Rapping his knuckles against the desk, he asked sternly, “Could this be a robbery case?”
The captain hesitantly answered, “It’s possible, but such a cruel modus operandi is unheard of. I, myself, have never encountered any robbery cases in which the robber carried concentrated sulfuric acid around. Such a cruel method could only be carried out by someone who’s got a personal vendetta with the victim!”
Upon hearing this, the bureau chief carefully glanced at the bigshot and asked, “Chairman Mu… he he… Do you know if your father-in-law has any enemies?”
He proceeded to reveal his suspicions. “I suspect that the perpetrator was out for revenge, though I don’t have any conclusive evidence on hand right now. It’s why there’s little progress with this case, which in turn led to it being shelved.”
Mu Yazhe expressionlessly requested, “Let me take a look at the surveillance footage.”
“The security footage in relatively good condition was all copied into my laptop. You’re welcome to take a look at each anytime you want,” replied the captain, who was then ordered by the bureau head to bring his laptop over and retrieve the footage at once.
From then on, Mu Yazhe sat in front of the laptop and stared intently at its screen, where it played the footage from the timeframe of 10 PM to 1 AM on fast-forward at four times its original speed.
The neighborhood was indeed slightly old. With the residents there refusing to pay the required building maintenance fees, the property management company was almost as good as closed. It was practically just an empty shell now, save for one security booth. Hence, security in the neighborhood became a problem over time.
Aside from thievery, robbery was rampant in the area. It was just that the robbers would usually only target the valuable items, never doing anything that could harm or threaten their victims’ lives.
The surveillance camera in the garage was new, only being installed by the building management because the residents kept complaining about their cars getting stolen.
Mu Yazhe kept rewinding and forwarding the footage throughout the two or so hours he spent there, going through these videos. The bureau chief and the captain patiently sat next to him and watched the footage as well, hoping to find some sort of clue from this number of video footage.
He was suddenly struck with a thought by the end of the video-watching session. “Are there any surveillance cameras at the side of the road, near the apartment building?”
“Yes, but just one. It’s located at the narrow yet winding path right next to the garage.”
He recalled the captain mentioning a shortcut leading to the apartment building in his analysis of the routes at the crime scene.
That got the captain’s attention right away.
We didn’t check the surveillance camera there!
We weren’t concerned about it because it’s located in a small corner.
“Retrieve the footage!” ordered the man.
Without further delay, the captain skillfully worked on his laptop and retrieved that particular footage.
After adjusting the time and playing the footage at eight times its original speed, they finally saw the appearance of Yun Yecheng’s figure at 11:45 PM.
The elderly man was dressed in a white outfit that night, which made him stand out in the dark. It was a new set of clothes bought by his daughter and son-in-law, so he was particularly fond of them.
A suspicious figure appeared shortly after he walked by.
It was a short-haired person with average stature in a plain attire. Dressed in a black ensemble with a beret on the head, that person was hardly conspicuous. In fact, they appeared just like a random passerby that would not catch anyone’s attention.
This person, dressed in all-black, looked ready to melt into the dark night. Coupled with the pixelated image of the surveillance camera, all they could see was a shadow following the old man closely from behind.