Gu Yao screamed at the sight. “What kind of freak keeps this many bones on him?!”

Her hands clamped tightly around Sang Ning’s arm, making it impossible for Sang Ning to move forward.

“Take him back. Seal off the entire fourth floor,” Gu Yezhou ordered coldly. “Have the victim’s family been notified yet?”

Xiao Zhang immediately replied, “I’ll go now.”

The officers knocked on every door on the fourth floor. After checking the entire level, they discovered only this homeless man was living there.

No one else.

Meanwhile, the homeless man muttered to himself nonstop.

“No money… I don’t have money… hehehe… they’re all mine… pretty bones, all mine…”

Goosebumps rose all over Gu Yao’s skin. She whispered beside Sang Ning, “Ning-jie… does this guy have some kind of mental illness?”

Sang Ning said nothing.

She followed Gu Yezhou into the homeless man’s apartment.

The layout of the fourth floor was almost identical to the second floor—normally, you could see straight through at a glance.

But this apartment had no visible end.

Most of the space was stuffed full of cardboard boxes stacked high. There were also rows of neatly arranged plastic bottles, all rinsed clean.

When the homeless man saw the police enter his home, he merely grinned foolishly.

“My house… this is my house…”

It didn’t sound like refusal.

Nor welcome.

“Where did these bones come from?” Gu Yezhou demanded sharply.

The homeless man only continued his vacant smile, repeating the same phrase.

“My house… this is my house…”

Sang Ning looked down at the bones scattered on the floor and crouched to pick one up.

The moment the homeless man saw the bone in her hand, the idiot grin vanished from his face.

Like a madman, he lunged at her.

“Mine! That’s mine!”

But the officers beside him instantly forced him to the ground.

His eyes turned bloodshot as he stared at the bone in Sang Ning’s hand.

She picked up another one that had fallen from his clothes—a clavicle—and examined it carefully.

At the curved section of the collarbone, traces of cement still clung stubbornly to the surface. Even when she rubbed it with her gloved fingers, the powder didn’t come off.

It looked embedded into the bone itself.

Her gaze slowly shifted toward the apartment walls.

Before she could speak, Gu Yezhou had already ordered the officers beside him, “Clear out every bottle, every piece of cardboard in this room.”

The homeless man panicked.

“No! Those are mine! Mine! You can’t take them!”

The officers quickly entered and began hauling the cardboard outside.

One after another, expressions of surprise appeared on their faces.

“Captain Gu, these boxes are all really new. Clean too.”

Some still had shipping labels attached. Others were smooth and spotless, without a single stain.

Gu Yao poked her head inside for a look. “They really are. Even the bottles are washed clean.”

Once the room had finally been cleared out, Gu Yezhou stepped deeper inside.

Without the cardboard piles stacked all the way to the ceiling, a wall plastered messily with old posters came into view.

The posters were faded and yellowing with age. One curled corner lifted after losing the support of the stacked boxes.

Gu Yezhou walked over and tore one down.

Behind it was a patch of exposed cement, jarringly different from the white wall beside it.

“The body is probably inside the wall,” Sang Ning said quietly.

Gu Yezhou immediately ordered the wall broken open.

Just as an officer lifted a hammer and prepared to smash directly into the center, two voices rang out simultaneously.

“Don’t hit the center.”

“You can’t smash it!”

The two warnings overlapped.

Gu Yezhou’s cold gaze landed on the homeless man.

“Why not? Did you hide the body in there?”

The homeless man’s eyes flickered. Then he returned to his foolish grin.

“My house… this is my house… can’t smash it…”

The officers ignored him completely.

Several of them positioned themselves along the wall and began striking from the edges inward.

After only a few hits—

A bone fell out with the crumbling cement.

“My bones! Those are my bones!”

The homeless man struggled desperately to rush forward, eyes reddening. “You can’t touch my bones!”

“Talk! Who is this person?!” Xiao Zhang smacked the back of the man’s head.

The force wasn’t even that heavy.

Yet the homeless man instantly collapsed unconscious.

Xiao Zhang froze, rolling up his sleeves. “Hey! Don’t fake it!”

“Since he refuses to talk, bring him back first,” Gu Yezhou said.

Standing with his back to them, he stared at the increasingly visible outline of a human body inside the wall.

The dried bones were coated in cement.

Each strike sent dusty fragments cascading down.

Just as Sang Ning stepped forward to enter the room, she brushed past the homeless man.

Suddenly—

His eyes snapped open.

A sharpened bone hidden in his sleeve shot toward Sang Ning.

Gu Yao, who had been standing nearby watching, saw everything happen in an instant. She tried to shout a warning—

But the words froze in her throat.

Her eyes widened as she stared helplessly at Sang Ning’s back.

Xiao Zhang had just opened his mouth to speak—

When he saw Sang Ning’s gloved hand already firmly gripping the homeless man’s wrist.

The sharpened bone in his hand was stained dark red with blood.

At the same time, no one even saw when Gu Yezhou moved.

The two officers restraining the homeless man hadn’t reacted yet before Gu Yezhou’s kick slammed into him, sending him flying across the floor.

Gu Yezhou immediately pulled Sang Ning behind him. “Are you hurt?”

Sang Ning shook her head lightly.

The homeless man collapsed at Gu Yao’s feet.

Seeing the bloodstained bone, Gu Yao was so frightened she couldn’t even move.

“You’ve got some nerve, attacking someone right in front of the police!” Xiao Zhang rolled up his sleeves, ready to beat the man.

But the homeless man suddenly grabbed Gu Yao’s ankle.

Gu Yezhou’s kick had landed squarely in his waist. He was in too much pain to stand, but as he stared at Gu Yao’s ankle, his eyes lit up with excitement.

“Bones… my bones… such beautiful bones…”

Gu Yao could feel the rough hand rubbing against her ankle.

“What are you standing there for?” Xiao Zhang rushed over and kicked the man’s hand away before dragging Gu Yao aside. “No wonder the chief doesn’t let you work active scenes. With guts like yours, all you’d do is get in our way.”

If the homeless man had still been able to stand, Gu Yao would already have become a hostage.

Seeing the situation under control, Gu Yezhou finally relaxed slightly.

He had held back on that kick.

Otherwise, if he’d crippled the man, the interrogation afterward would become troublesome.

“Bones… my bones…”

Even as the officers dragged the homeless man away, his eyes remained fixed longingly on Gu Yao’s feet.

The bloodied bone had flown from his hand during Gu Yezhou’s kick and now lay on the ground.

Sang Ning bent down to pick it up.

After examining it from several angles, her brows slowly furrowed.

“This doesn’t look like a human bone,” Gu Yezhou said.

Sang Ning looked up at him in surprise.

“You know bones too?”