"There's—"
Meng Jixi looked at Chi Xiuchuan. "He hasn't been dead long."
"Seven days ago, he was still going to work as usual."
"That was the day before the child's parrot went missing."
"Isn't that a really strange coincidence?"
Meng Jixi popped a pastry into his mouth and said somewhat indistinctly, "Then he disappeared."
"He didn't go to work."
"And no one in the residential compound saw him."
"The police checked the compound's surveillance footage."
"But it was an old compound, and there weren't many cameras to begin with."
"Some were just there for show."
"And a few were broken."
At this, Meng Jixi sounded rather indignant. "There were only two or three that actually worked."
"One of them was even at the police station entrance."
"What good was that?"
"They could only confirm that after Li Wei came in through the compound's main gate when he got off work that day, he never left through the main gate again."
"As for whether he left through one of the compound's other smaller gates..."
"They haven't found any witnesses so far."
"On the same floor as Li Wei, one apartment was shared by two girls. They both said they hadn't noticed anything. Another was occupied by an elderly couple. The old man didn't know anything, and the old woman said she hadn't heard any noise from Li Wei's apartment these past few days."
"The residents above and below him knew even less."
"The police also went to Li Wei's workplace to ask around."
"His coworkers said Li Wei was usually a quiet person."
"He took his work seriously."
"But he wasn't very proactive in his dealings with people."
"He always got off work on time and didn't like working overtime..."
"Everyone got along all right with Li Wei."
"He had