YBCB2: V5C6

The chapters in this volume are crazy long. I thought this one was already long, but the next one is even longer and it doesn’t help that all my series seem to have decided to have long chapters at the same time…We’ll see how long it takes me considering my current work schedule makes it near impossible to do anything on weekdays. I did love this chapter though, it definitely made me laugh. And Yi Tai may have just pushed Yan Si back down from my bias list after this chapter.

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

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Chapter Six

Without Jiu Shen realising, it was suddenly almost one.

Having received a second batch of items, Jiu Shen completed various classifications and exchanged progress updates with Ah Liu. Then he buried himself among the objects. As he had expected, Sun Hui Ying’s clothes and shoes really did have some unknown traces that could be recovered. In his concentration, he forgot the time.

“Crap!”

After he hurriedly finished a portion of his work, he frantically ran to the parking lot only to belatedly recall that he still needed to purchase a flower.

“Flower, flower, flower, flower….” A convenience store, convenience store…a convenience store should have Ferrero Rochers, right? I wonder if Ferrero Rochers would work. They can be eaten if people get hungry too.

A chilly wind suddenly blew past. Jiu Shen, who was only focused on finding flowers, suddenly stumbled as though someone had pushed him. He turned his head in bewilderment but there was only darkness behind him.

Goosebumps instantly formed on his skin. Without caring about flowers any longer, Jiu Shen hurriedly crossed the parking lot and squeezed himself into his car at the fastest speed possible. Then he nearly cried out in shock.

A white rose was placed on the front seat.

“Calm down, calm down…everything’s just a coincidence.” Jiu Shen was already starting to feel his stomach start to feel inflamed as he quickly started the car and left the eerie, vacant parking lot. When he drove onto the road, there were still some shops open for business around him. Their bright lights made him feel a bit more at ease.

Nothing occurred on his way home, which allowed him to start forcefully persuading himself that he had actually bought the flower and merely forgotten about it.

“It’s fine, it’s fine…” He took a few deep breaths. When he was nearly about to reach home, he spotted Yuan Zhen Ting in the distance, already waiting outside. The moment Jiu Shen saw him, he lowered the car window, and the latter quickly strode over.

“Holy shit, your car looks pretty good. But I still like motorcycles more; enjoying the night breeze is the best feeling.” Yuan Zhen Ting stuck his upper half in through the window and brightly commented, “I can grab the flower for you first. Hurry up.” Then he grabbed the flower away and went back to his motorcycle to wait.

“That flower…” Jiu Shen did not manage to stop the boy in time. He could only gulp and steel himself as he obediently went over to the bike as told.

“We’re going to have to go a bit far today. If Jiu Shen-gē is tired, you can nap for a bit,” Yuan Zhen Ting kindly offered while passing over a helmet.

“Won’t I fall?” Jiu Shen stared at the 150CC, completely convinced that he could not sleep while hitching a ride.

“I can secure you with a jacket.” Yuan Zhen Ting started the engine and pulled out a thin jacket from the storage compartment. “A friend I used to bring around did the same. Since you have to work in the daytime, hanging out at night would be tiring. No one would laugh at you if you slept for a bit.”

“…I definitely won’t fall asleep.” Being tied was too embarrassing. Jiu Shen inwardly swore to himself that he would stay awake.

After picking up the other person, Yuan Zhen Ting dropped by a convenience store to buy some food and drink before driving onto less busy street at one o’clock.

At first, it was just them. Then, another two or three bikes appeared. Yuan Zhen Ting seemed familiar with this as he greeted the other parties.

As they passed by the next intersection, and then the next, the people gradually increased.

When Jiu Shen had come along the day before, he had found it amazing how despite being a newcomer, every stranger had acted so familiarly. Even though it had been his first time, he had only needed to wave a hand and the others would respond.

Last night, Yuan Zhen Ting had told him that he was fine [to join], as it would be very similar to when everyone had gone out to explore the streets. It was just like saying good evening to a neighbour; anyone that joined along was friendly. They simply did not want to stay at home, which was why they would gather together to wander around as a group.

“There will be more people tonight.” When they entered the mountain area, the number of bikes had already far surpassed what it had been yesterday. They were now an enormous troop. Yuan Zhen Ting greeted a few people, then turned to look back at Jiu Shen. “Some of the old people came after hearing the news too.”

“Mmm.” As Jiu Shen stared at the large number of motorcycles around them, he began to wonder if there would be any trouble. At the moment, there didn’t seem to be any issues. They were not driving too quickly, maintaining the typical faster speed that youths enjoyed.

In any case, he hoped that nothing went wrong. He had yet to be caught by his own people before, but he did not want that to happen. Otherwise, being dragged back would look terrible…

The night wind blowing on them like this really was quite cool and comfortable.

He looked up to gaze at the countless starts dotting the dark sky. Suddenly, he realised that he had never felt this relaxed in a very long time. Since graduating school, he hadn’t ever had the time to just aimlessly do things like this.

It would be great if we could all put down our work someday to go out for fun.

As he spaced out, Jiu Shen unconsciously lowered his head and was shocked to see a shadow underneath the light from the bike. Aside from him and the driver, there was another shadow that had at some point curled around where the pedals were, as though someone was huddled in front.

Jiu Shen took in a sharp breath. Before he could even think, his body automatically reacted.

Yuan Zhen Ting noticed something was amiss when he felt the weight lift from behind. He had only managed to brake when he heard more screeches of urgent braking come from behind him. When he looked back, he discovered that his passenger had fallen from the bike and seemingly crashed into a bike behind them. Yuan Zhen Ting scrambled down his bike and ran back. “Jiu Shen, are you alright?!”

Jiu Shen, whose head was spinning from the fall, was clumsily helped up by several other riders that had gotten off their bikes. “I-I’m fine…” When he had fallen, he had reflexively protected himself. Fortunately, the bike behind had also responded quickly enough, and their collision had been very light.

Am I just fated to be in bike accidents these days?

The frequency was high enough for him to start questioning himself.

“Holy shit, Xiao Yuan, if your friend is too tired to stay awake, you should at least tie him. Good thing we’re not rushed on time today.” A man in his thirties took off his helmet as he spoke with amusement in his voice.

“Yeah, that’s really dangerous.” Several other stopped riders expressed their agreement.

The one riding with the man was a boy that looked to be thirteen or fourteen. He flipped up his visor and glanced backwards. “Did the person driving a car not come?”

“Ah Ke and the others seem to have taken bikes today. Since we’re going ‘there’, everyone tacitly agreed to ride bikes.” Yuan Zhen Ting waved at some of the other riders that were watching the show. Seeing that everything appeared to be fine, most of them dispersed to continue moving forwards first, leaving behind only a few people nearby. “Jiu Shen, if you’re really that tired, don’t refuse out of embarrassment.”

“…I’m fine,” Jiu Shen gasped out. Then he took off his helmet to discover that the visor was shattered, and the surface itself was covered in scratches. “I’m sorry, I’ll buy you a new one tomorrow.” As he spoke, he eyed their motorcycle. The shadow just now was nowhere to be seen; perhaps he had merely imagined it.

“It’s fine as long as you’re unhurt. The helmet’s not important.” Yuan Zhen Ting patted Jiu Shen’s shoulder, still somewhat concerned. “Seriously, why don’t I tie you?”

“No need, I’m wide awake.” Actually, he hadn’t fallen because he had been sleeping at all. Jiu Shen realised that he could nothing but suffer in silence, unable to say anything. Now, he suddenly kind of understood Yu Yin’s struggles. “Let’s just hurry and go. The others are already quite far.”

“…Are you really okay?” Yuan Zhen Ting doubtfully studied the other person for a while before finally climbing back onto the motorcycle.

Jiu Shen stared at the bike. Honestly, going back on it was the last thing he wanted to, but the riders around them had all started to move again as well. He could only suck it in and jump onto the bike.

“I’ll lend you this.” The boy stopped next to them took off his MP3 player and passed it to Jiu Shen. “Listening to some music will keep you more awake.”

Jiu Shen originally accepted it quite gratefully. However, the moment he heard the music come from the earbuds, he immediately returned the small device back.

It is 1:13 AM. That was a broadcast request from listener Little Sheep…

***

“The place we’re heading to now might be a bit stricter.”

Perhaps to keep Jiu Shen awake, Yuan Zhen Ting suddenly spoke up from the front seat. “Jiu Shen won’t be able to meet him anymore, but this bike gang exists because of him.”

“…A convener?” Jiu Shen carefully asked as he kept his eyes fastened firmly onto the back of Yuan Zhen Ting’s head. He refused to look anywhere else.

“In a way. At the beginning, it was just that no one wanted to go home and wandered around aimlessly. At some point, we began to gather together and we’d end up watching out for each other no matter where we went. There was never any objective; we’d just come here without fail whenever we didn’t want to go home.” Yuan Zhen Ting paused for a moment and opened his visor to enjoy the cool night breeze. “And I’m not sure why, but everyone believed that he was the convener. Because no matter when it was, he would always be there, despite looking like a dropout back then.”

“A senior high student?”

“That’s what my guess was. When I first met him in the past, he didn’t seem that old, and when I got to know him, he was still younger than I am now. It seems like he just recently turned of age. In any case, everyone’s goal was just to roam around outside, so no one would actively ask about another’s background…I never asked you what you do either, since none of it is important.”

Jiu Shen thought about it; that did indeed seem to be the case. He pulled the subject back, “So we’re going to see that person now?”

“Yes…he’s not here anymore.”

Jiu Shen was momentarily stunned, but quickly sensed that there was something off about the situation. “He’s dead?”

“Though that’s the guess, no one has seen his body.” Yuan Zhen Ting turned into a narrow mountain path and avoided a large rock to drive the bike down an abandoned road. There was a loud roar as he began to drive upwards. They were close to their destination. “The police said he died from excessive blood loss, but we still don’t know what happened.”

Jiu Shen only felt the inside of his head explode. He raised his head to stare at the many motorcycles circling around the abandoned temple in the darkness.

—Isn’t that the wronged victim from Boss’s case?!

The empty temple courtyard had a ton of dark marks and some remaining tag symbols. Jiu Shen did not need to look closely to know what those rubbed off symbols represented.

Oh yeah, we haven’t publicised information about the body yet, and we privately sought out Lin Yu Ji’s mother. At the time, we asked them not to say anything, so the public only knows about an unidentified male corpse. Nothing has been linked together yet.

“Nonono, not everything in this world can be a coincidence…”

“Are you talking to me?” Yuan Zhen Ting seemed to hear a very quiet voice speak up behind him. Having arrived at their destination, he stopped the bike.

“No, you can ignore me.” Jiu Shen peered into the eerie darkness of the abandoned temple. Even though they were surrounded by several dozen bikes that lit up the area with headlights, Jiu Shen still barely suppressed the urge to run for his life.

He kept feeling like there was something invisible in the darkness.

Perhaps due to his professional instinct, Jiu Shen used the numerous motorcycle headlights to survey the building and their location, even if it wasn’t very clear.

This was a very common private temple. The empty lot in front could be used for parking or for events, as it was laid with cement. Since it had not been renovated in a long time, some of the damaged parts already had weeds growing from them. There were quite a few piles of junk at the corners, as well as a few half-destroyed incense burners that had been blown down by the wind.

The main temple building was half cement and half metal, and three stories tall. The doors and windows had long since lost their glass, and the walls were covered in graffiti. There wasn’t anything much taking up the space inside. The large god statue had been knocked over ages ago, and was covered in paint as well. The large incense burner outside had a half-burnt tire stuck inside it. In addition, there were a few gold papers scattered around inside. It looked extremely bizarre.

The wall next to the front entrance had the words “Repay Debt” written in bloodred paint, which explained why the temple was so tattered.

The bloodstains were on the left side of the door.

Yuan Zhen Ting walked over and placed the flowers next to the bloodstains. Then he strode off to the side to take a call. There were many flowers there; clearly, today was the special day for the missing person.

Although Jiu Shen did not want to touch the white flower, he shakily placed it down under everyone’s watch, then fled far away to observe.

“Did Song Ou come?” The man behind them asked while looking around.

“Might be late. I haven’t seen him yet. He said he’s rushing back from outside the county…”

There were quite a few people in the bike gang that knew each other, so they would flock in groups to chat. Some immediately left after leaving flowers, and soon a majority of people had left. Only a portion remained.

Jiu Shen took a few deep breaths and shot a glance at Yuan Zhen Ting, who was now speaking with the man that had talked earlier. The other person had no intention of leaving, so he could only mentally prepare himself before circling around the temple.

At the moment, they already knew that the motorcycle from this case belonged to Lin Yu Ji. When the bike had been discovered, there had been only a large pool of blood, the amount fatal. Soon after, they had found the deceased’s body. Not only did it have traces of abuse, but excessive murder as well. The body had some processed blade wounds, and they had no idea what the true significance behind those were.

When he had placed the flower down earlier, he had noticed that this was likely the first crime scene. That large patch of blood showed signs of falling while being moved. Perhaps the deceased had still been determined to leave this place before dying, but ultimately collapsed in the blood pool. There were drops and tire tracks nearby, so a bike should have been used to move the corpse somewhere else to deal with.

After circling around, he found that there was not actually anything useful outside.

Jiu Shen raised his head to gaze up at the dark roof of the temple. Then, with extreme reluctance, he went towards the pitch-black inner region of the building.

When he glanced behind him, he saw that Yuan Zhen Ting was still chatting. The boy that had lent him the MP3 player earlier was sitting on the bike and listening to music. Jiu Shen did not recognise the others at all. There were some wearing helmets so he could not see their faces.

His eyes turned towards the inner area of the building that was darker since it was further from the headlights. The first thing Jiu Shen spotted was the giant god statue fallen onto the ground. It was four or five times larger than an adult. Half its face was covered in various paints that made his skin crawl. He could already feel the goosebumps forming all over his body, and his legs were even starting to tremble a bit.

“It-it’s fine…there definitely can’t be that many unscientific things…” Jiu Shen tried his best to console himself. He took out his handheld flashlight and slowly left the other people’s lines of sight to move towards the side away from the door. He nearly got a heart attack from the rustling sounds of stepping on garbage bags along the way.

As he entered the second floor and entered the main part of the building, he found that there was light shining into the vacant space. He could even hear the clamour of noise, which put him much more at ease. Although the inside looked very creepy, there were at least many people outside, and he could flee there whenever.

Taking in a deep breath, Jiu Shen rubbed his face to wipe off the cold sweat and began to inspect the interior.

Everything had either been moved away or destroyed. However, he could tell that the incense burner had been used extensively in the past. When he lifted his head, he could see the burnt ceiling boards. The temple hall had a few carved pillars that had been damaged, and the shoeprints across the floor indicated that there had been quite a few people coming in and out recently…likely his colleagues that had come to survey the area, or other night excursion people. In any case, this scene had already been damaged to a certain extent. He could only guess what might have occurred based on the remains.

There was a corridor behind the hall that connected to a side building in the back. It appeared to be a private residence, as there were some broken furniture and trash scattered across the ground.

Jiu Shen scratched his head. It seemed as though he would have to first request for the records from his colleague’s previous investigation.

He held the flashlight with his teeth as he took out a notebook to sketch the general layout of the room. Then he used his cellphone to snap a few photos, before finally turning the beam towards the rear staircase.

There were indistinct drag marks in the layers of dust near the staircase. These had similarly been destroyed.

Jiu Shen noticed that these tracks had similarly been marked by his colleagues. This trail continued up the staircase. When he shone his light upwards, he saw that there was quite a bit of graffitied art and words on the walls next to the stairs. The styles were different, which made it look like people had left them at different times. However, putting these aside, the most conspicuous part of the wall was the unevenly scattered, blurry handprints. They were dark, and he was certain that they were bloodstains.

Since he did not have his toolkit, he could not examine them right then. However, they were so distinct that they must have been sampled and brought back. Thus, he just passed by these and directly walked up the stairs to pass through the second floor and head straight up to the top level.

Since the headlights did not reach the top, it was entirely black. He could only make things out with his weak flashlight beam.

Jiu Shen wedged the crooked, deformed metal door to prop it open, then went in a small circle and stopped right above the bloodstains below.

From here, he could see the chaotic traces: the bent railing and the scattered drops of blood on the ground. These all indicated that people had brawled here, and quite intensely…the report had been accurate. If the bloodstains downstairs had tested positive to belong to the same person, even Jiu Shen would conclude that this person had died as well.

He could practically see it: the group of youngsters fighting out here, then someone escaping to the first floor before eventually getting captured. The other people had lost their minds and relentlessly kicked the victim’s abdomen. While lying there and gazing up at the dark sky, the victim had taken his last breath. Then he had been stabbed, all the blood in his body leaving him, and his body had gradually turned stiff and cold.

But what Jiu Shen found suspicious was: in this kind of place, how could a passerby just happened to have come across the scene and reported it to the police at the time they had done it?

By the time the police had arrived, there had been no signs of people. Only the blood and a motorcycle.

When I got back…I’ll borrow the file from Ah Liu and take a look.

He shone the beam towards the railing and saw that it had a few drops of blood on it too.

This is…

Bang—

A loud sound interrupted his train of thought, and Jiu Shen completely froze.

The door to the top floor that had been properly wedged open earlier slammed shut. His flashlight suddenly went out in the completely breezeless space.

 

His heartbeat was very loud in the darkness.

Jiu Shen gripped the flashlight that would not light up at all and anxiously scanned the dark top level. Then he slowly moved over to try opening the door.

A faint noise came from behind him, on the left side.

He clearly could not see anything, but he could acutely hear something grabbing the railing outside as the rusty railing made an unnatural clacking noise. Then a dragging sound moved upwards, the railing shaking as well. And it continued to move upwards…Something was climbing up the outer walls using the bars.

The clamour from the motorcycles and discussions downstairs was very loud. However, Jiu Shen‘s surroundings were now abnormally quiet. It was to the point where he could clearly hear the movement outside the rails and his own quickening heartbeat.

Then, the flashlight suddenly turned back on without warning. In alarm, Jiu Shen reflexively threw the flashlight. The instant it left his hand, he knew he was screwed, so he frantically tried to pick back up his sole light source.

Then he saw it.

Under the illumination of the faint beam, a shadow appeared on the floor.

Jiu Shen shot backwards, his body bumping into the wall as he stared fearfully at the humanoid shadow on the ground. The flashlight was pointed away, and he realised that the railing had stopped making noise. A complete human silhouette was now on the ground, though there was nothing in the space above. Then, the figure slowly neared him, vanishing again as it left the perimeter of the flashlight beam.

However, Jiu Shen knew that the thing would definitely come over.

He really wanted to escape…Would jumping down from this height kill me?

Unhappy memories of being the darkness suddenly popped into his head. He recalled when he had previously been locked in the trunk of the car, where it had been narrow, stuffy, and dark while something unknown had watched him.

The scar on his left hand began to throb.

His entire body was so tense that he felt like throwing up.

Then a sharp pain shot through his head. It seemed like very long ago, there had been another incident in the dark…

“I…can’t see…don’t know how to help…”

An ice-cold chilly passed through the back of his head.

Only when his vision spun and went black did Jiu Shen notice that he had at some begun to hold his breath, nearly suffocating to death.

Then he heard a click, and the flashlight on the ground spun around twice to shine onto a shadow that jumped out onto the bars. Then, it disappeared.

He did not know if it had left or not, but the air around him no longer seemed as sinister. Then Jiu Shen heard an extremely loud honk. It was the sound of many motorcycles simultaneously blaring their horns; a chaotic jumble of noise that was both deafening and piercing.

He suddenly realised that the noise downstairs seemed a bit unnatural.

Jiu Shen hurriedly picked up his flashlight and ran out to the rails. He saw that at some point, multiple modified motorcycles had somehow appeared, and the people had clearly come with ill intent. They had surrounded Yuan Zhen Ting and the others that had stayed behind, provoking them by honking at them.

Glancing backwards, he saw that the slammed door had opened without him realising…actually, it didn’t look as though it had ever shut. Jiu Shen was silent for two seconds, but then fled down the stairs and ran straight out through the side door to regroup with the gang.

A bunch of motorcycles on their surrounded side had also appeared. For some reason, Jiu Shen felt that one of them looked a bit familiar. But before he could ponder it carefully, he was dragged over by Yuan Zhen Ting.

“Where did you run off to?” Yuan Zhen Ting rolled his eyes, then shoved Jiu Shen towards the boy from earlier. “Forget it. There’s some trouble right now, but you guys just need to stay out of it.”

Jiu Shen exchanged a look with the boy. There were some frightened youngsters that were being protected in the back as well. The motorcycles had directly circled them, with the riders not backing down as they vamped their throttles to respond to the provocation.

The gang of modified bikes finally stopped blaring their horns after a while. Then, a blonde youth without a helmet sneered at them from the middle, his lip ring glinting with his curved mouth. “Who’s leading now?”

Jiu Shen surveyed the guy that was likely the leader of the gang. He was around seventeen or eighteen, and he had a bunch of piercings on his face that looked quite painful. But what drew his attention was their getup and the modified bike: the graphic print clothes, the expensive combat boots, and the swapped-out engine with the roaring exhaust pipes.

The youth grabbed a metal rod from a companion with an insolent grin. Then he knocked it against the ground twice. “Who’s leading you guys now?”

The people in the group looked at each other. Then someone wearing an all-black helmet with a dark visor blocking their face strode out. Their helmet had very eye-catching silver lining.

“Great! Now that Lin Yu Ji isn’t here anymore, I’ll ask you to hand the person over.” Several people on bikes with silencers removed came out from the modified bike gang to surround the one wearing a black helmet.

Seeing this scene, Jiu Shen grew worried and immediately sent a secret text to the station to request for help.

“Wait a minute, do you kids just have nothing better to do?” The man in his thirties suddenly slammed down on the accelerator to directly drive over to stand in front of the black-helmeted person while also shoving aside the bikes that were pressed too closely. Then he shouted, “We all go wherever we want. Don’t come looking to cause trouble with us! Fuck you damn brats that just leech off your parents. Trust me, I’ll definitely make sure you all become scraps for everyone to take home!”

“Oho, how scary. A working adult.” The people from the modified-bike gang hooted in laughter. “C’mon! Beat them! Beat them until they hand the person over!”

Then, a brawl broke out.

 

“Stop fighting, stop fighting!”

Seeing someone charging over, Jiu Shen smoothly grabbed their wrist and flipped them over to secure them against the ground. “Don’t fight!”

Then the boy next to him pulled out a wooden bat from somewhere and knocked out the youth.

“…” Jiu Shen stared at the earphones-wearing boy and silently stood up. Before he could reprimand the child for joining the fight, a metal rod came flying over. He could only steel himself and grab another person to restrain them. Without even speaking, the person was knocked out by the boy next to him again.

Yuan Zhen Ting let out a whistle of admiration. “I’ll hand the rest to you, Jiu Shen.”

“Oh, sure…Wait no, don’t hand them to me! All of you, stop fighting!”

In the end, Jiu Shen found that his voice was tragically not enough to override the chaotic rumbles from the bikes, the whirr of the engines, the honks, and the angry shouts from the brawl.

Amidst the mess, he saw the black-helmeted rider coolly dealing with it all. His skill was simply beyond amazing, to the point where he could even knock someone down from their bike. It was not quite the same as Boss’s violent one-hit-KO, but watching this person was satisfying nontheless.

The rider that had been driving the black-helmeted guy quickly began to assist as well, and they immediately dealt with quite a few people.

Jiu Shen, who had been basically spaced out while watching, suddenly felt a sharp pain on his shoulder. He instantly snapped out of his daze and grabbed hold of the metal rod that was about to strike down again, then kicked aside the attacking amateur kid.

Why are the police so slow?!

Jiu Shen watched the chaotic brawl unfolding before his eyes. He was honestly a bit dumbstruck as someone that had never participated in a group fight before in his entire life. However, whenever he tried to shout at them to stop, no one heard it. He had taken a few hits in the fight, and he needed to protect the boy next to him too. It was in times like these that he began feel regret that Yu Xia was not with him. Boss would definitely be able to level everything in ten moves.

Then, the black-helmet person whistled, and the bike gang all started their motorcycles under tacit agreement to force their way out.

“What are you spacing out there for! Hurry up and get on!”

Before Jiu Shen could even figure out what was going on, the man closest to him knocked him on the head and then forcibly pulled him onto the backseat. With the roar of the throttle, they began to charge out.

Jiu Shen suddenly spotted Yuan Zhen Ting pulling the boy – who had been scattered a ways off by the fight – onto his bike too. They followed the motorcycle formation out.

The bike collision had resulted in him getting a few hits on his hands and feet, but they ultimately did end up breaking out from the encirclement.

Jiu Shen watched some other people race out intermittently before everyone dispersed off separately. He did not know why the modified-bike gang did not chase after them, instead remaining held up in the empty lot in front of the temple.

“Fucking hell, he really was right!” After racing out a distance, the man roared out, “Shit! They really did come looking for trouble today!”

“Oi, oi, oi! The others are fine, right?!” Jiu Shen clutched onto the other person’s jacket. He had the feeling that speeding down the mountain path this quickly was really too dangerous.

“Don’t worry, we were one of the last to leave.” The man bent down and continued to drive for a while before finally stopping and waiting for Yuan Zhen Ting and the boy to catch up behind. “Wen Ou. That little one is my son, Wen You Heng. Bro, you’re quite good at fighting. You aren’t trained in it, are you?”

Aside from being beaten by Yu Xia, it’s just basic training…Jiu Shen laughed dryly, “It’s nothing really, just self-defence.”

“Come over to my place and eat a late-night meal with us. Seriously, we finally come out once after all this time, and we end up running into that kind of situation. Good thing the police didn’t come. I wouldn’t have wanted to sleep at the police station tonight.”

Good thing the police didn’t come…or else I’d probably have become the first ever investigator to be seized and brought back to the station…

But why didn’t the police come?

Jiu Shen suspiciously pulled out his cellphone and found that it had actually turned off. The screen was completely dark, and when he switched it back on, there was no record of having sent any text. He had no idea if it had failed to send or what.

No wonder the police didn’t arrive.

After a while, Yuan Zhen Ting caught up. Jiu Shen and Wen You Heng swapped seats, and the two bikes headed down the mountain in line.

“Xiao Wen is the kid that Da Wen had while still underage. Apparently his partner was an older woman, but his wife later died from cancer.” Yuan Zhen Ting said with unknown intentions, “Da Wen used to be pretty reckless, but now he’s running a small noodle shop. He only brings Xiao Wen out to explore with him occasionally.”

“I see.” Jiu Shen nodded and pulled down his visor. The other person had likely mentioned this to him first so that he wouldn’t end up rudely asking. However, Yuan Zhen Ting appeared to be quite close with them. After all, just recently, he had mentioned that they didn’t inquire about each other’s backgrounds.

The moment Jiu Shen relaxed a bit, he felt pain coming from his limbs, shoulders and back. That bike-racing gang just now had basically come at them mercilessly, not holding back in the slightest. When he pulled his sleeves up, he saw that his skin was bruised and swollen. The only thing worth celebrating was that he had not gotten struck on the face. Otherwise, a bunch of people would end up worrying over him if he went to the station tomorrow with his head swollen like a pig’s.

Yuan Zhen Ting sitting in front of him was pretty much the same. His face and body were covered in injuries as well.

Da Wen’s noodle shop was actually not located very far away. It was near East Sea. After taking a few shortcuts, it was early morning by the time they returned.

Xiao Wen jumped off the bike and pressed the doorbell. Someone soon answered the door.

The instant the door opened, Jiu Shen’s eyes widened. A very familiar face appeared; one that he had seemingly just seen somewhere recently.

The person that opened the door was another boy, fifteen or sixteen years old. He looked to have been woken up, as there was sleepiness on his face.

“You guys are back.”

***

A green-haired youth fell hard onto the ground with a heavy punch.

After confirming that most of the bike gang had scattered, the person wearing the black helmet had knocked down the riders that had charged over, causing the other’s modified motorcycle to turn over. The wheels roaring loudly in midair from the push of the accelerator quickly drew everyone’s attention.

“All of you, stop.”

The person wearing the helmet did not speak very loudly, but it was not quiet either. In that moment of silence, practically every person heard it.

The person took off his helmet, his clean face sweeping a glance towards the bloodstains with hidden intentions. Then his eyes shifted back to focus on the already restructured bike gang, in addition to the two young groups that stood against them. He let out a sigh and tossed the helmet backwards, which landed perfectly in his friend’s hands behind him. “Whoever is the leader, come out and speak.”

The remaining riders from the gang slowly gathered behind him. Neither side was really in a favourable position. Though many of them had been wounded in action, there were more people from the modified-bikes gang lying on the ground in pain.

The blonde from the beginning strode out. “Tch, where are you from? Your judgment isn’t bad.”

“Yi Tai.”

The blonde was taken aback for half a beat after this name was reported. He had more or less heard of Yi Tai’s name before. Moreover, he was not the only one; the bike-racing gang that he had brought with him started to chat among themselves too.

“…No wonder.” The blonde coldly chuckled and concealed his brief unease just now. Then he twisted the ring on his finger. “I’m not looking to cause trouble for you. Lin Yu Ji owes me a person, and I must find that guy.”

“It doesn’t matter who you are looking for. If you touch any person from that bike troop, you’ll be picking a fight with me.” Yi Tai’s voice was cold and hardened as he commanded, “Bring your people back. Otherwise, don’t blame me if I settle accounts with you.”

“Who do you think you are to say that? Huh?!” The green-haired rider that was irritated by the goody-two-shoes student in front of him leapt over and directly grabbed Yi Tai by the collar to shout at him.

Yi Tai merely tilted his head to the side and nearly instantaneously broke free of the other’s grip. Then before the mohawk-head could even react, Yi Tai yanked the rider down by their collar, their head cleanly meeting the blow from his knee.

Ah Fang could hear the very painful-sounding strike despite standing some distance away.

The mohawk-head was tossed aside, left rolling around the ground while clutching his face. Blood leaked out from between his fingers, dripping onto the ground as he moved about.

“We’re talking right now. Unqualified people shouldn’t interrupt.” Yi Tai’s tone remained level. Ignoring the expressions of shock and fury that the opposite party wore, he looked directly at the blonde. “Are you retreating or not?”

A sinister, malicious intent appeared on the blonde’s face. “Fuck, I’ll just give you face today. But we’ll definitely get our hands on that brat!” He viciously spat, then turned his bike around to shout at the people behind, “Forget charging! We’re changing routes!”

The modified-bike gang loudly changed direction. Quite a few of them spat in their direction before haughtily leaving.

“You’re not injured, are you?” Ah Fang went up to ask after seeing that most of the people had dispersed.

“I’m fine.” Yi Tai shifted his eyes away to focus on a rider walking towards them. The helmet was removed to reveal another familiar face.

“Holy crap, what the hell were you guys trying to do tonight?” Ah Guan, who had been dragged out by a few friends to join in on the night excursion, had not expected to run into this kind of situation at all. He was a bit dumbstruck as he stared at his schoolmates. “Good thing Ah Yin didn’t join too. If he had gotten hit in the fight, Li Lin Yue would’ve strangled me.” The woman had forbidden the drinking buddies to disturb her friends.

“He’s busy with his own matters. Don’t ask him out to places like these for the time being.” Yi Tai smiled and told the other person, “You too.”

Seeing Ah Guan’s perplexed expression, Ah Fang added, “It’s not a great time to be going out at night these days. The person leading this gang disappeared recently, but before going missing, he seems to have asked Yi Tai to help look after his gang. That’s why we’ve been hanging around here recently. There have been a few fragmented clashes, but tonight’s was the biggest one.”

“The leader is Yi Tai’s friend?” Ah Guan raised a brow. He hadn’t imagined Yi Tai would manage a friend’s bike gang, as he thought Yi Tai’s scope was just around the campus. Although he had heard of Yi Tai helping settle other matters before, this was beyond what he had expected.

“Not exactly…honestly speaking, I didn’t know Yi Tai had such an acquaintance…”

“That makes sense, because I don’t know him.”

Ah Fang and Ah Guan turned to face their classmate practically in unison. The person being stared at was smiling as usual, completely ignoring the astonished pairs of cow eyes. “I do not know the leader of this bike gang. I simply received a text requesting for me to watch over it for a bit.”

Ah Fang was completely speechless. “…You ran around like this just because of that kind of reason? Because a stranger sent you a text?” He knew that Yi Tai had been roaming way more recently. Because he had been worried about his friend’s vision, he had insisted on forbidding the other from riding motorcycles alone. Thus, he had been forced to spend a lot of time riding around with his friend. Moreover, Yi Tai had never brought it up, so Ah Fang had never specifically asked about it either…which was why he had thought this was to help an acquaintance the entire time.

“Yes.” Yi Tai smiled as he gave a response that made Ah Fang want to vomit blood a hundred times over.

“So you don’t know who they’re searching for either?” After listening in, Ah Guan began to feel great pity for Ah Fang.

“Yes, I’m not certain what the searching or protecting people he talked about means. The text I received from the leader did not mention all the issues. I was a bit suspicious about how he got his hands on my phone number.” Yi Tai continued to smile as he waved at some of the motorcycles for them to leave. “However, there are occasionally people from our school that join, so I figured it wasn’t a big deal to help him watch over it anyways.”

Ah Fang was completely lost.

“Has he bothered the students in our school before?” Because he had been busy from morning to night every day for the graduation exhibition, Ah Guan had actually not gone to those rogue gatherings. As a result, he wasn’t hearing news as quickly.

“They have. Didn’t the school recently announce for everyone not to loiter around when heading home and to watch out for bike-racing gangs?” As Ah Fang snapped out of his stupor, he coughed and said, “Some of our night school students would be surrounded by some stray bikes when heading home and then they’ll suddenly get beaten until their bones are broken without even knowing why.”

“I see.” Ah Guan nodded as he pondered whether to grab a few people to help keep a watch around the campus.

“In the end, by the time the police caught that group of people, their limbs had already been broken too. And they refused to say why.” Ah Fang glanced at his friend next to him as he added this point on his own.

“…” Ah Guan went silent and decided not to ask further about what had occurred to those people.

“Anyways, just be a bit more careful. There’s no knowing whether they’ll come stirring up trouble with the students again.”

Ah Fang watched Ah Guan and the others leave. Then he walked over with his bike while recalling a certain person he had glimpsed amidst the mess earlier. “By the way, I feel like I happened to spot someone I know, but I’m not sure if I was just imagining it…”

“If you suspect it, why not go and directly confirm?” Yi Tai smiled as he took the black helmet.

“What?”

“Those people from earlier give me a very bad feeling. It seems as though the matter won’t come to an end this smoothly. Let’s head over to Da Wen’s home to take a look.” If Yi Tai wasn’t mistaken, there were several people from the bike-racing gang pretending to be the normal bikers before he had stopped them. They had then left with the normal bikers, so it appeared as though they were targeting someone.

As a result, he believed there was a need to make another trip.

“…Let’s go then.” Ah Fang had completely given up on trying to ask for the reason.

In any case, they would know when they arrived.

***

“Here, sorry for the wait.”

Jiu Shen sat at the small table and looked down at the steaming noodles that had just been placed there. His stomach began to growl immediately.

After cooking the bowl of noodles, Da Wen wiped his hands as he called his visitors over to eat first before they finished applying first-aid on themselves. “There were only the leftover ingredients in the shop to use. You can all just eat this simple meal for now, and we can go out and grab breakfast later.” Looking at the time, the breakfast stores nearby would soon open as well. After dealing with all the hassle tonight, they deserved to eat a bit more to recuperate.

“It smells great.” After Jiu Shen caught the whiff of the naturally made meat broth, he began to heartily dig in.

“Our shop orders a large amount of pig bones to boil for soup every day. The green onions and braised pork were made by myself using my mom’s secret recipe. There’s no MSG in it, and one bowl is only 25 NT.” Xiao Wen told Jiu Shen next to him, “Simple foods are the most delicious. Make sure to invite friends to support.”

“Oh, sure.” Jiu Shen hurriedly nodded.

“Xiao Xu, could you help bring out the drinks from the fridge?” Da Wen turned to speak to the other boy and sat down at the table as well.

The boy hummed in agreement and ran over with a bunch of canned drinks in his arms.

“Your older son?” Jiu Shen casually asked as he looked at the two boys that did not share any resemblance.

“Oh, that’s Xiao Wen’s online friend. Because some things happened, he’s now staying at our place.” Da Wen easily introduced, “Huang Xu Guang, he…”

“Pfft!” Jiu Shen choked on his noodles and began to cough furiously.

—He was really starting to feel the presence of the gods!

Is this the world that Ah Yin lives in? It’s terrifying!

Is it really possible to go out on a night excursion and run into so many “coincidences”?! This is completely unscientific! Am I actually fast asleep in the lab…and this is all really just a dream?

“Cough, cough…”

“Are you alright?” Yuan Zhen Ting, who had been typing on his phone, came over to help pour Jiu Shen a glass of water. “Who eats noodles like you do?”

This has nothing to do with eating noodles!

Jiu Shen had no way of voicing his predicament. He could only silently accept the water and begin to contemplate how to reveal his identity and bring the boy back with him to the station. But if he said it now, he might end up getting beaten. He could tell that people like Da Wen didn’t particularly like mixing with the police.

What do I do?

Looks like it’s better if I go back and report to Boss first and have them come out instead.

As Jiu Shen was planning on pretending to go the bathroom and sending a text, he instead heard the roars of multiple modified engines circling outside Da Wen’s home.

“Holy shit, they followed us here.” Da Wen cursed as he glanced out the window. “There’s nothing else we can do now. Xiao Wen, you guys go call the police.”

“Ok.” Xiao Wen dragged Huang Xu Guang into a room while pulling out his cellphone.

“Jiu Shen, you go and hide out a bit too. Those people are trying to pick a fight with us.” Yuan Zhen Ting counted the modified motorcycles outside as he said, “Lock the room and block the door with something so that they don’t break in.”

“Oh, okay.” Jiu Shen ran in while secretly sending a text to Yu Xia to send assistance over.

Inside the room, Xiao Wen shot him a look. “They’re here for Xiao Xu. If they break in, you should run away by yourself. My dad can’t protect so many people at the same time.”

Jiu Shen scratched his head, uncertain of how to explain. He could only scan their surroundings, then opened the closet in the room and emptied it out. Fortunately, the two boys were on the skinnier side, so there was enough space. “You two hide in here.” For some reason, he felt that there was something strange [about the whole thing].

After stuffing the children inside, Jiu Shen was about to block the entrance. However, he heard a knocking on the window instead.

He turned his head but there was nothing outside.

Right as he was about to continue his plan, he heard another string of knocking noises from the window. Then he saw multiple round prints suddenly materialise on the pane…

“Ahhhhhhhh—!” Don’t come after me while I’m already suffering!

Jiu Shen was on the verge of crying and he nearly ran into the wall again. He quickly took a few deep breaths. “Hang in there, hang in there…” Now isn’t the time to be doing these things!

With a bang, something rammed into the door. It was followed by multiple shouts, hoots, and many people striking the door with rods. The disturbance reached the sleeping neighbours too, though no one dared to come out and check on the situation.

“Come out!”

“All of you, come out right now!”

The booming engines vibrated the air, and it was abnormally loud even inside the room.

Crap, the entire gang didn’t come over, did they?

Jiu Shen was just about to move the bed over to block the door when something suddenly yanked his foot back. Caught completely unprepared, he crashed down miserably onto the floor. For a moment, he only saw stars. Before he could figure out what had happened, he heard an unnatural shattering sound. Something broke through the window, and all the windows in the room subsequently exploded, the shards flying out and littering the floor.

From the corner of his eye, Jiu Shen spotted multiple small holes on the walls around him, and chills immediately ran through his body. Then a petrol bomb was thrown inside—I really hate analysing those! Bastards! Those goddamn brats!

Before the bottle could explode and burn down the room, Jiu Shen raced over to pick up the flaming bottle and tossed it back out.

“Hothothot—” He shook his hand that now had a few burns, but fortunately he had made it in time. Jiu Shen stamped out the flame and saw quite a few of the bike-racing gang outside in the streets, still shouting at him.

Then he spotted that green-haired boy whip out another glass bottle, light the cloth stuffed inside, and toss it back over.

Before the bottle flew inside, Jiu Shen heard a very faint whimpering sound. Goosebumps rose on his skin as he felt that gaze appear again, except there were multiple of them now—

As he was thinking about how he now had enemies on both sides, the petrol bomb suddenly made a thud in midair, bumping into something unknown. Then it fell and smashed down onto the asphalt road and burst into flames that fiercely began to spread.

“Ah.” Jiu Shen was stunned as he stared at the shadow reflected by the light from the fire. It seemed to be the figure of a girl, but it vanished again with the light.

Right as he was about to tell Xiao Wen and Huang Xu Guang to take this chance and escape, Jiu Shen spotted the green-haired boy pull out a gun…That gun looks so familiar…ah, no! This isn’t the time to be thinking about that!

He leapt away from the window. The fired bullet struck the wall behind him, and the bike-racing gang below began to shout loudly once again.

If he was shot another time, his mom would definitely strangle him.

Ah, actually, I might end up getting beaten to death by Boss before that.

Right as Jiu Shen was starting to lament over this, he heard another wave of noise from the distance. It cut straight over, and the commotion from the bike-racing gang immediately stopped. And in the distance, he could hear police sirens, likely the local station rushing over after receiving the report…The local police won’t be beaten by the bike-racing gang, right?

As Jiu Shen was considering their numbers, he heard miserable screams. Moreover, they sounded like they were coming from the bike-racing gang. The sounds and attacks from outside the window came to a halt. Then came a very familiar voice that made him plead mercy from Buddha—

“Fuck! You amateurs that have nothing better to do have the guts to try killing someone? Damn brats! I swear on my name that if I don’t send you all running back crying to your parents today, I’ll write my own name backwards!”

---

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