Chapter 4: 4

Chapter 4 – A Treasure

Shen Jiajia helped her mother to the chair, then looked at her father.

Shen Bukuai had a grim face, “After we entered the house, we found that the bedroom had been turned over. Which scoundrel dared to steal before this Granddaddy Shen’s[1] eyes, wait for Lao-zi to catch him, he will definitely peel his[2] skin off!” Saying that, he picked up his saber[3] and walked out. “Take care of your mother, I will find some brothers to help me catch the thief.”

Shen Jiajia asked, “Where is the thief?”

Shen Bukuai paused and was a little embarrassed. “For the time being… it’s not yet known. The locks, doors, and windows of our house have not been broken, so there is no way knowing how the thief got in. Sanniang, you know that I’m only good at catching murderers, and not too good at deducing based on the details. I have to ask the analytical and detail-oriented brothers in the yamen[4] to help.”

Shen Bukuai has a burly stature and superb martial arts skills. The bird Xie Chengfeng stood on the ground and looked at him; he felt that the man was as tall as a hill. Xie Chengfeng ruefully thought: He is a good thug, but unfortunately his brain is not very bright.

Shen Jiajia rested her chin on her hand while thinking, then doubtfully asked, “Why did the thief only turn over your room, but not mine?”

“This……”

Shen Jiajia walked around the room, looked left and right, looked up and down, and murmured, “The doors, windows, and locks are all good, how did this person get in?”

Zhu Erniang interjected, “Could it be that the thief escaped through the walls?”

Shen Jiajia’s eyes lit up. “That’s right! He could escape through the walls!”

Shen Bukuai looked at her daughter worriedly. Sanniang is not crazy, right?

He averted his gaze, then looked downwards toward the bird on the ground spitefully. It was all this crazy bird’s fault. Sanniang had always been fine, but after playing with this crazy bird too much, she became a little crazy.

“This bird cannot be kept,” Shen Bukuai said fiercely.

Xie Chengfeng: ……???

Shen Jiajia didn’t pay attention to her father’s words. She was walking slowly in the room at the moment. She took a step, then stomped her feet on the ground. She walked like this for about five or six steps. As she stomped her feet once more, the produced sound changed.

“This is it, Dad, let’s pry it open and see.” The floor was covered with blue-grey bricks.

Shen Bukuai suddenly understood her intention, and quickly came over and squatted down. Only then did he discover some fine dust scattered on the surface of the grey brick. He pried open the grey brick, and surprisingly a pitch-black tunnel entrance was revealed.

The hole was less than two chi[5] wide, which could accommodate a thin person.

Shen Bukuai touched the soil on the wall of the hole and said, “The soil is still fresh and damp, so the hole is newly dug. I’ll go down and have a look!”

Zhu Erniang hurriedly stopped him. “You are like a cow, you will get stuck when you go down. I’m afraid you will suffocate inside, it would be better if I go down.”

Shen Jiajia shook her head and said, “You both don’t need to go. This hole is most likely already blocked. Even if it is not blocked, we certainly will not find any clues along the way.”

“That’s right, how could that thief leave a way for us to find him.”

Xie Chengfeng watched on the side with keen interest. These two couple are foolish and dumb, but how could they give birth to such a crafty daughter.

“Sanniang, what should we do now?”

“Father, mother, I think I already know the identity of the suspect.”

“Oh?”

“Digging a hole is very labor-intensive, and our family is not a prominent family. Is it worth the strenuous effort for the other party to dig a hole just to steal?”

“It is not worth it.”

“Unless……”

Shen Bukuai clenched his right hand into a fist and hit the palm of his left hand, and said, “Unless this tunnel is very short, so it doesn’t take much manpower to dig!”

Shen Jiajia nodded and said while smiling, “That’s right. Additionally, the hole leads directly to mother and father’s bedroom, the thief didn’t even come to my room at all. This shows that he has a good understanding of our family’s room layout and knows exactly what side your room is. He also knows that my room has nothing of great value. And the third point is, why did the thief dare to steal today? Because he knew that the three of us went out and would not come back until evening. Granduncle’s departure was so sudden, there are not many people who knew our whereabouts. So—”

“So, to sum it up, the thief is one of our neighbors.” Shen Bukuai came to the final conclusion.

After saying this, Shen Bukuai took the saber and went out——he still needs the bros.

This area was densely populated. Even though they knew that the suspect was a neighbor, there were at least ten neighbors who could commit the crime, so further investigation was required for each of them.

Unfortunately, after going through ten houses, Shen Bukuai and the brothers who had investigated for two days could only eliminate half of the list. There were still five suspects remaining and they could not advance. Someone suggested digging along the hole, but after going down, they encountered a boulder blocking the road, so they had to give up.

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On this day, Shen Jiajia went out and bought some small toys home. Small wooden table and chair, and a small swing with size of a palm were all pushed in front of Xie Chengfeng.

Xie Chengfeng looked at the swaying little swing and felt insulted.

But Shen Jiajia had yet to notice, and asked him, “This is for you, do you like it?”

“Get lost!”

“If you like—”

“I. Don’t. Like. It.” Although parrot didn’t have teeth, but Xie Chengfeng’s tone was as if gritting his teeth. “You wait for me, wait for me to get you.”

“—Can you do me a favor?”

Shen Jiajia immediately told him her request, and Xie Chengfeng almost laughed angrily after listening to it. “Shen Jiajia, what do you mean, you are asking me to eavesdrop? I’m a dignified… You’re telling me to eavesdrop, such a gutsy wicked citizen!”

“Please… Do me a favor, okay.” Shen Jiajia put her hands together.

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Her acting meek and subservient made him exceedingly pleased, and then he swung his bird head. “Hehe, now you know to beg me? You didn’t even peel me sunflower seeds before.”

“Peel peel peel, not only will I peel the sunflower seeds, I will even squeeze juice for you. Do you want to drink pear juice or peach juice?”

“Hmph hmph.”

Shen Jiajia walked around to face him, gave him a salute while lowering her head, and bent down. “Please!” Then she lengthened her voice, “An—ces—toorrr—”

Xie Chengfeng was amused by her. He shook his head and helplessly said, “How could a girl be this shameless.”

Shen Jiajia bent down and looked up at him, smiling with her eyebrow curved. “So you agreed?”

“Humph.”　

Shen Jiajia cupped her fist towards him, then rubbed her face to his face happily. “Many thanks!”

For such disrespectful actions, Xie Chengfeng was already too lazy to resist.

Shen Jiajia put Xie Chengfeng in front of the window. “Okay, go.”

Xie Chengfeng stuck his head out and looked around for a while, then turned his body, feeling a little embarrassed. “It seems, I cannot fly.”

Shen Jiajia: “……”

A bird? Can’t fly?

You’ve got to be kidding me!

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Shen Jiajia had never imagined that one day she would be teaching a bird how to fly.

She fluttered her wings—no, her arms—for an hour. Chengfeng was squatting on the table, eating sunflower seeds while watching the play. He refused to flap his wings, and the reason was—

“What do I do if fall down and break.”

Shen Jiajia lay prone on the table, looking at him with a deflated mouth, and said aggrievedly, “Stop playing tricks on me.”

“Then will you still pull a long face at me in the future?”

“No more, no more… But, this little grudge, you still remember it for two days?”

“From the time I was born to the present, you are the only who showed unpleasant face to me. It won’t be too much even if I remember it for a lifetime.”

“Okay, okay, you are right. From now on you will be the master, and I will be the servant.”

Xie Chengfeng also had enough with making things difficult for her, so he put down the sunflower seeds, stood on the table and tried to flap his wings. After a few tries like this, he finally flew up shakily.

He practiced for a day during the daylight, and at night, escorted by Shen Jiajia, he went to eavesdrop a few neighbors from their wall corner.

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That night, Shen Jiajia used the excuse of accidentally hearing where the stolen goods were, and asked Shen Bukuai to take his brothers to search a certain neighbor’s dry well. They found a set of gold head ornament and some silver taels; the amount correctly matched the number reported by Shen Bukuai’s family. The culprit and stolen goods were seized, and the culprit were sent to the authorities on the spot.

That neighbor quickly confessed.

It turned out that his brother-in-law and two nephews visited his house. Both him [the culprit/neighbor] and his wife served a table of food and liquor, and after a few glasses of alcohol, his brother-in-law talked about his past experience of digging graves to rob them. This neighbor listened greedily, but he thought digging graves was a shady thing that will cause his descendants to cease, so he would never do it.
However, on that day, he saw Shen Bukuai’s family of three went out in an ox cart. After inquiring about it, he found out that they were going to the countryside to offer condolences, so it could be assumed that they wouldn’t return in a while. Both Shen Bukuai and his wife had good income—they must had accumulated quite a sum at home. The few people [culprit and co] used alcohol to strengthen their courage and reached a consensus that this matter was achievable. They dug a tunnel to steal and gained quite a lot. Who would have known that Shen Bukuai would investigate the neighbors—including him—so soon, so he didn’t dare to sell the stolen goods and had to hide the it in the well. He intended to handle it when things subsided.

……

After finally recovering her mother’s treasure, Shen Jiajia’s heart finally calmed down.

She shelled a lot of sunflower seeds for Chengfeng, each seed was white and plump. She also squeezed snow pear juice for him, it tasted delicate and sweet. Xie Chengfeng stood on the small swing, eating sunflower seeds on the left, drinking juice on the right, while swinging on the small swing enjoyably.

Shen Jiajia stroked its head with her fingertips. “Good thing we have you this time, you are really my little treasure[6].”

“Can you be any more sappy?”

Shen Jiajia teasingly said, “Dar~ling~”

Thud——

Xie Chengfeng fell down headfirst.

[1] Grandpa Shen: He is referring to himself in third person as a grandpa/granddaddy (respected/powerful/gentleman person).
Lao-zi/Lao Tzu is also saying “I” but in arrogant way; lit. old man. (Like ore-sama, or “I, your daddy/father”).

[2] In Chinese, the word for he (他) can be used as neutral pronoun when we don’t know the gender.

[3] 手刀/刀 (dao) It’s the single edged Chinese sword, so we will call it saber for now. (pic is Andy Lau from House of Flying Daggers)

[4] Yamen = government office, Father Shen’s workplace as a bailiff.

[5] Chi (尺) = about 23 cm, depending on the dynasty/specific time period, it can range from 17 cm ~ 33 cm (1/2 to 1 ft). https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/12555042.html

[6] Little treasure (小宝贝) can also mean little baby, darling, etc. affectionate nickname.

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