Chapter 209: Found
He quickly took the porcelain bottle she handed over, and drew a dark shiny dagger from behind with a backhand.
“Ning Ning, you stay here, don’t come out!”
“Brother Zhang, smash the porcelain bottle at them, and make sure to hold your breath yourself!”
In the blink of an eye, the three big black dogs that pounced over nimbly flipped over the dry wood branches lying on the ground one by one.
Seeing the person charging at high speed, they didn’t panic but leaped high into the air at the same time, opening their big mouths to reveal sharp fangs.
He deftly dodged, raising the short dagger in his hand to block. Zhang Ze used the abnormally fierce force of its pounce to divert away from the direction where Su Ning was.
After successfully pulling the aggro of all three dogs, he gripped the two small porcelain bottles in his palm tightly, took a deep breath, held his breath, and smashed them hard on the ground.
The medicine in the porcelain bottles volatilized quickly. Just as the green oily liquid splashed out, the three big dogs went limp in their limbs like they were drunk and thudded to the ground.
Covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, Zhang Ze tentatively kicked each of the three big black dogs lying motionless on the ground.
Only after confirming there was no danger did he wave his hand at Su Ning and quickly squat down.
He pried open the mouth of one of the dogs and saw the tongue inside had been pulled out. A flash of understanding passed through his eyes, then turned into anger.
This Wei Junjie was truly a thorough pervert!
Not only did he feed them fresh blood and flesh, but to avoid the dogs barking and causing unexpected trouble, he cruelly cut out their tongues.
“Brother Zhang?”
“It’s nothing.”
He quickly closed the big dog’s mouth manually, not letting her see such a cruel scene. Zhang Ze stood up and glanced at the small wooden house not far away.
“I’ll go in first to check. You wait outside for now.”
“Okay.”
Although she knew there were only these three big black dogs in total, and the wooden house was just their den, probably nothing useful except for that large jar and basin used for feeding.
But obviously Zhang Ze didn’t know, so it was normal for him to go check it out.
But when Zhang Ze came out of the wooden house again, Su Ning clearly felt the terrifying killing intent on him, as he tried his best to suppress the towering rage in his heart.
“What’s wrong, Brother Zhang? What’s inside?”
Zhang Ze pursed his lips tightly, the darkness in his eyes dense like a sharp knife ready to kill.
Inside, besides that large jar and basin used for feeding the dogs, there was only a nest paved with thick straw.
And beside the basin used for feeding the big dogs, there was fresh blood foam and remaining bones.
If he wasn’t mistaken, those were human remains.
To think he used such a cruel method…
Wei Junjie, he really deserves to die!
“Brother Zhang?”
“Don’t look.”
Seeing he didn’t answer and his expression grew even worse, Su Ning was about to go over herself when he grabbed her arm.
“Listen to me, Ning Ning.”
Carefully recalling what she saw through Wei Junjie last night, there wasn’t much about this dog house; what there was were just fleeting images of feeding them raw meat.
Although puzzled, she still slowly set aside her curiosity upon hearing this and nodded in agreement.
“I don’t believe he went to such great lengths to make such a secret tunnel just to come feed these dogs. There must be something else…”
“Tunnel secret room?”
“Right!”
Zhang Ze scanned the surroundings, using the small wooden house as center and measuring bit by bit with his eyes, not missing any spot.
“I don’t know why Wei Junjie returned to the courtyard last night or if he’ll come again today. We need to hurry and find it before dark!”
“Mm.”
The two didn’t say more and split up to act.
Compared to Zhang Ze searching aimlessly based only on his experience, Su Ning purposefully headed toward that spot to search.
After setting up sufficient camouflage, she pretended to accidentally touch the switch and excitedly turned around to run toward Zhang Ze.
“Brother Zhang, come with me quick!”
“Let’s go!”
The switch to that underground room was actually a section of large wooden stake hollowed out and hidden in the weeds and mud.
The wooden stake looked like it had been struck by lightning, with the remaining broken branches above charred black, and below sent down a hole big enough for a person to squeeze into sideways.
There weren’t many man-made traces; it looked naturally formed.
“I was just curious and crawled in to look. I didn’t expect to get lucky like a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse!”
“Ning Ning, your luck has always been good.”
The filthy and battered appearance of the wood was such that anyone would take one look and not want to see a second.
Zhang Ze crouched and squeezed in sideways. He had wanted her to keep waiting outside, but unexpectedly the person behind him disobeyed and slipped in right after him.
The two made the already small wooden stake interior even more cramped. He couldn’t push her out with his butt, so Zhang Ze could only give her a warning look full of caution. Only after she nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking rice did he continue crawling down into the already opened tunnel.
The secret room underground was actually quite a bit larger than the house outside.
To prevent soil collapse, the surroundings were directly plastered with a thick layer of reinforced concrete, forcibly creating a two-room one-living-room setup here.
Except for one room with a locked wooden door, from which a faint light seeped through the door crack, the rest was pitch black.
In specially chiseled pits and small platforms on the walls were placed kerosene lamps covered with glass shades and matchboxes.
Zhang Ze, who adapted to the darkness first, heard no sounds from the two rooms inside and began groping around slowly. When he reached one of these small pits, he unceremoniously took down one lamp, struck a match, and lit it.
Su Ning tugged at his clothes and pointed with her finger at the locked room.
Her brows and eyes were full of grave expression.
Wei Junjie was caught years later because among the women he abducted and made disappear, there was a brother who had just been discharged from the military and returned to civilian work.
After learning what happened to his own sister, this ruthless man relied on that one clue back then to unravel it step by step, going through much trouble to successfully track it back to him.
Those who frequent the riverside, how can they not get their shoes wet?
Although due to the overall situation years later and other reasons, Wei Junjie had been suppressing himself and hadn’t made a move again, the various crimes he committed would eventually bring retribution without fail.
According to his confession, in this year, there should be two more victims; just unknown if it’s now, and if so, whether the people are still there.
Hope, hope they came in time to save at least one.
Zhang Ze nodded silently, came to the tightly locked room door, and used the oil lamp in his hand to illuminate the flipped-up lock cylinder.
Since it was locked, that meant Wei Junjie hadn’t come, and there must be something inside.
After carefully comparing the lock, Zhang Ze turned his gaze to the hairpin pinned at her temple.
Instantly understanding, Su Ning took off the pearl hairpin without hesitation, tucking the loose strands behind her ear.
She directly pried off the pearls on top and the glue film stuck to it with her hands.
This kind of clip was far less easy to use than a single black clamp, but better than nothing.
After Zhang Ze put the lamp on the ground and took the hairpin, he gripped both ends with both hands, snapped the clip into two sections forcefully, then used each in left and right hands cooperatively to insert into the lock cylinder.
After several probes and twists, there was a light click, and both their eyes lit up at the same time: the lock opened!
He gave her a signal with his eyes, then Zhang Ze gently pushed the door open a bit and peered inside through the crack.
Only after confirming no danger did he fully open the door.
There was a simple large wooden bed in the room, with a strangely shaped… wooden chair? in the middle.
Ignoring the horizontal bars of unknown purpose on it and tentatively counting it as a wooden chair, there were no other furniture or ornaments.
On the side of the wooden bed, the upper body was head down slightly sideways buried in the quilt, the lower body naked and draped on the ground.
At first glance, Zhang Ze quickly turned around. “Ning Ning, you check on her first. I’ll go look in the other room.”
“Mm.”
After Zhang Ze left the room, Su Ning gripped her trembling fingers and strode to the bedside.
Only then did she discover that the woman’s two hands were respectively tied to the wooden stakes on the left and right under the bed, no wonder she couldn’t climb onto the bed and could only rest her head on the quilt.
The exposed skin was black and blue with various injury marks, shocking to behold.
It was like after a long time she found her voice again. While untying the rope binding her wrists, Su Ning asked aloud, “How do you feel? Are you still conscious?”
Her hand touched the woman’s forehead, which was scorchingly hot to the touch.
She quickly took out medicine needed for treating internal and external injuries from the space herbal hut, along with a porcelain bottle filled with spring water.
First she fed her the spring water in the bottle. Only after hearing a faint whimper did she stop and quickly put the porcelain bottle back into the space.
“You, you… who are you…”
“Take the medicine first, then we’ll talk!”
After replying, Su Ning picked up the medicine bottle beside her and began feeding her the powder for treating internal injuries.
After finally applying medicine to all the external wounds, wrapping her entirely in the quilt, the woman had fully regained consciousness.
