We continued eating until midnight, and we drank enough to feel a little tipsy.

Being together as a family for the reunion, even if we got drunk, we were still happy.

It was a beautiful Mid-Autumn Festival, and I made a wish to the moon in my heart, wishing that everyone in my family would be healthy and safe, and hoping that Qingqing would come back soon to reunite with us.

The next day, Fatty came to find me to hang out, and we went to look for Xie Qiang.

Just as we arrived at the entrance of Xie's yard, we saw Xie Qiang coming out angrily, carrying a burning stick, looking like he was going to start a fight.

I asked Xie Qiang what he was doing and if he had a conflict with someone.

Xie Qiang, full of anger, said, "Catching a thief!"

Catching a thief?!

Both Fatty and I were confused. What the heck, catching what thief?

Even if there really was a thief, they should come out at night. There were rarely thieves stealing during broad daylight, right?

I asked Xie Qiang in confusion what kind of thief he was trying to catch. Xie Qiang angrily said, "A chicken thief!"

Chicken thief?!

When it came to chicken thieving, the first person that came to my mind was Huang Pizi. He loved to eat chicken and enjoyed stealing them. He often sneaked into the village at night to steal chickens. Stealing chickens alone would have been fine, but some damn yellow weasels not only stole chickens but also killed the ones they couldn't take away. When you opened the chicken coop, there would be a mess of dead chickens, lying all over the place, their blood filling the air. It made Uncle Yu furious.

Moreover, Huang Pizi had a technique for killing chickens. He never bit randomly; he only bit their necks. With one bite, he'd snap the chicken's neck and drink its blood. The chicken would be dead by then.

Someone asked, wouldn't the chickens or the guard dogs in the village make any noise when Huang Pizi stole chickens? Even if the chickens didn't make a sound, wouldn't the dogs bark? How come every time Huang Pizi stole chickens, there was silence in the yard, no reaction at all?

As it turned out, Huang Pizi knew a kind of magic. When he walked to the entrance of the yard, he used his magic to mesmerize the guard dog. Not only would the dog not bark, but it would wag its tail to welcome him.

Huang Pizi was the nemesis of chickens. When the chickens saw Huang Pizi, they immediately became terrified. They wouldn't even dare to run; they would cower on the ground, extending their necks, waiting for Huang Pizi to bite them.

Last night was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the moon was full. Huang Pizi, being a creature that loved to worship the moon and absorb moonlight, should have been very active these days. It wouldn't be surprising if the chickens from Xie Qiang's house were stolen by Huang Pizi.

However, Xie Qiang firmly denied my speculation. He said it wasn't Huang Pizi. He had seen the scene himself, and it was a human!

Fatty gave him a thumbs up. "Brother Qiang, you actually examined the crime scene. You're like a modern Sherlock Holmes!"

"Sherlock Holmes? I'm still using hair gel, not mousse. That's called Sherlock Holmes. Could you please read more books?" Xie Qiang shook his head and led us to the front of the chicken coop in the backyard to observe the "crime scene."

Inside the chicken coop, several chickens were huddled together, leaning as close to each other as possible, looking very frightened, as if they had been greatly startled.

I asked Xie Qiang how many chickens were missing, and he said not many, just one big red rooster.

The big red rooster was a breeding chicken, and that was what Xie Qiang cared about the most.

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Then Xie Qiang pointed to the ground and asked us to look at the footprints. They were indeed human footprints, but the thief was obviously an ** since there were clear and visible footprints on the ground. The footprints were moist and even had some yellow mud sticking to them. The footprints began from the top of the wall and led to the front of the chicken coop. After stealing the breeding chicken, the thief climbed out through the wall.

Xie Qiang waved his burning stick and angrily said, "Red Flag Village is so small, and there are very few outsiders. I suspect it was someone from our village. If I catch them, I'll stab their assholes!"

Fatty squatted down, looking at the footprints on the ground, suddenly panicked, and asked me, "The weather was so good last night, and it didn't rain. How come these footprints are moist? It feels like they crawled out from a river. Could it be... could it be Kappa?"

I frowned and told Fatty not to talk nonsense. We had already eliminated the Kappa; why would there still be Kappa appearing?

However, the doubt raised by Fatty was valid. It didn't rain last night, so how could the footprints of this thief be moist?

I reached down and pinched a small clump of yellow mud, examined it, and told Fatty, "The mud in the riverbank is black. It doesn't have this kind of yellow mud. This yellow mud must have come from the mountains. The thief should have come out from the mountains!"

Xie Qiang stood beside us, looking at me and Fatty with astonishment. "Damn, you guys are the Sherlock Holmes here!"

I followed the footprints to a corner of the wall, and my gaze slowly moved up from the corner to the top of the wall.

I nudged Fatty with my elbow and asked if he felt that something was off.

Fatty shook his head and took two steps back, asking me strangely, "Why? Is there something special on the wall?"

I rubbed my chin and walked back and forth below the corner of the wall. I always felt that something was a little strange.

Ah, right! I remembered. There were footprints on the wall. How could there be footprints on the wall?

I looked at the surrounding wall. It was at least over two meters tall, but the footprints appeared above our heads.

I tried to lift my foot and compare it. The footprints could only appear on the wall at a height similar to our chins. Judging from the footprints on the wall, the chicken thief... defied gravity and walked on the wall lying down.

I immediately told Fatty and Xie Qiang about this discovery. Both of them stared at me in disbelief and said in unison, "How is that possible?!"

Based on my limited knowledge, I also knew that it was impossible. It was like performing acrobatics or magic tricks. It was truly incredible.

I had seen levitation magic on television before. Magicians could go up and down, left and right, defying gravity and walking on the outer walls of tall buildings.

But I knew that was magic. Magic had its tricks inside, and although it was amazing, it wasn't beyond belief.

Could this chicken thief really be a skilled magician?

Although we couldn't accept this conclusion, the footprints on the wall were clearly there.

Xie Qiang put forward a new speculation. He said that maybe the chicken thief deliberately used his hand to hold his shoe, leaving footprints on the wall like stamps to confuse people.

Although that possibility existed, given the actual situation, it was not very plausible.

A chicken thief who was full and satisfied wouldn't stay behind after stealing chickens; they wouldn't have the leisure to create graffiti art on the wall.

After analyzing everything, we could only come to one conclusion: someone had stolen the breeding chicken from Xie Qiang's house!

Fuck, what a useless conclusion!