The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 138 Xihe's Puppet

Qi Fei felt dizzy when he heard this. No matter how imaginative he was, he would never have thought that Qi Dongjun's words, the accusation that had bound him like a curse for eleven years, were said under such circumstances.

"If I tell you that I told the police about my suspicions at the time, would you believe it?" Qi Dongjun said as the magnolia tree outside the window shook violently, and petals were smashed against the glass by the heavy rain. "I just asked them not to tell you the truth. In order not to alert the enemy, the police never announced that the owner of the fingerprint on the knife was Xi He. In fact, Xi He disappeared for so many years and no one has found him..." He looked at Lu Man again, "Lu Man's testimony is correct. I was with her on the day your mother had the accident. The only difference is that she was Xi He's caregiver and my best friend. In order to prevent Xi He's affair from being exposed, she sacrificed her reputation and told everyone that she was my lover. You wrongly accused her."

Lu Man, who was standing far away, just lowered his eyes and whispered, "This is my atonement. If I can find Xihe..."

"No one can find out that we are all pawns played by him..." Qi Dongjun said sadly.

"These... why didn't you tell me from the beginning?" Qi Fei asked with the bitter taste of tears in his throat, "These eleven years, these eleven years I always thought..."

"Because..." Qi Dongjun turned to look at Qi Fei, "You were only 16 that year. Just like I insisted on separating you at the age of three, I tried everything I could to make Xihe disappear from your life." His eyes fell on the screenshot. Just like I couldn't stop him from killing your mother, I couldn't stop his bond with you either. "He came back."

Qi Dongjun walked back to the desk, pressed the button, and the screen slowly fell.

"Indeed, you are no longer a sixteen-year-old child. It's time to tell you the whole truth..."

Qi Dongjun seemed to have been prepared and pressed the remote control at hand. The moment his thumb pressed the remote control, the light of the crystal chandelier went out layer by layer like the tide. The sound of electricity from the old cathode ray tube and the noise of snow on the videotape tore open a crack in time and space.

The video was shot in the house on Ting Island in Genjiang, Yingshui, and the picture is not very clear.

The young Ying Shuigen was wearing a yellow jacket and was gesturing seriously at the snakes jumping back and forth on the ground. The snakes were attracted by Ying Shuigen. The rhythm of his stomping feet and ringing the bronze bells resonated with the frequency of the snakes' tongues. The snakes swayed neatly from side to side, which was completely different from the chaotic scene Qi Fei saw at the crime scene.

"Why are you showing me the video of this charlatan?" Qi Fei didn't understand Qi Dongjun's intention. However, as soon as he finished speaking, a person who appeared in the video immediately caught his attention. He stared at the screen intently, and as if he had been electrocuted, he rushed to Qi Dongjun and snatched the remote control from his hand, paused the video, and then rewound the screen several times.

Qi Fei seemed to have blocked out information from the outside world, and was still busy confirming the images in the video.

Qi Dongjun knew what he was looking for, and his deep voice echoed through the darkness: "Don't doubt it, it's her. Later I remembered that she once mentioned taking Xihe to Jiangting Island, where there was a golden snake immortal who could cure Xihe's madness. At the time, I just thought Ziyun was desperate and tried to find a cure, so I perfunctorily advised her not to trust these quack doctors."

Qi Fei stopped pressing the remote control and looked at a certain place on the screen, tears falling silently.

"Last time, you asked me why I was looking for the Golden Snake Immortal. This is my real answer. A few years ago, Huang Daqiu showed me this video at a dinner party and asked if I was interested in meeting this master. I spotted her in the crowd." "When was this video taken?"

"It was the year before she was murdered. It wasn't the first time Xihe ran away. Just like when you were little, Ziyun secretly took you to Nanling to find Xihe. Later, she secretly took Xihe to Jiangting Island."

This is a conversation between father and son. Beside them, in the projection, there is a fair-skinned woman behind the crowd. She has an outstanding temperament, and her eyes and eyebrows are very similar to Qi Fei. The woman in the picture is Qi Fei's mother Xi Ziyun who has passed away many years ago.

"She never told me why she went there. I want to know if the Golden Snake Immortal has anything to do with her death."

"Why didn't you tell me such important news when I came last time?" Qi Fei asked.

Qi Dongjun looked at Qi Fei with a calm expression: "Because, since you were born, I secretly vowed not to let you know about Xihe's existence. This is my duty as a father, but unfortunately, things did not go as I wished."

Looking over Qi Dongjun's shoulder, Qi Fei saw Xi Ziyun on the screen. The watermelon red turtleneck sweater was so vivid in his memory. The scene of his mother wearing the sweater and cooking and waiting for him in the living room after school seemed as if it were yesterday. He didn't know at that time that his mother's life had already entered the countdown.

Thinking of this, Qi Fei couldn't help but burst into tears.

"I'm sorry, Dad..." Qi Fei said this with a sob.

Qi Dongjun, who had always been calm and patient, was moved when he heard this. His face, as hard as stone, was rarely touched. There seemed to be tears in his eyes, but he covered them up by pushing up his glasses.

"Over the years, I've been dealing with the Golden Snake Immortal, and I've gradually learned that this man's rise to power is actually closely related to Nanling. Nanling and Ziyun, these two clues are enough for me to think of Xihe. But I've already demolished the Nanling guardhouse. I've been there many times, including on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, when the Golden Snake Immortal went to Nanling to meet him. I sent someone to follow him, but failed. He was very cautious.

I tried to get the Golden Snake Immortal to tell me how he found the God, but he remained tight-lipped. "It's really ironic. When Ziyun brought Xihe to find him, he was just a low-class charlatan. But in the year of this videotape, he suddenly became so popular that he became the Golden Snake Immortal, the one everyone fawned over in the world of fame and fortune."

After hearing this, Qi Fei felt as if all the threads, looking for the source, were pulled into Xi He's hands: "Mom took Xi He to find Ying Shuigen, but instead, Xi He found a puppet of his own..."

"That's right, Ying Shuigen has become Xihe's puppet. That's my conclusion." Qi Dongjun said immediately, "Unfortunately, the connection between them is so secretive. Even though the Golden Snake Immortal and I have been circling for so long, we still haven't found any trace of Xihe..."

(End of this chapter)