The Thief

The Thief

When the bell rang to end Physical Education class, Guo Kunnan, Shan Kaiquan, and the others shot toward the school gate like the wind, as if wild dogs were chasing them.

Sports Committee Member Zhang Chi watched his fellow ball players disappear into the distance, basketball in his arms, intending to return it to the classroom.

Jiang Ning packed up his ping-pong paddle and carried it in his hand.

After leaving the School Field, he headed toward the bicycle parking area.

He had not left his ping-pong paddle in the classroom because, in his previous life, Class 8 often had things stolen. Headphones and Power Banks left in the classroom before holidays would be gone by the time school started again.

Jiang Ning had once lost a ten-thousand-milliamp Power Bank himself.

It was quite irritating. The classmates had cursed the thief one after another, but since the stolen items were not worth much, mostly under a hundred yuan, and no one had lost valuable things like phones, nobody had made a big fuss about finding the culprit.

Everyone simply accepted their bad luck and tried not to leave personal belongings in the classroom afterward.

It was not until after they graduated from high school that the culprit was caught.

The culprit had been Shan Xiao from Jiang Ning's class, a male student with an honest-looking face, a deep, rough voice, and unfashionable clothes. He had even been the Language Arts Class representative.

No one had expected someone like him to be the "No. 4 High School Thief Saint."

He had been caught because Shan Xiao had pulled off something big before graduation.

Interestingly, shortly before graduation, Jiang Ning had chatted with a younger schoolgirl who rented a place near No. 4 High School.

No. 4 High School had been around for many years, and the surrounding buildings were rather old, without elevators.

One time, after Evening Self-Study, the schoolgirl opened her door with her key. After entering, she forgot to remove the key and left the door open while she went to do something else. When she returned to take out the key, she discovered it was gone.

She mentioned it while chatting with Jiang Ning on QQ, saying that maybe she had removed it herself but forgotten where she put it. She planned to keep using her spare key.

Jiang Ning had advised her that someone might really have taken it and told her to change the lock immediately.

As it turned out, Jiang Ning had guessed right.

A few days before graduation, Shan Xiao showed off his skills outside the school and struck hard.

The schoolgirl's missing-key incident had been his doing. He had slipped into residential buildings and pulled keys from doors whenever people were not paying attention.

After the residents went out for work or school, he would come by to pay them a visit.

If they had not changed their locks, he would basically clean out their homes. He had stolen who knew how many phones, pieces of jewelry, and bundles of cash, totaling more than thirty thousand yuan by estimate.

Because the schoolgirl had changed her lock, she escaped disaster.

As for Shan Xiao, after making a huge haul right before graduation, he should have been satisfied. But after tending to the market within the school for so long, he could not bear to give it up.

So, on a rest day, on a dark and windy night, Shan Xiao displayed his master-thief skills. He climbed over the wall into the school and emptied out the desks in the entire teaching building, stealing more than a dozen Power Banks.

Just as he was heading back, Physical Education Teacher Gu Wei, who had gone out for a stroll with nothing better to do, spotted him. Gu Wei often went drinking with the director of No. 4 High School's Security Department, so they had some rapport.

Gu Wei immediately saw that something was wrong with Shan Xiao. Shan Xiao tried to run, but he could not get away. With more than a dozen Power Banks tucked against his chest, how could he possibly run fast? Especially when the person chasing him was a Physical Education Teacher...

He was first taken to No. 4 High School's Security Department, then the police were called, and he was escorted to the police station.

The Security Department director's daughter attended No. 4 High School. Once, his precious daughter had come home complaining that her newly bought Power Bank had been stolen.

When the director saw so many Power Banks on Shan Xiao, old and new grudges flared up at once. Was it not obvious that this brat was a habitual offender? So he told the police about his discovery.

Faced with police interrogation, even an ordinary adult would have struggled to withstand that pressure, let alone Shan Xiao, a high school student about to graduate who had never faced the harsh realities of society.

He did not hold out for long before spilling everything in one breath.

It caused quite a stir. He was sentenced to several years in prison and could no longer attend university.

Jiang Ning remembered that Shan Xiao had only just been released by the time Jiang Ning graduated from university.

Jiang Ning felt no sympathy for someone like that. He only thought Shan Xiao was both wicked and stupid.

All he had to do was leave a mark on the paddle, and even if it were stolen, he could easily retrieve it.

But a ping-pong paddle was not valuable. Even if Shan Xiao admitted to stealing it, there would not be much consequence.

Unless Jiang Ning personally taught him a lesson.

Jiang Ning had considered deliberately leaving a phone in the classroom. Smartphones could be tracked through Positioning, but he was worried Shan Xiao would dismantle it, in which case Positioning would be useless.

He could use his spiritual sense to find the phone, but proving Shan Xiao was the thief would not be easy. Was Jiang Ning supposed to tell the police that he had found the phone with spiritual sense? His cultivation was still insufficient, and he did not want to deal with the authorities yet. There were many shrewd people among them.

The less trouble, the better. He could simply take his paddle home every day. Someone like Shan Xiao, who brought calamity upon himself, would destroy himself sooner or later. Jiang Ning did not intend to interfere too much unless Shan Xiao posed a real threat.

Like Ding Shuyan. A few days ago, Jiang Ning had gone to observe Ding Shuyan again. The girl was behaving herself now and had completely stopped investigating.

When Jiang Ning observed her, Ding Shuyan had also noticed his surveillance. It had to be said that people born with certain intuitive abilities were truly enviable.

That sort of intuitive ability had nothing to do with one's realm. It was simply some vague, mysterious feeling, extremely mystical. With humanity's current technology, there was no way to analyze its principles.

The cultivation world did have research related to such things.

Unless Jiang Ning broke through to the Golden Core realm and used an exceptionally profound concealment technique, he would be unable to evade the other party's Six Senses.

As Jiang Ning reflected on the past, Xue Yuantong gently tugged his arm.

Jiang Ning asked her, "What is it?"

Xue Yuantong patted her pocket and said grandly, "We're not eating at home tonight. Let's go check out Snack Street. My treat!"

She had saved up more than thirty yuan in allowance. Jiang Ning had been taking care of her lately, so she had to properly make it up to her little brother Jiang Ning.

She herself had not eaten out in a long time. This time, she was going to eat her way through all of No. 4 High School's Snack Street! "Sure." Jiang Ning did not refuse. It was Xue Yuantong's first time treating him, and he was rather curious to see it.

In all his past life, no girl had ever invited him to go to Snack Street with her.

During middle school and high school, he had been controlled by Shen Qing'e. In university, he had been addicted to games. It was not until he entered society and reached the age of discussing marriage that he began to consider such things. Usually, when he met up with women, they went to somewhat upscale restaurants, where a single meal started at four or five hundred yuan.

If you invited someone to Snack Street, you would really be laughed at.

Even though those women often went to Snack Street themselves.

Once you entered the marriage market, everything became different. Women might usually ride Electric Bikes themselves, but when it came to discussing marriage, if you did not have a car, their favorable impression of you would instantly plummet, and you might even be ruled out immediately.

Jiang Ning knew that some women truly would not mind. They were willing to live that kind of life with a man and build a future together.

It was just that Jiang Ning had been unlucky. He had never met one.

Xue Yuantong led the way ahead, with Jiang Ning following behind her.

"How about we walk around campus first?" Jiang Ning suggested.

School had just ended, and the main road through campus was packed with students all scrambling to get out.

Xue Yuantong thought it made sense, so she decided to sit in the Small Garden for a while. Her home was not far from school anyway, and it was not even four o'clock yet.

With Jiang Ning around, she could go home whenever she wanted.

Xue Yuantong stood on tiptoe and lightly hopped onto the wooden bridge over the flower bed, her two braided pigtails swaying back and forth.

She stood in the pavilion at the center of the flower bed, leaning against the railing.

Nearby, small groups of students lingered, staring intently at their phones. From time to time, they would relax their brows and shift to another spot.

Based on those signs, Xue Yuantong concluded that they were mooching off the Wi-Fi signal.

In the past, she too would have been unable to resist taking out her phone and using the school's sluggish Wi-Fi to spend an hour downloading a few episodes of a TV drama to watch at home.

But things were different now. There was Wi-Fi next door.