PD -Chapter 195 The Strange Black Shadow

I paused the footage at the final frame where the girl ran out of the alley and leaned closer to the screen, carefully examining every detail.

“We’ve already enhanced the clarity of this recording,” the female police officer, Yan Shu, sighed. “But because it was taken at night, the lighting is too poor and the noise is too high… this is the best we can do.”

“And… there’s only this one surveillance camera in the alley, so this is the only angle we have for analysis.”

I wasn’t really listening to her. My eyes were fixed on the lower-left corner of the frame. I repeatedly rewound and slowed the footage, watching the exact moment the girl ran out of the alley over and over again.

“Look!” I pointed to the lower-left corner.

That was the afterimage left behind as the girl ran out of the alley. In the next frame, she had already completely left the camera’s range. And right at that moment, a strange, tall black shadow appeared in the lower-left corner.

There, at the end of the alley, stood a streetlight. Beneath it, the shadow looked like an extremely tall man wearing a trench coat… but something was wrong. This shadow was not a single, unified form.

It was densely packed, as if composed of countless tiny shadows layered together. It was like looking at a strange shape in broad daylight—at first glance it looks whole, but upon closer inspection, you realize it’s formed by countless ants clustering together.

“This… could just be due to excessive noise in the surveillance footage,” Yan Shu said after a pause, staring at the black figure.

I didn’t respond directly. I zoomed in further and studied it carefully. After a moment, I said, “Whether it’s noise or not isn’t the key point. That shadow definitely isn’t the girl’s. So its owner…”

Halfway through my sentence, everyone’s expressions changed. They all sensed something strange.

But this clearly exceeded their usual understanding. For a moment, no one could speak—they were all trying to find a rational explanation, something that would allow them to convince themselves it was just an illusion.

Since I had raised the question, and since everyone had already noticed the anomaly, I didn’t dwell on it. Instead, I asked Yan Shu if there were any other surveillance recordings from that night.

She nodded and quickly pulled up another video on the computer.

“This is footage from the entrance of the apartment building,” she said as she played it.

The screen showed the entrance of a residential building. Soon, the girl appeared in the frame.

She still looked extremely panicked, as if she had been running nonstop since leaving the alley.

She stopped at the entrance, turned back to look behind her, her expression even more terrified than before. She quickly rummaged through her bag for her key, then entered the building.

It was an automatic sliding door that opened via access card and closed automatically a few seconds after someone entered.

But in the footage, after she swiped her card and went in, the door clearly began to close… and then, in an instant, it seemed to be blocked by something. It jerked back open violently.

I frowned slightly and rewound it again. The result was the same.

And at the exact moment the door was obstructed, that strange tall shadow appeared again.

This was definitely not a coincidence. The shadow had been following the girl the entire time. It was even possible it had entered her apartment—and murdered her.

“This shadow… could it just be a coincidence? Or maybe someone used some kind of advanced technology to hide their body, leaving only this blurry outline?” Yan Shu asked, looking at me.

I paused for a moment and replied, “We can’t be sure what it is yet. We’ll send this footage to technical experts at the provincial bureau for analysis. Next, we’ll need to go to the scene.”

“No problem. I’ll arrange it immediately,” Yan Shu said promptly. She was clearly someone who acted decisively.

Five minutes later, Yan Shu drove a police car and took the three of us with her.

Soon, we arrived at the apartment building. After getting out of the car, I checked the position of the surveillance camera at the entrance and found that its angle perfectly matched the footage we had just seen.

Yan Shu had already contacted the building manager, so staff were waiting outside for us.

The staff member used an access card to open the door and let us in.

I walked through the gate but didn’t immediately enter the lobby. Instead, I stopped at the automatic sliding door and deliberately stood between the two panels, blocking their closing motion.

Then I leaned in and carefully examined the traces left on both doors.

Slowly, I placed my hand on the door. My spiritual sense instantly expanded, trying to detect any residual traces left behind when that shadow passed through here.

But it was gone. Whatever it was had been erased completely. After a long search, I couldn’t catch any useful information—not even a trace of yin energy.

“What’s wrong, Officer Qiu?” Yan Shu asked, frowning at me.

I came back to my senses, opened my eyes, and stepped aside, shaking my head slightly without saying anything.

Yan Shu glanced at Tang Shanshan, seemingly trying to ask what I was doing.

But Tang Shanshan was acting strange too. Ever since entering the building, her face had turned pale, and now even her lips had lost color.

“Officer Tang, why do you look so unwell? Are you sick?” Yan Shu stopped and grabbed her arm.

Only then did I and Liu Xiaopeng notice that something was indeed wrong with Tang Shanshan.

“Shan… Officer Tang, what’s wrong? Do you need to rest outside?” I quickly asked.

Tang Shanshan shook her head. “I’m fine. Maybe my blood sugar dropped because I didn’t eat. I felt a bit dizzy from the car just now. I’ll be fine after walking a bit.”

Yan Shu frowned and hesitated for a moment before nodding. She continued leading us up to the apartment where the victim lived.

The staff seemed extremely reluctant to deal with this room. They simply handed the key to Yan Shu and quickly left under some excuse.

Yan Shu had no choice but to unlock the door herself and let us in.

The moment the door opened, a faint smell of blood drifted out.

Since the case was still under investigation, the room hadn’t been cleaned, and the odor made everyone instinctively frown.

I glanced at Tang Shanshan again. After smelling the blood, her brows tightened even more and her face grew worse—but she still gritted her teeth and stepped inside.

Watching her, I felt a bit uneasy and reached out to gently pat her back… but the moment my hand touched her, the scene before my eyes suddenly changed.