Chapter 0021: Murderers? Murderers?

　　A strong musty smell emanated from the tattered and narrow room. The top floor seemed to be leaking rain, and the room was damp and airtight.

　　The windows were all boarded up, and after Chen Ge inspected them, he realized that the boards were very new, having been put up only recently.

　　”This is just a very ordinary guest room.” The burnt furniture had long been thrown away, and the room was empty, unable to find anything of value.

　　”That’s right, it’s been five years, so I’m afraid that even if there was evidence, it wouldn’t have survived intact.”

　　He stepped out of the house and strolled down the darkened corridor, the guest rooms were mostly emptied, clutter and household garbage were mixed together, there wasn’t even a place to get down.

　　”Living garbage usually reflects a person’s state of life and character, maybe there’s something to be discovered from this.” Changing his target, Chen Ge endured the odor and searched carefully, and after more than an hour, he really found something strange.

　　”Why are there so many Muppet toys in the apartment building? There are no children in the building, who could these toys belong to?” He spent nearly two hours rummaging through all the garbage and found a total of four stuffed toys before and after, which were unremarkable compared to the clutter that covered the corridor, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Chen Ge had majored in toy design and was more sensitive to toys, he probably would have ignored them as well.

　　The four toys were thrown here for an unknown period of time, the surface was full of stains, some places were already moldy, and a light touch of the finger could scratch off a large amount of fluff.

　　Chen Ge repeatedly watched, the suspicion became more, the dolls were different in appearance, but from the same manufacturer.

　　”Could it be left behind by the tenants who stayed here after the Ping An Apartment was remodeled?” Soon Chen Ge shook his head and dismissed this idea: “Let alone how probable it is to bring a child to live in a murderous apartment, even if you move in with a child, it’s unlikely that you would be able to carry four dolls at the same time, after all, these four dolls have the same manufacturer, and judging by the workmanship and style they should have been from several years ago.”

　　The toy market was updated extremely fast, he was an employee of a certain toy company before he took over the haunted house, so he knew the market fairly well.

　　”It wasn’t left by the tenant but kept among the murder house, so it’s very likely that this thing is something original to the apartment.” He boldly made a guess: “The original owner of the apartment building has two daughters, so if I’m right, this doll should be theirs.”

　　Thinking of this, Chen Ge surfaced another question, “Water and fire are merciless, the house and furniture were all burned down, how did these four dolls escape?”

　　”Was it a coincidence? Or did …… someone purposely put them in a safe place?” Chen Ge felt that he had caught a very important clue: “There is only one person who could have moved the items in the middle of the fire, the murderer himself! But why did he risk his life to protect the four dolls, are these four dolls important to him?”

　　The zipper on the back of the dolls had rusted and broken, Chen Ge directly tore it open, in the stinking and deteriorating cotton wool he found a card, palm-sized, full of love between the lines, looking at Chen Ge straight goosebumps: “Stuffing love letters into dolls? Expressing your love through this way is too subtle, right?”

　　He began to brainstorm the character of the murderer, the other party should be a shy and introverted man who was too embarrassed to say it outright to his face, so he sent the doll in the hope that the other party would unwrap it and check it out when he got home.

　　With curiosity, Chen Ge tore open two more ragdolls, which each contained a card with roughly the same content.

　　But when he tore open the fourth ragdoll, a chill crept up his spine.

　　There was no confession card in the last ragdoll, and the moldy cotton wool was stuffed with torn notes, all of which had only three words on them – go to hell!

　　Intense love had somehow turned into the most vicious curse, what had happened in between, Chen Ge had no way of knowing.

　　”The words on the notes should have been left by the murderer, this is the key evidence.” He picked out a few notes and put them into his pocket, and was about to probe deeper into the area when the voice-activated light at the corner of the stairs suddenly lit up!

　　”Someone is coming!” Chen Ge instantly panicked, he hurriedly turned off his cell phone flashlight and hid in the guest room next to him, holding a few muppets.

　　Not daring to breathe out and holding his breath, Chen Ge hid behind the door and secretly watched outside through the doorway.

　　Footsteps sounded, and a man and a woman’s conversation resounded in the dark corridor.

　　”We have to get that thing out of here in a hurry, we can’t delay any longer.”

　　”That new tenant came up to the third floor earlier, he went to the stairway and suddenly went down again, almost spotting me.”

　　”I know, more and more outsiders have been coming to the apartment lately, this needs to be taken care of in a hurry.”

　　”Eh.”

　　”Call the others and work together, dig it up tonight and bury it in the back of the mountain.”

　　The visitor was carrying an old mining lamp, and through the light, Chen Ge was able to see clearly. The two people talking in the corridor were the landlord and the woman on the first floor.

　　”Why are they running to the third floor if they’re not sleeping late at night?” After Chen Ge adjusted his angle to make sure he wouldn’t be discovered, his body pressed against the back of the door.

　　Not a moment later, the tattooed man and the fat man that he had once seen in the apartment building all walked up, and not only did they wrap themselves up tightly, they were also holding tools such as braziers, sacks, and kitchen knives.

　　”What’s this about?”

　　Several people stood in the corridor, and it seemed that there was an argument.

　　The short and fat man walking at the end was in a bad mood, “Do we really have to do this? Once we dig it up, our fingerprints will be left around, and nothing will be clear by then.”

　　”You think it’s clear now?” The landlord glared at Fatty, “Don’t dawdle, hurry up and come help.”

　　”I think we’d better call the police.” The short and fat man stood in place.

　　Hearing his words, the tattooed man directly walked over and grabbed his collar, “Crazy? You’re going to hit the muzzle of a gun yourself? The first thing the police will investigate is definitely us, and by then your DUI hit-and-run, and our occupation of the old man’s apartment will all be exposed!”

　　”Honey, don’t be angry.” The woman on the first floor who lived across from the tattooed man came over, “Everyone has a part in this, no one can escape, let’s hurry up and get to work.”

　　”Several of us are not clean, it’s not easy to find a place to stay, if any of you dare to think otherwise, don’t blame me for turning the other cheek.” The landlord shoved the brazier in his hand to the short and fat man, “You go get the first one.”

　　”Me?” Sweat immediately dripped from the fat man’s forehead, his face was green and white as he gripped the brazier and slowly moved.

　　Looking at the abnormal behavior of the few people outside the door, Chen Ge felt more and more out of place, “What exactly are they preparing to dig?”

　　The short and fat man walked to the deepest part of the building’s corridor, he pushed the sundries to the sides and lifted the cloth curtain behind the pile of sundries with a trembling hand under the watchful eyes of the other tenants.

　　It was a thickened concrete wall, and set inside the wall was the body of a woman with her back to the crowd.