The sound of flushing from outside stopped, replaced by the heavy footsteps sweeping the floor, accompanied by a few coughs filled with phlegm.
As the footsteps drew nearer, the door was pushed open.
Old Li shuffled back into the room.
It was only then that Bai Lixin noticed Old Li’s legs seemed somewhat inconvenient. There was a slight difference in the bend of his knees that was not noticeable without careful observation.
Old Li, with phlegm in his throat, sat in front of the computer. He casually lit a cigarette and held it in his mouth. With one hand propping his chin, he skillfully manipulated the mouse to start flipping through the videos.
The three screens were connected and could be controlled with one mouse.
Old Li clicked on a thumbnail in the upper right corner and enlarged it. Bai Lixin was surprised to find that there was sound.
The image was in color, showing two people in the study: a woman standing and a son sitting.
Bai Lixin had just seen the woman, she was chatting with Old Li at the stairway. She claimed her son had become the city’s top scorer in the exam.
One would think achieving academic success was cause for celebration, but the atmosphere between the two in the video seemed tense.
The woman stood at the door of the study. “I cooked your favorite braised pork and I called you three times. Are you deaf?”
The young man frowned at her. “Mom, why did you secretly change my college major? I told you I wanted to study chemistry.”
The woman: “I did it for your own good. What future is there in chemistry? Working in a lab every day, inhaling toxic substances, making no money, exhausting yourself, and harming your health. When you grow up, you’ll understand my good intentions.”
These words seemed to touch a sensitive nerve in the young man. He stood up abruptly, angrily facing his mother. “For my own good? For my own good! Initially, I wanted to study art. You said only those who can’t do well in academics study that. I listened to you and took cultural courses. Later, when I wanted to study humanities, you said it’s too limited and pushed me to study science.I listened to you and gave up liberal arts and enrolled in science.”
“Now that I’ve become the top scorer, I want to apply for the chemistry department that I like, but you secretly changed my major again! Do you control my life just by saying it’s for my own good? Mom, you’ve gone too far!”
The woman argued, “But I changed it to the economics department, which has the best job prospects. In the future, you’ll have endless wealth. Then, you won’t end up like Mom, renting a house and unable to afford even a suite.”
“No mother in the world harms her own child. I just don’t want you to live in poverty like me.”
The young man felt overwhelmed. “But I don’t like playing the money game. In the economics department, I’ll have to socialize constantly. I don’t enjoy it. I only like doing research in my own space.”
The woman retorted, “If you don’t like it, then adapt. After going out for social events a few times, you’ll get used to it. If you don’t push yourself, how will you know your limits? Son, you’re the best.”
The young man frowned and raised his voice. “Mom, do I have any rights? Can you respect me? You ask me to accept things I don’t like, but what about you? You don’t even want to do the things you don’t like, yet you expect me to do them!”
Old Li, holding his chin and cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring and chuckled to himself. “What a mess. The widow is too controlling. Even after her son gets married, she’ll still follow him.”
With that, he turned off the screen and casually opened another one.
A passionate entanglement of a man and a woman immediately echoed in the room.
The man and woman in the video were passionately embracing, completely unaware that their actions were all being recorded.
Old Li chuckled, “I didn’t expect it. They usually dress conservatively, but they’re quite wild in bed. With such passionate cries, it should fetch a good price.”
After enjoying the passion of the couple for a while, Old Li reluctantly switched to another video.
This time, a graceful woman in a bathrobe emerged from the bathroom. Old Li sighed, “It’s a pity there’s no way to install a camera in the bathroom. I missed out on many exciting scenes.”
The woman in the video leisurely walked into the bedroom, a slender arm resting on the bathrobe, ready to undo it.
Seeing this, Old Li leaned closer, his eyes unblinking, afraid to miss any exciting moments.
Just as the woman was about to undo her bathrobe, the computer screen suddenly flickered, and without warning, went completely black.
“Fuck!” Old Li slapped the table in frustration for missing the exciting scene, then stood up angrily. He glanced down and discovered that the power cord of the monitor had fallen off.
He cursed under his breath and stooped down to plug it back in.
As he bent down, something fell to the ground with a “thud”.
He quickly plugged in the power cord and turned to see what it was. The ashtray he had placed in front of the computer had fallen over.
The bottom of the ashtray was covered in wet tissues, dotted with ash and cigarette butts.
Now the floor was stained with dirty water, cigarette butts, and ash scattered everywhere.
Old Li cursed, “What rotten luck, I have to clean up this mess myself.”
He stood up, supporting himself on the table. But as his eyes swept over the blackened screen, he seemed to see a white shadow flash past.
Old Li froze in place instantly.
He rubbed his eyes and dared to look at the blackened screen again, but apart from his own reflection, there was nothing else.
Old Li breathed a sigh of relief.
He was almost scared to death, but it turned out it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.
He turned around to fetch some tissue to clean up the ashtray. However, as soon as he took a step forward, he suddenly froze.
He turned back to the computer desk with a stiff neck, his expression somewhat panicked as he glanced at the desktop and then at the ashtray on the floor.
Something was wrong.
Something was definitely wrong.
He had placed the ashtray next to the screen. Initially, he thought the mouse cord had accidentally pulled the ashtray over as he bent down to plug in the power cord.
But that didn’t make sense.
The mouse was placed neatly on the right side.
The ashtray was directly in front, far from the edge of the desk.
It was so heavy; the mouse cord couldn’t have pulled it down.
A chill suddenly crawled up from his feet.
Could it be… a ghost?
As if to confirm his suspicion, Old Li suddenly felt a cold breeze brushing past his ears.
In a daze, it seemed like something heavy rested on his shoulder.
Old Li’s body stiffened. He cautiously lowered his gaze, and saw a glowing white hand firmly gripping his shoulder.
“Ahhh!!! Ghost!!!” The blood drained from Old Li’s face. He subconsciously turned his head, but there was nothing behind him.
Already frightened out of his wits, Old Li screamed as he flung the door open and rushed into the corridor, shouting, “Ghost! There’s a ghost in my room, a ghost!”
The commotion awakened the neighbors, who came out of their homes to see what was happening. They saw Old Li, pale with fear, pointing at his room and shouting, “Ghost, there’s a ghost in my room!”
Old Li was a good landlord. Seeing him so frightened, a few bold residents exchanged glances and cautiously entered Old Li’s house.
It was only after those people entered that Old Li came back to his senses and quickly chased after them.
But it was too late.
Those people had already rushed into Old Li’s study, and were standing in front of the computer screen in shock..
The screen, which should have been black, had inexplicably turned on by itself, and all three screens were simultaneously displaying hundreds of small frames.
Seeing their familiar rooms and family members, even a fool could understand what was going on.
They were originally trying to help Old Li catch a ghost, but unexpectedly caught Old Li himself!
The sound of questioning, anger, fighting, and restraining filled the air, making the quiet residential area instantly chaotic.
Someone shouted “call the police”, and the crowd finally calmed down slightly. Everyone stared at Old Li with murderous eyes, wishing they could skin him alive!
The noise here alerted the residents of other households. Some, unaware of what had happened, locked themselves indoors, while others, curious about the commotion, went out to watch the excitement.
Those who had come to watch the commotion found themselves part of the spectacle, and the previously quiet scene turned chaotic once again.
It wasn’t until the sound of police sirens rang out and uniformed officers entered that the scene finally quieted down.
The police dog came back from wherever it had just run off to, emerging from the wall and spinning around one of the policemen’s feet while wagging its tail.
The culprit, Bai Lixin, hid his merits. He still had an invisibility card in his hand, leaning against the wall as he quietly enjoyed the show.
It was a coincidence that the two policemen who came to the scene were the same pair who had been on duty at the station early this morning.
The old policeman seemed to have been the police man’s trainer in his previous life and had a deep bond with it.
The people recounted the whole story, and the police officers examined the scene and collected evidence. Then, they went from house to house and under Old Li’s guidance, unplugged all the surveillance power sources. Finally, they took the despicable landlord who had invaded his tenants’ privacy for who knows how long back to the police station.
As it was already past eight in the evening, the old policeman took the contact information of several key people and asked them to go home and rest first, promising to take statements from the victims one by one the next day.
When the two police officers were tidying up the evidence in the study, they found that there was too much to sort out, so they called the police station for assistance.
In just a few minutes, two more police cars entered the neighborhood.
Just a few days ago, there was a horrifying murder case nearby. Now, with three police cars arriving, everyone in the neighborhood became anxious, eager to know what was happening.
Upon inquiry, they found out that a landlord had secretly installed surveillance cameras in the residents’ rooms. At that moment, everyone became even more apprehensive, wishing to rush home immediately to check if their own homes were also under covert surveillance.
Trust works like that.
Once the privacy of the most secure intimate space is violated, the fear is more terrifying than watching a horror movie.
The police officers took photos and collected evidence in the study, uncovering a pile of CDs.
They then realized that Old Li had been doing this for quite some time. The earliest voyeuristic videos could be traced back ten years ago.
“Wang Tou,” a young policeman called out to the old policeman who seemed lost in thought, “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
The old policeman known as “Wang Tou,” shook his head. “No, I just suddenly remembered. Isn’t this the same neighborhood Xiao Hua rented when we investigated her disappearance years ago?”
Most of the police officers present hadn’t experienced the case ten years ago, except for one officer in his thirties who suddenly stood up. “Yes! I remember now. She lived on this floor! And the landlord back then was this old man!”
The police officer walked up to Old Li and confronted him, “Let me ask you, did you also secretly film Xiao Hua ten years ago?!”
