Chapter 835: Old But Vigorous
In comparison to the old lady’s aggressive att.i.tude, I acted as sincere as possible to make her believe that I had nothing to do with Ai ShuQiao. I had no knowledge of the disappearance of Su Qiao and did not know where her granddaughter was currently located.
The cane old lady was quite efficient as she came from China’s acrobatic hometown of Hebei Wuqiao alone to Dong Shan City to track down the whereabouts of her granddaughter. I don’t know what methods she used to get clues and even learned about the relationship between me, Ai Mi, and Ai ShuQiao.
I used the utmost sincerity to tell her the truth and corroborated some of the things she had learned beforehand. It resulted in her hostility towards me to decrease drastically. Gradually, her tone of voice became softer and she no longer scowled at me.
“According to you, your mom is really a piece of work.”
If it was said about someone else, it would definitely be a negative, but when Su Qiao’s grandmother made such a comment, I could only nod my head in agreement.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. After confirming that Ai ShuQiao and I had a hostile relationship, she pointed to the light at the end of the alley behind me and said:
“After tracking you and the black man for half a day, I’m hungry, treat me to McDonald’s.”
I frowned. I clearly remembered that she didn’t have a single tooth in her mouth the last time we met. I did have the money to treat her to McDonald’s, but what would she be able to eat?
She seemed to have guessed my thoughts because she opened her mouth and let me see the inside of her mouth which contained upper and lower rows of dentures.
“Hmph, last time I forgot to bring my dentures, so I can bite anything in McDonald’s. The spicy chicken wings, the double hamburger, and what’s that burger, the bacon mashed potato burger… I’ll eat anything.”
d.a.m.n, are you talking about the bacon mashed potato McDouble? McDonald’s just launched it and I haven’t even tried it yet. Old lady, it looks like you’re quite trendy. Last time at the supermarket, you mentioned that you’ve watched Full House. It seems other than watching Korean dramas, you also try to keep up with young people trends.
I don’t know why, but it felt like the dentures in the old lady’s mouth gave off a chilling light under the streetlights. It was as if once the real culprit who kidnapped her granddaughter was found, she was going to bite them to death with those dentures.
At the present moment, the first item on the agenda was to feed the old lady, otherwise she will definitely be in a bad mood if she is hungry. If she’s in a bad mood, one it wouldn’t be beneficial to our communication and two, my neck was in danger of being bitten by her dentures.
There was nothing else to say. I led the old lady through the alley and into the McDonald’s on the corner. When I entered, I carefully pushed open the door and let the old lady go in first.
Su Qiao’s grandmother was wearing a brown shirt with a flowery pattern on it. Her spa.r.s.e gray hair was gathered on top of her head and coiled into what was commonly known as a “Taoist hairstyle”. It had a sharp hairpin inserted into it horizontally, and from a distance, it reminds you of an old lady with bound feet from the last century.
If you looked closer, you would realize the old lady’s eyes and expression belonged to this era. Her aging appearance and old-fashioned clothing couldn’t hide the fact that her body contained the same vitality and creativity as young people. After years of training, she gave off the aura of a master that young people couldn’t compare to.
After seeing Peng TouSi and Master Ren, I had a deeper understanding of a master’s aura. I was positive Su Qiao’s grandmother was definitely on the same level of mastery as the other two. Actually, if someone else observes her carefully, they will also find evidence the old lady is a master! If you ignore the orchid pattern on her clothes, there would only be a cloud pattern left. It would look exactly like the Akatsuki uniform from Naruto!
This McDonald’s wasn’t at a busy location, so it wasn’t particularly crowded. Su Qiao’s grandmother and I found a window seat on the second floor, then I went downstairs to order.
“Don’t forget to add an egg and mushroom soup for me.” The old lady instructed to me as I was just about to go downstairs.
I nodded blankly. If you add the egg and mushroom soup, the food the old lady asked for would be enough to make four dishes and one soup, so she has quite the appet.i.te.
A slightly chubby mother and daughter pair sat close to the stairs. The mother said to her daughter: “Look at how filial they are. If you have time, you should also take your grandma (mother’s side) out to eat, don’t only eat with your cla.s.smates.”
The daughter said with discontent: “Grandma’s (mother’s side) house is so far away, even if it is filial piety, I can only bring grandma (father’s side) out to eat.”
“Hmph, your grandma (father’s side) won’t need it. She said her own cooking tastes better, so let her eat her own cooking.”
It seems that the mom and her daughter didn’t get along with their grandmother (father’s side), but it didn’t really make me uncomfortable when they mistook Su Qiao’s grandmother as my grandmother.
I soon brought back a plate full of fast food and put it on the table.
It was mainly for Su Qiao’s grandmother, I only ordered a cup of c.o.ke and a serving of French fries for myself, I wasn’t hungry at all since I already had dinner.
Su Qiao’s grandmother nodded after she saw that I maintained a respectful att.i.tude from start to finish, then she began to eat.
d.a.m.n, it scared the s.h.i.t out of me! She ate burgers exactly like how zombies eat in American zombie movies! She looked like she was holding a grudge against the food and it was unforgettable once you’ve seen it once. The mother and daughter were also both scared by the sight.
“Don’t tell me she experienced three years of natural disasters.” The mother commented quietly.
Since I watched too many martial arts movies, I felt that a master should always have their own quirks. I might have felt a bit weird on the inside, but I didn’t show it on my face. I asked with a smile:
“Elder, you can eat as much as you like. Tell me what you like and I’ll go downstairs and buy more.”
After devouring all the food in the tray, the old lady nonchalantly reached for the fries in front of me. I quickly pushed all the fries towards her to show my respect.
Instead of using ketchup, she dipped them in sweet chili sauce. After slowly eating the fries one by one, the old lady thoughtfully rested her chin on her hand and looked out the window, seemingly gazing at the waning moon in the night sky.
When I ordered my food downstairs, I had already called my dad and told him that I would be going back later tonight. He didn’t ask me why, but just told me to be safe.
After I treated Su Qiao’s grandmother to McDonald’s, her complexion changed slightly and her wariness towards me dropped a bit more. I’m a.s.suming she wasn’t particularly hostile towards me in the first place, otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for her to show herself in front of me. She could have continued to hide in the shadows, or simply kidnap me and ask Ai ShuQiao to exchange hostages.
Grandma Su, whose emotions gradually calmed down, shared some of her information with me.
First of all, Grandma Su referred to herself as Su QinShi. She was nearly ninety years old and was older than Master Ren. She had a total of seven sons and Su Qiao was her youngest son’s daughter.
Her occupation? Naturally, she came from an acrobatic family, but it was different than Su Qiao’s trapeze arts and spinning plates. Grandmother Su practiced dangerous activities… sword acrobatics. For example, quickly cutting an apple in half mid-air with a sword, then skewering both halves with another sword, or throw a knife to knock down a persimmons on their partner’s head… Basically, it’s all about using sharp things to cut fruits and it really reminds you of a real life version of Fruit Ninja.
Everyone says practice makes perfect. After Grandma Su perfected her sword acrobatics, she gradually developed an interest in martial arts. She asked a martial artists living in Wuqiao to be her master and she learned a lot of weapon martial arts. According to games, Grandma Su would be a weapon specialist and would have a different upgrade path compared to Gramps Ren’s “Yin Yang Sanshou specialization”.
Unfortunately, Grandma Su could only learn and couldn’t teach, so she couldn’t pa.s.s on her skills down to her family. Thus, Su Qiao was only good at acrobatics and not good at fighting with others.
Here’s the specifics about Su Qiao’s disappearance:
It’s true Su Qiao got on the train home, but she got off halfway because Shijiazhuang station has it on their records.
For some reason, Su Qiao stayed in the city, a place where she had no friends and relatives for three days, then she disappeared without a trace.
Her family called the police when they were completely unable to contact Su Qiao. The Shijiazhuang local police did an investigation and found that in the days Su Qiao wemt missing, a few other girls had also disappeared together with her. A human trafficker who appeared in the train station security camera footage was a major suspect.
Su Qiao went missing in Shijiazhuang, so the police naturally focused on Shijiazhuang. Su Qiao’s father and two uncles, also stopped their acrobatic performances and went to Shijiazhuang to look for her, but they didn’t have any luck.
Often, you can tell the difference between masters and ordinary people simply based on their intuition.
“Hmph, my granddaughter isn’t too smart, but it’s unlikely she was sold by human traffickers.”
Grandma Su said hatefully.
“Su Qiao, that girl, watches way too much Korean dramas. It’s fine for an old lady like me to watch Korean dramas, but it’s better for young girls to not watch them. If you do watch them, then you should never believe them. Where would you find that many handsome and rich men? Also, ones who would only treat you well?”
Grandma Su’s words. .h.i.t the nail on the head. I would have loved to nod my head in agreement, but then I remembered that Su Qiao was tricked by Ai ShuQiao, and she treated me as a rich man that she could entrust her life to for a while. Thus, it was a bit awkward for me and I could only make a bitter smile.
“She thought practicing acrobatics hard and didn’t want to marry a local. She ran outside to chase after her dreams of being a celebrity and she got tricked.She messed with people she shouldn’t have messed with and now she doesn’t even have her freedom.”
Grandma Su had a tone of resentment, but you could see the concern she had for her granddaughter in her eyes.
“I told my sons that Su Qiao is definitely still in Dong Shan City and you wouldn’t find her in Shijiazhuang. They didn’t believe me and also didn’t let me come. So in the end I slipped out here and also found some clues.”
Huh, so Grandma Su ran away from home like her own granddaughter? Are you sure your family is really an acrobatics family, I think it’s more of a “running away from home” family.
“Grandma Su, can you tell me about the clues you found.”
If Su Qiao was really locked up by Ai ShuQiao in Dong Shan City, I can’t just stand by and watch. After all, Su Qiao washed my clothes, cooked for me, and we lived under the same roof for a while.
Grandmother Su’s throat was a little dry after speaking for so long. I observed her expressions and bought her another egg and mushroom soup. She was satisfied with the soup and told me how she found the clues.
It actually had something to do with the Happy Science Cult.