The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 22 Six-petal flower origami

"I thought I was the one who killed him..." Old Man Gu avoided my gaze.

Qi Fei smiled: "Your hunchbacked neighbor told me that you went to Wong Tai Sin Temple and cursed Yang Jinhan. We police officers investigate cases based on evidence. We will not arrest you for such superstitious things."

"But the immortal gave me a life-sending talisman, saying that if I could find a way to get Yang Jinhan to carry it with him, he would definitely die."

"Don't worry, old man. The murderer is from Lanhe and has nothing to do with Sanwu Town. You don't have to feel guilty." After Qi Fei finished speaking, an idea came to his mind, "Speaking of which, what does the death talisman look like?" Zhong Kui had never mentioned the matter of the death talisman.

"It's just a flower-like thing folded out of paper. I lied to that bastard and told him it was for peace and safety. He believed me, and I saw him put it in his wallet."

"Origami?" Qi Fei frowned, suddenly remembering the time Zhong Kui appeared in Zhu Mingen's ward, casually folding paper. He hurriedly asked Old Man Gu, "Is the origami flower you're talking about six petals and shaped a bit like a bird?"

"This, this I can't remember, it seems so." Old Man Gu didn't understand why Qi Fei suddenly became so interested in this thing.

But Qi Fei, standing across from him, was already furious. "Asshole, after all this tangled uproar, it's still her!" He remembered the time Zhong Kui showed up unannounced in Zhu Mingen's ward. As they talked, she'd casually folded some paper, eventually forming a six-petal flower. He couldn't suppress the rage of being made fun of. Last night's hazy, yet tender drinking session now seemed like a joke to him.

……

"Brother Fei, what's wrong with you today? You've been playing with origami here for a long time. You're slacking off so blatantly. Be careful or Captain Liu will scold you." Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but remind Qi Fei.

"Shanqiu, can you fold a paper flower, the kind with six petals that looks a bit like a bird?" Qi Fei asked Wu Shanqiu while fiddling with the paper a little clumsily.

"Ha, handicrafts are my forte. Tell me what it is." Wu Shanqiu said confidently.

Qi Fei drew a rough shape on a piece of white paper according to his memory.

As a result, Wu Shanqiu and Qi Fei tried for a long time but were unable to fold it into this shape.

"Brother Fei, are you sure someone has ever folded this thing?" Wu Shanqiu was skeptical.

"I'm sure." Qi Fei said firmly, "I saw Zhong Kui break it with my own eyes."

"It's Zhong Kui again. Brother Fei, are you too interested in her?" "Oh!" Qi Fei smiled bitterly, "I don't want to either."

"I've never understood why Xu Wei wanted to kill Zhu Ming'en. What if someone sent him a signal?" Qi Fei crumpled up the poorly folded paper and threw it into the trash can. "Why is Zhong Kui so sure Zhu Ming'en will die? Is it really some kind of superstition or fortune-telling? That's ridiculous! Zhong Kui folded this origami right in front of me and placed it at the door of Zhu Ming'en's ward. She also gave the same origami to the old man from the Gu family and asked Yang Jinhan to take it with her. Also, it was Zhong Kui who came up with the idea to get Zhu Ming'en to confess that he was faking his illness. But now I think about it, who can guarantee that Zhu Ming'en will admit that he was just lying out of fear?"

"Wait, Brother Fei, let me think about this. Do you mean that Zhu Mingen's death was planned by Zhong Kui?" Wu Shanqiu said in disbelief, especially after she had a good impression of Zhong Kui.

"Last night I was thinking, if Zhu Ming'en was in the detention center, the murderer wouldn't have had a chance to kill him. Someone has to take him out of the detention center, or there must be some reason why he must be taken away from the detention center."

"You mean, Zhu Mingen's mental disorder isn't fake?"

"Zhong Kui told me the method to test whether Zhu Mingen is lying. What if Zhu Mingen said he was pretending to be crazy out of fear just to please me?" Qi Fei said with some annoyance.

"Zhu Ming'en has undergone Zhong Kui's so-called exorcism. You and I have both witnessed her level of hypnosis. Although I don't know how she did it, it is entirely possible that she caused Zhu Ming'en to hallucinate in the detention center. She said that these were all self-conscious. This is true for me and Zhu Ming'en. Why did she say this to me? She means that Zhu Ming'en and I were both hypnotized by her, isn't it?
Is it possible that Zhu Mingen's desire to escape the detention center triggered hallucinations related to monsters? Zhu Mingen had no need to be killed by Xu Wei, but Chen Youwei gave Zhong Kui a large sum of money to make Zhu Mingen deserve the punishment he deserved, which was completely a motive for murder.

Wu Shanqiu nodded after hearing this. "Indeed, she seems overly interested in our investigation. You said she was trying to make money from the victim's family, but that doesn't seem entirely true... But Brother Fei, I have a question. Why did Xu Wei listen to Zhong Kui?"

Wu Shanqiu's words stumped Qi Fei.

Wu Shanqiu continued, "We've also reviewed Xu Wei's communication records and movements before his death. He never went to Sanwu Town, nor did he show any signs of contact with Zhong Kui. You know, innocent until proven guilty. The suspicions about Zhong Kui are just speculation, and we don't have any convincing evidence. As for whether Zhu Mingen was hypnotized, only Zhong Kui can prove it. But the key point is that although it can be basically confirmed that Zhu Mingen and Yang Jinhan were killed by Xu Wei, we found a surgical gown at Xu Wei's residence, and Zhu Mingen's blood was detected on it. But we can't prove any direct connection between his behavior and Zhong Kui. You know, a statement like Origami is hard to believe."

Qi Fei listened silently. He certainly knew that what Wu Shanqiu said made sense, but he also knew that his suspicion was justified: "By the way, there is one more thing. Zhong Kui seemed to be possessed for some reason. She said that the monster came from an ancient Greek myth and could even speak ancient Greek. I checked, and the sentence she said was written in Plato's works. This matter is also very suspicious. Xu Wei's cultural level was not high. There were few books in his relics, let alone philosophical works like Plato. How could he know this allusion and paint the image of the monster at the crime scene, expressing it in such an obscure way?" Qi Fei continued.

Wu Shanqiu was also surprised when she heard this: "Plato? Traveling through time like this? But Zhong Kui is a fortune teller, he probably wouldn't be interested in this kind of Western philosophy, right?"

"Hey, Shanqiu, do you really believe she's a fortune teller?" Qi Fei had just finished speaking when Xiao Tao from the forensic department walked towards him. "Brother Fei, the DNA sample test results are out."

"Brother Fei, what DNA?" Wu Shanqiu asked curiously.

"Didn't I say that Zhong Kui suddenly lost her composure that day? I took the opportunity when she was away to collect a saliva sample from the wine glass." Qi Fei said as he took the report. "The Curry comparison didn't produce any results, did it?"

(End of this chapter)