Chapter 52: The Devil Disguised as an Angel

"Sometimes the computer is on, and the words on it change often, but they are all things my son says to me." Chen Liangdi's voice was already choked with sobs. "But he just plays hide-and-seek with me and won't come out to see me. Great Immortal, you said you would help me."

"Don't worry, the things we agreed upon won't change." Zhong Kui patted Chen Liangdi on the back. "After the Yue Fengsheng matter is cleared up, I will help you talk to your son."

Hearing this, Chen Liangdi's sad mood eased a little, and she muttered: "Last time he left a message on the computer saying he was sick and asked me to buy medicine. At that time, I was just like this police officer, worried that someone was playing a prank on me. But then I thought, what would they gain by pranking a useless old woman like me? My son said he wanted to eat cephalosporin, so I went to buy it for him. And look!"

Chen Liangdi took out the medicine box like a treasure and pulled out a whole sheet of medicine. Sure enough, two pills were missing.

However, hearing this, Qi Fei already knew the reason Zhong Kui had brought him here.

Cephalosporin is a prescription drug, and buying it requires real-name registration. They were originally screening people who had conflicts with Yue Fengsheng to see who had bought cephalosporin recently. They never expected that the person was this Chen Liangdi, and the one who took the medicine was her son who had been dead for twenty years.

Zhong Kui nudged Qi Fei with her elbow and said triumphantly: "See? Isn't fortune telling very useful? The exciting part is still to come!"

She then said to Chen Liangdi: "Can you take us to see that place again?"

Chen Liangdi nodded, left her son's bedroom, crossed the living room, and walked toward the front door.

"Where are we going?" Qi Fei asked Zhong Kui.

Zhong Kui didn't speak, only signaling him to follow Chen Liangdi outside.

Passing through the living room, Qi Fei couldn't help but take another look at the black-and-white photo of the young man enshrined on the wall. Those black eyes seemed to be watching him, ready to blink at any moment.

Chen Liangdi went downstairs slowly and circled to the back of the first-floor staircase. From there, there was another flight of stairs going down.

Only a dim yellow light was on in the corridor, and it got darker the further down they went.

Chen Liangdi fumbled for the switch familiarly and turned on the corridor light.

Turning on the lights as they went, the narrow corridor had cement walls covered in spiderwebs on one side and iron doors on the other.

The pitch-black passage was deep. Chen Liangdi was old and walked slowly. The three of them walked for a long while before finally reaching the end.

She tremblingly took out a key and opened one of the iron doors.

"The light is broken," Chen Liangdi said, her deformed fingers fumbling as she walked to the other side of the basement and opened another door.

To Qi Fei's surprise, after the door opened, the whole room suddenly became bright. Looking out, it was actually the first floor.

It turned out this was the building's utility room. The apartment building was built on a slope; entering from the building, it was a basement, but walking in from the outside, it was the first floor.

Chen Liangdi was still showing proof of her son's return, pointing to a bicycle placed to the side: "This is my son's. We couldn't bear to throw it away. He used to ride this bike to work. It was originally placed in that spot." She pointed to a corner on the other side. "It was behind a pile of junk, but recently it was brought outside."

"And, look." She touched the bicycle seat. "It's all clean."

Qi Fei stepped forward to look. Indeed, the bike was old. Because it had been so long, the axle was rusted, and the leather on the seat had long since become brittle and would fall off at a touch, but the tires had been replaced with new ones, and the chain had been oiled.

However, what caught his attention most were a few red fibers still hanging on the wheel.

He remembered this red color all too well. On the day Yue Fengsheng died, He Zhixin, the resident of Room 101, had indignantly taken out that worn-out tracksuit, and it was this color. Surely the bike Yue Fengsheng rode when he hit Zhou Li couldn't be this one? He immediately asked Chen Liangdi: "Old lady, have you lent your bicycle to Yue Fengsheng recently?"

Hearing this, Chen Liangdi waved her hands and firmly denied it: "I stay as far away from that person as I can. This bike is my son's treasure; how could I lend it to him?" Then she said emotionally: "My son is very handy. It must be him who fixed the bike. Look, those things in the toolbox are all placed outside."

Actually, Qi Fei didn't care about the logical consistency of Chen Liangdi's statement. He just couldn't figure out why, if Yue Fengsheng was deliberately provoking them, he would use his own bike. Why go to such great lengths to specifically steal Chen Liangdi's bicycle and go through the trouble of fixing it?

He began to pay attention to the things in this utility room.

Broken bicycle, worn-out toys, messy toolbox...

These things often appeared in the same place as Daddy-Long-Legs.

Could it be...

"Great Immortal, you must let him see me one last time." Chen Liangdi paused here, then nodded to herself. "I don't have many days left. The bond between mother and son is coming to an end. Let me know where he goes to be reincarnated. If one day I go down there, I must make a request to Yama to be reincarnated in a place close to my son, so I can see him again in the next life."

"Don't worry, I'm good at clairvoyance." Zhong Kui guaranteed.

Qi Fei didn't expose Zhong Kui this time. He had never believed in clairvoyance and knew she was lying. In the past, he would have absolutely opposed lying, but this time, looking at Chen Liangdi, who was full of hope because of Zhong Kui's empty promise, he didn't quite know how to judge it.

Qi Fei now understood Zhong Kui's meaning. During the first investigation, because of the clue of Daddy-Long-Legs mentioned by Xiao You, they had completely ignored Chen Liangdi, who could not possibly be linked to the case from any angle.

Zhong Kui had said before that the small alley Xiao You mentioned might not be a real alley. Judging from the long, narrow passage leading to the basement and the lighting conditions, it was very likely that Xiao You saw the so-called Daddy-Long-Legs here. The location was inside the apartment building; no wonder those people outside all said they saw Xiao You return to the apartment building alone.

Qi Fei, walking out of Guiyue Apartment again, looked at the pure blue sky above his head and looked back at the old apartment building behind him. His mood was incomparably complicated.

Zhong Kui, standing to the side, said faintly: "The Daddy-Long-Legs who brought Xiao You a sense of security, the ghost who comforted Chen Liangdi's grief over losing her son, and also the judge who eliminated the troublemaking drunkard for everyone. This person seems to be redeeming them while using them. Truly a devil disguised as an angel."

Hearing this, a chill rose in Qi Fei's heart: whoever used Xiao You to kill Yue Fengsheng, it seemed this was just the beginning. Why would those eyes in the darkness set their sights on the ordinary people living here? ===== CHAPTER 53 =====