Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Around lunchtime, besides the few police detectives from Key Case Investigation Unit that rushed to the Golden Buddha Temple, Zhang Jingfeng brought two portrait experts from the Missing Persons Department, and Hu Bin and rest from Forensics Department to gather evidence. It turned out, through the surveillance video in the finance room, Zhao Yu and the rest saw a shocking scene.
One week ago, which was the night when the attraction surveillance hard drive was replaced, the camera captured something. On the clip, they could see that about thirty meters away from the finance room, there were four to five human figures! Those people appeared in the frame for a long period of time, and they looked like they were observing something very carefully. During that time, they turned on flashlights in order to get a better look at something. Some of them even squatted, obviously to get an even closer look.
At the end, when Zhao Yu and the group searched according to the direction of the surveillance camera and realized that the group of people had been in one of the corners of the walls of the Golden Buddha Temple. Beneath the corner, there were stone steles scattered about.
“That’s weird! Those people that appeared in the video were obviously the ones who pumped the lotus pond dry. But from the camera, why did it look like they were interested in the stone steles?” Zhao Yu thought.
“These stone steles were moved here during the construction of the temple and pagoda!” The chief of the attraction explained, surprised. “Back then, experts that sifted out the valuable ones to put them in the forest of steles area for people to visit! The rest are basically carved stones from the early years or beginning of the nation’s establishment. Many of them were damaged and aren’t worth that much!”
“What was carved on it?” Liang Huan asked.
“Most of them were Buddhist scriptures. Oh,” the chief guessed, “maybe…those b*stards deleted the surveillance video to steal the stone steles?! Aiya! That’s bad; among the forest of steles, there was an ancient stele that was left behind from the Tang Dynasty! This is—”
“No, definitely no!” Accountant Wang quickly said, “After the surveillance control incident, didn’t we check the forest of steles a couple of times? No, they have not been touched. But, here,” Accountant Wang pointed at the stone steles that were scattered before them and said, “only here has not been checked thoroughly. I think these stone steles aren’t worth much, right?”
“Stone steles?!” Zhao Yu thought. He creased his eyebrows together and felt it was getting more and more difficult. He looked around and realized that it was about twenty meters away from the ancient lotus pond. Those people risked entering the attraction, and they pumped the lotus pond dry while they looked at the steles carefully. They were obviously looking for something. “What were they looking for?” Zhao Yu wondered.
Full of suspicion, Zhao Yu looked at the surveillance video again. As it was already in the middle of the night, and the camera was far away, and there was a window in front of the camera, the video was very blurry. Besides, they could barely make out the different figures and movements of the people; they couldn’t see what they looked like. But after Zhao Yu watched it a few times, he saw something extraordinary. Among those robbers, there was one that was obviously slower than the rest! When the person walked, he hung his head low and bent down, looking as if he was under a lot of strain. It seemed that he wasn’t exactly young! Besides that, no matter where this person walked, someone brawny followed closely behind. It seemed like he was keeping watch over this person!
“Is it…were they afraid that the person was trying to escape?” Zhao Yu wondered. Suddenly, he felt a surge of emotions. “This old man…is he one of the missing old experts?! Oh, God! If so, those robbers next to him are undoubtedly the grave robbers from the Tomb Murder Case??! Then…would it be?”
With his hope up, Zhao Yu quickly reported to Miao Ying. Miao Ying naturally placed great importance on it and immediately sent experts from each department of the police station to further investigate.
At two in the afternoon, the investigation report from each department had been finalized. Firstly, also the most important, the two experts from the Missing Person’s Department used the most advanced technology to investigate, and found that the old man from the video was highly identical to Professor Tian Dongmin from the Cultural Relics Bureau, up to ninety-three percent. According to their comparison standards, it was almost certain that the old man was the lost Tian Dongmin!
The discovery was remarkably original and compelling! First off, it proved that Professor Tian Dongmin was alive one week ago! Second off, the robbers next to him were very likely the grave robbers from the Tomb Case! The victim in the Tomb Case—Dong Peizhuo—had probably been killed by them!
From the video, Professor Tian Dongmin looked as though he was pinned down by the other party. Based on the video, they guessed that all three of the old experts from the Cultural Relics Bureau had been manipulated by the grave robbers! So, the perpetrator of the Tomb Murder Case was undoubtedly the grave robbers. If they could capture them, they could solve the case! But since they verified the identity of Professor Tian, the case had become more intricate!
No one understood why the grave robbers robbed the prefect’s tomb then went to the Gold Buddha Temple may days later. If they simply wanted to empty the lotus pond, Zhao Yu might think that they were looking for Golden Buddha. But why were they interested in the stone steles that no one asked about?
From the video, they could tell that they were looking for something at the stone steles. If the Golden Buddha was really hidden under the lotus pond, why were they messing with the stone steles? Plus, the stone steles were not historical artifacts, what could they find out from the stone steles?
…
After analysis, the two portrait experts told Zhao Yu that they could confirm it was Professor Tian Dongmin because they had compared it with Professor Tian’s video information. But if they wanted to identify the other grave robbers through the video, it would be quite impossible! Unless they had other videos of the grave robbers or target suspect’s detailed information.
Simultaneously, Hu Bin and the rest searched the stone steles area. Although they got a few fresh fingerprints, the possibility of it being the grave robbers’ was very low because the grave robbers touched the stone steles a week ago, and it had rained since. Even if there were fingerprints, they wouldn’t be that fresh. Plus, the grave robbers were so professional; the possibility of them leaving a fingerprint behind was small.
Although Hu Bin and his team didn’t find any valid evidence, Zhao Yu didn’t let them return. At that very moment, they had pumped out half of the water in the lotus pond. Many shallow spots had surfaced. Zhao Yu needed them to continue to look for evidence.
Zhao Yu was smart. Before they started pumping the water, he told the workers to record the usage on the electric meter. That way they didn’t need to empty the lotus pond dry but use a similar amount of electricity and then stop.
After turning off the water pump, the lotus pond was half empty. Everyone could clearly see that border of the lotus pond was more shallow while the middle was deeper. What was interesting was that after the water level had gone down, the lotus pond revealed a figure eight shape and a symmetrical fan shape at every peak of the arcs.
Looking at the few fan-shaped areas, Zhao Yu suddenly understood what the grave robbers were looking for! He saw that the fan-shaped slabs of stone were filled with carvings of Buddhist scriptures!!!