Chapter 122

Chapter 122

◎Stolen Wealth◎

As far as Ji Nanxing knew, the first victim was the girl he and Xiao Ye had witnessed being robbed earlier that day. She was a tenant who rented a unit in a nearby office building to operate a nail salon.

After her gold necklace was stolen, the girl found it amusing yet unfortunate. If it had been a human thief, she might have reported it to the police, but since it was a bird, it was hard to track down. So, she accepted her bad luck, informed the property management about the incident, and asked them to keep an eye out for anyone who owned a bird. After that, she didn’t think much about it.

The second victim was also a girl. She had just returned from buying the traditional wedding gifts (bracelet, necklace, and earrings) with her boyfriend. While the bracelet and necklace were safely stored in their boxes, she left the earrings on. Unfortunately, they were stolen.

The earrings she chose were designed with half a swan wing and two pure gold tassel chains, perfectly complementing her dress that day. Her boyfriend kept complimenting her on how good they looked, and since they had a dinner gathering with friends that evening, she decided to keep them on until she got home.

However, on their way back after dinner, she was attacked by the bird. Its beak was sharp, and it forcefully tugged at the earring. Not only was the earring stolen, but her ear was also badly injured.

The girl, terrified and with blood streaming from her ear, cried her way home. Her parents not only reported the incident to the property management but also directly to the police, demanding that they find this "thieving bird."

They couldn’t just accept their bad luck because the thief was a bird.

The girl’s mother was a fierce character. She went to the police station every day to check on the progress and searched the neighborhood to find out who owned a bird, determined not to rest until the thieving bird was caught.

The commotion was so big that even residents who usually didn’t pay attention to neighborhood news heard about it. Some, fearing they might be the next victim, stopped wearing their necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.

The property management, in collaboration with the community, conducted a door-to-door pet inspection. Cat owners were told to secure their windows, dog owners to get their pets licensed, and unusual pet owners to keep their cages locked. However, after the inspection, they found a few bird owners, but none had the gray parrot in question.

The incident quickly went viral as a joke online. Stories about birds stealing things, especially money, weren’t unheard of, but having it happen so close to home made it worthy of gossip.

As soon as Guo Can entered the classroom that morning, he didn’t even touch his homework and immediately leaned over Ji Nanxing’s desk to gossip. "So, did they find that parrot? Did it really rob people in your neighborhood of their gold jewelry?"

Xiao Ye, with a rolled-up book, tried to push him back to his seat by pushing it against his forehead. "Have you finished your homework? You’re here gossiping first thing in the morning."

Guo Can: "I’m just curious. I suspect that parrot must have been trained by someone. Otherwise, why would it specifically target gold jewelry? Besides, this has already made it to the local news. If it were the parrot’s own doing, its owner would have come forward to return the stolen items by now."

Guo Can even showed some netizens’ comments on his phone to Ji Nanxing. "Look, academic god, everyone thinks this bird was specially trained."

Ji Nanxing glanced at his phone. Since there was no footage of the parrot committing the crime, the news only had a photo of the neighborhood notice. The comments below were varied, with most people treating it as a laughing matter.

[‘Gold Bandit’—such a bold headline! I thought a bank had been robbed, but then I saw the culprit was a gray parrot!]

[Oh no! I know this bird! Just the other day, I was at a stationery store with my classmate, paying with cash. A one-yuan coin accidentally fell to the ground, and this gray parrot flew over and snatched it!]

[Wow, it’s not just targeting gold—it’s stealing money too!]

[Parrot: Nowadays, everyone uses mobile payments, so it’s hard to steal money. I’ll have to settle for gold instead.]

[It’s a repeat offender! It must have been trained. These days, you can’t even be a thief without some bird-training skills.]

[What’s wrong with the parrot? It just likes shiny things. The bird’s good; humans are bad.]

[Haha, it’s just choosing the jewelry it likes.]

[If I had a bird like this that could bring home the goods, I wouldn’t even need to work!]

After glancing at the comments, Ji Nanxing handed the phone back to Guo Can. Just because the thief was a bird, some people found the behavior cute. But then again, it wasn’t their belongings that were stolen.

Seeing Guo Can leaning so close to Ji Nanxing, Xiao Ye pulled out a wet wipe. "Step back; I’m wiping the desk."

Guo Can returned to his seat, taking out his homework from his bag while sighing. "If only I could have a bird that brings home money, I’d be financially free!"

Zhang Yuan, spinning a book in his hand, sneered. "You’re such a criminal. Is this something to be proud of? Are you trying to tarnish your clean record?"

Guo Can sighed, "Just dreaming. I’d need the skill to train birds first. Academic god, I heard there are already two victims in your complex? It seems like the bird is raised by someone in your complex. Otherwise, why would all the victims be from there?"

Ji Nanxing smiled, "I don’t know, maybe."

Xiao Ye was curious and whispered to Ji Nanxing, "For stealing like this, using birds, will the thief face retribution?"

Ji Nanxing nodded, "Yes."

Xiao Ye asked, "What kind of retribution? Bad luck?"

Ji Nanxing replied, "Everyone’s fortune is fixed. If you steal more than what you’re supposed to have, naturally some financial loss will occur. Even if you’re safe for now, stealing eats into your fortune for the next life."

"Many people think the next life is separate, and since they’re so poor now, they don’t care about the next. But they don’t realize this life’s poverty might be due to sins from the past."

Xiao Ye said, "As a victim, I just hope the guy who trained the bird to steal gets what’s coming to him soon."

The teacher for morning self-study came in with a stack of test papers and said to the class representative, "Pass out the papers. Today we’ll go over the last two big problems. The core is the same, and the formulas haven’t changed, but you can’t solve them just because they’re worded differently. You won’t get a single point on these kinds of problems in the future."

Someone whispered and chuckled below, "You can still score one point, just writing 'solution' gives you points."

The math teacher looked at him, "You made the most mistakes, and you’re still laughing?"

The math teacher was a petite female teacher, and even her scolding wasn’t very intimidating. Some students take advantage, not just bullying classmates but also teachers who seem easy to push around.

At the beginning of the math teacher’s class, some students in the back row would deliberately make noise, not listen, and sometimes even jeer.

Then Xiao Ye put those troublemakers in their place.

Just then, someone chimed in, and Xiao Ye coughed because his throat was itchy. The responding student instantly quieted down, and even those who were whispering stopped talking.

Xiao Ye took a sip from his water bottle in his desk and saw Ji Nanxing laughing beside him. He didn’t know what his deskmate was laughing at, but he laughed along anyway and leaned over to ask, "What’s so funny?"

Ji Nanxing looked at him, "Laughing at the class bully."

Xiao Ye looked puzzled, "There’s a bully in our class?"

Their class got along pretty well. A few troublemakers bullied others at the start of the year, but after nearly a year, everyone got along, and there weren’t any real bad apples.

Ji Nanxing looked at him without speaking, and Xiao Ye instantly realized, reaching out to pinch his waist, "Alright, Ji Naonao, you’re calling me out indirectly?"

Ji Nanxing wasn’t ticklish and didn’t dodge, but when Xiao Ye pinched him, he grabbed his wrist, "We’re in class. Keep it up, and I’ll toss you out."

Ji Nanxing was very thin and didn’t seem like someone who loved sports, but he wasn’t weak at all. His waist was slim but firm. When Xiao Ye grabbed it, he felt something hit his heart, making him want to tighten his grip, to hold on tighter, to keep it close and not let go.

Without looking, he could picture the hand on his wrist—white, slender, perfectly shaped, with long fingers resting on his hand, the tips faintly pink.

Xiao Ye’s ears turned bright red, and he yanked his hand back like he’d been shocked, silently reciting a calming mantra in his head. He felt like a total creep.

In class, in public, his mind wandered, and just imagining certain things made him lose control.

Even creeps aren’t as bad as him.

Ji Nanxing saw him almost burying his face in the desk, with red ears, and asked, "What are you doing?"

One second he was joking around, the next he clammed up.

Suddenly acting weird, just like that time he bit him out of nowhere. Are teenage boys this strange?

Xiao Ye grunted, turned his head, and pressed his face into the desk, his back to Ji Nanxing.

Ji Nanxing found it amusing how Xiao Ye was refusing to talk. He reached out and gave a playful tug at a strand of Xiao Ye's hair, leaning in to whisper, "Are you upset because I called you a bully? I was just teasing you."

Xiao Ye wriggled in his chair like a snake but still didn’t turn around.

Ji Nanxing said, "How about I buy you milk tea after class?"

Xiao Ye couldn't possibly be mad at him; he just didn't want Ji Nanxing to see the side of him that he couldn't control. Hearing Ji Nanxing coax him, he was so thrilled he could have danced right there, but he didn't want Ji Nanxing to coax him for too long. He slowly lifted his head, propping his chin on the desk, and whispered, "I want double cream."

Ji Nanxing let go of the strand of curly hair he was holding and smiled, "Alright, double cream for you."

His phone vibrated inside his desk. Ji Nanxing glanced at the teacher who was going over the problem, and seeing that she wasn't paying attention to the students, he took out his phone and looked at it. "Jiang Tangtang sent a message in the group chat, saying we're going to have hot pot at the back at noon."

Xiao Ye asked, "Which back?"

Ji Nanxing replied, "The small rundown building. We'll buy the ingredients and cook there ourselves. They’ve already bought the ingredients using the compensation money from the management bureau, along with Lin Yi and Xiao Xiao. They also asked what we’d like to eat, so we could order takeout in advance for delivery by noon."

A few days ago, Jiang Tangtang started a group chat and added everyone, saying that since they had all been through life-and-death supernatural events together, they were now a small group.

Of course, forming a small group meant celebrating with food and drinks. Unfortunately, everyone's schedules didn't align on the weekend, and after school was too late, so they decided to have a meal at the small rundown building at noon.

When it came to food, Chen Shiyi was the first to chime in, saying that since they had bought the ingredients, he would take care of the drinks.

Zhang Yuan, sitting behind Ji Nanxing, also sneakily sent a message in the group, unapologetically ordering some snacks and sending a "thank you, boss" sticker.

Jiang Tangtang specifically @’ed Ji Nanxing in the group, asking what he wanted to eat. Everyone else was secondary; the academic god’s tastes were the main focus.

Ji Nanxing said, "Anything is fine," and just as he was about to lock his screen, another message came through. He exited the group chat and saw that it was from Xia Junyan, who hadn't been around for a while. The message was as blunt as ever, with not a single extra word: "Need talismans?"

Before he could reply, he felt an intense stare from beside him. He looked up slightly and met Xiao Ye's face, which was full of the expression that he couldn't satisfy him.

Feeling oddly guilty, like he’d been caught red-handed, Ji Nanxing whispered under Xiao Ye’s accusing gaze, "I wasn't planning to get any."

Xiao Ye's gaze shifted downward, his eyes clearly saying, "I'm watching how you reply."

Ji Nanxing opened his photo album and sent a picture of his house overflowing with talismans.

Xia Junyan replied almost instantly: "Photoshopped?"

Ji Nanxing: "Real, so I don't need any talismans. You can ask if anyone else wants them."

Xia Junyan: "Which Taoist was so hard up they let you hoard all their talismans?"

Ji Nanxing: "You’re too stubborn to budge, so I had to find someone who would."

Xia Junyan angrily tapped his phone and sent a "you're awesome" sticker. His most reliable client was gone. Although the talismans weren't unsellable, the only one who never haggled and always paid promptly was Ji Nanxing.

The management bureau charged 5,000 yuan for a single thunder talisman, and even though it was in high demand, when selling to other Taoists, unless they were in urgent need, they would always haggle if the price exceeded 5,000 yuan, and they would insist on discounts for bulk purchases.

Now that his big spender was gone, how was he supposed to manage?

Unaware of Xia Junyan’s frustration on the other end, Ji Nanxing showed the chat history to Xiao Ye: "I didn't take his offer."

Xiao Ye nodded, sitting up straight and not looking at him anymore, but the smile on his lips couldn't be suppressed. Today, Ji Naonao had comforted him, not just once but twice, and had even rejected a long-term talisman supplier for him.

The pen in his hand was practically twirling like a propeller.

In a small hut built on the rooftop, the sound of the school's morning exercises penetrated the thin bricks and entered the room. The young man who had been sleeping with his head buried woke up, extremely irritated, and threw off the blanket, grabbing his messy hair.

He checked the time; it wasn’t even 10 a.m., which only made the sleep-deprived young man more irritated.

Living here, unless you keep the same hours as the students, it's impossible to rest or even sleep in during the day. With a high school in front and a kindergarten behind, the noise from both sides can drive you crazy.

But the rent is cheap here. Although he lives in a rooftop addition, at least it has bricks and a bathroom, and he doesn't have to share a capsule apartment with strangers.

However, the low rent can't compensate for the frustration he feels every time he's woken up by the school bell, the music from the morning exercises, or the sharp cries of kindergarten children.

Too noisy to rest, Dai Yuanjiang could only get up, wash up briefly, grab a drink from the small fridge, and eat a few bites of the leftover toast from yesterday, so he quickly finished his breakfast.

After throwing the empty packaging into the trash, Dai Yuanjiang went outside to stretch, made sure no one was on the rooftop, and then returned inside. He pulled out a black box from under the bed, inside of which was a gold melting torch and a high-temperature bowl.

After setting up the tools, Dai Yuanjiang took out a paper box from the drawer, containing several shiny gold jewelry pieces, including single earrings, various necklaces, and some pendants.

Looking at the box full of gold ornaments, Dai Yuanjiang's eyes sparkled; these were all money.

He placed the beautiful gold ornaments into the bowl, turned on the torch, and watched as the intricately designed gold slowly melted under high heat, then solidified into imperfectly round gold nuggets.

Once the gold nuggets had slightly solidified, Dai Yuanjiang used tweezers to pick them up and dropped them into water to cool. He then took more gold ornaments and repeated the process.

After melting all the ornaments into gold nuggets, Dai Yuanjiang packed up his tools and placed several gold nuggets into a small bottle meant for sand art.

After saving up for a while, the small bottle was finally full today, and Dai Yuanjiang planned to sell the contents, thinking it was risky to keep them at home.

If he sold the gold ornaments directly, it would be hard to explain their origin, but turning them into gold nuggets made it much easier.

He had observed the gold buying market for a while and found a place with moderate prices and large recycling volumes.

The shopkeeper, seeing the small bottle of gold nuggets, just asked where they came from and whether there were any receipts.

Dai Yuanjiang shook his head: "They're just some small trinkets I bought before. I didn't like them anymore, so I melted them into gold nuggets for collection. The receipts are long gone."

Unlike other luxury items, as long as it's pure gold, its value is in the gold itself. The shopkeeper weighed the gold, poured out the entire bottle of gold nuggets to melt them into a lump, and tested the purity. After confirming it was fine, he offered a price.

Leaving the gold buyer, Dai Yuanjiang felt like he was walking on air. The small bottle weighed nearly 200 grams, and he got over 80,000 yuan for it.

This sudden money made Dai Yuanjiang's heart pound, and he tightly gripped his phone in excitement.

With money in hand, his first thought was to move out of this noisy place.

But he quickly dismissed the idea. Although the rooftop was noisy, there were no neighbors. The nearby old neighborhoods had many unauthorized constructions, and many areas lacked surveillance. If he moved into a building and someone saw his parrot, his secret would be exposed.

So he couldn't move yet, at least not for a while. He needed to accumulate more. This time he got over 80,000 yuan; if he could have this income every month, within a year, he could buy a house in a small county.

Then he would be a homeowner, no longer dragging heavy luggage around the streets with nowhere to go.

After calming down a bit, Dai Yuanjiang went to the nearby pet market to buy some food his parrot liked.

On his way back, he swung by a supermarket to buy some ready-to-eat meals. In the past, he only dared to buy cheap packs of instant noodles, but today, with money, he decided to treat himself, so he bought several boxes of cup ramen and some sale-priced fruits.

He didn't want to spend carelessly; this money was his safety net in the city. Even with tens of thousands in his account, he still couldn't spend freely.

Although frugal with himself, as soon as Dai Yuanjiang got home, he transferred 5,000 yuan to his parents' card and called to inform them.

On the phone, his mother earnestly reminded him that they had fields and land at home, grew their own vegetables, and raised chickens and ducks, so they didn't need much money. She told him to keep more money for himself in the city and not to worry about home.

Dai Yuanjiang nodded and agreed, listening to his mother until she finished, then said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'm doing fine here. The boss just gave me a bonus, so I have money. In a few years, we'll buy a house in the county and bring you and Dad out."

After talking for a while, Dai Yuanjiang's parents, concerned about the phone bill, hung up after learning that their son was doing well in the city.

After talking to his family and dreaming of the day he could move his parents from the unpaved countryside, Dai Yuanjiang felt hopeful about the future.

The sound of tapping came from outside the window.

Dai Yuanjiang hurriedly opened the window, and a palm-sized gray parrot flew in from outside.

As Dai Yuanjiang reached out his hand, a gold chain fell from the parrot's beak into his palm.

Dai Yuanjiang hugged the parrot and kissed it several times: "Good boy, you’re daddy’s little treasure. Daddy bought your favorite worms today. You’ve worked hard, come and eat."

Worms are not the main food for parrots; most birds prefer grains, but this parrot of his has loved eating worms since it was young. It eats grains too, but when millet and worms are placed together, it only eats the worms.

Unfortunately, the worms it loves are not cheap; each worm costs several yuan. However, ever since the parrot started bringing home gold jewelry and even money, Dai Yuanjiang has been willing to save on himself to pamper the parrot, buying whatever it loves no matter how expensive.

As the parrot happily ate the worms one by one, Dai Yuanjiang reached out and touched its little head. This parrot was picked up by him. Previously, its wing was injured, either by a person or some animal, and it was lying at his window, unable to fly.

He didn’t know much about birds, but he happened to have some white medicinal powder at home, so he sprinkled a bit on it and fed it some food and water. To his surprise, the little parrot stayed.

He was living alone in the city, struggling, doing the hard work of delivering packages, often dealing with difficult customers. His family couldn’t afford for him to quit his job on a whim. Finding a job these days is not easy, and after enduring so much, he had become somewhat gloomy.

Having a little pet at home, Dai Yuanjiang occasionally talked to it. After its wing healed, one day it returned with a ten-yuan bill in its beak.

Dai Yuanjiang was shocked at the time, and then gradually came up with the idea to demonstrate all denominations of currency to it, training it to bring them back to him.

The parrot was clever, perhaps it had been trained before. It went out every day and from time to time brought back some money, but mostly just a few yuan, ten or twenty, rarely fifty or a hundred, because nowadays many people don’t use cash. You can’t even find cash lying around, let alone steal it.

Then Dai Yuanjiang taught it to snatch necklaces and jewelry from people. If phones weren’t too heavy for the parrot to carry, he would have taught it to snatch phones too.

As for whether this was immoral, Dai Yuanjiang didn’t care at all. He was so poor that he could only live in a rooftop shack and eat plain boiled noodles. Expecting him to be moral was asking too much; he just wanted to live a better life.

The full parrot flew to its nest to sleep, and Dai Yuanjiang also wanted to catch some more sleep before work. But with the extra thousands of yuan, he couldn’t sleep at all, so he took out his phone to play.

Seeing the local news about parrot robberies, Dai Yuanjiang panicked for a moment, but upon seeing only a screenshot of a notice posted in the community without any footage of his parrot, he felt relieved. However, he decided to keep the parrot at home for a few days until the news died down.

Scrolling down with his fingertips, he saw many comments. Some people envied whoever had such a parrot, saying it was a fortune.

Others said that spending money obtained through robbery would bring retribution.

Dai Yuanjiang sneered. Money is money; how could it know whether it was obtained legitimately or through robbery? Retribution? That’s just jealousy talking.

Not bothering with such jealous comments, Dai Yuanjiang swiped the news away. There are so many bad people in the world; if retribution really existed, no one would dare to do evil.

Back in the countryside, Dai Yuanjiang’s father rode his tricycle to the market. Their village didn’t have a bank; the only bank was in the market.

His son said he had transferred money, and he wouldn’t feel at ease without checking the account in person. Seeing the money in the account, Dai’s father thought for a moment and withdrew five hundred yuan. The roof at home had been broken for a long time, and five hundred yuan could buy some bricks and tiles to repair it.

Dai’s father was not old, not even fifty, and often worked in the fields. He was very healthy. After dragging a cart of bricks and tiles home, he brought a ladder and climbed onto the roof. But halfway through the repair, he missed his footing and fell off the roof.