Chapter 349: The Original Cast

When the Nancheng Police Station received news from Yuanxi that Xi He's body was suspected to have been found, everyone found it hard to believe.

No one knew better than the Nancheng Police Station that Xi He was still alive, and alive and well.

The photos appearing on the projection made everyone fall into deeper confusion.

I saw a man's head appearing in the photo, but unlike the skeleton found after half a year as imagined, the head's vivid features were clearly Xi He, and it was the living Xi He, only the eyes were empty as if the eyeballs had been dug out by someone.

"This is not scientific!" Wu Shanqiu blurted out.

"It's very scientific. Silicone mask, not easy to rot." Liu Tong pointed to a line of explanatory text on the side with a laser pointer.

"This mask is simply lifelike!" Wu Shanqiu exclaimed.

"Not strange. Didn't you see those simulated robot faces? If you don't look carefully, who knows it's fake?" Liu Tong said dismissively. "Rather than a mask, it's a head cover. It's the kind that wraps the whole head. According to the situation provided by the Yuanxi police, fishermen found this mask while cleaning the sea pond. At first, they thought it was a toy. When they picked it up, a real skeleton fell out from inside, which scared them into calling the police. They found that the appearance of the mask was highly similar to the appearance of Xi He we provided to them, so they notified us. Theoretically, the corpse rushed out from the culvert should have been washed into the sea. I don't know if it's heaven's will, but it was actually entangled by the dense seaweed in the sea pond." Liu Tong drank wolfberry water leisurely, talking about this earth-shattering news as if chatting about daily life. "Even so, without this once-in-a-century cold wave this winter, if the sea pond hadn't been cleared and hit bottom, this corpse wouldn't have been discovered."

Liu Tong's words drifted in Qi Fei's ears, sometimes near and sometimes far. He couldn't concentrate, and the scene of confronting Xi He in the culvert that day involuntarily appeared in his mind.

Perhaps it was because of the experience of drowning, everything in the memory seemed to be covered with a layer of water mist, like an illusion.

"If it was Xi He himself, this mask would be unnecessary, right?" Liu Tong turned his head curiously to look at Qi Fei on the side.

That's right, if it was Xi He himself, he wouldn't need a mask.

The surging water in the culvert in his memory began to recede, and everything returned to the time when he couldn't see his fingers in the culvert.

That carefully designed lighting, that passionate confrontation, everything seemed to be an exquisitely arranged drama, and everyone became a person in the play without knowing it.

Is there a possibility that that Xi He was an impersonator? Qi Fei asked himself, and he couldn't give a negative answer.

"So far, his plans have rarely gone wrong. That time in the culvert, he dealt with so many of us alone, which itself was not his style." Qi Fei said in a deep voice, "That was a dead end of mutual destruction. Obviously, Xi He didn't intend to die."

"Tsk, you guys were fooled by him again." Liu Tong shook his head.

"Captain Liu, don't say that. If you were there, you would have been fooled too," Wu Shanqiu said unconvincedly on the side.

Liu Tong tapped her head with the lid of his thermos: "How are you talking to your leader? No sense of propriety."

Qi Fei, caught between the two, was in no mood to joke. He stared at the mask on the screen and asked: "If this person is not Xi He, then who could it be? Even if his face can be disguised with a simulated mask, what about that voice, that posture, and the things he knew about Xi He? How did they come about?"

"It seems you guys have to go to Yuanxi again." Liu Tong said with a smile.

At the airport, Wu Shanqiu appeared in front of Qi Fei dragging a large suitcase.

"Are you on a business trip or traveling? What's in this?" Qi Fei looked at the suitcase and asked.

"Clothes, once-in-a-century big temperature drop. I heard their sea is frozen." Wu Shanqiu said and looked at Qi Fei's backpack. "Brother Fei, you better be careful, don't freeze to death before the case is solved."

"Pah, hope for something good." Qi Fei said irritably. As soon as he finished speaking, his gaze crossed Wu Shanqiu's shoulder, and he suddenly showed a look of surprise.

"Zhong Kui? Why is she here?" Qi Fei said.

Wu Shanqiu turned her head, and sure enough, Zhong Kui appeared at the airport unhurriedly wearing fur. Those who didn't know would think she was a noblewoman from somewhere.

It seems that no matter what Zhong Xiaoyu experienced, this time Zhong Kui was completely isolated.

"Brother Fei, you better suppress the corners of your mouth." Wu Shanqiu said to Qi Fei with a grin.

"Liu Tong said you guys were going to Yuanxi, so he asked me to come with you." Zhong Kui sat on the bench, flicking her hair, still with a charming appearance.

"Captain Liu didn't tell us?" Wu Shanqiu said.

"It was my suggestion to Liu Tong." A gentle man's voice came from behind her. Everyone followed the sound and saw that it was Jiang Tianyi. "It seems the last trip to Yuanxi still has unfinished tasks. Of course, we have to set off with the original cast."

"Ha, Dr. Jiang? I think you're bored in the psychological counseling room and looking for an excuse to go on a business trip?" Wu Shanqiu teased.

"Because it's been a while since the last time we went to Yuanxi, if we are all together, it will help us recall the details when we arrive at the scene," Jiang Tianyi said seriously.

Wu Shanqiu was right. Although the temperature in Yuanxi was higher than in Nancheng, Qi Fei still underestimated the power of the winter sea breeze. Wearing only a jacket, he shivered in the strong wind mixed with ice slag, unable to even take a step.

Just as he was planning to find a place to buy clothes urgently, he suddenly felt a warmth on his body. Someone draped a down coat over him. Turning his head, it was Jiang Tianyi.

"I saw you were dressed thinly, so I just took my spare coat out of the suitcase," he said softly.

Qi Fei was inexplicably moved. Although he came from a wealthy background, except for the warmth he received from his mother in childhood, he had rarely been treated with such consideration and care.

Looking at Jiang Tianyi's elegant face, he had some delusional thoughts, thinking it would be great if his brother were Jiang Tianyi.

Unfortunately, a gust of cold wind blew him back to reality—the reality was that he did have a brother, but this brother was a madman who killed without blinking.

Transportation in Yuanxi was not very developed. After several twists and turns, they arrived at the local police station. This was an old-fashioned building from the 90s, with white and green mosaic tiles on the exterior, covered with years of rain stains.

"Currently, only this skull is relatively complete. It may be because of the protection of the silicone head cover that it wasn't eaten by the creatures in the sea pond. We tried our best to search in the sea pond, but except for the spine and thigh bones, other parts should not be found back." Yuanxi criminal police Chen Wenchang pointed to the scattered remains and said. ===== CHAPTER 350 =====