Feng Tian walked over, and upon hearing Kuang Feifan's words, a look of surprise crossed his face. He widened his eyes and asked, "Huh? What's gotten into you? I haven't seen you this eager before. Aren't you always trying to leave town as fast as possible?"

Kuang Feifan shot him a side-eye, his expression serious. "I despise hit-and-runs the most, whether it involves the living or the dead."

Realizing this was a deep-seated issue for Kuang Feifan, Feng Tian said no more, merely nodding. "Alright, how do we investigate?"

"Come with me to the gas station," Kuang Feifan said, sounding as though he had already mapped out a plan.

Wang Hai interjected, "But the gas station looked closed just now."

Kuang Feifan simply smiled, having no intention of explaining that detail.

He and Feng Tian reached the parking lot and had just opened the car doors to get in when they saw Wang Hai trotting eagerly up behind them. He reached out, pulled open the rear door, and slid into the back seat.

"What are you doing here...?" Kuang Feifan glanced at him.

Wang Hai leaned forward, getting closer to the two of them. "My curiosity isn't that small, you know. To finally see a real 'charlatan' in action, I naturally want to witness it firsthand."

Although some of his prior assumptions had been revised that evening, the halo of 'charlatan' over Feng Tian’s head was unlikely to vanish anytime soon.

However, Wang Hai tagging along didn't significantly affect Kuang Feifan; in fact, it might be helpful.

Kuang Feifan drove, following Wang Hai’s directions first to the site of the car accident. Although the town's traffic didn't easily bottleneck like in a major city, after almost two days, all traces of the scene were long gone. Still, because it was so late, the intersection looked remarkably deserted. Apart from their taxi, they saw no other vehicles or figures.

After parking, Kuang Feifan and the others got out. Wang Hai described the location where Luo Jingjing’s body had been. Using the forensic investigation knowledge he possessed, Kuang Feifan quickly determined that at the moment of the incident, Luo Jingjing was directly in the center of the intersection, then flung aside by a vehicle that hadn't noticed her—most likely struck from behind.

This was merely his conjecture, lacking any concrete proof. After surveying the ground, he looked around again and confirmed it: there were surveillance cameras installed at both the horizontal and vertical approaches to the intersection.

Had the police overlooked the surveillance footage? Or was there another reason?

Kuang Feifan frowned in thought for a long time before waving for the other two, who had been standing idly by, to get back in the car. The three of them drove to the nearby gas station at the adjacent intersection.

Soon, he parked the car on the roadside opposite the station. The three got out and strolled into the establishment as if they were casual passersby.

Kuang Feifan glanced at the convenience store section, which was secured by heavy iron bars, then peered through the window, where darkness only allowed faint outlines to be seen.

Kuang Feifan looked around one last time, then whispered to Feng Tian, "Break in."

"Uh..." Feng Tian coughed twice. "There isn't even a ghost in sight; why are you whispering? It’s actually scarier."

Wang Hai, overhearing their exchange, knew something was amiss. He discreetly moved a few steps away, adopting an air of having no connection to the other two.

Indeed, just as Feng Tian had said, perhaps due to its remote location, not a single soul was visible around the gas station; it was quiet to the point of desolation.

However, it was clear the station had been tidied up before closing. At least the oil stain Zhao Hongcheng had described was no longer obvious, and the pumps were likely drained.

Kuang Feifan pulled a small leather pouch from his back pocket—containing a complete set of lock-picking tools—and made quick work of the convenience store door lock.

"Maybe you should wait in the car," Kuang Feifan said to Wang Hai.

Wang Hai scratched his head, hesitated briefly, then declared firmly, "No, I'll go in together. We aren't thieves, after all."

Pushing the door open, the three slipped inside somewhat furtively.

Kuang Feifan shut the door behind him and told Wang Hai, "You stand guard at the entrance. Watch if anyone approaches."

Feng Tian chuckled. "In this dead place, nobody’s likely to show up. But what are you planning to do in here?"

By this time, the three had largely adjusted to the darkness inside. Looking around, although the merchandise hadn't been cleared out, the cash register was empty—the spirit money had probably been dealt with long ago. Signs of a hasty departure were visible everywhere; it seemed they had left in a rush before closing.

After a slight hesitation, Kuang Feifan turned to Wang Hai. "Brother Hai, could I trouble you to call your friend again?"

"Why?" Wang Hai asked in return.

"Ask him the reason the gas station closed down. Better yet, ask him what they found out," Kuang Feifan felt it was best to clarify the situation.

Wang Hai murmured, "Oh," and pulled out his phone. He was actually curious whether the gas station staff knew anything about what Zhao Hongcheng had encountered.

There was nothing noteworthy outside, so Kuang Feifan’s gaze shifted toward the back rooms. Although it was called a "convenience store," besides the main sales floor, there were several smaller offices. The security monitoring room was not hard to find.

He also unlocked the door to the monitoring room and stepped inside cautiously, his movements light.

"Can you help me find the circuit breaker?" he called back to Feng Tian.

Once the power was restored, he tested things out and discovered that while the operating system was functional, all hard drive partitions containing stored files were unreadable—it looked like a hard drive failure. This realization gave Kuang Feifan a headache.

Just then, Wang Hai finished his call. He learned that besides discovering the spirit money in the register, Zhao Hongcheng’s collapse, and Luo Jingjing’s death, the gas station manager knew nothing about what transpired that night because all the surveillance files were missing. They suspected that a sudden power outage overnight had damaged the computer's hard drive.

Feng Tian noticed the same issue and couldn't help but say with regret, "It's over. Looks like we won't see any footage of the ghost car."

Kuang Feifan initially thought so too and felt disappointed. However, his specialty was electronic forensics, and he quickly discovered that the monitoring software used here not only stored footage locally but also compressed and uploaded files from the last three days to a network drive backup.

"Ha! It seems they missed out on this rather modern feature," Kuang Feifan remarked with a touch of smugness.

It wasn't entirely surprising. A gas station wasn't a high-tech corporation, and very few employees truly understood computers. Being able to turn a machine on and off, type a document, or open a webpage was already considered advanced skill; who would pay attention to how monitoring files were stored?

"It's a good thing it’s three days; if it were just one day, we’d really be stuck," Kuang Feifan said while downloading the network files onto the computer.

Hearing there was surveillance footage, Feng Tian was also intrigued and pulled up a chair next to Kuang Feifan, watching him decompress the files.

Wang Hai was computer illiterate, but that didn't stop him from enjoying a "horror film." Knowing there was something to watch, he had long forgotten about his "guard duty" and found a spot to sit down as well.

The three of them, with six eyes, stared intently at the progress bar on the screen.

Just as all the files finished decompressing, a sudden noise came from the front door. As the door swung open, a figure appeared in the threshold.