10: The truth of the matter

Han Li kicked open the door, holding his phone, and charged in like a War God, yelling loudly into the dark room.

“You dog, your grandpa is here!”

The roar echoed in the room, and then… there was no ‘then’.

Han Li froze in place.

The terrifying scene he had imagined, full of chilling winds and ghostly figures, simply didn't appear.

This was just an ordinary Master bedroom.

A double bed, a wardrobe, a desk, all covered with a thin layer of dust.

In the very center of the room, a broken rope indeed hung from the beam, indicating the misfortune that had once occurred here.

Aside from that, everything seemed so normal, even somewhat bland.

A middle-aged man wearing a plaid shirt and glasses was sitting at the desk.

He heard the commotion and slowly turned his head.

He looked gentle and refined, with a haggard face and sunken eyes, like a programmer who had pulled countless all-nighters.

When he saw the fierce-looking and aggressive Han Li, he didn't show any aggression; instead, he seemed to have found a savior and let out a long sigh of relief.

“You’re finally here.”

There was even a sense of relief in the man’s tone.

“...”

Han Li’s belly full of curses instantly got stuck in his throat.

He and his hundreds of thousands of viewers in his live stream were collectively dumbfounded at this moment.

“What’s going on? Is this… is this the Boss?”

“Did the script flip? This uncle doesn’t look like a bad guy?”

“I’m a bit confused now, did we all get it wrong?”

Even Xie Wangsheng, who had been guiding from behind the scenes, fell silent at this moment, seemingly analyzing the bizarre situation before him at high speed.

A few seconds later, his bullet comments reappeared.

“Streamer! Be careful! Don’t be fooled by his appearance!”

“He’s not an ordinary evil spirit! He’s a living sacrifice who used dark magic to wipe out his entire family! This kind of thing is far more cunning and dangerous than ordinary ghosts!”

Xie Wangsheng’s warning made Han Li pause.

He shivered, and his mind instantly cleared.

Right!

He couldn't be fooled by appearances!

This seemingly harmless middle-aged man in front of him was the monster who had personally murdered his wife and three children!

Han Li’s grip on the safety talisman tightened unconsciously, and his expression towards the middle-aged man changed from confusion to extreme vigilance and disgust.

The middle-aged man noticed the change in Han Li’s expression, adjusted his glasses, and showed a bitter smile on his face.

“You seem to… know everything.”

He neither denied nor defended himself, merely calmly stating a chilling fact.

“That’s right.”

“My wife, my children, I killed them all with my own hands.”

As soon as these words came out.

Han Li’s pupils suddenly contracted, and he instinctively took a step back.

In the live stream, hundreds of thousands of viewers were even more stunned, their scalps tingling from this understated admission.

“Holy shit!”

“He admitted it! He just admitted it like that!”

“This is too… too calm! Are all murderers like this?”

“Crazy! This is definitely a crazy person!”

The middle-aged man ignored Han Li’s reaction and pointed to a chair nearby, his gesture like inviting a long-lost friend.

“My name is Lin Zhengguo. I know you have many questions.”

He began to recount his story, his voice hoarse and even.

“Before moving here, I had a happy and fulfilling family, and my career was quite successful. I thought I would grow old with my wife and watch my children grow up…”

His words were filled with a strong sense of nostalgia.

“Until we bought this villa. On the day we moved, my best business partner, to congratulate me on my housewarming, gave me a gift.”

“An antique wooden carving.”

Wooden carving?

Han Li and the viewers in the live stream were stunned, never expecting the cause of the events to be such an item.

In the apartment, Xie Wangsheng’s eyebrow twitched imperceptibly, and his fingers immediately flew across another keyboard, quickly searching for relevant clues online.

Lin Zhengguo didn't pause and continued his narration.

“From the second day that wooden carving was placed in the living room, things started to go wrong in the house.”

“First, our Golden Retriever, which we had for many years, would bark frantically at the corner of the living room every midnight.”

“Then, my youngest daughter cried and told me that an unfamiliar uncle always stood by her bed and watched her at night.”

“Later, even my wife started to become superstitious, saying she always felt there were other people in the house besides us.”

At this point, Lin Zhengguo closed his eyes in pain.

“At first, I didn’t believe any of it. I told them they were overthinking it, that it was all in their heads.”

“Until one night, when I came home, I found our Golden Retriever dead beneath that wooden carving, bleeding from all seven orifices, a tragic sight.”

“From that day on, my career also took a sharp turn for the worse. Contracts were canceled, important projects frequently went wrong, and the company quickly approached the brink of bankruptcy.”

“I finally realized that something was really wrong in this house.”

“I went to my business partner and asked him where that wooden carving came from. He only said he bought it casually at a flea market during an overseas trip and even laughed at my superstition.”

“However, he still recommended someone to me, saying he was a Master who might be able to help me solve the problem.”

Lin Zhengguo gave a self-deprecating smile.

“That so-called ‘Master,’ as soon as he entered my house, gravely said that there were unclean things in my home, with heavy resentment, and a ritual was immediately needed to expel them.”

“I was desperate at the time, like grasping at a life-saving straw, and immediately gave him a large sum of money, asking him to perform a ritual at home.”

“And surprisingly, it really worked.”

“After the ritual, those strange things in the house truly disappeared. My luck also slowly returned, and the company came back from the dead.”

Hearing this, Han Li finally couldn't hold back. He frowned and asked the question on everyone’s mind.

“Since the problem was solved, then why did you…”

He pointed to the broken rope on the beam, then pointed outside the door.

“Why did you still kill them?”

Lin Zhengguo’s expression at this moment became incredibly distorted, a look mixed with regret, pain, and endless venomous malice.

He gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

“Solved?”

“Heh heh…”

“That was not the end at all; that was just the beginning of their entire plan.”

“I, from beginning to end, was treated as a complete fool, a pawn to be manipulated at will!”