Two powerful strokes in quick succession, like a knife cutting through water, parted the huge crowd of people.
The crowd fell to both sides, turned their heads to look in the direction of the incoming power, and saw two figures, one in front and one behind, running like the wind.
Their eyes couldn’t help but follow the two figures…
In just a blink of an eye, the person Su Mingqian saw from the camera wasn’t Ximu, but a strange middle-aged man.
Su Mingqian, on the phone screen, immediately froze. Before he could react, the flying carpet he was riding on had carried him with a swoosh into the Love Bar app. At the same time, a silvery-white screen popped up and a whole line of text appeared. Ask sent a warning:
“The carrier mobile phone has been stolen. Shutdown risk. Sudden power failure may impair consciousness. Please stay in the app for now.”
Su Mingqian’s brow furrowed. “Where’s Ximu?”
Ask: “Tracking the thief.”
Su Mingqian was sensitive and grasped the main issue. “Can you still see Ximu now? Can you inform Ximu not to hurry to track down the thief in case of an accident?”
Ask: “I can make notifications via nearby electronic devices, but the probability of the notifications succeeding is no greater than 6.37%.”
Su Mingqian asked, “How can you see Ximu?”
Ask: “I’m connected to the public network, to all the electronic cameras in this subway station.”
Su Mingqian made a request. He felt uneasy. “I want to get in too. I want to see Ximu.”
No new content appeared on the silvery-white light screen.
It flickered slightly, as if Ask was calculating and assessing.
After a brief silence, Su Mingqian spoke again. “Ask, I know you can do this. Satisfy my request, because I created you.”
Every second of the time he spent waiting seemed extra long.
Su Mingqian kept looking at the silvery-white light screen… Finally, text appeared again on the light screen:
“Please proceed to the subway entrance.”
Su Mingqian did as he was told. He walked out of the room, through the courtyard, and to the subway station.
“Please swipe your card. You are about to enter the public network.”
As he stepped in, darkness briefly surrounded him, then a thin film suddenly appeared.
It seemed to emerge from inside his own body. First, it was a human figure, and then it inflated rapidly and became a huge transparent ball, the surface shimmering with shifting lustre. Su Mingqian was in the middle as if wrapped in a large bubble.
Then, the darkness faded and light appeared.
A huge blue space appeared in front of Su Mingqian.
Glittering windows floated in the space, connected by a series of crisscrossing blue chutes that resembled bridges as well as cobwebs. There were also long and short silver fish inside, and, at a closer look, they were lines of data streams.
The sphere enveloping Su Mingqian appeared on a chute.
Su Mingqian felt a force coming from behind. He slid down the chute like a bowling ball and arrived at a window.
He subconsciously looked out and saw large billboards, crane and vending machines, lattice-like shops, a long escalator, and a dense crowd of people.
I’m looking out through the subway’s electronic cameras.
Su Mingqian realised this. He quickly searched through the crowd and immediately spotted Li Shuoxing!
***
Li Shuoxing was in a frenetic pursuit in the subway station!
This was a large subway junction where four lines intersected. The underground passages were very, very long and there was a very, very large amount of people walking by. Li Shuoxing stared steadfastly at the figure in front of him and exerted all his strength to chase after him. He saw the distance drawing closer and closer; just one more step away—
But the figure ran to the escalator.
The crowd poured in like a wave, and the two were separated again.
The red hat guy rushed to the escalator’s halfway point, while Li Shuoxing was squeezed at its entrance.
The red hat guy panted for breath and smugly looked back at Li Shuoxing.
The last nerve in Li Shuoxing’s rattled brain snapped.
He looked back at the other man fiercely. He tried to squeeze in but couldn’t, looked left and right, then suddenly rushed to a row of ATMs next to the escalator, took his bank cards out of his pocket and inserted them into the machine one by one, then entered his PIN to withdraw money out of every one of them!
His actions had drawn everyone’s attention. A subway worker with a loudspeaker had arrived, but before he could speak, the loudspeaker was snatched from his hand.
Li Shuoxing snatched away the loudspeaker and the one hundred thousand yuan he had withdrawn from several machines hit the ground. He used the loudspeaker to inform the station staff: “There’s a guy wearing a red hat in the crowd coming off the escalator in front who snatched my phone. I’m offering a million yuan reward to recover my phone. I’m at the top end of the escalator, and I have one hundred thousand yuan in front of me right now! Whoever helps me bring my phone back, I’ll give you one hundred thousand on the spot and pay you back the rest of the nine hundred thousand!”
He continued screaming at the top of his voice and cried out with great indignation:
“Everyone with phones, take pictures of me and send me to the hot search! Red hat guy, I have a message for you. No matter where you run to, I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth to get my phone back!!!”
A short pause.
The people around him subconsciously picked up their cell phones and directed their cameras to Li Shuoxing.
The staff member who was robbed of his loudspeaker was shocked. He was afraid that Li Shuoxing would grab the money and scatter it down, so he rushed up to hold Li Shuoxing down. “Calm down, calm down. Don’t disrupt the public transport order. You’ll be responsible for disrupting traffic order.”
Li Shuoxing grabbed the staff member with his backhand and was very agitated. “I want to call the police. My phone has been stolen. It’s very important to me. I can’t lose him. Do you understand? Hurry up and catch that red hat guy who stole my phone—”
He didn’t want to give up and looked below the escalator again, hoping to see some trace of the red hat guy, and also hoping that someone had grabbed the red hat guy and was coming over. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a slight commotion underneath, but no one came to him.
The staff continued to reassure Li Shuoxing and separated Li Shuoxing from the banknotes under his feet without a word. “Sir, you can rest assured. Don’t get agitated. Regarding the theft of the phone you mentioned, the station track police have already found and identified the suspect through the surveillance cameras. The suspect who stole your phone is a member of a criminal gang that has repeatedly committed crimes in this area. Their usual tactic is to go out in pairs and cooperate. The person with a marker on their body first steals the victim’s phone, then quickly transfers it to their accomplice on the scene. If the victim inadvertently notices that they’re being stolen from, their attention will be directed to the marker on their body, to help the accomplice holding the stolen good quickly flee the scene…” He rambled on and on and finally got to the point. “So, even if you catch up with the red hat guy, you won’t be able to find your phone. He must’ve already transferred it…”
As the staff member explained, Li Shuoxing didn’t pay much attention to what he was saying.
He kept leaning over and looking downward, trying to spot the red hat guy in the crowd.
But without the distinctive red hat, the crowd was too huge to find a common thief.
Li Shuoxing felt distraught.
Ten minutes had passed. The track police had found Li Shuoxing and brought him into the office.
Li Shuoxing had completely calmed down by this time.
Li Shuoxing: “Police officer, I want to report a crime.”
The policeman said skilfully, “I understand. You should first fill out a statement. It’s a stolen cell phone, right?”
Li Shuoxing: “It’s not stealing, it’s kidnapping!”
The policeman reassured, “Well, we know that you’re worried, but kidnapping and stealing are on different levels. They’re two different concepts…”
Li Shuoxing continued, “I have a favour to ask of you.”
Policeman: “Is it to find your phone? Don’t worry, we’ll definitely try our best to track down the cases on record.”
Li Shuoxing said calmly, “No, I want you to issue a reward notice for me.”
Policeman: “A reward notice?”
Li Shuoxing: “Yes. I’m offering a reward of one million yuan to get back my mobile phone. I’ll give one million to whoever returns my phone intact. I’ll do what I say, and you can put the reward amount in the police station first.”
Policeman: “…”
The pen in his hand stopped moving. After a moment, he raised his hand and motioned for the auxiliary policeman beside him to bring a cup of hot water.
He looked a lot more amiable than before. He pushed the cup of hot water towards Li Shuoxing and said, “Still a little nervous? Don’t worry. Your top priority right now is to go and freeze all your important payment accounts.”
Li Shuoxing coldly said, “I can freeze my payments accounts, but not anything else.”
The policeman was confused. “What else?”
Li Shuoxing: “My wife lives on my phone. He kidnapped my wife!”
***
In the world of the public network, Su Mingqian was in a bubble, sliding all the way through a blue light track that went up and down, tracking behind a window of electronic cameras and looking out at Li Shuoxing.
When he heard everything Li Shuoxing said, his heart rippled with sweetness, but his mouth complained, “Ximu’s too impulsive. In fact, nothing happened to me…”
A line of text flashed on the bubble’s transparent wall.
Ask: “Prolonged exposure to the public network will increase the probability of unknown dangers. Please promptly return to the app.”
Su Mingqian had already confirmed Ximu’s safety, so this time, he didn’t insist. After one last glance at the gorgeous, ocean-like network world, he returned to the app with Ask.
Back in the app, Su Mingqian sat on his chair and contemplated for a moment. He asked Ask, “What’s the status of Ximu’s phone right now?”
Ask: “Turned off.”
Su Mingqian: “Can I start the phone’s self-launching program?”
Ask: “Yes.”
Su Mingqian: “Self launch.”
Ask: “Self-launching successful.”
Su Mingqian: “Determine the surroundings.”
Ask: “Environment safe.”
Su Mingqian stood up again. “I’ll check the home screen.”
Su Mingqian came to the home screen again through the familiar passage. He cautiously entered the camera, turned it on and took a look around, and found himself in a rather cluttered old room with many turned off phones nearby.
Su Mingqian: “Is the thief still in the room?”
Ask: “The probability of him having gone out two minutes ago and coming back in three minutes is 87.9%.”
Three minutes was enough time.
Su Mingqian remembered that when Li Shuoxing was chasing the thief, he didn’t have any items on hand. He first called the subway station, specifying which carriage of that line he had lost his belongings and asking the police to keep an eye out for them. Then he hung up and called the nearest police station’s number.
Su Mingqian: “I want to report a crime. The mobile phone of this number has been stolen, but I’ve managed to locate the phone. Can I add the police’s WeChat and send the phone’s location to the police in real-time?”
Police: “…”
The second call to the police also ended quickly.
There was some noise from outside, as if someone was about to enter.
Su Mingqian made a last-minute phone call to Li Shuoxing’s home number to report his safety. Unfortunately, the phone rang for a long time, but no one answered. The door flung open with a bang. Someone had come back.
Ask immediately darkened the phone screen.
Su Mingqian hid in the dark and heard a conversation coming from outside.
“Have you seen the hot search on Weibo? That #Shanghai man loses his phone in subway station, threatening and offering a reward of a million#. By the way, it also appeared on Today’s Sand Sculpture News, and its title is similar to the hot search, saying #Shanghai man loses his phone and scatters one hundred thousand on the scene to chase someone#”
“…”
“This sand sculpture is the guy who chased me for half a subway station today, and said something about returning his wife to him.”
“…”
“Where’s the phone I gave you before? We’ll bring the phone back to him and take the one million, five hundred thousand each.”
“…”
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
A faint voice rang out.
“A million split between two people; I’d rather take it alone.”
Twenty minutes later, the police tracked down the location signal and broke down the door. They saw a criminal gang fighting, bruising each other and falling to the ground. And so Today’s Sand Sculpture News was finally set as:
“A man offers a reward of one million to return his phone, which actually led a thief gang to fight, taking the initiative to call the police and send positioning, and wrestling each other to report.”