The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 357 Deep Within the Blood Pool 2
"Promise me one thing." Zhong Xiaoyu suddenly looked at Qi Fei, "What I'm about to say, you must never tell Zhong Kui in this lifetime."

Qi Fei's heart skipped a beat; Zhong Xiaoyu's request was something he hadn't expected.

“I’ve blocked all her senses. She will never know what I know or do. This pain is enough for me to bear alone. I don’t want Zhong Kui to fall into the same abyss as me,” Zhong Xiaoyu said in a trembling voice.

Qi Fei nodded solemnly.

Zhong Xiaoyu seemed relieved and walked to the collapsed wall. Her eyes were filled with a mixture of longing and fear, as if she had traveled back in time to the No. 3 villa on Crescent Mountain ten years ago.

Her voice was hazy and dreamlike, sending a chill down everyone's spine: "Xi He picked up the fruit knife and placed it in my hand. He hugged me from behind, like any lover. The only difference was that his palm was pressed against the back of my hand, making my hand grip the knife tightly. My body was numb, and I could only let him manipulate me like a puppet. He pushed me step by step closer to my family. The blade gleamed coldly in the sunlight, and I could see my helpless eyes reflected on the blade, as if they weren't my own."

He whispered in my ear, "Let me teach you how to kill the person you love most."
My heart ached as if it were being torn apart, but I didn't even have the strength to shake my head.

And I watched indifferently as he continued to use my hand to plunge the blade of death into my family.

It's as if my soul has been ripped away, and I've become an observer in another time and space.

Everything continued in this calm yet frenzied manner.

And then…” Zhong Xiaoyu looked apologetically at Qi Fei, “I fell into a long dream, a nightmare. I dreamt of the blood pool that Zhong Kui had mentioned, thick blood gushing out, and the beast’s growling continued. I was terrified; it was something more terrifying than death. I didn’t know what it was; I only knew it was crawling out of the blood pool.”

I'm sorry I disappointed you. I don't know much more than Zhong Kui. It was Xi He who, holding my hand, killed my family.

When I woke up again, I was already in a mental hospital.

I know my family is dead. Their haunting images, from who knows where, keep appearing before my eyes—they lying in pools of blood, never to return.

At that time, I made up my mind that I would kill Xi He no matter where he was.

So I created Zhong Kui; she is the mirror image of my hatred for the Xi River.

Qi Fei was not disappointed as Zhong Xiaoyu had said. Looking at the person in front of him, the photo of the crime scene resurfaced in his mind, and he couldn't help but say, "Zhong Xiaoyu, perhaps I have seen the monster you were talking about."

Zhong Xiaoyu was taken aback: "That was my dream, what are you talking about?"

“It appeared at the crime scene, in your likeness,” Qi Fei said. “I believe Shen Hongguan and Luo Xiao committed suicide because of your case. Because they were convinced they had seen the devil.” Zhong Xiaoyu’s face turned deathly pale, and she leaned against the nearby ruins as if she couldn’t stand: “My guess is correct…”

"What are you talking about?" Wu Shanqiu looked at the two of them with a blank expression, as if she were listening to a riddle.

Only Jiang Tianyi and Lü Dandan, who both understood psychology, looked grave and simultaneously thought of something terrible.

Jiang Tianyi said meaningfully, "Perhaps this explains why Xi He didn't take Xiao Yu away. If he planned this massacre to possess Xiao Yu, there's no reason for him to suddenly change his mind. Unless something unexpected prevents him from taking Xiao Yu away."

"Because he saw the same creature that both policemen saw." Qi Fei, the only one present who had seen the case file, didn't even use the word "human" to describe it. "Let me venture a guess about what happened. Xi He's cruel actions greatly agitated Zhong Xiaoyu. Lü Dandan said that the Zhong family has a history of mental illness. This huge shock caused you to split into a very violent personality, which is close to a demon. Even Xi He couldn't subdue you and could only flee in panic."

However, by then, your family had already fallen victim to Xi He's cruelty. Only your father, Zhong Huaiting, remained alive, having regained consciousness prematurely due to his tolerance to the drug.

This is a huge misunderstanding. When he saw you completely out of control with a butcher's knife, he assumed you were the murderer who killed his family. And you, in your madness, were unable to rationally prove your innocence.

Zhong Huaiting used the last of his life to bind you up. I think that was his love for you; even after seeing such a terrible side of you, he couldn't bear to hurt you. On the contrary, he bound you because he was afraid you would hurt yourself.

He even wiped the fingerprints off the knife for you, so the police would only see you as a surviving victim.

Zhong Xiaoyu's tears streamed down her face: "All the sins are mine. I failed to resist Xi He's temptation."

As darkness fell, the mountain mists turned a deep purple. Tears soaked Zhong Xiaoyu's long hair. Lü Dandan picked up an iris from the ground, took one, and placed it in Zhong Xiaoyu's hand.

“You are not the one who committed all the evil. Your hands hold light and freedom, not a butcher’s knife. You are just sick, Xiaoyu,” Lü Dandan said softly.

Zhong Xiaoyu shook her head: "I'm sorry, Sister Dan, I..." She looked very weak, and suddenly the expression on her face froze. After a while, the feeling of fragility disappeared, and her eyes became firm and clear again—Zhong Kui was back.

She glanced around at everyone's shocked and sorrowful expressions, then rolled her eyes: "Is Zhong Xiaoyu trying to gain sympathy again? Is there anything I can't know?"

For a long while, no one spoke.

Qi Fei couldn't fool Zhong Kui with lies, so he said, "We're only one step away from the answer. At least she let me know that there's someone else at the scene who clearly knows what happened. Find Xi He, and we'll find out what the monster you dreamed about really is."

(End of this chapter)