Chapter 33 Treasure Island (2) Picking up trash on the beach...

Seeing that there were dead ends on both sides, Ah Kun glanced at the furious man and the shards on the ground, and heard the commotion outside the wall. He knew that he couldn't escape this time.

He gritted his teeth, jumped down from the wall, and quickly stuffed the stolen wallet from his pocket into a broken flowerpot in the corner.

He then straightened up and said impatiently to the other person, "I didn't mean to."

"Not on purpose? You think climbing the wall wasn't on purpose?"

Seeing his attitude, Uncle Lin from the ceramics workshop became even angrier: "You damned brat, you've done something wrong and you're still so arrogant, get over here right now!"

Ah Kun was naturally unwilling to go over there. Just as the two were at an impasse, two police officers and the female tourist whose wallet had been stolen also arrived at the scene.

Chi Chi glanced at the people outside the wall, meowed, and pointed out the path into the yard: "The thief has climbed over the wall and gone inside. Go catch him!"

Seeing that the humans were ignoring him and were still searching for their way, he finally jumped down from the wall and led the way for them.

The humans, still somewhat skeptical, circled around to the side of the courtyard and indeed found the entrance, catching Ah Kun, who was just about to escape, completely off guard.

He hesitated for a moment after entering the courtyard, then ran to the side to observe the standoff.

"It was him who stole my wallet," the female tourist said, pointing at Ah Kun.

After the police subdued the teenager, they began a full-body search, but did not find the wallet he had mentioned.

Ah Kun was disdainful in his heart, but on the surface he pretended to be angry at being wrongly accused: "I didn't steal it, why are you framing me?"

Just as the three who arrived were still wondering what was going on, Uncle Lin threw the stick he was holding to the ground and suddenly pointed to the corner of the wall: "I just saw him hide something there."

Ah Kun's heart sank.

The young policeman walked to the corner, rummaged around under the broken flowerpot for a while, and sure enough, pulled out a brown wallet.

Is this it?

The other person nodded quickly: "Yes, that's it."

The young police officer returned the wallet to the tourist: "Check the contents to see if anything is missing."

The other person opened their wallet and counted: "The money is all in there, and none of the documents are missing."

"We have both witnesses and physical evidence. What else do you have to say?" The police officer looked sternly at Ah Kun. Seeing that the boy was trying to break free from his restraints, the officer said, "At your age, you're doing this kind of thing and you still don't know how to repent. Come on, let's go to the police station."

Ah Kun bit his lower lip, turned his face away, and glanced at Uncle Lin, who was pointing out the place where the wallet was hidden to the police. He glared at the man and blamed him for meddling.

After watching the other party being led away by the police with a defiant expression, Chichi said to 1221, "Let's follow their car and go take a look."

Arriving at the police station, I lingered behind the banyan tree at the opposite alley entrance, watching the boy being led inside.

1221: "Come this way."

They went around to the back of the building and found a half-open window.

The boy was sitting in a chair opposite two policemen. The fluorescent light shone on the boy's face, who was wearing a black vest. He stubbornly kept his head down, his fingers occasionally picking at his jeans.

"It's you again, Ah Kun."

Middle-aged policeman Uncle Chen sighed and turned to the new recruit Xiao Li beside him to explain, "I know this kid..."

"His name is Jiang Kun, he is a minor, and he is 16 years old this year."

Upon hearing that the other person was only 16 years old, Chichi whispered to 1221, "I thought he was already an adult, eighteen or nineteen years old. I didn't expect he just looks older than his age."

"Are you being polite?" 1221 changed his tune. "Never mind, there's no need to be polite to this kind of person."

“My father was a miner. He died in a mining accident a few years ago. My mother remarried and moved to another place. The compensation money was used to pay for my grandmother’s medical expenses and nursing home fees,” Old Chen said.

Xiao Li gasped, "So, which guardian does he live with now?"

“He lives in his family’s old bungalow.” Old Chen lowered his voice. “His mother left with half of the compensation money, and his grandmother’s health is getting worse and worse. After he dropped out of school to work, he always liked to hang out with those shady people.”

Ah Kun suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with anger: "Who asked you to be so nosy?"

Old Chen slammed his hand on the table: "Watch your words and actions. I'm just feeling sorry for your dad. He's an honest and upright man. How disappointed he must be to see his son turned out like this!"

Whether my dad is disappointed or not is none of your business!

Ah Kun suddenly jumped up from his chair, clenching his fists, and his suppressed anger erupted.

Seeing this, Xiao Li quickly stepped forward and pressed down on the boy's shoulder: "Sit down! Behave yourself!"

“Ah Kun, do you think you’re making a living like this? What you’re doing is just ridiculous.” Old Chen sighed heavily, his voice weary with disappointment. “Listen to me, you’re still young. Don’t go down a dead end. Go back to school as soon as possible, don’t become a street thug.”

Ah Kun's chest heaved violently as he sat back down, staring intently at the corner of the wall, looking as if he wouldn't listen to anything anyone said.

The cold light shone on that rebellious face, revealing a vulnerability beneath its fierce exterior.

The kitten outside the window saw and heard everything clearly: "What should we do? He doesn't seem to listen to reason at all, and he might do something bad again next time."

“Yes, he needs money,” 1221 said. “These kinds of marginalized teenagers are the easiest to go astray. It’s hard to correct them with just a few words of lecturing and scolding.”

“We have to stop him,” Chi Chi said firmly. “We can’t let him continue like this.”

"What can we do?" 1221 asked worriedly. "Even humans can't persuade him, so it's even harder for a kitten to do so."

The commotion inside the room subsided, and Old Chen shook his head helplessly, beginning to fill out the documents, his tone returning to its usual businesslike calm.

"Considering that you are a minor, your family situation is special, and the stolen goods have been recovered, the victim has decided not to pursue the matter. However, you are still guilty of attempted theft, climbing over walls, and damaging other people's property."

Xiao Li said, "According to regulations, it has been decided to impose 60 hours of community service on you, and you must attend legal and life education courses at the youth counseling center for four consecutive weekends."

Ah Kun wouldn't listen to the penalty clauses, but when he heard "community service" and "educational courses," his face showed annoyance.

Chichi said to 1221, "We need to supervise him and make sure he works hard and goes to class."

It was late at night. When the other person came out of the police station, the kitten followed him from the window.

The man stood under the streetlights for a while, staring blankly at the red lanterns along the road in Jiufen. A night breeze blew by, and he wrapped his arms around his chest to keep warm before turning and walking down another road.

Keeping a safe distance behind him, 1221 said, "He's on the road now, I don't know if he's going home or somewhere else."

"Let's go and take a look."

The boy walked slowly, stopping every now and then to glance at his old phone with a cracked screen, before stopping outside a convenience store.

Chichi quickly hid behind a trash can outside the shop to observe: "Is he going to do something bad again?"

1221: "Just got out of the police station, I don't think I'd want to go back so soon."

Fortunately, the other person just lingered outside the store, patted their pockets, took out a few coins and counted them, but ultimately didn't go in.

As we followed the other person to Minsheng Street, the street scene changed. It was no longer as exquisite as a tourist area; it was more like a place where locals lived. There were no tourists, slippers were placed at the door, and occasionally the sound of pots and pans clattering could be heard from one of the houses.

Ah Kun lowered his head, turned a few corners, and entered an even narrower alley.

The alley is lined with low, single-story houses, and the walls are covered with water stains and traces of moss.

“This place is called Longyun Street, and this community is mainly composed of row houses,” 1221 said.

He watched as the other person finally pushed open a rusty iron gate. The streetlights outside flickered on and off. He took out his key and turned it several times with difficulty before a dull thud was heard.

Seeing the other person step inside, the kitten slammed the door shut and entered the dark room.

He slowly jumped from the abandoned, broken wooden crate onto the wall and looked into the yard.

The courtyard was small, not even a proper courtyard; it was more like a small, cramped space enclosed by walls and houses, with some dusty, dilapidated wooden furniture tucked into a corner.

There was a wire in the corner with a few clothes hanging on it, mostly simple vests and sweatpants.

“He hasn’t eaten anything yet, he must be hungry,” Chi Chi said. “I wonder if he has any food at home.”

"Who cares? Let's wait here and see if he'll obediently go to do community service. He dared to steal, so he deserves to go hungry for a few meals."

Chichi knew she should think this way; she deserved to be punished for doing wrong.

“If it weren’t for his grandmother’s illness and the many expenses, he wouldn’t be living in such a bad situation with the compensation and social welfare he received. So he is still filial and we can’t completely regard him as a bad person.”

The kitten initially thought the other person was just an annoying brat, but seeing all this, it felt its mood sink.

After a while, the other person came out with a slice of toast in his mouth, stuffed the whole slice into his mouth in one bite, and haphazardly pulled down the clothes that were hanging out to dry with his other hand and took them back into the house.

I waited outside for two days.

These past two days, she and 1221 strolled around Longyun Street, keeping an eye on each other. Apart from going to a nearby billiards shop to do errands, Akun spent the rest of the time at home and was quite well-behaved.

The other party was woken up early Saturday morning by community service personnel.

I watched as the other person put on the orange volunteer vest, received a huge black garbage bag and a long pair of tongs, and walked onto the beach with a sour face.

His designated community service location was a beach open to the public outside Keelung Harbor, where he was required to participate in beach cleanup activities—picking up trash left behind by tourists or washed ashore by the tide along the coastline.

Looking at the endless coastline and the plastic bottles and trash scattered everywhere, Ah Kun muttered a curse under his breath, his restlessness stemming from not being fully awake.

"No money to be made, working for free, so annoying..."

Unlike the mountain town of Jiufen, the seaside here is more open, and the color of the seawater here is somewhat different from what I saw in the previous two travel destinations.

The grey-blue seawater rose in the mist, and several huge cargo ships were moored in the distance at the dock.

The cranes have started working, lifting the colorful containers from the ship and placing them steadily on the dock, like stacking building blocks.

The sea breeze was strong in the early morning, blowing Chi Chi's chest hair to one side. She squatted on the breakwater, watching the transparent jellyfish washed ashore by the waves and the little crabs blowing bubbles in the puddles.

The volunteers wearing orange vests were very conspicuous on the beach.

Ah Kun mechanically picked up the trash, looking unwilling and with extremely low work efficiency.

The kitten hopped off the breakwater and silently walked to the other side, leaving a few plum blossom-shaped footprints on the sand. It lowered its head, picked up the small piece of fishing net that the other had ignored, and put it into a trash bag dangling on the sand.

The other person paused, holding the clips, and turned to look at them with a puzzled expression.

Upon seeing the kitten with its distinct colors, half of his irritation subsided, and he frowned, seemingly recalling something.

You look somewhat familiar.

"He still found me even though I've been hiding so well these past two days?" Chi Chi asked in surprise.

“You forgot, the night he stole the wallet and ran away, you were on the same wall as him, and you even helped give the police directions. He probably saw you a long time ago,” 1221 said.

Chichi quickly jumped away, creating distance between herself and the other person: "He won't retaliate against me, will he?"

1221: "Afraid that you'd still help him pick up trash? Let's go back and lie down to look at the sea, the scenery here is really nice."

"There's so much trash here, let's help them pick it up." Chi Chi lowered her head again and rummaged through the scraps of plastic buried in the sand. "Anyway, we're quite experienced at picking up trash on the beach."

The kitten joined the trash-collecting team. She would always see the trash that Ah Kun had ignored. She would pick up some of the trash herself, but not for long. For the trash that she couldn't pick up, she would meow at Ah Kun to make him come back and pick it up.

With her acting as a little "supervisor," the other party had no chance to slack off.

At lunchtime, the beach that Ah Kun was in charge of was surprisingly the cleanest one among everyone.

The other person threw down the clips, went to a convenience store to buy a bento box, found a place away from the crowd on the breakwater, sat down, and buried himself in his food, eating with great gusto, making even the cheapest bento box look delicious.

I got so hungry from looking at it for so long that I couldn't help but lick my lips.

Just as she was about to try her luck at other people's places to see if there was any food, the boy who had been shoveling rice into his mouth stopped eating, glanced at her, and seemed to be struggling with something.

Feeling bewildered by the stares, he was about to walk away from the other person.

The next second, the other person poked open the only braised egg in the bento box and gave her the yolk.