Chapter 32: Best Acting Award

The two of them were riding the Song family’s bicycle, with Jiang Chengxiao riding and Song Xilan sitting at the back.

This was the first time Song Xilan had sat behind any man on a bicycle, other than her father. She felt a little nervous and was too shy to grab his clothes, so she could only hold tightly onto the rear frame of the bicycle with both hands.

Jiang Chengxiao had a mischievous idea and intentionally made the bike roll over a small stone. The bike suddenly jolted, and Song Xilan, frightened, instinctively clung to his waist.

Her face immediately turned red, and she quickly let go.

“Don’t move around,” Jiang Chengxiao said, “The road’s a bit bumpy. Hold onto my clothes, or you’ll fall.”

“Okay!” Song Xilan responded, but she didn’t dare to hold on tightly and only gently grasped the edge of his jacket.

Jiang Chengxiao helplessly said, “Are your hands cold? If they are, put them in my pocket.”

Song Xilan’s face reddened even more. She hesitated for a while but didn’t move.

Suddenly, Jiang Chengxiao let go of one hand, grabbed her hand, and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. “Is this warmer now?”

Although it was a quick touch and release, it made Song Xilan’s heart race. After a long time, she quietly placed her other hand, which was almost frozen, into his other pocket.

Jiang Chengxiao secretly smiled broadly, and his pedaling gained more strength.

After a while, he spoke up, “Sorry, I didn’t think it through. I was just thinking of asking you for help, but I ended up dragging you into this.”

Song Xilan replied, “It has nothing to do with you. She was after my picture frame.”

“Huh?”

Song Xilan stuck out her tongue discreetly and quickly clarified, “What I mean is, she was after our old portrait. I don’t really know why.”

At the police station, Zhang Jinbao initially planned to resist stubbornly, insisting that he was only collecting scrap.

Unfortunately, he overestimated his own mental toughness. After being casually intimidated by our police officers, he spilled everything, including his attempt to secretly profit from Song Xilan’s picture frame.

As a result, the police took Jiang Jingru and the antique dealer back for questioning.

The antique dealer had nothing to hide and immediately confessed. He said that Jiang Jingru had approached him, claiming she had an authentic piece by Mi Fu and asked him to help find a buyer.

“Officer, I really didn’t do anything! It’s a joke! An authentic Mi Fu? How precious would that be? There are so few surviving pieces in the world. How could a little girl have one just like that? I never believed her.”

Jiang Jingru, on the other hand, remained defiant, refusing to admit that she had said anything like that to the antique dealer.

She only admitted that it was indeed her who instructed Zhang Jinbao to collect the portraits, but that was because of her superstitions.

Recently, due to some setbacks in both work and personal life, she had been influenced by others, who told her that old portraits of famous figures from other families, after being worshipped and honored for a long time, naturally carried spiritual power. If collected and placed in her home, it would bring good luck.

So, she had Zhang Jinbao help her collect those portraits.

When Song Xilan and Jiang Chengxiao arrived at the police station, they overheard this conversation.

Song Xilan: “Officer, my parents are from three generations of poor farmers, they are true proletarians, but they said that there’s some treasure hidden in our family’s picture frame. If this gets out, it might cause trouble for our photo frame holds some kind of treasure. It will have a negative impact on our family. I would like to ask you to thoroughly investigate what exactly is hidden in that photo frame. That way, even if people spread rumors in the future, we will have a way to refute them.”

So, the police took out the photo frame. In fact, they were also quite curious. Combining the testimonies of the three people, they could basically conclude that Jiang Jingru was lying. Only a fool would spend so much money to buy old portraits just for a bit of good luck.

The idea of treasure hidden in this photo frame was quite legendary, and everyone wanted to witness it.

As the photo frame was dismantled piece by piece, the items inside were all taken out and examined by professionals. The conclusion was that the photo frame was made of the most common and cheapest wood, the portrait was an ordinary portrait, and even the newspaper clippings behind the portrait were ordinary newspapers, nothing unusual, and not worth any money at all.

The antique dealer chuckled, with an “I knew it” expression.

Zhang Jinbao lunged at Jiang Jingru, about to hit her: “You bitch, you tricked me, you made me spend so much money to buy this pile of junk for you, you better give me back the money, give me back the money!”

That’s right, the hundred yuan Jiang Jingru gave him had long been used up, but in order to get that photo frame that he believed contained treasure, he had to subsidize another hundred yuan or so himself. He originally thought that as long as he got the treasure, he would make a lot of money, but in the end, there was nothing, just a pile of junk.

Jiang Jingru, on the other hand, looked like she had been greatly hit, in disbelief: “Impossible, how could this be? It was clearly in here, how could it be gone?”

She suddenly glared at Song Xilan: “It’s you, isn’t it? You’ve awakened, so you also know that there are good things inside, you’ve already taken the things away, and you’re deliberately trying to trick me, it must be you, you’re trying to harm me!”

Song Xilan took two steps back in fear: “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I, I have no grudges against you, why would I harm you!”

Jiang Chengxiao immediately stepped forward, blocking her: “Don’t be afraid, this person is probably out of her mind, let’s not listen to her.”

[Hahaha, I would like to award the Oscar for Best Actress to Ms. Song Xilan.]

[Little Jiang is so manly!]

Song Xilan stood behind Jiang Chengxiao, her fingers holding his clothes trembling slightly, she didn’t want any Best Actress award, she was really scared!

Zhang Jinbao: “Police officers, you heard it, she must know that the photo frame in this little girl’s hands contains treasure, she must have a problem, you must investigate her carefully.”

Jiang Jingru hysterically shouted at Song Xilan: “Where did you hide my things, give them back to me, they’re mine, they’re mine!”

The police officer shouted: “Quiet, everyone be honest with me, Jiang Jingru, you honestly explain, what exactly is going on with this photo frame?”

[Shameless, she really thinks she has the protagonist halo just because she’s a transmigrator, and everything must be hers? This was given to the kind Xilan by the old grandfather!]

[I heard that the plot of this drama has changed drastically, so I came to take a look. Oh my god, how did this transmigrator become like this? I remember I quite liked her before!]

[So is there really something wrong with my three views? I used to watch the transmigrator transmigrate into Song Xilan’s body, watching her take the original owner’s things to sell and make a lot of money, and I felt very good about it?]

[It’s just a matter of perspective, put yourself in the protagonist’s perspective of Jiang Jingru, she knows that there are treasures in other people’s homes, pretends to collect scraps and then resells them for a high price, and you will feel the same way!]

Jiang Jingru was still distraught: “No, this is not like this, this plot development is wrong, there must be something wrong, start over, I want to start over!”

Jiang Chengxiao: “Police officer, I suspect that this female comrade is deliberately pretending to be stupid to cover up a more serious truth, I suggest you must investigate thoroughly.”