Chapter 54: The Little Parrot in the Fire
In the case of arson that killed a child, everyone initially believed it was just an accident. That “accident” happened on the fifth day after Lin Jiangye returned from the zoo.
He hadn’t planned to leave the zoo so quickly, but Jiang Xin texted him: “If you don’t come back soon, the Border Collie’s pups will be born.”
His puppies!!!
The moment he read that, Lin Jiangye couldn’t sit still. He immediately drove home with the three little ones.
Fortunately, the Border Collie didn’t start labor until the day after he arrived.
A group of people stood outside the delivery room, watching through the one-way glass in tense silence. They were afraid anything might go wrong during the birth, so Lin Jiangye hurriedly called a veterinarian from the pet hospital to stand by.
Thankfully, the delivery went smoothly. In no time, the Border Collie gave birth to three healthy puppies.
Just like the puppies Lin Jiangye had seen online, the three pups born to the German Shepherd and the black-and-white Border Collie were all black-and-white patterned. Their ears looked like Border Collies’, their snouts resembled the German Shepherd’s, and their bodies leaned more toward the Border Collie build.
After Lin Jiangye wiped off the amniotic fluid, everyone finally crowded in.
The Maine Coon stared at the puppies—each only about the size of its paw—and curiously reached out a paw to touch.
“Hey, hey, hey—no!” Lin Jiangye pinned down the Maine Coon’s restless paw, then flicked the forehead of the tabby and the Caucasian Shepherd as well—both of whom were also itching to move.
[I didn’t even touch them!] The tabby tilted its head in indignation, only to get tapped again by Lin Jiangye.
The Caucasian Shepherd quietly withdrew its paw, then lifted its head and stared at the Border Collie with bright, eager eyes—trying to remind her of their bond so it could earn permission to touch the pups.
But before the Border Collie could respond, a pitch-black figure stepped in front of the Caucasian Shepherd.
It was the German Shepherd.
A polite refusal, thanks.
The Maine Coon, after getting its paw pressed down, timidly tried to hide behind the “Five-Red Dog,” but it was now larger than a puppy. Hiding behind it didn’t hide anything at all.
Lin Jiangye simply herded them all outside. At that moment, Jiang Xin arrived carrying a postnatal meal, so Lin Jiangye told him to stay inside and feed the Border Collie first, then closed the door.
“The Border Collie just gave birth. She’s weak right now. Nobody is allowed to disturb her, understand? Tabby! Caucasian!” Those two were always the rowdiest. The tortoiseshell cat looked steady at first glance, but once it was in a safe place, it also let loose—its noisy troublemaking was basically a smaller version of a beagle, right on par with the tabby.
[Hmph! I won’t!] The tabby only wanted to touch the pups, not wake the Border Collie.
Lin Jiangye ruffled its head, then shut it up with a firm hand. “Alright. I’m taking the vet back, and I’ll buy some things on the way. Who wants to go out with me?”
The Border Collie wasn’t young. After giving birth, she was depleted, so he needed to buy better ingredients to make recovery meals.
This time the tabby wanted to go out, but Diamond rubbed up first—rare behavior.
In the end, Lin Jiangye went out with the three crows. He first drove the veterinarian back, then went to the market to buy fresh chicken, duck, fish, and pork bones for soup.
But as he passed an old residential complex, Lin Jiangye heard a parrot screaming from the sky above, voice tearing itself apart:
“Fire! Fire!”
[Help! The next door is on fire! Someone save the child—he’s about to suffocate! Is anyone there? People downstairs, stop staring and hurry up and come put out the fire!]
No idea what kind of parrot it was, but it could rattle off that much in one breath.
And it could switch seamlessly between “human speech” and “bird speech,” without stopping for even a second.
Lin Jiangye pulled over and looked up. From above, there didn’t seem to be any smoke. Onlookers, not seeing a problem, frowned and began to leave.
“Whose parrot is this? Why is it shouting a false alarm?”
The parrot’s voice was growing hoarse, and Lin Jiangye finally caught the crucial detail:
[The windows are shut—there’s a child inside who’s going to suffocate! Hurry, someone!]
Lin Jiangye’s expression changed sharply. At first, when he heard the parrot yelling “save the child,” he’d assumed it was just copying internet slang, where “child” can mean “me.” But now it was clearly referring to an actual human child.
A child was trapped in a burning room?
Lin Jiangye called the fire department. Then, judging the situation, he decided to rush up first.
At the same time, Diamond flew up to the parrot’s floor. Seeing it still yelling nonstop, Diamond hurriedly asked:
[Where’s the fire?!]
A small cockatiel froze when it saw the crow, instinctively tucking its head. But thinking of the child, it quickly pointed next door:
[Right next door! The room next door is on fire! The windows are shut, the smoke can’t get out!]
Diamond got the exact location and immediately reported it to Lin Jiangye. As Lin Jiangye ran up the stairs, he began to smell a faint trace of smoke.
Logically, the residents should have smelled it too—so why had nobody noticed?
This was an old building, no higher than six floors, with three apartments per floor—at most eighteen households.
But on the way up, Lin Jiangye realized it was unusually quiet, as if nobody lived there at all.
He reached the fourth floor, found the right door, and pounded hard. “Is anyone inside?”
No answer.
The parrot kept shouting “save the child,” never “save the others,” and there wasn’t a single sound inside. Lin Jiangye suspected there was only a child in that apartment.
His face darkened. He quickly checked the surroundings. Fortunately, in an old complex like this, the door lock was the old-fashioned type.
He stepped back, then drove a powerful kick into the door with all his strength. The first kick split the door half-open, cracking it down the middle.
A second kick, and the whole door collapsed.
The moment the opening appeared, dense smoke surged into the stairwell and quickly drifted outside the building.
Gradually, passersby who’d been listening to the parrot realized thick smoke really was pouring from the building.
“It’s really on fire! Help!”
The crowd panicked. Residents who were at an event nearby came running back after hearing screams.
When they discovered it wasn’t their building, many let out a sigh of relief. But the residents of that building felt their vision go black, like the sky was falling.
Help—our building is on fire!
Some cried and wailed, some called the police again, and some tried to rush inside to grab their valuables, but the smoke had nearly swallowed the whole building, and they didn’t dare.
Just when everyone was at a loss, a white figure suddenly burst out of the smoke.
“Cough—cough—cough! I nearly choked to death!” Lin Jiangye flung off a soaking wet blanket, revealing the child and a budgerigar in his arms.
He hurried into an open area and took several deep gulps of fresh air before he felt a little better.
The crowd hadn’t expected someone to bring a child out alive—along with a bird.
Lin Jiangye felt tight in the chest and his eyes stung. He’d likely stayed in the smoke too long and irritated them.
But he didn’t forget the child. He laid the child on the ground, loosened the clothing, and began rescue breathing and CPR. When he had rushed in, the child had already fainted, and at one point the child’s breathing had stopped.
Fortunately, the rescue was in time. After a short while, the child suddenly coughed hard and woke up.
The onlookers surged forward again. Seeing the child was alive, they all breathed out in relief.
“Quick—did someone call 120?”
“Called! Called!”
“Was the kid smoked unconscious?”
The chattering made Lin Jiangye’s ears buzz. Once everyone crowded in, there was less fresh air. Lin Jiangye clutched his chest and felt like he might vomit.
At that moment, a sharp, piercing cry sounded from above. Three crows dropped down beside Lin Jiangye, cawing furiously at the surrounding people and forcing them to back away.
With the crowd pushed back, fresh air rushed in again. Lin Jiangye let out a rough breath and felt like he could live again.
When he heard someone muttering about the crows, he snapped irritably, “If the crows weren’t here, you would’ve suffocated me.”
He wiped his face, saw the soot on his palm, coughed hard a few times, then said, “I just came out of thick smoke—I need fresh air. And you all swarmed in. I almost got choked again, along with this kid.”
The crowd fell silent for a moment, faces flushing. They hadn’t meant to, but they really had forgotten that someone who’d inhaled smoke needed air.
If the crows hadn’t driven them back, this young man would’ve been in worse shape.
Seeing them quiet down, Lin Jiangye patted the child lightly and asked how he felt. Since waking up, the child looked blank and hollow, and Lin Jiangye worried the lack of oxygen might have harmed his brain.
Lin Jiangye looked around again. Still, no parent had come forward. His brows knitted tightly.
No way—your home is on fire and you still haven’t shown up?
Compared to the child’s family, the budgerigar’s owner arrived first.
He was an elderly man with gray hair. When he learned his home was on fire, he was so frantic he wanted to rush upstairs. Luckily, Lin Jiangye had brought the parrot down too, which stopped the old man from doing something reckless.
“Aiyo, my precious baby… Grandpa thought he’d never see you again.” The old man didn’t even care that his home had burned. He only cared that his beloved bird was safe.
After hearing from the crowd that Lin Jiangye had carried the bird out, he hugged it and came over to thank him.
Lin Jiangye waved it off. He pointed at the child—still unmoving—and asked where the child’s family was.
The moment he asked, a crying shout came from outside the crowd. Someone shoved through, and when he saw the child was still alive, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.
It vanished quickly, but Lin Jiangye caught it.
What was he surprised about—surprised his child was still alive?
Lin Jiangye narrowed his eyes and sized the man up. Just as the man approached, the budgerigar suddenly screamed:
“You set the fire! You set the fire!”
The old man wasn’t paying attention, and the bird slipped from his hands, flew out, and pecked the man hard.
Budgerigars were usually good-natured, just talkative. For it to attack a human so fiercely meant this man had truly offended it.
And the words it screamed—“you set the fire”—did that mean the fire really was started by the man?
The man, stung, instinctively raised a hand to strike the bird. But the moment his arm lifted, something heavy landed on his shoulder, throwing his swing off. His hand cut through the air and missed the budgerigar.
Tourmaline and Diamond had worked together to pin down his movement. They then immediately flew back to Lin Jiangye’s side, staring at the man with sharp vigilance.
Startled that the man would try to hit it, the budgerigar flew back into its owner’s arms, then chirped brightly at Lin Jiangye:
[Thanks, human~ Love you~]
Lin Jiangye fell silent for a beat. He couldn’t help wondering what this budgerigar’s owner usually watched and listened to—where on earth had the bird learned that line?
The budgerigar’s accusation instantly ignited suspicion in the crowd. A parrot’s words weren’t evidence, but suspicion didn’t require evidence.
“I know him. He divorced his wife a year ago and never cared about the kid. Sometimes I saw the child so hungry his stomach was growling.”
“Yeah, I remember too. That kid was pitiful—I even gave him a bun once.”
“Hey… do you think he thought the kid was a burden and then…”
Whispers swirled around the man, making his face look even uglier.
“I didn’t—”
Before he could finish, three vehicles pulled up—two fire engines and an ambulance.
“Who’s injured?”
Lin Jiangye quietly raised his hand. When the medics came over, he pointed at the child. “This kid isn’t right. I suspect he was without air too long, or inhaled too much smoke and got poisoned. His brain may have been affected.”
The medics immediately became alert.
But just as Lin Jiangye handed the child over, a hand suddenly reached out.
“No need. The kid’s awake. I’ll take him.”
Lin Jiangye and the medical staff both froze, staring at the man in disbelief. Yet the man still insisted on taking the child.
Lin Jiangye let out a cold laugh and slapped the man’s hand away. The man hissed in pain and clutched his arm.
Then Lin Jiangye shoved the child into the medics’ arms and pushed them forward. “Treat him first. I already called the police. This man is very likely a suspect in the fire. Don’t mind him.”
The man grew furious, pointing at Lin Jiangye and cursing. “What right do you have to say I set the fire?! Where’s your evidence?! I’m telling you, when the house caught fire I wasn’t even home—how could I set it?!”
Lin Jiangye didn’t bother listening to the nonsense. He showed his special-consultant ID. “I’m a special consultant with the Wen’an District Branch Criminal Investigation Unit. Whether this fire has anything to do with you will be determined by the police investigation.”
He grabbed the man’s arm and smiled darkly. “And don’t think about running. I already called the police. You’ll stay right here and wait for the detectives.”
The man clearly hadn’t expected the rescuer to be connected to the police. Lin Jiangye’s words made his face sink.
Soon, the fire was put out, and the Major Crimes Unit arrived as well.
But what surprised people was that Shang Fuyan had come too.
This case shouldn’t have been serious enough to mobilize him, right?
The moment Shang Fuyan arrived, he rushed straight to Lin Jiangye, gripped his shoulders, and looked him up and down. Only after confirming Lin Jiangye wasn’t burned anywhere did he finally relax.
God only knew—when he heard the words “Lin Jiangye rushed into the fire to save someone,” his heart had nearly stopped.
Lin Jiangye had said on the phone that he was fine, but unless Shang Fuyan saw it with his own eyes, he simply couldn’t feel at ease.
“It’s good you’re alright… I really thought you—” Shang Fuyan paused and swallowed the rest of the sentence.
Once he confirmed Lin Jiangye was safe, it was time to get down to business. “You said on the phone someone set the fire. What do you mean?”
Lin Jiangye turned and beckoned to the budgerigar. The little bird tilted its head in confusion, but obediently landed on his hand.
“When I drove past here, I heard you yelling that next door had all the doors and windows shut, and there was a child inside. Do you know something?”
That question clearly shocked the parrot—because it had said those words in its own language. How did this human know?
Tourmaline landed on Lin Jiangye’s shoulder and cawed softly:
[Don’t worry! Say what you know—Dad can understand everything!]
Crow’s Dad is the greatest human in the whole world!
The budgerigar stared blankly at the raven. After receiving a firm, reassuring look, it finally poured out everything it knew.
[Yesterday, when the child went to school, the child’s dad and another human were at home talking about how to kill the child.]
In the budgerigar’s mind, it had watched that child grow up. The child was kind to it—never screamed at it, never randomly reached out to touch or grab it. Sometimes the child even secretly fed it snacks. Compared to other humans, the child was ten thousand times better.
So when it heard the child’s father say he wanted to kill his own kid, the parrot’s first reaction was that the human must be joking.
Because even in nature, you rarely see parents killing their own young. Who isn’t carefully protecting them?
But the next day, the budgerigar realized human evil could really reach even their own children.
At that point, the budgerigar shuddered hard, trembling as it hid under Tourmaline’s wing.
There had been an event in the neighborhood that day. If you participated, you could get rice, flour, oil, or eggs. So everyone in the complex went out.
The parrot thought the child would go too. But right before leaving, the man coaxed the child into drinking something. The child soon fell asleep.
“He coaxed him to drink something and he fell asleep? Sleeping pills?” Lin Jiangye asked, puzzled. But the bird didn’t understand human things, so it couldn’t describe it clearly.
Shang Fuyan, however, shook his head, rejecting the medication theory. “Even if the child died in the fire, unless the body was burned down to pure bone, the forensic team could still detect drugs in the body. Sleeping pills are prescription drugs—without a prescription, you’d have to buy them through shady channels. Either way, once drugs show up in the test, the police will definitely pay attention.”
When he arrived, he’d heard that man shouting about having an alibi and lots of witnesses…
If the man really did it—and had prepared an alibi in advance—Shang Fuyan felt he wouldn’t be stupid enough to use sleeping pills, which were hard to explain.
“Besides drugs, there are plenty of ways to make someone fall asleep.”
His gaze moved to the charred apartment. If something had been done, a single fire wouldn’t necessarily burn away every piece of evidence.
“The fire started in the living room. The curtains were almost completely burned away. The child was half-conscious, lying at the bedroom doorway.” Lin Jiangye also told Shang Fuyan what he saw when he went inside.
After they spoke, the budgerigar continued:
[After that human left, a long time passed… and then bird saw smoke!]
Only then did the little parrot realize the man wasn’t joking. He really intended to kill his own biological child.
That scared the bird half to death.
After that, things went the way Lin Jiangye had seen: the little parrot screamed itself hoarse, but because the doors and windows were shut, people didn’t notice the fire right away. And since everyone in the building—and even the neighboring building—was out, nobody smelled the faint smoke in the stairwell.
[Bird was scared to death QAQ—bird almost thought bird would die QAQ!]
If the fire had truly spread, not only would the child have been doomed—the parrot next door would have been doomed too.
Lin Jiangye patted the little parrot, then returned it to its owner.
The crowd listened to Lin Jiangye, the parrot, and Shang Fuyan as if their brains had short-circuited. But after the man’s initial shock and guilt, a wave of wild joy surged over him.
“No way, no way—your police department lets a liar like this be a ‘special consultant’? You don’t seriously believe he can understand what that bird is saying, do you?” The man let out a contemptuous snort.
Yet in the face of his mockery, the two of them didn’t panic at all. They exchanged a glance, both wearing meaningful smiles.
“Tsk… that tone sounds kind of familiar.” Lin Jiangye couldn’t help laughing.
Once he laughed, Shang Fuyan laughed too. “Very familiar. Too bad the person involved isn’t here.”
Right, Hong Xingwang? XD
The man didn’t understand—but he didn’t need to. The Major Crimes Unit “invited” him to the side to question him.
Shang Fuyan glanced toward the ambulance that was preparing to leave. He grabbed Lin Jiangye’s arm, wanting to send him to the hospital for a checkup first—but to his surprise, he couldn’t pull Lin Jiangye along.
“Don’t rush that yet. Let’s go upstairs and check the scene.” Lin Jiangye felt much better now. The hospital could wait. He wanted to go back in and investigate properly.
He was truly curious—what kind of reason could make a father kill his own son?
Shang Fuyan looked at him helplessly. Lin Jiangye could be stubborn as hell sometimes.
Fine. He’d go with him first.
After putting on masks, they re-entered the fire scene. A perfectly good two-bedroom apartment had been smoked black, completely unlivable now.
The fire captain in charge of clearing the site quickly noticed something abnormal. “There’s a problem here.”
They followed where he pointed and saw a black, smeared shadow on the living-room floor—like something had been placed there when the fire started.
“Something was definitely placed here. More precisely, the fire should’ve started here first, then spread to the curtains and the sofa, and only then engulfed the whole apartment. The issue is this: the flames here didn’t spread very quickly, so at first the smoke wasn’t thick. Only after the fire reached the curtains did it start growing.”
The captain had plenty of experience fighting fires—and just as much experience tracing fire origins.
The moment he saw that black mark on the floor, he knew something was off.
“So you mean…” Shang Fuyan asked slowly, “someone set up something here to delay the fire?”
The captain rubbed his chin. “I wouldn’t call it ‘delaying the fire.’ It’s more like controlling the fire—slowing down how fast it reached other places.”
In Shang Fuyan’s mind, that was basically the same thing.
If the outbreak was intentionally delayed, it meant the person who lit the fire had ample time to establish a solid alibi by the time the blaze really took off.
Perfect. Wasn’t that exactly what the suspect downstairs had been shouting about?
“Oh right—there was also a liquor bottle here.” The captain handed over a bottle that had been blackened by smoke and fire.
The instant they saw it, the two men exchanged a look and remembered what the little parrot had said.
[The man coaxed the child into drinking something and the child passed out…] Alcohol could make someone pass out too.
