The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

The noise from the ambulance was very loud.

So great that it seemed like it could shatter bones. The nearing tremors instilled fear, reminding everyone that they were currently trying to save a life instead.

Make way, make way—

“You, college kid, go quickly…”

The clamour poured out from the car and into the emergency room.

In his daze, he dimly recalled when everyone had been happily enjoying themselves. But the seniors had drunken too much and ended up knocked out on the rooftop. He, who wasn’t a good drinker, was feeling amused while he supported Senior Zhao downstairs as he had been instructed, dragging the person back to the room so that he would not have to suffer a difficult confrontation with the girlfriend. He then bumped into some other classmates and chatted for a while in the hallway before finally remembering that there were still many friends dead drunk upstairs.

When he checked the time, he saw that it was already past two in the night. If they slept up there until morning, they would probably end up all reporting into class with snot dripping from their noses.

He had told them not to listen to some person’s jeering to drink that special alcohol blend which had caused them all to collapse. People always got more enthusiastic [with drinking] the further they went when it came to strong alcohol mixed with juice, until it became intolerable. It wasn’t his responsibility if they ended up getting targeted by the professors from going to class with hangovers.

Just as he was considering finding his roommate to help him get the others down, he recalled that the other person had already gone up a mountain yesterday for a self-improvement exercise. Besides, asking someone else to help at this time would likely end up with him getting strangled because he roused them from their dreams.

After more thought, he decided that it would be better if he just dragged them down one by one as a good Samaritan.

After pressing the elevator button to go up to the roof, he stopped at the rooftop entrance, unsure of how to step outside.

All his acquainted seniors and classmates were collapsed in a mess on the ground. The barbeque grill had long since burned out, the paper cups had been scattered by the wind. Everyone’s shirts and jeans were also tossed all over the place.

Then, he saw one of his messily-dressed juniors crouched next to some people, an eerie grin on her beautiful face.

***

He gradually wakened, no longer able to stay unconscious through the loud noise. It was as if he had returned to the rooftop from back then. The scene from his memory consequently vanished into the intersection between light and shadow and was replaced by a white ceiling and a familiar smell of antiseptic.

“Yan-dàgē?”

The question came from next to him. Then, it changed directions to say, “Xiao Yu, go tell the nurse that the patient has woken up.”

Yan Si blinked in uncertainty, turning his head to look at the person sitting next to him. “Eh, student that was ganged up on?”

Yu Yin rolled his eyes at the other person in annoyance but did not retort back as he usually did. “Just wait, the doctor’s here.” As he spoke, he got out of the way to allow the doctor led back by Xiao Yu to carry out an examination.

After asking some simple questions, the doctor left some instructions to the others and left.

Yan Si was now mostly clear-minded. He took in a deep breath, and after confirming his condition was fine, automatically shifted so that he was sitting up. “Why are you here?” He was quite surprised that the first people he saw were the two little ones from the Yu family.

He still remembered falling from the building. Logically speaking, it should be Yang De Cheng or Lai Chang An with him, not these two.

“I came for a follow-up.” Yu Yin rubbed his shoulder, then thoughtfully gave an explanation that could be easily understood, “Then I ran into ghost walls ¹ at the hospital…” That girl had appeared out of nowhere for some reason, stubbornly forcing him and Xiao Yu to circle around the hospital for a long time. Finally, after they had successfully walked out, they had just so happened to bump into Yan Si being brought in.

“Was it just me?”

“Oh, there seemed to have been two others. One of them disappeared for some reason…even though I clearly saw him come out of the ambulance with you. The other one, Mr. Yang, just arrived by taxi and is filling out documents for you,” Yu Yin clarified. He recognized the restaurant owner, Mr. Yang, but he had no idea who the other extremely dirty and messy looking person was.

Yan Si knew from the description that the person that had delivered him here must have been Lai Chang An, who had likely fled as soon as he saw Yang De Cheng arrive, having no desire to get involved with them.

“My uncle’s also outside, he’ll come in later to ask you some questions.” Yu Yin’s expression fell here. “In the end, my cover was broken instantly.”

“I guessed as much.” Yan Si glanced at the expressionless Xiao Yu. He rotated his slightly numb arm, belatedly realising that his clothes had been changed by someone. Touching his neck, he found that it had been bandaged as well. Yu Xia had likely seen the scars, so it was not surprising that he wanted to come ask questions. “Your family members have been fighting since they first opened their eyes. It would be weirder if they didn’t break through your cover.” He had eaten breakfast several times at their home, so he had naturally seen Yu Xia often hitting their child. Regardless of the timing, Yu Xia never hesitated to strike.

“No, the police station called Dad.” Yu Yin grew depressed as he spoke, “They said that it was an intentional attack to kill, so I had to cooperate with their investigation.” Afterwards, he had been beaten up by Yu Xia.

Moreover, the two adults in his family had assumed he had angered something. As a result, he had been forced to endure the fierce lectures from both of them first thing in the morning. Then, Xiao Yu had followed him as he walked out. The sugarcoated reason was because Xiao Yu had been afraid Yu Yin would get into an accident, but the honest reason was just to monitor him.

Yan Si nodded, having anticipated this from the beginning, and did not say anything much. Basically, since his discussion with the doctor yesterday, he had guessed that the doctor would immediately call the police to report it. Thus, he was not at all surprised by this news.

“By the way, Yan-dàgē, what exactly happened to your neck…?” Yu Yin had been very shocked at the traces of strangulation. After all, there should not have been such marks from falling down. Now that Yu Yin thought about it more carefully, he had found it strange when Yan Si had appeared last night wearing a high-collared shirt. In the end, it had been to cover these marks.

But Yan Si had been perfectly fine just earlier that day. Had something happened in between?

“I don’t know either. I just suddenly had these when I woke up. I can assure you that I haven’t had any exciting late-night affairs recently…or ever. My posture might be bad while sleeping, but I don’t think I would have choked myself while unconscious.” Yan Si automatically touched the bandages on his neck and calmly said, “But I also discovered yesterday that I can actually sleep like the dead and not feel anything at all. It’s quite amazing.”

Yu Yin couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the frivolous words, frowning as he mulled this over. Then he grabbed his own bag and fished out the strange protective amulet that Fang Yi Xun had given him. “Yan-dàgē, you should wear this for now.” Having strangulation marks was way too extreme. But why did he hide them without saying anything?

“No need, it’s not a big deal anyways.” It was because he felt that his close friends would be overly alarmed that Yan Si had decided that voicing such things would be too troublesome. Yan Si pushed the other person’s possession away. “Plus, I think you need it more, student that was ganged up on. If you lend it to me, you might end up jumping off a building or falling into the sea again. It would be weirder if Boss didn’t directly choke me to death then.”

“The one jumping off the building was clearly you this time! I’m serious…Yan-dàgē, did you really not find any of this odd?” Being strangled isn’t a big deal? Yu Yin did not believe the person in front of him at all. “Although I really don’t want to say this, I think there has to be something else going on based on my experience. Aside from the black shadow I saw before, exactly what else has been off?” He had truly overestimated the other person earlier. In the end, it was not that Yan Si’s fortune had been amazing, but that he had just not mentioned anything.

“…Student that was ganged up on, there’s really no need for you to keep questioning it. I have a general idea of who’s following me anyways, and I think I have a way to resolve it. So, it really isn’t anything major.” After seeing that woman outside the balcony, Yan Si instantly understood where the recent chain of paranormal sightings had come from.

“It’s still better if you wear it.” Yu Yin pushed the amulet in his hands forwards again. “I’ll be with Xiao Yu for the next few days anyways; he has one as well. It’s not a problem.”

“Forget it, it’s not like I have any religious beliefs. Wearing it won’t be of any use.” Yan Si pushed it back with a smile. He did not really like carrying such things, so he insisted, “Don’t worry, I know how to deal with it.”

Yu Yin was about to lose his patience. “It would be great if you did. Then you could just walk the path to the spirit realm instead.” He could not believe that Yan Si was actually claiming he knew how to deal with it to someone that had yin-yang eyes.

“I know.”

If the attachment from before their death and after their death was the same, Yan Si was certain he knew how to fix the situation.

Seeing that the other person was seriously not going to accept [the amulet], Yu Yin could only stow it away. “Anyways, have you recently received any cases involving a girl? About this tall, and around fifteen or sixteen years old…” He indicated the other one he had seen, describing her appearance and approximate age. In the end, Yan Si only shook his head.

“Nobody like that.” Yan Si compared the description to his memory, certain that he had not accepted such a person.

“Weird, she clearly followed me out from your home. Could it be that she hasn’t been found yet?” Yu Yin was also puzzled. However, the girl had not given him any clear instructions since appearing; he had no idea what she wanted to do.

“Did you overlook some other special signal?” Yan Si asked, knowing Yu Yin’s experiences of bumping into ghosts.

“I don’t know either, I don’t think so though? Even if I had, she never indicated anything else to me…” She was just persistently pushing for me to go to the scene yesterday, right? But then he had ended up being trapped by the ghost walls today. He honestly was completely lost.

“Just let nature run its course. But have you improved your self-defense techniques recently, student that was ganged up on? Every time you bump into your ghost friends, don’t you always end up having rivers of blood gushing from your head or getting struck by iron fists? Now that you’ve run into another one, you should make sure to be more careful when you go out.” Sometimes, Yan Si wondered if Yu Xia beat too many people up, causing it to circle back to the child getting beaten in return.

“It’s not every time! Plus, the one injured this time is clearly you!” Yu Yin instantly rebuked. Recently, Yu Xia would often drag him out to practice when there was nothing to do at home, and he still had lingering fear about it. Although this was also why he had only managed to get an injured shoulder this time, he was always terrified whenever he thought back to those practice sessions. It had taken over a month before he could finally start to weakly retaliate; he had no idea how he had survived up to this point.

Yu Yin could feel his eyes start to tear whenever he recalled those dark times.

Before they could continue mocking each other, the door of the ward was pushed open, interrupting their idle chatter.

When Yu Yin saw the person that had arrived, he quickly shut his mouth and flitted away. He had no desire to get beaten again at the hospital.

***

“Here’s your cellphone.”

Yu Xia sat down and passed over the object he had gotten from the hospital over to the patient in bed.

“Oh, thanks.” Yan Si glanced at the slightly bloodstained phone, then grabbed some tissues to wipe it. Luckily it had not broken, it was just a bit dirty.

“Could you please explain why you jumped from Senior Lai’s window?” Yang De Cheng asked with a dark expression as he sat down on the other side and surveyed his friend that was covered in injuries. He seriously could not fathom what had happened: while he had left for just a moment to get the repair shop to sort out the [car] situation, an ambulance had instead appeared. Then he had spotted his friend, who should have gone to enjoy some cool air, being carried out.

“I’m pretty sure it was to shift the blame on me and get revenge on their unhappiness back in school or something along those lines,” Yan Si earnestly answered.

Yu Yin nearly choked on his drink, and he wondered if he should call the doctor if the police officer and citizen teamed up to beat up a certain forensic investigator…

“Stop fooling around. Do you want me to call Xiao Li?” Yang De Cheng really did have the strong urge to punch Yan Si, and just barely suppressed the impulse.

Yan Si raised his hands. “Alright, I accidentally slipped.” He then turned to Yu Xia to first address the most important matter. “I’m not sure if it has any relation with your case, but I saw multiple bloody footprints outside the window. There were bloodstains above the window ledge and on the outer wall. There were also some drops of liquid underneath the junk on the ground level that had fallen from above. I’m just not sure what the blood is from.”

Yu Xia furrowed his brows together. “I’ll send someone to investigate immediately.” He quickly walked out of the room to make the call.

“How fast. I was just going to tell him that I took some photos too.” Yan Si opened his cellphone, originally to check if he had actually captured anything. However, after flipping through a few photos, he narrowed his eyes.

“Is there a problem with the photos?” When Yang De Cheng said this, Yu Yin and Xiao Yu also came over, crowding around the bed.

“Should I call this a problem…?” Yan Si stared at the photo, uncertain whether it was excitement or intrigue that he felt. He then turned the photo towards the group of people crammed together next to his bed.

It was the photo he had taken behind him before falling down. Back then, he had definitely not seen anything. However, the previously empty space next to the side of his face now had another blurry face, black hair pouring down from above. At first glance, it seemed like a skull that was stuffed in a mess of hair. In addition, the clearest part of the face were the bloody eye sockets and the bulging eyeballs.

“I wonder what’ll happen if I forward this to Jiu Shen-xiǎodì ².” Yan Si chuckled as he resolved to send this photo together with the bloodstains over for his colleague to analyse.

“…Are you trying to scare Jiu Shen-dàgē to death?” Yu Yin knew exactly how the analyst would react. He glanced in exasperation at the injured person that often bullied others, “This looks pretty fierce. It should be from some kind of murder case, how did it latch onto you?” Even though he wasn’t any kind of psychic expert, the malicious intent expressed on that blurry face was obvious to see.

“Because it’s an old friend.” Yan Si tilted his head to look at the shocked Yang De Cheng. “Although it’s really blurry, I think it’s recognizable from the silhouette, don’t you think?”

“Seems so.” Yang De Cheng shook his head and rubbed his face. He had no idea what else to say, so he stood up, walking into the bathroom to wash his face and calm down.

From the unusual expressions both of them wore, even someone slower-witted like Yu Yin could guess what they meant. “You guys recognise this…ghost?” Forget Yan Si, Mr. Yang had clearly been shocked by the photo. Moreover, this was the only conclusion Yu Yin reached after hearing their conversation.

“I’m thinking it’s our junior from our old school. Although the upper half of her face isn’t distinguishable, her overall silhouette hasn’t changed much.” Moreover, Yan Si had already seen the entire body clearly in the house…He switched off his phone as he voiced his thoughts. “Who would’ve thought that we would meet again through the spirit realm after graduation? Life is truly full of wonders.”

When Yan Si had first entered this field, he had mentally prepared himself to analyse an acquaintance sooner or later. However, he had never imagined to come into contact in such a way.

“…” Regardless of whether it was a corpse or a ghost, one would never want to see someone they knew in such a way. Yu Yin did not know what to say. The air seemed to turn cold as well, so he did not speak at all.

After a while, Yang De Cheng came back to his seat with a poor complexion. “Do you think Senior Chang An knows?”

“More or less.” Yan Si played with his phone as he thought up various possibilities. “Actually, I never quite believed that our junior would willingly break up with him. It looks to me like Senior knew she had already ascended to the spirit realm.” It was no wonder their senior had reacted that way back then. But they had no idea if he had any connection to their junior’s death.

“Why is there no sense of tension when discussing this kind of thing with you?” Yang De Cheng glared at his friend, uncertain if he was amused or irritated.

“It’s better to be more relaxed in life.” Yan Si smiled as he strongly believed in these words.

“Just how relaxed do you want to be?” Yang De Cheng stared at the ridiculously laid-back person with the sudden impression that their junior would not have come looking for him for no reason. This guy had always sported such an attitude even back in school, which was how he had offended way too many people.

“I would also really like to know the answer to that.”

Before Yan Si could reply, the room’s door was opened once more as Yu Xia strode back in after finishing his calls. There was also someone behind Yu Xia that Yan Si was extremely unhappy to see.

“I thought you didn’t tell my old roommate?” Yan Si angrily hissed as he grabbed Yang De Cheng with a dark expression.

“Sorry, it was Xiao Yu who contacted him,” Yu Yin quickly explained. “By the time I found out, he had already sent a text.” Yu Yin seriously believed that Xiao Yu had become a hidden spy.

Yan Si eyed the still blank-faced Xiao Yu, and then slumped back powerlessly.

“Explain the situation first.”

When Yan Si surveyed the room filled with people, he suddenly felt like his relationships were all quite good.

“You have an idea of where your choke marks came from, don’t you?” Li Zi Hong sat down on the bed meant for family members as he stated this affirmative sentence, causing Yu Xia to raise a brow.

“It should be our junior.” Yan Si scratched his head, using the chance to quickly inspect his own injuries. The most critical ones had just been the side of his waist that had crashed into the concrete. The others were all minor bruises. It looked like he would be able to go straight home once all the formal procedures were done. “I confirmed it when I saw her at Senior Chang An’s place. Her fingers are roughly the same size.”

“Why does your junior hate you so much?” Yu Yin asked in curiosity.

“I think it’s best if I give a simple explanation of what happened in the past.” Yan Si looked at the three members of the Yu household that were not involved with the situation. But since it appeared to be a murder case based on the photo, he could no longer hide anything despite his original reluctance to disclose private matters. “Lai Chang An, the owner of that house, was my and De Cheng’s senior by two years. The woman in the picture is Liao Xue Yi, our junior by one year.”

Li Zi Hong, who already knew all this ages ago, automatically turned on his recording pen and quietly placed it aside.

“We had heard of him immediately after entering the school. During the new student orientation, he and several seniors watched over us new students, so that’s how we first got to know each other. Also, he had bluntly told me that there was a huge issue with the way I talked, that I would end up offending a lot of people in a school as competitive as ours.” Yan Si indifferently shrugged, ignoring the statement of “what an honest person” that was written all over the others’ faces.

Li Zi Hong silently studied his friend as he could not help but agree with Lai Chan An’s opinion. Yan Si’s attitude towards life had always been laid-back, often adding random nonsense into his words. While some people that were well acquainted with him would just find it simultaneously annoying and amusing, more sensitive people that he might have just met would often think of him negatively as their first impression. As a result, while his relationships seemed quite good on the surface, there were also many people that had objections against him.

“Then I offended him.” Yan Si was quiet for two seconds, but nobody responded so he dully continued, “He seemed to feel that I treated my studies too lightly, so he disliked me quite a bit in my first year. But after getting to know me for a while, we ended up becoming friends for a while.”

“Did you tell him that your family were originally all in the medical field?” As a former roommate, Li Zi Hong knew that the reason this person had an easier experience with studying was because all his relatives were from the field, so he had gotten to know a lot of the relevant knowledge while growing up. Since primary school, Yan Si had already started attending private training courses, and he had also witnessed life-or-death scenes before. This was also how he had accumulated a bunch of experience that a typical student would rarely receive. In contrast, Yan Si did not need to focus much in class, so those that did not know him well would think of his attitude towards academics as poor and undisciplined.

“No. Everyone’s homework and reports were all the same in the end, so what’s the point of talking about these things?” Yan Si had seriously tried his best to minimize any troubles. They often had to go gather medicines or write up medical reports and homework assignments that required them to run to pharmacies and hospitals to complete. If he told others that his family members were in those fields, wouldn’t they all cheat and run to his home to take it easy?

Sometimes, one needed to rely on their own hard work to gain knowledge. That was why Yan Si had obediently run around with his group without going home as a shortcut.

After hearing the other’s seemingly random excuse, Li Zi Hong nodded to gesture for his friend to continue speaking.

“Mm, basically after second year, all the misunderstandings were resolved, everything was dispelled after playing ball together a few times and doing some fellowship events. Plus, after getting to know some newly entered juniors, their personalities softened a bit. And so, there was a period of time where I was pretty close with Senior. I knew he was very smart; he was the type that constantly won various academic awards while growing up and always received praise wherever he went.” Yan Si scratched his face and thought to himself for a bit before choosing a less serious topic. “As a result, he felt that it was to be expected that his life was up there…you all know what I mean.”

“Thinking of himself as superior to others.” Yang De Cheng had never held any positive impressions towards this senior. He sneered, “He felt that the rest of us students, his juniors, didn’t have enough brains. We weren’t as amazing as him, as innovative as him, our actions not as precise as his. Then he was buried underneath all these people.”

“Basically, Senior Chan An felt that he was trying his best to fight on. Whenever someone else surpassed him, he would be extremely upset, refusing to admit that others could be better than him. In the end, the fact that the instructors started to look for me affected his position. Despite being friends for a period of time, he really started to despise me in my third year.” What had happened back then? It seemed like he had been forced to answer whether they really were friends or not, and if they were, why he would never let the other go. Yan Si had found it bizarre. He smiled; thinking back, it was quite amusing really. As expected, the past always seemed so interesting as one grew older. “After that, De Cheng left school, so you lost contact with him.”

“Yep, and it wasn’t like I had nothing better to do than keep in contact with that kind of person.” Yang De Cheng propped his chin with his hand as he recalled those memories. He added, “When I heard him brought up by other seniors afterwards, it seemed like Lai Chang An had been complaining about why we could grow in other fields while he couldn’t no matter what he did. He claimed that even though he clearly had the talent, he lacked the opportunity, because nobody truly understood his capabilities.” Yang De Cheng had needed to start from the basics though. There was no way anyone could be so bright and successful from the very beginning.

“He sounds like a pretty enigmatic person.” Yu Yin and Xiao Yu exchanged a look. They had actually bumped into classmates like these before too. They would usually end up saying their good-byes to such people after going completely different ways.

After gaining a general understanding of their senior, Yu Xia thoughtfully asked, “Then what about Liao Xue Yi?”

“Her problem was even bigger than Lai Chang An’s.” Before Yan Si even opened his mouth, Yang De Cheng spoke up first with a stormy expression. “She was super infamous. Everyone would instantly flee at the sight of her. Xiao Li, you probably had heard of her to some extent too, right?”

“I did, but not very much.” Li Zi Hong only knew that the girl in the medical school was extremely unwelcomed, but he did not know the details. Yan Si never said much about her, always just gliding over it with a smile. He had only known about it because he had gone looking for Yan Si at the medical school once, and the seniors had kindly reminded him not to get involved with her.

“She’s really terrifying…”

From Yang De Cheng’s description, this junior was the one that had been the true cause of disturbance in the school department that year.

Lai Chang An, who thought of himself as the most outstanding of the other students, formed an independent little circle. Although many thought of him as a bit arrogant and egotistic, his academic ability was at an undeniable level. Moreover, his decent looks and certain unique opinions helped him attract quite a few supporters. Liao Xue Yi was one of those people and eventually ended up as his girlfriend.

Lai Chang An was not originally any kind of malevolent person. However, if someone surpassed him or received praise, he would emotionally express that he was better, and that his talent had simply gone unrecognised. Then he would get slightly worked up, expressing his resentments to those around him by giving speeches about how he had no chance to display his abilities.

The troubling part was that, while most people would just let these words go in one ear and out the other, or at most, rebuke back with a few words, Liao Xue Yi would absorb these speeches completely, and even evolve them further. She believed that Lai Chang An was deprived of opportunities because of his surroundings, so she started rumours in the department.

At first, those mentioned in the rumours did not pay much attention to them. After all, the medical department’s workload was extremely heavy, and fierce competition was quite common. If they cared about all these things, they would just be wasting all their time. However, when nobody put a stop to this junior, Liao Xue Yi’s flames grew stronger, especially with the addition of Lai Chang An letting it happen, intentionally or otherwise. She even went as far as thinking that everyone else was diffident as she was angry on the behalf of her “first-rank person”. Soon after, Yang De Cheng heard that a male junior had unfortunately been formally reported to the department by this girl claiming that he had disturbed her during their residency by peeking under her skirt. It was later been confirmed that the male junior had just crouched to help Liao Xue Yi pick up something she had dropped.

And the real reason [for this] was because that male junior had entered the school as the top ranked; too many of the professors had been praising him, so the seniors disliked him.

Such events did not happen just once or twice, but rather gradually began to accummulate.

There was another female junior that had said Lai Chang An was too arrogant, then nearly had a potted plant smash onto her head from the building above as she had passed by. One senior directly told Lai Chang An that he had done poorly on their group report and asked him to redo his part so as not to drag down the entire group’s grade. In the end, a rumour spread among the female juniors that the senior had made his girlfriend have an abortion and so on, which ended up having him called to the school board for interrogation.

In the end, it turned out that this particular senior was actually gay, so there was no way he could have made a girlfriend have an abortion.

Many similar instances occurred, and even Yan Si had fallen victim before with claims, such as bribing the professors into giving him high grades and letting him participate as a representative in department activities. Or there were claims that the fact he never listened in class yet still got high scores meant someone was clearly taking his exams for him, or that the professors were covering for his cheating. In the end, there was even a rumour that a past girlfriend from high school that he had played around with had come chasing after him to get back together, but was later driven away by his mocking and ridicule.

The only trouble that these rumours had caused was that Yan Si ended up being scolded by a bunch of ignorant female classmates for a period of time. He consequently was unable to find a girlfriend and was close to actually having to go back and find a past ex from high school.

Yang De Cheng also encountered an issue before leaving school, but his was worse. The rumour was that because Yan Si had not covered for him, he could not continue forwards [with his studies] without any aid and thus ran off before he got officially kicked to save face.

That was why it was completely expected for Yang De Cheng to dislike these people. After all, Yang De Cheng was not an easy-going person like Yan Si. Yang De Cheng was great at taking care of his friends and was a meticulous person. As a result, anyone that wronged him would end up straight onto his list of rejected customers.

In short, because of all these events, the department was in absolute chaos for a period of time. Finally, when everyone decided to lay all their cards out on the table in their anger, they found out that it had all been caused by this particular female junior, and most misunderstandings were finally cleared. But as a result, her and Lai Chan Ang’s group of people were blacklisted by everyone, and many did not restrain themselves when it came to this group.

Lai Chang An may not have reflected on this issue, as he simply felt more and more people were envious of his talents and therefore trying their best to suppress him. Eventually, even the professors were repeatedly coming to him with issues regarding his assignments, which just made him feel more like a tragic hero. This resulted in Liao Xue Yi to feel more sympathy for him, thinking that the whole world was against them, that everyone envied them.

In the end, even some of the kinder seniors gave up on communicating with the couple. Because the fourth and fifth years got busier, nobody had the time or energy to continue extraditing the tragically tiny group that walked out of the shadows. Barely able to focus on themselves, they dispersed and nobody paid any more attention to this group.

“So that’s probably how they ended up together.” Actually, Yang De Cheng had heard the latter half from his seniors and classmates. Although he had left all these troublesome things behind to fend for himself and make a living, he still felt irritated when talking about the couple.

He was not as laid-back as Yan Si, who could still forgive the couple for their baseless rumour-spreading. Truthfully, if it were Yang De Cheng, he would have openly and resentfully drawn a clear line to separate himself with that couple, as most people would have done, rather than running over and seeking them out.

It did not matter if the other party was having troubles; he could not care less if they had gone off and died somewhere.

“So, the ghost in the photo was that female junior?” Yu Yin now understood why Yang De Cheng’s expression had changed dramatically earlier. If that kind of ghost appeared near him, he would also be extremely alarmed.

“Yeah.”

Yang De Cheng and Yan Si nodded in unplanned unison.

“You two don’t seem that panicked,” Yu Xia commented as he studied the pair.

“I’m not the one involved.” Yang De Cheng shot a sideways glance at the actual main subject currently lying on the sickbed. He believed that he had a basis to not be worried; the strange one was the person that was still so at ease despite being wrapped up in the issue!

“Not like it’s caused too much trouble.” Yan Si earnestly contemplated all the recent misfortunes, the worst ones being the strangulation marks and accidentally falling from the second floor. When he evaluated this all carefully, he concluded that there was nothing too significant.

“It’s been plenty troublesome already!” Yu Yin retorted as someone that had been harmed by ghosts too. “You might even get killed next time!” He could not help but feel terrified as he watched Yan Si’s injuries continue to pile up in number. For some reason, it reminded him of the previous incident with the shadows, as they had also inflicted multiple injuries without end.

Yu Yin had not felt much as the target before, but when the person being targeted was someone else he knew, he felt a fear and an inexplicable shudder course through his body.

He had to admit though that the person before him still seemed energetic enough, unlike how Yu Yin’s conscious had basically been off in another world that had nearly reeled him away.

“I think it’s still okay. If it really is that junior haunting me, I have some ways to handle it.” Yan Si smiled indifferently as the thoughts circled through his mind. He had a good grasp on the situation.

“What kinds of ways?” Yu Yin furrowed his brows. Yan Si had been claiming this for a while now, but the more he talked about it, the more it felt like this so-called method might just be a hoax.

“Secret.”

Li Zi Hong glared at his childish friend and coughed. “Don’t fool around. Regardless, you will be staying here under observation for the night. The doctor said you hit your head. Officer Yu and I will go and inspect Lai Chang An’s residence later.”

“Huh? My head’s fine.” Yan Si frowned; he had a clear idea of his own injuries.

“Don’t. Fool. Around.” Li Zi Hong meticulously repeated his previous words and added in a more forceful tone, “You will need to give a detailed testimony later. Ah Yin too.”

When Yu Yin was mentioned, Yu Xia instantly shot a glare at the child. “And you’d better not run around either!”

“I didn’t do anything…” Yu Yin weakly protested; he had been completely innocent this time. He had absolutely no idea [of the situation] and did not know what that ghost that had followed from Yan Si’s place even wanted. The whole ordeal was beyond bizarre.

“Just behave, you two.” Yu Xia glanced at his watch. Seeing that it was about time, he made some final comments and then hurriedly left.

“…It’s all your fault that I can’t work today. And I still need to go get the fish from Taichung Harbour.” Most importantly, Yang De Cheng’s car was completely scratched up. He was really starting to feel a headache coming on. “I’m going to go find a friend to help me deal with things. I’ll come back in the evening and bring you guys dinner. Don’t go anywhere.”

After the third person left, the hospital ward that had been quite crowded just moments ago finally quieted down.

Yan Si sighed, finally relieved from the feeling of being tightly watched.

“Since we’ll be staying here for a bit, Xiao Yu and I will go buy some drinks for now.” After all the adults ran off, Yu Yin considerately concluded that he could not just abandon Yan Si here by himself. He could just record his testimony and all that stuff later. He fished out his wallet as Xiao Yu went to go find some food first. “Does Yan-dàgē want anything to eat? Or I can get you a drink as well?”

“No thanks.”

After watching both youths run off, Yan Si slowly lay back down. The moment he did, he spotted the thing on the ceiling that had reappeared as before. “You know, paying a visit like this is quite rude, my junior.”

^{1. The Chinese phrase used here is “鬼打牆” which literally translates to “ghost built walls”, and can be interpreted literally or figuratively. It’s used to describe the phenomenon of wandering around at night and unknowingly going in circles and is also an aphorism for being trapped in an issue without a way out. The superstitious interpretation is that this phenomenon is caused by ghost-built walls placed around people, trapping them around the same spot. ↑}

^{2. xiǎodì (小弟) or dìdi (弟弟) is a form of address for little/younger brother, not necessarily biological. ↑}