Chapter 84: What You Were Never Supposed to Discover

After several days of being dazed and confused.

Li Xiuli decided she could no longer sit and wait for death.

She knew she had to obtain evidence.

The kind of ironclad evidence that is as solid as a mountain.

Otherwise, living under such mental pressure would truly cause her to completely collapse.

That day, her husband and Ning Tian happened to go out.

The whole house fell silent in an instant, so quiet it made one's heart uneasy.

The monster "Ning Chao" was sitting alone on the living‑room sofa watching TV, his profile looking just like an ordinary sunny high‑school student—quiet and harmless.

Li Xiuli hid in her bedroom, her heart pounding wildly, almost leaping out of her throat.

She turned on her phone's video function and quietly aimed the lens through the door crack at the living room.

Her hand shook messily, and the picture kept shaking.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm.

Second by second, Li Xiuxiu's patience and reason were being slowly boiled away.

Just when she was about to give up.

Pat—.

The TV remote slipped off the sofa armrest and fell into the gap between the sofa and the wall.

It came—could be a chance!

Li Xiuli's pupils contracted sharply, staring fixedly at the screen!

On the sofa, Ning Chao remained seated, his body unmoving.

His neck, however, began to twist backward at an extremely Weird angle.

Clack...... clack......

It was the sour‑tooth‑making sound of bones and tendons being forced to twist!

Ninety degrees.

One hundred twenty degrees.

One hundred eighty degrees!

The back of his head was squarely facing the TV, while his face pointed directly at the narrow gap behind the sofa!

He opened his mouth, precisely biting the remote, then his neck emitted another 'kakda' sound, turning back slowly, step by step.

Throughout the whole process, his body did not move a hair.

Li Xiuli covered her mouth, her stomach churning wildly, almost vomiting.

She saw it! She recorded it!

She finally had evidence!

She trembled, almost with a vengeful thrill, and opened the video she had just recorded.

However.

Zzz—zzzz—

On the phone screen, when the footage reached the crucial moment,

the monster whose neck twisted 180 degrees was nowhere to be seen.

There was nothing.

Only a glaring snowflake and a series of irritating electric static noises.

How could…

How could it be like this?!

Li Xiuli, refusing to believe it, replayed it repeatedly, and each time the result was the same.

That footage, which should have proved she wasn't insane, turned into a meaningless jumble of electronic signals.

A bone‑chilling wave of despair instantly engulfed her.

"Mom, what are you doing in the room?"

A gentle voice sounded at the doorway without warning.

Li Xiuli trembled all over, and her phone nearly slipped from her hand and flew away.

Ning Chao, at some point, was already standing at her bedroom door, a naive harmless smile on his face, head tilted, looking at her curiously.

"You…how can you walk without making a sound!" Li Xiuli shouted, still shaken.

Ning Chao smiled and walked in, gave no reply, his gaze lingering on her phone for a second.

"Mom, your complexion looks terrible—are you feeling unwell?"

He reached out, trying to touch Li Xiuli's forehead.

It was that very moment!

Li Xiuli, terrified, saw that right at the center of his smooth forehead, something seemed to be writhing rapidly beneath the skin!

A ultra‑thin vertical blood line, faint and wavering, as if in the next second it would split open and reveal a non‑human eye!

That terrifying vision flashed and vanished.

When looked at again, Ning Chao's forehead remained smooth and even, his smile still warm and gentle.

"Mom?"

His finger, ice‑cold with no trace of living blood, lightly brushed Li Xiuli's cheek.

Li Xiuli jerked back as if stung by a scorpion.

A warning bell rang loudly in her mind.

Could it be...... he actually knows everything, what is she doing?

The dinner atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme.

Li Xiuli's face turned deathly pale, she remained silent.

Her husband and Ning Tian also sensed something was off; nobody dared to speak first.

Finally, Li Xiuli could no longer bear it.

She slapped the phone onto the table with a 'pa' and began to scream hysterically:

"He's a monster! He's not human at all!"

She opened the video that was all static at the crucial moment, and held it up to her husband and Ning Tian.

"His head spins around! His face twists toward the sofa, biting the remote, his body doesn't move at all! He's definitely not your son and brother!"

"He even eats live mice! I saw it with my own eyes! You've all been deceived by him!"

"Look at this video! Although he interfered with the picture at the crucial moment, it's clearly visible that after he grabbed the remote, his waist showed no sign of turning!"

All the fear, resentment, and anger she had bottled up for days exploded at this moment!

Like a madwoman, she pointed at a bewildered and hurt 'Ning Chao', her voice hoarse from shouting.

Her husband looked at the screen, then at his wife, who seemed insane; the last shred of patience on his face vanished completely.

All that remained was numbness and exhaustion.

He took out his phone and, in front of everyone, placed a call.

His voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Hello, is this Peace and Health Mental Hospital?"

"Yes. My wife, she... her condition isn't good."

"I'd like to book a bed—yes, the sooner the better, preferably tomorrow; we'll send her over right away."

Each word was like a poisoned dagger, viciously stabbing into Li Xiuli's heart.

Their young son Ning Tian watched this scene and finally burst out crying with a 'wah'.

He wasn't upset out of pity for his mother; he was frightened by his mother's madness and his father's cold decision.

Everything is over.

This realization caused Li Xiuli to collapse completely.

She went berserk, overturning the bowls and plates before her, spilling soup and vegetable leaves everywhere.

"I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy! You're the ones who are blind!"

"Let go of me! You lot, your hearts are blinded by lard, you idiots!"

She cried and raged like a shrew, but her husband, who had regained his composure, and Ning Tian, who had grown a head taller than her, firmly held her from left and right.

Together they dragged her into the bedroom, and then, with a 'bang', they locked the door from the outside.

The world fell silent.

Outside the door came the damned, gentle comforting voice of 'Ning Chao'.

"Dad, Tianti, don't worry......"

"Mom is surely just sick; once she rests properly and gets treatment, she'll definitely get better."

Li Xiuli leaned against the cold door panel, her body slowly sliding down.

She stopped crying, she stopped fussing.

On her face, only a deathly calm remained.

She knew she could no longer rely on her husband and son.

If this continues, tomorrow she will be treated as a genuine mental patient and locked away in that place called 'Peace and Health'—a hell.

By then, everything will be over.

She suddenly remembered something.

The spare key!

When they renovated, fearing she might lose the key, she had a spare made and hidden in the old jewelry box at the deepest part of the wardrobe!

She grasped at the last straw, frantically rummaging in the darkness.

Finally, her fingertips touched a piece of cold metal.

She was saved.

Late at night.

Li Xiuli turned the lock and slipped out silently.

The living room was pitch black.

Her husband and Ning Tian should already be asleep.

She hesitated not at all, heading straight for the kitchen, where she drew a fruit knife from the knife rack.

The blade wasn't long, but in the darkness it still flashed with a sinister cold light.

She gripped the handle tightly, her palms slick with cold sweat.

A murderous resolve coalesced in her eyes.

Step by step, she walked toward the monster's room.

She would end this nightmare with her own hands!

The door was ajar.

Li Xiuli pushed the door open.

The monster was sitting upright on the bed, alone.

He wore pajamas, the light off, and in the moonlight he resembled a silent statue.

He seemed to have been waiting for her.

Seeing Li Xiuli holding a knife, his face showed no surprise at all, still the same innocent and bewildered expression.

"Mom, why did you come out?"

His voice was still so gentle, so considerate.

Li Xiuli stepped closer, pointing the cold‑glinting knife tip at him.

The anger and fear that had been suppressed for days, at this moment, all turned into boiling murderous intent!

Her voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing.

"Stop acting, monster!"

"What exactly are you?!"

"Why does it have to get involved with our family!"

Facing the cold‑glinting blade, Ning Chao's expression finally vanished.

That fabricated innocence, bewilderment, and warmth receded like a tide, leaving only a Weird, emotionless blank.

He slowly stood up from the bed.

The next second, his body began to flicker and warp violently, like a TV screen with a bad signal.

His neck unnaturally elongated, his features melted and reassembled, turning in a blurry mosaic into an indescribable horrific silhouette.

An overlapping, inhuman voice, mixed with Weird static, sounded from his throat, echoing in the deathly silent room.

"So you discovered it."

The monster tilted its head, its movements stiff as a marionette.

"You weren't supposed to discover it."