The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 193 The Tenth Pink Diamond

"I..." This was the first word Lu Ying said, and also the last word she said in the last ten minutes. After that, she kept running around the house, rummaging through boxes and drawers looking for the rhinestones she had removed from her nails.

"Are you sure you left it at home?" Qi Fei asked doubtfully. Ever since he picked up the wrong powder box at the airport, Qi Fei had some idea of ​​how careless Miss Lu was.

Lu Ying scratched her bleached and dyed wavy hair from time to time, mumbling, "Those kinds of manicures are actually beautiful, but they're really inconvenient to do on a regular basis, so I took them off after just two days... Ah, I remember I just casually put them on the coffee table..."

Obviously, she couldn't remember anything at all.

Qi Fei nudged Zhong Kui beside him with his arm, looking a little proud. "I was just saying that I should ask you to come along, right? She probably won't remember these trivial matters."

"It's a small matter." Zhong Kui said as he took two steps closer to Lu Ying. His fingertips gently stroked the transparent storage box stained with sequins on the edge of the coffee table. He picked up a piece of residual glue crumbs and looked at it in the sunlight. The colorful light refracted by the tax fell on her cheek, like a diamond mole.

Zhong Kui opened her red lips slightly and said, "Miss Coco No. 5 perfume. You were in a good mood that day, so you picked this perfume."

"How do you know?" Lu Ying stopped flipping through the sofa cushions and paused from the mess.

Zhong Kui didn't answer. She just casually walked over to the dressing table, her fingertips casually running across a row of perfume bottles, and continued describing, "What were you doing on the day you took off your manicure? Sitting here putting on beautiful makeup?"

Lu Ying followed her words and recalled: "Well, that day I was going out to meet my best friend for afternoon tea. I slept in and was running out of time. I was anxious to put on makeup, but putting on makeup takes time. My best friend kept sending me messages to urge me to do it, which made me very anxious..."

Zhong Kui picked up the eyelash curler on the dressing table and held it in her hand, clicking her eyelashes.

Lu Ying's dilated pupils reflected the eyelash curler, and memories emerged like a pried-open clamshell: "That day, the more anxious I became, the more confused I became. The rhinestones on my nails kept getting stuck when I used the eyelash curler. That would have been fine, but they also caught my hair. My temper flared up, and I was so angry that I didn't care that I was late for afternoon tea. I picked them all off and threw them here..."

Lu Ying pointed to the side of the dressing table and suddenly rushed to the kitchen, muttering to herself, "I left a takeaway paper bag of milk tea here. I just threw it here!"

"It's amazing." Qi Fei whispered beside Zhong Kui.

Zhong Kui pursed her lips. "Nothing, just a situational memory trigger. Memory retrieval efficiency is highest when the encoding and retrieval contexts match. The smells and sounds of the time will help her remember."

"I cleaned up a bit a couple of days ago, so I probably didn't throw away any garbage..." Lu Ying's trembling fingers fumbled in the classified trash can in the kitchen, and she dug out a paper bag from a pile of garbage. Not caring about the dirt, she poured it on the ground. Only a few exciting "ding-ling-dang" sounds were heard, and pink rhinestones wrapped in the sour and smelly residue of milk tea fell on the white kitchen floor tiles.

"Here, here, here!" Lu Ying was very excited. "Is the diamond you said here real? Is it worth millions?"

Qi Fei didn't bother to answer her question. He stepped forward to check. As he counted them one by one, his excited expression quickly turned gloomy: "Nine?"

"It can't be such a coincidence. The real one must be the tenth one, right?" Zhong Kui's voice came slowly.

Qi Fei turned on the flashlight on his phone and shone it on each diamond. Then he said disappointedly, "Real diamonds will have obvious fire. These are fake."

Then, unwilling to give up, he emptied the trash can and searched everywhere but couldn't find the tenth pink diamond.

The police officers who were searching for evidence soon arrived at Lu Ying's lavishly decorated home.

As the sun gradually set, they searched every corner of the room, but the tenth pink diamond seemed to have vanished without a trace. He squatted and searched for a long time without finding anything. He had to stand up and confirm with Lu Ying again: "Are you sure you removed all the rhinestones that day?"

Lu Ying muttered, "I was in a hurry that day. I took it off carelessly. How could I have remembered... It's common for nail decorations to fall off."

"So, there's a possibility that when you were removing these rhinestones, the one on your right ring finger fell off?"

"Oh, I can't say for sure!"

"I saw that the video of you getting a rhinestone manicure was uploaded on March 3th. Based on the time you returned to China, it must have been filmed that day, right?"

"Oh yes, this was originally planned. Including the box I'm using, I have collected ten boxes of Flowing Light Loose Powder. I promised my fans to release an episode."

"What did you do after getting your nails done that day?"

"I haven't been out all day. After filming the video, I still have to edit it. Look carefully at the time I uploaded it. But it was uploaded at 11:30 pm. I was so tired after doing all this. Did I just take off my makeup and go to bed?"

"What did you do the next day?"

"I didn't do anything. Uh, I just went to the zoo. There was a visit for Xiao Hei on March 3th, and I asked my sisters to go see Xiao Hei. Speaking of which, there were so many people there. Could he have been lost there? That would be terrible. How could he be found in a place like that..."

While Lu Ying was muttering, Qi Fei's head buzzed. It seemed that Chen Hao knew that the diamond was lost in Nancheng Zoo, and he was very sure.

But how did he know? If he was following Lu Ying, he should have snatched the diamond back on the spot.

He looked at the heavily made-up Lü Ying in front of him and suddenly had an idea: "Did you take any videos when you went to the zoo that day?"

"Yeah, this is to meet the big star Xiao Hei, I must have taken a picture."

“Why can’t I see it on your channel?”

"I did a live broadcast that day, but I didn't dress up properly. I was afraid that the haters would take screenshots, so I didn't post the replay online. However, I saved it for myself, thinking I could use it for editing videos later."

"Look!" After hearing this, Qi Fei felt that the dim clues became clear again.

In the live replay video, Lü Ying walked into the Bird House holding a selfie stick. Her rhinestone-studded nail polish sparkled brightly in the sun, casting spots of light on her face.

The camera panned over the fluttering mynah bird, Xiao Hei, and the comments immediately exploded—

The words "Dream Linkage!" scrolled rapidly.

"Sisters, I finally got the chance to get close to Xiao Hei. Let me take you to listen to Xiao Hei speak live." Lu Ying said excitedly to the camera.

Lu Ying's nails were shining with tiny starlight, and the barrage of comments was reading "Yingbao's nails are so beautiful that it makes people cry". Xiao Hei on the bird stand suddenly tilted his head and stopped, his black eyes reflecting bright spots of light.