The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 247 Ship God
“Yeah, this guy always gets drunk and walks around at night. We told him he was bound to get into trouble sooner or later before anything happened,” Old Xu said matter-of-factly.

Were there any eyewitnesses at the time?

"I haven't heard of that. In the middle of the night, who would come out except a drunkard? It was the next day that his daughter said her father hadn't come back, and kind neighbors helped look for him. They suspected he had fallen into the water, so they thought of asking us boatmen to help look for him. I never expected that we would actually find him under my boat. What bad luck!" Old Xu was still resentful when he talked about this.

"No one called the police?" Qi Fei's expression grew increasingly serious.

"Why call the police? This was just an accident!" Boss Xu blurted out.

Zhong Kui had already seen through Qi Fei's suspicion and said bluntly, "If Xi Changjiang accidentally fell into the water, then the place where you said he was injured is incorrect."

Old Xu was puzzled: "What? His face was ripped open with such a big gash, and one of his eyeballs fell out, hanging there like a grape. And here..." He gestured as he spoke, pointing to his ankle. It seemed that the wounds on Xi Changjiang's body at that time still left a deep impression on Old Xu. He kept rambling on and on about the wounds.

Qi Fei and Zhong Kui exchanged a glance, and Qi Fei said, "If the facial wound can be attributed to hitting the boat, then the ankle injury is hard to imagine, unless he didn't accidentally fall into the water." However, as he said this, his previously resolute gaze suddenly faltered—it wasn't an accidental fall into the water. He felt as if something was blocking his chest, and murmured, "It wasn't an accidental fall into the water..."

At this moment, Zhong Kui's gaze passed over Boss Xu and fell on a small shrine hanging on the cabin wall behind him. He suddenly asked, "Was that how those two statues were originally placed?"

As she asked the question, everyone's gaze turned to the shrine. Over time, the wooden shrine had developed a patina, turning a reddish-brown and shiny. What was most striking were the statues inside. While most shrines only contain one statue, such as Guanyin or Guan Gong, this one held two statues, one an old man and one an old woman, both smiling and sitting facing each other.

"Huh? What kind of deity is this? I've never seen anything like it before," Wu Shanqiu said from the side.

“These are the ship gods who protect us, Lord Meng and Granny Meng. You don’t see them easily unless you’re sailing. Before setting sail, bow and call out to them three times to ward off all taboos and travel thousands of miles…” Old Xu said, then made a questioning sound, “Who moved these? They’re not usually placed like this.” He reached out and turned the two statues around, so that they were facing outwards from where they were facing them. Their smiles were so lifelike, as if they were truly sentient.

However, as he fiddled with the statue, something fell down, and that familiar "clanging" sound rang out. A glass bead bounced a few times on the ground and rolled to Jiang Tianyi's feet with the swaying water.

Jiang Tianyi bent down to pick it up, but before he could examine it closely, Zhong Kui had already snatched it away.

The marbles reflected the ripples of the Dream River in her palm, mirroring their reflection in her clear eyes.

"These marbles!" Wu Shanqiu's voice rose involuntarily. "They're the same ones we found in Teacher Qu's envelope. Were they left by Xi He again?"

Qi Fei had somehow reached the edge of the shrine and carefully took out a thin red thread from it. "It seems we've found the answer to the second riddle."

The thread is the same color as the life jacket lying next to it, so it looks like it was torn from there.

Wu Shanqiu was puzzled, looking at Qi Fei and then at Zhong Kui: "What kind of riddle is this? What do you two know?"

Zhong Kui revealed a sinister smile, walked towards the shrine, casually took the red thread from Qi Fei's hand, and ignoring Xu Laoda's protests, reached out and restored the statues that Xu Laoda had just adjusted to their previous positions, with a man and a woman facing each other. Then she placed the two ends of the red thread in the hands of the two statues respectively. After doing this, she took a half step back, crossed her arms in front of her chest, looked at Meng Gong and Meng Lao in the shrine, and said to Xu Laoda beside her, "Old man, if I'm not mistaken, you said the injury on Xi Changjiang's ankle is a thin abrasion, right?"

Old Xu opened his cloudy old eyes wide in surprise: "How did you know?"

Zhong Kui did not answer immediately, but looked at the bank of the Luomeng River. The bank was piled with rocks to prevent it from collapsing during the flood season, and the hard edges gleamed white in the scorching sun.

Everything seemed to be clear.

“Rather than saying Xi Changjiang tripped and fell, it’s more accurate to say he stumbled. He tripped over something near the riverbank, fell headfirst into the river, and hit his face on the rocks below, which is why he has such a severe laceration on his face.” Zhong Kui said, looking at the riverbank. “Heh, that person noticed it too, so when he came here last time, he arranged the statues like that, but…” As she spoke, her gaze shifted to the two statues of Meng Gong and Meng Po, and then to the red thread, “A man and a woman…” she murmured, before looking at Qi Fei.

Qi Fei's face was now incredibly gloomy.

Wu Shanqiu, however, was focused on reasoning: "If Xi He wanted to use the statue to give us a hint, then didn't Xi Changjiang trip by accident? Was someone deliberately pulling the rope and waiting for him?"

"As Boss Xu just mentioned, everyone knew that Xi Changjiang would pass by the river when he was drunk at night," Qi Fei said inexplicably.

He had barely finished speaking when Zhong Kui's sharp gaze swept over him: "What are you trying to explain? Who are you trying to explain for?"

Qi Fei was stumped by her two consecutive questions, his face flushed red: "I...I'm just stating a fact."

"Then what was the motive for the murder?" Zhong Kui pressed on.

"Ahem." Jiang Tianyi coughed twice beside them at just the right moment.

Without needing to say anything, Jiang Tianyi's existence seemed to serve as a reminder to Liu Tong—Qi Fei must remain neutral throughout the investigation.

Qi Fei took a deep breath, suppressing his surging emotions: "I know you suspect my mother... no, Xi Ziyun did it. But there are a few things that don't make sense. Just as Xi He pointed out, it would take two people to pull the rope. Besides, Xi Ziyun was just a child at the time. How could she have planned such a meticulous murder?"

“One man and one woman,” Zhong Kui said, only four words.

Qi Fei was stunned. Only one name came to mind, and he involuntarily blurted out, "Feng Yongshou?"

“A strong bond must be because the two of them went through something extraordinary. A summer playmate in the ancient street is not enough for Feng Yongshou to still remember her after he grew up,” Zhong Kui said coldly.