A Ton of Gold, Vanished Into Thin Air

"Ring ~ Ring ~"

The phones in the Ocean City Police Department Chief's office had been going off non-stop ever since the heist had occurred!

"Li Dahe! You have three days to solve the case you're working on!"

"Chief Li, this case is indeed difficult to solve, but you have to overcome the difficulties and solve the case as soon as possible."

"Li Dahe, you had better solve this case as soon as possible, otherwise, we can kiss our jobs goodbye!"

Alarmed at the progression of the unprecedented case, the Quartet1 immediately called up Li Dahe. The only order they had given to him was to solve the case as soon as possible and to catch the robbers so that the impact of the incident would be minimized!

"Please rest assured, mayor. We'll definitely solve the case as soon as possible."

"Please rest assured, secretary. We're doing our best to investigate."

Li Dahe was troubled by the phone calls. He had yet to receive any communication from his officers on scene, and thus, he was unaware of whether any developments had transpired. However, just the fact that the Quartet had rung him up had told him all he needed to know.

Although Li Dahe was not certain about the situation at the scene, he knew that the longer the case remained unsolved, the more exaggerated the rumors would become. After all, news of the incident was spreading like fire on social media.

Liu Chao, who was still at the scene, was oblivious to how the news was progressing on the internet, but he was certain that it was going out of control.

Despite causing such a huge commotion with an armed robbery, the criminals did not bother taking even a single cent away. Worse still, all of them had seemingly vanished without a trace under the watchful gazes of the police! This nonsensical turn of events would undoubtedly lead the public to question the credibility of the Ocean City Police Department.

"Not good, not good, Captain Liu! The gold in the vault is missing! One ton of gold is missing!"

The bank president, Wang Jun, ran over from afar with a panicked expression. He looked at Liu Chao and shouted loudly. As a result of his panic, Bank President Wang had forgotten to control his volume when he spoke those words.

Some of the surrounding onlookers and media reporters had caught wind of the news, and it had shocked them even more than the mysterious disappearance of the robbers. One after another, they began crowding around the president to gain first-hand information from him.

"One ton! One ton of gold?! Bank President Wang, you mustn't joke around at such a bad timing!"

Liu Chao, who had been overwhelmed by the disappearance of the suspect, suddenly heard Bank President Wang's words. He was so shocked that he stood rooted to the ground. He no longer had the time to care about the reporters who were desperately trying to get closer to him and the onlookers who had been trying to "expose" the policemen's complicit acts all this time. The only words that echoed in his mind was President Wang's words, "A ton of gold within the vault has gone missing!"

"Captain Liu, why would I joke during such a serious situation? It's really gone!"

Wang Jun said with a bitter expression. The sudden disappearance of the gold made President Wang want to crumple into a fetal position and cry.

"Impossible! This is one ton of gold we're talking about. Those criminals couldn't possibly have transported that much gold under our watch. There's not a single trace of their movements. This is impossible!"

Liu Chao shook his head. He still found the news too unbelievable.

"Captain, let's head to the vault for a closer look. We won't figure anything out just by standing here."

Qin Feng looked at the collapsed President Wang Jun and suggested to the still dazed Captain Liu Chao.

"Okay, let's go and take a look at the scene of the crime." Liu Chao came back to his senses and nodded.

"Crime scene detected. Scene reconstruction in progress!"

A mechanical voice appeared in Qin Feng's mind as soon as he stepped into the bank. The space before Qin Feng began to warp until it showed the moment when the robbers rushed into the bank.

In the scene, the thirteen robbers were all dressed in the same clothes and wore the same ghost mask. Upon entering the bank, they immediately set off to do their own tasks. It was clear that they had delegated the tasks in advance.

The first thing the thirteen robbers did when they rushed in was to take everyone hostage and keep all the staff away from their posts to prevent them from sounding off the alarms. Following this, they then destroyed all the surveillance equipment. With five individuals left to guard the hostages, the other eight criminals then went straight to the vault.

Upon reaching the vault, one of them stayed to guard the vault entrance, whereas the others took out their tools to melt the gold. Their movements were clearly those of experts. First, they sprinkled a layer of powder on the gold, then they used a blowtorch to melt down the gold. However, not all of the remaining seven individuals were involved in the melting process. One of them had scampered off to take out metal sheets from a trash can, and he collected the melted gold with the metal sheets of varying sizes. Once all the gold had been collected, he then crumpled up the metal sheet, disguised it as trash, and tossed it into several different trash cans.

Just like that, one ton of gold had disappeared and was replaced by "scrap metal" hidden in the trash can.

After completing this series of actions, they then returned to the hall and motioned to the hostages to put on the clothes and the masks they had prepared in advance. After removing their guns and hiding them properly, they then blended in with the hostages, opened the door, and ran out. Since they did not carry their tools on them, no one would think that they were the robbers, and thus, they were able to escape safely.

The robbers did not speak a single word throughout the entire process. Their movements were skillful and there was not a trace of sloppiness to be found. The entire process seemed to have been rehearsed many times in advance.

Qin Feng had watched the crime unfold from the start to the end. He could not help but admire the professionalism of these robbers.

Wang Jun pointed at the shelf where the gold used to be stored and exclaimed, "Captain Liu, I've looked everywhere, but I can't find any gold! One ton of gold, poof, gone, just like that."

Wang Jun still could not believe that a ton of gold had vanished. However, he looked around and found nothing. The ton of gold had disappeared without a trace.

"Found it!"

Qin Feng suddenly shouted.

Everyone's eyes immediately focused on Qin Feng who was squatting in the corner.

Having seen the crime taking place firsthand, Qin Feng knew where to locate the missing gold.

"What did you find?!"

Since Qin Feng's back was facing Liu Chao, the captain was unable to spot the little gold dregs in Qin Feng's hands clearly.

At this moment, Mu Qianqian walked into the vault and said to Liu Chao, "Captain, we just confirmed that there indeed used to be one ton of gold stored here. And it has indeed disappeared after the robbery."

Having heard Mu Qianqian's report, Liu Chao had momentarily forgotten about Qin Feng's discovery, and had instead turned to face the other police officers searching the site. "Listen up people, keep your eyes peeled! It's impossible to steal a ton of gold and make it vanish into thin air! It must be here somewhere!"

"Yes!"

The police officers took even greater care in their search. Meanwhile, Zhao Gang and Wu Kuan were also preparing to expand their search area.

"Wait!"

Qin Feng, who was silently squatting on the ground spoke up once more.