YBCB: V8C9

This chapter is a whirlwind of emotions. Only one more chapter left of the series!

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

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Chapter Nine

Xiao Hai tossed away the metal bar that had already been bent crooked.

“Hmph, as expected, they’re impressive-looking but useless.” She kicked at the people collapsed on the ground with her blood-soaked shoes, then rubbed the filth and fluids from her boots onto the bodies.

Yu Yin’s jaw could not drop any further.

Xiao Hai had come out of her absolute victory completely unscathed. She then walked over to pick up her Wolf bike and turned it off. The person that had lay underneath the motorcycle had already fainted, his legs covered in burns.

It took Yu Yin several seconds to snap out of his daze. He hurriedly stood up and just so happened to see the only person still standing, Wang Zhao Tang, pull out a gun and press it against Xiao Yu’s neck. “Let him go. The one you’re looking for is me, isn’t it?!”

Wang Zhao Tang shrugged. “Both of you back off, or else I’ll shoot a hole through Shaodi Yu.”

While closely watching the other person’s actions, Xiao Hai did not revolt back this time. When she saw the restrained fear in Yu Yin’s expression, she slowly retreated, and the two of them were forced back to where the black car was.

The car’s driver then walked out with a pair of handcuffs connected with a long iron chain.

“You two will stay cuffed together. Don’t make any sudden moves.” Wang Zhao Tang’s lips pursed together as his gaze remained on the other two. The driver first cuffed one of Yu Yin’s hands, before threading the chain through the bars in the backseat of the car and cuffing Xiao Hai to the other end.

“Fucking hell! I hate nothing more than being forced together with someone! My damn first time being cuffed should at least be with your old man!” Xiao Hai roared out in discontent as she glared at the glinting, ice-cold ring now around her hand after she had run over to rescue them from very far away.

“Please stop refusing…” Yu Yin, who had no desire to be cuffed to her either, could no longer muster any strength. If his old man had come today instead, everything would’ve probably been resolved by now.

“Damn it, I’ll do another cuffing in replacement some other time.” Xiao Hai studied the cuffs, estimating that she could only at most walk two or three steps away before being pinned down by the “hindrance” next to her.

The driver’s expression seemed to be slightly apologetic as he hurriedly retreated.

Wang Zhao Tang looked somewhat pleased with himself when he saw that the other two could no longer move as they pleased. The hand holding the gun pointed at them as he said, “Although an extra person was outside my calculations, this woman seems to be someone well-known in this business too. If you both keep each other company, things probably won’t be boring—Ah—”

Before Wang Zhao Tang could finish speaking, an anguished cry directly replaced his high spirits.

He turned around in shock to see Fang Yi Xun pull the awl in her hands out from his back.

“Bad guys always talk too much.”

She shook the blood off the awl as she popped her other hand back into place where it had been dislocated.

Xiao Yu, who had also freed himself from the ropes at the same time, mechanically copied her movements and popped his hand back in place as well. Then, he bent down to pull out the hidden utility knife from his shoes, a place that the other party hadn’t searched.

Wang Zhao Tang felt intense pain burst from his back. However, he could not tell where he had been stabbed – all he felt was his entire body throb in a dull, numbing pain. The hand with the gun was twitching non-stop, no longer able to hold onto the gun.

“Oho~ the practice finally proved useful.” Fang Yi Xun tossed the sharp awl away with a delighted smile. “All that research in the library really wasn’t wasted. I told you those medical books would definitely be of use.”

When Yu Yin heard these words, everything suddenly clicked into place. No wonder he had seen Xiao Yu constantly reading those bizarre books. It was so that he could memorise every single part of the human body’s composition!

“Damn-damn it—”

Without any trace of fear, Fang Yi Xun once again forcefully stabbed down on the other’s body. Although Wang Zhao Tang still had no idea where he was injured, he immediately collapsed onto the ground as the blood began to gush out from the fairly small wound.

Xiao Yu’s expression did not shift in the slightest as he looked at the person on the ground. He pushed the blade of the utility knife out bit by bit and leaned forwards to slash at the grown man’s ankle. Dark crimson blood directly spurted out, splashing onto the bottom half of Xiao Yu’s face.

The pain made Wang Zhao Tang hiss sharply.

“Xiao Yu! Stop this instant! Don’t kill him!” Yu Yin ran forward, but only managed to take two steps before he was yanked back by the handcuff on his hand, the pain so sharp that he bit through his lip as he forcibly came to a halt.

With the completely bloodied utility knife in his hand, Xiao Yu blankly raised his head to look at Yu Yin. There was absolutely no emotion in his violet eyes.

“Why shouldn’t we kill him?” Fang Yi Xun straightened up as well as she asked, “The person I loved the most was killed by Ah Yu’s dad, while Ah Yu’s entire family died because of this person. So he was the first one to start it all, and he should be the one to die.”

“The law will—”

“The law will not return my home.”

Xiao Yu quietly stared into his eyes, his small voice especially clear in the empty room. “He wouldn’t die…he just traded drugs…and will quickly get released…instead of taking responsibility for destroying so many people and families…”

It was a grey area in the law.

Regardless of how the people got their hands on drugs, or how tragically they ended up, drug traffickers would always be laughing loudly in prison. The moment they left prison, they would count their money and continue selling to the next person.

They did not have to take responsibility for the harm they created.

So many people had died because of this, so many families had been destroyed like this. Yet none of these could be reciprocated back onto this kind of person.

Is this amusing?

Already shattered memories were flooding back.

Is this actually amusing?

Treating his family as a game, using that incense to trap them like chess pieces.

However, the inextinguishable hatred would not make the law punish this person by death. The law would not even penalize this person for the deaths [he had caused]. From the law’s equal and just standpoint, these people could actually gain protection instead.

Is this truly that amusing?

His silent hatred could only boil deep in his chest as he recalled everything that had happened to him in the past, day after day. That laughter, that anger.

He just needed one more chance. However, he would never have even that anymore.

Yet the law would treat these people equally. The perpetrators would not die, instead being magnanimously forgiven, until they were released from prison back into the world. Then, they would continue mocking at the victims forced to tend to their wounds alone.

The dead would never gain another chance.

“So, I must kill him.”

Xiao Yu turned around, refusing to look at Yu Yin again, afraid that he would really stop. He and Fang Yi Xun had already agreed to kill this person together, since both their loved ones had been murdered under those hands.

The utility knife repeatedly slashed at the body, leaving splashes of warm blood on his own body…He had never imagined that a bad person’s blood could be so scalding too. The thick stickiness on his skin made him feel sick.

However, he had been imagining this moment for a very long time now.

He knew that he was actually an addict himself already. His desire to hurt others had never ceased. Whenever his anger reached its peak, he would always use the utility knife to harm himself.

He had once been caught red-handed in the high school by Uncle Xia…and since then, he had always chosen places that the average person would never notice.

This way, he would not harm anyone he cared about.

He had truly been very happy this past year, so he did not want to hurt them.

***

“Shaodi Yu! Stop right this instant! Or else I’ll never talk to you ever again!”

Unable to pull the two apart from each other, Yu Yin could only stay in place as he watched the horrifying, bloody scene in front of him. It was as if he was watching carnivores attacking their prey. The scarlet blood staining the young boy and girl seemed like an otherworldly scene.

“No pudding! No gelatin desserts! And no cakes! I’ll never give you any sweets again! Not even the ones you like the most! I’ll only give you bittermelon, eggplants, and beans for every meal! And only pomegranates and guavas as fruits afterwards! Do you hear me!”

“Hell, are you trying to trick a little kid?!” Xiao Hai shot a glare at the other person constantly pulling painfully on her hand.

Yu Yin jumped up onto his feet, completely ignoring Xiao Hai’s look. He was truly afraid that they would commit murder. “I’ll really ignore you forever! If you really think of me as your older brother, stop! You have to listen to what your Gēgē says!”

He saw Xiao Yu pause briefly.

Xiao Hai grabbed this chance to immediately pick up the helmet on the ground that she had used earlier to whack people with, hurling it towards Fang Yi Xun’s raised hand with all her strength.

The young girl fell to the ground with a pained cry, along with an unnatural crack. She gripped the middle of her now swelling wrist, her face twisted in agony. It seemed like it was broken.

“Come here! Xiao Yu, come over here…” Yu Yin’s gaze remained locked onto the boy’s back. He moved forwards, the tugging on his injuries so painful that he couldn’t help but inhale sharply. “Your older brother was just ganged up on earlier, you know…yet you don’t even come over to check on my injuries. Isn’t that being too heartless…”

This complaint was real. His entire body had been hurting this entire time, and even his shouts just now had affected the injuries. The pain was so great that he was on the verge of fainting.

Xiao Yu’s back quivered, and the hand gripping the utility knife slowly relaxed, as if he was hesitating over something.

“You made jam, didn’t you? I smelled the sweet scent of jam when I went home. But why are we here right now, cold and hurting, and doing something so meaningless instead? Wasn’t the jam at home made for everyone to eat together? Let’s go back and search on the web for some cheeses and snacks to eat with the jam. They’ll definitely taste amazing together.”

When Yu Yin saw the figure sway slightly, he slowly sat down. There were still quite a few places on his body that were bleeding. In addition to his activities from the previous night, his vision was currently filled with stars, and he really could not stay standing any longer.

“Put the knife down…”

If Xiao Yu did not listen to this, he truly could not do anything else.

The utility knife dropped into a pool of blood.

Xiao Yu slowly turned around, a streak of water left on his pale, bloodstained face as a clear liquid began to flow out from his violet eyes.

Yu Yin reached his hands out.

The next second, he was tightly hugging the body that ran straight into his arms. “Good boy, good boy…” The slim, frail body trembled without stopping, accompanied with the somewhat cool and stifling stench of blood.

He had honestly already gotten used to having a brother.

What a worrisome younger brother.

Xiao Yu peeked up, grabbed Yu Yin’s hand, and chomped down mercilessly on his wrist with such great force that Yu Yin cried out in pain.

Let me correct that. A younger brother with very sharp teeth.

Forget it, getting bitten is better than him charging over and murdering someone.

Yu Yin glanced down at the skin now bleeding underneath the teeth and used one hand to pat Xiao Yu’s back as he gazed up at the ceiling of the metal shack and let out a sigh.

He honestly was not sure if he could keep the other person in check…

Was this something worth being a little happier about? After all, Xiao Yu was already showing care for them, unlike the rejection Yu Yin had previously felt…When Yu Yin thought about this, his mood instantly improved.

“Oi, the smile on your face is just asking to get beaten in.” Smiling like that after being bitten? This guy is definitely weird. Xiao Hai looked at him with an expression of disgust as she looked down on the flimsy person that could not even hold up in a fight.

“Not your business.” Yu Yin’s heart was so full right now that he no longer minded the now numbing pain coming from his wrist.

A few seconds later, Xiao Yu finally loosened his jaws slowly.

“Have you calmed down?” It seemed as though he had been bitten for long enough. Yu Yin could more or less guess that it had been Xiao Yu’s way of venting out emotions. Yu Yin rubbed Xiao Yu’s head, originally planning on suggesting to continue biting him if it wasn’t enough. However, the person’s flesh hurting right now was his own, so he decided against it.

The youth drew back and slowly nodded, without daring to raise his face.

“Great. I think Jiu Shen should be finding us soon, so let’s free our hands first and—”

“Watch out!”

Xiao Hai suddenly pounced over to knock the other two down onto the ground.

A gunshot echoed through the air as it struck the driver, who had been cowered in a corner, not daring to come out.

Wang Zhao Tang managed to stand up again despite his heavy injuries, firing in their direction twice more. He then dragged his immobilized leg across as he quickly dove into the driver’s seat of the black car and hurriedly started the engine.

Everything seemed to happen in that split second.

The black car sped forwards, smashing through the already very weak walls of the metal shack in the blink of an eye. It dragged Yu Yin and Xiao Hai, who were still cuffed to the sides of the car, down into the dark, ice-cold depths of the ocean with it.

It had all occurred in an instant.

Xiao Yu stared at his empty hands that now only held the remnants of the warmth he had finally touched again.

His mind was completely blank.

This time, he could not let go again.

If only he had been able to tightly hug his father like that back then. If only, then his family would not have met such an end…so he could not let go again.

He stood up shakily, walking past Fang Yi Xun lying on the other side, stepping past the jagged, metal pieces. He did not think of anything at all. All he could feel was the sweet taste of blood still lingering in his mouth.

The dark waters of the sea smacked against the small shore made of cement, as if waving at him.

He seemed to hear the eruption of sirens.

The police cars barged through the metal shack and came to a sudden halt. Several officers leapt out from the cars as a private sportscar also raced in.

When Yu Xia jumped out of the car, all he saw was his family’s younger son standing on the shore. Then, the boy fell to the ground like a puppet that had lost its strings.

The sounds of the waves swallowing those that had fallen were imperceptible.

***

He was not someone with a very good memory.

Yet his memories were inconceivably clear from the moment the chilling ocean waters surrounded him without warning.

Since it was not yet summer, the sea was not warm. It was an indescribably ruthless frigidness. The moment his limbs were submerged under the water, they started twitching uncontrollably, making it impossible for him to extend them. It felt as if the water was piercing through his body like millions of needles, freezing his arms and legs. The water he swallowed left a scorching fire in his chest, and the force from the impact shook him so much that he could not properly react.

He could see light above the dark ocean waters.

Xiao Hai, who had a piece of shrapnel embedded into her body, seemed to have already lost consciousness.

Through his daze, the light suddenly split apart as someone dropped down to tightly hug his body, the little warmth quickly dissipating in the water.

The car that was still sinking had long since become filled with water, and a multitude of bubbles flooded around them. He could see that person’s face twist together as they tried to escape the car, but countless black hands reaching out from the car continued to drag the person back into the driver’s seat. A final, last little bubble squeezed out from the person’s lungs before his eyes rolled back and the person stopped struggling forever.

He wanted to push away whoever was holding onto him, but there was absolutely no strength left in his body to do so.

I cannot die.

However, he was already starting to lose consciousness.

Then, he became a spectator. As his body slowly relaxed, he found himself watching everything like a bystander watching a TV, the scenes unfolding one after another before him.

Xiao Hai’s body continued to bleed out, the rusty metal shrapnel embedded into her shoulder. The girl who had been so fierce before now had both her eyes tightly shut, her black hair floating upwards in the water.

The car did not stop dragging them downwards.

The uncontrollable, heavy object finally got stuck in the mass of rocks at the bottom of the ocean, stirring up a flurry of sand. The black things began to surround the car, layers upon layers, so densely packed together that he could no longer differentiate their eyes from their hands. They tightly wrapped around the body of the car, tunneling inside and filling the space.

Then, the place where the light was coming from split apart again as two people with nearly identical movements quickly dove down to the very bottom. They grabbed the three people that had sunk into the waters. However, the handcuffs were stuck fast, and could not be removed no matter what.

One of the two people became angry, relentlessly tugging at the bar in the backseat. Yu Yin could tell from the expression on that face that this person was way beyond furious. If they were still on land like usual, Yu Yin might have already suffered a round of abuse. Whether as a result of that person’s frenzied strength, or whether due to other reasons, the screws in the bar began to loosen, and entire window was torn off with the bar. The handcuffs stuck inside also began to drift through the waters.

Those two people pulled the other three up, quickly breaking through the water’s surface. They were immediately pulled out by others.

He simply stood there, watching on the side, somewhat caught off guard by the sight of someone with an identical face to him being pulled out. It was a fresh experience. However, that face was too pale, a deathly white colour.

“Hurry up and call the ambulance!” Li Zi Hong ran over and took off his jacket, covering the other people with it.

Even though the twins were trembling, they still immediately began to conduct emergency treatment.

Xiao Hai was the first to wake. After coughing several times, the water gushed out from her ashen mouth as red blood soaked through her clothes.

The forensic scientist next to her stopped the others from removing the shrapnel, instead demanding for everyone to take off their jackets.

The other two deathly pale faces did not wake.

He turned around and suddenly spotted a male standing in the corner, its body badly burnt and deformed. It stared straight in their direction, its mouth opened and closing to say words that Yu Yin did not know.

Then, a person abruptly clapped a hand on his back. When he shifted his gaze around, he spotted a boy around his age brightly smiling at him. “Hi, friend.”

A very familiar face.

“Hi,” he replied.

Everything around them instantly fell quiet.

The scenes playing before him completely disappeared as well. There was nobody there anymore. All that remained in the silence were the two of them.

“Still remember me?” The university student pointed at himself.

“Yeah.” He nodded.

As if on a tacit understanding, the two of them turned in unison to see an extremely average-looking apartment in the background. A woman carrying a boy was sitting on top of the low wall outside.

It was a very familiar scene; she was a beautiful woman.

That woman had once carried him while waiting for his father’s return.

She had said that while she might have not been worthy of him and his father in some ways, they were the ones she would love the most in her entire life that nothing could ever replace. Just like an irreplaceable family.

As he stood there, he suddenly recalled something.

“I always wanted to ask you, is it very painful to see these kinds of things?” The boy threw a slightly cold arm around his shoulder.

“…Got used to it. I often think how great it would be if I couldn’t see. But if that were true, I probably wouldn’t know you either.” He smiled faintly. Although he would get a fright each time, thinking back now, all he felt was gratitude for being able to help.

He was not some righteous and noble police officer, nor a saint with refined morals. He was just a damned twenty-year old university student that enjoyed going out to eat and drink and have fun.

An ordinary person that was not strange in the slightest.

A person that could accomplish things that only he could see.

However, he had really done it all.

Even if he had suffered injuries, even if it had been troublesome, he had been able to achieve things that only he could do among such a large society. Moreover, he was extremely happy to be able to help others.

Even if not everything he saw was good.

If he had not possessed this ability, he probably could not have been standing here today to bring his younger brother back home either.

The woman cradling the boy was smiling happily.

“In the future, you need to always help others like your Daddy does,” she said. The boy in her arms loudly agreed.

He would not become a great person, or someone special. Just someone that could help others.

So this is the reason why I have a natural tendency to be so meddlesome.

“I truly thank you. From the bottom of my heart.” The boy pressed against Yu Yin’s shoulders, gently pushing him back. “Bye-bye, Yu Yin.”

This would be his last time seeing this person.

“Bye-bye, Chen Yong Hao.”

***

When he opened his eyes, he could smell the faint sense of disinfectant floating in the air around him.

His body did not seem to be hurting as much as before. Instead, he felt incomparably relaxed.

He angled his head to see a black [haired] head lying down on his white bed. The head sported a baby-face that did not match the correct age, as well as signs of haggardness.

“Dad, you’ll catch cold…”

The weak voice was very quiet, but the person resting next to the bed bolted upwards as if they heard a thunderclap. The next second, the person lunged forwards to hug Yu Yin.

“From now on, you are forbidden from visiting crime scenes…!”

Yu Tong’s voice was slightly choked with emotion.

“Eh, people sometimes just…do things in spite of themselves…in this world…”

Yu Yin chuckled.

“What do you mean by ‘do things in spite of themselves’…you drive me crazy…”

Yu Xia gently closed the door to the ward upon watching this scene from outside, choosing not to go in and interrupt them.

“Did the student that was ganged up on wake up?” Yan Si curiously tried to sneak a peek inside from where he stood but was immediately shoved away.

Yu Xia shot an evil glare of warning at Yan Si before dragging him outside.

It had already been two days. His brother could finally rest at ease. That’s it, from now on, I’m going to have to forcefully instill some discipline into Yu Yin. Forget getting ganged up on, how did he end up dropping into the ocean without being able to swim back up? That brat has been lacking discipline from beginning to end; worrying Gē like that all the time isn’t acceptable. At the very least, I’m going to teach that damn brat to the point where he can face up against three people without a problem.

Without the main subjects noticing, the other twin made this resolution to himself.

Because of the appropriate emergency treatment, Xiao Hai had not been in critical danger.

However, when she heard upon waking up that Yu Tong had given her CPR, she was instantly elated. And she immediately told the visiting Yu Tong, “That was my…first kiss…”

The expressions on the faces of Yu Tong and her brother, Ah Fang, instantly darkened simultaneously.

After the incident, Kai Lun and the others broke through the incense factory in the shrine outside the city.

The shrine master had not imagined that the police would suddenly come knocking on their door, and thus had absolutely no time to cover anything. The police had quickly discovered the building in the back where Wang Zhao Tang had been hiding out. They had then entered the basement inside to find that the entire area under the shrine was a manufacturing facility. They had seized a group of people who had been caught red-handed, and smoothly took control of the area without incident.

This matter was all that covered the news reports.

Wang Zhao Tang had already stopped breathing by the time the officers had rescued him. However, his cause of death had not been the attack from the sharp weapons nor drowning. When he had been pulled out from the waters, the police had discovered that his neck and the rest of his body had been covered in fingerprint bruises of various sizes, as dark as black ink. The marks that around Wang Zhao Tang’s neck had been so deep that the bone had directly snapped.

The information reported in the newspapers pointed to the sudden, unexpected death as a result of the great impact with the surface of the water as the conclusion of the case.

Xiao Yu had not woken once since that day.

He did not have any external injuries or trauma. It was as if he was just sleeping without ever waking.

The case involving the extermination of his family was buried amidst the large flood of cases pursuing the drug traffickers. The media, who had long since lost interest from the incident that had occurred a year ago, were currently only going after the incense factory case.

After the incident blew up, the reporters and scholars ceaselessly analysed and researched ways to save oneself from the incense through various programs. If one accidentally purchased it, there might be a few steps one could take to save themselves for the time being.

In the end, this resulted in the fire brigade constantly being notified by a ton of people claiming they needed help after possibly breathing in the drug. The police had also received a bunch of calls requesting for them to confirm that the incense in their homes did not have any issues.

The large-scale commotion from the incident actually allowed some others to finally relax a bit.

Jiu Shen flipped through the TV channels while chewing on a chocolate bar and putting on his lab coat. The case had not yet ended; as investigators, their group had returned to the bureau with a series of matters they needed to clean up. Only after submitting their final report could the others finally close the case.

“Jiu Shen, the data you requested has been released.” Ah Liu stuck his head out from the lab to call out to Jiu Shen.

“Coming.”

He grabbed the fresh data results. It had been the small things they had been testing in the very beginning which they had asked Boss and the others to help test at first. The information also included blood test and DNA test data.

“As expected, Boss’s results are identical to Ah Tong’s.” He skimmed through the report, and quite happily began to transfer the information to the computer.

Because so many things had been happening recently, many of this family’s files were already compiled into one folder. Yu Yin, who often ended up being beaten up somehow, had obviously been tested before too. After all, it was fundamentally necessary to remove traces of his DNA from the pile of suspects each time.

Who asked for that brat to be such a frequent visitor?

Then, Jiu Shen froze.

He thought that he was looking at two completely unrelated people.

“Some things are meant to be secrets forever.” Jiu Shen suddenly whipped his head around to see Yu Xia standing behind him.

Yu Xia smoothly bent over to close the file as he said, “My brother married, and they gave birth to a child. Now, it has become two children.”

Jiu Shen stared at the blank screen, absently nodding.

Secrets, that could only be kept silent forever.

Thus, he also chose to stay quiet.

Forever.

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