The man Liu Xianxian was infatuated with had strong vigilance. Fortunately, Chen Ge was quite experienced when it came to tailing people, so he wasn't detected.
"Does he live in Fanghua Garden Community? It's not that far from Jiujiang Forensic Medical College, and there are buses running — so why does he choose to live in the dorm?"
Chen Ge didn't dare get too close. He watched the man enter Building Three.
"Building Three again — this is starting to look less like a coincidence."
The twenty-fourth floor of Building Three in Fanghua Garden Community was where the Urban Legends Association headquartered. The fact that this man was sneaking around here felt deeply abnormal.
Timing his movements carefully, Chen Ge also entered Building Three. He was well familiar with the layout of the hallways. Once inside, he pretended to be a resident and deftly turned toward the emergency stairwell.
He had only gone halfway when he realized no one was standing in front of the elevator in Building Three.
"That man didn't take the elevator?" Chen Ge held his breath and entered the stairwell. He couldn't hear any footsteps either. Just then, from somewhere on the first floor, came the sound of a door opening.
"He lives on the first floor." Chen Ge pressed himself against the wall of the stairwell and peered in the direction of the sound: "Room 3004."
He memorized the room number, then slowly walked up to the apartment door and pressed his ear against it.
From inside came the man's voice on the phone: "Brother-in-law? Things haven't been safe at school lately — stuff keeps happening at night. Could I stay at your place for a while?"
"Don't worry, I won't mess the place up. I won't touch a single thing that belongs to you or my sister. I know how important this apartment is to you."
"Alright, I got it. I promise I won't go into your study! I won't touch any of your stuff!"
The call ended, and the man immediately shifted his tone: "You think I want to be here? Putting on airs like you're doing me some huge favor."
Outside the apartment, Chen Ge could hear the man roughly shaking out his clothes. On the surface, the man appeared mature and confident, but hidden inside was a soul entirely different from his outward facade.
After a few muttered complaints, the man seemed to start rummaging through something in the apartment. His movements were rough — the sounds of cabinet doors and drawers being yanked open echoed through the room.
"That room was renovated. The layout is different from before too — nobody should be able to tell. Still, I'd better double-check."
The man moved around the apartment, unaware that his offhand words had already been heard by Chen Ge outside the door.
"One of the rooms in this apartment was renovated? Why would he come back to check at this particular moment?"
The man's behavior was far too abnormal. At first, Chen Ge had only tailed him because he seemed a little odd — he hadn't connected him to murder. But now, every word the man uttered deepened Chen Ge's suspicions.
After a few minutes, the man seemed to have gathered his tools and entered another room.
The distance was too great. Standing in the hallway, Chen Ge couldn't hear a thing.
He committed the room number to memory, left Building Three, and circled around to the outside of the structure.
Crouching below the window of Room 3004, Chen Ge peered inside.
The man was holding a toolbox. He stared at the bed in the bedroom, his face tinged green — a rather unsettling sight.
"This room — I've felt cold in it ever since I first walked in. All these years have passed, and I still can't completely forget."
As the man examined the bed in the center of the bedroom, Chen Ge opened his phone's camera and quietly recorded the room's layout.
The room had numerous partition panels installed, making it look quite cramped.
"No bookshelf or desk. The bed is different from the one in Ma Ying's video too, but its position hasn't changed. From here at the windowsill, you can see right under the bed."
Every piece of furniture in the room had been replaced, and the interior space had shifted due to the added partition panels. At first glance, it looked like an entirely different room from the one in the video.