Animal Detective

"Come on. Let’s just go clear our heads."

Shen Xin practically dragged Yang Zeran away.

They found a barbecue stall next to the precinct. The night breeze did clear their heads a bit.

But it wasn’t enough. They ate in silence, with no sparks of inspiration.

"Lao Yang, you go first," Shen Xin said, looking at Yang Zeran.

Yang Zeran waved his hand dismissively. "Stop with the ’Lao Yang.’ I’m not old."

Shen Xin immediately changed his tune. "Alright then, Comrade Xiaoyang, why don’t you go first?"

That was even more awkward.

Yang Zeran shot Shen Xin a look, took a vicious bite of his lamb skewer, and said dejectedly, "What ideas could I have? This case is two years old, there’s no surveillance footage, so how are we supposed to secure evidence?"

At this point, Yang Zeran couldn’t help but sigh. "Honestly, Shen Xin, you tricked me. This cold case is way harder than I imagined."

He had expected a cold case to be difficult, but this was beyond his expectations.

Shen Xin said in surprise, "Yang Zeran, and here I thought you were a top student from the Public Security University. Are you giving up already? Besides, you can’t solve a case without surveillance footage?"

Yang Zeran shook his head. "Don’t say that. I’m no top student."

He muttered a complaint, then put down his skewer. "Shen Xin, think about it. A confession alone can’t lead to a conviction. You need evidence."

"But he never went to the scene, he never had contact with the deceased, he has a solid alibi, and the murder weapon was a dolphin. Now, even the dolphin is dead."

"Even if we approach it from the angle of exclusion, we still need some evidence. The mere suspicion that Lin Zenghui was blackmailing Li Fusen isn’t enough."

The so-called principle of exclusion means that the evidence doesn’t have to be one hundred percent conclusive.

A one-hundred-percent conclusive chain of evidence would be finding the suspect’s fingerprints on the murder weapon, or having surveillance footage of the suspect committing the murder.

However, in some extreme cases, a conviction is still possible even with an incomplete chain of evidence.

For example, if the crime scene was a closed environment, and it can be proven that only the victim and the suspect entered.

And then the victim turns up dead.

But there’s no direct evidence, like fingerprints on the weapon, proving the suspect was the killer.

Yet, there is evidence to prove the victim was murdered and didn’t commit suicide.

In that case, even if the suspect denies it and says, ’It wasn’t me,’ they can still be convicted based on the principle of exclusion.

No one else was at the scene, and it was a homicide, so it could only have been you.

Even without direct physical evidence.

In other words, after eliminating all possibilities of innocence, the only reasonable explanation left is that the suspect is the killer.

Applying this analogy to Lin Zenghui’s case...

Even without surveillance footage at the scene to prove if the dolphin was the killer, the dolphin bite marks on Lin Zenghui’s arm could lead to a single, reasonable explanation.

Then, with evidence proving that Li Fusen trained Hua Zi, he could be proven to be the mastermind.

Shen Xin said, "That’s why we have to think. If cases were that easy to solve, what would they need us for?"

Yang Zeran grumbled, "Well, I can’t think of anything."

’Is he about to throw in the towel?’

Shen Xin’s eyes widened, but just as he was about to say more, Ding Yuwei, who was sitting beside them, pulled him back.

"Alright, you two. Can’t even eating shut you up?" Ding Yuwei chided.

Zhao Tianxing mumbled his agreement.

Ding Yuwei immediately shot him a glare.

Zhao Tianxing flinched. "Hey, don’t look at me. I’ve got no ideas. I’m the legs of the operation; the thinking is up to those two."

Seeing that Shen Xin and Yang Zeran still had long faces, Ding Yuwei thought for a moment and suddenly said, "Right, didn’t we want to clear our heads? Let’s go somewhere."

With that, she told Zhao Tianxing to get the car while she went to pay the bill.

When the car pulled up, the four of them got in. Shen Xin asked Ding Yuwei where they were going.

Ding Yuwei, who was driving, said they’d know when they got there.

Before long, seeing the route they were taking, Shen Xin guessed their destination. "Yuwei," he said, surprised, "are you taking us to the natural history museum?"

Ding Yuwei nodded. "We’ve looked at all the case files and physical evidence, but there’s another victim in this case: Hua Zi."

Yang Zeran was taken aback. "A victim?"

Ding Yuwei glanced in the rearview mirror and asked rhetorically, "Isn’t she?"

"She was used by Li Fusen, trained into a living weapon, and after the incident, Li Fusen deliberately distanced himself from her."

"Li Fusen is a professional Tamer. It’s impossible he didn’t know that dolphins can commit suicide. So, in my opinion, what Li Fusen did was intentional."

"Then, out of despair, Hua Zi chose to commit suicide. Doesn’t that make her a victim?"

Yang Zeran’s eyebrows knitted together as he nodded slightly.

From the passenger seat, Zhao Tianxing said in surprise, "You’re right. If you put it that way, this Li Fusen guy is pretty ruthless."

Yang Zeran said, "The problem is, Hua Zi has already been turned into a taxidermy specimen. There can’t be any evidence left, right?"

"I know."

Ding Yuwei nodded. ’She’s been soaked through with formalin; it’d be a miracle if anything was left.’

She continued, "I’ve actually wanted to go see Hua Zi for a while now. It’s like Shen Xin said: when Li Fusen stands in front of Hua Zi’s specimen, what is he thinking?"

"Yang Zeran, you’re always talking about studying a suspect’s psychology. So, this behavior from Li Fusen—tell me, what kind of psychological state does that show? Isn’t that worth looking into?"

Yang Zeran opened his mouth but was left speechless.

A short time later, the car arrived at the natural history museum.

It was long past closing time, but a security guard was on duty. After identifying themselves, the four of them quickly found Hua Zi.

She was in the marine exhibit.

In the diorama, she was placed alongside a beluga whale and other animals, suspended in the air in a pose of leaping from the water.

The taxidermy was incredibly lifelike. Her eyes, in particular—perhaps due to the overhead lighting—seemed especially vibrant.

Standing before the specimen, Shen Xin was suddenly enveloped by a complex emotion.

It was as if he weren’t looking at a simple biological specimen, but a... corpse!

Having interacted with Yuexiao, Shen Xin had seen firsthand how intelligent dolphins could be.

They truly possess self-awareness, like living souls.

Shen Xin couldn’t help but wonder if Li Fusen had ever truly loved Hua Zi.

And what must have been going through his mind when he chose to distance himself from her.

After Hua Zi died, he came here time and time again.

He might have stood in this very spot, looking up at Hua Zi just as Shen Xin was now. What was he thinking then?

Annoyance? Regret?

Inside the lonely marine exhibit of the museum, the four of them stood in silence for an unknown length of time.

Suddenly, Yang Zeran said, "Shen Xin, I remember when I was in university, there was a visiting professor who was also a criminal investigation expert from the Ministry."

"One time, he told us something. He said that solving a case is like being in a relationship with the suspect."

"You meet because of the case. At first, you know nothing about them. Then you do everything you can to understand them. By the time you completely understand them, the case is basically solved."

"He also said that just understanding the suspect isn’t enough."

"You have to get to know their entire extended family—that is, the body, the witnesses, all the physical evidence. It’s through them that you learn the truth about the suspect."

"Only then can you determine if you and the suspect are a match, if you can truly ’be together.’"

Shen Xin, Ding Yuwei, and Zhao Tianxing turned to look at Yang Zeran.

Zhao Tianxing asked, "So?"

Yang Zeran looked up at Hua Zi’s specimen and said, "So, I think Li Fusen is a cold-blooded, selfish, and well-hidden deviant."

"He never truly loved Hua Zi. When he stands here, he’s not mourning her. He’s reliving the feelings he got from that twisted relationship—the feelings he craved."

Zhao Tianxing furrowed his brow, still not understanding. "So?"

’What’s the use of knowing Li Fusen is a deviant? We have to find evidence to convict him.’

Yang Zeran shrugged, indicating there was no "so."

At that moment, however, Shen Xin was struck by a flash of inspiration.

"Tell me," Shen Xin asked, crossing his arms, "would you consider this Lin Zenghui a bad guy?"

Yang Zeran had said it: solving a case is like being in a relationship with the suspect, and to understand the suspect, you have to understand their whole extended family.

They’d hit a dead end with Li Fusen, so what about the others involved?

Like Lin Zenghui, for example.

He was the one who provoked Li Fusen’s killing intent and then blackmailed him afterward.

With all that, you’d have to consider him a bad guy, right?

Ding Yuwei and Zhao Tianxing were a beat behind, not yet following Shen Xin’s train of thought, but Yang Zeran was right there with him. He sucked in a sharp breath. "Shen Xin, are you suggesting that Lin Zenghui might have been holding on to some evidence?"

Shen Xin nodded.

A bad guy’s misdeeds probably aren’t limited to just blackmail.