Chapter 183: Chapter 152: Luring the Snake out of Its Hole, Did I End Up Luring Myself? (Please Subscribe)

About more than half a month ago,

the Modu police in collaboration with the Cultural Relics Bureau, cracked an antique forgery fraud case and, following the leads, uncovered multiple related cases of antique forgery fraud, all pointing to a single source.

After half a month of tracking, the police finally located a large underground workshop for antique forgery.

However,

the current progress had only gone as far as shutting down the underground workshop, with the actual controller of the Antique Forgery Gang still at large.

If the “Qing dynasty Chinese tangled branch pattern thin-walled jade vase replacement case” and the “Antique Forgery Gang” are connected, and they share the same puppet master behind the scenes, then the whole case begins to become clear.

Yes, to be able to forge a thin-walled jade vase so realistically, and to successfully swap it with the real thing, fooling almost everyone—this is not something one person could achieve on their own.

Not to mention the difficulty of carving a thin-walled jade vase, there’s the crucial step of the swap that had to bypass layers of surveillance.

Behind this, there must be a gang operating.

As for Lin Chuan and Youyou’s mishap in damaging the thin-walled jade vase after the power outage, it was probably, as Lin Chuan speculated, part of their calculated plan.

Then, Lin Chuan and Youyou are actually victims too.

Directors Zhao Gang and Li Zeguang, both experienced and shrewd, quickly came to this realization.

At the same time,

they also couldn’t help but take an extra look at Lin Chuan.

They reached these conclusions so quickly because they had decades of hard-earned experience, built up step by step.

But what about Lin Chuan?

At the young age of twenty-four, he is said to be a web novel writer by trade.

Could writing web novels bring experience, or is it that he was born with such a mindset?

Right!

He has connections to Elder Zhong from the Han River Province Police Department!

Zhao Gang became interested and wanted to hear Lin Chuan’s thoughts on the case.

So, he looked at Lin Chuan and asked, “Comrade Lin, you are a party to this case, if it were up to you to investigate, how would you go about it?”

Lin Chuan was somewhat surprised, facing the experienced police station chief, he smiled and said, “In this matter, Director Zhao is the expert.”

This wasn’t modesty or flattery; it was the truth.

Zhao Gang turned modest himself and laughed heartily, “Perhaps in handling murder cases and the like, I might have some say, but when it comes to antique forgery, I can’t even tell the difference between real and fake antiques.”

“Isn’t there Director Li?” Lin Chuan smiled.

Hearing this, Li Zeguang next to him waved his hands repeatedly, “I’m ashamed to say, if it weren’t for Comrade Lin’s insight, I wouldn’t have recognized that this thin-walled jade vase was a forgery even now.”

“Comrade Lin, please share your thoughts, it’s no trouble; we’re all colleagues here,” Zhao Gang insisted, smoothly steering the topic back to Lin Chuan.

The two directors gave off a vibe of playing off each other.

In the conference room,

Everyone watched the directors’ attitude towards Lin Chuan with surprise and admiration.

Initially, they thought to just go through the motions.

But now?

They seemed eager to engage Lin Chuan, keen to keep him involved, with their address evolving from “Lin Chuan!” to “Comrade Lin Chuan,” and then to “Comrade Lin,” the contrast couldn’t be more stark.

Even Youyou, sitting quietly to the side, couldn’t help but feel a touch of pride swell in her heart.

This is my treasure of an author!

At that moment, an officer poured tea for Lin Chuan and Youyou.

Lin Chuan took a sip of tea, pondered for a moment, and then said:

“My suggestion is to first keep the news of this incident under wraps, investigate the cultural relic replacement case quietly, then issue an announcement urgently in need of jade restorers to repair this thin-walled jade vase, and declare that the vase will continue to be exhibited in the museum in the future!”

“Jade restoration, continue to exhibit…”

Police station chief Zhao Gang murmured softly, then his eyes lit up, “That’s a brilliant plan!”

The Antique Forgery Gang created an accident for a very likely reason—they did not want the counterfeit piece to appear publicly again.

Therefore, continuing to exhibit it was undoubtedly a move they would not have expected.

Furthermore, repairing the jade would definitely put the Antique Forgery Gang on the spot, as the restorer would have to inspect the vase, which could lead to the detection of forgery indicators and the risk of the gang being exposed.

So, it’s highly probable that the Antique Forgery Gang would attempt to secure the position of the jade restorer.

This was known as Luring the Snake out of its Hole.

Returning to the case of the “Qing dynasty Chinese tangled branch pattern thin-walled jade vase swap,” there were only a few who had the opportunity to exchange the fake for the real one, which would be the stage for screening potential perpetrators.

Of course, this is an idealized process of investigation.

Undoubtedly, the approach Lin Chuan offered indeed brought a fresh perspective to Zhao Gang and everyone present.

Ahem, Youyou did not have a moment of revelation.

Because she didn’t understand.

“Old Li, what do you think?”

Zhao Gang took a sip from his thermos, and asked.

Li Zeguang smiled, “I’m not savvy with case investigation, but I think Comrade Lin’s method is very sound!”

Zhao Gang laughed heartily, approvingly banging his fist on the table, “We’ll proceed with Comrade Lin’s method.”

The Modu police station was highly efficient.

It wasn’t long before,

the announcement to ‘recruit a jade restorer’ and that the ‘Qing dynasty Chinese tangled branch pattern thin-walled jade vase would continue to be exhibited after restoration’ had been drafted.

Once released, it quickly spread throughout the Modu antiques circle and even climbed to the top of the hot search lists on various platforms!

Since yesterday afternoon, after the “Qing dynasty Chinese tangled branch pattern thin-walled jade vase” was ‘accidentally’ damaged, the incident had been simmering online, sparking widespread discussion.