Chapter Forty-Nine: Shadow Image

  Liao Xinxin and Yuan Fei watched the video tape frame by frame, their eyes wide open like bronze bells, not even daring to blink, for fear of missing any details. Every time they saw a girl entering or leaving the neighborhood, they would be extra careful, but they never found a girl who looked similar to Xiao Ke.

  "It should be soon, because it's a high-end community, and most residents have cars. For convenience management, Xiangxiang Garden only has this one main gate, no other small gates for entry and exit. If Xiao Ke really came to this community, then the main gate here must have been captured." Yuan Fei took out another tape, "Take a look at this one."

  "Hmm." Liao Xinxin continued watching the video, "I think so too, let's keep watching."

  November 13th, 9:12

  A girl wearing a baseball cap walked into the neighborhood with a package in her right hand. She is not very tall, about 162 cm, and very thin. Wearing a woolen coat, jeans and sports shoes.

  "Pause it and zoom in," Yuan Fei said, his body leaning forward, his face almost touching the screen.

  Liao Xin immediately enlarged the image, and the girl's back was enlarged to almost half of the screen. Yuan Fei narrowed his eyes at this frozen back and said, "Continue."

  The girl turned left at the first intersection and went out of surveillance range. On the left side of the first intersection is a high-rise apartment, with a total of twenty-six buildings.

  "Fast forward." Yuan Fei said to Liao Xinxin.

  At 9:26, the girl appeared in the surveillance range again. This time, she was no longer carrying a package. Although the girl had her hat pulled down low, when she first entered the camera's surveillance range, she lifted her head once. Yuan Fei immediately said to Liao Xinxin, "Pause, zoom in."

  It's Xiao Ke after all.

  Liao Xin let out a sigh, slumped in his chair, but his eyes remained fixed on the enlarged face of the girl on the screen, her pretty but pale cheeks. In these few days, whenever Liao Xin closed his eyes, he would think of this face, sometimes it was a profile in the dark, and sometimes it was a pale face wrapped in a woolen coat on a bustling street.

  "It's her," Yuan Fei said, "It can be confirmed that there must be people related to the Yu Chen case living in this neighborhood."

  "Hmm." Liao Xinxin nodded, pointing to Xiao Ke's empty hands. "Just now when she entered the neighborhood, she was holding a courier package, but now it's gone. It should have been delivered to some household, and the place where she sent the package is likely our next clue."

  Yuan Fei found the surveillance video from outside the gate for the same time period. At 9:07, Xiao Ke appeared on the opposite side of the street, wandered around for a while, then crossed the road and entered the Shuxiangyuan gate. At 9:28, she came out of the community gate again, wandered around on the street, made a phone call, and walked in the opposite direction. She stayed inside the community for over ten minutes. Excluding the time spent on the road and in the elevator, she only spent less than ten minutes in someone's home.

  "Should we call in a special task force for surveillance?" Liao Xinxin asked.

  "Not for now." Yuan Fei took another tape, "Let's continue to watch the rest. Xiao Ke shouldn't have come just once. Let's finish watching the surveillance in the neighborhood first, we already know the approximate location and time, the surveillance from the special case team is relatively easier to find."

  "Alright." Liao Xinxin nodded and refocused her gaze on the screen.

  On the 14th day's recording, Xiao Ke was not seen.

  There was no sign of Xiao Ke on the 15th day's video either.

  November 16th, 10:26

  "It's Xiao Ke." Liao Xinxin pointed at the screen, "He came from A courtyard."

  Yuan Fei narrowed his eyes, and indeed it was Xiao Ke. She still wore a hat with the brim pulled low, looking around hesitantly before walking back and forth on the opposite side of the street several times. After checking her watch, she finally crossed the road with hesitant steps.

  "Let's go to Shu Xiang Garden," said Yuan Fei.

  Xiao Ke raised his head slightly and suddenly quickened his pace. As he approached the gate of Shuxiang Garden, he loudly said something.

  "Turn on the sound." Yuan Fei said to Liao Xinxin.

  Liao Xinxin turned up the volume and continued to narrate the video, fast-forwarding it a bit.

  "Delivering express!" Xiao Ke shouted as he approached the entrance of Shuxiang Garden and then walked into the neighborhood.

  Liao Xin quickly changed the tape, at the same time, Xiao Ke walked into the neighborhood from the main gate, and just like in the video of No. 13, she also walked towards the high-rise apartment building, which is C district.

  "It's C district, I think the two times we went were to the same place." Yuan Fei gestured to Liao Xin to fast forward the tape, "Find that segment where she comes out again."

  Seven minutes later, a girl walked over from the direction of District C. It wasn't Xiao Ke, and Liao Xin Xin furrowed her brow, staring as the girl approached step by step.

  "Xiao Ke has come out." Yuan Fei said beside him, "Let's enlarge it a bit."

  Liao Xinxin didn't pay attention to Yuan Fei, but instead focused more intently on the girl walking in front.

  "What's wrong?" Yuan Fei looked at Liao Xinxin with a puzzled expression, then shifted his gaze from Xiao Ke to the girl walking in front.

  "It's her," said Liao Xinxin.

  Ge Tianyu.

  In the video, Ge Tianyu walked abnormally slowly, with a somewhat floating gait, and his face was extremely haggard and desperate, completely different from the stunning woman Liao Xinxin saw yesterday, even giving off a feeling of living in two worlds.

  "Look behind her." Yuan Fei nodded at the screen.

  Liao Xinxin shifted her gaze and only then discovered that Xiao Ke had already appeared in the video, carefully following behind Ge Tianyu at a distance of about 50 meters, holding a pair of binoculars and staring intently.

  "Are you following Ge Tianyu?" Liao Xinxin said.

  "It should be." Yuan Fei replied, then nodded at the screen again, "And this girl too."

  Behind Ge Tianyu, there was a girl about ten meters away from him. Her face was extremely pale, like someone who hadn't seen the sun for a long time, with no blood color at all. She was very thin, and even though she wore thick clothes, it still gave people an illusion that her whole body was just bones.

  "Who is she?" Liao Xinxin wondered, "She seems to be following Ge Tianyu too."

  "Hmm. I didn't see her enter the neighborhood before, so she should be a resident of this community. Ge Tianyu is also the same." Yuan Fei said, and it seemed like something was connected in his mind, but when he thought about it carefully, it was still unclear.

  This time, Xiao Ke stayed in the neighborhood for a short period of time. From the video footage, it can be seen that from the moment she entered the neighborhood to when she reappeared within the surveillance range, a total of 9 minutes and 23 seconds had passed.

  Ge Tianyu walked out of the surveillance range.

  The pale-faced girl also walked out of the surveillance range.

  Xiao Ke finally walked out of the surveillance range.

  Liao Xinxin replaced the surveillance video outside the gate and saw in the video that Xiao Ke pulled Ge Tianyu into a taxi, which then headed towards A Courtyard.

  The pale-faced girl didn't look at them, but instead walked in the opposite direction. Just before she was about to walk out of the surveillance range, she stopped and turned around, giving a faint smile towards the camera lens.