Chapter 3393 — The Pattern of the Crimes
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"We do, we do!" Tang Taizhong said, and hurriedly turned to the Tang leader beside him. "Leader, go have the second and Yuyi go to the scene of the crime, and then bring me our distribution map!"
"Yes, Father," the Tang leader answered, and withdrew.
A short while later, the Tang leader returned with a distribution map of the hidden Tang family's holdings and spread it out on an empty table in the dining hall.
"Master Lin, look here." Tang Taizhong pointed to several holdings on the map. "These few have been robbed. This is Lihuan County, and this gold shop here is the one robbed today."
"Is there any record of the order in which these holdings were robbed? Mark them with numbers in sequence—let me see whether I can find the pattern behind the thieves' movements!" Wei Zhao said to Tang Taizhong.
Wei Zhao's words made Qiu Lingshan's eyes light up, and she could not help but regard him with admiration. This was, in fact, the very procedure she followed when solving cases; that Wei Zhao should be the one to say it came as something of a surprise to her.
Before this, although Qiu Lingshan admired the speed with which Wei Zhao solved cases, he had basically never followed proper procedure—as when he first tracked down those bank robbers, wandering about on the cliff for a while and then simply declaring where the kidnappers were.
It had been the same afterward, so Qiu Lingshan had assumed that Wei Zhao relied on some special ability of a cultivator to crack his cases. But today it seemed that Wei Zhao understood these investigative procedures quite well. Perhaps, with so few clues this time, he had begun to follow the normal process—whereas before, he had simply been certain enough to go straight for the suspect.
"Yes, yes!" Tang Taizhong hastily picked up a pen and began drawing on the map. But when he had finished, Wei Zhao's face was a mess of black lines.
It was a completely patternless series of crimes—here today, there tomorrow, with no route or rule to follow. Many of the crime scenes were poles apart. For the robbers, this was the most laborious way to commit robbery, yet it was also the most effective way to avoid lying in wait for them.
It seemed these thieves were not quite the fearless men they pretended to be—they still had their misgivings. But this, in turn, invisibly increased the difficulty for Wei Zhao and the others in solving the case.
"Lingshan, what do you make of it?" Wei Zhao was no professional, after all. Many of his methods were unusual, but when it came to armchair theorizing like this, he was somewhat at a loss.
"I cannot see any pattern for now. The Tang family's holdings are too scattered. Even where two are close together—look here, the thieves robbed this credit company, yet did not rob a communications warehouse only a kilometer away. That shows these men have a purpose: they take what they came for and go, and they will not strike twice in the same day," Qiu Lingshan said, pointing at the map.