The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 151 Police Number 830401
"These analyses sound simple now. These four dreams were originally dreamed by Xi He repeatedly and randomly. Just sorting out the sequence between them has taken too much time, and the relationship between us has become too deep.

When I finally asked him what happened to his mother, he suddenly hugged me and started crying like I had never seen him cry before, as if he..."

"He never cries." Qi Dongjun suddenly said, looking at Zhong Xiaoyu with worry in his eyes. "I know my son, Doctor Zhong, this is not a good thing for you."

Zhong Xiaoyu was stunned, then lowered his head and reached out to push his glasses: "Sure enough, Xihe's father is also extraordinary."

"You're too kind. I just know that Xihe's love is very dangerous. He's willing to confess his weaknesses and dreams to you. This is second only to his attachment to his mother. As for his mother, I think you already know the ending now."

Zhong Xiaoyu glanced aside stubbornly, as if she didn't want Qi Dongjun to see her vulnerability: "I would rather die under his knife like your lover."

"What did he do to you?" Qi Dongjun asked.

When Zhong Xiaoyu looked at Qi Dongjun again, he had regained his previous composure and said calmly, "That's not important." Then he changed the subject, "What's important is that your goal is the same as mine."

Qi Dongjun frowned: "Tell me what my purpose is?"

"Protect Qi Fei." Zhong Xiaoyu's words immediately hit Qi Dongjun's lifeline. "I know you had no choice but to tell him about Xi He, but..." She pressed her hand lightly on the table, "I made him forget what you said."

At this moment, spring thunder suddenly sounded outside the window, and the corners of Qi Dongjun's mouth twitched unconsciously.

"I know what you want. What you lost to Xihe, I will help you get back from Qifei. All you need to do is help me find Xihe." Zhong Xiaoyu's words were like a spell, gradually leading Qidong County to fall. "Trading a son of a devil for a son of an angel, this deal, as a business tycoon, you must be able to make sense of."
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"You have been lying to me from the very beginning. In this world, you are the only one who can deceive me." Zhong Kui sat in the dark room. It seemed that in the darkness opposite, Zhong Xiaoyu was sitting there, facing her, and she couldn't see his expression clearly.

"I'm sorry, but I must defeat Xihe, otherwise I won't be able to go to hell with peace of mind." Zhong Xiaoyu's voice came, gentle and healing like an angel, saying the coldest words.

"I'm not you."

"You are me, my darkest side."

"Humph, you don't even believe what you're saying, right? You're the one manipulating everything behind the scenes. You know deep down that the most despicable part is still in you."

"Zhong Kui, I gave you all the qualities I wanted, the power of darkness, and my pride. If I still kept this pride, I would not be mean."

Zhong Xiaoyu's words were so charming that Zhong Kui almost believed them.

Then he sneered disdainfully: "Oh, so I should thank you? What about Qi Fei, what did he do wrong?" "In this world, not only those who do wrong things have to pay the price." Zhong Xiaoyu's voice came, always wearing a mask of kindness and saying unorthodox words.

"This world should be fair."

"This world is inherently unfair. If you only have to pay the price for doing something wrong, then what have my family and my patients done wrong? I'm the one who's wrong, Xi He can just kill me. If being a family member is wrong, then Qi Fei's fault is that he and Xi He were conceived in the same womb."

"I understand, Qi Fei, is your ultimate revenge on Xi He. The goal of your birth has always been Xi He and Qi Fei."

"Zhong Kui, this is your fate, you can't escape it."

"Zhong Xiaoyu, you are the one who is the most seriously ill. You have omnipotent narcissism and a God complex."

"I know exactly who I am. Do you think after all I've been through, I care about these definitions and slanders? So-called psychology, to me, is just another shallow religion. I am my own God, and God can punish all evil."

"Don't forget that your body is under my control. Aren't you afraid that I will destroy you along with you?"

"Guess why I gave you all my pride. Your pride won't allow you to defeat me in such a cowardly way. Zhong Kui, bring out all your fighting spirit and give me and Xi He a good fight to see if you can save the lover I gave you."

Zhong Kui forcefully pulled open the curtains, letting in dazzling light. Outside, the water was green and the mountains were verdant, a sign of early spring. The room was empty, with only Zhong Kui standing alone in the sunlight.

Unfortunately, this light could not dispel the gloom on her face.

"Zhong Xiaoyu, you are right, then let's have fun." Zhong Kui raised the corners of her red lips, her eyes unwavering.
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Torrential rain had shattered the stained glass windows of Nancheng Old Church. Seventeen silver-plated dressing mirrors hung upside down from the dome, their surfaces reflecting the shadows cast by the Gothic ribs. As Zhong Kui waded through the puddles into the nave, she watched as medical examiner Xiao Tao unearthed a third female corpse from beneath the altar. The deceased had been bound with her hands behind her back in a fetal position, her body smeared with bone-white paint, forming an eerie mirror image of the stained Madonna.

"The time of death appears to be twelve o'clock. I wonder if it was noon or midnight." Xiao Tao looked at the watches on the two deceased men. Both were smashed in the fight, and the time was frozen at around midnight. Qi Fei lifted the cordon, the light from his phone screen illuminating his newly sprouted stubble. "All three bodies were wearing 12s Dacron shirts, and the positions of death were exactly the same as recorded in the 1983 'Mirror Demon Case' file."

Zhong Kui's stilettos tapped against the waterlogged bricks, and her rubber-gloved fingertips brushed against the copper wire entwined in the dead man's hair. "The real performance art is here." She suddenly pulled the wig from behind the corpse's left ear. Dark red talismans snaked across the scalp like veins. "It's a Ming Dynasty soul-calming inscription, but it's been laced with modern fluorescent agents."

The officer from the Physical Evidence Division suddenly exclaimed. Everyone looked up. The rainstorm had ceased at some point, and moonlight pierced the dome's mirror array, casting a massive inverted pentagram on the ground. Where the stars intersected, a fourth body, kneeling in a prostration, suddenly appeared—a skeleton clearly more than thirty years old and wearing an old-fashioned uniform emblazoned with the inscription "Nancheng Criminal Investigation."

"Brother Fei..." Xiao Tao used tweezers to pick up the police badge from the skeleton's pocket. The metal numbers shone a faint blue in the moonlight - 830401. This was the police number everyone in the Nancheng Police Department knew. It belonged to the officer who had been missing for 42 years - Ye Ming. "We seem to have found the missing Old Ye."

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　　(End of this chapter)