Chapter 475 – Xu Jinning’s Doubts and Speculations
But for now, it wasn’t possible.
At the moment, let alone network coverage, even computers hadn’t been widely adopted yet.
The national police system also hadn’t started collecting fingerprints from the entire population.
So there was no way to compare.
“But it still proves one thing, doesn’t it?” Xu Jinning said, “It still shows that within the one minute that the object disappeared into thin air, it was indeed in someone else’s hands. Although we don’t know how that person did it, they did hold it for one minute. After one minute, they returned the object.”
Perhaps it wasn’t exactly returned…
But rather…
They were forced to return it.
As if there was a time limit.
When the time was up, they had to give it back.
This sounded just like something out of a novel.
However, the world she was in right now was formed from a novel.
So the possibility of this happening wasn’t entirely impossible.
But…
Wasn’t this world already fully realized?
And didn’t the heroines with their “golden fingers” already appear and have their own endings? There shouldn’t be any more unexpected twists, right?
It couldn’t be that there were other heroines left, could it?!
Xu Jinning knew that this world was formed from several novels written by Xu Jinwen.
She had read all of those novels, and she had even asked Lin Wangshu about it.
The latter had told her the same — it was just those novels.
There were no others.
“Lin Wangshu couldn’t have hidden something from me back then, could she?” Xu Jinning muttered to herself.
“Ningning, what are you talking about?” Zhang Changzheng, who overheard Xu Jinning’s murmuring, asked, somewhat confused.
“Ningning, do you have any ideas?”
Xu Jinning shook her head. “Not yet.”
Whether Lin Wangshu was hiding something from her was just a guess at this point.
However, if Lin Wangshu had indeed kept something from her, maybe finding her and asking would reveal the truth.
But if that wasn’t the case, Xu Jinning genuinely had no idea what was going on.
“Alright.” Although deep down, Zhang Changzheng felt that Ningning might have the answers he was looking for, he also knew that this issue wasn’t directly related to her.
He couldn’t put pressure on her, nor could he rely entirely on her.
“By the way, Dad Changzheng, did you come to Beijing because of this?”
“I told you before that in the province where I work, there had been a series of reports about missing items. After investigating, there were no leads or suspects, as if the objects had disappeared into thin air.”
“Although things have since calmed down and nothing else has gone missing, I found these disappearances quite mysterious, so I reported them.”
“Now, those in charge think there might be a connection.”
Xu Jinning speculated, “Perhaps they don’t just think there’s a connection—they might even believe it’s the work of the same person?”
“Yes.” Zhang Changzheng confirmed.
That was the reason he had come from the provincial capital to Beijing.
After comparing the cases, the higher-ups believed that the method and circumstances suggested the same individual might be responsible.
So, they wanted to know if there were any leads here.
It’s possible Zhang Changzheng had no more clues either.
…
Zhang Changzheng wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t get answers from Xu Jinning. He hadn’t expected to rely entirely on her anyway—after all, they couldn’t be completely useless.
After having lunch at the small courtyard house, Zhang Changzheng left. He wasn’t planning to leave Beijing just yet; he still had to continue his investigation.
After he left, Xu Jinning once again carefully recalled the plots of the novels.
She was worried that there might have been something she had overlooked.
But after thinking it over in detail, Xu Jinning still didn’t find anything amiss.
“Could it be that Lin Wangshu is hiding something from me?” Xu Jinning wondered. It was possible.
Should she go and see Lin Wangshu?
While she was still undecided, in the afternoon, Xie Ting’an received a call from Grandpa Xie at the old family residence.
He said they needed to come over because there was something important he needed to discuss with them.
“Since Grandpa said so, we should go,” Xu Jinning suggested.
She had a feeling that whatever Grandpa wanted to discuss might be related to what Zhang Changzheng had mentioned earlier.
As it turned out, her hunch was correct.
When they arrived at the old residence in the afternoon, Grandpa called them into the study.
What Grandpa said was very similar to what Zhang Changzheng had mentioned.
The only difference was that Grandpa knew what the crucial item that disappeared for a minute was.
“That item was the notebook you handed in earlier,” Grandpa Xie said.
Xu Jinning immediately understood.
If it was that notebook, then it was indeed very important.
After all, the notebook contained records of future events.
During that minute, whoever took it would have surely flipped through it and realized that it held information about future occurrences.
So, what would that person do with the events that would happen in the future?
If they were to do something bad…
If the person who had the notebook during that minute was from another country, then if they learned about future events, the situation wouldn’t be good at all.
At that moment, Xu Jinning finally understood why Grandpa had called them back to discuss this matter.
After all, the notebook was the one they had submitted.
“Girl Ning, Xiao An, do you have any ideas about this?” Grandpa Xie asked.
He felt that to find out the reason behind this incident, they might need to look for answers from Ningning and Xiao An, especially Ningning.
After all, Ningning’s situation was quite special.
Xie Ting’an shook his head; he really didn’t know.
Just then, as Grandpa Xie turned his gaze toward Xu Jinning, she hesitated for a moment and said, “I do have a guess, but I’m not sure how accurate it is.”
Xie Jinnian knew there might be clues from Ningning.
“It’s alright, speak freely. Let’s analyze it together.”
Xu Jinning nodded and then said, “Grandpa, do you remember the person I brought back from Hong Kong? Lin Wangshu?”
Of course, Xie Jinnian remembered; it was because of her that Ningning had revealed her background to him.
He also knew about the uniqueness of that person named Lin Wangshu.
“Could it be that Lin Wangshu is up to something?”
Xu Jinning shook her head. “It shouldn’t be her, but I always felt it was related to her.”
Then Xu Jinning shared her speculation.
She had previously mentioned to Grandpa Xie that this world was formed from several novels written by Xu Jinwen.
In each novel, the heroine possessed a “golden finger.”
She suspected that Lin Wangshu had written other novels that she hadn’t mentioned to her.
Of course, this was just a suspicion; she couldn’t be certain.
