YBCB2: V5C2

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

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Chapter Two

The faint smell of dirt wafted over.

It was a distinctive odour that mixed together blood, dried leaves, and rotting trash.

Amidst the darkness, the sound of a prodding shovel was particularly prominent. There was the sensation of slightly moist dirt sliding over his ice-cold skin to cover him from above, slowly blocking out the last bit of light…

“Wake…wake up this instant…”

As he dazedly began to recover a bit of consciousness, he suddenly heard a terrifying angry roar. Jiu Shen was practically shocked awake as he bolted up immediately. “Boss, I’m up!”

Yu Xia had just been about to toss a fist down, but he halted his movement with narrowed eyes. “What are you trying to do?!”

“Huh? Huhhhh?” Jiu Shen somewhat blankly stared at Yu Xia’s appearance before him. It took quite a few seconds before he finally recalled going to the temple to pray today…Why did Boss show up in this kind of place? Don’t tell me he also came to pray? No, no, Boss wouldn’t run over here to pray for no reason. He must be chasing a criminal!

The criminal wasn’t shoved into an incense burner right…because then we’ll just have more work to deal with…

Only after Jiu Shen had thought all of this did he belatedly realise he was on an ambulance. He seemed to have just been lifted up, as the car had not even taken off yet. The emergency personnel nearby were about to ask Yu Xia to get off.

“Wha-what?”

What’s going on?

“If you’re fine, then get off. Don’t waste resources.” Yu Xia had only come to check on the situation anyways. He spoke briefly to the emergency personnel, then jumped off the car and pulled on gloves. “If you feel unwell then hurry and go get checked.”

“Nope, I’m perfectly fine, I don’t feel unwell.” Seeing that there was already tape pulled up outside the car, Jiu Shen quickly thanked the emergency personnel and clumsily scrambled to climb down. The instant his feet touched the ground, he finally remembered what he had seen before fainting, as that “thing” was currently lying on the temple steps, covered by a white cloth. The officers outside the tape were trying their best to block the curious citizens trying to take pictures.

“Is it because you were disrespectful to the gods that they directly dumped a corpse on your head?” Yu Xia scoffed as he accepted a hat and crossed over the tape. When they had received the report and rushed to the scene, they really hadn’t known whether to laugh or to flip out. According to the statements from the nearby peddlers, their investigator had not been knocked out by the body smashing onto him, but had fainted after crying out in shock upon seeing what had struck him. Not a single one of the officers present wanted to admit that this was their colleague.

Moreover, because the citizens with kind hearts had been worried about Jiu Shen being crushed to death, they had helped pull him out from the under the body. But during the process, many crowds of people had trampled all over the scene. Just seeing the situation from the distance had given them headaches.

“I-I-I…I wasn’t disrespectful…” Ah, maybe I was. Jiu Shen realised with a start that he had just been complaining about how the gods’ words had been too simple, so he began to silently feel regret. It appeared that one truly could not casually run their mouth, or the gods would enact punishment; however, this type of penalty was honestly terrifying. Moreover, his clothes had been sent off for analysis. Even if he could receive them back later, they would have to be discarded…What a waste…I need to thank the people that helped later too.

“Your mother is resting in the temple. Go there first and change out of your clothes to hand over to someone.” Yu Xia tossed over a shirt he had bought nearby, stopping Jiu Shen from the action of stepping inside as usual. “Ah Liu and the others are heading over right now. You’d better just scram home once you finish giving a statement.”

“Hu-huh? But…?” I’m clearly the closest and quickest?

“Your family’s here, aren’t they? Hurry and go back. It’s not like we’re lacking without you right now.” Yu Xia grabbed the collar of the guy fellow still wanting to enter and directly threw him back towards the temple.

“Ah, ok, thanks Boss.” Thus, Jiu Shen slowly lifted his heavy feet to head towards the temple under many of his concerned colleagues’ gazes. Now that he had calmed down, he belatedly discovered that his entire body hurt slightly. As expected, being struck by something that heavy would still result in injury. His right ankle was a bit odd too, and he hobbled as he walked. After passing the steps, he couldn’t help but subconsciously glance over at the thing covered with a white cloth. It had not spewed out much body fluids at all, close to none actually. The only traces were a few drops on the ground.

He could vaguely recall that before he had fainted from the shock, he had definitely seen a male face that had been severely swollen and festered. However, the weight from that moment he had been crushed had been a bit strange. It was not light, but there was something wrong with the weight. Based on the figure, it seemed too little.

Yeah, it seriously felt pretty light.

“Hey, Boss…”

A fierce glare swept over him, so Jiu Shen hurriedly fled into the shrine. In any case, this type of thing would be discovered after the inspection later.

After greeting his seemingly not shocked mother, he changed his shirt and placed it into a paper bag, handing it over for others to handle. Then he walked up to his mother and asked, “Mom, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Xiao Jiu, aren’t you a bit too useless? Don’t you guys often see strange things? Your mom didn’t even have the courage to tell the master that you’re an investigator.” The woman had witnessed her son scream before fainting. She clicked her tongue a few times and pulled her child over to scan him up and down. Then she sat down and patted the other’s thigh. “Men need to be manly. Doesn’t your auntie often tell you not to be scared for no reason like that? You’re not a kid anymore. It’s no wonder that the young miss nearby never sought you out for a date.”

“I’m just-just scared, I can’t do anything about—Ah! Don’t tell my aunt and older cousins!” Or else I really won’t want to go home this new year!!!!!!! Those guys would definitely cause a huge uproar over this during the reunion dinner!

“Shame on you, scared yet afraid of being laughed at too? How old are you now?” The woman shook her head as she continued, “When you were really little, you would just run around and burrow into random places everywhere like a monkey. Who would’ve imagined that as you got older, your courage would just disappear—”

“I-I’ll bring you home first.” Jiu Shen quickly interrupted. He eyed the officer near them that had already turned their head around with shaking shoulders and appeared to be holding their tongue to try their best and control themselves. “It’s already really late. You just go back to my place to rest for the time being. You-you’re probably hungry too…”

“Alright, alright, I won’t cause any trouble for you. Go do what you need to. I’ll just take a car back.” The woman stood and patted her pants. “Don’t make things difficult for the senior officers. Diligently do what you need to do and check on what happened with the dead one. Go ahead and help however you can. The gods have already given their sign. And besides, violently dying in this kind of place without any children or aspirations must make their family unimaginably anguished. Hurry up and go.”

“That doesn’t matter, Ah Liu and the others are coming…”

“Go, go, go! Your mom’s strong and healthy and doesn’t need you taking care of me every moment!”

“Cough, Senior Jiu Shen, why don’t you let my girlfriend bring Āyí back?” Xiao Wu, who had been interrogating other people nearby, was honestly on the verge of laughing. He hurriedly rubbed his nose to conceal his raised lips as he approached the very conspicuous mother-and-son duo. “I was summoned right when I got off work and was eating with my girlfriend…her car is outside. Āyí would be very safe going back with her; my girlfriend is skilled.”

“Eh, is that inconvenient?” Jiu Shen followed Xiao Wu’s line of sight and indeed saw a delicate and pretty woman outside near the media. She was dressed in a blouse and jeans and was currently waving in their direction.

“It’s not a problem. Xiao Niao likes making new friends.” After responding, Xiao Wu told something to another officer and the latter ran over to that girl. Soon after, he led the girl in from the side entrance.

After briefly explaining to the girl, she walked up to the married woman in a very friendly manner.

“Hello, Āyí. I’m Hua Niao. Hua is my surname, and the Niao is written as ‘bird’ with a crown of ‘grass’ on top of its head. It’s nice to meet you. I hope that Āyí will like me.”

“Ohoho, what an adorable name.”

“Mhm, my dad gave it to me…”

Seeing the girl and the woman seem to be happily engaging in conversation, Jiu Shen felt a bit more at ease.

“Senior Jiu Shen, please work hard~ If Xiao Wu performs horribly, just beat him.” The girl pulled on the married woman’s hand and smiled as she said, “Since everyone’s diligently working, we’ll just take our leave first. I know many delicious restaurants along the way. Āyí, let’s go and eat all we want together!”

“Sure, let’s go, let’s go.”

Then, with an officer’s help, the girl and married woman left through the back door to avoid the crowds.

Xiao Wu turned his eyes away and gave Jiu Shen a heavy pat on the shoulder. “Senior Jiu Shen, for the sake of your mental state, you’d better switch your cellphone to silent mode for a while and wait until later to check it.”

“Huh? Huh?”

“They…will mentally attack you with the food they’ll be going through.”

The long-time victim gave this reminder out of goodwill.

***

“Didn’t I tell you scram home?!”

When Yan Si arrived at the scene and had only just lifted the white cloth, Yu Xia spotted the person that should’ve left step across the yellow tape instead.

“M-my mom went back first together with Xiao Wu’s girlfriend. She wanted me to do my work properly.” Jiu Shen subconsciously took a step back as he hurriedly gave an explanation and then cautiously circled back towards Yan Si.

“Oh? Jiu Shen-xiǎodì’s mom is here? Why didn’t you introduce us? What a terrible friend…especially since I usually take such good care of you. Now this dàgēge’s heart is starting to hurt a bit. It feels like my trust has been betrayed.” Yan Si crouched down on the ground with a hurt expression directed at the person that had hidden their parent away.

“I-I’m not…” Jiu Shen was starting to think that he should’ve walked towards Yu Xia instead. At most, it would just be a punch.

“Cut the pointless chatter, both of you.” Seeing that they were starting to run their mouths back and forth, Yu Xia immediately cut them off. Then he lifted the white cloth. “How is it?”

“Male, around seventeen or eighteen. 170 centimetres. Blood is dried-up, body is dried-up, organs are dried-up; it can just be described as dried-up in all three scopes.” Yan Si scanned the burst-open corpse and his eyes landed on the most conspicuous part. “Do kids have holes in their brains these days? They even dig out stomachs now.”

The instant the white cloth was taken off, Jiu Shen knew why he had thought that the body’s weight had felt off.

Just like Yan Si had said, the organs were dried-up…Wait no, that’s not it! The organs were missing. The body lying in eternal rest on the ground not only had a deformed face and body, but also a gigantic hole in the abdomen. The skin was nowhere to be seen, and the area inside the abdomen was completely empty; the stomach, intestines, etc. were all gone. This was why the weight had been strange.

“Their?” Yu Xia caught the critical pronoun.

“Come here and look.” Yan Si wagged his finger at them, then turned to face the corpse’s back. There were several puncture wounds there. He gestured, “A right-hand inflicted wound, a left-hand inflicted wound. The other injured areas are clearly from being ganged up on, and the attack methods indicate that different people had taken part. Before dying, he was beaten by several. There were at least two that actually stabbed him. The complexity of the case is above level three, but there is only one truth and cause of death.”

“The left-handed person seems to have hesitated a bit.” Jiu Shen diligently analysed the injuries and discovered that several were shallower; in comparison, the wounds inflicted by the right-handed person were very deep despite being fewer in number. “The right-handed person was the main attacker and the left-handed person was the assistant. Judging by the shape, these seem to be stabs from a sharp butterfly blade. There’s only one type of weapon used for these wounds.”

“The wounds were inflicted after death; they don’t have any response indications. The right-handed person went first as demonstration for the other. Then the left-handed person took the murder weapon and did the rest. When the cuts were made, the body was lying down.” Yan Si cocked his head to the side as he chuckled. “Those little brats shouldn’t think that we can’t see through their misleading techniques. This young one didn’t die because of a sneak attack from behind.”

“The cause of death might be this place,” Jiu Shen stated while pointing to the empty abdomen area.

“But it’s strange. Judging from the large amount of dirt on his body, he should’ve been buried before.” Yan Si played around with the chunks of dirt on the corpse. There was even moist soil in the hair and ears. This puzzled Yan Si; why would someone go through so much effort to bury a corpse and then drag it back up to a rooftop? It was completely illogical.

Ah, could this be a legendary corpse transformation? Maybe it’ll just jump up by itself and start walking away later!

“…You guys continue with other things.” Yu Xia stood after he had a general understanding of the exposed clues. Just then, he spotted Ah Liu and a female prosecutor arrive, so he greeted them and went over to give a report.

Yan Si went on recording the corpse’s condition. Once he finished, he asked the others to collect the body.

Jiu Shen met up with Ah Liu and grabbed his brought over toolkit. “Thanks, Ah Liu~” He even brought my things over for me, what a great person.

“I just knew that you wouldn’t obediently go home.” Ah Liu eyed his co-worker and shook his head. “You’re off today, remember?”

“Mhm, it’s fine. I already got sleep.”

Ah Liu really wanted to point out that this was not the issue, but since they were at the crime scene, he couldn’t be bothered to continue debating. Thus, they split up to each do their own work.

Since the onlookers had already entered the crime scene before the police had arrived, the officers that had come earlier to seal off the area had requested for the people to each leave their shoeprints, fingerprints, contact information, and record statements after the situation was explained. Ah Liu was slightly grateful for this. Although they would still end up possibly being unable to get analytical results no matter how much they tried when they brought everything back later, this was already a great help considering their position.

“Ah Liu, I borrowed a ladder from the temple master. Let’s go up and take a look.” Jiu Shen dragged over a ladder and glanced up at the rooftop. It seemed extremely dark, but the temple lights that could be switched on were already on, so they likely wouldn’t fall…

Jiu Shen stabilised the ladder and climbed up to what felt like very unstable eaves. As expected, he spotted a few drops of black liquid and some dirt right above where he had been standing. Consequently, he carefully began to search the top.

No matter how much he looked, he was absolutely certain that this place was the not the first scene of the crime. However, he could not figure out why they would bring the body to this kind of location to deal with. This was just asking for the police to find the perpetrators more quickly. It was different from the original intention of burying the body. It’s both a pretence and an exposure; what a bizarre mentality.

He walked around once and didn’t see anything particularly outstanding or spot any evidence. There weren’t even shoeprints. However, he did find drag marks—from the back courtyard straight up here. The occasional drops of black fluid from the corpse indicated that it had been hauled over the eaves to the top of the roof without a single obstruction. This complete violation of human movement seemingly had not drawn the attention of the monks or outsiders.

Jiu Shen did not think too much of it, simply unable to figure out how the perpetrator had moved in such a way. With his flashlight and camera in hand, he followed the trail and climbed down the rooftop to head towards the back courtyard. Then he found a small, unsuspecting path that had very fresh drag marks. He made some notes and took photos, then continued following the traces that did not come to an end. It led him outside the walls of the courtyard and through a short dirt road with no signs of people. Then he passed through a small patch of woods that was somewhat further away.

When he flashed his light around, he found that the drag marks clearly led into a deeper area.

Jiu Shen placed a marker down and continued following the trail. Though the woods were relatively small, it did stretch across a certain range. It appeared to be quite primitive. There was a decent amount of garbage dumped outside and an abnormal number of mosquitoes that made him scratch his face as he walked. He was starting to regret the fact that he hadn’t asked to borrow some repellent before entering.

Before he had gotten far, he realised that he could no longer see the traces. The drag marks abruptly cut off with absolutely no signs of connecting anywhere else on the ground. They did not appear to be wiped away either; the cut-off was extremely bizarre. He examined around the area, but could not find any other connections. However, the dirt here undoubtedly shared some resemblance to the one found on the body; they would need a large-scale search. Jiu Shen scratched his face as he pulled out his cellphone to call Yu Xia and Ah Liu. However, he discovered that the network here was terrible and he could not make any calls. When he turned his head, he realised in alarm that he had unknowingly wandered in very deep. He was the only person in the dark woods. Aside from the flashlight in his hands, there was no trace of light. Moreover, it was quiet to the point where there wasn’t even the sound of bugs; the atmosphere immediately turned eerie.

…Sometimes, he really hated how he completely ignored his surroundings when he got too serious.

This place is so scary, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—

Then Jiu Shen really felt his legs start to go soft. His sense of direction instantly vanished as he was unable to locate the exit no matter how he swung his flashlight around. There were only trees and more trees. The shadows that appeared under his illumination looked sinister no matter how he looked at them. “Save…save me…” After he began to panic, he suddenly couldn’t find the drag marks from before and used the remnants of his memories to walk towards the outside. But as he turned left and right, he could not spot the dirt path.

All that surrounded him was dark trees.

There seemed to be something behind each one.

It was terrifying, and there were many mosquitoes.

Jiu Shen trembled as he continued onwards with the strong urge to dig up a hole and bury himself in it. At least he wouldn’t need to walk through this horrifying path that way…If I had known this would happen, I would’ve asked Ah Liu to check out the drag marks with me. I’ll definitely get another severe scolding and be forced to write a report later for acting on my own…maybe it’s still best to bury myself first? If I go missing, the others will come searching for me. Being alone is too scary, I really want to escape out from hereeeeeeee— “Ackkk!”

Right as he was thinking about digging up a hole, he suddenly felt the ground under his feet cave in and he immediately fell down. The large amount of fallen leaves and trash around where he had stepped collapsed along with him. Jiu Shen crashed into place that was very deep down and hit his head, leaving his thoughts jumbled as his ears rung non-stop.

After a while, he finally realised that he had really dropped into a hole!

And this hole is super cold and deep!

An abnormal odour slowly wafted over.

He instantly recalled with a shock that before waking in the ambulance, he had dreamed of being in a forest like this. The unusual coincidence made his mind go blank.

“Save meeeeeeeeeeeee!”

***

Pop.

In the darkness, he heard what seemed like a small bubble being popped.

It really sounded like the gurgling that a fish would make.

“…Jiu Shen, are you here?”

Several beams of light shone inside, waving up and down without stopping.

“If you hear this, say something! Are you mute?!”

The shouts of many people were gradually getting closer.

“Save-save me…” He mustered all his strength to lift his hand and grab the dirt. He had no idea if his cry was loud enough. “Sob…hurry and save me…”

The noise outside died out for two seconds, then the light shifted towards him.

It was not long before a single beam came down from above, piercing through the darkness.

“Idiot! What are you doing in this kind of place?!” Yu Xia stared at the person in the hole with a seriously strong urge to stomp down on their face after having searched along this path for the other person. “You can’t even climb up this height?!”

“…My legs are kind of jello…” When Jiu Shen spotted the familiar face, he slowly calmed down from his emotional turmoil. “Sobbbb, Boss, please pull me up…I think my flashlight is broken…” His flashlight had died before his eyes with a click earlier, and he had nearly fainted. He had only been able to curl up inside the hole with his hands covering his head, not daring at all to look anywhere else in fear of seeing something he should not see.

“Did you find him?” After an exchange, several officers came in succession and the group scrambled to pull out the person that had mysteriously fallen into the hole.

After Jiu Shen was rescued out, he was still unable to stand up properly by himself for a moment, trembling as he was pulled aside by Yu Xia.

“How did you end up wandering over here?” Yu Xia noticed that the other person was limping slightly while walking, so he had an officer come over to help hold Jiu Shen up.

“Ah, erm, wait a moment.” Jiu Shen reluctantly stopped in his tracks as he immediately recalled the trail that he had followed to get here. “Boss, you guys didn’t damage it when you came here, did you?”

“What?” Yu Xia narrowed his eyes.

“The corpse’s drag marks…from here to the temple…” Jiu Shen wanted to quickly find the place, but when he turned his head to look, he was not certain where it had originally been.

“…Did you not get a clear look of your surroundings when you wandered here?” Yu Xia furrowed his brows as he wondered if this guy’s old problem had kicked in again. “There’s no way the corpse could be dragged that entire way. It’s near impossible just from distance alone. The body itself did not have any traces of friction from being dragged either. Didn’t you look at it earlier too?”

“Ah, eh, but…?” Indeed, Jiu Shen had not seen the distinct signs of friction on the corpse earlier. After pondering this, he wondered if it might have been stored in a bag or something. However, those marks on the rooftop had never stopped nor indicated anything being pulled off. It would have had to have been brought over as is.

“Forget distance, it’s not possible logically either.” Yu Xia led them out of the forest and pointed outside. “Look there.”

What appeared before Jiu Shen was the dirt path with the symbol that he had left outside the entrance still. Yet he could not spot the walls surrounding the temple. In its place was instead an uphill asphalt road. Some distance away was a small brightly-lit park, and there were even some residents outside casually chatting.

“Huh? Huuuuh?” Jiu Shen had not seen homes or a park earlier. His eyes widened in astonishment. He was absolutely certain that he had entered the forest immediately after passing over the walls. Even if he had not done so, he would never have missed such an obvious landmark.

“The park has people going in and out of it at night. That uphill road ends at the temple, about a twenty-minute walk away. We followed down this path to search for you and spent nearly half an hour.” As Yu Xia said this, he really wanted to punch the guy that had caused trouble and wasted time. If they had not seen the symbols left behind the courtyard and the forest entrance, this idiot would probably have stayed planted in that hole.

“That can’t be…” Jiu Shen stared dazedly at the street, his brain unable to piece together how he had walked over earlier.

“Senior.”

As Jiu Shen’s mind was completely blank, an officer walked out from the forest and rushed over to speak to Yu Xia. Then Yu Xia’s expression changed and he told someone to go bring medical personnel over. The officer ran back into the forest.

Soon after, Xiao Wu and Ah Liu also appeared.

Following that, an ambulance drove over on the road where the houses were. The medical personnel from before directly pulled Jiu Shen on without saying a word and they sped to the hospital.

What in the world is going on?

I really don’t understand!

After being brought to the nearest hospital, Jiu Shen was transferred to the emergency room.

The doctor had done a whole-body inspection and informed him that he just had a few abrasions as well as a light sprain in the ankle. Medication was applied and Jiu Shen was warned to watch out for some things before he was allowed to leave by himself.

Only once he had been treated did he realise that his car and toolkit were still over at the temple. He could only call Ah Liu to request for the latter to drive the car over. Ah Liu huffed back that Jiu Shen should go home and get some proper rest then return to the station to pick up the car tomorrow.

Jiu Shen let out a sigh as he gazed up at the dark sky. When he prepared to call a taxi, he discovered that he was also hungry. Now that he was being kicked out with nothing to do, he recalled that after having run around in a flurry the entire night, he had not eaten anything tonight. Originally, he had wanted to buy some food from a food stall outside after praying at the temple, since he had seen some fried oysters that he really wanted to eat…His mom and Xiao Niao really had sent him photos of fine delicacies. His mom had texted that Xiao Niao had taught her how to take photos and send the photos in SMS…He would definitely strangle Xiao Wu when he went back.

Jiu Shen rummaged through his belongings and found that he fortunately had his wallet. His camera and tools had been passed onto someone else. His uniform jacket had been removed and left next to the forest before and he did not have any other items. It looked like he would have to give an explanation of what had happened today to his mom after going home before he could sleep. Everything else could wait until tomorrow.

Jiu Shen blew out a breath as he felt a twinge of guilt from not only failing to finish work today, but also causing trouble for Yu Xia and the others. He had not seen any reporters follow them out, which meant they had likely expended quite a bit of effort to block those people off. Otherwise, they would have had news unrelated to the case spread out again. He did not know if Ah Liu had actually preserved those drag marks completely. If they could be connected together properly, it was possible that they could locate where the body had been hidden or the initial crime scene. Of course, the latter was best, as it would save them a lot of hassle.

I wonder if they damaged those marks when they walked through the forest….

Right as Jiu Shen was deep in thought, the sudden screeching of brakes rang came from behind him. It gave him a huge fright, and he was also pushed down from the light collision.

“Do you want to die?!”

Following this rebuke, Jiu Shen finally realised that he had unknowingly walked to the middle of the road and had even stood still while contemplating things just now. Fortunately, there were not many cars this late at night. The biker that had raced over had braked very quickly, which was why he had not been sent flying back to the hospital.

“So-sorry!” He hurriedly struggled to crawl up and apologise and noticed that it was a silver motorcycle that had nearly run over him. It was a gorgeous model, with a modified engine and some other changed parts. Its running motor made a beautiful sound. “I’m really sorry!”

The rider got off the bike and removed their helmet in annoyance…it was a girl, which immediately made him think of Xiao Hai, who always went around riding a Wolf motorcycle.

Jiu Shen stared in astonishment at the girl that still seemed to be a minor. She inspected her vehicle up and down before shooting him a furious glare and saying, “Good thing nothing happened. Don’t just stand in the middle of the road, it’s very dangerous! You aren’t a car accident scammer, are you?”

“No, no, I accidentally spaced out. Sorry.” Jiu Shen continued to apologise non-stop, though he was honestly a bit suspicious of how a girl this young could have such a nice ride. Then he immediately refocused his attention. “If anything broke, I can pay…”

“No need, it’s fine. Don’t walk without looking, or else you’ll get run over. This area is very unsafe, and the bike gangs will be out later.”

Despite being angry, the girl still wasn’t a bad person at all, even showing concern for a stranger like him.

Jiu Shen was silently a bit touched. “Thank you. You really are a nice child.”

“Weirdo. Just hurry up and go home.”  The girl picked up the medicine bag on the ground and shoved it into Jiu Shen’s arms. Then she put her helmet back on and got on her bike. After driving it in a circle to confirm there were no issues, she immediately raced out onto the street and left.

Jiu Shen really wanted to chase after her to shout not to drive so quickly, but he ultimately stayed in place as he watched the taillights fade away.

A quiet pop seemed to sound out in the empty air.

“?”

Jiu Shen turned his head but did not see anything there.

***

“Do you see it?”

“Yes, I see it.”

The forest was already sealed off with tape. Ah Liu had been summoned over from the temple and was now holding a flashlight up in the air, which he had dug out a pile of filth in the hole after taking photos. He then turned around to place it into the evidence bag that his teammate had prepared. “Seems like this really is it. Did Jiu Shen truly not notice?” And he still has the shamelessness to conduct searches?

“His flashlight was broken.” Yu Xia shrugged from where he was crouched nearby. “No idea how it happened. Luckily, he stayed stuck cowering in the corner, or else he would’ve accidentally stepped on things he shouldn’t be stepping on. You can beat him senseless when we go back.” He honestly had no idea how that guy had found such a remote and distance place. However, he had also planned to look around after hearing from the temple master that there was a forest, since there had been dirt on the corpse after all. It was highly likely that this nearby forest had some connection.

Ah Liu grabbed Yu Xia’s hand to leave the hole, then patted off the dirt from his clothes. “I just took a closer look, and I think this might actually be where the body was buried. Look here.” He opened his other gloved hand to reveal dirt with a small amount of black clumps in it. It was identical to what had fallen off the body. There was also what looked suspiciously like short and fine black hair.

“When Jiu Shen fell down, this place was definitely still covered.” Before carting that guy away, Yu Xia had already inquired about the situation Jiu Shen had experienced. According to Jiu Shen’s description, this place had looked completely flat when he had arrived. It was only after he had slipped and fallen down that he had crashed straight through the broken soil and down below. The camera held photos of the scene from back then. In other words, at the time, this spot was hollow…

“What tactful way do you think we should use to tell him?” Ah Liu was thinking along the same lines. He gravely met the baby face next to him. “The corpse ran up to the rooftop, and the place where it was originally buried turned empty aside from a thin layer of dirt on top. And he just happened to recklessly step into it.” He could hear the anguished wails next to his ear without even trying to imagine it.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that they had not seen any drag marks.

Before leaving, Jiu Shen had repeatedly made them swear to preserve the traces, but Ah Liu had also gone up to the rooftop and followed Jiu Shen’s trail, yet had not seen these alleged “drag marks”. The rooftop had been beyond clean, with only one or two bird’s nests, whose owners had been alarmed awake by him. But there had not been any drag marks.

Upon turning on Jiu Shen’s camera, they found that the photos inside did not include drag marks either. They were just very ordinary photos, aside from a few where he had set down markers, scale references, and black dots.

“Who cares about him. If he wants to do this line of work, he has to come to terms with things himself!” Yu Xia clicked his tongue in annoyance. If he still needs to consider the possibility of being frightened to death while doing this kind of job, how can he get anything done?  He might as well go become a traffic cop instead!

“Boss, do you think buying some extra snacks to divert his attention would work?” Since they worked in the same area, Ah Liu was starting to consider ways to disperse the other person’s fear.

“He’ll forget as soon as he’s focused. You might as well toss him a bit more work.”

“But then he’ll be overworked to death instead.”

Yu Xia began to grit his teeth as he started to lose patience. “If he’s going to die either way, it’s better for him to die from overwork than to die from fright!”

“…I don’t think either are good.”

Just as Yu Xia was about to reply, he spotted Yan Si in the distance, the latter pulling up the tape to stroll in looking as thought he was just admiring the scenery. As Yan Si floated over towards their direction, the topic of being scared to death vs. overworked to death came to an end…If this idle guy found out, there would be more than just two methods of dying.

“Anything fun?” Yan Si had already parted ways with the corpse already when he had received a call. He had circled back and immediately heard that Jiu Shen had been seized away by an ambulance, which had made him beyond curious about the grand occasion he had missed out on.

“Take a look at this.” Ah Liu accepted the item he had just retrieved and passed it to a certain forensic investigator. They were waiting for a prosecutor to arrive anyways.

Yan Si attentively shone the flashlight on the black lump and felt it around through the sealed bag. “Hm, yep, this should be the stomach of the one that was dried up in three scopes.” Despite it being severely damaged, the knife cuts around it indicated that they were created from the same murder weapon. It looked like the victim had gotten its stomach carved out after dying. Based on the traces, the perpetrator was right-handed.

“So it really is.” Yu Xia had pretty much thought the same thing when he had seen it, so he had asked the officers to expand their search over this area.

Yan Si watched Ah Liu continue to look around and he crossed his arms to glance at Yu Xia next to him. “How has the student that was ganged up on been recently?”

“…I’ve been working overtime this week to the point where I only have two hours every day to rush home and take a shower. What do you think?” Yu Xia coldly returned the look.

“Tsk tsk, you’re not far from heaven.”

A punch landed on Yan Si’s stomach. Yu Xia was determined to make this guy go to heaven first.

“I’m joking, I’m joking.” Yan Si hurriedly hugged his stomach as he dodged to the side. He coughed twice before changing back to the main topic. “My old roommate has been wanting to have a chat with the student that was ganged up on.”

“My brother and Xiao Yu have been talking with him recently. We all thought he was acting strangely for a while before.” Having led the little ones through Zheng Zhong Hui’s case, Yu Xia felt that his observation could not be wrong. Ever since Tan Ya Yun’s and Ye Yi’s cases and that light conversation with Song Hui Chun, Yu Xia had been paying attention to the change.

“Has he gotten his boundaries mixed up?”

“Mm…”

Ultimately, Yu Yin was not the same as them.

He was just an ordinary person that had not gone through the various trainings and mental preparations that they had received. Thus, they had different circumstances. They could only try their best to keep him from coming into contact with the darkest parts. By nature, Yu Yin was a very happy-go-lucky child that was not at all suited to face these types of deceitful hearts. This was why he was repeatedly suffering blows and getting hurt.

Both Yu Xia and Yu Tong had overcome this hurdle very long ago. The young Xiao Wu that had just come out of police academy had similarly gone through this training. No matter how impulsive his actions were, the police officers that shared the same experience as him would help support him too.

Thus, they all knew that there was no need to feel concern for the deceased. They just had to focus their sense of responsibility on doing the things they needed to do.

However, Yu Yin was not the same. While he had always hung around the station since a young age, every time he stepped outside, he would just have fun like a typical student. At first, he had thought that helping their end was interesting and gave a significant sense of achievement. Saving people and resolving cases were great things that made him believe he was doing very well.

But the longer he did it, he began to feel that everything was his responsibility. And likewise, those things believed that he was obligated to help, resulting in them constantly looking for him, to the point where it was round-the-clock.

It was very difficult for him to tell others about these things simply because he could see them, hear them, and do things about them. This was also why he could not divide the responsibility with others.

However, it would not do for him to forget the boundaries.

Just like how they could never let themselves assimilate the deceased’s family no matter how much pity they felt. They could only take everything at face value and help others escape.

This was already exceeding the scope of their best efforts. If they could not make this distinction, they would only feel lost and confused. Wanting to do more for such a reason would not work. It was an unconditional mistake to subconsciously want to compensate for various setbacks by doing more next time, which ultimately would affect their entire life.

The first time Yu Yin had gotten involved with these matters had resulted in him helping Yu, helping many things, and they had all returned the favour, strengthening his faith. Afterwards, he had started to believe that he had to do everything from beginning to end. And then after encountering more incidents, with most of them not having good conclusions, he had kept wanting to do more to counteract the feelings of regret.

But this was wrong.

It was impossible for everything to have perfect endings.

And they did not owe anyone.

Yu Xia did not know what Song Hui Chun’s “gave consent” really meant.

However, he would definitely stop this.

Yu Xia had the vague sense that this was not a good thing. However, he absolutely would not let anyone or anything destroy his family no matter what.

“I must put a stop to it.”

Yan Si indifferently added, “Otherwise, he’ll end up falling apart because of something sooner or later.”

Yu Yin was overestimating himself. In reality, he was just an ordinary person.

He was not a forensic investigator, not a prosecutor, not an investigator, not even a police officer. Just a very average person.

“I know.”

Yu Xia coldly stared at the black sky.

No matter what his son had promised, he would make those ghosts withdraw.

Without fail!

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