In Lin Lu's pottery classroom, sunlight shines through the skylight onto the rotating potter's wheel. Eight-year-old Xiao Yu exerts too much force, and the clay splashes onto Tang Ren's floral shirt. "Uncle Tang, look at me making a bowl!" The boy holds up his crooked work, with a small fingerprint printed on the bottom.
"This finger pattern matches the candy packaging with an 87% match." Su Chen leaned against the door and whispered. Lin Lu's hand trembled slightly, and the embryo collapsed immediately: "More than 20 children were sent to Zhou Welfare House, saying that the family members of the drug rehabilitation center..."
Qin Feng squatted down and looked at Xiaoyu in the eye: "Tell uncle, did you press this fingerprint yourself?" The boy's eyes flashed, and suddenly he smashed the ceramic bowl to the ground. The azure glaze shone eerily in the sunlight.
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The orphanage's archives were filled with dust. Tang Ren sneezed three times in a row, shaking off the banners on the wall. Qin Feng picked up the 2018 group photo with tweezers. The dark blue bracelet on the wrist of a nurse caught his eye: "This... this is an anti-drug propaganda product donated by Lin's Porcelain Factory."
Su Chen scanned the bracelet material and found that it was exactly the same as sugar and drugs. The dean hurried over with cold sweat on his forehead: "This batch of bracelets was recycled three months ago..." Before he finished speaking, the alarm suddenly exploded and the sound of glass breaking came from the children's dormitory.
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Xiaoyu curled up on the bed and received an IV, with the needle holes on his wrists arranged in a double-knife pattern. Lin Lu wiped his scalded forehead with a wet towel and hummed the kiln-cutting tune his grandfather taught him. The boy murmured in his sleep: "Uncle Lan said... Collect ten seals to exchange for mother..."
Qin Feng checked the surveillance and found that the signal in the nursing lounge would be briefly interrupted at 9 o'clock every night. Su Chen found a micro-projector in the ventilation duct, which played the sound-wave modulated and induced images in a loop - the source of the children's nightmares.
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Tang Ren pretends to be a cleaner and sneaks into the night shift. He hears the nurse humming a weird lullaby. He secretly presses the recorder and finds that the melody is the same as the Japanese pirate boat song recorded in Lin Zhenye's diary. Qin Feng guides the audio to the sound wave analysis software and finds that specific frequencies can induce anxiety.
"They... they are using sound to catalyze addiction!" Su Chen threw the experimental results on the table, "The children are not using transport tools, but living culture dishes!"
Lin Lu smashed the blue glaze pot, and the fragments cut his palm: "I actually mixed poison into the clay with my own hands..."
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The ginkgo leaves on the hill behind the sanatorium formed a golden carpet, and Qin Feng pushed his mother slowly along the path. The old man suddenly grabbed a fallen leaf and said, "Xiao Feng, your father is waiting on the boat..." Her cloudy pupils reflected the outline of a cargo ship in the distance, the place where Qin Feng's father died thirty years ago.
Tang Ren ran over breathlessly, with a dark blue button in his palm: "Found it... in the gap of your mother's wheelchair!" The longitude and latitude were engraved on the inside of the button, and the location showed the dock where his father was on duty that year.
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Amid the sound of waves at the abandoned pier, Qin Feng opened a rusty iron suitcase. The diary wrapped in waterproof cloth had rusty handwriting on it: "1998.3.14, Lao Lin was forced to change the recipe, and I secretly changed the sugar jar No...." Signed with the initials of his father Qin Haifeng.
Residual powder in the Suchen test box: "It is consistent with the non-toxic formula before Lin Zhenye's improvement." The sea breeze lifted the last page of the diary, and the yellowed photos fell - the young father held the infant Qin Feng in his arms, and the chimney of the sugar factory behind him was emitting green smoke.
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Lin Lu set up the ocarina in the children's ward, and Xiaoyu followed the notes to make a crooked nurse doll. Tang Ren suddenly snatched the ocarina: "This tune is the Japanese pirate boat song!" He played the melody backwards, and the nurses under surveillance collectively had a splitting headache.
Qin Feng led the team to raid the dormitory and found an old record in the Bible of the nurse. The label was printed with the 1958 Sugar Factory Cultural Performance. Side A had Lin Zhenye singing "Kiln Fire Song", while side B recorded the encrypted instructions of the Japanese pirates' boat song.
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The night sky over the sugar factory ruins was torn apart by flames. Tang Ren wielded a fire axe to split open the tanks filled with poisonous syrup. Qin Feng fought with the arsonist in the control room. The blue tattoo on the opponent's wrist was dyed purple by blood: "Captain Qin's father could have survived if he hadn't replaced the batch of goods..."
Su Chen rushed out of the fire scene holding the unconscious Xiaoyu. The child held the white porcelain whistle made by Lin Lu tightly in his hand: "Blow it...Uncle Lan won't be able to find us..."
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Three months later, at the beach, the light rain threw the white porcelain whistle into the waves. Lin Lu's pottery class moved into the old site of the sugar factory, and a giant clay sculpture stood in the ruins - the broken blue double swords were reshaped into the shape of wings by the children. Tang Ren performed fire-breathing juggling at the opening ceremony, but accidentally set his fake beard on fire.
Qin Feng pushed his mother through the exhibition hall, and the old man suddenly said clearly: "Xiaofeng, your father said he has no regrets." Su silently adjusted the angle of the wheelchair so that the sunlight could warm her knees.
---
There was a long queue in front of the night candy painting stall, and the old lady made maltose into shield medals. Xiaoyu shuttled through the crowd holding the "Anti-Drug Guardian" certificate, and the white porcelain bell on her wrist rang. Tang Ren licked the sugar spoon secretly and burned his tongue. Qin Feng smiled and pushed the iced sour plum soup to him.
The sea breeze brought the sound of a distant whistle. Su Chen stood on the breakwater and turned on his phone. The latest drug test report showed that the cobalt content in his mother's blood had dropped by 0.3%. He took off his glasses and wiped off the mist. The light of the lighthouse in the distance pierced the twilight, like the fire of a porcelain kiln that would never go out.
(Where the mist fades away, lights illuminate the room)