Animal Detective

Early in the morning, Zhao Hongjie arrived at the Municipal Bureau by car.

After turning into the main courtyard and driving a short distance, the driver, Xiaoliu, suddenly slammed on the brakes.

A large, pitch-black bird had flapped its wings and landed on the road in front of them.

A wave of delayed fear washed over Xiaoliu.

He’d heard Zhao Hongjie mention that the Municipal Bureau now had a bird worth seven million, and he certainly couldn’t afford the bill if he hit it.

From a distance, Shen Xin jogged over and picked up the Raven.

After caring for it for two days, the bird had started to warm up to him, so Shen Xin was trying to let it fly freely.

Its affection grew too slowly when it was just cooped up in a cage.

Shen Xin quickly stepped aside and gestured for Zhao Hongjie’s car to pass.

But Zhao Hongjie rolled down his window instead and asked what was happening.

The Raven was about the same size as the Hunting Falcon, so he mistook it for Teddy.

But Teddy was white. This one, however, was black as charcoal.

"Director Zhao, this isn’t the falcon. It’s a Raven."

Shen Xin placed the Raven on his arm.

It was black as ink, quite large, and exceptionally majestic. But then it opened its beak and squawked, "Idiot."

Zhao Hongjie’s expression shifted. Shen Xin, startled, hurried to explain.

He’d been bonding with it for the past two days, and perhaps as a result, it had gotten smarter and its ability to mimic speech had improved.

But Plane had been a bad influence, and the first word it learned was "idiot."

"Using birds for reconnaissance? Like drones?"

When Zhao Hongjie heard Shen Xin say he wanted to try training these ravens to be "police birds" for high-altitude reconnaissance, like drones, his eyes lit up with surprise and interest.

Shen Xin carefully watched Zhao Hongjie’s reaction and said, "Director Zhao, it’s just an idea. I don’t know if it’ll actually work. What do you think?"

Zhao Hongjie snapped out of his thoughts and glanced at the Raven.

He thought it might just be feasible; after all, he had witnessed Shen Xin’s skills firsthand.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but find the idea a bit absurd.

’We have police dogs, even police horses... but police birds?’

’It feels a bit like nonsense.’

After a moment of thought, Zhao Hongjie smiled. "Whether it works or not will depend on your performance."

He decided not to make any assumptions and just wait to see the results.

With that, he gestured for Shen Xin to carry on, then turned, got back in the car, and left.

Once in the car, he muttered the words "police birds" and asked the driver what he thought.

"Police birds?"

Xiaoliu looked incredulous. He chuckled and shook his head, saying he had no idea if it would work.

He added, "I just feel like our Municipal Bureau is turning into a zoo."

Police dogs, birds.

He’d also heard that when Shen Xin went to Ju Province, he had actually brought back a donkey.

Zhao Hongjie glanced at his driver and chuckled. "If it’s a zoo, it’s a zoo. That’s fine by me."

Even if Shen Xin really did turn the Municipal Bureau into a zoo, Zhao Hongjie wouldn’t say a word.

’In his mind, Shen Xin was a future expert in animal forensics.’

On his end, Shen Xin breathed a sigh of relief after the close call. He scolded the Raven briefly, finished feeding all the birds one by one, and then returned to his office.

As he entered, Zhao Tianxing was teaching Plane to talk.

The man and the bird were having a full-blown cussing match. The louder Plane swore, the more excited Zhao Tianxing became.

Shen Xin said irritably, "Can’t you teach it something nice? Like ’Safe travels’ or ’All’s quiet today,’ or something like that."

’It could be our office mascot. Then, when we walk in every morning, it could say, ’All’s quiet today,’ for good luck.’

Seeing it was about time, Shen Xin clapped his hands and called the other three over for a meeting.

It was about Guo Jinhua’s case.

Yesterday, Shen Xin went to Hutang and met Fu Lanting’s family.

Meanwhile, Yang Zeran and his partner had spent the last two days investigating Guo Kaitai’s social connections to look for potential suspects.

They hadn’t found anything.

Guo Kaitai was a fairly honest man.

The rubber factory was a state-owned enterprise, and he was a workshop director, a real veteran there. Logically, if he had been a little bolder, he could have lived a very comfortable life.

But he hadn’t.

Yang Zeran and his partner had interviewed some of the former employees from the rubber factory.

The general consensus on Guo Kaitai was that he was dutiful, honest, and steady. He rarely lost his temper with anyone.

If they had to find someone who held a grudge against him, it would be from 1996, when the rubber factory was being restructured and workers from every workshop were facing layoffs.

When it was time to submit the list of names for layoffs, he put down a worker named Yang Zhuangzhi.

The man had a bad reputation at the factory. He slacked off at work, was always late or leaving early, and was known to be a loafer outside of work.

After being put on the layoff list, he caused a huge scene with Guo Kaitai and even threatened to kill him.

Guo Kaitai ignored him.

But as it turned out, right after Yang Zhuangzhi was laid off, Guo Kaitai himself was let go in the second round.

As for Yang Zhuangzhi’s so-called revenge, it was all just empty threats; he never acted on it.

Other than that, Guo Kaitai’s life was a straight line between home and the factory. He had no other enemies, and his social circle was extremely simple.

In other words, investigating Guo Jinhua’s parents was a dead end.

Shen Xin pulled over a whiteboard. "Alright, let’s review the entire case and everyone involved from the very beginning."

Shen Xin asked Ding Yuwei to write, as she had excellent handwriting.

"On the afternoon of June 28th, Fu Lanting went to the Yunlin Branch for a check-up."

"She reported feeling unwell on June 26th, two days prior. Guo Jinhua said he’d urged her to go to the hospital, but she didn’t think it was serious and put it off until the 28th."

"Around the same time, Guo Jinhua also began experiencing fatigue, dizziness, and nosebleeds."

"Bromadiolone usually takes effect within 24 to 48 hours. This means the suspect likely administered the poison around the 24th. The poisoning symptoms for both of them were not severe."

"It’s possible the suspect didn’t get the dosage right."

Shen Xin recounted the details, flipping through the case file and his notes.

Ding Yuwei diligently took notes.

It took almost an hour to fill the entire whiteboard.

The timeline was now laid out clearly.

All investigations related to that timeline were also written on the board.