Good and Evil Chapter 117: A Bold Speculation

Hidden does not mean non-existent.

Following the interrogation of Yan Wanyi, Ning Yanran created a composite sketch of the culprit who killed Han Xingchang based on Yan’s description. She only presented it to Xu Lang after it had been confirmed by Yan.

Xu Lang took one glance at the sketch, then set it aside on the table without looking at it again. He said to Ning, "The culprit does not look like this at all."

"Why?" Ning asked, puzzled.

Xu Lang pulled a footprint analysis report from the technical department out of a pile of case files and handed it to her. "Take a look at this."

"What is this?"

As she spoke, Ning took the report from his hand and read it carefully. She looked up at Xu and said, "Are you suggesting that Yan Wanyi is lying, and that there was no third party at the scene besides the victim, Han Xingchang, and Yan herself?"

Xu shook his head. "There was indeed a third party present, and it was a man."

"Then what do you mean?" Ning asked, still confused.

The report was clear: technical analysis confirmed the footprints left at the scene belonged to neither the victim nor Yan Wanyi, but to a strange man. The analysis estimated the man was between twenty-five and thirty-five years old, roughly 1.78 meters tall, slender, and weighing between 120 and 130 jin.

According to this report, the third party who appeared on the second floor only matched Yan's description in height; nothing else aligned. This was strange. Either Yan had been truly terrified and failed to see the suspect's features clearly, or she knew the killer and was very familiar with him.

Xu Lang ruled out the first possibility. While it is common for victims to miss details due to extreme psychological trauma after witnessing a violent crime, Yan did not strike him as that type of person.

Xu was more inclined toward the second possibility: that Yan knew the killer well. Otherwise, why would the killer have murdered Han Xingchang but spared Yan Wanyi?

Beyond the fact that she was left alive, the footprints showed that the intruder was not wearing sneakers or leather shoes, but slippers with heels. What kind of burglar wears slippers to commit a crime?

Furthermore, after repeated inspections, the police found no signs of forced entry. The third party’s footprints only appeared on the second floor; none were found on the first floor or outside the villa, and all doors and windows on the second floor remained locked from the inside.

Han Xingchang had hosted a party that night. The first floor was a living and dining area where guests had been mingling, resulting in a chaotic mess of footprints. However, after carefully interviewing and collecting prints from everyone who attended, the police confirmed that the prints on the second floor did not belong to any of them.

The killer seemed to have materialized out of thin air on the second floor. This remained the most baffling aspect of the investigation.

Initially, the police suspected that Yan Wanyi might have killed Han and staged a robbery gone wrong. However, they eventually dismissed this theory.

First, the fatal knife wound in Han’s chest was delivered from top to bottom. Given the height difference between the 1.62-meter-tall Yan and the victim, she could not have delivered the blow unless she was wearing twenty-centimeter heels—which are impossible for an average person to walk in.

Second, if Yan had killed him, why would she take the valuables? She had never left the villa from the time of the murder until the police arrived. A thorough search of the premises revealed nothing.

Third, and most importantly, how could she have tied herself up and locked herself in the guest bedroom? Police found the door locked from the outside with a key, which was discovered in the kitchen—not in Yan’s possession. This proved she was not the killer.

If not Yan, and not suicide, then who? Could the killer truly be invisible?

To uncover the truth, they needed Yan to be honest. Yet, most of her account checked out with the evidence. The only discrepancy was the physical description of the assailant. After several interrogations, Yan had become deeply resentful, and without further evidence, the police could not link her to the crime.

Solving a case requires more than just imagination; it requires action.

With no other leads, Xu Lang decided to review the security footage of the villa complex himself. He wanted to see if the culprit was truly capable of "invisibility."

He asked Lu Xing to pull up the footage. In his past cases, Xu’s method of rapidly scanning video to identify suspects had never failed, but this time, it was ineffective. After hours of watching, his eyes strained and blurry, he still saw no stranger entering the residential area.

He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples to relieve the fatigue. After a few minutes, he asked Lu without opening his eyes, "When you checked the surveillance, did you verify the footage itself?"

The implication was clear: if the culprit didn't appear on camera, had someone tampered with the recordings? Lu understood.

"I checked when they arrived. The footage is original; it hasn't been altered," Lu replied. Xu fell into silence again.

"Xu Lang! Xu Lang!"

Ning Yanran hurried over, her face bright with excitement. Xu opened his eyes and looked at her. "What is it? Did you find something?"

She nodded with a smile. "Guess what we found?"

Xu looked at her expression and said, "Something in the attic?"

"How did you know?" she asked, astonished.

He just smiled and said, "Tell me, what did you find?"

Ning explained that after their previous visit to the villa, they had noticed an attic the police had initially overlooked. Upon prying it open, they found a small, ten-square-meter space containing only a small desk, a chair, and a mattress.

At first, the officers were disappointed, but Li Lei noticed signs that someone had lived there. The attic was impeccably clean—in stark contrast to the rest of the house—suggesting someone had kept it tidy. Although there were no fingerprints, footprints, or hair, it was clear that someone had occupied the space and thoroughly cleaned it before leaving.

Furthermore, the attic was directly above the master bedroom. This linked back to what Han Xingchang had told the detective agency before his death: he constantly heard movement in the house at night and noticed his cigars and food disappearing. Initially, he suspected Yan of cheating, but an investigation had cleared her.

Hearing this, everything suddenly clicked for Xu Lang.

He realized the "haunting" sounds were not ghosts or rats, but someone living in the attic.

He formed a bold hypothesis: a man had been living there, and Yan Wanyi knew about it—she might have been the one hiding him. He was likely her lover, and Han had been unaware of this third party living under his own roof.

If this were true, it explained the noises, the missing items, the lack of entry/exit traces, why the killer spared Yan, and even the masculine writing style of the articles Yan published.

When Xu shared this theory, the team was stunned. It was a wild, almost cinematic scenario. Yet, as impossible as it seemed, it was the only theory that fit all the facts.

They decided to proceed with this investigation. The next day, they went to the courthouse, where Yan Wanyi was settling the inheritance with Han’s relatives. She was accompanied by her lawyer, Shen Xiaowen, and a man named Shi Dehua.

After the hearing—which Yan won, as the sole heir—Xu Lang and Ning Yanran intercepted her outside. Yan’s mood soured the moment she saw them.

"Officer, what else is there to ask? I've told you everything. Please stop bothering me," she pleaded impatiently.

Xu ignored her plea and looked at Shi Dehua. "Lawyer Shi, what a surprise to see you here again."

Shi smiled brightly. "Consultant Xu, the feeling is mutual."

The two men stared at each other for a moment, each trying to read the other's mind.