The enthusiastic Aunt Li finally believed their lies, but she insisted on letting them have breakfast before leaving.
"Breakfast?" Baomu glanced at his watch, "But Auntie, it's only four o'clock in the morning."
"And we just finished eating Malatang..." the fool said hesitantly.
As soon as she heard the words "spicy hotpot", Aunt Li's eyes instantly became fierce, scaring the others to the point of trembling.
"How can you have something so nutritious as breakfast?!"
Breakfast...meal?
"Our food is quite nutritious," said the fool. "All we want is the clear soup pot, and all we cook are fresh vegetables and chicken breasts..."
Seeing that his mother's eyes were getting worse, Xiao Li quickly interrupted the idiot's words and laughed dryly, "Mom, we won't do it next time."
"Auntie, let's forget it for today," the Taoist priest said, "We are really in a hurry today, so we can come and disturb you another day, okay?"
Aunt Li looked at this person who didn't seem to be much younger than her but called her "Auntie", thought for a while, nodded reluctantly and said, "I'll definitely come."
"I will definitely come..."
Finally, ten minutes later, under the watchful eyes of mother and son, several people got on the elevator.
"Huh..." The moment the elevator door closed, Baomu exhaled a long breath, "I didn't expect Aunt Li to be so enthusiastic."
"What a pity..." Qin Yin suddenly shook his head and sighed.
Everyone turned their heads and asked, "What's the pity?"
"It's a pity my Malatang," Qin Yin pouted, "I haven't finished it yet."
"...You ordered fifty yuan of Malatang. Even if you were allowed to eat it, you wouldn't be able to finish it..."
Qin Yin and Fool started arguing again, while the others looked at them with smiles.
Xiaolan was smiling, her eyes followed the fool's hand and fell on the suitcase under his hand, and her sorrow came up again.
"If the painting is not here... our speculation is completely wrong," Xiaolan raised her head and said to the Taoist priest, "then our clues will be broken again... unless we can find Aunt Ping."
After hearing these words, the fool stopped talking to Qin Yin and said, "Aunt Ping should not be in Qiaomei now. Over the years, I have asked many times in Qiaomei town, and no one has heard of Aunt Ping.
That group of people.”
"Maybe..." The Taoist priest seemed to be in a daze or thinking, "That painting is in the fool's box."
The fool looked down and said, "But we didn't find anything."
"Maybe I didn't look carefully enough just now," Baomu said, "after all, there are outsiders here."
"I looked through it very carefully," Qin Yin, the contractor on the right half of the box, hurriedly ran out to clarify himself, "Even if there is a problem, it is in the other half."
"I also turned it over very carefully," said the fool.
With a ding, the first floor was reached. Everyone walked out of the elevator and came to the lobby on the first floor.
The hall is gorgeously decorated and splendid, no less than the former Qiaomo Building.
"Where are we crossing over?" Qin Yin looked around casually.
"Not here," the Taoist priest shook his head and pointed upward. "Aunt Li will definitely look down from the upstairs window. If we disappear here, it will arouse suspicion."
So, everyone walked around the green belt of the community several times to confirm that they had escaped Aunt Li's surveillance, found a surveillance blind spot, drew circles, and returned to the hotel.
Baomu quietly opened the door to the room. The light in Li Muyuan's room was still on. Baomu turned around and nodded to everyone.
"Probably not asleep."
"Baomu, then go and call Jiutian," the Taoist priest squatted down and opened the suitcase, "if he's not asleep."
Baomu went out, and others gathered in front of the suitcase and started a new round of search.
"It's obviously these things..." Qin Yin waved his arms and threw the fool's clothes around, "otherwise we pour out everything inside and let Baomu smell it bit by bit."
Baomu: Thank you so much, Sister Qin.
"Then pour it out." The fool picked up the suitcase as if it were a plate. Then he tilted his body and poured the contents of the plate onto the bed. "Look for it more carefully this time."
"
A group of people began to lie on the pile of clothes and inspected them inch by inch.
I don't know how long it took.
"Eh——"
The drowsy people immediately became energetic and looked at each other nervously.
"What's wrong...did you find anything...saw something..."
But the sound was not from them.
"this……"
Everyone turned their heads and looked in the direction from which the sound came.
It’s asking the spirit.
Wen Ling pointed to the empty suitcase on the ground and looked at them excitedly.
"Wen Ling? Have you noticed it?" Qin Yin suddenly came to Wen Ling's side, "This box? The problem lies with this box?"
The place where Wen Ling's finger pointed was one of the pockets on the side wall of the suitcase. The zipper of the pocket was open, and the contents inside had long been poured out.
"I know!" Xiaolan suddenly grabbed the pocket, "It's in the mezzanine!"
The Taoist leader understood the situation, took out a small knife from somewhere, and slashed the fabric on the inner wall of the box neatly.
Brush——
The black fabric suddenly opened, revealing the gray suitcase shell.
The Taoist priest twisted the blade and cut open the entire piece of fabric bit by bit along the outline of the suitcase.
On the gray plastic shell, a strange thing suddenly appeared.
"This!" Wen Ling's voice was full of excitement.
Everyone was too nervous to speak, they just stared at the foreign object.
Brush it - Brush it -
The entire piece of fabric was removed.
The whole picture of that thing was completely presented in front of them.
It was a brown paper bag, somewhat like the kind used to seal archives. The surface of the paper bag was wrapped with several circles of tape, and the tape fixed the paper bag to the inner wall of the suitcase.
Because of years of dust, the paper bag still looks like new.
The Taoist priest cut open the circles of tape twice.
Xiaolan held the paper bag, thought about it, and handed it to the fool.
The fool was stunned.
"Brother Fool, come and open it," Xiaolan said, "This is what Aunt Ping wants to leave for you."
The fool pursed his lips, took the bag, and reached out to touch the seal of the bag.
The seal is not sealed, but folded.
The fool gently opened the folded corner, put his hand into the bag, fumbled for a while, and then withdrew his hand expressionlessly.
Rustling... rustling...
The sound of paper rubbing could be heard clearly.
rustle……
A corner of the contents of the paper bag was exposed.
Everyone felt as if their hearts had stopped.
That is a painting.
The fool held his breath and took out the entire painting.
It is no longer a painting nailed to a frame or scroll, but a solitary piece of paper.
It's still that blank painting.
"Found it..." The fool breathed deeply.
Xiaolan nodded vigorously.
"That's great," Qin Yin cheered, "Sure enough, we have to rely on asking the spirit..."
"etc!"
These two words from the Taoist priest came very suddenly.
Everyone else was stunned.
The Taoist priest stretched out his hand and pointed to the back of the painting, "The other side is not blank."