The Yu Brothers’ Case Book

Yu Yin returned to the hospital the next day for his re-examination. Since he had not bled anymore and it was confirmed that there were no problems with infection or wounds, the doctor let them leave after removing the bandages and telling Yu Yin what to keep an eye out for.

“I wonder how today’s investigation is going for Dad and Uncle.”

Yu Yin stretched his arms. When he lowered them again, he saw Yu’s stare locked onto him. This had been going on since yesterday, and Yu Yin truly did not know what to say about it. “I’ve already promised I won’t go, there’s no need to watch me that much.” He really is keeping a close eye on me after being told to! After waking and washing up this morning, the first thing he had seen upon opening the door was Yu standing there to watch him. It’s like an evil spirit possessed him! He’s watching way too closely!

Yu did not respond as his gaze remained locked onto Yu Yin.

Yu Yin sighed helplessly as he could only let the person continue obediently watching him. Just as he was about to walk over to the parking lot, he suddenly spotted an extremely familiar person in the hospital’s main hall. At first, he thought he might have been mistaken, since the person yesterday had unquestionably been covered in hair. Yet today, a good majority of the hair was gone.

The remaining hair fell just a bit past the shoulders and had been bundled and tied back into a small ponytail. Aside from the hair, the person was still the same skin and bones.

After meeting Yu Yin’s gaze, the other person immediately walked over.

“Why did you cut your hair?” The cut hair was a more refreshing look, making the person seem less terrifying and becoming more delicate and pretty. However, when Yu Yin got a closer look, he noticed that the hair length and thickness was a complete mess. There was no way the other person had gotten it cut at a barber shop; it looked more like it had been chewed off by a dog.

“When I went back last night, someone screamed that there was a ghost when I was going upstairs. Since I felt like I would likely need to come outside more for the time being, cutting it was more convenient.” Dong Feng noticed where Yu Yin was looking at and casually tugged at the hair.

“…Are you free this afternoon?” The more Yu Yin studied the hair, the more uncomfortable he felt. He pulled out his cellphone to call and make an appointment with his senior in hairdressing.

“I want to search for someone.” Dong Feng eyed the animus Yu before pulling out something rectangular. He opened it to reveal an intricately folded piece of paper with a sketch of two children on it.

“You drew this?” Yu Yin was somewhat astonished as he studied the drawing. It was extremely accurate, detailed to the point where he could even clearly see the school name and student ID stitched on the uniforms.

Dong Feng nodded.

“Are you in the fine arts then…?” Yu Yin read the name of the school, which was actually very close to where the suicide had occurred that day. Puzzled, Yu Yin turned to face Yu, who was wearing an expression of extreme discontent. “What do you think, Xiao Yu? I feel like it seems a bit familiar…” When he first saw the drawing, he had a sense that he might have spotted these children somewhere before.

Yu reluctantly took the drawing, and after inspecting it for a moment, raised his brows and typed something on his phone to show Yu Yin.

“Ah, these are the two kids that bumped into us that day.” Yu Yin struck his fist in realisation when he read the typed words. Now he remembered that they had indeed bumped into these two children at the scene back then. The large crowd of media had followed right afterwards, so Yu Yin had completely forgotten about the matter. But now that Yu brought it up, Yu Yin recalled everything.

“Mm, that’s them.” Dong Feng took the drawing back, folding it carefully before placing it into his pocket.

“You went to that apartment the day before yesterday to look for them?” Yu Yin recalled Yu Xia mentioning that Dong Feng lived far away.

Dong Feng thought this over and shook his head. “Looking for the deceased.”

“You originally went to find that girl who died?” Yu Yin was shocked.

“Mm.” Dong Feng nodded this time and earnestly said, “I nearly caught up with her, but ended up feeling too dizzy midway and was unable to continue walking, so I was a step too late.”

“Wait a minute.” Yu Yin grabbed the other person, and after glancing around, directly dragged Yu and Dong Feng over to a coffee stand set up near the hospital. He ordered drinks and snacks for everyone before continuing his questions. “Could you tell me everything? Why were you looking for the deceased? And those two kids are…?”

Dong Feng was hesitant for a moment. After the cakes and drinks arrived at their table, Dong Feng met Yu Yin’s gaze and slowly said, “I originally wanted to look for my senior. But since it had been too long since I’d last gone out, I accidentally took the wrong bus. When I got off, I saw the deceased at a nearby market. She showed signs of being suicidal and having murderous intent, so I followed her.” After some additional thought, he mentioned the name of the market and the time.

“How did you know?” Judging from Dong Feng’s tone, he did not know the deceased. Yu Yin furrowed his brows and exchanged a glance with Yu, the latter silently turning on the cellphone recording function.

Dong Feng looked over at Yu but did not protest against their actions. “Her actions in the market were fretful and uneasy, pacing back and forth at the third and sixth aisles…”

“Third and sixth aisles?”

“Drugs, cleaning solutions, and blades. She later bought a fruit knife, vitamins, and a small amount of food and female products.” Dong Feng paused and touched a water bead that had condensed over his drink glass. “She spent too long choosing the fruit knife, and her eyes had been slightly red while she was making the choice. I concluded that she was likely not using it to kill fruit. In addition, her movements were forced and compulsive, which I suspected was a result of some type of trauma. So I wanted to follow her, but I ended up being unable to continue the whole way, and she was ultimately killed. You two can ask Yu Xia to retrieve the surveillance footage from the market, and you should be able to find the section I just described.”

“Why are you so certain that the deceased was killed?” Yu Yin had become more horrified the more he listened, especially considering the fact that Dong Feng had narrated everything so calmly.

“She bought food and female products.” Dong Feng met Yu Yin’s eyes. “A person that wanted to commit suicide would not buy those. Even if suicidal, someone that bought vitamins would not have immediately chosen to jump off a building.”

“Then the trauma is…”

“The deceased was sexually assaulted.”

The person that answered was not Dong Feng. Yu Yin and the others looked up to see Yan Si standing in front of the counter, waving at them with a smile.

“Yan-dàgē?”

Yu Yin stood up to stare at the forensic investigator that had appeared out of nowhere, now walking over to them leisurely with his own dessert. He naturally sat down at the empty seat next to them. In that same moment, Dong Feng’s expression clearly twisted in loathing, even purposely pushing his chair further away, as if he had seen his worst enemy.

“Tsk, Xiao Dong-zai ¹, it’s been a while since we saw each other. Is there a need to act so hurtfully upon seeing me?” Yan Si grinned wickedly as he saw the skeleton’s actions, not offended in the slightest. “Just two days ago, my old roommate was worried that you’d shrivel up and die in your home.”

“You two know each other? …Ah!” Yu Yin watched their seemingly familiar interactions and realised what it was when Yan Si mentioned the conversation from two days ago. “You’re Li-dàgē’s junior?” The legendary dark one?

However, he did not think the skeleton was that dark of a person. Dong Feng was merely very shrivelled, extremely similar to a mummy.

“That’s right, Yan Dong Feng. His last name sounds the same as mine, but it’s a different character. His name is such a classical style.” Yan Si shot an amused glance at the other person who had popped up right when Yan Si had been thinking about him. “How did you guys end up getting together to discuss a case?” When he had bumped into Yu Xia earlier, he had learned that the student that was ganged up on knew of the details, but he hadn’t known that his dried-up little junior was also involved.

“He was also a witness.” Yu Yin pointed at the skeleton wearing an extremely unsightly expression. “The three of us were together two days ago. He collapsed on the street, so we originally wanted to help him home.”

“Collapsed on the street again?” Yan Si raised a brow at the repeat offender. “Xiao Dong-zai, can you fix your habit of passing out on the streets all the time? If you’re going to come out and get exercise, you should at least make sure to eat beforehand. Exercise is meant to strengthen the body, not to have it collapse on the road. My old roommate said you even had to get seven stitches when you crashed into a rock after falling on the way to school. You really never learn your lesson, huh?”

“None of your damn business,” Dong Feng rudely shot back.

“You need physical strength if you want to kill me. Considering how thin you are, you’d probably break your bones just from raising a knife.” Yan Si sized up Dong Feng and seemed to speak even more bluntly than usual, another drop in courtesy level compared to the last time Yu Yin had seen him. “Breaking bones from falling down after running two steps…you really aren’t made to be a murderer.”

“…Killing you doesn’t need physical strength. Also, stop calling me whatever you want.”

“You don’t like Xiao Dong-zai? Then do you think Xiao Dong Xi or Xiao Dong Dong ² would sound cuter?” Actually, both those nicknames would be pretty amusing.

“Yan Si!”

“Ah, please stop.” Seeing that the two’s bickering seemed to be worsening, Yu Yin hurriedly interjected and gave Yan Si a significant look to stop fooling around. “We were just talking about the jumping case. Yan-dàgē, what you said about sexual assault…”

“My old roommate also felt that there was something very wrong with the preliminary examination of the corpse, so he had me look at it again. I even had to drive late at night yesterday.” Yan Si yawned and scratched his head. “It’s because he said the deceased didn’t have a boyfriend, yet the body had marks that appeared to be from quite a few sexual encounters. As a result, I examined the body again with this as the focus, and discovered that the deceased may have been sexually assaulted.” Markings from normal sex and sexual assault were different and discernible even without cutting the body open.

“As expected.” Dong Feng clicked his tongue as he turned away to sip his drink.

“Junior brother, did you also figure out it was sexual assault?” Yan Si had actually been standing and listening in on their conversation for a while before he had decided to speak out earlier, so he had naturally heard Yu Yin’s questions.

“I’m not your junior brother.” Another unidentifiable flare of anger burst out before Dong Feng forcefully set his gaze onto Yu, stubbornly refusing to look at the bastard. “She was wearing long sleeves and long pants on such a hot day, and there were faint bruises on her wrists and neck. Adding that onto her reactions and movements in the market, I could pretty much guess the situation, and the news report later further verified it.”

“Could you make a trip to the police station with me to give a testimony?” Yu Yin asked sincerely.

“No.” Dong Feng’s response was immediate. “I’m not equivalent to the police. But you should be able to investigate everything I talked about.”

“You make it so difficult for others to interact with you,” Yan Si honestly told Dong Feng.

Dong Feng shot him a glare, then stood up quickly to leave, leaving behind the other three people looking at each other in dismay.

Then, Yu Yin spoke first to break the silence. “Yan-dàgē, you upset him away…”

“Student that was ganged up on, you were the one that actually scared him away.” Yan Si rubbed Yu Yin’s head in pity. “Our junior Xiao Dong-zai hates cooperating with the police the most.” If not for that, Yan Si’s former roommate would have tricked Dong Feng over to help ages ago.

“Huh? But isn’t he Li-dàgē’s junior…?” If Yu Yin remembered correctly, Li Zi Hong was definitely from law school. Usually anyone that finds a job after graduating from there would often end up frequently communicating with the police, right?

“Yep, but he’s a bit weird. Based on the rumours and information from my old roommate, it was two years after he graduated when Xiao Dong-zai entered the school, which means it was the year before my amazing graduation. Dong-zai was the top of his class for two years in a row, but suddenly dropped out without any warning in his second year. The school didn’t know the reason either. Either way, he insisted on dropping out, and my old roommate’s attempts at persuading him otherwise didn’t change the result. Xiao Dong-zai did not seem to have any friends, and my old roommate only got to know him after returning to his alma mater as a guest lecturer.”

“Wait…he’s your age?” Yu Yin suddenly felt that he might have been severely underestimating the other person’s age. Yu Yin had thought that Dong Feng was a high school student since his appearance and stature did not seem like a mature adult’s. Actually, even calling him a high school student seemed to be pressing it. That was why he had never linked Dong Feng with the mummy that Yan Si and Li Zi Hong had previously mentioned.

“Based on my calculations, he should be around your age, student that was ganged up on. He skipped grades.” Yan Si patted Yu Yin on the shoulder, completely missing the boy’s shock. “But since he suffered malnutrition for a long time, in addition to the fact that he was originally slightly anorexic, he didn’t really have a growth spurt. His bones have already atrophied. At this point, he might be even weaker than a sixty-year old man.”

Yu Yin thoughtfully glanced at Yu, who had recently fleshed out a bit more. He had no idea how Yu Xia had figured it out yesterday, but his uncle had instantly asked if Dong Feng was anorexic at the time. “Eh, does he live with his family? He has a lot of injuries.”

Yan Si shook his head. “Nope, he lives by himself. Contrary to his appearance, Xiao Dong-zai plays around a lot online and apparently makes quite a bit of money that way. Those injuries were all self-inflicted; they aren’t related to anyone else.”

“…Self-harm?” Is it possible to self-harm yourself to that extent?

“That’s not it. You saw he had a lot of cuts and scars on his hands and feet, right?” Yan Si gestured at the areas and explained, “Xiao Dong-zai is quite skilled in the fine arts. My old roommate says he’s very good at carving sculptures; there are tons of things like plasters and clay in his home. However, since he has poor nutrition, he doesn’t have much strength, and sometimes when his focus slips, he ends up spacing out and often injures himself with a slip of his hand. My old roommate said that he once went to Xiao Dong-zai’s place and saw that he had collapsed and was silently bleeding. He’d even called me in the middle of night to tell me about it.” Yan Si was seriously convinced that their junior would self-destruct before coming up with a way to kill him. It was like in games when someone somehow managed to inflict a ton of damage on themselves without hurting their enemy at all.

“…” Yu Yin was legitimately speechless this time and was starting to feel like he was stupid for having thought of trying to trick the other person into letting him go check if it was a case of domestic violence. “Whatever, I’ll have to first tell Uncle about the things we just talked about.” They had already agreed it could be shared.

“I’ll go visit my old roommate too then.” Yan Si made a call, since he had to write up a short report anyways.

Yu had been staring at Dong Feng’s empty seat this whole time. After some thought, he reached out to eat the small cake that the other person had not touched.

“Oh yeah, let’s drop by the elementary school later,” Yu Yin suddenly suggested to Yu as he waited for the call to connect. “We can go look for those two kids. You still remember their student IDs, Xiao Yu?” Yu Yin had no idea why Dong Feng was searching for the two children, but his gut told him that there was a need to go. Otherwise, Dong Feng would not have come all the way out to the hospital just to talk about this.

Yu nodded, then furrowed his brows.

“Don’t worry, there won’t be any danger at the elementary school.”

Probably.

“Xiao Wu, could you grab some surveillance footage for me?”

Yu Xia waved over a colleague that just happened to be passing by as he hung up the phone. “The address and time range are written here.” He passed over the information he had just heard from Yu Yin.

When Yu Xia turned around, he saw Li Zi Hong also ending a call.

“Ah Si said my junior was looking for two elementary students…Ah Yin encountered them at the scene when the incident occurred,” Li ZI Hong said somewhat helplessly. No matter how much he had tried his best to persuade his junior, the latter had refused to get involved with them. Who would have thought that his junior would end up coincidentally meeting with Yu Yin and Xiao Yu? The world was truly unpredictable.

But if Dong Feng had been one of the witnesses, why had the officers on-site not gotten a testimony from him, or even recorded his name? It seemed like Li Zi Hong would have to ask later who had been in charge that day.

“So that person yesterday was your junior.” Yu Xia organised the documents on the desk. Having brought Dong Feng back yesterday, Yu Xia had a pretty deep impression of the ridiculously thin boy. “I bought him some food on the way. My brother would definitely try to take care of him like crazy if he saw the boy. Does he have anorexia or some other kind of illness? How did he get so skinny?” Before letting the person go up their apartment, Yu Xia had stressed that the boy had to finish eating before resting, but he had no idea if the boy had properly done so.

“He has mild anorexia. Most of the time, he’ll still eat a bit along with vitamins, and he’ll eat things if they’re given to him. But he’ll occasionally throw it up for some reason.” Li Zi Hong sighed, feeling powerless whenever it came to this junior of his. “In the past, Ah Si forcibly gave him an examination and said that there should be everything necessary in his body. Aside from malnourishment, Dong Feng shouldn’t have any major issues. It’s likely some kind of psychological illness. He seems to have been that way since before entering university. The professors and instructors had all talked to him about it multiple times.” Despite being the top of his year, the instructors had always been afraid that Dong Feng would just die in class one day; it was truly quite frightening.

“So weird…I have no idea how Ah Yin knows him either. He called him a friend yesterday.” Yu Xia could not figure out why his nephew had gone and made such a strange friend in his free time. Without them realising, Yu Yin had already left his circle of fair-weather friends and was now progressing towards a more unusual direction.

“There are no problems with Dong Feng, I can vouch for his moral behaviour. If he’s gotten involved, I’m sure we’ll find something very soon.” Li Zi Hong decided that he would make a trip to his junior’s home again these next few days. He coughed and switched the topic back. “Ah Si confirmed that the deceased had suffered sexual assault while alive, and likely more than once. I want filter through the people surrounding the deceased again with this focus.”

“I’ll make a trip to the deceased’s home later.” Since there were so many suspicious points now, Yu Xia had to go find the family members for an explanation and request for them to cooperate with an investigation. Regardless of whether it was a suicide or not, they had to inform the family members of this development no matter how cruel it was. However, the young girl that had not received any help, grieving while alive, had died holding onto this reality, hoping that the death would give her justice.

“Mm, I’ll help collect the information afterwards.” Li Zi Hong nodded. He still had to go run around for other cases first. “Did Dong Feng say anything to you last night?”

Yu Xia shook his head. “No, he was completely silent the entire trip. He only said a word of thanks when we reached his home and then he ran off.”

“Hm…” It appeared that his junior really did not want to cooperate with the police after all. But why was he willing to tell Yu Yin today then…? After all, Yu Yin is also related to the police. Li Zi Hong could not understand; he would try asking his junior the next time they met. “Then we’ll leave it at that for now. If something comes up, you can call me anytime.”

“Sounds good.”

Once he saw Li Zi Hong out, Yu Xia arranged for his group to work on other cases, then grabbed his keys and left the police station.

The deceased’s home was not too far from the station, so he quickly arrived.

After parking his motorcycle nearby, he heard a commotion in a distant alley before he could head over to visit the house.

He quickly walked over and saw that a large crowd had formed in front of the snack bar. There were shattered plates littering the ground everywhere, as well as a knocked over pot of some kind that was still steaming. In the centre of it all were two people wrestling each other. The staff and neighbours were frantically trying to separate them.

However, the two middle-aged men fighting were holding attack-type objects, one gripping a chipped kitchen knife and the other holding a bent metal rod. Both people’s faces had injuries of various sizes, but nobody dared to approach them closely enough to break them apart.

“Let go!” There was a married woman standing behind the person with the metal rod, anxiously shouting, “He has a knife! Stop fighting!”

Yu Xia immediately determined that the person holding the metal rod was the deceased’s father, while the one lifting up a kitchen knife was the owner of the shop. The only difference they had with their photos was that their faces were a bit more swollen.

There seemed to also be people around them that had been affected. Several staff members and bystanders had bruises and cuts. There were also some stigmatized onlookers that walked away while complaining about how unlucky they had been.

“So what? If you have the guts, let’s resolve this once and for all today! Let’s see which one of us will die! Fuck!” The shop owner brandished the kitchen knife as he furiously roared, “So what if I talk about your daughter? Trash that pretends to be pure even after dying? What a fucking joke! Why can’t it be talked about if she was already bold enough to do it?”

“You still dare to say that?!” The father’s grip on the metal rod tightened as he slammed it down onto the owner’s shoulders, the latter shouting and waving the knife to meet the metal bar, inciting cries of alarm from the crowd once again. “If I don’t send you to the afterlife to keep my daughter company, I-I’ll be letting her down!” With eyes reddened emotionally, he lifted his rod again.

“You should just go keep your daughter company then!”

As the crowd screamed, Yu Xia almost instantly appeared between the two people. He grabbed the metal rod as it descended and yanked it forwards to block the oncoming kitchen knife, then used the momentum to push the father away with his shoulder and extend a leg to kick the owner away. When the owner crashed down onto the ground, Yu Xia walked up to twist the person’s wrist and forcibly seized the kitchen knife.

“This is the police – everyone freeze!” He stabbed the kitchen knife onto a chopping block and tossed the metal rod onto another table before flashing his ID. “What’s all this fighting?!”

Dumbstruck by the sudden turn of events, neither the father nor the owner dared to move for a moment. The wife quickly helped the father up, pulling out a tissue to press it against his bleeding injuries.

“What happened?” Yu Xia randomly grabbed a staff worker near him and cut straight to the point.

“Eh, well…it…” The worker stuttered. He had yet to receive his salary and he glanced at the owner crawling up, fearful of saying something wrong.

“Fuck, there’s nothing to be afraid of saying!” The owner wiped the blood on his face, his eyes still bulging as he walked over and shot a malicious glare at the father. “Those two idiots upstairs won’t stop bringing rubbish, carrying piles of flowers everything and even putting a bunch on the balcony above, causing a bunch of mosquitoes, ants, petals, and pollen to fly everywhere with the wind…Fucking hell, how am I supposed to sell anything in this shop?!” He ranted in fury while pointing at the plates and tables that had some flower petals stuck onto them.

Yu Xia looked up and saw that there were indeed white flowers all over the second floor terrace. There were white chrysanthemums, lilies, roses, and more. While they looked quite beautiful at first glance, they really did drop petals and pollen, and even the smaller flowers would end up being blown away by the wind and falling down.

“Also, look at the public staircase!” The owner pointed at the public entrance next to them where there were a few pots of white flowers placed. There were even some paper cranes hanging from there. The owner huffed indignantly, “I’m trying to run a business here and he’s putting chrysanthemums there. The customers coming in all find it strange. Is their dead daughter from our floor? They’re mental cases!”

“Watch your mouth!” The father pointed at the other man and shouted, “If you have a problem, just say it directly. If you dare to curse my daughter, I’ll kill you!”

“Why are you afraid of me saying the truth? What kind of holy virgin do you think your daughter is, putting all those lilies and roses? Hasn’t she been playing around outside? And still pretending to be innocent after dying? Fuck that—”

“Both of you, stop right this instant!” Yu Xia bellowed, forcing the two people to halt before they could start fighting again. “You still want to fight? You both should shut up and kneel down this instant!”

As the surrounding crowds began to chatter, police sirens began to sound out from the distance, perhaps as a result of a nearby resident reporting the incident. Several dispatched officers soon arrived, slightly surprised by the sight of Yu Xia.

Yu Xia couldn’t care less about what they thought, and simply ordered:

“Bring all of them back.”

***

It was afternoon when Yu Yin and Yu arrived in front of the elementary school.

Yan Si had regretfully said he needed to return to work and did not have the time to treasure hunt with them. Since he had completed his task with them, he had to hurry back to his job.

Yu Yin asked what the task Yan Si had completed was and received an answer that nearly made Yu Yin cough up blood.

“To check if you had obediently reported in at the hospital, and also look for my beloved senior to reminiscence with him.” Yan Si did not even attempt to hide his evil smirk. “I bet against Boss that you would escape off into a new world, so I asked my senior to help me keep an eye on you and let me know as soon as possible when you appeared so that I could come watch the joke…I mean, watch the fun. I didn’t expect that student that was ganged up on would actually act normal and do absolutely nothing. It’s truly saddening; I lost [the bet] and now I owe the entire station drinks.” However, it wasn’t like he had not gained anything; having bumped into that mummy made him feel that it was somewhat worth it after all.

Yu Yin glared hatefully at Yan Si for a few seconds, then directly kicked a foot out towards Yan Si’s ass.

Then, the forensic investigator who had claimed he had driven all night and was on the verge of death decided that with nothing else to do here, he would head back to the office.

Yu Yin surveyed the elementary school in front of him. It was about fifteen minutes away from the library and wasn’t that far of a walk from the building complex either. Since it was nearing the end of school hours, there were a few peddlers outside the entrance, selling ice cream and cakes. As soon as they arrived, Yu ran over to buy a large bag of cakes, then began to eagerly chew them on the spot.

Yu Yin handed a drink over to the guard and asked a few questions, spouting a random excuse about how he had come to pick up a child for a relative, but had slightly forgotten the child’s appearance, only remembering the student ID and class. Like this, he asked the guard if they could help him look out for the child among the students when they were let out.

The somewhat aged guard saw that the two of them also seemed like students, so he did not find anything unusual about the request and replied that he would let them know when that class was released.

Before the classes were let out, cars had already begun to gather outside the elementary school. There was clearly a side door for pick-up and drop-off, and there was even a sign at the front entrance that said parking there was forbidden. Despite this, a few cars had crammed outside the entrance for convenience; the empty space actually fit quite a number.

Yu Yin honestly hated this time when elementary schools let out, since it always caused huge traffic jams. Even when restricted, the parents would insist that they would only stop for a brief moment to let the kids come onto the car, that they would leave right after and that parking off on the side was extremely inconvenient as the children would have to painstakingly walk all that distance, etc…And with these mentalities, they would block the roads completely. In the past Yu Yin had nearly been run over because he had been attempting to avoid these disorderly [cars of the] parents. When he had reported to the schools, they had not made any attempts to improve the situation as the selfish-minded crowds of parents continued to come up with hundreds of excuses that made it impossible for the schools to control them.

From where he stood outside the walls, Yu Yin heard the ending bell of the school. Less than five minutes later, he began to spot children pouring out from the school and running towards their waiting parents. The class groups also began to appear.

“They’re almost out.” The guard that was helping direct the traffic saw the class group’s flag and pointed at the crowd in the back. “That one’s it, the third graders.”

“Thank you.”

Just as Yu Yin was about to call Yu over to help search for the children, he suddenly felt a pain in his ear, a sharp stab as he heard something like a bug’s buzzing noise.

When he shifted his gaze, he instantly spotted that fifteen year old girl standing among the crowd of students. The surrounding air seemed to come to a sharp standstill as the pale face stared at him and abruptly raised a finger to point to his left.

As he followed the finger, he quickly spotted one of the children he was looking for run out from the left side of the school entrance, about to race past the crosswalk there. There were actually a ton of elementary school students flooding out right now, and he wouldn’t normally be able to find his target, especially considering that they all wore orange hats that covered a good half of their faces. But for some reason, he was able to locate the boy immediately, and was absolutely certain that this was the child he was looking for.

“Hey, you over there, wait!”

With no time to call for Yu, Yu Yin broke out into a sprint to catch up. But there were too many children, so there was no way he could cross the distance immediately. As a result, he shouted at the boy first.

The child seemed to hear the yell, and he came to a stop next to the road to turn around and look at him in confusion…Or rather, many people turned their gazes towards him, since they had no idea who Yu Yin was calling for. Instantly, several dozen pairs of eyes simultaneously landed on him.

At nearly the same instant, a red car whizzed past the child. If the child had stopped just a second later, he might have been run over.

The hat-wearing boy’s eyes widened in shock, then turned around.

Yu Yin was only a few more steps away from catching the child when a parent’s car raced out without warning, nearly crashing into him. As a result, he was also forced to freeze, and could only watch as the boy was seemingly pushed, causing him to fall down onto the crosswalk that had already changed lights. Without noticing that a child had suddenly tumbled out, an ear-splitting screech of brakes cut through the air.

Screams echoed from the surrounding parents.

Then, he saw a figure leap out to protect the child and was subsequently flung aside from the impact of the braking car.

In that moment, Yu Yin’s breathing ceased completely.

“Xiao Yu!”

He charged out. All the cars on the road had stopped, the parents leading their kids standing frozen on the spot at a loss on what to do. The originally noisy surroundings instantly fell quiet.

The little boy squirmed out from Yu’s hold. There was a scrape on his arm from falling, and the pain made him start bawling.

Yu lay on the ground with eyes tightly shut, blood rapidly gushing out from his forehead and spreading all over his face before gradually sliding down the outline of his head and slowly dripping onto the asphalt road.

Yu Yin paid no mind to the little boy and pressed a trembling hand onto the continuously bleeding wound on Yu’s forehead. Then, he belatedly noticed that there was also a huge laceration on Yu’s arm as well.

Amidst his shock, he heard the sirens of an ambulance ring out.

^{1. Both the prefix xiao and the suffix zai are commonly used for to make cute nicknames. ↑}

^{2. Dong Xi (东西) and Dong Dong (东东) are both plays on Dong Feng’s name that literally translate to ‘thing’. ↑}