Animal Detective

Chapter 338 Shen Xin, you're even more ruthless than me!

Outside the entrance of Jin'an Temple.

Zou Cong set off early, and the second group didn't rush to leave either.

Zou Cong came out after being inside for more than half an hour.

Judging from his expression from a distance, he must have found some solace.

He was also holding a rather large red wooden box in his hands.

Gu Dawei scoffed and said, "Someone like him won't be able to get anything out of him."

Shen Xin nodded in agreement.

Zou Cong drove away, seemingly heading to work.

Next, another surveillance team will be on the scene.

Shen Xin had already sensed that the case was unusual, so he went back to the hotel to catch up on sleep.

As for what the task force planned to do, Shen Xin didn't care. He just needed to do whatever they told him to do.

As a result, Shen Xin was woken up by Zhang Songhao at around 2 p.m.

He explained to Shen Xin, in a roundabout way, what to do next.

Shen Xin interrupted him, saying, "Simply put, we just need to keep scaring him."

Zhang Songhao nodded quickly, saying that was exactly what he meant.

After hesitating for a moment, Shen Xin asked, "Won't there be a problem with that?"

It doesn't seem to be in accordance with the rules.

Moreover, information obtained in this way cannot be used as evidence.

Zhang Songhao seemed to have come to terms with it, saying, "It's alright, it's the task force's decision anyway."

Shen Xin understood; he couldn't pin the blame on himself.

But how exactly to do it still needs further discussion.

Guan Wenkang, on the other hand, is a young man with quite a few ideas.

"Based on my experience of watching hundreds of horror movies, both domestic and international, the most terrifying thing is definitely the atmosphere."

Guan Wenkang spoke eloquently, saying, "Simply scaring him won't work. For example, hiding in a corner and suddenly jumping out to startle him won't work."

"You need to give a hint, like in a horror movie, like the curtains moving, a sudden gust of wind, or hearing some rustling sounds in the middle of the night."

"Let him think for himself and fill in the blanks with his own imagination, that's what's scary."

Shen Xin nodded repeatedly; that made sense.

Ketchup and such aren't scary at all; it's the atmosphere of horror that's scary.

Looking at the police chief dressed in all black, Shen Xin had a sudden inspiration.

The sheriff is a black cat.

In traditional thinking, some people believe that black cats are a symbol of bad luck.

"Chief Qin, I have an idea."

Shen Xin looked up and gazed at Qin Chunyi.

……

Zou Cong gets off work at 5:30 pm.

However, the exact time is uncertain; for example, today is Friday, the last working day.

He held a meeting that lasted a while, and then did some work in his office. It wasn't until almost 8 p.m. that he was ready to leave.

It seems he doesn't really want to go home either.

Carrying the protective Buddha statue he had brought, Zou Cong took the elevator to the underground parking garage.

In Matsuura, where land is extremely valuable, underground parking garages tend to be quite crowded.

It's 8 PM, and there aren't many cars left in the garage.

Zou Cong carried his things, and the only sound around him was his own footsteps.

There is a designated parking area for executives. As Zou Cong approached, he noticed that the lights in this area were not on.

Then, deep inside, the adjacent area is in the same situation.

That must be a malfunction.

Only one area was damaged, and there was lighting nearby, so it was just a little darker. Zou Cong didn't think much of it.

Zou Cong abruptly stopped in his tracks as his leather shoes slid across the epoxy floor.

In the dim light, his Maybach was parked against the wall.

But on the roof of the car, Zou Cong saw something.

It was a small, dark mass, with two faint points of light shining towards me.

After what happened last night, Zou Cong was already feeling quite uneasy.

He instinctively recalled the dark shape he had seen in the reflection of the window the previous night.

"who!"

Zou Cong called out instinctively, but there was no response from any direction; the only sound was the noise of the ventilation fan in the underground parking garage.

At that moment, upon closer inspection, Zou Cong suddenly realized that it wasn't some unknown thing, but... a cat?

It was still a pure black cat.

He just squatted on the roof of the car, looking at himself from a distance of more than ten meters.

Zou Cong breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, "What did I think it was?"

Just then, a sharp alarm sounded from behind.

Startled, Zou Cong quickly turned his head.

It seems that the alarm on a car in the distance has been triggered, and the light is flashing.

Startled, Zou Cong cursed under his breath and looked away.

Suddenly, I was startled again.

Zou Cong suddenly realized that the cat was gone.

Looking around, there was no sign of the black cat.

It's as if... it never existed.

Zou Cong instinctively stepped forward and looked around briefly, but found nothing.

The cat was probably scared away when the alarm went off.

Zou Cong took a deep breath, got into the car, and prepared to leave.

However, just as I was about to start the car, the scene from last night still uncontrollably surfaced in my mind.

In the reflection of the glass, that dark, indistinct thing...

Zou Cong gritted his teeth, looked around again, and seeing that everything was calm, started the car and drove away.

But with these distracting thoughts, Zou Cong instinctively became more cautious.

He observed potential blind spots in the garage and also peeked around through the rearview mirror.

Nothing at all.

As they approached the underground parking garage gate, Zou Cong subconsciously slowed down.

Just then, he glanced at the rearview mirror and slammed on the brakes.

Zou Cong quickly turned his head.

There was nothing behind me; everything seemed normal.

Zou Cong gripped the steering wheel, his eyes trembling slightly.

He had only glanced at it briefly, his eyes scanning the rearview mirror, and in the mirror he saw a dark shape running past behind him.

It looks like a cat.

The gate had already been opened. Zou Cong's eyes flickered, and he quickly reassured himself.

I must be overthinking it.

It's just one cat.

There are stray cats everywhere in the city.

Those young people in the office are even secretly feeding the cat.

That's what he thought, but when he got on the road, Zou Cong couldn't help but think of the cat sitting on the roof of the car.

I only glanced at it twice.

It was pure black, and its two eyes seemed to glow.

Zou Cong couldn't help but think that a black cat seemed...unlucky.

Among the random things I searched for at night, there was a saying that black cats are an ominous sign.

Zou Cong gritted his teeth, his hand involuntarily reaching for the wooden box placed on the passenger seat.

Open it, and inside is a golden Buddha statue.

It was icy cold to the touch. Zou Cong stroked it and calmed himself down a little, comforting himself that he was just overthinking.

Moreover, he even invited a golden Buddha statue.

Jin'an Temple is very efficacious.

Amidst the congested traffic, Zou Cong arrived home close to 10 p.m.

When the garage door opened, he made a point of looking around.

The shadows of the trees swayed, but nothing seemed amiss.

However, out of caution, Zou Cong still checked the villa thoroughly.

There was no one there. Everything was exactly as it had been when I left; there were even cooked dumplings in the kitchen.

I checked the access control system again, but there was nothing unusual.

Only after turning on all the lights and the TV did Zou Cong feel at ease. Then he searched the whole house for a place to put the golden Buddha statue.

After much deliberation, I finally placed it on the display cabinet in the living room on the second floor.

Directly opposite the stairs.

Meanwhile, Shen Xin and others were already in position outside the villa.

Guan Wenkang gave a bad idea, saying that Zou Cong's living room on the first floor had floor-to-ceiling windows facing the courtyard.

He's watching TV right now, so let the sheriff squat outside the floor-to-ceiling window, where he can see him.

"Imagine he's watching TV, relaxing, when he suddenly looks up and sees something outside the window."

"It was pitch black, and the glass was reflecting light, so you couldn't see clearly. You had to squint to see it, and when you finally managed to see it, you realized it was the cat you saw in the underground parking garage!"

"At this point, the sheriff will give him a zero-frame start disappearance."

Guan Wenkang waved his hand sharply and said, "That would scare him to death."

Shen Xin tilted his head back to avoid it.

Whether Zou Cong was scared to death or not is unknown, but he certainly startled everyone present.

Hu Mingchuan also asked curiously what "starting with zero frames" meant.

Guan Wenkang's face clearly showed the signs of a generation gap, so I explained it to him.

Shen Xin thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No, I don't think that's enough."

“Think about it, he saw the sheriff in the garage. This was a setup, a psychological suggestion for him.”

"He may have had some thoughts, but he didn't think about them deeply. He still went home, which shows that he is currently in a safe and comfortable psychological zone."

“If you provoke him at this time, he will definitely immediately associate it with the sheriff and have a strong reaction.”

"I don't think this is working well, let's try something else."

Shen Xin shared his thoughts.

Zou Cong invited a Buddha statue, so why not wait until he falls asleep and then do something to it, like knocking it to the ground?

It startled him awake.

"The Buddha statue gave him a certain sense of psychological security, but the fact that the Buddha statue fell down was like giving him an ominous sign. It made him continue to fill in the blanks in his mind and think about where the problem was."

"He would start to think about bad signs, like seeing a pure black cat, and then the sheriff would appear in front of him."

"If his idea is confirmed, wouldn't that only intensify his fear?"

Shen Xin felt that this was enough groundwork, making full use of Zou Cong's own imagination, and only giving some vague psychological suggestions, so as to fully arouse his fear.

As Guan Wenkang said, it's all about creating the right atmosphere.

After he finished speaking, he looked up and found that everyone in the car was staring at him.

"Shen Xin, you're even more ruthless than me," Guan Wenkang said, taking a deep breath.

Others nodded.

Someone like Shen Xin even got involved in psychology.

Everyone looked at Qin Chunyi.

Qin Chunyi glanced at Gao Siyu, who remained silent, and nodded.

In the villa.

Even with the TV on and the volume turned up, Zou Cong still felt uneasy.

He would turn his head every now and then to look behind him.

But nothing.

It wasn't until almost midnight that Zou Cong got up to go to sleep.

When I entered the master bedroom, I made a point of bowing to the Buddha statue.

After washing up and locking the master bedroom door from the inside, Zou Cong finally went to bed.

But I couldn't sleep at all, and I couldn't help but listen to the sounds around me.

Nothing at all.

The curtains didn't move, and there was no one under the bed.

Zou Cong, suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, lay in bed for more than half an hour before getting up, turning on the light, and checking every corner of the bedroom.

everything is normal.

It seems the Buddha I invited has worked.

Besides, it's already past midnight; if something had happened, it should have happened by now.

With this thought in mind, Zou Cong lay back down and drifted off to sleep.

I think about it every day and dream about it at night.

Unable to resist, Zou Cong had another dream.

I dreamt that I was walking in a dark underground parking garage.

He was looking for his car everywhere.

But I can't remember where I parked it, and I just can't find it no matter what I do, I'm so anxious.

As I was searching, I suddenly spotted a cat.

It was pure black, staring at me with its two eyes wide open.

Zou Cong was startled and turned to run, but the garage was too big, and every now and then, he felt something passing by behind him.

He ran faster and faster, but his legs couldn't move, as if something was pressing down on them, and he couldn't muster any strength.

Just then, a loud crash was heard.

Zou Cong suddenly opened his eyes, instantly becoming fully awake, his vision blurred, and his whole body went numb.

Still shaken, Zou Cong realized he was awake.

And I did hear the sound of something falling to the ground.

Zou Cong quickly sat up and hurriedly turned on the light.

Everything is normal in the bedroom.

Zou Cong took a few deep breaths. He was absolutely certain that he had heard something, quite loud, as if it were coming from outside.

After hesitating for a moment, Zou Cong threw off the quilt, got up, and got out of bed.

He also grabbed a fruit knife that he had left on his bedside table before going to sleep.

The door is locked.

It was deathly silent outside; there wasn't a sound at all.

With a determined effort, Zou Cong opened the door and quickly turned on the light.

The lights illuminated the living room on the second floor, and everything seemed normal.

wrong.

Zou Cong's pupils dilated suddenly.

Not far away, under the decorative cabinet against the wall, his golden Buddha statue lay on the ground.

In an instant, Zou Cong felt a chill run down his spine.

The Buddha statue was placed in the cabinet, and it was so heavy; it shouldn't have tipped over by itself under any circumstances.

Unless someone knocked it over.

"who!"

Zou Cong shouted.

In the empty villa, only his own voice could be heard.

Zou Cong broke out in a cold sweat, then suddenly noticed that the stairwell lights were on.

Something's being taken downstairs!

Zou Cong's legs went weak, his mind went blank, and he wanted to go back to his bedroom, but fear lingered in his mind, making him feel that even his bedroom was not safe.

go!
Zou Cong wanted to leave.

Holding a knife in one hand and the handrail in the other, he slowly descended the stairs.

It's dark downstairs.

There was complete silence; not a sound could be heard.

He instinctively reached for the light switch on the wall to the right of the stairwell.

Out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed two points of light floating abruptly in the depths of the corridor to my right.

It looks like... a pair of eyes.

That cat!
Zou Cong's pupils dilated to the extreme, he felt as if his heart was about to stop beating, and only one thought occupied his mind.

I knew something was wrong with that cat.

A black cat is an ominous sign!
With a thud, Zou Cong's legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground, screaming, "Yuan Jie, don't look for me! I didn't force you to commit suicide!"

"It's...it's Director Chen. He's the one who wanted to do it. If you need to find someone, go find him, don't come to me."

"I know you died a terrible death, but it's really not my fault. I didn't want it to happen either."

He screamed incessantly, nearly collapsing.

His words, without missing a single one, reached the ears of Shen Xin and the others.

Shen Xin turned his head again and looked at everyone.

No, who is this Director Chen?

(End of this chapter)