Animal Detective

The three of them galloped wildly. After about twenty minutes, they saw the Uyastsan Mountain Range shrouded in the night.

In the distance, they spotted the beam of a flashlight.

They quickly approached. It was Zhang Qifeng.

Liao Lei and another villager had gone to search the nearby area.

Before the horses could come to a complete stop, an anxious Lakshen had already leaped off, stumbling as his feet hit the ground. He immediately rushed up to Zhang Qifeng to ask about the situation.

When they arrived, Zhang Qifeng was shining his flashlight on the gravelly ground, searching for clues.

"We still haven’t found Doniya."

Zhang Qifeng’s words made Shen Xin sigh in relief.

Just like with Tianxiong, as long as no body was found, there was hope.

Zhang Qifeng led the three of them deeper in. "Lakshen," he said as they walked, "there were people here. More than one."

Shen Xin scanned his surroundings.

The entire Uyastsan Mountain ran from east to west. To their right and ahead was the main peak, a sheer, thousand-meter-high summit.

They were at the foot of the mountain, in the corner area between two peaks.

The terrain gradually sloped upward, dotted with sparse, wild trees and a large number of scattered rocks.

After walking a few dozen meters deeper, the sweep of a flashlight beam revealed a horse’s carcass, which Shen Xin spotted immediately.

It lay on the flat ground in a pool of blood.

As they drew closer, they saw it was none other than the black horse Doniya had been riding yesterday.

Lakshen’s expression was grim. He immediately saw the bullet hole in the horse’s head.

Shen Xin circled the horse’s body, examining it.

There was a bullet hole in its head, and another one in its rump.

The two bullet holes were different sizes.

The one on its rump was smaller, and there was less bleeding around it.

Shen Xin turned and aimed his flashlight around.

On the gravelly ground were messy footprints, hoofprints, drag marks, and scuff marks.

The scene was a chaotic mess of tracks.

"The shot to the rump was likely fired from a distance, while the one to the head was a close-range, execution-style shot."

Shen Xin said, illuminating the tracks on the ground.

It was obvious. A line of hoofprints led this way, then became jumbled closer in.

Shen Xin also saw drops of blood on the ground.

Shen Xin shone his light into the valley between the two mountains, then back at the horse’s carcass. "Could this be what happened? The horse was running from over there, and an armed assailant fired a shot from a distance."

"The bullet hit its rump, damaging its internal organs, but the horse didn’t die immediately. It ran a few more steps before collapsing. There are a lot of signs of a struggle here."

It looked like the horse had fallen and then struggled desperately to get back up.

"Then look at the footprints."

Shen Xin illuminated the ground.

This area at the foot of the mountain was mostly gravel, with little grass cover.

But the ground was still soft enough to hold prints.

"These footprints must be from someone who chased it down and then shot the fallen horse at close range."

"And then look at these prints."

Shen Xin crouched down.

The footprints at the scene were a mess, but a few were in good condition.

"This one, and this one, have clear sole patterns. But the patterns are different, which means they were made by two different people."

"And over here is another footprint. It’s pointed, and it’s also much smaller than the other two."

Shen Xin used his hand to estimate the size.

He guessed it was only around a size 36, clearly much smaller than the other two prints.

"I think this footprint might have been left by Doniya."

Shen Xin stood up and looked around, his mood growing heavy again.

’If this footprint belongs to Doniya, then what happened here was probably her trying to escape on horseback.’

’The armed assailant shot at her from a distance, from behind.’

Shen Xin felt that Doniya had been very lucky; the shot had missed her and hit the horse instead.

’The horse, in pain, probably threw Doniya to the ground.’

’Then the two assailants caught up, subdued Doniya, and then put a bullet in the horse.’

The good news was that there was no other blood at the scene.

If the assailants had caught up to her and shot her on the spot, there would definitely be a large pool of blood.

Lakshen and the other two nodded repeatedly.

Zhang Qifeng pointed deeper into the area. "And over there, I found signs of a campfire."

The group immediately headed in that direction.

It was about thirty or forty meters away.

Along the way, there were both hoofprints and footprints.

The stride of the footprints was long, suggesting they belonged to someone who was running.

Shen Xin couldn’t help but turn and look back.

’Thirty meters isn’t a short distance.’

’So, that long-range shot... were they aiming for the person or the horse?’

But either way, Shen Xin thought the person was a decent shot.

Hitting a running horse from thirty meters with a single shot.

Even if the horse was a large target, it wasn’t easy.

In Mongolian, "Uyastsan" means "mountain with poplars."

The trees on the mountain were sparse. The spot Zhang Qifeng mentioned was next to a small-leaved poplar.

There was a campfire. Around it were jumbled footprints, as well as sausage casings, instant noodle cups, and small bread wrappers.

Zhang Qifeng shone his flashlight into the distance. "And over there, there are motorcycle tracks."

Shen Xin went over to take a look.

There were indeed several clear motorcycle tracks.

Lakshen crouched down for a closer look and said they were likely tire tracks from a 125cc motorcycle, the kind commonly used by herdsmen on the grasslands.

Shen Xin returned to the campfire.

He stood to the side, carefully observing the scene.

Lakshen walked over and asked in a low voice, "Shen Xin, you’re a detective. What do you make of this?"

Shen Xin didn’t answer, continuing to survey the scene carefully with his flashlight.

Lakshen followed him. "I think they’re poachers, or maybe criminals who crossed the border illegally."

"From the looks of it, it seems like Doniya ran into some bad people."

"The crucial thing is that the assailants have a gun. We’ve been cracking down on firearms and running awareness campaigns. The herdsmen have almost no guns left."

"Even if someone did have one, they wouldn’t just attack Doniya for no reason. They must have been up to no good, and Doniya must have stumbled upon them."

Shen Xin nodded and casually asked him if poaching was common on the grasslands.

These days, almost every animal was a protected species. You could be committing a crime just by robbing a bird’s nest in a tree.

With such a major crackdown, there should be far fewer poachers.

"A lot."

Lakshen sighed. "We caught a few just last year. Some were using glue traps for larks, others were using poison."

"Larks have a beautiful song, you know? Some people keep them as pets, and some even eat them. I don’t know what goes through their heads."

"And then there’s the long-tailed zeren. Its scientific name is the goitered gazelle. People poach them for their horns, which can be used in medicine."

"Anyway, there will always be people blinded by greed. You can never completely stamp it out."

Shen Xin nodded.

In fact, Shen Xin was also leaning toward the poacher theory.

Because they had a motorcycle.

If they were illegal border crossers, it was possible they were hiding out here.

But they wouldn’t have crossed the border on a motorcycle.

’They’d need gas, after all.’

It would be very difficult for someone crossing the border illegally to get their hands on a vehicle like a motorcycle.

Shen Xin stopped and shone his flashlight on the small-leaved poplar in front of him.

On the base of the trunk, on the side facing away from the campfire, there were scuff marks that looked very recent.

And on the side facing the fire, there were footprints and marks from someone sitting.

Shen Xin figured these must be marks left by Doniya when she was tied to the tree.

Lakshen saw it too and exclaimed, "They tied Doniya up!"

Zhang Qifeng and the other man came closer to look.

"Then where is she? Did they take her?" Zhang Qifeng frowned.

Lakshen nodded. "It’s possible."

She was tied up, and now she’s gone. The assailants must have taken her with them.

Shen Xin remained silent, widening his search with the flashlight as he continued looking for clues.

Shen Xin didn’t quite agree with Lakshen’s speculation.

’It sounds reasonable—catch her, tie her up, and then take her with them.’

’But it’s not actually reasonable at all.’

’Look at it from the poachers’ perspective.’

’First, these are two armed, ruthless men.’

Because they dared to open fire.

’Anyone living in this country knows the consequences of firing a gun.’

’Yet they did it. They shot the horse dead, even finishing it off with a cold, execution-style shot at close range.’

’That first shot was most likely aimed at the person. It just missed and hit the horse.’

’Two poachers like that, traveling alone on the grasslands, would definitely want to stay far away from civilization.’

’In that case, bringing a living person with them would be a huge hassle.’

’Their illegal activities were exposed.’

’And Doniya saw their faces. If I were them, the best choice would be to kill her to silence her.’

’This area is practically a no-man’s-land. It’s so sparsely populated that if you killed someone, the body might not be discovered for ten days, maybe even half a month.’

But Doniya’s body wasn’t at the scene.

’That leaves only two possibilities.’

’Either they were afraid this spot wasn’t safe and decided to take her somewhere more remote to kill her...’

But Shen Xin felt that was unlikely.

’The campfire here burned out naturally, and there’s still food packaging scattered around.’

’That suggests they left in a hurry, without time to clean up.’

’If they were going to commit murder, shouldn’t they at least clean up the crime scene?’

Therefore, Shen Xin was leaning toward the second possibility.

’Doniya was tied up, but then she somehow managed to escape.’

’The two of them left the scene in a rush, either to chase after Doniya or because they were afraid she would call the police and fled in a panic.’

Just as he was thinking this, Shen Xin abruptly stopped in his tracks.

On the outskirts of the campfire area, there were more hoofprints.

At first, Shen Xin hadn’t given them much thought, assuming they were left by Doniya’s horse.

But now he noticed that the hoofprints were different.

For example, the prints in front of him showed no sign of horseshoes.

Herdsmen’s horses are usually shod.

’In other words, there were actually two horses at the scene.’

’One has been shot dead. Where’s the other one?’

An idea sparked in Shen Xin’s mind.

’Hong Gu’er!’

Doniya had come here looking for Hong Gu’er.

Shen Xin quickly searched for the different hoofprints.

It was clear now: there was a separate trail of these unshod hoofprints.

It came from the distance, appeared next to the tree trunk, continued around the edge of the campfire, and then stretched down the mountain.

Shen Xin grew secretly excited.

’My theory is possible. Doniya might have taken the opportunity to escape on Hong Gu’er while the two poachers were away.’

’And only after discovering this did the poachers hastily leave the scene to give chase.’

Whether or not they caught up to her was impossible to know.

But this was a very good sign.

At the same time, the most important thing right now wasn’t to debate what happened at the scene, but to start tracking.

Whether it was Doniya or the two poachers.

As he was thinking, another light appeared on the grasslands in the distance.

It was the two young villagers who had fallen behind, and they were bringing Tian Kui with them.

’Perfect. There’s no time to lose. We have to start tracking them now.’

’It’s only been a few hours. We can definitely catch up.’

Shen Xin gazed out at the vast grasslands and couldn’t help but pray to all the gods in the heavens, and to Tengri as well.

He hoped they would bless Doniya and bring her back safely.

Calling Lakshen over to meet the newcomers, Shen Xin took one last glance at the campfire site. He had a nagging feeling that he had missed something.

「Meanwhile.」

Deep in the grasslands.

The starry sky was dim, and it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

A disheveled Doniya was huddled on the back side of a small hillock.

A few steps away, Hong Gu’er had his head down, leisurely grazing on grass.

Doniya looked down.

She had her Mongolian robe half-open. Lying motionless inside was a large, pure white bird.

It was a Hunting Falcon.

But this was the first time Doniya had ever seen a Hunting Falcon with pure white feathers.

Having rested enough, Doniya didn’t dare to linger. She got up and called for Hong Gu’er, ready to leave.

Hong Gu’er turned his head to look at Doniya but didn’t move.

Annoyed, Doniya smacked him on the head. ’He was being so obedient before, and now he’s acting up again.’

Just then, Hong Gu’er abruptly raised his head.

"Ready to go now?"

Doniya’s heart leaped with joy. She was about to mount the horse when she froze.

She had also seen them: in the darkness ahead, four points of will-o’-the-wisps had suddenly appeared.

A chill ran through Doniya’s heart.

’Those aren’t will-o’-the-wisps. Those are wolves.’