Chapter 16: Police Arrive

The sharp police siren sliced through the mountainside's tranquility.

Several police cars, like swords in the night, screamed up the mountain road and finally screeched to a halt before the brightly lit villa gates.

The car doors flung open, and Xiao Zhang, along with a squad of live‑ammunition police, rushed inside, with the Project Team members close behind.

The sight before them left them stunned.

By the pool and in the living room, everywhere lay slumped bodyguards and servants, faces etched with terror, each as if their backbone had been ripped out, huddled in corners and trembling.

Once invincible Li Zhenhu now sat slumped on the carpet, his silk pajamas soaked with cold sweat, hair disheveled, gaze unfocused, muttering incessantly.

The police arrival was like a shot of adrenaline, instantly injected into this fear‑filled space.

Seeing the familiar uniform, Li Zhenhu's cloudy eyes finally sparked with a glimmer of hope; he lunged toward Xiao Zhang, crawling and rolling as if clutching at a last straw.

"Police comrades! Officer Xiao! You've finally arrived!"

He snatched at Xiao Zhang's pant leg, snot and tears streaming, no trace of his former arrogance left.

"I was wrong! I really was wrong! I shouldn't have driven you away! Please, save me!"

Xiao Zhang looked at this man who had gone from arrogant to obsequious and felt speechless.

"Holy shit, is this still Manager Li, the guy who could size people up with his nostrils? He's turned as timid as a quail."

"All right, up on your feet and talk!" Xiao Zhang impatiently hauled him up, saying, "We're the police; with us here, you're safe."

Xiao Zhang turned his head: "Professor Chen, what's your take on the scene?"

Professor Chen, white‑haired and venerable, spoke with an uncommon steadiness that carried a soothing power.

"Li Zhenhu's mental state is on the brink of collapse; we must intervene psychologically right away."

He issued the order:

"Take him to the brightest room in the villa, give him a cup of warm water to hold with both hands. Then, looking into his eyes, tell him in a steady tone: 'We are the police; this place is absolutely safe now.'"

"Repeat that until his gaze no longer wanders."

After saying that, he continued to remotely direct Qin Zhixia's side of the conversation, while Qin Zhixia was still sparring with Chu Che in the concert hall.

Though Xiao Zhang was baffled, he nevertheless carried out the instructions immediately.

After being led into a lounge where a crystal chandelier blazed like daylight, clutching a cup of warm water and hearing Xiao Zhang repeat "You're safe" seven or eight times like a chant, Li Zhenhu's violently trembling body finally began to calm.

Professor Chen's handling of the situation was outstanding.

With the scene temporarily stabilized, the Project Team members immediately launched a rapid interrogation of the dozens of staff inside the villa.

But as the statements were compiled, every officer's face grew grimmer.

At the command center, Zhou Weiguo asked:

"What's the situation on site?"

"Captain Zhou." Xiao Zhang held a stack of transcripts, his voice slightly hoarse, "The situation…… feels off."

"Everyone's statements match up!"

"Since the day before yesterday, the villa has been intermittently echoing with a heartbeat sound—at first only one or two people could hear it, but by this afternoon almost everyone could!"

"And this!" He pulled out a few of those transcripts and slammed them on the table.

"At least seven people, at different times and places, have actually seen a 'ghost with a hole in its chest'—their descriptions are nearly identical!"

This conclusion plunged the entire command center into silence.

Professor Chen's earlier hypothesis of pre‑hypnotizing specific targets was completely overturned at this moment.

How could the perpetrator possibly have implanted deep psychological suggestions in so many people beforehand?

That's utterly unrealistic!

Unless……

A thought that would make any materialist's scalp tingle rose irresistibly to the surface.

Meanwhile.

In a dark corner of the villa.

Zhou Xiaosheng, now a wisp of thin black smoke, was "watching" all of this.

The police arrival eased Li Zhenhu's fear considerably.

The heart that fear was about to crush regained a bit of vitality.

This infuriated him.

The second stage of the Murder Rule refused to trigger.

He watched the police bustling about the villa, trying to explain everything with science, and a spark of irritated anger ignited in his hollow eye sockets.

"You lot—are you his reliance?"

"Then I'll…… scare the guts out of you as well!"

"I want you to watch, with your own eyes, how I slowly drain the life from the very people you strive to protect!"

"I want this trial to unfold splendidly before everyone's gaze!"

"Wrench, any findings on your end? Any abnormal signals picked up?"

Xiao Zhang leaned over to the tech guru "Wrench" and whispered his question.

"Wrench," sporting a messy mop of hair, his fingers flying over the keyboard, replied without looking up: "Nothing. No electromagnetic waves, infrasound, ultrasound—nothing at all. It's as clean as a freshly minted hard drive. Unless the killer's using quantum communication, I can't explain it."

Hearing those increasingly arcane terms, Xiao Zhang's face turned pale.

He couldn't help tugging at "Wrench's" sleeve, lowering his voice to a breathy whisper: "I…… say, Wrench bro, we…… we aren't really running into something unclean, are we?"

"Look at this heartbeat sound, this phantom…… isn't this just the classic opening of a horror movie?"

"Wrench" finally stopped typing, turned his head, and gazed at him with the look one reserves for an idiot.

"I'm telling you, Officer Xiao, your guts aren't even as big as the dark circles from your all‑nighters. Just because you've watched a few ghost flicks, you actually believe in ghosts?"

"Little Zhang, how can you even dare to watch horror movies like that?" Wu Gong also laughed.

Xiao Zhang's face turned red, as if touched on a sore spot, "I'm just studying the business knowledge in advance, in case I really run into it, I'll run faster than everyone......"

As he spoke, he himself couldn't keep making it up.

Finally he simply stuck out his neck and confessed bluntly, "Ah! That's right, I'm just like that—timid yet I love watching horror movies, clumsy yet I love to play!"

Laughter suddenly broke out among the few people, easing the surrounding solemn atmosphere a bit.

But just then.

A young police officer in charge of guarding the peripheral parking lot suddenly took off his tactical earpiece and rubbed his ears in puzzlement.

He cocked his ear to listen.

The night wind brushed the treetops, making a rustling sound.

Apart from that, everything was silent.

But he kept feeling that beneath the wind sound, another kind of noise was mixed in.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Extremely regular, dull, as if coming from deep underground.

"Hey, Liu Zi." He nudged his companion with his elbow, "Did you hear any sound?"

His companion looked bewildered: "What sound? Apart from the wind, all that's left is your breathing."

The young police officer listened again carefully, and the sound was still there.

Clear, powerful.

Like a huge heart beating slowly, right by his ear, thump… thump…

His complexion slowly changed.