The Yu Brother’s Case Book - S2: Book 5: Chapter 4

When Yu Xia stepped out of the elevator, he heard a small commotion off in the distance.

“What’s wrong with Jiu Shen?”

When he passed through the several resting people in the break room, he spotted Jiu Shen squatting on the ground, clutching his bandaged head. Next to him, Ah Liu was currently pushing the first-aid kit back into the cabinet.

“Broke the glass in the lab.” Ah Liu shot his friend an exasperated look. He had no idea what had happened either. In brief, upon returning with dinner, Ah Liu had come back to face a shocking scene. Before he could prevent it, he had seen the person inside crash headlong into the door, managing to actually split a huge crack in the reinforced glass. Then the blood had spurted out everywhere. “I don’t know why he suddenly screamed and charged outside, but he collided straight into the glass door. Luckily, it’s just a minor wound that doesn’t need stitches. I was just about to tell him to get it checked at the hospital and see if he needs to get a tetanus shot.”

“…” Yu Xia studied Jiu Shen, who was wearing a terrified expression, and subsequently decided not to give him the case that had just been transferred over. “If you’re fine, then scram back home!”

“I-I-I…” Jiu Shen trembled while pressing down on his injury, his vision still a bit blurry. “I live alone….”

“What?” Yu Xia furrowed his brows, not understanding what Jiu Shen was talking about.

“Ah, no…I-I’ll just go to the hospital first…Ah Liu, I’ll leave everything else up to you…” At least there were quite a few people at the hospital. I might as well just go stay tonight at an internet café that’s bustling with people. As Jiu Shen thought this to himself, he dragged his feet dejectedly to tidy up his things and leave under Yu Xia’s fierce glare.

What in the world is wrong with my life?!

When he stepped outside the station, it was already dark outside. He eyed the time; it was a bit past seven.

Great, there should still be plenty of people on the streets.

Jiu Shen clutched his backpack and took a deep breath as he began to walk towards the parking lot. In any case, nothing strange had happened after running into the glass earlier. In other words, it might have really just been his hallucination; just like Ah Liu had said, perhaps he had imagined it because of the recent stress and all-nighters. That was probably it.

Yeah, that should be it!

The fingertips or whatever were definitely my imagination! There was no one else with me at all! It definitely couldn’t have been something unscientific!

They had received multiple cases with similar incidents before, where people would prattle on about seeing hallucinations and stuff, which was never a major issue. They would always be fine after more rest or seeking professional help.

As Jiu Shen was mentally adjusting himself, he suddenly froze in his tracks when he noticed that his surroundings had at some point gone completely dark. It was not at all like how he remembered the way to the parking lot being.

“Huh…huh?” Although he had been distracted by his thoughts, he shouldn’t have gone the wrong way. The path that he took every day should have been possible to subconsciously walk down even if his mind was blank!

He suspiciously glanced around and discovered that he really had seemed to have walked the wrong direction; he had ended up in the alley next door. It was likely because the streetlamps were broken today. He sighed in relief; after all, he wasn’t afraid of the dark, but rather something else.

But why had he unconsciously walked into the alley? It was just a short distance, [but] walking here typically required some time still…

Faint footsteps came from behind him.

Jiu Shen jumped, then froze in his tracks. The noise also vanished, but he could sense a gaze fixed straight onto him without even turning his head around…Not againnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!

As if noting that he had sensed it, the halted noise rang once again, and the gaze gradually approached closer.

Jiu Shen instantly felt his entire mind go blank. All he wanted to do was run for his life towards somewhere with light. However, he could not control his legs that felt like they had turned into lead, and was completely unable to move. He could only stand in place like a prey wanting for the predator to arrive.

He felt someone breathe chilly air onto him from behind, causing his entire body to go numb. That “person” had only breathed out, without breathing in. The quiet noise continued to pass by his ears.

“No-no matter what-what kind of unscientific ghost you are…I-I can’t see…please don’t come find me…I-I-I-I-I-I-can’t do anything…if you want to find someone, choose a person that can help…ah, no, you can’t go looking for Ah Yin….” He tried his best to frantically recite in his mind the few words he could barely remember of the Great Compassion Mantra, the Heart Sutra, the Ascension Sutra, and more as he said in a trembling voice, “Re-re-re-remember to find a prof-professional…not an amateur…” Ah Yin is overwhelmed enough these days. Please don’t go looking for him and let him get some proper rest…

A light chuckle rang out from behind.

Then Jiu Shen immediately realised that he could move again. He reflectively dashed for his life towards the alley exit, paying no attention to whatever was going on behind him. Naturally, he didn’t pay attention to whatever was going on in front of him too.

So when Jiu Shen reached the exit, he did not look around him at all. He only heard the screeching of brakes coming close to him. Then he was pushed over by the impact.

Fortunately, the other person had braked very quickly, so Jiu Shen had only fallen down.

The first thought that came to his mind was wondering why he was always being nearly run over by motorcycles recently. The number was nearly enough for him and the motorcyclists to play a round of mahjong together.

“Oi, oi, are you alright?!” The motorcyclist that had clearly taken a great shock immediately parked their bike and raced forwards, anxiously crouching down to inspect him. “Holy shit, Dàgē, you’re bleeding. Let me bring you to the hospital!”

Jiu Shen touched his head and discovered that the gauze and clear bandage on his head were now gone. He had probably torn open the wound and caused it to bleed again. “It’s fine, this isn’t from the collision.” He let the other person pull him up, and then patted the dust off his pants. Upon closer look, he saw that the motorcyclist seemed to be a university student, dressed somewhat similarly to how Yu Yin usually was, with a head of brown hair. There was panic all over the boy’s face, likely believing to be responsible for the accident…But, for some reason, Jiu Shen felt as though he had seen this person before. Perhaps it was his imagination, but this person looked strangely familiar. “I hit it earlier, it has nothing to do with you.”

“Ah, it does seem like it.” The university student scratched his face and heaved a sigh of relief after carefully confirming the wound. Then he hurriedly pulled out a tissue to press it down on the other’s head and help stop the bleeding a bit. “Scared me to death. But you should still get it bandaged, Dàgē. Do you want me to bring you to the hospital?”

“It’s fine, there’s no need.” Jiu Shen took over pressing down the tissue while turning around with lingering fear. There was nothing in the dark alley, though it still had that eerie atmosphere of being able to swallow anything outside it. However, now that he was already on the main street, he could relax a bit. If he was going to be eaten, at least there would be others getting eaten along with him and it wouldn’t be as lonely. “Ah, but could I ask you a question? Are there any lively internet cafés around here?”

“Lively internet cafés?” The university student was very confused.

“Just…somewhere with tons of people that’s pretty noisy. Better if you can stay overnight.” Jiu Shen had only stepped into internet cafés a few times in his life for the sake of collecting evidence, so he honestly had no idea where to find the lively internet cafés he was looking for. However, from what he could remember, there seemed to be a lot of 24-hour businesses now. He figured that the youngster would probably know, so it didn’t hurt to ask first.

“There are plenty nearby. The largest, liveliest, and best equipped one is the place you’ll see if you turn left two streets down. They have separate rooms on the second floor where you can sleep, so you can go rest there when you’re tired of playing.” The university student paused for a moment. “But someone just died there two weeks ago. Although no one has cared about it and continues playing their own games.”

“…Are there others?” Jiu Shen very much cared about this, instantly refusing to step into that shop. Though speaking of which, he really did recall having heard of an incident with someone around there dying suddenly while playing games recently.

“Yeah.” The university student surveyed the young man in front of him for a minute, then thoughtfully asked, “Dàgē, you don’t look like you’re going to play games. Could it be that you simply don’t want to go home?”

“You could say it that way.” Since he had missed his chance to ask Ah Liu, he could only solve the issue himself. However, he was super scared of bringing the unscientific thing back with him, or bumping into it again on his way. Encountering it alone was a terrifying matter; even now, he still couldn’t understand how Yu Yin had gotten used to it. Wouldn’t constantly seeing them cause nervous breakdowns?!

“In that case, do you want to come with us? It just so happens that my friend can’t come tonight, so I have an extra helmet.”

When Jiu Shen looked in the direction the university student was pointing at, he belatedly noticed that several motorcycles were starting to appear not too far away. The riders and the passengers had some age gaps; overall, there seemed to be anything from junior high to university students, and even some adults. A few of the motorcycles had been modified and emitted unique engine sounds, while others sounded imported. Then, some of the motorcycles began honking at them in urgency.

Right as Jiu Shen was about to tactfully decline, he suddenly heard laughter come from behind him.

“I’ll go!”

***

“Was that abortion case transferred over to us?”

As Ah Liu was tidying up the objects inside the lab, he kept looking at the glass [door] and shaking his head. He would have to write another report to request a replacement, and Jiu Shen would likely have to pay for it himself.

“Yeah, I checked the initial report and felt there was an issue. It was passed over right after I requested for it.” Yu Xia handed the data to Ah Liu and clicked his tongue. “I sent someone out. The relatives stated that the room was still preserved in its originate state; they didn’t even request for the yellow tape to be taken down. We can go over anytime. The relatives also want to know the reason for the victim’s death, so they said we could let them know of anything we needed.” Although this was a transferred case, the family members had been unexpectedly very cooperative. They had not shouted at them or anything and simply hoped to know the truth as soon as possible.

“Understood.”

“Also, the relatives confirmed that the girl had a romantic partner, a classmate. They were both outstanding students. During the incident, the boy was still at school. He was contacted, but the boy’s parents refuse to cooperate and won’t even talk over the phone. I’ll have to think of another approach for their end. After Jiu Shen returns, you guys go over and see if you can find any new discoveries.” Now that the case had been switched over, Yu Xia would be making some time to go visit the place himself tomorrow too. “What about the motorcycle?”

“Ahhh, I went to look into it right after you sent the information. I asked people at Lin Yu Ji’s part-time job to help confirm. The unlicensed vehicle found was undoubtedly his, but his coworkers said that his bike did have a license plate. After showing the photo, I tracked backwards and found out that the bike was registered under his mother’s name, and the engine serial number is a perfect match with the one I found. The marks on the body of the bike and its extent of wear-and-tear are identical too. That bike was used by Lin Yu Ji. The bloodstains are being analysed now.” Since there was a target to compare to, finding the match was quite a bit easier. Now he just needed to wait for the analytical results to completely verify that it was from the first crime scene.

But there was also something strange. Ah Liu had taken the opportunity to ask why the group that had first accepted it had transferred the case; it was clearly just as simple as checking a serial number. But the other party had said they were uncertain why, but every time they analysed it, they would either get no result, or an error would occur during the analysis. It was clearly such a simple task, yet it had ended up turning into something complicated. The analytical group had ended up becoming very busy afterwards and a junior sister had mentioned that Ah Liu’s group could probably take it. Thus, it had been transferred over.

Upon hearing this, Ah Liu decided not to tell this incident to the guy that had run into the glass earlier, or else the scene would occur a second time. Although Jiu Shen could not see things like Ah Yin could, it was true that the things around them were a bit strange recently. Even Ah Liu found it unusual. Ever since Su Zhang had appeared, various incidents had been thrown at them one after another. For some reason, Ah Liu had the vague sense that they were being affected by something they could not see.

“Mn…” Yu Xia was silent for half a beat as he mentally planned out his schedule for tomorrow. Then he nodded and said, “Thanks.”

“Hi~ It wasn’t my original intention to ask, but did someone die over here?”

The two were cut off from their thoughts as they raised their heads to spot Yan Si, who had appeared without them noticing. Yan Si clicked his tongue as he surveyed the crack on the door. “The bloodstains are inside. Did a homicidal maniac charge in and start massacring people?”

“Don’t ask,” Ah Liu huffed in reply.

“That just makes others want to ask more though. Oh well, lets talk about something a bit more serious first. Desserts have to be saved until the very end for people to keep their expectations up.” And it looked like the exciting “dessert” here had likely left already. After scanning the surroundings, Yan Si could roughly guess what had occurred, especially since this lab was used by a certain somebody. “I must say, the deceased you guys have this time is really not any less tragic than the last one.”

“How tragic?”

“He was kicked to death.” Yan Si pulled out the preliminary report and handed it over. “An excessive murder. So Boss, when you want to beat Xiao Wu, you should still hold back a bit. It would be a disaster if you ended up killing him one day.”

Yu Xia shot a frigid glare at the person he wanted to beat up more than Xiao Wu. Then he flipped through the report and discovered that because of the stomach that had been found, the results had been much easier to find.

“The serious damage to the stomach makes me think that you guys will end up finding organs that have basically turned into mud—if you can find them at all. This unlucky fellow was ruthlessly kicked multiple times. Basically, all his ribs were broken. I can even tell you which ones pierced his organs and the order in which it happened; you can just barely piece together a shoeprint on the stomach. It’ll be sent over here later. How exactly did this dried up guy piss off the perpetrator to have them kick him to death? This wasn’t premeditated murder, but a slip of control. Which also means that the perpetrator was beyond furious at the time.” Yan Si crossed his arms and paused for a moment. “It also means that the one with the knife was actually the accomplice. I’m afraid there were more than a few people that took part in the gang beating at the time. The marks on his body prove that there were at least five people present. We’re still analysing their individual traits based on which hand they used and their genders, physiques, etc…if my new helper can last without sleeping with his eyes open, I should be able to get the work done a bit sooner.”

“Another group?” Ah Liu, who had come closer to glance at the report, scratched his head. “That’s so weird…but them trying out the knife rather than covering things up might explain the stab wounds inflicted after death. It’s like there was some experimental intentions.” Moreover, they still did not know the reason why the corpse had appeared in such a strange manner. There was no explanation for the corpse’s ability to pass through the dirt and travel up to the roof of the temple. And the fact that it had just happened to crash down onto their colleague was really too much to be a coincidence.

“And this dried up guy had something stuck in his mouth. After being soaked in blood and corpse fluids for a long time, it’s pretty seriously coagulated together. I wish you guys good luck.” Yan Si took out the evidence and grinned as he tossed the problematic object at Ah Liu to receive. “Then can I go find Jiu Shen-xiǎodì to play?” This kind of situation is so amusing!

“No.” Yu Xia grabbed the collar of the forensic investigator about to run out. At the same time, he sent a message to remind someone currently on break to help restrain this troublemaker. “We’re busy enough already. Don’t make me lose more people.” At this rate, his investigator might actually jump out a window next time.

“Tch.” That’s such a pity.

Yu Xia scanned the report and returned the data to Yan Si. “That’s it for now. Once you two get far enough, hurry on home to rest. Ah Si, don’t abuse your helper and let him live. He can continue after resting. Otherwise, you’ll scare him away.”

“If he gets scared away, it just means he’s not suited for this job…Oh yeah, is the little girl you guys have going to come over to my side too?” Yan Si had received the related information. Before heading back, Yan Si figured he might as well ask, “I heard that she was already brought back home. Are her relatives alright with sending her back here?” Sometimes, re-requesting an examination would inflict second-degree harm on the family, so he had to confirm it first.

“It’s already been arranged. The relatives will come tomorrow morning to sign for consent.” Having received their approval, Yu Xia said, “Then I’ll be leaving that side to you. Just don’t say anything unnecessary to the family members.”

“Don’t worry, Dàgēge’s lips are tightly sealed when they need to be.”

“They’d better be.”

***

After leaving Ah Liu’s area, Yu Xia received a call from Xiao Wu stating that Lin Yu Ji’s parents would come identify the corpse.

After contemplation, he requested for the parents to stay as low-profile as possible and ask for cooperation by not publicising the deceased’s real identity yet. The perpetrator might surpass their expectations, either raising their guard or fleeing if things were exposed, which would make the investigation more challenging. In addition, he asked Xiao Wu to go check surveillance cameras and communication records. Although quite some time had passed, he hoped they could still find something.

Then he called the local elder’s son.

The information he had received was that the other party was a university student currently studying in the southern district, a child the same year as Lin Yu Ji. The person that spoke on the other end of the line had a voice that shared some resemblance to the elder.

Once Yu Xia expressed the reason for the call, the university student immediately shut off the excessively loud rock music in the background.

“You said that Yu Ji died?” The university student, who had called himself Song Ou, asked in extreme shock, “Where? Why? What did the others say?”

“Others? We just found Lin Yu Ji’s body. Could you please describe his circumstances?” Judging by the other party’s string of questions, Yu Xia was certain that he had a degree of familiarity with the deceased, possibly even on deeper terms than the elder had known.

“The bike gang that Yu Ji was in charge of. When I was in Taichung, I would often follow them too…It’s not a racing gang or anything, we just wander around to admire the nightscapes and grab some food and drinks. Sometimes we’ll even have mixers with girls. It’s safer to have more companions too.” After pausing in silence for a few seconds, Song Ou asked, “Did my dad tell you about Yu Ji’s family situation?”

“More or less.”

“Then you know that his little brother drowned, right? That incident completely destroyed his family. Since he was a kid, he’s just had to watch his parents lose themselves in despair, hearing them cry and drink all day and all night. Even when he got first place, he wouldn’t receive any praise. Instead, his mom would definitely cry, while his dad would just stand in the kitchen, blaming himself for not saving the younger one back then that would’ve definitely earned a top ranking at school too…After that, he stopped going to school.

“Sometimes, Lin Yu Ji would ask why it wasn’t him that had died. He thought that his entire family was in too much pain like this. Every time his parents cried, he would dream of the day that his little brother drowned next to him. He always told his parents that he would make them happier, promising that things would definitely get better. But they never properly listened to his words.” Song Ou let out a miserable chuckle. “When we graduated from junior high, Yu Ji brought over a whole crate of beer to my place and he told me all of this after getting drunk. My dad even gave me a beating when he came back the next day and found out that we had been drinking.

“These past few years that he’s been leading the bike gang; he’s practically accepted it as his home, and takes care of the people that go often like his family. So don’t underestimate his younger age; he’s much more mature than most of the people in the gang.”

“…Understood.” Yu Xia could basically surmise what kind of person the deceased was. It was just like the previous lottery ticket case. Whenever these types of people died, it was practically never for their own sakes.

For Cheng Yong Hao, it had been for his family. What was the reason for Lin Yu Ji’s [death]?

“Oh yeah, don’t think anything badly of his parents. Yu Ji always said not to blame them. He kept saying that he’d find a solution one day for his parents to smile again, to stop crying…That fool promised such a thing, yet couldn’t carry it out in the end. The day I kick the bucket, I’m definitely going to slap him in heaven.”

Yu Xia asked some more questions, but Song Ou remained tight-lipped about the biker gang, unwilling to tell Yu Xia about its internal operations or important members, likely concerned about it being searched. He just repeated that he wasn’t too sure about the current circumstances. Since Yu Xia could not force anything out and he did not want the other to raise their guard or refuse to cooperate, he just left it at that.

After hanging up the call, Yu Xia decided to head over to his brother’s group to grab some of the information on the racing gang from last time. Just then, he spotted Yu appear at the end of the hallway with a large backpack.

Yu Xia suddenly remembered that Yu Tong had mentioned having Yu bring over clean clothes, so he quickly rushed over.

Once the two went into Yu Xia’s office, Yu opened the backpack.

“Clothes.” Yu pulled out the bag with clothes on the very top, then continued taking things out one by one. He removed the insulated pot on the third layer, as well as a thermos for soup. “Food, must eat.”

Though his voice was very quiet, Yu Xia definitely heard it. “You came by yourself?”

Yu nodded and held up a public transportation pass.

“Where’s Ah Yin?” Shouldn’t this sort of thing usually be done by Ah Yin? Why did he let the younger one run around outside alone? Yu Xia furrowed his brows.

“School, graduation exhibition.” Yu Yin had called earlier to apologise, saying that the manufacturer had arranged to deliver goods in the afternoon. But due to specific circumstances, the arrival had been delayed to past eight. As a result, their entire group was stuck there waiting. Since Yu Tong had already finishing cooking the food, Yu had rushed over while it was still warm so that there wouldn’t be a long wait.

Yu Xia opened the insulated pot and found that there was a huge glossy piece of stir-fried pork on top, likely from a mountain boar that Jiu Shen’s mother had sent them. That idiot had gone back too early; otherwise, Yu Xia would just tell him to eat it himself.

“I’ll eat later.”

Right as he was about to close the lid, Yu suddenly stopped Yu Xia’s action. Then he pulled out the notebook he always carried with him and flipped to a specific page. When he turned it around, Yu Xia saw familiar handwriting on there that directly stated: “Don’t eat later. Eat immediately once Xiao Yu arrives. I asked Xiao Yu to supervise you. Once you’re done eating, Xiao Yu will bring the containers back.”

“…” Yu Xia seriously wondered if his brother was actually watching in the background. After a peek backwards, he could only sit down and start eating dinner.

Yu sat across him and pulled out another insulated bag. This one had a huge bowl of handmade pudding.

“Have Ah Yin’s emotions returned a bit more to normal these days?” Yu Xia casually asked this as he watched the other person start digging into pudding. He had been too busy recently, and it was a bit hard for him to have peace of mind without personally questioning Yu Yin.

Yu nodded. Then he cocked his head to the side and thought to himself for a moment before writing in the notebook, “He said he’s been reflecting on the issues with his mindset, and that he needs some time.”

“You’ll just have to keep a closer eye on him for a bit. Thanks for the hard work.” With his nephew like this, it felt like the entire world was worried. Yu Xia really wanted to string him up and give him a beating.

Yu shook his head, indicating that it was nothing difficult. There was a contemplative expression on his face.

“What’s wrong?” Yu Xia was puzzled when he saw that Yu seemed to want to say something, yet also was struggling to say it.

After a long while, Yu still shook his head.

Considering the situation, Yu Xia could only wait until the other person was ready to say it. He did not ask any further and continued eating his dinner while casually flipping through the data folder next to him. It was the investigation regarding the deceased from the abortion case; his colleagues had just sent it over. They had interrogated several students that were close to the victim, all of which had said they had not noticed any abnormalities with the deceased. They had only felt that she had recently gained a tiny bit of weight, which the girl had always asserted it being due to eating too many sweets.

The body had also been examined. The aborted foetus had already been four months old.

Compared to the other students, the boyfriend had been very low-key and taciturn. It was not clear if it was due to excessive shock or what, but he had only told the verifiers that he had not imagined things to turn out this way. However, the officer in charge at the time had noted that the boy had seemingly been hiding something. When they had later tried asking the boy’s parents, they had been forcefully rejected.

While it seemed like a very normal case on the surface, there were some unusual points hidden.

Those will just have to wait to get dealt with. The truth will always appear in the end.

***

“Xiao Yu.”

The instant Yu stepped out of the police station, he spotted a motorcycle brake right in front of him. “Sorry, sorry, you didn’t have to wait too long, did you?”

He shook his head in response to Yu Yin, who was frantically apologising with a bitter smile. Then he grabbed the passed over helmet.

“In the end, after the manufacturer arrived, they said that the carrier that should’ve delivered the goods had somehow fallen headlong into a gutter in the afternoon. Fortunately, there hadn’t been any water inside, and he was only lightly injured when he had been found. It’s good that it wasn’t anything major.” While waiting for the other person to get ready, Yu Yin chatted casually. “But the item’s quality is really beautiful. As expected of a place we specially looked for. I’ll bring it back some day for you to see too.”

Yu nodded and climbed onto the backseat.

Right as Yu Yin was about to head out, he suddenly sensed a gaze…as though someone was watching them.

There was something in the dark alley across the street.

But it did not show itself.

“Weird…” Passing by?

Thinking it was likely nothing in particular, Yu Yin shifted his eyes away. Then, while mentally unprepared, an ashen face abruptly materialised right in front of him, greatly shocking Yu Yin. However, before he could even react, that thing vanished without a trace.

Yu tugged at his clothes from behind, having similarly noticed something was wrong.

Yu Yin felt as though that face had looked a bit familiar. However, he could not recall where he had seen it before no matter how he thought about it. “Let’s just go home first.” Per the usual convention, if the dead with grievances were anxious to appeal for justice, they would voluntarily show themselves again.

Right as Yu Yin was about to turn around, several motorcycles whizzed past. Soon after, a familiar bike abruptly turned back.

“Holy crap, Ah Yin, didn’t you go straight home? Did you come looking for your dad?” Since they were friends, Ah Guan directly stopped next to the police station entrance without any worries. “Weren’t you repeatedly saying how would wanted to go home and sleep??”

“…The person that’s riding out to play right now has no right to talk about me. Who was the one that said he wanted to go back home in the afternoon to catch up on sleep?” Yu Yin coldly stared at the person that should’ve returned to make up sleep and was instead biking outside. He resolved to complain about it to their teammate Li Lin Yue tomorrow. Since this bastard had been constantly going on and on about trivial things today, Li Lin Yue had yelled back that she had also been forced to cancel multiple dates. She had then proceeded to declare that if one of them was going to die, they would all have to be buried together; if she couldn’t leave, then no one was allowed to leave.

“Cough…I’m going to go sleep after I relax a bit.” Ah Guan scratched his face and chuckled fakely as he asked, “Do you want to come? We’re heading to Wangaoliao today to appreciate the nightscape on the mountain.”

“Not today,” Yu Yin rejected. “I’m going back to sleep.”

Ah Guan glanced at the passenger glaring at him from Yu Yin’s backseat. “Got it. You never come out these days, so a few of the chicks have been asking. Once you have some more time, you should come and show your face a bit. We won’t ask you to help pool funds or anything.”

“Your words are even less trustworthy than a ghost’s. We can talk about it another time.” Yu Yin seriously believed that rather than believing Ah Guan’s statements, he might as well believe a ghost’s. “But you should be careful yourself.”

“Relax, my friend said this bike gang is super steady, though this is my first time going with them.” Ah Guan brought his head closer to his friend to say in a lowered voice, “By the way, that girl that Li Lin Yue introduced you to…”

“Didn’t contact her at all. We’re about to die just from working on the graduation exhibition right now.” Li Lin Yue had still insisted on egging him into inviting the girl out to tea, but Yu Yin had literally no time or mental capacity to think about such things.

“Why don’t we all go out to have fun over spring break? We don’t have many more chances to go on trips together with classmates like this, after all. What do you think?”

“We can talk about it then. Go on, have fun.” Yu Yin waved his hands, shooing the other person away.

“It’s a deal. You’d better not go back on your word when the time comes.”

“Who would make a deal with you?!”

Yu Yin shook his head in exasperation as he watched the motorcycle leave in the distance. He really had no idea what this rascal would do after graduating.

When he started the engine to head home, he caught another glimpse of something in that alley. It seemed to retreat slightly before disappearing again.

This world sometimes really makes no sense. The more he saw, the more aware of this he became.

There was always someone that could no longer return to their original place every time he turned around the corner.

Yu Yin sighed as he pressed down on the gas pedal to depart.