Chapter Thirty: The Frog Prince

“Would you mind waiting just a moment? I just remembered something—Wang Yuluo seemed quite happy yesterday and even posted something on her Moments!” As she spoke, she opened WeChat and began searching for Wang Yuluo’s profile. “You asked me earlier where she got the movie tickets, but it slipped my mind at the time, and she didn’t say anything specific. But after she picked up the tickets at the cinema, she took a selfie and posted it to her Moments. I caught a glimpse when it first went up, but then the theater went dark and we both put away our phones to focus on the movie. Later, I rushed to the hospital because of my mom, and all of that just faded from my mind!

“I think her post mentioned something about the tickets, though I can’t recall the details. Just to be safe, let me find it for you!” Because of her nerves and haste, Cai Xin mistyped Wang Yuluo’s name several times as she searched her contacts. Ning Shuyi quickly gestured for her not to worry and to take her time.

At last, Cai Xin steadied her hands, found Wang Yuluo’s account, and entered her Moments, ready to show the post to the two detectives. But as soon as she opened it, she froze in surprise. “Wait, that’s strange! It was there yesterday—why is it gone? When did she delete it? Was it after I left? She was so focused on the movie while we were in the cinema, she definitely wasn’t using her phone! She was sitting right beside me, and in such a dark place, if she’d taken out her phone, the screen’s glow would have given her away. I’m sure of it!”

Ning Shuyi hadn’t initially thought to check Wang Yuluo’s Moments right after arriving at the scene, so she wasn’t sure if anything had been deleted. However, she had suspected all along that someone might have been remotely wiping information from Wang Yuluo’s phone using technical means. Cai Xin’s confusion only further confirmed her suspicion.

Fortunately, she’d already handed this matter over to Kang Ge. With his help, there was no need to worry about catching whoever had been meddling behind the scenes.

“It’s alright if you can’t find it,” Ning Shuyi reassured her. “Just try to recall generally what it said.”

Cai Xin thought for a moment. “I think it was something about the Frog Prince bringing her luck or something like that. I didn’t really get it. She’s into cosplay, so I thought maybe she was starting to cosplay some fairy tale again. Otherwise, who at her age would still dream about the Frog Prince? Even Prince Charming is considered passé these days!”

“You mean the post had a selfie attached, right?” Ning Shuyi, with her keen memory, recalled what she had seen in the cinema’s surveillance footage. “Did Wang Yuluo take a selfie at the door of the private cinema, holding the two tickets by her face?”

“Yes, exactly!” Cai Xin immediately confirmed Ning Shuyi’s description. “She took the photo at the entrance, and after we sat down, she posted it to her Moments. As soon as she posted it, the lights went out, and we both hurried to put our phones away to avoid bothering others.”

Ning Shuyi was certain that in the photos extracted from Wang Yuluo’s phone, there were no selfies at the cinema entrance, nor were there any photos of the tickets. When Cai Xin first described the post’s content, Ning Shuyi’s initial reaction was that someone had deliberately deleted it because Wang Yuluo had inadvertently mentioned something the other party didn’t want discovered—perhaps the “Frog Prince,” which even Cai Xin had found odd.

But if the aim was the text, deleting the post would have sufficed. Why also erase the photo from her phone’s album, even emptying the “Recently Deleted” folder, leaving no trace at all?

They were just two movie tickets, and recently, plenty of people had gone to that private cinema to see that popular horror film. The cinema had even added extra showings due to high demand. For such a widely watched film, and at a cinema not afraid of trouble, forbidding photos or ticket stubs, who could be so desperate to cover their tracks, so guilty?

The answer, Ning Shuyi thought, would only come to light once Kang Ge uncovered the mastermind.

At this moment, Huo Yan, who had been silently listening beside them, suddenly spoke to Cai Xin. “How long after you met up with Wang Yuluo did she ask you to hold her popcorn?”

“Huh?” Cai Xin was a bit bewildered by the question. “Well... when we got to the entrance of the mall, she was digging through her bag and didn’t have a free hand, so she asked me to hold it. Once inside the mall, she took it back for a moment, then went into a shop, so I held it again, and after that, I just kept carrying it for her—it was easier than passing it back and forth.”

“When you were holding the popcorn bucket, what was the temperature?” Huo Yan asked again.

Cai Xin, even more confused, had no choice but to recall carefully. “It was a little warm—like, at first the bucket felt cool, but after holding it for a while, you could tell there was still a bit of warmth left.”

Huo Yan nodded and said no more. Cai Xin let out a quiet sigh of relief. She could relax a little when answering Ning Shuyi, but as soon as Huo Yan spoke, she found herself tensing up.

Luckily, Huo Yan wasn’t one for small talk. After those few questions, he fell silent, allowing Cai Xin to relax once more.

Since Cai Xin had neither a suspicious timeline nor motive, and with her mother still ill, Ning Shuyi didn’t keep her any longer. She thanked her and let her go.

After speaking with Cai Xin, the two of them left the hospital. It was nearly the end of the lunch break, and downstairs the lobby was once again crowded with patients and their families waiting for check-ups.

Only now did Ning Shuyi realize her stomach was rumbling. It had been hours since breakfast, and her “temple of five viscera” was in urgent need of offering.

“Are you hungry?” Ning Shuyi asked Huo Yan.

“I’m fine,” Huo Yan replied, then, glancing at the petite Ning Shuyi and remembering the time, added, “If you’re hungry, let’s get something to eat.”