Chapter 248: Black Gloves

Those statues standing face to face seemed to be able to breathe if you looked at them for a long time. The kind smile hid a cold murderous intent. What exactly happened on that night forty-some years ago made people's imaginations run wild.

The cabin fell into a brief silence. A "thump" sound made everyone's nerves tremble, as if Xi Zhangjiang's corpse had hit the bottom of the boat back then.

"Xi He, what on earth does he want to do?" Qi Fei thought about why he was here and couldn't help but ask across the air.

Zhong Kui watched him from the side, knowing that Qi Fei actually knew the answer very well, otherwise he wouldn't be so angry.

"Are you talking about Xi He just now?" Old Xu suddenly asked Qi Fei.

"Right! Do you know him?" Qi Fei's heart tightened.

Old Xu muttered: "This is too coincidental." As he said this, he took out a small express package from under the chair where he was napping. "Just this morning, someone sent this to me. I don't know how to read, and the delivery person told me it was sent by someone named Xi He. I thought about it and didn't know such a person, so I didn't open it and threw it here."

This was an express package only the size of a palm, light and airy, but the white label clearly printed: "Sender: Xi He."

The sender's address was actually the Qi family's white building by the Luomeng River.

When he was about to tear open the packaging, Wu Shanqiu stopped him worriedly: "Brother Fei, do you want to take it back to the police station for protection before opening it?"

After all, Xi He had a criminal record of using mailed items to poison people.

Zhong Kui had a different opinion: "If he wants this game to continue, he must ensure that the only player is alive." As she said this, she took the package from Qi Fei's hand and tore open the packaging without hesitation.

The contents were unexpectedly ordinary, not an envelope or a marble, but just a black leather glove.

A trace of confusion flashed in Zhong Kui's eyes, and she handed the glove to Qi Fei: "Does this thing remind you of anything?"

But Qi Fei shook his head with the same confusion: "In my impression, there has never been such a thing in the house, and this is a brand-new glove."

"Hmph, what kind of tricky path is this again," Zhong Kui said unhappily.

Qi Fei carefully flipped through the glove: "Is this a label or something?" He took out a white label paper from the inner lining of the glove, on which appeared that familiar elegant handwriting. This time there were only a few words: "Starting from scratch 1998," and on the side of the words was still that familiar eerie monster smiley face.

"Writing 'starting from scratch' in a black glove? Is he playing cold humor?" Wu Shanqiu on the side couldn't help but say.

The speaker didn't intend it, but the listener did.

Zhong Kui said leisurely on the side: "A black glove for starting from scratch, he really is having more and more fun playing." As she said this, she turned to ask Qi Fei, "If I remember correctly, Qi Dongjun is a famous entrepreneur who started from scratch."

Qi Fei furrowed his brows: "1998 was the year my father's business suddenly took a turn for the better."

"Interesting. 1998, the black glove appeared. So, what kind of black glove has anything to do with your father's business?" Zhong Kui leaned toward Qi Fei's side, behind her was Jiang Tianyi's worried gaze looking at her.

"We all know the story of President Qi starting from scratch," Wu Shanqiu said on the side. "Rumors in the streets say that President Qi won an important order back then and dug up his first pot of gold. Could it be in 1998? Black glove, black glove..." Wu Shanqiu muttered, then covered her mouth, "My god, could this Xi He be hinting that the source of this money is problematic?"

"1998 was the year Feng Yongshou went missing and was murdered," Zhong Kui said on the side. "We found it here because Feng Yongshou revealed before he went missing that he was coming to Nancheng to find his aunt Yu Hongxia. What a coincidence, at Yu Hongxia's place, he once became a playmate with a girl named Xi Zi Yun." As she said this, she looked at the riverbank again. "On a night forty-some years ago, two people pulled a line, tripped a drunkard named Xi Changhe, and watched him fall into the river and drown while struggling.

More than ten years later, that girl knocked on the courtyard door of the Feng family in Sanwu Town, telling him she wanted to make an ash urn for someone, and this person's life had to be taken by them personally, just like the perfect murder of Xi Zhangjiang they once collaborated on.

Feng Yongshou spent most of his time working alone in the ash urn shop in Sanwu Town. No lover, no friends. Loneliness is an object that is very easy to manipulate. Since childhood, Feng Yongshou had a deep attachment and a habit of being dominated by Xi Zi Yun.

We only know now that in the spring twenty-seven years ago, Xi Zi Yun and Feng Yongshou killed someone together and hid this person in the kiln at night to burn into ashes.

However, the adult Feng Yongshou was no longer an ignorant child. After the murder, he couldn't face the condemnation in his heart and chose to go to Nancheng to find Xi Zi Yun.

We don't know what happened at the white building back then.

But this matter was obviously not in Xi Zi Yun's plan. She used Feng Yongshou's trust in her to kill the other party, but didn't have enough time to dispose of the corpse, so she could only bury him in the garden.

It was as if it were a sacrifice. With his death, Qi Dongjun's business suddenly took a turn for the better, and from this year on, he became rich.

What Xi He wants to say is probably that behind Qi Dongjun's inspirational story of starting from scratch, Xi Zi Yun acted as a black glove, manipulating Feng Yongshou to clear obstacles for him.

So, the next question is, who was this obstacle that was cleared?"

As Zhong Kui's voice fell, the scene of the Feng family courtyard on a wet morning appeared in Qi Fei's mind, that strangely shaped kiln, rising with ominous black smoke, rising into the high sky with the secret of death.

Slaughter—how could he imagine it to connect these two words with his gentle and loving mother.

In the dim room, a page of the calendar was torn off.

Footsteps accompanied by Pan Ting echoed in the quiet room.

"Your son needs to work harder. He's only at the second level now, slower than I expected," Xi He squatted down and said to Qi Dongjun.

Qi Dongjun didn't speak. His glasses had long since fallen in the small white building. Without the cover of the lenses, the area around his eyes was full of fine lines—he was old.

Only those eyes, as stubborn as when he was young, looked directly at Xi He's half-bright, half-dark face without flinching. His lips were tightly closed, and he didn't respond to anything.

Xi He furrowed his brows with disgust: "You are just like this, with a sanctimonious look. So many years, have you asked yourself? The matter back then, shrewd as you are, did you really know nothing?"

A trace of confusion flashed in Qi Dongjun's eyes, and he finally made a hoarse sound: "What kind of riddle are you playing?"

"When I was three, my mother planted a maple tree in the courtyard. When you watered the flowers, you always bypassed it. Why?" Xi He's voice was as cold as if it came from the abyss. ===== CHAPTER 249 =====