Yes, this was the conclusion Mike had painstakingly reached in the early hours of the morning.

After reviewing these documents, he became even more certain his conclusion was correct.

He believed Alice Apartment shared similarities with the new residents he had previously noticed - Wu You, Wang Anjian, and Sun Yijie.

The pattern resembled that old case he had mentioned.

One side provides money, the other provides lives.

But the specific details would differ.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain how several poor individuals could afford to live in a high-end apartment costing fifty thousand per square meter.

Moreover, these people had no prior acquaintance, not even online interactions - complete strangers.

Such situations usually involve a neutral party orchestrating everything, manipulating these individuals to gather together.

"Lu Fei, when you provided me with these documents about the individuals and Alice Apartment, did you notice anything unusual about the information?" Mike suddenly asked.

"Unusual? What do you mean?"

Puzzled, Lu Fei took back the documents and flipped through them repeatedly, finding nothing amiss!

Collecting information was his specialty, so mistakes were unlikely!

This was his bread and butter!

Mike got straight to the point without beating around the bush: "Don't you think Manager Xiao Zhang's biographical information is too... ordinary?"

"Following routine steps, completely unremarkable and lacking any distinctive features."

Lu Fei responded: "Isn't being ordinary normal? The vast majority of people in this world are ordinary!"

Mike shook his head: "Ordinary is normal, but not in this context."

"Among the people I asked you to investigate, apart from this Xiao Zhang - Wu You had a father with cancer, Wang Anjian had cancer himself, Sun Yijie was being hunted down, and Jiang Ran, the assistant manager, has dissociative identity disorder. They all have extraordinary aspects. Only this Manager Xiao Zhang is ordinary, and this apartment's records show it as just another regular high-end residence. These two are the exceptions?"

"If the apartment and its manager are ordinary, then what about Jiang Ran, the assistant manager? Shouldn't he be ordinary too?"

"Investigate Xiao Zhang more thoroughly."

"I suspect all records about him were long ago destroyed and replaced with fabricated ones. What we're seeing now is the falsified version."

Lu Fei's mouth fell open in astonishment, because what Mike described wasn't something he hadn't encountered before.

Completely erasing all traceable history of a person, then creating a fake one to replace it.

Though he'd only come across it a handful of times. Very, very rarely.

...

Mike left the small restaurant's private room and hailed a rideshare to return to Alice Apartment.

The rideshare driver, noticing he was a foreigner, tried making conversation, but Mike only gave perfunctory responses, his mind entirely occupied with this case.

Upon returning to Alice Apartment, he passed through facial recognition to enter the premises.

Mike looked up at the Alice Apartment building before him.

At night, illuminated by surrounding lights, it still appeared as a beautiful apartment building. But in Mike's eyes, the entire structure seemed enveloped in dark energy.

As he walked toward the building, he inadvertently noticed a figure at the fifth-floor corridor window directly opposite.

The figure opened the window, leaning most of his upper body outside.

He was casually taking out a cigarette from his pocket.

An utterly mundane action.

Yet it made Mike - this experienced detective who had weathered countless storms - immediately halt his approach.

His body trembled inexplicably, unclear what emotion caused it.

Only that his face was completely overtaken by shock.

His vision was exceptionally good, especially after undergoing specialized FBI training methods and equipment to enhance his eyesight.

This gave him significantly better night vision than ordinary people.

Thus, while a normal person in his position might struggle to clearly see the smoking figure at the fifth-floor window,

he could distinctly make out the man's features.

Gritting his teeth, he spat out a name syllable by syllable: "Robert?!"

As he froze in place, noticing and locking eyes with Robert,

Robert at the fifth-floor window also spotted Mike.

Their first mutual glance left both equally stunned and incredulous.

But in an instant, Robert's somewhat handsome, narrow face twisted into an extremely sinister, evil grin. Like a demon manifesting.

Then he turned and disappeared from the window.

Seeing this, Mike reacted as if discovering his wife's infidelity - he immediately sprinted toward the apartment building, charging madly toward the fifth floor.

At the matchmaking event...

Sun Yijie had just finished introducing himself.

Manager Xiao Zhang, holding a microphone, asked Sun Yijie: "Mr. Sun, you've presented yourself quite well with excellent qualifications!"

"So may I ask what type of girl you prefer?"

Sun Yijie smiled confidently: "I don't care much about appearance. As long as we get along, that's enough."

As he spoke, his gaze settled on a graceful figure in the audience - Qin Yi.

Truth be told, Sun Yijie had noticed Qin Yi much earlier. He never expected such a stunning woman lived in this apartment.

Just looking at her made his heart itch with desire to have her.

Unfortunately, he had been conversing with another woman while Qin Yi was talking with other men.

Neither had been available.

"Is that so? In that case, are there any ladies in the audience interested in someone like Mr. Sun? Feel free to come up and introduce yourselves."

After Manager Xiao Zhang's invitation, Sun Yijie cast hopeful eyes toward Qin Yi.

The intensity of his gaze made it impossible for Qin Yi to ignore.

Regrettably, she already had her hunting target for this matchmaking event.

Originally, she had come intending to hunt lab rats.

But fate had delivered a new psychopathic criminal straight to her doorstep.

The apartment might welcome new psychos and serial killers daily, but unlike the lab rats, they weren't specially introduced to the live stream audience.

More importantly, the resident who purchased her human meat products had grown tired of lab rat meat and wanted to try other flavors.

Thus, although she knew she could easily ensnare Sun Yijie with minimal effort, she had no time for him.

You might ask - what about her sister?

Sorry, but processing one person and manufacturing various products kept her fully occupied, requiring her sister's assistance too.

So Qin Yi deliberately averted her gaze, ignoring Sun Yijie.

Having played with many women, Sun Yijie immediately sensed Qin Yi's disinterest, leaving him somewhat disappointed.

Just then...

"Can I come up?"

Xia Xiaomei raised her hand.

Manager Xiao Zhang quickly responded with a smile: "Of course! Please come up!"

Hearing this, Xia Xiaomei happily squeezed through the crowd and stepped onto the stage.

When Sun Yijie saw Xia Xiaomei, his heart skipped a beat.

Damn it! This woman was both old and ugly, with a stumpy figure to boot!

She couldn't hold a candle to Qin Yi from earlier, nor even compare to any of Sun Yijie's past flings!

But as an experienced player, Sun Yijie naturally wouldn't show his true feelings.

He maintained his previous smile.

After coming up, Xia Xiaomei introduced herself.

Then expressed her strong interest in Sun Yijie.

Hoping to get to know him better.

Truth be told, Sun Yijie had planned to politely decline - Xia Xiaomei really wasn't his type.

But then Xia Xiaomei did something that completely changed his mind.