The Mystery of the Inner Demon

Chapter 360 Exhaust Fan

Time passed by, and they searched every nook and cranny of the entire hotel, but there was still no trace of Wu Shanqiu.

“He said two hours, why two hours?” Zhong Kui asked.

Zhong Kui's words reminded the anxious Qi Fei that Xi He was gone. How could he be sure Wu Shanqiu could survive for two hours? He took out the note Xi He had left behind again. It was dated 4 a.m., and two hours later it would be 6 a.m. There was only half an hour left until 6 a.m.

"Something must happen at the hotel in two hours that will cause Shanqiu's death," Qi Fei immediately thought. He quickly found the duty manager and asked what the hotel did every morning at 6 o'clock. Sure enough, the duty manager told him that they would turn on the kitchen equipment every morning at 6 o'clock to prepare breakfast.

Qi Fei immediately asked the manager to instruct the kitchen not to turn on any equipment, but when the manager dialed the kitchen's number, no one answered.

"It's too late!" Without saying a word, Qi Fei immediately rushed to the kitchen on the first floor.

Time flies by, and the daylight outside the French windows is beginning to break.

In the final minute, Qi Fei shoved away the chef who was about to turn on the power.

The kitchen was still dimly lit. If his reasoning was wrong, Shanqiu would already be dead.

Qi Fei dared not think about it and forced himself to concentrate on finding a place where Wu Shanqiu might be hiding.

Zhong Kui and the others followed closely behind and arrived at the scene at this time.

Time passed by, and the once bustling kitchen fell silent.

Suddenly, a loud "bang" came from somewhere, as if something had hit the metal panel.

Everyone stood still, not daring to breathe. A few seconds later, the same sound came again, followed by a third one.

This was not a random impact; someone was striking it to send a signal!
As the number of knocks increased, the location of the sound became clearer and clearer. It was near the stove, where there was a huge exhaust duct, nearly a meter in diameter, just big enough to fit a person.

Qi Fei rushed over and saw that, sure enough, a clean panel was protruding from the edge of the greasy cover, indicating that someone had just moved it.

Qi Fei ripped off the cover, and in front of the huge fan blades, Wu Shanqiu was gagged and her hands were tied behind her back, curled up inside the pipe. Her eyes were glazed, and she didn't seem to be fully conscious.

If Qi Fei hadn't arrived in time to stop the chef from turning on the power, and the exhaust fan hadn't started running precisely at 6 o'clock, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
-
Two hours is enough time for Xi He to escape, and Jiang Tianyi will never exist in this world again.

When Jiang Tianyi returned to Nancheng, the snow had not yet melted, and a raging fire had broken out in the psychological counseling room where he worked. The fire investigation concluded that the heater had caught fire, and this heater had a remote start function. Whether the fire was caused by human intervention or an accident was self-evident.

Unfortunately, this meant that everything Xi He did using the false identity of Jiang Tianyi was reduced to ashes and could no longer be traced.

Inside the underground palace of Nanling, Xi He poured himself a glass of red wine and raised it to the lifeless ancient stone statues. He pressed a button on the armrest of the white marble throne, and a holographic projection appeared before him, showing the likeness of Zhong Xiaoyu.

“I suddenly feel that this place needs a mistress. No one is more suitable to be the mistress of this place than you, Dr. Jiang. I still prefer to call you Dr. Jiang.” His voice was filled with a morbid affection. “Look, those idiots are being played like fools by us. In this boring world, is there anything more fun than this?”

At the Nancheng Police Station, more than ten kilometers away, Zhong Kui stood in the corridor on the second floor, looking out at the snow-covered landscape without saying a word for a long time. The wind that seeped in through the window cracks occasionally blew her bangs, revealing her pale forehead.

"Kui, is something on your mind? This isn't like you," Qi Fei said to Zhong Kui.

"Do you remember what I told you about the house inside your body?" Zhong Kui asked Qi Fei, still looking straight ahead.

"You said you and Zhong Xiaoyu are like neighbors living in the same house, I remember that," Qi Fei said gently.

“After returning from Baicheng, I always had a feeling that my lease was about to expire.” Zhong Kui said, turning to look at Qi Fei. There was endless sadness in her eyes, and even this sadness was clear, without a single tear.

"Don't talk nonsense, I won't let Zhong Xiaoyu do that!" Qi Fei's heart tightened, and he immediately said, though it sounded more like he was trying to comfort himself.

Zhong Kui changed the subject: "I did a psychological evaluation for Shan Qiu, she should be fine, she's such a carefree girl."

As if on cue, Wu Shanqiu arrived carrying two cups of hot milk tea. She handed one to Qi Fei and the other to Zhong Kui, saying with a grin, "Thank you both for saving my life." It seemed Zhong Kui was right; the near-death experience of being trapped in the exhaust fan didn't appear to have bothered Wu Shanqiu much.

"He really is heartless," Qi Fei laughed.

"To be honest, I still don't understand how he managed to make us believe in the identities of You He and Jiang Tianyi. It's simply outrageous," Wu Shanqiu said.

“It’s a pinball,” Zhong Kui said. “We all thought the recurring pinballs were Xi He reminding Qi Fei of his childhood, but we were so careless. He was giving us repeated psychological suggestions. The pinball machine before Yuanxi entered the culvert was to trigger the mechanism he had set up in our minds, so that we would hallucinate when we saw You He, who was impersonating Xi He.”

“If You He’s body hadn’t been discovered by accident, we would never have found out Jiang Tianyi’s true identity. If he wanted to kill anyone in the police station, it would have been a piece of cake. It’s terrifying,” Qi Fei said with lingering fear. “Luckily, Shan Qiu is alright, otherwise I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life.”

“I have to reflect on this. If I had been smarter, I wouldn’t have fallen for Jiang… oh, no, Xi He’s trick. It’s terrifying to think about. How could he be Xi He? It’s like a dream,” Wu Shanqiu muttered.

“Dreaming…” Upon hearing these two words, Zhong Kui seemed to think of something. “I never dream, but these past few days, I keep dreaming about the blood pool that Zhong Xiaoyu mentioned. This is not a good thing.”

“That’s just an image, not something that actually exists. It’s possible that the memories Zhong Xiaoyu described had a significant impact on you,” Qi Fei said.

“No.” Zhong Kui looked at Qi Fei again. “This is not a memory shock. It is another force that has weakened Zhong Xiaoyu’s control over my subconscious. The Blood Pool is a subconscious that Zhong Xiaoyu cannot isolate.”

(End of this chapter)