Chapter 359: Exhaust Fan

Time passed minute by minute. Every corner of the hotel had been searched, but there was no sign of Wu Shanqiu.

"He said two hours. Why two hours?" Zhong Kui said.

Zhong Kui's words reminded Qi Fei, who was in anxiety. Xi He had already left. How could he be sure Wu Shanqiu could survive for 2 hours? He took out the note Xi He left again. The time written was 4:00 AM. Two hours later would be 6:00 AM. And at this moment, there was only half an hour left until 6:00.

"After 2 hours, something must happen in the hotel that will cause Shanqiu's death," Qi Fei thought immediately and hurriedly found the duty manager to ask what the hotel does every morning at 6:00. Sure enough, the duty manager told him that in order to prepare breakfast, they would turn on the kitchen equipment every morning at 6:00.

Qi Fei immediately asked the manager to notify the kitchen not to turn on any equipment, but the manager called the kitchen, and no one answered.

"It's too late!" Qi Fei didn't say a word and immediately rushed to the kitchen on the first floor.

Time turned rapidly. The daylight outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was brightening.

In the last minute, Qi Fei pushed away the chef who was about to pull the power switch.

The kitchen was still dim. If his direction of reasoning was wrong, Shanqiu would have already lost her life by now.

Qi Fei didn't dare to think and forced himself to concentrate on finding a place where Wu Shanqiu might be hidden.

Zhong Kui and the others followed closely and arrived at the scene at this time.

Time passed minute by minute. The kitchen, which should have been noisy, was silent at this time.

Suddenly, a "clatter" came from somewhere, as if something had hit a metal panel.

Everyone stood in place, not daring to breathe. A few seconds later, the same sound came again, followed by a third.

This was not an accidental collision; someone was knocking to send a signal!

As the number of knocks increased, the location of the sound became clearer. It was near the stove, where there was a huge exhaust pipe, nearly a meter in diameter, just enough to fit a person.

Qi Fei rushed up to take a look. Sure enough, a clean panel was exposed at the edge of the greasy cover above, which someone had just moved.

Qi Fei tore off the cover. In front of the huge fan blades, Wu Shanqiu was gagged, her hands tied behind her back, curled up in the pipe. Her eyes were hazy, and she didn't seem fully awake.

If it weren't for Qi Fei rushing over in time to stop the chef who was about to turn on the power switch, the consequences of the exhaust fan turning on at 6:00 sharp would be unimaginable.

The 2 hours were enough for Xi He to get away. There would never be a person named Jiang Tianyi in this world again.

When they returned to Nancheng, the heavy snow hadn't melted, but the psychological counseling room where Jiang Tianyi worked had ignited with raging flames. The investigation result of the fire was that a heating lamp caught fire, and this heating lamp had a remote start function. Whether this fire was man-made or accidental was self-evident.

It was a pity that, in this way, everything Xi He did using the fake identity of Jiang Tianyi was burned to ashes and could no longer be traced.

In the underground palace in Nanling, Xi He poured himself a glass of red wine and raised his glass to the lifeless ancient stone statues.

He pressed the button on the armrest of the white marble throne, and a holographic projection appeared before him—it was exactly the image of Zhong Xiaoyu.

"I suddenly feel that this place needs a hostess. No one is more suitable to be the hostess here than you, Dr. Jiang. I still like to call you Dr. Jiang." His voice was filled with pathological affection, "Look, those idiots were played around by us. In this boring world, is there anything more fun than this?"

Ten kilometers away at the Nancheng Police Station, Zhong Kui stood in the corridor on the second floor, looking at the white snow outside the window for a long time without speaking. The wind leaking through the window crack occasionally blew her bangs, revealing her pale forehead.

"Kui, do you have something on your mind? This isn't like you," Qi Fei said beside Zhong Kui.

"Do you remember what I told you about the house in my body?" Zhong Kui still looked ahead and asked Qi Fei.

"You said you and Zhong Xiaoyu were like neighbors living in the same house. I remember," Qi Fei said with extra gentleness.

"After returning from Baicheng, I always have a feeling that my lease is about to expire," Zhong Kui said, turning to look at Qi Fei. There was endless sadness in her eyes. In her eyes, even this sadness was clear, without a single tear.

"Don't talk nonsense, I won't let Zhong Xiaoyu do that!" Qi Fei's heart tightened, and he said immediately. This sounded more like he was comforting himself.

Zhong Kui changed the subject: "I did a psychological assessment for Shanqiu. She should be fine. She really is a girl with a big heart."

Speak of the devil, Wu Shanqiu came over holding two cups of hot milk tea, stuffing one to Qi Fei and one to Zhong Kui: "Thanks to both of you for saving my life," she said with a grin. It seemed Zhong Kui was right; the incident of being trapped in the exhaust fan and almost losing her life didn't seem to cause Wu Shanqiu much trouble.

"Sure enough, heartless," Qi Fei laughed.

"Come to think of it, I still don't understand. How did he make us believe in the identities of people like You He and Jiang Tianyi? It's simply outrageous," Wu Shanqiu said.

"It's the glass marble," Zhong Kui said, "We all thought the repeatedly appearing glass marble was Xi He reminding Qi Fei of his childhood. We were really careless. This was him repeatedly performing psychological suggestion on us. Before entering the culvert in Yuanxi, the appearance of that marble machine was to trigger the mechanism he laid in our hearts, making us hallucinate when we saw You He disguised as Xi He."

"If it weren't for You He's body being accidentally discovered, we would never have discovered Jiang Tianyi's true identity. If he wanted to kill anyone in the police station, it would be as easy as turning over his hand. It's too terrifying," Qi Fei said with lingering fear, "Fortunately, Shanqiu is fine, otherwise I would feel guilty for the rest of my life."

"I have to reflect on this. If I were a bit sharper, I wouldn't have fallen into Jiang... oh, no, Xi He's trap. Thinking about it, I'm so scared. How could he be Xi He? It's like a dream." Wu Shanqiu muttered.

"Dream..." Zhong Kui heard these two words and seemed to have thought of something, "I never dream, but these past few days, I always dream of the pool of blood that Zhong Xiaoyu mentioned. This is not a good thing."

"That's just an image, not a real existence. It might be that the memories described by Zhong Xiaoyu caused a relatively large impact on you," Qi Fei said.

"No," Zhong Kui looked at Qi Fei again, "This is not an impact of memory. It is that other forces have made Zhong Xiaoyu's subconscious control over me weaker. The pool of blood is the subconscious that Zhong Xiaoyu cannot block." ===== CHAPTER 360 =====