Lin Qiupu woke up very early and went to the office. He cleaned his table first. Good hygiene was the first step to improving work efficiency. This has always been his view.

He looked at all the current documents and materials belonging to the case and went to the conference room to prepare for the morning case discussion.

This meeting room was also Song Lang's favorite. He stayed in it most of the time, staring at the whiteboard full of photos, or standing by the window smoking. He sometimes even lay on the meeting table.

Song Lang didn't like sitting in the office. He liked to think in open places. He rarely investigated the case in person. He assigned the tasks to everyone carefully. The clues that everyone found were gathered together, and his genius brain would organize it, removing falsehoods and keeping the truth. Finally, he’d be able to draw out one surprising truth after another.

The past was vivid in his mind. Lin Qiupu faced the window and sighed. He suddenly heard a crunching sound. When he looked back, he was nearly startled. It turned out that Chen Shi was sitting by the door eating scallion pancakes.

"Why are you here?!" Lin Qiupu was shocked, "Didn't you say you weren’t going to participate in this case?"

"I'm here to get the bonus for the last case. Give me the money quickly. I have to go to the seafood market to buy fish for Yueyue in the morning. She’s about to take the junior high school exam and her brain needs nourishment."

Lin Qiupu had forgotten this. Every time a case was solved, the second team would hold a small commendation meeting, but Chen Shi rarely participated. He would always come to ask for his bonus after the case was settled.

Lin Qiupu put down the documents in his hands and went to the office to get an envelope with money in it. When he came back, Chen Shi was reading the case file.

"Do you have any opinions about it?" Lin Qiupu asked.

"There’s a problem with the witness."

"Surely that guy doesn't need to lie? He was the one who reported the case."

"There are two types of lying. One is intentional and the other is unintentional." Chen Shi stood up and picked up an ashtray. "He said he saw the murderer hit the deceased's head repeatedly with the ashtray, right?"

"That's what he said."

"The deceased was lying on the ground at the time and the murderer was standing, right?"

"Mm."

Chen Shi handed over the ashtray. "You try it out and see how awkward this action is."

Lin Qiupu thought for a moment. This was indeed a suspicious point. The ashtray doesn’t increase the length of his arms much. Even if the assailant's arms were long, it would be difficult to stand up and hit the head of a person lying down with the ashtray. To hit someone’s head with the ashtray, the other party must be sitting or standing, or the assailant would have had to bend down.

Lin Qiupu said, "Maybe the deceased had been sitting on a chair previously and fell to the ground after being hit by the murderer a few times. The employee happened to witness this scene, so his brain made up the murder process."

"What his brain added was not only the murder process, but also the characteristics of the murderer. He’s so sure that the murderer is Liu Feng, because Liu Feng had been there during the day. The two testimonies have many similarities, like copies of the same scene. I think this man’s memory has been contaminated. He treats what he saw during the day as what happened at night."

Lin Qiupu mumbled, "No matter how unreliable people's memory is, it's certain that the employee did witness the murder."

"The lights weren't turned on at the time. It was so dark, so how much truth did he see... Did he witness the process of the murder or the aftermath of the murder? Was this person really accidentally seen, or did he deliberately let the employee spot him?"

"Deliberately? You mean, he let himself be deliberately seen while pretending to be Liu Feng in order to frame Liu Feng?"

"This is my take on it. You know I always like to think about things in a complicated way." Chen Shi was actually very humble this time. "Great Captain Lin, you should carefully consider this!"

Lin Qiupu pondered while pacing up and down. "Framing? I considered this as well… Don't leave yet. Wait until the morning meeting is over, and you can leave after the discussion."

"I shall respectfully comply." Chen Shi sat back down and continued eating his scallion pancakes. Looking at the greasy pancakes in his hand, Lin Qiupu thought about how Song Lang never ate this kind of food. He only liked to eat rich and heavy foods such as sweet and sour pork ribs.

At 8:00, everyone arrived at the conference room. Lin Qiupu explained the clues they’ve gained so far, as well as the questionable point that Chen Shi had discovered. "... Although this case seems to be solved, there are still doubts. We can only close the case when we’re 100% sure."

"Not to mention that night, Liu Feng had gone to find Boss Shen during the day. It must have been the order of this underworld boss!" Old Zhang said.

"Definitely, otherwise Lie Guoxiao wouldn’t ask him to surrender." Another policeman said.

Chen Shi said, "These gangsters are very loyal. He’s pleaded guilty now, but he can just reverse his confession or find a good lawyer. Even if he does go to jail, he won’t betray his master."

Lin Dongxue said, "I went to meet Boss Wei from the auction house yesterday. He said Boss Shen had planned to sell this "Mountain Residence XX Picture" and hoped to arrange the auction as soon as possible. He was willing to give the auction house a 40% commission."

"Could it be that Boss Shen had a devious plot to sell the painting that Lie Guoxiao had pawned? This man was so courageous!"

"How much is this painting worth?"

Lin Dongxue stated the last transaction price of this painting, and everyone present couldn’t help but be surprised. Lin Qiupu went on to say, "Lie Guoxiao only pawned the painting for 500,000 yuan, which is dozens of times lower than the true value of this painting. It seems that he didn't want to pawn the painting, but he needed money urgently. Boss Shen secretly wanted to sell the painting. Did Lie Guoxiao find out about it and sent Liu Feng to teach him a lesson?"

Lin Qiupu thought about the case seven years ago. Lie Guoxiao had also pawned a painting and then redeemed it a few days later. Seven years ago and seven years later, he had one thing he couldn’t understand. Why was this old man suddenly short of money and why did he choose to use something easily damaged like ancient paintings to exchange for money?

Was there some mystery behind this?

For reference, Lin Qiupu recounted what had happened seven years ago. After he finished, he looked around the faces and found that Chen Shi was tapping on the table with his fingers again continuously.

Chen Shi's fingers stopped. He raised his head and his eyes lighted up. "Everyone, I have a bold guess. This was actually a lowkey means of blackmail. Captain Lin had just talked about the case seven years ago. Boss He from the pawn shop where Lie Guoxiao had pawned his painting just happened to have an identical counterfeit in his hands. I think it was actually the other way round. The only thing Lie Guoxiao took to the store was the counterfeit. He relied on his own power to call the deer a horse.[1] When he said that the counterfeit is a genuine product and left it behind, when the item is redeemed, it must also be the genuine product. What could the cowardly and helpless pawn shop owners do?"

Everyone was dumbfounded. Chen Shi said slowly, "They could only accept their misfortune and offer up the genuine products from their own collection!"

1. People cannot do anything but agree to whatever he says due to his immense power, for fear of consequences.