The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 327 Sink
The test results for the sand and gravel came back quickly, and they were exactly the same as those from Fujikyo.

Qi Fei reluctantly returned to Bu Er Jing and searched back and forth along the long road, hoping to find any clues about Dong Ziwu's fall.

Judging from the condition of his wounds, Dong Ziwu collapsed while unconscious, which means there must have been other people around him. After all, an unconscious person couldn't have moved to the Path of No Two on their own.

Therefore, Qi Fei believed that finding the scene where Dong Ziwu fell would lead to clues about the murderer.

But from sunrise to sunset, the entire day's search yielded nothing.

Travelers have already appeared on the reopened No. 2 Trail. After sunset, a few people set up tents on both sides of the road, planning to camp overnight and continue hiking the next morning.

Qi Fei sat wearily by the roadside, gazing wistfully at the scattered lights along the way, thinking that if things had turned out this way, Dong Ziwu would have been rescued by now.

Unfortunately, the Path of No Two was closed that time, and it must have been pitch black at night with no end in sight.

Having worked as a criminal investigator for many years, he had witnessed many ways to die. Dong Ziwu's death was both ordinary and desperate, as if it were a condensed version of real life.

Seeing Qi Fei's helpless expression, Wu Shanqiu suddenly asked from the side, "Why are you so sure that Dong Ziwu must have fallen in the bushes?"

This statement enlightened Qi Fei; the person who brought Dong Ziwu here must be very familiar with the terrain.

With an unconscious adult male in tow, he would certainly look for the most convenient path up the mountain; climbing over the bushes is definitely not a good option.

“There’s only one path up the mountain here. Normally, it would take a day and a night to reach the place where Dong Ziwu was abandoned. The effects of the medicine on Dong Ziwu shouldn’t last that long, so we have to rule that out first.” Qi Fei forced himself to stand up and continued to survey his surroundings in the last rays of sunlight.

As he was searching with his head down, a bright light swept across his head. He looked up, but the mountain was pitch black and there was nothing there. Just as he was wondering what was going on, a moment later, another bright light pierced through the trees and swept along the ridge from south to north.

"Oh, there's a mountain road up here?" Qi Fei realized that these were car lights. He had been so focused on checking the section of the Buerjing Road that he hadn't noticed there was a road for vehicles going up the hillside.

“Yeah, right,” a camper chimed in. “This mountain road is quite hidden; you can’t even see it during the day. Only people camping at Buerjing will see those car lights and know there’s a road up there.”

"Is there a road from that highway that leads to Bu Er Jing?" Qi Fei asked.

The camper laughed: "Hey handsome, guess why the 'Second Path' is called that? It's because there are no side paths to take, right? That's a road for cars, of course there's no way to get there."

Qi Fei looked at the hillside with disappointment. The sky had quickly darkened, and the deep green that could still be seen had turned into sparse black shadows.

Using only the camping lights, he could see a white ribbon hanging down the mountainside from the winding road in the darkness. At first glance, it seemed like a road, but this "white ribbon" was perpendicular to the mountain road and didn't look like it was laid out for pedestrian convenience. Qi Fei turned on his flashlight and climbed up the hillside to examine it more closely. He saw that the white thing was a cement trough, but because of the recent dry season, the entire trough was dry and white, making it quite conspicuous in the night.

“Cement…” Qi Fei seemed to be thinking about something, then suddenly quickened his pace and ran towards the place where Dong Ziwu’s footprints were first discovered.

The flashlight beam flickered, and the forest was completely shrouded in darkness. Sure enough, a dry ditch was near the road. The slope here was much gentler than the previous place. Qi Fei tried stepping on the ditch and found that as long as he used the right amount of force, he could indeed climb up.

He held up his flashlight and inspected every inch of the sink, finally finding a small piece of khaki fabric on the inner wall. It seemed to be a tear left by something that had slipped and been scraped by the rough cement wall.

Qi Fei struggled to stay halfway up the mountain, looking up and down, when suddenly an idea came to him.
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"Brother Fei, the fabric you found in the sink has been tested and is identified as a nylon with a waterproof coating." At the police station, Wu Shanqiu went to find Qi Fei as soon as she received the report. "It's commonly used in outdoor products..."

"Like a tent?" Qi Fei immediately asked.

“That’s right,” Wu Shanqiu said. “However, there are many campers in that place, so it’s normal to have tents. It’s just a bit strange that they’re on the water trough.”

Qi Fei stroked the music box on the table. Inside the crystal ball, a scarecrow stood smiling in the artificial snow. This was a gift from Zhong Kui during the investigation of the case of Niu Yinzhu's murder in Nancheng Investment. At this moment, the gift seemed to have a kind of spiritual power, giving him a concrete image in his mind. He raised the corner of his mouth slightly, stopped his finger, and said, "Let's go to Buerjing to do an experiment."

The mountain wind rustled the pine trees, and a mannequin wrapped in a tent cloth was placed on a water trough.

The water tank was just wide enough to accommodate an adult, and the smooth material of the tent fabric allowed the dummy to slide down the hillside like a slide.

At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly. If the goal was to transport a comatose and incapacitated person to Buerjing, this was a near-perfect method—first, transport the comatose Dong Ziwu to the mountain road by car, then wrap him in a tent and send him down the hillside water trough. He could be easily abandoned on Buerjing, and all that was left was to come down and collect the tent.

However, when the dummy simulating Dong Ziwu was about to slide to the bottom, its feet hit a protrusion in the water tank, causing it to flip upside down and land directly on the Buerjing.

This explains the origin of the scars on Dong Ziwu's face.

It seems that this is how the murderer abandoned Dong Ziwu. No wonder there were no signs of damage to the surrounding vegetation. Unfortunately, Dong Ziwu, who was unfamiliar with the terrain, had no imagination at all. He could have escaped by climbing up the hillside.

Looking at the not-so-steep hillside and the dummy lying on the path of no man, Qi Fei couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. There were actually many ways to easily escape from the place where Dong Ziwu woke up, but he missed them all.

A mountain breeze blew by, and Qi Fei involuntarily shivered. He realized that the person who abandoned Dong Ziwu might have been standing by this roadside, just like him, coldly watching Dong Ziwu down the hillside—did he really want Dong Ziwu to die? Or was it just a prank? In any case, he still didn't understand why he had to come to Buerjing.

Just as he was puzzled, Wu Shanqiu, who was standing next to him, seemed to have noticed something. She bent down, picked up something from the roadside, and muttered, "What's this?"