Translated by: TaffyGirl13

Chapter Six

“The first one to report Ye Xiao Xiang’s disappearance was her cla.s.s academic advisor.”

It was the next morning. Yu Tong, who hadn’t come home the previous night, was currently preparing breakfast for everyone as he answered Yu Yin’s question. “Didn’t I tell you that from the start? The one that had reported the case was a teacher, saying that the child hadn’t been to cla.s.s in a while. Since they couldn’t connect with the parents, they made several calls to the police. Later, the police also paid a visit to the home several times but could not locate anyone. Eventually, they started reaching out to connect with friends and other relatives for the search.”

“And n.o.body had been found up until this day?” Yu Yin asked in bewilderment as he pa.s.sed over some seasonings.

“No, they were found later.” Yu Tong glanced at his son and continued, “A friend said that the girl’s mother seemed to have run away with another man. Because the father wasn’t in a good mood afterwards, he brought the child out to distract them from their worries.”

“But didn’t the body found yesterday belong to the girl?”

Yesterday afternoon had been chaotic with all the media and whatnot coming to the complex. Any resident spotted was immediately surrounded and questioned for information. It was to the point where he and Yu had been forced to leave from a hidden side door. Afterwards, Yan Si had called in the evening to confirm that the body was indeed Ye Xiao Xiang’s. After Ye Li Sheng had gone up, he’d quickly identified his daughter, and the body was currently being held by coroners in preparation for determining the cause of death.

“The father said that not long after they had gone out to uplift their moods, the child fell sick, so they went home for her to rest. However, a few days prior, his child suddenly went missing. In his panic, he searched all over the place for her, even thinking that the child’s mother might have taken the child away. Just as he was planning on trying to contact the mother’s side, you two told him of the body.” The thick soup in the pot was now boiling. Yu Tong sprinkled some pepper in and set a timer before turning off the gas. “The investigators at the scene of the crime suspect the small child had secretly run into the water tower to play and got into an accident.”

As expected, the first impression is that it was an accident.

Yu Yin brought the soup out to the dining table and stood there blankly for a long time, trying to figure out what exactly was off about the situation.

After the elevator had stopped at the seventh floor...they had been welcomed by the sight of the potted plants and the shoe cabinet.

Just while he was pondering all this, he suddenly heard a sound from behind. When he turned around, he happened to see Yu, who had just woken up and was standing at the foot of the staircase, rubbing his eyes. “Morning. Go wash your face and then come eat.”

Yu, who had started to doze off again, started and lightly clapped his own cheeks to keep himself awake. He then began to walk over to Yu Yin, instead of heading to the bathroom.

“What’s up?” Yu Yin naturally asked after seeing Yu stare at him for a while.

A notebook was pa.s.sed to him.

Confused, Yu Yin flipped the notebook open. The first thing he saw was a picture of the scene outside the seventh floor residence yesterday. Even the positions of the shoe cabinet and such had been clearly marked. “You were doing this kind of thing last night?” As Yu Yin lifted his head, he happened to see the other person’s swaying figure walk off towards the bathroom.

So Yu also thinks there’s something weird about what was outside that door?

historical

Yu Yin’s eyes stayed locked onto the drawing in the notebook as he pulled out a chair to sit down.

There was a shoe cabinet outside the door. The outer side had a woman’s shoes, the inner side had a man’s shoes, and the top had a child’s shoes. There didn’t seem to be any issues there.

There were also the potted plants, but there was nothing else aside from that.

“What are you looking at?” Yu Tong suddenly asked as he walked over carrying the rest of the prepared breakfast.

Startled, Yu Yin immediately shut the notebook. “Nothing, just looking at Yu’s notes. He seems to have a tendency of ripping out any dialogues recorded inside.” The notebook had become extremely thin, even though he could clearly remember it having many pages in the beginning.

“That’s right, every time Xiao Yu fills a page with writing, he rips it out and stores it away somewhere. I’m not sure why either.” After placing a plate on the table, Yu Tong sat in the chair opposite of Yu Yin. “Your uncle won’t be home until late tonight, so you two should just make something yourselves for lunch or go out to buy it. Don’t run around randomly outside.”

“Oh, ok.” Yu Yin scratched his head and put the notebook down next to him.

“Oh right, what did you two run over to Yan Si’s place for yesterday? Because he ended up leaving with the forensics team, he forgot to say farewell to you.” Yu Tong asked as he looked at his son across from him.

“Ah, I forgot about that too.” Yu Yin had just left immediately without saying anything after eating yesterday. He struck the palm of his hand in realization as he recalled, “Yan Si either gives off a sinister appearance, or has an aura that frightens away ghosts, so I had originally wanted to leave Yu in his presence that afternoon. I hadn’t expected the plan to completely fall to pieces like it did.” He’d discovered that Yan Si was extremely difficult to be plagued by ghosts, to the point where his room was completely wiped clean after being haunted. There must be a reason for this.

It was just like his dad and his uncle. However, the two of them were definitely the type with oppressive auras.

A typical person’s home would become extremely dirty and held in detainment after being haunted. But his home and Yan Si’s home were not in such a condition; instead, their homes remained just as clean as before the haunting. This meant that the owner had a certain characteristic that kept those things from daring to leave any marks behind.

This was also what the person that had given him the amulet a long time ago had taught him to look out for.

“What’s wrong with Yu?” Yu Tong narrowed his eyes, noticing the unspoken implication.

“He seems to have been marked by Ye Xiao Xiang. Dad, don’t you remember back when I had the same thing, and then you brought me to someone to get the mark removed?” That was back when he hadn’t known to not look at these things randomly and had ended up tangled with the all sorts of things he’d see.

“I remember. The master back then had also said to not go near water alone before it was dealt with.” Yu Tong furrowed his brows as he recalled this matter that he could never forget.

“That’s right, then...ah!” Yu Yin abruptly stood up and immediately pushed his chair aside as he rushed towards the bathroom.

He’d forgotten about not being able to go near water!

Moreover, Ye Xiao Xiang had a bad track record of following him into the bathroom to hara.s.s him!

The bathroom door was obviously locked. Yu Yin hurriedly knocked in panic. “Yu! Open the door! Quickly!” He continued to bang furiously on the door for a long while without a reply. This made him more anxious.

“Yu! Hurry up and open the door!”

Don’t...don’t tell me something really happened?!

“Use this.” Yu Tong handed over a master key that he had grabbed from the living room.

Yu Yin immediately inserted it into the keyhole and quickly turned it.

Please, don’t let it be...

The moment the door opened, Yu Yin completely froze. For a few seconds, his mind went completely blank, absolutely unable to react.

The person that he’d thought had been a.s.sa.s.sinated by a ghost was perfectly fine.

Moreover, he had fallen asleep while sitting on the toilet!

“Shao Di Yu!!”

He could hear his own veins pop.

“You dared to fall asleep on the toilet!”

Yu was immediately shocked awake, and he blinked his violet eyes at Yu Yin.

“You scared me to death! Watch out or else I’ll give you a beating!”

Immediately after saying these words, Yu Yin dropped a fist on the head of the person that had managed to fall into deep sleep in the bathroom.

You say that, but then immediately beat me up...

Yu held his head and miserably retreated to the side.

“Alright, alright. Since everything is fine, we should just go eat first.” Yu Tong dragged his son out with a smile. “Xiao Yu, quickly finish washing yourself up and come join us.” He then closed the bathroom door.

The noisy bathroom immediately fell into silence once the door closed again.

Yu was now completely awake as he innocently rubbed his head. He then turned towards the sink to start washing his face and teeth.

The moment he turned around, he seemed to see something flash in the mirror.

“...?”

***

Sat.u.r.day, the day that all students begin to relax and prepare to have fun.

Even Yu Yin, despite being hung up by a ton of matters, was no exception.

But because his dad had specifically warned him before leaving to absolutely not wander around, and he had to strictly watch out for that little devil who had been marked by the water ghost, he was forced to reject at least five or six phone invitations from his friends that morning.

He opened the music player and inserted a single CD, and then shook out all the things he’d previously borrowed from Yan Si onto his bed to flip through them for a read. There had been way too much going on recently, so he hadn’t had the time to look through the borrowed reports until now.

Most of the things that poured out of the bag were photos. The most important doc.u.ments hadn’t been included in the information. There were also some photocopies of the autopsy report stashed inside.

Yu Yin scanned through the photos that had been taken at the scene of the crime. There were also a few photos of some objects that had been found nearby. Most likely due to the fact that it had was not the original site where the crime had taken place, there were a pitifully small amount of evidence photos. Moreover they were sporadic and scattered. There weren’t any more than ten such photos. One of them was a woman’s ring that had a small diamond embedded in it, and another with a small, broken finger nearby that had bite scars on the bone.

It matched the report, which noted that the body had the same marks that had likely been left behind by a wild dog gnawing on the corpse. There were also a few other serial photos linked to it that doc.u.mented the same bite scars, most of them deep to the bone. In addition, there were notes of the nearby residents supplying testimonies about the wild dog and such. Aside from the wild dog, the body had scattered insect pupa on it.

There was no trace of blood on the scene. The body had no head, and the conjecture based on the scene was that the head had been chopped off at the first site. Only after all the blood had been drained was the body moved out.

The flesh on the headless corpse had rotted very badly. According to the site’s environment and initial dissection, the discarded corpse was likely close to a month old. Because it had been located in a remote area, it hadn’t been discovered until a while later. However, because the corpse had been heavily destroyed, it needed further investigation for any more information.

“Around a month?”

Yu Yin furrowed his brows as he read the report in his hand.

Wasn’t a month ago exactly around when the leopard cat incident had happened?

He abruptly remembered the first time he had heard the strange broadcast, and suddenly felt his entire body shudder. It was as if something had reminded him of the matter.

Just when he was about to continue flipping through the photos, he suddenly heard two knocks on the door. “Just let yourself in, the door isn’t locked.” He didn’t even have to think about who could be outside, there wasn’t a third person at home right now.

The door was lightly pushed open, and Yu walked in carrying a book.

“I’m looking through the photos from the headless corpse right now.” Yu Yin casually said as he flipped through the doc.u.ments in his hand. Yu quickly approached his bed and sat down on the floor nearby, his violet eyes locked onto the pictures on the bed as well. “Don’t tell Uncle, or else I’ll get beaten up.” His uncle really hated it when he tried to get involved with cases for no reason.

Yu nodded and began to scrutinize the photos on the bed.

Yu Yin put down the report in his hand and pulled out a portrayal detailing the body’s neck portion.

The cut was very uneven, and one could vaguely see the marks of several cuts left behind.

The report had conjectured that the murder weapon was an ordinary household object, such as a kitchen knife.

Kitchen knife? An item found in the kitchen?

Doesn’t that mean the victim was killed indoors...if the murderer was in a positive mood to the point where they’d randomly bring kitchen knives around, that would be another story.

“Yu, do you not feel anything from looking at these photos?” Yu Yin put down the photos and glanced over at the person next to him who still had that expressionless face that revealed nothing.

Most people would feel extremely uncomfortable, if not vomit on the spot, from seeing such photos for the first time. For example, one of his cla.s.smates had come over to play before, and after accidentally seeing Uncle’s files, immediately threw up the contents of his stomach in the toilet. A typical person would rarely have no reaction to these kinds of things. Even Yu Yin had experienced several nightmares the first time he’d seen them. However, he’d still been an innocent elementary student back then.

Yu raised his head and stared at him for a second before averting his eyes and shaking his head.

“Have you seen these kinds of things before?” Yu Yin voiced his speculation. As expected, the response was a nod.

Well, that’s not surprising...

There was so much information that could be accessed now, especially with the internet. Finding similar photos was actually not a difficult matter.

Yu Yin retracted from his wandering thoughts to skim over the photos and doc.u.ments so that he had committed most of them to memory, before gathering everything and placing them back into the bag. “I’ll have to return these to Yan-Dàgē within the next two days, I’ve already borrowed them for too long.”

Yu just looked at him in response without any indication of another opinion.

Yu Yin checked his watch; it was nearly noon now. After thinking about it for a second, he asked, “Why don’t we go out to eat? It’s pretty troublesome to cook ourselves.” Although the one being inconvenienced wouldn’t be him, he figured that spending the rare Sat.u.r.day break on cooking was a waste. “There’s a pretty good restaurant nearby that has afternoon tea and snacks that you can eat your fill with. Since Dad said we can’t roam about today, we might as well eat until we stuff ourselves to death.”

Yu’s large violet eyes seemed to express some surprise.

“What? Why can’t we eat something good over the weekend?” Yu Yin tossed the bag onto his desk and stood up. He scratched his hand and said, “Go get ready, we’ll go out to eat in a bit.’

Yu blankly stood there for a moment before standing up as well, and obediently leaving the room.

Just as Yu Yin was about to look for a jacket, the phone he’d casually tossed onto his bed suddenly rang. “h.e.l.lo? This is Yu Yin.”

He could hear random noises in the background from the other end. It seemed like the person that had called was outside. “Teacher Yu? This is Qi Rui Xue. Did you go to the school yesterday? Was there anything you wanted to ask me?”

Upon hearing these words, Yu Yin immediately remembered something that he had forgotten. “Oh! I apologise, I originally meant to ask you yesterday about making wind chimes for next Monday’s cla.s.s. I asked the students, and everyone agreed to use the cla.s.s funds to order the materials.”

“Oh, is that so? Then it’s fine. I can discuss the materials cost with you again on Monday then.”

“Alright, then that’s all.” Yu Yin supported the phone with his shoulder as he opened his closet to look for a jacket.

“Wait, Teacher Yu...I wanted to ask you about something. I heard that when Ye Xiao Xiang was discovered yesterday, you were also at the scene?” The other hurriedly asked, making Yu Yin, who had just been about to hang up, freeze in his tracks.

“Mm, I was visiting a friend, and just happened to run into it.” Yu Yin narrowed his eyes as he felt something was strange.

Usually, his uncle wouldn’t tell anyone outside that he, Yan Si, and Yu were the first ones to discover the scene of the crime.

“You will probably get a lot of questions from the students on Monday...so I’ll have to trouble you to avoid the topic as much as possible...you also know that child didn’t have the best relationships with others, so I’m afraid that it will affect the cla.s.s atmosphere,” the person on the other line said in hesitation.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll just let them ask away without giving them any response.”

“Then I’ll apologise for any inconveniences caused. I still have some matters to attend to, so I will hang up now. Thanks.”

“No problem, bye-bye.”

After Yu Yin hung up, he raised his head to see Yu already standing at the doorway waiting for him.

Although Yu Yin had told him to get ready to leave, that really just meant putting his book away and putting on some socks. His actions were finished much more quickly than Yu Yin’s. “Can you come with me to the school on Monday? I still need to retrieve the materials from the manufacturer.” Because he was in the design department, he had some pretty close connections with manufacturers, and could directly place an order with them.

Yu nodded in response.

As such, Monday’s itinerary was confirmed.

After finalising this, Yu Yin put on a jacket and ran down after grabbing his motorbike keys and wallet. “Alright, let’s go fill our stomachs first before we do anything else.” He checked his watch; it was five to noon.

He soon heard footsteps following behind him.

Sometimes Yu Yin would suddenly wonder...

Had he started getting used to someone following him?

***

The restaurant really wasn’t far from the Yu household.

They arrived within ten minutes of driving, adding on the time of waiting at three traffic lights. The restaurant was called “Second s.p.a.ce”. It was a pretty well-known low to mid ranged pricing restaurant, where most people would typically spend around 200 yuan to get a variety of dishes or a more exquisite rice/noodle-based dish. In addition, it had a dessert shop on the second floor that one could typically enjoy unlimited afternoon tea from 2-4 PM for 50 yuan. If one also ordered food from the first floor, they could even get a 30 yuan discount. Thus, this place was pretty popular among students and gourmands alike.

The restaurant was in a Western-style building that looked like the kind located on a white-sanded beach on an island. It gave off a relaxing and leisurely feeling.

Yu Yin knew this restaurant because his entire household would visit this place to eat out whenever everyone was free. His mom had been the first to discover it, and then his dad and uncle later grew to enjoy the easy-going and comfortable ambience here too. Like this, his entire family had ended up being regular customers here.

After parking his motorbike in the parking lot, Yu Yin took the lead and opened the restaurant’s gla.s.s door. As he’d antic.i.p.ated, it was pretty much packed with people because it was lunchtime. The place was filled with all kinds of people ranging from families to his cla.s.smates. For the moment, he was unable to see any vacant spots.

“Ah Yin!” The person at the bar waved at him, and Yu Yin quickly went over for a greeting. This was one of the restaurant’s bartenders and they were already on pretty close terms. “There are a ton of people today so there aren’t any spots left. Do you want to go to the second floor? I can ask the part-time student to help you bring your things up,” the bartender suggested with a smile.

Typically, people just eating meals on the first floor weren’t allowed to go up to the second level. However, frequent customers were an exception.

“Thanks. I brought someone with me today.” Yu Yin put his hands on Yu’s shoulders and pushed him in front.

“Oh? An unfamiliar face. Is he your friend?”

“No, he’s my younger brother. His name is Yu.” Yu Yin grabbed the order slip from the bar and finished filling it out before pa.s.sing it over to Yu.

“Never seen him. Since when has your family been hiding such an adorable young friend?” The bartender surveyed Yu in curiosity. “Contact lenses have been getting prettier and prettier recently. Since you look so cute, this big brother here will treat you to a drink.” The bartender’s words were practically emitting heart bubbles by this point, which made Yu immediately take two steps back.

“Don’t scare him, my younger brother isn’t as fearless as my uncle is.” Yu Yin tossed over the order slip that Yu had pa.s.sed back over, and then quickly took out some bills from his wallet and placed them on the counter. “Help me settle the bill first. We still want to go upstairs and destroy the desserts section here.”

“Say that after you actually manage to destroy them, you sly ghost!” The bartender gave back the receipt and change with a laugh, and quickly asked the part-time student nearby carrying a drinks menu to go and work.

“We won’t trouble you any further then and go upstairs to eat.” Yu Yin bid farewell with a smile before dragging Yu up the staircase.

Yu had a strange expression on his face as he followed behind.

“That person just now is called Zuo Ah Jie. He mixes c.o.c.ktails and beverages, and is one of the bosses of this restaurant. This place was originally a collaboration between three people; the other two are the chef and patisserie. All three of them know our family very well. I’ll make sure to introduce you to the others when there’s a chance.” Yu Yin was in extremely good spirits as he led Yu up the white-floored staircase and chose a spot near the window.

Yu sat down in the seat across and looked around at the second floor’s decorations.

It had a different ambiance compared to the first floor that was packed with customers. Perhaps because it wasn’t quite opening time for the second floor yet, it was extremely quiet all around, with n.o.body else present. There were only a few people busy stacking up the display counter with freshly made desserts, in preparation for the customers that would be coming in later.

Most likely, the people had received a notification from downstairs that they were coming, as the customers that had appeared on the second floor before opening time didn’t get questioned about whether they’d accidentally wandered to the wrong place.

Before waiting for very long, maybe 10 minutes later, a uniformed staff came over carrying some delicate dishes that were even still steaming. Moreover, the uniformed member was followed by a familiar face.

“Aiyah, Ah Yin, you’ve come by to eat here too!” A cute voice broke the quiet surroundings, causing Yu Yin to subconsciously roll his eyes.

The one walking towards them was his cla.s.smate, the one that was allegedly the school flower with a lot of suitors, named Li Lin Yue.

“What did you come up here for?” Yu Yin grumpily asked the other person before noticing there was someone else next to her.

“To eat of course. It’s completely full downstairs. My boyfriend’s friend just happens to know the boss here pretty well, so we asked him to arrange a spot for us up here.” Li Lin Yue hugged the tall and exceedingly handsome male next to her side and smiled, “Anyways...who’s the one next to you...?”

“My younger brother!” Yu Yin answered and spun the chopsticks in his hand before wrapping some spaghetti around them.

“Oh, the one that prevented you from eating breakfast.” Li Lin Yu, who loved to pick at others’ wounds, ignored the dirty glance the other shot her as she smiled without restraint.

Yu Yin really wanted to tell her something like “cut the blabber and scram off to one side to eat your food”, but since her boyfriend was also present, he didn’t voice his thoughts. He stared at the male for a bit before shifting his gaze onto Li Lin Yue’s rhythmically tapping feet. “You changed your shoes again,” he casually changed the topic.

“Oh, you noticed.” Li Lin Yue flashed the new, golden sandals on her feet and grabbed her boyfriend’s hand to lead him to the empty table nearby. “My boyfriend just gifted them to me.”

“Why buy so many shoes? It’s not like you’re an octopus,” Yu Yin absentmindedly commented while cutting apart some chicken cutlet.

“Don’t you know? A woman can’t leave home without having at least three pairs of shoes. Beautiful shoes are a woman’s life.” Li Lin Yue hummed as she rotated her feet to show off the pretty pair of sandals.

“Cloth shoes are enough to go out...wait.” Yu Yin narrowed his eyes and put his knife and fork down. “Let me ask you something. If shoes are that important to a woman, that would mean you would bring them with you if you left home, right?”

“Of course you’d bring as much as you own. It doesn’t matter if they’re shoes you typically wear, or ones for playing outside, or ones for dates, it’s very annoying to not have the shoes you like by your side. Even for traveling, you would at least bring the shoes you typically wear all the time,” Li Lin Yue replied with her eyebrows arched as if to say “you clearly don’t have any common sense”.

“Then that means you would at least bring the pair of shoes in the shoe cabinet with you?”

“As if, anyone would definitely bring all the shoes in the shoe cabinet with them.”

When Yu Yin heard this, he suddenly felt the skin on his scalp go numb.

If one would supposedly bring all their shoes with them just to leave home, then they’d definitely bring things that would dress them up if running away with a lover.

But the shoe cabinet outside the Ye household was extremely well-organised; clearly filled perfectly without a single pair missing. In other words, the female of the Ye household hadn’t left wearing any shoes.

Then, how exactly had she fled with her lover?

Ye Xiao Xiang’s shoes that had been placed on the top level of the shoe cabinet are the same.

Does that mean she had walked up to the rooftop barefoot?

A subtle sound suddenly came from across him.

Yu Yin returned to his senses and noticed that Yu had put his utensils down and stood up, looking around.

“Are you looking for the bathroom?” The other nodded, and Yu Yin pointed his finger towards the walkway on the right. “If you keep walking down there, you’ll see a corner to turn around. The bathroom is there.”

Yu nodded and began to walk in that direction.

“Excuse me, I’ll also be going to the bathroom,” Li Lin Yue’s boyfriend said. After giving an apologetic smile, he also walked away.

Yu Yin looked at his retreating figure for a while before turning to switch his gaze onto his cla.s.smate. “How did you meet him?” He-->>

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