Chapter 287: You Are...
Translator: BeetleBarker Editor: Tennesh
Roman looked to the other person. Just now, when he had heard "handling a police case," he had only been paying attention to the electronic warrant and had not noticed was this person looked like. Now that he had clearly seen this person, Roman was suddenly at a loss for words
The entire room was filled with videos and photographs of Fang Zhao. Before this, he had been studying them and his eyes were bloodshot from all that staring. Now that he suddenly saw the actual person, his first reaction was that he was seeing things.
"You are..."
Words had just left his mouth when Roman saw a few people in police uniforms land in succession on the balcony outside.
Roman: "..."
Was this how cruise police handled cases nowadays?
Eyebrows twitching, Roman calmly turned off all the screens in the room.
The few that arrived later were the police on the roof deck who had come down after they had received the rappelling equipment.
"Fang Zhao! Are you alright?"
"Caught him?"
"This is that fellow?"
Members of the police squad looked at the tied-up suspect and, after confirming that he was the one, used their handcuffs to restrain the suspect.
Another officer, probably the leader of the squad, walked toward Roman to explain the situation that had unfolded before his eyes.
"Mr. Nova Roman? Sorry for disturbing you. When the police duty room dialed your room number, nobody picked up and you were uncontactable through your communications device..."
The police had previously contacted guests in the SVIP area and given them warnings beforehand to get those with bodyguards to deploy them. Only Roman had been uncontactable, and so they had been unable to inform him. It just so happened that the suspect had landed on this balcony and Roman did not normally have a bodyguard by his side while he was working. If not for Fang Zhao's quick reactions and prompt arrival, Roman might have been injured or taken hostage. If he had been even unluckier, he might not be alive.
Hearing the police's explanation, Roman also understood that Fang Zhao had saved him. However, now Roman's brain was beginning think again.
If it had been anybody else, then so be it, but it just had to be Fang Zhao.
Roman tried replaying the incident in his head. His line of thought regarding Fang Zhao had not been broken yet, and because of these unforeseen circumstances, it had started changing again.
Fang Zhao received a call from Eric.
Eric inquired about what had happened and also allowed Fang Zhao to follow the police squad and the suspect to the interrogation room.
Eric had even dispatched a small flying craft to pick them up.
Time was tight, so Fang Zhao didn't have any time to approach Director Roman for a chat.
However, under the present circumstances, the suspect had to be delivered first. After that matter was resolved, he would come and look for this director.
After Fang Zhao and the police squad left, Roman once again turned on the screens and viewed the images displayed on them. He kept replaying the whole chain of events in his head and began deeply contemplating.
————
After the detainee had been delivered to the police's interrogation room, Fang Zhao was called to another room to give a statement.
Outside the interrogation room, Eric first lectured the members of the police squad.
"Even Fang Zhao knew how to prepare equipment beforehand, so what about you guys? Did you carry the equipment that is supposed to be on you? No efficiency, no operational capability! Even an amateur puts us to shame!"
One police officer timidly replied, "Captain, Fang Zhao is really a professional. He's from the Baiji military district and has directly gone up against terrorists. He really cannot be considered an amateur. Didn't the military reports say that—"
Eric's eyebrows flew upward, his enlarged eyes compelling that junior police officer to swallow his words. "You still dare to talk back?!"
Fang Zhao had served in the Baiji military district, this Eric also knew, but he could not take back the words he had said. It was a matter of pride. He was the boss here!
However, they really could not be compared with Fang Zhao. That mysterious intuition was another matter altogether. Just the way he had leaped off the roof deck was out of this world. Even if it was someone worked all year round on the cruise and trained frequently, they might only be able to accomplish it with some difficulty, and they wouldn't be as nimble either.
"Luckily, not every suspect is just like Fang Zhao. With his skills, if Fang Zhao was to commit crimes, we would lose our jobs," another officer lamented.
Hearing this, Eric's mood became poorer. "Don't talk about Fang Zhao to that extent. Let's say, if we weren't fortunate enough to have encountered Fang Zhao, do you think we would have caught the suspect being detained inside?!"
But this wasn't time to be disciplining his subordinates. Eric had an interrogation to handle first.
When Fang Zhao got here, Eric had already gone inside to interrogate the suspect. However, that had nothing to do with Fang Zhao. After he had given his statement, Fang Zhao was informed that he could leave.
Just as he was about to leave, Fang Zhao heard two police officers discussing something in hushed tones.
Any normal person would not be able to listen to the contents of the conversation, but Fang Zhao's hearing was not like a normal person's, and he could catch what those two were saying.
When making his statement, Fang Zhao had heard from a police officer that the person he had detained had stolen something. He had stolen an important item stored in a safe in the storeroom.
At first, Fang Zhao had thought the person had stolen a precious gem or something similar, as the auction this time around featured gemstones. He had not expected that the person had stolen an antique.
A portable hard drive from the Old Era. Given the storage technology used in the New Era, it was indeed an antique.
During the Period of Destruction, many firms had not made preparations for data recovery for a calamity. When the apocalypse had descended, there had been severe data loss, and 90% of people's personal storage equipment had been destroyed. Too little had been able to be preserved.
Some fortunate storage devices had managed to survive the Period of Destruction due to special methods of preservation that had managed to extend the lifespan of these devices. For devices that had not been so lucky, even if they were not damaged externally, they had spoiled over time and the data inside was impossible to recover.
Research teams established during the Period of Destruction had only preserved more important data, the sort that only concerned humanity's survival and development. As for popular entertainment, there was much less.
But as the world once again recovered and became peaceful, people once again sought out stuff from the Old Era.
In the first 100 years of the New Era, there were people who had gotten rich from discovering Old Era videos. But now, 500 years later, there was already a database with backups. When some people discovered storage devices from the Old Era, they would spend large sums of money to contract historical relic restoration specialist and appraisers. After investing large sums, they would often find out that the videos stored inside had already been uploaded to the database and the first discoverer of those videos had already been recorded. These items in their hands could not be sold for a high price, and it had all been a wasted effort.
People of the New Era always had an Old Era complex, and this was this reason people still valued these sorts storage devices. Naturally, what was more important was the data they contained and whether there were videos from the Old Era that had not been uploaded to the database.
Antiques could be faked, as could videos. Therefore, professional appraisers had to be contracted to verify the authenticity and evaluate the item's value.
The two police officers were discussing finding for a historical relic restoration specialist and appraiser to determine exactly what was in that portable hard drive, why somebody would fork out a large sum to hire a thief to steal it, and exactly who this hard drive belonged to.
However, Fang Zhao's focus was on a different thing. Historical relic restoration specialists are so capable now!
Even a portable hard drive can be repaired!
However, with this matter, Fang Zhao had other thoughts.
The difficulty of being a historical relic restoration specialist was too high, but a historical relic appraiser? He decided he would become one. With those qualifications, he would be able to enter certain venues. He had quite a lot of interest in these "historical relic videos."
As Fang Zhao contemplated this, another police officer came over.
"Hey, Fang Zhao, your rock climbing skills and your landing after jumping from a height were really impressive!"
"Lots of practice. I'm used to it," Fang Zhao replied.
During the Period of Destruction, there hadn't been any elevators for many years. Forget about climbing or landing from a height, Fang Zhao had also done even more dangerous activities. That had long become a habit, as it had been commonplace. Even though he had been reborn and gained a new body, he still retained those memories. Every muscle and cell in his body retained that clear muscle memory.
However, these policemen evidently had no way of verifying the truth of Fang Zhao's words, so they only assumed that Fang Zhao trained a lot normally and had probably trained a lot during his time on Baiji military district, resulting in this proficiency.
Having left the police district, Fang Zhao received a message. It was from an unknown number, but the signature at the end of the message read "Nova Roman."
Fang Zhao blanked for a second before smiling immediately after.
Before coming here, Fang Zhao had thought about many circumstances where he would be able to see this director, yet he had not expected that the first words he would say when meeting the director were "Handling a police case, please do not panic."
He had thought that missing out on the auction would mean letting this opportunity slip by. However, he had actually come across the director here.
What a coincidence. His luck was too good.
Had being reborn really changed his fortunes?
However, what exactly was with the situation in the room back then? Fang Zhao had clearly seen the images on those screens. Had this director really been studying Fang Zhao himself?
Anyone who saw that scene would find it odd and would be suspicious.
However, for Fang Zhao, this might not be something bad.
After leaving the police district, Fang Zhao once more arrived at the 17th floor of the SVIP area. This time he did not need to jump from a height.
In the room, Roman had already changed his attire, washed up, and combed his hair. He no longer appeared so sloppy and disheveled.
Roman had gotten Fang Zhao to come over for a few reasons: first, to explain why there had been so many screenshots and photographs of Fang Zhao in the room previously; second, to thank Fang Zhao for saving him in the nick of time; and third, he wanted to speak with Fang Zhao about those videos. He wanted to assimilate some of Fang Zhao's previous videos into his own instructional resources, and when the time came, he would use it to guide actors and also help assist their understanding of the role of Fang Zhao.
Recalling the situation that had happened before, Roman did not feel awkward meeting Fang Zhao again. After all, with his age, experience, and status, and as he was thick skinned, he could maintain sufficient composure.
"Sit, make yourself at home." Under normal circumstances, Roman was rather affable. "Teasandsea's specialty tea leaves. There are very few authentic goods on the market. I just managed to get these from an old friend." Roman laughed heartily and personally poured a cup of tea for Fang Zhao. "I know all about this matter. Thank you for acting promptly. Otherwise, this old life of mine might have suffered. I'm old and wouldn't be able to bear being tormented. I listened to your concert online. It was really decent. When will your next concert be? If I have the time, I will surely attend it live."
"I haven't started preparing for the next concert yet," Fang Zhao replied.
"Oh? Right, take a break and rest first, give yourself a vacation before preparing for the next one. Teasandsea is a really great place to have a holiday!"
"No." Fang Zhao looked towards Roman, his expression serious. "I received news that Director Roman would be at Teasandsea, so I specifically came here."
Roman paused midway through sipping his tea. Raising his head up, in a flash, his gaze became extremely penetrating. Although he still had a smile on his face, the amiable warmth was no longer there.
Fang Zhao did not shy away from Roman's gaze. "I wish to act as Fang Zhao."