"Sir Li Wei, you're absolutely amazing!"
It was not yet time for afternoon tea when Li Wei saw Chief Macmillan rush into the room in excitement, seize his hand, and shake it vigorously, looking as though he had won several million in the lottery.
But Li Wei did not need to ask to know what had happened.
"Found them? Got the money back?"
"Yes!"
Chief Macmillan nodded emphatically.
"We received a tip-off call telling us exactly where those thieves were hiding. We went straight there and found them about to flee with the money. We caught them red-handed! Culprits and stolen goods, all together!"
"Then I won't need to look at these anymore."
Li Wei casually tossed the Lead Block onto the table. He had found a few clues himself, but they had mostly served to verify his deductions. It seemed his deductions had been correct after all.
"You're incredible. How on earth did that work?"
Chief Macmillan looked puzzled too. He could guess that someone had tipped them off, but that usually happened after they posted a reward notice. It made sense for someone to report a criminal if they wanted the reward.
This time, however, they had not posted a reward notice. Chief Macmillan had even intended to issue one, only for Li Wei to stop him and ask him to have the officers spread the information privately instead. What Chief Macmillan had never expected was that it would actually work!
Li Wei's reason for stopping Chief Macmillan from offering a public reward was simple: the thing did not exist in the first place. Spreading rumors privately was fine, but if they issued an official reward notice, then once the case went to court, a lawyer only had to argue, "The gemstone isn't among the valuables these men