The strange fire, the vanished killer—
"So that's the whole story, beginning to end. I was exploring a murder house at night, looking for new material for my haunted attraction, but I stumbled onto something shocking—everyone living in this apartment building is off. I suspect the killer from five years ago is hiding among them!" Chen Ge stubbed out his cigarette and looked at his phone screen.
"Oh, interesting, a real-life game of Werewolf. Let's hear the Seer's statement."
I'm a Little Caterpillar: "Go ahead and make stuff up, streamer. It sounds almost real. Spout whatever you want — if even one person buys it, I'll eat my hat."
"Fuan Apartments in
Heshan: "I believe the streamer."
I'm a Little Caterpillar: "Even if the streamer isn't lying, how does he prove that the room he's in is the actual murder house? Like he said, the building was burned in a fire, but look at his room — the walls are smooth, the floor is clean, all the furniture is intact. Does that look like a murder house to you?"
"I'm not going to lie to you about this. Proving it is ridiculously easy." Chen Ge moved the vanity aside, took out a fruit knife, and gently scraped the paint off the corner of the wall. "The building changed its name after the incident and got completely renovated inside and out, but no matter how much you renovate, there are some things you can't cover up."
He scraped away a layer of wall paint, revealing blackened bricks underneath. "This is one piece of evidence that a fire really happened here."
All Cheaters Must Die: "Wait, what I'm actually curious about is why you'd bring a hammer and a knife to a hotel? Are you trying to impersonate the suspect's accomplice?"
"Great, now a perfectly good wall is ruined. One second of sympathy for the landlord."
"How much does this place cost per night? Doesn't even have a TV."
Chen Ge watched the chat scroll by and, after holding back for a long time, finally couldn't help himself: "Guys, can your focus not be so absurdly off-topic? Could I get a little respect here? I'm literally risking my life to livestream this for you!"
All Cheaters Must Die gifted one coin: "A ten-cent tribute, out of respect."
When it came to his viewers, Chen Ge could only sigh in exasperation. This bunch of old hands were incorrigible. "Alright, let's get back on track. Inside the apartment building, I've encountered six people so far. The first was a woman who might have mental issues — she smiled at me through the crack of the door when I walked in. I know nothing about her, so let's set her aside for now…"
Chen Ge described the physical characteristics of every tenant in the building to his viewers, interspersed with his own analysis: "From a motive standpoint, the landlord is the most likely suspect, but he has a limp and walks very slowly. Looking at it from a physical-ability angle instead, the tattooed man on the first floor and the short, heavyset man on the second floor are more likely candidates. Of course, that doesn't rule out the woman on the first floor or the frail Wang Qi."
All Cheaters Must Die: "You've just gone in a big circle and said nothing. I might as well suspect the old man in the wheelchair — after all, he was the biggest beneficiary after the fire."
"That's actually a possibility. The old man being paralyzed in a wheelchair now doesn't mean he was paralyzed five years ago. Besides, the killer didn't use physical combat — they used arson. The old man absolutely could have done it."
"Right, and his paralysis could be faked. The person who seems most unlikely to be the killer might actually be the killer."
"Personally, I'm more suspicious of the woman on the first floor. She smiled at the streamer — she was probably trying to hint at something. Streamer, do you remember how high her lips protruded when she smiled, how wide she opened her mouth? Let me analyze it for you from the perspective of micro-expression psychology."
"Didn't keep track…"
The viewers' enthusiasm was ramping up, and the stream's popularity began climbing faster.
Chen Ge watched the chat silently but didn't spot anything particularly useful. "Looks like I'll still have to find more clues myself."