Chapter 52 Shanty Dwelling

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Catching the murderer?

Chai Cuiqiao suddenly lost interest, pouted, but in consideration of the new phone she received, she still dutifully squeezed into the spirit banner disguised as a black umbrella.

The condition for the spirit banner to nourish the spiritual body was to absorb Yin energy, and Li Ang had not spared any effort to visit cemeteries with the black umbrella these days; to maintain his cover, he even specially purchased a few bundles of plastic flowers and inserted them into his breast pocket.

"I wonder where the police officer responsible for monitoring my safety is positioned…"

Muttering to himself, Li Ang moved the landline phone to the carpet by the door and attached a voice control module to it, setting it to automatically call his mobile phone whenever it detected sounds above 70 decibels in case a police officer knocked on the door to check on him.

Afterward, he put on his hooded night clothes, gloves, rain boots, the red-faced Guan Gong style face-changing mask, inserted an axe and dagger by his waist, shouldered the black umbrella, and vaulted out the window.

As a precaution against any others in Yin City who might possess spiritual sense, Li Ang didn't immediately summon Chai Cuiqiao, instead, he used his fingers to grip the cracks in the wall, stepped on the air conditioner outside, and climbed up to the rooftop terrace level by level.

The wind on the rooftop was both cold and strong. Li Ang pulled at his collar and took out his phone.

To catch a murderer, evidence must first be gathered. Although most of the evidence had already been collected by the police, there were still some "evidences" that couldn't be moved.

"The bicycle parking shed beneath Building 2084 and the surveillance camera used by the supermarket at the entrance of the residential area are both 720 water drop cameras produced several years ago."

Li Ang swiped on his mobile screen, speaking to himself, "Modern surveillance cameras mostly have networking capabilities. Stores, residential areas, office buildings, and even private rooms, hotels, roads, and important traffic arteries – there's a risk of exposure for each place's cameras. Anyone can scan those camera systems or firmware that haven't been updated for a long time or have ports that are left open and lack protective measures simply by accessing their publicly exposed IP addresses. They can even directly export the surveillance data to watch the live footage.

As for the 720 water drop cameras, which market themselves on 'free hardware', they epitomize 'insecurity.' Each camera sold to businesses at extremely low or even free prices also streams the surveillance footage live on the 720 water drop live broadcast platform — no hacking required, just by logging into the live broadcast platform, one can view live or recorded footage."

No matter how brain-dead the idea of the 720 water drop live streaming platform was or how it compromised consumer interests, it provided convenience for Li Ang to collect clues. He quickly played the surveillance footage from the bicycle shed under Building 2084 over the past six days at 10x speed on his phone, and with fast forwarding, he soon noticed anomalies.

Starting six days ago, within ten minutes after Zeng Weiming or Wang Fangni came out of the building and threw black garbage bags into the garbage bin downstairs, a broad and chubby man dressed as a sanitation worker and wearing a mask would drag away the entire garbage bin and return the empty bin to its original place within minutes.

Was he... collecting the garbage?

Li Ang frowned slightly. The criminal suspect was obviously endowed with supernatural abilities and could easily kill the ordinary humans, Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni, so why did he need to collect domestic garbage? Was it to understand their living habits? Was this a crime of hatred?

Li Ang continued to fast forward.

In six days, the man persistently collected Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni's domestic garbage. Sometimes he would also come with a small cart full of mud, lifting away the entire garbage bin.

"He appears within ten minutes after Zeng Weiming and Wang Fangni throw away their garbage, which indicates that he can maintain real-time surveillance, either he is rich and idle, or he is not working a steady job or works the night shift.

The place where he stays during surveillance must be very close to Building 2084, and every time he appears, he comes from the western gate of the residential area. The cart is muddy, and his new boots are also covered with fresh, damp mud, indicating that the path to the residential area had surfaces not paved with cement."

A ten-minute walk, a road under construction, a place where the residence doesn't stand out while wheeling a small cart or carrying bags of garbage...

Li Ang rapidly searched through his mental map of the area surrounding the neighborhood and quickly pinpointed a location.

The urban village next to the open-air parking lot construction site at the southwest of the neighborhood...

Li Ang exhaled turbid breath and ran down the stairs; in the blind spot between two floors where surveillance cameras couldn't see, he mounted the bicycle he had placed there earlier.

The special effect of the face-changing mask to diminish presence kicked in. Even though he was dressed like a serial killer, he wouldn't attract the attention of passersby. As long as he avoided cameras along the way, he was invisible in this city.

Li Ang pedaled faster and faster, reasoning that what he could discover, the police had no excuse to miss. The murderer, who was clean and left no trace, dared to leave surveillance videos un-deleted – he either had confidence he could move away before the police caught up, or he was already so mad he didn't fear being hunted, maybe even wanting a head-on confrontation...

Regardless of the possibility, Li Ang with a mission at hand, did not wish to see any accidents happen. He weaved through the shadows cast by street lamps as the wind roared past his ears.

He arrived at the urban village slums.

The houses here were quite low, at most two to three stories tall. The buildings were old and in disrepair, with messy and disorderly pipes, poor drainage and sewage systems, rampant garbage, and the streets were narrow and crowded like a cage.

Compared to the ring of modern, brightly lit high-rises around it, this slum looked like an island forgotten by everyone.

Those living here were literally the bottom dwellers.

The sanitation workers who left early and returned late with masks, the retired construction workers with disabilities, the errand workers delivering goods for supermarkets, the elderly without children to take care of them...

Li Ang parked his bike by the roadside, looked up at the "skyline" houses facing each other and so close together they seemed to cling to one another, he sighed, stepped over a murky, smelly puddle, brushed past a pile of trash-filled plastic bags, and headed straight into the stench of decay.

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