Volume One, Chapter 45: As Long as You Insist It Wasn’t You, There’s Nothing They Can Do to You

“I am Captain Ge Ruoshuang of Police Security Team One. Who is the reporting party?” Ge Ruoshuang’s gaze swept the room, finally resting on Qi Xiangfu, who was clutching the ginseng.

Qi Xiangfu opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, but ultimately said nothing.

“I’m the one who reported it!” Lin Xiaoxu spoke up.

Ge Ruoshuang cast a scrutinizing glance at Lin Xiaoxu before asking, “Please explain what happened.”

Lin Xiaoxu recounted in detail how Li Donghai had passed off a fifteen-year-old cultivated ginseng as a thirty-year-old wild ginseng and sold it to a customer for 588,000 yuan.

“Then let’s proceed according to protocol. First, we’ll record statements from everyone, then collect evidence,” Ge Ruoshuang instructed the male officers behind her.

The officers immediately set to work, taking statements from Qi Xiangfu, Li Donghai, Lin Xiaoxu, and other customers.

Li Donghai summoned all his willpower to keep calm, mentally strategizing his next move.

“Hey, Lao Liu, a young man just said your shopkeeper is using cultivated ginseng to pass off as wild ginseng, and he even reported it to the police. You’d better come back and check it out,” Qi Xiangfu said after finishing a phone call.

Li Donghai, incredulous, asked, “Sir, you actually know my boss?”

“If I weren’t an old friend, do you think I’d be foolish enough to spend nearly 600,000 yuan on a ginseng from Jishitang without a second thought?” Qi Xiangfu retorted.

As soon as Qi Xiangfu finished speaking, a chill rose from Li Donghai’s feet, his legs going weak as if cooked noodles, nearly causing him to collapse. What kind of cursed day was this? One misfortune after another!

Beep beep—

At that moment, Lin Xiaoxu’s phone vibrated. He saw that Song Qingxin had accepted his WeChat friend request and immediately transferred 60,000 yuan as payment, along with a message asking if he had returned to Taoyuan Village.

Lin Xiaoxu briefly updated her on what had happened at Jishitang before putting his phone away.

As the officers finished recording statements, a middle-aged man arrived at Jishitang, panting heavily.

“Old Qi, sorry about today. Ever since my son’s cough got better, he insisted on dragging me to the amusement park, so I couldn’t personally attend to you,” Zhu Liu said apologetically to Qi Xiangfu.

“Congratulations, your son’s cough is finally cured!” Qi Xiangfu chuckled, waving it off.

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“Hey!” Zhu Liu’s expression darkened rapidly when he saw the ginseng in Qi Xiangfu’s hands. His pupils constricted as he immediately turned to Li Donghai.

“Li Donghai, I spent a fortune inviting you to manage Jishitang, and yet you stoop to such despicable acts—passing off cultivated ginseng as wild?”

Zhu Liu had apprenticed under a master healer since childhood and had inherited Jishitang from him over a decade ago. Although his medical skills were somewhat unrefined, he was an expert in medicinal herbs.

Just one glance was enough for Zhu Liu to identify that the ginseng was a fifteen-year-old cultivated root, not the thirty-year-old wild ginseng he had previously purchased at great expense from an elderly farmer.

Moreover, the scent of this cultivated ginseng was off—too strong and clearly tampered with.

A month ago, troubled by his son’s cough, Zhu Liu had temporarily handed over management of Jishitang to Li Donghai. Who would have thought Li Donghai was such a heartless scoundrel!

Ge Ruoshuang and the officers instinctively looked at Zhu Liu and Li Donghai.

Li Donghai trembled suddenly.

“Boss Zhu, I’m innocent! Although I’ve been managing Jishitang temporarily, I had no knowledge of the wild ginseng being switched!

“There are so many people coming and going every day, more than twenty employees, a mixed crowd. I really am innocent…”

Li Donghai was a seasoned schemer.

Whenever he stole the wild ginseng or other precious herbs from Jishitang, he always wore white gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints;

he also used a powerful electromagnetic jammer to disrupt the surveillance cameras in the medicine vault for a while. The transactions took place in secret locations, and the contacts were trustworthy and tight-lipped.

Most importantly, he never accepted bank transfers—only cash.

So as long as he denied everything, no one could prove otherwise!

Yes!

Denial was the best defense. Catch the thief, catch the stolen goods; catch the traitor, catch the accomplice. They wouldn’t have the evidence anyway.

A fleeting, smug grin crossed Li Donghai’s face before vanishing without a trace, replaced by a pitiful expression of someone wrongly accused.

Lin Xiaoxu narrowed his dark eyes sharply, catching the faint malicious smile on Li Donghai’s face—just like years ago.

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“The wild ginseng that was switched was kept long-term in the vault’s safe. Only you and I have the keys. If it wasn’t you, then who else could it be?” Zhu Liu’s pointed question was clear as day. Was he suggesting that he, the boss, had switched the ginseng himself and pinned it on Li Donghai?

“Boss Zhu, that wild ginseng is extremely precious, so it’s no surprise that thieves have set their sights on it. They have their ways to open safes!

“Whether the thief is an insider or outsider can only be determined through thorough investigation by the officers.

“As for me, Li Donghai, I fully cooperate with the investigation. I’m clean and upright—an honest man has nothing to fear!” Li Donghai’s face hardened as he spoke sharply.

His ‘gentlemanly and forthright’ demeanor even swayed some customers, who whispered among themselves, suggesting that other employees at Jishitang might be involved.

“Are there surveillance cameras around the vault?” Ge Ruoshuang asked.

Such a valuable wild ginseng being switched was no trivial matter.

“Yes! Cameras are installed both inside and outside the vault. Please wait a moment—I’ll pull up the footage from the past three months…” Zhu Liu operated his phone and transferred the footage to a ten-inch iPad. The surveillance videos from the last three months were displayed.

Ge Ruoshuang and the officers sped through the footage, watching at several times the normal speed.

After a long while, they reached a conclusion.

The surveillance footage over the past three months contained many gaps—either static or black screens.

Thus, they couldn’t pinpoint the exact time the wild ginseng was switched, only that the perpetrator was cautious and highly experienced.

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