"This... They brought it all."
"For the past few days, I’ve been finding things at the door every ti I open it. At first, it was broken glass and scrap tal, and then it turned into gold, diamond rings... When I checked the surveillance, you won’t believe it, it was all thanks to these little guys. These aren’t crows; they’re clearly black Good News Birds!" Zheng Qiuling said, her face alight with a smile.
Lu Yuan was stunned for a mont before it hit him.
Right, crows love to collect shiny things.
With so many Crows under his command, it would be great to send them into the sewers and drainage ditches to look for gold.
What a fantastic way to get rich! Why hadn’t I thought of this before? My 14 points of intelligence were a complete waste.
Lu Yuan felt a mix of regret and elation.
He decided then and there to have his Crows bring valuable items to his mom every now and then.
It would be a way to indirectly improve the family’s financial situation. But they could only scavenge, not steal; Lu Yuan still had that principle.
"...But you’re right," Zheng Qiuling continued. "Having so many crows gathered at the front door every day isn’t ideal. We might not mind, but others could. It might affect business. Should we figure out a way to lead them around back?"
Seeing his mom’s "wanting the best of both worlds" expression, Lu Yuan found it amusing. He casually reached into the drawer, took out the diamond ring, and rolled it between his fingers. With a light rub, it crumbled into a small pile of transparent dust.
"It’s fake, glass. Worthless," Lu Yuan explained to Zheng Qiuling, then asked, "Where’s Dad?"
"He went to the police station."
"The police station? What for?"
Lu Yuan instinctively tensed up, but then Zheng Qiuling said, "It’s good news! Your dad reported sothing last ti, gave the police a lead, and helped them crack a big case. They said the city is going to give him an award!"
Sothing like that happened...? Lu Yuan blinked, sothing clicking in his mind, but he couldn’t be sure.
Lu Yuan chatted with his mom for a bit longer. When a custor ca in to buy cigarettes, he picked up his backpack and headed upstairs. He planned to find so ti later to return the surveillance caras he’d dismantled, hopefully for a partial refund. If not, he’d sell them secondhand.
He probably wouldn’t need them anymore.
Just as he was thinking this, his phone, tucked in his pocket, suddenly rang. It was the sound of an incoming video call. Lu Yuan took out his phone to check. When he saw the caller’s na displayed on the screen, he froze for a mont.
His older sister... Lu Jing?
「Bedroom.」
The blinds were slightly closed. The air conditioner by the bed humd, blowing cool air and bringing waves of refreshing coolness. Lu Yuan sat at his desk, holding his phone in his right hand, his gaze fixed on the screen. Lu Jing’s face appeared on the connected video call.
"Heavens!" Lu Jing, bundled up in a dark green hunting suit, widened her eyes and let out an exaggerated gasp. "Yuan... what happened to you? You’ve gotten so... big! You’ve put on so much weight!"
Lu Yuan snorted, angling his phone up slightly to hide his well-developed chest muscles. "What do you an, ’put on weight’? This is called being well-built!" he retorted irritably. "Never mind , you’re the one who’s changed so much you barely look like yourself!"
Normally, this would have been the start of their usual sibling banter.
But, to Lu Yuan’s surprise, Lu Jing’s expression froze when she heard him. She didn’t say a word, suddenly falling silent.
"What’s wrong, Sis?" Lu Yuan sensed the abrupt change in Lu Jing’s deanor and pressed her.
"It’s nothing." Lu Jing shook her head. Her voice was so soft it was almost drowned out by the sound of wind and sand in the background.
Lu Yuan frowned.
Actually, he’d wanted to say sothing the mont the video call connected, but he’d held back. Compared to their last call, Lu Jing had changed drastically. She looked gaunt and sallow, her hair was dry and yellowish, her face was haggard, and her skin lacked any luster. It was as if she hadn’t slept for days and nights. There was an indescribable anxiety in her eyes; the slightest unexpected sound could make her jump like a startled rabbit. Lu Jing was in a terrible state!
"Lu Jing." Lu Yuan took a shallow breath and said her full na gravely. "What exactly happened? Tell ."
"Really, it’s nothing, Yuan." Lu Jing forced a smile, clearly trying to act normal in front of Lu Yuan. Yet, her eyes kept darting around unconsciously, as if she were wary of sothing.
The phone screen was only palm-sized, so Lu Yuan couldn’t see much of Lu Jing’s surroundings. He could only make out a small part of the background behind her—it looked like a board covered with various photos and so hastily scrawled, indecipherable characters.
As Lu Yuan was observing this, Lu Jing suddenly said, "I’ll be back after a while."
"Huh?!" Lu Yuan started, his gaze snapping back to Lu Jing. "Didn’t you say this project would take a long ti? At least six months, maybe even a year?"
"It ended early. There’s just a little wrap-up work left. The professor leading the project team saw I was a girl and decided to let us co back early..." Lu Jing tried to sound casual, but her eyes kept flickering.
Lu Yuan thought for a mont, then asked, "What about the follow-up to what you ntioned last ti, about the dead people under the temple? I want to know."
"I can’t tell you about that." Lu Jing shook her head. "That’s classified project information. You absolutely mustn’t tell anyone else either."
Lu Yuan frowned but quickly composed himself. He asked calmly, "When exactly will you be back?"
"Next month, probably. I’ll be with a few friends. Just rember to pick up at the airport."
"Okay." Lu Yuan nodded, wanting to ask more.
Suddenly, a loud BANG echoed from the phone’s speaker. The screen instantly went black, as if the phone had been dropped. He could faintly hear what sounded like screams in the distance.
"Lu Jing! Lu Jing! Are you there?!" Lu Yuan gripped his phone, shot up from his chair, his whole body tensing.
Damn it, don’t let this kind of cliché drama happen to !
Agitated, Lu Yuan couldn’t suppress the turmoil of his emotions. He slamd his fist into the wall by his desk. BANG! A small indent appeared, and white paint chips flaked off.
"Yuan!" His grandfather, Lu Yueping’s, concerned voice called from outside the room.
Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered. He reached up, grabbed an ani poster stuck higher on the wall, and with a RIIIP, pulled it down to cover the dent he’d made.
"It’s nothing, Grandpa. The chair just fell over," Lu Yuan replied calmly.
"Oh, okay. Be careful." The footsteps that had approached his bedroom door retreated, gradually fading away.
Lu Yuan took a deep breath and picked up his phone... His eyes instantly relaxed.
Thank goodness.
Lu Jing’s figure reappeared on the screen. She seed to be standing now, leaning against the wooden board behind her. The photos and text on the board were now clearly visible to Lu Yuan.
"N-no, it’s nothing. A pit... a pit suddenly collapsed. It startled everyone. Luckily, no one was hurt..." Lu Jing explained to Lu Yuan, appearing to remain composed. But Lu Yuan saw that she was biting her lips so hard they had turned white.
"Okay, okay, I can’t talk anymore. I have work to do here. I’m hanging up."
Before Lu Yuan could even ask, "Do you want to say hi to Grandpa on video?" Lu Jing had already ended the call.
The air conditioner humd, and an unsettling silence fell over the small room. Lu Yuan stared intently at Lu Jing’s chat avatar on his phone screen for a while, saying nothing.
Suddenly, he put down his phone and sat back down at his desk. He turned on his computer and began searching online rapidly. Occasionally, he would reach for a nearby book and flip through it. Thinking, muttering, taking screenshots, scribbling notes...
「Twenty minutes later.」
Lu Yuan stopped what he was doing. His gaze fell on the open notebook in front of him. On the clean, smooth paper, a strange pictograph was sketched in simple, pure black lines. Beneath this symbol was a line of bizarre, hastily scrawled characters. And under those characters, in Lu Yuan’s neat handwriting, was an interpretation:
"Eternal Cracking Black Soil, He will use fresh blood to cover every pebble of Demon Mountain..."
These symbols and characters... were the secret Lu Yuan had just glimpsed behind Lu Jing.
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