Chapter 306: Was the Guess Wrong?

Xu Mo's train of thought instantly became clear.

He recalled the two Rooftops he saw at the scene today.

Though the two Rooftops differed in size, their structures were roughly the same.

To reach a Rooftop, taking the elevator won't work; you have to walk the stairs leading to it, and at the stairwell on the Rooftop there is usually a small square shed that mainly serves as a wind‑ and rain‑shield.

If the murderer hides on top of that little shed, could they evade the Police's sight?

They didn't see anyone when they surveyed the site today; perhaps the murderer was hiding on the roof!

The more Xu Mo thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

He immediately took out his phone, snapped a photo of the game screen on Zhou Qiaoqiao's phone, and sent it to Han Fei.

At the same time.

Police Station.

Han Fei, who was staying in the office to work overtime on the case, heard his phone ring.

Picking up the phone, Han Fei saw that it was an image message sent by Xu Mo.

He unlocked the screen and opened the WeChat chat window with Xu Mo.

"Why is Xu Mo sending me a game picture? Does he want to play with me? I don't even play games…" Han Fei thought.

Just as he was about to message Xu Mo to say he doesn't play games, he suddenly realized the picture might not be an invitation to game but something else.

Because in the game screenshot Xu Mo sent, there were four Lao Liu lying on the Rooftop!

Rooftop, Lao Liu…

Han Fei felt he understood Xu Mo's meaning, and his eyes lit up instantly.

The next second, after sending the photo, Xu Mo immediately sent another message.

"I think I know the murderer's method now; Wang Dachuan's earlier speculation might be correct."

Han Fei replied at once: "You mean the murderer hid on top of the Rooftop stairwell after the killing, which is why we didn't see him when we went up, right?"

"Right."

Han Fei stopped typing and directly dialed a call.

Once Xu Mo answered, Han Fei spoke.

"That idea is indeed possible; from our position we couldn't see the roof of the Rooftop stairwell, so even if someone was up there we wouldn't know."

"I only thought of this possibility after seeing the game screen," Xu Mo said. "It might be the only way the murderer can 'avoid' surveillance."

Hide on the Rooftop long beforehand, wait for the victim to ascend, then push them down the stairs when they're off guard, linger a while before leaving; this can't evade surveillance, but as long as the Police don't spot it, it's enough!

Keep in mind, when the Police investigate they only review footage from a few hours around the incident; they rarely dig into recordings with long gaps because it's often useless and just wastes time.

With enough patience, sleeping ten hours or more atop the Rooftop stairwell roof will likely keep the Police from finding him.

This is probably the point the murderer is exploiting.

Of course, the method has a huge flaw; if the Police rewind the footage far enough, the murderer is done for.

Plainly put, it's a gamble, betting the Police won't examine long‑duration footage.

Win the bet and walk free, lose and you're in trouble... here's a lament from behind iron bars for you!

"I'm still at the Police Station, so I'll review the footage we copied from the building today... but I only have the pre‑incident footage; the post‑incident part is just over an hour, and the copied footage ends when we left the building," Han Fei said while pulling up the recordings from three cases.

This time, he wasn't limiting himself to the few hours before the victim's death.

Instead, he expanded the review window to forty‑eight hours and started fast‑forward playback.

Han Fei believed that no matter how great the murderer's stamina, they couldn't stay perched on the roof for a full forty‑eight hours.

In reality, twenty‑four hours is already the limit.

But to be safe, he chose to start checking from forty‑eight hours before the incident.

If the murderer's method is indeed as Xu Mo guessed, reviewing the footage within those forty‑eight hours would surely yield something.

"Having just the pre‑incident footage is enough; I'll also hack into the Guojin Building's surveillance system and take a look. If both of us watch it, the margin of error is higher," Xu Mo said.

The Guojin Building footage Han Fei had only went up to about an hour after the incident, because the recording was what had been copied at the time, just the earlier segment.

Yet that segment alone is sufficient.

According to Xu Mo's hypothesis, for the murderer to fool the Police they must have been hiding on the Rooftop long before the incident.

Only then could the Police, when reviewing footage, overlook someone who had been on the Rooftop early on, since they usually only check a few hours and won't go back too far—it would be a huge waste of time.

As long as the footage shows someone who got onto the Rooftop long before the incident and never came down, that Sheer Cliff is the murderer!

At that moment, Zhou Qiaoqiao walked out of the kitchen carrying a bowl of soup.

"Hey, it's still hot. This soup's been simmering for a long time. You've been busy all day, have a sip to replenish yourself!"

"Thanks, just put it on the table; I'll drink it later," Xu Mo said with a smile, handing Zhou Qiaoqiao's phone back: "Here's your phone."

Zhou Qiaoqiao took the phone and returned Xu Mo a smile.

"No need to be polite; you helped us too. If you hadn't taken us in, the four of us wouldn't have slept soundly all night—ghosts and whatnot... would have been terrifying."

……

Xu Mo went into the room and turned on the computer.

In a flash, he hacked into the Guojin Building's surveillance system.

He also prepared to review the footage.

Having another person check adds an extra safeguard; after all, what if Han Fei missed something while reviewing?

With Xu Mo's Hacker Technique, breaching a building's surveillance system is still quite easy.

So he was in within a couple of tries.

He located the footage of the Rooftop stairwell, adjusted the timestamp, and started fast‑speed playback.

Thanks to his enhanced eyesight and mind, he could watch the footage far faster than Han Fei.

In just half an hour, he went through all the surveillance from the forty‑eight hours before the incident.

After watching, Xu Mo couldn't help but frown.

The forty‑eight hours before the incident had no one who went up to the Rooftop and never came down…

To make sure he hadn't missed anything by watching too quickly, Xu Mo watched it again.

This time he slowed down a little.

He spent an hour and went through the surveillance once more.

But the result was the same.

In the forty‑eight hours before the incident, there was no one who went up to the Rooftop and never came down; every person who had been on the Rooftop, without exception, descended again within that period.

Now there are only two possibilities.

Either the murderer has excellent stamina, good enough to stay on the roof for more than forty‑eight hours just to commit the killing.

Or Xu Mo is wrong, and the murderer's method is fundamentally not what he imagined.