The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 311 Art Academy
Everyone turned around at the sound and saw a young man with curly hair standing behind them. He was wearing a loose linen shirt, carrying a crossbody bag, and his eyes, half-hidden by his curly hair, were looking at these strangers with unease and wariness.

The landlord was the first to recognize him: "Aren't you a friend from Xingzhou City? What brings you here today?"

The young man timidly showed the keys in his hand: "The lease shouldn't be up yet, right? Why are you showing the house to people, landlord?"

"They're not here to look at the house, they are..." The landlord was about to explain when Qi Fei walked up to the young man and showed his ID: "Qi Fei from the Criminal Investigation Brigade of Nancheng Police Station, we're here to investigate the case of Wu Xingzhou's death."

"Wh-what?" The young man seemed not to have heard clearly at first.

Qi Fei had no choice but to repeat it.

The young man paused for a moment, then saw Wu Chongyue behind Qi Fei and suddenly realized, "You don't need to pull such a clumsy stunt if you don't want Wu Xingzhou to be with us, do you?" His voice suddenly rose, and he took out his phone to dial Wu Xingzhou's number. Unsurprisingly, the call ended with an unreachable message. He became worried and questioned the group, "What have you done to Wu Xingzhou? This is a society governed by law. You can't just do whatever you want. I'm calling the police!"

This was the first person Qi Fei had met who genuinely cared about Wu Xingzhou since arriving in Sanwu Town.

He took out the investigation report he was carrying and handed it to the young man: "You can call the police to check our identities. We were not acting. Unfortunately, Wu Xingzhou is really dead."

The young man flipped through the report with a mixture of belief and skepticism, muttering to himself, "This is impossible, impossible..."

Qi Fei knew that he could learn about the other side of Wu Xingzhou from this young man. He had sent the people from Sanwu Town away, leaving only him behind. Qi Fei locked the door of the rented room from the inside.

The midday sun shone through the wooden lattice glass, and the young man, recovering from his shock, saw the unfinished oil painting by Wu Xingzhou. Suddenly overwhelmed with grief, he burst into tears.

Qi Fei waited quietly for him to calm down before asking, "You still haven't told me your name, and what your relationship is with Wu Xingzhou?"

“My name is Xu Ziheng, and I’m Wu Xingzhou’s college classmate. We are both from Nancheng Academy of Fine Arts, and we will be graduating with our master’s degrees next year. We need to do our graduation projects, but the school’s facilities are limited, so Wu Xingzhou helped us find this place. He is such a talented and wonderful person, how could he…” Xu Ziheng choked up as he spoke.

Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but exclaim in surprise: "Wu Xingzhou is actually from Nancheng Academy of Fine Arts. That school is very difficult to get into. My cousin has been trying for two years and still hasn't been able to get in."

“Yes, and Wu Xingzhou is studying the strongest oil painting department in the academy. If nothing unexpected happens, he'll become a world-class painter. My God, no wonder he hasn't been talking in the group lately. If everyone knew this terrible news…” Xu Ziheng clutched his head in despair, “It's truly a case of heaven being jealous of talent…” After his initial shock, he looked at the three people in front of him, “The investigation report means that Wu Xingzhou was murdered? This…”

"We only have suspicions, not concrete evidence yet," Qi Fei replied. Xu Ziheng bit his lip, then suddenly clenched his fist and said, "It must be his family. They think Wu Xingzhou is a disgrace to them for not doing his job properly, I know!"

"Hmm, do you know about Wu Xingzhou's relationship with his family?"

Xu Ziheng shook his head: "He rarely mentions his family. At first, we only knew that his family was well-off and that he was always very generous at school. We often had to pay for materials and tools ourselves, which was a considerable expense. Wu Xingzhou always took the initiative to lend money to students in need. Although he said he was lending money, he never mentioned paying it back. Everyone knew that he didn't intend to get the money back. He just said he was lending it to protect their self-esteem."

Seeing his earnestness, Qi Fei noticed something amiss: "He borrowed money from you before, didn't he?"

Xu Ziheng nodded: "Yes, to be honest, we didn't do anything for him, we didn't even know he had passed away, we really feel so sorry for him. Because of this, my classmates and I couldn't understand why his family treated him like that. We've seen his parents come to the college several times to talk to the teachers, wanting Wu Xingzhou to drop out. It's not like his family can't afford this major, they said he was the eldest grandson of their entire family and should study management or finance, these proper majors, it really shocked us teachers. They were implying that our major wasn't proper."

We later learned that he had secretly applied to the Nancheng Academy of Fine Arts without telling his family, which caused a conflict with them.

However, Wu Xingzhou is a guy who is gentle on the outside but tough on the inside. Don't let his usual gentle and refined demeanor fool you; once he's made up his mind, no one can change it, no matter how much they object.

No matter how much his parents complained, he still got accepted into a graduate program with excellent grades. Sigh, we were so naive to think that once he achieved success, his family would understand.

"From what you're saying, it means his parents are against him pursuing oil painting, but it's not like they'd kill him as you're saying, is it?" Qi Fei deliberately spoke up for Wu Chongyue and his wife.

“I heard his father say it with my own ears. He rented this place for everyone, and when his father found out, he came to ask him to cancel the lease. Wu Xingzhou refused, and his father slapped him, saying that the Wu family didn't have an eldest grandson like him, and that he would have killed him long ago if it weren't illegal. I was shocked when I heard that. How could a father say such a thing? We used to envy Wu Xingzhou's family for being rich, but after that incident, I just felt sorry for him. I really can't understand it. Wu Xingzhou is such a handsome and talented person, what kind of parents wouldn't like him?” Xu Ziheng recalled with lingering fear. “You didn't see the expression on his father's face when he hit him. I have reason to believe that what he said at that moment was true. That vicious look meant he really wanted Wu Xingzhou to disappear from this world.”

"And what about at school? To your knowledge, has anyone had a conflict with him?" Qi Fei continued to ask.

“There are definitely no conflicts. Wu Xingzhou never makes enemies. However, some people may be dissatisfied with him, but that’s not because Wu Xingzhou did anything wrong. It’s just that he’s too perfect and outstanding, and some people are envious and jealous,” Xu Ziheng said.

"Could you tell me specifically who it is?"

“Then you can’t tell him that I said it. This person also uses this place, so he’s our friend, at least Wu Xingzhou considers him a friend, but he’s said a lot of bad things about Wu Xingzhou behind his back…” Xu Ziheng said, his gaze falling on an oil painting in the corner.