Chapter 34: The Clue Broke Right Here

In this segment of footage, from the moment Zhang Yan appeared until she walked out of the surveillance frame, it took only a brief fifteen seconds.

And that was with her walking while talking on the phone.

If she had maintained a normal walking pace, she would probably have covered that stretch in under ten seconds.

After all, the surveillance range at the entrance of a shop is relatively small—only about ten meters or so.

Yu Dazhang watched that segment of footage over and over, his eyes fixed tightly on Zhang Yan's lip movements on the screen.

He had already watched it four times, yet still found it extremely strenuous.

Way too hard on the eyes.

Compared with reading expressions in the first segment of footage, the difficulty this time had doubled outright.

He had to decipher Zhang Yan's words by carefully observing her lip shapes.

In a real-life setting, Yu Dazhang could rely on his superhuman eyesight to easily catch the changes in the other person's lip shape.

But facing surveillance footage, there was nothing he could do.

Pixel count determines clarity—no matter how sharp your eyes are, it's useless.

Fortunately, surveillance footage can be watched repeatedly, and in this segment Zhang Yan only said two sentences.

But it was precisely those two sentences that took Yu Dazhang four viewings to pin down.

The first: "I'm not listening, I'm not listening, I don't want to hear you say these things. If you keep this up, I'll never talk to you again."

After that sentence was finished, the Zhang Yan in the frame paused for about seven seconds.

That meant the person on the other end of the line was talking.

The second: "I've told you before, I've never thought that way—it's you who misunderstood."

Something fishy~

Yu Dazhang had a premonition: the person Zhang Yan was on the call with and the person who had sent the earlier message were very likely the same person.

But the content of this conversation…

What kind of situation would make Zhang Yan say those words?

Dating?

Doesn't seem like it—even when couples argue, the content isn't like this.

The content of the first sentence clearly shows the other person said something Zhang Yan didn't want to hear, prompting her to threaten cutting ties to stop them from saying it again.

The second sentence points out that the other person had a misunderstanding about her.

The relationship between these two is no ordinary one.

If they weren't close, there'd be no question of cutting ties.

The misunderstandings that can arise between acquaintances are far too many to count.

The footage is too short—if only there were a few more sentences… Yu Dazhang was temporarily out of ideas.

"Play the next segment."

"Dazhang, hold on a sec." Lu Zhongxin couldn't help but ask:

"Did you spot something in that last segment of footage?"

"Nope." Yu Dazhang shook his head in denial.

He really couldn't be bothered to explain.

He came here to find new leads, not to run a remedial class.

What if Master and Qian Cheng asked him to teach them lip-reading?

That would just be asking for trouble.

Besides, lip-reading isn't something anyone can learn—it takes talent.

First of all, you need a gossip-loving heart.

"If you didn't spot anything, why'd you watch it so many times?" Lu Zhongxin's tone carried a note of displeasure.

He had clearly seen Yu Dazhang craning his neck, eyes wide, staring intently at the computer screen, his head almost pressed against it.

He looked for all the world like he was trying to see straight through the Zhang Yan in the footage.

If nothing had deeply captured his attention, how could he have acted that way?

"Exactly because I didn't spot anything."

Yu Dazhang put on a matter-of-course expression:

"If I'd spotted something, would I still need to watch it so many times?"

That retort left Lu Zhongxin completely speechless.

Seems…there's nothing wrong with that logic.

Seeing the two of them fall silent, the police officer clicked open the next segment of surveillance footage. Yu Dazhang had intended to continue his lip-reading translation work.

But in this next segment of footage, Zhang Yan wasn't on the phone.

Instead, she walked forward at a normal pace and quickly disappeared from the surveillance frame.

The entire process lasted only eight seconds.

Yu Dazhang glanced at the time display in the upper-right corner of the surveillance frame—the two segments were about three minutes apart.

"Between these two road sections, didn't any other surveillance cameras capture the victim?" Yu Dazhang asked, unwilling to give up.

"No." the officer answered with great certainty:

"The road section where the shop is located is rather out-of-the-way, and the storefronts nearby are all up for lease."

"The whole street only has two places with surveillance, and the other one is across the road—it can't capture Zhang Yan."

"I checked all the way along her route home, and this is the closest surveillance camera to the previous stretch."

"There's definitely nothing missed."

It was clear that this police officer had investigated thoroughly; otherwise, he would not have blurted out these details.

Please... collect... 6... 9... book... now...!

It seemed the lip-reading translation work could only pause for now... Yu Dazhang noticed only that Zhang Yan looked very unhappy in this video segment.

It must be directly related to that phone call earlier.

No other abnormalities were found.

"Continue."

There were three more video segments of Zhang Yan on her way home; Yu Dazhang watched each one very carefully but found no special circumstances.

The final surveillance video was at the entrance of Zhang Yan's residential compound.

Through this video, it was clearly visible that Zhang Yan walked into the compound and finally disappeared around the corner of a residential building.

Before Yu Dazhang could ask, the police officer beside him explained proactively:

"I went to the scene; the building she turned toward is adjacent to the one where she lives."

Yu Dazhang nodded slightly:

"So, she must have gone straight home."

By now, the surveillance video playback was finished.

These video segments completely recorded the entire process of Zhang Yan leaving the school gate and heading home.

Although the first two segments showed her behavior was somewhat abnormal.

But judging from the entire journey home, she encountered no suspicious persons or events.

Additionally, Yu Dazhang noticed that the residential compound where Zhang Yan lived was an open-style compound.

Under normal circumstances, such old compounds, lacking effective management and maintenance, commonly had no surveillance facilities.

Only the supermarket inside the compound installed cameras at the entrance to ensure safety.

At the same time, such compounds had no access control systems.

Whether residents of the compound or outsiders, anyone could enter and exit freely without any restrictions.

"That's all?"

Yu Dazhang could not help but frown:

"There isn't a single video of her leaving?"

This was the key point of the whole matter!

Zhang Yan's last footage showed her walking toward her home.

Although she finally disappeared around the corner, Yu Dazhang was certain she had safely entered her home.

It was afternoon; if an incident had occurred in broad daylight, it would surely have drawn others' attention.

Even if they dared not stop it, they would have called 110 to report to the police.

"The clue ends right here." The police officer looked very depressed:

"I later checked the surveillance at every exit; I didn't even skip the supermarket's cameras, but I didn't see her again."

Then Zhang Yan's body appeared in Kong Lingjie's rental room five days later... Yu Dazhang added silently to himself.

If the special task force had been busy with the ending all along.

Then coming to the police station today meant learning the beginning of the matter.

What exactly happened in between?

(End of this chapter)