The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

The next morning, they heard Ah Guan and the others awake before the sun was even up.

Ah Guan’s group had clearly played around until very late last night, as Yu Yin’s room was on the further side and they had still been able to hear the lively commotion at 1-2 AM. As a result, Yu Yin had assumed they would sleep in more. Yet it was not even seven when he heard people jumping around in the courtyard, disturbing people’s peace.

“So noisy!”

Li Lin Yue next door directly tossed a sneaker out the window at the people making noise outside. However, this large movement completely woke her up as well.

Yu Yin figured it was about time for him to wake up. He yawned and discovered that Yu was already sitting by the window looking at a tablet. On the other hand, Dong Feng was still asleep with zero traces of wanting to wake.

If Yu Yin’s memory was correct, the group had originally planned a trip to Taroko Park and had booked a minibus. It was no wonder there were people frolicking around so early. He had booked two spots for himself and Yu as well; Dong Feng had unsurprisingly rejected running around with the group. Even when he had arrived yesterday in time for the last-minute chance to sign up, he had not done so. It looked like he wanted to stay behind and continue sleeping.

Yu Yin could still remember what had happened in the middle of the night last night. He once again scanned the room, but did not detect any abnormality. I guess nothing else happened afterwards…If we go out, it shouldn’t disturb Dong Feng. This thought made him feel more at ease about leaving Dong Feng behind alone. Ah Guan and Li Lin Yue each had a few friends not participating, so he could just request for them to help keep an eye on Dong Feng.

Speaking of which, this room is weird too; it obviously doesn’t give off any negative feeling, and everything was normal when we came in. It might really have come from outside…it won’t stay here for long, will it?! I’ll have to ask Fang Yi Xun and Teng Qi later. If it really does stay here forever, I’d have to commit seppuku as an apology!

Yu Yin uneasily thought this while he washed up and got ready. When he exited the bathroom, he just happened to see Yu walk in from outside with breakfast. The food had been delivered to everyone by the guesthouse owner, and the bags had the logo of a nearby breakfast shop printed on them. While it could not be called extremely fine cuisine, it was very tasty.

Before heading out, Yu Yin made sure to shake Dong Feng awake from where he lay under the blankets just to ask if he wanted to join. In the end, Yu Yin had been furiously lashed out at, so he could only tell Dong Feng to be careful alone. Then Yu Yin gave the phone numbers of the others staying behind and left the room with Yu.

“…”

When Dong Feng heard the crowd’s clamour gradually fade into the distance, he slowly opened his eyes.

He pulled off the warm comforter, the low temperature causing his body to reflexively shiver as he pulled on the jacket from the bedside wardrobe. Then he got off the bed and coldly peered at the larger bed next to him.

Early in the morning before Yu Yin had woken and before those dimwitted university students had started screaming, Yu had gotten up. He had searched the room and discovered some places that were different from last night, then had quietly woken Dong Feng up to conceal the changes.

When Yu Yin had gotten out of bed, he had not noticed that the rug had been moved.

Dong Feng pulled the soft rug aside, revealing the shocking sight of multiple loose strands of long, thin hair underneath. It was not that large of an amount, but enough to draw attention. Yu had found them on the rug early in the morning, so the two had hurriedly hidden the hair under the rug before the sun had risen so that no one would know.

Dong Feng carefully inspected the hair and noticed that the length and hair colour of the strands were similar. It seemed that all of it belonged to a single person. A few were even stuck to a small, black unidentifiable object.

He flipped through their luggage and eventually found a ziploc bag in Yu’s backpack, likely planned to store some kind of food. Without holding back, he took it out and stored the hair inside.

Once Dong Feng finished his work, he opened the window and spotted a few youths sitting outside eating snacks while chatting and playing on their phones. One of them was called Xiang Zhen Rong, a good friend of Ah Guan’s from outside school that was slightly older than them. Apparently, they had gotten acquainted through the bike group from before. The guy was quite straightforward and magnanimous, often buying some things to treat everyone during night trips. He also took care of the younger children. He and Ah Guan had gotten along with each other after several night trips. As he had expressed quite a bit of interest, Ah Guan had directly invited him [to the vacation].

“Zhen Rong-gē, could you please do me a favour?”

***

“Classmate Yu, could you please do me a favour?”

As Yu Yin was taking photos of the scenic mountain view on the path, he turned his head to see Meng Pin Si leaving the crowd of girls and walking towards him. She smiled and said, “I’m very sorry, this kind of matter is honestly a bit embarrassing to say…”

Yu Yin put his camera away. After some thought, he figured it was likely regarding her younger brother. “It’s fine, go ahead and speak. If I can help, we can work together.”

“It’s like this…”

Right as Meng Pin Si was about to explain the matter, a sudden burst of verbal abuse exploded from the originally peaceful and quiet mountain scenery. It wasn’t from their side, but from another group of tourists.

When Yu Yin followed his classmates’ gazes, he felt as though he was running into an inevitable clash with an enemy—While he frequently had such experiences, every encounter still felt like a miracle of fate.

The one screaming on the other side of the path was precisely the woman they had seen on the train yesterday. She had for some reason raised another dispute and was currently yelling about complaining to the representative company and reporting them or something…The other tourists in her group wore awkward expressions, and several tried to smooth things over to no avail.

“Seems like she wanted the company to circle around and visit a few scenic spots, but the tour guide firmly rejected. So now they’re kicking up a huge fuss.” Li Lin Yue appeared out of nowhere and clicked her tongue as she watched the group’s commotion steadily rising. She began to consider if she wanted to film a third episode or not.

Yu, who had originally been appreciating the view from further away, hurriedly ran over with slight apprehension.

“Don’t mind her, that kind of person…” He was going to say that someone else would stop it before changing the topic. However, in that moment, Yu Yin suddenly spotted a faint shadow materialise behind the woman. It was basically a human silhouette, but it had no physical features and was an indistinct, dim black, like fog. Then, a pale hand reached out from within—

“Watch out! Get away, quick!”

When Yu Yin shouted this, the closest people from Ah Guan’s group automatically yanked those tourists aside. Amidst the chaos, the woman was pushed away too, evading that white palm.

The next instant, a sound rang out from above the crowd. A few seconds later, a falling boulder the size of a baseball directly smashed down, crashing exactly where the woman had just been standing.

The woman’s complexion was deathly white as she stared in shock at the boulder. There was no knowing how she would have looked had she not moved away and been struck on the head. Immediately, her previous rage was gone.

Yu Yin heaved a sigh of relief from the opposite side, then frowned. That palm and the shadow had vanished entirely in the blink of an eye. However, the malice had been excessively clear; it had obviously been directed at that person.

The woman returned to her senses, her eyes meeting those of Yu Yin, who had voiced the warning. She inhaled, then let out a dull snort. Without saying anything, she continued lashing out about how dangerous this place was as she spun around to search for the little boy traveling with her.

Yu Yin shrugged. He had gotten the feeling that she would not thank him or anything. Right as he was about to turn his head, he sensed someone shooting a malicious glare in his direction. When he whipped around, he only saw a majestic view and nothing else.

“…”

Sometimes, it’s really not because I want to meddle.

Yu Yin silently sighed to himself. Ignoring the disturbed tourist group that was frightened by the falling boulder, he turned to glance towards the slightly dumbstruck Meng Pin Si. “Don’t pay her any mind. What did you need help with?”

“I j-just…I don’t know how to explain in detail either.” Meng Pin Si stammered a bit from the abrupt question. She paused for a few seconds to calm herself before saying, “Lin Yue told you about my little brother, right…?”

“Oh, if it’s that, I can ask my dad and a few friends. They should be able to help…”

“N-no, we should be able to handle that ourselves. It’s like this: my brother actually has the habit of frequently chatting online and playing computer games. After that incident, he seemed to have complained multiple times to many of his internet friends. But recently, one of the internet friends asked him, ‘Do you want to get rid of that person?’…My little brother originally thought the person was joking. But then they stated it could be done without dirtying my brother’s hands, that it was an easy thing to do in passing. As long as my brother agreed, they would help. That’s when my brother felt there was something wrong.” Meng Pin Si had been very concerned about this, which is why she wanted to ask how to deal with it. “Lin Yue said your family is part of the police, so I wanted to try asking you…”

“…Do you know what name this internet friend uses?” Why do I feel like I’ve heard this type of thing before?

“BBQ. I’m pretty sure that’s right, since it’s easy to remember…What’s the matter?” Meng Pin Si noticed Yu Yin’s expression shift slightly upon hearing the name. She was somewhat lost, not knowing if she had said something wrong.

“It’s nothing. Xiao Yu,” Yu Yin glanced at Yu. The latter nodded and took out his cellphone before walking away alone to send a text. Yu Yin then continued to ask, “Do you know where they chat?”

“Huh? I’m not sure…let me ask my brother.” Meng Pin Si did not know what the problem was, but she hurriedly messaged her little brother.

He quickly sent a reply and supplied a chatroom website.

After having Yu send out the website, Yu Yin thought to himself before telling the somewhat uneasy Meng Pin Si, “Don’t worry. I heard my dad and the others mention that there were some internet scammers recently, with one of them having a similar name to the one your brother encountered, so I figured it would be best to notify them first. It’s possible they’re not the sameperson too. In any case, just tell your brother to be careful and don’t recklessly agree to anything they say.”

“Alright, thank you.”

Li Lin Yue, who had remained silent from beginning to end, made sure Meng Pin Si had closed her cellphone and left far enough before jabbing her friend with her elbow. “Tell me honestly, is it a criminal case?” She was well-versed in the implication behind Yu Yin’s change in expression and the immediate notification to his family.

“I’m not sure, but it’s best to be cautious.” The name BBQ had not been publicised in the previous case. Yu Xia’s senior officer had provided a different username to the media so as not to inadvertently alert the enemy. It was just that Yu Yin hadn’t imagined that guy to actually continue appearing with the same name while being pursued by the police.

While it was repulsive, it was not unexpected either.

After a while, Yu finished contacting the people in the central district and walked back to pass his cellphone to Yu Yin.

The message had a furious image, as well as the words: “Don’t act rashly, we will handle it”.

Who’s acting rashly… Yu Yin personally had zero desire to go up against someone like Su Zhang. Since Yu Yin was now outside to have fun, he naturally could not care about anything happening so far away.

“That’s it for now, I guess.”

***

By the time their group returned to the guesthouse, it was close to evening.

The moment Yu Yin stepped into the courtyard, he spotted the unsociable Dong Feng actually chatting with Xiang Zhen Rong in the courtyard, and they had evidently been chatting for a while. At first, Yu Yin thought he was mistaking someone else for Dong Feng…That must actually just be a student that looks really similar to Dong Feng!

“What are you guys doing? How did you suddenly get so friendly?”

Ah Guan did not think so much. He directly waved the hand holding oyster omelette and scallion pancakes and plopped down next to them. Then he rudely pushed aside the memento foods that their friends had brought back.

Xiang Zhen Rong smiled. “Not really, we’re just casually chatting. I didn’t think Ah Yin’s friend would be so knowledgeable; we were just talking about car modifications and matching parts.”

Yu Yin cast a suspicious look at Dong Feng, who was said to pay no attention to anything aside from carving. He was starting to suspect if this kid was actually the super adaptable type!

Dong Feng snorted and stood to swagger back to the room.

Yu quickly ran after him with all their purchased snacks in his arms.

“Did he give you guys any trouble today?” Yu Yin randomly asked, still worried about what had happened in the morning.

“It was fine. Originally, I was planning to try angling at the ocean, but I just changed to bringing him downtown.” Xiang Zhen Rong smiled candidly. “Dong Feng asked if I could bring him to send a package and buy things at the bookstore. Then we ended up strolling through the old streets and I brought him to eat as well. Don’t worry, I didn’t abuse him…aside from the lemon juice.”

Send a package? Lemon juice?

Yu Yin felt his questions just increase more and more. Then he felt a bit wronged—Xiang Zhen Rong actually brought him to eat?!

When we tried to make him eat something in the past, it felt like we’d die; plus we had to use all kinds of cheats to get him to eat two bites. Now he’ll eat even when others bring him out to eat? What kind of unfair treatment is that!

“Lemon juice means…?”

“Oh, we bought it on the street. There was a pretty famous iced fruit drink place there. But to my surprise, when he drank one sip in the car, he suddenly started puking violently. After that, he rested for a long while. He should be fine, right?” At the time, Xiang Zhen Rong had really been a bit dumbstruck. “I thought it was pretty tasty, but in the end, it became me finishing two cups.”

“He’s like that sometimes.” Although Dong Feng was willing to eat, Yu Yin had similarly witnessed the other person’s state of extreme vomiting before. Dong Feng had once thrown up a dessert that Yu had spent an entire day making. At the time, Yu’s expression had been dark with gloom; fortunately, he hadn’t said anything.

Yu Yin remembered that Li Zi Hong and the others had once mentioned that the largest issue was still Dong Feng’s psychological state. It had no relation to whether the food was good or bad. He could eat one dish fine today, and then be unable to eat the same dish the next day. Now, the dutiful Yang De Cheng was working hard because of this condition and continued to persist in his ceaseless experimentation.

“We took a bunch of photos while we were out; I’ll send them all to you later.” Xiang Zhen Rong clicked the files on his phone and turned to show the photos to Yu Yin. “The old streets are pretty nice. You guys should find a time to walk around there.”

The photo was of Dong Feng peering intently at the shop blending juice—Xiang Zhen Rong had likely taken it secretly. The person in the photo was missing his usual fierce air of refusing to be dragged a thousand miles away. His naturally delicate and pretty face felt a lot softer, which faintly amused Yu Yin. For some reason, he suddenly thought of the extreme difference between the appearance of a certain cat named Chicken Jerky when it was awake and asleep. “Please give them all to me, thanks.”

Xiang Zhen Rong flashed an “ok” sign and said that after they had eaten in the afternoon, they had returned to the guesthouse. At the time, the others staying behind in the guesthouse had run off to do their own activities. “We later chatted briefly with the guesthouse owner. Apparently, an accident just occurred by the sea at the beginning of this year—a single moment of carelessness really can kill you. Make sure to watch out when you play.” As he spoke, he gestured apologetically and went off to the side to answer his ringing phone.

Yu Yin fooled around with his friends for a while, then slinked back to the room during the spare time before dinner.

When he opened the door, he just happened to see Yu and Dong Feng using incomprehensible sign language again.

“Are you guys really that afraid of being eavesdropped on?!” You don’t need to use that level of preventive measures against me! It would be better if I could plaster myself against the door and listen to you guys secretly whispering!

“Do you think ghosts can understand sign language?”

Rather than responding to Yu Yin’s grievance, Dong Feng asked a completely different question back.

“…It couldn’t while alive, and I have no idea if it can while dead. It’s not like I’ve been a ghost before!” And I wouldn’t possibly know everything regarding ghosts, you know.

“Tch.” Dong Feng shot a look of disdain at the person claiming to have only seen half a life, then put an end to this discussion. “Just now, we were discussing what you guys encountered on the mountain today.”

On the way back, Yu Yin had told Dong Feng about the shadow’s appearance and the subsequent events per Yu’s request. As a result, he was not surprised that Dong Feng and Yu were bringing the topic up. “I think it’s weird too. I don’t know where that āyí is living, but although she’s rude, not reminding her to be careful seemed a bit…”

A loud bang interrupted Yu Yin’s words.

The room instantly went quiet. Both Yu Yin and the other two could easily tell that the sound had come from the bathroom. It was like someone was viciously slamming on the bathroom door, forcibly cutting off their discussion.

“I am now at least certain that if it could not understand while alive, it can’t understand after death either,” Dong Feng seriously stated, breaking the moment of eerie silence.

Then came the sound of rattling and things being smashed.

“Don’t go overboard!”

Yu Yin slammed open the wooden bathroom door and spotted the bathing stuff knocked all over the floor, along with the torn-down shower curtain. Fortunately, there were no other traces of damage. These things could just be picked up and placed back.

“Looks like it really dislikes that woman.” Judging by this response, Dong Feng thought he was pretty much on the dot.

“I think so too.” Yu Yin put the toothpaste back onto the shelf. He could very distinctly sense that malice…which meant he probably did really have to warn her. It would be too dangerous if something like today’s incident occurred again. A single wrong move would result in death. He had no idea how that woman had offended this thing; she actually seemed unlikely to have killed someone, though it was more than possible that she had incited resentment.

“Why don’t you continue wearing the amulet?” Dong Feng casually asked as he noticed the small item placed on the bedside drawer.

“I’ve been thinking that I can help when I’m in a good mental condition, and wear it when I want to rest. It should be fine that way.” It was just that he frequently forgot to put it on before sleeping; Yu Yin would easily forget these kinds of particular activities.

“Is it actually effective?” Since such matters surpassed Dong Feng’s scope of understanding, he was somewhat curious.

“…You actually have quite a desire for knowledge, don’t you.” Yu Yin chuckled. People that always wanted to give up on the world would not have much desire to learn, just like when the two of them had first met. However, Dong Feng now had an obvious interest towards ghost-related matters, which counted as good progress.

Dong Feng was speechless for half a second, then quickly understood the implication. He clicked his tongue and turned his head away.

“Isn’t being friends with us great?” Despite not knowing what exactly Dong Feng had experienced in the past, Yu Yin hoped there would come a day when the other would tell them as friends instead of him learning from the case files his Dad and Uncle had.

“It’s great.” Yu earnestly selected small cakes from the selection they had brought back as he said these two words without even raising his head.

“Isn’t it? Dong Feng should consider it too.” Yu Yin chuckled.

“Great, my ass. You guys are just…forget it.” Dong Feng cut off midway and stood. Then he picked up his jacket and backpack before stalking outside without a backwards glance. “Going to the ocean.”

“Be careful. I’ll come get you when it’s time to go out for dinner later.”

When the door was slammed shut, Yu Yin felt a bit amused. Dong Feng had practically bolted out just now. Yu Yin tidied up the things they had bought and discovered that Dong Feng had many small square-shaped plastic bags placed in his drawer. One of the bags even contained a few remaining pieces of paper.

“…Coloured paper?”

***

With the faint smoke that rose the moment the fire was extinguished, the moment the small grey boats struck the ocean spray, they were swallowed by the icy ocean waters and disappeared without a trace.

“If you keep touching water like that, you’ll catch a cold.”

Dong Feng turned his head from where he was squatting on the beach and unsurprisingly saw Xiang Zhen Rong walking towards him. It was evident that the latter had just finished talking on the phone, as he was putting away the phone while talking to Dong Feng. Because the crashing waves were so loud, Xiang Zhen Rong had to specially raise his voice too. “I didn’t know Ah Guan’s friends liked soaking in the water in this kind of weather…though it’s just your feet.”

“Ah Guan isn’t my friend.” They had only met a few times through Yu Yin. Dong Feng pulled out another small boat from his backpack. Once he opened it, he flipped it over and placed the match inside the boat along with the little item he had bought during the afternoon.

Xiang Zhen Rong stood behind to watch the little boat set sail in the sea before suddenly bursting into flame from the inside. However, it was quickly put out by the water and wind covering it, and eventually sank into the waters. “How do you light the fire?” Since he thought it was interesting, he simply rolled his pants up and waded into the water while shivering.

“Use your brain to think about it yourself.” It was merely a little trick. Dong Feng had no idea if this was any better, but he had nothing to do anyways. Thus, he continued pulling out little boats from his backpack.

“I have to admit that I don’t have a good brain.” Xiang Zhen Rong grinned brightly, not at all mad. He watched Dong Feng continue letting the boats go. “Why are you putting out so many? You folded them for the entire afternoon, so there are quite a lot.” After returning, he had dragged Dong Feng outside to chat. While talking, the latter had been folding paper boats. Due to the other’s request, he had not told Yu Yin about this matter, despite finding it a bit strange.

“…”

“Is there someone you want to return?”

“If someone wants to return, they can come back themselves.” Actually, he did not know the purpose of doing this either. However, he figured it might actually have some usefulness, or else Yu Yin would not have looked so serious back then. Dong Feng watched the boat sink once more before standing up and stretching his slightly sore body. “I’m going back.”

“Huh, don’t you still have more?” He eyed the bag which seemed to have some colours inside.

“If I continue tossing them, someone might come and yell at me to pick up all the trash.” The anglers cleaning up nearby had already glanced in his direction numerous times. Dong Feng decided to leave before he was scolded.

Xiang Zhen Rong scratched his head as he noticed the nearby gazes as well. “That’s true too. Oh right, you should wear a thicker coat. Aren’t you cold like that? It’s still early in the year; if you don’t watch out, you might really get sick.”

“Mind your own business.” Dong Feng had originally wanted to convince himself that it would be fine once he got used to it, but having it pointed out instantly made him feel cold again. He even sneezed, and he could only hug his jacket more tightly to him as he quickly strode towards the guesthouse.

“Why are you so unreasonable? If you’re cold, others can lend you a jacket. We all brought thicker coats. You have to wear more and eat more, or else you’ll starve to death sooner or later.” After witnessing the other person’s way of eating and the lemon juice incident while out today, Xiang Zhen Rong now felt that Ah Guan’s seemingly nonsensical exaggerations were actually true. It was no wonder the child looked so skinny—it was honestly beyond frightening.

“Starving to death is fine too. It doesn’t matter what happens.” Dong Feng stopped in his tracks to gaze at the gradually darkening sky.

“Although I don’t have the right to say this kind of thing…young people love talking about dying at the drop of a hat, thinking it seems very cool. In reality, it isn’t that simple at all.” Xiang Zhen Rong slowly passed Dong Feng and then turned around to flash a smile that did not reach his eyes. “A senior I knew had a good bro that was similarly very unafraid of death. In the end, he really did die in a disastrous and tragic manner. Although the corpse could no longer feel sadness, it left everything with the people still alive. Do you really think it doesn’t matter? In reality, it might not be that simple. Do you believe those ‘people’ needing those boats think it doesn’t matter?”

“None of that has anything to do with me.” He was not the type of person that needed those boats. He had not been such a person for a very long time.

“Despite saying that, you still folded so many.” Xiang Zhen Rong stared at the slowly blackening horizon and flatly said, “And I think that even if you believe it doesn’t matter or it’s unrelated to you, the people folding the boats and the people receiving the boats will undoubtedly cross paths as a result. You don’t know if it’s today or tomorrow, but there will eventually come a day when the two will be linked. So don’t convince yourself of being unfeeling towards the world; the world is not that terrible.”

Dong Feng snorted and brushed aside the hair covering his face because of the wild ocean winds. “You don’t need to give me guidance. You’re still too inexperienced.” He had no idea how many hundreds of times he had heard similar things from his meddlesome senior. He was starting to feel his ears rotting away.

Everyone understood in theory, everyone always spoke about it. However, when they actually encountered it, how many would truly follow these words?

He was not unfeeling towards the world.

He just wanted to be isolated from the world for eternity.

“Do you know Qixingtan Beach is also called Crescent Bay?”

Dong Feng turned his head to look at Xiang Zhen Rong standing in front of him, with the sky full of stars behind.

The other person was not angry. He merely wore a somewhat melancholic smile.

“Mn.”

“I think this name sounds quite nice. While alive, I want to know about places as nice-sounding and beautiful as this. So I want to live just a bit longer. I hope that one day, you can be like that too.”

Xiang Zhen Rong did not say anything else afterwards.

The two wordlessly walked back to the guesthouse side by side.

From the distance, they could see that there was something strange about the guesthouse courtyard. Most people were crowded around a single table. Yu Yin was standing further away, currently on the phone with a slightly anxious expression.

“What are you doing?” Xiang Zhen Rong reached out to pull Ah Guan out and worm himself in to watch the commotion.

“The news flash just said there was an exchange of gunfire in the central district. Apparently, a citizen reported screams and fighting from a nearby residence. Then when the elder and police knocked on the door, the person inside suddenly fired a gun at them. They sent an emergency notification to dispatch people, and it seemed like people were shot dead…That’s all the news flash reported.” Ah Guan briefly explained that they had originally been about to head out for dinner as a group, but someone playing games in the courtyard had suddenly shouted and said that the location of the gunfire was in the area they usually hung out in. Then most of them had circled around to watch the video.

There wasn’t much information; they had to wait for the internet for updates.

“It should be fine.” After listening to the tirade on the phone, he walked back with a bitter smile and said, “It wasn’t my dad or uncle in charge. The officers at the scene seem to only have minor injuries.” He had just worriedly called Jiu Shen to ask about the situation, but it had unexpectedly turned out that his uncle had just happened to be right next to Jiu Shen. He had immediately been caught red-handed, and had suffered an angry rant about how he was meddling too much before finally telling him that it was nothing major…so eighty percent of that call had been listening to a scolding he could not hang up on..

“It’s good if things are fine.” Upon hearing him say this, the group of friends that Li Lin Yue led seemed relieved. While the majority of the people were just those that attended hangouts, there were a few people acquainted with Yu YIn’s family. Of course, there was their graduation exhibit team as well, who were naturally worried.

After waiting a bit for the news to update, they confirmed that there really were not any particularly severe casualties. The report indicated that there were only light injuries suffered and things had peacefully wound down after the suspects had been apprehended.

Since they were students after all, everyone’s playful moods were revived upon knowing that things were fine, and they began discussing how to eat good food per their original plans.

Yu Yin had originally wanted to drag Dong Feng out to eat as well, but he turned his head to see the door of his room slamming shut. The other would likely not come out no matter what, so he merely shrugged at Yu next to him and decided he could bring food back. As he threw his arm around Yu’s shoulder and was about to lead them over for the headcount, his cellphone got a text alert. When he opened it, he saw that Dong Feng had sent some texts, mainly telling him to keep an eye out on local product shops or famous stores.

“Why?” Yu Yin shot a puzzled look at Yu in request for an explanation.

“That āyí…” Yu used a very low voice to quietly say, “Luggage, about three days.”

Had she been carrying about three days’ worth of luggage on the train?

Yu Yin had not particularly paid any mind to the size of her luggage at the time. However, now that Yu said it, he could vaguely recall that it did not seem to be much. In addition to the child’s, it probably was enough for three days and two nights. If they had already been visiting the scenery today, then based on that person’s character, she would indeed possibly buy some local products at night or before boarding the train. Or if she had spare time, she would go find some famous restaurant recommended for tourists to eat at.

Everyone finalised their decision and began to grab their wallets and coats. The somewhat immoral people ran out to grab the best car seats while everyone was retrieving their things. To their resentment, a certain very immoral guy abandoned his friends and laid down to occupy three spots by himself, vainly waiting to offer the seats of honour to some beauties.

Then, Ah Guan and the others had carried out this immoral, hiberdating guy out to toss him into the bottom of the sea. Like a line of ants carrying a cookie, they charged out to the ocean in a grandiose fashion.

Yu Yin came out with his jacket just in time to see his companion’s tragic scene. The cookie being carried was even dramatically shouting, “You’re hindering me from dating! I will come back from the depths of the sea to curse you all so that you never get any chicks!”

“Oi, do you all just have nothing to do?!” Seeing a bunch of flashlight beams waving around not too far away, it seemed that basically everyone had run off. Yu Yin could only drag Yu over to watch the commotion.

Playing around was ultimately just playing around. Under Ah Guan’s lead, the gang of rogues still held a slight conscience, and only tossed him onto the beach instead of actually throwing him into the deathly freezing sea. The unlucky person that was thrown jumped up to chase and beat the others, directly breaking out into a wrestle in the darkness.

However, perhaps because there were too many people or because they were too noisy, Yu Yin did not see anything in the ocean this time. It was as tranquil as how an ordinary person would see it. The hypnotising sound of waves continued to rush forth periodically.

Right as everyone was over their heads in excitement, a powerful pale light suddenly landed on Yu Yin, causing Yu to immediately lift a hand to cover his eyes. Then, a male voice they had never heard before shouted, “What are you guys doing? Don’t play by the ocean so late at night! If you’re not careful, you’ll suffer an accident!”

They instantly calmed down. When they shifted their flashlights over, they saw a middle-aged stranger in his fifties. He wore a thick winter jacket, gloves, and a facial mask. There were also angling tools next to him, so he was likely an angler on his way back or a night angler.

After being interrupted, the group were no longer in the mood to fool around. They stammered something and then circled around the angler while tightly hugging their jackets. Then they got in the cars to head out.

Once they had squeezed into the cars, it was significantly warmer. The happy moods led a few people to chat again.

“Let’s buy some drinks on our way back later. We can go stargazing by the sea.”

“That green island looks like a boat~”

“That isn’t Green Island. You might as well go to Taitung, it’s closer.”

“Let’s buy fishing nets. We can toss Wei Jun down and then fish him back up.”

Wei Jun was the immoral person that everyone had wanted to throw into the ocean earlier.

“Hualien taro, Hualien taro¹~”

“Mickey Mouse! Mickey Mouse!²”

“Oh, shut the hell up!”

^{1. Hualien taro is a famous local snack. ↑}

^{2. Hualien has a famous icon that resembles “Mickey Mouse”. ↑}