Chapter 26: Two Family Additions
Back in that other world, whenever Lin Jiangye dealt with large raptors, he would almost always grab their wings first.
Once you take away their control of the air, there’s basically nothing left to be afraid of.
The raven’s sudden outburst completely caught Lin Jiangye off guard. He’d considered stress reactions, he’d considered depression—yet it never occurred to him that the bird had been sulking and plotting mischief.
The people outside, who had been happily waiting to see the raven “make its grand entrance,” nearly felt their hearts stop when they witnessed the scene.
The raven looked over half a meter long. Its sharp talons lunged at Lin Jiangye in a blur. The young man easily pivoted and dodged, and the raven didn’t give up—it prepared to strike again.
But just as it was about to turn, it abruptly realized its wings felt as if they’d been locked by a hard iron shackle—completely unable to move.
It lifted its head—
and met the young man’s cold, shadowy eyes… along with that pleasing scent coming off him.
Oh! So fragrant (???)~*
Damn it—this human must have smeared some crow-attracting potion on himself! (???)
“Caw caw caw!” [Put me down! Damn human! I won’t surrender!]
Lin Jiangye fell silent for a moment. Lately, every animal he met seemed… weird.
Leaving aside the German Shepherd’s absurdly high intelligence—that one was a retired police dog, so being smart made sense. But the black cat knew what a police station was, and even used a badge to identify destinations. Then there was the African Grey they’d met in the morning… fine, that was a high-IQ animal too. And now it was this raven’s turn.
He’d never met a crow that called itself “this young master.” Even Diamond didn’t act this human.
Lin Jiangye was holding the raven the way people hold a hen by the wings. The once-majestic raven now looked like a big black chicken.
No one outside could tell how he’d even moved. Later, after Lin Jiangye left, the vets pulled up surveillance footage and realized the young man had merely turned and lifted his hand—catching that half-grown raptor in an instant.
That practiced motion looked like someone who’d grabbed countless raptors before.
“What are you doing, baby? Your previous owner had to go abroad, so he handed you over to me. You didn’t know that?” Lin Jiangye didn’t really care about being attacked. He was far more curious about why the raven was attacking him.
But the moment it heard that, the raven struggled even harder.
[What ‘go abroad’?! Don’t understand! This young master only knows you spent a whole lot of money and forced me into your hands!] The raven tried to scratch him again, but unfortunately… its legs were too short.
Lin Jiangye, thoroughly wicked, gave the raven a little shake. Sure enough, it immediately started screeching in outrage.
Hehe. Fun~
He set the raven back on the table. When it tried to attack again, he pressed it flat with one hand—again.
“I don’t know who you heard that from, but your previous owner really did have to go abroad. That’s why he had no choice but to transfer you.” In fact, the resale price was below market, and the other party had only one request.
“He said you’re a very smart child, so you might take it as abandonment. He worried you’d become gloomy and unhappy, so he was especially careful when choosing your next owner.” As he spoke, Lin Jiangye gently stroked the raven’s small head.
The warmth of that touch, and the pleasant scent, soothed the raven’s restless heart again and again—until, slowly, its emotions finally settled.
“Do you know why your previous owner chose me?”
The raven turned its clever little head and guessed cautiously: [Because you smell good?]
It had never smelled anything this fragrant on any human!
So, so fragrant-bird!
Lin Jiangye snorted a laugh and leaned close to whisper by its ear. “That scent is something only you animals can smell. Humans can’t.”
The raven tilted its head in confusion and pressed on: [Like how you can talk with us—this is something other people don’t have, right?]
The young man nodded with a smiling, squinting gaze.
The raven knew he wasn’t lying. Back at the airport, he’d said he could talk with it too—only then, it hadn’t trusted anyone.
“Your previous owner didn’t really believe it either. But he was willing to hand you to me because I have money, and I have enough space for you to fly freely—instead of being trapped in a cage all the time. And I have two crows at home, so he doesn’t have to worry about you feeling lonely without companions.”
Crows are strongly social animals—ravens included.
Even though he didn’t have a second raven right now, other crows could still be good companions.
“Besides the two crows, you’ve already met the little tabby and the German Shepherd. And at home there are also five stray dogs and a bunch of stray cats waiting to be adopted. Later, you can play with them too.”
“In the future, the kids at home might keep increasing. You don’t need to worry about having no companions.”
Of course, if the number really kept increasing… Lin Jiangye would have to consider moving somewhere bigger.
The raven seemed tempted. A thread of expectation rose in its eyes, but there was still one thing it worried about.
[Will you resell me to someone else?]
Hearing that, Lin Jiangye’s heart turned both sour and soft at once. Looks like it still carried a pretty heavy shadow in its heart.
“Unless one day I’m dying, I won’t resell you to anyone else.” At those words, the raven’s dull eyes instantly brightened—it had fully accepted him.
Lin Jiangye patted its small head again. He didn’t ask who had told it those things—there was no point. The raven was his now, completely.
“Be good. Let’s do the checkup. When it’s done, we’ll go home. Then I’ll introduce your new companions one by one.”
The idea of having so many new friends became the raven’s new anticipation.
In its previous owner’s home, it had been the only animal. There were no other crows around—only small sparrows. Those sparrows were timid by nature; they’d scatter the moment it got close. There was no way they could play together.
Being with its previous owner was happy… but the owner couldn’t stay with it every day.
And when the owner wasn’t home, it definitely wouldn’t be allowed outside.
Now it was different. The new home had a whole pile of little buddies. Even without leaving the house, it wouldn’t be bored!
The people outside watched with their own eyes how Lin Jiangye, in such a short time, managed to coax a stubborn, unruly raven into a docile little embryo.
Unfortunately, the room’s soundproofing was too good—they couldn’t hear a single word he said!
Let us hear too! Teach us! Maybe then we could coax those short-tempered little ancestors into behaving!
But even if they had heard it, they probably wouldn’t have learned it.
Once the raven behaved, everything became easy. By the time the vets finished the full checkup, it was already dark outside.
“The results show no problems at all. Very healthy.” The vet handed Lin Jiangye the report, eyes fixed straight on the raven.
“Ahem… um… Mr. Lin, can I pet it?” The vet rubbed his hands together eagerly.
It was his first time seeing a raven up close. It really was bigger than the two crows Mr. Lin had brought last time—
and even more handsome!!!
Lin Jiangye didn’t agree immediately. He asked the raven for its opinion. The raven stared at the vet for a long time, then gave a little snort and stood tall on Lin Jiangye’s arm: [This young master is generous. I’ll allow you to touch twice!]
So tsundere.
Lin Jiangye pressed his lips together and hid his smile—otherwise the raven would explode its feathers again.
“It says you can.”
The vet’s eyes lit up with a ding. He chuckled and carefully placed his hand on the raven’s full chest.
Warm—carrying that bird-specific high body temperature. Its body gave off a faint “little bird” smell, not unpleasant at all. Clearly, its previous owner had taken excellent care of it.
If he weren’t worried about the raven’s strong attack power, he would’ve buried his face in its chest and taken a huge sniff!
The vet restrained himself, though. After gently stroking twice, he withdrew his hand on his own.
But his face overflowed with that satisfied look of someone who’d “sniffed a bird,” making the other vets grind their teeth in pure envy.
Lin Jiangye ignored the craving gazes behind him and marched out of the pet hospital, raven in tow, looking absurdly triumphant.
“Next, let’s go home!”
Back at the villa, the raven took in the five stray dogs and four stray cats at home, plus Diamond and Opal who had just returned—and then, adding the Tibetan Mastiff and the German Shepherd it had seen in the car—its deep brown eyes sparkled like gemstones.
[So many!]So many buddies! Raven likes!
“Go play!”
Watching the lively bunch of little ones, Lin Jiangye remembered the thought he’d had before—maybe he should hire someone to help cook for the animals?
Right now, he only went out for the day and could still come back at night. But if a future case required coordination and assistance, what would he do with this whole crowd at home?
Once the stray cats at the hospital recovered and were brought here, there would be nearly twenty small animals in the house.
Feeding, cleaning, and occasionally helping them tidy themselves up… Lin Jiangye suddenly missed the animals in the other world—ones that could cook, use the toilet, and even bathe themselves.
Missing them was missing them. But after he woke up, he still asked Shang Fuyan about relevant housekeeping services.
“Do you only need someone to handle the animals? Or also take care of the house cleaning?” Those were completely different workloads.
Lin Jiangye thought for a moment and decided: just the animals. As for house cleaning, he already had a cleaning company come once a week.
“I see…” On the phone, Shang Fuyan thought briefly. Instead of recommending a housekeeping company, he recommended a person directly.
“Actually, there’s someone who might be perfect. Are you free right now? Can you come to the squad office?”
Lin Jiangye’s head filled with question marks. Wasn’t this about a housekeeping company? Why did he suddenly need to go over?
Was there a new case that needed help?
“Come and you’ll know.”
After hanging up, Lin Jiangye was confused, but he still decided to head out.
Only—before he could leave, he was blocked by an angry raven.
[This young master wants a shiny gemstone too!!!] All its feathers bristled. It was furious.
Crap—he forgot about that!
“Ahem… buy, buy, buy! When I come back, I’ll buy you one.” Lin Jiangye reached out to pet it, but the raven refused to accept that answer. Instead, it lowered its head and slammed straight into the young man’s warm chest.
[This young master! Wants it! Right! Now!] The raven was practically throwing a tantrum and rolling around in his arms. With no choice, Lin Jiangye could only bring it along and promise he’d take it to buy one immediately.
The raven’s eyes curved into blissful slits. Off to the side, Opal looked a little displeased and also dove into Lin Jiangye’s arms: [I want to go too!]
Not to buy—just to look!
Diamond shook his head helplessly. Seeing Lin Jiangye was heading out, he silently landed on the young man’s shoulder as well.
“You’re coming with me too?”
Diamond nodded and nuzzled Lin Jiangye’s forehead: [So you don’t go soft later and buy Opal another new shiny thing.]
As expected of a mature, old-school crow—steady even when it talks!
This time the German Shepherd didn’t go out. It chose to stay home and guard the place, keeping an eye on the bunch of little ones.
The Tibetan Mastiff was sleeping so deeply it was practically unconscious. Lin Jiangye didn’t want to wake it, so he left it at home and had the German Shepherd watch over it too.
After that, Lin Jiangye went to the same place as before and bought the raven a neon blue-green Paraíba tourmaline. A ring of small diamonds was set around it, and he fixed it onto the raven’s leg with the same method as last time.
At the same time, the raven happily changed its name to “Tourmaline.”
A gemstone name, plus a gemstone on its leg—once it strutted outside like that, everyone at the sub-bureau would know these were Lin Jiangye’s crows!
Diamond had guessed right. The moment Opal saw Lin Jiangye buy a Paraíba, it immediately started clamoring to swap out its own gem.
Before Lin Jiangye could even agree, Opal got smacked away by Diamond’s wing and then received a hard peck on the head, making Tourmaline shrink behind Lin Jiangye in fear.
With an elder present, Opal didn’t dare cause trouble anymore. Lin Jiangye felt sorry for it and coaxed gently, “If you earn merit, I’ll switch you to a black opal, okay?”
A black opal was even more dazzling than a fire opal—and, naturally, far more expensive. So the “merit” Lin Jiangye mentioned definitely wouldn’t be something as simple as ordinary tracking.
But to a little crow, this was an irresistible temptation—impossible to refuse!
[Okay!!!]
Tourmaline didn’t care at all about Lin Jiangye’s promise to Opal, because the same rule applied to everyone in the house. Even the stray cats and dogs still staying at home could earn rewards by making contributions.
In fact, it had just spotted a red gemstone it liked too. Next time it earned merit, it would bring Lin Jiangye here to buy it.
After making the purchase, Lin Jiangye headed straight for the sub-bureau.
The major crimes unit was still busy with the earlier case. Those three had been caught on the spot—there was no room to deny anything.
Just as they’d feared, traces inside the villa had basically all been cleaned away. According to their statement, after every “session,” they did a complete scrub-down—not only removing their own traces, but even wiping away the victim’s blood.
Otherwise, the strong smell of blood would sooner or later seep outside.
After Lin Jiangye arrived, he asked about the case’s progress and the identities of the other two deceased.
“Of the two, one was the villa’s owner. The other was the owner’s original friend. It was because of that relationship that their group was able to come here smoothly. Who would’ve thought this so-called ‘friend’ was actually here to take his life?”
The man who died on the third floor, Wang Fuchun, had in fact been the owner’s childhood friend. Both had come from a small village to make a living—but ten years ago, their paths diverged sharply.
One seized an opportunity, met a benefactor, built a career, bought a big villa and a luxury car, and lived a happy, comfortable life. The other stayed on construction sites, doing grueling work.
And he wasn’t exactly hardworking or capable either—eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, he did it all—so he never saved much money.
The owner remembered their childhood bond and wanted to help his old buddy get rich, but it was taken as showing off.
“So… he killed him because of that?”
The major crimes captain tugged his mouth into a mocking half-smile. “Of course not. At first, Wang Fuchun wanted to rely on his buddy and live the ‘lie-flat’ life—eating well, drinking well, living easy. But the owner refused. Wang left in humiliation, but after he left, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He couldn’t understand why the one who got rich overnight was his buddy and not him.”
So after he returned to the worksite, he teamed up with a few guys he often ran around with and planned to kidnap his buddy and take his money.
“Then what about the torture? It’s not like Wang Fuchun would hate him that much over just this, right?”
The captain let out a cold laugh. “There’s something in this world called envy of the rich.”
Wang Fuchun hated the rich. The men he brought were even worse—hatred of the rich among hatred of the rich.
At first, they only punched and kicked the victim. Gradually… they got addicted. Their methods became more and more vicious and bloody.
At that, the captain sighed. “They really picked a ‘good’ place. There was nobody around that villa. As long as they gagged him, no one would know someone was being harmed inside…”
If someone had discovered it earlier, maybe the victim wouldn’t have died.
After tormenting him for a long time and completely draining his cash flow, they finally gave him a “quick end”—by putting a plastic bag over his head and suffocating him to death.
“And then?”
Logically, at that point, shouldn’t they have split the stolen money and fled?
And if Wang Fuchun died on the third floor… was it because of unequal splitting?
The captain shook his head and began with the surviving victim instead. “He was the deceased’s business partner. The two had agreed to attend an event together. When the deceased never showed up and couldn’t be reached, he went straight to the villa.”
And then… he ran into the group, who were about to leave.
“You can guess the rest. They treated him the same way they treated the deceased. As for Wang Fuchun’s death, it wasn’t about the split. He just didn’t want to continue. He wanted to take his portion and leave—but the other three wouldn’t allow it.”
Not only did they refuse, they suspected he was going to report them behind their backs.
So while Wang Fuchun was asleep, they worked together and smothered him to death.
“Good thing that big black cat called the police. When he was sent to the hospital, the doctor said if it had been any later, he would’ve been dead for sure.” Now he was disabled, but at least he was alive, wasn’t he?
After hearing the whole case, Lin Jiangye was silent for a long time.
Greed again.
He rubbed his brow and asked, “The three of them confessed, right?”
The captain nodded heavily. “Of course. The evidence is solid. There’s nowhere to argue. I think they’ll probably be sentenced to death.”
Those brutal methods were truly horrifying. If people like that didn’t die, what were they kept alive for?
Hearing that, the tightness between Lin Jiangye’s brows eased a little.
Before leaving, he asked one last question: “Do you know which hospital the victim was sent to? Do you know the ward number?”
Once he got what he needed, Lin Jiangye went to look for Shang Fuyan.
As he approached the other man’s office, Lin Jiangye spotted a familiar figure nearby—the undercover officer who had been running a stall on the food street.
At the moment, the man was limping unsteadily down the stairs. The instant Opal saw him, it rushed over.
“Caw-caw-caw-caw!” [Human! You’re still okay!]
The man froze for a second, then saw a small crow with a gemstone tied to its leg fling itself into his arms, flapping excitedly.
“You… hey! It’s you!” He recognized the little crow by instinct and, overcome with emotion, hugged it and planted a kiss on it.
Then he followed the direction Opal had flown from and saw Lin Jiangye standing not far away.
He knew this special consultant—not only because Lin Jiangye used the crows to protect himself and guide them to the drug traffickers’ location, but also because he used crows and stray dogs to rapidly strike down a human-trafficking ring hidden in Yue City.
You could say Lin Jiangye’s legendary stories had already spread through police stations across every district in Yue City.
The man bowed slightly to Lin Jiangye, thanking him for arriving in time back then. Otherwise, not only would he have died, the two colleagues assigned to protect him would have died as well.
Lin Jiangye waved it off. After calling Opal back, he walked into Shang Fuyan’s office.
“You finally came.”
The young man casually pulled out the chair opposite and sat down, asking straight away, “I just saw that former undercover officer. Are you planning to recommend him to me?”
Shang Fuyan suddenly laughed, his brows and eyes full of pride and satisfaction. “Worthy of being our squad’s consultant—sharp as always.”
“Yes. It’s him.”
Then Shang Fuyan explained why. “Jiang Xin—his name now is Jiang Xin. He’s actually very capable, and he cooks really well. Right now he’s doing odd jobs in the bureau cafeteria, but… that job doesn’t pay much.”
Jiang Xin’s leg could actually be treated, but the cost was extremely high. Even with the police cafeteria covering his food and lodging, he’d need to save for ten years to afford it.
Not to mention his body wasn’t in great shape to begin with—he needed daily medication.
“Recommending him to you is just my personal thought that you’d probably offer a reasonable salary. That way, he can shorten the time it takes to gather enough money for treatment.” Shang Fuyan sighed inwardly.
He had wanted to help too, but Jiang Xin refused no matter what. The bureau had even wanted to raise medical fees for him, and he rejected that as well.
And then—
Shang Fuyan leaned close and whispered something into Lin Jiangye’s ear.
Lin Jiangye’s pupils shrank. His expression turned cold and sharp. “I understand.”
After he’d guessed Shang Fuyan’s recommendation, Lin Jiangye hadn’t actually objected. He’d eaten the man’s cooking before—it really was good.
And the man had enough compassion for animals. Otherwise, Opal wouldn’t have kept thinking about him.
Even if Jiang Xin wasn’t very mobile, Lin Jiangye didn’t need him to do anything heavy. Just feed the cats and dogs, feed the crows that occasionally flew by the second floor, scoop litter and take out trash, and clean up the areas where the little ones played most often.
The workload wasn’t heavy. Lin Jiangye could also provide food and lodging. And with so many little ones at home, if an outsider entered, there was no way they wouldn’t be noticed.
A German Shepherd’s sense of smell wasn’t ordinary.
Not to mention he’d now added a raven—“not a raptor, but might as well be one.” If someone wanted to enter his home, they’d better first figure out how to fool all those animals.
“Actually… I feel like keeping a tiger at home would be even safer,” Lin Jiangye said gloomily.
Shang Fuyan was drinking water and nearly choked on that sentence.
Who the hell keeps a tiger at home?!
Before he could crush Lin Jiangye’s “wishful thinking,” hurried footsteps came rushing closer from far away.
With a bang, the office door flew open. Yan Zhou’s face was grave as he reported, “Captain Shang! A female corpse has appeared by the Tongji River!”
“The method used to mutilate the body is exactly the same as the serial murder case next door!”
