The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 315 Illegitimate Daughter

When Qi Fei turned to the last page of the report, he finally understood why Cai Ding had written it: Wu Shulan had denied that she had lost her daughter, but that Wu Chongyue had killed her.

In other words, the accusations made by those clansmen against Wu Shulan were not unfounded—she had a real motive for murder.

As the sun set, Wu Shulan sat in the messy courtyard, a cigarette dangling from her lips. She exhaled a puff of smoke, and the tiny mosquitoes and flies hovering in the air fled in panic, just as her clansmen avoided her at all costs.

The tightly closed courtyard gate was knocked on again and again.

She didn't rush to open the door. After finishing her last puff of cigarette, she threw the butt on the ground and stomped it out before going to open it.

"I told you not to come." Wu Shulan said sternly as soon as she saw Qi Fei.

“But you still opened the door,” Qi Fei said.

"Ha, I thought it was someone else," Wu Shulan sneered.

"Are you waiting for someone?" Qi Fei asked immediately.

"No," Wu Shulan denied outright, raising her dry, twig-like hand. "Then come in."

As the sun set, the courtyard was shrouded in the unique mist of Sanwu Town, and the jumbled outlines of the old objects piled up in a disorderly manner actually had a kind of alternative beauty.

Qi Fei looked around and felt that he had been bewitched by Wu Xingzhou and Ge Ming's two paintings, and had actually started to pay attention to these meaningless aesthetic things.

The familiar sound of the door opening, carrying the scent of bygone years.

"I heard you went to see that guy Wu Chongyue. I bet you didn't get anything out of him, did you? Humph, that old fox." Wu Shulan said irritably. With a "hiss," the flame of a match lit up, and she lit another cigarette. Just like last time, she sat down rudely. "Speak, what else do you want to know? But you might have made a wasted trip. I've told you everything I know."

“We’re not here to ask about Wu Xingzhou; we want to know about your daughter,” Qi Fei said bluntly.

Wu Shulan's hand, which was about to put a cigarette in her mouth, froze in mid-air. Clearly caught off guard by the question, she paused for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter: "Hahaha! Wu Chongyue, it must be him. Let me guess, he's turning around and accusing me of retaliating against him, of killing Wu Xingzhou, isn't he?"

"You reacted quite quickly." Qi Fei looked at Wu Shulan with some suspicion. "Unfortunately, you guessed wrong. Wu Chongyue didn't say anything. It was your clansmen who said that you accused Wu Chongyue of killing your daughter."

“First of all, they are no longer my people. Secondly, Wu Chongyue is a scoundrel, but I am still a human being. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have called to tell him that Wu Xingzhou was in trouble.” Wu Shulan tapped her cigarette against an empty can, the ash and embers falling impatiently.

“But the townspeople remember you leaving Sanwu Town alone with the child, and when you came back, the child was gone. It seems more like you abandoned the child,” Cai Ding couldn’t help but say. Wu Shulan took a deep drag on her cigarette, coughed twice, and said anxiously, “Wu Chongyue tricked me into going. He persuaded me to give my daughter away. At that time, he acted like the head of the family, but he was actually forcing me. I, a weak woman in my early twenties, with no one to rely on, had no way to refuse!”
He used sweet talk to say that the child would suffer if he stayed with me, and even if he could keep my clan name, the small share of the profits wouldn't be enough to feed two people.

He also said he had found me a good family who would give my child the best life, and I naively believed him.

That day, he invited me to Nancheng, saying he had arranged a meeting place with the other party so he could deliver the child there. Because of the adoption, the other party was worried that I would regret it later and didn't want me to meet them.

I believed it again. I still remember when my child left me, he seemed to sense something and cried desperately, even a bottle couldn't soothe him.

I watched him take the child and get into a taxi. At that moment, I regretted it and rushed up to pull the door handle to get the child back, but Wu Chongyue deliberately locked the car door and urged the driver to leave quickly.

I can never forget his eyes, that fierce look, like a wolf that would eat people.

I chased after the car with all my might, but how could I possibly catch up? I just sat there by the roadside, crying and crying, not knowing what to do, and there was no one to help me.” As Wu Shulan recounted these heart-wrenching memories, her words were devoid of any emotion, only filled with exhaustion and numbness.

"And then..." Qi Fei asked.

"Then, I returned to Sanwu Town dejectedly. Those busybodies came to ask me where my child was, but I ignored them all. I knew they just wanted to gossip behind my back, to have more topics for conversation, not that they really cared about me. That's what they meant when they said I abandoned my child."

They weren't wrong; I was just foolish enough to trust the wrong people.

"So Wu Chongyue tricked you into giving your child away. How do you think he killed your daughter?" Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but ask.

"Hmph, at first I didn't think the worst. Later I got into an argument with someone who said I didn't even want my own child. I got angry and said that Wu Chongyue helped me find someone to adopt the child. He just wouldn't admit it, saying I was making things up and that he had never done such a thing. He even dragged his wife into it as a witness, saying that he was at home the day I took the child out."

"Heh, you've been to his house. Apart from his wife, no one knows if he's there or not. Do you think the rapeseed flowers in the field outside are proof?" Wu Shulan said sarcastically.

Wu Shanqiu asked, puzzled, "That's not right. Why would Wu Chongyue take your daughter away? What does this have to do with him? Could it be..." She looked at Wu Shulan, as if she had discovered something extraordinary, "They said you had a daughter out of wedlock. Could the father of the child be Wu Chongyue?"

As soon as Wu Shanqiu said this, Wu Shulan choked on the smoke and coughed violently. Although she couldn't speak for a moment, she still waved her hands vigorously and denied it repeatedly.

Wu Shulan finally managed to stop coughing and said disdainfully, "He looked like a bear when he was young, how could I have fallen for him?! My child..." But here, a hint of regret finally crept into her voice, "...was an outsider. I thought he really liked me, so I followed him without thinking. I never expected, hmph, he treated me like a free prostitute. They're right, I am a slut, and I deserve it!"

Judging from Wu Shulan's expression, she probably wasn't lying. However, Wu Shanqiu's gossipy nature finally found a serious purpose. She stroked her chin and pondered, "Since this child has nothing to do with Wu Chongyue, why would he lie to you and send the child away?"