The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 314 Immoral
The blue velvet had a unique texture; the moment it touched his fingertips, it felt tingly and numb, as if a subtle electric current was running through his body. Qi Fei tried to get up, but he was tripped by the smooth velvet beneath him. It was as if he had lost most of his strength; the more he struggled, the more trapped he became. The blue velvet was like a net, invisibly binding him.

Strangely, he didn't resist this restraint; in fact, he even longed to lie on it. His cheek pressed against the velvet surface, the extremely fine and soft down resembling a young girl's cheek, bringing him endless pleasure from intimate contact.

In that instant, he missed Zhong Kui so much, imagining that the blue velvet was her. The more he missed her, the more intense his inner turmoil became. Miraculously, Zhong Kui's alluring face really appeared on the velvet, becoming more and more real, more and more tangible, until finally he could actually touch her face.

Qi Fei felt his heart was about to jump out of his chest. He reached out his hand, trembling, and murmured, "Forgive me."

These words seemed not to come from his mouth, but rather to flow through his mind, yet Zhong Kui was certain that he could hear them.

"Love me, trust me without reservation, as if we are one, sharing a body, our souls intertwined, inseparable..." Zhong Kui's voice was ethereal and alluring, lingering in his mind like smoke and mist, filled with an irresistible magic.

Qi Fei was completely immersed in it, indulging in decadence and pleasure, hoping it would always be like this, without a past or a future, like a speck of dust in the universe, existing without birth or death.

Just as his last shred of reason was about to vanish, Zhong Kui's face suddenly changed. Black spikes began to grow from her fair skin, constantly growing outwards and distorting her entire face. Her mouth began to grow outwards, becoming incredibly hard. It was a monster. The black spikes took on a complete shape, becoming pieces of black feathers that shimmered with green fluorescence. The monster was not a monster, but a black swan—Zhong Kui had become a black swan.

Blue velvet... Black swan... These two images filled Qi Fei's mind, as if awakening some senses from another world. These senses shattered all the psychedelic light and shadow, and suddenly this world had gravity, causing him to fall rapidly.

Qi Fei was startled and fell to the ground in a chaotic mess. Amidst the cacophony of noises around him, he rubbed his sore arm and stood up. His blurry vision gradually cleared, and as he looked around, he saw that twilight still shrouded the area. Scattered paintings and ghostly sculptures were everywhere, as if forming a barrier that had trapped him in the illusion he had just experienced.

He remembered that he had brought two paintings to this rented room in Sanwu Town that afternoon, wanting to experience the mystery in the paintings firsthand. For some reason, looking at the two paintings on the left and right, it was like looking at flowers through a fog. He actually fell asleep while looking at them.

The dream was so absurd yet so real that even after he woke up, he still felt his ears burning and his heart pounding, and he couldn't calm down.

A knock came at the door, which creaked open, and a wisp of long hair flew out from the crack in the door as the autumn wind swept through.

“Zhong Kui?” Qi Fei blurted out.

"Snap!" With a crisp click of the switch, an equally clear voice rang out: "Brother Fei, it's me! What Zhong Kui!" Wu Shanqiu's face appeared in Qi Fei's sight. Qi Fei blushed and said, "Why are you here?"

"Huh? You were being all mysterious about going out for a bit, and it's already dark and you haven't come back yet. I finally managed to find out you were heading in this direction, so I came to check on you." Wu Shanqiu said, looking Qi Fei up and down, and asked in surprise, "Brother Fei, do you have a fever? Why do you look so hot and humid?"

"I accidentally fell asleep, it's nothing," Qi Fei said, trying to sound normal. "Looks like I still lack artistic talent. I thought I'd be able to discover something about Wu Xingzhou and Ge Ming's paintings in this environment, but..."

"So you fell asleep? Haha..." Wu Shanqiu made no attempt to hide her mockery. "Brother Fei, art, this kind of mysterious thing, is really not suitable for you. By the way, I need to talk to you about something." As she spoke, she handed Qi Fei a report. "Xiao Cai wrote a new report. He investigated Wu Shulan's situation and made some new discoveries."

Qi Fei opened the report, looked at the neatly formatted and detailed content, and smiled, "Cai Ding is not bad; he quite likes writing reports."

"Ha, I'm curious too. How could anyone in this world enjoy writing reports?" Wu Shanqiu said. "But he is indeed quite dedicated. He actually managed to pry open the mouths of those stubborn old men in the Wu family clan and find out some information. Do you remember how hesitant Wu Chongyue looked when he mentioned expelling Wu Shulan from the clan?"

Qi Fei strained to focus as he scanned the area, and murmured to himself, "Wu Shulan had a child out of wedlock?"

"To be precise, she had a child out of wedlock. It is said that she eloped with someone when she was young but was abandoned. She became pregnant and returned to Sanwu Town alone. At that time, people's views were still very conservative. Having a child out of wedlock was considered a scandalous thing. At that time, Wu Shulan was to be expelled from the clan, but Wu Chongyue stopped her."

The Wu clan's ancestral register is very valuable, literally valuable. Many assets in Sanwu Town belong to the Wu clan, and clan members receive dividends. Wu Shulan was pregnant and unemployed at the time; firing her would be tantamount to cutting off her source of income.

"Judging from this, Wu Chongyue seems like a decent person." Qi Fei flipped through the report; Cai Ding had written it very clearly, and Wu Shanqiu's understanding was also spot on.

"Well, he's actually a pretty good person, but there have always been elders in the clan who are unhappy about this matter. Over the years, there have always been people raising objections. Regarding the expulsion from the clan, I inquired about the circumstances at the time. It wasn't Wu Chongyue who started it. It was because those old folks finally found solid evidence, saying that Wu Shulan was a harlot who offended the ancestors by doing volunteer work at the ancestral hall, so Wu Xingzhou would die suddenly at the ancestral hall as punishment from the ancestors. Wu Chongyue had no choice but to agree to punish Wu Shulan," Wu Shanqiu said. "Sigh, what era are we living in? How can such absurd things still happen?"

"That's strange. When we went to Wu Shulan's house the other day, she was clearly living alone. Where was her daughter?" Qi Fei had just finished speaking when he turned to the second page and saw the contents. "Oh, I see. She abandoned her daughter? That's too outrageous!"

“Right? They’re all villains. They say that not long after she gave birth, she left Sanwu Town with her child. Everyone thought she wouldn’t come back, but she came back alone. This makes her even more guilty in the clan,” Wu Shanqiu said.