The Yu Brothers’ Case Book - Chapter 4

S1: Book 1: Chapter 4

The police had found traces of blood.

Yu Yin’s mind seemed to explode after hearing this news.

He felt as if he was supposed to be searching for something.

What had he overlooked? He had this strange feeling despite the fact that not a single head nor tail had been found yet.

“Hong-shū’s group tested the trunk for blood and received a large response.” This was the only information in the phone call. Because they still needed to complete further verification, they had towed the car back for testing, and would only know of the results once the reports came out.

After receiving the phone call at the restaurant, Yu Yin unexpectedly did not run out. Instead, he brought Yu back home to get some proper sleep. Around seven or so in the evening, he boughtsome snacks on the street, then went back and dragged the little imp awake to eat.

“What do you think it means?” Yu Yin usually had these types of discussions with his father and uncle. However, since the twins were not present today, Yu Yin was unable to restrain himself from casually asking Yu sitting across from him.

Yu lifted his head up from the stewed snacks he was eating, staring at Yu Yin with a puzzled look.

“Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t understand. But if they got a positive result for large traces of blood, that means the taxi must have been carrying something bloody before…like…” A human.

Yu Yin froze at the random thought that flashed through his head.

He did not actually dare to guess randomly before the testing was completed. It could very possibly be some animal’s blood. After all, who would bring a person around in the trunk, one that wasn’t a corpse?

In that case, maybe it really was chicken or fish or some other animal often found in markets. He recalled that the previous time his dad had run over to the market for some nourishing chicken, the chicken had not been packaged properly and ended up covering the trunk with blood. In the end, his uncle had grumbled about it for a long time.

“Ah Guan, Wang Hong, Lin Yu Da…all had the leopard cat appear next to them. Exactly what kind of relationship do those three share?” Yu Yin shook his head to gather his thoughts, his chin propped on his hands as he bit down on his chopsticks and pondered back and forth. No matter how much he contemplated it, he could not find a way to link the former two with the latter.

A driver, a student, and a manager at an arcade centre. At first glance, there did not seem to be any relationship between them, aside from the fact that the student worked part-time at the game centre.

There’s no way the driver also worked part-time at the arcade centre too, right?

If that really was true, Yu Yin would be forced to concede…But there was no way such a coincidence could exist!

Seeing how bothered Yu Yin was, Yu took out a notebook and wrote some words on for the other to read. “The business card with Ah Guan’s work address?”

Yu Yin squinted at the words and stuffed some dried tofu into his mouth, mumbling unclearly, “You mean the one Wang Hong gave? That’s an arcade centre, underage kids can’t go in.”

Yu rolled his eyes and did not write anything further. He lowered his head and focused back on eating.

“Also, who is this ‘Jing’ person…?” Who among Ah Guan’s acquaintances is named Jing? He did not have any impression of such a person. Was it someone from Ah Guan’s part-time job?

Mm, that’s very likely. That would connect Wang Hong’s reaction earlier.

But then, the question circled back to the starting point. Why had Ah Guan been apologising to that Jing person while half-conscious? Why had Wang Hong pretended he did not know the person?

Could there be some problem related to this “Jing”?

As Yu Yin was pondering these various issues, the ring of the doorbell suddenly sounded out.

“It’s probably Dad and Uncle returning.” Yu Yin tossed his chopsticks and stood up to open the door. But when he switched the intercom screen on, he frowned as he stared at the scene in confusion.

The person standing at his front door was neither his father nor his uncle.

It was a stranger with dyed, green hair.

Green hair?

Oh… He realised that he had just met this person earlier at the hospital. Borrowing his uncle’s words, this person had been one of the “low-grades” with Wang Hong – lowly trash that did not have the guts to face anything [themselves].

“May I ask who this is? And who you are looking for?” Yu Yin turned on the intercom and cut straight to the point.

The stranger outside stared at a piece of paper in his hands in panic for a moment before then glancing at the doorplate outside their house. Finally, he answered in uncertainty, “May I ask if Yu Yin is home? I’m Chen Guan’s friend, He Mu Yan.”

Looking for me?

“Sorry, I don’t know you. Please leave.” As soon as Yu Yin stated this, he prepared to cut the intercom off.

He often heard from his dad and uncle that it was best not to interact much with these types of people, or else there would definitely be trouble.

“Wait, wait a moment! We met at the hospital during the day. I-I found your address in Ah Guan’s drawers, so…so…” The other voice was extremely anxious.

Yu Yin furrowed his brows. Why did he purposely go through Ah Guan’s things to find my address?

Whatever. Since he seems to be earnestly looking for me, I’ll listen and see what he has to say.

“Come in.” Yu Yin opened the steel door. “Make sure to close the door.”

When he returned to the sofa to sit down, the visitor still outside the steel door earlier was already standing in the entryway. He hesitated for a moment before pushing open the mesh door and walking in. “He-hello.”

He appeared to be somewhat nervous, constantly glancing backwards as if afraid something would catch up to him from behind.

“Why are you looking for me?” Yu Yin placed the half-eaten food off to one side and stood up to enter the kitchen and prepare a cup of hot tea for the visitor. By the time he came back out, Yu had already cleaned up the table and passed by him to move their dinner into the kitchen as a form of respect [to the visitor].

In the end, He Mu Yan downed some of the hot tea, taking a while before calming down. “I-I heard Ah Guan mention before that he had a friend with yin-yang eyes. These past few days, I’ve been constantly feeling like something is following me. Then Ah Guan got into a car accident too. So I…”

Ah Guan, you gossiping bastard!

Yu Yin inwardly cursed in annoyance while outwardly maintaining a basic smile. “I don’t actually have anything like yin-yang eyes. You were probably duped by Ah Guan. After all, how could such things be possessed by just anyone? You mentioned that something seemed to be following you, maybe you should pay a visit to a shrine and request for a safety charm?” He squinted, noticing some darkness on the green-haired youth’s face that gave off a bad feeling.

“I…I already did, but it wasn’t any use, so I wanted to come ask Ah Guan’s friend for help…” He paused, as if struggling to speak about it.

Yu Yin had the strong urge to ask if the other person had done something shameful to be so scared. However, Yu Yin still refrained from asking anything too penetrating. “I know a pretty good shrine. If you’re seriously looking, I can introduce you to it.” That shrine truly was godly. Whenever Yu Yin bumped into ghosts or was being viciously targeted, his dad would always bring him to this shrine for safety, and it would always work instantly without leaving any residual effects behind.

“Really? That would be great.” He Mu Yan seemed to feel a great sense of relief as he collapsed backwards. “Boss doesn’t believe in these kinds of things, so I didn’t even dare to mention it.”

“Are you referring to Wang Hong?” Yu Yin raised an eyebrow as he inquired indirectly.

“Yeah.” The green-haired youth nodded and began to cower in fear again. “Boss never believed in such things, and forbids us from privately speaking about it as well. If he catches us talking about it, we’re screwed…so please don’t tell Boss I came looking for you about this, or else he’ll kill me.”

Yu Yin nodded. They were in different friend circles, so it would be rare for them to bump into each other again anyways.

The youth drank some more tea, appearing much calmer than his previous panicked state. Yu Yin heard footsteps and turned around to see Yu walking out of the kitchen, likely having just finished tidying everything up.

“You all seem pretty scared of Wang Hong?” He had noticed that the people with Wang Hong had barely spoken, even when they had met at the hospital. They had simply looked tough on the outside, and served no actual purpose.

The youth mulled over these words for a minute before nodding in response. “Boss is the son of the arcade centre’s owner; there’s no way we would dare to disobey him, especially when we’re working under him. He has everything…Er, I mean, money and stuff. If we rub him the wrong way, we won’t get a single cent.”

He’s the son of the owner, huh. Based on the explanation Yu Yin had heard from Ah Guan about their workplace, that Wang Hong person definitely had an inseparable connection with the underground. That person’s unbridled personality was already a good indication of it.

Just as Yu Yin was about to speak up, a thud suddenly rang out from next to him. He turned his head to see that Yu, who had been trying to walk over, had crashed into something and fallen onto the ground. Judging from the impact’s loud sound alone, it definitely seemed painful.

“Yu, what—”

Before he could finish with “—are you doing”, a pop resounded through the house, and everything instantly fell into darkness.

A power outage.

“Both of you stay put; don’t wander around!”

Yu Yin immediately shouted out at the two other people unfamiliar with the house as he felt his way through the darkness towards the TV cabinet. For sudden, unexpected situations like these, his father always left flashlights and medical kits in certain areas around the house.

Yu Yin made his way to the TV cabinet and swiftly fished for a flashlight. “Don’t move, you two…” The moment he pulled the flashlight out, he switched its power on.

A deathly pale face instantly appeared before him.

Startled, Yu Yin immediately jumped backwards. The face began to fade away within seconds, and he was soon unable to make out its features. Then, the familiar and unusual cry of a cat rang out. It was close, very close, as if the leopard cat was meowing right next to his feet.

What was that?!

Yu Yin’s instincts told him that something bad was about to happen.

“Ahhhhhhh—!”

Just as Yu Yin was starting to calm down, an anguished howl ripped through the air from the direction of the sofa. It sounded somewhat odd, as if the person was being choked by the throat. “Jing, Jing…let me go, let me go…”

“He Mu Yan!” Yu Yin quickly yelled out towards the voice.

Before he could spin around, a sharp pain came from the hand that had been crushed by the trunk lid earlier. The flashlight fell from his grip, as if someone had slapped it out from his hand. It landed with a clunk and rolled around in circles on the ground, then suddenly went out.

The room was completely dark.

“Jing, Jing!” He Mu Yan’s screams were growing in intensity, and also turning hoarser. The only sounds left in the entire house were his rough gasps and his breathless croaks, “Jing, Jing…”

“He Mu Yan! Hang in there!” Without bothering with the lost flashlight, Yu Yin grabbed a nearby vase and hurriedly began to stumble over and save the person.

He did not know what had happened to He Mu Yan, but judging from the voice, it seemed as if something was strangling the youth.

He had only managed to make a single step forwards before he was forcefully tripped, causing him to crash heavily onto the ground. The vase flew out of his hand, clearly shattering not too far away.

An object was heavily pressing down on his body.

“Scram!” Yu Yin struggled, but was unable to throw the thing off, and could not even crawl up from the ground. “Get off, you bastard!”

“Ahhhhhh—” Suddenly, the lights in the house flashed back on for a mere second. Yu Yin lifted his head to see the yellowing walls of the house now covered in blood. He Mu Yan lay on the sofa with eyes widened in terror, his mouth agape and his tongue practically sticking out.

A long-haired woman was sprawled over him, her black hair completely covering her face and her hands so white that the arteries were visible. Those hands were outstretched, tightly gripping the green-haired youth’s throat. At this point, a white foam was starting to form from He Mu Yan’s mouth, and the whites of eyes were starting to show.

In that instant, those people he saw were not on his sofa. The wall behind them did not belong to his home either.

Where is this?

With a pop, the house fell into darkness once more.

A few seconds later, the lights began to flicker. The originally cool-coloured lights now flashed crimson. The entire house seemed to have been dyed with blood. The woman seemed to fade in and out of existence, her form constantly appearing and disappearing.

Yu Yin realised what he had just seen.

As he was still pouring all his energy into shaking off the thing on his body, he caught a glimpse of a shadow next to him stand up shakily.

Oh, right! Yu!

Yu did not understand what was happening, but he had likely surmised what the general situation was. He lifted himself up from the ground and stood up with difficulty. After glancing around, he quickly strode towards the door so that he could open the circuit box and properly restore the lights.

The meowing suddenly turned louder.

“Yu! Don’t touch it!”

In that instant, Yu Yin saw the leopard cat’s face appear within the circuit box.

Then, he fainted.

Yu Yin did not know how long he was unconscious for. By the time he slowly woke up, the house had returned to its original state.

The lights were all brightly lit, without any flickers of crimson. The walls did not have any copper-red colour either.

Also, it was his home.

He sat up and forcefully shook his head. His back was in severe pain, while the hand that had been cleanly wrapped earlier was now bleeding through. The gauze was a ghastly sight…he could practically hear his father’s lecture now.

It was very quiet, without any sound. He Mu Yan had completely disappeared from the sofa without a trace.

But none of that was important.

“Yu!” He turned to see Yu collapsed on the ground next to the wall. The circuit box was open, the doors swinging on its hinges. There was nothing inside, especially not the reflection of a leopard cat.

Ignoring his pain, he rolled and crawled over to Yu’s side and lifted him up. “Yu! Wake up!” The white face now sported short scratches, and a thin stream of scarlet flowed out from his nose.

Yu Yin lifted Yu in his arms and charged straight to his own bedroom, kicking open the door and hurriedly placing Yu down safely on the bed without caring about anything else. Then, he listened for the sounds of breathing.

“Good…he’s breathing…” Yu Yin heaved a huge sigh of relief. After a basic inspection, he found that Yu was likely just unconscious, which lifted a great burden from his heart.

He grabbed a few tissues and carefully wiped the blood off Yu’s face, leaving only the scratches behind.

While Yu Yin was thinking of grabbing some ointment and treating Yu’s wounds, he heard the door opening downstairs. There was the sound of the key inside the door, followed by a shout from a voice that could not be more familiar.

“Ah Yin, Xiao Yu, we’re home. We bought some late-night snacks for you two—” Yu Xia walked in first. Seeing that there was nobody in the living room, he tossed his backpack off to one side and headed straight up to their bedroom. Yu Tong followed behind, closing the front door as he walked in. “Ah Yin? What are you two doing?”

The bedroom door was wide open. He could clearly see the two brats inside without kicking the door open, one lying on the bed and one standing next to it.

“We ran into a bit of trouble. By the way, did you guys see anyone at the door when you came in just now, Uncle?” Yu Yin thought back to the horrifying scene he had witnessed earlier. He had no idea what had happened to He Mu Yan. He couldn’t have actually been strangled to death by that female ghost, right?

“A person? No? Did you have friends over?”

Yu Yin shook his head.

Overhearing the disjointed conversation, Yu Tong also came upstairs. “What happened?”

“Just now…” Yu Yin’s voice faded and he shook his head. “Forget it, it’s not like you guys would understand even if I told you.”

The [twin] brothers exchanged a look, confusion on their faces.

“What happened to Xiao Yu’s face? There are scratches.” As detailed-oriented as he was, Yu Tong instantly noticed the abnormality with the person on the bed. “Wait, let me go fetch a medical kit. We don’t know if he’s had his tetanus shot…We can take a trip to the hospital later and have him get the injection…” Yu Tong said as he walked out of the room.

Yu Xia narrowed his eyes at the two brats for a moment, but did not continue pressing the issue.

“It’s true that I won’t understand,” he said as he rubbed Yu Yin’s head hard. “But, your dad and uncle will always worry about you two!”

Yu Yin pressed his now aching head. After blinking innocently, he sighed. “Someone came looking for me earlier, saying that he was Ah Guan’s friend. Then…”

He gave a general run-down of everything that had happened just now.

He could not describe that scene from before, but just thinking about it made him shiver.

Yu Xia’s brows furrowed together as he listened. He was already used to hearing the other talk about supernatural events, but he had not imagined for it to be so serious this time. “You said that person is Ah Guan’s friend?”

Yu Yin nodded. “But the weirdest part was that he said something very similar to Ah Guan’s words.” After a pause, Yu Yin scratched his head, as he did not really want to talk about it. “As he was screaming, he shouted, ‘Jing’ and ‘Let me go’.”

“Jing?”

Why was that word appearing again?

With all the incidents that had occurred the past two days, Yu Xia also began to sense something was amiss after repeatedly hearing this word. “Oh right, I forgot to tell you that the traces of blood detected in the taxi trunk today is already confirmed to have a 70% chance of being human blood. They are currently doing further analysis. Once it’s been completely verified, we’ll be requesting for the taxi driver to comply with an investigation.”

Human blood?

Yu Yin’s eyelid twitched as he felt a premonition of disaster looming.

“Weird, why is Tong taking so long to get something?”

As if perfectly timed to Yu Xia’s question, a startled cry sounded from downstairs. “What happened here?!”

The other two looked at each other, then ran out of the bedroom one after another. When they went down the stairs, they were also shocked by the sight of the living room.

The living room that had been perfectly spotless just minutes earlier was now covered in numerous muddy footprints. Some tracks even had dried leaves stuck to them as well. It was as if someone had walked around inside in a large circle as a prank.

“What in the world? How did this happen in the instant I turned around to grab the medical kit?” Yu Tong voiced disapprovingly as someone who always loved cleanliness.

Dad…that’s not the issue…

Sometimes, Yu Yin felt that his father’s tendency to go off track was a good thing.

“These seem to be a woman’s footprints.” Yu Xia’s workaholic tendencies flared as he crouched down to examine the muddy prints, comparing several different ones before drawing the final conclusion.

“Ah Yin!”

Two identical faces simultaneously turned to glare at the unrestrained little devil that could have very likely brought a woman home to spend the night.

“It wasn’t me! And even if I really had brought a woman home, what kind of woman could make this kind of mess in the living room within seconds!” Yu Yin retorted in exasperation.

Rather than saying that he had brought a woman home, it would be more likely that he had brought a female ghost home based on the current situation.

However, if something unclean truly had followed him back, he would have sensed it in some way, which meant he was likely not involved.

“Good point.” Yu Xia patted his legs and stood back up.

“Really, now I have to do some deep cleaning again.” Yu Tong’s shoulders drooped as the person responsible for the house. He could not stand seeing such a mess.

One could also say he was mysophobic.

“Don’t tell me this was done by that thing you just mentioned?” Yu Xia questioned as he glanced at the little demon.

“As if I know!” Yu Yin instantly huffed. However, he inwardly accepted this possibility.

From his knowledge, he had not angered this thing, so why was it harassing him like this?

There was both the car trunk incident and the house incident. No matter how much he contemplated, he could not figure out a reason. Crap, don’t tell me I did something on a certain day of a certain year of a certain month at a certain place without even knowing, which caused it to come after me?

However, he was always extremely cautious of such things…

“Hurry up, the news recap is showing.” Due to their work, Yu Tong habitually watched the news report in his spare time. He handed the medical kit to his son and reached out to turn on the TV, which just happened to be switched to the news channel. “Ah Yin, you go help treat Yu’s injuries first, and redress your own wounds too. When you come back out later, help me clean the living room.”

“Okay—”

As Yu Yin dragged his reply out, he turned to return to the bedroom. Just then, the voice reporting the news flash from the broadcast entered his ears.

“We are here to present the latest information that just came in. During the evening today, the police received a report, causing them to rush to a certain high-rise building. There, they were met with the alarming sight of a male having hung himself in his residence. He was urgently sent to the hospital, but it was proclaimed at approximately 7:15 PM today that the emergency aid had not been effective.

“The male that hung himself was a staff member at Golden Craft Arcade Centre, nickname: Ah Mu. He was twenty-two years old this year. His birth name was He Mu Yan. The other staff indicated that they had not sensed any suicidal behaviour from him at all, and had not imagined he would choose such a way to end his life. Because the residence showed no traces of struggle, the police concluded upon investigation that it was indeed a suicide. Moreover, this is the fifteenth case this year…”

Yu Yin did not process the rest.

He felt as if a bomb had gone off in his mind, the blast leaving a loud buzzing behind.

He Mu Yan died today at 7:15 PM?

He turned around just in time to see the worker ID photo of He Mu Yan being shown on the screen. That head of green hair made it impossible to believe that it could have just been someone with the same name.

For He Mu Yan to have suddenly died at 7:15 PM today…

In that case, who was the He Mu Yan that came looking for me?

“The number of suicide cases have been increasing more and more recently. Looks like this was the case that they were all busy with tonight.” Yu Tong continued to watch the news as he said, “Why do people these days like to have their hair changed to bizarre colours? Are they not afraid of getting skin cancer on their scalps…”

This voice snapped Yu Yin out of his reverie, and the medical kit in his hands dropped with a loud thunk. Yu Tong and Yu Xia, who were both cleaning up nearby, were both startled and they turned to look at Yu Yin.

Yu Yin woodenly turned around to see the cup of tea he had hurriedly brought out for the visitor before, still on the table. There was a piece of paper next to the cup.

Without thinking, he immediately ran over to the table to grab the paper that the other had used to copy down the name and address.

However, all that welcomed his eyes was endless white.

It was an empty, white piece of paper without a single drop of ink on its surface.

The white paper floated down from his grasp.

Who was the person that came to find me at seven?