The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 210 Completely Dead
The stench of blood mixed with the smell of instant noodles and drinks hit him, causing Qi Fei to sneeze several times.

This is a small, square room with a small desk, a single bed, and a chair—that's all the furniture.

A suitcase lay open in the corner, with dirty clothes piled haphazardly on it, and some lying on the floor, mixed with aluminum cans, instant noodle boxes, and snack bags.

It's more like a garbage dump than a rental house.

The deceased lay amidst the pile of garbage, his back to them, with a pool of blackened blood beneath him. His curled-up hands and the bluish-gray skin peeking through the bloodstains reminded everyone that he was truly dead.

Qi Fei put on shoe covers and latex gloves, tried to avoid the debris on the ground, walked to the deceased's side, squatted down, and saw his face pressed against the floor tiles.

The man's eyes were wide open, his pupils were cloudy, frozen in the moment of death.

The contorted expression reveals the immense fear experienced while facing death.

The police officer dutifully reported from the side: "The deceased, Hao Weiwei, was 24 years old and unemployed. He had been renting this bungalow since last year. According to the household registration information, Hao was not a local and did not usually associate with people in the village. He was occasionally seen eating at nearby hole-in-the-wall restaurants."

This morning, the landlord came to collect the rent and found the door unlocked. He went in and found the person dead.

Qi Fei looked around and saw that his wallet and phone were still on the bed in this obvious place. He picked them up and saw that there were several credit cards and fifteen yuan in change in the wallet, along with a few faded supermarket receipts. The phone screen was cracked, and the cracks were soaked with oil, indicating that it hadn't been repaired in a long time.

What a chaotic and messy life.

"Your phone and wallet are still here?" Wu Shanqiu said from the side. "Looks like it wasn't a home invasion robbery."

"Hmm, this place is remote and so rudimentary. If it were a random crime, it wouldn't be the only target. Let's ask around to see if any other households in the village were robbed or burglarized last night." Qi Fei patted the wallet in his hand and continued to scan his surroundings.

Then, his gaze fell on the desk, where a black mat with an indistinct pattern caught his attention: "Hmm? Is this a mouse pad?" He picked it up and examined it closely, then pulled open the drawer under the desk, where he found a mouse with the scroll wheel missing, seemingly broken.

On the desk, tiny specks of blood were splattered, which, if not looked at closely, looked like a layer of dark red paint patterns.

Qi Fei crouched down, his line of sight level with the table. The splatter marks abruptly stopped in the middle, leaving a standard rectangular blank space. Looking up, on the wall directly opposite the desk, similar fine bloodstains left a similar rectangular blank space. It seemed that something should have covered this area when Hao Weiwei was murdered last night.

"Laptop?" He blurted out, recalling the possible scene from last night.

"Very likely." Xiao Tao's voice suddenly came from behind, startling Qi Fei.

"Damn! Why are you like a ghost? You don't even make a sound when you appear?" Qi Fei said speechlessly.

Ignoring Qi Fei's protests, Xiao Tao examined the body on his own and said, "This person has calluses on the outside of his thumbs, and his wrists appear to have ganglion cysts. It seems he has been using a keyboard for a long time."

"Heh, but there's no keyboard in this room," Qi Fei said, looking at the neat rectangular blank marks. "The deceased had multiple stab wounds, and judging from the condition of the wounds, they were all inflicted before death," Xiao Tao continued examining the body.

"Strange, all the bank cards in the wallet are there. It seems the murderer wasn't trying to force me to reveal the bank PIN. So what was the purpose?" Qi Fei was even more puzzled after hearing this.

"Hmm?" Xiao Tao picked up his camera and took a few pictures of the deceased's right hand. Then he said, "The first joint of his right index finger is missing. The wound is clean, so it looks like it was caused by a sharp weapon."

Just as Xiao Tao finished speaking, Wu Shanqiu's voice came: "Brother Fei, over here!"

Qi Fei looked in the direction of the sound and saw Wu Shanqiu standing by the window, pointing to a faint red scratch on the outer windowsill.

It looked like something bloody had landed on the slightly sloping windowsill and rolled down.

Qi Fei turned around and asked the police officers who were still investigating the scene, "Has the severed finger not been found yet?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Qi Fei looked at the location of the body, then at the bloodstains on the windowsill, and walked up to the landlord who had discovered the body: "This window was open when you found the deceased?"

Surprisingly, this short and stout village woman showed no signs of shock at encountering a dead body. She calmly replied, "The window was open. It was quite windy this morning, and I remember the curtains were rustling."

Qi Fei sized her up: "You remember so clearly? Aren't you afraid of seeing dead people?"

"Sigh~" The landlady waved her dark, rough hand. "When someone dies in the village, everyone helps out. Everyone dies a few times a year, what's there to be afraid of? It's just that this unlucky guy died in my house, it'll be a hassle to rent a place from now on." Her tone was numb, which Qi Fei couldn't understand, yet there was no way to refute it.

Qi Fei looked at the deceased, then at the small window. He took a cotton swab from Xiao Tao, collected some bloodstains from the windowsill, and carefully put it away: "If this bloodstain is found to be Hao Weiwei's, then his missing finger will probably be very difficult to find."

"Huh, Fei-ge, what do you mean?" Wu Shanqiu asked, puzzled.

Qi Fei didn't answer directly. He went outside, found a wild fruit about the size of a finger, held it in his hand, squatted down next to Hao Weiwei's body, and gently tossed it towards the window. The fruit flew past the small window, landed on the windowsill, and rolled off onto the ground outside.

Wu Shanqiu finally understood: "Ha! Fei-ge, you mean, this finger was cut off and thrown away by the murderer? Why?"

"It's really puzzling. If it was a robbery, only the laptop is missing; the phone and wallet are still there. If it was a revenge killing, the location of the stab wound is very clear; it doesn't seem like a crime of passion." Qi Fei frowned slightly, puzzled, when the deceased's phone on the bed suddenly vibrated twice, indicating there was new information.

Qi Fei picked it up and saw a message notification: "The novel you are following, 'The God of War: Rebooting His Life,' has been updated. Click to view it!"

Hao Weiwei's phone was password protected. In order to investigate, Qi Fei had no choice but to do what he had done to the ticketing manager, Ge Feng, by holding the phone up to Hao Weiwei's face...

I'm buying some big items these past few days, so I'll update one chapter then. I'll update two chapters once I'm in better shape! Have a great weekend, and best wishes to all of you who truly love this story—may you become rich, achieve your goals, and have amazing luck!