Chapter 308: Chapter 301: The Photo Chapter 308: Chapter 301: The Photo Before Tang Mo arrived here, one of his assistants brought some “experimental products” with new technology to this place, but an accident occurred on the way, resulting in a small portion of the “finished experimental products” going missing. The accident was accidental, a conclusion Tang Mo arrived at after his investigation, but some people also took advantage of the chaos to walk away with some experimental products. Tang Mo definitely did not want these experimental products to bring unpredictable complications to his plan.

Compared with the box that Tang Mo had just taken out, those experimental products still had some shortcomings. If checked by professionals with specialized instruments, it would be possible to detect differences from natural diamonds. However, Zheng Tan could not identify them using the simple testing and identification methods mentioned in the newspapers. Knowing this, Zheng Tan felt somewhat relieved. It wasn’t his lack of ability that was the problem, it was that these items indeed were hard to distinguish from the real thing. Of course, if the final product was indistinguishable from diamonds mined from natural quarries as Tang Mo had said, then they couldn’t be considered counterfeit or fake goods anymore; they were real diamonds, but their price was only a third of that of natural mined diamonds.

No matter what, Tang Mo’s point was that those experimental products weren’t worth much to him. He didn’t care about the money; what concerned him was whether there were any other conspiracies behind this that could affect his business plans.

“The person who stole the items does not have the typical thief’s skills in picking locks,” Tang Mo said. It was because of this that he sought help from the old man when he couldn’t find the target temporarily; after all, people around here should have a good understanding of those with technical skills.

After listening to Tang Mo’s words, the old man nodded, “Two days.” Meaning he would contact Tang Mo within two days.

“Alright, then I’ll have to trouble Uncle Kun.”

It seemed like Tang Mo was going to stay and have a meal with the old man. Seeing that Xiao Jiu wasn’t there, Zheng Tan didn’t want to stay any longer. The two of them didn’t talk about the diamonds anymore. Most of the time, Tang Mo talked about his experiences and business development in recent years. Staying any longer wouldn’t allow Zheng Tan to hear much that would be useful to him, so he decided to leave.

After returning to Chuhua University, Zheng Tan didn’t wander around. The confinement had just been lifted, so he wanted to behave well; hence, he went straight to Mr. Jiao’s office to sleep, waiting to go home for dinner when the time came.

The next day, Zheng Tan went to the small woods on the edge of the campus to have a look again. Unlike last time, although it seemed that there was no change in the area and the grass wasn’t trampled, Zheng Tan smelled an unfamiliar scent in the bushes. Someone had been there last night, at least two people; one was one of the two people Zheng Tan had seen that day, and the other was someone with a very unfamiliar scent, whom Zheng Tan probably had not seen before.

Carefully discerning the scent left among the grass, the person who came last night didn’t go to the hole in the tree where Zheng Tan had previously placed his phone. They hadn’t even walked over; after looking around here, they circled around the bushy area and then ran out.

Zheng Tan stayed in the small woods for a while and then trotted toward the Old Tile House District, the weather was nice and so was the sunlight. When Zheng Tan arrived at the Old Tile House District, he saw several cats lying on the rooftops of a few old tile houses, taking naps. Lazily, the cats didn’t give Zheng Tan another glance and continued to lick their paws, groom themselves, and doze off.

Zheng Tan snuck into the tile house where he hid things, out of sight of the other cats. He didn’t want those cats to see him climbing through the window. Cats are too curious, and Zheng Tan couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t follow his example and cause trouble by scrambling in after him.

Inside the house everything was the same as when Zheng Tan had last visited. He opened the drawer to check the bag of items—most likely the missing diamonds Tang Mo was searching for.

Why would someone casually bring so many diamonds here? Even if these diamonds had some imperfections, they were still attractive enough for ordinary people.

Zheng Tan didn’t plan to take these items out and give them to Tang Mo or the blind old man just yet. He wasn’t sure if doing so would end up getting him into trouble, so he decided not to do anything for now.

After hiding the items, Zheng Tan left the tile house. He thought to himself that the two who had stolen the diamonds might be the same two people he had seen that night. However, their attitude towards the diamonds didn’t seem too meticulous, as if they considered the diamonds fake when they stole them?

Shaking his head, Zheng Tan stopped thinking about those things. He would let Tang Mo and those people worry while he went about his own business.

As he came out of the house, Zheng Tan climbed onto the roof of a tile house and moved from one rooftop to another, stretching his body and enjoying the freedom of running and jumping. A cat there thought Zheng Tan was playing with them, and having been grooming itself, it began following Zheng Tan as he practiced parkour.

Click!

The sound of a camera snapping photos echoed.

Zheng Tan jumped onto the roof of a two-story tile house; this two-story building was only slightly shorter than some three-story new buildings. Zheng Tan hadn’t noticed someone there when he was running, nor had he paid much attention to it, but now, hearing the sound of a camera taking pictures, he realized there was someone standing there.

The person looked like a graduate student from the campus, holding an SLR camera, taking pictures of the cats around the Old Tile House District. Just as Zheng Tan stopped to look, the person took a few photos of Zheng Tan with the camera.

Aside from Zheng Tan, the person’s subjects included other cats and periodic scenery. After taking the photos, they sat on the edge of a flowerbed in the Old Tile House District and took out a notebook that appeared thin and light from a backpack. Nowadays, it was not common to see people using such slim notebooks, and that notebook had no brand, Zheng Tan couldn’t tell which brand the computer was.

It was generally very quiet in the Old Tile House District at this time, with hardly anyone around and no one to disturb the peace.

Zheng Tan slapped away the cat that came over wanting to play and jumped to the rooftop of another tile house behind the person.

The person was checking a set of photos captured by the camera—Zheng Tan found many of the images eerily familiar. It took him a while to match some to their subjects, feeling that the pictures were somehow more appealing than the real thing, with a bit more ambiance.

Due to the reflection of light and the angle of the notebook computer’s screen, it was hard to see clearly from above. So, Zheng Tan descended from the rooftop, leaped onto the flower bed, and watched the images on the computer about a meter away from the person. Among them were some of the photos he had just taken of the Old Tile House District, most of which featured cats.

Feeling something, the person turned their head towards the back and to the side, showing a brief look of surprise upon noticing Zheng Tan. Seeing that the cat in front of him wasn’t scared, but rather staring at his laptop screen, he took his fingers off the keyboard and picked up the camera.

Zheng Tan realized what the other party intended to do and raised his paw in an attempt to cover up, but while human hands might hide most of their face, cat paws simply couldn’t hide a cat’s face.

Click!

The sound of a camera shutter echoed.

Zheng Tan didn’t want to stay there and be photographed continuously, so he turned his head, jumped down from the flower bed, and ran off.

Just another nutty artist, Zheng Tan thought. The person must’ve been someone from the art department of the school or someone who liked photography. That morning, when he was walking towards the International Academic Report Hall, he saw a conference title about photographic art on the outdoor electronic display. Even if this person wasn’t a student from the art department, they might be here to attend the conference.

Zheng Tan didn’t pay much attention to the person he had just encountered. So what if someone took his photo? After all, many people on campus often took pictures of the school cats with their cell phones. Moreover, cats didn’t have what one calls ‘portrait rights.’ Current domestic laws only grant portrait rights to citizens and do not protect the portrait rights of animals like pet cats and dogs.

As Zheng Tan pondered the cat’s portrait rights on his way home, in a restaurant about a ten-minute drive from Chuhua University…

Tang Mo observed the new investigative materials he had just received; Uncle Kun had sent someone to deliver them. The thief had been found, but the experimental subjects had truly gone missing.

The thief in question was a habitual offender. He had been caught during a cleanup operation nearby last year and was just released from prison not long ago. He happened to come across an accident and took the opportunity to swipe some diamonds. However, when he pried open the box containing the experimental subjects, he found too many diamonds and instantly thought they were fakes—how could there be so many real diamonds? Nevertheless, for people like him, even fakes could fetch the price of real gems. Someone was approaching the scene of the accident, so he didn’t have time to examine them closely or risk discovery. He couldn’t carry the large box marked “experimental subjects,” and it would have been a waste to just leave the items, so he grabbed a handful and escaped.

The thief had a habit—he would first hide the stolen items somewhere and retrieve them once the coast was clear. When the blind old man’s people went to retrieve the “experimental subjects,” they discovered the thief and his nephew counting their recent loot. But when they went to take the goods from the thief who had stolen the “experimental subjects,” they found that the items were already gone.

Tang Mo was inclined to believe this outcome. Knowing there weren’t any other schemes behind it, he felt much more at ease. If they really couldn’t find them, there was no need to keep looking. The matter at hand was more important to him right now. He handed the folder of materials to the woman next to him and turned his head towards the entrance.

“Sorry for being late. I attended a meeting and got held up in conversation before coming over,” said a young man with a backpack, who sat down in the chair opposite Tang Mo.

This person was the same photographer Zheng Tan had seen earlier.

“Thomas, when did you and Kelly return to the country?”

“Just got back a couple of days ago,” Tang Mo replied.

As the three of them chatted and ate, Tang Mo looked at the man opposite him, “Yang Yi, what did you shoot today?” It seemed like he had taken quite a few satisfying photos.

Yang Yi took out his notebook computer and brought up a set of photos, “I shot some cats at Chuhua University campus. The scenes reminded me of some I’d seen before, so I just went ahead and captured them.”

“Really? Let me have a look.”

Yang Yi passed his computer over, and Tang Mo flipped through the set of photos. Among them were shots from today and some old photos that had been copied into the folder. Several were scans of old photographs that looked like they were taken in the ’80s or ’90s, featuring a few cats lounging on brick and tile houses, looking relaxed. Today’s shots were also of red brick tile houses with cats lying on rooftops, lazily grooming or comfortably dozing off.

As Tang Mo was flipping through, his finger paused on one photo on the screen, where a black cat stood high above, slightly tilting its head, looking down at the camera with a contemptuous air, seemingly unfazed by the sudden intrusion of the lens. Tang Mo couldn’t help but feel, if he were in the position of the camera, the cat would be giving him a look that said, “You’re nothing to me.”

Flipping to the next photo, Tang Mo chuckled at the sight of a cat stretching out a paw as if to block the shot but failing to cover even a quarter of its face, and the slightly impatient and disgruntled eyes just past the raised cat paw. “Yang Yi, I didn’t expect you’d run into this guy.”

(p>To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep