Chapter 37

Just as he was speaking, Qi Fei received a call, and his expression changed suddenly after answering.

He then said to Zhong Kui: "Pan Ting is dead."

Soon, Qi Fei arrived at that small tavern.

That's right, it was the place where he and Zhong Kui overheard Feng Yi talking.

Pan Ting died in the private room where he had previously met with Feng Yi, slumped on the table, bleeding from his mouth and nose, his face ferocious, clearly having gone through an extremely painful process.

"We've asked everyone in the tavern. They said this Pan Ting booked the private room himself. Before lunch, he arrived at the private room alone, as if waiting for someone. After the waiter poured him tea, he left. Because there was no movement inside, he went in to ask if Pan Ting needed to order food, only to find that the person was already dead, so he hurriedly called the police."

Beside his hand was a medicine bottle.

"Liver protection tablets?" Qi Fei looked at the words on the label, but what caught his attention more was the inside of the medicine bottle. Underneath a pile of blue capsules, there seemed to be a furry object.

When all the capsules were poured out, a clump of brown hair appeared in his line of sight.

He had seen this hair color—in the photos taken before Niu Yinzhu went missing, she had dyed it this color.

The autopsy room was colder than the outside.

Pan Ting lay face up on the autopsy table, the skin on his face cracked like old tree bark, revealing dark flesh.

"What happened to his face?" Qi Fei asked.

"It's caused by the peeling of skin tissue after acute poisoning," Xiao Tao said while organizing his tools.

Wu Shanqiu said from the side: "It seems that, consistent with our analysis at the scene, the medicine in the liver protection capsules was replaced with poison. People like Pan Ting who often socialize are popular for taking liver protection tablets before drinking, thinking it helps with sobering up. It seems he took the medicine himself in the private room and died of acute poisoning," Wu Shanqiu discussed with Qi Fei while facing Pan Ting's corpse.

"What about the hair?" Qi Fei asked immediately, his expression extremely solemn.

"I extracted DNA from the hair follicles and compared it. It matches the DNA in the blood sample we found on the highway one hundred percent," Xiao Tao said.

"In other words, it is indeed Niu Yinzhu's hair," Qi Fei said immediately.

"Mm, and it can be confirmed that Niu Yinzhu is already dead," Xiao Tao said calmly.

"Why?" Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu asked in unison.

"Because the scalp attached to the root of the hair has already become leather-like."

"Speak human language!" Qi Fei said that familiar line to Xiao Tao as expected.

Xiao Tao was not angry as usual. He closed the tool box and smiled, saying: "Equivalent to, the scalp we found has already dried up. It's the difference between a leather coat and fresh cowhide. And..." As he spoke, he clicked on the photos in the computer. "This is the magnified edge of the skin tissue. This shape indicates that it was torn off from a whole piece of leather-like scalp, not dried up after being torn off while alive."

His calm paragraph made Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu feel like they were facing a formidable enemy.

They knew that the person who made Niu Yinzhu disappear for three years had finally appeared.

And, surprisingly, they had killed Pan Ting while they were investigating.

Was it a provocation, or were they fearless? They didn't know.

"Pan Ting's phone is unlocked. The last call made was to a landline," Wu Shanqiu said, giving Qi Fei a phone number.

Qi Fei dialed the number without a word.

Soon the other end of the phone was picked up. "Hello?" That unpleasant voice came through, and one could tell who it was immediately—Feng Yi.

Feng Yi could be considered the suspect with the worst expression sitting in the interrogation room.

That expression was as if everyone present owed her millions.

"Are you mistaken! I didn't receive a call from this Pan guy at all. What does his death have to do with me?" she said, habitually rolling her eyes.

The lawyer on the side was embarrassed: "You can remain silent, this..."

"I didn't do anything wrong, why should I endure it, huh?" Feng Yi glared at the lawyer beside her, as if she didn't have to respect the other party just because she spent money.

The lawyer was also helpless, as if he regretted taking this case, leaned back in his chair, and let her talk to herself.

"People in the group said he came to find you early in the morning, and then went to the tavern. Don't tell me you don't know what he went to that tavern for." Qi Fei didn't care about her attitude, only caring about the case.

"I never saw him at all. I don't know what he went to that tavern for," Feng Yi blurted out.

Qi Fei stared at her and said coldly: "I never said which tavern he went to."

Feng Yi was stunned, knowing she had let it slip. She, who had always been strong in speech, was choked up at this moment, and then her attitude softened somewhat: "I don't know what he went there for today..."

"Because you only meet on Wednesdays, and the day Pan Ting died was Friday," Qi Fei pointed out.

After Feng Yi's eyes flickered, she raised her head: "That's nothing. On Wednesdays, I will make appointments to talk about business. Usually, I have to work overtime and don't have time. By the way, you can ask the people in the group. I was in meetings all day on Friday. It's impossible for me to have a chance to meet Pan Ting!"

"He died of poisoning, so you don't need to meet him. By the way, we also found this at the scene," Qi Fei said, throwing the evidence photo in front of Feng Yi.

Feng Yi looked at it and didn't understand: "Is this hair or something?"

"You guessed right, it's hair, and it's Niu Yinzhu's hair."

"Did you find her?" Feng Yi's tone was strange, unable to tell if it was indifference or curiosity.

"No, but this is the hair of a dead person."

Feng Yi was stunned again, as if she had digested the news for a while, then frowned, lowered her head, and muttered: "Could it be that what I saw was a ghost?"

Qi Fei subconsciously glanced at the one-way glass on the side. Zhong Kui was in the next room. She had said before that Feng Yi had seen a figure appear in Niu Yinzhu's office.

"How much truth do you think Feng Yi said?" After the interrogation, Qi Fei went to the next room to find Zhong Kui, who had been observing.

"If I say it's all true, would you be very disappointed?" Zhong Kui said.

"So, Pan Ting wasn't killed by her?"

"I am a consultant. My opinion can only serve as a reference for you. After all, a shaman's words cannot be used as testimony, right?"

Qi Fei was silent. Although Zhong Kui's words never sounded grounded, they were correct every time. At this moment, he naturally believed what she said.

"Besides, don't you think Pan Ting's death was designed too precisely? I looked at the liver protection tablets. There were only three capsules left, and the powder in each capsule had been replaced. After all, buying poison in large doses is easy to attract attention. And this dosage was mastered so precisely, just enough to poison Pan Ting to death, not wasting a bit."

Zhong Kui's words woke Qi Fei up: "This person has a certain amount of medical knowledge and has been trained, just like handling blood coagulation after killing Niu Yinzhu!"