Volume 2 9

I feel like this cliffhanger is the most painful out of all the chapters in this volume so far....T.T

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

Chapter Nine

“It really is the worst luck.”

After being ushered to the nurse’s office by kids, then being forced to the nearby hospital’s emergency ward by the nurse, these kinds of words were all that filled Yu Yin’s head.

The faucet that had struck the back of his hand had completely lacerated his flesh, making it look a bit horrifying. Since it had just been disinfected, it couldn’t be st.i.tched together. Thus, the doctor had just prescribed him some medicine, and he was currently waiting outside the diagnostic room for it.

Yu was pacing back and forth next to him.

“Could I request for the violet-eyed brother over there to please sit down properly? I’m already on the verge of anemic, are you not afraid of making me dizzier?” He had just lost a good deal of blood. He wasn’t sure what the faucet had hit exactly, but his hand had continued bleeding even after he had entered the emergency ward, which had caused the Director and the others to panic in fear that it was fatal.

However, the doctors dealt with it quickly, and a few minutes later, the blood finally slowed down and showed signs of stopping.

Yu stopped and looked over at him before sitting down by his side.

The two of them currently looked pretty miserable. Not only were they both absolutely soaked and dripping with water, they were also bloodstained, making them both look as if they were murderers.

This d.a.m.ned hospital even has the air conditioning on. Yu Yin felt as if he was a cabbage sitting in the refrigerator that had just been sprayed with water to preserve its freshness.

“Mister Yu?” A nurse delicately called out his name as she walked over carrying a bag of medicine. “This is your medicine. You must take it three times a day, after each meal. If your hand really hurts, you can eat this yellow capsule; if you start having a fever, please eat this red fever-reducer.” After giving a simple explanation of how and when to take each medicine, she gave a slight smile and walked away.

Yu Yin flipped through the bag of medicine. There were at least four different types inside. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes; he’d eaten so much medicine the past two months that he was probably about to reach breakeven point.

The nurse from earlier then walked back, but with two large towels in her hand this time. “You two can borrow these for now. The hospital is very chilly, so take care to not catch colds.”

Yu Yin accepted the two large towels and looked at the nurse with extreme grat.i.tude. “Thank you, pretty Jiějiě.” (TL/N: Jiějiě (姐姐) means older sister and can be used as a polite form of address.)

“Don’t speak nonsense.” The nurse was clearly happy to hear the compliment as she laughed in reply, “When you want to return the towels, you can just find any nurse station or place them in any returns station.”

“Ok!”

After pa.s.sing one of the large towels over to Yu, Yu Yin quickly wrapped the other around his body. As expected, he instantly felt a bit warmer.

After seeing the two of them look a bit more comfortable, the nurse walked off to attend to her own matters.

Yu suddenly let out a sneeze.

“Don’t tell me...you were walking back and forth earlier because it was too cold.” Yu Yin shot a suspicious look. Yu immediately shook his head. “Then it’s fine. I was just about to say, I hope I didn’t interrupt your attempt at keep yourself warm.”

Yu rolled his eyes and grabbed their bags. They were both completely soaked through. Aside from the toolbox and the desserts, everything else made of paper did not avoid destruction.

Originally, some of the other teachers had followed Yu Yin to the hospital. However, after calculating how much time was left before afternoon cla.s.ses would start, he told them that he had already called for a family member to come and managed to send them away.

Only the heavens knew if Yu Tong had any time to actually come over from the police station with his busy schedule.

Yu Yin checked his watch; it was around two in the afternoon. Based on the current state of his hand injury, he probably couldn’t drive his motorbike. Moreover, they had caught a ride to the hospital; his motorbike was still abandoned outside the elementary school.

Looks like we’ll have to find a taxi...it was just a question of whether or not they would scare off the taxi driver.

After a while pa.s.sed and Yu Yin felt like his body had mostly dried, he stood up. “I’ll go buy some hot drinks. Do you want soup or a beverage?” He asked as he looked at the hospital’s convenience store that was across from them.

Yu shook his head. He didn’t have anything he wanted in particular.

“Alright, then you just wait here for a moment.” Yu Yin grabbed his wallet and was just about to go and buy the drinks before a figure blocked his path.

It was an extremely familiar person. “Student that was ganged up on, I really think that you need a change in fate. Your life will be a lot better that way.”

He really did come!

Yu Yin resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he raised his head to see the person that shouldn’t have possibly appeared at this hospital. “Don’t tell me you came here to earn some money for drinks again?” Why had he never heard of forensic investigators working in different fields before?

“That’s right, I am indeed trying to earn some money for drinks. But this time, I am specifically collecting gratuity for making a trip.” The corners of Yan Si’s mouth drew back into a smile as he stood before them. He then bent down to path Yu on the head, “We meet again, Xiao Yu.”

Yu nodded, which was the equivalent of a greeting.

“My dad told you to come?” Yu Yin concluded after suspiciously looking at the person claiming to collect a travel fee.

“That’s right, he had perfect timing too. I had just changed out of my work clothes and put on my jacket before he called, saying that he would treat me to a drink if I went through the trouble of coming here to pick you guys up.” Having not slept for nearly 24 hours now, Yan Si darkly smiled, “This makes me think that I should actually overcharge your old man’s drink to buying the highest quality red wine.” He could be a bit more moderate; a bottle with a grade worth his day’s wages would be good enough.

“I’m absolutely certain that my dad told you before that drinking is bad for the health. He’ll treat you to some kind of natural drink, like wheatgra.s.s juice or something,” Yu Yin replied, as he had a good idea of what his dad was like.

Yan Si shrugged and surveyed the two of them. “I brought some spare clothes from the office over for you to wear; they’re clean. You two should go change into them first. I don’t want the seats of my car to be covered with bloodstains.” Yu Tong had given him a general summary of their situation over the phone, so he had correctly chosen to flip through his office for some of his own washed clothing, then forced some other people to bring over theirs as well. “I’ll go buy some warm drinks for you two, neither of you are picky, right?” He asked as he pa.s.sed over the backpack filled with clothing to Yu Yin.

“We’re not, thank you, our savior.” Yu Yin quickly accepted the bag of clean clothes and happily took Yu in the direction of the bathrooms. “We’ll meet here again in a bit.”

“I’ll be right back.” Yan Si gave a wave, and strode towards the convenience store, disappearing inside.

The bathrooms weren’t far, and there was a returns station next to it, which would make it a lot easier to return the large towels.

There were a lot of patients that Monday afternoon, but there were unexpectedly not any people in the bathrooms. It was absolutely empty as opposed to the slightly packed female bathrooms.

Yu Yin walked in and locked the door. He then opened the bag of clothes. “There are also towels inside to wipe off some of the blood.” He tossed the clean towel over to Yu, then pulled out two sets of clothes. They were both comprised of a shirt and jeans, very casual clothing.

One was probably Yan Si’s, as the size was pretty much the same as his. The other set belonged to someone else, and was slightly larger.

He had seen Yu wear Yan Si’s clothes before, which had been about one size too large. That meant he definitely couldn’t wear the set from the other unknown clothes donor.

“You can have this set.” He pa.s.sed Yan Si’s clothes over to Yu to change into, while Yu Yin leaned against the door to pull off his clothes.

Just as he was about to reach down to grab the towel, he noticed a shadow pa.s.s over the door crack, clearly pacing back and forth outside.

The movements weren’t fast, they were simply going back and forth.

“It seems like something wants to use the bathroom outside, so we should probably hurry up and change.” He roughly wiped the filth from his body and speedily put on the slightly large shirt and pants.

The dry clothes were at least a lot better than the wet and blood-soaked ones.

He watched the door crack the entire time. He didn’t know if it was because the person wasn’t in urgent need of the bathroom or what, but he found it strange that the person didn’t knock on the door or speak out to push them at all. They just continued to walk back and forth outside.

Yu quickly changed into the clean clothes as well and stuffed the dirty clothes into the bag.

“Alright, let’s go.” Yu Yin kept his gaze locked onto the shadow as he zipped up the bag. He unlocked the door and abruptly opened it. “Sorry for the inconvenience, just...”

He suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

There wasn’t anyone outside the door, let alone a shadow.

Then what was that shadow just now?

Yu Yin felt like sometimes, it was best not to think too much.

***

“You two are a bit slow.”

Upon returning to their original spot, they discovered Yan Si already sitting in the same seat as before, having finished buying things some while ago. He had a cup of soup in each hand as he looked at the two young friends wearing clothes that were one size too large. “Alright, you can drink these on the way.” He pa.s.sed the cups over and lifted all three backpacks as he took the lead and strode towards the exit.

“We can carry our own stuff...” Yu Yin held his cup with one hand as he quickly chased after.

“Pfft, I’m a doctor too, you know. How could I let a patient carry something heavy?” Yan Si glanced at him and said, “It’s not super heavy anyways, and we’ll arrive at my car soon.”

The two of them followed Yan Si’s tracks and quickly crossed the parking lot to stop in front of a golden-colored racecar.

“Is a forensic investigator’s salary that good?” Yu Yin immediately knit his brows together after seeing Yan Si’s car for the first time. Although it wasn’t a new model, he could tell that this car was definitely not cheap.

Yan Si released the anti-theft lock and then opened the door for Yu to climb in before answering, “Second-hand, student. The previous owner was my senior. When I came back to Taiwan, he said he was urgently trying to get rid of it, so he sold it to me for a cheap price. Apparently, he only drove it for about half a year after buying it from the car dealer.”

“How cheap?” Yu Yin surveyed the car. This kind of brand would still be expensive even if second-hand, especially the type that was imported.

“70% off.” After reporting this number, Yan Si helped him open the front door before circling around to enter from the driver’s side.

Yu Yin let out a whistle. That really wasn’t an ordinary level of cheap. “Your senior is someone rich, isn’t he?” He asked as he bent down to sit in shotgun.

“Probably, seeing as he randomly sold this good of car for such a low price. It’s a waste of a good car. But it’s because of it that I was able to get such a good bargain.” Yan Si started the car and turned on the radio to play some melodious piano music.

“That is really...”

Yu Yin started his sentence as he put on his seat belt, before he looked up at the roof.

And he froze in stunned silence.

He caught the gaze of an indistinct human silhouette half embedded in the car’s roof. Its face happened to be directly above his head.

Its wide, bloodshot eyes were currently looking at him.

Yu Yin was startled for about half a second before he immediately proceeded to pretend he hadn’t seen anything as he looked around a bit before lowering his head to fasten his seat belt. “I don’t think your senior sold it for the wrong price.” He could feel the gaze from above about to bore holes through his head.

“What are you saying? Getting this car for half price is already a pretty good bargain, alright?” Yan Si turned the steering wheel as he replied in a tone that implied “you have no idea what’s what”.

“Did your senior ever mention if it has been in any accidents?” Yu Yin secretly glanced upwards. The embedded body was no longer there.

“It hasn’t been in an accident, it was already checked. This car is very clean. Moreover, my senior wouldn’t purposely sell me a car that’s been in one.,” Yan Si smoothly drove as he happily said, “He knows what the consequences would be otherwise.”

What would the consequences be? Yu Yin didn’t voice the question.

If the car wasn’t in any accidents, why is it not clean?

He was a bit doubtful, but it seemed like Yan Si’s aura was truly oppressive. Not only did a haunted house not faze him, a haunted car couldn’t do anything either.

He glanced at the rear view mirror. Yu had already dozed off with nothing to do.

“That’s right, your uncle is currently searching the seventh floor of my building.” Yan Si turned on the air and closed the car windows to block the large amount of exhaust gas coming from the cars outside. He then said, “I was on call with him before coming. Apparently, the bathroom has been dealt with. It’s very clean, but perhaps the owner forgot to clean the shower head, since it was tested to have traces of blood.”

“Oh?” This grabbed Yu Yin’s attention. “Whose?”

“You’ll be shocked.” Yan Si smirked, “I can bet that it’s definitely not the owner’s. I also sent out the ghost’s picture, the one that was on my bathroom wall last time. I heard that a photo of the female owner was found in the Ye residence on the seventh floor, and it’s extremely similar to the woman in picture. As in, they could be twins.”

He figured that Yu Xia had probably started using the female owner’s medical reports to verify the ident.i.ty of the headless corpse.

“The headless corpse is the female owner of the Ye residence?” Yu Yin was momentarily stunned, but he quickly made the connection.

“I asked some of the forensic investigators and detectives responsible to check if the DNA is identical. They’re going to investigate it today.” If the two were a match, then the Ye family’s female resident probably had not run off to elope as Ye Li Sheng had claimed, but rather had been murdered.

Yu Yin frowned as he thought of the broadcast he had first heard over a month ago.

He couldn’t really understand why he had been the one to hear the broadcast at first, yet the one to find it later was Yan Si.

It was probably just because he lives closer!

That was only natural.

The timing pretty much matched up then. A bit over a month ago, Yan Si had just been transferred to this place.

“Also, we’ve pretty much finished our non-surgical examination of Ye Xiao Xiang’s body. The cause of death is as I told you before, a strike by a heavy object. We’re not sure whether this caused internal bleeding or what; that would require actual surgery to clarify.”

“Mm...” Yu Yin thought it over.

If Ye Li Sheng truly killed the female owner, why did he kill Ye Xiao Xiang?

He recalled the first time he had met Ye Li Sheng. The other person didn’t seem particularly violent; rather, he seemed to be timid and the type that wouldn’t be able to do anything bad.

Moreover, the reason behind the headless corpse’s death was still a mystery. Because the corpse was heavily damaged, its true cause of death was still unknown.

Just as Yu Yin was pondering these matters, Yan Si’s complex appeared before their eyes.

Because they were still handling a case, there were two flashing police cars parked in the distance. There were also some black cars with red lights hanging from them in the parking lots by the roadside. Some looked familiar, as he saw them often.

“Looks like the investigation hasn’t ended yet.” Yan Si was looking at the same cars as he said this. He pushed the remote for the garage and slid the car inside.

The bright sky was quickly replaced by dim lighting.

After parking the car, Yan Si turned the engine off. “Let’s grab your things and get off the car. You two probably haven’t eaten yet. I’ll order some delivery in a bit.”

“Oh, thank you very much.” Yu Yin turned to wake up Yu in the backseat, then opened the door to get off the car.

“There’s a restaurant nearby that has pretty good food. I’ll treat you to a meal from there, I guarantee you guys will like it.” Yan Si dialed a number on his phone as he led them towards the elevator.

When Yu saw the elevator, he visibly hesitated for a moment.

“Don’t worry, we have more people this time.” Yu Yin patted his back, knowing what Yu was wary about.

Yu looked at him for a while before slowly nodding in response.

A few seconds later, the elevator doors opened before them.

“Do you want to take a look at the seventh floor?”

Yan Si stood in front of the elevator panel with a strange smile on his face.

***

“Ah Yin! What did you come here again for!”

Less than ten seconds after the elevator stopped at the seventh floor, everyone heard a familiar roar pa.s.s through their eardrums. “Didn’t I warn you to not come to crime scenes as you please?!” Yu Xia, who had been directing his subordinates collecting clues, immediately burst out in a thunderous yell when he saw who walked out of the elevator.

The surrounding personnel on the case were already very used to this kind of scenario, and just continued on calmly with their own work.

“Boss, don’t blow your top so quickly. They came here with me.” Yan Si hurriedly blocked the G.o.d of rage that was charging towards them. He smiled and said, “Your son was struck squarely by a faucet, so Yu Tong asked me to claim them. I wanted to come over and get some exercise before eating lunch to ensure a good appet.i.te.”

When Yu Xia heard the first half of the explanation, he glanced at Yu Yin’s hand and his fury dissipated a bit. But as soon as he heard the second half, his anger flared up again. “What do you think searching a crime scene is? Taking a healthy hike?” His palm flew down to strike Yan Si’s head, but Yan Si managed to just barely dodge.

Upon hearing the uproar outside, Ye Li Sheng, who had originally been sitting inside the living room, soon walked out. “Huh...you guys...?” He looked at Yu Yin and Yu Xia, then down at the name tag that Yu Xia wore.

There weren’t that many people with the surname Yu in this world that would just by chance, b.u.mp into each other...plus he had probably heard the word “son” just now. “You two are father and son?”

He was astonished, completely frozen in shock. When he had first met Yu Xia, he had thought that Yu Xia was just a rookie policeman in his early twenties, only to discover later that Yu Xia was the highest ranked person in the group that had taken the case. And now, after learning that Yu Xia supposedly had a son, Ye Li Sheng was beyond stunned.

“Oh, yeah, he’s definitely my dad...” Yu Yin scratched his head, not really wanting to explain their relationship of being direct family, yet not biologically father and child.

“That has nothing to do with this case.” Yu Xia quickly ended the unrelated chit-chat and shot Yan Si a vicious glare before turning to face Ye Li Sheng. “Mister Ye, we were just talking about your wife, weren’t we? Are you certain that she ran off to secretly have an affair with a strange?”

Ye Li Sheng immediately refocused and confidently answered, “It’s just as I said from the very beginning. My wife definitely eloped with someone, although I have no idea where they went. How does this have any relation to you searching my house?!”

“It has a very big relation. Firstly, you...”

Although Yu Yin wanted to listen further, Yan Si patted him from the side and winked, before stepping into the home and greeting the policemen that he was acquainted with. He then grabbed a bunch of gloves.

Your actions are not compliant at all—

Yu Yin could imagine his uncle bellowing this for sure.

However, the surrounding police simply turned a blind eye, so he still put on some gloves and a hat before entering the home. “Yu, you wait here with Uncle. Don’t run about.” He was frequently around these kinds of places, and had long since been used to them. However, he didn’t know if Yu would damage any clues inside, so it was better to have him stay outside.

Yu nodded and obediently waited next to Yu Xia.

After stepping into the home, Yu Yin immediately noticed that its layout was pretty much the same as the residence on the third floor. It was just that this home had a decent amount more furniture, which gave it the look of a small family’s household.

The kitchen on the side even had an ap.r.o.n still hanging inside, which gave one the general feeling that there had indeed been a female owner before.

“The taps here are very strange.” A relatively more senior police officer recognised Yu Yin and walked over to tell him, “They’re all sealed with styrofoam, glue, and tape so that they can’t be turned on for water.”

“Why make it impossible for water to come out of the faucets?” Yu Yin asked, finding it strange. When he followed the police officer to the bathroom, he noticed that the taps were indeed all sealed completely so that they couldn’t be used.

A single glance at this scene made it very clear that there was something the person who sealed them up was hiding.

“Ah, that’s right!” Yu Yin clapped his hands together. “I just remembered. The first time I met Ye Li Sheng, he was carrying a bunch of spring water bottles and beverages. I had even wondered back then why he didn’t just boil some water...” Now that he thought back, it was indeed very odd.

“I’ve seen that several times too,” Yan Si said as he walked over and smiled at the two of them. “He often buys water and brings the empty bottles to the recycling bins. It seems like he’s known for a while that there was an issue with the water tower.” The residents will definitely have huge complaints about the corpse in the water later, and the complex’s management committee will definitely be plagued with headaches over it for a while.

The police officer quickly jotted notes in his notebook. “I’ll report this to Boss and let him know.” He dubiously glanced at Yu Yin as he said, “Um...Ah Yin, you know, if you see anything “weird”, remember to let us know.” One couldn’t exactly call it taking advantage of his skill, but the fact that their boss’s son had the yin-yang eye was old news among the police. It was actually because he would often notice weird things that they would turn a blind eye and let him walk around as he pleased.

If it helped deal with case, why go against it?

“If there is anything, I’ll let you guys know.” Yu Yin obviously knew what the person was getting at, and he smiled in reply as he walked around the bathroom perimeter.

Most of the investigation staff were gathered in the living room and kitchen. The cabinets that originally held knives had all been taken out and placed on the kitchen counter to be tested for any kind of response. Some were looking for the heavy object that Yan Si had mentioned to be the deadly weapon.

Yu Yin knew that they definitely had a rough idea of what the murder weapon was to base their search on. Since they had been searching around for a while, it was evident that they hadn’t found anything suspicious.

Then, he heard a sound.

The thumping sound of a ball bouncing.

He turned around to see a shut door that most likely led to the master bedroom. Through the crack under the door, he could see a shadow walking back and forth.

This was an extremely familiar scene.

Yu Yin looked at the door that hadn’t yet been opened and walked over to it. He knocked twice, and after hearing no sound in response, announced, “I’m coming in.” He looked at the shadow underneath, then held his breath and pulled the door open.

As expected, n.o.body was inside.

The somewhat large bedroom was filled with things that a typical master bedroom shared by husband and wife would have, such as a vanity table, or accessories lying on the side. What caught his attention was the big cabinet on the side.

It was a type of cabinet that any typical household would have. It had a top and bottom drawer, with only cloth covering it as a door. At first glance, it looked a bit like something that would come out of a manhua.

His gaze had fallen on this cabinet.

He crouched down to inspect it for a moment, before he reached out to pull the cabinet open.

The second it was opened, he was suddenly staring at a human face.

An extremely blurry and hard-to-see silhouette of a girl was in the cabinet, fiercely glaring at him.

Having not expected this kind of thing to appear the moment he opened the door, Yu Yin reeled in shock and fell backwards. When he lifted his head to look closely, there was no longer anything inside.

“I swear I will die from a heart attack one day...” He felt like the things he had encountered the past two months were even stranger than the things he had seen before. He patted himself in the chest and then began to search through the cabinet.

It was an extremely normal cabinet used by a family. It was filled with clothes, blankets, and other miscellaneous items.

After flipping through the things for a bit, Yu Yin narrowed his eyes as he picked up the faint odor of something weird. It wasn’t like the scent of deodorant, but rather, a type of stink. However, it was very, very faint, and barely noticeable.

“Switch places with me, student that was ganged up on.” Yan Si appeared out of nowhere and pushed him to one side after glancing at the cabinet. “It seems like you’ve found something good.”

“What do you mean by something good?” Yu Yin wasn’t able to make head nor tail of Yan Si’s description.

Yan Si shot him a look and smiled as he pointed at the ground next to them. “Evidence.”

Yu Yin followed his finger downwards and noticed a thumb-sized bloodstain next to his feet. It was already completely dried-up, and there was a strand of fine hair stuck on top of it.

“In here as well.” Yan Si called a pa.s.sing police officer over and began to pull out the blankets and clothes, concentrating on finding anything that could be inside.

Upon seeing several people approach, Yu Yin decided to stand up so as not to disturb the professionals from their work. After circling around and discovering nothing suspicious, he simply retreated from the room.

Outside, Yu Xia seemed to have just finished his interrogation and was walking in. “Ah Yin, don’t just randomly run around inside. Xiao Yu is still waiting at the door.”

“Oh, ok.” Yu Yin stepped out. Immediately, he saw the child crouching by the shoe cabinet to watch the police officers collecting evidence. “Yu, I’m done.” He pulled off his gloves as he walked over, and after giving the police officer a heads-up, walked out.

Yu immediately stood up and blinked at him.

“Student that was ganged up on.” Yan Si quickly followed out to pa.s.s over a key and a large wad of bills. “It seems that the food delivery is here. I’ll come down after looking at the cabinet from just now. Help me open the door and receive the lunch first.”

“Does the change count towards my tip?” Yu Yin joked as he accepted the key and wad of cash while he dragged Yu over to the elevator and pressed the b.u.t.ton.

“If there’s any left over, no problem.”

Yan Si told him.

***

Yu Yin soon figured out why Yan Si had said it that way.

After paying for the food delivery at the door, he tossed the mere 30 yuan in coins left in his hand as he truly realised just how expensive this restaurant was.

But there was a large amount of food. The delivery person just now had even mentioned that there were several portions of dessert, which made Yu Yin recall that Yan Si seemed to always stock up on sweets to enjoy.

“Yu, do you want to eat something first?” Yu Yin carried the heavy food in one hand as he pushed the door open with his body and used his injured hand to shakily remove the key. “Looks like there will be a while before he’ll time.”

Yu shook his head and walked in carrying three bags.

“You want to wait for him to eat? You’ll starve that way. Or how about eating the pudding the Director gave us first?” Having had some soup earlier at the hospital to placate his stomach, Yu Yin wasn’t actually very hungry.

Yu contemplated for a while before nodding.

“Alright. You can just put your bags on top of the shoe cabinet by the door, and we can ask Yan Si later about what to do with the clothes.” Yu Yin kicked his shoes off before entering the now familiar home. With the food in hand, he headed towards the living room.

Yu looked around for a bit before staring blankly at the white shoe cabinet. There were already piles of doc.u.ments and books placed on top; would putting the bags on top directly be okay?

The bag was still damp, and he wasn’t sure if he should take out the book inside to dry a bit.

He worried that if he didn’t, he would have to reimburse the book.

After thinking this over, he decided to take the book out to dry after all; if he left it inside the bag, it would end up destroyed from the wetness.

Just as Yu had pulled out the first book, he heard a noise.

It was the half-m.u.f.fled ding of the elevator’s arrival from outside the door. Following that was the sound of the elevator doors slowly opening.

He very naturally stood up to open the front door and glanced outside at the elevator doors that had yet to close, despite n.o.body being present.

He was pretty sure that when they had first exited the elevator, it had stopped at this floor and hadn’t moved.

Yu walked out the door and stared at the open elevator.

The three walls of mirrors on the inside reflected endless reverted images, as if it was the corridor leading to another world. It was also abnormally silent.

Then, a person appeared amidst the multiple mirrors and waved at him.

In that moment, Yu suddenly remembered something, a matter that he had only just now recalled.

He remembered what he had seen that very first time he had been in this elevator.