The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 238 Kiln
“Sigh…” Feng Yongfu sighed deeply. “At that time, I knew that Yongshou was distracted because of Huang Daxian’s matter. How could I leave him alone in the shop?”

When we came down the mountain, I saw that the door was ajar. Although we often have guests, we believe in closing the door as if sealing off the boundary between life and death, and we will remind guests to close the door when they come in or out.

Something was wrong with the door being ajar. I was the first to rush in. The bright sunshine was soaked through, and the courtyard was deathly quiet. My cloth shoes stomped on the ground with a clattering sound that I will never forget.

The potter's wheel was still turning, but the clay was only half-drawn. It seemed that Yongshou had been interrupted by some accident halfway through his work. My parents and I called out Yongshou's name from inside and outside the workshop, but we could only see his shadow. Little did we know that after this parting on Qingming Festival, my parents would never see Yongshou return before they died.

They kept repeating until their deaths that Yongshou had been kidnapped by Wong Tai Sin, but no matter how much they prayed at the temple, it was no use.

Until you, the great immortal, took over this temple and immediately noticed that someone was missing from my family.

This rekindled my hope for Yongshou's whereabouts.

Although…” Feng Yongfu choked up as he spoke, “it’s alright, I hope my parents have found Yongshou down there, and they can finally be reunited.”

In Feng Yongfu's account, this past event is like a folk tale of the supernatural.

But to Qi Fei, it was a different story: "Feng Yongshou witnessed a murder and was very likely killed to silence him." As he spoke, he suddenly asked with great concern, "Was the person who called himself Dong Nansheng a man or a woman?"

“Yongshou said it was a man,” Feng Yongfu replied.

Hearing this answer, Qi Fei seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Ever since the skeleton was discovered under the maple tree, the dark shadow that he dared not touch had been stirring restlessly, as if it wanted to break through hell.

"Besides the name and gender, did he describe any other characteristics of this person?" Qi Fei continued to ask.

"They said he looked young, only in his early twenties, and not very tall. Yongshou said that when he came, he was wearing an ill-fitting suit, like a child wearing an adult's clothes. But his eyebrows and eyes were very similar to the person he saw who was eaten by Huang Daxian. He had willow-leaf eyebrows and double eyelids, and looked a bit like a foreigner."

"But we asked around everywhere, following Yongshou's description, and no one in the nearby towns and villages said there was such a person," Feng Yongfu said.

However, upon hearing this, a dark cloud descended upon Qi Fei's heart once again.

Beside him, Zhong Kui kept a sharp gaze on him.

Qi Fei caught a glimpse of Zhong Kui's exceptionally clear eyes; he hadn't seen such a look in a long time.

This was the look in his eyes when he first met her, when she was facing the suspect.

Based on his understanding of Zhong Kui, he immediately asked, "Kui, do you know something?"

“I heard what Lao Feng said when I first arrived in Sanwu Town. A skinny man wearing an ill-fitting suit, with willow-leaf eyebrows and double eyelids—as a criminal investigator, you should have your own judgment.” Every word Zhong Kui spoke was crystal clear.

Qi Fei remained silent. Under Feng Yongfu's uneasy gaze, he finally said after a long while, "If Dong Nansheng's name is fake, then his other identities may also be fake."

"For example, gender," Zhong Kui pointed out.

"What? You mean the person Yongshou met who ordered the urn was a woman?" Feng Yongfu said, then seemed to remember something and said to Qi Fei, "Oh, you're a policeman. I have something here that I don't know if it will be useful to you." He walked into the inner room and came out carefully carrying a wooden box after a while.

He placed the wooden box on a stone bench in the yard, and when he opened it, there was an urn containing ashes.

“This is the urn ordered by that man named Dong Nansheng. My brother made it by hand. Until Yongshou disappeared, no one came to claim this urn. For so many years, I’ve kept it alone, although I don’t know what use it is.” Feng Yongfu said, staring intently at Qi Fei. “You’re a policeman, take a look. Maybe there are some clues that we can’t see.”

Qi Fei picked up the perfectly round urn, which was about the size of three teacups. It was clear that Feng Yongshou was quite skilled, with a beautiful curve and a translucent glaze.

Feng Yongfu muttered, "This was the best jar we produced around that time. Before this, we didn't know what kind of evil spirits had possessed us, but we ruined several batches of jars in a row. They either shrank the glaze or had bubbles and pinholes. It never happened before."

Zhong Kui seemed particularly interested in his rambling, and asked him with her hands behind her back, "How did things get better?"

“My father said that the kiln was haunted by evil spirits and needed to be purified, so we followed the ancestral methods, burned incense and prayed, and cleaned the kiln. After that, it was indeed fine.”

"Is the kiln you're using now the same one from twenty-seven years ago?"

“Of course, right in the backyard.”

"Shall we go take a look?" Zhong Kui said immediately.

Qi Fei, who was still examining the urn, didn't understand why Zhong Kui had suddenly become interested in the Feng family's kiln. Before he could figure it out, Zhong Kui took the urn from his hand and put it aside.

Zhong Kui pulled him towards the backyard: "Let's go see the ancient kiln."

"No, we're in a rush, we don't have time," Qi Fei said, clearly unwilling.

But he always compromised with Zhong Kui. Even as he said this, Zhong Kui had already dragged him through the living room and into the backyard.

In the northwest corner of the courtyard, there was a one-story-high, bun-shaped kiln with a chimney on top, which looked somewhat out of place in front of the black-tiled, white-walled Jiangnan-style house.

"This urn is also made of porcelain. In our trade, we say that porcelain is born from shaping and dies from firing. After all that hard work, it all comes down to whether it turns out well or not. I remember during that time, the kiln was always emitting black smoke. As soon as it emitted black smoke, I knew something was wrong, and that the whole batch of urns was ruined. In our business, we value on-time delivery. If we agree on two days, it's two days; if we agree on three days, it's three days. Back then, a series of mishaps almost ruined the reputation of the Feng family."

Zhong Kui listened intently to Feng Yongfu's words, then asked, "How high is the temperature inside the kiln when you fire porcelain?"

“That’s incredibly high, probably over a thousand degrees,” Old Feng replied without hesitation.

Zhong Kui blinked after hearing this: "So high that it can burn a person to ashes, right?"

"of course."

Hearing this, Qi Fei vaguely realized something and asked Zhong Kui, "Did you think of something?"

Zhong Kui looked toward the Wong Tai Sin Temple: "Did no one see the body in the bloody murder that Feng Yongshou witnessed?"