"The layout of this house isn't right."
Meng Yifan had noticed something was wrong too.
We left the master bedroom together and examined the wall between it and the adjoining room.
The room beside the master bedroom was a study, and the wall separating the two was unusually thick.
Load-bearing walls in residential buildings were generally between 160 and 240 millimeters thick, but this wall was nearly a thousand millimeters thick-almost a meter.
A load-bearing wall had no reason to be that thick, and a non-load-bearing wall was even less likely to be.
This wall took up at least three or four square meters of the master bedroom. What developer would be that stupid?
And a large wardrobe stood against that wall in the master bedroom, concealing it.
We hurried back into the master bedroom and opened the wardrobe doors.
All the clothes had been cleared out. It seemed the couple who had bought the house had no intention of living here again.
Large wardrobes like this were custom-built. Workers carried the materials upstairs piece by piece, then assembled the whole wardrobe on-site.
Its back panel was also bonded to the wall with special adhesive, anchoring the entire wardrobe firmly in place. It couldn't be moved, only dismantled.
The wardrobe looked expensive to me. It was custom-made from solid wood, with very thick boards, but I didn't know enough about furniture to tell what kind of wood it was.
I reached out and knocked on the boards at different heights. They were very sturdy, but the moment I touched the wardrobe's back panel, I frowned.
"Second Boss, is something wrong?"
Seeing my expression change, Meng Yifan and the others quickly asked.
I didn't answer. Instead, I pressed hard against the back panel.
That was all it took. One push... and I had broken their wardrobe. The back panel caved straight in, exposing the crumbling wood inside.
"Whoa, Second Boss, you broke their wardrobe."
"We'll have to pay for that, won't we..."
Xie Peng and Li Xingyang hadn't yet realized how serious the problem was.
But both Meng Yifan and I paled, and cold sweat broke out on us again.
"Something has seeped out of this wall and eaten away at the wardrobe's back panel..."
I couldn't be certain what that something was, and I didn't dare say it aloud.
This was serious. We might have to get the police involved.
Meng Yifan was no fool. He immediately took out his phone, called the buyer, and told him to come over right away.
He didn't explain much over the phone, only asking the buyer to come discuss reversing the purchase.
Naturally, the buyer couldn't have been happier and said he would come right away.
After a wait of almost an hour, the buyer arrived, but he came alone. His wife wasn't with him.
It was just as well she hadn't come. His wife was a shrew, and she would definitely have started an argument.
The buyer's surname was Hu, and he was pushing fifty. We called him Mr. Hu.
As soon as Mr. Hu arrived and saw us holding hammers and pry bars, he jumped in alarm.
"What are you doing?"
"Mr. Hu, let me ask you something first."
I led him into the master bedroom and pointed at the wardrobe. "This wardrobe was already here before you moved in, right?"
It had been here when I brought him and his wife to view the house, but this was too important not to confirm with him again.
"Yes. You were the one who showed us the house, remember? The wardrobe was right here."
Mr. Hu explained, "My wife and I thought it was still in good condition, and the quality was good all around. Besides, we were short on money after renovating, so we didn't replace the wardrobe in this room. We've been using it ever since."
I said, "Then if I smash this wardrobe now, you won't make me pay for it, will you?"
Mr. Hu's eyes widened. "Smash it? There's nothing wrong with it. Why would you smash it?"
I glanced at Meng Yifan. Only after he nodded did I say, "There may be a body hidden inside the wall behind this wardrobe."
The words struck him like a blow to the head. Mr. Hu froze in terror, his eyes wide as saucers.
Since he didn't try to stop us, I called Xie Peng and Li Xingyang over to start smashing the wardrobe's back panel.
It barely took any effort. The panel had deteriorated so badly that a little force-a few blows and some prying-quickly brought it down.
Once the back panel collapsed, the wall's true appearance was revealed.
Everyone in the room sucked in a sharp breath, while Mr. Hu let out a strange cry.
We all stumbled backward in fright, dropping every tool we held onto the floor.
The wall behind the wardrobe had originally been painted with white latex paint, but now the paint and plaster had swollen up as though they had been soaked in water.
And the swollen area traced the exact outline of a human figure!
There really was a body hidden inside this wall!
Someone had killed a person in this room, then built a new wall, sealing the body inside with cement. They had even painted the wall and ordered a custom wardrobe to hide it.
But years later, the body had decomposed, and fluids from the corpse had seeped through the wall, tracing that human outline and eating away at the wardrobe's back panel.
It turned out the couple who bought the house weren't mentally unstable. Someone really had been watching them in this room, watching them all along...
"Chen Mo..."
Meng Yifan swallowed and gripped my shoulder tightly. "Call... call the police!"
With trembling hands, I fumbled out my phone and hurriedly called the police.
Before you continue