Chapter 24: Got Him!
Chen Ge checked the sending dates of all the text messages—every single one was sent after midnight, which perfectly matched Wang Qi’s account. But that was also what chilled Chen Ge to the bone.
How could a corpse sealed inside a wall send texts every night?
A supernatural phenomenon? If it were truly a vengeful spirit causing trouble, how could the people who dug up the body still be alive and well?
“Someone must be messing with me.” Chen Ge had pieced together all the clues, and he knew it clearly in his heart: “The person using the deceased’s phone to send Wang Qi texts every day is the murderer of his fiancée, and also the real culprit behind the five-year-old massacre.”
“I think I already know who the killer is.” Chen Ge stood in the cabin, phone in hand. “Wang Qi is treated like a madman by the tenants in the apartment building, and the landlord chases him away every time he shows up. He’s the only person I’ve seen tonight who doesn’t live in the building but always hangs around nearby, so his hideout must be close to the apartment.”
“But the key issue is, when I argued with the landlord about the rent, he told me there was no place to stay for miles around. That means Wang Qi couldn’t be staying in another apartment or hotel. Thinking it over, he’s likely hiding in this cabin most of the time.”
“If he’s the owner of this cabin, then everything makes sense. This pitiful man, holding a missing person notice and searching for his lost wife every day, is actually the one who killed his own fiancée!”
Chen Ge could hardly believe he’d chatted with a murderer and even tried to open up to him.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. Only now did he feel a belated fear: “This lunatic must have been triggered by something. Collecting the deceased’s clothes, using her phone to text himself—maybe he has a second personality hidden inside, one that takes over his body when he sleeps.”
The more he thought about it, the creepier it got. Chen Ge swiped the phone, trying to find more clues. “The pink phone should have his fingerprints on it. This is evidence—I need to keep it safe.”
He stared at the screen. Whether it was due to nerves or something else, he thought he saw a faint reflection of a girl’s figure on the display. She looked only seventeen or eighteen, wearing a bloodstained school uniform.
Rubbing his eyes, he was about to take a closer look when a sudden chill brushed against the back of his neck, as if something had touched him. The jolt made Chen Ge whip his head around!
The air in the cabin felt frozen. Looking behind him, Chen Ge’s heart nearly leaped out of his chest.
The door had silently opened at some point. Two meters away, Wang Qi, eyes bloodshot, slowly raised an axe in his hand!
Time seemed to stop. The two stood on opposite sides of the room, neither moving.
“So close…” Wang Qi’s voice was completely different now—a suppressed madness, like an uncontrollable beast.
Chen Ge said nothing. He gripped his tool hammer tightly, feeling a flicker of gratitude toward the ghostly figure on the screen. If the spirit hadn’t warned him, Wang Qi might have already struck him down.
“What a shame.” Wang Qi took a step forward, and Chen Ge immediately raised the hammer to guard himself. “Don’t get worked up. You saw everything on the phone?”
Chen Ge didn’t know what this madman was planning, staying on high alert.
“It’s no big deal, really.” Wang Qi’s fatigue vanished, replaced by an eerie excitement, a complete shift from earlier. “From the first time we talked in the apartment building, I told you my wife was definitely inside. See? I wasn’t lying, was I?”
He used the axe to poke at his fiancée’s clothes. “After all, I was the one who sealed her into the wall.”
As he spoke, Wang Qi’s tone suddenly changed. His emotions swung wildly, as if recalling something painful. He swung the axe, hacking viciously at the clothes. “I wasn’t wrong—she was! She wanted to leave, and I just tried my best to keep her.”
Wang Qi blocked the doorway, axe in hand, staring at the shredded clothes on the floor. “I didn’t want to do this, you know? I really didn’t…”
No matter what Wang Qi said, it couldn’t change the fact that he was a murderer, so Chen Ge didn’t take his words to heart.
Gripping the tool hammer, Chen Ge quietly slipped the deceased’s phone into his pocket, his eyes fixed on the cabin door. He was looking for a chance to escape.
“I’m a pretty annoying guy—everyone around me says so. No, even if they don’t say it, I can feel it.” Wang Qi wasn’t just a psychopath; he had serious mental issues. Every time he spoke, it sounded like he was talking to himself, trapped in a vicious cycle he couldn’t break out of.
As Wang Qi rambled, Chen Ge slowly adjusted his position, mentally simulating three or four escape plans—distracting him, luring him closer, and so on. But the cabin was too small, making these plans nearly impossible.
Wang Qi’s voice grew sharper, his state increasingly unstable.
The longer Chen Ge stayed, the more dangerous it felt. He decided not to wait any longer or overthink any schemes. Every muscle in his body tensed, and just as Wang Qi’s emotions teetered on the edge, swinging the axe unconsciously, Chen Ge lunged forward like a cannonball, slamming into him!
Even a cornered rabbit will bite. This was probably the boldest decision Chen Ge had made in his twenty-something years—facing a serial killer, he was crazier than the murderer himself!
The few meters closed in an instant. In the darkness, Wang Qi reacted a beat too slow. Caught off guard, Chen Ge had already aimed for his head minutes ago.
“Bang!”
The tool hammer struck hard. Chen Ge felt warmth on his wrist, then kicked Wang Qi in the stomach and bolted out the door!
Once outside, Chen Ge sprinted toward the dense forest. This time, he knew the direction—the trees thinned out, and the view opened up. But danger still lurked. He could sense someone following him in the woods; the flickering flashlight and the sounds of branches snapping and breaking were clear proof.
He didn’t dare stop, running for his life until he spotted a concrete road near the village. Only then did the sounds behind him slowly fade.
“They should be gone.” Following the road, Chen Ge ran a few hundred more meters. Suddenly, sirens wailed in the distance. Looking ahead, police lights flashed at the end of the road as several patrol cars roared toward him.
“I’m saved!” He stood in the middle of the road, like reuniting with long-lost family. “I’m the one who called the police! I’ve caught the murderer from the five-year-old massacre!”