A Terrifying Truth

Even though I had braced myself for it.

I was still utterly shocked when I saw that the bride was Du Yuwei.

I simply could not understand what kind of relationship Du Ruhai and Du Yuwei really had.

How could those two possibly have become husband and wife?

By then, the three of us had reached Du Yuwei.

When we had seen this girl before, she had looked no different from a living person.

But back then, she had been a ghost.

Now, she was a corpse that had been dead for three months.

We had no idea how Du Ruhai had kept her body from decomposing.

But the lack of decay did not mean her remains had undergone no changes.

Her skin was an unnatural bluish purple all over, and she looked horrifying, as though she had been poisoned.

Honestly, she was beautiful. A woman should have been at her most beautiful when she put on her bridal gown.

But seeing her like this, in these circumstances, was enough to leave me scarred.

"How could she be Du Ruhai's bride?"

Meng Yifan was even more shocked than I was. "Those two... what exactly is their relationship?"

Seventh Master said nothing. His expression was just as conflicted as ours.

Even we struggled to make sense of it. At his age, he probably found something this absurd even harder to accept.

Actually, I had wanted to share my suspicions when we were downstairs.

But I had been afraid Seventh Master and Meng Yifan would call me a pervert.

And my earlier suspicions had not come out of nowhere.

Seventh Master had said there were only signs of Du Ruhai living in this villa. But if Du Ruhai had taken a new wife, why were there no signs of a woman living here?

Because that woman was already dead. She had died three months ago.

There was also that Evil Painting. The first time I saw it, I had felt there was something strange about its subject, something that made it utterly unpleasant to look at, but I could not put my finger on what was wrong.

Now I understood. The painting did not depict a normal wedding at all.

Not only had Du Ruhai married Du Yuwei, he had married her after she died!

Just how twisted did a person have to be?

The atmosphere in that eerie room suddenly grew awkward.

I spoke up to break the awkward silence.

"I think I know where Lü Zhengxian is."

At that, Seventh Master and Meng Yifan turned to look at me almost simultaneously.

"He's attending an event in another province," I said.

Meng Yifan was shocked again. "You mean Du Ruhai is Lü Zhengxian?"

I nodded and laid out my reasoning. "Du Ruhai and Lü Zhengxian have one thing in common. Their feelings for Du Yuwei are both abnormal."

"Think about it. What could have made Lü Zhengxian kill Li Xiumei too?"

"Li Xiumei's ghost did admit herself that Lü Zhengxian had silenced her because of Du Yuwei. But think it through. Li Xiumei merely disliked Du Yuwei. Was that really enough for Lü Zhengxian to kill her?"

"After all, Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei were husband and wife. Their bond should have been deeper. So even if Li Xiumei wanted to harm Du Yuwei, Lü Zhengxian shouldn't have been cruel enough to murder the woman who shared his bed."

"The only explanation is that Lü Zhengxian no longer had feelings for Li Xiumei. His affections had shifted to someone else, and that person was Du Yuwei."

"But how could Li Xiumei possibly accept that? She would never have agreed to it."

"So what could Lü Zhengxian do? He was already a ruthless man, so he simply killed Li Xiumei and ended the problem once and for all. He also cut out her tongue and filled her mouth with cement, so she couldn't reveal his secret even after death."

That was the nature of Lü Zhengxian's abnormal feelings for Du Yuwei.

And now we had seen this room and learned that Du Ruhai's bride was Du Yuwei.

So we could now regard Du Ruhai and Lü Zhengxian as one and the same person.

"There's one more thing. If Lü Zhengxian felt that way about Du Yuwei, how could he possibly let someone else adopt her?"

"The only explanation is that he never let Du Ruhai adopt Du Yuwei."

"He is Du Ruhai, and Du Ruhai is him."

After listening to my analysis, Meng Yifan looked dazed.

I doubted he had any room left to marvel at how clever I was.

He was probably marveling at how depraved Lü Zhengxian was.

And at how Lü Zhengxian had managed to transform himself into the businessman Du Ruhai.

Even Seventh Master could not quite make sense of it. "How could a vicious murderer suddenly become a famous businessman worth tens of billions?"

"As far as I know, Du Ruhai inherited the Weihai Group from his father. His father was already well known back in my day. Wouldn't a father recognize his own son?"

Hearing Seventh Master's doubts, I figured that absurd romantic relationship had shocked him so badly that he had failed to work out why Du Ruhai could be Lü Zhengxian.

"Have you forgotten the Soul Possession you told us about earlier?" I asked. "I think that explains perfectly how Lü Zhengxian became Du Ruhai."

Meng Yifan quickly chimed in. "Lü Zhengxian used Soul Possession on the real Du Ruhai!"

Seventh Master slapped his forehead as realization dawned. "Right, Soul Possession. It requires the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art to support it. That family massacre fifteen years ago never made much sense to begin with. Killing an entire family over rent? That motive simply doesn't hold up."

"It seems Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei didn't commit those murders over rent. They were preparing to use the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art. That family probably wasn't the only one killed back then. There must have been other victims. They killed seven people in total."

I nodded. "Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei's original plan was probably to use Soul Possession on Du Ruhai, take over the Weihai Group, and become rich. But Lü Zhengxian didn't kill Du Yuwei, who was still a little girl at the time, and that disrupted their plan. That was why Li Xiumei hated Du Yuwei."

"Then Lü Zhengxian killed Li Xiumei, leaving one fewer person in the world who knew his plan. It also meant he could live alone with Du Yuwei. To him, that was the best of both worlds, so Li Xiumei was doomed to die."

Seventh Master's face darkened. "The fact that he used Soul Possession on Du Ruhai proves he's already used the Seven Deaths Life-Exchange Art, and successfully at that. Now that the person he loves most is dead, he'll definitely try to find a way to bring Du Yuwei back to life."

"So he'll use this dark art again."

Meng Yifan and I were probably among the new sacrifices for this dark art.

Once this dark art was used, seven people had to die.

That was why Du Yuwei had targeted us.