Ice skates forward, regardless of east or west.

1

It's still raining.

The drizzling winter rain, like a layer of gray gauze, enveloped every corner of the city.

"Lingyun Sporting Goods Store" has long since changed its name and become a trendy cafe with fashionable decor.

But with the help of the owner of the hardware store next door, Ling Wuwen found the old man who used to watch the store.

The old man lived in a dilapidated old house in the back; he was hard of hearing but had excellent eyesight.

Wearing reading glasses, he flipped through a stack of old, dusty account books thicker than bricks, his fingers tracing the yellowed pages, making a rustling sound like silkworms nibbling on mulberry leaves.

"Gu Xidong... Gu Xidong..."

The old man muttered to himself and flipped through the pages for a full half hour.

Ling Wuwen's heart was in his throat.

She thought the old man would say "it's gone" or "it was burned."

After all, three years is enough time to erase many traces.

But the old man suddenly stopped.

He picked at an oil stain on the paper with his fingernail and muttered:

"I remember this big star."

"That night, it rained even harder than it does today."

"He ran in, soaking wet, and specifically asked to buy the most expensive and smallest camera equipment."

The old man raised his head, his cloudy eyes staring at Ling Wuwen:

"Little girl, guess what? That set of equipment is for wilderness explorers. It's shockproof, waterproof, and drop-proof, and it's more expensive than the prize money he won when he won the championship."

"I asked him then, 'Hey big star, what kind of documentary are you going to make?'"

"Guess what he said?"

Ling Wuwen held his breath: "What did he say?"

The old man mimicked Gu Xidong's tone at the time, his voice low and cold:

"I want to make a horror movie about 'Swan Lake'."

2

When Ling Wuwen left the old, dilapidated house, the rain intensified.

She was clutching a photocopy of an account book tightly in her hand.

In addition to the miniature camera, the purchase list also included a high-strength shape memory metal ice skate heel pad.

It perfectly matches the items on the receipt in Chapter 17.

She finally understood.

That night three years ago.

Gu Xidong bought this equipment not to shoot any documentary.

He sensed danger.

He was going to collect evidence.

He sensed that the "black swan" was about to strike him.

So he bought a miniature camera, ready to record everything.

He bought heel pads, probably to adjust his center of gravity and prepare for possible accidents.

He even bought a neck brace to protect himself and his partner.

But he still underestimated the ruthlessness of the "black swan".

Or perhaps, at the last moment, he still couldn't stop it.

So, what about the footage captured by that camera?

What about the negative of that "horror movie" that records the true face of the "Black Swan"?

If Gu Xidong wanted to use it to overturn the case, why didn't he bring it out in the past three years?

If he can't produce it, is it because it was destroyed by a "black swan" event?

Or……

He hid it.

It was hidden in a place no one would expect.

A place known only to him.

A place he has been guarding for the past three years.

3

Abandoned factory buildings.

Gu Xidong's "Apartment".

Ling Wuwen, like a ghost, silently infiltrated this place.

She knew that Gu Xidong had gone to the public bathhouse.

The place was dirty, but he was a clean freak and would go to wash it every three days without fail.

She only has fifteen minutes.

This time, she didn't just rummage through the trash can like in Chapter 17.

This time, she's the one tearing the house down.

She moved the sofa, pried open the floor tiles, and removed the back cover of the television.

She even sawed off the legs of the large bed.

Sweat soaked her hair, and dust stained her face.

But she didn't care at all.

Her mind was racing, simulating Gu Xidong's life trajectory over the past three years.

If she were Gu Xidong.

If she possesses the only evidence to overturn the verdict.

Where would she hide it?

A safe hidden in a bank?

Too ordinary.

Hidden with the lawyer?

We're too passive.

Gu Xidong is a control freak.

He likes to have everything under his control.

He would hide that thing in the place closest to him.

A place he can see and touch every day.

A place where he could feel at peace even lying in the ruins.

Ling Wuwen's gaze slowly swept across the entire room.

Finally, it landed in that corner.

On that dusty, long-broken, old-fashioned television set.

She remembers.

That was her first time visiting these ruins.

She used that television to play the "Red String Videotape".

Gu Xidong's eyes were fixed on the screen at that moment.

That was more than just shock.

It was a feeling of...relief.

It was as if that videotape was the only salvation he had waited for for three years.

Why did he put that crucial videotape in such an obvious place?

Is it to avoid the problem of what's right under your nose?

Or……

Was the videotape itself a decoy?

Ling Wuwen's heart suddenly raced.

She rushed over and picked up the old-fashioned television set.

Very heavy.

It is much heavier than a regular television set.

She reached out and touched the back of the television.

There is a fixed iron plate there.

The screws on the iron plate appear to have been loosened.

These are new scratches.

Just in the last few days.

It was Gu Xidong who did it.

Or...someone else?

Ling Wuwen's fingers trembled as he touched the edge of the iron plate.

She pried hard.

A "click" sound.

The iron plate has loosened.

She took it down.

The inside of the television set was exposed.

There is no videotape.

No memory card.

There was only a tangled mess of wires.

And a hollowed-out recess used to house the picture tube.

The groove was empty.

But Ling Wuwen discovered something at the bottom of the groove.

It was a small, black, plastic fragment.

Like the remains left after something has broken apart.

She picked it up and held it in her palm.

That's the casing of the memory card.

It's the chip casing used to store digital signals in those old-fashioned videotapes.

It was pried out by brute force.

The chip is broken.

The data is gone.

4

"Is this what you're looking for?"

A voice rang out at the door without warning.

Ling Wuwen's blood froze instantly.

She turned around abruptly.

Gu Xidong was standing there.

He didn't take a shower.

Or rather, he finished washing.

He was only wearing a white bath towel around his waist.

Water droplets dripped down his muscular chest and abdomen, forming a small puddle on the floor.

His hair was wet and dripping water.

He was holding something in his hand.

An old-fashioned, black, miniature camera.

It's exactly the same as what's recorded in the ledger.

He looked at the broken chip fragment in Lin Wuwen's hand, and then at the disassembled television set behind her.

His face showed neither surprise nor anger.

There was only one kind of... cold smile, a smile of triumph.

"Do you think," he walked towards her step by step, water droplets falling to the floor with each step, "that the red string in that videotape is the whole truth?"

"Do you think that for the past three years, I've just been waiting for that videotape, waiting for you to tell me that my brother isn't dead?"

He walked up to her and looked down at her.

"Ling Wuwen, or rather... Ling Wufeng."

"You're too naive."

He raised the miniature camera in his hand, the lens pointed directly at her face.

"The 'horror movie' you're looking for is never on TV."

"It's always been there..."

"It's in my hands."

He pressed a button.

The camera's indicator light flashed once.

The red light, like the eye of a demon, flickered in the dim room.

"All the movements you just made..."

"I took pictures of it all."