Chapter 67: A Nightmare Unfolds

What does it feel like to have period pain?

As a guy, Xiao Yu has no clue.

Watching Mu Qingwu sleeping and frowning even in slumber, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy.

But it was time to get to work…

Cradling his slumbering sister, Xiao Yu reached for the tablet on the bedside table.

He inserted the USB drive into the tablet and started reading.

Inside, there was a case file and five videos.

An investigation report and surveillance footage?

Not bothering with the file first, Xiao Yu clicked on the video labeled ‘1’.

The screen came to life.

The surveillance footage was shot at night.

The image wasn’t very clear.

It was hard to tell exactly what was happening.

Soon, a white figure appeared on the screen.

Faintly, it looked like a person walking, gradually coming into view of the camera.

In the pitch-black night, clad in pristine white, the person’s strange gait sent a chill down the spine.

Xiao Yu frowned as the figure in white stopped moving within the camera’s frame.

Even when fast-forwarded, the figure remained motionless.

Had the surveillance camera malfunctioned?

No—instead, the figure stood as still as a statue.

It was a woman.

Her hair covered her face, hiding her features.

Xiao Yu noted the time stamp on the video.

The woman had stood there for a full twenty minutes.

Suddenly, she moved.

A small craft knife appeared in her hand.

It hadn’t materialized out of nowhere—she had been holding it all along.

In the darkness, when the blade wasn’t exposed, it was impossible to notice it.

Xiao Yu’s heart pounded furiously.

Something felt off.

Sure enough.

She raised the hand gripping the craft knife and moved it toward… her own face!

Once, twice, thrice…

Even though the video was dark,

though the footage was terribly blurry,

the horrified Xiao Yu could clearly see blood spraying onto her hair as it streamed down in copious amounts.

She made no cry of pain, no scream—just like a mindless husk.

Repeatedly, she slashed at her face with the craft knife…

Xiao Yu’s scalp went numb.

Such a bizarre scene evoked the feel of a horror film.

Could the respected head of National Security’s unit, Wang Dong, really be joking with him?

Frozen with dread, every hair on Xiao Yu’s body seemed to stand on end.

She…

Could she not feel pain?

Was she numb to it all?

How could she do this?

Then, an even more unsettling scene unfolded!

After about five minutes of relentlessly carving hundreds of slashes into her face, she finally stopped.

Extending both hands, she slowly brushed aside her hair—now soaked in blood—to reveal

a face mangled into a gruesome mask!

Seeing that face,

Damn… Xiao Yu nearly lost his composure and cursed under his breath.

A sudden chill ran down his spine; sweat broke out on his back as adrenaline surged through him…

It was like a protagonist in a horror story, receiving unsettling hospitality in a remote wilderness only to awaken the next day in a desolate graveyard of terror!

There was no other word to describe that face.

Its features seemed like a chaotic mass of meat, as if ground up by a meat grinder.

One of her eyes had long been slashed open.

The other had been gouged out entirely.

At the sight of that face, Xiao Yu felt a deep, indescribable revulsion.

He pressed pause and set the tablet down.

Bending down, he pressed a gentle kiss to the sleeping Mu Qingwu.

Then he got off the bed, left the bedroom, and headed to the study…

Sitting in a chair, Xiao Yu realized there would be no sleep for him tonight.

He picked up the tablet again, clicked play, and continued watching.

The woman still stood there like a lifeless shell.

As if devoid of pain, sensation, or even a soul.

Under the cover of darkness,

that mangled face was disturbingly ferocious.

And shockingly… she was smiling?

A chill ran through Xiao Yu as he stared fixedly at her.

She was really smiling!

Another five minutes passed.

The woman lifted her hand again, clenching the craft knife.

The blade slowly grazed down her neck.

Blood sprayed as she finally lost her balance, staggering and collapsing to the ground…

The video ended!

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Xiao Yu clicked on the second video.

Again, it was night.

The footage was equally blurry.

This time, the subject was a man, also dressed in white.

The man’s expression was blank, his eyes hollow as if he had no soul.

In one hand he held a dagger, in the other a bone-chopping knife.

First, just like the woman in the previous video, he used the dagger to slice up his own face.

Then, something even more horrifying unfolded.

Sitting on the ground, the man swung the bone-chopping knife toward his hand resting beside him.

No, not his palm—his fingers.

One, two, three…

The man methodically severed each of his five fingers.

Under Xiao Yu’s horrified gaze,

the man’s blood-soaked face twisted into an eerie smile.

Using his other hand, he picked up each severed finger one by one,

and put them in his mouth…

Xiao Yu’s scalp felt like it was on fire.

He felt electric currents coursing through his body,

and began trembling uncontrollably.

Goosebumps erupted on his neck and arms.

For the first time, the man who led two lives felt a pang of fear.

It brought back memories of chilling horror films from his childhood.

He could no longer remain calm as a flicker of unease danced in his eyes.

What the hell kind of case was this?!