The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

When Yu Xia burst into his own office, he was welcomed with the sight of the room in complete disarray.

It literally looked like it had exploded. The properly stacked folders of data were all mixed together. Any breakable glass, including cups, had burst. Even the lights had not escaped unscathed. Only the desk, chairs, drawers, and other larger-sized furniture had not been destroyed.

Zheng Zhong Hui sat on the ground in a daze with a blank expression. He did not notice the loud bang of the door being broken open.

Yu Xia turned his head to spot his family’s child kneeling on the floor off the side. “Ah Yin, what are you doing?!”

“…I’m experiencing the pain of being sent flying by a door opening.” Yu Yin had been standing in front of the door just now and had not known of any movement outside. When he had been focused on the space where the shadow had vanished, the door behind him had suddenly been pushed out, whacking him aside. The glass hadn’t hurt him when it had exploded, but he had nearly lost his life from the door’s strike, the pain so much that he was momentarily unable to get back up.

“You moved too slowly.” Yu Xia did not think he had done anything wrong as he hauled Zheng Zhong Hui up. “There were clearly people watching you, how did you escape?!”

“You definitely do not want to know how he escaped…”

“Ah Yin, what did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything.” Yu Yin hurriedly shut his mouth and pressed his aching back, grimacing as he stood. “That ghost fled. You should quickly question him now, Uncle.”

Yu Xia was stunned for a moment and he suspiciously looked back and forth at the other two people. Finally, he dragged Zheng Zhong Hui out of the office. “You’d better not cause anymore trouble.”

“Can I see my little brother?” Zheng Zhong Hui stopped in his tracks suddenly to ask this.

“If Prosecutor Li agrees.”

Zheng Zhong Hui smiled happily. This was the first time Yu Xia had ever seen this person look not crazed.

“I’ll cooperate with you guys. That person’s gone. I will protect my little brother.”

After watching Yu Xia pull the other person away, Yu Yin leaned against the door and let out a bated breath.

The air behind him was still freezing.

In the dark corner, the rejected existence let out a low, resentful cry.

“Although I’m very sorry, don’t you think that at the very least, you shouldn’t let your older brother continue on like this? It’s long past the time you should go to where you need to go…though I don’t know where that is, you definitely do.” Yu Yin had no idea where this place was, but he knew it was not here.

It doesn’t matter where it is, as long as it isn’t this place.

Because they were no longer the same.

No matter how much it wanted to stay behind, it had already changed. Gradually…gradually, it would see itself turn black, and watch itself grow twisted, make others twisted, pushing those that could have originally been saved into the abyss, and finally become something else.

Crimson eyes glared at him resentfully.

We will always keep our hatred.

“But this is no longer where you belong. Let your brother go.”

I was the one that’s been protecting him this whole time! You’re going to kill him! You’re going to kill him!

You deceiving liar!

The black shadow lunged over. Yu Yin reflexively raised his hands as the huge impact slammed him backwards into the wall, causing an intense, sharp pain to arise from his back.

He suddenly felt as if he could not breathe. Any breath felt like he was being burned by fire. It was as though there was a person clutching his neck, making it impossible for him to free himself from the indescribably unpleasant feeling.

It felt horrible and was extremely difficult to endure.

However, he had no choice.

***

“The outsiders were murderers.

“We were originally living there. That mountain was ours, that house was also ours. My dad spent a large sum to buy the materials and build the house. My little brother and I lived there since we were born.

“Then, they came. They seized the house, my mom and dad, my little brother, and still greedily continued to take everything away, persistently searching endlessly. That woman even wanted me to bring her back to look around…

“They all deserved to die.”

Zheng Zhong Hui was curled up in the chair, one hand knocking his head as he spoke, trying to tell them more while “that person” was not present. “’That person’ said they should all die. They were greedy and malicious, and we needed to find them to have them die one by one. Every person deserved to die. But I still couldn’t find my little brother.”

“Where did you learn that your brother was alive?” Yu Xia furrowed his brows at the person that was still not mentally stable.

“…Forgot. Maybe he said it? The outsiders said it? Right…it should’ve been the outsiders that said it. I was strangling him by the neck…no, ‘that person’ was strangling him. We had to kill him. He fought back and then said my little brother had nothing to do with him. That if I let him go, he would tell me where my little brother was.” Zheng Zhong Hui scratched his head, an angry expression showing on his face. “But then he ran away and went missing! When I found him afterwards, ‘that person’ immediately killed him, so I’ve always been looking for my little brother…then he appeared.”

“On the mountain? A hiking group?” Yu Xia tentatively asked this based on what he had heard from Yan Si.

“He asked me if I was alright, he wanted to help me. I saw his name; his name was different. But his face…his face was very similar to when he was young. I was so happy. I felt like he had helped me. But he didn’t remember me…I figured he was like me, forgetting about family after being taken away by others. I believed this was for the best.” Zheng Zhong Hui’s rage from just earlier was reversed, his temper calming as he happily looked out between his arms at Yu Xia. “I tried my best to gather information. I wanted to know if he had been doing well. I watched over him even when we were locked up. Looking at him always made me feel lighter. But ‘that person’ wouldn’t let me interact with him. He would get mad. But I still…really want to know. I don’t have any other family anymore; he’s the only one left. He’s so accomplished, so continuing this way is better.”

“Then why did you suddenly approach him?”

“Because I needed to protect him!” Zheng Zhong Hui’s voice dropped abruptly as he coldly stated, “You guys don’t understand the situation at all. Every person is against him, so I have to protect him. Even ‘that person’ cannot stop me from protecting my family. So I’ve been waiting this whole time…and he really recognised me.”

“Before all this, did you know you were being followed by Liu Guo Dong and Wang Qiang Ming?”

“They’re dead.”

“…Did you know there were two people constantly following you?” Yu Xia had no idea why the other person was so convinced that these two were dead, so he could only take a different approach to ask.

This time, Zheng Zhong Hui nodded. “I know, I don’t recognise them. I thought they were other enemies, maybe my brother’s enemies. There are many people trying to attack him. They kept demanding something from me, but I have no idea where they’re from. When I discovered they had a gun, I called my brother and told him it was dangerous nearby. I wanted him to not come out to protect himself; I would protect him just as before.”

“But when he heard you were in trouble, Prosecutor Li instead went out, didn’t he?” Yu Xia could easily imagine the scenario at the time. It was no wonder Li Zi Hong had been in such a rush to go out. Sometimes, he really wondered if the children and his young friends around him were brainless. They clearly knew that going out would only result in getting beaten; basic self-defence was completely useless in that type of situation, yet they would still stubbornly charge in. Yu Xia wasn’t sure if these people were tired of living or what. They should at least have proper training before rushing in, shouldn’t they? What use is going in like that only to get double played? For example, Xiao Yu’s action of knocking down the opposite party this time was pretty good in Yu Xia’s opinion, but still not worthy of encouragement.

“Right, I was scared too. Plus he even got injured. Only I could take care of him.” Zheng Zhong Hui narrowed his eyes and began to rap his skull again. “’That person’ blocked them, then ‘he’ helped us. I brought my little brother with me on a car to escape. I had arranged many places to live; I didn’t want the outsiders to find us. Those outsiders are everywhere. Who knew if those people were also outsiders coming to harm us? That’s why we hid the whole time. I will protect him, and I am able to protect him. But you guys destroyed it all…it was because of you that he was discovered.”

“If it’s protection, then we are standing on the same side. There is no need for you to treat us as an enemy. I’ve dispatched officers to guard the hospital 24/7, and there have been more patrols added to the area as well. There is a doctor taking care of him too. Those two people won’t have any chance to attack him.” Yu Xia paused for a moment, then deliberately said, “He will recover and then return here for work. Just as you said, his life is better like this, right? He will work hard in coming back. There’s no problem with you seeing him either.”

“Yes…that’s good, that’s for the better.” Zheng Zhong Hui rubbed his face and muttered quietly to himself, “That’s for the better…this is the best…it’s fine as long as those outsiders are killed…it’s fine, everything is fine…”

Seeing that the other person was caught up in their own circle [of thoughts], Yu Xia tried cautiously patted his arm. “Do you remember that ghost story? You told it to a restaurant…”

“Ghost story…ah…them?” Zheng Zhong Hui’s mental state was a bit scattered as he lifted his head again and tilted it, thinking. “They died…It wasn’t me, that wasn’t me. It was that ‘that person’ that killed them. I didn’t do anything…I can’t understand why. They were good friends, just like Cai Qian…I don’t know why…I don’t know why they disappeared…It wasn’t me…that wasn’t me…I didn’t do those things, I don’t understand…it was ‘that person’…You guys wanted to find them…I don’t understand! I don’t know why!” Zheng Zhong Hui let out a roar at the end and slammed down hard on the table before flinging it aside.

“That wasn’t me! That wasn’t me! Believe me…I didn’t!”

Several officers rushed in to restrain the crazed Zheng Zhong Hui and forcibly pressed him down against the ground.

“That wasn’t me!”

***

“It was definitely him. He was the murderer that killed them.”

“A bunch of lies.”

“The murderer, he killed my son, and Ah Guo’s son too. He might have killed other people’s sons as well. Cai Qian and Hu Xin Lei were all his work.”

“He’s insane! A lunatic!”

“He has no issues saying anything!”

“Murderer!”

After being pushed into the interrogation room, Wang Qiang Ming ranted furiously, “We have no enmity with him. I have no idea who he is. Before my son went missing, that person was constantly circling back and forth around my son’s school, even lying to his classmates. Then my son was killed by him! The lunatic! We just wanted to protect ourselves. He’ll murder us all sooner or later!”

“In that alley too, it was him who attacked us first. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have accidentally injured that prosecutor!”

“What house, what little brother! Only a ghost would know what crazy words he’s spouting!”

“We were forced!”

When Yu Xia walked out of the interrogation room, he spotted Yu Yin and Yu getting drinks from the vending machine in the hallway.

Upon returning to the station, Yu Tong took advantage of a spare moment to first write his report so that the prosecutor keeping an eye on the case would not come running to push for it again. They still had not yet told Yu Yin about Dong Feng being abducted by Liu Guo Dong.

However, he was sure that Yu had already told Yu Yin.

With the canned drink in hand, Yu Yin spaced out at the vending machine with a very concerning look on his face.

Before Yu Tong could say anything, he spotted Xiao Wu running over from the distance. “Boss, Boss, there’s news. Our brothers in Fenggang said they intercepted the person we had notified about, but the man changed cars and broke through the pursuing officers. However, he was dragged down in the end, and a gun was found in his car. He’ll be transferred over to us per procedure.”

“What about the little one?”

“I heard that Liu Guo Dong was the only person in the car; there wasn’t anyone else.” Xiao Wu shook his head, then shot Yu Yin and Yu a glance. “The search is being expanded at the moment. Liu Guo Dong claims that he abandoned [Dong Feng] midway and fled by himself, but there’s no knowing if it’s true or false…Though, according to the video footage tracking them, they stayed in the same car the entire time up until passing Tainan.”

“Let’s go and check again.” Yu Xia did not want to try making any early presumptions; they could only was find some people to help first.

Right after Xiao Wu affirmed that he would continue the pursuit, a commotion came from the reception hall downstairs. Then several unit members rushed up with someone in tow. “Boss! He’s back!”

From where he stood, Yu Yin could distantly see that the person being surrounded was actually the missing Dong Feng. He was even wearing a very large jacket and a baseball cap from somewhere unknown. Even Yu was wide-eyed next to Yu Yin.

“Are you alright?” Yu Xia finally felt reassured when he saw that Dong Feng did not appear to be injured.

Dong Feng silently turned his head to coldly glare at Yu off to the side. He then stretched his hand out from his sleeve to press a card against Yu’s face. “Next time you take away my backpack, I’ll beat you to death.”

“How did you get back here?” Yu Yin was also very shocked. All of Dong Feng’s belongings had been abandoned at the scene, aka with Yu. Dong Feng did not have a single cent on him.

“…While Liu Guo Dong was buying things, I was trying to think of a way to escape and bumped into a motorcyclist. They were just out on a spin around the island, so they let me hitch a ride for part of the way. Then I went through several other cars to get here.” Since Dong Feng had no cash on him, he had gone through an extremely difficult time to come stumbling back. “The money in the card is almost completely used up.”

“You should have directly requested for assistance from the nearest police station. Using such a method isn’t good.” Yu Xia shook his head, disagreeing with this type of action.

“It’s fine as long as he got back. No need to bicker over it.” Yu Yin hurriedly smoothed things over. He knew that Dong Feng strongly detested interacting with the police, so it was highly likely that the other would not voluntarily seek for help like that. “But that jacket of yours is way too big.”

“That rider gave it to me. There’s food too.” He pulled out two bags of eggs from a pocket that was as large as the jacket and blankly passed the tea eggs over to Xiao Wu. “When he heard that I was planning on changing cars to return to the police station, he insisted on me bringing these back to treat you guys.”

“Ah, this is very famous in Tainan.” Xiao Wu’s eyes glowed as he looked at the tea eggs. “My girlfriend always says we need to try eating these the next time we go south for fun.”

“Let’s wait until later to eat the snacks. Liu Guo Dong will be delivered here in a bit, so go and properly do your work!”

Yu Xia pushed his unit members out and glanced at the three children. “Ah Yin, you bring Dong Feng to wash up first, then keep watch on the two little ones. Someone will come over later to take a statement.”

“Received.”

***

“So what do they want?”

Since Yu Xia’s office had not been cleaned, it was still a complete mess. Yu Yin could only bring Yu and Dong Feng to borrow the investigation group’s break room. He gave a summary of the progress up until now and said, “Zheng Zhong Hui has no idea himself.”

“Who knows.” After taking a shower, Dong Feng walked out tugging at the clothes he had borrowed from Jiu Shen. “They were holding guns at the time, so I could only trick them into saying I knew for the time being to lure him away.”

Yu silently peeled a tea egg and ate it.

“Then why did he have to go south?” Yu Yin was more puzzled about this point. He had heard others say that after grabbing Dong Feng, Liu Guo Dong had almost immediately jumped onto a car to head towards the southern district, even taking multiple shortcuts to run so far.

“I told him that the object is where everything started, and he suddenly sped south like a madman.” However, Dong Feng had a feeling that the other person’s final destination was not the southern district at all. Rather, it was just a passing point. If they continued down that path, he would have most likely ended up in the place where that ghost story had first started.

Fortunately, he had not actually gone there. He had no desire to suffer a sudden death by climbing a mountain.

“But what exactly are they looking for? Is it the thing that Li-dàgē mentioned…”

“Prosecutor Li said the item wasn’t found.” Ah Liu just happened to be passing by, and he stuck his head into the room. “We spent today searching through that room and the ash. We even dug out the bullets in the walls. But we couldn’t find the object Prosecutor Li mentioned, nor whatever Zheng Zhong Hui was going on about. It might really have been burned up.”

“What does it look like?” Despite not knowing if it was what Liu Guo Dong’s group was looking for, Yu Yin couldn’t help but grow curious.

“It’s about the size of a palm. Apparently, it’s a sewed-shut calico bag, something that Yang Cai Qian had given to Zheng Zhong Hui as a memento long ago. Zheng Zhong Hui was afraid someone would follow after him, that if he went out, some mishap would occur or he would get attacked. As a result, he gave it to Prosecutor Li to hold temporarily.” However, after spending the day flipping back and forth through the soot and burned remains, Ah Liu had not seen any suspicious object. The fire at the time had not been a small one, so there was a greater chance that it had been burned to ash. As a result, he did not hold much hope in finding it. “I’ll head back off to work, you guys should get some proper rest.”

When the door of the break room was shut, Yu Yin turned his head to see that Dong Feng had already curled up on the chair and fallen asleep. Yu was currently peeling a second egg.

“You should also rest a bit after you eat.” With these words, Yu Yin immediately saw the peeled egg being passed over to him. After the chaos from today, he suddenly felt the energy drain from him. Everyone had been anxious these past few days. Now both Zheng Zhong Hui and Liu Guo Dong were already arrested, while the behind-the-scenes of the ghost story were still being investigated. It seemed as though the situation would come to an end soon. He relaxed somewhat upon thinking of this, and his stomach began to feel hungry as well. Thus, he did not hold back and accepted the tea egg.

But as soon as he took a bite, he heard a clacking noise from the side.

Yu Yin expressionlessly turned his head and, as expected, saw the two skeletons standing next to the door. They were staring straight at him like overseers.

“The police are already examining those matters for you guys. So just quietly wait for news?” Although he really wanted to tell them something like, “If you can’t wait, please go outside and turn in any direction to watch the police take control to put you at ease”, he swallowed the words back down. Yu sat up straight to gaze towards the direction of the vacant space. “Why not help look for that ‘object’”?

Actually, it was just a random mention, but the skeletons immediately responded to Yu Yin’s words. One of them slowly raised a hand to point at Yu Yin’s broken backpack.

Yu Yin and Yu almost simultaneously shifted their eyes over to the backpack.

“It’d be great if it was in my backpack. There’s only a notebook and two bags of crackers inside.” Do ghosts these days now like finding others for their amusement when they have nothing better to do?

Yu went over to pick up the backpack. He rummaged through it and pulled out some junk, then a small roll of thread and a pen. Finally, from the very bottom, he pulled out a yellow, little ducky drawstring bag that Yu Yin himself had never seen before.

“What’s that?” Yu Yin took the bag and somewhat dubiously pulled it open. Then his entire scalp went numb.

From the ducky bag, he dumped out a pink calico bag that was sewed shut. It appeared to be quite old already, and perfectly enough, was about the size of a palm. It felt as if there was something hard inside it as well.

“…I won’t be strangled to death by Uncle, right?”

***

This is a sin that all of us committed together.

My name is Yang Cai Qian.

Twenty-five years old.

A few years ago, when I was in university, I befriended some people outside the school and formed an extracurricular activity group that did healthy activities like hiking, wading, etc. We never went to places like billiards rooms.

For our last excursion, we agreed to go hiking in the eastern district. The trek was supposed to take about five days. We had a newbie join, bringing our group total to five members: Liu Guo Dong, Wang Qiang Ming, Lin Bo Yuan, me, and Hu Xin Lei.

On the second day, we made a mistake because we were unfamiliar with the track, causing us to miss the cabin and enter an off-course route.

We originally planned to search for an appropriate place to set up camp. But then Bo Yuan went ahead to scope out the path and discovered that there was a residence in the mountains, likely an indigenous family. As a result, we decided to go there to ask for lodging.

A child around five or six years old with an adorable appearance answered the door. Unexpectedly, it was a common person’s home.

We did not know why commoners would move to this kind of place, especially when the married couple had a young child. They were extremely against letting us in, but after our bitter pleading, they eventually allowed us to borrow their place for a night, even kindly cooking us some hot food for us to eat our fill.

I was extremely grateful towards them. I still feel the same now.

That day, when I was shaken awake in the middle of the night, I did not know what had happened. I only saw Liu Guo Dong and the others enter the room. Then Liu Guo Dong told us that the owners of the house had a ton of cash. When he had woken up to go to the bathroom, he had seen the husband and wife counting a large amount of cash in their room, which they had then hid in their wardrobe.

That sum of money surpassed their imagination.

They said that since these people were living on a mountain, taking a tiny bit wouldn’t affect anything.

They believed that every person was just slightly lacking in money; if they had enough, they could afford their school tuition several times over, pay back any missing rent, or fill a gap in their insufficient living expenses. They could even make it so that their parents would not have to burn both ends of a stick to earn money.

I didn’t want to participate, but I couldn’t persuade them from not taking what didn’t belong to them.

They all felt that they could each take a bit. There was so much money that if they just took some – just a tiny bit – the owners wouldn’t notice. And by the time they did, everyone would have already left. There would be no problem.

They planned to first trick the owners out of the room, then secretly take some of the money.

Then, Hu Xin Lei walked out to the courtyard, pretending that she had accidentally tripped and gotten hurt while fumbling around in the dark for the bathroom. The married couple hurriedly ran out to help, and they brought her back into the guest room and wanted to help her bandage up.

The others should have theoretically entered the couple’s bedroom at that time.

Then, I heard a child’s scream. For some reason, the child hadn’t yet slept and had discovered Liu Guo Dong and the others in the bedroom, then ran out shouting. I didn’t know if someone chased after him or not, but the sound vanished behind the kitchen or bathroom.

Then the husband and wife angrily charged out upon noticing the abnormality, and found out everything.

I could only lock myself up inside the guest bedroom, not daring to make a sound as I tightly covered my ears. I waited until all the noises stopped, then walked out of the room. And I found that they were already dead.

The husband and wife had been strangled to death in the living room. Liu Guo Dong and the others said they had just lost control for a moment.

Everybody sat in the living room in a daze. We did not know what to do. Then I remembered that boy. Wang Qiang Ming claimed that it didn’t matter, that we just shouldn’t go to the bathroom.

In the end, Liu Guo Dong said that since this house was so deep in the woods, no one would discover what had happened here. As long as none of us said anything, nobody would know.

They’re dead now anyways, and won’t need this anymore. Let’s just take it all.

They found a lot of cash in the bedroom, a total of over six hundred thousand [yuan]. There was also quite a number of precious jewellery. Liu Guo Dong split the money and items into five portions and let each person take their part. In front of this large sum, the corpses lying there no longer accounted to anything. There was only money in everyone’s eyes.

We were accomplices in crime.

The married couple was dragged out by them, tossed in a nearby valley while it was still nighttime. Everyone began to gather their belongings to backtrack the way we came as soon as it was daylight. Then they would leave the eastern district.

When we were cleaning up, I suddenly discovered something terrifying. There was a family photo in the owners’ bedroom, with four people: they had two children, not just one. The other boy was older, and there was still half-eaten cold medicine on the cabinet.

Liu Guo Dong and the others lost their minds, searching up and down the house non-stop. However, they did not find the other boy. I also wished for them to not find him.

I wished even harder for everything to not have happened in the first place.

After that, the sun rose. From beginning until end, we never found that boy. In the end, we descended from the mountain, and we sealed our lips from ever mentioning this matter. Like this, we each went back to our own homes, pretending nothing had ever occurred.

Lin Bo Yun later told me that those jewels had been real. The others each found ways to cash them in.

I had no interest in any of it.

I didn’t dare to spend this blood-stained money.

It was not long before I heard the news of Hu Xin Lei’s death in the mountains. At the time, I selfishly thought: Maybe she had wanted to go back and see if there was still anything valuable there? It was because of her greed that she had lost balance and fallen to her death.

After leaving school, I continued to hear things. Finally, I returned to eastern district in the end and I found that boy.

He had been taken in by a local organisation. Apparently, he had received a huge shock and had lost his memories completely. I did not have the guts to contemplate what exactly he did or did not remember, what he had or had not seen that day.

I only wanted to atone for my crime. I helped him with everything; I taught him for his studies.

I also knew that there would eventually come a day where I would discover that his memory loss was fake. If I just faced him for real, I would find the hatred in his eyes.

I am recording this because I hope that retribution will come. We should compensate for these things.

He asked to go back to his home to take a look. I agreed to that as well.

We are renting a place in the restaurant in front of the mountain entrance. I…will probably not be able to come back down the mountain. I still have not touched the money and jewels from that year. I buried these things under the large peach tree behind the hotel. If it’s necessary, the police can find it in no time.

I am guilty and deserve to be punished. I do not have the right to hate anyone else.

Before heading out, I told everything in this recording to Liu Guo Dong. I hope that they can also repent and pay the price for what they did. Heaven’s law will manifest. Regardless of how well they’re doing now, there will come a day when they will inevitably receive their retribution.

There is no doubt that we will descend to Hell together.

All of us.