The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 117 Shoe Prints
"Should I tell this person to wait at the temple in seven days?"

"Hmph, he probably can't wait for seven days." Zhong Kui said as he plucked the wind chime. The crisp sound of the bell pierced through the darkness, as if it could be heard as far as the Wong Tai Sin Temple at the foot of the mountain.

In the temple, the greasy middle-aged man named Ying Shuigen was holding a letter anxiously and waiting.

The clay statue of Wong Tai Sin has his eyes slightly lowered, as if he can see wherever he goes.

At the moment, the Golden Snake Immortal, who was in a state of panic all day long, had not yet realized that weasels were the natural enemies of snakes, and that the sharp claws covered by Huang Daxian's robe seemed to be waiting for an opportunity to pounce and strangle his throat.

……

The police car sped towards Sanwu Town.

"Brother Fei, we have notified Huang Daqiu's family and the people in the company. The family has rushed to the police station to identify the body. Fortunately, we reacted quickly. If it was a few minutes later, the Internet would be flooded with news that Huang Daqiu was murdered, and we would be in a passive position." Wu Shanqiu said in the car.

"It's very strange. Such a big boss lost contact, but they didn't call the police?" Qi Fei asked.

"We've learned about this situation. It's a coincidence. Huang Daqiu had planned to take his annual leave to go on vacation to Europe. The flight takes more than ten hours. The time he was killed coincided with the flight time. Add to that the time difference, and everyone thought he hadn't landed yet."

"Alas, it didn't just fail to land, it went underground."

"Well, with so many celebrities being murdered lately, it's putting a lot of pressure on us," Wu Shanqiu said. "Just before we set off, we gathered some clues from the scene. So far, we know that besides the four deceased, after clearing away all the snakes, we found some very interesting shoe prints on the ground. We collected a total of seven types of shoe prints in the house. They can be roughly divided into two types: those with blood and those without.

The bloodless shoe prints matched the shoes worn by three of the victims, She Xiaohui and her two sons, when they were killed.

The other four larger shoe prints were all stained with blood to varying degrees. Of these, only Huang Daqiu's shoe prints are known to be bloody, and we have matched them to the shoes he was wearing."

"Huh? That means there are still three people appearing at the crime scene?" Qi Fei frowned.

"Yes, we collected blood samples from the shoe prints, and the composition of the blood samples is also very interesting. Although the scene was severely damaged by snakes crawling everywhere, the composition of the blood on different shoe prints is different." Wu Shanqiu said, comparing the notes in the notebook one by one. "There is only Huang Daqiu's blood on his feet. As for the other three unknown shoe prints, we will just call them one, two, and three. Shoe prints No. 1 and No. 2 contain the blood of all four victims. Shoe print No. 3, however, only contains Huang Daqiu's shoe print.

The footprints also followed different paths. Number one's footprints were found throughout the entire building, in every room. Number two's footprints circled each body before exiting through the back door. Number three was also interesting; it entered through the main entrance and only reached the first-floor side hall, where Huang Daqiu was murdered. The density of the footprints suggests a quick exit through the main entrance. However, we collected fingerprints from the entire house, including the main door handle, and so far, we've only collected fingerprints from Ying Shuigen's family of four and Huang Daqiu, who originally lived there.

"That is to say, there are two other people for whom we only have shoe prints but no fingerprints?" Qi Fei listened carefully and concluded.

Wu Shanqiu nodded: "Yes, that's what I mean."

"And the soles of Huang Daqiu's feet were only stained with his own blood, which is quite strange. Could it be that when he was killed, She Xiaohui and the two children were still alive?"

"No, Brother Fei, on the contrary. According to Xiao Tao's examination, She Xiaohui was the first to be killed, followed by the two children, and Huang Daqiu was the last to be killed." "In other words, Huang Daqiu either witnessed the murder scene and for some reason was unable to stop it or escape, or..." Qi Fei thought.

"Or maybe he didn't even know someone had died upstairs." Liu Tong, who was sitting in the back row, suddenly spoke up. "I looked at where She Xiaohui died. It was right at the corner of the stairs. If Huang Daqiu walked into the first floor after the other three people were killed, he probably didn't notice anyone was dead."

"According to feedback from Huang Daqiu's company and his family, he was planning to go on vacation, so why did he suddenly appear on Jiangting Island?"

"His wallet was there, but his cell phone was missing. It seemed like the murderer had taken it deliberately. What was he trying to cover up?"

"The murder weapon still hasn't been found?" Liu Tong asked. Before Wu Shanqiu and the others could respond, he answered his own question. "That's right. This is an island. If we throw it into the river, we'll probably never find it."

"Well, we have been checking the villagers on Jiangting Island, and we are also checking the outsiders who entered Jiangting Island on that day. Fortunately, you must take a ferry to enter Jiangting Island. We have retrieved the surveillance footage of the ferry that day. Based on the size of the footprints, we know that the three unknown shoe prints should have been left by men. We can estimate the height of the three people through the shoe prints." Wu Shanqiu said.

Before they knew it, only Liu Tong and Wu Shanqiu were discussing the case, and Qi Fei spoke less and less.

Because they are getting closer to Sanwu Town, for Qi Fei, it means they are also getting closer to Zhong Kui.

There seems to be an invisible bond between them. No matter how far apart they are, they will eventually move towards each other.

But at this moment Qi Fei was not sure what this bond meant. He could accept everything good and bad, but the only thing he could not accept was that he had hurt Zhong Kui.

Grandma Meng's warning was still ringing in his ears, and the dark shadows outside the car window made him feel at a loss.

It was already dark when we arrived at Sanwu Town. The residents who were used to going to bed early had already closed their doors, leaving only a few dim lights coming through the windows.

At the end of the dark bluestone alley, the bright red lanterns of Wong Tai Sin Temple are lit, making it particularly eye-catching.
-
The night was deep, the candles in the Wong Tai Sin Temple were lit, and the temple was cold and gloomy. Ying Shuigen huddled in a corner, shivering but unable to leave. He didn't know what he was hoping for.

Sanwu Town was eerily quiet at night. Amidst the whistling wind, an old voice could be heard: "Come with me."

Granny Meng appeared in front of Ying Shuigen at some point, and her withered face looked even more terrifying in the flickering candlelight.

He followed Grandma Meng toward the small room behind the temple.

"The Golden Snake Immortal, Yingshui Root, a rare guest." Zhong Kui walked out from behind the screen of the wing room wearing a black veil, and looked at the down-and-out "master" in front of him with a lazy look.

Ying Shuigen completely lost his master's demeanor. He was as panicked as a dog that had lost its home. He fell to his knees in front of Zhong Kui and begged, "Great Immortal, you are a true great immortal, save me!"

(End of this chapter)