Yin Hu said, "Mr. Zi Shu had promised me that after everyone placed their bids, he would give me another chance. That was why I went to find him. But when that time came, no matter how I knocked on the door, he was unwilling to open it. I thought he had gone back on his word, so I had no choice but to leave."
Jian Jing understood, but asked Hai Zhu, "What about you?"
Hai Zhu gave a fake cough twice, then cursed at Yin Hu, "I knew this guy is petty. He stares at our country's treasure all day long. I, I was thinking of buying it for myself. It's better than letting outsiders buy it."
He acted shamelessly, like a dead pig not afraid of boiling water.
"So this was why both of you went to find him after 10 p.m.," Jian Jing summarized their motives. "Gentlemen, the case has reached an impasse."
She held up her fingers, "Yin Hu is the most suspicious, but since he entered the room, it proves the deal with Zi Shu was completed. There is no convincing motive. Hai Zhu's whereabouts are questionable, but the locked room cannot truly eliminate suspicion—for example, when Yin Hu arrived, the door may have indeed been locked, just that it was Zi Shu who did it. After committing murder, Hai Zhu locked it again to delay discovery of the corpse."
As a mystery novelist, when it came to the classic locked room, she couldn't help but elaborate extensively before reluctantly concluding, "To find the real murderer, we need more clues."
The suspects: "..."
Letting a novelist explain the case really kills the suspense.
"Effort brings reward," Jian Jing naturally resolved the ending after building up enough suspense. "I accidentally found a clue. Look at this, everyone."
She patted the bronze sheep head on the table.
Wei Yang asked, "What's on it? A partial fingerprint? Bloodstain? Or fur?"
As an experienced reader, that was his first question.
But unfortunately, Jian Jing said, "None of those. Elder Shen Hou, please take a look. Does this bronze head have any issues?"
Shen Hou did not understand her intention. He put on his presbyopic glasses and gloves to carefully examine it. At first, there was only puzzlement on his face, but as he looked, hesitation and frown lines appeared.
"What do you think?" Jian Jing asked.
Shen Hou weighed his words, "Hard to say. It seems... I can't put it into words. We need to use instruments to check, that would be best."
"You mean it looks slightly different from the one you saw before, right?" Jian Jing asked.
Shen Hou knitted his white brows, not daring to nod nor able to shake his head.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Chen Long was shocked. "How can the bronze head be different?"
Jian Jing calmly said, "It's simple. This bronze head is fake."
It was only after seeing the actual item that she realized something was wrong.
After using the appraisal skill, a special tag would float above the bronze head in her vision, similar to a game item cursor. It read [Yuanmingyuan Twelve Bronze Animal Heads - Sheep Head].
But the fake one did not have that tag.
"Fake?!"
"What?!"
"Who did it?!"
The guests exploded, even more shocked than when the Golden Scepter was swapped earlier. Their fiery gazes turned towards the master thieves in the room.
Xu Gou had no choice but to deny it directly, "It wasn't us."
"I figured. On the night of the incident after 10 p.m., all artifacts were locked in the safe. They had to swap out the Golden Scepter before 10 p.m., and stealing artifacts is difficult. Stealing one shows their 'brilliant skills', stealing two would be too outrageous." Jian Jing said, "But we can use the same logic - the bronze head was swapped before 10 p.m."
Xu Gou nitpicked, "Why can't it be the thief who took it?"
"Because that person's goal was to lure out the seller. The high-quality fake serves no purpose for a swap. If I guessed wrong and their goal was the bronze head, then leaving the fake behind to cause a false alarm aligns with self interest."
Jian Jing analyzed all possibilities in detail and concluded, "Relatively speaking, the bronze head being swapped before 10 p.m. is the most reasonable inference."
Shen Hou asked, "Who did it?"
"Who do you think is capable of this?" Jian Jing asked back.
Shen Hou considered for a while, staring at Tina, "Was it one of Zi Shu's subordinates? The one we saw earlier should have been real, then got swapped afterwards."
"It wasn't us," Tina suffered unjust accusation and loudly proclaimed her grievance, "I don't know anything."
Jian Jing made a gesture for her to calm down, "The artifacts remained untouched until monitoring was removed right before the auction—although I feel Xu Gou and Wu Ma can do that. When they stole the safe, they covered up some monitoring footage right? Don't hurry to deny it. I'm certain one segment was duplicated with a mosquito appearing in the exact same spot—but there were still security and inspection devices outside then. It would have been impossible to smuggle items in."
You Ji asked, "Then who was it... Don't tell me..." The white-haired old woman had a thought and boldly guessed, "Zi Shu?"
"I cannot find a more reasonable answer," Jian Jing said. "Only Zi Shu could easily open the safe and swap the two heads. Also, only he can forge a replica down to the last detail in weight and size. Isn't that right?"
Shen Hou took a deep breath in anger, "Why would he do this? Has he lost his mind?!"
Jian Jing fell silent for a while and sighed, "What comes next is purely my personal conjecture. Please listen with an open mind."
"Go ahead," Si She said.
She glanced at him and smiled, "I think Zi Shu's death and the bronze head swap were planned by him, for the purpose of keeping the head instead of letting it fall into outside hands again.
"I learned from Mr. Gu that Zi Shu didn't have long left to live. Perhaps nearing his end, he wanted to atone for past mistakes, or perhaps, he never forgot his identity, the same as everyone present - he too wished deeply to regain the bronze head and erase humiliation.
"However, the price was too high. He didn't have much savings left after family troubles dissipated his fortune. And paying pure cash makes it harder to redeem the other heads in future. Hence he thought of a makeshift plan, designing an unsolvable case to make the truth permanently obscure.
"This explains the eccentric auction process - the many obstacles were actually for him to switch the heads conveniently.
"But he didn't know the seller's identity, nor was certain if someone like Elder Shen Hou could discern genuine versus fake. To be prudent, it was best to act after the auction. And of course, a bizarre homicide not only needed a corpse, but also suspects for him to prepare two candidates."
Jian Jing pointed at Yin Hu and Hai Zhu, "Their purchase desire was strong enough to bribe, possessing sufficient motive to kill. Meanwhile, it also avenges their attempt to buy national treasure - killing two birds with one stone."
The two men's faces fluctuated between green and pale, quite a sight.
"I believe he gave you a timeframe, but wasn't sure if you'd come early, so the locked room was created—he locked the door and went to Room 2 to swap the bronze head. Due to special access settings, he wouldn't run into anyone on the way. With the great task done, he went back to the auction room, burned the sales slip, locked the door again to manufacture a classic locked room scenario."
She paused slightly, "Then, he picked up the fruit knife, walked over to the preset location, and stabbed himself in the heart. Yes, fingerprints would remain on the dagger, but people would only think it was deliberately left. Meanwhile, he faked being assaulted and crying for help."
"The locked room homicide was thus completed - containing suspects with motives to kill. Even if the seller realized the bronze head was fake, they would only suspect the living, unable to imagine a dead man plotted it all." Jian Jing said, "This concludes my investigation. I hope everyone finds it satisfactory."
Dead silence filled the room.
The people had varied expressions, some pensive, some sighing, some greatly relieved.
She looked around and exited the stage.
Chen Long called for her to stop, "Wait, what about the real bronze head? Where did he hide it?"
Jian Jing solemnly said, "I don't know, perhaps it sank to the seafloor."
"No matter what you say, this is my private property. I commissioned Zimus to auction it, but he stole all my belongings instead. You must give me an explanation," Chen Long stared at Mr. Gu coldly, "Otherwise, I will definitely sue you."
Mr. Gu was neither humble nor overbearing: "You can ask the lawyers and insurance companies. If you want us to compensate, I will handle it on your behalf. However, my uncle did not leave much in his inheritance, just enough to rent this luxury yacht, so I'm afraid there may not be much money to pay out."
Chen Long's temples throbbed violently: "Are you trying to avoid paying?"
"I'm afraid so," Mr. Gu answered perfunctorily.
Chen Long threatened: "When we get to shore, I will definitely contact the embassy."
"You're clearly not Chinese. Hmm, you don't look much like Yin Hu either, are you Korean?" asked Jian Jing curiously.
Chen Long: "That's none of your business."
"You should thank me. Without me, you wouldn't know anything," Jian Jing said. "International lawsuits are very difficult to fight, especially with such complicated historical reasons. Anyway, you were going to sell it, so how about this: I'll give you 100 million yuan, you give up ownership of the Bronze Sheep Head, what do you think?"
Chen Long: "The Bronze Sheep Head is worth more than that."
"Then you can dive into the ocean to salvage it if you want. Oh yes, Xu Gou, I actually don't have evidence that the letter of authorization isn't yours. So how about 100 million yuan for you to take, and you transfer ownership to me?" Jian Jing asked.
Xu Gou's eyes glinted as he thought quickly. "100 million U.S. dollars? British pounds? Euros?"
"Chinese yuan," she said placidly. "Hurry up and decide, we can finish the transaction before the ship docks, otherwise we won't be able to make deals from jail."
Xu Gou and Wu Ma exchanged glances, then suddenly laughed. "Deal. I'll go get the letter of authorization. You guys wait here." He turned around, but instead of getting the letter, he took several smoke grenades out of his bag and fiercely threw them out.
The acrid smoke exploded, causing mucus to drip uncontrollably from noses and leaving everyone unable to move.
She and Wu Ma rushed out the door at the same time, then turned back to block it closed.
Too late.
Wu Ma suddenly felt something crash into his chest. He fell backwards from the huge impact, landing on his tailbone which sent piercing pain up his spine.
Xu Gou didn't fare much better. He saw a figure flash out of the white smoke and immediately put him in an arm lock, pressing him hard against the ground without a word.
Jian Jing had escaped the scene thanks to her immunity boost, but she couldn't avoid having her eyes and nose streaming. She covered her mouth and nose with tissues and croaked sarcastically, "Not bad stamina, still breathing huh?"
Si She's deafening coughs answered her.
With the escape attempt foiled, the thieves were locked away in the dark room.
Jian Jing found the letter of authorization on Xu Gou and pressed Chen Long, "80 million, are you going to sign or not? If not, I'm taking it away and you can dive for it yourself."
Chen Long: "Wasn't it 100 million?"
"Market price changed," she said evenly. "Now, 50 million."
Chen Long changed color. "Too low."
"If you don't sign then don't sign. This letter is evidence that I'll have to hand over to the police later," she said slowly as she tidied up. "You and Mr. Gu can slowly fight this lawsuit."
"I can't go lower than 80 million," Chen Long said through gritted teeth.
"70 million, that's the market price," said Jian Jing. "You know I'm not deceiving you. Qing dynasty antiques are worth about that much at most. How much is copper really worth?"
Chen Long took a deep breath and cursed his bad luck. "Fine, but I have one condition."
"What condition?"
"I want to search your room," he said coldly. "To confirm the item isn't there before I sign anything."
Just now, he had thought about it carefully. They had thoroughly searched everywhere for the fake bronze artifact earlier, except the guests' cabins. If the artifact was still on the ship, it must be with Jian Jing, who realized the truth first.
She made an exaggerated expression. "You think I secretly hid it? Fine, go ahead and look as you please."
Chen Long searched every nook and cranny, but the room was small to begin with. The only furniture was a bed, dresser, and closet. The bathroom was in plain view with no space to hide anything.
As for her luggage, she only had a small 20-inch carry-on that couldn't fit the huge artifact.
"Fine," he said resentfully. "70 million, not a cent less."
Jian Jing shrugged. "Mr. Gu, would you help witness this?"
So, under the witness of professionals, the two parties signed the documents with Jian Jing exchanging ownership rights of the Bronze Sheep Head for 70 million Chinese yuan.
In other words, the artifact was now ownerless.
This ending was neither good nor bad. The guests sighed and it was time to disembark.
Before leaving, Shen Hou said to Jian Jing: "Since you spent this money, let me and some friends get together to try salvaging it from the ocean later."
Jian Jing smiled and said, "Maybe Mr. Zimus had already arranged for someone to retrieve it. It might just show up by itself after a while."
Shen Hou froze for a moment, then suddenly felt regretful. "If that's really the case, then I wronged him."
"People only realize certain things when they're about to die," she said.
"You're so wise beyond your years, young lady," laughed You Ji. "It can't have been easy for a famous author like you to take out 70 million yuan all at once."
Jian Jing: "......" Tell me about it, all my pocket money is gone.
"Good deeds will be rewarded," said the old woman with a wave of her hand. She calmly disembarked, "Old Hou, let's go for tea, it's been years since I was last here. I'll have to stay a few extra days this time."
Jian Jing watched them leave.
The next to depart was Wei Yang. She handed Jian Jing her business card, "Miss Author, contact me if you need anything. Let me know what you want and I'll keep an eye out for you."
Jian Jing: "......" Does everyone know who I am? What's the point of using code names?
After that, Chou Niu, Yin Hu, and Hai Zhu left one by one, looking unhappy. They hurried off the ship without noticing her on the deck.
The last to leave was Si She. He was carrying a briefcase and had just climbed onto the gangway when he felt something press against his back.
