The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 347 Love and Deprivation
"The murder weapon, the crucial murder weapon!" Qi Fei frantically searched through the case file. He knew he had seen it before, but he didn't know why he had overlooked such important information.

His mind was filled with complex and intense emotions, like a thick fog obstructing his rational thinking.

He soon realized why he had overlooked this clue—the murder weapon was found next to Zhong Huaiting, but it only bore Zhong Huaiting's fingerprints.

"It's not that the murderer didn't leave fingerprints, it's that Zhong Huaiting wiped them away." Qi Fei knew that evidence wouldn't lie. Zhong Huaiting had grabbed the knife, but instead of killing the other person, he chose to erase the evidence. A murderer who killed his wife and children, whom he was willing to protect at all costs—there was only one possibility: the murderer was his beloved.

“Zhong Huaiting had already taken the knife; he could have killed Zhong Xiaoyu. He was still trying to save her, tying her up because he was afraid she would hurt herself?” Qi Fei felt his voice was distant, surrounded by too much noise, as if he wasn't himself anymore. “Impossible, why is this happening?”

“Only Zhong Xiaoyu knows what happened, but she created Zhong Kui.” Liu Tong paced back and forth in the office with his hands behind his back. “She is different from ordinary people. We cannot judge the veracity of her testimony. What she says may not be the truth, but she will treat these words as the truth.”

“Her book… that cult classic of psychology…” Qi Fei suddenly remembered what Jiang Tianyi had told him, “Zhong Xiaoyu believes that through certain methods, a person can autonomously create another personality. If her theory is true, she could easily practice this method on herself, disguising herself as a complete victim. Then, Zhong Kui… she… she’s just a tool Zhong Xiaoyu uses to evade responsibility.” At this point, a pang of pain shot through his heart. He felt heartbroken for Zhong Kui; he couldn’t imagine how someone as proud as Zhong Kui would face all of this if she knew the truth.
"But what about the motive? What was the motive for the crime?" Qi Fei felt that everything was beyond his comprehension. "Why would she so brutally kill her family? Xi He... all of this happened after she met Xi He..."

The face that looked so much like his own appeared in Qi Fei's mind. Xi He was like a huge dark shadow looming over Villa No. 3 on Crescent Moon Mountain.

"Regardless of the truth, Zhong Xiaoyu, now lucid, firmly believes that Xi He is the real culprit who killed her entire family. Are we deducing things wrong, or is there another reason?" Qi Fei couldn't help but flip to the photo taken by Shen Hongguan again. Zhong Xiaoyu, covered in blood, looked at the camera as if trying to tell a story. To Qi Fei's frustration, he couldn't understand that look; he didn't know what it meant.
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The door to Jiang Tianyi's psychological counseling room was knocked on again; this was the second consecutive day that an unscheduled visitor had come.

He put on his gold-rimmed glasses, got up, and opened the door.

Outside the door, Qi Fei was covered in dust, with unmelted snowflakes still clinging to his shoulders.

“Dr. Jiang, I didn’t know who else to turn to, so I came to you… I know you signed a confidentiality agreement with our police station.” Qi Fei’s voice was choked with emotion.

"Come in quickly." Jiang Tianyi's voice was as warm as a fireplace on a snowy day. "What happened?"

"I no longer know what the truth is, and I'm afraid of myself," Qi Fei muttered, unaware that his way of speaking was quite similar to Luo Xiao's back then.

Jiang Tianyi noticed his unusual behavior, but as a psychologist, he didn't panic. Instead, he had Qi Fei sit on the sofa, poured him a glass of hot water, and handed it to him, saying, "It seems you've encountered something beyond your comprehension. Sit down and tell me slowly."

The warmth of the water cup seeped into Qi Fei's palm, making him relax a little: "It's Zhong Xiaoyu. Captain Liu showed me the complete case file of the family annihilation case from back then. The facts may be different from what I, no, what we know."

Upon hearing that it was related to Zhong Xiaoyu, Jiang Tianyi paid special attention: "Judging from your expression, the contents of that file are unusual."

Qi Fei hesitated for a moment, then suddenly shook his head: "I think this is still Xi He's conspiracy. He must have rearranged the scene to mislead the police and point the finger at Zhong Xiaoyu."

Jiang Tianyi was confused by his nonsensical words: "What? The police suspect that Xiaoyu killed her own family?" "There are many suspicious points at the scene, all pointing to Zhong Xiaoyu. Even if she is not the mastermind, she may have participated in the whole crime... No, Dr. Jiang, I can't believe all this." Qi Fei gripped the cup in his hand tightly in anguish.

Jiang Tianyi didn't say anything, picked up a plate of cookies from his desk, and handed it to Qi Fei: "Try one."

Qi Fei didn't understand Jiang Tianyi's intention in doing this, but he still took a piece and put it in his mouth.

"What does it taste like?" Jiang Tianyi asked.

"Um, it's not very sweet," Qi Fei replied.

"anything else?"

"It has a spice flavor, is it cinnamon?"

"Hmm, your sense of taste is quite sensitive." Jiang Tianyi smiled slightly. "Are you feeling better?"

After Jiang Tianyi said that, Qi Fei seemed to relax a bit more than before.

He couldn't help but take another look at the seemingly ordinary cookies on the plate and asked curiously, "Do these cookies have the effect of soothing emotions?"

Jiang Tianyi smiled enigmatically: "You've come to the right person. Although I don't know what you saw, I agree with your suspicions. Xi He learned a lot of psychological techniques from Xiao Yu, and I think that was one of his purposes in getting close to her. Unfortunately, Xiao Yu became his first experimental subject to put what he had learned into practice."

I know Xiaoyu very well; she loves her parents and younger siblings very much, and she would never do anything to hurt her family.

Hearing Jiang Tianyi say that, Qi Fei felt relieved, like a child who had been coaxed.

After Qi Fei finished recounting the contents of the case file and his own reasoning in great detail, Jiang Tianyi fell into a brief silence.

The silence made Qi Fei a little flustered: "Dr. Jiang, you know Zhong Xiaoyu best, tell me your opinion."

Jiang Tianyi's expression was grave: "If I were to offer you advice from a psychological perspective, I can only say that the scene of Xiaoyu's entire family being murdered is too similar to the scene of your mother's murder. Both happened in a restaurant, both were stabbed to death. Xi He killed his own mother. I think that in his mind, he couldn't connect taking a life with evil; what's more serious is that he saw killing the other person as part of love..."
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The heavy snow covered the footprints in the maze of Nanling. Zhong Xiaoyu didn't know how long she had slept before she woke up...