Steven has been a certified photographer and tour guide for the past few days, showing her all the sights of Rome and the Vatican, big and small, and sending her all the pictures, minus the ones to be entered in the competition.
Vanessa was as pleased as punch and really every picture could be considered a high-class portrait picture, no! Portrait pictures would be too insulting to Steven's skills, they should be described as fashion blockbusters!
"Vanessa, what's next for you?" Steven didn't want to part with her too soon and unnaturally asked Vanessa about her schedule.
"Uh..." Vanessa opened the memo in her phone and flipped through her schedule, "I'll be going to Venice Water City, Milan, these two cities in the next few days."
"In that case, I am going back to Milan tomorrow, why don't we go together." Steven was a bit frustrated, originally he wanted to take Vanessa to tour a few more cities, but something came up temporarily, and he could only part with Vanessa for a while.
"Sure, I'll go to Milan before going to Venice Water City." Vanessa agreed to it, it's better to have an acquaintance.
.....
After two days in Milan, Vanessa officially said goodbye to Steven and returned to solo traveling.
She came to one of the most romantic cities in Italy - Venice Water City.
The whole city is romantically located in the water, with shuttle boats, colorful arch bridges, winding water alleys, unique houses, and buildings in the night colorful lighting more charming.
The surface of the water is rippling, the boat rows through the water, stirring up layers of ripples, and the air is flowing with the Italian boatman singer humming Italian ditties.
Vanessa rented a boat, and as she sat in the breeze, she suddenly thought of William Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud".
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
......
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
The head of the boat was a native Italian who could only speak a few words of simple English, and the rest could only be in Italian with hand gestures, so Vanessa was not able to learn about the city from him.
The watercraft went along the canal, passing by many beautiful buildings of Venice from different eras. Since there was no explanation, she didn't know the names of these buildings, so she had to record them with photos.
After disembarking for an hour, Vanessa found an Italian-style restaurant for dinner and then followed the navigation to the hotel.
Passing by a beautiful jewelry store, Vanessa thought she could bring Olivia Bennett back some handmade gifts, so she entered the store.
The interior of the store is decorated in a beautiful style, with various glass jewelry and some exquisite masks on the glass display cases.
She heard that the special souvenirs of Venice are glassware glass jewelry, and colorful masks of Carnival.
The store owner is a beautiful middle-aged woman, after seeing Vanessa's delicate and attractive face, her eyes flashed with an unknown light, and then she warmly greeted her in English, "Hello, beautiful young lady, our store is the most characteristic souvenir store in Venice, you can take a look at these."
"Hello." Vanessa smiles politely, her eyes casually scanning the store's jewelry store.
"You can check out these masks, these are the masks we must take with us to Mardi Gras, and these were handmade by Master Nero himself, only in our house!" The shopkeeper enthusiastically pulled Vanessa to a glass display case.
A pair of very distinctive masks, sultry, dramatic, exquisite, and noble all, Vanessa also a little heartwarming, indeed very beautiful, to the shopkeeper said, "Can you take out this mask, I try it?"
The shopkeeper smiled even more, then said, "Yes, the things in the display case are old, I will get you a brand new pair from inside, I guarantee it's exactly the same, you wait for me!"
After the shopkeeper finished his speech, he entered the store's cubicle with quicker steps, and came out again in less than 5 minutes, holding the exact mask Vanessa wanted, "Put it on and take a look, it's absolutely gorgeous!"
"Yes, thank you!" Vanessa took the mask from the shopkeeper's hand and brought it on in front of the mirror, the half-covered tight mask revealed Vanessa's soulful cat eyes that captured people's hearts, and the mysterious aura given by the mask appeared more seductive and charming to Vanessa.
Only ....
"I...I'm dizzy..." Vanessa fell softly to the ground, completely plunged into darkness.
.......
"Next, is our 5th treasure for this auction!" The auction host spoke rousingly, microphone in hand, "Please!"
Vanessa came to her senses in a daze, opening her heavy eyelids to find her hands and feet cuffed and chained and her mouth gagged with an object!
She had been kidnapped!
Heart panicked beyond measure, in the end, who is it?
No grievances and no grudges she can still meet kidnapping in a foreign country, the brain recalls the last side of still conscious, Venice! Venice, that souvenir store!
The shopkeeper!
Shit! So she was dizzy at the end, it was her mask that did it, she must have put some kind of ecstasy in that mask.
What did she do? Why so unlucky?