Chapter 63: Crispy Crackers

Qin Qing just couldn’t understand why some people in this society could fly into a rage and kill someone with a knife, while others could be so emotionally stable that they would happily pay for a novice’s messy, misshapen crepe and still smile.

They were truly tolerant.

And then there were the even more bored ones, who would pay to stand around and watch the spectacle of a novice vendor making crepes.

When Qin Qing was selling the crepes, the line was no shorter than when Officer Meng was there; in fact, it was even more bustling.

It left her with no time to eat her own crepe, and she could only watch helplessly as it went soft.

Seeing her clumsy technique, a warm-hearted auntie even gave her a live tutorial: “Girl, don’t let your hands shake. Spread the batter all the way around in one go. When you move in fits and starts, it ends up uneven.”

It was more than just uneven; sometimes the filling would even leak out.

But no matter what they looked like, the customers paid for them.

They were so kind, and business was so easy.

Someone even ordered a massive Supreme All-in-One just to record a video.

The difficulty of rolling this particular flavor of crepe made Qin Qing want to cry.

The customers provided ample emotional value.

“Yes, that’s it. That looks better than the last one.”

“…”

In the end, the world had one more heartless machine for making terrible crepes.

Her relatives found their way back, peeking through the gaps in the crowd to see Qin Qing’s crepe-making scene.

Grandma said, “Oh, look at this girl, she’s started playing around.”

Qin Qing wanted to cry but had no tears. Where did you see me playing?

She explained that she was helping someone watch their stall.

Grandma said, “No need to explain. If you like playing, play a little longer.” She then said to Grandpa, “She’s loved playing house since she was little, and she hasn’t changed a bit now that she’s grown up.”

The elders accompanied Grandma and Grandpa home, while Cousin Yaqian and Xiao Yuan stayed behind to help.

It had to be said, Second Aunt’s occasional bragging was not wrong. When it came to making food, her cousin indeed had more talent than Qin Qing, who only knew how to eat.

The three of them were busy until all the prepared ingredients at the stall were used up. They had no idea how much money they had made, as the phone used for payments had been taken by Officer Meng.

For a few moments, she even imagined Officer Meng arresting thieves, with his phone announcing after each capture: “WeChat payment received: X yuan.”

And the criminal, completely thrown off, would have a look of confusion: There’s a reward for catching me? But why is it only a few or a dozen yuan?

Daydreaming was an effective way to slack off.

It could even make work feel less tiring.

Time flew by when she was busy. Qin Qing waited until 11 PM, but there was still no sign of Officer Meng coming back to take over his stall.

Was it a bad start, or… could it be that Officer Meng had completely forgotten about her?

–

Let’s rewind to the moment Officer Meng abandoned his stall to chase after the man in flowery pants.

Of course, he wouldn’t be so careless as to leave his phone’s ringer on while tailing someone. The scene Qin Qing imagined would never happen.

Officer Meng’s full name was Meng Yang. He was hardworking, resilient, had a strong sense of justice, and was a top-notch crime fighter.

Hearing that a universally despised human trafficker was lurking nearby, he would take action without hesitation, even if there was only a one percent chance. Moreover, the informant was Qin Qing, whom he had heard of before.

Yes, he knew of Qin Qing.

The man in the flowery pants had basically no counter-surveillance awareness. He walked along in his drop-crotch pants, swinging a takeout box, smoking a cigarette, and humming a tune.

Meng Yang’s tailing went very smoothly.

Along the way, he reported the situation to his bureau and learned that someone had already called for backup for him; his colleagues were on their way.

The suspects were numerous and had a child who could be used as a hostage. If they couldn’t succeed in one strike, not only would they alert the enemy, but the child would also be in danger.

Meng Yang followed the man for over ten minutes, turning into an old, small, and run-down residential area, the kind without security or property management.

After pinpointing the specific floor and apartment number, Meng Yang hid in a stairwell with no lights, synced his latest location with his colleagues, and waited quietly for reinforcements.

The Mid-Autumn Festival traffic was bad, so his colleagues from the bureau wouldn’t arrive so quickly.

The first to arrive were three glamorously dressed young women. At first, he thought they were tenants living in the building. That was until he saw the man in the flowery pants open the door and welcome them in. Before that, they had negotiated a price.

Meng Yang was astonished by how brazen these human traffickers were.

To just bring strangers into their den like that.

Footsteps echoed in the stairwell again, very light this time.

Could it be his colleagues this time?

It wasn’t.

It was a police officer from the Wuning District, whose home was relatively close and who had been temporarily pulled away from his Mid-Autumn Festival dinner.

The newly arrived officer whispered to him, “Our Consultant Qin also notified our bureau.”

The people from the Jiangnan Branch Bureau arrived right after, with Chen Deyu leading the team. Including Meng Yang and the officer from Wuning District, there were now eight police officers hiding in the stairwell.

Chen Deyu said, “The Wuning Branch Bureau is also here to support us. They’ve set up a perimeter in the alley below.”

Meng Yang said, “Captain Chen, there’s something I need to report. This time, we’re not just arresting human traffickers. We’ll probably have to conduct a vice raid as well.”

Chen Deyu: “…”

Aside from this little interlude, everything went smoothly.

Knowing the traffickers were distracted by other matters inside, they didn’t bother knocking. The old-fashioned lock on the door was particularly easy to pick; a multi-talented colleague popped it open with just a single wire.

The armed police officers swarmed in. Not a single bullet was wasted. When the traffickers were handcuffed, they hadn’t even had time to put on their pants.

In a storage room, the police found two unconscious children, both girls. A preliminary check showed no external injuries, but they couldn’t be woken up, likely having been drugged.

A police car rushed the two children to the nearest hospital.

Fortunately, it was nothing serious.

Both children were young, around a dozen months old, so they couldn’t be expected to know who they were or where they came from.

The only option was to report the information to the municipal bureau and have them sync it with the police system, so that any family who reported a missing child could be directed there.

Lin Feng explained the situation to Qin Qing.

He was still grumbling, “The Jiangnan Branch Bureau took the people back. Don’t you think we just handed them a huge credit? It might even lead to a whole human trafficking ring. Lucky them. After the holiday, you and I should go hang around their station, have our senior colleague bleed a little and treat us.”

Qin Qing was relieved to hear the arrest went smoothly.

But, what about the very large Officer Meng?

Lin Feng: “Meng Yang? He probably went back to the Jiangnan Branch Bureau with them. Why are you asking about him?”

Qin Qing was devoid of hope as she explained what had happened.

Lin Feng laughed quite unsympathetically.

“It’s just a beat-up tricycle. Just leave it there. You think someone’s going to steal it? Do you need me to come pick you up?”

“Forget it, I’ll just get a taxi back myself.”

Lin Feng: “By the way, how did you know his name was Meng Yang?”

Qin Qing remained silent.

“Fine, my bad for being nosy. I won’t ask.” He decisively hung up.

Qin Qing was very satisfied with his perceptiveness.

Qin Qing had no hope that Officer Meng would remember his crepe stall, or the poor foodie who had watched it for him.

Xiao Yuan had originally said he could ride the tricycle and deliver it to the police station, but he couldn’t find the key, which was probably with Officer Meng.

They called it a beat-up tricycle, but people stole electric scooters, let alone tricycles. It would fetch a decent price even as scrap metal.

Qin Qing didn’t feel safe just leaving it there. She found a clerk at a nearby 24-hour convenience store and paid him a hundred yuan to keep an eye on it.

Who would have thought that she, the provider of the crucial clue in this case, would actually have to pay to catch the criminals.

Upholding justice really wasn’t an easy task.

Even so, Qin Qing was still uneasy.

She circled the tricycle once and decided to take what she considered the most valuable item on it.

As she hoisted the item onto her slender shoulders, she was deeply moved by her own actions. The reason Officer Meng was able to fight crime so smoothly tonight was because someone was bearing the weight for him.

Not only had she maintained his stall to facilitate his continued surveillance, but now she was also going to great lengths to look after the props he used to fight crime.

Xiao Yuan looked at the thing on Qin Qing’s shoulder, wanting to speak but hesitating.

He looked just like an old eunuch by the emperor’s side, his face puckered with unspoken worries that could make him burst.

Xiao Yuan looked at his cousin.

His cousin tried to persuade her awkwardly, “Qingqing, I don’t think even a thief would steal this thing. We probably don’t need to take it.”

Why wouldn’t they? Any thief with a bit of discernment would definitely steal it.

It was a bag of crispy crackers the size of a water bucket.

Golden in color, they crumbled at the touch of the mouth.

Qin Qing had secretly tasted a few while making the crepes just now. They were delicious, fragrant and crunchy. If it weren’t for people waiting for their crepes, she could have eaten until she couldn’t stop.

As everyone knows, the crispy cracker is the soul of the Chinese crepe.

Alright, it was what Qin Qing considered the soul of the crepe; she could accept if others had different opinions.

This bag of crispy crackers was different from those at other stalls; they weren’t bought from a wholesale market.

They were Officer Meng’s painstaking creation, fried piece by piece by him.

It just went to show that Officer Meng’s identity as a police officer was holding him back from becoming a culinary god. For a mere surveillance prop stall, he would personally fry the crispy crackers. If he put his heart into running a restaurant, one could only imagine how delicious it would be.

So, if a thief stole this half-full bag of crispy crackers, Qin Qing would cry her eyes out.

Xiao Yuan struggled to use himself as an example: “If I were a thief, I’d rather steal the tires, or the engine.”

Qin Qing’s face was grim.

“You don’t understand.”

Steel and rubber are common, but Officer Meng’s crispy crackers are not.

She could still tell which was more important.

With no other choice, Xiao Yuan and her cousin escorted her and the crispy crackers home.

To prevent the crackers from being crushed on the way, Qin Qing hailed a spacious private car to go home.

When she got in, the driver even remarked tactfully, “What is that? It smells quite fragrant.”

At first, Qin Qing thought the driver was a connoisseur, until she got out and saw him in the car, holding a spray can and spritzing the back seat.

“…”

The driver might not be a connoisseur, but there were certainly others who were.

For example, the sharp-nosed little Qin Jiamu.

When Qin Qing came out of the shower, she saw Mumu circling the transparent bag. Upon seeing her, Mumu even sat down abruptly and placed a paw on the bag.

The meaning was crystal clear.

“Mmm… you want to eat some too.”

Without even putting on her slippers, Qin Qing quickly found her phone and turned on the video recording function, pointing it at Mumu.

“Mumu, get a little closer to the bag so I can record it. Then I’ll tell its owner it’s because you wanted to eat it so badly.”

Mumu stood up perfectly straight.

After Qin Qing finished filming, he anxiously bounced beside her, pawing at the string tying the bag.

The moment the slipknot was undone…

A toasty fragrance wafted out.

Although it was rather sinful to eat something so greasy so late at night, what could she do if Mumu wanted some? She was just an owner who was helpless against her fur baby.

At one in the morning, the crisp sound of crunching, *kacha kacha*, echoed in the room, long and unabated.

See, wasn’t she right? Once you start, you can’t stop.