"Yes, yes," said Mr. Xiang, taking out his phone and opening his photo album. There was a photo that clearly showed that the character "香" (Xiang) was indeed not closed at the bottom, just as Mr. Xiang had said. To be more precise, it was probably because of years of practice that the horizontal stroke at the bottom had been flattened, which is why it was not displayed.

Therefore, it is even more certain that Elder Xiang's medicine furnace is no longer the same one.

Old Xiang wasn't stupid. By comparing the two items, he knew that this medicine furnace wasn't the one he originally had.

Old Xiang picked up the medicine furnace and weighed it in his hand.

I also know that this is not my own.

Because the medicine furnace was passed down through generations, Master Xiang would touch it several times a day, and he remembered the exact amount and feel of it.

After thinking about it carefully, Elder Xiang realized that he rarely left the medicine furnace behind. A few days ago, when he went to another city to attend a TCM seminar, he put the medicine furnace in the safe in the TCM Association's office because he was worried. So it was only possible that it was switched at that time.

However, in order to mislead others, he always had his apprentice carry the small box that was usually used to store the medicine furnace, keeping it almost always on his person. How did that person know that the medicine furnace was not on him, and instead went to the Chinese Medicine Association to steal it?

He had just returned yesterday and had his apprentice put the medicine furnace in the car. He didn't touch it, so he didn't notice anything wrong with the amount of medicine in the furnace.

"Vice President Su, I have a favor to ask."

Old Xiang suddenly became formal and started saying a set of polite words.

Su Ya knew that Elder Xiang needed her help with something.

Since he was an elder, Su Ya quickly said, "Elder Xiang, you don't need to do this. Just tell me what's wrong. As a junior, I should help if I can."

"Vice President Su, I'm out of options and can't find anyone else. I wonder if you could help me find the medicine furnace?"

Su Ya looked at Elder Xiang with some difficulty. She hadn't expected that just coming to test a pill would mean being responsible for finding something for someone else.

She has many things to deal with right now. There are still no results regarding the medical research institute, no results regarding who forced Professor Hu to that point, and the mastermind behind the fighting arena has not been found.

If only Jensen were on her side.

But that's just a hypothetical.

She had to participate in the decision-making process for each and every matter, including the matter of becoming the group leader in the international competition. Su Ya believed that Elder Chi and the others would make the right choice.

Judging from Su Ya's expression, Elder Xiang knew that it was difficult for a junior like Su Ya to handle this matter. However, he couldn't find anyone else. Even if he called the police and waited for them to handle the matter and go through the proper procedures, he estimated that the medicine furnace would be lost forever.

He had heard many stories about Su Ya and witnessed her speed in solving cases on a variety show. If those weren't pre-prepared scripts, then he could only ask Vice President Su for help.

Is their family's centuries-old medicine furnace going to disappear in his hands?

Master Xiang was somewhat unwilling; he still wanted to pass on his skills to his apprentice and have him inherit his mantle.

Old Xiang let out a long sigh.

After a short while, he lost his previous demeanor, and an aged look crept onto his face.

Suya originally wanted to refuse.

But after hearing Elder Xiang's long sigh and seeing his appearance, he finally agreed.

So Su Ya asked, "Are you sure you carry this medicine cauldron with you all the time? For example, when you're in a meeting or going to the bathroom, do you take it with you?"

"To be honest, when I went to a meeting in another city a while ago, I said I had the medicine furnace on me. But actually, I didn't bring the medicine furnace with me. Instead, I put it in the safe in my office at the Chinese Medicine Association."

"Old Xiang, is this the safe you're talking about?"

"right."

"May I take a look at this safe?"

"Can."

The safe was located in a drawer under Mr. Xiang's desk. Su Ya examined it carefully and found no signs of damage, meaning the safe must have been opened with a combination lock.

Suya didn't even check if there was a combination on the safe, knowing that the combination had definitely been erased.

Based on this analysis, this person should know that Master Xiang liked to put the medicine furnace in a safe.

They also knew that he hadn't taken the medicine furnace with him when he left Kyoto this time.

So who is this person?

Su Ya glanced at Douya and saw that he was still in a daze. She guessed that he hadn't figured out what had happened yet, so she knew that he definitely hadn't done it. She also wondered why Elder Xiang had chosen him as his apprentice.

Su Ya suppressed her thoughts and went to find the security captain of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Association to check the surveillance footage.

However, they were told that the elders of the Chinese Medicine Association refused to install surveillance cameras because they were afraid of their privacy being violated and because entering the association required various facial recognition procedures.

In the end, Chairman Yan had no choice but to install surveillance cameras only at the main entrance of the Chinese Medicine Association, and not anywhere else.

Well, in this age of ubiquitous surveillance, the Chinese Medicine Association is truly a unique entity.

Finding the thief without surveillance footage would make things much more difficult.

"So how do you usually handle security?"

“We patrol manually, and we change shifts every two hours.”

"Could you please provide me with the surveillance footage from the entrance of the Chinese Medicine Association for the past month?"

"Sure, Vice President Su, I'll copy it for you right away."

Su Ya returned to Xiang Lao's room after receiving the copied surveillance footage.

The bean sprouts are gone.

Only Elder Xiang stared at the medicine stove on the table, utterly baffled as to how Su Ya had figured out that the stove had been switched.

As Su Ya was checking to make sure there was nothing she had missed, she heard Elder Xiang ask, "Vice President Su, how did you figure out that this medicine furnace had been switched?"

"Master Xiang, you may not know this, but there are very few medicine furnaces in our country. In order to ensure that the medicinal materials will not lose their medicinal properties when placed in a copper medicine furnace at high temperatures, and because copper was produced in very small quantities in ancient China, each dynasty had clear standards for the copper content in the manufacture of medicine furnaces."

This was the first time Mr. Xiang had heard such a statement.

“Look at your medicine furnace. If it were truly an heirloom passed down for hundreds of years, the copper would have decreased to some extent with years of use, and the furnace's color would have gradually deepened. But look at this furnace; the color is clearly artificially created later. This proves that the person who stole it didn't know that copper changes color at high temperatures. When the amount of copper decreases, the furnace's density changes at high temperatures, making it much lighter.”

Old Xiang looked like he was learning something.

"So I suspect that this person doesn't know anything about medicine furnaces at all, and just had someone make a replica. If I'm not mistaken, he probably sold this medicine furnace for money. I wonder if you, Elder Xiang, have any high-resolution photos of the medicine furnace here?"