Chapter 317: A Pig Crashed Into a Tree

Three years ago.

On a dark and windy night, the earth had long fallen into slumber. Apart from the occasional breeze and the sporadic barking of dogs, the world was enveloped in silence.

The cold wind swept through the empty streets, making them eerily quiet.

A woman walked alone along a gloomy path, surrounded by nothing but silence. It was a heavy, suffocating silence.

The sky above glowed faintly, but the ground below was shrouded in darkness.

It felt as though the chill of the earth had risen to block even the moonlight.

Walking through the pitch-black night, the woman’s face was filled with fear. She kept glancing around nervously, looking ahead, behind, to the sides—before quickening her pace. Soon, she was nearly running.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

The sound of red high heels echoed crisply on the concrete pavement.

Just as the woman couldn’t hold back and began to hurry even faster, suddenly, a shadow appeared before her.

A sinister voice emerged from the shadow.

“Little tramp, where are you running off to?”

The woman seemed utterly terrified, as though her soul had left her body. She was about to scream but forcibly clamped a hand over her own mouth.

She had seen the blade of a machete.

.

The long machete glinted sharply under the moonlight, cold and horrifying.

“If you dare to scream, I’ll chop you to pieces!”

The shadow took a step forward, emerging from the darkness.

Now the woman could see him clearly.

A tall, skinny man with a hunched back, somewhere in middle age, his face twisted into a sinister grin as he stared at her.

“If you don’t want me to kill you, be a good girl and follow me. Understand?”

The long machete moved closer, brushing lightly against the woman’s cheek. It even grazed her face softly.

The woman trembled all over, nodding frantically. She didn’t dare to make even the slightest sound.

The middle-aged man wrapped his arm around the woman’s waist and led her into the darkness.

***

Fifteen minutes later, inside a residential building.

“Take off your clothes.”

The middle-aged man held the machete, his voice chillingly sinister. His expression grew even more twisted and deranged, accompanied by a grotesque, cackling laugh.

The woman, trembling like a frightened quail, obeyed without hesitation.

First, she removed her red high heels, then quickly began taking off her clothes.

The man couldn’t hold back any longer and lunged at her.

Suddenly—thwack!

A thin, sharp blade pierced into the man’s neck.

“Urgh!”

The man’s head tilted in pain, his mouth opening as if to scream.

But, the blade was swiftly pulled out and driven straight into his open mouth, piercing through his throat.

The scream he was about to unleash was silenced, swallowed by the blade that now plunged into his stomach.

The terror, madness, and twisted malice on his face vanished, replaced by utter horror.

He wasn’t dead—not yet. He tried to save himself, tried to struggle.

Thwack!

The thin blade drove into his abdomen.

That strike seemed to drain all the strength from his body. The middle-aged man collapsed limply to the floor, his terrified eyes fixed on the woman holding the thin, bloodied blade.

At that moment, there was no sign of the timid, frightened woman he had seen before.

Her expression was icy and indifferent. Her eyes were numb and emotionless. A chilling aura emanated from her entire being.

Then, the woman crouched down.

The blade pierced through one of the man’s eyes.

“Ughhh… ohhh…”

The man let out strange, pitiful moans, his voice distorted by his injured throat.

She pierced the other eye as well.

The middle-aged man no longer had the strength to struggle. Amid the searing, soul-crushing pain, his consciousness began to fade. And at that moment, he heard the woman speak for the first time.

Her voice was ice-cold, piercing to the bone, yet it carried a devilish allure, as though it came from a demon in hell.

“I’ve been looking for you for so long.”

Thwack!

The thin blade plunged into the man’s chest, sliding between two ribs and sinking deeply, piercing his heart.

He convulsed violently for a few seconds, and then he went still.

Ten minutes later, the woman stood up, picked up the machete that belonged to the middle-aged man, and stared at it for a full minute.

Then, with a sudden swing of her arm, she brought the blade down on the corpse’s neck.

***

The following night, a woman in red high heels walked out of a residential complex, dragging a suitcase behind her.

She disappeared into the darkness.

At dawn, she stood on a deserted bridge, in a spot beyond the reach of the bridge’s surveillance cameras.

She opened the suitcase.

Inside was a fresh set of bones—human bones.

The skeleton had been dismembered into countless pieces, and tied to each piece was a heavy iron block.

The woman tossed the bones into the ocean below the bridge, piece by piece.

When the last piece was gone, she stood calmly on the bridge, staring out at the sea.

The first light of the morning sun crept over the horizon, illuminating her pale face, which bore an eerie smile.

***

“Is this a horror story?” Xiao Yu slowly lifted his head, his expression odd as his gaze shifted from the case file to Zhao Changshan’s face. “And this story was told by a prisoner?”

‘God, how terrifying. Even my snack just dropped from my hands.’

“…”

Zhao Changshan looked pained, unsure how to explain this to his junior. But what was with that over-the-top, brain-filled expression on Xiao Yu’s face?

“So, Just because of this horror story,” Xiao Yu said, struggling to suppress a laugh, “Our entire brigade has been investigating for nine days?”

Zhao Changshan, “…”

His face reddened slightly. He knew exactly what Xiao Yu meant. The subtext was clear: The pig ran into the tree, or did you all run into the pig? Rear-ended it, perhaps?

Seeing the captain’s embarrassed expression, Xiao Yu decided to let up.

You might embarrass a man but never embarrass his pride.

“It doesn’t add up,” Xiao Yu said, shaking his head with a serious expression. “First of all, where was the woman hiding that thin blade in the story?

“Second, the strength doesn’t match. A normal man, when stabbed, wouldn’t weaken so quickly. His resistance would’ve been significant. How could he just sit still and let her stab him a second time?

“Third, piercing through the chest with a blade as described it’s almost impossible. The pressure between the ribs would trap even a sharp weapon without professional chest-opening tools. It doesn’t make sense, the mechanics are far too difficult.”

The entire story was riddled with too many inconsistencies, gaps, and impossibilities. It was glaringly obvious—this tale couldn’t be more fake.

Xiao Yu was genuinely baffled.

How did an entire team of seasoned detectives fall for this?

And not just fall for it, but spend nine whole days investigating a story?