Chapter 139: Outsider
After being anxious for a few days, Zhang Hongtu found that everything was very calm and gradually calmed down.
When Yang Wenjing left the villa, she made a harsh remark, saying that she had connections in the provincial department and asked Zhang Hongtu to wait. However, after waiting for a few days, no police came, no tax department caused trouble, and no urban management made trouble.
Zhang Hongtu was secretly delighted, thinking that Yang Wenjing, a scholar, would not do anything out of line, and was just making a few threats to maintain psychological balance.
On this day, Meng Sha made an appointment with her mahjong partners for morning tea as usual, and then played mahjong after tea.
Zhang Hongtu walked around the park a few times. The little starling kept chattering and saying auspicious words, and he received a lot of praise.
Zhang Hongtu suddenly remembered Xia Mufan who helped him train the bird, so he carried the bird cage to the Bafang Hotel.
The morning tea in the south is very rich, which feels very fresh to Xia Mufan, who is used to eating a bowl of spicy rice noodles every morning in Hunan Province.
Sitting in the Chinese restaurant on the second floor of the Bafang Hotel, Xia Mufan, Sun Xianbing and Yu Jing ordered a pot of throat-soothing monk fruit tea, a bowl of boat porridge, some dim sum, as well as steamed chicken feet, steamed spare ribs, beef rice rolls, and dry-fried beef rice. A large table was filled with a variety of dishes, and they enjoyed the meal very much.
After eating and drinking, Xia Mufan sighed with satisfaction: "Business trips actually have their benefits. I can taste the delicacies from all over the world."
Sun Xianbing said happily: "Following Boss Xia, I can not only make a lot of money, but also eat so many delicious foods, which is great!"
Yu Jing reminded him, "We have been here for four or five days. When will we receive the goods? Boss Xia, just give me a definite answer."
In the code word they agreed upon, making big money means solving big cases and performing great deeds, while purchasing goods means closing the net.
Xia Mufan smiled slightly: "Whenever Boss Zhang comes to see me, we will purchase the goods."
As soon as he finished speaking, Sun Xianbing pointed outside the window and said, "Hey, that one, isn't it Boss Zhang?"
Xia Mufan looked out the floor-to-ceiling glass window and saw Zhang Hongtu's fat figure walking towards him from the direction of the parking lot. She raised her long eyebrows and slowly stood up: "Are you full? If you are, then let's start restocking."
Ready to close the net!
Sun Xianbing and Yu Jing, who had long been unable to contain their excitement, stood up excitedly and quickly left the Chinese restaurant on the second floor.
Xia Mufan slowly walked down the stairs and walked towards the entrance of the hotel lobby.
Zhang Hongtu was just stepping into the lobby when the mynah bird Fa Cai in the birdcage saw Xia Mufan from afar. It jumped up happily and croaked loudly.
[Xia Xia, here I come!] 】
[I have completed the task, can you send me to the Bird's Singing Forest? 】
Noticing the excitement of the little starling in the cage, Zhang Hongtu looked around and saw the tall and bright Xia Mufan. He immediately went forward and laughed: "I was just going to look for you, but I didn't expect to run into you here."
Xia Mufan stopped, stretched out his fingers to tease the starling, and asked calmly: "What do you want me to do?"
Zhang Hongtu said, "Last time you helped me train the little starling to be very obedient. Now he can say those five sentences clearly. I would like to ask you to teach him again so that he can say more words under command."
Xia Mushige said: "I can't teach new ones in a short time, I can only sort out the ones it knows."
Zhang Hongtu waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter. This starling knows a lot of things. There's no need to teach it anything new. As for time, don't worry. I have plenty of time anyway. Just take it away. I'll wait here."
Xia Mufan took the bird cage and took a look at the little starling jumping and chirping in the cage: "The little guy is quite lively."
Zhang Hongtu thought of the three words "Yang Jiawei" that came out of the little starling's mouth, and his heart skipped a beat. He asked Xia Mufan: "Do you have any way to teach him not to talk nonsense?"
Xia Mufan glanced at him and said, "Do you think he is really a human? It's already pretty good for a little starling to be able to say the words you taught him based on your gestures."
The people watching the fun laughed: "An animal is still an animal after all, and can only imitate. Some starlings can curse and make their owners angry to death."
Xia Mufan said: "When a mynah bird learns to talk, it actually doesn't know what it means, but it just listens a lot and slowly learns. If it is not trained well, it will be difficult to control its random speech."
Hearing this, Zhang Hongtu felt a little depressed.
Xia Mufan changed the subject: "But there is a solution..."
Zhang Hongtu's mood suddenly became high: "What method?"
Xia Mushige said: "We can agree on a gesture. Whenever the starling says something you don't want to hear, you make this gesture. Once I have trained it, the starling will shut up as soon as it sees this gesture."
Zhang Hongtu was immediately delighted when he heard this: "That's great! Don't worry, I won't let you suffer any loss if you help me train. When you check out, just mention my name and I'll ask the manager to give you a 50% discount."
Xia Mufan smiled calmly: "Okay, thank you very much." After that, he carried the bird cage and went upstairs.
Zhang Hongtu sat down leisurely on the leather sofa in the hotel lobby, asked the waiter to bring him tea and snacks, hummed a familiar opera tune, and ate while waiting.
Over the years, Bafang Hotel has been like a goose that lays golden eggs, bringing Zhang Hongtu huge income every day. Zhang Hongtu, who no longer has to worry about his livelihood, has learned how to pass the time happily.
Half an hour later, Xia Mufan came down from upstairs carrying a bird cage.
Having witnessed the magic of Xia Muchan's bird training last time, a group of people gathered around. Even the waiters who were busy at work turned their eyes here, paying attention to Xia Muchan's every move.
Zhang Hongtu didn't expect Xia Mufan to come down so soon, and he hurriedly went up to him: "Why don't you train a little longer? How's the training going?"
Xia Mufan said: "The little starling you raised is very smart. It will be taught in a short time."
Zhang Hongtu was most concerned about the gesture that made the little starling shut up, and asked anxiously: "That gesture, please teach me that gesture first."
Xia Mufan asked knowingly: "Which gesture?"
Zhang Hongtu said: "It was the gesture that told him not to talk nonsense."
Xia Mufan said "Oh", put the birdcage on the coffee table, stretched out his index fingers, crossed them together, and made a big letter "X".
Zhang Hongtu thought that this gesture was simple. Although the posture looked a bit strange, it would be great if it could successfully make the little starling shut up and reduce the embarrassment of it suddenly saying "A Yang Jiawei fell from the sky".
After learning the gesture, Zhang Hongtu asked Xia Mufan, "What words did the little starling learn?"
Xia Mushi raised his hand and made a "6" gesture.
The little starling opened its little mouth and began to quack.
"Have you not seen that the water of the Yellow River comes from the sky?"
Zhang Hongtu's face was smiling like a chrysanthemum, and the onlookers were amazed: "Haha, the little starling can recite poetry, how amazing!"
Xia Mushige continued to make a "7" gesture.
The little starling continued to recite in his low, hoarse voice: "Good is rewarded with good, and evil is punished with evil. It's not that there is no retribution, it's just that the time has not come yet."
Zhang Hongtu's face turned ugly. He had never taught this sentence to the starling. Yang Wenjing only said it once when she came to the villa. How did it learn it?
He stretched out his arm, trying to grab the bird cage, and complained unhappily: "Just let him say a few simple auspicious words, why are you teaching him such complicated words?"
Xia Mufan was quick to pick up the bird cage and hold it high to prevent Zhang Hongtu from taking it away.
She was tall and had good hands. She raised the bird cage and Zhang Hongtu took it away. This made Zhuang Hongtu look even uglier. He frowned and said, "This is the starling I raised. Do you want to keep it for yourself?"
Xia Mufan smiled and said, "Boss Zhang, I can't stand being wronged. You said I taught you that? I have to explain. I can't teach you anything new in such a short time. Your starling learned that from you."
Seeing that Zhang Hongtu had just been smiling and begging Xia Muchan to train the bird, but his face turned stern with just one sentence, the people around him also expressed their opinions.
"Yes, it's only been a short while. How could she teach you such a long sentence?"
"Besides, it's true. Why are you so anxious, Boss Zhang?"
"Good deeds will be rewarded, isn't this auspicious? Why are you not happy?"
Zhang Hongtu didn't want to argue anymore and took a deep breath: "Forget it, I don't blame you for anything. I'll take the bird back." At this moment, he no longer had the joy he had just had, and his heart became heavy again.
Amid the buzz of discussion, the little starling suddenly opened its mouth and spoke. Its voice was rough, low, and hoarse, and seemed to have its own reverberation, which instantly suppressed all other sounds.
Its mouth made Zhang Hongtu scared to death.
"Outsiders have money, kill them!"
"When I have money, I will build a big house."
"Yang Jiawei, Yang Jiawei is buried underground."
The starling opened its mouth and said something creepy. Everyone in the hotel gathered around, their eyes darting between the starling and Zhang Hongtu.
The waiter who had heard of the name Yang Jiawei also had a change of expression in his eyes, looking at his boss in disbelief. At the beginning, the police came to Bafang Hotel to investigate the disappearance of this person, but the boss just said he didn't know. He didn't expect to hear these words from Xiao Ba Ge.
People who had never heard of Yang Jiawei's name looked at Zhang Hongtu strangely. This mynah bird was raised by Zhang Hongtu, and every word it said must have been heard from Zhang Hongtu.
It's amazing, this is really a huge melon.
Zhang Hongtu shouted loudly: "Shut up, tell it to shut up! What did you teach it?" While shouting, Zhang Hongtu suddenly remembered the gesture Xia Mufan made just now. He hurriedly stretched out two fingers and made a big cross, looking extremely ridiculous.
But the little starling didn't listen to it at all and kept repeating what it had just said.
The sound was very loud and could be heard from far away, attracting everyone in the lobby.
Xia Mufan narrowed his eyes, and his gaze became sharp. "I can't teach it so many words in half an hour. This should be the little starling that learned it by eavesdropping on you and others chatting. I want to ask you, what do you mean by killing rich outsiders?"
"No!" Zhang Hongtu reached out to grab the birdcage, intending to crush the starling to death after getting the cage, to prevent it from opening its little mouth and telling everyone its privacy.
Xia Mufan saw through Zhang Hongtu's thoughts, and continued to hold the bird cage high, shouting: "Who is Yang Jiawei? Is he a foreigner whom you killed for money and buried his body underground?"
When she said this, everyone was shocked.
Many of the people staying at the Bafang Hotel are outsiders. When they heard what came out of Little Myna's mouth, they couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. Who comes to Huancheng to do business without carrying money? If the Bafang Hotel is really a shady shop that specifically rips off outsiders, then who would dare to stay here in the future?
Thinking of this, shouts came from the crowd, one after another.
"Damn it, Bafang Hotel is a shady place!"
"Check out! Check out! Don't let us stay here anymore."
"Isn't there any knockout drug in their food?"
The locals who knew the inside story also reacted at this time. They looked at Zhang Hongtu with horror in their eyes and talked in low voices.
"Isn't Yang Jiawei the stranger who disappeared in the Bafang Hotel fourteen years ago?"
"Could it be that Zhang Hong was trying to kill him for money?"
"Oh my god, Boss Zhang is making a fortune every day, but it turns out he started out as a shady shop."
Zhang Hongtu felt his whole body was cold and his feet seemed to be nailed down. He tried to stand on tiptoe, trying to get back the little starling that kept calling out Yang Jiawei's name, but Xia Mufan protected it so tightly that he couldn't reach it at all.
Zhang Hongtu felt as if he was covered by a fine net, and he was like a bird with clipped wings, unable to fly out of the net.
Fear made his whole body tremble.
Xia Mufan refused to let him go, and asked loudly: "Did Boss Zhang do something wrong? Why did he change his face when he heard about good being rewarded with good and evil being punished with evil? Why did he tremble with nervousness when he heard Yang Jiawei's name?"
Zhang Hongtu was struck by Xia Mufan's words and almost screamed, "Nonsense! Nonsense! Can you take the words of a starling seriously?"
The onlookers saw his reaction and knew he was clearly guilty, and they were all filled with indignation.
"People can lie, but birds cannot."
"Mynah bird learned to speak, and what he said was what you always said behind your back!"
"Call the police, call the police quickly, don't let this old guy get away!"
Suddenly, there was a sirens outside the hotel, and a shout came from the door: "The police are here."
The crowd dispersed, making way.
Fan Yangping, accompanied by two of his men, dressed in uniform, walked in with a heroic and proud look.
Xia Mufan looked up at Fan Yangping and said, "Police comrade, you are here at the right time. I want to call the police. This person is suspected of murder for money, and his mynah bird is a witness."
The onlookers on the side also echoed.
"Yes! This is the person who specifically bullies outsiders."
"The man he killed was named Yang Jiawei, and his body was buried under the hotel."
"He raised the starling, so it's impossible for him to be framed."
As everyone was talking, the chirping sounds of the little starlings continued.
"Outsiders have money, kill them!"
"When I have money, I will build a big house."
"Yang Jiawei, Yang Jiawei is buried underground."
The rough and hoarse voice of the starling echoed in the lobby, as if a file was rubbing against Zhang Hongtu's ears repeatedly.
Zhang Hongtu's heart, which had been tempered by the years, finally could not withstand the huge pressure within.
His lips were trembling and his whole body seemed to be having the hiccups, but he stubbornly stretched out two fingers and made a big cross.
Fan Yangping walked up to Zhang Hongtu, took out shiny handcuffs and handcuffed his hands, and said seriously: "Zhang Hongtu, you are suspected of a missing person case. Please come with us to the police station for investigation."
Xia Mufan said to Fan Yangping: "Comrade police, this starling is the evidence. It is a bird that Zhang Hongtu has raised for many years. Every word it says is learned from Zhang Hongtu."
The people nearby also started to make a fuss, helping Xia Mufan to speak up: "Yes, we can prove that this bird was raised by Zhang Hongtu, and what it said must have been taught by Zhang Hongtu. Who knows what shameful things Zhang Hongtu did behind the scenes, and this starling heard and learned them all. Police comrades, you've come at the right time, arrest him quickly."
Fan Yangping exchanged glances with Xia Mufan, tried hard to hold back his laughter, and said with a straight face, "Zhang Hongtu, let's go."
Zhang Hongtu was so confused by the little starling at this moment that he didn't know what went wrong.
Suddenly, he seemed to realize something and looked at Xia Mufan.
Xia Mufan put a finger to his lips, making a gesture to keep quiet. Seeing this gesture, the starling immediately shut up and became extremely quiet.
Zhang Hongtu felt a chill in his heart as he realized that he had been deceived by the scheming stranger in front of him.
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