Animal Detective

Yang Zeran had previously speculated that if Lin Zenghui had the nerve to rape Hou Shishi, he might also secretly film it.

And he was right.

Before long, they found a video.

First, a hand appeared, likely turning on the recording device.

Then the surroundings came into view. It looked like a hotel room.

Lin Zenghui adjusted the angle, aiming it at the bed, and that’s when everyone saw the target.

It was a young woman dressed for a night out. She was clearly wasted, barely conscious. She dazedly sat up and asked Lin Zenghui where he had taken her.

Then she grabbed her purse and tried to leave.

Lin Zenghui hurried over to talk her out of it, impatiently starting to undress her.

What happened next goes without saying.

Zhao Tianxing cursed, "That bastard is already dead. If he weren’t..."

He trailed off, unable to finish the thought.

Shen Xin silently shook his head.

There was another important reason he had been able to make the same prediction as Yang Zeran—that Lin Zenghui would secretly film his victims.

Shen Xin didn’t believe that the attempted rape of Hou Shishi was Lin Zenghui’s first time.

It’s never just once with things like this.

And for guys who do this sort of thing, secretly recording it, then threatening to post it online for the whole world to see if the victim calls the police, is practically standard procedure.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before they found another one.

The script was almost identical: the woman was completely drunk.

’Lin Zenghui went clubbing all the time. Did he go just for the drinks?’

Zhao Tianxing swore again. "Seriously, considering the things this bastard did, Li Fusen was doing the public a favor by getting rid of him."

Seeing the other three staring at him strangely, Zhao Tianxing immediately faltered, explaining weakly, "I was just saying."

"And think about it. Li Fusen went through that stuff as a kid. He might be a bit twisted psychologically, but he’s in his thirties and he hasn’t turned into a serial killer or gone around hurting people, right?"

Shen Xin made a zipping motion across his lips, signaling for him to shut up.

They continued watching.

’There must be more than one video of Lin Zenghui secretly filming Li Fusen.’

Shen Xin guessed that Lin Zenghui must have stumbled upon Li Fusen and Hua Zi... doing their thing.

One of them mocking, driven by morbid curiosity, seeing Li Fusen as a pervert.

The other, naturally, begging pitifully, not wanting to be exposed.

But how could someone like Lin Zenghui let Li Fusen off the hook so easily? He was bound to secretly film him.

Because he was a bad person, and he wanted to blackmail and control Li Fusen.

Secondly, for the morbid thrill.

Finally, Shen Xin felt Lin Zenghui had a superiority complex.

He was never short of women, while Li Fusen was so pathetic he could only get it on with a dolphin.

In Lin Zenghui’s mind, Li Fusen was probably just a useless loser.

So when he filmed Li Fusen training Hua Zi, it never occurred to him that Li Fusen was trying to murder him. He simply thought the man was into some kind of self-abuse.

He had the psychological upper hand, thinking Li Fusen was just a meek pushover he could easily control.

He never would have thought that the "meek pushover" would dare to think of killing him.

Shen Xin couldn’t help but think that it was probably only at the moment Hua Zi dragged him underwater that Lin Zenghui finally understood: everything Li Fusen had been doing was to murder him.

As expected, they found it.

It was another secretly filmed video.

In the video, Li Fusen was sitting on the edge of the pool. Hua Zi kept nuzzling against him, even exposing its belly.

But Li Fusen was resisting, saying, "No, we can’t do that anymore."

But Hua Zi wouldn’t listen and kept rubbing against him.

At that moment, Lin Zenghui must not have been able to hold it in, because he let out a snicker and Li Fusen spotted him.

Li Fusen rushed over in a panic, demanding to know what Lin Zenghui was doing.

Lin Zenghui wasn’t scared at all, saying things like, "You’ve already done it, what’s there to be afraid of people knowing?"

Then he despicably asked Li Fusen what it felt like to... you know... with a dolphin.

He even pointed his phone’s camera at Li Fusen, saying, "There’s no one else around, just tell me."

He also ran over to tease Hua Zi, telling Li Fusen to come over so he could film an "epic movie" for them or something.

His scummy behavior was infuriating to watch.

Li Fusen couldn’t help but argue back, but Lin Zenghui just poked him in the head and said, "You’re the real pervert. Believe it or not, I’ll post your videos online for everyone to see."

That was the trump card.

In the video, Li Fusen began to plead with Lin Zenghui, begging him not to tell anyone.

Lin Zenghui slung an arm around his shoulder, aimed the camera at the two of them, and said with a grin that they were colleagues, so "don’t worry, I won’t go around blabbing."

But these were obviously empty words, just a way to keep Li Fusen under his thumb.

Yang Zeran said, "This must have been after he was discovered, but before he started training Hua Zi."

Shen Xin nodded, pointing at the image of Li Fusen on the screen, head bowed, simmering with rage but afraid to speak. "I think this is the moment Li Fusen decided to kill him."

Zhao Tianxing muttered, "Seriously, that Lin Zenghui is such a scumbag. He’s just asking for a beating."

Shen Xin remained silent. ’But on second thought,’ he mused, ’Lin Zenghui really did bring this upon himself.’

If he hadn’t secretly filmed Li Fusen, hadn’t mocked him, hadn’t blackmailed him, Li Fusen might never have wanted to kill him.

And then there was his mother, Ye Xinyi.

After her son was murdered, she chose to run down and kill Hou Shishi. It could only be said that Ye Xinyi had a paranoid and doting personality.

It was precisely this boundless, spoiling love that had produced a son with a personality as reckless and vile as Lin Zenghui’s.

Gao Kun had said that during the first trial, Ye Xinyi claimed she hadn’t raised Lin Zenghui well.

Thinking about it now, it was a complete joke.

They continued to search through the videos.

Unfortunately, after going through all the videos on the cloud drive, there was nothing else.

Perhaps Lin Zenghui felt that one video was enough to control Li Fusen.

As for the later video of him training Hua Zi, Lin Zenghui probably noticed Li Fusen was staying late at the Dolphin Hall again and assumed he was up to his old tricks.

They worked together, so he would have definitely noticed Li Fusen staying behind.

That must have sparked his interest again, making him want to film another video for the morbid thrill.

Shen Xin had Yang Zeran rewind to the previous video. He watched it carefully two more times before asking, "Do you think these two videos are enough to convict Li Fusen?"

The training video did indeed show clips of Li Fusen telling Hua Zi to bite him and then drag him into the water.

But he never explicitly said anything like, "Later on, you’re going to bite Lin Zenghui just like this."

If he had said that, Lin Zenghui, who was filming, would have probably freaked out on the spot.

Based on the principle of exclusion, Shen Xin felt the evidence should be sufficient.

’But that’s just my opinion. Once it’s sent to the prosecutor’s office, who knows what they’ll think.’

Zhao Tianxing said, "I think it’s enough."

Ding Yuwei nodded in agreement.

Shen Xin looked at Yang Zeran. ’What does the star student think?’

Yang Zeran was clearly hesitant.

It was mainly because it involved an animal killing someone. It was the first time he’d encountered such a case, and there was no precedent.

Yang Zeran said, "Why don’t we ask someone?"

Shen Xin nodded. ’He’s right, we should ask.’

’With a case that has no precedent, it’s better to be cautious.’

It was the same reason why Gao Siyu had insisted on tagging along back in Songpu.

"The thing is, it’s after hours. Yuwei, you’re always delivering case files, do you know anyone?" Shen Xin asked Ding Yuwei.

’Waiting until tomorrow is unbearable.’

Now that they had this crucial evidence, Shen Xin wanted to interrogate Li Fusen immediately.

Knowing whether these two pieces of evidence were sufficient was critical; it would affect the direction of the interrogation.

Ding Yuwei shook her head.

Just then, Yang Zeran said, "Why don’t I ask my wife?"

"Wife?"

Shen Xin gave him a suggestive smile. They weren’t even married, and he was already calling her "wife."

"Is his girlfriend with the prosecutor’s office?" Shen Xin looked at Zhao Tianxing.

’Didn’t you say you met her? What kind of intel did you gather?’

Yang Zeran nodded. "My girlfriend graduated from the University of Political Science and Law. She passed the exam for the prosecutor’s office after coming back to Nanjiang."

Shen Xin couldn’t help but exclaim, ’Damn, a whole family of brainiacs.’

He immediately urged Yang Zeran to hurry up and ask.

’Looks like bringing Yang Zeran into the Cold Case Unit was the right move. Now we’ll have a contact at the prosecutor’s office.’

Solving cold cases often meant dealing with insufficient evidence due to the passage of time. Having someone to consult would make things much more convenient.

Yang Zeran nodded, took out his phone, and called the number saved under "Wifey."

When the call connected, he subconsciously called out in a soft, almost cooing voice, "Baby..."

After saying it, he abruptly froze, his eyes wide.

Sure enough, he turned his head and saw Shen Xin struggling to hold back his laughter.

"Baby? Are you serious?" Zhao Tianxing couldn’t hold it in either.

Yang Zeran closed his eyes, his vision going dark.

’There goes my image.’

Shaking off Zhao Tianxing’s hand, Yang Zeran cleared his throat and said in a deliberately serious tone, "Uh, listen, if you have time now, come down to the Lishan Branch. I need you for something. Hurry up."

With that, he hung up the phone.

Shen Xin burst out laughing. "Yang Zeran, we’re all colleagues here. What’s with the act? Aren’t you afraid you’ll have to kneel on a durian when you get home?"

Zhao Tianxing sidled up and whispered "Baby..." in Yang Zeran’s ear.

Yang Zeran shuddered violently, shot up, and grabbed Zhao Tianxing by the neck, only letting go when Zhao Tianxing begged for mercy.

He sat back down, smoothed his hair, and said in a tone of defiant resignation, "Yeah, I call her ’Baby.’ So what? What do you two single losers know about it?"

Heh, now he was getting cocky.

Shen Xin shot a look at Zhao Tianxing, and the two of them immediately jumped on him.

Half an hour later, Yang Zeran’s girlfriend arrived.

Her name was Song Xiangli.

Zhao Tianxing had previously described Song Xiangli as delicate and petite, the kind of woman who inspires protectiveness.

Seeing her now, Shen Xin found the description quite fitting.

In terms of pure looks, she wasn’t stunningly beautiful.

But she had a wonderful disposition. Her skin was fair, and she wore glasses that gave her a strong scholarly air, instantly making Shen Xin feel like he was back in his student days.

Her voice was gentle as well. She greeted everyone warmly and had even thoughtfully brought fruit and drinks, saying they must be tired from working late.

She carried herself with grace and poise. ’Yang Zeran really hit the jackpot,’ Shen Xin thought. ’No wonder he was willing to give up the job opportunity in Ningshan for his girlfriend.’

Yang Zeran was still trying to put on airs, but Shen Xin shooed him aside, invited Song Xiangli to sit, showed her the videos, explained the situation, and asked for her opinion.

"Are you saying that this Li Fusen... was in love with a dolphin?"

Such a bizarre story left Song Xiangli speechless.

Yang Zeran nodded. "The key thing is, the dolphin then committed suicide for Li Fusen, so things are very tricky now. We only have these two videos, and we don’t know if we can prosecute him based on the principle of exclusion."

"Committed suicide for him?"

Song Xiangli’s eyes widened, filled with a desire to know more, but she held back her questions and seriously rewatched the videos.

She had clearly switched into work mode, constantly asking them for details about the case and even asking for a notebook to jot down notes.

It took over an hour for Song Xiangli to get a clear picture of the case’s current status.

After flipping through her notes for a long while, Song Xiangli finally spoke. "I think it should be enough."

"For Hua Zi to have drowned Lin Zenghui is, given the nature of captive dolphins, a low-probability event."

"But it did happen. Lin Zenghui has bite marks on his arm, and logically, Li Fusen had sufficient motive and subjectively trained Hua Zi to bite people, which is proven by the video."

"I think you can argue, by exclusion, that Li Fusen had the subjective intent to murder. Therefore, the resulting death of Lin Zenghui can be classified as murder."

"But you’ll need to supplement the evidence. For example, you need to get a dental impression of Hua Zi and get a professional analysis comparing it to the bite marks on Lin Zenghui."

"Wasn’t Hua Zi made into a taxidermy model? In that case, I think you should be able to do it based on the interdental spacing."

"Also, you must secure the physical evidence from the scene and confirm the impossibility of anyone else, besides Hou Shishi who left, having entered the area."

"You also need to rule out the possibility that Hou Shishi drowned Lin Zenghui. If you do all that, it should be enough."

Shen Xin pumped his fist, gave Song Xiangli a thumbs-up, and then praised her to Yang Zeran, "Look how amazing your wife is."

"Of course."

Yang Zeran let out a soft snort, draping his arm around Song Xiangli’s shoulder with a look of pure pride.