Chapter Eight: Blocking the Door

He hurriedly fished his phone out of his pocket, unlocking it as he prepared to make a call. At the same time, he said to Ning Shuyi and Huo Yan, “I’m sorry, you two! I’m going to call my wife right now and have her take photos of the lease and the copy of the ID and send them to me. She happens to be off today.

“But I need a favor from you both: when I’m on the phone, please don’t say a word. Something happened here earlier, and the police called me directly, so I came over. My wife doesn’t know about it yet.

“I figured the lease for this place still has another six months to run anyway. Once you’ve finished here, I’ll find someone to handle it slowly myself, and I won’t let her know!”

As he spoke, he deliberately looked at Huo Yan and said, “You know how women are. They’re timid, and they can’t hold much in their hearts.

“If my wife heard that this house of mine had become the scene of a murder, she’d be so frightened she’d faint on the spot. Who knows how long she’d stay upset afterward—she’d probably be so worked up she wouldn’t be able to eat or sleep!”

Unfortunately, the person he was trying to win over was entirely the wrong one. Huo Yan gave him no response at all, only signaling with a blank expression that he could go ahead and make the call.

The landlord was a little embarrassed, but since the two officers had silently agreed to cooperate and keep quiet, he did not linger on it and quickly called his wife, asking her to photograph the contract and the rest at home.

The sudden request probably left his wife a little puzzled. She asked a few questions on the phone, and the landlord casually made up an excuse to brush her off. His wife did not seem to think much of it.

Less than two minutes after he hung up, the photos were sent over. They were fairly clear, and the landlord hurriedly handed his phone to Ning Shuyi and Huo Yan to look at.

The contract had originally been signed by the son, so the copy of the ID was also his.

The man’s name was Chang Junchao. He was registered in another province, and he was thirty years old.

Ning Shuyi called back to the bureau and asked a colleague to help verify whether Chang Junchao’s registration information was genuine, and, if the identity information checked out, to confirm his mother’s identity from it.

After everything had been confirmed, the landlord could not help asking Ning Shuyi and Huo Yan about the situation inside the apartment. He was deeply worried, yet too afraid to go upstairs and see for himself.

When he learned that the only serious damage might be to the bathroom, with the rest of the apartment basically unaffected, he finally let out a breath of relief.

“People really do have to learn to lower their standards,” the landlord said with self-mockery. “If a tenant told me they’d wrecked my bathroom, I’d be furious.

“And now look at this: my home has become a crime scene, and just hearing that only the bathroom may be beyond saving has me so happy I could almost jump for joy!”

Ning Shuyi comforted him with a few words, and the landlord left. As he went, he kept looking back toward the apartment windows several times; clearly, he was still not entirely at ease.

That was only natural. Anyone would be furious after running into something like this, and Ning Shuyi understood perfectly well.

After seeing the landlord off, the two of them turned around and were both taken aback.

In the brief time it had taken them to go downstairs and speak a few words with him, the entire building entrance near the scene had already filled with people, and even the area by the front door was packed with onlookers.

Many stood below, heads tilted back, straining to look up, whispering to one another and speculating about which floor and which apartment had been involved, and what had happened.

Ning Shuyi and Huo Yan were both in plain clothes, and since they had gone off to meet the landlord earlier, no one realized they were homicide detectives from the Public Security Bureau. The crowd refused to make even the slightest room for them to pass.

The two, who had intended to return discreetly, had no choice but to abandon that plan and show their credentials. Only then did the onlookers part slightly, allowing them to squeeze through.

On the way upstairs, the stairwell was crowded as well. Seeing them go up with their police IDs, some of the bolder bystanders, showing no fear at all, even tried to ask what had happened above.

Though the one being questioned was the approachable Ning Shuyi, she did not need to answer. Huo Yan swept the crowd with a cold glance, and the busybodies immediately fell silent. They stood off to one side, looking around awkwardly, as though the one who had just made the rude inquiry had not been them at all.

Before they even reached the floor where the crime scene was located, they could already hear how noisy it was upstairs. Ning Shuyi frowned, and Huo Yan had the same reaction. The two quickened their pace without thinking, and when they reached that floor, they saw two officers maintaining order at the doorway arguing with two people holding up their phones.

By then the entire floor was already jammed with people, pressing the outward-opening apartment door against the wall so hard that it could not even be shut.

“What’s going on?” Ning Shuyi asked loudly.

One of the officers maintaining order pointed at the two people. “They came here to livestream! We told them not to livestream and to leave at once, but they won’t listen!”

Only then did Ning Shuyi notice that the two people with the phones were indeed fully equipped, holding up selfie sticks, and one of them even had a small fill light clipped to the phone.

The screens of both phones were indeed showing livestreams, and from the speed at which the comments were scrolling, their audiences must have been quite large.

Of course they were. Livestreaming a murder scene—who could resist that kind of excitement?

“What’s the problem?” one of the livestreaming men shot back, sounding righteous. “Did we go inside? No! We’re outside the cordon. I didn’t take a single step in. What rule did I break?”

“You didn’t cross the cordon, but did your phone cross it just now?” the officer in charge of maintaining order said furiously, his eyes blazing. “Your girlfriend was arguing with us over here, and the moment we looked away, you shoved your selfie stick through the doorway!”

“That was purely accidental, not intentional. Sorry about that!” the man replied with a grin.

The woman beside him, who was also livestreaming on her phone, giggled and said casually, “We’re using a new online platform to supervise police work! We’re helping build your image as just and formidable officers!

“You don’t even need to thank us, so why are you reacting so strongly? Surely you police officers aren’t afraid of being supervised by the public?”

With her making such a scene, some of the onlookers behind them started jeering in agreement. Seeing that she had drawn a response, the woman became even more smug.

Her boyfriend immediately seized the opening. “Exactly, Officer. We’re all law-abiding citizens here—there’s no need to get worked up. Let’s talk things through calmly!

“As you can see, we haven’t broken any laws or committed any crimes. We’re standing on the soil of our motherland, and if you’re saying your work can’t be filmed or watched, just tell us. We understand. We won’t cause any trouble for the organization!”