Chapter 220: Chapter 219: The Victims’ Common Point

Chu He said with confidence.

"That makes sense." Bi Hongda and Qi Chaoyu nodded in solemn agreement.

If anyone else had said such a thing, they would have been laughed out of the room.

But coming from Chu He, it sounded perfectly normal.

"Go investigate the victims’ backgrounds. See if they have anything in common,

like if they’ve hurt people, committed any crimes, or even just bullied others."

As Chu He was walking, he suddenly seemed to think of something.

"Understood. I’ll start the investigation right away."

Bi Hongda immediately turned to his aide,

and relayed the order, demanding a thorough report in the shortest possible time.

After leaving the airport, the group got into their cars. The original plan was to take Chu He for a meal and some rest,

but Chu He insisted on going directly to where the victims were being kept.

Soon, they arrived at the local Defense Team headquarters in Huamen City.

Inside a large morgue, rows upon rows of assorted Papermen were on display.

The morgue was located in the building’s basement, the B1 level, a place perpetually shrouded in pale light.

This light held none of the warmth of day; instead, it carried a bone-chilling cold and desolation,

as if it could pierce straight through to the deepest fears of the human heart.

The former solemnity and chill of the space had been replaced by a strange atmosphere.

The refrigerated lockers and slabs that once held the deceased, granting them a final peace, had now vanished without a trace.

In their place were carefully arranged sections where rows of Papermen stood silently.

These were no ordinary Papermen.

They were not merely simple constructions of paper and ink, but rather the tangible manifestations of some supernatural force.

Each Paperman exuded the faint scent of paper, yet in the interplay of light and shadow,

they revealed an indescribable liveliness and eeriness.

It was as if they had once been truly living beings, now imprisoned in these fragile forms by some unspeakable power.

Their eyes were vacant yet profound, seemingly capable of perceiving the darkest corners of the human soul.

They also seemed to be silently telling unfinished stories, sending a chill down one’s spine.

When Chu He, Bi Hongda, Qi Chaoyu, and the members of the Defense Team stepped into this forgotten domain,

the air seemed to freeze in an instant.

It was as if all the Papermen were brought to life at the same moment. Their once-motionless eyes now seemed to possess souls, turning in unison to face the newcomers.

It was a gaze that transcended physical boundaries, sending a shiver down their spines and making them feel as if they were being choked by countless invisible hands.

Even more horrifying, their pale faces were smeared with garish, blood-red blush, like dried bloodstains—both jarring and grotesque.

Under the pallid light, this splash of color added a touch of the demonic and ominous.

If you looked closely, you would notice that the Papermen’s gazes weren’t fixed directly on the group.

Instead, depending on their positions, they stared into different points in the empty space.

But it was this very indirect stare that created a terrifying sensation of being completely surrounded with no escape,

making one suspect that every minute movement was being witnessed by these Papermen.

The low temperature in the morgue seemed to invisibly intensify this feeling of oppression and unease. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Everyone’s breathing grew heavy and ragged, and the air was thick with an indescribable tension and fear.

If not for Chu He’s insistence, they might never have stepped into this forbidden place.

But now, they had no choice but to steel themselves

and venture step by step into this world of Papermen, filled with the unknown and the terrifying.

"Mr. Chu, the investigation report is here."

Bi Hongda’s voice suddenly shattered the morgue’s silence. He hurried over, holding a laptop.

An aide had just handed it to him. It contained the latest intelligence gathered according to Chu He’s request.

Bi Hongda said with a solemn expression, "Mr. Chu, your suspicions were correct. All of these people had problematic pasts, to varying degrees."

"This Paperman is Zhang Jiancheng, a Martial Arts Teacher at an academy.

Because a student refused to bribe him as requested, he arranged for other students at the school to ostracize them.

This student came from a poor family and, despite never having access to good Martial Arts training resources,

their grades at the academy were excellent.

Even so, they were treated with extreme unfairness,

which eventually drove them to hang themself in the mountain forests, ending their young life.

Zhang Jiancheng, however, was completely unaffected by the incident and continued to work as a teacher at that Martial Arts Academy.

The reason was that the dean of this Martial Arts Academy was Zhang Jiancheng’s father-in-law.

Zhang Jiancheng’s father-in-law pulled some strings and arranged for reporters to manipulate public opinion.

In the end, the story became that the student was insecure and overly sensitive at the academy due to their poor family background.

The narrative claimed that Zhang Jiancheng had tried to counsel the student multiple times and even paid out of his own pocket to support them.

But, the story went, the student unexpectedly developed a sense of vanity and began to compare themself with others.

They pretended to be from a rich family at school, only to be mercilessly exposed by other students, leading to them being ostracized and despised.

This led many people who didn’t know the truth to attack the student,

and some even began to point fingers and gossip about the student’s family in their daily lives.

Eventually, the student’s entire family also chose to end their lives."

As Bi Hongda recounted this story, his face was filled with rage.

This Paperman was dressed in an elegant suit, with a fountain pen tucked into the breast pocket.

Its hair was combed back into a meticulous slick-back style. Even as a Paperman,

you could still see the slick, black sheen of its hair.

But its face was frozen in the form of a Paperman, though it looked to be less than forty years old.

Judging by its appearance alone, you would never guess it was such a sanctimonious monster.

"This woman is named Xu Lanping. She’s a villager from a village in Huamen City who had eight sons and five daughters.

In the village, having many sons meant you could do as you pleased, and her family was infamous as local tyrants.

Xu Lanping coveted a piece of land belonging to someone else—an old man in his seventies,

whose life had been extremely unfortunate.

His wife had passed away from illness long ago, one son had drowned while swimming in the river, and his daughter, who went to the city to work, died in a car accident.

In the end, only the poor old man was left, relying on that small plot of land to survive.

Xu Lanping offered to buy the land from the old man for ten thousand yuan.

The old man staunchly refused.

So, Xu Lanping had her sons and daughters take turns tormenting him.

For example, whenever the old man planted new crops, they would be completely uprooted the next day.

The dog he kept at home was poisoned with rat poison.

His windows were smashed while he slept at night.

Later, seeing that the old man still wouldn’t sell the land despite his circumstances,

Xu Lanping actually started a rumor, claiming the old man was a lecherous bachelor who had designs on her daughter and wanted to rape her.

The old man had lived an honest life and couldn’t bear the humiliation. He drowned himself in the village reservoir.

And that piece of land was then claimed by Xu Lanping as her own."

Bi Hongda took another step forward, stopping in front of the Paperman of a middle-aged woman.

The woman had an exceptionally cruel-looking face, with a mouth that jutted out like a rooster’s beak.

Even as a Paperman, its eyes were still glaring forward.

For the Defense Team, with its high-level clearance, investigating such information was not difficult.

"This is outrageous! Doesn’t anyone do anything about this?" Qi Chaoyu seethed with anger.

"Our Defense Team is only responsible for handling incidents involving Evil Spirits. We have no jurisdiction over matters that don’t involve them,"

Bi Hongda said helplessly.

He then took another step forward, stood before another Paperman, and said, "This person is named..."

Chu He held up a hand. "You don’t need to continue. If I’m not mistaken, every Paperman in this morgue got what they deserved."

"That’s correct." Bi Hongda handed the laptop back to his aide.

"Who was the first victim?" Chu He asked.

"It was the Martial Arts Academy teacher, Zhang Jiancheng," Bi Hongda replied.

"In that case, the killer is likely acting with a sense of vigilante justice. Since no one else would deal with it, they decided to take matters into their own hands.

And people like that are often ordinary individuals with no power or influence, which means their sources of information are extremely limited,"

Chu He said.

"Mr. Chu, you mean there’s likely an overlap between the first victim, Zhang Jiancheng’s, social circle and the killer’s."

Bi Hongda’s eyes lit up.