Volume 3 Chapter 3

Volume 3 Chapter 3

Longer chapter this time ?

Translated by: TaffyGirl13

Chapter Three

For a long time, neither of them voiced their opinions.

Yu Tong slowly put his phone away before shrugging and giving a smile. “I personally don’t think it seems like a prank, although phone numbers can be tampered with. Anyways, putting that aside; I’m going to head over to the place where Student Chen jumped. Do you want to come along as well?”

“Ah, I’ll go.” I’ve skipped today’s cla.s.s already anyways. Although I don’t know what I would do over there either.

Yu Tong flipped through the files as he quickly led the way out of the resting area and back onto the elevator. “According to these, Student Chen’s jumping location was a loans company. After checking the security cameras, it was confirmed that he had indeed entered the building that day. After staying in the reception area for around fifteen minutes or so, he left to enter the elevator. Soon afterwards, his unexpected jumping was relayed.”

“Did the people at the reception not find anything odd?” As the elevator descended, Yu Yin asked in a puzzled tone, “What I mean is, you can typically sense something off about suicidal people. Seeing as he chose this loans company, he probably should have given the people there a different feeling when he entered, right?”

“Oh, that’s written here.” Yu Tong flipped to the second page and quickly skimmed it. “The young receptionist said that when Student Chen walked in, he was quite happy, and didn’t give off any feeling that could be a.s.sociated with suicide. He even bought some drinks to treat them.”

“Drinks?”

A suicidal person would be in a good enough mood to treat the loans company to drinks?

The elevator let out a ding and opened its doors. The s.p.a.ce outside was dimly lit, and they could hear the rumble of cars. After walking for a bit, they arrived at the large, underground parking lot.

“That’s right. Moreover, he treated the entire foreign affairs group to drinks. Specifically, to bubble milk tea, no less than twenty cups. He bought them at a somewhat more expensive drinks shop nearby, not the kind where you can buy a cup of black tea for just five or ten yuan.” Yu Tong glanced back at the detailed report in his hands once more before putting it back into its bag. He then pulled out his car keys as they stopped at the section closest to the exit. “The investigation report says that a single drink costs thirty yuan.”

Yu Yin fell silent. Such an action was indeed a bit strange, but it seemed more like...

“Seems like he was treating people as if he had won the lottery.” That’s it, that’s what it seems like. Yu Yin suddenly recalled the actions of the deceased from that night. “I remember back during the first time I b.u.mped into him, he had just won a lottery prize!”

“Lottery prize?” Yu Tong froze just as he was about to open the car door and turned around. “Wait, did you just say he won a lottery prize? Do you know how much?”

“Eh? I don’t know that, but I figure it must be several thousand, or maybe something like ten thousand or so.” A typical student would be pretty happy with that amount of money for several days.

Yu Tong furrowed his brows and looked at his son standing on the other side of the car. “...In that case, he doesn’t have any reason to commit suicide. Typically speaking, someone that unexpectedly won a prize or experienced anything else exciting the day before that would even lead them to treat people to drinks would not suddenly commit suicide.”

The question is, how much money was it?

“Dad, did you guys find his winning lottery ticket or a relatively large amount of cash around his body?” Since only a short day had pa.s.sed in between, Yu Yin guessed some of his possible actions. “Or did he make any deposits to his bank account?”

“None at all. There wasn’t anything like a lottery ticket found on the body either. There were only his wallet and his cellphone. Inside the wallet was just a five hundred yuan bill and a few coins. There weren’t any vouchers or deposit forms on him either.” The more he thought about it, the stranger it was. Yu Tong opened the car doors and they both got in. “The officer in charge did a general check on his bank records and didn’t notice any unusual sums either. That’s why they concluded that he had likely wanted to die as a result of the pressure from his excessive debt.”

However, he had just won a lottery prize the night before, and was even relaxed enough to go out and invite people to drinks the next day. There’s clearly no sign of being under such a large pressure...

Unless something happened after treating the others, something that was enough for him to immediately think of committing suicide.

Based on what happened, there’s no other possibility aside from his riches unexpectedly vanishing all of a sudden, such as having been stolen or noticing that he hadn’t actually won the prize at all, and as a result, his mood changed so drastically that he instantly felt the shadow of death.

But he suddenly committed suicide immediately following his entry to the loans company and offering everyone drinks. It’s not possible for a robbery to have been set up.

Yu Tong thought the straight road was now a mess.

All he was certain of now was that there was truly something wrong with this case.

If what Yu Yin said about winning a lottery prize is true, then there’s no way this person would be under that kind of pressure to kill himself. Adding onto that the comments from the deceased’s friends and relatives...

“Dad!”

Just as Yu Tong was deep in his own thoughts, Yu Yin suddenly tapped his shoulder from the side, bringing him back to his senses. “Weren’t you going to head over to the loans company?”

“Oh, yes.” Yu Tong checked the time. It wasn’t long before rush hour, so Yu Tong decided not to waste any more time. He could think about it more after arriving at the location first.

The car’s engine immediately started, and a slight vibration reverberated from underneath. Yu Yin pulled on his seat belt and then pulled down the car window.

Perhaps he had imagined it, but as the car was turning the corner, he seemed to see a humanoid figure standing where the car had just been parked and looking in their direction. As the car continued to move forward, it disappeared in the intersection of light and shadow.

“Weird...” Did I imagine it?

Yu Yin rubbed his eyes. Nothing was reflected in the rearview mirrors.

“What’s wrong?” Yu Tong noticed his actions as they were turning around, and asked distractedly.

“Nothing, probably just me mistaking something.” Yu Yin turned around. His intuition said it had just been his eyes playing tricks on him. “That’s right, that loans company is in the western district; what is it called?”

“Mm...if I remember correctly, it should be called Zhong’s Capable Aid Co., established around seven years ago. It has developed to mainly focus on combining incurred debts. It has many commissioners specialised in a.s.sisting those in debt to transfer loans to their own company. However, because it’s a private business, they still have to coordinate with banks and such for the most part.” Yu Tong watched the road as he voiced the information he remembered. “Student Chen’s family transferred their debt over about half a year ago. Prior to that, they had taken loans from three banks. The main issue was that their father had borrowed money from an underground money farm, a high total sum of over ten million yuan...obviously, it ended up being with compounded interest, and some staff from Zhong’s Capable Aid Co. helped them settle the matter with the underground money farm, transferring the entire debt to their own company.”

“Wow...a debt of over ten million yuan...this company’s supporter must be even better than a treasury, to be able to deal with that kind of debt from an underground money farm.” From Yu Yin’s knowledge, being able to cleanly end something with an underground money farm was extremely difficult, especially when the loans got increasingly shadier.

“In the beginning, the father only borrowed around three million from the money farm, but it later turned into over ten million. I’m sure you can see just how powerful their background supporter is.” The trickiest part of money farms was how quick and heavy the interests were. Yu Tong, who often dealt with paperwork related to this, knew this fact well from his experience. “We’ve already looked into it; the money was borrowed nearly three years ago, and the original interest was even higher, but this loans company managed to keep it under control. The loans company likely doesn’t have a good-hearted background, but it did do something helpful in this case.”

Yu Yin decided not to dwell on how powerful the loans company was, and instead thought of another matter. “Who was the personnel responsible for Chen Yong Hao’s family then?”

Yu Tong took out a business card from his bag and pa.s.sed it over to his son before replying, “Teng Qi. He returned from studying overseas just half a year ago. As soon as he joined the company, he became a commissioner, and his first case was conglomerating Student Chen’s family debt. In the past half a year or so, he’s also moved onto gathering dozens more cases of all magnitudes. His performance is currently ranked number three in the company.”

“His name is quite bizarre.” Yu Yin stared at the two characters printed on the business card. He couldn’t help but think of another person with a very odd name, a person who just so happened to be living in his home as his younger brother.

Yu Tong only chuckled in response.

After all, the world was a big place; no name was a rarity, regardless of how strange it seemed.

***

It was still afternoon, during work hours. By avoiding some roads with traffic jams, Yu Tong managed to arrive at their destination in less than twenty minutes.

The company was in a fairly small office building. The complex had a total of seven floors, with a water tower on the top level. There were some open-s.p.a.ced residences and some shops flanking either side down for a large stretch of the road.

Yu Tong drove the car into the parking s.p.a.ce and turned off the engine. “Student Chen jumped off from the top of the seventh floor.” He pointed at the company entrance and told Yu Yin, “He fell outside of the main entrance and died after landing, having instantly shattered his skull. Before the ambulances had even arrived, he had already pa.s.sed.”

The company entrance had already been thoroughly cleaned up; there were no traces to be seen of having been the spot where a fatal incident had occurred the previous day.

“Does this entire building belong to the company?” Yu Yin asked in astonishment as he looked up at the large sign that covered the entire building.

“Mhm. It seems that the first two floors are retail sales and a reception hall for receiving unresolved cases. The third to fifth floors are all rooms for the commissioners to receive people, while the sixth floor is the director’s office.” Yu Tong locked the car doors after getting off. He continued, “That day, Student Chen was heading towards the commissioner’s area on the fifth floor. Because Teng Qi seemed to have been temporarily out of office, the receptionist invited him to wait in the reception hall.”

After giving a general explanation, Yu Tong led Yu Yin into the loans company.

Yu Yin closed his eyes again as he listened to the two footsteps slowly disappear from the room.

Then, the surroundings became silent once more.

***

All strength left his body.

Yu Yin lay on the bed with his eyes shut. He was powerless to the point where even opening his eyes was exhausting. The bout of dizziness made him feel as all his energy had been drained by something, forcing him to lie down, unable to make the slightest movement.

This feeling was extremely hard to bear, and it made him feel like a slab of pork on a chopping block.

That’s right, when was the last time I felt like dead meat?

But just then, he realised that the dizziness and everything else that had filled his brain suddenly disappeared. He could no longer hear the buzzing noise, and his entire body suddenly became incomparably refreshed. There was just the problem of being unable to summon enough strength to even lift his fingers left.

He then thought of a previous instance where he had been in such a situation. Back then, a very long time ago, he had been paralysed in his sleep by a ghost...

But it’s currently broad daylight!

There’s literally no reason to paralyse me now!

Yu Yin wanted to struggle, but the more he tried to, the more strength was sapped. He was like a leaking bucket as all his energy, including the blood flowing through his body, seemed to be drained out.

He furiously wanted to curse out.

As he wrestled with his body, Yu Yin vaguely heard someone seemingly walk over. Although he couldn’t hear the sound of footsteps, he could sense their presence.

At first, he thought it was the young miss from the company, but he soon tossed this notion. The person walking over didn’t make a single noise; there was no way it could be the young woman wearing heels.

The person’s movements were very slow as they neared him. However, he couldn’t even open his eyes to look over and see who it was.

The other person simply circled his small bed a few times, before finally stopping by his feet. At the same time, Yu Yin sensed a numbing chill from his feet under the blanket.

The situation remained like this for a while, probably a bit under twenty minutes, before the other person suddenly began to move. However, they were no longer walking, but rather climbing onto the small bed. He could clearly feel the bed sink down slightly where the feet were.

...If I was a girl, this would probably be a good time to suspect if the other person wants to rape me.

Just as Yu Yin was distracted by this random side thought, the sinking feeling abruptly disappeared. It wasn’t that the person had gotten off the bed; rather, it was as if they had just evaporated into the air and disappeared.

But whatever it is, it must have walked away, right?

Yu Yin let out a sigh of relief. He then discovered that his strength seemed to be slowly recovering. He flickered his eyelids open. His surroundings were not the bright colors of a lit room; instead, it was as if he was in the darkness with no lights.

It was pitch-black; all he could see was a faint, weak glow.

It’s nighttime already?

Yu Yin shut his eyes and waited until his condition improved before slowly opening his eyes.

The thing that met his eyes was not the ceiling, but a pair of legs.

A pair of legs wearing jeans.

He could only stare blankly in shock.

A person was standing above his stomach.

This person wasn’t standing on top of his actual skin, but was floating in mid-air about five centimeters above his body.

In that instant, Yu Yin felt as if he had forgotten how to breathe. The air around him was freezing, yet he could not stop the cold sweat coming from his body.

The person standing there was surrounded by a bright glow, contrasting the dark room, making it impossible for Yu Yin to even pretend he was mistaken.

The person looked down at him. Its blood-covered face was pale to the point where he could see the veins underneath. Most bizarre was the large hole in its skull, which exposed something that Yu Yin really didn’t want to think too much about.

“It” just looked at him like this.

And Yu Yin was unable to shift his gaze or close his eyes.

Although he didn’t feel any malicious intent from the person, its cold aura made his body numb and shiver with cold. His mind was tense and a continuous stream of cold sweat fell from his forehead. Since he couldn’t turn away, he was forced to look straight at the meeting gaze.

Yu Yin knew this person.

He really did. However, he had only been acquainted with their appearance before jumping to their death, not the current, horrifying appearance.

A long time seemed to pa.s.s, to the point where Yu Yin felt as if he would suffocate to death as his head suddenly began to grow dizzy once more. In his daze, he unconsciously closed his eyes slowly. However, that frightful image remained burned in his skull.

The dizziness made him feel drained again, and he could no longer feel the bed he was lying on, as if he could fall at any moment. His body was filled with fear, since it didn’t seem like he was on a bed, but rather on the edge of a tall precipice.

It was as if he was lying down in mid-air, and only a very small s.p.a.ce was supporting his body weight, a thin thread that could snap in an instant.

Someone lightly blew on his face.

It was cold, very cold, like a piece of ice brushing across his face.

In that moment, Yu Yin sensed someone nearing him again, and slowly reaching out their hand as if about to pull him down from his only support.

He wanted to fight against it...

With all his might, he opened his mouth, but no sound came out. All he sensed was the hand getting closer and closer to him before slowly pressing down on his shoulder.

In that second, as if a pair of pliers cut all his restrictions, Yu Yin’s energy was completely restored. Before he had even managed to open his eyes, he subconsciously brushed away at the hands on his body. “Don’t touch me!” He roared out as forcefully as possible amidst his exhaustion, as if he had just barely escaped the gates of h.e.l.l.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes to the bright s.p.a.ce surrounding him: the resting room.

A complete stranger was standing several steps away from the bed, having clearly jumped back in fright by his shout.

Yu Yin focused his gaze on the name tag the stranger wore: “Ding Wei Han”. The other person stared at him blankly, unsure of how to react.

As Yu Yin hurriedly shifted his gaze to the person, he froze in shock.

Past the stranger’s shoulder, he saw the clock hanging on the wall of the resting room. From the moment he had first entered here until now, only five minutes had elapsed.

And in that instant, Yu Yin’s mind went blank.