The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 346 Unable to be Falsified
"The truth is in your hands," Liu Tong said.

Qi Fei followed his gaze and looked down at the file in his hand. The thorn in his heart ached faintly, reminding him to look at it again and again.

He flipped through the files from the beginning, and time seemed to repeat itself as Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao pushed open the door to Villa No. 3 on Crescent Moon Mountain.

This time, with a renewed sense of scrutiny, Qi Fei began to fill in the gaps in the scenes that Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao couldn't recount, bearing many familiar marks. The viscous, semi-dried pool of blood resembled a calm lake, surrounded by scattered footprints and bloodstains like calligraphic strokes, silently depicting the struggle between Zhong Huaiting and the murderer, the two entangled from the dining room all the way to the living room.

Zhong Xiaoyu, covered in blood, and Zhu Zi, equally stained with blood, were steeped in the stench of evil and slaughter.

What first caught Qi Fei's attention was the only remaining photo of Zhong Xiaoyu tied to a pillar, and another photo of the pillar taken by police officers who arrived later, by which time Zhong Xiaoyu had already been rescued by Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao.

Bloodstains remained on the pillar.

“Splattered blood…” Qi Fei murmured, his breathing becoming rapid. He turned over and over, the bloodstain leaving a perfect arc on the pillar, hidden behind Zhong Xiaoyu, overlapping with the bloodstains on her clothes.

From that moment on, he stepped onto the same path that Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao had both taken—that black path leading to a realm of despair.

"This isn't right... Captain Liu, this isn't right..." Qi Fei seemed incoherent.

“That’s right, that’s why they committed suicide. Remember what I told you, be fully prepared mentally.” Liu Tong’s firm voice came through, like a navigator on this dangerous journey.

“There’s something wrong with the bloodstains at the scene.” Qi Fei tried to analyze the situation from the perspective of a pure criminal investigator. “If the murderer tied Zhong Xiaoyu to the pillar from the beginning so she would witness her family being killed, then the part of the pillar that Zhong Xiaoyu was covering shouldn’t have any bloodstains. Also, there wouldn’t be any bloodstains on her back that would have smeared onto the pillar. Theoretically, there would be a blank area there, including the ropes; the area covered by the ropes should also be clean. But the bloodstains on the pillar are continuous, meaning that Zhong Xiaoyu was tied up in the middle, or even…”

He continued flipping through the documents, his fingertips tracing each word and each photograph, feeling himself sinking deeper into a dark fog. All the clues were beginning to extend in a bizarre direction: "Something's still not right. She was tied up in the living room. Apart from Zhong Huaiting, the other three victims were murdered on their seats in the dining room. The bloodstains in the dining room were from Zhong Huaiting's struggle with the killer. The splattered blood tested and was Zhong Huaiting's, but the bloodstains of all four victims were found on the pillar, as well as on Zhong Xiaoyu. The other people's bloodstains were smeared from Zhong Xiaoyu's body onto the pillar... This can only mean one thing: Zhong Xiaoyu was at the dining table when her family was murdered..." His hands suddenly gripped the file tightly, and he almost growled, "Impossible, absolutely impossible. The murderer must have dragged her to the living room. Otherwise, how do you explain that her father, Zhong Huaiting, fell in the direction she was facing? He was trying to save her, to save her..." He hesitated at this point, and began flipping through the file rapidly as if possessed, finally stopping at the examination record of the ropes binding Zhong Xiaoyu. Although the ropes were mixed with everyone's blood, only one person's fingerprints were found.

He slumped back in his chair, muttering, "There's only Zhong Huaiting's fingerprints on the rope... could it be..."

Liu Tong sat opposite Qi Fei, calmly observing his bewilderment and confusion: "At the crime scene, no footprints or fingerprints were found except for those of the Zhong family of five. This is the main reason why the murderer has not been found for so long. Including surveillance footage from the Crescent Moon Villa area and investigations of other residents, no valuable clues were found. Shen Hongguan is an experienced veteran police officer; he couldn't possibly have missed the suspicious points you saw at the scene."

However, it was precisely because he was a veteran police officer that my suspicions about his own evil began to waver. Luo Xiao was unable to escape the bloody shadow of the case because he was inexperienced, but the first to commit suicide was Shen Hongguan, who was more experienced.

I was completely baffled until I obtained information from the Baicheng Police Station that wasn't in the case file—Zhong Xiaoyu had been an external psychological counselor for the Baicheng Police Station, just like Jiang Tianyi was doing now. Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao had both received routine psychological counseling from her.

Hearing this, Qi Fei seemed to understand: "Zhong Xiaoyu is not a stranger to them, but someone they trust. My God... impossible!" He suddenly covered his head with his hands, breathing heavily, as if that would drive his thoughts out of his mind.

“I think both Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao have experienced the struggle you are going through right now. Because of his experience, Shen Hongguan realized earlier than Luo Xiao that the suspicious points at the scene all pointed to an unexpected person, the only surviving daughter at the scene. Zhong Huaiting didn’t fall next to Zhong Xiaoyu to save her.” As Liu Tong spoke, a nightmarish scene flashed through Qi Fei’s mind: the heavily injured Zhong Huaiting using his last bit of strength to tie Zhong Xiaoyu up.

Meanwhile, Zhong Xiaoyu, the usually refined and rational female doctor, suddenly erupted in a frenzied rage, roaring as she watched Zhong Huaiting collapse before her.

"What am I thinking? How could I have such a distorted imagination? A noble psychologist could not possibly commit such a beastly act as killing his own family!" Qi Fei shook his head desperately in denial, tears streaming down his face without him even realizing it.

“Remember, before Luo Xiao committed suicide, he started investigating the devil. He must have believed he had saved a devil, a devil with an angelic face. Everyone who discovered the strange aspects of the case experienced an irredeemable disillusionment, just like you right now. You deduced the result based on clues, yet you are filled with guilt because of your reasoning. I think Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao both took their own lives because they couldn't face their inner darkness. I went to Baicheng Mental Hospital and asked around. Both of them visited Zhong Xiaoyu before they committed suicide. At that time, Zhong Xiaoyu was in a state of dementia. You know best how Zhong Xiaoyu's resilience and innocence inspired trust and touched people.” Liu Tong sighed.

"So, they think they're wrong, but they can't prove they're wrong; their conscience has killed them..." Qi Fei still didn't believe it. "This must be a setup. I don't believe it..."