YBCB2: V7C5

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

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Chapter Five

“Welcome…ah!”

As usual, the chimes rang at the front door of the cafe near the school as someone walked in.

While it wasn’t far from campus, the cafe’s prices leaned towards the higher side, and also provided simple food. Usually, it served office workers in the area or teachers and staff; there were rarely students that spent money here, which made the space a secret, peaceful area to rest.

But as the door opened and the female worker called out her usual greeting, she was taken aback by the customers that had arrived.

“Please excuse us for taking up your working hours, but the kids in my family here wanted to ask you for some help on a matter.” Seeing that the worker was genuinely shocked, Yu Yin hurriedly added with a smile, “We’ll still pay.”

“Who’s a kid in your family?” Dong Feng retorted.

Yu stood behind all of them with his eyes locked onto the small chalkboard at the entrance. As he carefully examined the menu written on it, he tugged at Dong Feng.

“Our boss writes that every day….” On reflex, Ji Ya Xuan began to introduce the menu, but she quickly cut herself off midway.

“Xiao Xuan, is something wrong?”

Another staff member walked out from behind the counter, likely having noticed their unnatural standstill, and looked at them in confusion.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I’ll lead them to their seats.” The female worker – Ji Ya Xuan – immediately switched to a courteous smile. “Please come this way…”

They followed the woman into the back of the shop to a private room. As they walked, Yu Yin surveyed the adult in front of them that felt completely different from their photo in the graduation yearbook. Not only had her playful aura from senior high vanished, but her mid-length hair had returned to its undyed, unpermed state. It was currently tied back in a simple ponytail at the back of her head, making her look like any other ordinary staff member. If he hadn’t known beforehand, he would have honestly never made the connection to her photos from senior high.

Once she brought them to their secluded seats, Ji Ya Xuan fearfully handed out menus to all of them before focusing on Dong Feng, who had come to the cafe before.

“If this isn’t a convenient time, we can wait here until you’re off work?” Dong Feng checked the clock on the wall. There was about an hour left until the shop closed. They could eat while they waited, and the timing would more or less line up. “As you’re aware, we’re here regarding Shu Xing Ling. The girl that came with me that day was her little sister, Shu Xing Yu. We wanted to ask you about the riddles on these postcards.” Ji Ya Xuan’s reaction when opening the door had made it clear that she knew what this was about, so there was no need to waste time with further explanations.

“…I’ll hand over some work and then come back.” Ji Ya Xuan collected their orders and retreated out of the room.

It seemed like she did not plan to run away, so Dong Feng turned to grab the files he had brought. Instead, he caught Yu Yin lecturing at Yu about something.

“We agreed we would grab dinner while here, so why did you only order sweets? If you don’t finish your meal later, you are not allowed to eat desserts.” Yu Yin had added two meals to their order at the last minute, but was now scolding the person that had selected a bunch of sweets beforehand. “It’s a waste of money. And you ordered creme brulee, but we just ate it before coming here. You can’t just eat whatever you want, do you know how many eggs you’re eating a day like that? That’s so much fat.”

“Will do cheese tomorrow,” Yu conceded after tilting his head in thought.

“The last time you said that, you consumed two containers of cheese in a day. That isn’t allowed either. Exercise some restraint.” You would die from overeating at that rate. If someone ever died from eating too much dessert, you would be the first, I’m certain. He looked up to see Dong Feng watching them with an expression that clearly conveyed the unspoken thoughts of “idiots”. “…I’ll order a pot of hot fruit tea for you.”

Dong Feng wordlessly looked away, deciding not to deal with the pair of stupid brothers.

Since it was near closing time, there were not many customers and they quickly received their orders. It was not long before everything was served on their table, and after the final dessert order had arrived,  Ji Ya Xuan walked over with a small plate of cake.

“This is the boss’s treat, please enjoy.” She had already changed out of her uniform, and sat in an empty chair as she said, “I’m really sorry, but I noticed when you and Xiao Xing-mèimèi came. After all, the first thing you talked about was that time seven years ago. I saw the name of the postcard as well, so I subconsciously stood nearby to listen in.”

“So you already knew that her little sister was trying to find the hidden treasure from the postcard.” Dong Feng stirred his fruit tea and asked, “I heard you all received similar notes seven years ago.”

“Mhm. Mine was ‘Loves to always be in the best place to taste the flow of time, only to become a sweeter fragrance in the future’. But it was just turning something like hiding from the teacher on the stairwell to the roof with friends, secretly smoking some cigarettes or whatever into some embellished riddle.” Ji Ya Xuan smiled as she reminisced. “SInce you’ve come to find me, you must also know that both Zhi Zhi and I were good friends with her back then. Zhi Zhi’s was ‘To learn what feeling like an adult is like, steal the secret of the place that holds secrets.’ She used to always hide a box of cigarettes on the windowsill of the girl’s toilets on the first floor.”

Dong Feng did not need much time to think about it before directly questioning, “So she would give you mints or other candies to stop smoking?”

“!” Ji Ya Xuan was dumbstruck for a moment. She furrowed her brows at the child in front of her. “How did you know?”

“Based on the riddles and where the items were hidden.” In reality, it had just been a casual guess. Dong Feng shrugged, “Did you know Tang Ji Song…”

“Not at all!” Ji Ya Xuan immediately answered before freezing.

“Answered too quickly,” Yu quietly stated as he used his chopsticks to pick up his noodles.

“You know them?” Yu Yin saw the regret form on the woman’s face. It was obvious she recognised the name on the postcard.

“Looks like you not only know them, but that this person did something that left a deep impression on you as well.” Dong Feng pushed the postcard over to the woman. “So this person is…?”

Ji Ya Xuan stared at the postcard for a beat before coldly snorting, her voice shifting to one of disdain that contrasted completely with the politeness of her working tone. “You kids have nothing better to do and have started going crazy if you’re going on a treasure hunt for no reason. Shu Xing Ling didn’t even leave anything for her sister, so what’s the point of going through all this pointless effort.”

“How are you so certain she didn’t leave anything?” Dong Feng smirked. “Is it related to the person on this card?”

Ji Ya Xuan rested her chin on her hands as she frostily glared at the name on the card. After a moment, ice-cold words left her red-painted lips:

“That piece of trash was an internet addict.”

 

“Seven years ago, things actually weren’t much different from now. Quite a few people would make friends on the internet.”

Ji Ya Xuan picked up the small cake on the table and began to eat some bites while continuing, “Nowadays, most people use their phones to find friends, but back then, it wasn’t as convenient to just use phones so everyone would go to chatrooms or online games. Zhi Zhi and I sometimes would go to an internet cafe after school if we had nothing else to do since it didn’t make a difference to us where we made friends. We would also casually date some boys as well, and would even meet a generous one now and then that would drive over to give gifts.”

Back when her name was Ji You Xuan, she and Li Zhi Ying had gotten to know many people online out of boredom. They would often hang around chatrooms and play with people in online games.

“Basically, that useless person would always be lingering around chatrooms and forums…you know, the kind where you don’t show your face to make friends, so there’s no knowing who’s really behind the name. Anyways, that guy pretended to be very respectable and considerate at first, asking everyone what games they played and setting up an account to send a bunch of girls gifts to trick them. Tons of people fall for that kind of ploy, and apparently quite a few end up going a step further too. Everyone’s well aware of what happens after that.”

At this point, Yu Yin realised the meaning behind what Shu XIng Yu had said before. “So it’s after the older sister became acquainted with this person that you guys started saying she just pretended to be a goody-two-shoes?”

“Oh fuck, it must’ve been those two bitches that said that,” Ji Ya Xuan cursed. Her expression twisted in annoyance, “Yeah, we found out by chance. Zhi Zhi noticed that a girl called Lan Xing would go into the chatrooms and talk about matters that were very similar to what happened at our school. After several occurrences, it was clear that this was Xiao Xing. Because the way she spoke online was so different from how she spoke in school, it was like she was a total other person. She was bold enough to talk about much more than we were, something that we would’ve never expected considering her good student act at school. We soon saw her latch onto that piece of trash. The two of them would always privately chat between themselves, and we later heard from others that the trash had gotten together with a young beauty that he’d exchange New Year’s greeting cards with and all that. What a laughable joke. Before that trash managed to hook up with Xiao Xing, someone spread word that he fooled around with female students and even recorded porn videos as spoils of war to flaunt everywhere.”

“Don’t tell me Shu Xing Ling also…” Although the person had passed away seven years ago, the concern for Shu Xing Ling still rose in Yu Yin’s heart.

Ji Ya Xuan shook her head and replied, “No. From my knowledge, Xiao Xing shouldn’t have ever gone out with the trash with how bad her physical health was. Starting from our second year, she would often be out sick, which led to her being stuck at home chatting online. Our entire class had exchanged accounts with her, and she would often seek us out to talk about school as well. She’d even ask the teachers about homework…Our homeroom teacher, Lin Hong Zhi, was great. He’s in the graduation yearbook as well. Apparently after school or during break, he would tutor Xiao Xing on schoolwork for her to keep up.”

Yu Yin noticed Dong Feng instantly tense up, so he patted the other’s shoulder and then poured him more tea. “Sounds like you had a great teacher.”

“Mhm. We used to think he was cool. Apparently we were the first class he had ever led. We were immature back then, and thought that because he was pale and tall, he was attractive and would occasionally try to draw his attention. Thinking about it now, it’s honestly a bit funny.”

They asked more questions about the class, which only resulted in the typical stories of senior high life. When it seemed like there wouldn’t be any more hints related to the treasure hunt or Tang Ji Song, the topic switched back to what Ji Ya Xuan knew about the internet addict.

“Although we knew he was just trash, Zhi Zhi and I actually saw him once or twice. Because he would put on an act to trick women before hooking up with them and he would spend quite a lot of money, the two of us would sometimes play around with him with the intention of shaving away some of his cash. We actually managed to use his money to buy some bags and clothes. Though looking back now, they were all pretty cheap products even if several hundred felt like a lot at the time. Man…” It was obvious that Ji Ya Xuan wanted to say, “What a pity…If it were now, I would’ve dug out several thousand from him”. With a click of her tongue, she continued, “Anyways, when he suggested going over to his place, Zhi Zhi and I ran away and blocked him entirely. We changed our phone numbers and usernames so that he couldn’t find us~ Oh right, all the information we gave him while playing around with him was fake too, including our names, addresses, and phone numbers. Whenever we hung out, we would wear uniforms and meet near the school; we made sure to never let him come looking for us. The trash eventually gave up and quickly switched to tricking other people on the internet.”

“Oi oi, even if he’s not a good person, your actions weren’t good either.” Yu Yin stared at her speechlessly.

“If you want to lecture me, you’d have to do it to the me from seven years ago. Now I’m my own person, earning my own living by selling coffee here.” Ji Ya Xuan continued to say in her own defense, “Who knows where that trash’s money came from. If he wanted to trick people, he should’ve been prepared to be eaten by others too. It’s not like we drained everything from him either, we just grabbed a few gifts that he was more than willing to give.”

“…” I guess there isn’t anything more I can say, it’s not like I can really go back in time to lecture the student from seven years ago. Yu Yin simply closed his mouth. After all, it was just as she said – she was now working and living off her own ability, so he had no place to criticise. “By the way, do you have photos of Tang Ji Song?”

“It’s been so long….hm…I can check with Zhi Zhi later and see if she has any. If you’re planning on uncovering that trash, I can help you ask some other old internet friends. There are a few others that we still occasionally chat with, so if anything related comes up, I’ll let you guys know.”

“Thanks for the trouble.”

They exchanged means of communication, and found that their time was about up. The people in the shop had long since left, and the remaining staff were preparing to clean up.

Since they had finished eating everything, Yu Yin paid the bill and they left.

 

By the time they exited the cafe, it was already nine.

As they walked away, the lit-up sign behind them went out, and the street immediately went darker. Since most of the shops here served students, they had long since turned off their lights too. Looking down the road, there were very few open stores and vendor stands still open.

The three of them had taken several buses to get here. After some thought, Yu Yin wondered if just calling a cab to go back would be easiest.

“Did you not see her this time?”

“Hm?” Yu Yin looked back, somewhat caught off guard by Dong Feng speaking without warning. “What?”

“Like…Shu Xing Ling…Whenever there were things involving dead people before, it would lead to paranormal involvement, wouldn’t it?” Dong Feng thought it was a bit strange when Yu Yin’s reaction seemed to indicate there was indeed none. “Or did it appear at the abandoned house?” Although he could not see, Yu Yin had later told them about the dark shadows in the house.

“No, Shu Xing Ling never appeared. The thing in the abandoned house shouldn’t have any relation with her.” Despite having no actual confirmation that was the case, Yu Yin was pretty certain. The older sister had never come looking for them from the start up until now. “I guess she didn’t have any issues going? Like she easily ascended or something?”

“Going where…” Dong Feng flatly stared at him.

“Heaven? Sukhavati? I’ve never gone up myself, so I’ll have to wait until that happens to figure it out.” Yu YIn tugged at his clothes; the temperature difference between the cool shop and outside was pretty big. He wiped some sweat from his brow as he continued, “But who knows if she’ll appear later. Right now, she has yet to show up, but I’ll let you guys know if she does.” Though he still believed there was a very low chance of her popping up. He hadn’t felt any sort of connection between her and the other encounters.

“Can’t you call her out or find something else…?” Dong Feng had read that type of thing in some books before. He began to consider the applicability of spirit-summonings. “You could buy some tools and stuff. I’ve seen plenty online before. Overseas ones should be usable too, right? Even if it’s a different channel, there shouldn’t be any problems with summoning, no?”

“What have you been reading?! I’m just a layman, you know! Don’t just jump straight to complicated stuff. What if I end up getting possessed?” Wait no! I have been possessed before! Before Yu Yin could start grieving more about it, he added, “And wouldn’t it be sad if it couldn’t return? It would be a tragedy if it can’t be sent back.”

“So troublesome. Isn’t there a fixed way to properly make use of it?” How else are you supposed to test what was in those books?

“No, I doubt that exists.” Yu Yin frantically waved his hands. He was only now realising how terrifying Dong Feng’s analytical ability was. Moreover, Dong Feng seemed to hold some expectations about it too. How the hell could I go looking for channels to summon something! This is even worse than what Yan Si requested before. “Whatever you’re thinking about, just forget whatever weird knowledge you have and don’t come looking for me to test out what’s in your books. I’m very scared of the danger I’d end up in.”

At this rate, he was starting to really fear the possibility of those two showing up at his home with a Ouiji board or some demon-summoning group.

You can’t just send people that can see the other realm out to fight with their lives on the line! We have to live our lives out to the fullest too!

“…Is that so.” Dong Feng thought it was a pity, but he could only give up on the intriguing thought.

“Mhm, it’s true. Oh yeah!” Yu Yin determinedly diverted the frightening subject as he looked away. “Since we’re already here, why don’t we go walk around the campus? I’ve never visited your school, and maybe we’ll find something!”

“…”

“Come on, let’s go!”

“Such a pain.”

***

“You know, it seems like seven years ago wasn’t really different from now.”

The campus was not as quiet as they expected it would be at night. When they went in from the back door, they could see in the distance that there was a building where night classes were ongoing. There were people at the nearby sports field, perhaps students that had finished classes running around. There were also people playing basketball at the courts, the bright lights illuminating the liveliness of the campus.

“Students still like meeting friends online. Eh, forget students, plenty of people enjoy finding friends through technology nowadays.” Yu Yin had seen Li Lin Yue and his other friends using apps on their phones to meet people, but he had personally never used such things…Who knew what the result could be? Someone alive wasn’t the worst, but someone dead would really be trouble.

“Because they’re bored, I guess.” Dong Feng watched the basketball court as he dully commented, “After all, humans are existences that need social interactions. And social interactions are a necessary existence.”

“When technology wasn’t as advanced, neighbourhoods used to be much livelier despite not having apps like that. But now everyone keeps their doors shut and only seeks out others through a virtual world. It’s hard to tell if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.” Yu Yin honestly preferred the feeling of being brought everywhere outside by adults like he had as a kid.

“It just depends on how each person uses it. If they use it appropriately, they’ll naturally be able to deepen their relationships with many friends; if they don’t use it appropriately, it’ll be on the news.” Dong Feng shrugged. Such incidents had stopped being uncommon in the last decade. Regardless of whether it was interactions through technology or through face-to-face encounters, the result ultimately depended on the person.

The person, who was the source of everything. There was no point in blaming anything else.

“True.” Yu Yin chuckled in agreement. In the end, good people were good no matter where they were, and bad people were bad no matter what means they used. The various incidents he had experienced were more than enough to experience this truth. Regardless of what technology was being used, there was an actual person behind it.

They circled the campus, but did not see anything holding a sword, as expected.

“Looks like it really isn’t easy to find.” Yu Yin scratched his head as he empathised with Shu Xing Yu’s feelings.

“It’s easy.” Yu stood next to him, eyes locked onto a sculpture on the grass.

“?” Yu Yin followed the line of sight towards the sculpture of two females elegantly curved together in a dance. It was nothing strange… “Ah!”

“Noticed it?” Dong Feng chuckled mirthlessly.

“The sculpture was changed out, wasn’t it.” Yu Yin had checked the photos before heading out, where there had been a sculpture of a hero on the grass instead. “But that one also didn’t have a sword? I remember the sculpture had its hands raised.” Because it was quite a common-looking sculpture, it was easy to recall.

“Mhm. I checked, and it was changed out the year after they graduated. As for the sword…”

“Senior! It really is you!”

A shout and running footsteps came from the direction of the basketball court, cutting off Dong Feng’s words. When they looked over, they saw one of the playing students run over while waving a towel in their hand.

Yu Yin did not recognise the person, so he subconsciously turned to face the only other person that had ties with this school.

“…The annoyance is here again.” Dong Feng hadn’t expected he would bump into Lin Zhi Yuan at this time. He honestly just wanted to run away right this moment.

“There must be something that keeps bringing us together. I thought you only ever came during weekends.” Midway through his basketball game, he had spotted a few people circling around the campus. At first Lin Zhi Yuan had not been sure of who it was, but after approaching closer, he confirmed it was Dong Feng and had run over to give a greeting. “Do you want to go to the night market together later?”

Dong Feng furrowed his brows, annoyed by the other’s energetic response. “You have way too much free time, how are you always playing basketball here?” He had absolutely no desire to ever encounter this person again.

“Too much free time…Exams are over, and I’m about to graduate so there isn’t anything to be busy with. Plus I got my college offers ages ago.” Lin Zhi Yuan threw the towel around his neck and smiled slightly to greet Yu Yin and Yu as well. “Plus I live nearby, and the summer sports festival for the nearby residential areas is coming up soon. Our governor has been asking for us to get good grades this time, so my neighbours and I have been studying hard.”

Dong Feng looked in the direction Lin Zhi Yuan was pointing towards to see that the others at the courts were not the students he had seen last time, but a random mix with adults. There were even some elders watching curiously from the sidelines.

“The hotbloodedness of youth.” Yu Yin studied the energetic and cool-looking boy that reminded him of how Ah Fang used to always hang around their school basketball courts too. Yu Yin rarely saw Ah Fang and Yi Tai these days. There was no knowing what they were busy with, and everyone was preparing for graduation so the ones that used to always play basketball were now properly getting ready for future matters. A different group of people played at their school’s courts now.

Time really flies…

“Why is Senior back at the school this time?” Lin Zhi Yuan had a positive impression of all three of them and did not hide his curiosity.

“Noth—”

“Actually, we’re on a treasure hunt.” Yu Yin threw an arm around Dong Feng’s shoulders as he interjected to reply, “There used to be a statue of a hero here, and we were just talking about how it didn’t seem to have any connection with a sword.”

“Sword?” Lin Zhi Yuan paused for a beat. “I don’t know if the statue of a hero would have anything to do with a sword…but several of the students here said that this statue is basically of someone holding up a stick to hit someone else,” he chuckled in amusement.

“Holding up a stick?” Yu Yin was lost.

“It’s like this…Follow me.”

Lin Zhi Yuan moved around the school with ease and familiarity – he first brought them to the security guard to grab keys with the excuse that he had forgotten something important in the classroom, then opened the locked door to the stairwell without incident to guide them upstairs.

When they arrived at the fifth floor, they came to a stop in front of a dark classroom. The sign outside the deserted room indicated that it was used for a specialised subject.

“Although this isn’t the perfect angle, you should still be able to tell from here.” Lin Zhi Yuan waved Yu Yin over, then crouched down against the hallway wall to let the others look down.

Yu Yin hadn’t noticed anything when they had been standing at the ground level, but looking from above now, he could see that the shadow of the sculpture was right next to a long object that resembled a stick. At a specific angle, it really would look like the dancer statue was hitting someone with it. When he turned his head to look above, he saw that the long shadow was coming from a flagpole on the roof of the adjacent building. The flag had been taken down in the afternoon, so only the pole was left.

“If the previous statue was of a hero, it might really have looked like it was holding a sword…though I still think it looks more like a stick since the top is round.”

Yu YIn studied the shadow again for a bit, then realisation suddenly dawned on him. When he shifted his attention towards Dong Feng and Yu, he found that they were entirely unfazed. As expected, they had figured everything out ages ago, which was why they had said at the start that it was nothing difficult.

“You two are really…” If you know the answer to the riddle, you should at least tell me.

Before he could lecture the two evil brats, Yu Yin abruptly spotted a blurry upside-down silhouette outside the dark glass of the classroom behind them. It did not belong to any of the four of them, as the silhouette was suspended in midair to create the classic scene from a typical ghost film.

“…”

For some reason, Yu Yin was starting to think there was something wrong with him now that he did not get startled by such jumpscares.

“The older sister?” Dong Feng asked under his breath while walking away from Lin Zhi Yuan.

“No, it’s not someone we know.” …Wait, I technically don’t know the older sister either. Yu Yin rubbed his forehead, unsure of whether he should correct his wording.

The shadow at the window was only there for a brief moment before vanishing without a trace.

“Is something there?” Lin Zhi Yuan noticed everyone clearly fixated on the window. He added, “I’ve heard the girls talk about a few ghost stories at this school. Don’t tell me you saw something?”

“Er, probably not,” Yu Yin did not think he should be telling a kid he just met about ghosts, so he simply shook his head and began following the student back down the stairs. “But what kind of ghost stories does your school have? I don’t think I’ve ever heard Dong Feng mention anything.” The topic suddenly made him recall how back in school, he’d be taken hostage by the evil Li Lin Yue to listen to all kinds of crazy ghost stories around the campus. It would have been worse if they had gone to different schools, because he would have had to tour both campuses.

In the past, Yu Yin had not been able to see them so clearly, and he had often been scared out of his wits by any abrupt appearances.

Thinking back to his own youth made him feel like he had truly been wronged somehow.

“What’s there to talk about? It’s basically all just scams.” Since Dong Feng had been younger than his peers, he had also been captured by his female classmates in the past to listen to ghost stories. In nicer-sounding words, they were chatting with him, and in worse-sounding words, they were just trying to scare a kid. There had been plenty of people wanting to see him get scared back then.

Unfortunately for them, their wishes did not come true.

“I think some are real. There’s two in particular that stick out to me as allegedly being real circumstances. One was a very long time ago, back when the school had just been established. A junior had been bullied by her classmates and she had jumped off the roof to commit suicide…and the school rooftop still has offerings and stuff now too. But the stairs connecting to the roof have been blocked off, preventing students from going up.”  

After Yu stepped out from the stairwell as the last person, Lin Zhi Yuan relocked the metal door before slowly walking towards the security guard to return the key. “That junior apparently is still there. Apparently if anyone goes overboard with bullying, the junior will come find them in the middle of the night.”

“I’m sorry to say, but this school is filled with bullies.” As someone that had been bullied plenty of times in the past, Dong Feng had never seen this junior jump out from anywhere.

“But it’s possible…” Yu Yin sensed a gaze coming from behind him. He threw an arm around Yu’s shoulders and decided not to look in the other direction.

Seeing that the group was somewhat interested, Lin Zhi Yuan chuckled and continued, “The other one is apparently related to a teacher from the school that was killed in her home. The incident had been a huge deal at the time, even headlining the news.”

Dong Feng abruptly froze in his tracks.

“Afterwards, people said they saw the teacher occasionally return to school, perhaps out of concern for her students. Someone said while napping, they suddenly saw an unfamiliar teacher standing outside the window watching them. When he woke up, he discovered that the window was not connected to any corridor or balcony. When he checked the old yearbook pictures, he found that it was the dead…”

“Just stop there for now.” In panic, Yu Yin tugged at the student engrossed in the story to prevent them from going any further. He hadn’t imagined that the incident would have become one of the school’s ghost stories.

“Hm?” Despite not understanding why, Lin Zhi Yuan closed his mouth.

The lively campus seemed to go quiet at this moment as well.

After a beat, Dong Feng quietly spoke up.

“Let’s…head back.”

*** 

It was night by the time he had rushed over after receiving an update, so there was basically no one in the offices now.

Since it was still a bit hot, his irritation spiked as well while he got outside the car. As a result, when Yan Si saw a brat bullying another brat near the parking lot, he chased them away before turning back to the office building.

He greeted the guard at the entrance, swiped his card, and strode directly into the working area.

“Sorry for calling you out while you’re on break, Senior,” Wu Tong apologetically said from where he stood next to the table. Scratching his head, he asked, “Has your injury gotten better?”

“Don’t even get me started. Originally it was just my back hurting, but yesterday I sprained my right hand.” Yan Si waved his right hand that had been squashed and still had bandages wrapped around it. He was seriously considering going to a temple to pray soon. The specific chain of events was that he had hurt his hand slightly while dealing with the girl that had infiltrated the Yu family home, then it had been crushed at the haunted house…I need to tell a certain university student he needs to start losing weight.

“You really need to take a long break and just rest. Your back injury is an old one from that homicidal killer, isn’t it? If it’s suddenly hurting again, that’s not a good sign. You should quickly get it checked out in the next few days.” This was why Wu Tong had come to help take some of Yan Si’s work, and he didn’t know what else to say to the other person.

“Mmm, true. I’ll be on vacation at a scenic spot with a smile on my face while watching you guys work to death.” Yan Si felt like using all his accumulated vacation days at once wasn’t a bad idea.

“…”

For some reason, Wu Tong suddenly did not want to express concern anymore. “…Anyways, based on your feedback, I did a special examination of the corpse found at Dong Feng’s place. It was just like you said, the bruises were from recent needle punctures that were still inflamed. It must have been from only one or two days prior. The dye was normal with nothing to note, but it would probably be hard to find anything more, so I’ll keep looking.”

“As expected. I’m a bit impressed by my own intelligence.” It had just been a guess that Yan Si had come up with, but now it was basically confirmed. “I captured another one around my hometown, have you checked them?”

“I have. They had a fresh tattoo like the deceased too.”

“That means these last two really were just sent out last minute by that organisation to increase their numbers…how terrible.” He had found it strange especially since Yu Xia and the others had captured so many of these guys, including quite a few higher-levels. Yet the organisation had managed to find ways to keep causing trouble. In addition, with the guesthouse and the bike-racing gang incidents that had happened recently, they had found that this organisation’s lowest-level people had varying experience. At the time, Yan Si had already found it fishy, and now the evidence to confirm his guess was right in front of his eyes.

The organisation knew they had noticed the tattoos, and were rapidly absorbing cannon fodder to throw at them now as a result.

But if this was all within his expectations, he was certain that his former roommate and Yu Xia had long since sensed it as well.

“You know the two that Boss and the others detained here yesterday? Those two didn’t have tattoos. Apparently they were just doing it in exchange for some money; the prints on the guns showed they had gotten them from someone else.”

“I know.” Yan Si had been notified about it. He nodded and said, “But if you dragged me out here so late at night just to tell me pointless things, I’ll eliminate you on behalf of the pain that’s currently filling my entire body.” He had already gotten past the point of minor pain while watching over the children. If this bastard had chosen to trick him out here, he would certainly have to express his gratitude in full.

“Of-Of course not…” Wu Tong felt a slight chill go down his spine as he hurriedly shook his head. “That corpse’s family was identified, and they’ll be coming tomorrow so I wanted to give you the chance to check it out first.”

“It’s fine as long as Boss and the others saw it~”

Despite saying that, Yan Si got ready and followed Wu Tong to the body laid out on the table.

The cleaned up, pale body was flat on the ice-cold examination table. The last remnants of its smell lingered in the air along with the slow currents from the air-conditioning.

“Just as Senior said, she was already dead before falling. The cause of death was a knife stab through the heart, with little bloodshed. Jiu Shen and the others confirmed through analysis that the murder weapon was the fruit knife in Dong Feng’s home, which the perpetrator must have randomly grabbed there. The knife was found near the window. It was stabbed straight into the chest with no sign of hesitation.” Wu Tong paused for a moment before continuing, “The perpetrator is very likely not an ordinary person; their method was too clean and precise. This was definitely not their first victim — they know how to kill.”

“Throwing the victim out was the unnecessary action instead.” The commotion they had heard at the time had to have been from the perpetrator. Yan Si could not eliminate the possibility that the noise had been to intentionally shift their attention away to find an opportunity to escape. The question was how they managed to do so. “Rather than that, I’m more interested in the marks on her body.”

He was focused on the old, unnatural scars on the girl’s body. Yan Si carefully looked at the photos in the folder his colleague handed to him and noticed there were other parts of the body with many old wounds. Most of them were concentrated on the arms, back, fingers, and rib area. There were even small cracks in the bones.

“The head has some too.” Wu Tong commented, “Accumulated over many years. Some can be traced back to childhood.”

Yan Si looked over everything once before concluding, “A child suffering from domestic violence.”

“That’s what I think too.” Wu Tong had reached the same conclusion, so he had asked several hospitals and social workers questions based on the injuries to find the body’s identity in a different county. “The social workers indicated that they received a report two years ago. They had finally managed to make arrangements for her a bit over a year ago, but then she ran from home. Also, she had experienced a lot of sexual behaviour and consumed a large amount of drugs, so she probably—”

After running away, without the ability to earn a living, she had aimlessly wandered into some groups until she was recruited just to be used. In the end, she had silently disappeared from the world forever without a trace.

Yan Si closed the file folder and sighed.

“Ah, life.”

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