The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 328 Candy Pendant
In the morning light, the object in Wu Shanqiu's hand swayed and glowed; it appeared to be a metal pendant.

Upon closer inspection, the pendant is shaped like a candy and has the word "Sweet" on it.

“Sweet?” Wu Shanqiu couldn’t help but read it aloud. “Sweet? Tian Mi? Could it be such a coincidence?”

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Qi Fei suddenly said. “That day in Tian Mi’s office, I noticed her handbag on the table. It had a metal clasp on it, and it looked like there was something else on it.”
-
When the candy-shaped pendant was placed on Tian Mi's desk, she seemed relatively normal: "Huh? Where did you find this?"

"So you're admitting this pendant is yours?" Qi Fei looked at her expressionlessly.

Tian Mi frowned, the deep creases in her brows betraying her age. She was clearly impatient with Qi Fei's question. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she leaned back in her office chair and said, "Yeah, it's been lost for a while. It's not worth much. Aren't you guys handling big cases? Why are you handling lost and found?"

Tian Mi possessed a kind of unbridled directness, remaining unchanged even when facing the police. Qi Fei didn't know if she was trying to cover up her true intentions or if it was just her nature, but this outward arrogance didn't anger Qi Fei. He calmly replied, "We found this thing while investigating the scene of Dong Ziwu's death."

Tian Mi seemed very surprised, as always, her surprise was written all over her face, whether it was because she didn't know she had left a flaw or something else.

“I haven’t been there recently, how could this thing have fallen there?” she blurted out.

"Recently?" Qi Fei immediately grasped the key point in those words. "So you've been there before?"

Tian Mi's eyes darted away: "Sometimes I go hiking with friends, there's nothing strange about that, right? Many people in Nancheng go there."

"Why didn't you say anything when we came to see you last time?" Qi Fei asked immediately.

Tian Mi suddenly revealed a sarcastic expression, her eyes darting around and her voice rising eight octaves: "You didn't even ask?"

If she treats the police this way, one can imagine how she usually treats her subordinates.

Qi Fei finally understood the hopelessness and despondency in Lao Qian's words.

"Then I'll ask you again, why did this pendant appear in Bu Er Jing? Were you there the day Dong Ziwu disappeared?" Qi Fei's tone gradually became impolite.

Tian Mi's eyes darted around, and then he said in a tone that sounded strong on the outside but weak on the inside, "The last time I went to Bu Er Jing was last month. This pendant was probably lost when I went there last time. I was busy the day Zi Wu had the accident, how could I have been there?"

"What are you busy with? Do you have an alibi?" Qi Fei pressed on.

"What? You're treating me like a suspect, aren't you? Do you know that Dong Ziwu is..." She blurted out, then suddenly realized her mistake and quickly shut her mouth.

Qi Fei sneered: "It seems like everyone in your group knows that he has a close relationship with you. Is that what you wanted to say? But from another perspective, Dong Ziwu is living evidence of your illegal promotion of employees. Who knows if you will decide to kill him to protect yourself?" Seeing Tian Mi's increasingly ugly face, Qi Fei continued, "Of course, there's no point in saying all this. As long as you provide an alibi for that day, the innocent will be proven innocent."

Logically, this was a good opportunity for Qi Fei to prove his innocence, but Tian Mi, a woman who seemed to have a very impatient temperament, hesitated at this moment. After a moment of silence, she rolled her eyes and said, "Go ahead and investigate, it wasn't me anyway!" "That day was a workday, can't you find anyone to prove that you didn't go to Bu Er Jing?" Qi Fei's suspicions deepened.

“Anyway, I didn’t go, so investigate all you want!” Tian Mi said. “I watched Zi Wu grow up, it’s impossible that I killed him.”
-
As soon as she left Tian Mi's office, Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but complain, "Huh? This is the first time I've encountered such an arrogant person to investigate. If she doesn't have something to hide, why won't she provide an alibi?"

Qi Fei walked straight to Tian Mi's assistant and asked, "What color is Mr. Tian's car?"

"Uh, it's black," the assistant answered honestly.

Wu Shanqiu sized up the young assistant and said as she and Qi Fei entered the elevator, "I think Tian Mi's way of doing things is just like Feng Yi, no, an upgraded version of Feng Yi. Do you think the suspect this time might be another pushover assistant?"

Qi Fei glanced at Wu Shanqiu: "That assistant is only a little over 1.5 meters tall, while Dong Ziwu is a tall man of 1.8 meters. If she wanted to move Dong Ziwu out of the car while he was unconscious, wrap him in a tent, and push him down the hillside ditch, do you think she could accomplish all of that?"

“Hmm, coming to think of it, this Tian Mi seems to exercise regularly…” Wu Shanqiu said thoughtfully. “And she just let it slip that she often goes hiking on the Buerjing trail, so she should be quite familiar with the terrain.”

Just then, the elevator doors opened, and the two of them bumped into Lao Qian.

"Hey? Officer Qi, what brings you here again?" Old Qian was quite happy to see them. After these two investigations, they had become acquaintances.

"Old Qian, it's good to see you. Come on, let's go have a cup of tea." Qi Fei said, pulling Old Qian to the tea bar in the lobby on the first floor.

Old Qian listened silently to Qi Fei's suspicions about Tian Mi, and said with some concern, "Although I've already laid down my arms, what if President Tian finds out I told you guys? I wonder if I'll get into trouble..."

Qi Fei put away the notebook and said, "We're just having a chat. This won't be taken as testimony. You can speak freely."

Old Qian sighed slightly: "You guessed right, President Tian does often go hiking on the Buerjing trail. She doesn't want to say more because of her hiking, not for exercise."

"Oh?"

“I’ve driven her a few times, so I know about her. She climbed to her current position from an ordinary clerk at a rural bank in the suburbs by being good at currying favor with the senior leaders. Tian worked very hard at this. She knew that several recently retired senior leaders in our system liked hiking, so she insisted on accompanying them to hike the Bu Er Jing trail, using this to build relationships.”

"Huh? Isn't that place where you have to stay overnight to walk through it? Can those old men handle it?" Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but ask curiously.

Old Qian laughed when he heard this: "You've all been brainwashed by the propaganda of the No Two Path, with things like 'one path to the end,' 'the longest hiking trail,' and so on. Let's put it this way, this road isn't a one-way street. If you walk a few kilometers, are you going to be stopped from turning back?"

Qi Fei frowned slightly upon hearing this: "If that's the case, there's something strange about it..."