The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 39 Scarecrow

Zhong Kui raised her head and said, "Whether I've killed anyone or not is the most important thing right now? Do you want to investigate the case or not?" She always spoke half-truths and half-lies, but Qi Fei had no choice but to listen to her and asked obediently, "So, what do you mean?"

Zhong Kui took the pen from Wu Shanqiu and drew a circle on the paper. "So, this matter may not be as complicated as you think. After completing the murder, he just went to the nearby area to make a final move and sent a message to Pan Ting to confuse the public."

"Do you mean to search around this signal base station?" Qi Fei asked.

Wu Shanqiu immediately interrupted them: "That's not right. We've already searched this area and didn't find Niu Yinzhu."

"Then I don't know how you searched back then." Zhong Kui shrugged, seeming very confident in his own judgment. He smirked, "It must be a big project to have so many people poop on her. Are you sure the owners of these excrement were involved?"

Zhong Kui's words awakened Qi Fei who was standing beside him.

"Straw fiber, feces..." he muttered, suddenly remembered something, and rushed to the desk.

He kept looking through the records of that time. It was also a winter like this when Niu Yinzhu disappeared, and many traces had been washed away by several winter rains.

The last place where the message was sent was near the highway from Nancheng to Hai City. There were endless rice fields on both sides, which were in full view. This was also a big reason why no trace of Niu Yinzhu was found at the beginning.

The rice stacks were neatly stacked on site.

The rice fields in winter, just like this year, are bleak, lonely and visible at a glance.

However, among a bunch of similar photos, Qi Fei turned his attention to a lonely scarecrow placed at the edge of the rice field.

"There's a septic tank next to it!" Qi Fei became excited as if he had caught a ghost.

"Is this used for watering artificial fertilizer?" Wu Shanqiu said as she watched from behind.

"Let's go!" Qi Fei took his coat and was about to go out.

"Where are you going?" Wu Shanqiu looked confused.

Zhong Kui said leisurely from behind: "Let's go find the scarecrow."

Wu Shanqiu looked confused: "Is this scarecrow related to our case?"

"You can remove the word 'straw'." Zhong Kui said the cruel words with a smile.

……

The car sped along the highway towards the rice fields. All the way, Wu Shanqiu remained skeptical. "Brother Fei, I really can't agree with this. I've discussed this with the guys who handle missing persons cases many times. They even used police dogs last time. If that scarecrow was really Niu Yinzhu, they would have been discovered long ago!"

"Feces." Qi Fei said calmly, "These odors will seriously interfere with the police dogs' sense of smell. Besides, at that time, we were mainly searching along the way, and this place was almost at the foot of the mountain..."

"The friend you are talking about is a policeman from the nearby police station, not from your serious crime team, right?" Zhong Kui interrupted while sitting in the back seat of the car.

Wu Shanqiu turned around and said, "It's true that the police officers from the nearby area were involved in the search. Can you also count them?"

Zhong Kui played with her long hair and said casually, "That's right. They are too familiar with this environment. This scarecrow must have been there all along. Everyone is busy looking for someone based on Niu Yinzhu's appearance. It's a typical habituation phenomenon."

"What you just said doesn't sound like a fortune teller, but more like a psychological analysis." Qi Fei suddenly said. Zhong Kui's face changed slightly when he heard this, and then he said, "Isn't this a common saying? We'll soon reach our destination."

"how do you know?"

"Don't forget that I'm your consultant now. Consultants have the authority to look at files. Don't you know I like to do homework?"

Zhong Kui's words are always flawless, yet make people feel like something is wrong.

However, Qi Fei had no time to argue with her at the moment. Three years had passed, and it was likely that they would come up empty-handed, but he still held a glimmer of hope in his heart, like a gambler who knew it was impossible but still wanted to take a chance.

Zhong Kui, however, was as calm as ever. He was not in a hurry when the car pulled over and was the last one to get out slowly.

Qi Fei couldn't wait to look towards the direction in the photo.

Faintly, in the biting cold winter wind, the scarecrow was near the horizon, as small as a toothpick stuck in the field, but it still did not prevent Qi Fei from confirming that this was the one in the photo.

It was impossible to drive in the fields, so Qi Fei jumped off the ridge and ran in that direction. However, the wind in the wilderness was not sheltered, and the cold air blew across his throat, causing severe pain, so he stopped soon.

Behind him, Wu Shanqiu came up breathlessly, saying intermittently: "Brother Fei, wait for us."

Only Zhong Kui joined them after a long time.

The three men walked against the wind for nearly an hour before they finally reached the scarecrow.

Even in winter, the pungent smell of septic tanks is still so strong that it makes people nauseous. It is even more difficult to imagine what the scene would be like in summer.

However, these are not their main concerns.

Under the gloomy sky, the scarecrow was wearing a hat, and his clothes had been torn into strips by years of wind. The human figure wrapped in black plastic film could be vaguely seen.

Even at such a close distance, this scarecrow that looked too normal still made Wu Shanqiu full of doubts about Qi Fei's speculation. Qi Fei felt so nervous that his heart was about to jump out of his throat. Coupled with the stench of the septic tank, he almost vomited.

While the two men were hesitating, Zhong Kui took two or three steps to the scarecrow and tore off the plastic cloth wrapped around its face. A skull face appeared in front of them, and its empty eyes seemed to still carry the fear of death, frozen in this moment.

Niu Yinzhu stood quietly in broad daylight for three years, facing the traffic on the distant highway.

"Who is it..." Qi Fei murmured as he faced this shocking way of abandoning the body.

"I have to admit, this is a brilliant place to dump corpses. The smell of the septic tank perfectly masks the stench of corpses." Zhong Kui said, "Even after death, she still has to stand by the septic tank, exposed to the wind and sun. Whoever killed Niu Yinzhu must have hated her to the core!"

"Witch, did you sense anything?" Qi Fei asked Zhong Kui.

"I'm sorry, there are too many filthy things here, and my psychic ability is probably going to fail. I'm really curious about how big a splash it will make when the news of Niu Yinzhu's confirmed death is passed back to Nancheng Investment." Zhong Kui looked up at Niu Yinzhu's face which had become a skeleton and said.

"Is there a possibility that the message requesting location was sent by Niu Yinzhu himself..." Qi Fei looked around and overturned his previous guess.

　I have read the traces and let me know that you are all here~ It is not easy to write, support the genuine version~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)