The light was far too dim, and with a door between them, the viewers in the livestream had no idea what was going on. Right now, Chen Ge couldn't care less about them. He pressed himself against the door crack, not daring to blink even once.
"There's a corpse hidden in the building. So this is what they wanted to dig up." Chen Ge shrank behind the wall, not daring to make a single move. This was the most dangerous and tense moment. Those tenants were only a few steps away from him—all they had to do was turn around and enter this room, and they would spot Chen Ge.
"Quit dawdling and dig!" The landlord cursed under his breath and walked over with his tools. He spread the burlap sack on the ground and began clearing the cement around the female corpse.
Perhaps afraid of waking the residents below, they moved quietly, making very little noise.
The wall was chiseled open, and chunks of cement fell away continuously. Whether from heat or fear, beads of sweat formed on every one of their foreheads.
They worked together, but this was their first time doing something like this. They were terrified themselves, fumbling around in a panic, making agonizingly slow progress.
Over ten minutes later, they finally pried the female corpse free from the wall and stuffed it into the burlap sack.
"Fatso, you stay behind and clean up the wall. The rest of you, come with me to the back hill—we'll find a spot to bury her." The landlord held a steel pry bar, directing everyone from the side.
"I'm coming with you!" The short, chubby man spoke up without a second thought. After digging the corpse out, he was practically ready to collapse. There was no way he dared stay here alone.
"Look at you—pathetic. Juan'er, you stay with him and clean up. We'll meet at the old spot on the back hill later." The landlord gave the only woman a few instructions, then he and the tattooed man carried the sack downstairs.
He walked with a limp, his footsteps uneven—one light, one heavy. As he passed the room where Chen Ge was hiding, he suddenly paused.
"Why is there so much cotton fluff on the floor?"
Hearing the landlord's voice, Chen Ge felt his heart leap into his throat. When he'd torn the doll apart, some cotton stuffing and scraps of paper had fallen to the ground. The sound-activated light had turned on, and once he realized someone was coming, he'd had no time to pick them up.
"Never mind that now—this thing weighs a ton. Let's just get it buried first." The tattooed man urged from behind. The landlord didn't press the issue, and the two passed by the door where Chen Ge was hiding, apparently walking away.
"Fatso, stop spacing out. Get to work." The woman and the short, chubby middle-aged man began clearing the debris, wiping the blood off their tools. A few minutes later, the two of them headed downstairs carrying a large bag.
Their footsteps faded into the distance. Only after the third floor grew quiet again did Chen Ge dare to take deep breaths. He was extremely cautious as he peered through the door crack.
The hallway was pitch black. The tenants had all left.
"Damn… that nearly scared me to death."
He waited another three minutes. When nothing seemed out of the ordinary outside, Chen Ge slowly pushed the door open and crept out in a crouch.
To avoid being discovered, he didn't turn on his phone's flashlight. One hand trailing along the wall, he moved forward at a cautious pace.
"Judging from their conversation, none of them are good people—but the female corpse in the wall really has nothing to do with them." Come to think of it, this bunch had truly terrible luck. They'd seized the old man's apartment, and who could have guessed they'd end up finding a corpse sealed inside the rooftop wall? The normal reaction upon discovering a body would be to call the police immediately. But these people had dirty hands themselves. On one hand, they were afraid that calling the cops would lead to their own records being dug up. On the other, they found it deeply unnerving to live in the same building as a corpse. With no other option, they chose to take the fall for the real killer by voluntarily digging out the body and burying it.
"No wonder the landlord kept warning me not to go out after midnight." Chen Ge's eyes had already adjusted to the darkness. He quickened his pace, determined to leave the apartment building as fast as possible.