TFS Chapter 5

Chen Can greeted him at the corridor on the first floor. Zhang Shun, looking tense, asked, “What have you found?”

As they spoke, they walked towards the monitoring room. Chen Can pointed at the screen, “Yan Haoyu entered the building’s elevator at 11 PM last night. Judging by his state, he seemed drunk. He didn’t leave again after that. Until 5:13 AM this morning… Master, please rewind the footage.”

The security guard nodded and used the control panel computer to rewind the footage.

“I just verified with the property manager. The cleaning staff starts work at five in the morning. Look at this person.” Following his direction, Zhang Shun’s eyes focused on the person wearing a cleaning uniform on the screen.

“Cleaning staff?” Chi Zijian, from the Criminal Investigation Brigade’s First Squad who had followed behind, asked with doubt.

Zhang Shun raised his left hand to stop Chi Zijian from speaking and gestured for silence. He continued watching the footage. The building had a total of 18 floors. Cleaners usually started cleaning from the top floor and worked their way down. Chen Can asked the security guard to fast-forward the progress bar and then played it frame by frame starting from the 14th floor.

Soon, they saw her tidy up her cleaning tools, pushing a huge trash can cart into the 13th floor.

Zhang Shun’s pupils constricted. Chen Can didn’t say anything. She stayed on that floor for an exceptionally long time. But the most crucial thing was that when she pushed the trash can cart into the elevator again to go down to the 12th floor, the smoothness of the movement and the force she used to push the cart out of the elevator on the 13th floor were noticeably different!

Zhang Shun asked them to rewind the footage again, reconfirming the reaction from the 15th to the 14th floor, and the different reactions when leaving and entering the elevator on the 13th floor, comparing them frame by frame.

“She collected so little trash. Logically, when pushing the tool cart back to the elevator, she should be using her wrist to push, just like when she first went up to the 13th floor.” This time, Chi Zijian watched the frame-by-frame playback, somewhat absentmindedly.

Zhang Shun was silent for a moment. Then he raised his eyes to look at Chen Can, “Can an adult fit inside the trash can?”

As long as someone can have this idea, any seemingly impossible thing needs to be verified one by one.

“Zijian, stay with the property company staff and immediately contact this cleaner to arrange an interrogation,” Zhang Shun instructed. “Let’s try it ourselves, find a tool cart, find a new trash can.” As he spoke, he once again deeply imprinted the nine minutes the cleaner spent on the 13th floor in his mind.

Fortunately, the property company was very cooperative. A homicide would have a significant impact on the apartment’s property value. And since Huazhang Apartments was a local real estate company integrating development and property management, they wanted to minimize the impact of the incident as much as possible if possible.

Chen Can took the lead in entering the trash can. The elevator speed in Huazhang Apartments wasn’t fast, but at five in the morning, there usually weren’t many residents getting up so early to call the elevator. If there were no stops on any floor, the elevator’s speed going up and down would increase. Zhang Shun pushed the tool cart carrying Chen Can out of the elevator. After Chen Can came out, he effortlessly pushed the tool cart back into the elevator.

Half an hour later, the group reconvened in the monitoring room via walkie-talkie. Zhang Shun requested that both monitoring screens be turned on simultaneously to compare the cleaner’s actions this morning with Zhang Shun’s experiment just now. He firmly believed one thing: people’s habitual movements and physiological behaviors couldn’t lie, such as the use of force.

*

1:20 AM, June 20th, Criminal Investigation Brigade Interrogation Room.

Sitting opposite them was a middle-aged woman with a slightly anxious expression. She looked to be in her fifties. Years of physical labor had caused her skin to lose its luster, and her complexion was sallow. She sat uneasily.

She was the cleaner who had entered Huazhang Apartments to clean this morning. Records showed her name was Cai Shujuan, 54 years old.

Cai Shujuan spoke with a northern plain accent, and her Mandarin wasn’t very clear, “I really don’t know anything. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, be kind and let me go back to work! I have to work as a nanny this afternoon. I’m missing out on a lot of wages…”

Before Zhang Shun went in, Cai Shujuan was still ignorant and adopting a tragic pose in the face of questioning from the young police officer.

Zhang Shun knocked on the door and gave the young officer a look. The officer then stood up and exited the interrogation room.

“You come in.”

He pointed to the door and walked in, closing the door tightly behind him.

Zhang Shun didn’t speak. While looking at the male clerk’s file on Cai Shujuan’s social connections, he casually glanced at Cai Shujuan, scrutinizing her without saying a word.

Just Zhang Shun’s solemn expression and the oppressive feeling of being a veteran criminal investigator added a bit of tension to the atmosphere in the room.

Cai Shujuan had also become quite the expert. She rolled her eyes around, stared at Zhang Shun twice, and then silently lowered her head. It seemed she had realized that the person in front of her wasn’t an ordinary small figure who would mess around with her.

Zhang Shun raised his wrist as if to check the time, “It’s still early. Even if you need to pick up your granddaughter from school, it’s not time for class to end yet. Do you want to cooperate and chat with us, or wait a little longer?” With that, he pretended to be leisurely, adopting an attitude that he had plenty of time anyway.

Speaking of picking up her granddaughter from school, Cai Shujuan’s eyes lit up, but she had accepted benefits, so she had to stubbornly say, “I have time too. You police officers are all very free. You wouldn’t keep bothering a common citizen like me!”

Zhang Shun smiled ambiguously, “You wouldn’t have heard about what happened at Huazhang Apartments.” He paused for two seconds, assessing Cai Shujuan’s reaction. “And during the time of the incident, you were probably the only one entering and exiting that apartment building. We police have a principle, which is that all homicides must be solved. Since you’re the only suspect we have, we don’t have to run around too much. If one day doesn’t work, we’ll do two. Here, the food is still decent, it’s passable.”

After Zhang Shun spoke, he glanced at the male clerk, who nodded understandingly with a smile.

Seeing that Zhang Shun was determined, Cai Shujuan’s originally sallow face gradually turned dark, “I’m just a commoner, what could I know? You police officers can’t falsely accuse good people for no reason, right?!”

Zhang Shun crossed his arms and stood up, looking down at Cai Shujuan, “What are you shouting for? The Public Security Bureau isn’t a place where whoever shouts the loudest is innocent. What you’re saying are lies. If you’re not going to tell me, then help me recall? Let’s start with the tool cart you were pushing. You only stayed for three to five minutes on the other floors, why did you stay for nine minutes on the 13th floor?”

“Officer! You have to ask the residents of the 13th floor about that. Who knows how they made so many foam scraps? You know those things are very difficult to clean up. I spent a long time cleaning them up. I don’t know who was so inconsiderate.” She spoke vividly, as if reciting lines.

“So that’s the case, you’ve cleared up my confusion. Then what about the foam scraps you swept up?” Zhang Shun continued to ask, his tone still amiable.

“I put them in a trash bag, and put them in the trash can.” She answered without thinking.

Zhang Shun smiled slightly upon hearing the answer, “Are you sure? But when you were about to push the tool cart into the elevator, you didn’t have a trash bag in your hand. And when you went from the 14th floor to the 13th floor, it seems like there was more trash on the 14th floor, clearly making you stumble.” Zhang Shun looked at the male clerk, who turned on the screen and played six or seven seconds of a specially selected video for Cai Shujuan to watch.

“It is indeed quite heavy. But when you were about to go down from the 13th floor, you suddenly became lighter.”

The male clerk played the second video clip again.

Zhang Shun’s smile didn’t reach his eyes, “What do you have to say about this? What exactly is in the trash can? Who is in the trash can? What benefits did the other party give you?”

A series of questions fired like a volley of cannons, leaving Cai Shujuan speechless and unable to resist.

*

Shen Qing had been waiting outside the captain’s office for a while. Seeing Zhang Shun return, she hurried forward, “Boss, I checked Yan Haoyu’s in-car dashcam. It recorded the original audio. Yan Haoyu declined the *Invisible Intentions*’s launch banquet on June 19th and went to a bar to drink. It’s this one, Youjian Bar. I also went to the bar to retrieve the video and recorded a statement from the bartender. Apparently, Yan Haoyu was very drunk, and seemed to be in a bad mood. A boy outside the dance floor seemed to know him, and the two drank a few more glasses together.”

Zhang Shun pinched the space between his eyebrows. The case was complex with a myriad of clues. Now there were seven lives lost. It was a heinous incident that could shock the entire country. “Did you bring him in for a statement? How did Yan Haoyu get home that night?”

“He’s giving a statement now. The boy called a designated driver that night to take Yan Haoyu back. The boy’s name is Chen Xin. He’s a model. They’re not close. He’s just interested in the TV series Yan Haoyu wrote. He also hopes to catch his eye and get a small role or something.” Shen Qing explained the whole story.

“So Yan Haoyu’s rejection of the launch banquet was a random event, an accident. Originally, he should have been at Huasheng Film and Television Base,” Zhang Shun pondered, deducing his conclusion.

“Boss, does that mean the murderer is someone else?” Shen Qing asked.

Zhang Shun gave her an encouraging look, signaling her to continue.

“If the murderer is one of those six people, since they wanted to exterminate the entire crew, then everyone had to be present. The murderer would definitely have to complete the goal before committing suicide. There couldn’t be any loose ends. Judging by the current situation, Yan Haoyu’s death couldn’t have been suicide. There’s no such coincidence that could simultaneously fit the identity and timing.”

Zhang Shun nodded, “The murderer could be said to be smart but was outsmarted by his own cleverness. But it can only be said that the murderer didn’t know about Yan Haoyu’s absence beforehand. When the murderer arrived at the scene and found the best opportunity, they still decided to strike. There’s an information gap between them. Therefore, this morning, they used the cleaner’s disguise as a cover, avoided the surveillance cameras, entered Yan Haoyu’s house, and killed him.”

“So the murderer must be someone who doesn’t understand the crew’s schedule? We can take a step back and narrow the scope!” Shen Qing’s clear eyes sparkled with wisdom.

“Killing Yan Haoyu was an unplanned, last-minute strategy. This also means that there might be more clues left at the last crime scene!”

“Boss, what are we waiting for? Let’s go straight to Huazhang Apartments now,” Shen Qing said anxiously.

Zhang Shun patted her shoulder, “Don’t rush yet. There’s still a very important action we haven’t taken! We’ll make plans after the autopsy reports of Yan Haoyu and the other six bodies come out tonight.”

“What action?”

“What exactly is *Invisible Intentions* about?” Innumerable terrifying waves surged in Zhang Shun’s dark pupils.

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