False evidence

Chapter 203 Sinful Eyes (Part 2)

I slammed the iron fan shut and pointed at the person in the mirror:
"It's not that we have something to ask of each other, but rather that we've agreed to travel together!"

The person in the mirror laughed, laughed heartily:
“You’re really interesting. You’re also really smart. When you found out that the phone was just a mutual ‘joke’ between us; last time we met, you scared me with a fake fan. To be honest, I was really scared. But now, you’ve told me that the fan is fake... I’m starting to feel that you and I are the same kind of people. I really like you.”

"I hate you. As far as I know, everything you do seems inhuman."

The person in the mirror looked up at the sky, with an air of detachment: "Fleeting clouds and smoke, why bother searching for traces?"

He looked down at me again: "Tell me, what do you want me to do for you?"

I said coldly, "I want you to be me!"

The person in the mirror's eyes flickered: "Young man, you became famous overnight on Sanfenqian Street, and now you're starting to get arrogant?"

"It's 2020 now, not the Republic of China era; I'm neither a warlord nor a hoodlum, and I didn't become famous overnight."

I still gave him a cold, sidelong glance. "My name is Sanqi, the Chinese herb Sanqi. I'm giving you a chance to be reborn, a chance to atone for your sins. But remember, what I give you, I can take back. If you're smart enough, leave after I've achieved my goal; otherwise, I won't give you a second chance."

The person in the mirror, who had been smiling, slowly let their lips droop, stared at me, and said, "So, I've met my match?"

I slowly shook my head: "For someone who is utterly wicked, you have only been given one chance."

The person in the mirror looked at me for a while longer, then slowly nodded. Still carrying an iron fan, they walked slowly out of the mirror, stood in front of me, made brief eye contact, turned around, leaned close, and merged into my body.

"This kid's gone mad! He's schizophrenic!"

I don't know what Cao Xinyun and the others saw, but I only heard Cao Xinyun say this.

"He's crazy, but he knows exactly what he's doing."

Cao Jinxiu said something and then sat back down behind the counter to continue embroidering.

Meng Chao put his arm around my shoulder: "Twenty-one..."

I glanced down at his hand on my shoulder, and he immediately pulled it back.

I smiled and said, "Perhaps it's fate. Your friend is named Sanqi, and I'm the tenth among my fellow disciples, which happens to be the sum of three and seven. Since I'm only here twice to roam the mortal realm, please don't call me by a name I don't like. I prefer to be called Tenth Master!"

After leaving the back street of the Prince's Mansion, we returned to the van.

Meng Chao, gripping the steering wheel, turned his head and asked, "Twenty-one... no, Tenth Master, where are we going now?"

"That real estate agency on Xuefu Road."

I said something casually, then turned my face to the window, looking at everything that was so familiar yet strangely new.

Meng Chao drives...

(Actually, universities have had dedicated driver's license training programs for students for a long time. Compared to market prices, it's quite cheap. Whether this specialized service is offered or not may vary depending on the school. But... please stop bringing up my earlier point about how someone so poor could afford a driver's license.)
While Meng Chao was driving, Cao Xinyun kept talking.

They kept asking what Teacher Jing looked like, what her son looked like, and even what Teacher Jing liked to eat and what her little habits were; what her son liked to eat... and so on.

When Cao Furui came out, Cao Xinyun took two wooden boards and a carving knife.

While he was asking questions, his carving knife never stopped.

When the van came to a rickety stop in front of the agency, he handed Meng Chao a square wooden plank about a foot in size.

Meng Chao immediately nodded: "This is Teacher Jing's son!"

I won't go into the details of how I "crashed" Cao Furui's place the first time I went there. The second time I saw Cao Xinyun, he was selling wood carvings at a stall next to Cao Furui's door.

(At the time, I thought Cao Furui really wasn't making a profit, but after Cao Jinxiu brought that large group of nouveau riche to Sanfenqian Street, I realized that Cao Xinyun was just setting up a stall because he was bored.)
Craftsmen can earn money because of their skills. Cao Xinyun dares to set up a stall, which means he truly has the skills.

I've only met Teacher Jing's son twice, but Cao Xinyun, based solely on Meng Chao's words, carved a very lifelike image of a child on a wooden board.

After receiving Meng Chao's affirmative answer, he handed the wood carving to me: "Is it him?"

I only glanced at it before pointing to the sawdust in the car and saying, "You'll have to pay for the car wash later."

"I'll do it again..."

The real estate agent, seeing my attire, assumed I was welcoming a nouveau riche.

But when Cao Xinyun took out the woodcut paintings, the expressions of the people who were receiving us all changed in different ways.

Cao Xinyun and Meng Chao were talking to them.

However, I kept making eye contact with a female real estate agent who wore gold-rimmed glasses, a white shirt, and a black skirt.

Just as we were about to leave, the female real estate agent suddenly walked over, nodded at me, and asked, "You're not a police officer, are you?"

I shook my head and then looked at her hands clasped together in front of her.

The female agent immediately extended her right hand.

I shook her hand lightly, then withdrew it behind my back, smiled and nodded at her: "My name is Lü... my name is Sanqi, may I ask your name?"

The female agent said her name, but I didn't 'hear clearly' it.

Before the female agent could speak again, I asked her, "Did you see how that woman... how that person was holding the child? I mean, what was her posture like?"

“I was in the inner room before, and then I heard a noise and came out to see what was going on… Basically, I saw her holding the child in one hand, and with the other hand, along with her foot, she was grabbing and kicking the man. She was shouting: ‘You’re taking my child… Help!’”

The female agent gestured, but seemed to avoid eye contact with me.

I beckoned to Meng Chao, "Give me your phone."

I took Meng Chao's unlocked phone, skillfully flipped through the photo album, found a group photo from the dormitory, enlarged it, and showed it to the female agent.

The female real estate agent frowned as she glanced at her other colleagues who were watching, feeling a little embarrassed herself.
"The police officer said he was a student and a good person."

I nodded, handed the phone back to Meng Chao, and then raised my voice to ask, "Who went up and hit this good guy first?"

Everyone immediately started talking at once:
"He was a man in his early twenties, wearing a black vest in this weather, and his skin was quite dark."

"Yes, yes, buzz cut, but it looks like there's a little braid on the back of his head, anyway... just a tuft of yellow hair."

"There was also a couple, both around forty years old. The woman was really fierce; she was crying and hitting the man... that was the student."

"Yes, I remember it very clearly. That woman was like the child's biological mother, crying her eyes out. It was because of her that I believed that... that student was a child abductor..."

"You have a deep impression of her?"

Cao Xinyun asked the young man who spoke last.

The young man nodded.

"Tell me what she looks like!" Cao Xinyun flipped the wooden board over and took out a carving knife.

(End of this chapter)