Chapter 233: Sixteenfold Playback, Tracing Ghost’s Movements

Under normal circumstances, most surveillance footage is retained for about 15 to 30 days. Footage from main city roads, banks, hospitals, police stations, and other official institutions tends to be preserved a bit longer, around three months.

Moreover, modern surveillance systems don’t require manual deletion of recordings to free up space; they automatically overwrite older footage. So, for a case that occurred half a year ago, there logically shouldn’t be any relevant footage left.

But Su Ming wasn’t particularly worried about this.

Because based on the professionalism Chen Sheng had just demonstrated, along with his focus on this case, it was unlikely that he would have forgotten to back up the relevant surveillance footage. It was even possible that every piece of footage from places where Lan Cai’er had appeared in the days leading up to the incident had been copied.

Undoubtedly, that would be a labor-intensive task. But under the pressure to solve a homicide, the influence of public opinion, and Chen Sheng’s own pursuit of truth and justice, no matter how tedious the work, he would have taken the time to preserve anything that might hold a clue.

…

At this moment, hearing Su Ming’s words, Chen Sheng nodded without hesitation and immediately began searching on the multimedia computer in front of him. He spoke with quiet confidence.

“Team Leader Su, give me a moment. I’ll look for the backed-up surveillance videos. To be honest, since we never identified the perpetrator and this is the only unsolved case in Yangliu District in the past ten years, even though we didn’t have as many clues or leads back then, I still copied all the videos that were even remotely related to Lan Cai’er during that time. I was worried that if we made a discovery later but couldn’t find the corresponding investigation records or footage, it would be a real problem.

Got it—I found it! This video is from the elevator in Lan Cai’er’s apartment building, nine days before she was killed. Maybe we can start with a quick look—”

Before he could finish, Su Ming gently shook his head, interrupting him, and thoughtfully rubbed his chin.

“No, Chen Ju. I think… there’s probably no need to look at the elevator footage. Based on our earlier analysis, Ghost is likely an extremely cautious individual who would go to great lengths to conceal his movements. We saw this in how he let Lan Cai’er live an extra seven days just to mentally and emotionally break her down, until she willingly laid her neck on the chopping block he had prepared.

As long as the victim couldn’t escape his control, he would stay close by, waiting for the perfect moment—like a true ghost, a parasite clinging to the bone.

So Ghost would certainly try to avoid surveillance as much as possible to reduce the risk of exposure. Would he really take the elevator, a place that’s guaranteed to record his presence? I believe… it’s far more likely he took the more concealed stairwell. Not only could he avoid elevator cameras, but he could also likely steer clear of other residents in the building, further increasing his stealth.

In high-rise residential buildings with elevators, even residents on the second floor usually take the elevator. The stairwells are often cluttered with miscellaneous items.”

Here, Su Ming paused slightly and looked at Chen Sheng in front of the projector, continuing with his line of questioning.

“Chen Ju, Lan Cai’er came from a fairly well-off family. Unless I’m mistaken, the apartment she rented should be in a newly built residential complex, right? These newer developments usually have separate paths for pedestrians and vehicles, and access to the stairwells of each building from the underground parking garage.

Also, Jiahe Television Station starts work at 8 a.m. If Ghost targeted Lan Cai’er’s orange cat, he would have had to act while she wasn’t home. So we only need to review the footage from 8 a.m. onward—after Lan Cai’er had left for work—up until the time she received that message that triggered her emotional breakdown. We focus on who entered the underground garage, or which vehicles drove in, to identify suspicious individuals and trace Ghost’s movements.”

Clearly, by deducing Ghost’s personality and refining the details of the case, Su Ming had already narrowed the search scope to a manageable and efficient range.

After hearing Su Ming’s analysis, Chen Sheng paused for two seconds of thought before nodding in agreement. He began looking through the specially preserved surveillance footage.

Thirty seconds later, Chen Sheng finally located the video most likely to reveal Ghost’s presence. He couldn’t help but sigh as he spoke.

“Ah, the more I think about it, the more regrettable it feels. Back then, I focused all my energy on people close to Lan Cai’er, thinking it was probably a crime committed by someone she knew. If only we had looked more into these related videos, maybe we could’ve uncovered Ghost sooner.

But then again, even if we had checked the surveillance in depth, we probably wouldn’t have gone as far back as nine days before the incident—at most, we’d have looked at the two or three days before the crime to see if anything unusual happened. I guess it’s lucky that, based on prior experience, I felt these videos might still come in handy. Otherwise, we might not have any surveillance to work with at all.”

As he spoke, Chen Sheng opened the surveillance footage and adjusted the time to after 8 a.m., when Lan Cai’er had already gone to work.

The footage came from the entrance of the underground parking garage at the complex where Lan Cai’er had lived. In other words, anyone entering the underground garage would definitely be captured by this camera.

But compared to the elevator, being caught by the parking garage entrance camera wasn’t a big deal—especially since this was nine days before the crime. It was already rare for the police to examine footage that far back. Let alone choosing a relatively inconspicuous location like the garage entrance among numerous surveillance feeds. The odds were undoubtedly several times lower.

At the same time, another surveillance video from the same time period was opened, this one positioned at the entrance to the underground garage of the building where Lan Cai’er had rented her apartment.

To uncover Ghost as quickly as possible, Chen Sheng directly set the playback speed to sixteen times normal, intending to first get a general overview.

According to the investigation records, the moment Lan Cai’er broke down emotionally during work was specifically at 10 a.m. In other words, from 8 to 10 a.m.—a full two-hour window—Ghost had entered the residential complex, broken into Lan Cai’er’s apartment, and taken away the still-young orange cat as a means to silence her.

…

At this moment, Su Ming remained silent, his gaze fixed entirely on the projection screen before him.

Although the current playback speed was sixteen times faster than normal, vehicles had to slow down significantly to pass through the garage gate, so the overall difficulty of making visual assessments wasn’t as high as one might expect.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes.

…

Just after the third minute passed and the timestamp on the surveillance footage reached 8:50 a.m., a metallic silver van appeared at the entrance of the underground garage. On its sides were stickers advertising repair services for leaking roofs, leaking toilets, and minimally invasive waterproofing.