Corey is from Country M. This is his first time to China. During his time in China, Corey saw many things he had never seen before and was deeply fascinated by them.
"What is this?" Corey pointed at the candy figurine stall and asked Zhang Shaojie in English.
Zhang Shaojie was the first boy who asked Lin Yan about fortune-telling. He took a look at the stall and saw the sign above that said "traditional sugar painting". He explained to Corey, "This is sugar painting. It's made by boiling sugar at high temperature into a liquid shape, and then painting it into a picture. You can eat it directly."
"Are these really sugar?" Corey's eyes sparkled with surprise. "This must be a very good artist. He can actually paint with sugar, and the paintings are so vivid and realistic. It's really amazing."
Corey has learned to paint, and he paints well. Because he can paint, he admires this master who can paint directly with sugar. He doesn't use paint, and he doesn't even use a brush when painting, but a spoon, a spoon used to serve soup in the kitchen. And he paints so easily and skillfully, most of the time he finishes it in one stroke, without any pause or mistakes in the middle. You know, the sugar will solidify quickly without the spoon, and it is impossible to modify it.
Zhang Shaojie didn't know how to explain this traditional Chinese craft to Corey for a moment, because he himself didn't know much about it.
"Do you want to buy it?" Zhang Shaojie asked Corey.
"Yes." Corey nodded immediately.
"What about you guys?" Corey asked his other companions.
"No, this candy is so greasy." The two girls shook their heads. They didn't want to eat it after smelling the greasy sweet taste. The other two boys also shook their heads. They didn't like sweets.
Zhang Shaojie only paid for one person: "Corey, which one do you want?"
Corey was selecting from the finished products on the side. He thought all of them were beautiful and was a little undecided for a moment: "Can I take another look? The way he paints is so elegant."
"Of course." Zhang Shaojie's father and Corey's father are partners. He brought Corey out today to help his father entertain the other party.
"Ajie, how about you guys look here and we go over there to have a look?" Except for Corey, no one else had any interest in sugar painting. The night market was so big, they wanted to go somewhere else to have a look.
"Okay." Zhang Shaojie nodded and let the others go to the night market freely. He stayed alone with Corey. But Zhang Shaojie underestimated how much Corey liked sugar painting. Corey looked at it for 20 minutes without moving his feet. Zhang Shaojie was a little overwhelmed, but Corey still looked like he was enjoying it, so he didn't know what to say.
"Brother!" At this time, his sister Zhang Tian ran over and pulled him, "Go over and help me win a doll."
"What?" Zhang Shaojie was puzzled.
"There's a 3D game up ahead. If you hit the balloon you'll get a doll. Haven't you learned shooting? Help me win a doll." Zhang Tian said, pointing to a game stall about ten meters away.
Zhang Shaojie looked at it, turned to look at Corey, and invited him, "Corey, do you want to go over there and play games?"
Corey looked back and found it was a shooting game, and immediately lost interest. He played with real guns in Country M, so he would not be interested in toy guns: "No, you guys go ahead, I've already thought of what I want, I'll come find you when the master finishes drawing."
"Brother, let's go, hurry up." Zhang Tian was still pulling.
Zhang Shaojie couldn't resist his sister's coquetry, and he was indeed a bit bored watching the place. Thinking that the two places were not far away and he could see them just by turning around, he followed his sister and left.
Corey has been in China for more than a week. Although he had never learned Chinese before, he has learned some simple daily expressions in the past few days and wants to try speaking it. When he was trying to communicate with the sugar painting master and asked for a monkey-shaped sugar painting, a chubby little girl about seven or eight years old squeezed over and said to the sugar painting master in a fluent voice: "Grandpa, Grandpa, I want a round Zhu Bajie."
Corey saw that someone had spoken before him, and it was a cute little girl, so he politely gave way like a gentleman and let the little girl go first.
"It's you again, little fat girl. You come here to buy candies without telling your mother." The sugar painting master spoke in a familiar tone, and one could tell right away that this girl came here often.
"I haven't had candy for seven days. My mom said I can buy one today." The little fat girl said like an adult.
"Okay, then do you want to blow one yourself?" asked the sugar painting master.
"Yes." The little fat girl was so excited that she almost jumped up.
The sugar artist suddenly changed his method. He stopped using a spoon and used his hands instead. Corey saw the artist grab a handful of sugar and pinch it to make a long, thin hole. He then put the hole into the little girl's mouth, and the little girl puffed up her cheeks and started to blow air into it. Then, a magical scene happened. The sugar swelled up like a balloon, and changed little by little in the palm of the sugar artist's hand, and finally turned into a cute pig.
"Okay, take it." The sugar painting master used a stick to stick the chubby Zhu Bajie and handed it to the girl.
"Thank you, Grandpa. My mom will come to pay in a moment."
"Okay." The sugar painting master responded with a smile. He was about to pick up the spoon to continue painting, but he saw the foreign boy who had been standing in front of his stall finally spoke.
"Yes. I want one too." The foreign teenagers had very few Chinese vocabulary. Afraid that he couldn't express himself clearly, he imitated the little girl's just now and made a blowing gesture.
The sugar painting master understood immediately: "You want to make sugar figures too?"
"Yeah." Corey nodded repeatedly and pretended to blow.
"Okay, which one do you want?" Actually, the price of the sugar figurine is five yuan more expensive than the sugar painting, but the foreign boy stood in front of him and watched for nearly half an hour. He must have been impressed by his superb skills. Thinking that his skills could impress foreigners, the sugar painting master suddenly felt a strong sense of national pride and vowed to make the foreign boy completely impressed by his craftsmanship.
Corey stood here for nearly half an hour, and the thing he heard most was the boss's question, "Which one do you want?" He immediately understood. He thought for a moment and pointed to the most complicated dragon in the sugar painting and said, "This one."
"You are quite picky. This thing is not easy to blow up." The sugar painting and sugar figurine are 2D and 3D respectively. The shape of a dragon can be drawn in a complicated and majestic way in the former, but it may not be blown out by blowing. "You are lucky to have met me. Others may not be able to blow it out."
The sugar painting master, determined to impress his foreign friends, made a hole with the sugar and handed it to Corey: "Blow."
Corey had seen the interaction between the sugar painting master and the little girl, so he knew what to do immediately. He called out for sugar, puffed up his cheeks and began to blow. At the same time, his big blue eyes stared at the gradually taking shape sugar figure without blinking, and the eyes became brighter and brighter.
"Okay." The sugar painting master cut off the excess sugar, found a larger stick and stuck it to the formed dragon, then handed it to Corey.
Corey looked at the candy figure he had blown himself, and like a child seeing a toy for the first time, he stood beside the stall in a daze, turning the candy figure in his hand over and over again, as if he were appreciating a work of art.
At this time, Zhang Shaojie in front finally helped his sister win the doll she wanted. Zhang Tian was so excited that she jumped up and down with the doll in her arms and wanted to play another round, but Zhang Shaojie said no: "There are so many fun things to do in the night market. Let's go somewhere else."
"Okay." Zhang Tian thought it made sense and nodded obediently.
"Niuniu, are you going to buy candy figures again?" Suddenly, a woman's voice sounded in Zhang Shaojie's ears.
Sugar man? Zhang Shaojie subconsciously thought he had heard it somewhere before, and couldn't help but look back. Not far behind him, he saw a woman in her thirties scolding her daughter, and the chubby little girl was holding a sugar painting of a pig's head.
"I haven't had candy for seven days. I can have it today." The little girl argued with her mother.
"You can eat one chocolate, but you can't eat so much. Look how fat you are..."
"Excuse me, let me ask, isn't this a sugar painting?" Zhang Shaojie interrupted the woman anxiously.
The young mother looked at Zhang Shaojie and was a little surprised, but she still explained: "This is a sugar figure. Sugar paintings are drawn, and this is blown out."
"Where did you buy it?" Zhang Shaojie suddenly had a bad feeling.
"It's Uncle Wang's candy figurine stall at the intersection, the one." The young mother pointed to the candy figurine stall not far away.
"Isn't that sugar painting?" Zhang Shaojie remembered seeing the brand.
“Uncle Wang knows both skills, it just depends on what you want…” Before the young mother finished her words, she saw the young man who had just spoken to her suddenly changed his expression and rushed forward.
The reason why Zhang Shaojie rushed out was that when he looked back at the candy stall, he saw a little boy holding a ball falling at Corey's feet. This scene was exactly the same as the witch's divination at the door of the haunted house during the day. Zhang Shaojie shuddered violently, as if he had been electrocuted, and rushed out without thinking.
"Corey! Don't go pick up the ball." The boy shouted at the top of his lungs, but the night market was too noisy and his voice could not be heard. Only a few of his companions heard it. Although they didn't know what happened, they saw Zhang Shaojie running outside so anxiously, so they ran after him. But when they chased to the side of the road, the van had already started again and drove out. Zhang Shaojie chased after the van closely, but there was no way he could outrun the van, and he was thrown away in a short while.
"Xiaoxue!" Zhang Tian's scream came from behind. Zhang Shaojie turned around and saw Zhuo Lingxue sitting on the ground with a painful look on her face, covering her feet tightly with her hands.
Sprained ankle
Both divinations came true
Zhang Shaojie ran back without giving up, and returned to the candy figurine stall. He ran to question the candy painting master without any reason: "Master, why don't you write on the sign that you can blow candy figurines?"
If he had known from the beginning that this was a candy man stall, perhaps he would have been able to make the connection.
Master Wang looked puzzled, but he pointed to his desk and said in a good-natured manner: "I wrote it."
Zhang Shaojie looked down and found a piece of red cloth wrapped around the outside of the table. On the red cloth were three mottled yellow characters: Blowing Sugar Figures. The master did write it, but you wrote it so low, who can see it if you don't pay attention.
"What did that foreigner buy from you just now?" Zhang Shaojie asked again.
"Long, you've wasted all my efforts." said Master Wang.
"I saw him holding a sugar figure in the shape of a dragon..."
It’s correct. It’s all correct.
Zhang Shaojie felt his blood run cold, his legs went limp, and he fell to the ground. Next to him, a young father was using a ball to comfort his chubby baby who had just fallen.
"Don't cry, don't cry. Didn't I get the ball back for you?"
"Why is it so sticky?" the young mother asked puzzledly.
"There was a candy man dropped near the ball. It must have gotten stuck to it accidentally. Just wipe it off," said the young father.
At this time, the other four people also came back. Zhang Tian supported Zhuo Lingxue who had sprained her ankle. The expressions of the four people were not much better than Zhang Shaojie. They obviously remembered the witch's divination.
Lin Xi left the amusement park at 8:30, when the haunted house was almost closed. In Yang Dong's words, although young people like to seek excitement, they don't seek death, so basically no one visits the haunted house after 8 o'clock.
Lin Xi had a very good harvest that day. She earned 360 yuan from divination and almost 200 yuan in merit points. However, she spent a little too much on food. The food in the amusement park was not only unpalatable but also very expensive. A box lunch cost 89 yuan and a cup of milk tea cost 29 yuan. Lin Xi was so angry that she only bought a box lunch. She had to hold back until now for dinner and planned to go out for a good meal.
Just kidding, with 89 yuan, if you go to the north gate of their school, you can eat all you can at the most luxurious Xi Restaurant.
Lin Xi came out of the elevator, holding a watermelon in one hand and searching for her key in her bag with the other. As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, two people suddenly appeared in the corridor.
"police!"
"Pah!" Lin Xi was startled. The Qilin melon she just bought fell to the ground with a snap. The bright red juice filled the corridor with the fresh fragrance of watermelon.
My melon!
Half an hour later, Lin Yan walked into the Municipal Criminal Police Brigade with a confused look on her face.
"It's her, police officer, it's her!"
As soon as Lin Yan stepped in, she heard several voices shouting at her excitedly. She looked in the direction of the voices and saw several familiar faces, and suddenly she understood.
It seems that the foreign boy was kidnapped. It's not that Lin Yan forgot about it. In fact, she was still thinking about it when it got dark, because the scene she saw from the crystal ball was night. She thought that something was about to happen, and the system had not sent a reminder for the foreign boy to avoid bad luck, so she wondered if something had happened.
However, Lin Xi thought that something might happen to the other person, but she never thought that something might happen to herself.
Why are you looking for her
"Where did you take my son?" A foreigner in a suit rushed towards Lin Xi, yelling in English.
"Mr. Green, don't be impulsive. The matter has not been investigated thoroughly yet." A policeman stopped the excited foreigner and winked at the policeman who brought Lin Yan over. Then, Lin Yan was taken into the interrogation room.
This was the first time in Lin Xi’s life that she had entered an interrogation room. She sat there for quite a while before she realized belatedly how she had ended up in an interrogation room.
"What's your name?" A thirty-something criminal policeman with a full beard and who looked like he hadn't slept for several days asked as he sat opposite Lin Yan. This criminal policeman's name was Jiang Rui, and he was the captain of the criminal police team.
"Lin Xi." Lin Xi answered honestly.
"Tell me, why did you kidnap Corey?"
"I didn't. Why would I kidnap Corey?" Lin Xi was stunned by the question.
"Corey's friends, the high school students you saw outside just now, said that you told them in person around 11 a.m. that Corey would be kidnapped by a van next to the candy man stall, is that right?" Jiang Rui asked.
"Did they tell me that I got this from divination?" Lin Xi asked.
"I said it, but divination? Do you believe it yourself?" Jiang Rui sneered.
"So you don't believe in divination and think that I was the one who kidnapped the person, because I know so many details. So even if I wasn't the one who kidnapped the person, I must be an accomplice?" Lin Xi asked.
"You admit it?" Jiang Rui looked at Lin Xi with sharp eyes.
"Do you have any evidence?" Lin Yan was angry. Any innocent person would be angry if questioned like this.
"I'll find it eventually."
Lin Yan was so angry that she almost died: "Then I would like to ask this police uncle, if I want to kidnap Corey, why should I tell them in advance? Also, if I tell them to buy candy figurines, will they go to buy candy figurines? Moreover, I didn't just predict this incident, I also predicted that another girl would sprain her ankle. Even if the kidnapping can be planned artificially, how could I make that girl sprain her ankle? Is she my accomplice?"
When Lin Yan came in just now, the high school students all stood up excitedly, but one girl remained sitting on her chair without moving. Lin Yan guessed that she was the girl who would sprain her ankle according to her divination. She didn't remember her name, but she remembered the result of the divination.
Jiang Rui was stunned by the question. When Zhang Shaojie and the others explained the situation, they did say that they decided to go to the night market on a whim, which means that they had not decided to go to the night market when they were doing the divination in the haunted house. Moreover, the girl named Zhuo Lingxue did sprain her ankle because of chasing a car. Even some details were mentioned in the divination, such as a little boy who fell down and the candy man Corey bought was a dragon. These details were too small to be arranged in advance, and there was no need to arrange these details.
But divination... that's even more impossible.
"Besides, you can go to the amusement park and ask someone. I was at the amusement park all day today and just got home from get off work. Thousands of people can testify for me." Lin Xi said.
"Don't you have to go in person to kidnap someone?" Jiang Rui continued to ask. Yihua DJ
"Then what is my role? To inform the target that I want to kidnap him?" Lin Xi asked back.
Jiang Rui was stumped again. To be honest, he also felt that this matter was very strange. However, the identity of the kidnapped foreign teenager was special. His father was the CEO of a multinational company and was highly valued by the government. The kidnapping of the teenager directly alarmed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which issued a death order to solve the case as soon as possible. In addition to knowing a fake license plate number, they had no clues. The only clue was Lin Yan's divination, so they could only bring the person back for questioning.
I wonder, who else but the kidnappers could know such details? Why would the kidnappers tell the victim such a detailed plan
Just when the interrogation reached a stalemate, Jiang Rui's phone suddenly rang. Jiang Rui wanted to hang up directly, but after seeing the caller ID, he immediately got up and walked out.
"Advisor Chu." Jiang Rui said excitedly, "When will you come back? I have a case..."
"You arrested Lin Yan?" A calm voice interrupted Jiang Rui.
"Yes." Jiang Rui was stunned for a moment. Although he didn't know how Consultant Chu knew that he had arrested someone, he still answered truthfully.
"She is not a kidnapper, let her go."
"But she is so suspicious. She knows too many details and she can't explain them clearly. In the end, she even said she can tell fortunes."
"Is it possible that she really could do it?" Advisor Chu asked.
Jiang Rui was stunned. If someone else had said this, he would have definitely refuted it, but the person who said this was Chu Lianqing, a person who could directly draw a portrait of the criminal just by looking at the criminal file. And the portrait he drew was almost exactly the same as the criminal himself.
"Be polite to her, maybe she can help you identify the kidnapper." Chu Lianqing said again.
"Are you kidding?"
The other party didn't answer, but hung up the phone directly.
Just as Jiang Rui was pondering the meaning of Chu Lianqing's words, a policeman ran in and said quickly: "Captain Jiang, the kidnapper called."
Jiang Rui was startled and ran out directly.
Lin Xi was left alone in the interrogation room and began to fall into deep self-doubt.
I was kind enough to help someone with divination, and warned the victim that something bad might happen, but in the end I became a suspect. What kind of thing is this? It would be better to do some divination for minor bad luck, such as stepping on dog shit or getting a fish bone stuck in your throat. You can earn a lot of merit points without getting into trouble.
Next time there is such a troublesome divination, she... can't just ignore it.
Ouch, it’s so annoying.
But the innocent will be cleared, and besides, I am a member of the official organization after all, so Assistant Tan will definitely help me.
Lin Xi relaxed immediately after thinking this. She was also very full after eating so she started to feel sleepy. She leaned back on the chair and fell asleep. So when Jiang Rui came back from listening to the kidnapper's call, Lin Xi had already dozed off for a while.
"..." Even if he was not a kidnapper, an ordinary person could not fall asleep in such an environment.
"Wake up." Jiang Rui originally wanted to slam the table to scare the person awake, but thinking of Chu Lianqing's words to be polite to her, he walked over and patted Lin Xi's arm gently.
"Huh?" Lin Yan woke up in a daze, and saw Jiang Rui, helpless, "I really didn't kidnap the person. What should I say to make you believe it?" Lin Yan was really afraid that the police would detain her for 48 hours. This place was too uncomfortable and it was not comfortable to sleep.
"If you can prove that you can really tell fortunes, I will believe you." Jiang Rui said.
Lin Yan glanced at him and asked, "How do you prove it?"
"Tell us where the kidnappers are." Jiang Rui said.
Lin Xi was stunned at first, then she slowly sat up straight.
"Uncle police, you arrested me and wrongly accused me of being a kidnapper. Now you want me to tell fortunes for you and help you catch the kidnappers? What are you doing? Am I being taken advantage of?"
"Ahem..." Jiang Rui felt that he was bullying others after hearing this. "Don't think like that. You are just trying to prove your innocence."
"Ha," Lin Yan sneered, "arrest me if you have evidence."
Does she look so easy to bully? She doesn't buy it, as if she has no temper.
"Don't be so excited."
"How could I not be excited? I worked all day and finally bought a watermelon to take home. I was just about to watch a TV series when you brought it here and broke my watermelon." Now the watermelon is still in the corridor. Tomorrow the cleaning lady will definitely complain about her lack of public morality.
"Captain Jiang." The door of the interrogation room was suddenly pushed open, and a young policeman walked in and said to Jiang Rui, "There is new information."
[Chai Puxin, male, 25 years old, died in the line of duty.]
Lin Yan's breath was choked, and she stared straight at the young policeman: "You..."
Jiang Rui, who was about to get up and leave, saw that Lin Yan looked upset and subconsciously asked, "What's wrong with him?"
Lin was very angry about being taken to the interrogation room without any reason, but she couldn't just ignore such a matter of life and death. What's more, this policeman died in the line of duty at the age of 25.
Lin Yan really couldn't bear it, but she just put up the shelf...
"You can ask me to tell your fortune, ten thousand yuan each time." I will multiply the fortune-telling fee a thousand times so that you will pay the price in money.
Ten thousand yuan? The kidnapper just asked for ten million yuan.
Jiang Rui immediately dispelled his suspicion of Lin Yan. Just based on the way she was asking for money, she couldn't possibly be a kidnapper.
(End of this chapter)