Chapter 24: Silver Pearl

"Meng Apo?" Qi Fei heard this name for the first time.

"Haven't you seen her? She is usually in this Huang Daxian Temple. The Great Immortal is elusive, and Meng Apo is the one who contacts everyone when there is something."

Hearing Chen Youwei say this, Qi Fei understood. It was that old woman who was like Zhong Kui's messenger.

Meng Apo, Meng Po... Qi Fei thought that these people's names were really planning to move everyone from the underworld up here.

"You don't have to wait. On a snowy day, the Great Immortal and Meng Apo won't appear. Go back," Chen Youwei advised Qi Fei.

Qi Fei was somewhat disappointed. He suddenly realized that Zhong Kui didn't even have a mobile phone; she was really deep in the play, treating herself as a half-immortal.

The snow gradually became smaller, but Zizai Shan was already covered by white snow, and all the roads were nowhere to be found. Qi Fei had no choice but to return to the town entrance, take his car, and rush to Nancheng.

From the perspective of evidence, the cases of Zhu Ming'en and Yang Jinhan were already closed.

However, Qi Fei couldn't reconcile with himself.

This highway connected Nancheng and Sanwu Town, and he was already too familiar with it.

The iron-gray guardrails flashed past outside the car window.

The monster pattern that lingered in Qi Fei's memory attacked him again like a phantom.

He hadn't forgotten the pattern he caught a glimpse of when he passed by here with Wu Shanqiu last time.

For some reason, after this period of time, he became more and more convinced that this was not his hallucination at the time.

The camphor forest not far ahead—he clearly remembered that the pattern appeared near here.

This time, Qi Fei prepared in advance and parked the car on the emergency lane.

In the cold weather after the snow, he put his hands in his pockets, hunched over, and searched one by one.

Finally, on one of the pillars, that dark red mark appeared before his eyes.

Those two faces, one male and one female, were drawn sloppily but vividly, sneering at him.

Dark red—this was not a good thing.

He took some samples back to the police station, and the test had results. As expected, it was human blood.

Unlike Zhong Kui's saliva, this time it was quickly matched to the owner of the blood.

"We matched it in the missing persons database. This blood belongs to a missing person named Niu Yinzhu. Three years ago, Niu Yinzhu lost contact during a business trip and has not been found yet," Wu Shanqiu said, looking at the report.

Qi Fei leaned toward the computer, looked at the missing person report at the time, and saw the problem at a glance: "The one who reported the missing person was her company, saying she went to Hai City. The place where the blood appeared now is in the completely opposite direction from Hai City."

"This Niu Yinzhu is from Nancheng Investment. When she went missing, she was less than thirty years old and was already a department supervisor. She was quite capable," Wu Shanqiu said.

Beside the highway, people from the Nancheng Police Bureau were dispatched and were conducting a tense search.

For a whole day, the accumulated snow brought greater difficulty to the search. Except for that monster pattern, there was no result.

"In three years, anything could have changed," Wu Shanqiu was somewhat discouraged. "Fei-ge, I feel the chance of finding her is slim."

"It's a pity that the mountain is blocked by heavy snow. The fastest way now should be to find Zhong Kui," Qi Fei had to admit, then said stubbornly, "Of course, she is also the number one suspect."

As if there was telepathy, as soon as he finished speaking, the familiar sound of high heels came from the highway.

Zhong Kui appeared before them just like that.

Dressed as ostentatiously as usual, wearing a silver-gray mink coat, she looked out of place with the police officers in uniform.

"I heard you were looking for me?" Zhong Kui smiled, staring at Qi Fei, not knowing how she got here.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't appear on a snowy day?" Qi Fei didn't know what mood to face Zhong Kui with. Rationally, he had to guard against her, but emotionally, he was very happy that Zhong Kui appeared. It was the kind of happiness that couldn't be stopped by his brain.

"The snow has stopped," Zhong Kui glanced at the busy searching officers.

"How did you know we were here?" Qi Fei asked suspiciously.

"I can calculate it."

"Fortune-telling, what a universal excuse," Qi Fei scoffed.

Zhong Kui ignored him, her gaze falling on the pattern on the railing pillar.

"I suppose you knew what this was a long time ago, right?" Qi Fei said with hidden meaning.

Zhong Kui didn't have the overreaction from last time. She didn't commit, just swept a calm glance and said: "It said it had been here for a long time. To be discovered by you in such an inconspicuous place, your observation is indeed amazing."

"Ha, I'm a criminal police officer after all; I have this bit of observation," Qi Fei said.

Zhong Kui just smiled, looking at the police officers searching the snow, and then looked at the monster pattern on the railing pillar.

"He doesn't seem to be in a hurry at all," Zhong Kui leaned in to observe the monster's painting, bent down, and her face was almost stuck to the pattern.

Suddenly, she reached out and picked off a small piece of solidified blood, and stuffed it directly into her mouth.

This was unexpected; Qi Fei couldn't even stop it.

"What are you doing?!" Qi Fei looked at Zhong Kui, who was savoring the blood, feeling as weird as a vampire.

Zhong Kui was indifferent: "Interesting taste. Are you sure you don't want to taste it?"

"You're sick!" Qi Fei shouted excitedly.

Zhong Kui's red lips curled: "How did you know I was sick?"

Qi Fei knew that he was facing a madman, but one who was terrifyingly calm.

She glanced at everyone who was busy: "It's a waste of effort. The person you are looking for will not appear here."

"Human life is at stake. You'd better not use that superstition to go around in circles with me. What do you know? You must tell me immediately," Qi Fei had already lost some patience.

Zhong Kui was very good at sensing the other party's emotions and said without covering up: "Blood only takes ten minutes or so to solidify. If this was the place where the murder happened, that person would have drawn this mark with fresh blood. With your way of searching, you should have found something long ago." Then she seemed to be savoring the taste of the blood just now, "Hmph, although it's been so long, there's still such a strong alkaline smell."

These words were like a bolt from the blue, and Qi Fei immediately reacted: "Alkali can prevent blood from solidifying! If the scene was nearby, the killer wouldn't have needed to add this thing at all!"

"I think the only thing you know is the owner of the blood, right?" Zhong Kui's ethereal big eyes leaned in and blinked at Qi Fei.

Qi Fei had a strange feeling. After she went abnormal on Zizai Shan and woke up, she seemed to be more powerful than before, as if she would evolve, just like a monster. He suspected her, resisted her, and had to believe her—what she said made sense. Currently, the most useful clue was Niu Yinzhu herself—who exactly was she, and why did she disappear? ===== CHAPTER 25 =====