Chapter 15: First Movement

Thud—

Thud—

Thud—

That weird thumping heartbeat, over the past two days, spread silently through Li Zhenhu's manor like an invisible plague.

At first, only the nanny who was polishing the vase heard it.

When she told others, she only got teased with the joke "you get ringing ears when you get old."

But soon.

The bodyguard who was lifting weights in the gym heard it.

The butler who was inventorying the cellar wines heard it.

Even Li Zhenhu himself, while signing a contract worth hundreds of millions, felt that "thud‑thud" heartbeat abruptly pierce his ears.

Panic began to ferment.

"Ah!"

A young maid let out a scream, and the tray in her hand clanged to the floor, spilling expensive red wine everywhere.

"Mirror! In the mirror! Just now... just now there was a person standing in the mirror!"

She pointed at the huge dressing mirror at the end of the Corridor, her face pale and her whole body trembling.

"He... he has a huge hole in his chest!"

Everyone looked where her finger indicated; in the mirror, only their own panicked faces stared back.

"What nonsense!"

The Bodyguard Captain scolded, but his voice also carried a barely perceptible tremor.

Because just now, through the living‑room floor‑to‑ceiling window, he clearly saw a pale silhouette flash by the garden fountain.

The entire villa was shrouded by an invisible wave of fear.

Jiang Hai City Grand Theater.

The symphony orchestra was performing Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique,' its soaring yet mournful melody echoing through the gilded concert hall.

Qin Zhixia, wearing the unfamiliar off‑white dress, sat upright.

She had no mind at all to appreciate any high art.

A tiny earpiece hidden in her ear canal transmitted Professor Chen's slightly solemn voice from the rear of the Project Team.

"Continue probing, don't stop."

"Ask him his view on the 'Judgment.'"

Qin Zhixia lifted the soda water before her, using the act of drinking to mask herself, turned her head, and spoke in a volume only the two of them could hear.

"Dr. Chu, do you believe in fatalism?"

"Just like this piece, it's full of resistance against an unjust fate, yet it still ends in tragedy."

Her gaze was fixed tightly on the man beside her.

Chu Che turned his head slightly, his eyes behind gold‑rimmed glasses reflecting the stage's brilliant lights.

A gentle smile hung on his face, a pure pleasure of appreciating the art.

"Officer Qin, do you think a tragic ending must be bad?"

He didn't answer directly; instead, he tossed out a philosophical question.

"For crops overrun by weeds, a great fire is a tragedy."

"But for the sower, it's called weed removal, the prelude to a bountiful harvest."

His voice was warm, yet it made the hairs on Qin Zhixia's back stand on end.

In the earpiece, Professor Chen's voice carried an uncontainable gasp.

"This guy... is a born orator! If he really is the murderer, he's wrapped his motive in a philosophical cloak perfectly! Every sentence provokes, yet none contains a flaw!"

"Zhixia, stay steady! He enjoys this verbal sparring, keep talking to him!"

Qin Zhixia felt as if she were conversing with a devil cloaked in human skin.

She was about to launch the next round of verbal assault.

Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers away at the hillside villa, the real "Pathetique Symphony" had just entered its first movement.

"Useless! All of you are useless!"

Li Zhenhu erupted in his study, slamming a File onto the floor with force.

He pointed at the trembling Security Chief before him and raged.

"I spend tens of millions a year raising you! And you tell me the house is haunted?!"

"Investigate! Pull up all the surveillance! Even if it's just a fly, I want it caught!"

The Security Chief scrambled, rolling and crawling toward the control room.

Half an hour later, he returned, his expression uglier than having seen a ghost.

"Li... Manager Li..."

His voice trembled uncontrollably.

"All systems... completely normal."

"Thermal imaging, acoustic detection, motion capture... no abnormal signals. In the surveillance footage, there's nothing except us."

Boom—

Something exploded in Li Zhenhu's mind.

The tech fortress he boasted about, built with money, was as fragile as paper‑mâché before this unseen "thing"!

It's a hundred times scarier than discovering an intruder armed to the teeth!

The unknown is the greatest fear!

This time, the dam of panic has completely burst.

"Ghosts! There really are ghosts! I want to go home! I won't stay here!"

A nanny with poor psychological resilience suffered a complete mental breakdown, screaming and rushing out of the villa.

"I'm quitting this job too, sorry boss!"

A bodyguard dropped his electric baton and fled the villa.

Once a heaven of decadence, at this moment it has utterly become an insane asylum.

Li Zhenhu's arrogance and conceit were crushed to dust before absolute fear.

He slumped in the expensive leather boss's chair, drenched in cold sweat, his teeth chattering "ge-ge".

He finally recalled the warning from the young police officer a few days ago.

He remembered the phone number Xiao Zhang left behind when he departed.

That was his last lifeline!

Li Zhenhu's hand shook like Parkinson's; he struggled to pull out his phone from his pocket, trying several times before unlocking the screen and dialing that number.

The Municipal Criminal Investigation Brigade, the temporary command center of the Project Team.

The atmosphere was oppressive.

Everyone stared at the big screen, which showed the surveillance footage outside the restaurant where Qin Zhixia and Chu Che were on a date.

Xiao Zhang's phone suddenly rang at this moment.

He glanced at the caller ID—"Scumbag Manager Li".

He curled his lip, and in front of everyone, pressed the speakerphone key.

The next second.

A choked howl filled with endless remorse and fear exploded from the phone's earpiece, reverberating throughout the entire command center!

"Officer Xiao! Save me! I was wrong! I really was wrong!"

"It's here! That ghost...... it really came! Please, you guys, come quickly!"

The entire command center instantly fell into dead silence.

Everyone was stunned.

They looked at each other, their faces full of bewilderment.

"What's going on? Something happened over at Li Zhenhu's side?"

"But...... but the number one suspect, Chu Che, has been with Qin Team all along, right? He has a perfect alibi!"

A wrench slammed the keyboard, calling up a map of the area around Li Zhenhu's villa.

"How did he do that? Instant teleportation? Or does he have a clone technique? This is unscientific!"

In the concert hall.

The symphony's melody was moving toward its most grand and stirring chapter.

In Qin Zhixia's earpiece came Li Zhenhu's desperate plea for help, and the chaotic cries of his colleagues all jumbled together.

Her pupils suddenly contracted.

She abruptly turned her head to look at Chu Che beside her.

The man still maintained that posture, eyes slightly closed, the corners of his mouth even holding a hint of enjoyment, a tranquil smile.

He was immersed in the world of music, as if isolated from all external noise.

He looked like a pure, immaculate angel.

But Qin Zhixia only felt a chill surge from her tailbone straight to her Heavenly Spirit Cover!

From the earpiece came a decisive order.

In the situation where Qin Zhixia could not command, Zhou Weiguo intervened:

"Zhixia! Hold steady! Keep watching Chu Che closely! Don't let him see any flaw!"

Everyone else, rush to reinforce the hillside villa! I want to see just what is pretending to be a ghost!