Animal Detective

Meilin Home, a resettlement community about four kilometers from the Oceanarium.

Unit 28, Apartment 702.

"This is the place."

Ye Xinyi’s father, Ye Guangquan, used his key to open the door.

Once inside, he stepped aside and looked around the apartment. "I originally wanted to sell this place," he said, "but as soon as people heard something bad had happened here, they were too scared to buy it."

"I thought about renting it out, but then I figured, with everyone gone, what do I need the money for?"

"So I kept it. This way, I can still come by and visit. When I sit here, I can at least feel like she and her son are still around."

Ye Guangquan sniffled, telling Shen Xin and the others to look around freely, that everything was still here and hadn’t been touched.

Shen Xin thanked him and then gestured for the other three to get to work.

The Lishan Branch had been here before and had searched the place.

After the case was reopened, Ding Yuwei and her partner had also come to look.

Logically, nothing should have been missed.

But a new perspective could potentially uncover new clues.

That was Shen Xin’s line of thinking.

Lin Zenghui was a womanizer who had tried to rape Hou Shishi. He was a real piece of work.

He had dared to blackmail Li Fusen and made him comply meekly. Could it be that he was holding something over him?

And whatever it was, it was something Li Fusen cared about so much that he was willing to murder Lin Zenghui to protect it.

This was just a theory. Shen Xin wasn’t sure what it could be, or if it even existed, but it was a direction worth pursuing.

Wearing gloves, Shen Xin scanned the entire apartment.

Just as Ye Guangquan had said, it had been kept in its original state, barely touched.

Even the photos on the wall to his right had been put back in place after the initial search.

Shen Xin walked over and examined all the photos.

He saw a childhood picture of Lin Zenghui.

"This must be Lin Zenghui’s father, Lin Weidong," Shen Xin said, pointing to a man in one of the photos.

Ye Guangquan glanced over and nodded in confirmation.

After a moment’s hesitation, Ye Guangquan said, "Officer, do you really have to keep investigating this case? It’s already come to this. Is there any point?"

Shen Xin was taken aback for a second, then nodded.

Of course there was a point.

To uncover the truth, to let the dead rest in peace, and to ensure the criminals received the punishment they deserved—that was the point.

Ye Guangquan remained noncommittal. He reached out and picked up a photo of Ye Xinyi and her son. His voice was bitter and desolate as he said, "What does it matter if we know? And what would change if we don’t?"

"My grandson is dead. My daughter’s execution is imminent. That other girl died, and her whole family is ruined."

"And Zenghui’s father... The girl’s parents kept harassing him until he lost his job. He got divorced last year. The last time I saw him, he was too embarrassed to even speak to me."

"She was our only daughter. My wife cries every day, saying she wants to go and be with her."

"If she dies, what’s the point of me living?"

Ye Guangquan’s hand caressed the photo frame as he spoke the most despairing words in the calmest of tones.

Shen Xin fell silent, a heavy, suffocating feeling settling in his chest.

It was just as Ye Guangquan said. From Lin Zenghui to Ye Xinyi, this case had led to three deaths and ruined three entire families.

And that wasn’t even counting Li Fusen, or Hua Zi.

"Sir, try not to take it so hard," Shen Xin offered weakly.

It was useless.

Ye Guangquan shakily sat down on the sofa, staring blankly at the photo of his daughter and grandson.

Shen Xin sighed softly and turned to enter Lin Zenghui’s room.

It was a two-bedroom apartment, and the second bedroom wasn’t large.

Shen Xin sat down in the gaming chair and looked around, forming a mental image of Lin Zenghui.

Yang Zeran sat on the edge of the bed and asked Shen Xin what he was thinking.

"What are you thinking?" Shen Xin countered.

Yang Zeran said, "He seems like a pretty average guy, but with a lot of... energy."

Shen Xin nodded in agreement and reached out to touch the mousepad on the computer desk.

It was one of those 3D silicone types, marketed as a wrist rest, but that was just a risqué pretense.

Lin Zenghui had even bought the large size.

But as Shen Xin felt it, he thought, ’The texture is way off.’

Seeing Shen Xin’s action, Yang Zeran casually pressed the computer’s power button.

Unsurprisingly, there was no response.

After being left idle for two years, the motherboard battery was long dead.

Besides, it had been taken and examined during the original investigation, and nothing had been found.

Yang Zeran stood up and picked up an anime figure from a nearby display shelf. It was the same deal—a risqué, scantily-clad female character.

He fiddled with it and asked, "If it were you, what would you have kept? Photos? Videos?"

Shen Xin leaned back in the chair, nodding in agreement. "I’m leaning toward video. Look, he flew a drone and had a sports camera."

On the display cabinet were camera lenses and a drone.

When taking girls out, he would inevitably take pictures.

Yang Zeran picked up a sports camera from a pile of electronics, examined it, and said, "He had the guts to try and rape Hou Shishi. You think he might have secretly filmed things when he was... with someone?"

Shen Xin sat up straight. "That’s a possibility. He could’ve filmed it to relive the moment."

Yang Zeran scanned the room. "So where would he hide it?"

"Probably not on the computer itself. An external hard drive? A USB drive? They probably searched for those back then. There’s no record of it in the case file, so they likely found nothing."

"If it were me, I wouldn’t copy such private things onto a USB drive either."

As he spoke, his gaze returned to the computer.

He squatted down, studying the computer tower. "Back then, when Captain Gao and his team were investigating, they were looking at it as a drowning and the rape of Hou Shishi. They didn’t know about Li Fusen, so their line of inquiry was different."

Shen Xin nodded.

The initial premise was different. Back then, they investigated with Hou Shishi as the suspect, and Li Fusen wasn’t on their radar at all.

So when they checked the computer, they would have only looked for things related to Hou Shishi.

Certain information might have been overlooked.

"He wouldn’t have stored it directly on the computer, would he?" Shen Xin said.

’That’s so insecure.’

Yang Zeran nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly asked, "Right, you think he watched porn?"

Shen Xin paused, then smiled. Leaning against the desk, he retorted, "Do you?"

Yang Zeran decisively shook his head, but his eyes darted away as he asked if Shen Xin did.

"I have," Shen Xin admitted openly.

’Who didn’t have a few "teachers" during puberty?’

Under Shen Xin’s gaze, Yang Zeran’s expression became flustered.

Shen Xin chuckled inwardly and pressed, "So, for watching porn, how do you hide the files?"

Just hiding the folder is too amateur.

Creating a bunch of unrelated folders is just overly complicated.

An idea struck Yang Zeran, and he blurted out, "Cloud storage."

Shen Xin clapped him on the shoulder and said with a laugh, "And you said you don’t watch."

Yang Zeran’s expression was a mix of embarrassment and surrender. "Alright, fine, I’ve watched! Happy?"

"Watched what?"

Just then, Ding Yuwei’s voice cut in.

The two men turned their heads and, in perfect unison, shook them and said it was nothing.

Ding Yuwei gave them a strange look before reporting that she hadn’t found anything in Ye Xinyi’s room.

Shen Xin nodded and motioned for Ding Yuwei to join them in tearing apart Lin Zenghui’s room one more time, this time specifically looking for storage devices.

In the end, the four of them returned to the branch office with a pile of equipment.

An inspection of the computer tower confirmed that only the button cell battery on the motherboard was dead.

After a bit of tinkering, it booted up smoothly.

There was no login password, or perhaps it had already been cracked during the original investigation.

Yang Zeran expertly navigated the computer, searching for information.

Shen Xin opened his laptop nearby, simultaneously going through Lin Zenghui’s phone and searching his email for registration confirmations.

"Brother Xing, when you used to watch... movies, what cloud storage did you use?"

Shen Xin had already checked several mainstream cloud services that Lin Zenghui had registered for, but found nothing.

"Watch movies?"

Zhao Tianxing’s eyes flicked over to Ding Yuwei across from them. He quickly lowered his voice. "Shen Xin, don’t talk nonsense. I don’t watch that stuff."

Across from them, Ding Yuwei, who was re-reading the search records, said without looking up, "I heard everything."

With that, she looked up and named a cloud service, "115."

Shen Xin shook his head. "No good, it gets banned too easily."

Zhao Tianxing’s eyes darted around for a moment before he interjected, "Yunfile?"

Shen Xin’s face lit up. That was it. How could he have forgotten that one?

"Brother Xing, you really are a pro," Shen Xin said, patting Zhao Tianxing’s shoulder.

Zhao Tianxing rolled his eyes dramatically and irritably shrugged Shen Xin’s hand off.

Lin Zenghui’s phone number had already been deactivated.

Moreover, Shen Xin recalled that registering for Yunfile didn’t require a phone number, or even an email. You could just register directly, and it didn’t ask for personal information.

But some people were in the habit of using the same username for all their online registrations. If they knew the username, they could probably get the relevant data from the cloud storage company.

Just as he was about to ask Yang Zeran, Yang Zeran said, "Already on it. His browser history has a login record for Yunfile, but it’s automatically logged out. Not a problem, though. I should be able to find it."

He immediately picked up his phone and contacted the cloud storage company.

The process was quick.

A cloud storage account, floating in cyberspace and untouched for two years, was opened.

Ding Yuwei glanced at the file list and asked, "This is all gibberish."

There was a lot uploaded, filling up a good portion of the 2TB of space.

But all the filenames were meaningless jumbles of letters and numbers.

Zhao Tianxing saw the issue at a glance. "You don’t get it," he said. "The filenames and extensions were changed on purpose. For example, for an MP4 file, you delete one letter so it becomes an unrecognizable file."

"But once you download it, you just fix the extension, and it’ll play normally. It’s a way to bypass the cloud service’s content filters and avoid getting banned."

Shen Xin nodded. That was exactly it.

Yang Zeran had already silently started the download.

The internet speed was blazing fast. The first file, over a gigabyte in size, downloaded quickly.

He changed the file extension, and sure enough, it was a movie.

"Seen it. It’s boring," Zhao Tianxing commented with a pout.

Yang Zeran immediately closed it.

With nearly two hundred files, they would have to check them all.

Shen Xin and Zhao Tianxing would occasionally discuss the films.

Ding Yuwei couldn’t help but remind the two to be more professional.

Yang Zeran nodded in agreement.

Shen Xin kicked Yang Zeran’s chair good-naturedly. ’It’s not like you’re being all that professional either.’

Amidst the banter, Yang Zeran opened another video.

Suddenly, Lin Zenghui’s face appeared on screen.

The expressions on all four of them changed, and they instantly sat up straight.

"This is in the Dolphin Hall, right?" Zhao Tianxing said quickly, pointing at the video.

Shen Xin’s eyes were glued to the screen. It was the Dolphin Hall.

In the video, the perspective was from Lin Zenghui holding his phone, and it was nighttime.

He had a mischievous grin on his face as he snuck into the Dolphin Hall. He then seemed to hide in a concealed spot, aiming the camera at the dolphin pool.

"Li Fusen!" Zhao Tianxing exclaimed again.

Li Fusen appeared on screen.

He was wearing a wetsuit, interacting with a dolphin in the pool.

Judging by the angle, Shen Xin deduced he must have entered through the cargo entrance and was hiding in a dark spot among the landscaping outside the dolphin pool.

They were some distance away, so Li Fusen didn’t notice him.

Li Fusen’s attention was on Hua Zi.

Hua Zi’s skin was a lighter shade, making her easy to identify.

In the footage, they could faintly hear Li Fusen talking.

He placed his arm in Hua Zi’s mouth, letting her bite down, and even asked her to bite a little harder and not to let go.

Hua Zi vocalized, and just kept nuzzling against him.

Li Fusen quickly hugged her to calm her down, and they could hear him telling her to be good, that he was fine.

Lin Zenghui turned the camera back to himself, a look of excitement on his face.

He then turned the camera back toward the pool.

Li Fusen and Hua Zi had already dived underwater. Lin Zenghui, growing bold, raised his phone higher, trying to film what was happening beneath the surface.

In the shaky footage, they could vaguely see that Hua Zi seemed to have bitten down on Li Fusen’s arm.

SPLASH! Xingbao must have leaped out of the water.

Startled, Lin Zenghui quickly pulled his hand back and started sneaking out.

Only after he was outside the Dolphin Hall did he turn the camera back on himself, exclaiming excitedly, "See that? This pervert’s already started playing at self-mutilation. How twisted is that?"

Shen Xin was stunned.

Clearly, Lin Zenghui had completely misinterpreted the situation.

He thought Li Fusen was just into some weird stuff, playing some kind of masochistic game to get his thrills from the pain.

He was completely unaware that Li Fusen was actually training Hua Zi to murder him.

In other words, he had inadvertently filmed Li Fusen plotting his own murder.