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In Ping An Apartment, only one person fit that age range—the old man in the landlord's room who could barely even eat.

"Something's off. Based on the news, the apartment building's owner should be an old man, but the landlord who greeted me was middle-aged." Chen Ge stood up, moved to the wall, and pressed his ear against it to eavesdrop.

On the other side of the wall, the television was blaring, playing nothing but meaningless commercials.

"If someone were watching TV normally, wouldn't they change the channel the second an ad came on? But they've been listening to commercials for several minutes now." Chen Ge's ear was glued to the wall. "I must be missing something."

He calmed down and ran through everything from the start: "After I entered the room, I heard the sound of a bowl shattering next door. Then the landlord started cursing the old man wildly, and right after that, the TV volume shot up... The old man's in a wheelchair and can't move, so the one who turned up the volume must be the landlord. But why would he do that?"

Chen Ge narrowed his eyes, a thought forming in his mind: "Is the landlord abusing the old man? Using the TV volume to cover up the sounds of beating?"

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed: "I just moved in, and right next door, a bowl shatters—too much of a coincidence. Could the old man have broken it on purpose? Under normal circumstances, breaking a bowl isn't a big deal; the landlord wouldn't need to fly off the handle like that. Right! He's scared—scared the old man might draw my attention."

"But why is he scared? And why would the old man be seeking help?"

A flash of insight struck Chen Ge as he recalled another detail from earlier. When the landlord was cursing the old man, he got so worked up that a few phrases of a foreign dialect slipped in.

"The old man's family are all from Han Jiang, but this landlord is an outsider. He probably doesn't have a close blood relation to the old man."

"Normally, an old man wouldn't hand over his property to a stranger to manage—unless the limping guy took over the nest and kidnapped him! If that's the case, his real identity could be a greedy caregiver, a burglar who broke in, or even the murderer from years ago!"

The more he thought, the more terrifying it got!

Chen Ge clenched his fist: "No wonder he suddenly came to my door to eavesdrop—he's guilty as hell."

Sweat beaded on his forehead. Reasoning things out like this was still too much of a strain for Chen Ge. He'd never systematically studied criminal investigation or logic, so he could only piece it together bit by bit.

"What do I do now? Charge next door and bash the landlord's head in with the tool hammer? No, that's too impulsive. If my reasoning's wrong, the consequences would be unthinkable." Chen Ge paced around the room, tool hammer in hand and fruit knife stuffed in his pocket.

"Find another chance to confirm? No, what if I tip him off? The killer might have accomplices. I can't fight off multiple people alone—once they're onto me, I'll be in serious danger."

"Right now, I don't have any solid evidence. It's all just speculation. Besides, my main goal here is to find the culprit behind the Massacre Case from four years ago..."

Chen Ge fell into frustration again. After a while, the TV sound from the next room suddenly stopped, leaving an eerie silence.

"What's going on?" He quietly cracked open his door, crouched down, and peered through the gap under the neighbor's door. Inside, it was pitch black—even the lights were off.

"Going to bed at just past eight?" Chen Ge crouched at the landlord's door, tool hammer in hand. He suddenly realized how suspicious he must look, quickly glanced back to make sure no one was watching, then tucked the hammer into his jacket and returned to his room.

"It might not be accurate to rely solely on online news. If only I had a professional to help me analyze this." Chen Ge lay on the bed, pulled out his phone, and scrolled through his contacts. Aside from Xu Wan, no one else seemed to have ever spoken to him.

"Living a life this focused—guess I'm pretty dedicated."

After thinking it over, among everyone he'd ever met, the only one remotely connected to crime investigation was that poor, scared-kid—He Shan.

"A coroner's probably better at this than I am." He opened his short-video profile page. As soon as he logged in, he saw dozens of private messages in his inbox.

He clicked one at random—it was from a studio manager on the platform, inviting him to join.

"Is this guy a Scout?" Chen Ge didn't have time to look into it. He buried himself in searching for He Shan's ID, brushing it off.

But then, a little while later, the studio sent another message.

"You there? We've seen your video. It's got a lot of potential. Interested in collaborating with us?"

"We can get our big streamers to promote you and boost your exposure."

"Going solo is tough to make it big. Almost all streamers on the platform band together. You should think it over."

"You there?"

The constant pop-ups were starting to annoy Chen Ge. Here he was, locked in a battle of wits with a murderous maniac from five years ago, and he had no time for some studio nonsense. He shot back two words: "Not here."

"Heh, young and cocky. Consider our studio. You just need to tag your videos with our logo, and we'll give you the best channels to get more eyes on your work."

"Sorry, I'm not interested right now." Chen Ge thought he was being polite enough. Anyone else in his shoes would've cursed the guy out first, then blocked and reported him.

"Your video has the potential to go viral, but you need to understand—it's just potential. The platform gets a million video uploads a day. You're just one of the luckier ones. Modern audiences crave faster entertainment; they don't have the patience to wait. Every second, something more eye-catching pops up in this world. If you don't manage it well, your video will be buried in no time."

"Let's talk tomorrow. I'm busy right now." Chen Ge had already found He Shan's ID.

"What could be busier than making money? If you really don't want to, we can try a different arrangement—like buying your filming method..."

Chen Ge didn't waste words. He blocked the guy and messaged He Shan instead.

To his surprise, He Shan replied in under a second: "Boss, I've been waiting for you to post a new video!"

"Hold on, I've got a really important question to ask you." Chen Ge got He Shan's phone number, dialed it, and lowered his voice to explain the whole situation from start to finish.