The latest development is that the real culprit behind this is someone you and your master know...
Everyone was there in the rental house.
Cheng Sizhou sat on the short sofa with his back to the entrance, while the long sofa nearby was occupied by Zhou Han and Zhou Yitang. Wu Meng moved a chair with an armchair and sat opposite him. Xu Jiaxuan insisted on sitting next to him, half sitting and half standing, leaning on the armrest.
"Teacher Wen, you're here!" Zhou Yitang jumped up and waved at him, "I just said I was calling you!"
Everyone present was an acquaintance. Wen Zichuan took off his mask and said, "I heard the house was going to be demolished. I came to see if I had left anything behind."
As he spoke, he looked around and suddenly felt a little embarrassed. The living room was full and there was almost no place for him.
Zhou Han was perceptive and immediately noticed his discomfort. He quickly came over and said hello: "Teacher Xiao Wen, long time no see. Where have you moved to now?"
"Tianchen Lake." Wen Zichuan answered, glancing at Cheng Sizhou. He saw him sitting there calmly. He knew he was coming, but he didn't even turn his head.
"Great, you've become rich!" Zhou Han, intent on livening up the atmosphere, joked with him briefly, then pointed at the half of the sofa and said, "Stop standing there. Sit down. Why are you being so reserved in your own home?"
"Well, okay." Wen Zichuan saw Zhou Han move another chair next to Wu Meng, so he didn't say anything else and walked straight to the sofa.
Although his plan was to come and get something, everyone was there and something must have happened. Besides, it was somewhat inappropriate to rummage through drawers in front of two policemen.
Zhou Yitang was particularly considerate and moved his butt to the side, giving him the half closer to Cheng Sizhou, but it was not good for him to be close to anyone, so in the end he reluctantly sat in a middle position.
"Why are you all here?" Wen Zichuan asked.
The story behind this was certainly quite complicated, otherwise everyone wouldn't be gathered together. As everyone was pondering where to begin, Zhou Han adopted a serious tone, "Teacher Xiao Wen just got here and doesn't know the situation well, so let me explain."
For the police, the origin of everything was the car accident that fell off a cliff before New Year's Eve.
The accident was indeed caused by Wang Jian's illegal operation and the complex terrain of Longji Mountain. From the perspective of accident analysis alone, there was no doubt about the case itself, so the case was closed and announced as early as the end of March.
Wang Jian's body was claimed by Wei Jing's men in the name of Wei Xiaoming, cremated and buried; another survivor of the accident, Jiang Yunli, became a vegetable due to severe brain damage.
If we look at it from the human perspective, Wang Jian was a gambler and owed a huge gambling debt that he urgently needed to pay back, but the search and rescue team failed to find anything to prove his identity. The police checked his correspondence but found no records related to Longji Mountain or transportation. In addition, there was nothing wrong with Jiang Yunli tracing the flow of porcelain, but the timing was too unreasonable. Based on the purple gold glaze porcelain fragments brought back by the search and rescue team and a review of the files on the Millennium Girl Kidnapping case, Zhou Han speculated that the two cases were closely related.
"In theory, the two cases should be investigated together, but I temporarily accepted a job stationed in another place. It was not until I came back that I saw the original files of the kidnapping case." Zhou Han was not the main person in charge of the case. He used his connections and found a retired old leader for help, but even so, it took a lot of trouble.
Cheng Sizhou took over and continued, "The kidnappers not only demanded a million yuan in ransom, they also demanded the Lantern Festival's most valuable treasure, a purple-gold-glazed six-handled porcelain gui. The cultural relics couldn't be lost, so Master and his wife had no choice but to call the police."
"There's another record in the file," Zhou Han comforted Cheng Sizhou with his eyes. Given his current state, the fact he could say all this was already remarkable. "The police found the kidnappers in an old factory in the north of the city. The kidnappers blew themselves up, causing a series of explosions. After the fire was extinguished, a piece of unburned metal was found in the rubble. I can't take a photo of it, though, so I've just sketched a rough outline of it for you to see."
Among them, Cheng Sizhou was the one who knew the decorative patterns best. He stared at them for a while, frowned, and asked, "Are they letters?"
Xu Jiaxuan, standing by, couldn't wait to show off. He pulled out a photo and said, with a knowing air, "You're quite clever, aren't you? It's just the letters: D, E, S."
Because the house was to be demolished, Zhao Ya accidentally found a digital camera while packing up her things.
Digital cameras were rare in the millennium, and Xu Zhiqin spent a lot of money to buy one. He used this camera to capture a picture at the moment he climbed onto the windowsill and was knocked down by the kidnapper who jumped out of the window.
Xu Jiaxuan doesn't have deep feelings for Xu Zhiqin, and he is only focused on solving the case.
He found Wu Meng with the camera. Wu Meng was able to recharge the camera and even retrieve this photo. Although the picture was not very clear, it was recognizable that it was some kind of metal piece worn around the kidnapper's neck.
"DES?" Memories flooded back. Wen Zichuan had definitely seen this special arrangement of letters before. He turned his head and glanced at Zhou Yitang. If he remembered correctly, they had both seen it in the files left by Qin Zhihan.
Zhou Yitang understood what he meant and raised her mobile phone screen. On it was the chat box between her and Pinault. Before Wen Zichuan arrived, she had already sent a message to Pinault to confirm.
Pinault quickly sent a high-definition scan of the file. On the day of the auction of "Two Sheep in Pujiao", these three letters were on the promotional poster behind Wen Duo. If you look closely, even the cufflinks on his suit were designed with these three letters.
Wen Zichuan was a little dazed for a moment. He had been hoping for a lucky break before. Wen Duo had only revealed the news that there must be someone else who robbed the tomb and kidnapped and murdered people.
But the emergence of this evidence pointed perfectly to Wen Duo, so he was still deceived by his biological father, or he had been deceiving himself and would rather believe that Wen Duo was innocent so that he could be innocent.
"It's not Wen Duo." Cheng Sizhou gave the conclusion calmly.
"Is there any evidence?" Zhou Han asked.
"There are sacrificial vessels among the porcelain fragments found by the Longji Mountain search and rescue team." Cheng Sizhou raised his eyes and said.
When it comes to cultural relics, the other people present have no knowledge in this area and can only listen to him attentively.
"Mutao Town, located at the southern foot of Longji Mountain, was called Mutao Village in the 1990s. It originally had an ancient kiln site. Because of the unique minerals there, it produced a rich purple gold glaze. Purple gold glaze is not a mainstream color in porcelain, both ancient and modern. The small number of purple gold glaze porcelains currently in the Lantern Festival collection were mostly excavated from the ancient kiln site of Mutao Village."
From the day Wen Zichuan met Cheng Sizhou, he particularly liked listening to him talk about cultural relics. He always felt that there was an indescribable attraction that made him eager to listen.
He seemed to have forgotten for a moment that they had broken up, and asked casually: "And then?"
"Porcelain is a type of utensil suitable for both the nobility and the common people. Whether produced in official or private kilns, porcelain is mostly used as daily utensils, such as bowls, plates, and tea sets. They do not use high-standard patterns to reflect the status of the user. However, sacrificial and ritual vessels are different. They are usually presented to the emperor or ancestors, and their shapes and patterns are very different from those of daily utensils."
Zhou Yitang happened to learn this part in her history class. She let out a long "Oh" and said, "I understand. Just like only the emperor can wear dragon robes, if a commoner embroiders a dragon on his clothes, he will be beheaded!"
"The porcelain fragments the search and rescue team found were mostly purple-gold glazed, but they were so broken that we couldn't piece together a complete vessel. We could only infer from the remaining patterns that they were mixed with sacrificial or ritual vessels."
Wen Zichuan knew the past of Beiling Village, and now he understood everything. Most of the items unearthed from the ancient kiln site were daily utensils, and the place where sacrificial or ritual vessels should appear could only point to the ancient tomb of Beiling Village deep in Longji Mountain.
"The six-eared porcelain gui is a sacrificial vessel, and the broken porcelain pieces that fell from the truck were mixed with other sacrificial vessels. This proves that after the ancient tomb was robbed, the cultural relics not only flowed out, but also flowed in. Someone hid them, right?" He gave his own inference.
"Yes," Cheng Sizhou nodded, giving him an affirmative look. "The presence of sacrificial vessels indicates that the ancient tombs in Beiling Village are of relatively high standards. Of course, the fact that the villagers have been guarding the tombs for generations also proves this. At that time, if one could preside over the excavation of a high-standard ancient tomb or site, at least one could gain a firm foothold in the academic world."
Wen Zichuan lowered his head: "This is what Wen Duo wants."
Cheng Sizhou said, "So I don't think it was him. If he had foreign forces behind him, there would be no need to take some away and leave some behind. If he still had a conscience and thought he could come back one day, he wouldn't have let the most valuable pieces flow out of the country, and then left some mixed in with ordinary porcelain, hiding for twenty years."
Zhou Han pondered for a moment. "I don't really know much about cultural relics, but from your analysis, it's a bit like two groups of people robbing jewelry. The valuable ones are taken away by the powerful ones, and the less valuable ones are left to the timid ones. The timid ones, in turn, hide the treasures and dare not take action."
"Wen Duo has only come back once since he went abroad. Could he be selling cultural relics in China remotely?" Wen Zichuan felt relieved after receiving Cheng Sizhou's affirmation.
"He might have been able to find loopholes earlier, but it would be completely impossible in the past ten years." Zhou Han is the most qualified person to speak on the issue of investigating the infiltration of foreign forces.
Cheng Sizhou breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, if it weren't for the police's help, how could the mastermind not dare to sell it? And how could Master find clues during the transportation process?"
Having said that, the scope is actually very small.
The real mastermind behind this incident must first have access to the purple-gold-glazed porcelain unearthed from the ancient kiln site of Mutao Village, and reach some kind of agreement with foreign forces to allow them to take away a batch, and then secretly leave a batch behind, and then find other opportunities to quietly sell them over the next twenty years.
Another point is that when Mr. Jiang went to Longji Mountain, he had obviously found some clues, so the people behind the scenes couldn't wait to make a bait and lure him over.
It was the coldest time of the year, deep in the mountains and old forests. Even if Wang Jian had not violated any driving regulations, how could an old man over sixty years old return safely?
Therefore, this person was not only very familiar with Mr. Jiang, but also wanted to kill him from the very beginning.
Wen Zichuan saw the pain in Cheng Sizhou's eyes. He thought that he was heartbroken about what happened to Mr. Jiang, and when he thought of the possible identity of the mastermind behind the scenes, his beliefs had to face another collapse.
Zhou Han tried to ease the oppressive atmosphere. He stood up and walked over, holding Cheng Sizhou's shoulders. "Although the higher-ups don't want me to investigate further, I can't help but help you."
"That's right." Zhou Yitang raised his thumbs high, "You are worthy of being my dad. Dad is awesome!"
Cheng Sizhou held his hand tightly: "Thank you very much, Brother Zhou."
"Let's stop here for today," Zhou Han checked his watch, "I have some work to do at work, so I have to go."
"Dad, can you take me to my mom's place? I promised to pick her up from get off work today." Zhou Yitang quickly made his request since there was a car available.
When Zhou Han heard his ex-wife's name, his face instantly fell two levels, but he couldn't refuse his daughter's request: "Let's go, let's go, hurry up!"
After the father and daughter left, Wu Meng and Xu Jiaxuan felt embarrassed to stay any longer, so they said goodbye and left too.
So, only Cheng Sizhou and Wen Zichuan were left in the room.
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