Chapter 312: Prayer Slip

"Who is this person?" Qi Fei asked hurriedly.

"Ge Ming, our classmate. Before, when Wu Xingzhou participated in the Youth Oil Painting Competition, someone anonymously reported that Wu Xingzhou's work was plagiarized. Fortunately, the organizing committee finally investigated and clarified that it was a false accusation, preserving Wu Xingzhou's gold award. Once I borrowed Ge Ming's computer and accidentally saw the content of that report letter in the document opening record. I confronted Ge Ming, and he admitted it but begged me not to tell Wu Xingzhou, saying he did it because of jealousy and didn't want to lose Wu Xingzhou as a friend. I naively agreed. Now that I think about it, maybe I made a huge wrong decision." Xu Ziheng held his head with both hands, his fingers sinking into his afro, regretting it immensely.

"It seems we have to have a good chat with this classmate Ge Ming." Qi Fei recorded in his notebook and said, then asked, "We learned that Wu Xingzhou went to India a month ago. Did you make an appointment to go together?" Qi Fei asked.

"India?" Xu Ziheng looked at Qi Fei blankly. "Wu Xingzhou went to India? We don't know. When did he go?"

"None of you good friends went out with him?" Qi Fei was a bit surprised.

"None of us did. Everyone was together working on the big exhibition, and only Wu Xingzhou didn't appear. We thought he was in seclusion working on a big move. How did he run to India? To collect inspiration?" Xu Ziheng became more confused as he spoke.

"Did he ever mention topics related to India to you before?" Qi Fei paused and added, "Especially about religion, such as the god Shiva?"

When Xu Ziheng heard "Shiva," he was thoughtful: "Now that you mention it, at the end of last year, there was a period of time when he did talk to me about stories between Shiva and his wife, love, reincarnation, and so on. I didn't take it to heart, thinking it was just him accumulating material because he couldn't find inspiration for his graduation design."

"Shiva has a wife?" Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but ask.

Xu Ziheng looked at the curious expressions of the few people in front of him and asked puzzledly: "What? Does this have anything to do with Wu Xingzhou's death?"

Cai Ding on the side said to him: "When Wu Xingzhou died, he was clutching a statue in his arms. We discovered it was the Indian god Shiva, and he went to India before the incident. We suspect his death is related to going to India."

Xu Ziheng frowned: "I really can't remember. Who can remember such irrelevant words..."

Wu Shanqiu leaned into Qi Fei's ear and said: "Brother Fei, it seems we need Xiao Kui's Memory Recovery Great Method."

In the Huang Daxian Temple, Qi Fei put a prayer slip into the black merit box. When the folded paper fell into the pitch-black box, his heart also sank. Once, he thought he would be with Zhong Kui forever, to the point of being inseparable, but now, just in the matter of finding her, he was no different from a stranger in Sanwu Town. That yellow paper iris that was burned actually made Zhong Kui resolutely withdraw from his world.

What a heartless woman... he thought indignantly, but couldn't help but look forward to her appearing as promised after receiving this prayer slip.

Xu Ziheng on the side was stunned and said with a face full of suspicion: "The person you said you were looking for is the Great Immortal? Are you really police officers?"

Wu Shanqiu smiled and stood in front of him: "You'll know when the time comes. You just cooperate; don't worry about the rest."

In the wooden cabin on Zizai Shan, Meng Apo put the merit box beside Zhong Kui's sleeping daybed and said in an aged voice: "Great Immortal, you are truly a divine calculator; they really came to find you."

Zhong Kui's slender, jade-like hands opened the merit box. All the wishes were bundled with money, except for one. She took out that lonely prayer slip and read the text on it, her mouth curling up slightly: "He must have been very depressed when he wrote this content, and he must have said countless times in his heart that I am a heartless woman."

Meng Apo observed her expression, and it was unknown whether it was a cough or a laugh that came from the bottom of her dry throat: "It seems you have already forgiven him, Great Immortal."

Zhong Kui looked at the text on the prayer slip lazily. The content didn't involve any private content at all, but she looked at it with great interest: "Forgiven, but I like to see him at a loss when he sees me."

"Does this guy have no temper? You treat him so coldly, Great Immortal, and he doesn't get angry," Meng Apo said while wiping the incense ash on the coffee table, puzzled.

"Because he is Qi Fei." Zhong Kui got off the daybed nimbly and looked down at the newly awakened Luosha. "The weather is so good, let's go down the mountain for a stroll."

The old curtains of the rental house were half-drawn, and the oil paintings and sculptures in the room were even more vivid in the light and shadow. That self-portrait of Wu Xingzhou was placed directly in front of Xu Ziheng, and sitting beside the portrait was Zhong Kui, draped in a black veil.

She raised her hand, and the silver pendant on her wrist swayed, leaving colorful afterimages in the air, reflected in Xu Ziheng's pupils. Accompanied by Zhong Kui's guidance, Xu Ziheng's tense face relaxed, as if his soul had returned to the past.

Following his narration, everyone listening followed him back to that snowy dusk.

Wu Xingzhou returned to the rental house from outside in high spirits, humming a strange tune and taking off his coat covered in snow.

"Looking in a good mood?" Xu Ziheng asked him with a smile.

"Hmm, met a friend, heard an interesting story, happy." Wu Xingzhou looked unsatisfied. "Hey! Ziheng, have you heard the story of Shiva and Parvati? My friend told me. It turns out that the supreme god of Hinduism also has a touching love story. Parvati's past life, Sati, burned herself to death to maintain Shiva's dignity, and reincarnated as the snow mountain goddess Parvati, practicing for three hundred million years to finally become a couple with Shiva. Three hundred million years, this imagination..."

"What kind of obscure stuff is that? Are you obsessed with your graduation design?" Xu Ziheng muttered.

Wu Xingzhou seemed not to have heard Xu Ziheng's words and continued to talk endlessly: "Hey, this Parvati is also very interesting. She has 108 forms, the coolest of which is Kali, the bloodthirsty goddess of revenge. She once said a very cool sentence to Shiva, saying, 'Thy dark side...'"

A cold wind suddenly blew into the room, interrupting Wu Xingzhou's narration. Another classmate returned from outside.

"Ge Ming!" Xu Ziheng took a deep breath, as if waking from a dream, and regained his sobriety.

The Nancheng Art Academy was located in the suburbs of Nancheng. As Xu Ziheng said, the distance from this place to Sanwu Town was about the same as the time to go to Nancheng city center. No wonder Wu Xingzhou would rent a house in Sanwu Town; with the distance being about the same, the rent in Sanwu Town was much less.

There was only one person in the huge studio concentrating on painting.

Qi Fei knocked twice on the open door. The person stopped the paintbrush in his hand and looked back. ===== CHAPTER 313 =====