There was only one person in Ping'an Apartments who matched that age description — the elderly man in the landlord's room who could barely even eat on his own.
"Something's not right. According to the news, the building owner should be an old man, yet the landlord who checked me in was middle-aged."
On the other side, the television was blasting at full volume, playing nothing but meaningless advertisements.
"If someone were watching TV normally, wouldn't they change the channel the moment an ad came on? But they've been sitting through several minutes of ads now." Chen Ge pressed his ear flat against the wall. "I must have overlooked something."
He calmed himself down and replayed everything from start to finish: "After I entered the room, I heard the sound of a rice bowl shattering next door. Right after that, the landlord started verbally abusing the old man. Then the TV volume was suddenly cranked up… The old man is confined to a wheelchair and can't move on his own — the one who turned up the volume had to be the landlord. But why would he do that?"
Chen Ge narrowed his eyes as a thought formed in his mind: "Is the landlord abusing the old man? Using the TV volume to cover up the sounds of beating?"
The more he considered it, the more plausible it seemed: "The moment I moved in, a bowl shattered next door. The timing is too convenient. Could the old man have knocked it over on purpose? After all, it's just a broken bowl — there's no reason for the landlord to fly into such a rage. Right! He was scared. He was afraid the old man would attract my attention."
"But why would he be afraid? And why would the old man be trying to seek help?"
A flash of insight struck Chen Ge's mind, and he recalled another detail — when the landlord had been berating the old man, he'd gotten so worked up that a few phrases of a regional dialect had slipped out.
"The old man's family are all from Jiujiang, but this landlord is an outsider. He probably doesn't share any close blood relation with the old man."
"Under normal circumstances, an old man would never hand over his property to a stranger to manage — unless this lame man had taken over by force and was holding the old man hostage! If that's true, then his real identity could be a greedy caretaker, a burglar who broke in to steal, or even the murderer from a few years back!"
The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
Chhen Ge clenched his fist: "No wonder he suddenly showed up outside my door to eavesdrop — he was guilty and paranoid."
Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Deducing things like this was still a bit too taxing for Chen Ge. He'd never studied criminal investigation or logic formally, so he could only piece things together step by step on his own.
"What should I do now? Charge next door and smash the landlord's head in with my tool hammer? No, that's too reckless. If my deduction turns out to be wrong, the consequences would be unthinkable." Chen Ge paced around the room, hammer in hand and fruit knife stuffed in his pocket.
"Try to find another chance to verify? That won't work either — what if I spook them? The killer might have accomplices. I'm only one person against two pairs of hands. Once they have their eyes on me, my own situation would become extremely dangerous."
"Right now I don't have any concrete evidence. Everything is just speculation. Besides, the most important reason I came here is to find the killer responsible for the family massacre four years ago…"
Chen Ge fell into frustrated contemplation again. After a while, the sound of the television next door suddenly stopped, leaving behind a silence that was almost eerie.
"What happened?" He quietly opened his door, crouched down, and peered through the gap under the neighbor's door. Inside, it was pitch black — even the lights had been turned off.
"Going to sleep at just past eight?" Chen Ge squatted outside the landlord's door with the hammer in hand. He suddenly realized his posture might give the wrong impression, so he quickly glanced behind him. Seeing no one around, he tucked the hammer into his jacket and slipped back into his own room.
"To think I've become this kind of person — that's dedication."
After mulling it over for a while, Chen Ge realized that among everyone he'd encountered, the only person who had any connection to an investigation was that poor kid who'd been scared senseless — Heshan.
"A forensic doctor should be better at this than me." He opened his short-video profile page. The moment he logged in, he saw dozens of direct messages waiting in his inbox.
He casually clicked on one, and it turned out to be from a studio manager on the platform, inviting him to join.
"Is this guy some kind of talent scout?" Chen Ge didn't have time for this right now. He buried himself in searching for Heshan's ID, paying the matter no mind.
But who would've thought that a moment later, the studio sent yet another message.
"Hey there? We've seen your videos — tons of potential. Any interest in working with us?"
"We can have our big-name streamers send traffic your way, boost your exposure."
"It's really hard to make it on your own. Pretty much all streamers on the platform form cliques. You should think about it."
"Hello?"
Message after message popped up, getting on Chen Ge's nerves. He was in the middle of a battle of wits with a serial killer from five years ago — did he really have time to deal with some studio? He fired back a two-word reply: "Not interested."
"Haha, feisty aren't you. Give our studio some thought. All you need to do is slap our studio's logo on your videos, and we'll provide you with the best channels to get your content seen by more people."
"Sorry, I'm not interested for the time being." Chen Ge thought he was being polite enough. Anyone else in his position would probably have hurled a few insults before blocking and reporting the guy outright.
"Your video has the potential to go viral, but you need to understand — that's just potential. The platform sees a million short videos uploaded every single day, and you're just one of the luckier ones. People nowadays crave faster entertainment. They don't have the patience to wait. Every second, something new comes along that's more eye-catching and explosive. If you don't manage it properly, your video will be buried before long."
"Let's talk tomorrow. I'm busy right now." Chen Ge had already found Heshan's ID.
"What could possibly be busier than making money? If you really don't want to go the partnership route, we can try a different arrangement — say, we buy out your filming method for a fee…"
Chen Ge didn't waste any more words on the guy. He blocked him immediately and sent a message to Heshan.
Somewhat to his surprise, Heshan replied in under a second: "Boss! I've been waiting for you to post a new video!"
"Hold that thought — I have a very important question for you." Chen Ge got Heshan's phone number, called him, and lowered his voice as he laid out the whole situation from beginning to end.