[Ann's POV]
Instead of focusing solely on buying food like I'd been instructed, I ended up helping the festival watchmen chase down a pickpocket who'd targeted an elderly couple. By the time I'd cornered him in a dead-end alley and handed him over to the authorities, precious minutes had slipped away. The only things I'd managed to purchase were five cups of different fruit drinks—strawberry, orange, grape, apple, and lemonade.
As I walked back toward our meeting point, a familiar stall caught my eye. It was brightly colored, adorned with strings of paper lanterns. Above the stall, a hand-painted sign read: Tanghulu – Candied Fruit on a Stick.
I stepped closer, peering through the glass display case. Inside were skewers of hawthorn berries, grapes, strawberries, and orange slices, each one coated in a gleaming shell of hardened sugar that caught the lantern light like frozen jewels.
