The man muttered something about bad luck, straightened his clothes, and only continued walking once he'd confirmed his leather shoes hadn't gotten scuffed. He didn't notice at all that the keys in his pocket were gone.
Before the man had gone far,
When other people did something like this, they'd be cautious, nerves on edge, constantly worried about the homeowner coming back — after all, that man could very well be a murderer.
But Chen Ge had no such concerns. The last murderer who'd targeted him had already had both arms and a leg broken and was still in the hospital being treated.
"As long as you hold righteous thoughts in your heart, there's nothing to fear."
Chen Ge studied the open drawers and cabinets but didn't rashly touch anything inside.
He walked to the bedroom first, placed his phone beneath the bed at a certain position, and slowly rotated the screen. The footage he captured was similar to the video on Ma Ying's phone.
"Even though partitions were added to the room, the windows haven't moved." Chen Ge tapped the partition lightly and committed the layout to memory. "This person has serious problems."
He stood in the middle of the bedroom, thinking about Liu Xianxian's earlier assessment of this man.
"After leaving the teahouse, Liu Xianxian told me this man was different from ordinary people — besides having all the virtues of a mature man, there was one rather strange thing about him: he believed his wife, who had died in a car accident years ago, was still alive and by his side."
"The man had packaged himself as a deeply emotional and loyal person, but that wasn't actually the case. From what I could tell, he'd never even been married, and this apartment belonged to his brother-in-law."
People in the throes of love lost their rationality and became blind. Liu Xianxian was, at heart, a rather naive girl, so Chen Ge could only guess that she had been deceived by this man.
"Perhaps Ma Ying's sister had also been deceived by him." Chen Ge looked around the bedroom, running through various possibilities in his head. "When she discovered the man's true face, the two of them argued and fought, and later the man accidentally killed Ma Ying's sister."
He wanted to call Liu Xianxian to ask for more details, but he feared she might gild the lily and do something unnecessary. To prevent exposure, he ultimately decided to let it go.
"This man's maturity and confidence are all an act. In reality, he's somewhat insecure. Combined with the phone call he just had with his brother-in-law, it's clear he really dislikes the man. Perhaps that brother-in-law is the root of his insecurity."
Chen Ge suddenly found himself curious about the man's brother-in-law.
"On the phone, the brother-in-law had strictly forbidden him from entering his study. That means there must be something very important in there — maybe I can figure out the brother-in-law's identity from whatever it is."
He opened the study door and stepped inside.
The study was much larger than the bedroom. Two bookcases were filled with all kinds of books, and a desk sat by the window.
"The man's brother-in-law must be someone who loves to read."
The shelves held books of every type — philosophy, art, modern medicine, psychology, mysticism — it was clear the owner had wide-ranging interests.
Chen Ge didn't touch the books on the shelves. A true book lover remembers the exact position of every volume, and he didn't want to leave any trace.
He opened the cabinet doors and looked inside. It was neatly organized, with nothing out of the ordinary.
Chen Ge walked to the desk and pulled open a drawer. Inside were two identical laptops.
"Why buy two of the same computer? And keep them both in a drawer?"
He took them out and set them on the desk, then pressed the power button on each.
One had a password lock. The other booted up normally.
"Were the two computers used for different purposes?"