Chapter 65: The Elimination Plan

"Although I don't have a mobile phone and haven't watched his videos, doing these things to grab attention shouldn't be entirely for money. His obsession with traffic has the traits of a histrionic personality. Such people, in order to attract others' attention, sometimes develop unexplained illnesses; common ones are stomach aches and headaches, though there's actually nothing physiologically wrong," Zhong Kui said.

Qi Fei stared at her, not speaking.

Seeing him staring fixedly, Zhong Kui lowered her brow: "What are you looking at?"

"You're not a fortune teller, are you?" Qi Fei said.

"Hmph, then who am I?" Zhong Kui did not like such questioning.

"That remark you just made reminds me of my psychiatrist," Qi Fei said.

"Oh, does someone as self-consistent as you also need a psychiatrist?" Zhong Kui said noncommittally.

"Self-consistent—that doesn't sound like something a fortune teller would say either."

Zhong Kui just smiled and didn't answer.

"Fine, regardless of who you are, Sha Gou—this person, do you think he's suspicious? I just feel that appearing here at this time is too much of a coincidence," Qi Fei said.

"I'm actually thinking, that person hiding in the shadows hasn't been discovered by us to have any key clues yet, but was so careless as to almost be bumped into by Sha Gou, to the point that even their human form was recorded. Don't you think this matter is very strange? If it's the same person, their behavior is generally consistent. A cautious person couldn't suddenly become careless and take risks," Zhong Kui pondered, looking uncharacteristically serious.

As they were speaking, the door to Room 102 next to them, which never opened, suddenly opened a crack, then slammed shut again upon seeing people.

"Huh? Didn't that video just say the owner of Room 102 died several years ago?" Wu Shanqiu immediately thought.

"When I was investigating Yue Fengsheng before, I came to knock on the door. The one living there now should be the son of the old man who died; he doesn't like to talk and doesn't like to go out," Qi Fei said.

Wu Shanqiu was puzzled: "Hm? Isn't it said that if the owner of this house dies, it must be reclaimed? How can this person continue to live here?" She was now very familiar with the property rights issues of Guiyue Apartment.

"You guess why he doesn't like to talk or go out?" Zhong Kui said from the side, "Sneaking around always has a reason."

"You mean this young man is currently an unregistered resident, so he's afraid of being discovered and reported to the management company?" Wu Shanqiu said, thinking seriously, "Theoretically, yes, because they don't even have independent water and electricity meters; they pay by sharing. If the management company doesn't want to manage it properly, they might not necessarily discover that someone is still living in this house."

Walking all the way, the three arrived at the hot pot restaurant. After taking their seats, Qi Fei looked at the key he had taken from Sha Gou, lost in thought.

On the key were eight characters: "Exquisite Lock Factory, Public-Private Partnership."

"Old Yu..." he muttered, "Could it be this person?"

"Brother Fei, the people in the team went to look into Old Yu's situation. Because the company dissolved and this person had no relatives, there wasn't much information to be found. However, everyone who had contact with him said this person was very honest and kind. As for Yue Fengsheng's ex-wife, named Ai Lili, she was also from the Guomao Company and used to be a salesperson at the department store. Unlike the current relationship between Yue Fengsheng and Lv Xiuxia, it's said that Yue Fengsheng and Ai Lili had a pretty good relationship, and when Ai Lili was around, if Yue Fengsheng drank too much, he wouldn't cause trouble as long as Ai Lili persuaded him. So this elopement thing is actually quite bizarre."

"If it wasn't an elopement, then they're dead," Zhong Kui said out of the blue, fiddling with her small copper knife.

"Did you discover something again?" Qi Fei asked immediately.

"Guiyue Apartment has such heavy Yin energy; there must be more dead people than just the ones on the surface. This is an elimination plan," Zhong Kui said suddenly.

"An elimination plan?" Qi Fei didn't react for a moment.

"The deaths of Yue Fengsheng and Chen Liangdi were not accidental. The root cause ultimately lies in the property deed. Because the whole building only has one property deed, if everyone's opinions don't agree, then change the way of thinking to solve this problem: kill everyone else, and the last person alive can take the only property deed and own this house," Zhong Kui said.

"Damn, if I hadn't studied criminal psychology at the police academy, this would really be a perverted line of thinking!" Wu Shanqiu exclaimed from the side.

Qi Fei looked at Zhong Kui, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes. He hadn't forgotten the antisocial personality his psychiatrist Jiang Tianyi had analyzed with him. Recently, he had also been reading the psychology books Dr. Jiang gave him intermittently.

The line of thinking Zhong Kui brought up was typical of what an antisocial personality would think of.

The murderer thought of it, and likewise, Zhong Kui thought of it too.

And what Zhong Kui said next truly made him shudder: "So, actually, regardless of whether you investigate this case or not, the real murderer will eventually surface. Whoever lives to the end is the murderer."

"Ha, we can't just sit and wait for the murderer to kill everyone else, right?" Wu Shanqiu immediately raised an objection.

"He won't kill people who have nothing to do with the house. Lv Xiuxia and Xiao You should be glad that Yue Fengsheng didn't find a way to give them the right to inherit the house, so they are safe. However, there is one more point I still haven't figured out..." Zhong Kui actually carried that picture book of Xiao You's with her, "Why is Uncle Long-Legs not a stick figure... and..." she continued, "Don't you think the smell permeating the third and fourth floors is very familiar?"

As she spoke, her gaze swept over Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu, as if they should naturally know the answer.

Seeing that the two had no reaction, Zhong Kui smiled helplessly: "It's no wonder you don't; after all, in Yue Fengsheng's house, because of his chronic alcoholism, it was mixed with the smell of vomit, and Chang Hui, because he is a germaphobe, used aromatherapy and such to remove the odor, which instead prevented you from connecting them together."

Qi Fei recalled Zhong Kui's unusual expression when they left just now and immediately pressed: "What exactly is it?"

Zhong Kui's face darkened: "Corpse stench."

The hot pot in front of them was bubbling with heat, but these two simple words made Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu instantly lose interest in the food on the table.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Qi Fei knew Zhong Kui had discovered it before leaving Guiyue Apartment.

"If I had said it, you wouldn't have come to eat lunch. I'm hungry and need you to accompany me for lunch," Zhong Kui said as a matter of course.

"Is eating more important than investigating the case?"

"Of course," Zhong Kui raised an eyebrow, "Anyway, the murderer doesn't know we discovered it."

"You!"

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do; eat lunch first," Zhong Kui said, calmly swishing the mutton.

Wu Shanqiu looked at the fuming Qi Fei and said weakly from the side: "Brother Fei, shall we just eat lunch first?" ===== CHAPTER 66 =====