Chapter 5 Hawaii (5) Making friends with the parrots. ...
I stared at the photo for a long time, wondering why the frame was kept locked in a wooden box.
The kitten was still engrossed in studying the unusual aspects of the photograph when a piercing alarm sounded in its mind.
"Warning! Warning—"
“Rich appeared on the street corner and is walking this way. He is expected to arrive at the scene in three minutes.”
A transparent ball of light floated above the yard, and the budgie suddenly remembered something, its attention returning to the open window.
"Thief! Come out here!"
The parrot opened its throat and squawked loudly, its voice carrying a penetrating quality that echoed repeatedly in the quiet yard.
He was in a panic and hurriedly closed the wooden box. If he tried to figure out how to lock it now, Richie would definitely block him in the bedroom, and that would be the end of him.
The footsteps outside the yard grew louder as they approached, like a countdown binding the kitten's fate.
Chichi had no choice but to leave the wooden box lying there while he quickly squeezed out through the crack in the window. He then used his claws to close the wide-open window a little, trying to restore it to its original state.
1221 urged anxiously, "He's about to open the door, hurry up, come out quickly!"
"Thief! Richie, catch the thief!"
"You're dead! You're dead!"
The budgie spread its wings gleefully and squawked excitedly.
While observing the movements of the humans outside, 1221 muttered to the kitten, "It's too late, it's too late, we're definitely going to be discovered."
Caught in a dilemma, if he wanted to jump over the wall and cross over, he would have to go through the yard, and he would be targeted by the other party the moment Richie pushed the door open. But if he didn't jump over the wall, how could he avoid human sight?
The sound of the gate being pushed open came from the courtyard. In the blink of an eye, the kitten leaped from the windowsill to the palm tree, quickly climbed to the middle, and used the tree trunk to conceal itself.
The moment Richie bent down to close the door, he quickly jumped onto the courtyard wall and flipped over.
The whole process took less than twenty seconds. The kitten wasn't caught red-handed by the bad-tempered humans. By the time the kitten was panting heavily under the wall, 1221 was still shaken.
"That was terrifying. Luckily you reacted quickly, otherwise you would have been in grave danger."
After finally catching his breath, he heard the parrot in the yard still squawking loudly, warning humans: "Thief! Thief! Richie!"
As soon as Richie entered the house, he heard the parrot making a racket and was about to tell it to shut up when he heard that there was a thief. He became alert and grabbed a shovel from the yard.
After carefully observing the house and hearing no noise from inside, the human couldn't contain himself and kicked the door open.
The door slammed against the wall with a loud bang, startling the kitten below the wall. The kitten climbed to a higher branch outside the yard and looked at the humans who were aggressively confronting the "thief."
The old man gripped the shovel tightly and roared, "Get out here!"
He lingered on the tree branch, shivering, but no one inside the house responded.
After finding no one around, Richie suspiciously searched the living room, while the budgie was still hopping back and forth on its perch: "There's a thief! There's a thief!"
"Shut up."
Richie whispered a scolding to the parrot as he walked from the outside of the living room all the way to the bedroom. The money and valuables were all securely locked in a safe deep inside the closet, and there was no sign of them being ransacked.
The only unusual thing was that someone had taken the box out of the bedside table and carelessly tossed it outside.
The humans searched inside and out but found no damage other than the bedside table being damaged.
I asked the budgie hopping around outside, "Did someone come in while I was away?"
"Cat, the cat is here."
The old man's shoulders finally relaxed, his face full of annoyance: "Damn wildcat, you incoherent dead parrot, I'll tie you both up and throw you into the sea sooner or later."
He threw the shovel back into the yard and stood there cursing for a while.
His curses included, but were not limited to, cats, parrots, thieves, and any troublesome things that had kept him occupied that day; he even cursed the animal statues in the square.
I listened with trepidation, realizing for the first time that being able to understand human language was torture.
Once the commotion in the yard subsided, Richie went back to investigate why the stray cat had been rummaging through the bedside table. He finally breathed a sigh of relief and exchanged information with 1221.
No suspicious items were found in the living room, and the search in the bedroom was forced to stop after they had just searched the bedside table.
They got nothing but an old photograph and angered Richie.
If we meet again, we'll probably be at each other's throats. With the budgie around, it's probably not safe for me to come back to this house.
The kitten arrived at the old lady's house late and drank some of the water she had left on the porch. It rubbed against the old lady's leg, but she seemed listless and didn't even have the energy to finish the blanket she was weaving. The kitten also seemed listless.
1221 couldn't bear to see the kitten so dejected: "There will be another chance next time."
He shook his head slowly: "I don't think Richie is the kind of person who would steal a ring."
“I saw a photo of him and Mrs. Mailer when they were young on the bedside table in the bedroom. They looked like they had a good relationship.”
"Sometimes, the closer the relationship, the easier it is for acquaintances to commit crimes; otherwise, why would suspects prioritize Richie and Kara?" 1221's rational analysis.
"Really?"
1221 then spoke from the kitten's perspective: "But I believe you. After all, even the system's precise calculations can't compare to an animal's intuition."
After slowly regaining some energy, he jumped onto the table and lay down, listening to Mrs. Mailer's mutterings.
"A ring box, inside was a sapphire ring in a rose setting... Who stole my ring box...?"
He called out softly, trying to get Mrs. Mailer's attention, who was still anxious.
The soft, delicate meows pulled the old lady out of her endless speculation and anxiety, and she finally spared a little attention for the cat.
It slowly rolled over, revealing its belly. Its fluffy, snow-white belly lay exposed to humans without any defenses, like a soft little blanket.
The unconscious rubbing of his clothes stopped, and Mailer looked at the kitten.
Those round, amber eyes held no complex emotions, only pure, quiet companionship.
Reaching out, my fingertips touched the soft fur and I was soothed by a strange sensation. My hands, which had worked hard and gently stroked children, now caressed the kitten's belly.
The low-frequency snoring vibrated in her palm, dispelling the confusion in Mrs. Mailer's eyes like a fog, and gradually relaxing her furrowed brow.
Carla, who had been searching for the ring for Meller, stopped at some point. Standing at the entrance, she saw the old lady's peaceful, downcast gaze and breathed a sigh of relief, without disturbing her.
I had been lying on the table and taking a nap when I was woken up by the aroma of cooking in the kitchen.
After a morning of fussing, it was finally lunchtime for humans.
Mrs. Mailer had already been helped into the restaurant. She stretched lazily and prepared to stroll around the town in search of food.
The nose moved first.
The kitten followed the aroma of seafood and looked over, where a small dish of fish and rice was placed under the veranda.
The plate of fish was placed next to the shallow dish. He asked 1221 with a hint of doubt, "Is this a meal prepared for me?"
1221: "Yes, I saw Kara put the plate on the floor while you were sleeping. It must have been prepared especially for you."
The dish contained the sea fish that Uncle Richie had sent earlier, cut into small pieces and mixed with the soft, sticky rice.
The sweetness of the fish and the fragrance of the rice blend together, making it exceptionally tempting.
The kitten let out a short, delighted meow and happily jumped off the table to the plate.
As I brought the plate closer, the freshness became even more intense. The sea fish that Uncle Richie gave me was indeed very fresh. Chichi's tail stood up like a flag, and he lowered his head to eat it very seriously.
The kitten was eating intently, and the two humans in the restaurant couldn't help but glance down at the corridor.
The small dish of fish and rice was quickly finished. It then carefully groomed itself, licking its paws and washing its face, making sure it was filled with the pleasant scent of being full.
The frustration of failing to achieve anything earlier vanished.
With his mood improved, the kitten regrouped and devised a new strategy with 1221.
"Our next task is to get along well with the parrot. It spends every day with Richie, so it must know a lot of things that we don't."
Besides finding the ring, there were other things she wanted to figure out.
"you're right."
1221 flew around and came back: "I'll look up ways to get along with birds."
It is difficult for any animal to escape the temptation of food, and even Chichi herself was not immune.
The kitten found a moment when Richie was out and returned to the "battlefield." Just as the other was about to yell, it made 1221 appear and play with it. Meanwhile, it found the food bag that Richie usually used to feed the parrots under the eaves.
Chichi chose a large, plump sunflower seed, picked it up, jumped onto the windowsill, and placed it on the small platform where the parrot ate.
With a posture as respectful and humble as possible, head bowed and tail drooping: "Master Parrot, please enjoy."
The budgie cracked open the sunflower seed shells with its curved, pointed beak, swallowed the kernels filled with the aroma of nuts, and then clucked twice triumphantly.
"Bring it here, bring it here."
He hesitated for a moment before jumping down to pick a few more melon seeds for the other person.
The parrot ate until its belly was round and full, until the ground was covered with sunflower seed shells, and then it was too lazy to even chirp anymore.
His beady black eyes were full of satisfaction, and there was no trace of the "fish thief" he had shouted.
"Boss Parrot, I don't want to steal anything, I just want to figure out some things."
The budgie preened its feathers in high spirits, as if to say, "I know everything."
"Really?" Chi Chi exclaimed with delight. "Then do you know where Mrs. Mailer's ring went?"
"this......"
The budgie straightened its head, thought for a moment, and said, "I don't know."
1221: "Has Richie brought home any suspicious items, like a dark blue ring box, or a ring?"
The budgie shook its head: "Never seen one before."
Chichi asked 1221, "It wouldn't lie to us, would it?"
1221: "Who knows? This parrot looks like it has a lot of tricks up its sleeve."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a parrot's beak struck each of the kitten and the light ball on the head, causing them to clutch their heads in pain for a long time.
The budgie proudly stated, "Unless it's instigated or a prank by humans, I generally prefer to tell the truth."
He slowly picked out the last sunflower seed from the feed bag and offered it to Richie: "So do you think Richie is the kind of person who would steal other people's rings? His yard is dilapidated, he must be very poor, right?"
"Rich doesn't do bad things."
After finishing its sunflower seeds, the parrot shook its head and said, "He's not a thief, and he certainly wouldn't steal from next door."
"Oh, right."
Thinking back to that photo, he asked the other person, "Why would Richie lock up a photo of himself and Mrs. Mailer in a box? They've known each other since they were young. Why is he still treating Mrs. Mailer so badly? He doesn't seem like a close old friend at all."
"He has a terrible attitude towards everyone, haha."
The budgie flapped its wings and squawked, "Rich is an idiot, no wonder he has no friends."
"What about Kara? Do you think Kara might steal Mrs. Mailer's things?" 1221 asked impatiently.
“Kara’s face looks like a horse,” said the budgie. “I don’t know anything else.”
One should not make hasty judgments about people one is not familiar with, and even a parrot understands this principle.
Chi Chi exchanged a glance with the system and decided to temporarily exclude Richie from the suspect list.
The area had finally narrowed down a bit. The kitten jumped off the windowsill and said to the parrot, "Thank you, parrot master. We have other things to do. We'll come back to feed you sunflower seeds another day."
"etc."
He was stopped by the parrot and turned around in confusion: "Is there something else?"
"Are you going to look for the ring?"
The kitten nodded.
A sly glint flashed in the budgie's beady eyes as it lifted its ankle, which was tied with a rope.
"Untie the rope, I'll help you find it."
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