Trying to make some fast cash, two small-time crooks devise a plan to kidnap the son of a wealthy family in a village and hold him for ransom. When the kidnapped boy pulls out his Hong Hou (“Red Monkey”) costume, the two burglars realize they may be in for more than they planned. As their ransom notes remain unanswered and their scheme starts to drag on, the two crooks find out for themselves how a child's imagination can spell disaster for two inexperienced criminal minds.

This book is a retelling of "The Ransom of Red Chief", a short story by American novelist O. Henry.

Mandarin Companion is a series of accessible novels in Chinese proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully created to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.

Level 1 is intended for Chinese learners at an upper-elementary level. Most learners will be able to approach this book after one to two years of formal study, depending on the learner and program. This series is designed to combine simplicity of characters with an easy-to-understand storyline which helps learners to expand their vocabularies and language comprehension abilities. The more they listen to this book, the better they will become at understanding and grasping the Chinese language.

Please note: This audiobook is in Mandarin Chinese.