Translator: CinderTL
"That coffee shop belongs to Qiao Yu's older brother, his real brother. He usually helps out with odd jobs when he's free and happens to stay at the shop at night."
"Have you already been there?" Jiang Cheng asked, looking at him.
As if remembering something, Liu Guo's face twitched unnaturally, but he still nodded. "Yes, we found the coffee shop and met his brother."
"Their brotherly bond was incredibly strong. After Qiao Yu's death, his brother was deeply affected and stopped caring much about the business. Now, the shop is almost on the verge of closing, with a large portion of the downstairs space rented out to other businesses."
"When he found out that we wanted to investigate the real cause of Qiao Yu's death, he was very cooperative. It was clear that he also suspected something was off about Qiao Yu's death."
"Because a few days before Qiao Yu died, he had already noticed that his younger brother was acting strangely. He often received calls from his brother at the coffee shop while he was sleeping at home, and each time it was about the same thing. He would ask if he had secretly returned to the coffee shop, but he hadn't told him."
"But how could that be?" Liu Guo shook his head. "It was already late at night. Who would be in the mood to mess with him at such an hour? But from Qiao Yu's tone, it seemed like he didn't believe his brother's words."
"At first, he didn't take it seriously, thinking it was just his brother talking nonsense after drinking. Qiao Yu had a habit of drinking heavily. But later, this situation became more frequent. Sometimes, he could receive 5 or 6 calls from Qiao Yu in a single night."
"His girlfriend often argued with him over this."
"Later, he found out that Qiao Yu hadn't just called him—he had called all the employees working at the coffee shop, asking the same question: whether they had secretly returned to the coffee shop at night without telling him."
"At this point, he realized something was wrong and confronted Qiao Yu, asking him what was going on. At first, Qiao Yu refused to say anything and even looked at him with a strange expression, as if they were all conspiring to deceive him."
"Then, seeing his older brother's haggard appearance, Qiao Yu seemed to waver. With a strange expression, he lowered his voice and asked, 'The footsteps downstairs at night—are they really not you?'"
"Of course not! His brother hadn't been there, and neither had any of the other employees!"
Hearing this, Hua Luo's expression turned peculiar. He looked at Liu Guo and asked, "Are you saying Qiao Yu heard footsteps?"
Liu Guo let out a long sigh, then turned to Hua Luo and nodded. "According to the man's recollection, Qiao Yu said that during those days, he had been busy editing and organizing the videos he had previously filmed, often working late into the night. The footsteps also appeared during the late hours."
"It was as if someone was walking back and forth downstairs."
At this point, Wei Jinting, who had been mostly silent, chimed in, "But that's almost impossible. According to the man, when he renovated the place, he took soundproofing into consideration. So even if it was quiet at night, normal footsteps downstairs wouldn't be heard."
"Moreover, based on the man's records, nothing had been stolen from the coffee shop, so it didn't seem like a break-in."
"What happened next?" Banana Wolf frowned, clearly growing impatient.
"Although the man didn't believe such a thing could happen, seeing how scared his brother was, he agreed to stay with him that night to figure out what was going on with the footsteps."
"The man was quite cautious," Liu Guo explained. "He was careful and even asked a burly employee to stay with them."
"Thus, the three of them stayed up late into the night. It wasn't until he was dozing off that Qiao Yu woke him up."
"At that moment, Qiao Yu's face had turned pale with fear, his lips trembling. He grabbed his brother's arm and said in a shaky voice, 'It's here.'"
"This immediately snapped the man and the burly employee awake, but after holding their breath and listening for a while, they still didn't hear any footsteps."
"But Qiao Yu insisted that the footsteps were still there. The man then told Qiao Yu to stay in the room while he and the burly employee went downstairs to check. But Qiao Yu was too scared to stay alone and begged to go with them."
"The man had never seen his brother beg like this before. Since childhood, Qiao Yu had been stubborn, the type who wouldn't admit defeat no matter how much he was scolded."
"At that moment, the man was also a bit nervous, though he didn't show it. The three of them, with the burly employee carrying a baseball bat and the man holding a folding chair, huddled together and went downstairs."
"The coffee shop downstairs was quite large. They turned on all the lights and searched every corner several times, but there was no sign of anyone—not even a ghost."
"Then they checked the doors and windows and found that everything was securely locked, with no signs of anyone breaking in."
"The burly employee glanced at Qiao Yu. Though he didn't say anything, his expression clearly showed that he thought Qiao Yu was either delusional or had damaged his brain from drinking."
"He should have been taken to a hospital."
"Qiao Yu hung his head and went back upstairs. But just as they closed the door and sat down, before they could even speak, Qiao Yu's body suddenly began to tremble uncontrollably. He lifted his head abruptly and looked toward the door."
"'Brother,' Qiao Yu opened his mouth, as if he was about to cry."
"'It followed us upstairs.'"
Fatty, who had been listening intently, shivered, clearly frightened by the story.
"Continue," Jiang Cheng said.
Liu Guo glanced around and saw that everyone's expressions were similar to how he had felt when he first heard the story. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
"But just like before, aside from Qiao Yu, no one heard the footsteps. To be precise, they didn't hear any sound at all."
"Was there no one outside the door?" Fatty asked cautiously.
Liu Guo shook his head, giving him a helpless look. "I don't know. The man and the burly employee were also scared. The three of them huddled in the room all night, not daring to open the door and look until the next morning when other employees arrived for work."
This reaction was quite realistic, Jiang Cheng thought. If it had been him, he probably would have done the same.
He even wondered if the man would still be alive today to recount the story had he opened the door that night.
"Later, the man planned to take his younger brother Qiao Yu to the hospital for a check-up, but Qiao Yu absolutely refused, insisting that he wasn't sick and that there were footsteps—that the coffee shop was haunted!"
"This statement completely infuriated the man. He relied on the coffee shop for his livelihood, and if such rumors spread, how could he continue doing business?"
"Furious, he told Qiao Yu to get out, calling him crazy and accusing him of ruining his brain with alcohol. Unexpectedly, from that day on, Qiao Yu truly disappeared, and his phone was unreachable."
"Later, the police came to inform him that his younger brother, Qiao Yu, had died."
(End of the Chapter)
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