Seeing the crime scene flashbacks made me the darling of the police station.

Chapter 390 Long planned
Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng arrived at Duan Zhixi's residential area. Just as they reached the entrance, they received a call from a colleague who was going to Duan Zhixi's workplace.

The company said that Duan Zhixi took leave last week and didn't go to work.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng went to Duan Zhixi's residence, but no one answered the door when they knocked.

Zhuang Yanzheng took out the device he had brought and opened the combination lock directly. The two entered the room.

Duan Zhixi's residence is on the second floor.

It has one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom—a very simple layout.

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng looked around the room.

Everything in the room was still there, so it didn't seem like they had run away or gone far away.

"Captain Zhuang, come take a look. Something's not right by the window," Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng walked to the bedroom window.

“This guardrail is locked, but it can be opened,” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng glanced at the marks outside the window.

There was a thin layer of dust outside the window, with scratches on it.

"Was something placed on this windowsill?" Su Miaoyi said. "The door on the guardrail opens outwards, so it doesn't touch the inside of the windowsill. What was that pulled outwards by these tread marks?"

Zhuang Yanzheng sprinkled some carbon powder on the lock; there were fingerprints on it, so he collected them. He then sprinkled some more on the security bars, and there were fingerprints there as well.

“This is the second floor, and this railing is very dangerous.” Su Miaoyi pointed to the lock on the railing. “A thief could easily pick this lock. The second floor is so low, a thief could easily get up here.”

“It’s so short, you can climb up easily.” Zhuang Yanzheng repeated her words.

Su Miaoyi looked at him.

The two looked at each other, then both looked out the window.

There was another row of buildings outside the window, but her window did not face south.

The buildings in this community are spaced quite far apart.

After watching for a while, Zhuang Yanzheng said, "Let's go."

The two closed the door and left. They knocked on the door across the hall, but no one answered.

The two went upstairs first, and knocked on the door of a house upstairs.

It was a couple in their fifties, looking after their daughter's child.

I asked two people, and they said they didn't hear anything on Friday night; they were already asleep at that time.

When asked if they knew Duan Zhixi, both of them said they did not.

They knew there was a young girl living downstairs, but they didn't know her, had no knowledge of her, and had no contact with her.

She was the only young girl living on the second floor; the other rooms were unoccupied.

No one lives on the first floor either.

After coming downstairs, the two knocked on the door on the first floor, but no one lived there.

"In a place like Jinghai, there are so many empty houses without anyone living there," Su Miaoyi said. "Shouldn't a place like this be quite populated?"

"Let's go ask in the building across the street," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

"it is good."

Before going to the building across the street, the two looked around from the bedroom window of Duan Zhixi's residence.

“No surveillance cameras could have captured this area,” Su Miaoyi said.

Zhuang Yanzheng looked up at the direction Duan Zhixi's bedroom window faced: "Her room is in a rather unusual location. It doesn't face directly south."

“When I came here, I took a quick look and found that only this building has this shape,” Su Miaoyi said. “The other buildings are all regular in shape, but this building is a polygon with indentations here and protrusions there.”

The two searched for the security cameras outside, walking close to the wall as they went.

There were no security cameras all the way up to the fence of the residential area. "If you climb over here, you won't get caught on camera," Su Miaoyi said.

"Therefore, Duan Zhixi's killing doesn't seem like a spur-of-the-moment decision, but rather something he had planned for a long time," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

"good."

The two went to the building across the street.

Almost everyone went to work; those who stayed at home were either not working or of retirement age or older.

I didn't get any useful information.

The two went to the monitoring room to check the surveillance footage.

"None of the surveillance cameras in our community will capture images of residents' windows. Protecting residents' privacy and safety is of paramount importance."

Su Miaoyi and Zhuang Yanzheng watched the monitor.

Indeed, there are no surveillance cameras pointing towards Duan Zhixi's window, and the surrounding surveillance cameras happen to be unable to capture it either.

The route they just took didn't capture either of them in the photos.

There were surveillance cameras near the fence, but Su Miaoyi climbed over the fence and then climbed back over, so no cameras captured her.

The surveillance cameras around the residential area have vulnerabilities.

They also checked the surveillance footage of the elevator at Duan Zhixi's residence.

She returned to her residence around 6:00 AM and left again at 6:35 AM.

I changed my clothes, put on a bag, and went out.

Her face showed signs of fatigue from staying up late, but otherwise, nothing seemed amiss.

From 6:35 until now, Duan Zhixi has not returned to her residence.

The two then went to the property management office to inquire about the security bars on Duan Zhixi's bedroom window.

The property management said that the protective railing was opened when air conditioner outdoor units were installed in July.

"Why install an air conditioner outdoor unit with a guardrail? There are windows, and there's no air conditioner outdoor unit here," Su Miaoyi asked, puzzled. "Besides, putting the air conditioner outdoor unit near the window will affect the lighting."

The property management said, "Yes. But Ms. Duan insisted on putting the air conditioner outdoor unit there, saying that it could block any negative energy or bad luck from outside, which would be good for her fortune. Moreover, she wouldn't allow the air conditioner outdoor unit to be put in her window. She said that things like air conditioner outdoor units cannot be brought into her room; they can only be placed from the outside."

Su Miaoyi was surprised.

Zhuang Yanzheng was also surprised, as this was the first time he had heard such a statement.

"And then they sawed the protective barrier open?" Su Miaoyi asked.

“Of course our property management wouldn’t allow it. This is a special case, and there are safety hazards. Her floor is low; what if there are bad guys and something happens? And even if the floor is high, it’s still not okay. What if she falls or something? Who will be responsible? I said it has nothing to do with us, but can I make that clear? Then they’ll say it’s our fault for not doing our job properly. Later, the air conditioner installer said she wasn’t doing the job anymore, and she left.”

"Then?"

"About a week later," the property management staff recalled. "Ms. Duan found a group of people from somewhere and they sawed the guardrail open. When we found out, it was already halfway cut open." The staff member said wearily, "We tried to stop them, but the result is what you see now. Anyway, we did our best to persuade and inform them, but there's nothing else we can do."

Su Miaoyi asked, "Where's the outdoor unit of the air conditioner?"

"It was originally there, left there for more than a month, then she said the outdoor unit was broken, so she took it apart and had it taken away for repairs." The property management staff member said, looking several years older in just a few minutes. "This is the fourth time it has broken. About a week ago, it was taken away for repairs again, so the guardrail has not been replaced. We just welded a door lock on it, otherwise she would have cut it open again."

"Isn't this house rented? Didn't the landlord say anything?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"No," the property management said. "The homeowner said he doesn't care, since he doesn't live there anyway. When he wants to live there again, he'll definitely renovate it. Just don't come looking for him if anything goes wrong."

After returning to the municipal bureau, Zhuang Yanzheng first had someone compare the fingerprints on the guardrail and the guardrail lock.

It is Duan Zhixi's.

It doesn't prove anything, it only proves that Duan Zhixi opened that guardrail.

It's perfectly normal. Of course, her fingerprints would be found at her residence. If they found unfamiliar fingerprints, they would suspect that Duan Zhixi had been kidnapped.

(End of this chapter)