Chapter 348: The Mask in the Pond

"I seem to have fallen asleep, and I slept very soundly, without even dreaming." Faced with Qi Fei's repeated inquiries, Zhong Kui just shook her head. "That guy Zhong Xiaoyu doesn't know how she did it, as if she set up a barrier between me and her, completely isolating me from her."

"Wasn't it like this before?" Qi Fei asked softly.

Zhong Kui shook her head: "This body is like a building, and both Zhong Xiaoyu and I are residents in this building, fighting for the property rights of the whole building. Sometimes it's me, sometimes it's her. No matter who occupies the dominant position, the other person can hear the movement in the building. Although not completely, they roughly know what happened during the time they weren't there. But this time it's completely different. Before I woke up, the last memory was still in Sanwu Town. At that time..." When she recalled this, her face suddenly turned pale, as if she had encountered something very terrifying.

Qi Fei rarely saw her like this and couldn't help but hold her hand. He was afraid of losing her and looked forward to Zhong Xiaoyu's appearance again. This contradictory mood brought him great guilt. Zhong Kui's fingers were colder than before, which made Qi Fei very worried. The Zhong Kui he knew was fearless. What kind of thing could make her afraid?

However, Zhong Kui herself didn't know the answer. She muttered to herself in confusion: "Why am I afraid?"

"Did Zhong Xiaoyu do something to you?" Qi Fei tried to prompt.

Zhong Kui tried to recall, but finally shook her head: "It seems to have nothing to do with her. It seems there is a black shadow..." She said, pulling back the hand held by Qi Fei, looking down at her own hands, and muttered, "It was these hands that dragged me to a very dark place, bottomless darkness..."

For some reason, Zhong Kui's words made Qi Fei think of the crime scene of Villa No. 3 in Yueya Mountain, that bottomless darkness, just like Zhong Xiaoyu's pupils in the photo, lingering in Qi Fei's mind.

The ward door was knocked on twice, interrupting Qi Fei's thoughts. He turned his head, and it was Jiang Tianyi who came.

"I heard Xiaoyu is back, so I came to visit." He smiled, with his usual elegant appearance.

"Heh, then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed," Zhong Kui said, choking back with her natural rejection of Zhong Xiaoyu.

Jiang Tianyi didn't care, lowered his head slightly and pushed his gold-rimmed glasses: "It seems Zhong Kui is back. No matter who it is, fruit can always be eaten, right?" He said, placing the fruit basket on the bedside table.

Zhong Kui glanced at the fruit basket, didn't thank him, and instead said: "You don't come to the temple without a reason. It seems you have something to do with Zhong Xiaoyu."

Jiang Tianyi laughed again: "As expected of a shaman, that's right, Zhong Xiaoyu came to see me before she went missing."

"You didn't say that last time." Qi Fei said in surprise. The "last time" he referred to was obviously the time he went to him for relief after reading the file.

"I didn't know Xiaoyu had an accident at that time. She gave me this," Jiang Tianyi took out the USB drive, "but it was password-protected. I don't know what's inside. Later I heard she was missing, and I was worried that it might be her last words. I originally wanted to come and ask her clearly."

"She gave you a USB drive?" Zhong Kui's eyes flashed with displeasure.

"I remember when I first met you, I received a USB drive you sent," Qi Fei said, taking out the USB drive from his pocket. It was the one Zhong Kui gave him over a year ago to hint at her residence. He had been carrying it with him.

"Cut, she's just copying my approach," Zhong Kui said disdainfully, her tone toward Jiang Tianyi mixed with neglect. "So?"

"So, I want to ask what the password is," Jiang Tianyi said peacefully, then sighed, "That day she came to me through wind and snow. Thinking back now, it was like a well-thought-out farewell. I should have kept her a little longer. I don't know what happened during the days she disappeared."

"Heh, this coward is hiding again and using me as a shield. If she didn't always occupy this body without greeting, Xi He would have been finished off by me long ago," Zhong Kui said disdainfully.

"Kui, are you sure Xi He killed Zhong Xiaoyu's family? Is it possible that this is what Zhong Xiaoyu wants you to believe?" Qi Fei couldn't help but ask.

Zhong Kui was stunned for a moment. This was a question she had never thought of before.

"She created you, and also created a worldview that belongs exclusively to you..." Qi Fei's words were like needles pricking Zhong Kui's nerves.

"Shut up, I am me, she is her. I am a existence a hundred times more powerful than her." Zhong Kui turned her head to the side, her long black hair covering half of her face.

"You just said that you are like two residents living in a building, so Zhong Xiaoyu's memories, can you also catch a glimpse of them? What happened at Villa No. 3 in Yueya Mountain ten years ago? Can you see it?" Qi Fei asked cautiously.

"Yueya Mountain?" Zhong Kui frowned. "I don't know why, every time I think of this place, I feel very cold, as if I'm walking barefoot in the snow." She said, and really started to shiver, shaking more and more violently.

Jiang Tianyi saw her abnormality and stopped her in a deep voice: "Zhong Kui, stop, come back to reality."

Hearing this, Zhong Kui suddenly exhausted all her strength and fell into Qi Fei's arms, losing consciousness.

This year's winter ushered in a once-in-a-century cold wave. Even in the south like Yuanxi, the temperature plummeted to zero.

Because of the dry cold for many days, the sea pond finally hit bottom. In the winter, the black mud was dried white. Fishermen were worriedly cleaning up the immature catch, hoping to recover some losses.

The cold wind blew the frost-covered seaweed, and half a human face was exposed from the mud, lifelike.

This scene scared the fishermen quite a bit. Then, upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a silicone mask. I don't know whose trash was discarded casually again.

He breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the crab tongs to clamp it and prepared to put it into the trash basket. However, the mask seemed to grow in the mud, and he didn't clamp it up the first time. He had to put down the tongs and reach out with both hands to grab it. The mask wrapped something and was pulled out of shape. With a force, he only heard a crisp "crack" in the mud, just like picking a watermelon, breaking the vine. He hugged the thing wrapped in the mask and fell backward into the mud.

The mask was covered in mud and deformed in his hands, looking eerie and ridiculous.

Before he could react, a round, round thing fell from under the mask and "plop" fell back into the mud.

The winter sun hung high, illuminating everything in the mud pond clearly. That thing had two big black holes facing the fisherman, grinning with a big mouth as if mocking—this was clearly a skull.

"Mom! It's a dead person!" The dried-up sea pond heard the fisherman's frightened call for help, startling the seagulls around. ===== CHAPTER 349 =====