You're just a locksmith! What are you doing catching swindlers at the start?

When the car passed the third intersection, Su Wan finally spoke.

Her fingers rested on the steering wheel.

His gaze was fixed ahead, and his voice was soft, but it could be heard clearly in the quiet carriage.

"At four o'clock this morning, the anti-drug squad raided a drug deal in an abandoned warehouse in the south of the city."

"Two groups of people, one carrying drugs and the other carrying cash. Six people were arrested. Neither the drugs nor the cash were found in the car; they eventually found a safe in a corner."

"It's an imported anti-theft lock."

She tapped her fingers lightly on the steering wheel.

"For safety, both groups locked the money and goods inside. No one could take them first during the transaction."

"The box is tamper-proof—if the wrong combination is entered five times, a miniature detonator will detonate inside the lock cylinder. It's not big, but it's enough to blow the contents inside to ash."

Lin Zhou leaned back in the passenger seat, his seatbelt slung across his chest.

He didn't interrupt.

"The experts from the municipal bureau have already conducted three audits. All three were wrong. There are still two more chances."

She turned the steering wheel, and the car turned onto a narrower road.

"Both groups of suspects were waiting in the interrogation room. The box couldn't be opened, so the physical evidence couldn't be used. They were caught red-handed, but the stolen goods were missing."

Lin Zhou nodded. "What model of lock?"

Su Wan gave a name.

Made in Germany, military grade, not available on the market.

Lin Zhou had heard of this brand.

It wasn't in the country, but in the pile of lock knowledge that had been systematically crammed into his head.

That brand has a unique feature: the inner wall of the lock cylinder is plated with chrome, the pins are in double rows of twelve, and the fake slots are located on the third and seventh pins.

The fake slots are made so deep that they look even more real than the real slots.

When the tool is pushed up, the pin falls into the false slot, and the person picking the lock will think it is in place, so they turn it again, and it gets stuck.

After three incorrect attempts, the lock cylinder will automatically lock and needs to be reset with professional tools.

Five mistakes, then it explodes.

"Your experts,"

He said, "Don't you find the third and seventh ones particularly difficult to bear?"

Su Wan turned her head and glanced at him.

That glance was brief, returning to the windshield in less than a second.

But her jawline tightened slightly. "How did you know?"

"The fake slots on that lock are at the third and seventh positions. They're made deeper than the real ones. It's designed to trick experienced people. Newbies, on the other hand, will easily find their way around it."

The car stopped at a red light.

Su Wan turned her head to look at him.

I looked at it for about three seconds. "You've driven this before?"

"no."

"How do you know?"

Lin Zhou leaned back in his chair. "I heard about it."

Su Wan did not ask any further questions.

She drove her car into the city bureau compound and parked it next to the old black sedan.

Old Zhou's car was still in the same spot, with his enamel mug in the cup holder.

The red lettering on the cup lid can be seen from outside the windshield.

Lin Zhou opened the car door and followed Su Wan into the office building.

There were more people in the corridor than usual.

Several uniformed police officers hurried past, and the sound of walkie-talkies came from around the corner.

There was a tense atmosphere in the air.

It wasn't panic, but the tension of everyone walking quickly at the same pace.

Su Wan didn't stop all the way, and pushed open a door at the end of the corridor.

It's a small conference room inside.

The curtains were half-drawn, and all the fluorescent lights were on.

Several photos from the scene, a laptop, and two paper cups were spread out on the table.

Old Zhou stood by the window, holding an enamel mug in his hand.

A middle-aged man in a white shirt sat at the table with a document spread out in front of him, his brows furrowed.

A man in his fifties was standing in the corner.

Wearing a gray vest and glasses perched on his forehead, he stood before an open toolbox containing more than ten times the amount of stuff in Lin Zhou's tool bag.

His expression wasn't one of tension, but rather displeasure at having his professional abilities questioned to his face.

The comments were transmitted through the camera on Lin Zhou's chest.

"This must be the expert."

"Gray vest, toolbox ten times bigger than Three-Second King's."

"But he didn't open it."

"I tried three times, and all three times it was wrong. I have two more chances to unlock it."

"The Three-Second King said he can drive it. He even knows which slot the fake gear in the car is in."

"But he's never opened that kind of lock. He said so himself."

He said he "heard it." The problem is, where did he hear it from? He's never even seen it.

When Old Zhou saw Lin Zhou come in, he took the enamel cup away from his mouth and nodded.

The bureau chief lifted his eyelids from the document.

He glanced at Lin Zhou.

Her hair was still sticking up, and the sofa cushion mark on her face hadn't faded yet.

His eyebrows twitched, but he didn't say anything.

Su Wan walked to the table.

"This is Lin Zhou. He's the locksmith."

She paused for a moment, then said, "It's the one Brother Zhou mentioned."

The bureau chief nodded. He looked at Lin Zhou.

"I heard you're very fast at picking locks."

"good."

Lin Zhou said.

"This cabinet is in the evidence room. It has a security lock, and it detonated five times erroneously. Our people tried three times."

The director pushed the documents in front of him forward.

How confident are you?

"You can only speak after you see the lock."

The bureau chief stood up. "Let's go."

The evidence room is at the other end of the corridor.

Iron gate, combination lock, two cameras.

A young policeman stood guard at the door. When he saw the chief of police coming over, he stood at attention.

The chief nodded, and the young policeman opened the door.

It was very small inside, about ten square meters. There was a row of iron shelves on the wall, on which were various items sealed in evidence bags.

A license plate, a wrench, and a few cell phones.

In the center of the room was a stainless steel table. A safe sat on the table.

Lin Zhou walked over.

The box wasn't big.

It was a size smaller than the safe in the hidden door of the crescent moon, with a gray-black exterior and a matte finish.

The lock plate is on the front.

It's not a number keypad, it's a mechanical dial with markings on the outer ring, from zero to nine, for a total of ten.

Next to the dial is a keyhole and a handle.

The seams of the outer casing are almost invisible, as it is milled from a single piece of metal.

Below the lock disc is a line of very small German text.

There was a seal next to the box with the date and number written on it.

The comments section started to buzz.

"This is the safe."

"Grayish-black, matte finish. Looks expensive."

"I just searched on Baidu and found that this is a German-made military-grade product, tamper-proof and explosion-proof, with a self-destruct function after five false alarms."

"The expert probably made this mistake three times. He mistook the fake slot for a real one."

Lin Zhou stood in front of the safe. He didn't touch it, but just stared at the dial.

Then he stretched out his finger and gently turned it.

The dial's damping is very smooth, with no friction noise between metal parts, only a very subtle feeling, like a fingernail gliding across silk.

His finger remained on the scale, motionless.

He was listening.

What you hear isn't the sound—this lock makes almost no sound when it operates.

He was listening to the feel of the surface.

The pin slides inside the lock cylinder, and each time it passes a protrusion, the fingertip receives a signal.

That signal wasn't vibration; it was resistance.

The true groove has high resistance, so the marble will get stuck for a moment, but it will go smoothly after that.

Exclusive! An exclusive interview with the father of the Swordsman and behind-the-scenes stories of the creation of "You're a Locksmith! What Kind of Adulterer Are You Catching at the Start?", exclusively for Cola Novels.