Su Tian and a few of her female classmates chatted and joked on their way to the dessert shop. Everybody was so excited and discussing how each of them will buy a different kind so they could try different ones and found the ones that they liked the best instead of wasting money on the ones that they didnât like.
After all, desserts upward of $10 was a luxury items for this group of high school students who were yet to make their own money.
But, all of the schoolmates were quite nice. Even though they werenât well off, none of them asked Su Tian to treat them to the pastries. Even the idea of giving them discounts came from Su Tian.
While the group of girls were jabbering on about all sorts of desserts, Su Tian suddenly spotted Xi Yun running madly toward her and waving at her from afar.
She picked up her pace and met up with him. Xi Yun was completely out of breath from the mad dash. He couldnât even talk before he started dragging Su Tian back the direction that he came from.
The other girls exchanged looks and quickly followed them.
âXiao Yun, Xiao Yun, what is going on?â asked Su Tian as she ran next to him.
The way he was running was making her nervous.
Xi Yun tried to catch his breath and said, âScam artist....â
âScam artist?â
When she heard that it was just a scam artist, Su Tian felt relieved.
Scam artists just con people out of their money; that means Ms. He was unharmed.
âWhat about the scam artist?â she asked.
Xi Yun, âHe... he used counterfeit money to trick Aunty He.... When Aunty He opened her cash register drawer, I saw..... all the money in there was counterfeit....â
Unlike Aunty He, who hadnât been using cash a lot. He had been doing homework for his classmates for money and some days heâd count them dozens of times. He could smell the authenticity of real money with his eyes closed.
All those $100 bills inside Auntyâs Heâs cash register, he could tell something was wrong from just one look.
Su Tian stopped all of a sudden.
The girls from behind had caught up to them and heard Xi Yunâs words. Each of them was more angry than the last and someone already wanted to call the police.
Xi Yun was so anxious he was stomping his feet, âHurry up, jie jie. The man is about to leave.â
There wouldnât be enough time to call the police. The scam artist would be long gone before the police arrived.
Besides, Aunty He had already ran out of changes and the man knew that. Once he was gone, nobody else would come after him. Plus they wouldnât come back again for a while.
Theyâd wait till Aunty He had lowered her guard before they found another way to scam her again.
Su Tian stood still and suddenly got an idea.
She called to Xi Yun and the girls and said, âLetâs do this, letâs trap him in the shop...â
After everybody had finished hearing her plan, they all looked at her differently.
The girls: they have always thought that Su Tian was a soft little kitty, when in fact she was a small tiger!
Xi Yun: Jie jie is so impressive! Jie jie is so smart! It was the right decision to run to get her!
A group of teenage girls plus a 10-year-old or so boy all looked at her with their eyes sparkling.
Su Tian said to Xi Yun, âXiao Yun, you go back first. Make sure you stall the man and donât let him leave. Okay?â
âI got it!â
Xi Yun nodded forcefully before he dashed back.
He must help jie jie catch the bad guy!