Suspect?Xiang Wan swept a glance at him.
That night when they came here to "rescue" Bai Muchuan, due to Jia An"s death, they questioned every single person there that night and conducted a search at every spot inside and outside the villa. However, nothing unusual was found…
"This Zhou Dequan is a real devious fellow! He actually thought of digging a bas.e.m.e.nt to hide corpses!"
Zhou Dequan was a human after all—how could he not have felt fear? He who had done too much evil deeds must not have slept well at night. Zhou Dequan was afraid that one day, when all of his crimes were being exposed to the world, he would come to a bad end. Thus, when he was building this villa, he had cunningly prepared a bas.e.m.e.nt for himself to hide. Of course, this was not strange…
The strange thing was—how did Bai Muchuan come to know about it.
Xiang Wan raised an eyebrow. "An informant told you about it?"
Bai Muchuan took a look at her and did not admit or deny it.
"Let"s go. Time is of essence."
"…" He refused to reveal anything.
It seemed like this was something that had to be kept a secret.
An idea crept into her mind, but since it was inconvenient for him, she would not press for an answer.
…
After Zhou Dequan"s arrest, no one lived in the villa anymore.
The big empty villa was so quiet that it gave off a spooky vibe.
As she was told about the news of corpses being buried below, a psychological hint had formed in her brain. Xiang Wan seemed to feel uncomfortable at every spot she looked at. She couldn"t help but hug herself and follow closely behind Bai Muchuan.
"Where is the bas.e.m.e.nt?"
Xiang Wan asked doubtfully while standing and looking around in this s.p.a.cious and luxurious living room.
If the bas.e.m.e.nt entrance was visible enough to be found, they would have found it when they searched the house that day. Of course, if they had known, they would not have waited till the informant supplied them the information.
True enough, Bai Muchuan turned to look at her and beckoned everyone to cut through the living room where they entered an altar hall at the backyard.
The altar hall was a smaller, independent rustic-looking house which felt like the old ancestral hall from the ancient times.
The altar hall was set in the middle of a garden where it was decorated by marble bal.u.s.trades as railings.
They had entered the altar hall that night as well. The center of the altar hall was filled with the memorial tablets of the ancestors of the Zhou Family. Records of merits and virtues of the ancestors of the Zhou Family or closely a.s.sociated with the Zhou Family were displayed at both sides of the altar hall. There were even ancient books, paintings as well as antiques, all said to be related to the ancestors of the Zhou Family.
Nevertheless, Xiang Wan always thought that all these were just gimmicks.
In her opinion, it was purely because the Zhou Family had gained fame and fortune and bought all those antiques to look good.
"The bas.e.m.e.nt"s here?" Xiang Wan asked Bai Muchuan, looking at him from the corner of her eye.
"Yes." Bai Muchuan nodded before turning around to call for Tang Yuanchu consequently.
"I"m here, Boss." Tang Yuanchu walked to him. "I did a few rounds of checks the last time but I didn"t find anything weird?"
"If it"s so easy, the corpses would have been found long ago."
Urgh, Boss is right.
Everyone looked at Bai Muchuan with skeptical expressions.
Bai Muchuan was walking slowly to the altar and looked at the ancestral tablets of the Zhou Family.
"Here."
Everyone was surprised.
Most Chinese were in awe of their dead ancestors.
Yet Zhou Dequan did not seem to feel guilty and was not afraid of being beaten up by his ancestors in the netherworld by making the entrance of the bas.e.m.e.nt under the ancestral tablets.
Tang Yuanchu took a closer look at some of the ancestral tablets. Then, he bent down slowly under the sandalwood table, took out his mobile phone, switched on the torchlight mode to examine the ground.
"Boss, it"s solid. There"s no entrance!"
Bai Muchuan did not reply but walked over to the ancestral tablet of Zhou Dequan"s grandfather which was located around the centre—
"Ah!" Everyone gasped.
"Boss, this is…"
Bai Muchuan remained silent and suddenly twisted the ancestral tablet with force.
After a 360 degree rotation, the ancestral tablet was back at its original angle.
Before everyone could feel puzzled by Bai Muchuan"s act, he had placed his hand on Zhou Dequan"s father"s tablet.
He did the same thing again—another 360 degrees turn.
One by one, when all of the ancestral tablets in Zhou Dequan"s ancestral hall made a 360 degree turn, a loud sound was heard inside the hall.
"D*mn! It"s my first time seeing this!"
The exact location of the loud noise came from under the altar table.
It was the place where Tang Yuanchu had used his phone torchlight to check earlier.
Under the altar table, an entrance had appeared.
The two pieces of marble originally embedded on the ground had split and opened from the center. The entrance was flat on the ground where a flight of descending stairs was revealed.
Tang Yuanchu was holding his mobile phone, switched on the torchlight function, and appeared to be a little excited. "It"s nice being rich, this house is as if designed after the ancient tombs…"
He had stated the truth.
n.o.body reb.u.t.ted him; everyone looked down at the entrance feeling amazed.
Xie Hui issued a set of shoe cover for everyone.
The team started to put on the shoe covers while chitchatting a little. After they fastened their shoes, they went down the stairs slowly into the bas.e.m.e.nt.
"Brothers, do you have a feeling that you"re exploring an ancient tomb?"
"Indeed! It does feel that way to me!"
"Hey, do you think Zhou Dequan might have a mental problem? He built an ancestral hall, yet he chose to store corpses beneath it. What a twisted psychopath!"
"… I"ve worked as a detective for three years. This is the first time I"ve come across such a mystifying scene."
"Poverty has limited my imagination."
"I"m feeling uneasy! Goodness, the stairs are so long that I"m feeling gooseb.u.mps all over."
"There"s nothing to fear! We"re the police. All spirits will stay away from our positive, upright aura…"
Xiang Wan treaded carefully along the steps as the detectives talked among themselves to alleviate the tension. The stairs were really long and refined. When they entered the bas.e.m.e.nt, there were even movement sensor lights installed along both sides of the wall, just that the lights were quite dim, making the environment somewhat vague and hazy. Due to these lights, all of their faces seemed to have an ineffable greenish glow.
Xiang Wan quivered at the sight and tried to move a little closer to Bai Muchuan.
He took a glance at her, said nothing but slowed down his pace.
When everyone arrived at the bas.e.m.e.nt, even although they were mentally prepared, they were still stunned beyond words when they saw what was inside there.
Wide area, exquisite shape, stunning—but not complete.
The area of the bas.e.m.e.nt was even bigger than his villa!
Just how much money did Zhou Dequan get from both legal and illegal sources for him to build such a splendid "underground palace"?!
Yes, the bas.e.m.e.nt was not just one room, but a myriad of beautifully designed rooms.
The huge bas.e.m.e.nt was divided into two parts. The left was as grand and luxurious as the villa on the ground with a variety of decoration styles. The right, however, had a totally different vibe. It was an empty, desolate area looking not much different from an ancient tomb—
Xiang Wan felt a gust of wind; unsure where it had come from, and it caused even her bones to feel cold.
Xiang Wan s.h.i.+vered and asked Bai Muchuan nervously. "Don"t you feel this is weird?"
"Hm?" Bai Muchuan motioned for her to continue.
"I feel that for someone who could build such a huge bas.e.m.e.nt, Zhou Dequan did not seem to be someone who would seek death just because he wanted to escape punishment from his crimes. Even if he wanted to die, he couldn"t have wanted to carry this huge secret with him to his grave?"
"What do you mean?"
"He"s a fastidious person, everything must be luxurious enough. He"s a person with a strong desire to express himself. He craved attention, recognition and adoration from others. He also liked to show off what he had. A big luxurious villa built amongst the piece of land waiting for redevelopment was not only a symbol of money or power. The ancestral tablets in the altar and the obviously made-up family history where he"s related to the great men of the ancient times—he had an inferiority complex."
"Inferiority complex?"
"One would care for what one needs. One would show off what one lacks."
Everyone looked at her.
"He had a rough childhood." Xiang Wan spoke in a somber tone, "Poverty might have left a deep psychological impact on him. When he grew up and fell in love, he got discriminated against and insulted by his wife"s family members. These pains were buried deep in his bones but did not get digested by his success. Instead, because the past could not be changed, bit by bit, this pain eroded his soul."
As Xiang Wan spoke, she took another glance at this strange bas.e.m.e.nt again.
"So, my guess is, this is not just a place where Zhou Dequan hid the corpses in order to cover up his evil deeds. It is also a "museum" that showcased Zhou Dequan"s crimes, as well as his wounds, his pain and inferiority complex…"
"…"
After a momentary silence, Tang Yuanchu gave a gasp.
"Teacher Xiang, I feel gooseb.u.mps all over from what you"ve said. I"m really curious about what is hidden in here… The wounds, pain… inferiority complex that you spoke of, how do you show all this?"
Xiang Wan: "…"
She had put it in quite an artistic, literary style—obviously, for Tang Yuanchu who belonged to the "engineering" type of guy, he was unable to grasp what she was talking about.
Moreover, something that could only be felt was hard to explain.
"We"ll know it when we see it." She smiled.
"Heheh, sure. I can"t wait already." Tang Yuanchu looked toward Bai Muchuan. "Captain Bai, do give us orders…" As he said so, he suddenly frowned. "But this place is really quite big, there"s not many of us here. If we were to conduct a thorough check, we might spend quite a lot of time, do you think we should request for more manpower?"
Bai Muchuan"s expression was cold.
"No need. Qi Canghai, you lead a team to investigate the left."
"The rest, follow me to check the right."
"Yes, Sir!" After he gave his instructions, everyone could not help but turn to look at the right side of the huge bas.e.m.e.nt.
This was because the right side was—too spooky and had an unpleasant vibe.
Qi Canghai asked, "Captain Bai, is that okay?"
Bai Muchuan: "No problem."
Qi Canghai nodded. "Okay then, call us if there"s anything."
"Hm." Bai Muchuan clapped for a few times to get their attention. "Alright everyone, let"s get cracking!"