“Open the door! Hurry up and open it! How long are you planning to leave me standing out here?!”

Gu Yao pounded impatiently, her voice sharp. She was the type who threw her weight around at home—she’d never dare act like this at the station. At most, she’d gossip with Sang Ning on the side.

“Coming.” Only after Sang Ning stepped into the bathroom to wash up did Gu Yezhou go to open the door.

The moment it opened, Gu Yao darted inside like a gust of wind.

“Huh? Where is she?”

She craned her neck, looking around, not spotting Sang Ning. Then she pointed at Gu Yezhou. “Where’s my sister-in-law? Where did you hide her? Don’t tell me you got drunk last night and brought some random woman home?”

Faced with her interrogation, Gu Yezhou didn’t waste a single word.

He took the two large empty suitcases from her hands—

—and promptly ushered her back out.

Before she could even react, the door slammed shut.

“Gu Yezhou! Open the door! Right now! If you don’t, I’m telling Mom and Dad you’ve secretly gotten a girlfriend and didn’t bring her home!”

She hammered on the door like a madwoman.

By the time Sang Ning finished washing up and came out, she saw the suitcases in Gu Yezhou’s hands.

She’d wanted to come out earlier—but was afraid of startling Gu Yao.

“These suitcases are…?”

Gu Yezhou glanced at them casually. “For moving. Leave anything you don’t need there. Take what you want. Two should be enough.”

“Alright.” Sang Ning nodded. She liked all the little things in her apartment.

Whether they were useful or not didn’t matter—if she liked them, she’d take them. If they didn’t fit, she’d carry them by hand.

“I’ll call the landlady.”

The day the case closed, Lin Group had already exploded onto the trending charts. No one knew who leaked it—maybe Lin Zehui, maybe the secretary Lin Shuyue.

The call connected—and immediately, chaos burst through the receiver.

“I’m telling you—if you don’t pay the rent today, get out! You say my place is ‘unclean’? And you’re clean, are you? Who knows where your money even comes from—”

“What are you doing? Don’t come any closer! I’m on the phone right now!”

“Hey! You there—call the police! This person is trying to—”

“AH—!!”

A rush of wind—

A heavy thud—

Then the line went dead.

Sang Ning’s face changed instantly. She yanked the door open.

Gu Yao, still banging on it, jumped in shock. When she saw Sang Ning, her eyes went wide. “Ning—Ning-jie? When did you get here? Why are you—hey, I’m not finished talking!”

Sang Ning didn’t have time to explain. She jabbed the elevator button and said to Gu Yezhou, “Something’s happened. Ping’an Apartments.”

The elevator doors opened. The three of them rushed in—Gu Yezhou didn’t forget to grab the suitcases.

“The landlady was probably collecting rent and got into an argument with a tenant.” Sang Ning pulled up the call recording on her phone. She’d planned to discuss moving out and recorded it just in case.

They listened in silence.

Twenty seconds.

In those twenty seconds, there was the landlady’s aggressive tone, the howl of wind—

—and finally, the dull impact of something heavy hitting the ground, followed by static.

The phone had fallen from a height and cut off.

Gu Yezhou frowned. “There are still tenants on the fourth floor?”

Sang Ning shook her head. “I don’t really know. I rarely go upstairs. Most people here keep to themselves, and I’m usually at the station anyway.”

Otherwise, she might have known more about Shi Li.

If she’d had the time, she wouldn’t have ignored the stolen clothes.

But everything she wore cost less than eighty on average—she didn’t care.

Brand names meant nothing to her.

To her, spending money on food made far more sense.

Food trumped everything.

“I contacted the landlady about Shi Li before,” Gu Yezhou said with a sigh. “She said she didn’t know much. She just rents the place out—there’s only so much she can know. Being a landlord isn’t easy either.”

Sang Ning had to agree. Without that landlady, her food budget would’ve taken a serious hit.

By the time they arrived at Ping’an Apartments, someone had already called the police.

The courtyard on the first floor was sealed off with tape.

“Captain Gu? You’re here already? We hadn’t even had time to notify you,” Xiao Zhang said, dark circles under his eyes—clearly still recovering from last night.

“I called the landlady. She told me to report it, but I don’t know what happened,” Sang Ning explained briefly.

She stepped past the crowd—

—and saw the landlady lying in a pool of blood.

Yao Xiuying.

Mid-fifties.

Her permed hair was still styled, her ethnic shawl soaked crimson. Her eyes were wide open in terror.

Her phone lay several meters away.

Sang Ning handed her keys to Gu Yao. “Go upstairs and get my kit.”

Pulling on gloves, she took one look.

“Cause of death: fall from height.”

She crouched, examining the body.

“Victim: Yao Xiuying, 55. No obvious trauma to the back of the head. Comminuted fracture at the thoracolumbar junction—she landed on her back.”

She pressed along the ribs.

“Multiple bilateral rib fractures. Fracture ends penetrated the lungs.”

Xiao Zhang inhaled sharply. “Internal bleeding… she died slowly…”

Sang Ning fell silent for a moment before speaking again.

“Not a head-first fall. She was thrown from a height. Based on this… fourth floor.”

Everyone looked up.

Gu Yezhou was already there, moving along the corridor, knocking on doors one by one.

“Damn, Captain Gu is fast,” Xiao Zhang muttered, rushing upstairs after him.

Sang Ning stayed behind, directing the team to secure the scene before the body was moved.

Someone would also have to notify the family.

Another difficult task.

She’d spoken to Yao Xiuying before—her son didn’t work, living entirely off her rental income.

And that income wasn’t small.

Besides this apartment, she owned several villas in the outskirts of Yancheng.

Just collecting rent was enough to live comfortably.

Not just her son—even Sang Ning envied that life.

She wouldn’t mind slacking off either.

Before long, a man’s shouting came from upstairs.

Gu Yao had just brought down the toolkit when Gu Yezhou’s voice rang out:

“Forensic Sang, come take a look at these bones.”

Bones.

The word snapped something in Sang Ning.

She grabbed the kit and sprinted upstairs.

One glance—

—and she recognized it immediately.

A male pubic bone.

Long, pale.

Clutched in the hands of a wild-eyed man, waving it around.

Xiao Zhang rushed forward and barely managed to subdue him—only for the man to pull another bone from his pocket.

Gu Yezhou’s face darkened. “Strip him.”

“Huh?” Xiao Zhang froze—then quickly complied.

In seconds, they had the man half-naked.

Bones fell out one after another.

He had several hidden on him.