Chapter 30: Three Little Ones vs. The Killer
“Ahhh!”
The chicken farm workers had been chatting idly when, all of a sudden, they heard a harsh, grating cry. When they turned around, they saw a white egret striding toward them aggressively.
As for how they could tell it was “aggressive”—when you’ve been around chickens long enough, you naturally learn what a bird looks like right before it attacks.
But the problem was: what was wrong with this egret? Who had provoked it? And where had it even come from?
Luckily, right behind the egret was a handsome young man, rushing after it in a panic. “Hey, hey, hey—wait! Don’t peck people! Otherwise I won’t be able to explain myself!”
Just as the egret stretched out its long beak to jab at someone, a hand reached out in time and grabbed its slender neck.
But the egret seemed enraged by that. It spun around and unleashed a barrage of angry screeches at the young man.
The workers watched in utter confusion. Only after the young man finally soothed the egret did they learn why this man-and-egret pair had come.
“Sorry. I’m a staff member at the animal rescue station near Wushun Wetland Park. This egret was attacked by someone here at your chicken farm before. Its wing got injured, but it absolutely refuses treatment and keeps dragging us over… We suspect it wants to ‘get back’ at the human who hurt it before it’s willing to accept treatment.”
After saying that, the young man looked embarrassed, the tips of his ears turning red.
Everyone looked at the egret—and sure enough, on one side of its wing they could see an angry, swollen wound, clearly left untreated for some time.
“This little thing has quite a temper,” one auntie said with a chuckle.
The young man looked even more embarrassed, his head nearly lowering to the floor. The “revenge” idea was only their guess—no one knew whether, after “getting revenge,” the egret would actually accept treatment.
“So… I was thinking… maybe later we can just act it out…” He gestured awkwardly with his hands, and everyone immediately understood. They burst into laughter.
They’d never seen an egret this human-like—one that held grudges and demanded “revenge”—and needed humans to cooperate in a little performance before it would go back to get treated.
Still, they were puzzled. None of them had seen this egret before, and they had no idea how it got hurt.
A few aunties exchanged looks and asked each other, “Have you seen it? Did you accidentally hurt it?”
But after asking around, they all said it was their first time seeing the bird—there was no way they’d hurt it on purpose.
This was an egret, after all, not a chicken!
“Eh, wait—besides us, isn’t there one more person…” One auntie seemed to remember something and pointed toward the back.
In this chicken farm, aside from these women who fed the chickens, there were only two men: the boss and the slaughterer.
The boss didn’t come often. The last time he’d been here was a week ago. The egret’s wound looked like it was from just the past few days, so the boss could be ruled out.
Which left only the man who slaughtered chickens.
“That guy’s sleeping in the back right now. He usually starts work in the afternoon. But I heard he has nowhere to live, so the boss fixed up an empty room for him.” The aunties were warm and talkative—within minutes they’d poured out everything they knew to Lin Jiangye.
Lin Jiangye stroked the egret’s head, a dark glint flashing in his eyes. The man lived alone—that made things convenient.
“Thank you, ma’am. Sigh—no idea why this egret is so stubborn. Doesn’t it hurt? If someone hadn’t told us, we wouldn’t even know an egret got injured here.” He poked the egret’s head, looking helpless.
The egret glanced at him. That resentful little look made the aunties laugh again.
“Exactly, exactly—just looking at it hurts,” the aunties agreed. They found it hard to believe too, but after raising chickens for so many years, they also knew some animals really were that human-like. So they didn’t think an egret wanting revenge was some shocking impossibility.
“Go ask him, kid. He usually wakes up around noon. It’s about time now.” The auntie kindly pointed out the exact location.
Lin Jiangye gave the aunties a sweet, obedient smile, making their hearts go soft.
They even started thinking to themselves: does that rescue station have official staffing? If it does, it’s a decent job…
Some of the aunties quietly plotted to ask how old he was and whether he had a girlfriend once he came out—he looked so handsome!
Lin Jiangye led the egret deeper into the chicken farm. A raven flew in from the side and quietly landed on the suspect’s rooftop.
The German Shepherd and the tabby circled around from the grassy side and crouched nearby, patiently waiting for the suspect to show himself.
Before Lin Jiangye came here, Shang Fuyan had messaged him to not act rashly—they suspected the suspect had an old-fashioned rifle.
To avoid the suspect taking innocent bystanders hostage, Lin Jiangye could only temporarily fabricate an identity as a rescue-station worker.
“Go.” Lin Jiangye said softly and gave the egret a push.
The egret immediately bolted like a horse released from its reins, rushing to the door and hammering it with its beak—duk-duk-duk—over and over.
After a long time, a man’s hoarse voice finally came from inside. “Who is it?”
The egret panicked and screeched nonstop. That non-human sound instantly drew the person inside’s attention.
“Who?” The man was still testing. Lin Jiangye tilted his head slightly—he had just heard the faint sound of metal knocking against metal inside the room.
A knife? Or that gun?
The cuts on the victim’s body were clean and smooth. And from the aunties, he’d learned this man specialized in slaughtering chickens—meaning he should have at least one very sharp knife.
A knife and a gun—both close-range and long-range weapons. Yes, forcing the door would be a terrible idea.
Lin Jiangye glanced down at his phone and guessed Shang Fuyan’s main group was nearly here.
The egret kept pounding the door and screaming loudly.
With no other choice, the man inside had to open it. The moment the door cracked open, the egret nearly squeezed its way in.
“Hello, sir…” Lin Jiangye hurried up and held down the furious, stomping egret. He put on an obedient, embarrassed smile. “Sorry, sorry. I’m from the wetland park animal rescue station. Did you accidentally injure an egret in the last few days?”
The man opened only half the door, most of his face hidden in shadow. Even so, Lin Jiangye recognized him at first glance—
Zhang Qiaotian.
Lin Jiangye’s eyes flicked to the man’s hands. His left hand was on the door; his right was hidden near the doorway. He was almost certainly holding a weapon.
Lin Jiangye hugged the egret and backed up a few steps, still smiling at Zhang Qiaotian. “Well… this egret refuses treatment. It only wants to ‘get back’ at the person who hurt it. I can’t do anything about it. So… would you mind letting it peck you twice?”
Zhang Qiaotian stared at Lin Jiangye without expression. His eyes were hollow and lifeless, the pupils so black they looked eerie. The young man—who seemed like a fresh graduate—looked startled and held the egret tight, refusing to let go.
Zhang Qiaotian’s gaze dropped to the egret. When he saw the injured wing, his pupils shrank slightly.
He remembered this egret now—so it was the one that had sneaked in back then.
Zhang Qiaotian suddenly cracked a smile. His eyes gradually turned manic, like he’d just thought of something delightful.
Lin Jiangye lowered his lashes, thinking about how to lure the man out—when suddenly a strange voice sounded behind him.
“Hey, Zhang Qiaotian. I heard you hurt an egret? How did you even manage to injure a bird?”
Lin Jiangye’s eyes widened a little. Weren’t the aunties outside? Why was there someone else here?
He turned—and saw a chubby man. Based on what the aunties said, there were only two men at this chicken farm: Zhang Qiaotian and the boss.
Why had the boss suddenly shown up?
When was Shang Fuyan’s group going to arrive?!
The boss took one look—wow, the egret really was injured. And judging by its attitude, it really did look like it was holding a grudge.
The boss chuckled happily. He’d thought the workers were joking. He hadn’t expected it to be real.
He pointed at the egret by the door and called to Zhang Qiaotian, who was still hiding inside. “If you did it, then come out. Let it peck you twice—it won’t even hurt.”
The boss was also curious how Zhang Qiaotian had hurt an egret. He’d never heard of egrets eating chicks. And egrets didn’t eat chicken feed either.
Zhang Qiaotian ignored him, staying inside the room.
Just then, the people Lin Jiangye had been anxiously waiting for finally arrived.
Shang Fuyan and the others came in casual clothes, looking like tourists out for a stroll. Led by an auntie, they walked up to the boss. “Boss, they said they have something to discuss with you!”
Qi Gaoyang wore sunglasses and grinned. “Boss, we want some chickens. You selling?”
Selling? Of course! Part of the chicken farm’s stock was sold wholesale to markets, and part was retailed to nearby villagers or wetland park tourists.
“We want them slaughtered and plucked. More expensive is fine—we want fifty.” Qi Gaoyang’s sloppy, nonchalant attitude didn’t look like a policeman at all.
Fifty was a decent little order. The boss immediately pointed at Zhang Qiaotian and told him to get slaughtering. “Hurry! Go work.”
But even with the boss ordering him, Zhang Qiaotian didn’t move.
Those pitch-black eyes watched the newcomers carefully. A college kid with clear eyes had already shown up—no need to worry about that one. But the people who arrived after…
Zhang Qiaotian narrowed his eyes. Men and women, they looked like ordinary tourists.
But… weren’t their bodies a little too good?
Balanced muscle, tall frames. And most importantly, the person speaking just now had thick calluses—
right at the tiger’s mouth, between thumb and index finger.
Zhang Qiaotian might have lost one eye, but the other was still fine.
To get good at sculpture, he used to observe people of different professions on the street, watching their muscle movement when they walked and worked.
And these people—no matter how well they acted—couldn’t erase certain traits of being police.
If the police had found this place, it meant he’d already been exposed. He didn’t know how—but that wasn’t important.
What mattered was how he was going to get away from them.
The boss kept urging him to come out and work. Zhang Qiaotian’s sinister eyes rolled. He agreed immediately. “Fine. I’ll go get some tools. Boss, I’ve got a lot of tools—can you help me with them?”
The boss didn’t suspect a thing and strode toward the door. “Tch, you’re always so slow.”
The closest one—Lin Jiangye—instantly realized Zhang Qiaotian was about to do something. As the boss approached the doorway, Lin Jiangye shoved the egret into the boss’s arms, then clamped a hand down on the boss’s head.
“Get down!”
As he crouched together with the boss, Lin Jiangye didn’t forget to kick the wooden door hard—
not only exposing Zhang Qiaotian to Shang Fuyan and the others, but also slamming the door into the suspect’s right hand. The pain made him loosen his grip, and the weapon clattered onto the ground.
Shang Fuyan immediately pulled his pistol from under his clothes, the dark muzzle aimed at Zhang Qiaotian’s chest. “Police! Don’t move!”
Zhang Qiaotian hadn’t expected that clear-eyed “college kid” to set him up. Was he police too? But his muscles didn’t give it away at all!
For a moment, Zhang Qiaotian wondered if even his remaining eye had gone bad.
Naturally, he wasn’t going to surrender. He gave up on using the boss as a hostage and turned to run at once. Even when Shang Fuyan fired a warning shot behind him, it didn’t scare him.
Seeing him run deeper into the building, everyone realized there was likely more than one exit.
“Tourmaline! German Shepherd! Tibetan Mastiff! Go after him!”
The moment the words fell, a powerful black shadow shot toward the back, and above them came the familiar crow call.
The egret couldn’t stand it either. It kicked the boss in the face, spread its wings, and tried to fly after its revenge—only to be grabbed by Lin Jiangye, who caught its thin legs and stuffed it back into the boss’s arms.
“Stay put! Your wing is injured—flying is unstable. You want to rush up there and die?”
His tone was so stern that the egret instinctively shrank its neck and didn’t dare make a sound.
The boss, who’d been forced to crouch, was completely stunned. Then the gunshot startled him. Even after being stomped in the face by the egret, he still hadn’t recovered.
Only when other officers helped him up did he finally realize, belatedly—
Had he… hired a criminal?
“He… I… he…” The boss was so shocked he couldn’t even form a complete sentence.
An officer patted his shoulder sympathetically. Since they didn’t yet have enough evidence, he couldn’t just bluntly tell the boss that his “new worker” was the serial killer.
Oh right—and the killer had even used his chicken farm to kill people and dismember bodies.
Hopefully the boss wouldn’t faint when he found out later.
Zhang Qiaotian ran fast. He’d chosen this chicken farm and the innermost room for a reason—behind it was a small path, and his van was parked right by it.
But what he hadn’t expected was that his pursuers weren’t just police.
There was a raven in the sky, and a German Shepherd on the ground.
Tourmaline was the fastest. Once it drew close, it extended its sharp claws and raked down hard at Zhang Qiaotian’s head.
[Aha! Bad guy! Taste crow claws!]
“Ahhh!” This time, the one screaming wasn’t the egret—it was Zhang Qiaotian. He hadn’t noticed the raven approaching. All he felt was searing pain on his scalp. When he touched it, his hand came away covered in blood.
He looked up in disbelief and saw a huge raven flying above—its claws still stained with his blood.
What the hell—where did this crow come from?!
In the moment he lost focus, the German Shepherd lunged in and bit down on Zhang Qiaotian’s calf. Immediately after, a half-grown tabby sprang onto his face, meowing furiously as it carved several bloody scratches into his skin.
[Bad guy, bad guy, bad guy! Kitty will help egret get revenge on you!]
Zhang Qiaotian had no idea where these cats and dogs and crows came from—or why they were targeting him so relentlessly.
The German Shepherd had bitten his good leg, and that made his already-impaired mobility even worse.
And every time he tried to crawl away, a crow would swoop down from above, clawing at his hands and face, while the German Shepherd growled threateningly.
By the time Lin Jiangye and Shang Fuyan caught up, what they saw was—
a suspect with a face drenched in blood, two little troublemakers hopping and clawing nonstop, and the German Shepherd watching over the situation, only re-subduing the man whenever he tried to fight back.
[Bad guy, bad guy, beat bad guy!] That voice even sounded… cheerful?
Lin Jiangye: “…”
Shang Fuyan: “The babies are amazing!”
Lin Jiangye shot him a look. Who are you calling “babies,” huh?
He waved at his own kids. “Come back. Leave the rest to Shang Fuyan and the others.”
Seeing the blood on the raven’s claws and the tabby’s paws, Lin Jiangye couldn’t hide his disgust. “Next time after you catch a bad guy, you must come to me to wipe your paws, okay? If I’m not around, go find the police. Bad guy blood is filthy and stinky—you can’t let it stink you up.”
When he said that, he made no effort to lower his voice. Hearing it, Zhang Qiaotian twisted and struggled even while pinned to the ground by Shang Fuyan.
“What did you say?!”
Lin Jiangye didn’t even look at him. Ignoring someone like that was the greatest humiliation.
Insecure yet arrogant—actually, nothing at all.
Sure enough, when Lin Jiangye refused to respond, Zhang Qiaotian exploded—especially when he saw Lin Jiangye preparing to leave with a crow, a cat, and a dog.
“Come back here! I’m going to sue you! You’re a police officer—how can you—wuwuwu!” Shang Fuyan pinched his mouth shut and sneered. “I think you should first figure out how to argue your way out of this.”
But arguing was useless now.
With Lin Jiangye’s three kids around, any “wrong” scent could be found immediately.
In the minivan, they found one strand of the victim’s hair and a drop of blood. In Zhang Qiaotian’s room, the German Shepherd dug up a pit in the floor and uncovered the sevoflurane bottles he used to knock people out. And on the stainless-steel long table where bodies had been placed, the tabby found tiny scraps of human skin tucked in the corners, with a bit of flesh still stuck to them.
If it had only been the minivan traces, police might still have struggled to convict him—he could’ve claimed he merely helped transport a body.
But the moment the sevoflurane was found, he had nothing left to say.
The sevoflurane bottles carried his fingerprints. And everyone knew only he lived in that room—who used them was obvious.
Damn it! Why did the police bring a K9? And those scraps—where did they even find them?!
When Lin Jiangye watched his kids pull out the key evidence, pride bloomed on his face.
The officers nearby were very “understanding” and started praising him like crazy.
“Ahhh, Consultant Lin! Your raven/tabby/German Shepherd is just too amazing! Without them, what would we police do?!”
The tone was a bit exaggerated, but it wasn’t wrong.
The German Shepherd could stay calm under the praise. But Tourmaline and the tabby had already lifted their little heads high.
That’s right. This crow/this kitty is the best!
Lin Jiangye’s smile was dazzling now. Even though there was still a stinking bug behind him glaring viciously, it couldn’t ruin his good mood.
“You’re all incredible—mwah mwah mwah!” Lin Jiangye hugged his kids and kissed each head several times, then spread his arms and pulled all three into his embrace.
“This time you did a huge service. What do you want? We’ll go buy it later~” And he couldn’t forget Diamond and Opal either. They hadn’t done the biggest part, but they’d found lots of information yesterday too. They deserved rewards.
The German Shepherd nudged Lin Jiangye with its wet nose and gave a low bark. [No need for me. Buy for them.]
“How could that be okay?” Lin Jiangye hugged the German Shepherd and planted a huge kiss on it—so clingy even the dog looked helpless.
With evidence secured, Shang Fuyan prepared to take everyone back to the station.
He looked at the young man still crouching on the ground, walked behind him, and poked him lightly. “Want to come to the station too? See how we interrogate criminals?”
Lin Jiangye looked up. From Shang Fuyan’s downward angle, the young man’s eyes looked rounder than usual—not as cool and distant as they normally were.
Shang Fuyan’s brows and eyes curved slightly again as he asked once more, “Do you want to come with me and interrogate the suspect?”
“Huh? Me?” Lin Jiangye tilted his head. As a complete outsider, was he really allowed to?
Who would’ve thought—Shang Fuyan’s smile suddenly turned wicked. “I just think that even if Consultant Lin sits there and does absolutely nothing, the suspect will still lose his mind.”
Ohhh—so he wanted to use Lin Jiangye as the fuse to detonate Zhang Qiaotian, the human bomb, huh?
Fine! In that case, Lin Jiangye was very interested!
“It’s just a shame the kids were too capable this time—I barely had any chance to do anything.” Lin Jiangye suddenly remembered the message Shang Fuyan had sent earlier and quickly asked what was going on with Zhang Qiaotian’s gun.
“An old-style rifle. When we investigated Zhang Qiaotian’s hometown, we accidentally found a previous report—someone said an elderly family member’s hidden old rifle had gone missing, along with several bullets.”
At first, they hadn’t connected it to Zhang Qiaotian. But after lining up the timing of the missing gun, the timing of Zhang Qiaotian’s accident, and the timing of his first murder, they began to suspect he’d hidden the rifle for the day he got exposed—so he could take hostages or fight the police.
As for why he didn’t use the rifle to kill but instead chose a knife to bleed people out—naturally, it was so he could torture the victims more effectively.
Besides, an old rifle was loud. It would instantly draw armed police attention.
Before leaving the chicken farm, Lin Jiangye didn’t forget to send the egret back to the rescue station first.
Even though the egret hadn’t personally struck Zhang Qiaotian, seeing that bad human covered in blood made it deeply satisfied.
[Human, you really are an honest, trustworthy good human! Egret admires you!]
Lin Jiangye snorted, poked the egret’s little head, and said irritably, “Oh yeah? Well I don’t admire you. Look at what you’ve done to yourself—your wound is inflamed. Doesn’t it hurt?”
The egret huffed and puffed, still unwilling to admit it was wrong. But when Lin Jiangye reached toward it, the egret instinctively shut its eyes and shrank its neck. [Okay, okay, I get it! Next time egret won’t do it!]
Even if it wanted revenge, it would treat itself first before taking revenge! This human should stop nagging!
It hopped back a step and fluttered into the rescue station.
Lin Jiangye thought the egret would look back and see him off from the road. But when the egret turned its head, it saw Lin Jiangye had gotten out of the car too—so startled its crest feathers practically exploded.
[What are you doing?!] The egret screeched in panic at Lin Jiangye—only for the human to grab its long beak.
“Little mouth, shut it. I’m not here because of you—relax.” With one hand pinching its beak, he went inside with it.
The rescue-station vets still remembered Lin Jiangye. Seeing him bring in another egret, they all crowded over curiously.
Then they saw the egret’s miserable wound.
“Oh my god! Who did this one?! How is it injured this badly?” The vets examined it and found the wound was already infected and pus-filled. Their brows furrowed even tighter.
They asked Lin Jiangye what had happened. Lin Jiangye didn’t spare the egret’s face at all—he told the entire story from start to finish: how it sneaked into the chicken farm to keep warm, accidentally wandered into a murder scene, got injured, and then refused treatment out of spite.
The egret had already wilted, flopped weakly on the exam table.
Human! You’re awful! How can you tell egret’s embarrassing story right in front of egret, QAQ
Egret hates you, QAQ
Meanwhile, the vets listened in stunned disbelief. What on earth had this man and bird been through these past two days?
Chicken-farm battle royale?
After handing the egret over to the vets, Lin Jiangye asked about the baby hedgehog he’d brought in yesterday. “How is it now?”
At that, the vets all sighed. “Good thing you brought it in early. Do you know what we found inside the wound?”
What?
“A small cluster of shattered glass. Someone clearly stuffed it in on purpose—the goal was to keep the wound from healing.” Truly wicked.
The vets grew angrier as they spoke. They’d already been furious when they saw the man-made injury; after finding glass, a bunch of them started crying on the spot.
How much did that hurt—my god!
Thankfully, they’d cleaned everything out. Now all that was left was to wait for the wound to heal slowly.
Just hearing it made Lin Jiangye feel a dull pain in his own abdomen. Following the vets’ gaze, he saw the hedgehog placed in a hamster cage. It looked like it was doing alright.
“It’s going to hibernate soon…”
Lin Jiangye worried whether such a tiny hedgehog could hibernate alone. And with its injury, by the time it healed, the outside temperature would probably be below zero. If it tried to find a burrow then, it might be too late.
The rescue station had thought about it too. They told him not to worry. “Worst case, we’ll just let it spend the winter here!”
The baby hedgehog probably wasn’t even grown yet. It was so small that keeping it at the station wouldn’t be any trouble.
They could buy a fluffy cotton nest, tuck the hedgehog inside, and even if there was no one around at night, it wouldn’t freeze.
Hearing that the rescue station was willing to help the hedgehog overwinter, Lin Jiangye finally felt his heart settle.
Before leaving, he looked around the station. The equipment was old, and the environment wasn’t great.
Even though it was an officially established rescue station, it clearly wasn’t well funded.
“Do you… accept donations?”
The moment he asked, every vet in the station looked up.
Fifteen minutes later, Lin Jiangye was practically escorted out with great ceremony.
After getting into his car, he looked at the line of vets at the entrance, all grinning so hard their teeth showed, and he felt an inexplicable pang of bitterness on their behalf.
Low pay, outdated equipment… What were these people relying on to keep going all this time?
He should come around here more often…
In the car, he looked at the balance in his bank account—still basically unchanged—and slowly fell into thought.
It had been over a month since he returned to this world. He’d been thinking about what he should do with this enormous fortune.
The system’s power really was strong. Even with tens of billions, the bank basically hadn’t suspected anything… other than constantly asking after his well-being every day until it made his scalp tingle.
He rested one hand on the car window. In the back seat, the three little ones were piled together, sleeping deeply, clearly exhausted.
Thinking about how many animals he had now, Lin Jiangye felt he should have his own pet hospital—find a place with a yard, keep the animals waiting for adoption in the yard, and make it easier for adopters to come by anytime.
And then… nothing. After spending so many years in the other world, Lin Jiangye had been worn down until most material desires were gone.
The most expensive thing he’d bought so far was the armored vehicle under him. The next most expensive were the raw diamonds he’d prepared for the crows.
But compared to tens of billions, that was barely a splash.
When he returned to the police bureau and saw Shang Fuyan leaning by the entrance, Lin Jiangye suddenly remembered the “joke” (not really) he’d made before—about wanting to keep a tiger.
Maybe… he should open a zoo.
A private one. The kind only he could visit.
That way, he could pet a tiger whenever he wanted!
