Chapter 474 – Monitoring Anomaly?
Why did the authorities know it had disappeared for exactly one minute?
Because, just at that moment, an official was about to take it out for use.
As they reached out to grab it, the item suddenly vanished into thin air.
Since the item was extremely valuable and stored in a highly secretive location, every time it was accessed, multiple people were present.
In other words, when the item mysteriously disappeared, several pairs of eyes were watching at the same time.
So, it was impossible for anyone to have made a mistake.
And it was equally impossible that anyone was lying.
One person might make a mistake or lie, but several people, with no personal gain or grudges between them, couldn’t have all been lying.
Not only that, but there was also surveillance!
Although ordinary citizens didn’t have surveillance, and it wasn’t widespread yet—some people didn’t even know what it was when they heard about it—the authorities did have surveillance.
“Ningning, do you know about surveillance?” Zhang Changzheng asked.
“Yes,” Xu Jinning replied, “A camera only captures a single moment, but surveillance is dynamic. It continuously records footage over a period of time.”
Zhang Changzheng was silent. As expected, Ningning knew about it.
To be honest, this trip to Beijing was the first time Zhang Changzheng had heard of or seen such a thing as surveillance.
When he learned about its existence, he thought that if it were available for investigations, it could speed up solving cases.
For example, in the previous disappearance cases.
If there had been surveillance installed at that time, when citizens reported missing items, the footage could have been reviewed. Even if they couldn’t immediately identify who took the items, they could have at least spotted some suspects, helping the police narrow down their investigation.
“It would make solving cases a lot easier, and we wouldn’t be left without any clues,” Zhang Changzheng continued.
“Ningning, as expected, you know about surveillance.”
He wasn’t sure why, but when he brought up the topic of surveillance to Xu Jinning, his intuition told him that she would definitely know about it.
Xu Jinning always seemed to be aware of advanced things, things that most people didn’t know.
So when he mentioned surveillance, he wasn’t surprised that she understood it.
Reflecting on it, he thought, ‘It’s just as I suspected.’
After his moment of reflection, he added, “Surveillance is a great thing, but unfortunately, it can’t be widely implemented yet.”
“It will be,” Xu Jinning replied with certainty. “I believe that one day, surveillance will be installed nationwide. Even ordinary citizens will be able to install it in their homes.”
Zhang Changzheng was taken aback by how confidently she spoke. It was as if she had already seen or experienced that future possibility.
But he knew this wasn’t just Ningning guessing. What she said was accurate.
Perhaps that’s also why he felt compelled to discuss this case with her.
“Let’s get back to the case,” he said, shifting the conversation. “Because there was surveillance, it should have clearly recorded the moment when the item vanished. But do you know what actually happened?”
Xu Jinning furrowed her brow slightly. “Was there something wrong with the surveillance?”
“Exactly,” Zhang Changzheng confirmed.
“As I mentioned before, the item disappeared for exactly one minute.
“In that single minute, a lot of things happened.
“Since the item was so valuable, the moment it vanished, it was immediately reported.
“Almost instantly, someone pulled up the surveillance footage. But guess what happened?”
“When they rewound the surveillance footage, they found that the item had been in its original place the whole time, as if it had never disappeared,” Zhang Changzheng explained.
“But in reality, it had vanished into thin air.”
This revelation left everyone present feeling as though they had witnessed something magical, something beyond belief.
“Was the surveillance camera broken?” Xu Jinning asked, then immediately answered herself, “No, the surveillance wasn’t broken, right?”
“That’s right,” Zhang Changzheng said. “The first thing everyone thought was that the surveillance system must have malfunctioned.”
“But when they pulled up the footage, there were several professional technicians on-site, and they confirmed the surveillance was working fine.”
Xu Jinning seemed deep in thought. “So the surveillance seemed normal, but in reality, something wasn’t right.”
After all, the item had disappeared—right in front of everyone’s eyes.
There were too many people, too many witnesses for it to be a mistake.
People naturally trust their own eyes, so the item had definitely vanished at that moment.
It was impossible that it had stayed in place.
“And after one minute, it returned?” Xu Jinning asked.
“Yes,” Zhang Changzheng confirmed. “Just when everyone thought it was gone for good and even started suspecting espionage, preparing to launch a search, the item—right in front of everyone again—reappeared, as if it had just vanished into thin air and then returned in the same way.”
“During that time, no one went near the area.”
“Everyone just watched as the item reappeared out of nowhere.”
“When they calculated the time, it was exactly one minute.”
“And the surveillance?” Xu Jinning asked again.
“The footage remained the same. Whether during the item’s disappearance, that missing minute, or the moment it reappeared, the surveillance showed that the item was there the entire time, as if it had never disappeared—or returned at all.”
“So, that’s the strangest part,” Zhang Changzheng continued. “The item disappeared and reappeared in such a bizarre way, and the surveillance footage oddly showed that it had never moved. Not even a slight shift in position.”
“Everything about it seems mysterious and eerie.”
“If it had been an ordinary object, people might not have paid attention, or perhaps if no one had been planning to retrieve it at that exact moment, with so many witnesses present, the anomaly wouldn’t have been noticed even though the surveillance showed nothing unusual.”
“But things happened in just that way.”
“Because this item was so important, and because something so abnormal occurred, the authorities immediately launched an investigation.”
“Later, they even took fingerprints from the object,” Zhang Changzheng continued. “Of course, fingerprinting technology isn’t widely used yet.”
Zhang Changzheng thought to himself that if such technology were applied to cases more broadly, it would greatly improve the efficiency of solving crimes. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible at the moment.
“After the fingerprints were collected, they found an unfamiliar set of prints on the object.”
“And those fingerprints weren’t there before the item disappeared.”
“Can they trace those prints, figure out who they belong to?” Xu Jinning asked.
“No,” Zhang Changzheng shook his head. “Current technology can only detect that there’s a new, unknown fingerprint, but it can’t identify the person it belongs to.”
Xu Jinning understood.
“Right, if the network were fully integrated and everyone’s fingerprints were in a national database, they could make a match.”
