Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 340 The Missing Person (Please Subscribe)
"Hehe... This scene is simply outrageous."

Ye Ming carefully moved among the line of cats, muttering to himself and chuckling to himself, enjoying the feeling of being stared at by so many cats for the first time.

"Did they escape from this pet store?"

Zhong Xianxian looked around curiously, making guesses.

"No! No one has been in the shop for at least a week. These cats were all rescued. It must have been Mimi who did it. Thanks to her, these cats weren't allowed to starve to death."

Li Yiduo saw the dozen or so locks that had been smashed off the floor of the store, and based on the severe damage to the store, he guessed roughly when it had been forgotten. Thinking of the horrific scene of so many cats starving to death in their cages, he couldn't help but look down at Lin Ge again.

"So, how should this be resolved? Why don't you adopt them all? I'll put in a good word for you with Li Siyu."

Lin Ge stared up at Li Yiduo with a blank expression.

"Ha ha……"

Li Yiduo inexplicably felt a chill down his spine, and seeing Lin Ge squinting with a mischievous expression, he chuckled dryly.

“This guy… is really outrageous! If he rescued all these cats, then I admit what you told us before about the incredible things this cat did. Having such a monster at Zhanghe Police Station makes me want to move.”

Ji Yao looked around with a sigh.

"Looks like this is why Mimi asked me to come here. I need to take care of this. I probably won't have time to play with you guys today. Why don't you guys do your own test flights and bring my stuff along, and help me with some adjustments too?"

As Li Yiduo spoke, he quickly switched to police mode, while Ji Yao and the other two decided to stay and help.

He first looked up at the phone number left on the pet shop's sign, but when he called it, he found that the phone was switched off, and he frowned.

Li Yiduo thought about calling the police officers he knew at Baimiao Police Station, but all the shops around were closed and he couldn't find anyone to visit. Not long after, a police car drove into the sports park, and a young policeman walked towards them while adjusting his equipment at his waist and yawning incessantly.

He seemed to know Li Yiduo, Ye Ming, and the other two, waving and greeting them from afar.

"On duty today?"

Seeing his tired expression, Li Yiduo took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and tossed it to him.

"Bullshit! I started my shift yesterday at noon and will continue until midnight tonight. Thirty-six hours, that's enough to kill a man."

Jin Zeping couldn't help but yawn again, deftly taking out a cigarette and putting it in his mouth while complaining. After Ye Ming and the other two refused to offer them cigarettes, he tossed one to Li Yiduo and then stuffed the cigarette pack into his pocket.

"How come it takes more than 30 hours? The Zhanghe Police Station is open 24 hours a day."

Li Yiduo was quite surprised; he hadn't expected the duty roster at Baimiao Police Station to be even more outrageous than that of Zhanghe Police Station. But 36 hours probably meant two shifts every three days, right? Being able to rest for a day and a half afterward was actually quite good.

"The so-called three-day, two-shift system is nonsense. It means that there are two shifts of people on duty every day! It's divided into one full shift and two half shifts in the morning and afternoon, working 36 hours and resting 24 hours, that's all."

Jin Zeping rolled his eyes.

"Hehe... Your police station is really something else."

Ye Ming chuckled twice, while Zhong Xianxian counted on her fingers for a long time but still couldn't figure out how the shifts were arranged. Feeling dizzy and confused, she could only admire the leader of the Baimiao Police Station to the point of prostration.

"There's nothing we can do; there's just too much to do during the Lunar New Year."

Jin Zeping wasn't surprised. He just smiled and looked at Li Yiduo, saying, "It's quite hot over in Zhanghe, isn't it? I heard that a policeman let a suspect escape due to a momentary lapse in attention? It seems that if it weren't for your cat, something serious would have happened, right? You don't know how frustrated our Chief Liu was when he heard the news! He's been eyeing your police station's cat for a long time, but all the bait he's thrown at it has gone down the drain. He can only vent his frustration by causing us trouble."

Lin Ge, standing at the pet shop next door, rolled his eyes. This bastard didn't even know to be discreet when he mentioned cats by name? And that Liu Shengyou guy, he's still eyeing me now?
"Mimi is right here. Be careful she doesn't scratch you if you say that."

Li Yiduo smiled as he revealed Lin Ge's identity.

"cough!"

Jin Zeping coughed awkwardly.

Seeing the three people staring at him curiously, seemingly puzzled as to why he was afraid of the cat, Jin Zeping didn't explain and quickly changed the subject, saying, "Tell me, what exactly happened? You didn't have to call me over just because someone couldn't be reached on the phone, did you?"

"But even the most careless person wouldn't just abandon all the valuable pets in their shop that are worth tens of thousands, right?"

Li Yiduo pointed to the scattered groups of cats around him, especially the Welsh cat and a Ragdoll, saying, "My knowledge of cats is rather limited, but this cat is definitely valuable. I just looked it up, and it seems to be a breed called a Welsh tailless cat. This breed is very rare in China, and even abroad, due to breeding difficulties and pedigree issues, its price exceeds five figures. And that Ragdoll under the tree over there, see it? Even for those of us who don't know much about cats, its appearance is excellent, right? Although its fur is all matted right now, I did a quick search on Baidu and confirmed that some of its characteristics are what you'd call show-quality..."

"Five figures?"

Lingo looked at the Welsh cat that was sneaking around in their direction with a puzzled expression. Was this guy actually a very valuable cat?

Of course, Lin Ge had no doubts about the other plush cat Li Yiduo pointed to. Even he thought that cat was ridiculously beautiful. Especially those big, bright blue eyes, which even made Lin Ge envious.

After a pause, Li Yiduo continued, "Of course, the most important thing is that I just looked at the prices on the cages in the store. The Welshman is priced at 66,000, and there are two Ragdolls, one for 18,800 and the other for 16,600. Just these three cats alone are worth almost 100,000! Add to that the other miscellaneous ones for 8,630,000 to 5,000, and two for over 10,000, and the total value is at least 300,000, which is outrageous."

Lin Ge shuddered.

Are these pet cats really that valuable?

Compared to them, my silver shaded dog, whose pedigree is shrouded in mystery, is practically dirt cheap. But seriously, is owning a pet a luxury these days? Is the person who spent 66,000 yuan on a Welsh male dog out of their mind?

"Hiss... Is it really worth over 300,000?"

Jin Zeping let out a long breath, his expression turning serious.

If these cats are truly very valuable, then regardless of the shop owner's situation or why they were left unattended, the police station must thoroughly investigate the entire matter.

Protecting the safety of people's property is the responsibility of the police. Even if the loss is not caused by illegal or criminal activities, the police have an obligation to help victims mitigate their losses.

Ignoring the three guys next to him who were curiously comparing each cat with their phones to find out why they were valuable, Jin Zeping quickly contacted the police station and used the police mobile terminal to find the shop owner's detailed information by phone number.

"Hu Yezhong, male, 42 years old, from Linqing, Dongshan. He settled in Zhangzhou three years ago and opened this Dafu Cattery. Oh, it was registered as Dafu Cattery, but later changed to Dafu Pet Club. His residence is... oh, it's not far from Wanda Plaza. This guy is quite rich. His phone number is..."

Jin Zeping quickly found out the pet shop owner's information; the phone number was the same as the one on the shop sign.

"I also found this Dafu Cattery on the community website. It's quite famous online. This owner, Mr. Hu, started by selling Linqing Lion Cats. Later, his business grew bigger and bigger, and that's how it got to its current scale."

Instead of using his police mobile terminal to help him, Li Yiduo found more information about Dafu Cattery through the Zhangzhou City Community Network.

To his surprise, there were no negative comments about the cattery on the community website. Instead, there were many praises and likes about how nice the owner was, allowing people to play with the cats for free and teaching them how to raise cats for free.

In other words, this Mr. Hu Yezhong is actually a pretty good pet dealer; at least there's no doubt about his love for and care for cats.

"But why would a shop owner who loves cats like this let his expensive cats be trapped in the shop unattended and almost starve to death? If it weren't for Mimi, they probably wouldn't have been discovered until they died, right?"

Ji Yao raised a question.

Lin Ge rolled his eyes, too embarrassed to admit that the real rescuers were the stray cats that mingled with the pet cats. Although he didn't know who initially smashed the pet shop window, these stray cats had saved more than half the pet cats before Lin Ge arrived. So, Lin Ge didn't really want to take the credit. Unfortunately, he couldn't speak properly and had no way to explain himself to these people.

"Forget it! I don't deserve your credit. I'll make it up to you when I have the chance! If you ever run into any trouble, you can come to me anytime! I promise to help you if you're hungry or sick."

Lin Ge sighed sheepishly, then brazenly decided to make amends to the stray cats who had done him a good deed.

"The biggest problem now is that Mr. Hu's phone is switched off."

Li Yiduo nodded, frowning, and said, "The mobile company told me that this number has been switched off for five days. That means Hu Yezhong has been out of contact since the 28th of the twelfth lunar month. It's unlikely that a normal person would leave their phone uncharged for so long, right? He only has this one phone number, so it's highly unlikely he changed it. Lao Jin, why don't we go to his house and check? I have a bad feeling about this." "Our colleagues from the institute have already gone there; we can just wait for news here."

Jin Zeping yawned, took out a cigarette and lit another one. He offered one to Li Yiduo, but Li Yiduo waved it away.

The three people beside them watched the two policemen with curiosity, their interest in playing with their model airplanes vanishing instantly. What could be more interesting than solving a case? The mysteries in novels were already astonishing, let alone the mysterious events unfolding before their very eyes.
"Kidnapping?"

Fatty Ye Ming curiously offered a guess.

“Kidnapping is a more heinous crime than robbery. How much would a criminal gain from kidnapping a person when they would abandon animals worth hundreds of thousands of yuan in this store? These days, it’s all about cash flow; most people can’t come up with hundreds of thousands of yuan.”

Li Yiduo shook his head, ruling out the possibility of kidnapping.

Jin Zeping added, "The main reason is that Hu Yezhong's family is all in Dongshan Province. He came here specifically to open a shop to accompany his son, who is studying at a university in Zhangzhou. Kidnapping requires a ransom, and Hu Yezhong is not a suitable choice."

"Because transfers might be intercepted and monitored by the bank. As for international transfers, frankly, that's making a mountain out of a molehill."

Ji Yao understood what the two policemen meant.

"Is it possible that something happened to him personally?"

Zhong Xianxian curiously suggested that perhaps Hu Yezhong was unable to move around easily or had a health problem, which was why he was unable to come and take care of the cats.

"Isn't it cheaper to hire someone to help or a temporary worker than to just watch these cats die?"

Ye Ming coldly dismissed Zhong Xianxian's guess.

The group pondered for a long time, coming up with various guesses, but they were all just speculations. Until they found Hu Yezhong or finished their investigation at his home, they could only wait here idly.

The pet store's security door was locked tight, and the gap in the display window was only wide enough for cats to pass through. Before confirming that Hu Yezhong was in danger, the police couldn't simply force their way in, so the five of them had to huddle outside in the cold wind.

On the contrary, Lin Ge went in and out several times as Li Yiduo instructed, carefully checking the condition of the shop.

Aside from the fact that no one was there and the water and power were out, there was nothing else unusual in the shop. The pet shop had everything a pet store should have. Lin Ge pulled open the drawer at the service counter and found a dozen or so bills carelessly tossed around inside.

Furthermore, in the innermost cubicle, Lin Ge also saw half a dried chicken that hadn't been finished and half a bottle of baijiu (Chinese liquor) that was left unfinished. The dried chicken had been dragged to the floor by some bastard cat, and it even had disgusting teeth marks on it.

"In other words, Hu Yezhong's absence wasn't intentional. His failure to return to the pet shop likely indicates some accident! But what I can't understand is the water and power outage?"

Li Yiduo frowned in thought.

"Is there a bill that's overdue?"

Zhong Xianxian raised her hand.

Seeing the group looking over, he proudly showed off, "The storefronts I rent all have card readers installed. As soon as the card is removed or there's no money left, the water and electricity are automatically cut off. It's similar to the key cards in hotels or internet cafes. Tenants scan the code to top up their accounts, so I don't have to bother going out to check or keep accounts. They only use what they top up, and withdraw any extra money when they move out."

"There are such things? Are landlords going to do this kind of fancy stuff now?"

Jin Zeping felt his eyes were opened.

Upon hearing this, Lin Ge quickly ran to find the electricity meter and indeed saw a small device on the back of the meter with a card slot, but there was no recharge card inside as Zhong Xianxian had mentioned.

"No card?"

Li Yiduo was puzzled. Could it be that the card was taken away by someone?

"So you guessed right, it really is a criminal case?"

Jin Zeping was even more frustrated. After all, nobody likes extra work during the Lunar New Year. A criminal case meant giving it his all, but he wanted to get some rest before meeting his mother-in-law tomorrow with a tired, sleep-deprived look…

"Ow!"

Lin Ge suddenly exclaimed, shaking his head to indicate that there had only been one person's scent in the shop recently. Especially in the inner cubicles and the rest room where the electricity meters were kept, which was off-limits to outsiders, only Hu Yezhong's scent remained.

"In other words, Hu Yezhong took the card himself. Although we don't know the specifics, given that the store has so many expensive items, it's unlikely that Hu Yezhong would cut off the water and electricity. Did he take the card because it malfunctioned?"

Li Yiduo secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although there is still no accurate news about Hu Yezhong, if it is just some kind of accident, then at least the shock will not be too great.

While it may sound harsh, it's absurd that something happened on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and then another incident occurred the very next day. This is tantamount to slapping the Zhangzhou Municipal Judicial System in the face from top to bottom, causing the Zhangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, which had finally managed to solve a major case, to lose face once again.

'Zizzi...'

Jin Zeping's chest radio rang. He adjusted the channel, and Lin Ge heard a familiar voice on the other end saying that Hu Yezhong's door was unopenable. The electricity meter was still running normally, and they were about to contact a locksmith to force the door open.

"Please call a locksmith for me too, I need to go in and check the shop's condition."

Jin Zeping took advantage of the situation.

"You've been standing there for ages and haven't even gone inside?"

The person on the walkie-talkie was laughing and cursing.

Lin Ge recognized the voice; it was Huang Liangcao. Huang Liangcao was one of the people on the other end when he went to work at the Shili Town Police Station with Liu Shengyou. It had been a long time since he'd seen him, and he never expected to hear his voice on the second day of the Lunar New Year.

Judging from his appearance, he was also a poor, miserable guy who had worked overtime hard today.

Lin Ge thought gleefully. About half an hour later, the middle-aged locksmith, shivering from the cold, finally arrived, riding a small electric scooter.

Upon seeing this person, Jin Zeping couldn't help but smile.

"Old Du, you're still in this line of work?!"

"Hehe... This is the only skill I've ever had in my life. What else can I do? But Officer Jin, I've turned over a new leaf. You can't judge me by my old standards."

The locksmith surnamed Du chuckled and offered Jin Zeping a cigarette. Turning to look at Li Yiduo and his group of four, he smirked and offered Li Yiduo another. He ignored the other three, and disregarded the group of eye-catching cats around them.

"This guy used to be a seasoned thief. The first case I solved after becoming a police officer was his burglary."

Jin Zeping didn't give Lao Du any face. As he watched Lao Du take out tools from his pocket, he pointed and said, "We went through a lot of trouble to solve this case. It was only because this guy had been in and out of prison multiple times and had a file at the station, plus the extremely small lock-picking marks were considered special, that we found him. He tried to deny it at the time, but when we pointed to the marks and asked him if he admitted to being the best lock-picker, the old guy would rather go to jail than admit that he was the best at picking locks..."

"Hehe... I should have known better than to show off my skills back then! If I had just used a simple lock-picking method, you wouldn't have been able to spot me. But I can't lose my reputation as the number one locksmith in Zhangzhou! I'd rather go to jail than let people look down on me."

Old Du wasn't embarrassed at all; he even smiled and said proudly.

Li Yiduo frowned, about to reprimand him, when he heard a click. Old Du had only used a bent piece of hard steel to poke into the keyhole for less than a minute, and the security door was opened.

Thank you to Cold Fish for the 800 Qidian Coins reward.

Also, as usual, I'd like to ask for monthly votes and subscriptions.

The data seems to have dropped a bit recently. Could it be that some readers have been turned away due to poor writing? I will learn from this experience and strive to write content that everyone will enjoy more.

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(End of this chapter)