Midnight Bookstore

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The landlord came,

it was a tall, thin, middle-aged man,

his hairline had long been that of the Central Committee of the local support party,

he was bald.

“h.e.l.lo, police comrade.”

The landlord handed a cigarette to Old Zhang.

Old Zhang did not pick it up. Instead, he took out the camera and placed it in his palm, showing it to him.

The landlord"s face immediately turned green with fear. At first, he thought that the police were here to check on the fire department or to investigate the ident.i.ty of the migrant workers. He did not expect that the police would actually find this.

“What is this?”

The landlord wanted to deny it.

But after all, not everyone could go to the Oscar podium to receive an award,

most People"s acting skills were definitely not up to standard.

Moreover, on the Internet, the police did not matter. But in reality, when a real criminal police officer in a police uniform stood in front of you, a normal person would feel a little apprehensive, let alone someone with something to hold on to?

Zhang Yanfeng saw through the landlord"s lie at a glance. He immediately said to Little Cao who had followed him over, “Control him. Don"t allow him to contact his family. Also, get someone to search his residence.”

As he said that..,

zhang Yanfeng extended his hand and pointed at the landlord,

he lowered his voice and said,

“If we find out that you have this video on your computer or somewhere else, do you know what the consequences will be?”

Zhang Yanfeng himself was not very clear about the specific consequences. This was because the domestic law was somewhat vague in this regard. Many things like secretly taking photos and secretly showing cameras were discovered, even if the person involved called the police, in the end, most of the cases were settled through negotiation of compensation.

However, this did not prevent old Zhang from pretending to know a lot in order to create psychological pressure on the landlord,

moreover, if this matter were to spread, compensation was a small matter. Once it was spread out, it would be a huge loss of face.

As expected, the landlord could not take it anymore. He grabbed Zhang Yanfeng"s hand and said, “I was wrong. I was blinded by the lard. I was wrong, I was wrong…”

“Why are you so stupid, landlord? You are so Shameless!”

The female tenant next to him started scolding him.

“Alright, we will handle this matter. I will take him away first.”

Zhang Yanfeng was not here to handle any small cameras. He was here for the murder case.

“Officer, you can"t let him off so easily!”

“I got it. Wait for our notice.”

As he said that, Zhang Yanfeng dragged the landlord out of the room.

The landlord was almost kneeling on the ground, almost kowtowing to old Zhang. He kept nagging, begging old Zhang not to spread the news, and not to let his wife know.

“Let me ask you something…”

“Officer, I have a clue to report!”

Zhang Yanfeng and the landlord spoke almost at the same time.

“You go first.”Zhang Yanfeng nodded.

“I installed this for a reason. I really didn"t do anything dirty. Really. You have to believe me.”

“A Reason?”

“Yes, there is a reason. Two years ago, I had a tenant named Xia or w.a.n.g Chunhua who went missing. It was because of this matter that I installed this camera.”.

“This is for the safety of the tenants.”

Who was he lying to?

For the safety of the tenants, why didn"t he put the camera in the corridor instead of outside?

Did he put it in the bathroom because he was worried that the tenant would slip and fall while taking a shower?

However, old Zhang was not in a hurry to scold him. Instead, he asked, “Xia Chunhua? Do you know about Xia Chunhua"s disappearance?”

As he said that..,

zhang Yanfeng grabbed the landlord"s neck,

he roared:

“Tell me everything. What else do you know? ! ! !”

The landlord was stunned for a few seconds before he immediately nodded:

“I have a video. I have a video. It"s at my house.”

Zhang Yanfeng brought little Cao to the landlord"s house. The landlord did not live there. Instead, he lived a little further away. It was a three-bedroom apartment with a living room.

Pushing the door open, the landlord"s wife was cooking in the kitchen. Seeing that someone had returned, she walked out wearing an ap.r.o.n.

“This is?”

“This is the police. I"m a.s.sisting the police in investigating some matters regarding the tenants,”the landlord explained first.

Zhang Yanfeng nodded. Everything was focused on investigating the case. He did not mind covering for the landlord first.

In fact, if the landlord could really provide enough valuable clues, he did not mind directly bringing the landlord and the tenants together to settle the compensation privately. This was actually more beneficial to the tenants than directly going to court.

Because once the matter was made public, the landlord would not be afraid of boiling water. And if the matter was not made public, in order to prevent the matter from being publicized, the landlord would try his best to satisfy the tenants in terms of compensation.

This was not Zhang Yanfeng bending the law for personal gain. In fact, according to his experience, most of these victims were more willing to receive some practical benefits. If you forcefully dragged the landlord to expose him to the law or something, the victim would not appreciate your kindness and despise you for meddling in other people"s business.

Everyone entered the landlord"s study. The landlord"s wife brought tea and went out.

Zhang Yanfeng asked Xiao Cao to stand at the door,

the landlord then turned on his computer in peace,

he clicked into the folder,

“Here is the video from October 2016. It"s precisely because of this incident that I firmly put a camera in the tenant"s room. However, I was afraid that they wouldn"t understand my good intentions, so I didn"t tell them. I was afraid that it would cause them to misunderstand…”

“Shut up and open the video to take a look,”Zhang Yanfeng urged. The Landlord"s excuse was really too lame.

If you said that you were faking it after Xia Chunhua"s accident, then how did you have it before Xia Chunhua"s accident?

The landlord opened the video,

the video wasn"t particularly clear,

perhaps it was because the landlord"s camera a few years ago wasn"t very high-end and wasn"t as advanced as it was now, but the general situation could still be seen clearly. At the very least, it was much clearer than ordinary cameras.

After all, they were here to see that scene,

if it was a pile of black and white dots mosaic, what was there to see?

In the scene,

it was a woman taking a bath,

the camera would occasionally show the woman"s face,

zhang Yanfeng carefully identified it, then called Little Cao to take a look. He confirmed that it was number F"s nameless corpse, Xia Chunhua!

Then,

he continued to watch,

he watched,

twenty minutes!

Zhang Yanfeng lowered his head to look at the progress bar,

he realized that there was still twenty minutes left.

“You took such a long bath?”

“That"s right. Because the water fee is shared equally, these tenants take a long bath to prevent themselves from being at a disadvantage. They also don"t economize. Otherwise, if others use too much and use too little, won"t they be taken advantage of if they share it equally?”

“Fast Forward!”

Zhang Yanfeng urged.

Although this was a physical evidence scene, Zhang Yanfeng and Little Cao did not have any thoughts of blasphemy in their hearts. However, after all, the deceased was still the most important. It was better to skip some scenes.

Thinking about the woman who was currently taking a bath in the scene..,

she had been killed and buried by the riverside two years ago. She had almost died without any news. It was inexplicably heartbreaking.

The landlord started to fast-forward. He had watched this video many times until the 37 minutes of the video.

In the video..,

a Man in a raincoat suddenly appeared. After the man came in, he directly covered Xia Chunhua"s face and dragged her out of the bathroom.

This man..,

should be the murderer!

However, the man in the video was wearing a big mask, which completely covered his face.

“Why didn"t You F * cking call the police at that time?”Zhang Yanfeng scolded.

“I"m not sure if something happened…”

“She didn"t even take her things away, and she just disappeared. How can you be sure if something happened?”

“What if she was a sugar daddy and ran away, and the lock of the rental house wasn"t broken.”

“F * ck you!”

Zhang Yanfeng kicked the landlord"s body,

the landlord was kicked to the ground,

he didn"t dare to make any noise.

Outside the door,

his wife seemed to have heard the noise and ran over to knock on the door to ask what was going on,

“It"s nothing, it"s nothing. Go Do Your Thing!”

The landlord immediately shouted.

Zhang Yanfeng knew very well that this b.a.s.t.a.r.d landlord was actually worried that after he called the police, the fact that he had secretly recorded the incident with the camera would be exposed. Therefore, he chose to remain silent about a life that might have been harmed!

“Time, tell me the time.”

Zhang Yanfeng replayed the video and looked at the time. There was a note in the video that it was 3:20 p.m. on October 24,2016.

In his mind, he started to recall the layout of the low-rent housing that he had visited before.

The murderer buried the body,

this meant that after he killed Xia Chunhua, the body was taken away. Regardless of whether he took the living or the dead, the target of such a big person was still very obvious.

“Xiao Cao, let"s go, follow me back!”

Leaving behind the landlord who was still sitting on the ground, Zhang Yanfeng ignored him,

zhang Yanfeng let Xiao Cao drive him back to the entrance of the low-rent house.

However..,

this time, Zhang Yanfeng did not go up. Instead, he turned his head and looked at a construction bank beside the corridor.

“The murderer must have brought the victim down. This low-rent house only has this one up and down corridor. The murderer must have entered and exited from here at that time. On October 24,2016, after 3:20 p.m. , the murderer might have brought the victim out from here!

“Let"s go, follow me to this bank to retrieve their surveillance footage.”

“Ah, would the bank agree to let us retrieve the surveillance footage so quickly?”

“The bank isn"t a Didi.”

“Oh, that"s true. But it"s been almost two years. Could the surveillance footage have been deleted long ago?”

Due to memory, it was normal for surveillance footage in many places to be deleted once every three months or half a year.

“The People"s Bank of China"s rule seems to be half a year, but most other banks will maintain two or even three years of video backup. This is to tie in with the statute of limitations of civil litigation.”

Zhang Yanfeng brought little Cao into the bank and showed his ID card, requesting to see the previous video backup of the surveillance cameras. At the same time, he explained that the matter was urgent and that the necessary procedures would be filled later.

The bank did not make things difficult at all,

it immediately expressed that it would fully cooperate with the local police in handling the case.

Very soon,

on the computer in the surveillance room, the video was pulled out. After it was pulled to that time, Zhang Yanfeng requested that it be played in double-speed mode.

When the surveillance time reached 3:40,

zhang Yanfeng decisively called for it to stop,

rewind it a little bit and play it slowly!”

The screen rewound and began to play it frame by frame.

In the screen,

at the entrance of the corridor,

an old man appeared. The old man was wearing clothes similar to that of a renovation worker, and he was carrying a snakeskin sack.

“Enlarge!”

The screen was enlarged,

because the bank staff in the monitoring room were not professionals, there was no way to restore the image and restore the clarity. But when the screen was enlarged..,

old Zhang immediately recognized who the guy who took off his mask and carried a sack down with a cigarette in his mouth was,

it was the old man,

the last old man who died!

He should have been controlled by Gui Yu at that time.

Old Zhang let out a long sigh,

he already knew who the real murderer was,

the reason why he continued to investigate,

was to find evidence,

here,

evidence of the old master"s exoneration!