how much she tossed and turned, she could not get rid of the odour, and it had vexed her so much that she had ended up beating up her pillow. Only when the sky had started to brighten had she gradually been able to fall asleep.

As a result, not only was she in a bad mood today, but her mental state wasn’t good either. Even when she felt the urge to kick the dog on the side of the road, she had to continue putting up an obedient child façade to deceive the woman.

“We’re here.” After passing over two streets, the small car came to a stop in front of a building in a tiny yard for parking. There were various little flowerbeds scattered around as well.

Fang Yi Xun quickly jumped off the car, feigning curiousity as she looked around and cried out in surprise, “Āyí, you grow flowers? That’s amazing.” She noticed a small section of black-coloured dirt in between the flowers that was slightly different from the ordinary dirt all around.

“I do. When I don’t have much to do at home, I grow plants. It took more effort before, but now it’s just watering them at most.” Shen Shu Ning opened the door and walked into the house first with all the items in her arms.

Seeing the woman’s back facing them, Xiao Yu came up next to Fang Yi Xun to pass her something.

Fang Yi Xun glanced at it. “Peppermint candy?” She glanced at the other person, who did not give any further indication as he turned around to also enter the house. She rolled her eyes and tossed the candy into her mouth. The refreshing sensation alleviated some of the discomfort from the sweet scent.

She knew that entering the house would not be as simple as riding the car.

She glanced down at the bag of peppermints that Xiao Yu had passed her. Although she was unsure if it had any effect, it was still better than nothing. As she thought this to herself, she also stepped into the house.

Just as they had expected, the home was filled with the smell, from corner to corner. There were even a few sticks of incense stuck into the incense burner outside the little shrine table placed in the living room. The incense continued to give off the same smell, the transparent smoke diffusing into the air before permeating through something else, whether it was the skin or veins.

“You can sit anywhere. I’ll go prepare some tea and cake, it will only take a few minutes.”

After the woman disappeared into the kitchen, Xiao Yu walked up to the shrine table and pulled open the small drawer. It was filled with incense, each stick carrying a portion of the addicting drug.

His home had been the same in the past. Bags and bags, as well as individual sticks, had been jam-packed into the tiny drawer space. Right before they were all used up, a stranger would always appear to replenish the incense into their home.

Even now, Xiao Yu still did not know why they had been chosen back then.

He did not know, nor did he understand.

“Look, there’s a photo.” Fang Xi Yun’s voice interrupted his thoughts. He closed the drawer and turned around to see her standing next to a glass cabinet, closely studying some frames displayed inside. “This seems to be her son and daughter. Looks like it was taken a while ago, since they’re both still small.”

The moment Xiao Yu walked over and saw the photo, his mind instantly came to a sharp stop.

“That’s a photo from three years ago. Come over and eat some snacks, you two.” The woman smiled as she appeared again behind them without them knowing, startling the two engrossed in the photo. Seemingly not noticing their reactions, Shen Shu Ning warmly explained, “We went out with the children together for vacation after our divorce. My older son later went to his father’s place to work. My daughter is still in her second year of senior high right now; she should be around the same age as you two.”

“You all seem to be pretty close to each other.” Fang Yi Xun replied to cover up the moment of uneasiness from before as she returned to the sofa to accept a piece of cake.

“We are. Since my ex-husband rarely came home, the children were pretty much completely raised by me. I did not understand much when I was young, and had given birth to someone else’s child before I’d even graduated from high school. Now that I think about it, my son should already be over twenty years old. Actually, he hasn’t been home in a very long time now. I wonder how he’s doing at his father’s workplace. I always tell him he should find a better job…” As the woman spoke in what sounded like complain, her voice began to shake and abruptly transformed without her realising. “I never ever see them. Now that they’re grown up and become independent, they don’t want to come home. Regardless of how old they are, they should still keep their moral integrity. They never think about who it was that raised them back then, and they just keep refusing to come back!”

“Āyí…?” Fang Yi Xun tentatively shouted as she saw the woman’s face flush red.

Shen Shu Ning did not hear her. Her tone grew more agitated as she slammed down on the table, the heavy bang echoing through the house. Her voice was nearly screaming now as she shouted, “Why do they treat me like this? If it wasn’t for my efforts to maintain this family, how could they have grown up at all? Who exactly do they think they are?!”

The plate with the cakes was smashed down next to Xiao Yu’s feet, and the clear, pitiful shattering sound rang out as the pieces scattered all over the floor. The originally intact cake was now destroyed on the ground, emitting its final whiff of aroma.

As if shocked awake by the noise, the woman stared the other two with a stunned expression. She then quickly raised her hands to gently touch Fang Yi Xun’s cheeks while saying, “So-sorry for scaring you two. Āyí didn’t mean to.”

“You were just momentarily excited.”

“Yes, I…”

Shen Shu Ning raised her head to see a pair of exceptionally cold, violet eyes boring straight into her, as if seeing through her next words that she could now no longer speak out.

“You were unable to control yourself, so we should forgive you.” He looked at the woman in front of him that was now trembling slightly. For a moment, her image overlapped with one from his own memories. It seemed like just yesterday when that person had used their body to ask for forgiveness, that they had only been momentarily excited and had no intention to harm anyone.

The broken plate reflected a different face, but the violent rage, the apologies, and the submersion were all identical.

Xiao Yu leaned against the wall and rubbed his face. There was something stirring in his heart that wanted his fury to pour out, wanted him to stab the shards on the ground into the woman’s body.

A mysterious force was pushing him to do so.

He tightly clenched his fists and turned away from the woman to run out the front door. Fang Yi Xun seemed to shout his name from behind, before comforting now once again frantic woman. The sharp shouts merged together with the girl’s voice.

He was in a daze.

The feeling of nausea and disgust built up in his throat.

Broken homes were always filled with screams.

After running out of the house, he pulled out his cellphone to see Li Zi Hong’s number written all over the screen. Just like yesterday, someone was constantly searching for him, reminding him that he was still here.

With shaking fingers, he pressed a number on speed dial, and the phone immediately dialled out to someone else.

The line quickly connected. “Xiao Yu?”

He hugged his own body as he heard the voice on the other end, the sound of his fake, meddlesome brother repeatedly saying “Hello? Hello?” and asking him if he had run off to wander around someplace again.

The discomfort gradually faded as the rage in his chest seemed to slowly disappear. His fingers no longer trembled as the voice on the other hand helped to remind him what he needed to do.

When the other party was starting to lose patience, on the verge of scolding him, Xiao Yu took in a few deep breaths and replied, “I’ll come home in the evening.”

Then he cut the line and returned the cellphone into his bag.

Yes, if he did not bring everything to an end, he would not be able to return to his true home. In addition, this person would continue to destroy many other families, like a locust that was fast and ferocious, continuously consuming others’ lives. That person needed to be restrained, their head chopped off, their body torn to shreds, so that they could never return from hell.

Otherwise, his anger and grief would never quiet down, and the hatred being suppressed deep down inside him would vent itself out beyond his control.

Xiao Yu calmed down.

“Ah Yu, what are you doing?” Fang Yi Xun quickly rushed out and grabbed his arm. “Although the woman in there definitely deserves a beating, now isn’t the time for you to be hostile to her!” She had finally managed to calm the woman down after an enormous amount of effort, and the woman was currently cleaning up the floor in the house.

Xiao Yu turned his face slightly to look at the girl. The moment he had seen the photo, he had instantly recognised one of the people in the picture whom he had met before. Although the photo was already several years old, the boy had not changed much.

It had been the beginning of him and Yu Yin’s time together.

Back to the source of the story, the very beginning, before they knew each other and when Yu Yin still hated him.

“She is Wang Hong’s mother.”

^{1. Xiǎomèimei (小妹妹) = little girl/younger sister, not necessarily biological. ↑}