Chapter 65: Mooncakes

If I get it, it’s my fortune; if I lose it, it’s my fate. Sigh…

It was just a bag of crisps, after all.

She said no more.

But her departing figure looked indescribably desolate.

Meng Yang asked Chen Deyu, “Did I say something wrong?”

Chen Deyu said, “Don’t overthink it. Talented people often have eccentricities that ordinary people don’t understand.”

Was that so? Meng Yang felt that something wasn’t quite right.

–

Qin Qing heard that two children had been rescued. One of them had already been contacted, and their family was on the way. The other still had no news.

She thought of going over to help, to see if she could find any leads on the child’s origins.

Never mind how frantic the parents of a lost child must be, but having a police officer watch over a toddler who wasn’t even two years old day in and day out wasn’t a long-term solution.

Both children were awake, in the same hospital room. They had probably been terrified by the human traffickers, as they would hide whenever they saw a man.

The parents of other children in the same ward watched on. Knowing the children had been abducted by traffickers, they felt an empathetic pang of pity. Two mothers held the children in their arms, and the boys hid in their embrace, refusing to come out.

Qin Qing reached out to playfully tease them, but the two children ignored her. Occasionally, they would peek at her from the crook of their temporary mothers’ shoulders with bright, black eyes like black grapes, looking especially adorable.

Before long, a dust-covered family crowded into the hospital room.

Reunited after being lost, the room dissolved into a storm of tears.

The police officer guarding the room was still very young and had a lively personality.

He started sniffling along with them. In a moment of emotion, he didn’t forget to introduce Qin Qing to the parents as the one who had first discovered the traffickers’ tracks.

Upon hearing this, the mother holding her child immediately knelt before Qin Qing.

No exaggeration, she heard the crisp sound of her knees hitting the floor tiles.

This startled Qin Qing. She had only ever seen such a scene on television.

This kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life.

She quickly reached out to help her up, but the woman, holding her child, weighed over a hundred jin, and Qin Qing couldn’t budge her at all.

“Please, don’t do this.”

The child’s mother didn’t seem to be in good health either; after kneeling, she collapsed directly onto the floor.

Her face was streaked with tears.

“I will set up a Longevity Tablet for you. You saved our family’s life.”

Qin Qing was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say.

“Don’t just stand there, help me get her up.”

The others had also been stunned. Her shout snapped them back to reality, and they scrambled to pull the woman up.

But they couldn’t lift her at all. Only then did they realize that Ren Xinran had fainted. Another round of chaos ensued.

Taking advantage of the commotion, she went and picked up the other little boy whose parents hadn’t been found.

He was surprisingly heavy.

Qin Qing had already noticed that there was something wrong with the child’s feet; he had difficulty walking. He was still small, and toddlers naturally waddled, so it wasn’t obvious now, but the difference would be clear when he grew up.

Logically, the police system had already synchronized the child’s information with the locations provided by the traffickers, and his parents should have come to pick him up, just like Ren Xinran.

Since there was still no news, Qin Qing, seeing the child’s feet, had even entertained the conspiracy theory that he had been abandoned on purpose.

After checking the System Panel, she was left speechless.

The child’s disappearance was truly not intentional.

The child’s name was Tuo Yuan…

Qin Qing thought his parents were terrible at naming.

Little Tuo Yuan was a “left-behind child,” with both parents working in another city.

His grandparents were taking care of him.

After his grandparents discovered he was missing, they neither reported it to the police nor told his parents.

The reason was that they believed lost children could never be found, and they would be too ashamed to face their son and daughter-in-law. They thought they could stall for as long as possible, allowing their son and daughter-in-law a little more happiness.

They had managed to keep the matter under wraps.

To this day, the child’s parents didn’t know he was missing.

Qin Qing was quite speechless about this family. She had met people with avoidant personalities before, but she had never seen avoidance on this scale.

This made things a bit difficult, however. Since the family hadn’t reported it to the police, the police couldn’t intervene.

She could see the names of Tuo Yuan and his parents and relatives. A quick search in the household registration system would make it easy to contact his parents.

But, as a fortune-teller, how could she possibly know a person’s name?

Just imagining it, this ability was a heaven-defyingly awesome power.

She looked at the child, who resembled a frightened puppy, and decided to try a different approach.

Qin Qing greeted the young police officer on duty, “I’m going to take this child out to play for a bit. It’s so chaotic in here, he might get scared again.”

There was a toy seller near the back door of the pediatrics department. She won his friendship with a toy rocket launcher that was taller than Tuo Yuan himself.

After playing with him for a while, the child clearly warmed up to her.

Qin Qing began step two.

Upon careful questioning, she found out the child knew his name was “Yuanyuan.” But when asked about his family members’ names, he didn’t know.

That made sense. The child was too young, and the adults probably hadn’t started teaching him yet.

Given his grandparents’ ostrich-like attitude after he went missing, they probably hadn’t thought to teach him these things either.

Qin Qing began her teaching work.

She taught the child his own name, as well as his father’s and mother’s names.

She had thought it would be a major undertaking, but the child was smarter than she had imagined.

He learned them after just a few tries.

Hopefully, he would still remember them when he was in front of the police.

Passing by the hospital’s small convenience store, Tuo Yuan glanced over a few more times. Qin Qing saw that he was staring at the Want Want Milk.

He didn’t fuss or ask for it, just looked.

Qin Qing hesitated. Could a small child drink Want Want Milk?

But seeing Tuo Yuan’s eager eyes, she felt that drinking it once in a while should be fine.

By the time he grew up and could drink as much as he wanted, he probably wouldn’t even like it anymore.

Qin Qing bought a whole case, took out a multi-pack, and let the child hold it and drink. Of course, only one of the cartons in the pack had a straw in it.

The little boy was delighted, carrying the rocket launcher bigger than himself on one shoulder and holding a pack of Want Want Milk in his other hand.

He even insisted on walking by himself.

His style was not unlike that of a cute secret agent from a manga.

Swaggering but cute.

It was just that when he walked, Qin Qing watched with her heart in her throat, feeling like he was about to trip and fall at any moment. But he never did. The walking adventures of a human cub are a mystery.

Before returning to the hospital room, she quizzed the little boy on what she had just taught him, just to be safe.

Thankfully, he hadn’t forgotten.

When the young police officer once again mentioned that they still hadn’t found the child’s parents, Qin Qing casually remarked that maybe the child knew his parents’ names or phone number.

The young officer sighed, “We asked this morning. He didn’t say anything.”

“He seems to be in much better spirits now than this morning. Just now, when I asked his name, he told me he’s called Yuanyuan.”

The young officer, half-believing, went to ask.

Unexpectedly, the child really did know.

It was just that the child’s speech was unclear, and he had a bit of a regional accent.

For a moment, they couldn’t figure out the exact names.

Qin Qing assisted from the side, providing several names that sounded similar to what the child was saying.

His parents’ real names were included among them.

The young officer said, “I’ll have the bureau request a search.”

With that matter settled, Qin Qing planned to head to work.

Little Tuo Yuan seemed to have grown attached to her. He held onto her, not letting her go, his lip quivering whenever she tried to leave.

Well, they did share a bond forged over a rocket launcher and milk.

Qin Qing said, “I’ll take him to work with me. When his parents are contacted, they can just come to the studio to find him.”

There were plenty of people at the studio who could look after a child. Lou Xinyue and Han Jun were both experienced.

Tuo Yuan wasn’t very willing to play with unfamiliar uncles and aunties. He had taken a liking to the Crystal Ball placed in the center of the studio.

Every time he placed his hand on it, mist would swirl inside the sphere. If they brought him a stool, he could play with it for a whole afternoon.

He didn’t need anyone to entertain him.

Wu Yong returned to work and brought mooncakes for everyone.

Qin Qing had no interest in mooncakes.

“I don’t like mooncakes.”

But Wu Yong said, “My Senior Brother Wu Tun made them…”

“Swoosh~” Qin Qing dashed over, securing a prime position.

Wu Yong looked at her boss, who had appeared as if by magic, and finished her sentence, “They don’t look very good. I didn’t want to bring them, but my senior brother insisted I bring them for you all to try. Just make do.”

Baiyun Temple was truly unpretentious. Forget gift boxes, there wasn’t even individual packaging.

Wu Yong had just brought half a plastic grocery bag full of them.

They were more like flaky pastries than mooncakes.

The crust wasn’t oily and moist like typical mooncakes; it was a flaky pastry that crumbled at the slightest touch, and there were no decorative patterns.

Taking advantage of her status as the boss, Qin Qing was the first to take one, cupping her hand underneath as she ate.

The mooncakes had two types of filling.

One was a five-nut filling with generous ingredients. The aroma of the toasted nuts mixed with the multi-layered pastry crust; one bite filled the mouth with a flaky fragrance.

It was definitely not the cheap, fake five-nut filling that flooded the market.

The other was a winter melon candy filling.

Master Wutun really had a thing for winter melon.

Wu Yong said, “My senior brother made this winter melon candy himself using winter melons from the temple’s vegetable garden. Don’t worry, there are no additives.”

Qin Qing took a bite of the winter melon one and held the remaining half up to her eyes.

She could tell it was winter melon candy, but the filling wasn’t overly sweet. Something else must have been added to balance it.

She couldn’t identify what it was, but that didn’t stop her from reaching for another one. The crust was dry and flaky, the filling sweet and moist, creating a unique flavor.

Paired with a cup of palate-cleansing light tea, it was simply perfect.

Everyone in the studio said that only the mooncakes from their childhood had been this fragrant, but today’s were even better than the ones from their childhood.

Even little Tuo Yuan was gnawing on one by the side.

Wu Yong said, “You don’t have to be polite for my sake. They’re just homemade, nothing special. I don’t think they taste like anything special either.”

Qin Qing suspected she was humblebragging.

But Wu Yong’s expression was exceptionally sincere.

Qin Qing asked, “Then what do you think of your Senior Brother Wu Tun’s cooking?”

Wu Yong was puzzled. “Isn’t it all just stir-fried cabbage and radish? Doesn’t everyone cook like that?”

Qin Qing couldn’t see a single trace of a lie in her eyes.

She looked up at the sky, tears in her eyes.

What an unappreciative person.

But Master Wutun’s mooncakes were really, really delicious.

She really wanted to introduce Officer Meng to him.

One was a chef held back by being a police officer, the other a chef held back by being a Taoist priest. They would surely have a lot in common. Perhaps if they chatted more, they could even spark some new recipes.

Chen Deyu notified Qin Qing that they had contacted Tuo Yuan’s parents. Their plane would land at seven in the evening.

So, Qin Qing took Tuo Yuan back to the Jiangnan Branch Bureau.

Only after arriving did she realize someone was already waiting.

It was the couple, Ren Xinran and her husband, who had said they would set up a Longevity Tablet for her.

They hadn’t come alone; they were also carrying an enormous Commendatory Silk Banner.

On the Commendatory Silk Banner were four large characters: Eliminate Violence and Bring Peace.

When they saw Qin Qing, their eyes lit up.

But the police officers at the branch bureau all had strange expressions.

Qin Qing felt a slight urge to retreat.

But Ren Xinran stopped her.

She handed the Commendatory Silk Banner to her with both hands.

Only then did Qin Qing see the small characters at the top of the banner: To People’s Police Officer Qin Qing of the Shanyu City Jiangnan Branch Bureau.

This was awkward…

What was even more awkward was that Qin Qing had to hold the Commendatory Silk Banner and take a photo with Ren Xinran’s family.

Her face was completely stiff.

Chen Deyu cleared his throat. “Well, it does have the words ‘Jiangnan Branch Bureau’ on it. Why don’t we just hang it in the bureau’s office?”

Qin Qing thought that was fine; she wanted to get it off her hands as soon as possible anyway.

However, someone must have tipped off Lin Feng, because he called Chen Deyu, “On what grounds? Qin Qing is from the Wuning Branch Bureau.”

Qin Qing: “…”

She knew it.