please don't believe me

[Mission reminder: "The Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea" has arrived in the public area, and the exhibition time will start counting. 】

[Time telling system: The remaining exhibition time is 23 hours, 59 minutes and 57 seconds. 】

The young man was suddenly awakened by the sound of the system.He suddenly opened his eyes, and the next moment he focused his eyes, he remembered where it was.

This is the office of the director of the Serrawi Theater.Last night, the big boss Chris has been sitting here to deal with things, and the secretary, assistant youth and even the person in charge of the theater also stayed on duty collectively.But in the middle of the night, these people began to discuss the press conference. After hearing a few words, the young man felt that there was no news that needed his attention, so he squinted his eyes on the sofa.

When I woke up at this time, the light outside the window was not particularly dazzling, making people mistakenly think that it was still early.But the young man took out his pocket watch and saw that it was just the weather.

It was a quarter past eight in the morning.

The secretary was still resting on the sofa next to him. The young man lifted the coat covering his body and sat up, wiping his face.Thinking of the system prompt that woke me up just now, I always felt that I didn't hear clearly in a trance, so I silently said: Tell the time.

[The time reporting system responds, please confirm the content of the time reporting. 】

It said "confirm", but the system didn't give any options.The young man squinted his eyes and thought for a while, then slowly said: "The Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea", the rest of the public exhibition time.

[Time telling system: The remaining exhibition time is 23 hours, 57 minutes and 32 seconds. 】

So Rachel has changed the painting.The young man hooked his mouth, took out a box of mint throat lozenges from his inner pocket, pinched two and stuffed them in his mouth, then stood up and stretched himself.

"Wake up, come and clean up."

Chris's deep voice sounded behind the young man.The young man turned his head and saw that the big boss was still sitting at his desk. There were several newspapers spread out at the same time on the desk, and there were several paper bags on the corner of the desk.

From the smell in the air, it must be breakfast in those paper bags.However, considering that Chris has no "interest" in eating in the past two days, it is likely that the boss has never enjoyed it himself, and he thinks these things are in the way.

The young man walked to the table, looked at the breakfasts, and then looked at the newspapers on the table: "The manuscript...is it out so soon?"

Chris glanced up at him as if he had just heard some nonsense, then went back to looking down at the papers.The layout of the newspapers spreads from the middle to the outside according to the degree of influence, and the most middle one is naturally the newspaper industry of Serrawi and the biggest opponent-"Daily News".

Chris sat there, frowning and rereading the reports, underlining sections with red pen now and then.The young man was a little amused. The big boss reads the newspaper with the same energy as the king reads the battle report.

A piece of steaming bread was wrapped in a tissue and handed to Chris.

Chris looked up at the young man again.

The young man spread two paper towels on the newspaper and said with a smile, "If you haven't slept all night, at least have breakfast? Supplement with sugar, so you can last longer."

Chris saw that he was laying out paper towels as if preventing children from missing food, and squinted his eyes: "No need."

"Is there anyone who doesn't need to eat?" The young man took the pen in his hand and stuffed the bread on it, "Doesn't eat or sleep, are you a sculpture at the entrance of the theater?"

The sculpture at the entrance of the theater is themed on the Muse, the God of Art. There are nine sculptures in the theater, which become group portraits of the goddesses.

Chris couldn't tell if the youth was just a simple metaphor for not eating and sleeping, or he was insinuating that he was like a woman.But even Chris himself felt that the latter conjecture was unlikely, so he could only give up temporarily and eat bread for the time being.

The young man removed the other bread and poured Chris a glass of water to drink.When his eyes swept across the table unconsciously, he suddenly found something strange: "Why did you unplug the phone line?"

Although it's over after unplugging it and plugging it back in, Chris doesn't seem to be someone who would ignore this matter, so the young man decided to ask the big boss first.

Chris took a sip of water and looked up at him: "The phone at the headquarters office in Selawi is almost ringing off the hook."

So it means to avoid questioning for the time being.The young man nodded and said, "Then I'll borrow the phone outside to confirm when that Professor Raikkonen will arrive..."

"No need." Chris interrupted him, "The picture frame has been sent to his laboratory, and the results will be available as soon as today."

The young man almost wanted to raise his eyebrows.It's best not to have any surprises happen while he's asleep, he doesn't want to go back and start all over again.

"Wake up the secretary." Chris continued to order, "Then go and call the headquarters, and the shareholders meeting will be held at 09:30."

"Okay, Mr. Chris." The young man replied, put his mint box in Chris's hand again, smiled and said, "It's been a night, maybe you need this."

Chris was noncommittal, but looked up at the young man's back while reading the newspaper, and felt that the other party seemed to be a little different.

It is indeed different.The hardest part has been completed, the darkest moment has passed, and those who are about to usher in the dawn have let go of most of their tension and fear.

[Time telling system: The remaining exhibition time is 16 hours, 23 minutes and 15 seconds. 】

A press conference is underway.

Even though Selawi has repeatedly stated that it was just a theater performance, doubts from reporters continued to emerge. "Daily News" was the first unit to "touch" the bomb, and its reporters naturally took the lead.The core of the problem is also very simple. If it is just a performance, then where is the real "Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea"?

Selawi's current unified caliber is "keep safe".However, there is no "picture" and no truth. When will it be re-exhibited? This is a question that even Chris can't say straight out.

"The frame of that painting is partially damaged, and it is currently being reframed." Chris's voice was low and calm, as if stating a simple answer, "It is expected to be completed within a week, and we will start arranging the exhibition immediately after a week .”

This is a positive answer, but by no means a specific and clear answer. The reporter of "Daily News" wanted to continue to ask questions, but other reporters snatched the opportunity to leave blank, and was deprived of the right to speak.

At least half of the media in this venue have been greeted by people from Serrawi.

Chris and several other responsible persons sat on the stage and responded to reporters' questions one by one.The young man stood in a dark corner of the venue, his eyes relaxed on the stage.He still looked a little tired, but there was a gleam in his eyes.

When he heard Chris categorically deny that the painting had been stolen, the young man blinked, and gradually showed an obvious and pleasant smile.

[Time telling system: The remaining exhibition time is 12 hours, 47 minutes and 30 seconds. 】

"Mr. Chris, the preliminary analysis report for the frame is out."

The young man entered the office with a file bag, and Chris, the secretary, the director of the theater and the director of security were sitting around the desk, having a "case discussion meeting".When the young man knocked on the door and came in, everyone stopped to relax their brains.

Chris took a sip of coffee, but he obviously didn't intend to actually take a break, so he directly ordered the young man: "You read the report first, and tell us the main conclusions directly."

"I had a brief chat with Professor Raikkonen." The young man stood not far from the door, and did not approach the direction of the desk, only replied, "He said, this is most likely a photosensitizer."

Sensitizer, the main component is silver bromide, which will decompose into bromine and silver under light.Even if this thing will become an important development technology in the future, it is still a cutting-edge research project for the current era.

Everyone present is not stupid, even if they have never seen this kind of thing, they have heard of it, so no one is in a hurry to ask questions.Chris tapped his finger on the tabletop and said, "Pay attention to the 'Optical Sensitivity' and 'Sensitivity Duration' parts when you look at it. It's best to find out the specific description."

This painting was never noticed when it was hung in the VIP corridor, and there was no movement when it first appeared on stage, but it only developed during the auction.Although these three places have light, the difference between the first two places and the third place is the intensity of light and the time of light.

If Chris guessed correctly, this sensitizer must be exposed to strong light for a long time to be effective.The soft lighting in the VIP room to protect the artwork, the closure of the storage room, and even the black cloth on the stage all happened to conceal the onset time of the potion, making it impossible for Serawi to determine when the painting was stolen.

Young people are naturally happy to take on this task. "Solving cases" should be the job of the police—oh, detectives are still very popular in this era—in fact, he has no obligation to sit and brainstorm with this group of people, just to figure out the idea of ​​​​theft.

Catch myself, I am not looking for guilt.The young man sat down on the sofa at the other end of the office, untied the white rope wrapped around the file bag, and slowly flipped through the laboratory report.

[Time telling system: The remaining exhibition time is 12 hours, 11 minutes and 25 seconds. 】

"...These are the parts I understand after reading the report, over."

The young man summed up the general content of the report in a flat tone, and wiped his face, trying to cheer up his tired look.After listening to the statement, the two principals of the theater and security fell into deep thought.In fact, they are also very tired, but Chris is still sitting here motionless, and the two right-hand men dare not complain too much.

The young assistant answered Chris's previous question in the most concise way, and the answer did coincide with Chris' conjecture.However, this "predictability" is not a good thing, because this situation just confirmed the worst kind of conjecture-the suspicious period in which the painting was actually stolen was extended.

The notice letter said that the painting was stolen that day, and Chris would not be so stupid as to really think that there was a crisis that day.In fact, Chris organized the identification work on the second day after being provoked, and the result at that time was that all the things in the VIP area were original.

However, on the day of the auction, "Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea" became a fake.

The crime time is set in this week.Originally, the developing properties of the sensitizer could shorten the time, but the lighting in the VIP area was soft, and the frame was originally dark brown. Professor Raikkonen believed that even after developing, it would be difficult for the naked eye to detect it.

Fortunately, this chemical expert was very careful, and there were two additional clues in the report: one was that the photosensitive agent was not very viscous, and cleaning it a few times would probably lead to shallow and incomplete fonts. It means that the number of cleanings is not much; the second is that the material of the picture frame is relatively rough and ordinary, which may be different from the real picture frame displayed in the VIP area of ​​​​Serrawi.

To put it simply, these two points clarified two ideas-the sensitizer exists for a short time, and "The Girl Drinking Afternoon Tea" even the painting and frame were replaced.It takes only a few seconds to replace the whole painting, which greatly shortens the time for committing crimes compared to disassembling and reinstalling.Moreover, the framed works have a considerable volume, and it is almost impossible to transport them without a large area of ​​obvious obstructions.

Besides, the security guards at those times would even tease women's skirts.

The corners of the young man's mouth twitched when he read these two points in the report.It was hard for Chris not to call the police, but the chemistry professor was as sharp as forensics, it was hard to hide.

However, even if it was not good for him, he still relayed these two points truthfully.Even though this may make the "crack-solving work" a lot of progress, the countdown is also running fast, and there is nothing to worry about.

Sure enough, Chris thought very quickly. First, he asked the security captain to find detectives to help him search along the clues of the picture frame, and then asked the person in charge of the theater to confirm the cleaning schedule. He must shorten the time period during which the photosensitizer appears with the frequency of cleaning.

After the two left, Chris asked the secretary: "Contact the company responsible for the packaging and handling of the auction items, and ask them to ensure that all employees who have participated in this work are still on duty and can accept inquiries at any time."

The secretary responded, walked to the phone and flipped through the business card book to make a call.The young man stood in front of the table and looked up at Chris, his heart skipped a beat.

He was suspicious of the last person who came into contact with these paintings.The young man remained calm on the surface, but he understood the other party's thoughts in his mind-whoever can write those photosensitizers can't get rid of the relationship with the strange thief.

The young man naturally looked away, glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, and then smiled politely at the boss: "Why don't you have dinner first, Mr. Chris?"

Even if you are running wildly, how can you catch up before the finish line?