The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 344 Sealed Files
Xi He extended his hand to Zhong Xiaoyu.

The moment the two people's icy hands touched, the surrounding snowflakes seemed to freeze.

The lingering warmth in her palms told her that this was not an illusion.

Many years ago, many years ago, on the edge of those chaotic memories, she remembered him as a boy, appearing before her in tattered clothes, like Lucifer fallen to earth, and she was the only one in the world who could catch him.

This labyrinth of Nanling appeared countless times in the dreams he recounted, enacting bizarre and fragmented dreams.

A strange person like him, no one in this world could understand him except her.

A strange person like her, no one in this world can understand her except him.

Their icy fingertips met, their slightly warm palms pressed together. Zhong Xiaoyu knew that the person in front of her was not an illusion. Even so, she still followed him into the depths of the maze as if she had lost her soul...

At the police station, after a hotpot meal, Liu Tong let Wu Shanqiu leave first, leaving Qi Fei behind alone.

Liu Tong took out an old file bag from the drawer. It was stuffed tightly and looked quite heavy.

"These are all the files on the Zhong family massacre case transferred from Baicheng. You can take a look." Liu Tong, who was usually so nonchalant, was unusually serious this time.

"I already saw this file when I went to Baicheng," Qi Fei said, puzzled as to why Liu Tong was suddenly showing it to him.

"Are you sure you're looking at the same document?" Liu Tong's words were loaded with meaning.

Qi Fei then noticed that the number on the file folder was not the same as the one he had looked up before.

"Why is there a second version of the case file?" Qi Fei was taken aback.

“When you go to Baicheng, they will definitely tell you that the police officers who handled the case back then are no longer on duty.” Liu Tong seemed to know a lot about the situation back then.

“Yes, I remember they said these people either resigned or left their posts as criminal police officers. At the time, I wondered if there was some reason behind this, and if it was related to this complete case file?” Qi Fei immediately thought.

"This is the official response. In fact, the two officers who arrived at the scene earlier committed suicide one after the other shortly after the incident. All officers involved in this case received psychological counseling. In the end, the Baicheng Police Department could only delete the core content and keep one file available for review. The copy you have has been seen by no more than six people." Liu Tong's voice was much lower than usual; Qi Fei had never seen him so serious.

Liu Tong's warning added an even greater layer of mystery to this long-sealed file.

As he prepared to open the file folder, Liu Tong pressed his hand against the seal and reminded him again, "You need to be fully prepared, no matter what you see..."

Liu Tong's words added a layer of unease to Qi Fei's heart. The yellowed documents in the file folder slowly unfolded before Qi Fei's eyes. Perhaps it was his deep connection with the two key figures in this case, but the details of these cases easily transformed into blood-stained memories, as if possessing the officers who arrived at the scene back then. The past vividly replayed in his mind:

On January 10, 2015, police officers Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao from the Yueyashan area of ​​Baicheng received a message that some residents of the Yueyashan Villas reported a strange odor emanating from Villa No. 3 for several days, and no one answered when they knocked on the door. They requested that the police go and investigate.

The villas on Crescent Moon Mountain have very large courtyards, and there are trees between adjacent villas to block out the smell. The fact that the neighbors called the police indicates that the smell was already very strong.

Sure enough, when the two policemen arrived at the gate of Villa No. 3, the stench of decay that wafted up with the mountain breeze was so strong it was nauseating. Not only that, countless flies swarmed and buzzed annoyingly in the foul air, completely clashing with the elegant, lush environment of the villa district.

Compared to Luo Xiao, who was in his early twenties, Shen Hongguan was a seasoned veteran policeman. He quickly noticed the unusual nature of these flies. They had a bluish-green metallic sheen and were not ordinary flies, but "green bean flies" that had hatched on the corpse.

So many flies meant there were definitely a lot of corpses. He decisively chose to climb over the wall.

The yard was clean, and everything seemed normal except for the annoying green flies that kept interfering with their view.

This is a three-story villa facing southeast. The front door on the first floor is tightly closed. At first glance, it seems normal. Only the curtains fluttering through the half-open window reveal dark red flowers that stand out. Upon closer inspection, it is discovered that these are not patterns, but rather bloody handprints of despair.

Young Luo Xiao gasped in fright, and Shen Hongguan was also extremely nervous, but as a senior, he had to pretend to be calm.

The stench permeating the air was so strong that even covering their mouths and noses couldn't stop it, making the two of them feel nauseous.

After finally reaching the front door on the first floor, which was made of brass, Shen Hongguan tried turning the handle. With a "click," the door was unlocked and opened.

The transcript ended there. For some reason, neither Shen Hongguan nor Luo Xiao could describe what happened after they entered the villa.

Fortunately, the police reinforcements arrived at the scene and took many photos. Compared to the case files seen in Baicheng, these photos captured many details of the scene.

Qi Fei carefully examined each photo in the case file, and the crime scene, pieced together from the pictures, appeared in his mind in a montage.

Contrary to the imagined chaos, the scene was filled with an eerie sense of ritual. The family sat around the dining table, the once abundant food now rotting and crawling with maggots. Each person had been stabbed to death while seated, their gray corpses slumped like dolls from a horror movie, a thick pool of blood swarming beneath the table, covered with black flies.

However, there were two empty chairs at the table. Logically, only Zhong Xiaoyu, who was tied up, should have left the table.

Qi Fei, engrossed in flipping through the pages with questions in mind, suddenly stopped.

A photo of Zhong Xiaoyu at the scene was prominently displayed in the case file. If it weren't for her large, deer-like eyes, it would be hard to believe that the girl tied to the pillar in the photo was Zhong Xiaoyu. She looked like a monster crawling out of a sea of ​​blood, covered in blood from head to toe, except for her black eyes. Her black pupils almost filled her entire eye sockets, staring straight at the camera as if she were possessed. Even in a photograph, the eye contact with her sent chills down Qi Fei's spine.

Along with her appeared another corpse, a tall male corpse lying face down at her feet, his back and hands covered in knife wounds, seemingly having exhausted his last bit of life trying to save Zhong Xiaoyu. Qi Fei read the records in the dossier and learned that this male corpse belonged to Zhong Xiaoyu's father, Zhong Huaiting.