Hospital 444
Chapter 91 - 4 Raw Meat and Knocking on the Door

Chapter 91: Chapter 4 Raw Meat and Knocking on the Door

The police continuously streamed into the community and searched the buildings of Evening Sun Complex.

That’s how it went until around eight o’clock at night.

However, the final result of the search was...

They came up with absolutely nothing!

When Officer Zhang told Lu Yanran this in person, she could hardly believe it.

"You... you’ve investigated everything?"

"Yes," Officer Zhang clearly found it baffling too as he emphasized again, "We’ve reviewed the surveillance footage many times, and we had people on guard outside while we searched. We called in officers from several precincts, went through over a hundred households—every possible place where someone could hide, and even places where they couldn’t."

Upon hearing "places where they couldn’t," a thought suddenly struck Lu Yanran.

Having watched many criminal investigation dramas, she immediately realized the possibility that the police hadn’t ruled out—that the killer, in order to evade the search, might have killed Zhang Bei and then dismembered the body.

"What about the rooftop? Did you check the rooftop?"

"We checked everything. Truly, there was nothing. The only places left unchecked are the drainage system and the septic tanks within the community."

As expected... the police were considering dismemberment!

"Ms. Lu, when you get home, you must lock all your doors and windows. We will continue investigating this case and we will find a way to locate your husband!"

"The surveillance... is there any chance it could have been tampered with? Like, edited by someone?"

"We will take the surveillance tapes back to the station for technical analysis," Officer Zhang clearly realized the case’s irregularities, adding another comment, "Ms. Lu, if you have any leads, contact us at any time."

At this, Lu Yanran felt utterly desperate and out of her depth, overwhelmed by an unprecedented sense of despair.

The only place left unchecked was the drainage system...

If Zhang Bei hadn’t left the building since last night, then the only possibility she could think of was murder and dismemberment.

A dismemberment murderer was hiding in this building!

The mere thought made Lu Yanran shudder with horror.

Should she tell the police about Zhang Bei’s instructions?

Should she tell them?

After carefully weighing her options, Lu Yanran knew Zhang Bei well. He was a man who was meticulous and serious about his work, with extremely clear logical thinking, very rigid in his beliefs, and with an intense sense of justice.

To him, right was right, wrong was wrong; there was no bending the rules for the sake of social niceties.

Given his character, he would never do anything illegal or disorderly. So, his insistence that she not speak to the police surely had a purpose. Either he didn’t trust the police, or... telling the police would be useless.

Although Lu Yanran often disliked Zhang Bei’s straightforward male character, she could be certain of one thing: Zhang Bei’s heart was completely true to her, and he would certainly not harm her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been willing to entrust her life to Zhang Bei.

Having grown up in a terrible family environment, enduring her parents’ preference for sons over daughters, Lu Yanran paradoxically liked Zhang Bei’s adherence to fairness and principles. To put it extremely, Lu Yanran would sooner believe in the earth exploding tomorrow than doubt Zhang Bei.

Because of this trust in her husband, she ultimately didn’t tell Officer Zhang anything.

After the police left, she locked all the doors in the house and made sure the windows were securely fastened as well.

"That should be fine..."

Then, she remembered the most important thing... she had to eat the meat!

She went to the fridge, opened it, and then took out a large piece of raw meat from the red plastic bag.

Lu Yanran clearly remembered Zhang Bei saying "you must eat it raw."

Consuming just one gram of raw meat should be fine.

One gram...

That’s about the size of a peanut, right?

But the meat was frozen so hard, she would need to thaw it first.

However, Lu Yanran started having doubts.

She had never seen Zhang Bei use a microwave oven.

Not even once.

If for the past month he’d been feeding her this kind of meat, there was no reason she hadn’t seen him use the microwave.

So, was there no need to thaw it? Or was there some other place where he had already cut the meat?

As Lu Yanran pondered, suddenly, she heard a knock on the door from outside...

"Police?"

Could it be that they had forgotten to ask her something?

Lu Yanran hurried to the door and peered out through the peephole.

However...

When she looked through the peephole, her entire body trembled with fear!

The knocking sound was still continuing.

But there was no one at all outside the door!

Yes, no one!

She took several steps back, rubbed her eyes, and then looked through the peephole again.

Outside... there was still no one!

Yet the knocking sound was still ongoing!

How could this be???

Instantly, she thought of the words of her husband, Zhang Bei, his mysterious disappearance, and the strange attitude of the neighbors.

A sense of fear began to rise from the bottom of her heart!

She kept stepping backwards, asking with a trembling voice, "Who... who... who is it?"

She was still thinking in her mind about a reasonable explanation for this phenomenon, like someone recording the sound of knocking and hiding it somewhere to play it to her?

"No... don’t play this kind of joke on me!"

Outside, the knocking sound was still continuing.

At this moment, Lu Yanran suddenly thought of something.

She immediately turned around and looked at the meat on the table!

She hadn’t consumed the raw meat in the amount of one gram each morning and evening as Zhang Bei had said!

At this point, where did she have the patience to defrost the raw meat in the microwave? She went to the kitchen, opened a cupboard, took out a kitchen knife, ran to the raw meat, and chopped down!

After that...

Something unbelievable happened.

This chop went down effortlessly into the piece of raw meat that had been frozen as hard as stone in the refrigerator!

Not only that, from inside it, blood started to ooze out, crimson red...

Had the refrigerator’s cooling function broken? How could it be possible that the meat defrosted on its own at this room temperature after she had just taken it out?

But at this time, where could she care about all that? After she chopped off the meat, she carefully cut a bit of mince. She estimated that it should be about two grams and quickly stuffed the meat into her mouth!

Upon putting it in her mouth, it didn’t feel cold at all! At the same time, she couldn’t taste anything either.

After swallowing the meat quickly, she didn’t know whether this action would be of any use.

"Thump..."

Almost immediately after she swallowed the meat, there wasn’t even a second’s time before the knocking sound from outside... ceased!

"This..."

Could it really be because she had eaten the meat?

If this was a coincidence, how could the timing be so precise?

However, as a result, it made her believe in something even more firmly.

Zhang Bei hadn’t lied to her! Everything he said was true!

Although she knew it was mostly meaningless, she still went to the peephole and took another look outside.

Outside... naturally, there was still no one.

"Calm down... calm down... calm down..."

Lu Yanran picked up her phone and started searching on the internet.

She typed in keywords such as "raw meat wards off evil."

But there was no mention of raw meat being able to ward off evil. Instead, there were instances where raw meat was used as a sacrifice offered to the deceased.

"No... that’s not right... this meat?"

She walked over to the refrigerator, opened it, and checked... there was absolutely no issue with the refrigerator’s cooling function. The other meat in the freezer was as hard as ever, and the kitchen knife chopping down on them elicited no reaction whatsoever.

She walked back to the raw meat, intending to examine it more carefully, but she discovered something even more horrifying.

The nick that she had chopped into the meat just now, the blood that flowed out, and the pieces of mince she had cut off...

All of them were gone!

Only a block of raw meat, frozen into a very square shape, was left!

Seeing this scene, Lu Yanran was completely dumbfounded.

Too many things had happened on this day that simply could not be explained with common sense.

At this moment, Lu Yanran began to realize a terrifying fact.

This building probably harbored... what the older generation in the countryside had told her about, "unclean things"!