The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 320 A Beautiful Dream and a Bloody Night

Hearing Zhong Kui's words, Qi Fei felt a chill run down his spine. So Yi Luo was ultimately a follower of Xi He. He knew all too well the final fate of every follower.

"Oh no!" He hurriedly chased after Yi Luo in the direction she was being escorted away.

Behind her came Zhong Kui's cold voice: "No need to chase her anymore, her fate is already sealed." Her voice was full of fatalism.

Qi Fei didn't believe it and quickened his pace. In the bright sunlight, the slender and graceful figure, escorted by two policewomen, appeared in his sight.

"Yi Luo..." he called out in his mind, the voice seeming to be Wu Xingzhou's.

Everything was inexplicably quiet; Qi Fei could only hear the sound and his own rapid breathing.

The figure was getting closer and closer.

"Yi Luo!" Qi Fei shouted. The girl turned around, her face still vibrant, as beautiful as a snow mountain goddess. Qi Fei breathed a sigh of relief, realizing he had been worrying unnecessarily.

However, just as his nerves relaxed, the girl in front of him suddenly went limp like a puppet whose strings had been pulled out, and collapsed to the ground.

Qi Fei rushed over and picked her up, shouting for help, but then he felt a chill on the back of his hand—it was Yi Luo's icy hand.

"No need, it's poison." She said, blood already flowing from the corner of her mouth.

"You..." Qi Fei was at a loss for words. Although he and the girl in front of him were just strangers, and although she was a murderer, he felt an indescribable pain in his heart. "You might not necessarily be sentenced to death in the end, you don't have to..."

“No, I’m not afraid of punishment,” Yi Luo said weakly, tears welling in her eyes. “I lied just now. I only realized after Xingzhou died that my love for him had long surpassed my hatred for the Wu family. It’s all too late. I miss him so much.”

The sound of high heels approached, and Zhong Kui appeared before them unhurriedly. She slowly crouched down so that she could hear Yi Luo's faint voice.

Yi Luo looked at her and asked earnestly, "Great Immortal, are there really ghosts after people die?"

"Yes," Zhong Kui answered decisively.

"Will I ever see Xingzhou again?" Yi Luo asked, tears streaming down her face as she gasped for breath, as if every breath was in vain.

Zhong Kui looked down at her and replied, "Yes, he said he has never hated you, and he is waiting for you to go to the other side together."

Upon hearing this, Yi Luo could no longer utter a word and let out a long sigh as she breathed her last.

Qi Fei felt a sudden weight on his arms as he held her, a weight that seemed to drag him into hell.

He wept, a profound sense of sorrow washing over him. He looked up at Zhong Kui, whose face remained calm as she chanted a passage of Sanskrit that Qi Fei couldn't understand: "May you be liberated from the cycle of rebirth."
-
In the darkness, the yard, devoid of dogs, was exceptionally quiet. Zhu Haitang lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

"Did you hear that? It sounds like the iron gate to the courtyard is open," she said, patting Wu Chongyue, who was sleeping beside her.

"Don't be suspicious, go to sleep." This selfish man could still sleep soundly even after losing his child.

Zhu Haitang felt wronged by his indifference, but dared not say anything more. She turned to the other side of the bed in a huff. A sweet fragrance wafted in from the crack in the door and went straight into her nostrils.

"Hmm? Where does the fragrance of flowers come from in winter?" she murmured, as Wu Chongyue patted her heavily on the shoulder with his large hand.

"How annoying! Go to sleep!" he snapped. Strangely enough, Zhu Haitang, who had been suffering from insomnia for several days, actually yawned at this moment.

Her eyelids closed heavily, and in her dream she returned to that simple town hospital twenty years ago, lying on the hospital bed holding that pink baby in her arms.

She looked down at the child's face, which resembled her own. Zhu Haitang was considered a beauty in Sanwu Town, and this child would probably be one too.

It turns out that she didn't only dislike the child back then; it was just that the pressure of carrying on the family line blinded her and prevented her from seeing her love for the child.

The bright sunlight, carrying a soft glow, streamed into the maternity ward of the town hospital. The following year, she would give birth to a boy here. She and Wu Chongyue would enjoy the privileges of the eldest son and daughter of the clan for the rest of their lives, living a peaceful life together.

However, there are no ifs.

A bone-chilling cold snapped her awake from her dream. She found herself bound hand and foot to a chair, her body drenched in cold water. Beside her was Wu Chongyue, also bound, still half-asleep and unaware of what was happening.

By the moonlight, she saw a handsome but sinister young man in front of her, holding a dripping tin bucket—the kind they used to fetch well water from in their yard.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Xi He. It's an honor to meet the eldest son and daughter-in-law of the Wu family." This young man spoke with unusual politeness, yet in this situation, his politeness was frightening.

"What do you want to do? Take everything you have at home, just don't hurt us!" Wu Chongyue, the usually tough older brother, actually backed down right away.

Xi He grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth: "I've already introduced myself, how could I possibly take your money again?"

Wu Chongyue was now fully awake. He understood—this person's self-introduction meant he had no intention of leaving any survivors.

"I don't know you!" Wu Chongyue carefully examined Xi He's face while desperately searching his mind for any clues, hoping to find a way to save his life.

"Of course, I have never met you before."

"If that's the case, why did you target us?!"

“Simply because…” Xi He threw the iron bucket away. The sound of the bucket hitting the ground was particularly jarring in the quiet of the night, but in this remote place, no one could hear the commotion.

Xi He looked around with satisfaction: "You chose this place to build your house so that no one would find out that you switched the children, right? There are too many people in Sanwu Town, who knows, someone might notice something amiss?"

"You, you came here for this? You are..." Wu Chongyue panicked and struggled desperately, but the rope tightened the more he struggled. He was like a fat worm falling into a spider's trap, doomed to die.

"No need to guess, I have nothing to do with you. I simply hate you. I have a quirk: once I hate someone, I have to kill them." As he spoke, he pulled out a small knife, its sharp blade gleaming coldly in the moonlight…

As dawn broke, Wu Chongyue's residence remained deathly silent.

The dried blood spread throughout the room like withered vines, and Wu Chongyue and Zhu Haitang were stabbed beyond recognition and remained stiff in their chairs.

Everyone who arrived at the scene was so shocked they were speechless.

In this situation, Qi Fei felt a sense of déjà vu...