115: Chapter 115 The person has been found! The truth is revealed!

Qi Xiu didn't dare ask any more questions.

He glared fiercely at Qi Gang, turned, and ran out of the second bedroom, heading straight for the kitchen.

In less than half a minute, Qi Xiu ran back.

He was carrying a heavy claw hammer in his hand.

The hammerhead was made of fine steel, and the handle was wrapped in black non-slip tape.

This was the tool he usually used for work.

When Qi Gang saw that claw hammer, he completely broke down.

He spread his arms wide, blocking the brand-new large bookcase with all his might.

“Brother! Are you crazy! What are you doing with a hammer!”

Qi Gang's voice was sharp and ear-piercing.

His whole body was shaking, and his legs were so weak he could barely stand, forcing him to lean against the bookcase for support.

“This is my room! Get out! Leave my room immediately!”

Qi Gang roared at Qi Xiu like a frenzied beast.

The viewers in the livestream room all got excited seeing this scene.

“The younger brother definitely has a problem! He's panicking!”

“Why is he blocking the bookcase? Is there a hidden compartment behind it?”

“Holy crap, he didn't actually hide his sister-in-law in the bookcase, did he?”

“But this is a built-in bookcase, where would there be space to hide a person?”

Qi Xiu held the hammer, looking at his brother blocking the bookcase with a face full of doubt.

“Gangzi, move aside.”

“Master Su told me to get the hammer; he must have his reasons.”

“I won't!” Qi Gang gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot. “If you dare touch my bookcase today, I'll die right in front of you!”

Qi Xiu finally lost his temper. He was already distraught over his wife's disappearance, and now his brother was being completely unreasonable.

“You think you're so capable now, don't you! Daring to threaten your brother!”

Qi Xiu rolled up his sleeves and prepared to step forward and take action.

“Wait.”

Su Yun's voice came from the phone, interrupting Qi Xiu's movement.

Su Yun looked at Qi Gang on the screen, a mocking curve touching the corner of his mouth.

“Qi Xiu, when you bought this house, did you look at the floor plan?”

Qi Xiu froze for a moment and quickly nodded.

“I did. The layout of this house is quite square and regular.”

“Then you should know that the wall separating the second bedroom and the living room is a load-bearing wall,” Su Yun said unhurriedly.

Qi Xiu nodded again.

“Yes, it's a load-bearing wall. It's nearly forty centimeters thick.”

“That's right.” Su Yun picked up his teacup and gently blew on the floating tea leaves. “You said just now that this bookcase is built-in, with a depth of over half a meter.”

“Have you ever wondered how a half-meter-deep bookcase could be fitted into a forty-centimeter-thick load-bearing wall?”

Qi Xiu froze on the spot.

Although he was a contractor, he was usually responsible for paying the workers and securing jobs; he rarely concerned himself with specific renovation details.

Furthermore, when this house was being renovated, he happened to have taken on a large project and spent every day at the construction site, leaving the management entirely to his wife and brother.

Now, hearing Su Yun's reminder, his mind went 'buzz'.

Right! The wall is only forty centimeters thick, how could the bookcase be half a meter deep!

The comments in the livestream room exploded instantly.

“Holy shit! The more I think about it, the scarier it gets!”

“The load-bearing wall was hollowed out?”

“That's way too bold! Daring to touch a load-bearing wall, do they want to die!”

“The point isn't the load-bearing wall! The point is what the hollowed-out space was used for!”

Su Yun looked at the pale-faced Qi Gang on the screen and directly exposed the truth.

“Qi Gang, you studied civil engineering in university, didn't you?”

Hearing this, Qi Gang's body jerked violently. He stared at the screen, unable to say a word.

“You used your professional knowledge to bribe the construction team during the renovation.”

Su Yun's voice wasn't loud, but every word pierced the heart.

“You had them hollow out this load-bearing wall inward by a full thirty centimeters.”

“Combined with the original thickness of the wall, it was just enough to fit this large bookcase.”

“Not only that, you also reserved a mezzanine between the bookcase and the wall, two meters long, half a meter wide, and one meter high.”

Qi Xiu's scalp went numb. His hand holding the hammer was shaking.

“Su... Master Su, are you saying my wife is...”

Qi Xiu's voice was trembling.

He didn't dare finish the sentence.

“Push him aside.”

Su Yun didn't answer Qi Xiu's question and directly issued an instruction.

“Use the hammer in your hand to strike the back panel of the middle row of shelves in the bookcase.”

Qi Xiu took a deep breath. He turned to look at Qi Gang, who was blocking the bookcase.

Qi Gang had now completely lost his mind. He flailed his arms wildly, trying to prevent Qi Xiu from approaching.

“Don't come over! If you dare come over, I'll call the police and have you arrested!”

Qi Xiu didn't listen to his nonsense at all.

He strode forward, reached out with his thick arm, and grabbed Qi Gang by the collar.

The strength he had developed from years of working on construction sites was not something a weak university student could compare to.

Qi Xiu tossed the frail Qi Gang aside like he was picking up a chick.

Qi Gang slammed heavily onto the single bed and couldn't get up for a long time.

Qi Xiu walked to the front of the bookcase.

The middle row of shelves was stuffed with thick English postgraduate entrance exam prep books.

Qi Xiu reached out with his rough, large hand and swept all those books onto the floor in a few quick motions.

This revealed the thin wooden back panel behind them.

Qi Xiu swallowed hard. He raised the claw hammer in his hand and aimed it at that back panel.

“Strike,” Su Yun said coldly from the screen.

Qi Xiu gritted his teeth, swung the claw hammer, and used all his strength to smash it heavily against the bookcase's back panel.

“Thud!”

An extremely dull sound echoed in the small second bedroom.

Accompanying this dull thud was a distinct hollow echo.

That was a sound only produced when striking a hollow object.

Behind the back panel, it was empty.

Qi Xiu's eyes turned red. Like a madman, he swung the claw hammer and smashed frantically at the back panel.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Wood chips flew everywhere.

The thin back panel couldn't withstand the violent destruction of the claw hammer at all.

A large hole was smashed through in just a few hits.

Qi Xiu threw down the hammer, grabbed the broken edges with both hands, and pulled hard to both sides.

With a ripping sound...

An entire section of the back panel was torn off by him by sheer force.

The mezzanine hidden behind the bookcase was revealed.

An extremely pungent smell of chemicals, mixed with a nauseating stench of decay, rushed out directly from that dark mezzanine.

Qi Xiu was pushed back two steps by the smell, nearly vomiting.

Forcing down the churning in his stomach, he held up his phone and shone the screen's light into the mezzanine.

The weak light from the phone screen illuminated the scene inside the mezzanine.

Qi Xiu took just one look, and his whole body was like it had been struck by lightning, freezing completely on the spot.

The phone in his hand fell to the floor with a 'clatter'.

“Aaaah!!!”

An extremely shrill scream erupted from Qi Xiu's throat.

That voice was filled with extreme pain and collapse.

The phone that had fallen on the floor happened to have its camera facing up, pointing right at the smashed-open mezzanine.

The more than three million viewers in the livestream room clearly saw the image inside the mezzanine.

Inside that narrow space...

A woman wearing a red down jacket was tightly wrapped in several layers of thick transparent plastic film, like a giant cocoon, forced into the wall.

The woman's face was pressed tightly against the plastic film.

Although half a month had passed and she had even been treated with chemicals...

One could still clearly identify that this was Li Juan, the smiling wife from Qi Xiu's photo.

Her eyes were wide open, her eyeballs protruding and bloodshot.

There was a very deep purple ligature mark on her neck.

She stared straight out like that, staring at this home where she once lived.