Still not satisfied with the grammar, but I believe this is a limitation of my current ability. The blogger theme I'm using does this thing where it accents the first line of a post, but only for chrome (and probable edge). This kinda screws up the formatting in firefox. Therefore, I'll be putting whatever random text up here until/if I find a solution.
"Why are you here on the mountain in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, Huang Ji? Are you okay?" asked Wang Meng as he swept off the dust on Huang Ji.
Huang Ji gave him a polite smile but didn't respond.
Seeing this, Wang Meng didn't question him any further and simply rubbed his hair saying, "Don't run around at night anymore, your grandfather will worry about you."
Huang Ji nodded his head. After listening to Liang Yuan, everybody thought that the reason an intellectually disabled child had found his way here was by pure chance while running around at night. Huang Ji didn't say a single word. With his persona as an intellectually disable child, this was actually the best explanation. No reason was needed for his appearance at the mountain. Nobody believed that he was capable of finding his way here on his own. It would seem very out-of-place if Huang Ji tried to explain himself. Wang Meng was just asking him offhandedly, with Huang Ji spacing out, everybody soon lost interest in him.
Leaving the mountain, Lu Zongmin and his accomplices were dragged over to the police car; along the way, they had remained silent toward all of Sergeant Chen's questioning. Liang Yuan on the other hand had told them everything. After this day of being tortured, she felt regret for trying to escape from the crimes she had committed. It wasn't like she had committed some unforgivable sin, if she'd turned herself in at the time, she would have been out in just two to three years. More importantly, what had transpired today would never have happened, her face and body now disfigured.
"I was a part of 107 cases, the Tang dynasty golden Buddha that went missing from the Luoyang Ancient Tombs Museum is also in my parents' hands. They...already ran didn't they..."
Sergeant Chen didn't say anything, but Wang Meng nodded his head. At the side, the young man with a crew cut shot him a dirty look.
Liang Yuan let out a bitter laugh, "I only have myself to blame for what happened today. I'll tell you guys everything I know, but I really don't know where the golden Buddha is. Based on what I know of my parents, they wouldn't have run away with the golden Buddha, it must be hidden somewhere. The only way to find the golden Buddha is to catch my parents first.
They didn't know anything about some missing antique, they were here to deal with a kidnapping case. The case had been closed only two hours after being established. The only reason they were able to act so quickly was because one of the kidnappers called Lu Zongmin was a moron and had written a ransom letter to the cops.
Seeing her honesty, Sergeant Chan gave her a slight nod. He then let out a cold chuckle and looked towards Lu Zongmin and his accomplices. Although they hadn't resisted, they also hadn't said a word, their faces covered in a dark expression.
"Who's Lu Zongmin!" Lu Zongmin's face remained expressionless, but his eyes widened in shock. In contrast, Wang Zhen and Hu Feng both had looks of confusion; they had no knowledge of each others' true names.
Waves of shock rippled through Lu Zongmin's mind: Are you kidding me, why do the cops know my name? That's impossible, I've never revealed my name before. Even the people who were caught only know me as Glasses. In spite of his surprise, he also put on a confused appearance.
Sergeant Chen was indifferent to their silence, lifting his chin and saying, "Take them back and interrogate them. Liang Yuan, we'll take you to a hospital first. If there's anything you want to say, you can do it after taking care of your injuries."
Liang Yuan nodded her head. Before getting in the car, she turned back and ruffled Huang Ji's hair with a smile, "Thank you, Huang Ji, you save my life."
Huang Ji answer with a smile, "My grandpa says a person needs to pay back their debts."
Liang Yuan was taken aback by his words, nodding her head heavily in agreement, "Your grandpa is right, a person needs to pay back their debts..." With that, she let out a smile free of burden. While her face was covered in scars, her smile after being able to put everything behind her was still extremely beautiful.
"Thank you officers." Turning around, Liang Yuan calmly got in the police car.
Huang Ji watched the cops drive away. By being unable to let go, she had fallen deeper and deeper into the hole. If she hadn't been so indecisive and had abandoned earlier that illusionary relationship with her foster parents, her life wouldn't have been like this. Huang Ji knew that she had found peace in her heart. All she wanted to do now was atone for her crimes and then begin a new life. With her full cooperation, there was no longer any role for Huang Ji to play in this case.
"You need to give a statement too, but you can go back and rest first. I'll come find you tomorrow." said Wang Meng. Huang Ji nodded his head with a smile. Wang Meng thought about it and then decided to drive him home.
......
As expected, the cops arrived the next morning to get a statement from Huang Ji. Wang Meng also accompanied him by his side. The entire process was extremely relaxed, the village chief even came by in the middle and gave Huang Ji a big round of applause. The cops knew that Huang Ji had an intellectual disability. In addition, the county had already determined that before the cops had arrived, Huang Ji had accidentally stumbled across the kidnappers, coming into conflict with them. Having already decided the nature of his appearance, the questions asked were a lot simpler. They basically just asked a couple of brief questions and then left.
Someone from the Supreme People's Procuratorate also came over, asking, "Are you willing to appear in court?"
Huang Ji stared at him blankly while the villagers said, "Why does he need to appear in court, doesn't Dr. Liang already know everything."
A few days later, a large group of cops suddenly came to the village, accompanied by a bunch of bearded old men. The villagers were all puzzled, wondering if there may have been some turn of events with the case. Only Huang Ji remained composed. From the moment he laid eyes on them he already knew what their goal was... They were here for the golden Buddha.
Liang Yuan's parents had been caught and had already confessed to their crimes. The cops where here today for the stolen goods that had been revealed. This was well within Huang Ji's expectations. It made no sense that the parents would run away after their daughter had been kidnapped; not to mention in the letter, 'Lu Zongmin' had specifically demanded for Liang Yuan's parents to be found. Given these facts, it was impossible for the cops to let the couple get away.
Huang Ji went over to Wang Meng, who told him, "The two of them were caught before even leaving the province. They've already confessed to everything. According to them, they've already spent the four million with only a hundred thousand remaining. On the other hand, the golden Buddha is still around and is hidden in this water reservoir. So, that's why we're here!"
Huang Ji had a quaint look after listening to Wang Meng's words. Afterwards, he approached the other cops and stood around watching them. Through his data perception, he quickly obtained an even greater understanding of the situation over Wang Meng; not just him, but every single cop that was present. They'd already spent the four million? What a joke.
The golden Buddha was very important. It was an important cultural artifact that was banned from being traded. Those old men were all here to assist with the recovery and protection of it. The couple did indeed tell them the truth about the golden Buddha, but saying that they'd already spent the four million was an utter lie. They'd only taken one million for their expenditures in hiding, the rest of the three million was hidden elsewhere.
Huang Ji had to admit that they were indeed very sly. They seem to have made a series of preparations and hadn't placed all of their eggs in one basket. The golden Buddha and the money weren't in the same location. If they were caught, they would turn over the more important golden Buddha while saying that they'd already spent the money, giving up at most a hundred thousand when in reality, there was still three million remaining. All they had to do was find an opportunity to dig up the money after serving their sentence. At least with that money, their lives wouldn't be too hard.
"Man, three million bucks." Huang Ji looked towards a location at the other side of the reservoir. The three million was buried there two meters beneath the surface!
No one could hide the truth in front of Huang Ji. The couple pointed somewhere at the reservoir while the cops took photos. Afterwards, a couple of members from the museum immediately drained the small reservoir and started digging. The entire time that the couple were showing them the hiding spot of the golden Buddha, they there thinking in their heads: There's still three million on the other side...
Without needing to read their data for too long, Huang Ji soon learned the precise hiding place of the bills; yet, he had no plans of telling the cops. Despite the fact that it was dirty money, Huang Ji had decided it was his now. The reality of it was that he had no way of logically explaining how he knew this secret. Since he couldn't explain himself, it was better to not talk; and if he didn't say anything, was he going to just leave the money there for the couple to take back in the future and live their happy little lives?
"In their dreams..."
Huang Ji looked up at the sky. The world was such a complex place. Humanity was being raised like pigs on a farm while completely oblivious to this fact. After discovering this secret, he had to do something. While he didn't know what that something was, he knew that it would require a lot of money, lots and lots of money. Although he'd already thought of countless ways to make money, finding three million 'on the ground' was pretty nice too. For him. this case was already over. The cops had no way of finding this money, he might as well use it as his starting capital.
As for that letter, a smart person like Lu Zongmin had already confessed to writing it. When Lu Zongmin discovered the overwhelming evidence, along with the numerous witnesses such as Liang Yuan, he came up with a story to reduce his sentence, "I wanted to escape from Wang Zhen and Hu Feng's 'control', so I purposely wrote that letter and signed it with my true name, hoping that the police would find me."
Compared to Wang Zhen and Hu Feng, Lu Zongming was a very cunning and clever person. He disguised himself as someone who had indirectly turned himself in; saying that the reason he'd signed it with his true name was because of how guilty and regretful he felt when he wrote that letter, using this tactic to try and sway the judge. It was also his lawyer who had convinced him to admit to writing the letter to use as a leverage point. Granted, it was a very far-fetched explanation, but his lawyer had countless ways to make it true.
Huang Ji confirmed this through reading the data of everyone present. Even though the cops suspected him of lying, they couldn't think of anyone else who could have written the letter, and they had even less desire to investigate. It was quite simple really, everything had turned out well. All of the perpetrators had been caught, and now as long as they found the sculpture, the case would be closed. Nobody would care about the tiny little holes present in the case.
"As long as everything ends well, people will automatically explain away a couple of insignificant misgivings." sighed Huang Ji, remembering this lesson. While the cops hadn't given the ransom letter more thought, Huang Ji still thought that he hadn't executed it very well.
"I'm still an idiot." At that moment, Huang Ji honestly couldn't think of a better way to alert the cops, so he directly wrote the letter in the name of the kidnapper. Of course, he had used a random piece of paper that he'd found on the ground and hadn't left behind any traces. For Huang Ji, there really wasn't any kind of trace that could escape his eyes. Unless the cops also had data perception, it was impossible for them to discover who had written the letter.
......
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