The neighbors' emotions had been thoroughly stirred up. Everyone was worried their own secrets might be exposed, and they all wanted to catch the window murderer as quickly as possible.
Chen Ge was quite satisfied with this reaction from the crowd. He was about to say something else when the middle-aged man who had women's underwear hidden in his home spoke up again.
"Wait a minute. I'm not against going room by room to search for the killer, but I think it would be more prudent to check with the landlord first." The middle-aged man had seen Chen Ge before. He knew Chen Ge had spoken to Wu You, and he had never fully trusted him.
"No problem. We'll go find the landlord right now." Chen Ge shut the middle-aged man up immediately. He didn't want to waste time on meaningless disputes — the more time they wasted, the greater the risk: "Everyone, hurry up. If we can catch that maniac sooner, we might still save a life."
Everything happened so fast that Chen Ge didn't give the neighbors much time to think. He grabbed Wen Qing and Qu Ying and headed straight into the stairwell.
Even though he currently held the initiative, once the neighbors calmed down, his situation would become extremely dangerous again.
He had to make the most of this window of time to divide and separate the building's residents as quickly as possible — only then could he ensure his own safety.
"Qu Ying, why do you think the killer targeted your family? Who has your family had a conflict with recently? Why would he want to wipe out your entire household?" In order to steer the neighbors' thinking, Chen Ge took the initiative to question Qu Ying. Of course, the questions he asked were all related to the murder, and at first glance they sounded absolutely critical, going straight to the heart of the case.
How would Qu Ying know why the "killer" wanted to wipe out his entire family? But in order not to reveal that he himself was the murderer, he had to play along with Chen Ge at this point.
After racking his brains, Qu Ying shook his head: "I don't know why the killer wanted to murder my family either. We've always kept a low profile — we've never offended anyone."
"Think harder. Have you had any conflicts with the other residents in the building?" Chen Ge pressed relentlessly, clearly protecting himself by dumping the difficult questions onto Qu Ying.
He was forcing a murderer to think about the reasons for killing himself.
If Qu Ying couldn't come up with an answer, or just randomly dropped someone's name, that person would become the prime suspect.
In other apartment complexes, being the prime suspect might not have been a big deal, but here, everything was completely different.
Practically no one in this complex was "clean." Everyone had unspeakable secrets.
In other words, no one here could withstand investigation or exposure. Under normal circumstances, what you did behind closed doors didn't matter, but at a time like this, the secrets hidden in the bottom of one's heart would become the noose that killed them.
"I really can't think of anything." Qu Ying didn't want to be used by Chen Ge, and the neighbors around them — each harboring their own secrets — wisely kept quiet as well.
They all understood that the wisest course of action at this moment was to shut their mouths, because careless words could very well set the fire upon themselves.
"I remember a few nights ago, when you were arguing with your dad, a lot of neighbors complained about the noise. Later, an uncle from the fifth floor even came over specifically to warn you. Oh, and the electrician on the eighth floor seemed to have had a conflict with your dad too — something about wiring. They even got into a physical fight in the stairwell, and the electrician threatened your dad at the time..." Xiao Sun genuinely wanted to catch the killer, so he casually rattled off a few names: "What? Why are you all staring at me? Did I say something wrong?"
Xiao Sun had no idea what these neighbors were really like behind closed doors. He was simply stating things he had witnessed, which also proved he was one of the few "normal" people in the building — he wasn't afraid of being investigated.
"What you've just told us is incredibly important! After we check with the landlord, we'll go take a look at these people's homes right away!" Chen Ge praised Xiao Sun warmly. It didn't matter that Qu Ying refused to cooperate — Xiao Sun had helped Chen Ge tear open a crack among the building's residents.
The tenants Xiao Sun had just mentioned would become the first batch of sacrifices. Xiao Sun had done well, but his own situation had now become extremely dangerous as well.
The residential building had a total of ten floors. The landlord lived alone on the ninth floor. The tenth floor was unoccupied, and all the rooms were locked.
Everyone made their way together to Room 901. Qu Ying knocked on the door several times, but there was no response.
"The landlord might not be in. Let's go somewhere else first."
"Wait!" Chen Ge grabbed Qu Ying's arm: "A tenant has been killed, and with such a huge commotion, the landlord hasn't reacted at all. Do you think that's normal?"
"No, it's not normal. I'd guess the landlord isn't in the building — he may have gone somewhere else in the complex. The landlords of these buildings hold regular meetings. Maybe the landlord is in another building right now."
"A meeting?" Chen Ge picked up yet another important piece of information from Qu Ying's words.
"They get together to discuss rent, the complex's environment, and other matters."
"What you're saying makes sense, but you've overlooked one very important detail." Chen Ge slowed his speech: "I went to the first floor and saw that the stairwell door was locked — and it was locked from inside the stairwell!"
"But what does that prove?"
"The key to the stairwell door is only held by the landlord, and the lock was engaged from inside. That means the landlord must still be in this building!" Chen Ge's logic was airtight, and his words made every neighbor suddenly realize a very serious problem!
"The landlord is still inside, yet a murder has taken place in the building and he hasn't reacted at all. I suspect he's already been killed."
The landlord being killed was a matter of an entirely different nature from Qu Gui being killed, because the landlord might have had spare keys to every door in the building.
Even Qu Ying's expression turned ugly. Events had spiraled far beyond what he had imagined.
"If you don't believe me, we can break down the door and see for ourselves." Chen Ge picked up his backpack and glanced at the security door. He didn't want to take out the Skull Crusher at a time like this: "Does anyone have any tools at home? As I said before — human lives are at stake. We're only doing this because we have no choice. If nothing has happened to the landlord, he'll certainly understand our actions."
"My place is being renovated, so I have a full set of tools. Wait here — I'll go get them right now." Aunt Ding was the first to speak. Her tone was urgent, and she sounded like she was heading back to fetch tools. In reality, she probably wanted to go back and take care of something else — this was just an excuse.
"I have lock-picking tools too. Let me go home and check." Several more tenants left. Chen Ge knew what they intended to do, but he didn't stop them.
It wasn't difficult to dispose of the "secrets" in one's room in a very short amount of time. The hard part was doing so without leaving any traces.
A few minutes later, those neighbors returned one after another, carrying all sorts of tools in their hands.
Working together, the group spent nearly half an hour before finally managing to pry open the security door of Room 901.