The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 181 Xiaohei
At four o'clock in the morning, the moonlight was diluted by the mist and turned into a gauze curtain falling on the lush treetops.

The Nancheng Zoo was pitch black. Even the nocturnal animals climbed and walked silently, their eyes wide open, glowing, awaiting the bustle of dawn. Only the ferocious beasts of the Lion and Tiger Mountains paced anxiously within their iron cages, as if they had smelled an intruder.

In the only security room with the light on, the old security guard on night shift was grinning foolishly, various funny short videos rotating on his mobile phone screen, and noisy laughter leaked out of his headphones.

A dark shadow fell, interrupting the old security guard's happy video browsing rhythm. He was startled. When he saw the dark shadow clearly, he immediately put down his phone...

The sirens startled the egrets in the trees, and they flew into the brightening sky in the morning mist.

Wu Shanqiu yawned as she got out of the police car. She stretched her waist and said to Qi Fei who got out right after her, "If Xiaokui were here, she would be drinking hot coffee right now."

Qi Fei missed Zhong Kui more than Wu Shanqiu, and he knew how to find her - he was the only one who knew the location of the Zizai Mountain cabin.

However, he couldn't selfishly bring her back just because he missed her.

He now understood why Zhong Kui found a place to live in the mountains. It was to get rid of Xi He's entanglement and to repair her broken mind.

Liu Tong stood between Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu at some point. He deliberately unscrewed the lid of his thermos cup and took a sip of hot tea with enjoyment.

"Hey, Captain Liu." Qi Fei joked, "It's rare to be on the scene so early in the morning."

Liu Tong smiled as usual: "I am very considerate of you. The last case exhausted you all. Can't you come and support me with this early morning work?"

"Captain Liu, I remember that during the team building last year, you said you wanted to come to the zoo, but I called you childish." Wu Shanqiu ruthlessly exposed him.

"Tsk tsk, as a leader, I can't avoid being misunderstood. I am sincere to you. Let's go and see what's going on." Liu Tong tightened the lid of the thermos and walked towards the Bird Park.

The administrator swiped open the door, and a wave of heat mixed with a sour smell hit me in the face.

On the wet bluestone path, dewdrops condensed from the tips of banana leaves were dangling.

Under the glass dome, bionic concrete branches, artificial waterfalls, macaws, flamingos, peacocks, ravens, and other colorful birds were startled by these sudden intruders and fled in all directions.

In this indoor space, in order to simulate a tropical environment, the temperature and humidity are much higher than outside. The bird droppings that have accumulated overnight emit a sour and rancid stench that makes people feel nauseous.

Wu Shanqiu turned around and saw that Liu Tong had quietly put on his mask. She couldn't help but step forward and joke, "Captain Liu, you're a bit too obsessed with dragons, aren't you? Who said they liked the zoo?"

"Go do your job~" Liu Tong pointed through the mask, and saw a corpse lying on the ground covered with bird droppings under the bionic wetland plank road in the southeast corner of the Bird House.

This was a man who looked to be in his early forties, wearing a light grey jacket. His exposed neck and the backs of his hands were covered with deep and shallow bird peck marks. Several birds resembling vultures stared at the humans who visited in the early morning with their big eyes, with a timid cruelty.

The man's wallet was still on him. Qi Fei, wearing a rubber glove, opened the black wallet and took out an ID card from it, showing that the deceased's name was "Chen Hao", and there were also several of his own business cards.

"Sales Manager of Jitong Air Ticketing Company?" Qi Fei read Chen Hao's name on the business card. "Airline ticketing? Isn't that just selling plane tickets?" Wu Shanqiu leaned over and asked, "What are you doing here so late at night? The person who least needs a plane ticket is a bird, right?"

Xiao Tao was so elusive that they didn't know when he had already checked the body before them.

Looking at the three people discussing the peck marks, Xiao Tao said, "Don't look at them. These bird pecks were all inflicted after the person was completely dead. The edges of the wounds are so clean, there's not even any subcutaneous bleeding. When a living person is pecked by a bird, the skin contracts and bleeds, just like being pricked by a needle. The blame can't be put on the birds; at most, it's considered damaging the corpse."

Qi Fei looked at the deceased's slack face, which seemed to show no struggle at all before death. He couldn't help but ask, "Then what was the cause of death?"

Xiao Tao examined the deceased's eyelids and limbs. "There are no obvious fatal injuries on the body. Initial assessment suggests poisoning is possible. We'll have to wait for an autopsy to find out."

On the other side, an old security guard, wearing his uniform crookedly, stood there with a frightened look on his face. It seemed that he was the one who found the deceased.

"Did you call the police?" Qi Fei walked up to the old security guard and asked.

The old security guard nodded vigorously. "It's me, it's me! I was so scared! I came in for my shift at 9 o'clock and checked everything! There's nothing wrong!"

Qi Fei looked at the record and asked, "You called 110 around : in the morning. Did you discover it while on patrol?"

The old security guard swallowed and said, "We usually don't go into this museum to check. I'm just a doorman. If you insist on saying who found this person, it wasn't me, it was Xiao Hei!"

"Who is Xiao Hei?" Qi Fei frowned.
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The small conference room at the zoo management center was temporarily vacated as an office space for the police investigation.

Three pairs of eyes were staring at a black bird at the same time.

Its entire body was as black as ink, with two clusters of snow-white stripes blooming at the ends of its wings, and its golden eye sockets contained round amber pupils.

Liu Tong said doubtfully, "Tsk, the witness you're talking about, oh no, the witness bird, is that it?"

"Alas!" Qi Fei muttered, "The security guard who found the deceased said that it was this bird that led him to discover the deceased. He said that he found the bird running out of the Aviary at four in the morning. He just wanted to return it to the Aviary, but when he went in, he found the deceased."

"This is no ordinary bird. It's Xiao Hei, the internet-famous starling from the Nancheng Zoo." Wu Shanqiu opened up her familiar territory and introduced it in a clear and concise manner. "I've been checking its Douyin account frequently for a while. It's so fun."

"What's so good about a bird?" Qi Fei said disapprovingly. Just as he finished speaking, a voice suddenly came from the other side, as if someone was speaking in a strangled voice: "Idiot!"

The three people were startled, and the starling opposite shook its wings.

Qi Fei couldn't believe his ears: "Was that it just talking?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the starling opened its yellow beak and said, "Idiot!" The words were clear and sincere.

"Hey? Why does this bird start scolding me right away?" Qi Fei touched his nose. He never thought that he would be scolded by a bird in his lifetime.