The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 142 Shattered Fingerprints
Immediately afterwards, Qi Fei took away the form that Wang Defa had found just in case.

This is Tang Zhaoxu's registration form, with an old ID photo pasted on it. The girl in the form has an elegant face, and it can be seen that she must be quite good-looking.

Qi Fei glanced at the information of Tang Zhaoxu's parents. As expected, they were both teachers. It seemed that he came from a scholarly family. He didn't know why he got together with Huang Daqiu.

……

"Brother Fei, I asked around and found out that Tang Zhaoxu's family has been abroad for many years. It seems like they are deliberately avoiding Huang Daqiu." In the police station, Wu Shanqiu said to Qi Fei disappointedly.

"I understand. After all, Huang Daqiu is so high-profile. If they stay in China, this matter will be exposed sooner or later. It will undoubtedly be a secondary trauma for them." Qi Fei said, "Have you found any clues about the child?"

Wu Shanqiu shook her head. "It seems her parents kept this very secret. We finally managed to track down their former neighbors, but none of them knew about the child. But one thing is certain: Tang Zhaoxu went abroad three years after dropping out of school, which means the child wasn't born abroad. Furthermore, we contacted immigration officials, and they found out that Tang Zhaoxu went abroad with only her parents and no child."

Qi Fei stroked his chin thoughtfully: "In other words, the child was abandoned in the country by them."

"Yes, the area is too large. The Tang family has not had any contact with the country since they immigrated. It is almost impossible to find them in a short period of time." Wu Shanqiu pouted.

"Damn, the clue is broken again." Qi Fei scratched his head irritably, flipping through the disciplinary record he brought back. His eyes gradually fell on the fingerprint left by Huang Daqiu and he suddenly fell silent.

"Brother Fei, what are you looking at?" Wu Shanqiu's voice seemed to reach his ears from far away.

He seemed to be back in Ying Shuigen's ward, with Zhong Kui standing beside him. He murmured, "Nancheng Hongde Culture Communication Co., Ltd..."

"Huh? What?" Wu Shanqiu didn't understand why he suddenly mentioned this company. "Isn't that the party B of the contract that Huang Daqiu checked before he died?"

Qi Fei seemed to wake up suddenly from a dream and said to Wu Shanqiu: "Did we get that contract?!"

"Yes, didn't we get it from the address above? We questioned the company for a long time at that time, and they themselves didn't know that this deal had anything to do with Huang Daqiu..." As Wu Shanqiu spoke, she swiftly found the contract from a pile of documents and placed it in front of Qi Fei.

Qi Fei picked up the contract and placed it next to Huang Daqiu's disciplinary record. He suddenly took a deep breath and said, "So that's it!"

Wu Shanqiu was confused: "Brother Fei, what did you find out?"

Qi Fei overlapped the contract and the disciplinary record again. At this time, a faint handprint on the corner of the contract suddenly became obvious.

It looked like someone accidentally got their hands on a fingerprint from printer ink. When Wu Shanqiu placed this black fingerprint next to Huang Daqiu's, she noticed something was wrong: "Ah, why are both fingerprints broken?"

Indeed, as Wu Shanqiu said, the patterns of the two fingerprints were different from those of ordinary people. There were no continuous arch-shaped or bucket-shaped layered textures. Instead, they were like a pile of crushed filaments irregularly printed on the paper. There was no texture at all, and only a blurry mark could be seen.

"Although I don't know what this is, it's obvious that Huang Daqiu saw fingerprints similar to his on this contract." Qi Fei said as he stood up, "Come on, come with me to find Xiao Tao."

Huang Daqiu's body was destined not to rest in peace so soon. Qi Fei half-knelt, and with his rubber-gloved hand, he grasped Huang Daqiu's pale hand and examined his fingers closely. Sure enough, just as his fingerprints had shown, none of his fingers had any lines, as if they had been rubbed by a grinding wheel.

Xiao Tao's emotionless voice came from the side. "I've had them re-do the genetic testing on Huang Daqiu's sample. Judging from his symptoms, he very likely has dermatoglyphics, which is caused by a deletion or mutation in the SMARCAD1 gene. This gene affects the differentiation and proliferation of epidermal cells in the fetus. Patients are born without fingerprints and lack normal skin folds on their palms and soles. They can't display normal fingerprints like ordinary people. You guessed it, this is a rare genetic disease. When I say rare, I mean very rare. The incidence rate is approximately 1 in 1.6 million to 1 in 6.25 million."

"It seems that Huang Daqiu knows that his condition is hereditary. He understands the probability of this disease. If we take Nancheng as an example, the probability of two people suffering from this disease at the same time is almost impossible. He found traces of his illegitimate son in this contract, so he hurried to find Ying Shuigen and wanted to track down this person's whereabouts." Qi Fei understood Xiao Tao's words this time.

"Ha!" Wu Shanqiu said from behind them, "We've been searching high and low for something, but nothing works. Looks like we need to look for this Hongde Culture Company? Is the suspect working at this company?!"

The police car parked quietly downstairs of Hongde Culture Building.

"Everyone in the company is here," the general manager said, apprehensively. "You, are you here to audit the taxes?"

Qi Fei looked around the entire company. This small company was filled with all kinds of props and materials. The busy appearance seemed to indicate that the business was booming.

"Wenchang Pagoda, Guangming Lamp..." Zhong Kui picked up the randomly placed things and said with great interest, "This colored glass Fu Lu Shou is also good..."

The manager looked puzzled at the girl in front of him, whose dress and tone of voice had nothing to do with police officers, and said hesitantly, "You, you know our business quite well..."

Zhong Kui gave the manager a charming smile: "Let's go together."

"Ah?" The manager thought he had misheard.

Seeing this, Qi Fei quickly stepped forward to interrupt, grabbing a nearby fortune-attracting toad ornament and saying, "She's trying to say this bronze toad is also good." Then he immediately sternly demanded of the manager, "Show us all your hands."

"Hand?" The manager once again thought he had misheard and his face was full of question marks.

Qi Fei glanced at him and said, "Yes, stretch out your hand. Let's start with you."

Time passed minute by minute, Wu Shanqiu and Qi Fei looked at each other and shook their heads slightly almost at the same time - it seemed that the person they were looking for was not here.

"Who else have you shown this contract to?" Qi Fei took out the contract with fingerprints and asked the manager.

The manager frowned and looked at it for a long time: "This is just an ordinary contract. I really can't remember it."

After going downstairs, Qi Fei got into the driver's seat of the car, but did not start the car immediately. He held the steering wheel, thought for a moment, and drove towards the city.

"Brother Fei, aren't we going back to the police station?" Wu Shanqiu asked.

(End of this chapter)