In the distant fog, the black tentacle monsters could be faintly seen.
The monsters that had just been relentlessly chasing them completely ignored the appearance of Gan Tai and Xiao Xin, allowing the dog and the girl to leave.
Seeing Xiao Xin leave safely, Wang Tou closed the door again.
He turned and walked back to the living room. After taking a few steps, Wang Tou suddenly stopped, his expression strange as he reached into the pocket of his hospital gown.
Then, he pulled out a white piece of paper from his pocket.
The neatly folded paper had some text on it.
“Find out who cut off my head?” Ran Jingjing read the words on the paper, clutching the box in her arms tightly and scrutinizing the people in the room vigilantly, “The culprit who hurt Xiaohua is indeed among us. Which one of you killed Xiaohua?!”
“Was it you, Mrs. Shen?” Her gaze shot like a sharp blade towards Mrs. Shen, who had just watched her daughter leave.
Before Mrs. Shen could say anything, Ran Jingjing’s eyes suddenly moved to Li Chongming, “Or was it you, the peeping tom?”
Li Chongming blushed, “It wasn’t me.”
Ignoring him, Ran Jingjing’s gaze then fell on Wang Tou’s face, “Was it you then? The diligent police officer.”
Wang Tou: “…”
Finally, her gaze turned to Bai Lixin, “Or perhaps it was you? The suspicious stranger, Mr. Bai Lixin.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
After a brief silence, Wang Tou spoke, “Lawyer Ran, if you had handed over the head in your arms to the police ten years ago, we might have found more clues.”
Ran Jingjing shook her head, “With this head, you’ll confirm Xiaohua’s death. This case wouldn’t have lingered for ten years; it would have been closed ten years ago. Cao Ji’an would have been sentenced to death for murder, then commuted to life imprisonment without parole, and finally sentenced.”
Wang Tou was stunned, momentarily speechless.
Someone moved in the living room. Mrs. Shen looked over and saw a handsome young man walking through the room, his gaze sweeping around as if searching for something.
She couldn’t help but ask, “What are you doing?”
Bai Lixin curled his index finger and lightly tapped on the wall, causing a dull sound. “Didn’t the note say so? Let’s search inside the house.”
Several people were stunned by this answer. Li Chongming exclaimed, “Is that what ‘find out’ means?”
The young man turned to the four people left in the living room, “Why not? Isn’t that what the note says?”
Everyone: “…”
It made so much sense, they didn’t even know how to argue.
“Bai Lixin is right,” Wang Tou immediately joined the search team. “Even if Xiaohua’s murderer is among us, with the current clues, we don’t know who it is. Instead of suspicion, let’s see if there are any other clues in the wooden house.”
“Searching for clues is fine,” Ran Jingjing said coldly, “but you can’t act alone. At least two people should work together, to prevent the murderer from hiding evidence.”
“No need for that trouble,” after searching the living room, Bai Lixin walked into the bedroom for the second time, “There are only two rooms in total, wouldn’t it be better for five people to stay together? They can also supervise each other.”
Ran Jingjing nodded approvingly, “That’s the best way.”
Five people quickly squeezed into the small bedroom. They meticulously searched every corner, including under the bed, on the door, in the wardrobe, and even the corners of the walls, but found nothing.
Then they moved together to the bathroom, but still didn’t find anything.
That left only the kitchen unchecked.
With the situation urgent, they ignored concerns about fearing the dead and disturbing the crime scene and cautiously entered the tiny kitchen, carefully avoiding the wooden utensils and frosted glass shards on the floor, nervously searching for clues. But despite their efforts, they found nothing.
Just as everyone was disheartened, the young man stopped.
The kitchen was rectangular in shape, with the range hood and gas stove installed against the narrower wall.
He stood quietly in front of the gas stove, then raised his eyes and stared ahead.
Sensing his anomaly, Wang Tou approached and knocked on the range hood, then stepped on a stool to feel the range hood pipe. “The range hood is fine.”
“The problem isn’t with the range hood.” The young man raised his hand, his slender index finger pointing at the frosted wall in front of him. “It’s this wall.”
“This wooden house has a three-room layout: kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, and also the living room. The bedroom and bathroom are in the same direction, and the living room and kitchen are on the same side. I walked from the living room to the end of the hallway, and the wall is flat, without any tilt. From the bedroom to the kitchen, the walls of the two rooms are parallel, without any tilt, indicating that this wooden house is a perfectly square house.”
“A square shape is symmetrical in length on both sides. But the kitchen is missing a section.” Bai Lixin spread his five fingers and pressed them against the wall in front of him. “It’s this section here, this wall has been thickened, but because it’s been filled with tools like the range hood and gas stove, it gives us the illusion that this place is just cramped with items.”
“Officer Wang, there should be something inside this wall.”
S419M: [A hidden space? Why does this sound so familiar?]
Escape System: [Of course it sounds familiar, didn’t Mrs. Shen use this method to hide the film at the Shen family’s house before?]
S419M: [Yes, the method is the same. Is Mrs. Shen the one who killed Xiaohua?]
Escape System: [I don’t know, but our current task isn’t to find Xiaohua’s murderer.]
The Escape System quickly said to Bai Lixin, [Master Bai Lixin, you only have ten hours left. You must hurry and find other parts of Xiaohua’s body, otherwise, the game task will fail, and you will be completely cleared by the system! This time it’s a thorough removal, you will not even be sent to that punishment copy.]
S419M also became anxious, [Lord Host, hurry!]
Bai Lixin: [Don’t worry, I’ve already found Xiaohua’s body. Now I just want to know something else.]
[Ah?] S419M, who had just been anxious, suddenly calmed down, and was even a little confused, [You’ve found her body? When did this happen? Haven’t I been with you all the time? How did I not notice? Where is it? Where is her body, Lord Host?]
Escape System: [Could it be inside this wall?]
S419M had a sudden realization, [I see, I see!]
Wang Tou didn’t hesitate either. On hearing Bai Lixin’s words, he immediately measured the distance and confirmed that the kitchen was indeed missing a section.
And the missing section was at exactly this wall.
He searched the wooden house for tools that could be used to break down the wall, but after searching for a long time, he still didn’t find anything useful.
Mrs. Shen stood at the back, “Could Xiaohua’s body be hidden inside this wall?”
Ran Jingjing stood at the back, her back straight, her shoulders tense. “If it’s really Xiaohua’s body, we must find a way to break it open. Officer Wang, haven’t you always wanted to solve the case of Xiaohua’s disappearance? Please, you must break the wall open!”
Li Chongming punched the wall with his fist. “This wall isn’t a plastic bottle. It won’t just open because we hit it. How can we open it without tools? Officer Wang, you need to figure something out quickly.”
Just as everyone was at a loss, the young man who first discovered the problem with the wall silently placed his hand on it.
The next moment, everyone was stunned.
The solid wall became as soft as tofu in his hands. With just a little force, his fingers sank into the wall. Debris of soil mixed with wall material slid down from the back of his hand and clattered onto the countertop.
Several people looked at Bai Lixin in shock, but the other party didn’t care about it and still dug at the wall easily. However, in the blink of an eye, the wall that had left everyone helpless just now had become pitted and seriously damaged.
Suddenly, a sharp scream came from the crowd.
Mrs. Shen pointed ahead with horrified eyes, “A hand, a hand is showing!”
In the dark wall, a skeletal palm was revealed…
Ten minutes later, Bai Lixin extracted the body from within the wall.
It was carefully removed and placed in the living room, not far from Cao Jiyun’s corpse.
It was a female skeleton. Because it had been buried in the wall for many years, the bones were covered with stubborn mud that was difficult to clean.
It lacked a skull, and the bone at the neck was cleanly cut. In addition, one leg bone was missing.
Female, long dead, no skull, missing leg…
It matched perfectly with the characteristics of the missing Su Xiaohua.
Ran Jingjing knelt before the skeleton, crying uncontrollably, “Xiaohua, Xiaohua! Who harmed you? Who did this to you, who?”
Compared to Ran Jingjing’s breakdown, Mrs. Shen and Li Chongming were more fearful. They hid far away and only dared to raise their necks and peek over.
S419M exclaimed: [Lord Host, is this the remaining part of Xiaohua?! Great, you found it.]
However, the escape system was less optimistic: [But the system hasn’t indicated that the task is complete.]
S419M’s enthusiasm faded instantly: [Is it because we haven’t found the other leg?]
Bai Lixin glanced at the devastated Ran Jingjing, then walked into the kitchen. After a while, he emerged with a wooden mop.
The mop was also quite old, and its surface had rough and rugged edges.
While the others were puzzled, Bai Lixin placed the mop on the ground and removed the mop head.
“Fuck!” Li Chongming couldn’t help but curse.
Because after the mop head was removed, they saw that this handle wasn’t just a simple old mop handle—it was a bone covered with wooden varnish!
Bai Lixin placed the leg bone next to the skeleton, and the leg bone fit perfectly with the body.
At this point, apart from the missing skull, this skeleton was complete.
Li Chongming boldly stepped forward, glanced at the leg bone that had been transformed into a mop with squinted eyes, and then quickly stepped back.
Then he took another look, “Why is one of her toes missing? Was it cut off when Cao Ji’an abused her?”
“No, that’s not it.” Wang Tou frowned and looked at the skeleton on the ground, “Xiaohua’s leg bones are intact, with no missing toes.”
Li Chongming: “Then was her leg bone bumped and the toe came off when it was moved?”
Wang Tou pursed his lips, pondering for a long time before saying solemnly, “Normally, regardless of whether a case is solved or not, the victim’s body wouldn’t be stored for too long but would be handed over to their family for burial. However, ten years ago, only Xiaohua’s severed leg was found, and the case remained unsolved. So, after obtaining her family’s consent, we preserved her leg bone.”
“That leg bone has been sealed by us and cannot appear here!”
“But this leg bone matches this skeleton?” Ran Jingjing was on the verge of collapse, “Are you saying this isn’t Xiaohua’s body? If it isn’t Xiaohua’s body, then whose is it?”
