YBCB: V5C5

After it was pointed out to me how long the last chapter was, I’ve been paying a bit more attention on chapter length. Although this chapter is closer to the normal length, it’s still slightly longer than usual. I feel like maybe this volume is just on the longer side overall…?

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

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Chapter Five

Yu Yin had been feeling uneasy ever since that night.

Deep inside, he had a premonition that something would happen. Aside from the matter of the crying “girl”, there was also the fact that his eyelids had been constantly twitching the past few days for some reason.

“Student that was ganged up on, are your facial nerves damaged?” Yan Si walked over carrying two cups of cocoa. He turned his head towards Yu Yin to say, “Don’t tell me that aside from wanting to take a look at the body discovered yesterday, you also called me this early in the morning to have me help you check if your facial nerves have any issues?” Even when just passing a cup over the youth in front of him, he could not forget to tease Yu Yin.

Yu Yin, who was rubbing his eyes, immediately stopped to glare at the other person. He then accepted the steaming cocoa.

“There’s someone in the office right now, so it’s not a good time for you to go in. I brought out photos for you to look at instead,” Yan Si said as he raised up the data file he was holding.

It was ten in the morning. Yu Yin had come to pay a visit to the other’s workplace, and they were currently sitting in Yan Si’s office.

“Could you keep my visit quiet from Uncle?” Yu Yin pleaded with a careful smile as he took the data file. He was very afraid of getting hurt by his uncle again.

When Yu Xia was brought up, Yan Si nearly burst into laughter. However, he tried his utmost to control himself, nearly twisting his face in the process. “I will try my best. Anyways, why are you suddenly in such a good mood to run over and look at a corpse, student that was ganged up on? Was our future spirit master visited by another ghost in his dreams to avenge for an unjust death?”

“You little—”

Before Yu Yin even finished cursing out, he heard a very loud bang. The two of them simultaneously turned to see Jiu Shen take a step back from the opened door with a frightened expression. “If you guys are about to talk of a ghost story ‘actually being the case’, I’ll come back again later.”

Why, just why was he bumping into the completely paranormal-related Ah Yin in this kind of place? Why are the two of them talking about something supernatural?!

He decided to pretend as if he hadn’t heard anything. He would run two laps outside to calm his state of mind before coming back.

But Yan Si was faster. He grabbed onto Jiu Shen with an evil smile and closed the door. “I know your fears, but since ancient times, there have always been those that refuse to pass on for the sake of love and justice. It’s better to listen a bit than to not.”

“Please let me go back, I beg of you.” Jiu Shen began to struggle to free himself. Every time he heard Ah Yin talk about something unscientific, he would always try his best to think of ways to avoid the alleged origin of the “incidents”. But the more cases he listened to, the more he was convinced that he could not stay in Taichung for much longer.

Sometimes, it was better to stay oblivious to the cause of death than knowing the horrifying reality.

“This is related to the case with that female student.” When Yan Si stated this, the person he was holding onto stopped struggling, looking as stricken as if man and heaven were waging war against each other. Finally, he came to a conclusion with a resolved expression.

When Yu Yin saw Jiu Shen timidly stand himself upright in the corner of the room, he wasn’t sure if he should be laughing at him or pitying him.

Yu Yin flipped open the information folder that contained an initial examination report Yan Si had pulled an all-nighter last night to complete. There were also photos included. The instant Yu Yin saw the photos, he immediately understood everything.

“Simply put, that girl came looking for me.” Although Yu Yin had only caught a brief glimpse, there was no way he could mistake her appearance, including that long hair and the half-missing head. “It just happened during these past two days.”

“Based on the body’s condition, it was determined that she has been dead for approximately 72 hours or so. Her body was extremely dehydrated, and her stomach had practically no food inside. She also had multiple injuries…it is likely that she was held captive for a very long time, as well as torturously interrogated,” Yan Si simply informed with a shrug.

“Eh, her clothes also had some dog fur,” Jiu Shen added from where he stood in the corner.

Dog fur?

Yu Yin shut the information folder and sighed. “I saw her yesterday. She was definitely doing something that looked like she had been carrying a small animal. Also, I nearly got into a car crash in an alley near my school last night. Apparently, that car’s owner lives nearby, and is a pretty domineering guy without many morals. I’ll go and report him to Dad later. A neighbour also mentioned that a stray dog had given birth to puppies near the area a while ago, which that guy killed with an air gun.”

“Car…what did the car look like?” Jiu Shen automatically took out his notebook.

“It was white, although I didn’t pay attention to the model. I did take some photos though, which should include the tire marks. I’ll send them to your cellphone.” Yu Yin immediately did as he said and pulled out his own phone to transfer the photos.

A few seconds later, Jiu Shen took out his own phone, having received the message. “So dark.” There were several photos of the alley, but because it was evening, they were not very clear. The darkness made it difficult to see much. He would probably need to use a computer to adjust it.

“Aside from the little dog, did the girl say anything?”

“Nope, all she does is cry and cry some more every time. She doesn’t even speak.” If she could directly say who the perpetrator is, that would be much easier. Yu Yin sighed.

“So it’s a small dog…”

“Arghhhhh—”

Jiu Shen’s anguished wail interrupted their conversation. “Ah Yin! You tricked me!”

Having nearly smashed his own phone, he quickly stuffed it into Yan Si’s hands while trembling.

He wanted to get a new phone!

“What are you talking about?” Yan Si held the phone up and squinted at the screen. “There’s nothing, it’s just all black.” All it appeared to be was a dark alley.

“It’s there! You try transferring it onto a computer and adjusting the brightness!” Jiu Shen backed away while on the verge of leaving this unscientific place and unscientific cellphone.

“Adjust the brightness?” Yan Si doubtfully glanced at the person who had just suffered a blow, and connected the cellphone to his own computer. After loading the file, he used a simple software to open it and lightened it up under Jiu Shen’s guidance.

Yu Yin leaned over to take a look, as he also did not know what was in the photo.

As the photo was slowly brightened by the software, his eyes widened.

The indistinct figure of a girl appeared in the dark road. She was missing half her head and had partially vanished inside a wall. And that wall belonged to the home of that Zhang-Āyí that Yu Yin had visited.

In other words, that girl was still following him?

“Brother Jiu Shen, your eyes are pretty sharp to be able to see something in that dark of a photo.” Yan Si cheerfully looked at the completely terrified person and warmly invited, “Next time, I’ll take a few and bring them back for an analyst like you to inspect. I’ve never gotten this kind of paranormal photo before.”

“Over my dead body!” Jiu Shen emphasised his firm rejection and took another two steps back.

“You’ve never gotten one?” Yu Yin glanced at the person very shamelessly lying. “Then what was that photo you took last time of the young girl in the water tower?”

“A photo of a water leak,” the person confidently replied.

“…”

“Oh right, I just thought of something else. An incident apparently happened in your school’s area in the past, too.” As Yan Si studied the photo, he suddenly recalled some passing news that he had heard before despite not being directly involved.

“An incident?” Does the school have bad fengshui?

“Apparently it was before I came here. I heard that a student was ganged up on and died from his heavy injuries since he was discovered too late.” Yan Si tilted his head as he thought about it some more. He actually did not know too much about the case and could not confirm any details since he had only seen it in the news.

“That…that was just last semester.” Jiu Shen added, “The student that was ganged up on was severely injured but was only discovered the next morning. Because it had rained heavily the entire night before, the water destroyed all the evidence, making it impossible to determine who the culprits were. The student originally did not seem to have any enemies. He passed after around two days.”

“The case of school violence?” Yu Yin furrowed his brows.

“I think so. For a period of time, your school’s area had quite a few cases of violence. The juvenile crimes group caught a number. But recently, it has improved a bit for some reason.” Jiu Shen swallowed hard. He was still very bothered by the cellphone and was debating whether or not to have Yan Si just burn it. “The student that died was very unfortunate. If someone had immediately discovered him, he actually would not have died at all. Although all the other cases of violence happening around that time resulted in serious injuries as well, none of them resulted in death. The strange part is that none of the victims were willing to reveal anything, which made the juvenile crimes group think it’s a competition between delinquents. It’s something that all schools have.”

Last semester?

Many cases of violence?

Yu Yin immediately recalled what Ah Fang and his friends had said.

In the beginning of last semester, the boss of the school across had changed over to the Big Camel person. He had beaten Furry Dog to the point of hospitalisation. Furry Dog had quite a few followers back then, so everything had probably occurred at that time.

He had a bad feeling about this.

While he listened to Jiu Shen say something along the lines of helping hum burn the phone or expose it to strong sunlight, he took out his cellphone to call Ah Fang. The other person quickly picked up. “Ah Fang? Didn’t you guys say last time that you were going to find a time for a negotiation?”

“Ah Yin? Your source of information is pretty quick. We’ve already decided the time and location.”

The person on the other end seemed to be on a basketball court. There were the sounds of several people shouting, as well as the whoosh of a basketball swishing through the net.

“Where?”

“Tomorrow night, in the empty lot behind the school.”

“Tomorrow? Can you change the time?” Ah Yin felt his eyelid twitch again. His instinct was telling him to stop them from negotiating.

“Is something wrong?” The other voice was puzzled. “Those guys actually contacted us first. Yi Tai wanted to seize the opportunity to make everything clear.”

“I feel like something is fishy.” Yu Yin lowered his voice as he noticed Yan Si and Jiu Shen cast concerned looks at him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll bring some more people to help Yi Tai.” Another person could be heard shouting on the end of the line. Ah Fang hollered back before speaking into the phone again. “Relax, we’ll be fine. Ok, I’m going now, bye.”

As the line was cut, Yu Yin stared at his cellphone and sighed.

What could he do?

***

“We’re gathering in the empty lot behind the university tomorrow at 7 PM.”

Yin Yin hung up her cellphone and told the others in the house. “Big Camel wants to negotiate with the people from the university across, but some punches will probably be thrown.” She made sure to specifically glance at Yu Xia as she emphasised this.

“I thought that since we are being watched by the juvenile crimes group, we aren’t supposed to do anything rash for a bit?” Kai Lun was sitting off to one side with a new laptop, playing games as usual. He shifted his gaze towards them and stated in an extremely disapproving tone, “Didn’t Big Camel agree to that?”

“Who knows? He probably got pissed off by someone again.” Yin Yin lit a cigarette from her chair as she swung her feet in the air. “Big Camel says it’s fine if you don’t go. I hate it when you go there anyways, you’re useless.”

Kai Lun did not bicker with Yin Yin. He simply focused back on his own laptop and wordlessly continued typing at the keyboard.

“Isn’t it just perfect then? Big Camel hasn’t seen Ah Xia yet, and we can also test what level he’s at.” An He coolly concluded from his seat next to the broken window—the boards had already been completely ripped off. “If you’re too shitty, you can just go home to your mommy.”

Yu Xia didn’t respond and simply walked up to the other person. Before An He could even turn to look at him, Yu Xia suddenly grabbed onto the collar of his messy uniform. “You want to try it and see?” He coldly smirked without any over-exaggerated anger.

In that second, An He could only stare blankly.

“Don’t stir up trouble in the house,” Kai Lun’s voice came from behind his computer.

Yu Xia shook his grip off in irritation. An He, who had actually been slightly frightened, gurgled out a few words before immediately leaving the window side.

Without paying any mind to the others, Yu Xia walked out of the house. The sky outside was slightly overcast, as if it might rain. Yet it also didn’t quite seem likely that the rain would come down.

He had a vague feeling that something would go wrong.

After a while, the sound of something like paper ripping interrupted Yu Xia’s thoughts. He turned around to see Yin Yin was tearing up some kind of written papers into many shreds.

“What is that?” He was standing somewhat far away, so he could not really see what was written on them.

“Love letter.” Yin Yin sneered as she continued to rip it up.

When Kai Lun heard her answer, he suddenly came over to grab a paper that was still intact and glanced at it. “This belongs to that girl?”

“I went to her house to take it. Originally I thought it was the thing we wanted, but it turned out to be a love letter instead,” An He spat out. He swiped his hand over to grab a bunch of the papers, rolling them into a ball and tossing them into the trash.

“What are you guys talking about?” Yu Xia looked at them in question.

“Nothing really. There’s a girl that has something that Big Camel wants, but she absolutely refuses to hand it over. Even hitting her is useless. Went to her place to flip through it but didn’t find anything…and was nearly caught by her family members.” An He shrugged and said, “Yin Yin has ways to deal with her anyways.”

Yin Yin chuckled and used her lighter to burn up the other papers completely. They quickly turned to ash, and the entire table now had a black ring burned out.

“If she really doesn’t have it, just forget it. Don’t do anything unnecessary.” Kai Lun stared at the burn marks on the table as he lowered his voice to oppose the other two’s opinion.

“It’s what Big Camel wants. And if we don’t find it, everyone is screwed.” An He glanced at his companion, his mood suddenly turning nasty. “You obviously don’t realise since it has nothing to do with. Just cut the bullshit.””

“What does Big Camel want?” Once everyone turned to look at him, Yu Xia continued, “Since I’m going to stay around here, I can also go grab it.”

“No need for your help.” Yin Yin indifferently replied without much emotion. “That bastard is mine.”

Since it seemed like they all didn’t quite dare to say anything directly, Yu Xia temporarily dropped the subject. He subconsciously glanced at Kai Lun and inadvertently noticed the other person was also looking at him. The moment their eyes crossed, Kai Lun turned his head to expressionlessly bury his head behind his laptop and continue playing games.

Having no intent on continuing the topic, Yin Yin waved her hand to scatter the ashes on the table all over the floor.

Yu Xia did not really understand what kind of person Kai Lun was. However, he appeared to be incompatible with this place; he just did not seem to be that kind of child.

“Do you play any online games?” Kai Lun looked over at Yu Xia and suddenly interrupted the silence that everyone had fallen into.

“Waste of time.” Yu Xia truly believed this.

“It can balance your body and mind and help you relax.” The corners of his mouth lifted up, and he ignored the cold faces of his other two companions. “If you’re interested, I can give you the game and my screenname. Maybe someday, you’ll actually want to play.”

Yu Xia shrugged, inwardly thinking to himself that he probably would not.

But that brat Yu Yin seems to play online games sometimes. Hopefully he won’t be a bad influence to Xiao Yu.

He looked at the children around him and sighed.

What mistake had adults made for these children to lose trust in everyone else?

***

“Tomorrow night at 7 PM, in the empty lot of the university. You can just watch from nearby.”

He Wang Hong told the boy that had just been absorbed into the group. The latter quietly nodded, which made the former feel pretty satisfied with himself. It felt as if his own status had been raised a bit. “No need to be nervous, we’re just negotiating with the crowd from the university across. If the situation doesn’t look good, Big Camel and the others will deal with it. You can just keep watching on the sidelines.”

Yu glanced at the person next to him and pushed his glasses up.

He Wang Hong noticed the expressionless eyes behind the glasses, and said in a somewhat fascinated tone, “Oho, I didn’t even notice you wore contact. So you also like wearing colored lenses. For quite a while, Yin Yin and the others would wear them for fun too. Yin Yin is one of the others I told you about. She’s Big Camel’s girl, so don’t provoke her.”

Yu tilted his head to study He Wang Hong for a bit before taking out his cellphone and showing him the text on the screen. “Do you guys have a lot of people that wear them?”

“Oh, it was just Yin Yin, An He, and their lot that really liked playing around with it before. Big Camel gave Yin Yin quite a bit of money, so there was a period when they would change the colors daily. Now it’s a lot less frequent…” He Wang Hong seemed to remember something as he tossed his cigarette off the stairs and stood up. “Anyways, I’m heading out. Remember to come tomorrow night, or else you’ll get in trouble with Big Camel.”

Yu did not nod or shake his head. He merely leaned forwards on the staircase to look out at the scenery. The cigarette quickly disappeared from his line of sight. He Wang Hong didn’t pay him any mind and whistled a tune as he walked down the stairs.

No more than a few seconds after he left, another person walked down from the floor above.

Fang Yi Xun waved the MP3 in her hand as half her body hung out from the railing around the corner of the staircase. “Looks like they’re serious about the people from the university this time. Big Camel will definitely throw punches in a negotiation; he would never stay quiet.”

Xiao Yu raised his head to look up at Fang Yi Xun above, and thought this over.

“That one named Yin Yin is the same. Last semester, Big Camel beat up a lot of people to the point of hospitalisation for the sake of winning over territory. If it weren’t for the fact that those guys are too timid to call them out, Big Camel probably would have quit school by now. Instead, their group is still acting as rampant as always.” With a flash of her body, Fang Yi Xun slid down the railing and landed next to Xiao Yu. “Putting that aside, I just got some new information. My contact just called and said they finished analysing that thing.”

The instant Xiao Yu heard this, he immediately turned to focus on her.

Fang Yi Xun narrowed her eyes and coldly stated, “It’s the same. Their item is the same as the one you specially got.”

Yu tightly clenched his fists to quickly suppress the emotions surging through him. He closed his eyes before pulling another item out of his pocket and passing it over.

Fang Yi Xun took the unidentified item wrapped in the handkerchief and opened it to see a cigarette lying inside. She then turned to face the other person. “You don’t think that this is also…”

Xiao Yu nodded and turned to look below the staircase.

From here, he could see the entire gym class. The students were all carefreely playing basketball or volleyball. At this age, the most one would typically worry about was schoolwork, fighting at home with the parents, getting annoyed at teachers, being pushed aside by classmates, or having too little allowance. Children that had not left home yet did not understand many things of this world.

But they were standing on the edge of their family’s protective boundary.

Just when Fang Yi Xun was about to open her mouth, she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps below them.

The two of them turned their heads almost simultaneously to see a woman walk up the stairs from below. When she saw them, her expression was slightly surprised. “Ah, are you two skipping class?”

Xiao Yu relaxed when he quickly recognised her as the Zhang-Āyí from the health office.

“Of course not, Zhang-Āyí. He didn’t seem to be feeling very well, so I came over to see if he needed any help.” Fang Yi Xun laughed as she fibbed her way through with an adorable smile on her face despite not even being in the same class as Xiao Yu.

Being a volunteer at the health office, Zhang Mei Ning furrowed her brows and walked over. “If you aren’t feeling well, why not go to the health office? I think I just saw another boy over here too. You should have come over first. Your hand is injured, right? Did you get it checked by a doctor? Perhaps it got infected…come along to the health office and I’ll help you redress it.” She rested her hand on Xiao Yu’s shoulder with a slightly concerned expression.

“Yeah, that’s right, I also told him that he should go to the health office if he’s feeling unwell. That’s why you should just go there and rest first, Ah Yu. I’ll go back and let the teacher know.” After exchanging a glance with Xiao Yu, Fang Yi Xun smiled and turned to leave, quickly leaving the stairwell area.

Xiao Yu knew that he could not raise Zhang Mei Ning’s suspicious, so he met her questioning gaze and lifted his hand.

That person called Yu Yin could not really be said to have good dressing skills. The bandage was a bit messy; although it was put in place with a network of cotton, it was obviously still falling apart everywhere.

“Oh wow, how did it become like that? Let’s hurry over to the health office. Zhang-Āyí will help you redo it properly.” The instant Zhang Mei Ning saw the unacceptable bandaging, she quickly started pulling the person towards the health office. “Also, Āyí knows that young people these days like colored lenses like those, but you can’t wear them too often or for very long a duration. It’s bad for your eyes, you understand?”

Yu just silently watched the nagging woman drag him forwards.

The sky was beginning to darken outside. It seemed about to rain.

“That’s right, do you often hang around with that group of bad children?” Before Xiao Yu could even react, Zhang Mei Ning continued on her own assumption. “The one that brought you over to the health office last time looked like he was part of a pretty fierce mix…but you don’t look like a bad child at all, really…”

Her words were growing quieter and quieter, eventually turning into murmurs to herself. Xiao Yu did not bother trying to listen any further.

It began to drizzle. The people on the sports field all began to disperse.

***

After school ended, Yu Yin waited at the high school gates for the person that he had arranged to eat dinner with.

Because the university was right across from the high school, the students walking out from the school after class passed by him one after another without so much of an odd look. Most were chatting happily in groups about how they would go to play or eat somewhere and such.

He checked his watch and decided he might still have to wait a while.

For some reason, Yu’s class always let out later than the others. He had just caught one of the students passing by to ask; apparently their teacher would sometimes give tests right before the end of class and then go over and explain the questions after. This would often go on for so long that they would need an additional half hour or so.

“Seriously…” Yu Yin leaned against his motorbike and looked around, debating whether or not to go somewhere else to kill some time first. But he was also slightly worried that the moment he left, the person he was waiting for might come out and they would just happen to miss each other.

As Yu Yin contemplated this over, he suddenly felt a person tug at the corner of his clothes.

He reflectively turned around, about to ask what they wanted. But all he saw was his beloved vehicle next to him, with the scratch that damned white car had inflicted. There was nobody else there.

Yu Yin dismissed it as his paranoia. But then he clearly saw some dirty, black fingerprints on the corner of his shirt, and began to think perhaps it wasn’t his imagination after all.

He rigidly stood up and carefully scanned the area near the gates. As expected, he found an abnormality; there was a student that evidently did not belong to this high school standing not too far from him. The person was currently staring at the gates, seemingly also waiting for a person.

Yu Yin sized up the other person’s uniform. It belonged to another high school, but from his knowledge, that school should be in central Taichung, a decent distance away. Why did a brat like that run all the way over here?

“Um, are you looking for someone?”

The student nearly jumped from the unexpected call, but he did not run away. Instead, he surprisingly walked over to greet Yu Yin. “”Eh…am I not allowed to look for someone at the school?”

It seemed as if he had likely mistaken Yu Yin as a student or a teacher here. Yu Yin raised a brow and asked, “Who are you looking for? Did you already arrange a meeting with a friend?” He did not particularly appear to be waiting for someone since he had been attentively watching every student just now. Yu Yin had a feeling that this brat was searching for someone as opposed to waiting for someone.

In face of this question, the student began to panic a bit and did not really know how to answer. “Uh…I…I only came to look for my former classmate…I figured I would be able to see him after class…not arranged…I just wanted to see how he was doing now….”

Yu Yin shot a glance at the stream of students flowing out from the gates. “I doubt you can find anyone this way. This school has school buses too.”

The boy from another school had a completely blank expression for a few seconds. His shoulders then slumped as he replied, “Oh.”

“Does this person have any unique traits? Maybe I can help you look for a bit.” Yu Yin was unoccupied anyways, and he had just been looking to pass the time.

The boy immediately raised his head with a hint of excitement on his face. “He’s very easy to find, really. The student has violet eyes.”

In that second, Yu Yin felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He then heard an unusual snigger as the corner of his clothes was tugged a few more times. Then, the sound of laughter gradually faded into the distance.

It was the sound of a young child playing. He had heard it in that building from the last incident.

“…Don’t tell me this student has an annoyingly bizarre surname?” He asked, accepting the stroke of luck.

“Yes, he has a very strange surname,” The boy nodded vigorously before looking up at Yu Yin with a doubtful expression. “How did you know? Are you acquainted with Shaodi Yu?”

Yu Yin nearly let out a groan of anguish. He helplessly slapped his forehead and answered, “You’re a friend from his previous high school?”

“Yes, I used to be in the same class as him. And you are…?” The boy doubtfully asked as he looked at the young man in front of him that he had originally assumed to be a school staff member.

“Oh, I guess I’d count as his older brother. My surname is Yu, full name is Yu Yin.” After saying this, Yu Yin finally noticed something wrong. He recalled his dad having clearly said that the news of Xiao Yu studying again had been sealed off from the media. “How did you know Yu was at this school?!” After blurting this out, he realised it had been too direct. However, he urgently wanted the answer.

If even a student had found out, he was afraid that the entire media would be swarming here tomorrow.

“Um…I was discussing it with some people on a discussion forum online…someone said they recently saw a violet-eyed student around here, so I came to test my luck…without really knowing why. Anyways, I skipped my afternoon classes to come…” The boy stuttered while looking at Yu Yin cautiously.

“You didn’t go onto an anonymous site, did you?” Yu Yin felt the coincidence had to have been purposely planned out by someone. He could sense an invisible force laughing at him mockingly in the darkness.

“How did you know!” The boy immediately confirmed Yu Yin’s suspicion that he was being fooled with by a supernatural power.

Originally, Yu Yin had planned on asking a friend to help him find people by checking the site’s IP, but there was no need for that now – the person had come knocking on his own door. What else would Yu Yin ask for? He just wasn’t sure exactly which ghost was behind all this.

Yu Yin let out a long sigh. He looked at the boy in front of him and answered, “I think you should just hurry on home now. If you are truly just concerned about your classmate’s lifestyle, I recommend you don’t come around here much, or else you will draw the unnecessary attention of the media or other parties. Moreover, your school is so far that it’s best to not run over here anyways.”

“Eh, actually, I was going to say that I might not be able to bump into him.” The boy met his gaze and said with apparent sincerity, “It’s just…you must also know how tragic his family situation is. I just wanted to see how he was doing now.”

Yu Yin saw the boy’s drifting gaze and instantly recognised that he was half lying.

He remembered the contents of the thread on that anonymous site and was pretty certain that another post would be added to it after today if this brat actually saw Xiao Yu. Aside from curiousity of wanting to know the internal details of the situation, there wasn’t much else behind this so-called sincerity.

“You really won’t be able to bump into him it seems, my dad just brought him home earlier,” Yu Yin lied, praying that Xiao Yu would not suddenly appear and ruin everything. “I think you should just run on home now. It would be bad if your family got worried about you.”

“Oh…then can I ask you how his current lifestyle at home is?” The boy stubbornly continued asking, clearly having decided that he needed to get some kind of answer.

“Just the usual. He eats and sleeps. Unless his lifestyle at your school before was extremely bad?” Yu Yin tossed a question back.

The boy scratched his head and paused for a few seconds. “It wasn’t exactly bad. Shaodi Yu was just somewhat of a strange person. Although he had amazing grades, he did not speak much, and seldom went out to play with others. He was always very gloomy. But there was a period of time where I was getting along relatively well with him, and we often walked home together after school.”

“He didn’t speak much back then?” Yu Yin was surprised to find out that his younger brother had not become like that as a result of his entire family being massacred. Everyone had assumed that he had lost the ability to speak after the tragedy, but judging from what this previous classmate of his was saying now, that did not quite seem to be the case.

“Yeah, he would only say a few sentences every day. But he always answered the teacher’s questions, he just did not pay much mind to the other students. That’s why not many people talked to him in class.” The boy went into more detail and continued, “I heard his family was very strange. I visited his place once before, and his dad was also very weird, stubbornly refusing to let me in or let Shaodi Yu out, and he chased me away. The teacher was never able to pay any visits to his household either for some reason.”

Now that Yu Yin heard this, he suddenly recalled the moment Xiao Yu had acted oddly when they had gone out to eat.

So his family originally had issues?

As Yu Yin fiddled around with this thought, he spontaneously decided to go back and try to understand more about the already shattered family. Perhaps it would get him a bit closer to the chance of his younger brother speaking again.

The boy looked over at the school gates. Most of the students had already left, there were only a few lingering around now. He turned to look back at Yu Yin and said, “I guess that’s it then, Yu-dàgē. Could I come back to see Shaodi Yu some other time?”

“Ah…it might be a while before that’s possible.” Yu Yin was not lying this time.

The boy nodded. “When it is, please give me a call.” He passed over a piece of paper with his cellphone number written, then re-emphasized for Yu Yin to contact him. He turned around, prepared to go onto the public bus.

“Hey.” Yu Yin called after the boy to stop him, having the sudden urge to ask a question that he had always been curious about. “What was Xiao Yu’s voice like?”

The boy stared blankly for a moment, but then replied, “I guess it was pretty nice to listen to. The girls in the class all said that they wanted to go out karaoke with him.” With this, he hurriedly ran off to catch the public bus opening its doors.

Yu Yin watched the boy from another school leave on the disappearing bus. He then glanced down at the paper in his hand and carefully put it away.

Less than a minute later, the faint sound of footsteps stopped behind him. The violet-eyed owner was looking at him, head tilted at an angle.

“Oh, you’re finally done. Let’s go eat then.”

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