Chapter 75: Mind Reading Scam
Hai Yifan quickly said politely, "Actually, our show is just a warm-up for my father-in-law. He said that today he will be performing 'Dragon Palace Water Play', one of the three unique magic tricks of the Lu family. It will surely be a feast for the eyes of the two of you."
"We just heard Master Lu talk about the three unique skills. What exactly is 'Playing in the Dragon Palace Water'?" Yin Chuan asked curiously.
Hai Yifan smiled and said, "I can't explain this right now, otherwise you two won't feel the novelty anymore."
Come to think of it, if I reveal it now, what's the point of watching the actual performance later?
After rehearsal, Hai Yifan accompanied the two for lunch. Afterward, Hai Yifan excused himself, saying he needed to help his father-in-law prepare for the afternoon performance. He told them to leave at three o'clock and go backstage at the Lu family's performance hall. He would meet them there. Yin Chuan asked them to make their own way.
"Brother Yin, have you noticed," Linlang said to Yin Chuan after Hai Yifan left, "although this brother-in-law seems to be highly valued by Master Lu, he doesn't have a high status in the Lu family, and he doesn't have the confidence to speak to his wife."
"Of course not. This is the case for all sons-in-law who marry into the Lu family's family. Do you believe it? The status of the second and third uncles-in-law of the Lu family should be even lower than that of Hai Yifan." Yin Chuan said with a smile.
"However, his magic skills are truly amazing. He's proficient in both large and small Western magic tricks. Especially the mind-reading technique he displayed before us. Whether I was studying and traveling around Europe with Teacher Jiang or Master Elliot, I've never seen such precise mind-reading skills."
Yin Chuan laughed heartily, "Linlang, I haven't figured out Hai Yifan's other magic tricks, but I've figured out the secret of his so-called 'mind reading'."
"Oh? Did you figure out how he did it?"
"He's just using some tricks to guide you and predict your choices in advance. To be frank, 'mind reading' is a complete scam." Yin Chuan grabbed a pile of chopsticks from the chopstick cage. Some were long, some were short, and some were of a distinctive light color. "Take these chopsticks for example. I think I can also use his 'mind reading'."
"Oh? I'd like to see how you pull off the same tricks as him?" Linlang looked at Yin Chuan with interest.
Yin Chuan solemnly spread the chopsticks lengthwise from himself to Linlang on the table, "Come on, think of any one of them in your mind. When you've made up your mind, tell me."
Linlang glanced at the chopsticks and said, "Well, I've made up my mind."
"Okay!" Yin Chuan pointed to one of the light-colored chopsticks, "You're thinking of this one, right?"
Linlang was immediately shocked. "How did you know? I was thinking of the light-colored one."
"The reason is actually very simple. Look—" Yin Chuan pointed at the pile of chopsticks spread out on the table, "Remember how I spread out the chopsticks just now? Just like Hai Yifan, I spread them out from me to you, and I deliberately placed one of the light-colored chopsticks a little further away from the others. This way, you will feel a sense of oppression from my action. At the same time, your attention will naturally be focused on this light-colored chopstick. Think about it carefully, wasn't Hai Yifan's showdown action just now the same?"
Linlang nodded slightly, "Indeed. But how could he guess the suit and value of that card?"
"Because he'd already memorized the card the first time he showed it! Then, by spreading the deck a second time and guiding you to draw that card, you'd naturally guess the suit and value he wrote down."
"But what if I didn't choose this one? Wouldn't that mean his performance would be a failure?"
"This was his skill as a magician in guiding the audience. I clearly remember that when he showed the cards before and after the memorized card in the second layer, he suddenly slowed down the speed of showing the cards and deliberately separated the four of hearts. That way, even if you chose the card after it, as long as he said, 'Choose from the card after this one,' you would definitely choose it again the second time.
"You might ask, what if you had chosen the card in front? Don't worry, I just noticed that when he showed us the note, he covered the left side of the paper with his left hand, and the right side was written with the 4 of Hearts. You may not have noticed that Hai Yifan is not left-handed, so why did he raise his left hand to show us? Obviously, he wrote a different suit with his left hand, which is the 10 of Clubs, the card in front of the 4 of Hearts.
"So, during his first showdown, he only needed to remember the 4 of Hearts and the preceding 10 of Clubs. And with his rhetoric to prevent the audience from choosing a different card, like finding an excuse to repeat the trick or simply changing the magic statement, he could always cover it up. You've been traveling overseas with Master Jiang for years, haven't you figured out this on-the-spot rhetoric? It's basically the same scam as fortune-telling and face-reading, with all sorts of evasive tactics and distractions. He'll never fail."
Linlang nodded frequently, thinking that her experience in traveling around the world was still not as good as Yin Chuan's, and she must learn more from him in the future.
"There's still some time before the afternoon performance. What should we do next?" Linlang asked.
"Let's go and see if there are any clues to the place where Lu Jiye was murdered. Although it has been three years and all traces of the scene may have long since disappeared, it is still necessary to understand the situation at the scene."
Following the Lu family apprentice's instructions, the two arrived at a spacious room at the northernmost end of the Lu residence. It looked like the place where the Lu family patriarch practiced his special skills. Indeed, as Yin Chuan had expected, the room was quite bare. Aside from a coffee table and a few chairs against the wall, there was no other furniture. On the ground, near the north wall, a vaguely humanoid figure could be seen, with the faintest imprint of a figure being split into three sections.
Yin Chuan recalled the scene in the photo of Lu Changhua, which obviously matched the impression in front of him.
"How tragic," Linlang sighed. "Who could be so cruel as to dismember this young man like that? It's truly inhumane!"
"Indeed. But... did you notice that the outline we saw at the scene seemed smaller than the bloodstain outline beneath the body in the photo?"
Linlang frowned and took another closer look. "It's true that they're not the same size. But that's normal, right? It's been three years, so the bloodstains will eventually evaporate."
Yin Chuan shook his head slightly. "I always feel like something is amiss. Also, there's his missing left calf. Perhaps these are the keys to solving the mystery of Lu Jiye's dismemberment case!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
