‘He’s beside himself with grief.’

‘But believe it or not, he may be already trying to get back on his feet.’

‘What do you mean, Mi?’

‘Shortly after her death – a week or so – he started jogging in the morning.’

‘Jogging regularly?’

‘No, not regularly. Perhaps once or twice a week. He gets up earlier than almost all the people in the building. I have slept badly lately, waking up around three or four, you know, since I lost my job. So I heard him walking down early several times. I looked out the window and saw him jogging.’

‘But what’s strange about that, Mi?’

‘Lou’s so heartbroken. How could he have had the heart to jog out early in the morning?’

‘That might just be his way of dealing with sadness. You can never tell.’

‘And there’s something else. About a week ago, with his door ajar, I happened to overhear Lou talking to a real estate agent and a buyer about selling off the apartment. It’s understandable that he wants to get out of the place with everything there reminding him of her, but where is he going to stay?’

‘Back with his parents, probably.’

‘But he never will be able to buy another one for himself. He borrowed a lot of money for her treatment in the hospital, we all know. It’s about a month after she left, and he has not gone back to work. And now he’s selling the apartment.’

‘Yes, like there’s no tomorrow for him, that’s what a neighborhood committee member told me. Anything else?’

‘I think I’ve told you everything. Having said all that, I want to add that things may not be strange or suspicious at all, considering his circumstances. We should not be too hard on such a grief-stricken man, Detective Yu.’

‘I cannot agree more. Thank you so much, Mi. Here is my business card. If you think of anything else, let me know.’

Lou’s door remained shut. Yu moved downstairs.

Halfway down the stairs, an idea tumbled across his mind. The selling of Lou’s apartment through a real estate agent. The third victim, Yan, was an agent in Zabei District. But then he ruled out the possibility. Yan was killed in Lujiazui, Pudong, and according to Mi, Lou was with the agent here just a week ago. So it could be anybody but her.

Standing up, Chen pulled out the memory stick and closed the laptop before moving to open the private room’s door.

The light pouring in from outside disoriented him for a moment. He blinked in confusion upon seeing a figure. It was Melong standing there.

Like in an ancient Chinese saying: ‘Seven days high in a mountain cave, and a thousand years down in the mundane world.’

The inspector had spent perhaps less than an hour watching the video in the private room, but it appeared as if he had lived a large part of his life moving back and forth in the midst of these fast-shifting scenes.