Chapter Eight: The Lollipop Thief

“Where is he? Where’s that scoundrel’s stall?”

Qiu Shilu bent over, hands on her knees, panting heavily. She gripped a film camera in her hand. She was an intern reporter at the Great Dong News Agency and lived not far from Erxian Bridge.

After being taken in by Liang Zhi’s ruse, she was furious and determined to expose him, to let everyone know that there was a crooked vendor at Erxian Bridge so that no more citizens would fall for his tricks.

Unfortunately, she’d been a step too slow. “No photos—so it doesn’t count as a good story,” she sighed.

Disappointed, she wandered the streets near Erxian Bridge, hoping to spot Liang Zhi again.

Having just graduated from the School of Journalism at Wangjing Academy, Qiu Shilu had gone straight into the news bureau. Many whispered about her background or outright spread rumors she was involved with some supervisor.

Some might have been crushed by such gossip, but Qiu Shilu resolved to crush it herself. To prove her worth, she was constantly searching for stories of real value.

During her search, a rich, sweet scent wafted to her—an overwhelmingly creamy aroma that made her mouth water just from smelling it.

“New cream lollipops—only twenty left! One coin each! First come, first served!” A long-faced man with a plaster on his cheek was shouting in the middle of the street.

Nearby, a group of children were playing. Not wanting to miss out, Qiu Shilu squeezed through the crowd before the lollipops could be snatched up.

After jostling with the children, she finally managed to grab one. She gave it a tentative lick, and a smile curved her brows into crescents.

The lollipop vendor grinned as well, his teeth gleaming metallically.

Children, a lovely girl, and lollipops—suddenly, the scene on Erxian Bridge was warm and idyllic.

But then, discord intruded.

A man with his face wrapped in cloth appeared as suddenly as a gust of wind.

“Hand it over!”

A little girl with twin ponytails had just bought a lollipop and hadn’t even had time to put it in her mouth before a large hand rudely snatched it away.

Her eyes welled with tears, her nose scrunched in grievance, her lips quivering as she was about to burst into sobs—when suddenly, a giant lollipop was shoved into her hands.

It was as big as her own face. Her mother would never have let her buy such a huge treat.

For a moment, she didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh.

The same thing happened to the other nineteen children around her. The scene was so bewildering that all the onlookers were left stunned.

A crow perched atop a telephone pole let out a harsh croak, as if doubled over in laughter.

This man, of course, was Liang Zhi.

His plan for moral manipulation had been shelved, and so he’d set his eyes on a different path to wealth. He’d targeted the “Bullying the Weak” bequest: as long as he did bad deeds—stealing, robbing, cheating, hitting, even killing—against twenty children, he’d receive a reward of ten thousand coins!

Liang Zhi had rehearsed robbing children countless times in his mind, so his actions were seamless.

But the last lollipop was in Qiu Shilu’s hand.

They locked eyes for a good minute. Liang Zhi simply couldn’t bring himself to snatch the lollipop from her lips, especially remembering the impressive strength she’d shown earlier. He abandoned his target.

Next to Qiu Shilu stood a little boy munching on spicy sticks, laughing so hard at Liang Zhi’s antics that he could barely breathe.

So Liang Zhi snatched his spicy sticks instead, vanishing like the wind.

“Aaah!”

“Aaaahhhh!”

Only after Liang Zhi had run a fair distance did the crowd process what had just happened. Screams and shouts erupted.

Qiu Shilu furiously snapped photos of Liang Zhi’s retreating back, while the adults tried to catch him—but he ducked into an alley and disappeared.

“What is going on today? Two lunatics in one day—Great Dong is truly a land gone astray,” she muttered.

Then she glanced at the massive lollipops in the children’s hands, her expression twisting. She’d seen identical ones at Liang Zhi’s stall.

“So the lollipop thief is that scoundrel, too? How could there be such a person?”

She stomped her feet in frustration. Fresh from the ivory tower, Qiu Shilu had just received a harsh lesson from Liang Zhi.

But she quickly realized this was a great story.

People were always curious about the bizarre, and a madman who snatched children’s lollipops was perfect for the paper.

But when she tried to interview the lollipop vendor, the long-faced man had vanished without a trace.

...

“Damn it, damn it! Who was that lunatic? Why did he steal my goods?”

In a gloomy alley, a man was viciously beating a homeless man.

The beggar pleaded desperately, but the beating only grew more savage.

When the beggar finally lay motionless, the man stopped. He had a plaster on his left cheek—the very same lollipop vendor from before.

“The twenty ‘Heartbinders’ I handed out this time were all on those lollipops. I could have gotten twenty ‘goods,’ but now I’ve got nothing.”

The more he thought about it, the darker his expression became, a sinister smile curling on his lips.

“That lunatic who stole my lollipops—he’ll have to eat them, won’t he? I’ll make him see there’s a price to pay for eating things carelessly.”

“And apparently, some pretty female reporter had one too. Having a woman like that might make up for some of my losses.”

He wiped the beggar’s blood from his knuckles and left the alley.

...

“Ah, that was exhilarating.”

Liang Zhi ran home, flopped onto his bed, and burst out laughing.

It was the first time in his life he’d done something truly bad—his heart was pounding wildly.

He opened his bequest list. The “Bullying the Weak” task was already marked complete.

Master Crow stood on the table, reluctantly extracting ten gleaming golden bills from under his wing, eyeing Liang Zhi with disdain.

“You call that a bad deed? Don’t mock the art of evil, you fool. Even when I’m ‘soaring freely’ in the sky, I’m worse than you!”

Liang Zhi shook his head, grinning. “You can’t say that. The bequest only required me to rob them—it didn’t say what I had to do with what I took.”

“A villain who loses money by doing business? That’s a first. The cost of your giant lollipops is much higher than the small ones, isn’t it?”

Master Crow clutched his chest in distress. Those lollipops could have bought him many roasted bugs, and yet Liang Zhi had given them away so easily.

Liang Zhi smiled mysteriously. “My lollipops aren’t so easy to take.”

Master Crow froze. “Don’t tell me there’s some trick to your giant lollipops?”

Liang Zhi’s expression turned sinister, making Master Crow’s wings shrink.

“Yes. On every giant lollipop, I coated a special substance called H2O. Countless people have died from this substance. Anyone who’s ingested it is doomed to die!”