Little Taotie didn’t understand why Sister Xiangxiang needed to diet and lose weight, as she was already very pretty.
She didn’t persuade Sister Xiangxiang to try a bite to taste it but quickly took back the freeze-dried strawberries, stuffed them into her bag, zipped it up, and moved very quickly, not giving Sister Xiangxiang any chance to regret.
Hua Jinyan, who observed everything silently: "..."
Having had no tasks for several weeks in a row, Little Taotie lay bored on the table, listening to Sister Xiangxiang talk about old cases.
"Look at this," Xiangxiang said, taking out a photo and sticking it to the whiteboard with Magnetite.
The photo showed a small figure cut out of paper with a round head and limbs like matchsticks.
"Sister Xiangxiang, are you going to give us a paper-cutting class?" Little Taotie asked, tilting her head.
Xiangxiang: "This is no ordinary paper figure."
"What’s so special about it?" Hua Jinyan asked.
Xiangxiang took out another photo and stuck it on the whiteboard. It showed a man standing at the entrance of a restaurant, lighting a cigarette.
Xiangxiang drew an equals sign with a black marker in the blank space between the two photos.
Little Taotie blinked her eyes: "The paper figure equals this smoking man?"
"Smart!" Xiangxiang snapped her fingers: "Correct."
But Little Taotie became even more confused: "How can a paper figure turn into a person?"
Xiangxiang then took out another photo, showing a tombstone. The photo on the tombstone was of the smoking man.
A red circle was drawn around the death date on the photo.
Xiangxiang: "Three years after his death, he appeared at the entrance of this restaurant."
"Did he fake his death?" Little Taotie produced a toy pipe from somewhere.
Xiangxiang’s mouth twitched: "You... going to channel Sherlock Holmes again?"
Little Taotie initially attempted to maintain a solemn and serious expression but couldn’t hold back and "pfft," she started to giggle secretly.
Hua Jinyan held his forehead: "Now she doesn’t watch cartoons, only Sherlock Holmes’s casebooks."
From Monday to Friday, as soon as she had finished her homework, even before closing her notebook, she was already watching Sherlock Holmes.
On Saturday, as soon as Teacher Ma’s class was over and before people had left, she was already off to watch Sherlock Holmes.
On Sunday, if the nanny hadn’t mentioned that her clothes and hat had been washed, she would definitely have been wearing her Sherlock Holmes outfit again today.
Little Taotie had completely fallen in, hopelessly entrenched, impossible to pull out now.
Xiangxiang sighed: "Little Sherlock Holmes, he didn’t fake his death."
Little Taotie, biting the pipe, looked serious and focused, trying hard to immerse herself in the role of the little detective.
She pretended to take a puff of the pipe and exhaled as if blowing smoke rings, her lips puckered.
When she finished her act, she analyzed with an inscrutable look: "He died three years ago, yet he appeared at the entrance of the restaurant three years later. He must definitely be a Ghost! No, that’s wrong, a Ghost couldn’t be captured in a photo, nor could it even appear in a mirror. How could it possibly be photographed so clearly? Hmm... let me think further... "
She bit the pipe and fell into deep thought.
Xiangxiang wanted to laugh, struggling to hold it back, playing along with the little girl’s pretend play.
Suddenly, Little Taotie stood up, put down the pipe, and her eyes shone: "I’ve got it! The equals sign, the paper figure equals this person! A Ghost, a paper figure, a person who had died appearing again – link these three points together and it’s the Ghost possessing the paper figure, giving it a physical form, turning into the person in this photo!"
Xiangxiang was stunned for a moment, not quite following yet.
She had actually guessed it right!
Was this a case of a blind cat running into a dead mouse?
Little Taotie eagerly asked: "Sister Xiangxiang, am I right?"