Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The curiosity of every person on the scene was roused. Everyone wanted to know the secret of the ancient lotus pond. Hence, under the lead of the chief of the attraction, the workers took all the water pumps from the store and started to pump out the water in the lotus pond. The water pumps that the attraction used were old. When plugged in, they made rattling noises; there was a lot of movement. The water that was pumped out flowed into the drain. But there were only four water pumps in the attraction, and one didn’t work. Even when the three pumps worked together, it would require more than twenty hours to pump the pond dry. In order to speed it up, the chief called a related department for back up, and moved a few water pumps over.
“Oh…I understand now!” After the old worker set up the water pumps, he told Zhao Yu and the others, “There can be many water pumps, but there is only one water pipe, so when those people pumped the pond dry and wanted to pump the water back in, they didn’t manage to pump the water back to its original level, but the sun rose!
“If it were to restore it back to its original water level, the lotuses will return to their usual position, and we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference! But I don’t understand, this…what’s this for? There should only be mud under the lotus pond, right? During the renovation, I went down there. The mud was above my ankles, and I couldn’t even wear my shoes!”
Looking at the water in the lotus pond being pumped, while listening to the old worker speak, Zhao Yu creased his eyebrows and thought about the possibility of the worker’s interference! He wondered if the strange incident in the lotus pond was related to the Tomb Murder Case.
“Do the two of you want to lose your jobs? Mm?” On the other side of the pond, the chief was not letting the two guards off the hook. “The water in the pond was pumped dry, and the two of you didn’t know? You tell me, did the two of you fall asleep and die?”
Listening to the chief scolding them, Zhao Yu suddenly thought of something and came over to ask the guards a question. “The day you were on duty, did you drink any alcohol?”
“No!” One of the guards immediately replied, “I was just going to explain. I had just had a surgery to help my heart, and Liu is allergic to alcohol, so we wouldn’t dare to drink! Plus, we actually planned to patrol before we slept, but somehow, we fell asleep anyways. It was only about nine?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” The guard named Liu nodded quickly and said, “I was playing Anipop! I haven’t even finished the level when I fell asleep!”
“Huh?” Liang Huan and Zhao Yu were both shocked. Liang Huan’s eyes wide open when he asked Zhao Yu, “Maybe…they didn’t fall into a deep sleep by accident?”
“If so, the surveillance hard drive being changed would be explained!” Zhao Yu said. “Those people came in earlier to drug the guards. Then, they used the guards’ keys to open the door to the surveillance video room!”
“But, if they had already fainted, why not just turn off the surveillance videos? Or just delete them right after? Why did they have to change the hard drive?” Liang Huan was confused.
“They couldn’t!” The chief of the attraction heard and quickly explained, “The switch to the surveillance camera is linked up to the main switch. If they were to shut it off, the main switch would cut off all the electricity! They wouldn’t be able to use the water pump!”
“Mm!” Zhao Yu nodded. “I remember that after the videos on the surveillance hard drive were deleted, the police had ways to recover the data! Removing the hard drive would stop the surveillance control from working, and attract attention easily. So, they changed it with another hard disk!”
“Oh my God!” Liang Huan suddenly recalled something and took a deep breath. He told Zhao Yu, “If our prediction is correct, the method was too professional! This gang of people…maybe…it was really related to…”
Liang Huan wanted to say “Golden Buddha” but he was afraid that the other people would overhear him so he shut his mouth. Zhao Yu shared the same thought. Drug the guards, pump the lotus pond dry, change the surveillance video hard drive. If the water level hadn’t changed, it would have been the perfect crime and no one would ever know!
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“Is it that, the people that pumped out the water from the lotus pond are the grave robbers from the Tomb Murder Case?” Zhao Yu wondered. “If it was them, why did they come here for? Did they…did they really come to the ancient lotus pond to look for Golden Buddha? There weren’t any Golden Buddhas in the prefect’s tomb but only clues about the Golden Buddha? Then what’s underneath the lotus pond? And, if they were here, did they leave any other traces behind?”
Zhao Yu looked around again to observe the environment around the lotus pond, to look at the location of the cameras. But when he got up, he suddenly recalled that he had a tool—the invisible detector. The detector could detect electrical devices within a twenty-meter radius. “Why don’t I use one now and see if there are any clues left behind by the criminals?” he thought.
At that moment, Zhao Yu had two kinds of detectors. One was an invisible detector that only lasted for ten minutes, but its function was incredible. The other one was the invisible detector that lasted for ten days but it was not as strong. Zhao Yu thought it over and picked the one with the stronger function. When he activated it, not only could the detector clearly capture the surveillance cameras nearby, but he could even see the cellphones everyone was carrying.
After activating the detector, Zhao Yu started looking for clues around the lotus pond. As the lotus pond was an important place in the attraction, there were six surveillance cameras that covered almost every inch. But, unfortunately, the video from that night was a lost cause.
“Mm… Wait a minute…” Suddenly, Zhao Yu’s detector captured something. He looked carefully and realized that there was one camera that was different compared to the others.
“Huh?” Zhao Yu looked over into the woods. According to the detector, there was another set of surveillance equipment in the woods.
“This is… Oh…” Zhao Yu suddenly understood. It was the attraction staff office area in the woods. He didn’t know in whose office the indoor surveillance equipment was set up in. The equipment was connected via wifi, obviously using a different system than the other surveillance cameras.
Zhao Yu was thrilled. “If, on the night of the crime, that surveillance equipment was on, would it be able to capture anything?” he thought. He quickly dragged the chief with him and walked towards the office area. It turned out, the detector showed that it was the finance room that Accountant Wang walked out from earlier.
“Is there an independent surveillance control in this room?” Zhao Yu asked. He didn’t wait for an answer before he entered the room.
Accountant Wang quickly followed him and answered, “Yes! Yes! This is the finance room. We have a safe in here! But there are only documents in the safe, there’s no money. I checked it too! We didn’t lose anything!”
“What I meant was the surveillance camera!” Then he could see the camera without using the detector. But what made Zhao Yu disappointed was that although the camera was facing the window and could capture outside, the direction was wrong; it was on the left side of the lotus pond! In other words, even if the camera was on that night, it might not have been able to capture the situation next to the lotus pond.
“Oh yeah!” Accountant Wang jumped to her feet excitedly and said, “This camera is very advanced! The memory card space is huge, and it can save videos up to three months back, and it has night vision too. It is connected to my phone. I can find the surveillance videos from my cellphone!”
“Hurry up then.” The chief of the attraction urged her, “Hurry up and take a look!”
“It can’t be, right?” Liang Huan finally understood the problem and pointed at the camera. “You camera is pointed to the left window, it shouldn’t be able to see the lotus pond, right?”
“Oh…that’s true!” Everyone then realized the problem. They hung their heads, feeling disheartened.
“It’s okay!” Zhao Yu didn’t give up. “Regardless, just play the videos first! Maybe someone passed by the window?” Everyone thought that his point made sense, so Accountant Wang quickly found the video from that day. After the video played for a while, everyone saw a shocking scene on her cellphone!