Especially in the era before the Sky Eye system was perfected, many criminals cleverly fabricated alibis for themselves, but ultimately failed due to a single oversight. The police discovered records of their phones having been near the crime scene.
Lin Wan’er knew well that she did not have an AI model like Ye Chen’s, so she could not pinpoint Xiao Churan’s movement trajectory in the shortest time through municipal surveillance. That was why she thought of this method.
Although this method was not as precise or clear as video surveillance, the answer Lin Wan’er wanted was also very simple. She only wanted to know if, in the past few months, Xiao Churan had gone to Qixia Temple!
Sun Zhidong’s efficiency was very high.
In less than twenty minutes, a video file was sent to Lin Wan’er’s phone.
The opening frame of this video was a map of Jinling City with a red dot coordinate.
After clicking play, the coordinate jumped and moved across different areas of the map. In the upper left corner, the corresponding time showed which base station Xiao Churan’s phone had connected to at that time point and the next, and where that base station was located on the map.
Since there was distance between base stations, the red dot’s movement was in a jumping form.
Most of the movement trajectories jumped back and forth between Tomson Riviera and Xiao Churan’s company, occasionally going to some other places. Lin Wan’er paid no attention to these. She kept her eyes on the Qixia Temple area on the map, wanting to see when the red dot would light up there.
Effort pays off for the persistent.
When the time advanced to the eve of the Lunar New Year, the red dot representing the base station where Xiao Churan was suddenly lit up at Qixia Temple!
At this moment, a smile floated on Lin Wan’er’s lips.
The third black stone was officially defined in her mind as Qixia Temple.
Next, it was time to seek clues for the white stone.
Who exactly had Xiao Churan gone to Qixia Temple to meet?
The fake abbess, or Tang Sihai, or perhaps the “white stone” here was someone else entirely?
At this thought, a name suddenly flashed in her mind again.
Ye Chen had once said that Ito Caizi had, by a stroke of coincidence, been enlightened by a monk named Jingqing at Qixia Temple.
Considering that the other party’s base had always been temples, she realised that this Jingqing monk must also be a member of their camp.
Thus, she placed the third white stone below the third black stone and smiled slightly: “It seems this white stone is most likely the Jingqing monk.”
Next, she searched for some news about the Jingqing monk and found that although he was young, his attainments in Buddhist teachings were extremely profound. He had even represented the Chinese Buddhist community in an exchange at Putuo Mountain with the titan of Japanese Buddhism, Abbot Kongyin of Kinkaku-ji.
Her mind stirred, and she searched for Abbot Kongyin again. Although Abbot Kongyin had not appeared in public for nearly two years and left no news, Lin Wan’er still saw, through the search engine’s automatic association function, the announcement of Kinkaku-ji’s closure for renovation.
Looking at the start time of the closure, it was precisely on the eve of Ye Chen’s birthday, not even a week ago.
She could not help but murmur to herself: “Although there is still no direct evidence, the indirect evidence has formed a chain that corroborates each other. This should mean that the other party is at Kinkaku-ji right now!”
Ye Chen could never have dreamed that Lin Wan’er, in just the time it took to watch a film and with a mere six Go stones, had pieced together the thread of events almost entirely.
“Kinkaku-ji…”
Lin Wan’er murmured the name, then thought to call Ye Chen and tell him her analysis.
But at the moment when the phone number was about to dial out, she exited the dialling interface again.
In her view, anything concerning Xiao Churan would inevitably affect Ye Chen’s rationality. If she told him her speculation now, he might immediately set off for Japan.
However, the other party was clearly more resourceful than him. Not only did they know his actions like the back of their hand, but to a certain extent, they were also monitoring her. Otherwise, that time when she deliberately went to Qixia Temple, the fake abbess would not have taken the initiative to appear.
After much deliberation, she called Sun Zhidong again.
On the phone, she said to Sun Zhidong: “I need to depart for Japan before dawn. I need a new identity. Arrange it for me. Also, check for me where that famous figure in the Buddhist world, the Jingqing monk, is currently located.”
Ten minutes later, Sun Zhidong called back and respectfully said: “Miss, the identity is being prepared. The plane is now taking off for Jinling. You can arrive at the airport in three hours. I will arrange for someone to meet you. As for the Jingqing monk you asked me to check, one week ago he went to Osaka, Japan, with some people from the domestic Buddhist community. The information I found shows he was invited to Japan for a non-public Buddhist exchange activity.”
A thicker smile appeared on Lin Wan’er’s face. She had lived in Japan for many years and knew Japan well. Transportation to Kyoto, where Kinkaku-ji was located, was not very convenient. Flying to Osaka was the first choice from China, followed by Nagoya.
Since Jingqing had also gone to Osaka, he was most likely at Kinkaku-ji.
Could it be that this Jingqing monk was the true mastermind behind the scenes?
Lin Wan’er felt that the last time she met the fake abbess, the other party was clearly just a messenger, unwilling to reveal more. Now, she had to go there in person to have a chance of uncovering the true thread behind this matter!
