Sang Ning parked her electric scooter beneath Ping’an Apartments.

Before she even made it upstairs, a foul stench hit her nose.

Fortunately, there were no crowds gathered outside—no curious onlookers snapping photos to post online.

Most of the residents here were elderly men and women. They weren’t the type to flock to a scene anyway, partly because the building carried an unfortunate reputation.

Rumor had it the place was haunted.

On top of that, many of the people living here had been driven out by their families—or had no family at all. Some had once survived by begging on the streets.

At least here, the rent was cheap. A small refuge from the wind and rain.

Ping’an Apartments had originally been built as a retirement residence for the elderly. The entire complex was designed in a square layout, with four long corridors connected in a loop. Visiting neighbors was as easy as stepping across the hall.

Sang Ning hurried upstairs. The lively, carefree energy she’d shown earlier was gone. Even her voice sounded steadier now.

“What’s the situation at the scene?”

She took out the key to Room 203, opened the door, and in full view of the officers present, removed the red scarf wrapped around her neck.

“The scene…” Xiao Zhang had just begun when he noticed her unlocking the door. His eyes widened. “Dr. Sang… you live here?”

To Xiao Zhang, the world suddenly felt surreal.

A forensic pathologist living in a haunted apartment building?

And this place was fifteen kilometers from the police station. She rode an electric scooter back and forth every day—wasn’t that exhausting?

“Yeah, I live here,” Sang Ning replied flatly. “Don’t worry about my personal business. Tell me what happened next door. Where’s the person who reported it?”

She quickly slipped the red marriage certificate from her pocket into a drawer and shut it. Turning around, she grabbed the examination kit from the entryway.

“Oh—the caller was the cleaning lady for this building. She’s waiting outside,” Xiao Zhang said. Then, glancing at the little red booklet, he couldn’t help asking, “You… got your marriage certificate today?”

So he had interrupted Dr. Sang’s big day.

Getting married was a major life event—and then running into a murder case right after.

What terrible luck.

“What did the cleaning lady say? And where’s the new captain?” Sang Ning deftly sidestepped the marriage question. She shut her door and carried the kit over to Room 204.

The moment she looked inside—

The first thing she saw was the pile of excrement in the middle of the living room.

A small swarm of flies buzzed lazily around it.

Her own apartment, Room 203, was right next door—barely two steps away.

Aside from the mess beneath the victim’s body, the entire room looked as though it had been swept clean by a burglar.

Everything had been stripped away.

Even the most basic tea set had been deliberately taken.

“No idea,” Xiao Zhang scratched his head. “He’s already been notified. Just arrived in Yancheng—probably still on the way.”

Sang Ning nodded in understanding.

The man had just been transferred here, and already a murder had happened. He might still be on the high-speed train. It would take some time for him to arrive.

Unlike her.

The Civil Affairs Bureau was only three kilometers away.

She asked, “The cleaning lady was the first to find the victim?”

Xiao Zhang nodded. “Yeah. And it’s strange. Someone died here, but not a single neighbor came out to look around. That’s not how things usually are.”

“Normal,” Sang Ning said calmly as she slipped on gloves and shoe covers before stepping inside. She set her kit down beside her.

“The coffee table’s been wiped clean. There aren’t any stools nearby. The killer likely stood on the coffee table to hang the victim up there.”

She studied the body hanging from the ceiling fan and sighed softly.

“Victim: Shi Li. Age: thirty. Works in the comics industry. Rarely socializes. Practically no friends.”

“That’s great!” Xiao Zhang said, visibly relieved. “You knew the victim. That should make the case much easier to solve.”

Sang Ning shook her head.

“Quite the opposite. His social circle was so small that he barely interacted with anyone—never mind offending someone. I can’t think of anyone who’d want him dead. And not just dead—killed in such a cruel way, tied up and hung from a ceiling fan.”

“How can you tell he was tied up first, then hung from the fan?”

The footsteps were light, almost silent.

A deep, magnetic voice sounded from the doorway.

Sang Ning froze.

Her eyes widened, and she didn’t dare turn toward the man standing at the door.

Why did that voice sound so familiar?

“And you are?” Xiao Zhang asked, staring. “The new captain?”

He looked stunned.

“I didn’t expect you to be so young. I’m Xiao Zhang from Team One. You can call me Old Zhang if you want—I think I’m a bit older than you.”

Gu Yezhou gave a slight nod. “It’s fine. Tell me about the scene.”

Xiao Zhang began explaining.

“According to the cleaning lady, she didn’t see any suspicious individuals. She pushes her cart upstairs to collect trash every day. But today the smell on the second floor was unusually strong. When she came over, the door was slightly ajar. She pushed it open—and saw the body. She reported it immediately.”

As he listened, Gu Yezhou walked further inside.

The victim’s limbs were tightly bound, hands and feet tied together. Directly beneath the body was the mess of excrement, while insects buzzed through the air.

He glanced at the woman beside him.

Her expression hadn’t changed in the slightest.

“Should we bring the body down for examination?” he asked.

Sang Ning snapped back to the present.

“Yes. There’s blood on his forehead. It’s possible he was attacked and knocked unconscious first, then tied up—and finally hanged from the fan.”

Xiao Zhang clapped his hands. “Exactly! And the killer’s a real psycho. When the cleaning lady discovered him, the fan was still running. I turned it off when I got here—I was afraid things would get flung everywhere.”

“The fan was running?” Sang Ning and Gu Yezhou questioned at almost the same time.

Xiao Zhang nodded. “Yeah. It was on.”

Sang Ning’s voice dropped.

“That means the killer didn’t leave until the victim had completely stopped breathing.”

Gu Yezhou continued the thought.

“Right. If the fan had been turned on before the killer left, the excrement beneath him would have been flung all over the room. But the surrounding area is unusually clean.”

“Exactly.”

Sang Ning watched as two officers carefully climbed onto stools and lowered the victim from the fan. Their arms trembled slightly from the strain.

“And the killer likely exercises regularly.”

Gu Yezhou looked at her with a hint of amusement in his eyes.

He hadn’t expected to see her here.

When he’d spotted her electric scooter outside Ping’an Apartments earlier, he’d thought it was just coincidence.

“Tell me your reasoning.”

Sang Ning’s gaze never left the body. She didn’t even notice the burning look beside her.

First, she brushed aside the blood at the victim’s forehead for a closer look. Then she gently turned his head from side to side, examining carefully.

“The skull sustained a heavy blow,” she said. “The bleeding runs down toward the back of the neck.”

Her fingers moved lower, tracing lightly along the back of the neck. The blood had already dried, but faint rope marks were still visible.

“Crossed ligature marks at the back of the neck. The killer likely struck the victim’s head with a blunt object first, then switched to this type of rope—wrapped it around his neck, strangled him to death, and only afterward hung the body from the fan.”

Sang Ning paused.

She looked up at the fan.

Then down again at the excrement on the floor.

“What is it?” Gu Yezhou asked.

Her gaze slowly rose again, settling on the victim’s face—the sunken cheeks, the tongue protruding from his mouth.

She took a pair of tweezers from her kit and gently lifted the tongue.

Near the corner of the mouth, right where the tongue had been pressed—

There was an extremely thin strand of cotton thread.