Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Zhao Yu, do you remember last time when we solved the bank case?” Miao Ying asked.
“Huh? Why do you want to bring that up?” Zhao Yu asked, curious.
Miao Ying recalled the case. “This is what I am thinking about. The biggest difficulty in the bank case was figuring out how the murderer did it. Because we couldn’t find anything in common between the murders, we didn’t make much progress in the case for a long time,” she said.
Zhao Yu nodded. “Yes, but later when we turned our attention to the tunnel accident, the real murderer suddenly came to the surface. Meow, you mean…?”
“Apart from helping the Secret Service look for the treasure, do the five experts have anything else in common?” Miao Ying asked.
“But… I have checked their backgrounds carefully,” Zhao Yu said. “They were good people and had not participated in anything illegal. They were innocent people. They were friendly with others and didn’t hold any grudges. There’s almost no reason they would have been murdered out of just hatred.”
“That’s not what I am talking about. Look, because of the treasure, we are definitely influenced when we think about the five experts’ death. Zhao Yu, think about it carefully. Actually, in addition to the treasure, there is another common point among the five experts,” she said.
“Another common point? That’s… Their… ” Zhao Yu was puzzled.
“Yes. What they did for a living,” Miao Ying answered. “The five people were experts in the fields of cultural relics and history. Is it possible that they were killed for their profession?”
“Well…” Zhao Yu nodded and said, “Meow, I understand what you mean. Do you want me to investigate this and see if there were other experts murdered in similar fields to these five people?”
“Yes, if there is anyone else who was murdered in a similar way to these five people, it shows that the murderer didn’t kill them because of the treasure, but for other reasons,” Miao Ying said excitedly.
“Honey, I have been very busy this month. I thought of this before the first week. I asked Zhang Jingfeng and Wu Xiumin to check this for me and find people with similar experiences, but unfortunately, the answer is no. No one had similar experiences like the five people,” Zhao Yu said regretfully. “In a month, they visited thousands of experts in the fields of history and cultural relics, but none of them knew anyone who died due to this kind of sudden heart attack. So, this is not going to work for us.”
Miao Ying was obviously disappointed and murmured, “I see. Did you find anything that belonged to the five experts missing from their homes?”
“According to the list provided by their families, they didn’t lose anything,” Zhao Yu said. “Yuan Juncheng’s study is full of valuable cultural relics and porcelains, but the murderer didn’t even move them. Obviously, he didn’t come for money. Also, don’t forget the truth serum. It shows that the murderer killed them for something they knew. So, the experts’ death is obviously closely related to the treasure.”
“In that case, this case should be the biggest outstanding case. This is obviously much more difficult than any of the cases we have dealt with before. What do you know about the five experts? Have you read their work logs? What happened to them when they were searching for the treasure?” Miao Ying asked.
“I can almost recite all of their information from memory. They didn’t work for the Secret Service at the same times. These five people worked for the Secret Service in different years. Although they met each other during the transitions, their work was basically independent of each other,” Zhao Yu said helplessly.
“Oh.” Miao Ying sighed and said, “This is different than the old professors in the Gold Buddha Case. They worked together and had their accidents at the same time, but these five experts were totally different.”
“By the way, we are told that the Secret Service uses a matching model,” Zhao Yu added. “In addition to the experts in historical relics, the treasure study group also includes geological experts and scientists. The Secret Service has confirmed that only these five experts in historical relics were murdered and no other participants had been threatened.”
“Alas,” Miao Ying said, helpless. “It seems that our great detective is really facing a big dilemma this time. However, remember what I said. No matter what, you shouldn’t push yourself too hard. No one is perfect. Don’t go down a dead-end, OK?”
“Don’t worry, I’m called the crazy detective. Things will work out for me.” Zhao Yu smiled and blew Miao Ying a kiss through the call, then hung up. However, after putting down the cellphone, Zhao Yu was focused. Although he had shot down Miao Ying’s guesses, he still felt that there was something important in her words. What was it?
Zhao Yu sat at the desk and pushed away the papers laying in front of him. However, his eyes were still fixed together. It seemed that something in his mind was becoming more and more clear. Will it… Is that where the answer lies?
Thinking, Zhao Yu quickly ran to his backpack and started to look for something. Soon, he found his yellow leather notebook. While opening the notebook he was so excited that he almost accidentally tore off a page. “Behind every crime, there is a liter of tears…” Zhao Yu rummaged and said to himself, “it’s not this…”
Finally, when he turned the notebook to the last page, he saw what he wanted. At the end of the book, there were famous sayings about criminal investigating recorded by Captain Jin. Among them, in the penultimate line, it said: “the truth, often hidden in seemingly useless clues, just needs to be discovered…”
Yes. That’s it. Zhao Yu gently scratched the line with his fingers, and silently read it again. The truth lies in seemingly useless clues. I might have thought too much all along, but ignored some of the most basic things? Is it…? Zhao Yu thought to himself.
Thinking of this, Zhao Yu felt so excited that his eyes appeared red bloodshot. Where is it? Where is it? he thought. He quickly put down the yellow notebook, then rummaged through several file boxes. He finally found the deceased five experts’ work logs. He read through every page carefully and made notes.
An hour later, Zhao Yu finally put his pen down. He tapped the papers gently and sighed excitedly. “This time, this is probably my last hope. The answer is… Is it really hidden in these papers?” Zhao Yu sighed again. He found that it was past midnight, so he could start a new hexagram.
This time… Zhao Yu was so excited by the thought of a new hexagram that he opened it immediately. However, Zhao Yu was stunned when the new hexagram came out. The two big characters that appeared in the center of the system display were Kun Gen.
