Chapter 20: Good Deeds Bear Good Fruit
When they hurried back to the station, they saw over a dozen crows cawing noisily in the lobby.
Lin Jiangye paused briefly. His first thought was that a crow disturbance had broken out at the station. But on closer inspection, he saw gemstones tied to their legs—these were the same enthusiastic crows who had helped find the traffickers.
That raised a question. Why were so many crows at the station? Weren’t they told a black cat had reported a case?
The crows noticed their beloved human before the officers did and flocked into Lin Jiangye’s arms, complaining loudly.
“Human! You’re finally back! Bad humans bullied little kitty!”
Following their pointed wings, Lin Jiangye saw the “little kitty” they mentioned—
An adult black cat, sleek and glossy, weighing over fifteen pounds.
The crows in his arms were mostly small-billed crows, only 30–40 centimeters long. From afar, the black cat looked like a small panther, perched on a desk like a miniature mountain.
Little kitty?
How could they possibly say that with a straight face?
Lin Jiangye looked at the imposing black cat, then down at the petite crows in his arms, puzzled. “It didn’t attack you?”
As the crows stirred, members of the Major Crimes Unit waiting nearby noticed the task force’s arrival.
They handed Shang Fuyan an evidence bag, their expressions grave. “Captain Shang, take a look.”
When they had been urgently summoned, they had already sensed something was wrong. What kind of case required them? A homicide.
Sure enough, seeing the blood-written message on white paper, their hearts sank.
“Wutong Villa District No. 3, He’an Street, Wen’an District. I’m about to die.”
The words were crooked and uneven, clearly written by someone in terrible condition. The amount of blood used indicated severe injury.
“We’ve sent two officers to check the location, but fearing the situation might be serious, we called you back,” the Major Crimes captain explained. Especially Consultant Lin—they needed him to extract information from the black cat and the crows.
The procedure was entirely reasonable.
Shang Fuyan beckoned Lin Jiangye over. “Jiangye, come look at this.”
Lin Jiangye, who had been listening to the crows complain about the men chasing the cat, looked up and walked over.
One glance, and his expression darkened. “The blood is fresh. The victim is gravely injured.”
The Major Crimes captain and Yan Zhou exchanged surprised looks. None had expected him to distinguish the freshness of blood so easily.
Little did they know, Lin Jiangye had simply seen far too much of it before.
“Good timing. Get someone to collect the blood from the crows’ claws and check whether it matches anyone in the database.”
The moment they heard this, everyone’s hearts leapt into their throats. “What do you mean?”
“When the black cat was carrying the distress note, it was chased. To block those men, the crows attacked them. There’s still some of their blood left on the crows’ claws.”
The Major Crimes officers’ eyes lit up immediately. They carefully took the crows from Lin Jiangye and began swabbing the blood off their claws with great caution.
Meanwhile, Lin Jiangye walked over to the black cat. If they wanted to know what had really happened behind the note, the black cat was the one who knew best.
As soon as he approached, he caught a faint scent of blood. At first, he thought the cat’s paws might have been stained with the men’s blood. But upon closer inspection, all four paws were perfectly clean.
“Caw caw!”
“Little kitty is injured!”
The crows tattled at once, earning an angry glare from the black cat.
Lin Jiangye scooped the cat into his arms. It tried to struggle, but he gently pinched the back of its neck. “The crows said you’re hurt. Let me see where. If it gets infected, it’ll be miserable.”
The black cat froze, not out of obedience but pure shock.
“You… you can understand what they’re saying?!”
The cat was stunned—so stunned it felt dizzy.
Soon, Lin Jiangye discovered a patch of fur beneath the cat’s foreleg soaked in blood. When he touched it, his hand came away red.
The dizziness wasn’t from shock—it was from blood loss.
He examined the wound carefully. It was near the upper forelimb. Pushing aside the thick fur, he saw it was quite deep.
He couldn’t help sighing. He had no idea how this little fellow managed to run such a long distance while injured.
The people nearby inhaled sharply at the sight of the bloody wound, their expressions softening with sympathy. It must have hurt terribly. How had the black cat endured it without a sound?
Perhaps because they had worked alongside crows and stray dogs before, the Wen’an District station had developed a certain affection for small animals. They even kept food and medicine specifically for them.
Lin Jiangye gave the wound basic treatment first. After wiping the blood from his hands, he asked about the note.
“Who told you to report to the police?”
Before the cat could answer, a small crow hopped onto his shoulder and added proudly, “Little kitty even knows what a police station is! So smart! Not worse than crow!”
Lin Jiangye was genuinely surprised. To know what a police station was—and to help someone report a crime—this cat’s intelligence was nearly on par with the German Shepherd.
Just then, the Shepherd came over and sniffed the black cat. Its brows furrowed. “There’s a strange smell.”
The black cat nearly reacted defensively, but Lin Jiangye’s skilled calming touch soothed it once more.
After recovering from the shock that this human could understand animal speech, the black cat quickly realized this was its best chance to save someone.
“He’s been kidnapped! The people who took him keep demanding money and beating him every day. He’s almost dying!”
As it spoke, tears welled up in its eyes.
Seeing its pitiful expression, Lin Jiangye was reminded of the first time he met the Tibetan Mastiff.
Gently stroking the black cat’s back, he continued asking, “How many people kidnapped the victim? Were the ones chasing you among them?”
The black cat nodded repeatedly.
“There are four in total. Three of them ran out to chase me.”
Then it seemed to recall something else.
“There… I think someone has already died. I smelled the scent of death.”
Lin Jiangye’s hand tightened. He turned to Shang Fuyan and the others, relaying the cat’s words.
The Major Crimes captain clicked his tongue. “That complicates things. I only sent two officers over. I’d better tell them to hold position.”
There were four suspects. No one knew whether they were armed. If they were, sending only two officers would be reckless.
He immediately contacted his team, instructing them to hide nearby and avoid alerting the suspects until reinforcements arrived.
Originally, Lin Jiangye planned to send the black cat to a veterinary hospital and then follow the Major Crimes team to the location. But the cat stubbornly insisted on coming along—it refused to feel at ease unless it saw the person rescued with its own eyes.
In the end, he carried the cat into the car. Naturally, the crows and the other animals followed as well. If any suspects attempted to flee, they could assist.
It was the black cat’s first time riding in a human car. It looked around curiously.
The Tibetan Mastiff moved closer and sniffed it, asking how it got injured.
Though the Mastiff looked large, it was still young compared to the black cat, so the cat’s attitude toward it was fairly gentle.
“They discovered me. They tried to kill me and take that piece of paper.”
To protect the note, it had been wounded—but it had escaped with only a single injury.
From the driver’s seat, Lin Jiangye could hear the pride in the black cat’s voice. Escaping from four adult men was no small feat.
“Are you close to the one who reported the case? How did he know you could help him?” Lin Jiangye asked.
“He used to feed me and my little brothers. Later, when he disappeared, I went looking for him. That’s when I saw him being beaten.”
Its tone grew guilty and dejected.
“If I had found him earlier… would he not have suffered so much?”
The Tibetan Mastiff tilted its head, confused.
Why would that be the cat’s fault? The cat did nothing wrong. The cat even helped.
Lin Jiangye agreed. “Human matters have nothing to do with little kitty. The fact that you went to find him and helped him report to the police is already amazing.”
From the black cat’s words, it was clear their relationship had been nothing more than a kind feeder and a stray cat. Even if it had been a pet, how could a kidnapped owner’s fate be blamed on an animal?
Still, the fact that a stray cat would risk its life to save him proved the victim had treated it well.
The victim himself probably never imagined that one day, the stray cat he once fed would risk its life to rescue him.
Half an hour later, they arrived near the villa district.
