ATFBETIBM Chapter 458

Hello everyone, I have some errands to run today so I’ll be posting only one chapter.

“Do you know what I’ve been busy with these past few days?” Lin Xiao also looked up at the imposing statue above, and initiated a topic for the first time.

Bai Lixin shook his head. “I don’t know.”

‘Please begin your speech.’

Lin Xiao: “In addition to investigating this museum and the suspects, I took a look at the country’s development history.”

“This country is now a warm and romantic land, with a carefree and liberated atmosphere. Most people here live comfortably.”

“Heavy and intricate pleated skirts, intricately beaded headdresses, fragrant red wine, exquisite utensils, strict etiquette… This country is labeled ‘elegant and noble.’”

“But a hundred years ago, it was a barbaric nation constantly waging wars and looting.”

“Look at the countries they once plundered, some are still struggling for survival. Their economies have stagnated or even regressed, and they can only recover little by little. While they are eating chaff to survive, the people of this country are feasting on delicious food. While they wear tattered clothes, people here are adorned in fine garments, indulging in constant banquets.”

“Sometimes I think, if it weren’t for the plundering of these barbaric raiders, those countries wouldn’t have fallen to such a state.”

“When the people of this country mock other nations for being backward, they forget that their backwardness is the result of someone else’s actions.”

Lin Xiao placed his pale hand on the statue, the pale hands and the plaster blending together. “Did the barbarians, who gained wealth through plundering, transform into elegant and noble individuals by putting on fine clothes, hiding their ugliness? “

Lin Xiao raised his head. “Listen, there’s a lament in this museum.”

While Bai Lixin didn’t hear any lament on a physiological level, he understood what Lin Xiao meant.

Lin Xiao’s “lament” referred to the mourns and complaints of the plundered relics.

Lin Xiao continued, “Every year, many countries request for the relics of their civilizations that were plundered by this country, but they are consistently rejected.”

“The reason given is, ‘Civilization belongs to all humanity, and they are only helping to preserve various civilizations of mankind for the greater cause.’ “

“If civilization belongs to the world, why can’t it be displayed in its homeland? In the end, it’s just a grandiose excuse. The elegant people evolved over a century but they are still despicable thieves deep down. They never changed; they are still seizing treasures that don’t belong to them.”

“…” Bai Lixin waited for a while, and realized that Lin Xiao had stopped talking. “This is the first time I’ve heard you say so much.”

Lin Xiao withdrew his hand, his body tensed up, and he returned to the robotic appearance. “I just suddenly thought of some past events. This is just a copy, I don’t have any particular feelings about it.”

Bai Lixin: “Mmm.”

‘After saying so much, how can you claim not to have any feelings; I don’t believe it.’

“Fortunately, our ancestors died early.” Lin Xiao shook off the dust on his clothes. “If they knew that future generations let outsiders take away the relics of their civilization, they would be so angry their graves would smoke.”

———————————

In the live broadcast room.

[I get this paragraph.]

[I even want to say, “History is always surprisingly similar.”]

[So, people can’t be too kind. We are humble to others, but it can’t cover up the fact that the other party is not a person but a hyena. As a result, the hyena takes the wealth and becomes a divine dog, but turns around and despises the victims for being poor and ugly.]

[Fuck, brother, your sentence made my fist hard. When they are happily living with our things, we are in dire straits. In addition, they still mock us for being backward and look down on us. What kind of disgusting banditry is this? Without their looting, who would be backward!]

[So, the fist must be hard!!! Not with the intention to harm others, but if the other party insists on violence, then we can only respond with violence!!! There’s no need to reason with robbers at all, damn it.]

[I never want to experience such dark moments again, really.]

———————————-

As time passed, more people visited the museum.

Bai Lixin and Lin Xiao, like two agile fish, maneuvered through the crowd and arrived at a half-open golden-decorated exhibition hall.

There were a few golden characters on the wall: Exhibition Hall 35.

It was the peak period now, and there were quite a number of people inside the exhibition hall.

Bai Lixin immediately spotted a glass case in the middle of the museum.

That glass case was empty, with two signs standing in front of the glass, seemingly inscribed with something.

Since the glass case was empty, there weren’t many visitors in this area compared to other exhibits around it.

Bai Lixin moved through the crowd to the glass case and examined the contents of the two signs.

On the left was the introduction to the exhibit, featuring the “Kiss of the Sun.”

Bai Lixin had already read about the crown in Dijia’s room, and the introduction on the sign didn’t offer anything special.

As for the other sign, it stated that the “Kiss of the Sun” was temporarily stored for routine maintenance, and the next exhibition time would be announced separately.

Not seeing the crown worn by the legendary queen, some visitors were somewhat disappointed. However, besides the Kiss of the Sun, the museum had many other treasures. The disappointed visitors quickly adjusted their moods and moved on to other showcases.

Surrounded by patrolling guards, Bai Lixin and Lin Xiao didn’t linger too long in front of the empty glass case and quickly came to a stop in front of a scepter.

Bai Lixin pretended to appreciate the exquisitely carved scepter while keeping an eye on the empty glass case diagonally in front of him.

Lin Xiao asked nonchalantly, “Any discoveries?”

Bai Lixin pursed his lips. “Nothing specific. With visitors constantly coming and going, even if there were clues, they would have been destroyed long ago. Are you really sure all twenty people within those ten minutes were innocent?”

Lin Xiao: “I’ve checked three times, thoroughly. Even the other eight players have checked multiple times. If there were any issues, we would have discovered them.”

Bai Lixin looked at the sharp-edged glass case. “During those ten minutes, was it only those twenty people that were present?”

Lin Xiao glanced at Bai Lixin. “I investigated that too. Actually, do you remember the tickets we bought when we entered the museum?”

Bai Lixin nodded.

“Each person’s ticket is different.” Lin Xiao took out a ticket from his pocket and spread it out for Bai Lixin to see. “Look at the marking in the upper right corner. Mine is labeled S1887-02-04-00000345, meaning on February 4, 1887, I am visitor number 345. When we entered the museum and had our tickets checked, the cameras at the entrance photographed our appearance and matched it with the ticket. The camera is fast; one end takes a photo, and the other end rapidly produces the photo without our knowledge, with the unique number and entry time imprinted on the picture.”

“Every day, the museum staff categorizes these photos by time.”

Bai Lixin was a bit puzzled. “Why go through all this trouble?”

Lin Xiao explained, “I asked about this. They said it’s for the safety of the museum. In the 120 years since the Imperial Capital Museum opened, there have been tens of thousands of theft cases. To protect the safety of the treasures, they eventually decided to register and compare each visitor.”

“They claim that every guard here is carefully selected, possessing keen observation and memory for faces, allowing them to remember each visitor entering the exhibition halls.”

“That’s also why, even without surveillance, the museum managed to identify our group of twenty people.”

“After the loss of the Kiss of the Sun, the guards of each exhibition hall, relying on their memories, individually recalled the appearance of visitors in their respective halls. After eliminating and screening, they picked out the twenty of us from that pile of photos.”

Bai Lixin glanced at the guard in the corner, whose eyes continuously patrolled the exhibition hall. Initially, he didn’t think much of it, but after Lin Xiao’s comment, a term involuntarily surfaced in his mind: human surveillance.

Why would highly precise guards, capable of functioning like machines, make such a basic mistake of leaving their posts for ten minutes?

Bai Lixin strolled through the exhibition hall absentmindedly, and before they knew it, the agreed-upon time with Dr. Garner had arrived.

As per the arrangement, the two came to the Queen’s statue, and the elegant Dr. Garner was already waiting there.

He looked around, occasionally checking the time on his pocket watch, pacing back and forth and fingers tapping his thigh intentional or unintentional.

“Apologies for the wait.” Bai Lixin came to his side and greeted him familiarly. “Is there any progress, Dr. Garner? Has it been tough?”

Dr. Garner put away his pocket watch. “I might disappoint you. I’ve only gathered some peripheral information after asking around.”

“It’s a bit strange. I think I might have been deceived.”

Bai Lixin’s curiosity was piqued. “Hmm?”

Dr. Garner: “I found the chief of the guards responsible for patrolling other exhibition halls that day. He was familiar with both the guards from the two squads on the day of the incident. After the incident, these two squads weren’t taken away for some time so he discreetly inquired about the reason behind their mistake.”

“In the information we know, there was an issue during the handover between the two squads, leading to a ten-minute gap. But the clue he obtained was that both squads gave different versions.”

“Each patrol team consists of four guards, you know that, right? And during the shift change, they need to complete the handover before the previous team can leave.”

“But the four guards from the previous team were very certain that they indeed completed the handover. They left only after the replacement guard team arrived.”

“However, the subsequent guards were equally certain. When they arrived at the exhibition hall, there were no traces of the previous guards, and at the same time, they discovered that the Kiss of the Sun was missing.”

“Both teams stuck to their stories, but one of them must be lying.” Dr. Garner rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache. “Could it be some kind of haunting?”

Just as he finished speaking, he saw Bai Lixin giving him a meaningful look, followed by the latter casually saying, “Maybe, it’s not like you haven’t seen things like that before.”

Dr. Garner: “…”

‘Damn it, what the hell, can you not talk about something so eerie with such a casual tone like “I’m thirsty”?’