Chapter 41

After Fan Hui left, A-Yi and A-Er couldn't stay any longer either. They spoke briefly with the Production Team before hurrying away.

Left with no choice, Xiao Feng returned their child to the parents, while the remaining three pairs of guests had to continue filming.

Amid the chaos, Qiao Huan quietly asked Constantine, "Are you okay?"

"Mm." Constantine repeated mechanically, "Mom said I can't let anyone else see."

Remembering how Fan Hui's first reaction when she lost control had been to tell the Production Team to turn off the cameras, Qiao Huan had some idea why things felt tense between Constantine and his mother.

He had looked through a great deal of information before, yet he hadn't seen a single report mentioning that Fan Hui had a child.

But why would someone so desperate to hide her problem child go abroad alone and have the child take part in this variety show at such a critical moment?

Qiao Huan felt the weight of the keys and was lost in thought.

Filming continued.

After such a major incident, the relaxed atmosphere was naturally impossible to recover, so the entertainers all agreed to follow the script.

The script was simple enough: the guests would chat with one another, talk about how tiring it was to look after children, and so on.

Fortunately, Xiao Yue was fairly familiar with Xiu Si, and her partner was a gentle young woman, so filming this kind of conversation wasn't difficult.

After a long period of practice, Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei had become much better at working together.

The two had now mastered the art of giving Zhuo Yang and Bai Jike openings to speak. Zhuo Yang soon began sharing his cooking secrets, and even Bai Jike, in an unprecedented move, spoke from the heart about how to communicate with children.

Qiao Huan had been a little worried about Constantine's listlessness, but after his episode just now, the boy had sunk into a strange state of excitement and silence.

Specifically, he clung tightly to Zhuo Yang's arm, preventing him from moving. Aside from that, however, he ignored everyone and merely watched them warily.

This was all wrong.

Qiao Huan wasn't the only one; everyone present had noticed that something was off with Constantine.

The director saw everyone speaking faster and faster and understood that they were trying to finish early for the child's sake. A warmth rose in his heart.

He immediately sent someone to contact a specialist child psychologist, intending to get Constantine some counseling.

He would pay for it himself.

With everyone cooperating in tacit understanding, filming soon came to an end.

The moment the intensely bright lights went out, every entertainer's face took on an exhausted expression.

Looking after children was tiring enough, and tonight had been so outrageous on top of that. It had been a long day.

Only Lin Xiangnan seemed like an outsider, as relaxed and polite as ever as he said goodbye to everyone.

It wasn't just the entertainers and guests in front of the cameras; even the staff let out long sighs.

This show really had been plagued by misfortune!

But when they looked at the three pairs of guests who had survived to the end, all now living in harmony with their little brats, they felt that perhaps the show was heading in a better direction.

As everyone busied themselves wrapping up and thinking about where to get a late-night snack, they suddenly noticed that one person hadn't moved.

Qiao Huan was staring thoughtfully at the large table full of dishes in front of him.

"What's wrong, Mr. Qiao?" asked the director, who had been planning to go back and take a nice relaxing bath. "Did something you ate make you feel sick?"

Please, nothing else could go wrong. They would have to pay compensation...

"No." Qiao Huan said calmly, "Could you speak to the restaurant next door for me and ask for some takeout containers?"

Xiao Yue and her partner were both entertainers who carefully controlled how much they ate. On top of that, A-Yi and A-Er's group had left early, so many of the dishes on the table hadn't even been touched.

Qiao Huan had no intention of making extra trouble, but he still felt somewhat uncomfortable about it.

Mainly, the food was so much better than what he and Zhuo Yang made. Think how much trouble it would save them later!

"Oh, oh, sure!" The director finally caught on.

In fact, wasting food was quite common both on filming sets and in production crews, and entertainers rarely brought it up of their own accord.

Besides, the cameras were off now, so there was clearly no need to put on a show.

The director got some takeout containers and packed the food with Qiao Huan.

This entertainer really was something else.

In the car taking their group of two back, Constantine remained excited, staring wide-eyed at the scenery outside.

Zhuo Yang was still thinking about the incident and was a little distracted.

"Stop the car!" Qiao Huan suddenly shouted.

The car wasn't going fast. It braked sharply in the darkness and soon came to a stop.

"What's wrong?" Zhuo Yang asked.

Zhuo Yang looked out in the direction of Qiao Huan's gaze and saw a pitch-black rice paddy.

And in the darkness, there seemed to be some figures.

"Are there people?" Zhuo Yang exclaimed. "Beside the rice paddy?"

"Mm." Qiao Huan thought for a moment, then picked up the food containers they had just packed and got out of the car. "Take Constantine home first."

"Okay, we'll wait for you at home." Zhuo Yang slipped a phone into Qiao Huan's hand. "I hid it secretly. Contact me if anything happens."

After thanking Zhuo Yang, Qiao Huan walked into the night.

He had seen these people doing something in the rice paddy in the middle of the night, and for a moment he couldn't tell whether they were stealing something or doing something else.

There was another reason he was getting involved.

As they passed this area, Constantine, who had been excited the whole time, suddenly wilted. He seemed somewhat resistant to the place.

Only after getting closer did Qiao Huan discover that the people here weren't thieves, but a group of... middle-aged and elderly men and women.

They were sitting on the ridge between the fields, enjoying the cool air and chatting. Their faces were weary, and judging by their clothes, they seemed to be farmers.

When they saw Qiao Huan approach, the group instantly fell silent, their expressions full of wariness.

"Uh... I'm from a restaurant nearby. These boxed meals didn't sell, so they're one yuan each. Do you want any?" As soon as Qiao Huan opened his mouth, he spoke with a local accent.

The elderly man at the head of the group looked at Qiao Huan suspiciously. "One yuan?"

"Mm." Qiao Huan nodded. "It's nothing special, and I can't be bothered taking it home."

"Then I'll have one!" said the woman beside him. "We just finished working, and I'm hungry."

"Sure." Qiao Huan handed her a food container, then thought for a moment and picked out a mouthful with disposable chopsticks. "Let me taste it first. If it's really good, I'll charge you two yuan, or I'll be losing out."

With that, Qiao Huan didn't wait for her to react before immediately gobbling it down.

"Tsk, one yuan it is!"

"Hahaha, you're an interesting one, kid." The woman readily paid him.

After Qiao Huan had tested the food for poison and the woman had praised its taste, everyone finally paid one yuan each and snapped up all the boxed meals he had brought.

The farmers had none of the entertainers' fastidiousness about not eating after noon. They had eaten little that evening to begin with, and they had been working too, so they all wolfed the food down.

Once everyone was engrossed in eating, Qiao Huan asked, "Why were you all working in the fields so late?"

"Because we hadn't finished!" The woman wiped her mouth. "The weather's been bad this year, and the harvest hasn't been good. One of our college students suggested trying a pilot project in this field, raising rice and crayfish together, but we didn't finish digging the ditch during the day. We were all afraid the crayfish would run off overnight, so we came to finish it tonight."

"Oh." Qiao Huan nodded.

Although he didn't know much about farming, working in the fields at this hour was certainly hard.

He thought of the men and women from the Folk Customs Association. They were the same age, and both fields had too few young people to carry on when the older generation retired.

"Is there anything I can help with?" Qiao Huan asked.

"No, no," the woman answered. "We're all done, and looking at you, you don't seem like someone who knows how to work the fields!"

"Right..." That was true.

The old man asked Qiao Huan unhurriedly, "You're from the Platinum Coast, aren't you?"

Qiao Huan smiled. "Good eye, sir. How could you tell?"

"Your clothes aren't expensive, but they're too clean, and you're a handsome one." The old man took a puff on his pipe. "Do you... work for one of those rich families?"

"...Yes." Qiao Huan went along with it, instantly adopting a down-to-earth manner as he spoke. "My boss went out to a social engagement tonight, and I went to pick them up. Now I'm free."

"Tsk, lucky you." The old man curled his lip. "All you youngsters have gone to the big cities or the Platinum Coast. There's no one left to work the fields."

A middle-aged man beside him, who had been playing on his phone the whole time, finally looked up. "With the harvest so bad, should the young people stay here and live on the northwest wind with us old fellows?"

"Don't we have a college student coming here too? Once we gradually start using machines for everything, the young people will come back!"

"That's right. And if you ask me, our village really has bad feng shui. We've had nothing but bad luck since last year. Maybe we should find a master to take a look..."

Everyone began talking at once.

Listening to them, Qiao Huan felt that this was a clash between modernity and tradition, and he felt a little helpless.

This little village was in a period of transition, but there was no telling whether things would improve.

The old man looked at Qiao Huan. "By the way, which family do you work for?"

Qiao Huan came back to himself and picked a surname at random. "The Zhao family."

"Oh... Then do you know the Fan family?"

The Fan family.

Qiao Huan perked up. "What about them?"

"Their family... Ah." The old man's expression changed. "With their child like that, they're pitiful too."

The woman who had just finished eating hurriedly grabbed the old man. "He's only just arrived. He'll be seeing them around from now on, so why are you telling him this?"

"What exactly happened?" Qiao Huan didn't want to miss the chance to gather information. "Could you tell me about it?"

"Forget it, forget it." The old man sighed. "It's all in the past... Does the family you work for have a child?"

Qiao Huan nodded. "Yes."

"Hmm, then you'll probably find out soon enough." The old man looked up. "That citywide children's sports meet is coming up soon. Your family's child will be taking part too, right?"

"Yes."

That really was on the schedule for this episode.

"Then keep your distance from their family when you're there. A lot of people... don't like them." The old man leaned closer. "Their child is possessed!"

"...Possessed?"

Qiao Huan also felt that there was indeed something wrong with Constantine.

But he hadn't expected it to be common knowledge locally, or for the rumors to sound so sinister.

"We had a possessed child here too. In the end, everything was thrown into chaos, and it didn't end well. Pitiful." The old man looked behind him, as though he still had a thousand things to say, but in the end they became nothing more than a sigh. "If you want to know, that child's mother will be a referee or something at the sports meet tomorrow. You can go ask her."

Qiao Huan made a mental note of it. Seeing that everyone's spirits had sunk, he didn't bring it up again.

Even after everyone had finished eating, the mood didn't improve.

After Qiao Huan left.

The old man had just gotten up and was about to stretch his limbs when he discovered a stack of money beneath his feet.

"Oh!" After his initial surprise, he took a closer look. "Isn't this... what that young fellow just collected?"

"That's right!" The woman recognized it too. "The young man didn't take the money. Did he forget it?"

The old man watched Qiao Huan's retreating figure in the distance, lost in thought. "Did he forget, or..."

"Hey, look!"

A man pulled out a piece of torn cardboard from an apple box beside him.

"I brought this scrap cardboard over from the apple factory next door today. Don't you think that young fellow just now looked a little like the spokesperson on it?"

Everyone looked at the cardboard—

[Good Health Brand Apples　Spokesperson: OSOK-X - Qiao Huan]

"Are they the same person?" quite a few people asked in confusion.

After all, only the spokesperson's body was visible. His head was a big apple that had been photoshopped on!

But judging by the build... there was a teeny bit of resemblance.

The old man scratched his head, which had only two hairs left, and murmured, "Looks like every job is hard work. Even someone endorsing a brand like this has to work part-time..."

Qiao Huan ran all the way back to the Platinum Coast, sorting through his thoughts while getting in some extra training.

There had to be some connection between Fan Hui, Constantine, and a certain resident of that village.

He could ask the mother of the child who had also been "possessed" tomorrow.

But he still decided to start by investigating the keys he had.

When the dinner ended, he had also asked the director whether he could search the guest's home, and the director had immediately said yes.

After all, one of the show's main attractions was helping little brats work through the knots in their hearts. The parents had all signed agreements allowing the guests to conduct a thorough search of their homes for traces of their past lives.

But Qiao Huan couldn't tell what the keys opened. Perhaps a safe, or some hidden room?

He planned to search the house while Zhuo Yang and Constantine were asleep.

But the moment Qiao Huan opened the door, he froze—

Every. Light. Was. On!

He looked at the wall clock. It was already past eleven.

The child still wasn't asleep? Or was Zhuo Yang waiting up especially for him?

When he walked farther in and saw the scene before him, Qiao Huan was even more bewildered.

Zhuo Yang was wrestling with Constantine on the couch.

"A-Huan!" Zhuo Yang neatly pinned the child down. "You're back! Are you okay?"

Qiao Huan: ...

I'm fine, but are you two okay?

"Constantine wouldn't go to sleep." Xiao Feng, who had arrived a little late, explained the situation to Qiao Huan. "So Mr. Zhuo started wrestling with him, but we didn't expect him to get more and more energetic..."

He had previously thought Zhuo Yang and Qiao Huan knew how to look after children, but now he understood that these two were even more mischievous than the child.

Constantine's face was covered in sweat. "Hello, Uncle..."

Exercise really could make people happy. Constantine looked much more normal, not at all like someone who was "possessed."

"Good boy." Qiao Huan rubbed his stray tuft of hair. "Aren't you sleepy after playing for so long?"

"No." Constantine touched his fingers together. "I don't want to sleep."

Xiao Feng sighed beside them.

Constantine had always had quite a lot of trouble sleeping. It was one of the Production Team's nightmares.

Eight-year-olds were energetic to begin with, and this child had far more energy than the average eight-year-old.

Now the headache of a problem had been handed over to the two of them.

The rough-and-ready approach to childcare really had helped keep Constantine's emotions stable, but what came next?

Qiao Huan looked at Zhuo Yang, then at Constantine, and an idea came to him.

"Ding Ding, how about the two of us play hide-and-seek with you?"

Constantine's face instantly lit up. "Okay!"

These two uncles didn't scold him, and they were even willing to play with him!

Zhuo Yang brightened at the suggestion too. "Sure!"

He hadn't done his special training today yet, and climbing some stairs would be good too!

"Then let's start." Qiao Huan felt the key in his trouser pocket. "Constantine, go hide. We'll count to a hundred and then come find you."

"Okay!"

Constantine was a child at heart, after all, and he ran off at once.

Qiao Huan said to Zhuo Yang, "How about we each search one half of the house?"

Zhuo Yang gave him a thumbs-up. "No problem."

Getting some exercise was one reason; he also wanted to take the opportunity to investigate the house.

That was his brother A-Huan for you. He always made suggestions that went straight to his heart!

Standing nearby, Xiao Feng felt another wave of dizziness.

It was bad enough that they weren't begging the child to sleep, but now they were going to play with him too? After several days without proper sleep, he was already on the verge of a breakdown!

Could they hurry it up?

A hundred seconds passed quickly.

Qiao Huan and Zhuo Yang headed off in opposite directions and began searching, each with his own goal.

As Qiao Huan went upstairs, he silently prayed that Constantine would put his IQ of 140 to good use and hide well, giving him a chance to look around the house some more.

Then.

He entered the study and found Constantine's little feet sticking out from behind a bookshelf.

Qiao Huan: ...

What kind of test could possibly give this kid an IQ of 140?

Comrade Fan Hui, were you scammed?

When Xiao Feng saw Constantine on the monitor, he was delighted at first.

Did finding the child mean they could finally sleep?

Then.

He saw Qiao Huan immediately leave the study and enter the bedroom next door, as if he were blind.

Xiao Feng: I have a hundred unkind things to say, but I don't know whether I should say them.

But beside him, a female assistant director who had been staying up late with him all this time and whose child was already three had tears in her eyes—

"Boo-hoo, I was worried before that both of them were too rough-and-ready with children, but look at Qiao Huan. He's so thoughtful!"

"I read in a book before that if a child won't sleep, you shouldn't force him, or he'll start to resist. Look at Qiao Huan. Not only does he refuse to force Constantine, he doesn't even want to hurt the child's self-esteem. He's so sleepy, but he's still playing along! He's been tired all day too. I couldn't even show my own son that kind of patience!"

Second floor.

Qiao Huan, who was considered thoughtful and really was thoughtful, was still searching the villa.

He had only left after seeing that Constantine's hiding place was safe and the temperature was suitable, so he wouldn't catch a chill or anything.

Getting a child to sleep sounded like a real ordeal. By the time he finished investigating the rooms, Constantine would probably have fallen asleep on his own, right?

But though Qiao Huan searched the study, the guest bedroom, and the bathroom one by one, he found nothing like a hidden door or a safe.

Could it be that the key didn't open any door in this house?

Qiao Huan recalled how Fan Hui had behaved.

Although she was one of the targets in the whole case, she didn't seem to have benefited financially, in her standing in the industry, or in her family relationships.

It was very strange.

But Qiao Huan hadn't expected to see something even stranger.

Fan Hui's villa was laid out in a square around an open center. Qiao Huan and Zhuo Yang had agreed beforehand to search one side each, and Qiao Huan could actually see Zhuo Yang through the windows across the corridor.

Qiao Huan was used to feeling his way around in the dark and hadn't turned on the lights, while Zhuo Yang's side was brightly lit. Qiao Huan could see his movements and even his expressions clearly:

Zhuo Yang was searching very seriously.

From Qiao Huan's perspective, he was being excessively serious—

Did this guy think Constantine was a cartoon character who could hide behind a bookcase, behind the wall of a toilet bowl, or under a sculpture?