"When Gao Ruxue was about to take the elevator, she happened to run into the Raincoat Man coming downstairs. This could very well have been a coincidence."
The police manhunt was putting enormous pressure on the Raincoat Man. Chen Ge tried to think from the killer's perspective—the murderer probably wanted to leave Qixia Lake residential complex, to flee this place entirely.
"We can't be certain just yet. We haven't ruled out the possibility of a stalking murder." Li Zheng glanced at the surveillance camera inside the elevator. "We also suspect the killer might be living inside Qixia Lake, because some of the cameras in the complex were deliberately damaged three days ago, which happens to be exactly when the first eye-gouging case occurred."
After finishing, Li Zheng looked at Chen Ge with suspicion. The police had only reached the conclusion that the killer might live in Qixia Lake after gathering a wealth of evidence and clues. Yet Chen Ge, working entirely alone without any team backing him up, had not only pinpointed the killer's location within the complex but had even named the exact floor.
Honestly, if Li Zheng hadn't known Chen Ge so well, he might have suspected that Chen Ge himself was involved in the case.
They entered the elevator, and the property management staff provided Chen Ge and Li Zheng with basic information on all residents of the twenty-third floor.
The homeowners' names did not include the characters Han Bao'er, and according to the property staff's recollection, there didn't seem to be any exceptionally beautiful woman living on the twenty-third floor of Building Three.
"Chen Ge, could you have been mistaken?"
The police had cordoned off Building Three the moment they arrived at Qixia Lake. They had already screened most of the residents.
Chen Ge wasn't entirely confident in the pen spirit's predictive abilities either. He had only a fifty percent chance.
After thinking for a moment, Chen Ge turned and called over a property staff member. "Is there a surveillance camera at the stairwell landing on the twenty-third floor?"
"The cameras above the fifteenth floor broke a long time ago. They've never been repaired. The main issue is that we had someone fix them before, but then they mysteriously broke down again. After a few rounds of that, we just stopped bothering." The staff member spoke carefully—this was, after all, their dereliction of duty. "We have three shifts of security guards here, and nothing like this has ever happened before…"
"Just because nothing happened in the past doesn't mean it can't happen in the future." Chen Ge didn't press the staff member on it. "How well do you know the residents on the twenty-third floor of Building Three? Is there anyone on that floor who acts… abnormal?"
"Abnormal?" The staff member shook his head.
"Have you ever received any complaints? Strange noises coming from a particular apartment in the middle of the night, or some kind of pungent smell?" Chen Ge kept firing questions. Li Zheng couldn't even get a word in edgewise.
The staff member thought for a moment, then his gaze drifted toward a door deep down the hallway. "We did receive a call from a resident once, though it wasn't a complaint. It was a request for help."
"A request for help?" Chen Ge and Li Zheng both stopped walking.
"There's a household on the twenty-third floor where domestic violence keeps happening. It gets really bad, but we never received a call from the victim herself—it was always neighbors who couldn't stand it anymore calling on their behalf." The staff member led Chen Ge and Li Zheng to the very last apartment at the end of the hallway. "It's this one."
Cross-referencing with the property records, the person living here was named Qiu Meng—a well-known fitness trainer at an upscale gym.
"The person you're looking for probably isn't him. Qiu Meng is nearly six foot three. I've seen the surveillance footage of that Raincoat killer too, and he's five foot seven at most. Definitely not the same person."
"Open the door. Let's go in and take a look." Chen Ge wasn't about to let any suspicious lead slip by.
The staff member seemed somewhat afraid of Qiu Meng and reluctantly knocked. "Anyone home? We're from property management."
The apartment was completely silent. No one answered.
Chen Ge tapped Li Zheng on the shoulder. "Something might be off about this place. Call your people over. If it comes to it, we can just force the door open."
"Easy for you to say. Without any evidence, we have no legal right to break down someone's door." Li Zheng thought for a moment, then added, "At the very least, we'd need Captain Yan's approval."
While the two were talking, footsteps suddenly sounded from behind the door. A moment later, the security door swung open, and a tall, handsome man with a solid, muscular build stood in the doorway.
He was drowsy, yawning, his eyes slightly red and swollen, as though he hadn't slept properly in days.
"Do you need something?"
The property staff member forced a smile onto his face and said somewhat sheepishly, "A murderer may have hidden himself in our complex. The police would like to ask you a few questions."
"Ask me?" The man looked bewildered. He slowly came fully awake, and upon seeing the police uniform on Li Zheng, his expression shifted subtly. "I've been sleeping at home the whole time. I don't know anything."
"Can we come in to talk?" Chen Ge's senses were extremely sharp. When the door had opened, he had caught a faint whiff of blood in the air.
Qiu Meng glanced at Chen Ge, clearly reluctant to let a stranger into his home.
"Here's my identification. I hope you'll cooperate with our investigation." After showing his badge, Li Zheng pulled out his walkie-talkie right in front of Qiu Meng and called the rest of his squad to assemble on the twenty-third floor of Building Three.
Realizing there was no way to wriggle out of it, Qiu Meng opened the security door. "Come in. It's a mess inside."
The living room table had been flipped over, all manner of things scattered across the floor. A vase lay shattered, and several flowers—clearly just purchased—were strewn on the ground, trampled by what appeared to be furious stomping. The petals had been ground to pieces.
"Domestic violence?" Chen Ge was the first to enter the living room. The moment he took in the scene, that was the first thought that came to mind.
"If you have questions, just ask them." Qiu Meng's face was dark with gloom. He hated having outsiders in his home—it gave him the feeling that his secrets were being exposed.
"Where were you tonight between eight and twelve?"
"At home on the computer."
"Who can confirm that?"
"Confirm what? I'm not the killer—you've got the wrong person!" Qiu Meng shouted. He had a terrible temper, and even facing a police officer, he couldn't keep his anger in check.
"I'll ask one more time. Who can confirm your whereabouts?" Li Zheng seemed like a completely different person now. He had no advantage in height or build compared to Qiu Meng, but the impression he gave off was that if it came to a fight, he could subdue Qiu Meng within a few moves.
"I got home at seven-thirty, ate dinner, and then started gaming." Qiu Meng finally backed down. He opened his computer. "I usually livestream in my spare time—teach people how to build muscle. Tonight I was in a bad mood and didn't feel like talking to anyone, so I just streamed myself gaming alone."
After checking the livestream recording, everything Qiu Meng had said checked out. Between eight and twelve, he had been gaming the entire time.
"Why were you in a bad mood tonight?" Li Zheng didn't let a single detail slip past him.
"I had a fight with my girlfriend."
"You hit her?" Li Zheng surveyed the wrecked living room.
"Yes."