YBCB2: V7C4

Releases will be a bit slow since my health hasn’t been the best recently.

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

Previous             Index              Next

---

Chapter Four

“It really would be difficult for a senior high student to commit such a crime.”

Ah Liu read through the case file in his hand while chewing on his breakfast sandwich and shooting glances at his friend collapsed on the break room couch, engaging in a battle to the death with sleep. “Not only in terms of intelligence, but in other respects too.”

“Right…Plus the time of death was during the third period in the afternoon, when all the students, including Dong Feng, were in class. While this student was suspected of skipping class, the group of ruly students that hung out with him confirmed they had been hiding around the school’s back wall to smoke. The police also collected the cigarette stubs, and the head instructor said they had discovered the students smoking and forced them to run.” Jiu Shen had picked up the sample of cigarette butts from the case as well. He flipped over so that he was laying on his stomach. “That case is really sick. At first, I was wondering how the blood could have spread to the front entrance, but then I saw on the inspection report notes that the blood outside the front door wasn’t human blood at all, but dog blood. The killer even brought dog’s blood just to cover the entire entryway with the sickening intention of wanting others to find it.” He could not fathom what kind of stalker could come up with something so twisted.

Actually, even after seeing so many cases over the years, he still could not understand the reasons the perpetrators of these horrifying crimes could do something so inhumane. It honestly made Jiu Shen wonder why humans couldn’t just peacefully coexist in life together. There were always good people torn to shreds by all these awful chain of events, yet the bad people did not seem to feel any sorrow for it.

Even if the bad people repented after many years, it couldn’t possibly heal the wounds they had inflicted.

“But there’s definitely an issue if everyone on that case left their jobs or were transferred away. No wonder Boss and the others vouched for going through the old files.” Ah Liu pulled out the other sandwich from the paper bag that had already gone cold, and plopped it onto his colleague’s head. “There are quite a few suspicious points, for sure.”

Jiu Shen grabbed the breakfast from his head and took a bite, the taste sufficiently satisfying his stomach. “Mmm, but tracking those down is difficult. The victim’s sole relative also died a few years ago…”

“Teacher An’s mother passed away from illness several years ago. Before her death, she would run around with a full ledger of accounts, hoping to hunt down the culprit.”

Jiu Shen, who was lazily eating his breakfast, immediately scrambled to his feet as he saw Li Zi Hong walk into the break room.

Li Zi Hong shut the door as Ah Liu courteously went over to give him a drink. “The mother seemed to believe Dong Feng’s words and insisted on having the police continue investigating the case, as well as that student. However, because there was no other evidence, she was rejected.” He had visited An Tian Qing’s past colleagues and close friends recently, and most of them were unwilling to talk about the matter. However, he did manage to get a few answers.

At the time, Dong Feng had stayed by An Tian Qing’s mother side, so all the friends remembered him.

Upon doing the math, that junior of his would have also been swiftly finishing junior high and entering the same curriculum as himself with top-ranked grades. Afterwards, An Tian Qing’s mother had died of illness, and Dong Feng had applied to defer studies and leave campus around that time.

Now, Li Zi Hong more or less understood why Dong Feng had given up on his studies.

He must have wanted to keep looking into An Tian Qing’s case the entire time, even going as far as pursuing the qualifications to investigate and uncover the perpetrator.

But why did he give up?

An Tian Qing’s mother dying from illness should not have had a significant impact on the goal of chasing down the criminal and completing the qualifications to personally capture the perpetrator.

“Yes, with no evidence against a perfect alibi, of course it wasn’t believable.” Jiu Shen rubbed his chin as his brows knit together. He really wanted to help Dong Feng somehow…

They all knew that Dong Feng’s personality and negative mentality was not something he had always possessed. It was undoubtedly because of his experiences later in life that he had become that way. However, no matter how much he rejected the outside world, Dong Feng was actually a very good person, so they truly wanted to help him.

“But there’s a pretty high chance it was a stalker too. After all, the surveillance cameras had recorded that there was indeed someone following the teacher. It’s possible she really was killed by them. There were also records of the items in her house being ransacked.” Ah Liu shrugged. If it were him, he would not eliminate the stalker as a suspect since they had existed.

“Mhm, those are all matters I want to clarify.”

As soon as Li Zi Hong finished voicing these words, knocks came from the break room door, and it was quickly opened.

When they saw Yu Xia enter, the three immediately lowered their raised guards.

“Ah Si keeps stirring things up out of nowhere!” Yu Xia grumbled. He had received notification in the early morning about the event, and he had been seriously tempted to strangle the other party. He clearly said they would hide away at Yang De Cheng’s last night. Since when did Yang De Cheng’s restaurant reside in the neighbouring county? What a pain. “My past colleague called me and said last night Ah Si found what is suspected to be a crime scene in the area they’re responsible for, asking me if I wanted to go over and check it out.”

“Crime scene?” Li Zi Hong furrowed his brows.

“Yeah, an abandoned house. They were running around looking for trouble again, and even notified their acquaintances. This morning, Yan Si’s friend ran their ass over and confirmed that the bathtub on the third floor of that house had a large amount of old bloodstains.” Yu Xia opened the image files he had received and passed it over to Li Zi Hong. There were several close-ups of the bathtub; it was entirely black, the cakey, dark colour forming a thin, non-homogenous layer that covered the entire tub. “It all reacted as blood.”

“Wow, with such a large amount, it would be hard for there not to be deaths,” Ah Liu concluded after he copied the image files for himself.

“Are you going, Boss?” Jiu Shen eagerly asked, interested in the scene.

“The group over there has already gone to seal it off. My brother just headed out and will do an initial assessment.” Yu Xia shoved Jiu Shen’s head away and put away his phone. “We’ll get an update later.” They couldn’t intervene however they pleased since it was not their territory. The only reason he had heard about it in the first place was because of personal connections.

Li Zi Hong nodded, unbothered by Yan Si’s trouble-making

Or rather, since he had been transferred over here, he had gotten very accustomed to random crime scenes and corpses popping up out of nowhere.

The world was full of extraordinary things, after all….

***

When he regained consciousness, his head hurt so badly it felt like it would split open.

He touched his head and discovered that the wound had already been rebandaged. As his fingers touched the gauze, the injury underneath ached dully. He wasn’t sure if it was infected or not, but it felt tender from swelling.

The room was quite dark, though it was evidently daytime. The light peaking through the blinds was enough to tell.

“…”

He turned his head and immediately spotted Yu sprawled on the side of the bed, still in deep sleep. There was also Yu Yin sitting on the floor, leaning against the side of the bed sound asleep as well. Aside from both of their breathing, the only noise was the faint whirring of the air conditioning.

He slowly turned his head back to stare straight up at the ceiling covered in shadows, and gradually began to organise his own thoughts.

It happened so long ago…and it can still put me in such a state…

Ever since that incident, he had been constantly dreaming about that day.

Many people would say that the deceased would give visitation dreams, that those discontent with their deaths would tell the people around them something. Or it would be something heartwarming, like wanting them to forget everything and continue living on happily.

But he had never experienced any such things, not once a dream like that, let alone seeing her ghost. Many years after the incident, he had bought that specific apartment she had rented. The furniture and other items had long since been cleared out, leaving only a massive empty space. Even then, the one that had passed away there never appeared. He could only reminisce through his own memories and illusions.

When he had first found out Yu Yin could see them, he had really wanted to ask if there were any around him. Why would they not be there? How come those from other cases had ghosts that sought revenge, had lingering desires, or returned to stay with their family and friends, yet he alone was different?

There were no visitation dreams, no words left for him.

Even though he was the first person to find the scene, he could only dream of a true depiction. It felt like they were unwilling to leave a single crumb with him, let alone anything more.

He did not understand…he could not understand.

How could they do that to him after promising him?

Even if they hated him, they should have at least left a single phrase.

 

Ice-cold fingertips touched his cheek.

When he turned his head, he saw Yu had awoken without him noticing and was reaching out with his hand while lying down.

Dong Feng pushed the hand away and quickly sat up. The large movement startled awake Yu Yin, and in that short span of time, all three of them became wide awake.

“Yawn~ You guys sleep too little.” Yu Yin reached over the bed to fish out his phone and glanced at the time on the screen – it wasn’t even noon yet.

Yu stretched and stood up. With a yawn, he walked out of the now slightly chilly room.

Yu Yin checked the AC and found that it had somehow dropped to 22°C and directly switched it off. He found it a bit strange as he remembered when he had swapped places with Yang De Cheng, the setting should have been 28°C… It was no wonder he had been freezing while sleeping, and now had a bit of a headache after getting up.

When Dong Feng pushed the blanket off, he found the room cold as well. Rubbing his hands together, he walked over to crack open the window for the room’s temperature to increase a bit faster.

Cough, cough…

“If you’re cold then go ahead and leave.”

Dong Feng looked back at Yu Yin giving him a confused look. The latter shook their head, indicating that the sound just now had nothing to do with him.

Dong Feng was confident he had heard the noise, and after pondering it in silence for a few seconds, decided not to venture further into unfamiliar territory. Instead, he decided to bring up another matter. “About what you heard yesterday…you can just forget about it.”

“Actually, it was this morning. But how could I just forget about something like that?” What kind of logic goes through this guy’s head to think that someone could just laugh it off after hearing about something so big? Yu Yin had no plans to pretend it was nothing. “You’ve already spoken to me about it, there’s no way I could just ignore it.”

“I’m just worried that you guys will just die from unknown reasons one day…Whatever, I’ll just leave things at that for now, there’s no merit in talking about it anymore.” Dong Feng shook his head and ended the subject, having no energy to launch into a debate right after waking up.

“Wait…” Yu Yin did not intend to end things there, but just as he was about to ask further, his phone rang. When he saw that it was Xiao Hai calling, he had no choice but to answer.

When he connected, he found that the background noise on the other end sounded a bit familiar. Rather than the bustling of a shop, it seemed more like a bunch of people at KTV.

Xiao Hai seemingly realised that her surroundings were too loud, so she quickly left the source of clamour and the singing soon faded into the distance.

“Can you hear me now?”

Xiao Hai’s voice asked through the speaker. After a pause and confirmation that the call was fine, she continued, “Ah, I wanted to ask you, have you guys pissed anyone off?”

“What?” Yu Yin was caught off-guard by the sudden question.

“I’m currently out singing with a few others, and I just heard some weird news that someone on the illegal side has recently been buying young girls, giving them money to do things.”

“…Buying young girls?” There are people these days that openly buy kids?

“Like forking out money to buy drugs for brats that have nothing to do and use them as pawns.” Xiao Hai explained in simple terms and continued, “Apparently they seem to be targeting specific people, including cops. Tell Mr. Cop to be careful. Those damn brats will take the money and drugs and be willing to do any shit. I’ll go find others to find out more…”

“Around what age are the kids?”

Yu Yin was startled by Dong Feng who was now right next to him to listen in. Before he could say anything, Dong Feng snatched the phone from his hand and turned on speaker mode.

“The age? I heard they’re minors up to thirteen years old.” Actually, she just found it out from someone that had a slip of the tongue, and she hadn’t figured anything out yet from it. After all, her group didn’t do drugs or gambling, nor did they drag in kids with drugs. Since she, the boss, strictly forbade those from her area to go down those dark sides, her ability to gather intel on such matters was naturally weaker.

“Mn.” So probably around the range of twelve to seventeen. Dong Feng noted to himself.

“That’s pretty much it. Oh right, you guys are still good with the girl’s situation, right?” The reason Xiao Hai had called was to give a safety reminder, but she figured she’d ask about this matter while she was at it.

“With regards to that, could you ask Shu Xing Yu for her sister’s graduation yearbook and her classmates’ contacts?” Dong Feng had a conjecture now that he had gone through the files and diaries.

“Sure, I’ll go over to you guys later then. Bye~”

After the line cut, the completely ignored Yu Yin put his phone away and asked, “You guys already know it? The hidden treasure?”

“It’s more important to investigate that online friend first.”

***

“Oh, it’s confirmed that the bathroom on the third floor had traces of a large amount of blood.”

At noon, Yan Si dropped by for lunch and handed a few photos to the children. “I saw bloodstains in the staircase that must have dripped down while the tub was carried up~ It’s probably because there’s no bathroom on the second floor.” As he spoke, he led the three that had just woken up over to the six-people table in front of the bar.

“Ah, now that you mention it, that’s true.” Yu Yin had indeed not seen a bathroom on the second floor with the beautifully decorated room and common area. Only the first and third floors had one, which was honestly quite strange. It now looked like the homeowner had deliberately torn down that bathroom.

After the sun had risen, Yan Si’s friend had brought the officers to the reported site. The house was no longer as dark as it had been at night, and with additional lighting, the inside construction was much clearer than before.

Upon closer inspection [of the photos], the second floor was just as Yu Yin had remembered. There was no bathroom, and the dust-covered space had various fine decor. Even the lights on the ceiling had been removed of their original assets and replaced with custom shades to suit a girl’s tastes. However, aside from things related to the ornamental nature, there were almost no practical items for everyday use. Aside from a bathroom, appliances like a phone, TV, or computer were nowhere to be seen as well.

“The computer on the third floor was moved out. If there are any discoveries, we should be notified.” Yan Si took the cutlery Yang De Cheng prepared and helpfully set them on the table. “By the way, I notified my friend to go investigate under the suspicion that there was a drug party being held there. Although it’s unlikely they’ll question you guys, on the off chance that they do, don’t forget that premise~” A fabricated story needed to be connected properly, or else it would be seen through and there would be trouble – they would have to write reports too.

Yu scrolled through the photos on his tablet. After some thought, he paused at the photo of the staircase where a certain someone had nearly been dragged away last night.

“I saw quite a few things being dragged up those stairs yesterday.” Including myself. Yu Yin swirled the cup next to him while commenting, “It was really weird…”

“Dragged up?” Yang De Cheng, who had nothing to do with the events, stopped his task and curiously asked, “Didn’t Ah Si say it was carried up just now?”

“Ah, you’re right.” Yu Yin was confused too.

“Why not compromise and say it was dragged first, then carried.” Yan Si’s words earned him several eyerolls.

But there was no way to figure out the answer to such a question right now, so they could only skip over it for now and wait for the police onsite to notify them of any progress.

“Anyways, did you guys end up finding anything after looking through Shu Xing Yu’s files?” Yu Yin felt like he had not been participating in anything recently. It always felt like the two younger ones would directly pave a path straight to the end for him while he was still totally lost.

“Oh yes, Dàgēgē is also very interested. Since we’re just eating a relaxing lunch, we can chat about it now.” Yan Si grabbed the sour-faced Dong Feng to keep him from running away, then forcefully pushed over a fork and a plate of pasta. “Junior, since you have plenty of spare time, you don’t mind serving the pasta for everyone, right?”

“…” Dong Feng watched Yu push over an empty plate, so Dong Feng could only accept his fate and carefully start splitting the pasta into portions.

In this short period, Yu pulled up the diaries on his tablet and passed it over to Yu Yin and Yan Si.

Ignoring the usual diary content and minor topics related to school and friends, there were quite a few exchanges on the computer records related to what had been on the postcard.

“Seems like that dear friend Tang or Zeng or whoever is one of the sister’s online friends.” Based on the computer records, Shu Xing Ling had met a number of friends on the internet during senior high. The internet had already gone big seven years ago, and both online games and chatrooms had been common. While ill, Shu Xing Ling had evidently explored many virtual worlds during her recuperation at home. This online friend allegedly called Tang Ji Song was from one of them.

What Yan Si found unexpected was that he had assumed the sister was the type of young girl that would be tricked into online love affairs. But now that he was looking more deeply, he could see that was not the case. Shu Xing Yu did not only exchange mail with this “Tang Ji Song”; Yu had found over a dozen such people. It was mostly after they had been chatting with each other for a while that they would then exchange addresses and occasionally send cards and whatnot, which was a bit different from what Shu Xing Yu had said. In addition, the sister’s attitude online was quite open and unrestrained, even sending porn links or chatting about personal topics related to impulses that youths would have.

“Hm~ It’s true that there are some people that are different when they’re online compared to how they are in real life.” Yan Si put down the tablet to grab his pasta. “Based on this, the sister should have even more mail from online friends. Why is there only this one left?” There’s no way that her parents took them, right? Then again, considering how Xiao Hai described her family, it’s actually possible.

“She mentioned her online friends to her classmates before, so we’ll find out once we get into contact with her former classmates.” Dong Feng passed the last plate to Yang De Cheng and finally sat down. He stared a bit anxiously at the specially made food for him that was different from everyone else’s.

In front of the chef, there was no way he could leave any food uneaten. Although Yang De Cheng had not prepared a large amount, he really did not want to stuff it into his mouth…

He looked back at the various exquisitely-made dishes on the long table. As expected, anyone normal would be able to eat so happily.

Dong Feng inwardly sighed in defeat and began to chew on his own meal.

“Ah, radish cake.” Upon seeing the pinkish snack being pushed back and forth, Yan Si instantly knew what had happened with the ground radish he had seen his friend prepare early morning.

“…”

Now I really don’t want to eat it. 

***

In the evening, Xiao Hai raced straight to the Yu family home with Shu Xing Yu after the latter finished class.

Yu Yin, who was seeing Yan Si off at the door, was nearly hit head-on by the motorbike outside his own home.

“Whoa, how fast you’re driving is dangerous.” Yu Yin stared dumbfounded at the wheel that had braked right in front of his feet, then up at Xiao Hai who wore her usual short shorts that exposed her beautiful pale legs. It felt like Yu Yin never saw her change her fashion style no matter what time of the year it was — it was fine in the summer, but she was the same in the winter too. He had no idea if she felt the cold or not.

“I have a proper sense, ya know. I’ve never accidentally hit someone before.” Xiao Hai took off her helmet and after waiting for the girl behind her to get off as well, began to push the bike into the front yard to park it there. “Though I’ve carefully hit someone before.”

“What the hell is carefully hitting someone!” Do you run them over again after carefully hitting them too?!

“You know, like…”

“Never mind, let’s not talk about this in front of a kid.” Yu Yin cut off the subject that would have very likely had a bloody turn, and glanced at the extremely nervous girl behind them. She really does look like a very normal girl. If it weren’t for this treasure hunt thing, she probably wouldn’t have ever befriended someone like Xiao Hai. 

“I brought the graduation yearbook and address book you asked for.” Xiao Hai, who had caught the girl right when classes had ended, had a box of purchased cakes in one hand. She hooked her free arm around the cowering girl and easily led her into the house. “How are you planning on finding it? Using a Ouija board or other spirit communications with photos?”

“No way, how would we do something like that!” Yu Yin was starting to suspect other people’s images of him were extremely bizarre.

“Well, although I’ve heard my brother talk about it a few times, I don’t think I’ve personally seen you do weird things before. I honestly have no idea how you guys see things.” Sometimes Xiao Hai wondered if others were just overthinking it too much.

Yu YIn stared at Xiao Hai’s back, at a loss on where to start defending himself. In the end, he could only accept it as is and he opened the door to go into his house.

Upon entering, he spotted the younger ones sitting at the table with the graduation yearbook and address book that Shu Xing Yu brought displayed open. Just like any other graduation yearbook, it contained all kinds of photos, including school photos and individual group photos. The blank pages at the end were left for students to exchange signatures and words for good luck, and the one they were looking at was practically full. It was clear to see that the owner had been quite popular.

It was a pity that most of the words were related to wishing for the girl’s recovery or her overall health, not the types of well wishes for the future that a typical healthy student would have.

“That’s my sister.” Shu Xing Yu, who was hunched next to Xiao Hai, quietly stated while pointing at a girl that looked a bit like herself among the headshots and casual photos.

The girl in the photos seemed quite polite with a neat and tidy appearance, the trustworthy type of student. She was very thin with a poor complexion. It was likely that at the time of the photos, her body was already in an extremely weakened state as Shu Xing Yu had said.

“Those two were my sister’s close friends.” Shu Xing Yu found a photo with three of them and held it up against the school headshots while carefully saying, “Yao-zǐ and Zhao-zǐ. I used the address book to contact them before. They were the ones who told me about the treasure hunt, but Yao-zǐ married and moved to Kaohsiung, while Zhao-zǐ is working overseas. Their mobile numbers haven’t changed though.”

The two girls that Shu Xing Yu pointed out were similar to Shu Xing Ling, the standard, good student type.

“What about these two?” Dong Feng inquired about another group photo with the senior high students. It looked like it was taken from a class taught outside campus or from some kind of event. There were seven young students wearing uniforms, including Shu Xing Ling and her two good friends. In addition were two boys with short-shaved hair and two girls with slightly dyed hair.

Shu Xing Yu scratched her head when she looked at the girls Dong Feng asked about and flipped through the names list. “This one is…ah, found her. I heard she used to be the girl boss of the class. Although my sister chatted with her group sometimes, they weren’t that close. I heard Zhao-zǐ say before that they used to say bad things about my sister too, things like she was just acting like goody-two-shoes and stuff. They would sometimes deliberately tease her too, but my sister still ended up giving them treasure hunts for graduation…Zhao-zǐ didn’t know what they were though, since they never shared the information.”

Judging by the photos, one of the girls with dyed hair was called Ji You Xuan and the other was called Li Zhi Ying.

“The type that likes playing around,” Xiao Hai commented after a quick glance.

“But there’s always one or two of the inconspicuous type in every class.” Yu Yin studied the photos as well and found that there was a girl who appeared in very few of the casual photos, and was barely even in photos with her good friends. She would only show her face in large group photos with many people, like the one where the entire class posed with the V-sign in front of a sculpture on the grass — and even then, she was only in the corner. Yu Yin’s senior high had been the same…actually, forget senior high, even his university had an extremely low-profile student that would rarely interact with others and would just be the last one filling numbers when splitting off into teams.

Honestly speaking, he believed that the timid Shu Xing Yu in front of him was the same type. Since entering through the front door, she had been tightly clinging to Xiao Hai, her voice only getting a bit louder when Dong Feng asked her questions. Her gaze remained locked onto the yearbook, anxious and not daring to look at him, Yu, or even any other spot in the lying room. If he didn’t already know how shy this girl was, he would have thought that he and Yu were too intimidating.

He was at least popular with girls in his university…so getting such a cold shoulder stung a bit.

“I think that’s Hu Bao Er.” Truthfully, Shu Xing Yu had basically no memory of the long-haired girl in the corner, and she managed to find the matching headshot. The girl was very ordinary and very easy to overlook, just like Shu Xing Yu. When checking the address book and the signature at the back of the yearbook, it was unsurprising to find Hu Bao Er had left a short statement like everyone else. After confirming this, she confidently said, “When I called her, the voicemail message said the number no longer existed. Same with Ji You Xuan and the other girl.”

Dong Feng took the address book and scanned the numbers, addresses, and emails inside. Most of the numbers had checks or x’s marked in front of them; it looked like Shu Xing Yu had used her free time to rigorously seek out her sister’s classmates to ask about the answer to this final postcard.

“Can you leave these things with us for now?”

“Um…er…that should be fine, but not for too long. I’m scared my mom will find out they’re missing…” Shu Xing Yu nodded with uncertainty, then handed over her own notebook. “That class’s homeroom teacher, Lin Hong Zhi, has gone to a different school. I received her contact information from Zhao-zǐ, but when I called the number, it was also a nonexistent number. Seems like she’s already left her position as well, so I don’t know where she is now. I also have Zhao-zǐ and a few other emails in here.”

Dong Feng went through the names and emails in the notebook and memorised them before returning it to the girl. “We’ll return the items in two days. It’s unlikely you’ll get found out that soon.”

“Ok.” Shu Xing Yu lowered her head, a bit embarrassed to meet the gaze of the beautiful boy.

“Ah, it’s about time. Didn’t you say you needed to rush back home before your parents returned?” Xiao Hai jumped up after checking the clock on the wall. Without them realising, it was nearly evening already. If she didn’t bring the girl back soon, she could end up being disciplined. They had to account for the travel time, as it was a bit far.

“Oh, right!” Shu Xing Yu frantically gathered her belongings and stood up to bow deeply at everyone around her. “Thank you everyone, I’m sorry for all the trouble…I’ll be going home first…Please excuse me.”

“Wait a moment at the front door.” Seeing Yu stand and quickly run to the kitchen, Yu Yin escorted the girls over to where their shoes were.

When Xiao Hai ran out to start her motorbike, Yu dashed out with a small paper bag.

“This is the creme brulee that my brother made. Share it with your family when you get back, it’s really delicious.” Yu Yin took the paper bag and passed the dessert over to the girl with a smile.

“Thank you!”

 

“Have you considered opening an online store to earn some income?”

Dong Feng casually asked the two brothers returning to the living room from where he sat flipping through the book.

Since getting to know them, there were always different types of pudding and jello every time he came over. He could open the refrigerator whenever and choose from rows of desserts. Moreover, Yu carefully selected his ingredients. While Dong Feng could not eat much without throwing up, he could tell that it was different from those sold outside.

“Yang-dàgē mentioned it last time. He wondered if Yu wanted to sell the desserts from his restaurant. But it doesn’t take much effort to make and Yu’s just very picky and obsessed with eating the ones he makes. Customers would probably flip tables if there were only ten available to order every day.” Yang De Cheng had suggested collaborating ages ago when he occasionally came over to play. Yu Yin knew that Yu had originally considered agreeing, but the latter would always personally consume half of every batch he made. It was dumbfounding how little of the final product was left each time!

“…If you ignore the factor of very low supply and you really do want to open a shop, I can sponsor,” Dong Feng casually commented as someone that had accumulated a decent amount of assets over the years.

“That’s great, Xiao Yu. At least we’ll have ten people willing to sponsor. Let’s hurry up and collect staff.” Yu Yin added a new person on his list of family and friends that willingly offered funds. The youngest one in the family was so popular; a bunch of people were fighting to sponsor him to open a desserts shop. Yu Yin just hoped that if it did happen one day, the products would not all be secretly eaten by the shop owner.

Yu expressionlessly flashed a thumbs-up as he walked out of the kitchen with a pudding.

“Oi…” So funding was never an issue? Dong Feng should not have spoken at all.

“I’ll be graduating soon anyways, and my work is fine for the time being. Maybe we can find some time soon to discuss how to open a shop.” Thinking about it now, Li Lin Yue and his other friends would definitely be wandering around for a while too, so gathering people would not be an issue. Those friends of his had previously also claimed that if Xiao Yu wanted to open a shop, they would help under the condition that they would get to eat the delicious food too. It was about time for them to start their job as worker ants.

“But you know how he’s usually helping with translations? If he suddenly opened a shop now, he’d work himself to the ground. It’s better to slowly plan it out.” Dong Feng sighed as he watched Yu open the box of cakes Xiao Hai had brought.

“We can start from an online store and Yang-dàgē’s restaurant first. It’s better to try things out while you’re young, right, Xiao Yu?” Yu Yin was plenty optimistic with so many sponsors volunteering.

Yu nodded, not opposed to trying.

Or rather, if he sold half of what he made, he could use the additional income to buy better ingredients and continue his pursuit of creating the perfect pudding and dessert! There were many benefits no matter how one considered the idea, and the half that he did not sell was enough to satisfy him.

“I feel like a certain someone just has selfish motives. Opening a shop is clearly the wrong path, isn’t it.” Dong Feng shot a look at the child that allegedly had similar intelligence to himself. The latter was still blank-faced, but the direct eye contact made it easy to guess what he was thinking. Hey, opening a shop in this day and age isn’t meant for you to eat whatever you want! 

Use your intelligence properly elsewhere! 

“Can support eating to the heart’s content.” Yu turned towards his future sponsor and honestly expressed with as much goodwill as possible, “Limitless supply.”

“…Then wouldn’t I be losing money.” “Eating to the heart’s content” could not be matched with himself at all, so there was no point in “limitless supply”. Dong Feng was now more convinced he should not have spoken in the first place.

“Hahaha, looks like Dong Feng would be the best sponsor.” Yu Yin found the perplexed, pensive expression on Dong Feng’s face very amusing.

“You guys are really…whatever, let’s just go back to the main topic.” Continuing this conversation would give him a headache, so he switched back to focusing on the photos. “I’ve seen Ji You Xuan before.”

“Huh?”

“If I’m not mistaken, she’s at the cafe near the campus.” He had recognised her instantly from the photo. Although her hair was no longer dyed, her overall features had not changed much. “She’s currently working as a staff in the cafe nearby. Shu Xing Yu and I saw her once while we were there.”

At the time, Dong Feng had thought the staff was a bit strange. Despite being a server, she had lingered a bit too closely to them, as though she was intentionally staying in their vicinity. He had originally thought it was because they had been too loud, but it now seemed likely that she had been interested in their discussion about the postcard or the treasure hunt. Especially considering that they had also talked about the students from seven years ago, it was just too obvious.

“Are you sure that’s her?” Yu Yin hadn’t expected such a coincidence.

“Yeah, I got a glance at her nameplate. She might have changed her name, since she now goes by ‘Ji Ya Xuan’.”

---

Previous             Index              Next