The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 4 Another Man with the Surname Zhu

An old woman in her sixties walked out from behind the statue. When she saw him, her face was all smiles, her wrinkles knitted together. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"How do you know me?" Qi Fei's hand was already on his gun.

The old woman didn't answer, but walked forward and handed him a Feng Shui compass: "Go, she is waiting for you."

"Did Zhong Kui ask you to give it to me?"

"Go wherever it tells you to go." The old woman said nothing more and turned to go to the back hall.

Zhong Kui had calculated that he would arrive at Wong Tai Sin Temple by this time, and this scheming made Qi Fei shudder. However, this compass was of no use to him. He had come here fully prepared and had already brought a compass with him.

Qi Fei drove the car to the foot of the mountain and walked towards the mountain road according to the location given by Zhong Kui.

After walking for about half an hour, the phone suddenly froze and I restarted it several times without success.

Qi Fei looked at the fork in the road ahead and scratched his head in annoyance.

Suddenly I remembered the Feng Shui compass and quickly took it out from my backpack.

Soon, he discovered the trick of the compass. The central needle was weird, so he took out the compass he brought with him. Sure enough, the compass needle was tilted and was not pointing to due south or north.

Obviously, this was another hint given to him by Zhong Kui.

She knew that her cell phone would malfunction, so from here on out, she could only rely on this compass.

"Haha, I hid myself so well!" Qi Fei muttered to himself, and could only continue to move forward in the direction of the pointer.

After passing through the dense forest that blocked out the sun, there was an open meadow in front of us. Not far from the meadow, there were several wooden houses with lights on.

It seems that he has finally arrived at Zhong Kui's residence.

There is a small wooden door in front of the house. When you push it open, the wind chimes above it will sound a crisp sound.

Suddenly a dark shadow attacked, and Qi Fei was so scared that he took out his gun and prepared to shoot.

Looking closely, he saw a huge cat landing in front of him. It was half a person's height, with blue-gray fur and big golden eyes, staring at him warily.

"Rakshasa, it's a guest." Zhong Kui appeared at the door of the wooden house at some point and stopped the big cat.

Luosha bared his fangs at Qi Fei, then retreated to Zhong Kui's side, following him like a bodyguard.

"We meet again, Officer Qi." Zhong Kui said to Qi Fei with a smile, with a strange sense of intimacy, "You are a good policeman."

"I went through so much trouble, not to hear your praise. How did you know Chen Xiaojing's body was soaked in rice wine?"

"Chen Xiaojing told me."

"Your trick can only deceive ordinary people. You said I was a good police officer, but I can still tell whether I'm lying or not." Zhong Kui sneered: "Chen Xiaojing also told me that you arrested the wrong person."

"Zhu Qi has already confessed his guilt. What is your intention in confusing the public? Unless, you are related to this case." Qi Fei stared at Zhong Kui with sharp eyes.

Zhong Kui walked to Qi Fei, stretched out his finger, and scratched Qi Fei's neck with his nails.

Qi Fei knew he should hide, but for some reason he didn't. It was as if he had been struck by a spell that froze him. The cold nails seemed ready to slice his neck at any moment. A huge sense of terror washed over him. In a trance, he saw Chen Xiaojing's head soaked in a wine jar, chopped neatly along the neck...

"Come in and have some tea." Zhong Kui's voice interrupted Qi Fei's reverie.

As if by teleportation, Zhong Kui had already entered the house.

The room was filled with smoke from the burning incense. There were clean straw mats, a tea table, and futons spread out, like a teahouse deep in the mountains. There were also wind chimes hanging next to the tea table. She seemed to like wind chimes very much.

She gestured for Qi Fei to sit in front of the tea table and poured him a cup of tea in an antique teacup.

Qi Fei knew it was useless to ask directly, so he followed up on Zhong Kui's words and asked, "What did Chen Xiaojing say to you?"

Unexpectedly, Zhong Kui raised her eyes and smiled at him: "You worked so hard to find me, wouldn't it be a shame if you only heard some nonsense?"

This was an indirect admission that she had not communicated with Chen Xiaojing's ghost.

Zhong Kui said as he leisurely arranged the tea sets, "This time last year, someone came to me with a request. I read the content and it was boring. I didn't want to accept it at first, but when I saw the cash in their donation box, it was so generous and the value for money was so high, so I changed my mind." Zhong Kui spoke slowly, still in that lazy tone, "The person who came to me was a 27-year-old man. He said he kept dreaming of a great flood. He was drifting in a wooden barrel, and there was a monster in the water chasing him, but he couldn't paddle the barrel. In the end, the monster would catch him and strip all his clothes off."

"Huh? Funny." Qi Fei felt it was nonsense when he heard this.

"Funny? I just felt that this person was full of secrets, fear and despair." Zhong Kui said, "I had a deep chat with him and finally returned the money to him."

"You can't handle it?"

"Oh, he didn't need me to fix it. He knew what the monster was, but he didn't want me to know. What else could I say? The following year, someone paid me a lot of money to summon the ghost of a wronged woman named Chen Xiaojing and ask her if she had killed someone named Zhu Qi. It was very interesting. It reminded me of that person before."

"Are these two things related?" Qi Fei couldn't help but ask.

Zhong Kui didn't answer immediately, but stretched out his hand: "If you want me to tell you, give me my business card and your answer sheet first."

Qi Fei had no choice but to take out the coded business card customized by Zhong Kui and the handwritten latitude and longitude that he had cracked from his pocket.

Zhong Kui took it and threw it directly into the incense burner. The fire jumped a few times and then went out.

As a puff of green smoke rose, Zhong Kui said slowly, "Let me tell you what that person's dreams were about. He has always been afraid of disasters like floods, which are often related to death. The immovable wooden barrel and the pursuing monsters are all shadows that he cannot escape. It doesn't matter. Everyone has their own fears that they cannot get rid of. What's interesting is the ending of this dream. He was stripped naked by the monster. Officer Qi, imagine what it means to be stripped naked. A person's most private things are exposed. Throughout the dream, what he feared most was not the monster, but what the monster did to him." At this point, Zhong Kui plucking the wind chime hanging beside her with her hand. The bell dinged, accompanied by her words, "The previous person had his first nightmare thirteen years ago. Moreover, his last name is also Zhu."

Qi Fei's head buzzed, and his police intuition told him that this was not a coincidence.

Zhong Kui walked over to him, staring at him with deer-like eyes, and continued, "He has an unspeakable secret, one related to death and loss of control, but he has no intention of telling me. He just wants me to drive away the monster that is chasing him."

(End of this chapter)