sbdcsierra Chapter 222 Seven Skeletons in the Basement
Chapter 222 Seven Skeletons in the Basement
Zhao Defa came running over, panting, carrying a black briefcase.
Upon seeing Li Shufen pinned to the ground, his face immediately contorted with righteous indignation. He pointed at Li Shufen and shouted:
"Li Shufen! You've gone too far! I've warned you before not to do these heinous things, but you wouldn't listen! Now you're even trying to set fire to destroy evidence; you're utterly hopeless!"
He turned to look at Shen Yu and the other three, putting on a pained expression:
"Comrades, I'm truly sorry to have made you laugh. I discovered Li Shufen's misconduct a long time ago and have been secretly collecting evidence against her, intending to report her when the time is right."
I never expected her to resort to such desperate measures. Don't worry, I will cooperate fully with the police and expose all her crimes!
As he spoke, he took a stack of crumpled papers out of his briefcase and handed them over.
"This is a report I secretly compiled. It records all of Li Shufen's crimes over the years. You can take it and hand it over to the police."
Lu Mingyu trembled with anger at his hypocritical act:
"Zhao Defa! What are you pretending to be, playing the good guy! Just now in the office you were telling us that those students deserved to die, and now you're turning around and pretending to be righteous!"
"What nonsense are you spouting!" Zhao Defa's expression changed, and he said sternly.
"When did I ever say such a thing? It was clearly Li Shufen who forced me to cover for her; I was forced the whole time! She did all the bad things by herself; it has nothing to do with me!"
"Forced?"
Upon hearing this, Li Shufen reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; she suddenly broke free from Shen Zixuan's grasp, pounced on Zhao Defa, and slapped him across the face.
"Zhao Defa! You ungrateful scoundrel! Who was it that cried and begged to cooperate with me? Who was it that said we'd make a fortune together?"
Now that things have gone wrong, you want to pin all the blame on me and keep all the money for yourself? Dream on!
"You're insane!" Zhao Defa shouted angrily, covering his face. "You're the one who threatened me with your weakness, forcing me to do things for you! I've never had a choice!"
"Helpless?" Li Shufen sneered, pointing her finger at his nose and revealing her accusations word by word.
"Three months ago, regarding Lin Xiaoyu's matter, you were the one who suggested giving her parents 500,000 yuan as hush money, saying that this was the safest approach!"
The three million in repair funds allocated by the Education Bureau last month was proposed by you, with each person receiving one million!
And that kid Li Hao, you were the one who tricked him into coming to the basement. Otherwise, why would he have obediently come with me?
"You're spouting nonsense!" Zhao Defa jumped up and down in a fit of rage, abandoning all pretense and shouting back.
"You killed all those students! You buried their bodies too! I just helped you with some paperwork!"
"If you hadn't threatened me with those indecent photos of me and the female teacher, why would I have gone along with you!"
"Indecent photos? That's because you're shameless!"
Li Shufen became increasingly agitated as she spoke, revealing all the sordid affairs they had committed over the past twenty years.
"Who do you think you are? You've embezzled more public funds than I have!"
"Which school infrastructure project didn't you take kickbacks for? If my husband hadn't been keeping quiet, you would have been arrested long ago!"
The two tore at each other like mad dogs, exposing each other's crimes completely.
From organizing students to drink with the school and then sharing the spoils, to embezzling school funds, to conspiring to kill students who resisted and forging expulsion documents.
As they listened to each and every incident, Lu Mingyu and Shen Zixuan felt a chill run down their spines.
They exchanged a glance, immediately took out their phones, turned on the recording function, and recorded the entire process of the two of them accusing each other.
These conversations are the most compelling and irrefutable evidence against them.
After arguing for more than ten minutes, both of them were panting heavily, their faces covered with scratches and spittle.
It wasn't until they saw the phones with lit screens in Lu Mingyu and Shen Zixuan's hands that they instantly realized what was happening, and the anger on their faces turned into extreme fear.
"You...you actually recorded this!" Zhao Defa's face turned pale as he pointed at Shen Yu, his lips trembling as he couldn't speak.
Li Shufen also slumped to the ground, her eyes vacant.
She knew it was all over. Every word they uttered against each other became a nail in their own coffins.
*
Shen Yu ignored them and walked straight to the metal door.
The fist-sized copper lock was rusted. Shen Yu reached out, grasped the lock, and gently squeezed it, crushing the hard copper lock into pieces.
He untied the thick iron chain from the doorknob and pulled hard. The rusty iron door slammed open with a piercing bang.
A chilling aura, a mixture of musty, bloody, and putrid smells, hit them, forcing them to cover their noses.
Jiang Xinlan instinctively hid behind Shen Yu, Shen Zixuan frowned, and Lu Mingyu turned pale and clenched his fists tightly.
"Follow me and don't touch anything," Shen Yu instructed, then took the lead and walked down the stairs with a flashlight.
The stairs were steep and narrow, the walls were covered with moss, and the cement floor underfoot was full of potholes and black sewage.
The further down you go, the colder the air becomes, and the stronger the pungent smell gets.
After climbing about a dozen steps, we finally reached the basement.
The basement was large and divided into several rooms. The light bulbs overhead had long since burned out, and only the beams of flashlights flickered in the darkness.
In the dim light, everyone could see the scene in the basement, and they all gasped in shock.
Various student belongings were scattered on the ground.
The faded blue and white school uniforms, the schoolbags with cartoon patterns, the half-used pencils, the notebooks filled with formulas, the girls' hair clips, the boys' basketballs...
The owner of each item was a once vibrant life.
The walls were covered with dense scratches, all made by fingernails or stones.
Some had their names engraved on them, some had "I want to go home" engraved on them, and some had "I hate Li Shufen" engraved on them.
Others are just messy, disordered lines, revealing how desperate and pained the person who carved these words must have been.
"Are these... all left behind by those children?" Jiang Xinlan's voice trembled with tears, and her eyes instantly reddened.
No one answered her; everyone remained silent, as if a heavy stone was pressing on their hearts.
Shen Yu walked to the innermost corner of the basement, holding a flashlight.
The ground there was noticeably higher than elsewhere, and it was covered with a thin layer of cement.
He squatted down and tapped the ground with his hand, making a hollow thud.
"Here it is," Shen Yu said.
Shen Zixuan and Lu Mingyu found two discarded steel bars and worked together to pry open the thin layer of cement.
Beneath the cement lay soft soil. After digging for a few moments, the two unearthed a piece of white cloth.
They carefully dug out the white cloth, which was wrapped around a corpse.
Then, a second body, a third body... they dug up until the seventeenth body, and then there were none left.
Seventeen skeletons were neatly arranged on the ground. The youngest looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old, and the oldest was no more than seventeen or eighteen.