Chapter 47: Chapter 47 Identification Results, 5 More Provided by the Suspect
Mentioning the afternoon’s events, Huang Lixin’s face once again showed a look of indignation. "At that time, I and a few others kindly stepped forward to mediate, but neither party appreciated it, and those six young men even told us to scram! Sigh, we shouldn’t have meddled in this matter. Afterwards, one group didn’t want help, while the other insisted on helping; it was really strange. I even recorded a short video. Right, officer, what’s this about a robbery? I was fishing there all afternoon and didn’t see any robbery..."
As he spoke, Huang Lixin finally returned to his main point and proactively asked his question. Shen Dao listened intently, his expression brightening slightly. "You recorded a video? Can I see it?"
"Yes, it’s on my phone." Huang Lixin took out his phone from his pocket and played the video he had recorded in the afternoon. The content of the video captured the scene where Qin Mu repeatedly expressed his unwillingness, yet the other party forcibly moved the Ancient Wood.
It’s just... what puzzled him was that Qin Mu seemed to be doing it intentionally. He offered no resistance throughout the process. While verbally disagreeing, his feet voluntarily stepped off the Ancient Wood, allowing the other party to move the Ancient Wood "smoothly."
Seeing that Shen Dao didn’t say anything, Huang Lixin couldn’t help but ask again, "Officer, what exactly is going on here? I really didn’t see any robbery happening."
Shen Dao came to his senses. Pointing at the Ancient Wood in the video, he said solemnly, "This is a robbery."
"Isn’t this just a piece of wood?" Upon hearing this, Huang Lixin was taken aback, his face filled with confusion.
Shen Dao smiled and explained seriously, "Wood? This piece of wood is Ancient Wood, worth 2 million. The other party has already reported the case."
"What?" Huang Lixin’s eyes widened as he exclaimed involuntarily. It took him a while to recover.
As a fisherman, he naturally knew about Ancient Wood; he just hadn’t considered the piece he fished out today in that light. Now, thinking back on the attitudes of both groups at that time... it suddenly seemed worth reconsidering. No wonder one group didn’t want help and the other insisted on helping.
"Alright, the statement is finished. Thank you for your cooperation."
Subsequently, after finishing the witness’s statement, Shen Dao escorted the still bewildered Huang Lixin out of the police station. Then, he and his team started working overtime to organize the evidence for this case. The testimonies of Zheng Liang and the other five, Qin Mu’s statement, and the witness’s testimony and video were all complete. With all testimonial and physical evidence, along with the evidence chain, fully assembled, the case was now virtually ironclad.
「Jin City.」
In the courtyard of a nursing home, Zhang Qingyuan, Li Weiguo, and other elders were cooling down, waiting for news from the police station. Everyone’s mood was far from calm. Chess fanatic Zhang Qingyuan didn’t even try to draw Qin Mu into a game of chess, instead pacing restlessly back and forth in the courtyard.
Every so often, Zhang Qingyuan would look at Qin Mu and couldn’t help but voice his worries. "I say, Xiao Qin, are you sure the Ancient Wood can be returned?" he’d ask, or, "Why don’t you go to the police station to see if they’ve caught anyone?" and, "Can we really charge the other party with robbery?"
It wasn’t just him; even Li Weiguo, Song Tiancheng, and the other elders were restless. After all, this piece of Ancient Wood could be worth over a million!
"Don’t worry, we can definitely get it back!" Qin Mu confidently reassured Zhang Qingyuan and the others, explaining that he had recently taken the time to understand some legal issues. For instance, the crime of robbery is actually very simple to establish: it only requires acting against the person’s will and forcefully taking their property. Take this time, for example: he had repeatedly emphasized his refusal to be "helped," yet the other party, using the "force" of six people, had forcibly taken the Ancient Wood. The evidence was conclusive; there was no escaping the robbery charge.
Moreover, this case involved multiple perpetrators and was particularly heinous, qualifying as a group robbery. The stolen Ancient Wood was valued at over a million. This completely met the legal criteria for an "especially huge amount," carrying potential sentences from three to ten years. Among all those he had sent to prison, it was very likely... that Zheng Liang and the others were about to set a new record.
「Ten o’clock at night.」
Zhang Qingyuan and the others couldn’t fight off their drowsiness and were just about to head to bed when—DING-A-LING-A-LING!—Qin Mu’s phone suddenly rang.
The call was from Shen Dao. Having been busy all night, his tone sounded somewhat exhausted. "The robbers have been arrested, and the situation has been clarified. Your Ancient Wood... come to the police station tomorrow to claim it." After recounting the progress and handling of the case, Shen Dao hung up the phone.
Meanwhile, in the nursing home, a cheer of celebration erupted. The scene during the day had left them all simmering with frustration. Zheng Liang and his group had been aggressive, forcibly "scavenging" under the guise of helping them. They had finally received the punishment they deserved. In the past, when faced with such situations, they generally had to swallow their anger. Fortunately, Qin Mu had appeared and shown them that besides swallowing their anger, there was also the option of sending people to prison!
"Alright, alright, it’s late now. Go and rest," Qin Mu said, quite happy with the result.
「After everyone settled down for the night...」
He also returned to his own room. He then took out his phone and briefly checked his account status. After posting his first three videos, his follower count had already surpassed nine hundred thousand, and people were constantly urging him to upload new content.
I’ve got the material for the fourth episode; posting this should break the one million follower mark.
Qin Mu took a deep breath. He turned on the video recording function of his phone and started filming, facing the camera.
"Hello everyone, a lot of fans have been asking for updates, and today, I finally have the material for the fourth episode. You might know already; I’m volunteering at a nursing home, mainly responsible for various recreational activities for the elderly. Today, we went fishing in a rural water body..."
Facing the camera, he recounted the day’s events. "Actually, in the antique market, such instances of scavenging do happen from time to time, but the behavior of these six people was too overbearing, too aggressive..."
At this point, he inserted some short video clips Song Tiancheng had taken at the time. Actually, Song Tiancheng, anticipating trouble, had surreptitiously recorded the Ancient Wood with his phone right after it was identified. There was also a short clip of Zheng Liang and the others forcibly moving the Ancient Wood. Of course, to protect their privacy, he had pixelated their faces. This was followed by his police report receipt and the official notice of the police accepting the case.
"Just now, I received a message from the police that the six individuals involved have been arrested and are currently in custody. They will soon be prosecuted by the public prosecutor’s office. The main perpetrator is likely to be sentenced to around ten years, and the accomplices to around six years." These details had all just been conveyed by Shen Dao over the phone.
The reason for such heavy sentences primarily stemmed from the appraisal: the Ancient Wood was valued at an astonishing two million yuan, classifying it as an "especially huge amount"—the kind that hits the maximum sentencing threshold.
He was somewhat surprised by this, because in just half a day, Shen Dao and his team had already managed to get an appraisal for the "stolen property." It was incredibly swift.
As it turned out, Shen Dao informed him that the suspects themselves had provided this appraisal.