Chapter 293: Middle of the Night Ghost Knocking

The property manager was stunned for a few seconds, then waved his hands repeatedly: "That, that's impossible. How can this thing be changed? Even I don't know!"

"Could it be that your surveillance also has a weather beautification function? Changing a rainy day to a sunny day?" Wu Shanqiu asked back immediately.

"Our management is strictly in accordance with the requirements. Only our security team has the password to log in to the system..." The property manager panicked. "Could it be one of our people..."

Qi Fei dragged the progress bar of the stored footage. This time, he continued to watch from the moment Lin Yu disappeared from the screen. As time passed, the sky gradually brightened, and suddenly, at a certain point, the sky darkened, and everyone in the footage teleported like a ghost. He went back and watched it again. This time it was clearer: it wasn't that people teleported, but like a movie, this was simply a splicing of two pieces of footage.

The surveillance time showed it was 4:00 AM. It seems the killer replaced four full hours of footage to prevent being discovered.

"Heh, did he think we didn't have the patience to watch four hours of surveillance?" Qi Fei leaned back in his chair, hugging his head with both hands, and said unhappily.

In the police station, Wu Shanqiu hung up the phone and said to Qi Fei with slight disappointment: "Brother Fei, I asked several close colleagues at Lin Yu's company, and they all said they had never heard Lin Yu mention anyone named Ma Ziqiang or Song Yun. He is a core designer of the company and is usually very busy. Basically, when he goes home, he draws drawings or sleeps, and he rarely even participates in colleague gatherings."

"Hmm, this is about the same as what we learned in Huantai Residential District."

"Yes, judging from his communication records before his death, there seems to be no situation of contact with Ma Ziqiang's family. Could it really be a coincidence... However, Lin Yu and Ma Ziqiang both had incidents in the middle of the night. It really feels like a ghost knocking at the door in the middle of the night..." Wu Shanqiu said.

Qi Fei glanced at her: "Have you been infected by Zhong Kui?"

"Ha? This time it wasn't me who took the initiative to mention Xiao Kui," Wu Shanqiu said with a wicked smile.

"Talk about business." Qi Fei changed the subject stiffly. "The company reflected that Lin Yu had already applied for annual leave in October to travel. This point alone makes the possibility of him committing suicide much lower."

"But I don't understand. A designer with a narrow social circle and diligent work—who exactly did he offend that they had to go to such great lengths to kill him in the middle of the night?"

"Shouldn't the stranger thing be his house door?" Qi Fei said. "There were no traces of prying, and there were no traces of fighting in the room..."

Wu Shanqiu was lost in thought: "So, we assume there was another person at the scene of Lin Yu's fall. Is it possible that this person was let in by Lin Yu himself?"

"No need to assume. If no one went to Lin Yu's place that night, the surveillance footage wouldn't have been replaced. Hmph, it's truly 'there is no silver three hundred taels here' (a classic idiom for a clumsy cover-up)," Qi Fei said immediately.

"So it's a crime by an acquaintance?" Wu Shanqiu couldn't help but furrow her brows. "Lin Yu didn't have many acquaintances in Nancheng... Currently, it seems none of them have an alibi..."

In the interrogation room, the security guard Xiao Pan, who was on duty last night, sat opposite Qi Fei, looking at a loss.

When Qi Fei showed him the spliced footage, he blurted out: "Eh? Why did the weather change suddenly?"

"The footage was replaced. We asked the technology company. There is only one way for your residential district's surveillance footage to be replaced: intercepting the surveillance recording signal during that period and covering it with footage. In other words, this operation cannot be prepared in advance; it can only be operated during the time of the incident. According to the situation submitted by your property management, only you were on duty in the surveillance room last night. Tell me, what is the situation?" Qi Fei looked at the young security guard in his early twenties seriously.

Xiao Pan's reaction was quite interesting. He didn't rush to clear his suspicion but scratched his head, looking at Qi Fei blankly: "What? What do you mean? I didn't understand."

"Did you replace the surveillance footage of Huantai Residential District from 12:00 to 4:00 AM yesterday?" Qi Fei asked more directly.

Hearing this, Xiao Pan opened his eyes wide: "Can that surveillance be changed? I don't know."

Seeing his appearance, Qi Fei sighed helplessly: "Then didn't you notice any abnormalities in the surveillance room yesterday? The connection point of this footage is obviously not the same day."

Only then did Xiao Pan look guilty, muttering: "Who would keep staring at the surveillance while on the night shift..."

"Then what were you doing?" Qi Fei couldn't laugh or cry. It seems this kid was slacking off yesterday.

Sure enough, Xiao Pan whispered: "I made an appointment to play games with someone, and I was busy playing with my phone, so I didn't pay attention..." Having said that, he realized belatedly that he was being suspected, so he defended himself: "That surveillance system, I only know how to turn it on and off. I don't know how to do anything else. You said that changing the content—I don't know how to do it at all."

"Besides you, did anyone else come to the surveillance room last night?" Qi Fei pursued.

Xiao Pan scratched his head again: "No. Besides, it wasn't supposed to be me yesterday. If Old Liang hadn't suddenly fallen and injured himself, and there was no one in the team to cover the shift, I wouldn't have been on the night shift."

"Hmm? It wasn't supposed to be you yesterday?"

"Yeah. Having said that, if Old Liang had been on duty, he might have been able to help you. Old Liang is very serious. He even won the Outstanding Employee award last year!" Xiao Pan said.

"How did he fall and get injured?"

"It was during the day when he was helping an owner change a light bulb. He accidentally fell off the ladder, and his arm was dislocated."

"What a coincidence?" Qi Fei's brows sank, and he pursued: "Do you know which owner he was helping?"

"Oh, it was the 18th floor of the building behind the incident. Come to think of it, it's a coincidence."

"Is it Ma Ziqiang's house at 1801?" Qi Fei blurted out.

Unexpectedly, Xiao Pan shook his head and denied: "No, no, it's 1802 opposite them."

"Wu Weiwei?" Qi Fei remembered the lively female neighbor who chatted with them in the elevator. When he thought of the elevator, Lin Yu's face appeared in his mind inexplicably. This time, it wasn't the flat impression on the ID card, but a 1.8-meter-tall man wearing a hoodie, standing in the elevator with his hands in his pockets.

As if struck by an electric current, Qi Fei shuddered. He knew why he felt Lin Yu's face was familiar. That was the young man who walked into the elevator and went upstairs when they were investigating Ma Ziqiang's house. The person who brushed past him was Lin Yu.

"Shanqiu, do you usually go to other unit buildings?" Qi Fei asked suddenly.

Wu Shanqiu felt this question was headless and tailless: "Unless a friend lives there, I definitely wouldn't go. Brother Fei, what's wrong?"

"We have seen Lin Yu. We saw him when we went to Ma Ziqiang's house for research," Qi Fei said. ===== CHAPTER 294 =====