Animal Detective

"What’s the motive?" Ding Yuwei asked immediately.

There always has to be a motive for murder.

Especially when it’s a married couple.

"If their relationship had fallen apart, fine. The husband would have had plenty of time and countless opportunities to slowly poison and murder his wife."

"But these two were different. If their friends and neighbors—outsiders—didn’t know, then both sets of parents would have, right?"

"Especially Guo Jinhua’s parents. They lived together. His parents were very clear that the couple had a great relationship and were very much in love."

"And if you’re going to say his parents were lying, Fu Lanting’s parents said the same thing."

"We just saw them yesterday. What were her parents’ exact words? They said Guo Jinhua was a responsible family man."

"Their own son wasn’t dutiful. Whenever they had backaches or leg pains, it was always Guo Jinhua who took them to the hospital, running around for them without a single complaint. They treated him like their own son."

"When Guo Meijing was still alive, the three of them were a close, happy family. All their friends and neighbors said so."

"Even the customers at their shop said the couple had an especially good relationship and never got angry with each other."

"So tell me, what motive would Guo Jinhua have to murder his wife?"

Ding Yuwei retorted.

From all the statements and interviews, it was clear the two were genuinely in love. No matter what happened, their relationship was strong.

Guo Jinhua was on his second marriage and had a child, but Fu Lanting didn’t mind. She raised Guo Meijing as her own daughter.

When a family tragedy struck and their daughter became seriously ill, the two of them faced it together, hand in hand.

They supported each other, diligently and painstakingly building their little family.

’If even a couple like this could turn on each other... sharing the same bed while your partner meticulously plots to poison you. And to do it for over two whole months, without ever hesitating... If that’s possible, Ding Yuwei felt, my entire view on love might be shaken.’

Zhao Tianxing chimed in, "Yeah, Shen Xin. Are you two sure you’re not on the wrong track?"

"You’re saying if Guo Jinhua wanted to poison Fu Lanting to death, why would he do it over such a long period?"

"And poison himself, too? Plus, after poisoning her, he even took Fu Lanting to see a doctor."

"None of it makes any sense."

The entire murder was far too prolonged.

He even took her to the hospital after the poisoning.

Shen Xin looked at Yang Zeran. ’You explain.’

Yang Zeran’s explanation was simple and blunt: "We don’t know the motive, and we don’t know what kind of mental journey Guo Jinhua went through over these two-plus months."

"But, if Guo Jinhua isn’t the killer, then the case is completely inexplicable."

"So he must be the killer. It can only be him."

At this point, Yang Zeran said, "Shen Xin, do you think Zhang Zhi and the others had the same idea back then?"

Shen Xin said, "Definitely."

’If Yang Zeran and I could think of this, how could old-timers like Zhang Hancheng not have?’

"Let’s go."

Yang Zeran shot to his feet. He had to go ask Zhang Hancheng.

He wanted to know what considerations had led Zhang Hancheng and his team to reach their final conclusion on the case.

By comparing their two lines of thought, they might find something.

Shen Xin immediately followed.

In his office, Zhang Hancheng was discussing departmental cultural and ethical standards with Political Commissar Xu Daokai.

Seeing the two of them barge in, he waved a hand for them to wait.

Once he and Xu Daokai were finished, Zhang Hancheng asked, "What is it? A development in the case?"

Shen Xin nodded. Without beating around the bush, he said directly, "Zhang Zhi, we have a theory. In the Fu Lanting poisoning case, we suspect the killer is Guo Jinhua."

After speaking, Shen Xin silently observed the changes in Zhang Hancheng’s expression.

As expected, there was no surprise or shock.

Zhang Hancheng stood up to refill his cup with hot water, then said, "Sun Zhao discussed this idea with me back then. And as the investigation progressed, I honestly had the same thought myself."

’Just as I thought,’ Shen Xin said to himself.

’There was no way these old-timers wouldn’t have thought of it.’

Zhang Hancheng said, "You must be wondering why we didn’t investigate further if we had already made that assessment."

"How should I put it..."

Zhang Hancheng frowned subconsciously. "That case had a huge public impact at the time. Xiaoyang, you were already with the branch by then, right?"

Yang Zeran had joined in the summer of 2014. When the case broke, he had just finished his probationary period.

"It’s mainly because a similar case involving poisoning at a breakfast stall had happened in Ningshan before."

"A lot of people hear a rumor and run with it. They rushed to the hospital for check-ups, causing a huge panic."

"The city authorities called, demanding that this case be solved."

"Under those circumstances, if we were to conclude that Guo Jinhua was the poisoner, we needed absolutely solid evidence."

"So at the time, I decided to set that theory aside and focus on tracing the source of the rat poison. As long as we could figure that out, the rest wouldn’t have been a problem."

Shen Xin nodded.

’It was a poisoning case, so there was nothing wrong with focusing on the source of the poison.’

’But the investigation came up empty.’

’In that situation, trying to argue that Guo Jinhua must be the poisoner by process of elimination just wouldn’t hold up.’

Zhang Hancheng continued, "Also, we only came up with this idea after the investigation had already been going on for two months with zero results."

At first, the task force investigated on the assumption that an outside party was the poisoner.

Then, just like Shen Xin’s team, after a flurry of investigations that eliminated every other possibility, they started to wonder if their initial direction had been wrong from the start.

Only then did suspicion fall back on Guo Jinhua.

"By that time, the public attention on the case had died down. We tried to compare this new theory with our previous findings, but the resources we could mobilize were limited. You understand?"

Shen Xin understood.

’At the beginning, the case had high visibility. The city authorities were calling, demanding a clear result.’

’So of course a large number of officers were dispatched to investigate.’

’The case file reflected that.’

’The entire criminal investigation division of the Tingyang Branch, dozens of officers, were all thrown at this case.’

’They even pulled in some officers from the public security side.’

’When the investigation moved to a certain district, they would coordinate with the local criminal investigation division to get more people to help with interviews.’

’The total number of officers mobilized by the task force was probably around sixty or seventy people.’

’That was no small number.’

’It went on for two whole months, and in the end, they found nothing.’

’And at that point, a new idea emerged: the suspicion that Guo Jinhua, the victim, was actually the perpetrator.’

’Analyzing it in hindsight, it seems easy to reach that conclusion.’

’But back then?’

’Guo Jinhua was still lying in a hospital bed, without a single shred of evidence pointing to him.’

’From Zhang Hancheng’s perspective, concluding that Guo Jinhua was the killer was based solely on the fact that they hadn’t found any other suspects. There was no one left to suspect.’

’But what if they just hadn’t investigated thoroughly enough? What if there was a hidden motive they didn’t know about, or a special method of poisoning?’

’After all the expense and effort, with so many officers grinding away at the investigation for two months, to suddenly turn around and go back to square one...’

’It might seem like an easy thing to do, but it really wasn’t.’

’To convince your subordinates, you’d need at least some evidence.’

’But Zhang Hancheng didn’t have any evidence like that. It was just a thought.’

’So how could he dare to make such a judgment so lightly?’

’And by that point, after two months of investigation, everyone was exhausted.’

’Tingyang District had new cases every day; police resources couldn’t be tied up on this one case forever.’

’They had to downsize the team.’

Zhang Hancheng said, "I discussed it with Sun Zhao at the time. We decided on a two-pronged approach. I had Chen Chao take a few people and re-examine our previous investigation from the angle that Guo Jinhua was the killer."

"But unfortunately, they found nothing. Honestly, if there had been even a tiny shred of evidence pointing to Guo Jinhua, I would have pushed on."

"But there wasn’t. And so it ultimately became a cold case."

"After you decided to reopen the investigation, I didn’t tell you about this because I didn’t want to interfere with your judgment."

But clearly, both teams had come to the same conclusion.

Zhang Hancheng said, "Since we’re all thinking the same thing, I believe the probability is very high. Guo Jinhua is the killer. There must be a motive we don’t know about."

"Shen Xin, on the motive, you have to put in the work and dig deep. In the eyes of outsiders, their relationship was excellent, very happy, but what went on behind the scenes... outsiders wouldn’t necessarily know."

"Fu Lanting was a woman who was very considerate, stoic, and traditional. These are good qualities, but because of them, she might have acted differently in public versus in private. If there were problems in their relationship, she would have hidden them well."

"I suggest you focus your efforts on their daughter. Guo Meijing died in ’14, and the case happened just a year later. I believe there’s a connection."

Shen Xin nodded, taking note, and asked if Zhang Hancheng had any other instructions.

Zhang Hancheng thought for a moment, then said, "Also, the source of the rat poison. Thinking about it now, I’m sure we must have missed something."

"Especially later on, when we suspected Guo Jinhua and I had Chen Chao and his team investigate. He only had a few people, so the chance of missing something was very high."

"You need to consider one thing: even if we find a motive, to convict Guo Jinhua, we still need to confirm the source of the poison."

At this point, Zhang Hancheng’s expression grew serious as he reminded him, "Shen Xin, this case is almost three years old now. To be honest, even if we confirm the source of the poison, we might not be able to find the conclusive evidence needed to nail Guo Jinhua."

"And there’s another issue. Guo Jinhua’s health is also poor. You have to consider some of the practical realities."

He gave Shen Xin a meaningful look.

Shen Xin thought for a moment, and could roughly guess what Zhang Hancheng was thinking.

’Guo Jinhua already has uremia. He needs dialysis, needs a kidney transplant. The latter is out of the question; given his family’s current financial situation, they don’t have that kind of money.’

’And dialysis is just a slow death.’

’He’s also partially paralyzed with nerve damage. His quality of life is terrible.’

’Under these circumstances, what happens after we prove he’s the killer?’

’Send him to prison?’

’He can’t take care of himself. Even if he were sentenced, he’d just be granted medical parole.’

’So,’ Shen Xin thought, ’if Guo Jinhua really is the killer, then from a practical standpoint, he’s already serving a prison sentence.’

’A sentence worse than death.’

’And he’s going to die in a few years anyway.’

After a moment of thought, Shen Xin said, "Zhang Zhi, the truth is, what many people need is just some closure."

’The outcome might not be that different, but some people need to know the result, to get that closure for themselves.’

’Like Fu Lanting’s mother.’

’Yesterday in Hutang, as we were leaving, she ran out after us and grabbed my hand.’

’She didn’t say anything.’

’But her eyes, her hesitant expression... they said it all.’

’Some people care. They need an answer. We can’t just let this be swept under the rug.’