The Terrifying Truth

"Zhang Chen, are you even listening to me?" The homeroom teacher, Lu Ba, was furious seeing that Zhang Chen wasn't paying attention to anything she said.

Zhang Chen's mind was completely shut off from the outside world. He didn't notice Lu Ba getting angry beside him.

"This Xie Wen, haha!" Zhang Chen suddenly burst into laughter, then calmed himself and leaped directly from the second floor of the teaching building, stunning his homeroom teacher. By the time Lu Ba reacted and ran to the railing, Zhang Chen was nowhere to be seen below.

"Damn it, absolutely damn it. Just for a moment, the slightest bit of relaxation, and I get bitten." Zhang Chen got on his bicycle and rode towards the white house where Xie Wen lived.

Zhang Chen took out his phone and called his older sister, who was studying in the city.

"Sis, did you find out about the person I asked you to look into?" Zhang Chen's tone was very serious.

"My dear little brother, it's only been half a day. But luckily, your sister is amazing. I did my best and managed to find one person for you temporarily. It's that person named Yang Zi. As for Xie Wen, Mom said it's not easy to investigate. It seems the police department has sealed that file very tightly. However, your sister paid a great price, and Mom only agreed to help me investigate after some effort, but it's taking some time."

Wei Na seemed to sense how important this matter was to her brother, so she stopped teasing him.

"Then tell me about Yang Zi first," Zhang Chen urged.

"Wait a moment, let me find the file Mom sent over."

A short while later.

"Found it. Listen carefully, I don't want to repeat myself. Yang Zi was born in Yutian Village, Jinxi County. Before his birth, his father incurred a large debt due to drug use and fled to another province with most of the family's money, never to be heard from again. His mother worked as a nail technician in the county town. She worked hard to raise him until he was six years old, when the people his father owed high-interest loans to found them. His mother was repeatedly assaulted by the loan sharks and drowned in the Houjiatian pond. The six-year-old Yang Zi hid in an underground wine cellar at home and escaped the ordeal."

"Yang Zi, orphaned and without parents, was reclusive and eccentric. He was raised by his grandparents in the countryside. As he grew up, he followed in his mother's footsteps, becoming a nail technician and working in the county town. His skills were excellent, and his eccentric personality seemed to improve."

"Later, Yang Zi was brought to the city by his mentor. After working for several years with excellent performance, his boss greatly appreciated him. After earning a lot of money, he bought his own house in the city. However, he never married, and his colleagues found it strange."

"Didn't he go to college?" Zhang Chen suddenly asked.

"What do you think? He dropped out of junior high school," Wei Na replied.

"Sis, continue."

"However, at that time, a major event occurred in the city. Over two years, a total of 13 women went missing, ranging in age from the youngest at 17 to the oldest at 28. The police couldn't find any clues from the surveillance footage from transportation and railway departments. It wasn't until the end of the year that another 21-year-old woman went missing, and this woman happened to be the niece of the municipal party secretary."

"The police began to use all available methods to investigate. However, they suddenly discovered that all 14 missing persons shared a common characteristic: they had all visited the nail salon where Yang Zi worked, were Yang Zi's clients, and disappeared 2-3 months after entering the salon."

"With this crucial piece of information, the police, to avoid alerting the suspect, did not engage with him. They tracked Yang Zi day and night. Sure enough, not long after, while surveilling Yang Zi's residence, the police noticed him turning on the lights at two in the morning. He walked around the house for a bit, and when he found no one, he returned home and drew all the curtains in the room."

"This strange behavior immediately caught the police's attention. The two officers on surveillance first notified headquarters for backup, then broke into Yang Zi's home alone. Strangely, Yang Zi was nowhere to be found in the room. But as they were about to leave after finding nothing, one officer seemed to hear a sound from beneath his feet."

"At this point, the support team had also arrived at Yang Zi's residence. After hearing the report from the surveillance officers, they began a thorough search of the room. They indeed found an entrance resembling a basement beneath the carpet in a bedroom. After the police were fully equipped, they immediately opened the passage to the basement, and a scent of blood entered the nostrils of the officers."

"Over ten police officers entered the basement together. The dim light illuminated the entire basement, which was the same size as the room above. In the center was a large operating table, with a naked woman bound to it. Her right arm had been severed, and her mouth was tightly sealed with tape. Seeing the officers arrive, she showed no reaction, her eyes wide open as if dead."

"After rescuing the woman, they discovered she was indeed the niece of the municipal party secretary. The basement was also empty of people. The police knew Yang Zi had only left recently, so they directly contacted headquarters and sealed all major and minor transportation and transit routes in the entire city. The officers in the basement, through careful searching, found several large sacks in a huge cabinet in the basement. Upon opening them, they found the remains of the missing women, long dead."

"Many were so decomposed that their bones were barely visible. Most of the officers present, except for a few seasoned veterans, couldn't help but vomit what they had eaten that day."

"At the same time, the police apprehended Yang Zi on a road leading to Jinxi County as he was attempting to escape. The next day, he was directly sentenced to death for imprisonment, rape, and intentional homicide, with immediate execution. Due to pressure from the secretary, Yang Zi was executed that very day. Because the case was so heinous, it was not made public in order to avoid affecting the city's image."

"The rescued niece of the secretary was diagnosed with schizophrenia and hanged herself two days later. After Yang Zi's execution, according to Article 348 of the Interpretations of Several Issues Concerning the Application of the Criminal Procedure Law, after the execution of the death penalty, the people's court responsible for the execution shall handle the following matters, including item two: notify the criminal's family to claim the criminal's body within a time limit; if cremation facilities are available, notify them to claim the ashes. If not claimed within the time limit, the people's court shall notify relevant units to handle it. The handling of the death row inmate's body or ashes shall be recorded in the file."

"However, Yang Zi's parents were both deceased, and his grandparents in his hometown had also passed away while he was working in the city. The execution personnel had no choice but to cremate him and place him in the unclaimed property storage room."

"Just last year, a woman claiming to be Yang Zi's wife collected Yang Zi's urn from the storage room. The registration staff, not paying close attention, did not record her name. That's all. Little brother, why are you asking me to investigate such a super killer? Do you want to learn from him?" Wei Na finished, adding a couple of teasing remarks to her brother.

"Sis, hurry up and find out about Xie Wen. Call or text me as soon as you find out. I have to go now, I'm hanging up." After hearing about Yang Zi's situation, Zhang Chen could no longer remain calm and immediately hung up the phone.

"This is unbelievable. She's not a student from the university's art academy at all. She's a killer! Xie Wen, hehe, you played me." Zhang Chen sped his bicycle to the white house.

"Basement, basement. Without my sister's intel, I wouldn't have thought of it. The first time I entered Xie Wen's house, I noticed a different aura, but I didn't carefully observe the source of those auras. Now that I think about it, those auras seemed to be coming from right beneath my feet."

"If I'm not mistaken, those twenty-odd ghosts were the innocent victims murdered in this basement. And seeing that I can deal with this guy, they are willing to become my food for the chance to catch and kill that guy."

Zhang Chen stopped his bicycle and walked directly to Xie Wen's front door. He saw a family next door and suddenly came up with an idea.

Zhang Chen walked to the door of the house next door and knocked. He hoped no one would answer, which would make things easier for him.

However, after knocking for a long time, there was still no movement. Confident that no one was home, Zhang Chen used his telekinesis to control the door lock.

With a "click," the door opened. As soon as he entered, Zhang Chen realized that knocking was a waste of time. This house had been abandoned for who knows how long. As Zhang Chen stepped inside, he kicked up visible dust. The furniture and appliances in the house were covered with white cloths, indicating that no one had lived there for a long time.

"If Xie Wen's house has a basement, then this place must have one too." This was just Zhang Chen's guess. If not, he wouldn't know what to do.

Because there was too much dust in the room, Zhang Chen directly used his telekinesis to gather all the dust. It piled up to half a meter high.

"Basement, where would the basement be?" Zhang Chen searched the kitchen, the study, and the bedroom but found nothing. "Could it really not be here?"

Zhang Chen lifted the white cloth covering the sofa and sat down. Looking at the uninhabited house, he felt anxious. It had been over two hours since Wang Yizhi went missing.

"Wait a minute, an uninhabited house. Perhaps this family never used the basement in the first place." Zhang Chen stood up and pushed the sofa behind him.

"As expected. Sigh, I searched everywhere, and it was right under where I was sitting." Zhang Chen looked at the floor beneath the sofa, and slowly, a section of the floor, different in size from the surrounding area, was opened. Below was darkness, but Zhang Chen felt no aura as he walked down step by step.

His pupils gradually dilated, and as he adjusted to the darkness, he could see the entire basement by the light filtering in from the entrance above. It was indeed empty, unused.

At this moment, the lights in the middle of the dark basement suddenly turned on. Zhang Chen became alert and scanned his surroundings. He saw three legless ghosts floating from the corner of the wall: a man, a woman, and a little girl less than a meter tall. If he wasn't mistaken, this should be the family of three who once lived in this house. The parents held the little girl's hands, and their eyes revealed endless resentment and sorrow. Between the two parents, the little girl's eyes had been gouged out, and her mouth was sewn shut.

However, Zhang Chen immediately relaxed because he didn't feel any dangerous aura from them. It was very similar to the feeling he had last time when twenty-three ghosts surrounded him. The little girl's right hand moved, and she gently raised it, pointing towards a wall. This wall was the one adjacent to Xie Wen's basement.

This basement had no layout; it was just a rectangle. Zhang Chen memorized its size and then walked towards the wall the little girl had pointed to. Zhang Chen's pace gradually slowed down because he sensed an uneasy aura emanating from that wall.

As he finally approached the wall, Zhang Chen felt that this wall was very unusual, as if it had a life of its own. With a thought, Zhang Chen turned his head sideways and pressed his ear against the wall.

"Thump, thump." Rhythmic heartbeats entered Zhang Chen's ears…

ps: The next chapter will be the second confrontation between the protagonist and the big boss. Also, "The Boy Who Ate Ghosts" by Ah Fei is expected to be signed in the next one to two days. I hope you enjoy reading it and consider giving some recommendation votes. Thank you.