The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 239 Aunt's House

Feng Yongfu stared blankly at Zhong Kui: "Master, isn't that dead person the one Dong Nansheng used to put his ashes in the urn?"

Zhong Kui laughed: "They didn't even take the urn of ashes, so how could there be a dead person?"

Feng Yongfu lowered his head and muttered, "After all these years, I still haven't figured this out."

“That’s normal. Dong Nansheng deliberately came to our door, and his series of actions led you to assume the deceased was with him. People are easily swayed by preconceived notions. Nothing is more suitable for disposing of a body than a kiln near the crime scene.” As she spoke, she walked towards the kiln and peered inside. The inside of the kiln wasn’t completely open; a narrow tunnel blocked most of the light. Even during the day, only a sliver of light could be seen leaking from the chimney. “Strange, why didn’t he continue using such an excellent hiding place when he disposed of Feng Yongshou?”

"How tall is your younger brother?" Qi Fei suddenly asked Feng Yongfu.

"Um, about the same height as me, around 1.75 meters."

"I'm thinking about a question. If Dong Nansheng killed the person, according to Feng Yongshou, this person was small in stature. So how did he move Feng Yongshou, who is not small in stature, out without being discovered? And how did he manage to take him all the way to Nancheng and bury him there?" Qi Fei asked.

“Hmm, very interesting.” Zhong Kui circled the kiln. “Perhaps, the reason there were no bodies hidden here back then was because there were no bodies at that time.”

"Feng Yongshou was still alive when he left here," Qi Fei immediately replied in perfect unison.

"So here's the question: why did Feng Yongshou follow this person?" Zhong Kui said, her gaze falling on Feng Yongfu.

Feng Yongfu made a request that only people from three or five towns would make: "Great Immortal, can you communicate with Yongshou through spirits? So many years have passed, and only he himself knows the answer."

“After the three nines return to nothingness, his soul is completely scattered, and I can no longer communicate with him,” Zhong Kui said calmly.

Qi Fei glanced at her and gave her a subtle look, thinking to himself, "Mingming really can make anything sound perfectly reasonable."

"Did Feng Yongshou mention anything related to Nancheng before he disappeared?" Zhong Kui seemed oblivious to Qi Fei's gaze and continued to ask Feng Yongfu.

Feng Yongfu thought for a moment, then hesitated, "I never thought that Yongshou would die in Nancheng. So many years have passed, and I really can't say whether he has mentioned anything related to Nancheng."

Zhong Kui smiled and said, "As long as the method is right, even memories from a long time ago can be recovered."

As she spoke, she raised her hand, the silver pendant on her wrist swaying slightly in the sunlight. Feng Yongfu's gaze followed, and under Zhong Kui's guidance, he slowly entered a hypnotic state...

Feng Yongfu felt as if he had returned to a certain morning twenty-seven years ago. In the courtyard, sunlight shone on the dew-dampened bluestone ground. His diligent and reserved younger brother had already gotten up early, taking a broom and sweeping the courtyard, preparing to start his day's work.

"Yongshou, up so early? Why don't you sleep a little longer?" Feng Yongfu greeted him, knowing that his younger brother had been preoccupied with the Wong Tai Sin Temple incident lately, and couldn't help but show extra concern.

Yongshou indeed seemed depressed, focusing only on sweeping the floor and not answering his questions.

Feng Yongfu was about to walk away understandingly when Yongshou called out to him from behind: "Brother, if one day I do something very wrong, will you still acknowledge me as your brother?" Feng Yongfu turned around, walked a few steps to Feng Yongshou, and patted him on the shoulder: "What nonsense are you talking about? From childhood to adulthood, you have always been the one who has made me more successful. How could you do something wrong?"

Feng Yongshou fell silent, his face sallow from the anxiety he had been experiencing day and night.

Seeing his hesitant expression, Feng Yongfu continued with concern: "When you mentioned that matter last time, I was also wondering if I had misjudged it. Look, if someone died in the Wong Tai Sin Temple, how come there wasn't a trace? You said that the person named Dong Nansheng might just be a coincidence, right?" He said it was a coincidence, but what he really thought was that Feng Yongshou might be overly sensitive and suspicious. He was just afraid that his younger brother would be unhappy, so he deliberately put it in a more tactful way.

Feng Yongshou hesitated, his thumb digging into the broom handle. After a moment, he suddenly said, "Brother, I've been thinking about going to stay at Aunt's house for a couple of days after Qingming Festival."

"Don't talk nonsense again. Your aunt has been gone for several years. She didn't even find you an uncle when she passed away. Where are you going to live?" Feng Yongfu was confused by his brother's words.

Feng Yongshou forced a smile across his dejected face: "That's right, we can never go back."

There's no going back... These words lingered in Feng Yongfu's mind like a curse, and along with his younger brother's haggard face, they were like a whirlpool, constantly pulling him down.

"Listen to my count of three, two, one." Amidst the chaos, he heard Zhong Kui's voice, followed by a firm "Wake up!"

He opened his eyes, and the sunlight from twenty-seven years later shone in the same courtyard, but everything had changed.

Two lines of tears streamed down his cheeks: "I saw Yongshou. He said he was going to his aunt's house."

"Aunt?"

"Yes, Yongshou was closest to his aunt when he was little. His aunt lived in Nancheng when she was alive, and Yongshou would go to stay at her house in Nancheng for a while during summer vacation when he was in school. However, when he told me that time, his aunt had already passed away for several years."

At the time, I just thought he was talking nonsense because he was in a bad mood. Sigh! Feng Yongfu said, stamping his foot in regret.

"Looking at it this way, he did bring up the idea of ​​going back to Nancheng," Qi Fei said from the side. "However, saying he wanted to go to his deceased aunt's house sounds rather strange."

“This sounds like some kind of stress response,” Zhong Kui said.

"You mean the psychological distress caused by witnessing a murder?" Qi Fei asked.

At this moment, Feng Yongfu hadn't fully recovered from his memory. He murmured, "Yongshou asked me if I would still acknowledge him as my brother if he had done something wrong. But he was clearly the victim; it wasn't his fault that he couldn't save people..."

Upon hearing this, Zhong Kui's gaze sharpened like a knife: "Feng Yongshou's suggestion to go to his deceased aunt's house is less a reaction to being frightened and more a regressive defense mechanism after making a mistake, a symbolic atonement achieved through remembering a deceased relative." Then, her gaze fell on the kiln again. "Old Feng, from beginning to end, it was your brother who told you about the tragedy at Huang Daxian Temple and that mysterious man named Dong Nansheng."

Feng Yongfu frowned, puzzled. "That's what you mean, Master. Are you saying my brother lied to us? But why would he do that?"