The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 337 The Extra Knocking

The bag was printed with the words "Souvenir from XJTLU Nanjo Alumni Association," indicating that it was a souvenir that Dong Qianjin received after participating in an event.

"You and that young lady have worked hard. This is for you." Dong Qianjin managed to force a smile despite his distressed expression.

Qi Fei refused firmly, and Dong Qianjin, seeing that he was unyielding, had no choice but to give up and drive away.

No sooner had he left than Liu Tong appeared, looking at the black sedan that had already driven away, and said with a pout, "Oh dear, I was just one step away. I need to see him."

"Dong Qianjin?" Qi Fei asked curiously, "Captain Liu, you asked him to investigate the case?" He himself didn't believe it when he said it. Liu Tong, the most detached leader he had ever met, was not this concerned.

As expected, Liu Tong immediately denied it: "With you and Shan Qiu as the perfect pair, what do I have to worry about? I have other things to discuss with him."

"Captain Liu, you'd better tell me that Dong Qianjin is a party involved in this case," Qi Fei said seriously.

Liu Tong laughed and said, "Who is whose captain? Do you remember when Dong Ziwu was found, the bureau received a request for 'favors'? I didn't care at the time. We will do our best to handle cases, whether or not someone pulls strings. It was just a formality to put his mind at ease. This guy somehow found out about my neighborhood and left something at the gate yesterday. I was going to tell him to pick it up in person, but now I have to ask for postage myself to send it back. What a hassle!"

"Huh?" Qi Fei was both amused and exasperated. It turned out he wasn't the first person to receive a gift. He grinned mischievously and asked, "Captain Liu, did you see it? What kind of good stuff is it?"

"I don't know what it is, but I think it's a special logistics company, so it's probably not cheap. I don't want to open it; it'll be hard to explain later," Liu Tong said with a look of disgust.

"Haha!" Qi Fei suddenly burst into laughter upon hearing this.

This left Liu Tong completely bewildered. She asked, "What are you laughing at?"

"You still think it's troublesome? Dong Qianjin specially prepared these nice things for you because you're a leader. What he just gave me was a souvenir he received from a party," Qi Fei said, both amused and exasperated.

Liu Tong sighed: "Some people just have to categorize others into different classes. Oh, by the way, Tian Mi had someone complain to higher authorities, saying that you were tailing her without any reason. I've already responded, saying that she's a suspect in the case and we were just handling the case normally."

"Wow, Captain Liu is brilliant," Qi Fei said with a grin.

"How come you've picked up Wu Shanqiu's glib tongue too?" Liu Tong rolled her eyes. "I haven't even finished what I was going to say yet. What's going on with Tian Mi?"

“We’re not trying to wait for them to come to us; Tian Mi is the ‘root’,” Qi Fei said.

Liu Tong looked like he understood immediately, and joked, "Why do I feel like you're swearing at me?"

“This plant is not that ‘pig’,” Qi Fei laughed. However, despite his joke, he was still bothered by what happened that night. He felt that the message sent to Tian Mi was not what it seemed, but rather aimed at them.

As he was thinking, Liu Tong said from the side, "Are you kidding me? Tian Mi has a valid reasoning, saying that you knocked on their door three times in one night. You should be more careful about your approach next time..."

Before Liu Tong could finish speaking, Qi Fei interrupted him anxiously: "Captain Liu, did we knock on the door three times?"

"Yes, they said they knocked three times in the middle of the night, keeping her and her mother from getting any rest, and they complained a lot. I can only say that you must have found a clue to be in such a hurry to find her, what else can I say?"

“That’s not right. We went to see her twice that day. The first time, she had her assistant tell us not to keep an eye on her. The second time, I was afraid something might happen to her, so I turned back halfway. How could it be a third time?” Qi Fei felt something was amiss and left Liu Tong to go to Nancheng Investment.
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Tian Mi had just finished a meeting and strode confidently toward her office, her assistant following closely behind, carrying her light purple handbag.

Upon seeing Qi Fei appear, displeasure immediately appeared on her face, which couldn't hide her feelings.

Qi Fei already knew her temper and didn't care about her feelings. He stepped forward and asked, "There's something I need to verify with you. You complained that we knocked on your door three times last night. I remember it was only twice. Are you sure it was three times?"

Tian Mi clearly misunderstood his meaning, and was quite pleased with himself for having "worked out" by pulling strings and making a call. He said sarcastically, "What? You want to find fault with me and accuse me of making false accusations? My memory is excellent. You knocked on the door three times. Do you think you can deny something like that?"

Qi Fei smiled helplessly: "I didn't come here to confront you. I suspect someone wanted to hurt you that night." As he spoke, the smile on his face disappeared, and he said in a gloomy tone, "I'm pretty sure we only knocked on the door twice. The third time wasn't us."

Tian Mi sensed the chill in Qi Fei's words, and her arrogant attitude finally subsided somewhat.

Qi Fei continued, "Recall the circumstances of those three knocks and tell me about them."

Tian Mi was inexplicably compliant this time, but there was no hint of apology in her words for misunderstanding Qi Fei: "Uh, well. The first time was after I had my assistant call you, you came in and asked me how I knew you were outside. Then you left, and about ten minutes later, someone knocked on the door again. My mom was already asleep, so I went downstairs to open the door myself. But when I got downstairs, the knocking stopped. Just as I was about to go back, the knocking started again. When I opened the door, it was you and that policewoman at the door. Of course, I assumed it was you who knocked all three times."

Qi Fei listened intently, a chill running down his spine. It seemed that before their second visit, someone had tried to knock on Tian Mi's door, and this person was very likely the murderer.

If they had gone back a few minutes later, this woman might not be alive today at Nancheng Investment.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask, "When you got to the first floor after the second knock, did you make any unusual noises?"

"A strange noise?" Tian Mi frowned, and the frown lines on her face reappeared. "If you really want to ask, I only saw car headlights sweep past the window. There must have been a car passing by, but there's a road outside my house, so that's normal."

Upon hearing this, Qi Fei already had an idea in mind. The car lights that Tian Mi mentioned must be his car, and the murderer must have given up his actions because he saw the car coming.

However, there should have been another person at the scene at that time. Qi Fei suddenly realized—Li Shuangshuang. She had been waiting near Tian Mi's house, which meant she had likely seen the person who knocked on the door, but…