Chapter 22: Six-Petal Origami

"I thought I was the one who killed him..." Gu Laotou's eyes dodged.

Qi Fei smiled: "Your hunchbacked neighbor told me that you went to the Huang Daxian Temple to curse Yang Jinhan. We police handle cases based on evidence; we won't arrest you because of such superstitious things."

"But the Great Immortal gave me a 'Death Talisman,' saying that as long as I found a way to make Yang Jinhan carry it with him, he would definitely die."

"Old man, don't worry, the killer is from Lanhe and has nothing to do with Sanwu Town. You don't need to feel guilty anymore," Qi Fei said, his heart stirred. "Speaking of which, what does the Death Talisman look like?" Zhong Kui had never mentioned the Death Talisman.

"It's just something folded out of paper that looks like a flower. I lied to that beast and said it was for protection, and that beast believed it. I saw him put it in his wallet."

"Origami?" Qi Fei frowned and suddenly remembered the time Zhong Kui appeared in Zhu Ming'en's hospital room. She was folding paper casually. He hurriedly asked Gu Laotou, "Is the origami flower you're talking about a six-petaled flower, shaped a bit like a bird?"

"This, I don't remember, it seems so." Gu Laotou didn't understand why Qi Fei was suddenly so interested in this thing.

But Qi Fei opposite him was already irritable: "Damn it, after going around in circles, it's still her!" He remembered the time Zhong Kui appeared in Zhu Ming'en's hospital room without notice. Between their conversation, she was folding paper casually in her hands, and in the end, it was this six-petaled flower shape. A rage of being played was hard to suppress. The blurry and tender wine party last night was like a joke to him now.

"Fei-ge, what's wrong with you today? You've been playing with origami for half a day. Be careful of being scolded by Captain Liu for slacking off so blatantly." Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but remind Qi Fei.

"Shanqiu, can you fold a kind of paper flower, the one with six petals, shaped a bit like a bird?" Qi Fei asked Wu Shanqiu while clumsily fiddling with the paper.

"Ha, doing crafts is my home turf. Tell me, what kind of thing is it?" Wu Shanqiu said confidently.

Qi Fei drew a rough shape on the white paper according to his memory.

As a result, Wu Shanqiu and Qi Fei tried for a long time but couldn't fold it into that shape.

"Fei-ge, are you sure someone folded this thing?" Wu Shanqiu was skeptical.

"I'm sure," Qi Fei said firmly. "I watched Zhong Kui fold it with my own eyes."

"It's Zhong Kui again. Fei-ge, are you too interested in her?"

"Heh!" Qi Fei smiled bitterly. "I don't want to be either."

"I've always wondered why Xu Wei wanted to kill Zhu Ming'en. What if someone sent a signal to him?" Qi Fei crumpled the poorly folded paper into a ball and threw it into the trash can. "Why was Zhong Kui so sure Zhu Ming'en would die? Could it really be some kind of destiny superstition? That's too ridiculous! This origami was folded by Zhong Kui in front of me and placed at the door of Zhu Ming'en's hospital room. She gave the same origami to Gu Laotou and let Yang Jinhan carry it. Also, the method of getting Zhu Ming'en to confess that he was faking illness was Zhong Kui's idea for me. But, now that I think about it, who can guarantee that Zhu Ming'en admitted he was faking illness out of fear?"

"Wait, Fei-ge, let me sort it out. Do you mean that Zhu Ming'en's death was planned by Zhong Kui?" Wu Shanqiu said in disbelief, especially after she had a good impression of Zhong Kui.

"I've been thinking about it all night yesterday. If Zhu Ming'en was in the detention center, the killer would have no chance to take action. Someone must have taken him out of the detention center, or there must be some reason he had to be taken away from the detention center."

"Do you mean that Zhu Ming'en's mental disorder wasn't faked?"

"The method of testing whether Zhu Ming'en was lying was told to me by Zhong Kui. What if Zhu Ming'en, out of fear, lied to me just to cater to me?" Qi Fei said with annoyance.

"Zhu Ming'en received Zhong Kui's so-called exorcism. You and I have both experienced her hypnosis level. Although I don't know how she did it, it is entirely possible to make Zhu Ming'en have hallucinations in the detention center. She said that these were all out of self-awareness. I am like this, and Zhu Ming'en is the same. Why did she say this sentence to me? Is it saying that both I and Zhu Ming'en were hypnotized by her, isn't it?

Is it possible that Zhu Ming'en's idea of wanting to escape from the detention center triggered hallucinations related to the monster? There was no need for Xu Wei to kill Zhu Ming'en at all, but Chen Youwei gave Zhong Kui a large sum of money to make Zhu Ming'en get what he deserved. She had a complete motive for murder."

Wu Shanqiu nodded upon hearing this: "Indeed, she seems to be overly interested in our case-solving. You say she is doing it to earn money from the victim's family, but it doesn't seem entirely so... But Fei-ge, there is a question: why would Xu Wei listen to Zhong Kui?"

Wu Shanqiu's words stumped Qi Fei.

Wu Shanqiu continued: "And we reviewed Xu Wei's communication records and action trajectories before his death. He had never been to Sanwu Town, and there was no sign of any contact with Zhong Kui. You know, 'presumption of innocence.' Regarding Zhong Kui's suspicion, it's all just speculation. We don't have convincing evidence in our hands. Regarding whether Zhu Ming'en was hypnotized, currently only Zhong Kui can prove it. However, the key is that although it can be basically confirmed that Zhu Ming'en and Yang Jinhan were killed by Xu Wei—we found a set of surgical scrubs at Xu Wei's place, and Zhu Ming'en's blood was detected on them—we cannot prove that his behavior had any direct connection with Zhong Kui. You know that the origami argument is hard to be accepted."

Qi Fei listened silently. Of course, he knew Wu Shanqiu's words made sense, but he also knew his suspicion made sense: "By the way, there is one more thing. Zhong Kui didn't know why she was possessed, saying that the origin of the monster was a Greek myth, and even spoke Ancient Greek. I checked it, and the sentence she said was written in Plato's works. This is also very suspicious. Xu Wei's education level is not high, and there are very few books in his belongings, let alone philosophy like Plato. How would he know this allusion and draw the monster's image at the crime scene in such a cryptic way?" Qi Fei continued.

Wu Shanqiu was also surprised: "Plato? So time-traveling? But Zhong Kui is a fortune-teller; she shouldn't be interested in this kind of Western philosophy, right?"

"Heh, Shanqiu, do you really believe she is a fortune-teller?" As soon as Qi Fei finished speaking, Xiao Tao from the forensics department walked toward him. "Fei-ge, the DNA sample test result you gave is out."

"Fei-ge, what DNA?" Wu Shanqiu asked curiously.

"Didn't I say that Zhong Kui suddenly went abnormal that day? I took advantage of her leaving and collected a saliva sample from the wine glass." Qi Fei said while taking the report. "There's no result from the database comparison, right?" ===== CHAPTER 23 =====