Datang: Hiding private money, exposed by Xiao Sizi

Who would go and pick up shit? That's crazy!
Shen Lian shrugged and said, "From your expressions, I know that it is definitely a perfect hiding place. Just put the relic in a bag filled with water, tie a rope, and throw it into the septic tank. No one will find it."

“When you want to take it away, it’s easy.”

Deyuan frowned and said, "So the thief hid the relic in the septic tank?"

Shen Lian shook his head: "No."

"First of all, the septic tank is a very special place. Ordinary people will never get close to it. So if someone often goes in and out of the septic tank, it is inevitable that people will think there is something wrong."

"Secondly, I went to the septic tank today and asked the person who was looking after it if anyone had been there in the past few days, but I was told that no one had been there."

"So... this most suitable hiding place has been ruled out!"

"Although there is absolutely no problem in hiding the relic, it is obvious that the thief has a more suitable place to hide. It will not be discovered and will not attract anyone's attention. It is a perfect place."

"Where?" Deyuan asked hurriedly.

Everyone else also looked at Shen Lian.

Although they didn't say it, they had already begun to admire Shen Lian.

Because whether it was the bottom of the well or the septic tank, they were places they had never searched!

Shen Lian had only been here for less than a day, but he not only found these places, but also ruled them out... This ability was truly astonishing.

Shen Lian just mentioned three hiding places. If the first two are ruled out, then there is only one left.

So... this third place is definitely where the relics are hidden.

So where is this third place?
What exactly is that place, or what they have overlooked?
Everyone looked at Shen Lian expectantly.

Shen Lian didn't look at them. His eyes were on the abbot Dezhi who was turning the Buddhist beads and chanting Buddhist scriptures.

Shen Lian took a deep breath and said slowly: "This third place is a place where you wouldn't dare to check even if I gave you the courage! Even if I let you check, you think it's definitely not a place where he would hide!"

"This place is..."

Shen Lian said calmly: "Master Abbot's Zen room!"

With a snap, the string of the Buddhist beads that Dezhi was spinning suddenly broke.

More than a dozen Buddhist beads fell directly to the ground, jumping continuously and running everywhere.

At this moment, all the monks in the hall widened their eyes and subconsciously stared at Abbot Dezhi.

At this moment, they were no longer so angry.

Because Shen Lian has used his terrifying strength, and they have unknowingly begun to believe him and stand on his side...

Candles were burning in the hall, and suddenly a gust of wind blew, causing the flames to flicker.

The flickering flames illuminated the three Buddha statues in varying degrees of brightness. Suddenly they were as bright as if covered in golden light, and suddenly they were as dark as the demons from hell.

Between good and evil, between Buddha and devil, perhaps it is just a matter of one thought.

The monks in the hall all stared at the abbot Dezhi with wide eyes, and their faces had very complicated expressions.

Subjectively, they naturally trusted Dezhi. They did not believe that their abbot would steal the precious relics that belonged to their temple.

However, the terrifying ability that Shen Lian had just demonstrated made them trust Qin Zulai unknowingly.

So now, their hearts are very complicated and contradictory.

On the one hand, he was unwilling to believe Shen Lian.

On the other hand, he trusts Shen Lian.

The complexity of his mind is just like the Buddha's mind.

Even Deyuan, the head of the Dharma Academy and the second most important person in the Huasheng Temple, couldn't help but look at Dezhi at this moment: "Brother, this... is this true?"

The Buddhist beads that fell to the ground stopped beating. The black beads were hidden in the darkness and could no longer be found.

Dezhi closed his eyes and did not answer Deyuan's words. He just whispered to himself: "Amitabha."

Shen Lian glanced at Dezhi, chuckled, and didn't care.

Don’t these monks just like to play mysterious games?

Then let the bright sunlight illuminate everything, so that you don't have the chance to be mysterious.

"Dezhi is the abbot of Huasheng Temple, and he arranged all of you and the mission, so..."

Shen Lian looked at the monks and said, "He probably didn't arrange for anyone to search his meditation room, did he? Or, even if he did, you all subconsciously thought that he would never be there, so you never searched it, right?"

When the monks heard this, they looked at each other.

Then they all shook their heads.

It was obvious that although Shen Lian had not seen the scene with his own eyes, he had guessed everything correctly.

It feels as if everything that happened in the past few days was under Shen Lian's surveillance.

At this moment, Jie Cheng, who had followed Shen Lian for a day, couldn't help but be stunned.

The whole person was shocked to the extreme.

He stared at Shen Lian with wide eyes and said, "Lord Shen, this... all these were discovered by you just wandering around like that this day?"

Shen Lian looked at Jie Cheng helplessly. He felt that this little monk had some misunderstandings about him.

He said: "Jiecheng, to you, it is just meaningless wandering, but to me, Shen, it is a field survey over and over again."

"It seems like I am walking around casually, but in fact I have been secretly observing the behavior of everyone in your temple. Then I, Shen, discovered that no one has ever entered the abbot's meditation room."

"Later, I chatted with you. Someone asked you about the Zen room you were in charge of. You said that you liked quiet time studying Buddhism and didn't like being disturbed. So, if there was nothing going on, no one would go to your Zen room."

"Even cleaning is done by the host himself... You may not mean to say these words, but they are an important clue to me."

"By the way, haven't you heard this little tune?"

Shen Lian coughed and sang: "Some careless words solved my doubts. An inexplicable impulse told me to continue pursuing. I paid extra attention to your every move. As long as the truth comes out, everything, everything will be clear in my heart~~"

Shen Lian sang loudly.

A group of monks: "..."

Xu Gou couldn't help but raise his hands to cover his face, feeling a little embarrassed.

What's wrong with my young master today?

I just celebrated the Qiqiao Festival with the young lady last night. I became so free and easy now. Why are you singing again?

But you know what, it's really quite nice to listen to, and the flavor is different from the songs in brothels.

However, Di Renjie's eyes were shining with excitement. He felt that this song of his mentor was full of criminal investigation truth.

Shen Lian saw that everyone was looking at him in amazement, and even his old face turned a little red.

This song is so catchy that I started singing it accidentally.

You can't do this anymore.

He coughed, looked at the confused Jie Cheng, and said, "So, I, Shen, am actually working hard to solve the case, but you just don't know it."

When Jie Cheng heard Shen Lian's words, he recalled his misunderstanding of Lord Shen that day and suddenly felt very guilty.

"Master Shen, I have wronged you." Jie Cheng admitted his mistake seriously.

Shen Lian waved his hand magnanimously. Other people's opinions had never been their business.

He looked at everyone again and said, "In summary, the abbot's meditation room is the only place where the relic can be hidden without being discovered or suspected by anyone."

"As I just said, the thief hid in the main hall after stealing the relic, so he had to come here to take the relic away later..." "But the main hall was hit by martial law after the relic was lost. Normally, you can't easily enter or leave here... Of course, quite a few of you have come in and out in the past few days, but that was when there were many of you together."

"And if the thief wants to take the relic, he must do it when no one is around, otherwise it will be easy to be exposed. So... you can think about who can come in and out of here alone in the past few days without being suspected or considered problematic."

"I think……"

Shen Lian looked around at everyone, then looked at Dezhi and Deyuan, and said, "Except for Dezhi and Deyuan, no one else has this right, right?"

Deyuan shook his head: "Although I can come and go as I please, I have to deal with matters of all sizes in the temple, so I don't have the opportunity to come here alone."

Shen Lian smiled and said, "That's even more obvious."

He looked at Dezhi and said, "When I came here in the morning, only Master Dezhi was here to worship Buddha, so it is obvious that Master Dezhi often comes in and out here alone."

"And this can also reversely verify my previous speculation!"

Shen Lian said: "Abbot Dezhi, now that things have come to this, don't you think you should say something?"

After listening to Shen Lian's inference, the monks looked at Dezhi with a different expression from before.

I was a little reluctant to believe it before.

But now, trust in Shen Lian has overwhelmed his unwillingness to believe in Dezhi.

No matter how emotional you are.

But it couldn't withstand the pressure of the overwhelming evidence!

"What you said is wrong!"

At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded.

When everyone looked, they saw Jie Zhi standing up again.

He looked at Shen Lian with a bad look and said, "Sir Shen, your previous inference is reasonable, but Sir Qin seems to have forgotten one thing."

"You have already deduced this before. You said that when the crime happened, the thief was hiding on the beam. But when the crime happened... the abbot was in the woodshed putting out the fire!"

"And when we heard the noise later, it was the abbot who led us there. Everyone saw it with their own eyes, so this completely conflicts with your previous inference. Your inference is obviously wrong!"

When everyone heard Jie Zhi's words, they thought about it in their hearts.

It’s true!

It was indeed the abbot who led them when they were putting out the fire.

Then, the abbot would definitely not be able to hide on the beams of the main hall.

So... the thief is not the abbot at all?
They couldn't help but whisper to each other, and looked at Shen Lian with confusion.

Di Renjie also looked at his mentor at this time.

In fact, he had discovered this conflict a long time ago, but he believed that since he could discover it, Enshi must have discovered it as well.

But even so, my teacher is still so confident, which means that he must have a way to explain it.

So he was not panicked at all, he just wanted to see what his mentor had to say.

Shen Lian once again became the focus of attention.

"This is very simple."

Shen Lian faced everyone's puzzled gazes, with that calm and confident smile on his face, as if he was in control of everything.

The corners of his mouth slightly raised, and he said with a half-smile: "That's because the person hiding here at that time was you...Jie Zhi!!"

"In other words, the person who committed this theft was not just one person. There were two thieves. One was Dezhi, and the other... was you!"

"What!?"

"Two thieves?"

"Jie Zhi too?"

"This……"

When everyone heard Shen Lian's words, they were all stunned.

They were suddenly shocked.

Everyone's face changed instantly.

Looking at Jie Zhi, they subconsciously took a step away from him, their eyes full of wariness and disbelief.

Jie Zhi's expression also changed drastically. He said, "You... you are slandering me. You are talking nonsense!"

"How could I be a thief!"

"Bloody spewing?"

Shen Lian laughed and said, "Then I want to ask you, Jie Zhi, where were you when the crime happened?"

Ring said, "Of course I am fighting the fire with everyone."

"Can anyone prove it?"

"The situation was so urgent at the time that no one cared about anyone else, so naturally no one could prove it."

"Do not……"

Shen Lian suddenly interrupted Jie Zhi's words.

He looked at Jie Zhi and said, "Even in a chaotic situation, it's not difficult to see where you are at a glance."

"What?" Jie Zhi frowned.

Shen Lian looked at Xu Gou and said, "Xu Gou, you can tell him about it."

"Yes!"

Xu Gou nodded in reply.

Then he quickly stood up.

He looked at Jie Zhi seriously and said, "I followed the young master's order and questioned everyone. I mainly asked them what they were doing that night and asked them to tell me who they saw when they were fighting the fire."

"Say whatever you can think of."

"You're right. The situation was urgent and many people were in a panic. It was difficult to remember exactly who they were, but after a quick glance, I would still have an impression in my mind. And one person might remember it wrong, but what about everyone else?"

“So I wrote down all the names they said, and then compared them one by one.”

"result……"

Xu Gou sneered at Jie Zhi and said, "Guess what I found?"

Jie Zhi suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart.

He couldn't help swallowing and said, "What?"

Xu Gou snorted coldly and said, "In the end, I matched all the people in the temple in their confessions, but... only your name was missing!"

"That is to say, in such a panic, even if everyone didn't remember deliberately, they still remembered who was there to put out the fire. And one person was wrong, two people were wrong, but what about ten people? There will always be one person who remembers."

"So the names of those people are all on the list, it's just a matter of how many times they appear! But you..."

Xu Gou sneered and said, "Your name, Jie Zhi, has never appeared once. I think... except that you didn't appear there at all, there is no other result, right?"

(End of this chapter)