The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 240 No Red Makeup in Shanghai

A shadow crossed Zhong Kui's eyes: "Whoever it is, they must move the corpse from Wong Tai Sin Temple to the kiln in this courtyard without anyone knowing."

According to your brother, this man named Dong Nansheng is not from Sanwu Town. The deceased he saw were also not from the town. So here's the question: if he was an outsider, how did he know about your kiln and manage to hide the body away from you?

"Because... he was your former immortal, and he has magical powers?" Feng Yongfu's answer was quite unusual.

Qi Fei, who was standing to the side, was both amused and exasperated. He asked, "Besides the urn that Dong Nansheng ordered, do you still have any of Feng Yongshou's belongings? Let me see if there are any valuable clues."

As Zhong Kui's questioning deepened, Qi Fei became more relaxed and seemed to have the mental capacity to think about the investigation.

“We’ve been waiting for Yongshou to come back. His room hasn’t been touched since he disappeared. I’ll take you there.” Feng Yongfu said, turning around and walking towards the other side of the main room, where there was an inconspicuous small door leading to a staircase just big enough for one person to pass through.

Zhong Kui and Qi Fei followed Feng Yongfu up to the second floor, their feet creaking as they stepped onto the old wooden stairs.

Feng Yongfu took out his key and opened the room closest to the stairwell.

Qi Fei looked around the empty two-story building and couldn't help but ask, "Are you the only one living here now?"

"Yes, Yongshou is missing. After my parents passed away, I'm all alone. I told you, it's very difficult to find a wife in this line of work."

As they were talking, the wooden door opened with the sound of a key turning.

A musty, stale smell wafted over.

This is a small, square room with a wardrobe, a desk, and a single bed; there is nothing else.

Qi Fei looked around, opened the wardrobe, and found Feng Yongshou's clothes from back then still hanging neatly inside.

"Have you cleaned this room?"

"No, this is exactly what it was like the day Yongshou disappeared. I haven't touched anything. My brother is a clean person and doesn't like us touching things in his room."

I always thought he would come back, so I respected his habits and kept everything exactly as it was back then, without changing a single thing.

"He really does have a bit of OCD," Qi Fei said, looking at the row of clothes. "They've even lined up gradient colors."

Upon hearing the words "obsessive-compulsive disorder," Zhong Kui walked over with great interest. Sure enough, Feng Yongshou's clothes didn't come in many colors, mostly black, white, gray, and blue, but each color was neatly arranged in order from dark to light.

Zhong Kui scanned the area, then suddenly raised her hand and pointed to one spot: "This area is missing a color number."

Upon closer inspection, Qi Fei indeed noticed a striking color contrast between the two garments, ranging from dark blue to light blue within the blue color scheme. However, he dismissed this as insignificant: "Perhaps he simply doesn't own this garment?"

Zhong Kui didn't refute, but turned to ask Feng Yongfu a question: "Your brother bought all his own clothes, right?"

Feng Yongfu nodded immediately upon hearing this: "As expected of a master, my brother is very stubborn about these little things. He doesn't like the clothes my mother buys for him and insists on buying his own. He always buys the same few colors and doesn't want anything with patterns. My mother and Yongshou have argued a lot about this. I, on the other hand, am easy to please and often get the best deal. Yongshou and I are about the same size, so my mother gives me the new clothes that Yongshou doesn't like." A rare smile appeared on Feng Yongfu's face, although there was a hint of bitterness in that smile.

Zhong Kui smiled faintly, said nothing, and turned her head to look elsewhere. Her gaze fell on Feng Yongshou's bedside table, where many literary magazines were placed. The yellowed magazines were curled and torn, looking like they had been read many times. It seemed that these magazines were a rare pastime in Feng Yongshou's dull life. At that time, magazines would include some important content of the issue on the cover.

Zhong Kui was indeed very interested in these things, looking at them one by one. When she saw one of them, she stopped.

"Look at this cover." She handed the magazine to Qi Fei.

Qi Fei, puzzled, looked at the handmade paintings with a vintage feel in the magazine.

This is a group portrait composed of different characters from various stories in the magazine.

However, his gaze soon fell on one of the portraits.

The man was wearing an oversized suit that didn't fit him well, had short hair, and wore glasses, but his face was handsome, and the name that immediately popped into his mind was Dong Nansheng.

The portrait of this figure is attributed to the novel "No Red Makeup in Shanghai".

Qi Fei quickly flipped to this novel according to the table of contents.

This is a story about a woman in the Republican era who disguises herself as a man to escape her feudal family and fall in love with a progressive young man.

The content of the story is not important; what is important is that the protagonist's alias after disguising himself as a man is "Dong Nansheng".

At this moment, Zhong Kui could hardly suppress her smile, as if she had caught a ghost that was always on the move. She said slowly, "The most fantastical imagination is nothing more than a recombination of real elements."

"So, the whole story about Huang Daxian killing people and Dong Nansheng ordering urns for ashes was all made up by Feng Yongshou?" Qi Fei couldn't hide his astonishment.

Hearing this, Feng Yongfu was even more shocked. He didn't know what Zhong Kui and Qi Fei had found in the magazine. He hurriedly defended Feng Yongshou, saying, "My brother is a very honest person. He wouldn't joke about something like this. Besides, he was so depressed during that time. He couldn't have been faking it!"

Qi Fei handed the magazine to Feng Yongfu and pointed to the name "Dong Nansheng" in the article: "It can't be such a coincidence that the person he met read the same magazine as him, right?"

Upon seeing the name, Feng Yongfu was immediately stunned and speechless.

Zhong Kui, standing to the side, said inappropriately, "It seems you really haven't touched Feng Yongshou's things, otherwise you would have discovered his rumors about Wong Tai Sin twenty-seven years ago."

Upon hearing this, Feng Yongfu said in a daze, "So, no one died back then?"

“Not necessarily. He may have died, but the killer wasn’t Huang Daxian,” Zhong Kui said coldly, his gaze fixed on Feng Yongfu, yet also on Feng Yongshou, who was already dead in the void. “If I’m not mistaken, the killer was your brother, Feng Yongshou.”

These words struck like a thunderclap in the quiet Jiangnan courtyard.

"No, Immortal, this is absolutely impossible!" Feng Yongfu stubbornly shook his head.

However, Zhong Kui remained unmoved. She pointed to the clothes that Feng Yongshou had arranged neatly in the wardrobe: "I remember you said that Feng Yongshou was wearing a white shirt when he disappeared. But one piece of clothing is missing here. Some compulsive behaviors are hard to break. For example, he was obsessed with arranging the clothes into a complete gradient, but suddenly a color skipped over the blue part..."