Chapter Nine Interrogation

  "How did you come down?" Downstairs, Ouyang Xiu, who was searching for the gemstone's trail everywhere, saw Zheng Hanfei walking down with a relaxed expression and couldn't help but ask, "Is the case solved?"

  "No." Zheng Hanfei shook his head, furrowed his brow, pursed his lips, and had a disappointed expression. "The current clues not only didn't clarify my thinking, but instead made me more confused, so I want to look for some useful clues under the stage."

  "Oh? Found a new lead already? If you don't mind, let me hear it, how is it?"

  "No problem." Zheng Hanfei nodded and spent nearly ten minutes telling Ouyang Xiu the clues he had grasped.

  "So, as long as the mystery of the disappearing gem is solved, the culprit will be exposed." Ouyang Xi thought for a moment, "But these clues can't be connected at all. I think it lacks some 'notes' and a 'staff'."

  "Note? Staff?"

  "Exactly!" Ouyang Xiu said, glancing at Katie who was standing on the stage and discussing with his brother, "Katie once said that if clues are compared to musical notes, then evidence is like a five-line staff. When combined, it becomes a score called 'truth'. With the score, detectives can play a melody of cracking the case."

  "What a fitting metaphor." Zheng Hanfei smiled, "Even if she says something so philosophical, my suspicion of her hasn't decreased in the slightest."

  "It doesn't matter." Ouyang Xiou shrugged, "I think, with Katie's personality, she wouldn't do something like this. Even if she did, it means she had a good reason for it."

  "No matter what kind of bitter intention or how many reasons there are, a crime is a crime and cannot be forgiven."

  "You... won't consider the feelings of the offender at all? Don't you have any emotions?"

  "Consider? Feelings?" Zheng Hanfei sneered, "I also want to have them, but these things are not something I can grasp. It wasn't possible before and the possibility in the future is also small..."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Nothing?" Zheng Hanfei shrugged his shoulders in the same way as Ouyang Xiu, "Let's go, are you coming with me?"

  "No! Just go and find them, but I'm warning you, these people have been standing here for a long time, their temper is not very good, don't get into trouble."

  "Thanks for reminding."

  What on earth... happened? Could it be that you really are... Watching the despair flash in Zheng Hanfei's eyes, Ouyang Xiu's heart was heavily struck, and a wave of sorrow spread throughout his body. It seemed as if he had felt this way before.

  Where is it after all? Ha, Zheng Hanfei, you are getting more and more mysterious.

  ……

  "Excuse me, from the beginning of the exhibition to now, haven't you found something abnormal?" To save time, Zheng Hanfei first inquired about the guests closest to the stage with Linda, and then estimated their chances of discovering the anomaly on the stage. Finally, he locked onto a few people and asked them one by one.

  "No." A middle-aged man dressed in luxurious attire glanced at Zheng Hanfei, who was wearing shabby clothes, and replied with a tone of disdain before turning his head away.

  "Please think about it, no matter what, as long as you feel abnormal." Zheng Hanfei did not give up and continued to ask, but unfortunately, he got a bunch of nonsense from the middle-aged man instead of the clue he was thinking of.

  "I said no, so it's none! What's the point of your nagging? Don't think you're superior just because you know something about jadeite. You want to be a detective and solve cases? Look at your shabby appearance, I don't even know why you're participating in this exhibition. Get out, kid, don't ruin the scenery."

  "You..." Zheng Hanfei somewhat regretted coming down to look for clues himself, although he had listened to Ouyang Xiuxiu's warning, but hadn't expected these people's temper to be so bad, with no regard for anyone in their eyes, comparable to European nobles...no, they were the nobles among nobles, at least some nobles could still treat others equally.

  Zheng Hanfei suppressed his anger and left to find another person to ask.

  "I don't know!"

  Went to ask again.

  "Hurry up!"

  Still went to ask.

  "What's with the detective? Scram, get out of my sight."

  I can't take it anymore! Zheng Hanfei let out a loud roar in his heart, leaning against the wall corner and panting heavily. As the saying goes, a prime minister's stomach can hold up a boat, but the grievances he had suffered could have supported two aircraft carriers, anyone would not be able to bear it, unless he was not human.

  "Hey young man, what's wrong?" A kind voice sounded in Zheng Hanfei's ear.

  As he turned around, he saw a woman in her seventies or eighties standing in front of him, with white hair and shallow wrinkles, wearing a magnificent outfit, looking at Zheng Hanfei with a pair of smiling eyes. Suddenly, he felt that she was a kind and amiable old lady, so he also smiled and said: "Old granny, it's okay!"

  "Hey kid, don't be angry. Actually when I was young, I was just like them. People will only understand some big truths when they're old."

  "Old lady, how can you talk like that?" Zheng Hanfei said, "You're not old, you look at most fifty years old."

  "Haha, young man, you're quite good at talking, but can't your lies be more convincing? Since you've already called me 'old granny', how did you figure out that I'm young?"

  "This......" Zheng Hanfei was suddenly speechless, perhaps the sudden appearance of this old lady had startled him, and his tense mood had not yet calmed down, which is why he spoke such nonsense.

  "Hey kid, I've seen everything, you keep asking if there's anything unusual on stage, don't you ask me?"

  After hearing the old lady say this, Zheng Hanfei remembered that she was standing near the display rack in the venue and had a good angle, but since the other party was an elderly person, he decided to wait until the end to ask.

  "Hey kid, you okay?"

  "Huh? Ah! Never mind, then... Excuse me, did the old lady find anything unusual?"

  "It's like this, you know when something unexpected happens at an exhibition?"

  "Uh-huh, I see. It was at the end of Miss Kitty's performance that the red cloth covering the bulletproof glass suddenly dropped."

  "That's right, it was at that time when I saw the gemstone on the display rack."

  "It seems like everyone saw it?" Zheng Hanfei replied with a bewildered expression, thinking to himself that this couldn't be what she wanted to tell him.

  "Hey young man, I'm not finished yet!" The old lady glared at Zheng Hanfei and continued, "At that time, I always felt that the gemstone was a bit off."

  "Something wrong?"

  "Ah! The gemstone looks somewhat illusory and mysterious under the shining light."

  "Uh..." Zheng Hanfei was still a bit dazed, he had no idea what the old lady meant.

  "And also, I seem to see that the shadow of that frame seems to be missing a bit."

  "Anything less?"

  "Well, that missing piece is in a semicircular shape, but as for what position it's in, I don't know."

  "Granny, are you sure?"

  "Don't underestimate me, young man." The old lady said somewhat irritably, but the smile in her eyes indicated that she wasn't really angry. "I may look very old, but my vision and hearing are not as bad as those of an elderly person at all."

  "Oh, thank you, old lady." Zheng Hanfei thanked her. Her words seemed to have given Zheng Hanfei another important clue, and now he had almost all the clues, so he wanted to run to the display rack to listen to Wang Bo's clue and perfect his theory.

  "By the way." As Zheng Hanfei was about to leave, he asked the old lady, "Can you tell me why you told me these clues?"

  "Hehe, young man, from the knowledge of Granny Green you grasped, it can be seen that you are different from other kids. Although others don't believe you're a detective, I do, so I'm telling you these things."

  "Old lady, may I know your name?"

  "My name is Yuancui, and I'm quite knowledgeable about Lüguo. If you have time, come find me at Tieyuan Road 32, I'd love to hear your case-cracking stories." Yuancui smiled, patted Zheng Hanfei's shoulder, and walked towards a certain place in the venue.

  Yu Cui...... this name is so familiar, never mind! Solving the case is urgent! Hurry up and find evidence, if I'm not mistaken, the thief shouldn't have taken that thing away. Thinking of this, Zheng Han quickly ran towards the display rack.

  "Uncle Wang, how's it going? Have you found out anything?"

  "Young master, regarding the abnormality on stage, all three of them said they didn't notice anything."

  "Alright, I know! Is there anything else?"

  "And also about Miss Kady's covering with a cloth at the exhibition, Sterling said that was to show that Kady is one of the main characters of today's exhibition."

  "Is it what he thought himself?"

  "No, it was Dilo who said that."

  "I get it!" Zheng Hanfei nodded, knowing that this clue had completed the "notes" he was going to play, and also knew how to write the "score" and how to perform the "movement". Next, he should find the most important five-line spectrum called "evidence".

  "It seems you've thought of it." Ouyang Xiuxiu walked over slowly, her face filled with a smile just like Zheng Hanfei's.

  "You're the same." Zheng Hanfei nodded, "Eavesdropped on our conversation?"

  "How can you call it eavesdropping? I was just accidentally overhearing while searching for treasure."

  "Oh? Then tell me where the gemstone is? Let's see if your reasoning is as bad as mine?" Zheng Hanfei said with a playful face, but in his heart he had already guessed that Ouyang Xiu definitely knew the answer.