Of course, it was impossible for the police to tell Lie Guoxiao any information, but they promised to investigate the case carefully. Lie Guoxiao led his men out of the Public Security Bureau angrily. He said to the subordinate next to him, "In ‘The Bund’ Feng Chengcheng said to Xu Wenqiang that it was better to find an opportunity yourself instead of waiting for one. The police wouldn’t be serious about helping me to find the paintings. You all go find some more helpers and find them for me!"

"Master Lie, but Long’an is so big..." His subordinate showed an expression indicating it was a very hard task.

"Pawn shop! I'm sure that the thief must be from a pawn shop. Check the pawn shops one by one, and no matter what methods are used, you must get my paintings back!" Lie Guoxiao said angrily. He thought about it, and added another sentence, “Contact Mr. Zhou for me!"

Looking at Lie Guoxiao leaving, Chen Shi said, "This old man wouldn’t cause trouble, right?"

Lin Qiupu said, "He can do as he pleases. The third team is collecting evidence of his crimes, hoping that he would take some action. The leader of the third team told me that Lie Guoxiao is related to several missing persons cases, and that those who disappeared are all those who had spent time with him."

At this time, Xu Xiaodong brought a man back and said, "Brother Chen, I’ve chased and brought this guy back."

The man who took care of the paintings was taken for questioning. Actually, he didn’t know anything. He used to do ancient calligraphy and painting restoration work. He was hired by Lie Guoxiao to take care of these paintings at a high salary. He had been working for three years. He knew how much Lie Guoxiao treasured these paintings. He regularly visited the place where the paintings were stored in a very low-key manner to appreciate his collection, often staying overnight. These hundreds of ancient paintings could be said to be his lifeblood.

So as soon as he walked in this afternoon and saw that the shelf was empty, he immediately panicked. His first reaction was to run away.

"Please don't disclose my whereabouts to Master Lie. I'm afraid he will send someone to make trouble for me." The man begged.

"I think you should take the initiative to explain the situation. As the guard, you discovered the loss and ran away as soon as possible. Didn't you just fall into the thief’s trap?" Chen Shi said.

"I can’t. I can’t. I have the biggest responsibility for the loss of the paintings. With Master Lie in a furious rage, I'm afraid I won't come to a good end. I'd better hide!" The man reasoned.

"Have you seen any suspicious people nearby recently? When making a phone call in the house, do you experience any electromagnetic interference? Are there any strange bright spots on the glass at night?" Chen Shi asked.

The man recalled for a moment and replied, "Everything is as before. Things really happened all at once. I still saw those paintings on the shelves yesterday."

"Did you unroll them to have a look yesterday?"

"I usually don't unroll them for viewing. The wear and tear on ancient paintings is irreversible. It’s best to avoid looking. I only looked at them for a while that night due to your request."

Chen Shi suddenly thought to himself that if the thief knew this piece of information, they could use some fakes to replace them. Until the next time Lie Guoxiao came to appreciate them, it wouldn’t be discovered that the paintings had been swapped.

Taking away all the paintings, and writing the provocative line on the wall shows that the thief doesn't care about being found out by Lie Guoxiao. They might already have a plan for the aftermath.

After asking the relevant questions, Lin Qiupu said that they should go to the scene to have a look. The group of them rushed to the scene and saw the empty house again. Chen Shi felt as though it had been a long time since he’d been there, although it was only a few hours since the crime happened.

No fingerprints could be found at the scene. The person taking care of the paintings usually wore gloves, and the footprints were only that of those of the police who had just come in and Lie Guoxiao's men who had hurried over immediately.

Chen Shi paced around the house, thinking about how he could have taken the paintings away if he was the thief. It was impossible for them to have disappeared into thin air. He thought of a possibility. "The thief doesn’t need to take the paintings away. They can rent a house in this building and move the paintings there. The most dangerous place is the safest place."

"If you’re sure, I will order people to check house to house." Lin Qiupu said.

Chen Shi furrowed his brows. He had no evidence and it seemed that doing so would have meant leaving down rental information. There would be hidden dangers as well.

At this time, his gaze fell on the drainage pipe in the corner. He walked over to inspect it. Lin Qiupu said, "Impossible. Who would transport the priceless paintings using the drainage pipe? Don’t tell me they were thrown into the pipe?"

"Get Old Peng to check it out and we’ll know."

Lin Qiupu thought for a while and agreed. Peng Sijue led his staff to check all the pipes in the house, and he unexpectedly found that a drainage pipe outside the window showed signs of having been pried open. There were scratches in the accumulated scum within the pipe.

Lin Qiupu looked through the window. The drainage pipe went straight down to the road below. He said, "Hurry up and ask the people around the area!"

The results of the investigation were surprising. According to the feedback from nearby residents, a worker did plumb the drainage pipe from below just now. The man was wearing a hat and his clothes were printed with the words "City Sewage". He connected a hose to the drain which passed into the vehicle parked next to it. He spent about ten minutes "unblocking" it.

Lin Qiupu couldn't help but shed cold sweat. "They really used the drainage pipe to transport the paintings."

"From this, it can be seen that the thieves are two people. One threw the paintings into the pipe from above, and the other received them below. The inner walls of these pipes are covered with scum and are very slippery. Putting a layer of plastic wrap on the old paintings could have protected them." Chen Shi said.

"Skilled and daring!" Lin Qiupu commented, and immediately called someone to check the surveillance footage nearby and look for witnesses. He glanced at the line on the wall again. "It's not that revenge wouldn’t be taken. The time wasn’t right yet." "Also, look for a handwriting appraisal expert to investigate this line of words!"

Lin Dongxue suggested, "Should we go to Taiyang pawn shop and question those two?"

Chen Shi shook his head. "If there’s no evidence, it's pointless to go. It's better to wait for clues to be found before confronting them."

"I think beating around the mountain to scare the tiger is not a bad idea."

"Beating around the mountain to scare the tiger?" Chen Shi secretly wondered if he could scare the two of them a little.

The police’s investigation started in an intensive manner, and the day passed by quickly. However, for the two people, it was as long as a century.

After nightfall, He Jingjing opened a secret compartment behind the bookcase. The dense array of things in it made her frightened and dazzled. Each painting was priceless. She couldn't believe that she had done it. Two nonentities plotted against the devil!

The plan had gone very smoothly, but she was still anxious. She took these paintings out, put them in a charcoal basin, and lit a lighter.

He Jun, who suddenly burst in, looked as though he had seen her strangling a child to death. His face turned pale with fright. He quickly grabbed the lighter and asked, "What are you doing? This one alone is enough to last us for a lifetime. How could you do that?!"

He Jingjing's eyes were decisive. "Yes, even one of them is enough to last us for a lifetime, so we don’t need so many. We should only keep three and burn the rest, so that they will never find them!"

"No, no, no, these are all unique and famous paintings!" He Jun was unable to make this painful decision. "Leaving three or leaving a hundred bears the same risk, and if the old man knows we destroyed the paintings, won’t he skin us alive?"

He Jingjing sneered, "After taking this step, do you still care about the risk of being discovered? Whether we’re discovered by him or by the police, we won’t survive."

"But as long as we get past this obstacle, we’ll be billionaires, and we can live comfortably for the rest of our lives!" He Jun was still optimistic, and it was these extremely rich returns that had supported him under the tremendous pressure all this while.