Catching the murderer?
Chai Cuiqiao suddenly lost interest and pouted. However, considering the new phone she had received, she still dutifully squeezed into the spirit banner disguised as a black umbrella.
The condition for the spirit banner to nourish the Spiritual Body was to absorb Yin energy. Consequently, Li Ang had spent a good deal of time visiting cemeteries with the black umbrella these past few days. To maintain his cover, he had even bought a few bunches of small plastic flowers and tucked them into his breast pocket.
"I wonder where the police officer responsible for monitoring my safety is positioned…"
Muttering to himself, Li Ang moved the landline phone to the carpet by the door. He attached a voice control module to it, setting it to automatically call his mobile phone whenever it detected sounds above 70 decibels. This was a precaution in case a police officer knocked on the door to check on him.
Afterward, he put on his hooded Night Clothes, gloves, and rain boots, donned the red-faced Guan Gong style Face-Changing Mask, tucked an axe and dagger into his belt, shouldered the black umbrella, and vaulted out the window.
To avoid any others in Yin City who might possess Spiritual Sense, Li Ang didn't immediately summon Chai Cuiqiao. Instead, he used his fingers to grip cracks in the wall, stepped on the outdoor air conditioning unit, and climbed, level by level, up to the rooftop terrace.
The wind on the rooftop was both cold and strong. Li Ang pulled at his collar and took out his phone.
To catch a murderer, evidence must first be gathered. Although the police had already thoroughly collected most of it, there was still some 'evidence' that couldn't be moved.
Li Ang swiped his phone screen, muttering to himself, "Modern surveillance cameras mostly have networking capabilities. Stores, residential areas, office buildings, and even private rooms, hotels, roads, and important traffic arteries—cameras in every place risk exposure. Anyone can scan camera systems or firmware that haven't been updated in a long time, have open ports, or lack protective measures, simply by accessing their publicly exposed IP addresses. They can even directly export surveillance data to watch live footage.
"As for the 720 water drop cameras, which market themselves on 'free hardware,' they epitomize 'insecurity.' Each camera sold to businesses at extremely low or even free prices also streams the surveillance footage live on the 720 water drop live broadcast platform. No hacking is required; just by logging into the live broadcast platform, one can view live or recorded footage."
Regardless of how brain-dead the idea behind the 720 water drop live streaming platform was, or how much it compromised consumer interests, it certainly made it easier for Li Ang to collect clues. He played the surveillance footage from the bicycle shed under Building 2084 from the past six days at 10x speed on his phone. Using fast-forward, he soon noticed anomalies.
Starting six days ago, a pattern emerged: whenever Zeng Weiming or Wang Fangni came out of the building and threw black garbage bags into the downstairs bin, a broad, chubby man in a sanitation worker's uniform and wearing a mask would appear within ten minutes. He would drag away the entire garbage bin and return the empty bin to its original place within minutes.
He's... collecting garbage?
Li Ang frowned slightly. The suspect clearly possessed supernatural abilities and could easily kill ordinary people like Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni. So why would he collect their household trash? Is it to understand their routines? Is this a revenge killing?
Li Ang continued to fast-forward. Over the six days, the man persistently collected the household trash of the couple, Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni. Sometimes he would also arrive with a small, mud-covered cart and take away the entire garbage bin.
He appears within ten minutes after Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni dispose of their trash. This indicates he can maintain real-time surveillance. Either he's rich and idle, or he doesn't have a steady job, or he works the night shift.
The place he stays during surveillance must be very close to Building 2084. Every time he appears, he comes from the western gate of the residential complex. The cart is muddy, and his new boots today are also covered with fresh, damp mud. This suggests his route to the complex includes unpaved surfaces.
A ten-minute walk, a road under construction, a residential area where someone wheeling a small cart or carrying garbage bags wouldn't look out of place...
Li Ang rapidly searched through his mental map of the area surrounding the complex and quickly pinpointed a location.
The urban village southwest of the complex, next to the open-air parking lot construction site...
Li Ang let out a breath and ran down the stairs. In a surveillance camera blind spot between two floors, he mounted the bicycle he had placed there earlier.
The presence-diminishing Special Effect of the Face-Changing Mask activated. Even though he was dressed like a serial killer, he wouldn't attract the attention of passersby. As long as he avoided cameras along the way, he was essentially invisible in the city.
Li Ang pedaled faster and faster. He reasoned that if he could discover this, the police should have too. The murderer, whose methods were clean and left no trace, had dared to leave the surveillance videos undeleted. Either he was confident he could get away before the police found him, or he was already so reckless he didn't fear being hunted—perhaps even wanted a direct confrontation...
Regardless of the possibility, Li Ang, who was on a mission, hoped to avoid any unexpected incidents. He weaved through the shadows between the streetlights, the wind roaring past his ears.
「He arrived at the urban village shantytown.」
This was an area of rather low-slung buildings, most only two or three stories high. The structures were old and dilapidated, with haphazard pipework, poor drainage and sewage systems, and overflowing garbage. The narrow, crowded streets and alleys felt like a cage.
Compared to the ring of modern, brightly lit high-rises around it, this shantytown looked like an island forgotten by everyone.
The people living in this shantytown were, in the truest sense, society's underclass.
Sanitation workers in masks, leaving early and returning late; retired construction workers with disabilities; laborers delivering goods for supermarkets; elderly people with no children to support them...
Li Ang parked his bicycle by the roadside. He looked up at the low-rise buildings, standing face-to-face and packed so tightly together they created 'A Thread of Sky' passages. He sighed, then stepped over a murky, foul-smelling puddle, brushed past a pile of plastic bags overflowing with trash, and, taking in the pervasive stench of decay, walked straight into the area.