The other side of the floating city 4. Vulnerability is easy to see

  A sudden movement in his heart, his gaze shifted to the gap between the bricks on the ground, and he found a very subtle difference. The original brick seams were all black, but just near the table leg, there seemed to be something embedded in the seam, and he unconsciously wanted to reach out and touch it, but was stopped by the palm of his hand next to him, "Don't move!"

  I withdrew my hand and asked: "What's in that gap?"

  "Sawdust."

  Eyes suddenly opened, is wood shavings? "Are you referring to this mark left under the carved table leg?"

  "Fortunately, I'm not stupid enough to need you to teach me step by step." Kao Cheng spoke up again to mock me, but I didn't have time for this anymore because I was shocked in my heart. This discovery meant that the mark wasn't a serial number engraved by the manufacturer, but rather someone had engraved it later on, right here in this room. It felt like I had inadvertently stumbled upon top-secret documents, and I was both excited and tense. I pursed my lips to lower my voice and asked: "Was it Mr. Wu who engraved it?" In fact, what I really wanted to ask was, why did he want to engrave this mark on the bottom of the table leg?

  Kao Cheng calmly replied: "It's not him." His tone was certain.

  I was stunned, "Why not him?" It should have been Mr. Wu, the owner of the house, in terms of emotions and reason. But I saw him take off one of his gloves and throw it to me, ordering: "Put it on." Then he used his other gloved hand to lift up the leg of the table again with one hand.

  Seeing me unmoving, he looked at me with a speechless expression: "How can someone be as dull as you?"

  "I..."

  "Do I need to teach you how to even lift a hand to touch yourself?"

  Uh, so that's what he meant. He hastily put on the glove, which was a bit too big and still warm to the touch. The material was very thin, like a membrane, sticking to his hand. He reached out to feel under the table leg and immediately felt the rough engraving, even with fine hair-like scratches, clearly newly engraved. But this also can't be used to deny that it wasn't Mr. Wu who engraved it, maybe he had done it in the past few days, or perhaps... that night when he was in a hurry.

  Gao Cheng seemed to see through my thoughts: "What you're thinking doesn't hold up, there's a huge loophole in the middle."

  "What is it?"

  "Fingerprints." His mouth curled up in a sneer, seemingly disdainful and arrogant. "This person made the most serious mistake, thinking that wearing gloves to lift the table leg would leave no marks, but didn't think about leaving behind clues. Because if it was the deceased Wu Yan who engraved it, he had neither reason nor time to wipe away the fingerprints left on the table leg before or at the time of the case."

  "How did you know that man was wearing gloves?" As soon as I asked, Gao Cheng looked at me with a disdainful expression, "What's your brain for? You just felt and looked, how can you still be like a wooden fish, needing to be knocked on the head to react? Look at the four legs of the table yourself, if you still can't see it, then just stand aside, I'm too lazy to waste my breath on you."

  "Despicable!" I gritted my teeth and growled low in my throat, this person's vicious tongue was really unbearable.

  But he didn't take my anger seriously, and instead lowered his head as if in thought. I was angry but had nowhere to vent it, so I could only sulkily observe the four table legs, and then fell silent. Because, just by looking at the two table legs near the light source, you can discover one or two things.

  It's possible that Mr. Wu is not a cleanliness enthusiast, as there was a thin layer of dust on the table legs, but at the bottom of the leg with the engraved mark, it was completely dust-free. When Gao Cheng went to lift the table, he remembered very clearly that he had grasped the upper half of the table leg, which means that part hadn't been touched. As he said, if Mr. Wu, as the owner of the house, wanted to clean up the evidence afterwards, he would have at least wiped the entire table leg clean, rather than leaving only the bottom part spotless. The most likely scenario is that the person who engraved the mark didn't notice the dust on the table legs and thought that wearing gloves would prevent fingerprints from being left behind. After engraving the mark on the bottom of the table leg, they wiped away the wood shavings that had fallen to the ground but didn't guard against leaving behind residual shavings in the gap.

  So, after sorting it out, the incident became clear.

  I raised my head to find Gao Cheng staring at me intently, and as soon as I looked over, he smiled. "Looks like your wooden brain has finally woken up." He didn't give me a chance to retort before pulling me along, "Alright, let's take a look around somewhere else, I'm so sleepy." He even yawned on cue, looking tired. After being reminded by him, I felt a bit fatigued too, guessing it was probably two or three o'clock already.

  He pulled me to the balcony, a gust of cold wind poured into my collar, making me shrink and tremble. He turned back to look at me with a glance, saying in a light tone, "It'll be fine soon." Then he turned his head to scan the surroundings, I didn't think deeply about it, just casually looked out of the balcony, suddenly realizing that this balcony was exactly where Wu's father and daughter fell from, my heart tightened instantly.

  Gao Cheng let go of my hand and walked towards the edge of the balcony.

  A warmth at my wrist suddenly disappeared, and in a daze, I felt as if I had lost weight. Instinctively, I closed my eyes. A sorrowful and desperate emotion filled my chest, and flashes of painful eyes, a rapidly falling figure, and... the girl's terrified eyes appeared in my mind.

  No, Daddy, don't!

  A mournful cry is shouting in my ear, but it's useless, I've already fallen, everything is too late.

  Bang!