The Yu Brothers’ Case Book - Chapter 11

S1: Book 1: Chapter 11 + Epilogue

After giving the instruction to the taxi driver, they quickly left the hospital and began to drive down the road.

“What a coincidence, young man. We’ve already run into each other several times now, haven’t we?”

The young, blonde taxi driver whistled happily as he operated the steering wheel, the taxi racing towards the city outskirts.

“We really do seem to be tied by fate. Let’s grab a meal together next time.” Yu Yin sat in the front seat, chewing on the rice ball from the convenience store as he kept his eyes locked onto the leopard cat running ridiculously quickly in front of them. Its direction was headed to where the city outskirts were.

“Hah, so direct! Leave your cell number with me later, I’ll treat you guys to some good food next time.” The blonde driver grinned brightly as he smoothly passed by a line of cars at high speed. “By the way, why did you guys run out of the hospital in such a rush just to go to the outskirts? That area has a lot of yin¹, you know.”

“It has a lot of yin?” Yu Yin naturally knew this fact, but he had not imagined the young driver to say the same.

Could it be that despite his looks, this taxi driver’s true identity is someone that has legitimate yin-yang eyes?

“Yep, I’ve heard that many people died right on the top of that mountain during the Japanese Occupation, which is why it’s so wasted away.” The driver turned the wheel, the car gliding in a perfect curve as the he said, “My uncle used to live near the area, so he knew the place pretty well. There are many people buried at the top of the mountain, and it was often said to be haunted. The residents in the nearby strip all moved away, turning it into this abandoned mountain.”

“I see. Oh right, Boss, do you happen to have an interest in car-racing?” Yu Yin gripped the safety handle next to him, frantically trying to keep a hold on his rice ball so that it did not go flying.

“Oh! How did you know? My biggest dream back in my high school years was to become a racer.” The driver laughed. He disregarded the speed that had been steadily rising this entire time, charging forwards excitedly.

As expected.

The two brothers sitting in the front and back echoed identical thoughts.

The taxi arrived at the base of the mountain about fifty minutes later.

It was still quite early in the day, just as it had been the last time they had come here. However, the grass had been flattened quite significantly, probably as a result of the ambulance and police running back and forth before. The upwards path was now clearly visible, no longer buried in the grasses.

They all stepped out of the car one after another.

“Dàgē, we need to go up to look for something. Could I trouble you to please wait for us?” Yu Yin handed the taxi fee for the journey over to the driver as he spoke.

“Isn’t it too dangerous if you two kids go up by yourselves? I think it’s better if I just go up with you guys as well.” The young driver grabbed a large wrench from the trunk. “It’ll be safer like this. Otherwise, who knows what you might bump into? You never know, there might be wanted criminals holed up in hiding around here. You’ll be in trouble if you don’t have any help.”

“Thank you for your trouble, then.”

Yu Yin held Yu’s hand as they walked up. After passing through the weeds, the path became significantly easier to walk. Yu Yin followed the leopard cat not too far in front of them, and they gradually began to approach the ditch he had fallen into last time.

Over here?

Yu Yin knit his brows together.

How is that possible?

If it’s over here, why didn’t Uncle and the others find it last time?

“Damn, this hole is pretty deep.” The young driver craned his neck to look down into the large pit as he said, “Holy hell, who would’ve dug up a pit like this?”

“It’s quite a painful fall down, I experienced it last time.” Yu Yin glanced at the deep and dark hole, suddenly realising how fortunate it was that he had not been critically injured from his fall.

The leopard cat sat next to the pit and began to lick its fur. The patches of cat fur fell to the ground in the process, revealing the cat’s skin. After the swollen and ruptured skin showed itself, blackish flesh slowly came into view as well.

It slowly lifted its head and made a sound.

Right here?

Yu Yin glanced around – there was nothing that could help them descend into the pit. “Dàgē, do you have any rope or something in your car? I want to go down to look for something.”

“Did you drop it down there last time? Ok, wait here for a minute, you two. Don’t go anywhere.” The driver passed the wrench over to him and quickly ran back down the mountain.

The skies were very clear. Yu Yin tilted his head back to glance up at the azure, cloudless sky.

The leopard cat was not in any rush to run away either. It stayed seated in the same spot, waving its tail.

The driver returned about a dozen or so minutes later, panting slightly. It seemed like he had run the entire way. “Here, is this long enough?” He handed over a bundle of coarse rope.

“It’s good, thanks.” Yu Yin found something nearby that was strong enough to tie to, then began to crawl down the hole.

It was pitch-black inside. Even though it was clearly bright above, not a single ray of light could penetrate the darkness. The instant he descended, he felt his entire body grow numb. The cold wind blowing beneath was not the least bit friendly, and he was tempted with the thought of crawling back up.

Freaking hell! Why in the world did I even come down here!

He steeled himself and continued downwards.

The rope moved above. Yu Yin looked up to see another figure climbing down, quickly approaching him. “You brat! Who said you could follow? What if the rope suddenly snaps?” He scolded immediately without thinking.

With a pop, a faint glow lit up.

Yu was above him, holding a lit cigarette lighter in one hand, slightly illuminating the deep hole.

Yu Yin stared blankly. “Where did you get a cigarette lighter from?” That’s amazing, is your pocket actually a bottomless treasury?

After turning off the lighter and passing it down, Yu pointed upwards.

“Hey, is the cigarette lighter good enough? Do you need me to go back to the car and grab a flashlight?” The driver’s voice floated down from above, echoing through the small space.

…I see.

Yu Yin smoothly reached the bottom and lit the cigarette lighter.

It was a very deep cavern. When he glanced upwards, he could tell that the entrance was quite a distance away. The bottom was fairly wide, able to fit around five or six people standing side-by-side without any trouble.

He had lost conscious the last time he had dropped down here, so it was only now that he realised just how terrible of a fall he had suffered.

He searched around and noticed a few marks on the cavern walls that were likely made by the police last time after they had found the body…

He turned and saw the leopard cat from before had suddenly materialised next to the cavern wall. It lay flat on the ground as it cried out several times.

Yu Yin believed he would get scared into a heart attack sooner or later.

“Right here?” He surveyed the surroundings, but there was nothing there.

Yu patted his shoulder from behind. When Yu Yin spun around, he followed Yu’s line of vision.

A half-decayed hand was holding onto Yu’s ankle.

An hour later, the police arrived after receiving a report and pulled out a mostly rotten female corpse. The uninhabited outskirts were once again filled with the clamour of people.

“Weird, why didn’t we discover it last time?”

Yu Xia was extremely dubious about this point. As he burned paper money for the deceased, he shot a glare at his colleagues that had come to procure a corpse last time. Their faces instantly fell as they quickly fled.

They’re not doing their work properly!

“Hey! There’s something else down here!”

The officers digging around shouted, then lifted out several dark bundles.

“Is that a corpse of some kind? It’s so decayed it’s impossible to tell what it was.” They placed the bundle onto a pad nearby. “It seems to belong to an animal…”

Yu Yin saw the leopard cat walk through the crowd, stopping before the objects. It lowered its head and licked them.

He instantly realised what the objects were.

A moment later, Yan Si, who was responsible for examining the corpse, walked over while removing his gloves. “The body of that young miss has dozens of knife wounds. The cause of death was the cut at the carotid artery. A more detailed report will need to be made once the body is brought back for analysis, but I currently suspect that the deceased suffered sexual assault prior.” He crouched down to toss the paper money into the fire. “Based on the preliminary results, my guess is that the murder weapon was a typical blade that can be bought anywhere. Judging by how deep the cuts were and their size…it seems to be something like a butterfly knife.”

Butterfly knife.

Yu Yin was stunned for a moment. He recalled that Wang Hong had indeed carried a butterfly knife…

“Alright, I understand.” Yu Xia nodded, and stood up after tossing the last of his paper money into the flames.

“I also checked the little objects that was dug up from underneath the body just now. They should be cats – kittens – around six in total. All had been struck to death by a blunt weapon.” Yan Si stood up as well, patting the dust off his hands. “Didn’t seem like normal wild cats, so I asked some people around the area. Apparently, leopard cats roam about this area, so they probably have dens here.”

“Mm.”

Yu Yin listened to the discussion as he let go of his remaining paper money and watched the leopard cat standing over there, refusing to leave after all this time.

“Oh, and there’s another strange thing.” Yan Si glanced at the female corpse that was already covered with a white cloth. “I discovered a wound on the deceased’s skull…a fresh injury, seemingly a result of being hit by something.”

“A fresh injury?”

“But what’s bizarre is that there’s no dirt on the wound. Looks like it was hit after being buried down there…but that is what’s weird. It doesn’t seem to have been done accidentally by a groundhog, pangolin, or Pokemon-type animal while digging.”

“…Why don’t you tell me how a Pokemon could have dug a hole here?” Yu Xia had pulled out his notebook to take notes, automatically leaving out the last bit of nonsense as he shot a withering look at Yan Si.

“Don’t underestimate Pokemon. There are quite a few that can dig holes,” Yan Si retorted.

“In the next task involving digging, you can go find a Pokemon to help you then.” Yu Xia snorted coldly, completely omitting the useless pronoun as he took his notes.

Yu Yin suddenly felt a chill when he heard Yan Si’s words.

A fresh injury resulting from being hit…

That night in his room, he had unmistakably heard the sound of something being smashed.

He saw Yu, who was originally also crouched to burn paper money, stand up and tug at Yu Xia’s clothes to pass a notebook over.

“The cat bodies? You want to bring them back to bury here after the examination?” Yu Xia furrowed his brows at the words in the notebook and asked, “You could, but you must have me or Tong accompany you, got it? This place is very dangerous, so you can’t come running here by yourself.” He did not forget to shoot a glare at Yu Yin as he spoke.

Yu nodded.

“Uncle, don’t talk as if I’m always the one leading him into trouble,” Yu Yin rolled his eyes and huffed in protest.

“You think you can say that’s not true?”

“…”

Alright, maybe a bit. But I’m pretty much always doing something decent. It’s not like I’m bringing the brat around drinking and gambling or racing on the streets and stuff.

He turned to see the leopard cat rubbing against Yu’s feet. It let out a faint meow, then vanished.

This should be enough, right?

Just as Yan Si was about to go deal with some follow-up, he paused and pulled out a cellphone from his pocket. “Hello? This is Yan Si.”

After a few seconds passed, he shifted his gaze to Yu Yin.

“Chen Guan is awake?”

***

“New flash: the police have retrieved a female body in the outskirts of Taichung City. Reports state that the identity of the deceased has been confirmed to be Lin Xiu Jing, twenty years of age. She was previously studying at the private Lidong University of Science & Technology. According to her family members, she vanished half a year prior and lost contact with her family, which led to them reporting her as a missing person. The radio station is currently looking for friends of the deceased to learn more about the half year she went missing, as well as the boyfriend she had been living together with…”

The broadcaster’s voice echoed through the ward.

Ah Guan stared at the TV for a very long time and let out a sigh. He had passed the critical period and had been transferred to a normal ward.

“You knew Lin Xiu Jing, didn’t you?” Yu Yin asked as he sat down with a plate of apples and began to peel them. He had come by, now that he could visit.

After Ah Guan had woken, all the signs of complications like infections had disappeared. All that remained were the physical internal and external injuries. Apparently, if no changes occurred, he would completely recover after proper recuperation for one or two months.

The doctor in charge had continuously marvelled at how unfathomable this was, finally declaring that Ah Guan simply possessed an extremely rare amount of good fortune.

This gave Yu Yin the impression that it was actually a result of the mercy from a “certain person”.

The person lying in the hospital bed glanced at his friend before slowly saying, “Mm, I met Jing at a school event, then later ended up bringing her to the hospital after my part-time job for her to visit a friend. She came across Zhao Yu Heng at my workplace. Ah Heng’s extremely timid and cowardly, but he’s a pretty decent person. The two seemed to hit it off with each other at first sight, so I introduced them together. I later heard that they had started dating.” Ah Guan continued to focus on the TV as he sighed and continued, “But apparently her family were always against her dating, because they were afraid it would affect her studies or something along those lines. So Jing never told her family about it. Then, she had a fight with her parents, and soon afterwards came looking for me, telling me she had run away from home and that I had to help her find a place to stay.”

“You mean, living together with Zhao Yu Heng?” Yu Yin narrowed his eyes as he felt the urge to smash the apple onto his friend’s head.

“Of course not. I originally introduced her to one my relatives to rent out a place that was super cheap: three thousand per month including utilities. I had no idea that she would tell Ah Heng and they’d end up living together.” Ah Guan hurriedly tried to clear himself as he quickly added, “Ah, you also know how many people live together nowadays, right? I didn’t have any reason to oppose their decision. It had nothing to do with me, so why bother butting in?” Moreover, he would often get misjudged for having issues as a result of getting involved in too many things, so he refused to take part in such a stressful and thankless matter.

“You’re so evil!” Yu Yin softly reached an arm out to knock his friend’s head. “You introduced such a good and proper girl to such a chaotic bunch. It’s no wonder you received retribution.”

“Ow, it’s not I had any idea about all that!” Ah Guan yelped, feeling completely innocent.

“If you did wrong, you did wrong. You definitely deserved it this time!” Yu Yin tossed the peeled apple over and stood up. “You should be thankful that you’re still alive…”

“I know.” Ah Guan took a bite of the apple and lowered his head in self-reflection.

The first thing Yu Yin had done upon visiting was informing his friend about the lives that had been demanded over. As a result, Ah Guan truly did feel like his car accident was a mere trifle. The physical pain in his flesh was honestly nothing compared to losing his life.

Yu Yin flipped through several news channels to watch the reports regarding the incident before turning back to his friend and asking, “Were you really not involved with the case?”

“I wasn’t! There’s no way I’d dare to…kill someone! I don’t have the guts.” Ah Guan shrank back, frantically shaking his head.

“You’d better not. Then how do they know the place where we hung out that night?”

“Oh, Ah Yi asked me if I knew any spots with no people, where you could hide something without people finding it, so I told him about that place…How would I have known he wanted to hide a body?” The last time their group of friends had hung out at night there was because he had answered the same question. After everyone had made the trip there, they had nearly decided to skin him alive and abandon him there to die by himself. As a result, Ah Guan’s memory of that spot was deeply imprinted in his mind.

The instant he had been asked the question, this had been the first place he had thought of.

Yu Yin really wanted to punch him again.

Ah Guan placed the apple aside to nudge his good friend, voicing a question that had been bugging him from the beginning. “Hey, is that person your friend?” He glanced over at Yu, who was sitting off to one side reading a book.

Ah Guan recalled seeing this person before the car accident.

Back then, Yu Yin had stated they were not acquainted.

“Friend?”

Yu Yin turned his head and met Yu’s violet eyes.

Friend?

Yu Yin grinned. “No, he’s my younger brother.”

“What?”

Ah Guan had confusion written all over his face.

Yu lowered his head to continue reading, his face remaining blank.

Yu Yin sighed and shifted his attention back to the TV broadcast.

Finally, everything had ended.

He was afraid.

It was an hour past midnight. There were many cars on the highway, either racing home or heading off somewhere else.

A black recreational car zoomed past all the other cars at a much higher speed, as if fleeing from a venomous snake or a ferocious beast.

The lotus flower ornament hanging below the car’s rearview mirror violently swayed from side to side.

“Don’t come looking for me, don’t come looking for me.”

Amidst the darkness, the streetlamps quickly flashed over the driver’s face. The male was deathly white, as if in extreme fear of something. He kept muttering the same words to himself over and over.

“Don’t come looking for me…”

The fingers gripping the wheel trembled non-stop.

He suddenly snapped out of it as he glanced at the rearview mirror and caught the reflection of a leopard cat sitting in the back seat.

“!”

The car skidded, nearly crashing into the red racecar next to it. He whipped his head around, but there was nothing in the back seat. He uneasily pressed down harder on the accelerator, ignoring the other cars as he continued to flee, not paying any mind to the person in the red racecar cursing at him.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. His palms were so sweaty that he could barely keep his hold on the wheel.

He did not know where he was supposed to go. The long road stretched endlessly. He had been driving for the whole day, only stopping for five minutes whenever the car ran out of gas or he was starving.

He had no idea where to escape to.

Suddenly, a bang rang out as something seemed to slam into the car window.

He automatically glanced to his side to see that the red racecar had at some point already caught up to his side, the driver giving him the middle finger as the two riders in the back seat shouted angrily at him. They all looked to be university students.

As they drove past, his eyes widened.

A girl was sitting in the front seat next to the driver of the red racecar. Her long black hair, similar to that of a female he once knew, floated freely out the window with the night breeze.

Then, the girl slowly turned her head. The pale, swollen face was exceptionally harsh in the darkness of the night.

And she smiled.

“It wasn’t me, don’t come looking for me!” He slammed his foot down on the accelerator in panic, the speedometer behind the wheel instantly jumping upwards and quickly passing the road’s speed limit.

The [driver] of the red racecar swore and swiftly caught up.

He glanced to his side once more to see that there was no longer that familiar figure sitting in the front seat.

“Fuck! Get out of your damn car!” The driver of the red car threw another drink can against his window, causing another bang to ring out.

The two cars flew down the highway at extreme speeds. Although there were not many cars so late at night, they were still affecting other drivers.

He did not pay attention to the tightly shut car windows that were now cracked from the impact of a heavy object. All he thought about was leaving this place as quickly as possible.

As if tied to him, the red racecar also charged forwards like a demon, relentlessly chasing after him.

“Don’t come looking for me…”

In the beginning, he had not imagined it would be like this.

That day, he had simply lacked the courage…nobody dared to stand up against Wang Hong’s group there. But he really had not imagined that the situation would end up like this. He had nothing to do with it at all!

He had not run away on purpose, he really hadn’t.

Just as the speedometer was gradually passing 160, he saw a leopard cat sitting on the front hood of his car. It faced forwards, its fine fur flying out in all directions.

A white palm gripped the wheel, slowly moving it as before. Then, it gripped his hand.

It was like ice.

For a second, he nearly stopped breathing. The air around him instantly chilled, to the point where even taking a breath was painful.

He slowly turned his head to see that at some point, a person had occupied the previously empty front seat. They had their head lowered, their long hair splayed over their body so that it was impossible to see their face.

“Don’t come looking for me!”

As a result of the sudden shock, he immediately smashed his foot down on the brake.

Because of the sudden stop at high speeds, the entire car swivelled from the loss of speed, crashing heavily into the red racecar that had been right next to it in pursuit with a tremendous sound.

The entire highway seemed to fall silent for a moment.

The boom ripped through the originally peaceful night sky. After losing momentum and colliding with the racecar, he and his car ricocheted over the divider on the road and flipped over as it crashed into the ground.

This all happened in an instant.

His eyes were wide. He was unable to speak. All he felt was the dizziness from suddenly slamming into the car door. By the time his eyes refocused, the only thing he could see was the red slowly spreading out from his body. Then, it became the darkness of the night sky.

The front of the car was deformed from the impact. He was trapped in the seat, unable to move.

Amidst his hazy vision, he saw another person still sitting in the seat next to him. However, he was unable to utter a single sound.

People seemed to fill his surroundings, followed by the wailing of police sirens.

The person’s figure slowly faded, eventually vanishing without a trace.

Before he lost consciousness, he seemed to dimly hear a groan come from the car’s destroyed radio that was terrifyingly clear even with the shouts coming from outside.

“…News flash: A major car accident occurred on the exchange heading north. The offender possessed a black recreational car. According to eyewitness, the black car was driving uncontrollably on the highway late at night. After losing control, it skidding and crashed into a racecar in the adjacent lane, which caused a rebound resulting in it flipping over the divider. The four people in both cars suffered from injuries of various severity. The crash also affected the traffic heading north, causing a temporary jam. The offender’s car was completely destroyed. The driver was trapped in his seat, and it took thirty minutes to rescue him. He has already been sent to XX Hospital. Currently, it was been confirmed that he is in critical condition. The police found an ID card on the victim’s person, verifying the offender to be Zhao Yu Heng.”

***

Yu Yin had a dream.

While drifting between consciousness and sleep, he dreamed of two people digging up the ground. Meows cried from the nearby den of kittens.

“Fuck, these bunch of cats are damn noisy!”

“Just beat them up and bury them together!”

Someone lifted a shovel and slammed it down heavily on the kittens’ heads. A few short seconds later, the kittens no longer made a sound.

He saw the person holding the shovel had red hair.

Then, he woke.

“News flash: The case of the female corpse found in the outskirts has been closed. The police’s investigation revealed that the deceased had suffered from gang rape before dying and had suffered from over a dozen stabs to stay silenced. The police have already retrieved samples from the corpse to investigate and handle the people involved. However, most of the people involved have already died or committed suicide, making any interrogation impossible. Currently, the police are locked onto the sole survivor, the criminal Wang Hong…”

It was a holiday. Early in the morning, one could already hear sounds from the Yu household’s kitchen: oil sizzling in a frying pan, an egg being cracked open. The hot oil quickly turned the edges of the egg whites a golden colour.

The aroma of bread wafted out from the oven.

“Wang Hong may be completely paralysed.” As Yu Tong scooped out the beautiful fried egg from the pan, he turned to tell Yu Yin, who was cleaning next to him, “A large amount of glass shards pierced through his skull, leading to a critical cerebral concussion. If he gets an infection, he may even die. They are currently observing him in isolation.”

Yu Yin paused.

He could not say that this was the best conclusion.

This was Lin Xiu Jing’s decision, the cruellest punishment among all those she had harmed.

“Zhao Yu Heng has already confessed to be a witness during the events of the incident. However, due to his fear of Wang Hong, he had run away. He stated that he had not known they would murder Lin Xiu Jing. The case has already been transferred to the court, linked together with the pornography and gambling case of the arcade centre.” Yu Tong plated the egg and tilted his head in thought. “Also, both of Zhao Yu Heng’s legs were amputated after the car accident. He will have to live the rest of his life in a wheelchair.”

Is that his punishment for running away?

Yu Yin pondered to himself as he took the plate and walked out of the kitchen. As he was about to place it down, he just happened to hear the news broadcast playing from the living room.

“News flash: A headless, female corpse was discovered in Taichung City at 3 AM this morning. According to the on-site investigation…”

He craned his head to glance at the living room. Yu was currently sitting in front of the TV, watching a morning English education program. “Yu, wake Uncle up for breakfast!”

Yu stood up and began to walk towards Yu Xia’s room.

Yu Tong strode out of the kitchen carrying a bottle of juice. “What are you standing out here spacing out for? Have you already prepared everything for going out after breakfast?”

“Oh, I’m done.” Yu Yin snapped out of his thoughts, setting the plate down on the table. “Dad, why have there been so many headless corpse cases in Taichung recently? A homicidal demon?” He had already heard about it several times.

Yu Tong turned to look at him in confusion. “Which headless corpse cases?”

“Haven’t they been constantly broadcasting them on the news recently? The headless female corpse cases in Taichung?” Yu Yin was baffled by the question. Usually, his father would know more about these kinds of matters than he did.

Yu Tong shook his head, brows furrowed together as he replied, “There have not been any headless corpse cases in Taichung recently. I haven’t heard of any such incidents in other counties either.”

No headless corpse cases?

Then…then where is that news coming from?

Yu Yin instantly felt a chilling wind brush past his spine, causing him to break out into goosebumps.

I’ll just…pretend I misheard.

With a bang, Yu Xia’s door was kicked open.

The demon king inside stormed out with sleepy eyes, Yu pushing him forwards from behind.

“Time to eat!”

Thusly began the morning of the Yu household.

^{1. Yin, as in Yin/Yang, is dark/negative energy. ↑}