PCJ – Chapter 383 The Method of Catching a Thief

Cai Kaiming was feeling quite frustrated. He finally managed to put together a decent meal, only to stir up a big commotion in town. It was like mud falling into his pants—whether it’s dirt or something worse, it’s bad either way. The most infuriating part was that sneaky thief. Right now, he was probably hiding somewhere, quietly laughing to himself. Maybe the thief was even among the people watching the drama unfold earlier.

Zhang Jiaohua and his friends had eaten so much that their stomachs were bulging. Burping, they headed back to their dorms.

“Mr. Cai, you’d better fry the rest of the venison, or it’ll start to smell if left overnight,” Zhang Jiaohua said, still concerned about the remaining half of the meat as they were leaving.

The deer weighed over 30 pounds. After removing the guts and skin, there was still more than 20 pounds left. Once the bones were removed, they had at least 10 pounds of meat. That meal had consumed almost half of it. It was quite impressive that the six of them had polished off an entire pot, nearly finishing the soup too.

“Alright, alright. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it later. You guys should stop thinking about wild game all the time, and focus on your studies,” Cai Kaiming said.

On the way back, Zhang Yuanbao asked in confusion, “Jiaohua, why didn’t you make that shrew mute when she accused us of stealing her chickens today?”

Zhang Yuanbao was truly puzzled. This wasn’t like Jiaohua at all. Normally, anyone who crossed him wouldn’t get away with it. How come there was no reaction today?

“She wasn’t targeting me directly, and with Mr. Cai standing up for us, it didn’t affect me at all,” Zhang Jiaohua said.

“But that shrew didn’t get punished in the end?” Zhang Yuanbao asked, still confused.

“She wasn’t coming at me directly. Whether or not she was punished has nothing to do with me,” Zhang Jiaohua laughed.

“But…” Zhang Yuanbao scratched his head, still trying to figure it out.

“Yuanbao, you’re in your third year of middle school. Next year, you’ll be taking the high school entrance exam. If you don’t pass, your mom is definitely going to give you a hard time,” Zhang Jiaohua reminded him kindly.

“Not passing would actually be better! I’d get to repeat another year of middle school, and maybe we’d even be able to take the high school exam together,” Zhang Yuanbao replied, completely unconcerned.

“Oh no, I forgot to save some food for Runtian,” Zhang Jiaohua suddenly slapped the back of his head, realizing his mistake.

“Forget it! That brat doesn’t even respect me as her brother. She’s taller than me now and refuses to be held back a grade. She makes everyone think she’s my older sister,” Zhang Yuanbao complained.

Though Zhang Yuanbao was tall for his grade, that was only compared to Zhang Jiaohua and the younger students. Runtian had grown even faster, and she was already taller than Zhang Yuanbao, much to his dismay. In elementary school, she’d even scared her classmates once when she had her first period, leaving a pool of blood on the wooden chair. The kids thought she was seriously injured. Her height shot up like bamboo, and by now, she was taller than Zhang Yuanbao, leaving him quite unhappy.

Just as they were talking, a classmate spotted Zhang Yuanbao and shouted, “Yuanbao, your sister was just looking for you!”

“I’ve told you a hundred times, Runtian is my sister, not my older sister!” Zhang Yuanbao was fuming.

“Yeah, your older sister was calling for you,” his classmate teased, grinning.

Zhang Yuanbao realized he had misspoken in his anger, and the others burst out laughing at his mistake.

“That brat is going to be the death of me!” Zhang Yuanbao stomped his foot in frustration and ran off toward the classroom.

Surprisingly, another chicken had gone missing from the faculty dormitories. This time, it wasn’t from Wu Guangyuan’s family, as they had already found their hen. Apparently, after laying an egg, the hen had jumped over the courtyard wall onto an orange tree outside. No one could figure out how a hen could jump over a wall nearly two meters high. This was why Mrs. Wu hadn’t found the hen initially.

This time, it was Director Li Shuhai’s family who lost a chicken. Given the commotion last night, one would think a thief wouldn’t strike again. But in the morning, the teacher’s family woke up to find one of their chickens missing from the coop. Li Shuhai’s wife, Zou Jinhua, noticed a small pile of feathers scattered on the ground near the coop.

Though not as fierce as Pei Guixiang, Zou Jinhua was still heartbroken over the loss of her prized hen.

“This can’t go on. If the thief keeps succeeding like this, they’ll come back every night,” Zou Jinhua said, worried.

“There’s something odd about this thief,” Li Shuhai remarked.

“What’s odd about it?” Zou Jinhua asked.

“If it were a regular thief, why wouldn’t they take all of our chickens? Why only steal one at a time? The same thing happened at Wu Guangyuan’s place. The thief only took one chicken. Don’t you think that’s strange?” Li Shuhai asked.

“What’s so strange about it? No ordinary thief would come to a school to steal chickens,” Zou Jinhua said, unfazed.

“Then why only steal one chicken each time?” Li Shuhai pressed.

“Because that’s all the thief can eat in one go. This thief is just trying to improve their meals, not steal for the sake of stealing. I’m sure the thief is someone from our school—either a teacher or a student,” Zou Jinhua speculated.

Li Shuhai quickly covered her mouth. “How can you say such things?”

“Why not? I’m sure the thief is someone from the school. They probably cooked the chicken in the orange grove behind the school. If you don’t believe me, go check,” Zou Jinhua said confidently.

“I’ll go check,” Li Shuhai said, heading out. However, he didn’t climb over the wall like some delinquent; it would have been unbecoming for a school director to be seen climbing walls in broad daylight.

The school owned part of the orange grove, and there was a gate that led directly into it. Li Shuhai went to the bell-ringer, Tang Dezhong, to borrow the key.

Opening the gate, Li Shuhai walked along the wall that bordered the teachers’ dormitory. Sure enough, he saw some green leaves from the orange trees scattered on the ground, along with some broken branches. Someone had definitely climbed over the wall, using the orange trees for leverage.

Squatting down, Li Shuhai scanned the area but found nothing. Then, he spotted a nearby shed, a shelter used by the workers guarding the orchard. He approached it but found no one inside. The oranges were just beginning to ripen, and since they were still somewhat sour, there weren’t many people stealing them yet. But near the shed, Li Shuhai found a pile of chicken feathers. Judging by their color and freshness, he was certain this was where the thief had cooked and eaten the chicken.

Just as Zou Jinhua had said, the thief was likely from the school. If it were a local villager, they would have taken the chicken home to cook. And they certainly wouldn’t have stolen just one chicken. A professional thief would have taken the entire coop full of chickens. It had to be a student or teacher.

Even though he had found the answer, Li Shuhai still didn’t know how to catch the thief. The thief had struck two nights in a row, but there was no guarantee they’d come back a third night.

“Jiaohua, did you know? Another chicken was stolen from the courtyard last night,” Cai Kaiming said.

“This thief sure has good taste, always going after the hens,” Zhang Jiaohua remarked casually.

“Yeah, this thief knows how to eat. And now, we’ve been dragged into it. Luckily, we were eating venison. If we had been eating chicken, we wouldn’t have been able to clear our names, no matter how hard we tried,” Cai Kaiming said, clearly frustrated.

“Well, it’s not my problem. If anyone’s going to be suspected, it’ll be you. We’re just accomplices; you’re the main suspect,” Zhang Jiaohua joked, grinning mischievously.

“Fine,” Cai Kaiming sighed, shaking his head in resignation.

“Actually, it wouldn’t be hard to catch the thief,” Zhang Jiaohua said with a smile.

Cai Kaiming was intrigued. “How would you do it?”

“It’s simple. We ate meat last night, and even though we washed our hands, unless we used soap, they’re still greasy. The school cafeteria’s food has no grease at all, so if someone’s hands are oily, it’s a good sign they ate something else. Just check their hands,” Zhang Jiaohua explained, showing his hands to Cai Kaiming.

Adults would wash their hands thoroughly after eating greasy food, but kids might just rinse them under water. If someone checked the students’ hands, they might be able to find the thief.

“That’s a great idea!” Cai Kaiming said, his eyes lighting up as he prepared to tell Director Li Shuhai.

“Mr. Cai, what happens if we catch the thief?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

“They’ll definitely be expelled,” Cai Kaiming said, stopping in his tracks.

“Just for stealing a chicken?” Zhang Jiaohua asked.

Was stealing a chicken really such a serious crime? Should a kid’s whole future be affected over a chicken? Cai Kaiming hesitated.

“What do you think we should do?” Cai Kaiming turned to ask Zhang Jiaohua.

“I don’t know. If you adults don’t know, how could I?” Zhang Jiaohua quickly shook his head.

“You little rascal. You were the one who told me how to catch the thief, and now you’re telling me not to report it. And you claim you don’t know,” Cai Kaiming said, returning to stare at Zhang Jiaohua, trying to figure out what kind of mischief this kid was up to!