The package has assigned me way too many objects.

Mandy, with a mischievous intent, handed the coffee to Chu Yinan, indicating that it was her treat, but actually wanted to tease the little rascal and make him suffer with the coffee. Chu Yinan said thank you, drank it all in one gulp, and then threw the cup into the trash can with satisfaction, even giving his personal review.

"Is the coffee machine at the police station not connected to the AI ​​download and debugging service? There's a little too much water in it."

The policewoman was taken aback. She hadn't managed to tease the cute little boy, and yawned in disappointment.

"How's the situation?" Shibuya asked, getting back to the main point.

“Not so great, but I sensed that Zhizhi became excited and happy. Before the interrogation, she was very resistant and swore a lot. After she made a phone call asking for a lawyer's help, she became unreasonably excited.” Mandy became serious.

Shibuya Yi frowned, glanced at Kamii Tomo who was deliberately left to languish in the interrogation room, and said, "Can you access the call records?"

The female superintendent shook her head decisively: "No, there is no evidence to prove that this is related to serious harm. We are not from the Special Security Department and cannot monitor other people's call records. Since a bunch of idiots infiltrated the Legislative Council, our work has become much easier in the past two years. We have no authority to do anything. It would have been better to hand over all the legislative power to the AIs before."

"Can I go play on my phone over there?" Chu Yinan suddenly interrupted the two older girls.

Mandy readily replied, "Sure, but the police station's network has a wiretapping function, so don't go to random small websites~ If you really can't, you can send me the website address first so I can check the content."

Let me first check what the difference is between that and turning yourself in!

Chu Yinan walked to the side and sent a message to Fu Xi, wanting to get in through the AI ​​older sister's back door:

"Is it possible to secretly access Kajiki's call records?"

"No, I can't. If you're interning at the Special Security Bureau, I could do that for you. There's a book signing for your sister Bei Yutang's novel 'Snow' this morning at the Children's Art Museum. Would you like to go? I can help you plan the shortest route."

Why did you suddenly remind me to go to Yu Tang's book signing event?

Got it. I can take this opportunity to see Yu Tang's embarrassing situation while she's busy signing documents. This is a chance to get back at her. I'll go right now!

But the prosecutor from Shibuya kindly brought me here to see the case, and it doesn't make sense for me to suddenly run away to go play, especially since it's during working hours.

No, I need to find an excuse to go to the scene. Otherwise, I'll never be able to regain my imperial glory at home. I need to actively find something to hold against Yu Tang!

He feigned a worried expression, his little face scrunched up, somewhat like the serious look one might have after eating a Splatoon:

"Prosecutor Shibuya, today is my sister's book signing. That guy, Kamo, is suddenly acting so excited. Could it be that he's found a way to get revenge on my sister? I want to go and see for myself!"

This "bad premonition" argument was untenable for the female police superintendent. She said to the prosecutor, "Your daytime job is taking care of children, and at night you bring them home to eat them?"

"Shut up." Shibuya Yi coldly retorted, but her tone softened when speaking to Chu Yinan: "Fine, if you're worried, then I'll take you there to see."

Chapter 24 Exposure

Children's Art Museum

In today's highly developed entertainment industry, the role of children's art museums has lost the original meaning of their name. Even parents who want to enroll their children in art classes will not favor them. As urban infrastructure, they are basically only used for renting out as exhibition halls for public welfare activities and idol meet-and-greets.

However, the usually deserted Children's Art Museum was bustling with activity today, with reporters everywhere outside the venue and fans queuing up in droves.

All of this is because "Snow," the mysterious author of the fairy tale "Snow," made her first public appearance after remaining out of the public eye for so long, holding a book signing event, and the tickets were limited to just over 500.

Before the book signing even started, Bei Yutang, who was on the second floor of the art museum, looked at the long queue below and couldn't help but sigh:

"Even at 20 seconds per person, that would still take more than three hours..."

Editor Chunshan had already taken care of everything; all Bei Yutang needed to do was sit down, sign the papers, and that was it. Regarding the author she was responsible for, Chunshan reassured her:

"Don't worry, Miss Sky Cat's autograph session lasted for six hours before, and she still managed to finish it."

This doesn't sound like comfort at all, Bei Yutang thought to herself.

For a published author, a book signing is an achievement. Bei Yutang is actually quite afraid of sitting in a seat for hours signing books, which is like being in prison. However, she also wants to experience the sense of accomplishment that is recognized in the industry, so she set the minimum scale of 550 tickets - provided that people come to the book signing. If she holds a big event but only a few people come, it would be embarrassing.

She was very confident in her abilities, but looking at the long line stretching to the corner of the street, Bei Yutang was still grateful to the little devil at home who was responsible for warming her bed. Without Chu Yinan's accidental intervention, the book signing event probably wouldn't have been able to start as scheduled, and her personal life would have been greatly affected.

A voluptuous and graceful young woman stood elegantly in front of the sunshade window on the second floor, gazing at the crowd and procession one last time. She felt a little regretful, but there was nothing she could do about it. Chu Nan had to go to his internship and couldn't find the time to come over.

......

After parking their car, Shibuya and Chu Yinan got out and prepared to go upstairs.

"The tickets are all sold out!" Chu Yinan exclaimed in surprise. He had only remembered this after Fu Xi reminded him, so he hadn't made any preparations to buy tickets.

"With the prosecutor here, we can just go to the art museum for free!" Superintendent Mandy, who had driven over by himself, stretched and followed, laughing at Chu Yinan for being too naive.

However, he is indeed very young.

Chu Yinan stared at the police superintendent with some disdain: "Didn't you say you weren't coming at first? Why did you suddenly come along?"

"There was no other way. My boss was going to have a long, tedious work summary meeting, so I just said I'd found a clue and needed to assist Prosecutor Shibuya." The woman with dark circles under her eyes said that she really had no choice but to slack off.

Hopefully, there will be fewer lazybones among the public officials on Twin Islands, otherwise Chu Yinan will feel it's unfair that Aunt Liu pays so many taxes.

As Mandy walked out of the parking lot, she was intimidated by the long queue to get in. The queue included people of all ages, including mothers with children, student couples, and even quite a few adults who had come alone.

The female police superintendent found it unbelievable and didn't quite understand why fairy tale books could be so popular. She asked Shibuya Yi, "Is 'Snow' a very popular author? I did a quick check on Kirin Encyclopedia and there's only one book on it, and it's a fairy tale. What's the secret behind this?"

The prosecutor, dressed in a pencil skirt and black stockings, pondered for a moment and offered her assessment:

“When I was in college, my literature teacher said that successful fairy tales often have the nature of dark fairy tales. Children linger on the beautiful fantasies on the surface of the words, while adults are helpless about the deeper content of the story. It is very difficult to have both simple and interesting content suitable for children and profound connotations for adults. I guess ‘Snow’ has achieved this.”

During the conversation, the female police superintendent had already read quite a few book reviews and wondered, "It says that a little boy is searching for the figure of his childhood neighbor in a snowy country, but why does it feel like a story about child abduction? Shibuya, did you buy it and read it?"

"Shut up," the female prosecutor replied coldly.

The three of them naturally couldn't enter through the main entrance. How could the investigation be so inefficient? Shibuya led the way through the back door. After showing their work IDs, the head of the organizing committee from the art museum and the publishing house rushed down to greet them.

This sense of being respected and valued is something Chu Yinan has always longed for. He couldn't help but picture himself going to Aunt Liu's company to handle a case, holding his prosecutor's work ID. As soon as he showed his ID, Aunt Liu in the office would immediately come down to greet him and lead the way, instead of hugging and kissing him whenever she saw him.

Impressive! So impressive!

The only problem is that the food arrangements at the prosecutor's office are a bit ridiculous, which makes him hesitate.

While making their decision, the three of them arrived at the monitoring room. Superintendent Mandy didn't like staring at the monitors, so she chose to move to the sky bridge on the third floor to overlook the autograph session below.

There were many people, and the lucky readers who managed to snag tickets felt it was worth it after discovering that the author, "Xue," was a young and beautiful woman. They couldn't wait to get to the front of the line.

Most readers are very well-behaved, knowing that someone is waiting for them. Even if they have a lot to say to their favorite authors, they usually just shake hands, bow, express their support, and leave after receiving a signed physical copy.

Taking photos or group photos is not allowed at this autograph session, and mobile devices will have their camera functions disabled after entering the second floor of the art museum.

Mandy glanced at "Snow" a few times, thinking to herself that she was a really beautiful girl, and then focused her attention on the crowd in the group. After watching for more than ten minutes without finding anything, she went back to the monitoring room on the third floor to chat with Shibuya.

Chatting and gossiping in front of museum staff would inevitably make them seem like they weren't doing their jobs properly, so they came to the sky bridge overlooking the museum building to relax.

"Is there really any clue?" Mandy asked.

The trip was based solely on Chu Yinan's "feeling," without any concrete evidence.

"Does that count?" Shibuya Yi's bright eyes looked at the queue that hadn't yet entered the hall.

Three or four stylishly dressed but somewhat rebellious girls negotiated with the people in line. After scanning the QR code with their phones, these girls took the place of the original people in line.

Mandy's panda eyes sharpened for once as she analyzed, "It seems they bought the tickets from the original readers at a high price, otherwise these enthusiastic readers who were willing to queue up on a weekday wouldn't have been so decisive."

Shibuya also provided a detail: "Everyone who buys a ticket receives a free book, but I just saw someone offer to give the free book to the delinquent girl who bought the ticket, but she refused. What would they do at a book signing if they came empty-handed and didn't want a book?"

These simple details, when put together, become quite suspicious. How could that little brat have guessed it? Mandy felt like she'd been slapped in the face.

But people with a laid-back attitude won't care about these things. What's so embarrassing about this? She followed along herself, didn't she? It's not shameful!

But then another problem arises: they seem to have no choice but to wait, because their identities don't allow them to arrest people on the grounds of "suspicion." However, if they go over and identify themselves now, they might scare away those students and prevent them from causing trouble at the book signing.

Given their professional habits, the best way to handle this would be to set a trap, catch them on the spot when they commit a crime, bring them back to the police station for questioning, and find evidence related to Shikichi. Then, a judge in the court who likes to take a hard line can punish them.

However, this also presents a challenge—the book signing event may not proceed smoothly. Even if they adhere to the bottom line of "catching people on the spot without affecting the signing event," it is impossible to guarantee the atmosphere of the event 100%.

In this situation, those who are eager for credit will choose to play the field and ensure the smooth running of the book signing is not within their job scope; that's the job of the security guards hired by the organizer.

The police superintendent who had previously tried to prank Chu Yinan with black coffee actually said, "Why don't we respect that kid's opinion? Strictly speaking, we're currently on paid leave, not on official police duty, and we haven't even reported it yet."

While the women on the third floor were discussing the matter, perhaps due to the long queue, some minor friction gradually arose at the book signing event on the second floor. After several readers tried to get permission to take photos without success, someone finally protested with dissatisfaction.

"What's going on with this book signing event?! I spent over a thousand Universal Coins to buy a ticket to get in, and now they won't even let me take a photo with them? What kind of logic is this?! Do I have to pay the author extra just to take a photo with them?"

The one who voiced her dissatisfaction was a middle-aged woman with a slightly rounder figure. Her voice was shrill and she shouted with great force, giving the impression that she was a frequent quarreler.

The venue was originally very lively, as there was no reason to be quiet. Readers who came to sign autographs and meet the author chatted in twos and threes. Even those who did not come in groups would chat on their phones and share their surprise at meeting "Xue" in person.

The middle-aged woman's voice echoed in the spacious art museum, and the people in line quieted down.

The editor stepped forward, holding a bottle of water, and offered it to the other person in an attempt to soothe them.

"Hello, Auntie. The price for our book signing event is 640 universal coins. There is no price limit of 1000 or more. In addition, the books given with the ticket are custom-made collector's editions. The agreement in the ticket already states that photography is not allowed at the event."

The middle-aged woman with a fierce look ignored her, angrily swatting away the water Miss Chunshan offered, and continued shouting, "I know it's 640, but you can't get it at the original price. I can only buy it from scalpers. You released so few tickets, clearly giving scalpers an opportunity to raise prices. Who knows if you're cooperating with scalpers? Raising prices is one thing, but raising them several times over is another. And to make matters worse, you don't even allow taking photos?"

"Auntie, please, given Miss Xue's popularity, a price of 1000 is cheap compared to other authors of the same level. Have some water to calm down!" someone in the line said helplessly. He was about to get to the front of the line, but an old lady was making a fuss and delaying him.

"Cheap? Are you going to make up for the extra money I paid? If you don't release more tickets and crack down on scalpers, isn't this the organizer's responsibility? You're a consumer, and you're siding with the unreasonable party? Have you lost all your backbone?" The woman retorted angrily, her sharp words flowing effortlessly.

Upon seeing this, both the editor and Bei Yutang felt a chill; this was a typical troublemaker.

Compared to other authors' pricing, the ticket price for this book signing event was really below average. The customized edition book alone accounted for several percent of the ticket price. After factoring in venue rental fees and other expenses, there was no profit at all. It was purely to generate some buzz.

Miss Chunshan felt the ticket price was too low, but the problem was that Bei Yutang didn't care about the money; she was just there to experience it at her own expense. In the end, the editorial department compromised.

Bei Yutang stood up, her polite demeanor tinged with a cold indifference that kept people at a distance. With a perfunctory smile, she asked, "Auntie, may I ask what the name of the main character in my book is?"

The older woman paused for a moment, then realized what she meant. Avoiding a direct answer, she raised her voice again and said, "Am I obligated to answer you? I haven't read the book, but can't I come to get a signed copy for my grandchildren? I paid for the ticket, does that mean I can't come even if I haven't read the book?"

The readers who were queuing up were wondering why things had suddenly started to commotion, but when they heard the author Xue's simple question, they immediately realized that someone had come to disrupt her book signing. They couldn't even say the main character's name, which meant they hadn't done their homework and had come to cause trouble.

"Security, please ask this lady to leave. Refund her the ticket price of two thousand yuan; I'll pay for it. Don't disturb the readers behind her; everyone's time is precious." Bei Yutang glanced coldly at the older woman and sat down.

Regardless of the reason, any unexpected situation that arises in this kind of event will have a negative impact on the organizers. The only thing to be thankful for now is that the readers are still on the side of the organizers. However, waiting is inherently a very frustrating thing. If it drags on without being resolved, the attendees will ultimately blame the organizers.

Several other people joined the elderly woman's group. Judging from their appearance, none of them seemed to have proper jobs. They used shrewish and unruly language to influence the scene. The security guards couldn't hit people, nor could they be too forceful. They could only work together to form a human wall and painstakingly block the troublemakers from leaving the door.

The orderly queue became somewhat chaotic because of this situation. People at the back wanted to see what was happening at the front, and the security guards who were maintaining order had all gone to the second floor to deal with the situation, so they were not able to guide the people at the back. A few young women with blond hair who cut in line took the opportunity to squeeze into the crowd and quickly move towards the second floor.

Before even reaching the second floor, they pulled a large stack of photos from the plastic bag they had brought. These were photos of Bei Yutang having a meeting at the "Snow Village in the Mountains" production studio. Taking advantage of the chaos created by the older women, they shouted:

"Miss Xue, you're clearly a children's author, so what's with these photos? Why are you the copywriter for the adult game 'Snow Village in the Mountains'?!"

"The children trusted you so much, all you did was dress so respectably, and yet you were secretly the creator of such vulgar works! You have betrayed the children's trust!"

Chapter 25 I'm going to explode!

The most disruptive and mood-ruining people are the gossipy, loud-mouthed middle-aged women and the reporters who prioritize performance over ethics.

The once orderly book signing event has now completely fallen apart. The scene is even more chaotic than a noisy market. Security guards and staff from the publishing house are trying to maintain order, but due to various restrictions against physical violence, the security guards are powerless to deal with these people, let alone use force to gag the elderly women.

Bei Yutang watched this event with a cold eye. She wasn't exactly heartbroken, but she was in a terrible mood. She was someone who had a strong desire to control her own things. This book signing event wasn't large in scale, but it was a small commemorative ceremony marking a milestone in her creative journey.