Caught

Caught

"Why were you running up the mountain in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, Huang Ji? Are you okay?" Wang Meng said, brushing the dust off Huang Ji.

Huang Ji gave an honest smile but did not answer.

Seeing this, Wang Meng did not press him. He merely ruffled Huang Ji's hair and said, "Don't run around at night from now on. Your Grandpa will worry about you."

Huang Ji nodded.

After hearing Liang Yuan's account, everyone believed that this fool had simply wandered here by chance.

Huang Ji did not explain a single word. Given his identity as a fool, that was actually the greatest explanation of all.

He did not need a reason to wander up the mountain.

No one believed he could have deliberately found this place. If Huang Ji had tried to explain himself, it would have seemed far more suspicious.

Wang Meng had only asked casually. Huang Ji blanked out, and no one paid him any further attention.

The group headed down the mountain. Lü Zongmin and the others were escorted toward the police cars, but they remained silent in the face of every question from Team Leader Chen.

Liang Yuan, on the other hand, told them everything along the way.

After the torment of that day, she regretted trying to evade responsibility for what she had done back then.

She had not committed anything unforgivable. If she had turned herself in back then, she would have been released after two or three years. She would not have ended up crippled and disfigured today.

"I was involved in Case 1.07. And the Tang Dynasty Golden Buddha stolen from the Luoyang Ancient Tomb Museum last year is also in my parents' hands."

"They... have already run away, haven't they...?"

Team Leader Chen said nothing. Wang Meng gave a slight nod, while the buzz-cut young man beside him shot Wang Meng a glare.

Liang Yuan gave a bitter smile. "I deserve to end up like this. I'll tell you everything I know, but I truly don't know where the Golden Buddha is. Knowing my parents, they definitely wouldn't have taken it with them when they ran. They must have hidden it somewhere. If you want to find the Golden Buddha, you can only bring my parents back."

None of them knew anything about the antiquities case. They were here to solve a kidnapping case.

Only two hours had passed from the filing of the case to its resolution. The only reason it had been solved so quickly was because a kidnapper named Lü Zongmin had recklessly sent the police a ransom note.

Seeing how sincere she was, Team Leader Chen nodded slightly.

Then he looked at Lü Zongmin and the others, who were obedient enough but said nothing, their eyes dark and gloomy, and sneered.

"Who is Lü Zongmin?"

At those words, Lü Zongmin's face remained expressionless, though his eyes flickered slightly.

Wang Zhen and Hu Feng looked utterly confused. They did not know one another's real names.

A storm raged in Lü Zongmin's heart. What kind of joke is this? Why do the police know my name? That's impossible. I've never exposed that name. Even the people caught back then only knew me as Four-Eyes.

Though shocked, he still wore a blank expression as if to say, Who's that?

Team Leader Chen saw that they would not talk and did not care. He raised his chin. "Take them back. We'll question them slowly."

"Liang Yuan, we'll take you to the hospital first. If there's anything else you want to say, you can give your statement after we treat your wounds."

Liang Yuan nodded. Just before getting into the car, she turned around, rubbed Huang Ji's hair, and smiled. "Thank you, Huang Ji. You saved my life."

Huang Ji smiled. "My Grandpa said people need to have a conscience."

Liang Yuan froze, then nodded heavily. "Your Grandpa is right. People need to have a conscience..."

Then she smiled in relief. Though her face was covered in scars, after coming to this realization, her smile was still beautiful.

"Officer, sorry to trouble you." Turning around, Liang Yuan calmly got into the police car.

Huang Ji watched the police leave.

The harder one found it to let go, the deeper one sank. If she had not hesitated and had instead severed her false bond with her adoptive parents sooner, her life would never have become like this.

Huang Ji knew she had let go. From then on, she only wanted to atone for herself and begin life anew.

And with her full cooperation, there would be no need for Huang Ji to meddle in this case anymore.

"You need to give a statement too, but go home and rest first. I'll come see you tomorrow," Wang Meng said with a smile.

Huang Ji smiled and nodded. After thinking about it, Wang Meng simply drove him home.

Early the next morning, the police indeed came to question Huang Ji.

Wang Meng stayed beside him as well. The entire process was relaxed and pleasant, and halfway through, the Village Chief even came over to lavishly praise Huang Ji.

The police also knew Huang Ji was a fool, and the county had already concluded that Huang Ji had stumbled upon the kidnappers by chance. The two sides had gotten into a struggle, and then the criminal police arrived.

The conclusion had already been set, so the questions were not particularly probing. They asked a few brief questions, made a record, and left.

Afterward, people from the procuratorate came and asked, "Would you be willing to testify in court?"

Huang Ji stared at him blankly. The villagers all said, "Why would he need to testify? Doesn't that Doctor Liang know everything?"

A few days later, a large group of police suddenly came to the village, along with many old men with full beards.

The villagers were all puzzled, wondering whether there had been another twist in the case.

Only Huang Ji remained utterly calm. The moment he saw them, he understood their purpose...

They had come for the Golden Buddha.

Liang Yuan's parents had already been caught, and they had confessed to their crimes. Today, the police had brought them here to identify where the stolen goods had been hidden.

Huang Ji was not surprised in the slightest.

Their daughter had been kidnapped, yet her parents had run away. That was already unreasonable. Moreover, the letter had specifically demanded that Liang Yuan's parents be found.

The police would never let that couple get away.

Huang Ji sidled up to Wang Meng, who told him, "Those two were caught before they even left the province. They've confessed to everything now. They said they spent all four million, with only a little over a hundred thousand left. But the Golden Buddha was hidden in the reservoir, so we're here to identify the location!"

Huang Ji's expression turned strange at those words.

Then he moved closer to the other officers and watched from nearby. By sensing information, he soon understood the situation more clearly than Wang Meng did.

No, he understood it even more clearly than every police officer present.

They had spent all four million? They really were not being honest.

The Golden Buddha was important, a significant cultural relic whose trade was prohibited. Those old men had come to assist with the excavation and ensure its timely protection.

The couple had indeed honestly confessed about that, but saying that all four million had been spent was a lie. They had only withdrawn one million for expenses while hiding out. The remaining three million had been buried elsewhere.

They were truly cunning. They seemed to have prepared multiple contingencies long ago and had not put all their eggs in one basket.

The Golden Buddha and the money were not hidden together. If they were caught, they could confess to the more important Golden Buddha, while deliberately claiming the money had all been spent and handing over only a little more than a hundred thousand.

In reality, three million remained. Once they were released from prison, they could find a chance to dig some of it up and avoid living in poverty.

"Three million..." Huang Ji looked toward a spot on the other side of the reservoir.

There, two meters underground, three million was buried!

No one could conceal the truth from Huang Ji.

The couple pointed to a spot in the pond, and the police took photographs. Then several museum staff immediately drained the small reservoir and began digging.

Throughout the process, although the couple pointed to where the Golden Buddha was buried, what they were thinking was: There's another three million on the other side...

Huang Ji did not need to sense information for long before he learned the exact location where the cash had been buried.

However, Huang Ji did not say anything about it.

Though it was stolen money, Huang Ji had already decided to keep it himself.

The problem was that he had no reasonable way to explain how he knew such a secret.

Since he could not explain it, it was better not to say anything. And if he said nothing, was this money supposed to be left for that couple to live well after their release?

As if...

Huang Ji looked up at the sky. This world was too complicated. Humanity was being unknowingly raised in captivity by an alien civilization.

Knowing this secret, he had to do something, and that would require a great deal of money. A very, very great deal.

Though Huang Ji already had countless ways to make money, casually picking up an unexpected fortune of three million was not bad at all.

As far as he was concerned, this case was already over. The police had no way to pursue the money anyway, so it might as well serve as his startup capital.

As for that letter, the clever Lü Zongmin had already taken responsibility for it.

When Lü Zongmin realized the evidence was irrefutable and there were many witnesses, including Liang Yuan, he said, "I wanted to break free of Wang Zhen and Hu Feng's 'control,' so I deliberately left that letter and signed it with my real name, hoping the police would find me."

Compared to Wang Zhen and Hu Feng, Lü Zongmin was a cunning and intelligent man. He presented himself as someone who had indirectly turned himself in, claiming that he had felt deeply guilty and remorseful when writing the letter, which was why he had left his real name. He hoped this would move the judge.

His lawyer had also advised him to admit it and negotiate from that angle. Even if the reasoning was far-fetched, his lawyer had plenty of ways to make it sound convincing.

Huang Ji had already confirmed all this by sensing the information of the people present.

Though the police also felt there were some suspicious points, they could not imagine who else might have done it, nor did they pursue the matter.

The reason was simple: the outcome was perfect.

Everyone had been caught. Now, as long as the items were recovered, the case would be closed. No one would care about a few minor doubts in the course of the investigation.

"As long as the result is good, everyone will take the initiative to explain away a few unimportant doubts." Huang Ji sighed and remembered this lesson.

Although the police had not thought much about the ransom note, Huang Ji still felt he had handled this matter poorly.

"I'm still too stupid." At that moment, Huang Ji truly could not think of a better way to alert the police, so he had directly written a letter in the kidnappers' place.

Of course, he had used a sheet of paper casually picked up from the ground and had not left behind the slightest trace.

For Huang Ji, no trace could escape his eyes.

Unless the police also had information sensing, they could never know who had written that letter.

P.S. Sorry.