Chapter 463: Deleted Surveillance Footage
Chapter 463: Deleted Surveillance Footage
Translator: Azza
Editor: Conspiracing
Later, several photos were transferred to Chen Shi’s mobile phone. Chen Shi didn’t know what the photos were at first glance. After looking carefully, it turned out that they were photos of female cleavage. There were dozens of photos in total.
Lin Dongxue attached a sentence to the photos. "In addition to these photos, there are a lot of videos. Someone adjusted the angle of the camera at the entrance deliberately, so that they’d be able to photograph the chests of the people entering and exiting. I suspect that the security guard did it. That’s why he reformatted the entire hard drive."
Chen Shi responded. "Interesting. Let me handle this matter!"
There were a total of two security guards who had entered the duty room at the time of the incident. One was the deceased Old Wang, and the other was Little Sun who had been questioned by the police. Chen Shi and Peng Sijue went to the property management to inquire about this and they learned that Little Sun had already gotten off work. Chen Shi wrote down his address.
When the two arrived at Little Sun's residence, Chen Shi found that the door was left ajar and reached out to push the door open. The lights in the house were on and so was a computer. The cigarette in the ashtray hadn’t been fully extinguished. Peng Sijue said, "Stop. Don’t break into people’s houses again!"
"Does it count considering that the door was open? Why don’t you wait for me outside?"
Chen Shi went straight in and screamed from the bedroom, "Old Peng, hurry and come in!"
Peng Sijue thought the security guard was dead inside. When he entered the bedroom, he didn’t see anything. Chen Shi laughed loudly. "Look at you berating me. Aren’t you trespassing on private property as well?”
"Asshole, you lied to me!"
"How did I lie to you?"
"I thought something unexpected had happened, so I just..."
"Understood. For you, whether you can break into a residential house depends on whether there’s an emergency. What can be regarded as an emergency though? Someone dying? Someone falling ill? In short, when someone needs you, it’s regarded as an emergency. If that’s the case, since I need you now, you don’t have to feel guilty! You shouldn’t be so rigid about certain things. If it’s a big issue, you can be rigid, but if it’s the little things, you can give it some leeway.”
Peng Sijue looked at him disdainfully. "Don't change the concept with me. Does this ‘need’ and that ‘need’ mean the same thing? This kind of talk can't convince me at all. I’m leaving.”
Peng Sijue was about to leave when he suddenly heard someone coming in. He had to retreat and glared resentfully at Chen Shi. It turned out that the security guard Little Sun had gone out to buy a meal. After he entered the house, he sat on a chair and ate his bowl of fried rice. After eating a few mouthfuls, he picked up a can of beer on the table and took a sip.
If Little Sun knew that two people were standing in the bedroom right now, watching his every move, he would definitely be terrified.
At that moment, he pressed the audio button and said, "Old Bai, why have you only just come online? I’ve waited for you for so long.”
The other party said, "Why haven't I seen you recently? Where have you been?"
"I’ve just been working. You don't know, but a man was killed at my workplace. He was shot by a gun and another security guard was killed as well. It scared me to death."
"Really? Has the murderer been caught yet?"
"How could it be so fast... It was actually quite dangerous. I was afraid the police would find the photos and formatted the hard drive. They thought that the murderer did it and didn't pursue the matter further, haha!"
"Fuck, you’re even daring enough to play with the police? Aren’t you afraid that I’ll report you?”
"Go fuck yourself!"
"Seriously though, are you looking for me today because you have products to sell?"
"These were taken recently. You have a look first..."
Chen Shi peeped through the door crack and saw Little Sun opening a folder and sending over a bunch of photos. He smiled grimly, pushed the door open and went out directly, shouting, "Police!"
Little Sun was so scared that he almost fell from his chair. He recognized Chen Shi and said in a panic, "You... How did you get in?"
Chen Shi evaded the question. "What's with the playing with the police that you just talked about? You'd better explain it properly to me, or I'll arrest you for the offense of covering up crime!"
Little Sun was very cowardly and he was so scared that he desperately begged for mercy. "Don't arrest me, don't arrest me! If I go to jail, how can I survive in the city in the future? Please."
"Talk!"
Little Sun told them that he had been a security guard there for three years. Seeing that the cameras in the housing district were left idle, he simply used them for himself and secretly adjusted several cameras’ angles to exclusively capture the cleavages of the female residents. Then he’d sell them for money as a side hustle.
He didn’t think there was anything wrong with this matter. It was nothing more than earning money. A security guard’s salary was really low. If he didn’t figure out a way to make money, he wouldn’t even be able to buy a house after a hundred years of hard work. As for those women who were photographed, he said “It’s not like they’d be missing some meat if people looked at them.” [1].
He was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to explain the matter to the police properly so he reformatted the entire hard disk.
Chen Shi glanced at the computer screen. "You haven’t been in this business for a day or two. I know what industry this is. Specializing in supplying photographs of women's private parts for people with the same interests to 'discuss and appreciate'!"
"Big Brother, you like this stuff too?" Little Sun asked hopefully.
"What do you think? You could have done anything, but you decided on this. If your heart wasn’t shrouded in darkness, you wouldn’t have thought of this money-making trick, right?"
"No, Big Brother..." Little Sun defended himself, "I’ve only graduated from high school and have no other skills. I found this business opportunity by accident. These photos sell very well on the Internet, and a good quality one can fetch a dozen yuan!”
"How many were sold?"
"Probably more than three hundred!" Little Sun scratched his head and smiled, with a puzzling hint of pride in his tone. Chen Shi thought that he was an idiot for telling them the truth about his criminal activities.
"I’m not going to talk to you about this. Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused by deleting the footage? This delayed us by two days. If the murderer fled in these two days, who would be responsible for it, huh?"
Little Sun laughed like an idiot out of shame.
"What clues do you know about this case? Tell me everything!"
"Uh, my shift ended early that day, so I don't know anything."
"Have you ever seen the deceased, Song Yuwen, associating with anyone?"
"I can't remember that. I'll contact you again if I remember anything!"
"Okay, but I have to take the things on your computer away. There might be evidence in them. Also, you’re not allowed to operate this business again in the future.”
Little Sun reluctantly surrendered his "work". Leaving his residence, Peng Sijue asked, "Aren't you going to report it to the police?"
"We’ll see after a few days. Let's see how this kid behaves before we decide." Chen Shi glanced at his watch. "It's almost ten o'clock. I'll take you home."
"The protective clothing must be returned to the bureau."
"It’s the same even if I do it tomorrow. You have the final say in the forensics department anyway. What are you afraid of?"
"A person like you is a disaster for the system." Peng Sijue still insisted on sending the protective clothing back. Chen Shi had no choice but to accompany him. It was already 11:00 at night when he returned home.
1. A common expression that means that people will not suffer any losses from some action. AKA it’s no big deal. In this case, they’re talking about the women getting looked at, but it can be applied to anything. E.g. Saying to a child that they’re not going to “miss some meat” from sharing their toys.