Looking at the email title, Lin Wanwan felt as though her heart had stopped beating for a brief second.
It was only after a full few seconds that she finally came back to her senses.
Taking a deep breath, she calmed down her somewhat tense emotions.
Lin Wanwan glanced left and right, confirming that the surrounding colleagues were all busy with their own work.
Only then did she carefully click open the email.
Unlike yesterday’s long-winded tirade, today’s email was extremely short.
Lin Wanwan skimmed through the contents at a glance, ignoring some meaningless complaints and exclamations, leaving only a few useful pieces of information in the entire email:
“Am I unlucky or lucky after all?!”
“If only I had bought the vehicle tomorrow instead.”
“The police’s efficiency in solving cases is way too fast!”
“It only took them two days to help retrieve the vehicle!”
…
“By the way, did you manage to return that new vehicle smoothly?”
“Though truth be told, the police officer responsible for handling the case is seriously super handsome!”
…
She clicked open the email details once again.
The sender was herself, and the time was likewise midnight three days later.
In addition, Lin Wanwan noticed a minor detail this time that she hadn’t paid attention to last time—the delivery time was midnight today.
Closing the email interface quickly, Lin Wanwan fell into deep thought.
Although it was unclear what this Time Mailbox was all about, judging from her experiences last night and this morning, it wasn’t hard to tell that the contents of the Time Mailbox were very likely real.
Based on the existing two emails, her mind swiftly pieced together the pattern.
The Time Mailbox appeared every day at 0:00, while the sending time was 0:00 three days later.
The contents of the emails would involve certain events occurring during these three days.
Although she wasn’t anxious about the electric scooter being stolen—after all, the email also stated that three days later, the police would help retrieve her newly bought electric scooter—Lin Wanwan still decided to check out the site in person to verify the authenticity of the email’s contents.
Not daring to delay, she immediately opened the chat box with Team Leader Sister Zhang, her fingers typing rapidly on the keyboard:
“Sister Zhang, I got caught in the rain when leaving work last night, and now I seem to have a bit of a fever. I’d like to ask for half a day off to go to the hospital and see a doctor.”
Just a few seconds after the message was sent, Sister Zhang replied:
“Okay, take care of yourself. Remember to send me a sick leave application via email, otherwise your full attendance bonus will be deducted!”
Lin Wanwan let out a sigh of relief, replied with a “Received,” grabbed her handbag, and ran toward the elevator.
Because the shopping mall was only two intersections away from the company, she didn’t call a ride, opting to walk directly over instead.
10 minutes later, Lin Wanwan arrived at the mall’s parking lot, looking at the spot where her vehicle was originally parked, which was now completely empty.
At this moment, her mood was exceptionally subtle.
In her heart, there was no depression or anger over the stolen electric scooter, but rather an uncontrollable surge of pleasant surprise.
In this single instant, she even felt a bit of anticipation for the arrival of midnight.
This feeling of peering into the secrets of the future was simply too marvelous.
Suppressing the emotions in her heart, she immediately pulled out her phone and dialed 110.
As a first-tier city in China, Yangcheng’s police dispatch speed was still very fast.
Less than ten minutes after hanging up the phone, a police car pulled up at the parking lot entrance.
The doors opened, and two police officers stepped down.
However, after getting a clear look at the officers’ faces, Lin Wanwan’s brows knitted together slightly.
Both officers were in their early 40s. Although both were over 1.8 meters tall, their features were entirely ordinary.
They couldn’t be associated with handsome in the slightest, let alone super handsome.
Could her aesthetic standards have undergone a earth-shattering shift in just three short days?
Lin Wanwan shook her head gently, ruling out this absurd possibility.
Then, only one answer remained: there was a issue with the reporting time.
Although the mall wasn’t far from the company, it was still about a 10-minute walk away.
According to her logical thinking, she definitely wouldn’t take a special leave of absence in the middle of a workday just to retrieve the vehicle.
This implied that under normal circumstances, she would most likely come to the mall to retrieve her vehicle only after getting off work this afternoon, after which she would discover her electric scooter had been stolen and report it to the police.
Under normal circumstances, dialing 110 connects directly to the call center.
After the call taker at the center understands the situation, they allocate the case to the most appropriate officers based on the nature of the report.
This meant that even if reporting the crime at the exact same location, as long as the reporting time differed, the responding officers would also change.
Lin Wanwan approached the two police officers and clearly explained the specific details of the stolen vehicle.
After listening to Lin Wanwan’s account, Liu Jianming, who was originally feeling somewhat sluggish due to working an all-nighter, instantly perked up.
The value of the electric scooter exceeded 3,000 yuan, which legally qualified as a relatively large amount in economic value.
This was a busy downtown area, with surveillance cameras at almost every intersection.
A vehicle parked last night and missing today had a very short window of loss, making it easy to track down relevant surveillance records.
The difficulty in solving this type of case was extremely low.
After listening to Lin Wanwan’s words, Liu Jianming’s eyes brightened, and he made an immediate decision:
“Let’s go. We’ll head to the mall’s surveillance room first; maybe we can find some clues.”
Looking at Liu Jianming, who was heading inside with great haste, Lin Wanwan spoke with a bit of confusion:
“Officer Liu, don’t we need to go back to file the case first?”
She had seen on short video platforms before that the reason police took a long time to handle cases was that they had to go through various procedures and apply for various paperwork.
A single procedure might not take long, but when there were many procedures…
Liu Jianming didn’t break his stride, explaining with a smile:
“I am the community police officer for this sector, and this Wanning Mall happens to fall under my responsibility, so I’m very familiar with the mall’s security department.”
“I’ll take a preliminary look at the general situation first; as for the subsequent procedures we need to make up, doing them after returning to the station won’t delay anything.”
The three of them quickly arrived at the surveillance room on the third floor of the mall. Liu Jianming greeted the security captain on duty, who immediately stepped forward enthusiastically:
“Officer Liu, what brings you here today?”
“Helping this lady check the surveillance.”
“Her electric scooter parked in the open-air parking lot went missing, likely sometime between last night and this morning.”
Liu Jianming pointed at Lin Wanwan, adding,
“Altogether it’s been less than 12 hours. Let’s first check when exactly it went missing.”
The security captain acknowledged the request and quickly pulled up the corresponding surveillance footage on the computer.
Lin Wanwan leaned closer to the screen, recognizing her electric scooter at a glance.
She hurriedly reached out and pointed at that pink electric scooter:
“Officer Liu, that’s my scooter!”
Liu Jianming nodded:
“Skip forward hour by hour to see when it disappeared!”
Receiving the instruction, the security captain immediately began adjusting the surveillance timeline.
In the surveillance footage, there was no movement throughout the early part of the night.
It wasn’t until the timeline jumped to 3:00 AM that the electric scooter suddenly vanished.
The security captain was clearly experienced as well; he quickly dragged the surveillance timeline backward.
Right up until 2:03 AM, a man wearing a black trench coat appeared in the frame.
After confirming there was no one around, the trench-coat man immediately pulled out his tools.
Taking less than half a minute, the electric scooter was successfully unlocked.
In the surveillance footage, the man in the black trench coat skillfully straddled the pink electric scooter, twisted the handlebar, and rode off toward the north gate of the parking lot.