The Novelist Forced to Become Famous

Chapter 261

Because of limited manpower and the need for shifts, Tina did not arrange for people on both sides of every vault. Instead, she chose to remove the partitions in the corridors and enclosed passages: these were just temporary boards added for privacy anyway.

This way, the three vaults shared two passages. She arranged two people in each passage, guarding in 24-hour shifts.

Let's refer to these four bodyguards as C, D, E and F for short.

Their positions were as follows:

...[Hall]....

.....Passage......[Bathroom].............

.....age.....Passage............[Waiting Room]

...........C.........Corridor.....D......

...[Vault 3]...[Vault 2]...[Vault 1]...

........E...Enclosed Passage.......F......

...........[Auction Room]............

In the order they were named, C, D, E and F recounted what happened in succession.

C said: "I remember I was playing on my phone at the time. I mean, it was the middle of the night, playing some mobile games isn't too bad right? Suddenly, I smelled a strange odor. When I looked up, I saw a lot of white smoke. I thought there was a fire so I was about to go take a look, but my head suddenly felt very dizzy, and then I didn't know anything."

D said: "It was already very late, I was extremely sleepy. In a daze, I seemed to see something swaying around over by the waiting room, so I was going to go take a look, but then I didn't remember anything."

E said: "I heard F say there was noise over there, so I went to check it out. As soon as I got to the vault, I smelled something and my head started spinning right away. When I turned my head, I was already on the ground."

F said: "I heard some movement over there, then a bang, so I told E to go see what was happening. But the same thing happened to me, I got dizzy from the smoke too."

Jian Jing asked: "Did any of you see someone?"

E said: "Blurrily, I seemed to catch a glimpse of a shadow, but I couldn't see clearly and don't remember it now."

Great, still no clues.

When they looked at the surveillance footage, the cameras had been operating diligently. But unfortunately there was something smeared over the lenses so nothing was captured.

She was racking her brains when the other guests came rushing over after catching wind of it.

Xu Gou was actually the first to arrive, her rhinestone-encrusted slippers extremely glaring under the light. "Oh my god, which one is missing?"

Jian Jing stared at her face intently. "Number 2."

"Oh! No!" Xu Gou’s face turned pale in an instant as she blurted out, "Who did it?"

"I don't know," Jian Jing asked back, "Didn't you buy Number 3?"

"Uh, yes, but still, Number 2 was stolen today, next time it could be another one." Xu Gou said awkwardly. "My violin can't be stolen."

"What? The Bronze Head was stolen?" Shen Hou had also rushed over, gasping for breath.

The old man's face was sallow, as if he had fallen gravely ill. "Who took it? Go find that bastard immediately!"

Jian Jing quickly had him take a seat. "Calm down, the person and the Bronze Head must still be on the boat."

Only then did Shen Hou settle down a little, panting heavily as he looked around.

Then, the others also arrived in succession, all expressing surprise and anxiety about the theft of the Bronze Head.

Wei Yang's expression was grave. "This is not just theft, it’s outright robbery. The culprit must be found."

Chou Niu frowned. "Was it done by the person who killed someone?"

Yin Hu was concerned instead. "Is the item still on the boat or not?"

"It must be. Where else could it have gone, into the sea?" Wu Ma said, then hesitated and let out an awkward laugh. "It couldn't really have been thrown into the sea right?"

You Ji analyzed it slowly and methodically. "The Bronze Head has no relation to the murder. It was likely opportunistic theft during the fire: since the goal was profit, the item must still be on the boat."

Hai Zhu was annoyed. "Stop talking nonsense. If you wanna find it then find it. But to be blunt, you can't search our rooms without evidence: and there’s no need to search them anyway. We’re all people of status and standing, who would do this kind of thing?"

Jian Jing rarely agreed. "The knockout gas isn't something anyone can get their hands on. The culprit came prepared."

"Cough cough." Si She looked like he was about to die, seeming even more unwell than the old man Shen Hou. "At least it was j-just, cough, lost items. No one got, cough, hurt."

Chen Long's expression was frosty: with fair skin and sharp features, he did have the makings of a cold elite. His piercing eyes swept over everyone before finally landing on Tina. "What if it can't be recovered? What do you plan to do?"

Tina was flustered and stammering. "We'll, we'll have to wait for Mr. Gu to...."

"What's the point of interrogating the secretary?" Jian Jing interrupted. "She can't make decisions."

"If I may speak frankly, as the investigator entrusted by the host, such an incident also falls under your responsibility to a certain degree, miss." Chen Long said coldly.

"When I was investigating, you feigned ignorance. And now you jump out to accuse me of being negligent? How strange." Jian Jing calmly turned the accusation around. "By what right do you criticize me? Could it be you're the item's owner?"

"Nonsense." Chen Long denied it.

She asked curiously, "Then why are you so anxious about it?"

"The culprit was willing to kill for the Bronze Head. They may also kill for the other pieces." Chen Long claimed reasonably. "Or do you all want to become the next target?"

Si She said amidst coughs, "That d-doesn't make sense. The thief, cough, didn't need to kill anyone. The auction would end and the Bronze Head would still be here."

"No, Mr. Chen Long has a point." Yin Hu spoke up. "What if Mr. Zi Shu was the seller? As long as the seller dies, the thief can take the item without worry."

Shen Hou was baffled. "Zi Shu was the seller? That bastard is crazy!"

"Just speculation." Yin Hu looked steadily at Chen Long. "Or there's another possibility: the killer murdered Zi Shu in order to take the Bronze Head for themselves, but someone else beat them to it. That's why the killer is so anxious now."

Chen Long's expression drastically changed. "What do you mean?"

"I left the auction room at 9:20 PM. At that time Mr. Zi Shu was still alive." Yin Hu said. "I heard Miss Tu say the next person was Mr. Si She, but he has a frail constitution while Mr. Zi Shu was very robust. And Mr. Zi Shu wasn't bidding for Vault 2 either. In contrast, you who show no emotion over Mr. Zi Shu's death are now extremely concerned over the Bronze Head's theft, so naturally you are more suspicious."

His analysis was rather reasonable. For a moment, everyone began looking at Chen Long doubtfully.

"I..." Chen Long hesitated briefly without admitting to anything. "I'm not the only one concerned over the Bronze Head. You're also very concerned about it. Could it be you're trying to shift suspicion onto me?"

The atmosphere instantly became confrontational.

But just then, staff hurriedly came to report the results of their own investigation: "We've asked everyone already. At the time of the incident, all employees were either in their cabins or at their own stations. No one left their post, so we can vouch for each other."

Tina breathed a sigh of relief and quickly added, "The cabins are two or four beds. I share a room with a female staffer, so I'm in the clear too."

"So the thief must be among us guests?" Hai Zhu exclaimed loudly. "What do we do now? If your vaults were broken into, our own rooms must be even less safe!"

Tina hurried to explain, "That's not the case. The vaults only contain safe deposit boxes: we didn't expect the culprit to be so bold either. The yacht itself has a secure vault surrounded by concrete and steel. It has a full security system."

Wei Yang echoed in agreement, "I put some things in earlier. It really is more secure than here."

Amidst coughs, Si She asked, "Then can Vaults 1 and 3 be moved over first? It's too dangerous to keep them here."

The others chorused their agreement. "Yes, those definitely can't be stolen again."

Of course Tina immediately acquiesced.

Jian Jing thought for a moment. "I'll go take a look too."

The vault was located on the second floor, right next to the captain's office. The first layer of access control was a fingerprint plus passcode lock. Originally, only Zi Shu could enter. After his death, Mr. Gu had added Tina's fingerprint, making her currently the only person on the boat who could open it.

Inside, there were six built-in safety deposit boxes with different passcodes that guests could set themselves.

Out of shame and compensation, Tina actively explained: "This is the safe that was installed when the yacht was built, very reliable. It's completely different from the safe room. After all, that safe was custom-made temporarily. In order not to move the collection location, it could only be sleeved from top to bottom, and there were seams at the bottom. I just looked and saw that the thief was fiddling there."

Jian Jing asked, "Was this Mr. Rat's idea?"

"Yes, the boss was worried that the collection would be unclear to trade after being moved." Tina said, "If you look closely, you will find that there are some special textures inside the safe. This is what the boss specially added so that even if someone made an identical safe, they would not be able to switch them."

"How was the collection transferred here?" She asked again.

Tina: "I don't know about this. It should have been transported here through the safe as well."

Jian Jing hmmmed and fell silent.

All of Mr. Rat's arrangements revolved around "protecting the privacy of buyers and sellers." This gave rise to two opposite possibilities: First, he was not the seller, the seller was on the boat, otherwise as an intermediary, the two sides would not have known each other in the first place; Second, he was the seller, and all this was pretentious.

She was inclined to the former.

Because if he was the seller, he could have chosen a more covert and simple way to sell out the high price anonymously. As an anonymous auction intermediary, he would inevitably garner the most attention.

If the seller was on the boat, who would it be?

"There are six safes here, how many have been used?" She asked.

Tina said, "After Mr. Wu Ma's room was robbed, Miss Xu Gou, Miss Wei Yang, Mr. Chou Niu, and Mr. Chen Long came to store things one after another."

"What did they store?"

"We don't know about that."

Jian Jing nodded and was about to take a closer look at the safes when the access control doorbell rang. Tina pressed the intercom key, and the person outside the door asked, "Is Miss Rabbit there?"

Miss Rabbit?? The corner of Jian Jing's eyes twitched.

"Yes." Tina opened the access control door and motioned for Jian Jing to go out together. She could see that the other party wanted to talk to Jian Jing, but did not want so many people to stay in the safe together.

Jian Jing followed her out and saw Xu Gou anxiously waiting: "Miss Rabbit, I have something very important to tell you." Then she said to Tina, “I want to go in and get something. Please open the door for me."

"Alright." Tina hurriedly verified her fingerprint and entered the password.

The door opened.

Xu Gou went in alone, came out five minutes later, and signaled Tina to leave.

Then she took Jian Jing to a secluded corner and said solemnly, "Miss Rabbit, I hope you can help me find the missing bronze statue."

Jian Jing raised her eyebrows: "Help you?"

"Yes, you may have discovered that I am the seller of Item 2." Xu Gou said solemnly, "I don't know if Mr. Mouse died because of this, but I can't trust anyone anymore—I'm only telling you this. Please help me find it."

Jian Jing asked, "You said you were the seller, do you have any evidence?"

"Of course." Xu Gou took out a wooden box from her arms, opened the lid, and a exquisite diamond necklace came into view, probably worth twenty to thirty thousand.

But she moved the mechanism to open the hidden second layer, took out a piece of paper from it, and whispered, "This is the letter of authorization."

Jian Jing took it and examined it carefully.

As soon as she touched the paper, she knew that this was a special kind of paper, very difficult to counterfeit, with strange patterns and notches at the corners. In addition to Mr. Rat's commitment letter, there was also a seal and signature in the lower right corner.

It should be authentic.

After Jian Jing pondered for a moment, she asked Xu Gou, "So do you have any guesses about the murderer?"

"I know nothing." The musician pressed her temples, her face showing worry, "In fact, this thing doesn't belong to me either, it's... sigh, I just wanted to sell it for some money to prepare for my concert tour. Who would have thought a murder case would happen—My God, this is too scary."

She exhorted solemnly: "You must keep it a secret for me. I don't want misfortune to befall me."

"Naturally." Jian Jing said, "I will also do my best to investigate the whereabouts of the bronze head."

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