The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 283 Classmates
“I’ve seen this necklace before,” Zhong Kui said, taking out the old phone Wu Shanqiu had given her, opening Zhang Yingdi’s short video account, scrolling through the videos by date, and then opening one of them.

This video was filmed at the end of last year. At that time, Zhang Yingdi's account was unknown and had only a few dozen views. It was a video celebrating the birth of her child. The camera focused on the newborn baby the whole time. Zhang Yingdi talked on and on about how happy she was that the Sheng family had an heir. The camera then panned to the background, showing Huang Ruifen, a new mother lying in bed. Her face showed no joy, only embarrassment. She looked disheveled and haggard after giving birth and did not like being filmed and posted online.

Qi Fei stared at the video and quickly noticed Zhong Kui's intention in clicking on it. He saw that Huang Ruifen was wearing a necklace with a different luster, but the shape of the pendant indicated that it was the same necklace.

Huang Xuewen was summoned to the police station. Looking at the mottled necklace, he listened to Qi Fei recount Sheng Tianbao's violent tendencies and the fact that Huang Ruifen might be imprisoned in a dark basement.

“We found Huang Ruifen’s phone in Sheng Tianbao’s bedroom. The person who replied to your messages during this period was Sheng Tianbao, not Huang Ruifen,” Qi Fei said.

Huang Xuewen, sitting opposite him, remained silent, his expression blank, as if he had lost the ability to imagine pain, just as his rough hands, hardened by years of labor, could no longer feel the warmth of tenderness. Only his cowardly son, Huang Ruixiang, sobbed softly behind him, but that was all; he showed no anger and did not know what to do.

Qi Fei's tone betrayed his disappointment: "We saw Huang Ruifen wearing a necklace in Zhang Yingdi's video, are you sure it's this one?"

However, Huang Xuewen seemed to have amnesia: "When did Afen get the necklace?"

“It was a gift from her classmate,” Huang Ruixiang said, sobbing. “When she dropped out of school, I often saw Afen holding the necklace and crying.”

Zhong Kui listened thoughtfully, picked up the necklace and examined the pendant carefully. Finding the right angle, she gently pinched it with her fingers. With a "click," the pendant opened, revealing two girls' photo booth pictures inside.

“This necklace was a distress signal that Huang Ruifen asked Luo Yongmei to deliver,” Zhong Kui said.
-
"Brother Fei, we've found the other girl in the photo!" Wu Shanqiu quickly brought good news. "We asked Huang Ruifen about her junior high school, and the girl in the photo with Huang Ruifen is named Ge Sisi. She was her classmate, and the two were very close when they were in school. Moreover, Ge Sisi worked in Nancheng after graduating from university."

We've already contacted Ge Sisi. When she heard we were from the Nancheng police, she admitted without hesitation that Huang Ruifen was with her. However…”

"But what?" Qi Fei asked hastily.

"Huang Ruifen said she didn't want to see her family, she only wanted to see us."
-
In an inconspicuous hotel-style apartment more than 20 kilometers from the Nancheng Police Station, a woman opened the door warily.

“We are police officers from Nancheng. We contacted you before.” Qi Fei showed his badge. “Are you Ge Sisi, Huang Ruifen’s classmate?”

The woman breathed a sigh of relief after carefully verifying the documents: "Yes, I am Ge Sisi. Xiao Fen is waiting for you."

Ge Sisi entered the bedroom and vaguely heard a soft voice speaking for a while before a thin girl cautiously walked out of the room.

Despite having already given birth, she still looks very young because she is so young.

However, the hardships she endured left her with a more melancholic look than her peers.

“We found the necklace you left for Luo Yongmei. It has a photo of you and Ge Sisi inside. We guess you wanted Ge Sisi to save you.” Qi Fei handed the worn necklace to Huang Ruifen.

When the pendant landed in her palm, Huang Ruifen, who had been expressionless, suddenly burst into tears. Ge Sisi hugged her tenderly and said to Qi Fei, "I saw in a video that Sheng Tianbao is dead?" "Yes, no one will hit you anymore," Qi Fei said to Huang Ruifen.

"The child and the grandmother are both dead..." Huang Ruifen murmured, tears streaming down her face.

Qi Fei waited patiently until Huang Ruifen calmed down a bit, then asked patiently, "You asked Ge Sisi to tell us that you didn't want your family to pick you up, and you only wanted to see the police. I think you just want to tell us about your experience, right?"

Huang Ruifen was very nervous, holding Ge Sisi's hand tightly. After a long pause, she finally spoke: "They won't believe me. I've told them many times that that person beat me to death. They say it's all my fault, that I must have done something wrong to anger that person."

"That person is Sheng Tianbao?"

Huang Ruifen nodded, but she just couldn't bring herself to say the name: "That man said I was bought by his family, and he would beat me whenever he drank alcohol, and each time it got worse. His parents always pretended not to see it, until I gave birth, and then they brought my grandmother from their hometown to help take care of the baby."

Only my grandmother saw that man hitting me and tried to stop him, but she was met with punches and kicks from both of us. That man... is a beast.

My grandmother complained to my in-laws, but they said the old lady was being unreasonable. In their eyes, that person was the only son of the Sheng family, their precious treasure.

That day, my in-laws went out. It was hot, and the child was uncomfortable and kept crying, no matter how we tried to soothe him.

That person was drunk and lying down to sleep. He couldn't sleep because of the child's crying. Suddenly, he sat up and yelled at my grandma and me, saying that we didn't know how to take care of the child.

I was furious and said that the child was his too, so why didn't he take care of him?
Just that one sentence made him lose his temper.

He said that no matter who it was, anyone who displeased him would die, and then he picked up the child as if to throw him.

I was terrified and knelt down, begging him to let the child go. The child struggled violently in his hands. I can't remember what happened in between. When I came to my senses, the child was lying motionless on the ground..." At this point, Huang Ruifen didn't cry, but was somewhat lost in thought, as if this wasn't real. "I know he's gone mad. If I provoked him any further, my grandmother and I would both die that day."

When he saw that the child was no longer breathing, he panicked, sobered up considerably, and fiercely blamed me for provoking him.

I didn't know what to do, so I just held the dead child and let him grab my hair and pull me towards the corner.

There was a basement there; they discovered it when the ground collapsed.

He threw me and the child into that basement.

He quickly regretted it and tried to snatch the child away. I couldn't let him succeed, so I saw a pipe and forcefully shoved it in. The man was big; I knew he couldn't reach my child no matter what…