Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Realizing the TAG Heuer watch was missing, Liu Miao’s first thought wasn’t the fact that the watch was stolen, but instead that Shaoyu was playing a joke on him. He laughed, “You silly kid, why would you play a joke on me like that… Look at my watch all you want. Let’s have lunch together.”


  Shaoyu was confused, “What are you talking about?”


  “The watch.”


  “Where is it?”


  Liu Miao laughed, “Stop your joke! I put it on the desk. Feel free to take a look. Don’t scare me by hiding it.”


  Looking at the desk, Shaoyu was even more confused, “What? I didn’t see it.”


  Liu Miao’s smile froze. He realized something was wrong. Rushing back to his desk, he opened his eyes, searching carefully. He lifted up the keyboard hoping it was under there. He pulled up the files to check if it was in between the pages… he pulled out all the stuff in all four drawers in his desk.

  Two drawers out of four had documents and other paperwork so it was easy to go through. Another drawer was random stuff such as a knife, stapler, some pens, hand cream, scarf… the last drawer was a picture of him and his wife as well as the receipt of the watch. Nothing was found.

  Liu Miao’s face turned pale. He pulled Shaoyu aside and said, “Brother, don’t joke around like that. If you hid it, just tell me. I don’t like this kind of joke.”


  Shaoyu was nervous, “I didn’t hide it. I haven’t seen a watch on your desk since I came.”


  Liu Miao’s forehead started sweating. His heartrate raced. This watch was a gift to his wife. The purchase didn’t have his wife’s approval. If he lost the watch like that, he could not imagine how mad his wife would get. It was also impossible to hide it from his wife because it was quite a large expense. His wife would find out sooner or later.

  “Brother, are you serious?”


  “I am serious. I am not stupid. I won’t joke around like that.”


  They were getting louder and louder. The other staff members didn’t know what was going on so they glanced over from time to time. It was about lunchtime, so people were hungry and they couldn’t really focus on work. It was too difficult to hide it from the crowd. Almost everyone in the department gathered and watched what was going on. Some were murmuring to each other.

  Shaoyu looked impatient. It was understandable. He had planned a short visit but was now involved in a thievery case. Now Liu Miao thought he hid the watch.

  Someone smart said, “You guys keep searching. I will go to the control room to find the surveillance video.” He left in a rush.

  News travelled fast in the office. A few minutes later, people from other departments also came over to look at the show which made it even more crowded than before. Some jealous people murmured, “Look how he showed off his luxurious watch. Now it is missing. It was karma!”


  After a little while, the guy came back.

  “What happened? Did you see the thief?” Several people asked at the same time.

  The guys looked undaunted and said, “It was too bad…” He pointed at the surveillance camera on the ceiling, “The camera only caught half of the desk, the half that was close to the door. We can confirm that no one entered this office when he was gone.”


  Liu Miao’s desk was an add-on after the expansion. The camera was pointing at the central area of the office and half of his desk was in the blind area. Unfortunately, this blind area made the whole story much more complicated than it should’ve been.

  Shaoyu knew that he had to clear the suspicion on him. Otherwise, he would have a bad reputation. He called the police.

  The police arrived in no time. The first thing they did was get the surveillance videos.

  Captain Sheng’s voice started to turn low at this point. He cleared his throat. Zhang Zian gave him a bottle of Evian mineral water. That was expensive! Fina would be jumping up and down if she knew that her water was being offered to a normal guy!

  “Wow, Evian water. It looks like you are doing great!” Captain Sheng didn’t deny it. He opened the lid and drank half of a bottle.

  “What is next?” Zhang Zian was not interested at first, but now he wanted to know the end. It was the same thing as people listening to stories at a teahouse. The storyteller usually only told half of the story and wouldn’t continue unless they got some money from the customers. His Evian mineral water to Captain Sheng was sort of the same thing.

  Captain Sheng wiped away the water on his mouth and said, “We looked at the surveillance camera. Just like I told you, the desk is in a blind spot and only half of the desk could be seen. We confirmed that no one walked in the office besides…”


  He took out his cellphone and pulled up a video. “Mr. Zhang, you may have a look yourself.”


  Zhang Zian took the cellphone and looked at it carefully.

  It was a large office with at least 30 desks. Yuanhua Building was built a few years ago, so its surveillance cameras were quite low in definition. The camera covered a large area, so some details weren’t clear at all.

  “Look, over there where it is only showing half of a desk is Liu Miao’s desk,” Captain Sheng reminded.

  The clock on the upper right corner continued counting. Time was passing by.

  “Don’t stare at the desk. Look at the door to the left,” Captain Sheng reminded him again.

  Zhang Zian focused on the left side of the screen, which was covered fully by the camera.

  “This guy rushing out to the bathroom is Liu Miao.”


  In the video, a guy walked out of the office quickly.

  “Pay attention.”


  Captain Sheng wasn’t looking at the video himself, but he could accurately point out the reminders at the correct time. He had watched the video many times.

  What?

  A cat stuck its head in and walked in from the door.

  The door was the farthest from the camera and due to the low definition, it wasn’t completely clear. Zhang Zian guessed it was a white cat with a few big black spots on its face and tail. It should be a Chinese cat.

  The cat came in and acted like a well-trained soldier. It walked up to the last row of desks, marched from behind the busy staff and then disappeared in the blind area.

  “Pause here,” Captain Sheng said.

  Zhang Zian pointed at the monitor and the video paused.

  “Look at the desk.”


  Zhang Zian stared at the picture with extreme focus. He found that about 8 inches above the desk, there was a small white tip of the tail, which meant that the cat had jumped on the desk.

  What was it doing? Although prepared, Zhang Zian still could not believe his eyes. It was true that some people trained their cats to steal. It was way more overwhelming when he saw the video for himself.

  Captain Sheng reached for his cigarettes then realized that it was a non-smoking store. He said, “If the cat was trained only for stealing, that’s not a big deal. I am afraid…”


  Zhang Zian understood immediately.