Animal Detective

Chapter 373 There were two horses at the scene.
The three of them galloped on horseback, and after about twenty minutes, they saw the Uyastai Mountains shrouded in night.

In the distance, I could see the light of a flashlight.

The group quickly approached; it was Zhang Qifeng.

Liao Lei and another villager went to search the surrounding area.

Before the horse had come to a complete stop, Lakshin had already jumped off in a hurry. He stumbled and immediately went to meet Zhang Qifeng to ask what was wrong.

When he arrived, Zhang Qifeng was using a flashlight to search for clues in the gravel.

Donya has not been found yet.

Zhang Qifeng's words relieved Shen Xin.

Like Tianxiong, as long as the body hasn't been found, there's still hope.

Zhang Qifeng led the three deeper into the area, saying as they walked, "Lakshin, there are people here, and more than one."

Shen Xin looked around at the surrounding environment.

The entire Wuyasite Mountain range runs east to west, and to your right is the main peak, which is a thousand meters high and extremely steep.

The group was located at the foot of the mountain, in the angled area between two mountain peaks in front of them.

The terrain gradually rises, with sparse wild trees and a large number of scattered stones.

After walking several dozen meters deeper, Shen Xin swept his flashlight beam across the area and immediately spotted the horse's carcass.

He lay on the ground, his body covered in a pool of blood.

Upon closer inspection, it was indeed the black horse that Donya had ridden yesterday.

Lakshin's expression was serious, and he immediately noticed the bullet hole on the horse's head.

Shen Xin examined the horse's carcass.

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

The two bullet holes are not quite the same size.

The bullet hole in the buttocks was smaller, and there was less bleeding around it.

Shen Xin turned his head and shone the flashlight.

There were messy footprints, hoofprints, drag marks, and friction marks on the gravel ground.

The scene was very messy.

"The shot at the horse's rear end was likely fired from a distance, while the shot at the head was fired at close range, an execution-style shot."

Shen Xin said, pointing to the marks on the ground.

It's quite obvious that there's a row of hoofprints coming this way, but the prints become messy when you get closer.

Shen Xin also saw bloodstains dripping on the ground.

Shen Xin looked at the depths between the two mountains and then at the location of the horse's carcass, saying, "Do you think this is possible? The horse ran over from that side, and the armed thug fired a shot from a distance."

"The shot hit the horse in the buttocks, damaging its internal organs, but the horse did not die immediately. It ran a few more steps before collapsing to the ground. There are many signs of struggle here."

It looks like a horse that has fallen to the ground and struggled to get up.

"Then look at the footprints."

Shen Xin looked at the ground.

The area at the foot of the mountain is mainly composed of gravel and sand, with little grass cover.

However, the ground is still soft overall, making it possible to leave footprints.

"These footprints indicate that someone chased after the horse and shot it at close range."

"Then look at these footprints."

Shen Xin squatted down.

The footprints at the scene were messy, but several were in good condition.

"This one, and this one, have clear sole patterns, but the patterns are different, which means they are from two different people's footprints."

"And here is another footprint, pointed, and much smaller than the other two footprints."

Shen Xin gestured with his hand.

It's probably only a size 36, significantly smaller than the other two footprints.

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

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

If the footprints belong to Donya, then the situation at the scene might be that Donya was trying to escape on horseback.

The armed assailant fired from behind at a distance.

Shen Xin felt that Donya was very lucky with this shot; it missed her but hit the horse.

The horse, in pain, might throw Donya to the ground.

Then two thugs caught up, first subdued Donya, and then shot and killed Ma.

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

If the assailants caught up and shot Donya dead on the spot, there would definitely be a large bloodstain left at the scene.

The three men, including Lakshin, nodded repeatedly.

Zhang Qifeng pointed deeper into the area and said, "And over there, I found some traces of a campfire."

The group immediately headed deeper into the area.

The distance is about thirty or forty meters.

There were hoofprints and footprints along the way.

The footprints show a long stride, indicating that the person was running.

Shen Xin couldn't help but turn his head to look.

Thirty meters is not a short distance.

So, was that long-range shot aimed at a person or a horse?
Regardless of the situation, Shen Xin felt that this person's marksmanship was quite good.

The horse was running, and at a distance of thirty meters, a single shot hit.

Even if the horse has a big target, it's not easy to catch it.

In Mongolian, Uyastai Mountain means "mountain with poplar trees".

The trees on the mountain were sparse, and the place Zhang Qifeng was referring to was right next to a small poplar tree.

There was a campfire, and around it were messy footprints, sausage casings, instant noodle containers, and bread roll wrappers.

Zhang Qifeng shone his flashlight into the distance and said, "There are motorcycle tracks over there too."

Shen Xin went over to take a look.

There were indeed several clear motorcycle tracks.

Lakshin squatted down and took a closer look, saying that it should be the tire tracks of a 125cc motorcycle commonly used by herders on the grassland.

Shen Xin returned to the campfire.

Standing to the side, I carefully observed the scene.

Lakshin walked over and asked in a deep voice, "Shen Xin, you're a criminal investigator, what do you think?"

Shen Xin didn't speak, but shone his flashlight and carefully observed the scene.

Lakshin followed up, saying, "I think they're poachers or border crossers."

"The current situation looks like Donya has encountered bad people."

"The key is that the criminals still had guns. We have been banning guns and carrying out publicity campaigns, so there are almost no guns left in the hands of herders."

"Even if there was a reason, it wouldn't be a random attack on Donya. It could only mean they were doing something bad and Donya caught them."

Shen Xin nodded and casually asked him if there was a lot of poaching on the grassland.

Nowadays, almost every animal is a protected species; even climbing a tree to steal a bird could be considered a crime.

With such a strong crackdown, poaching should decrease significantly.

"many."

Lakshin sighed and said, "We caught a few more last year, some for catching larks, and others for poisoning them."

"The lark has a beautiful song, so some people keep it as a pet and even feed it. I don't know what they're thinking."

"And that long-tailed gazelle, its scientific name is goitered gazelle. Its horns can be used in medicine, and some people steal them."

"Anyway, there will always be some people who are blinded by greed, and it is impossible to completely eliminate them."

Shen Xin nodded. In fact, Shen Xin also leaned towards the poachers.

Because the other party has a motorcycle.

If they are border crossers, they might be hiding here.

But they wouldn't cross the border on a motorcycle.

Keep up the good work!

It would be very difficult for a cross-border traveler to obtain a motorcycle as a means of transportation.

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

On the bottom of the trunk, on the side facing away from the campfire, there are signs of wear, and it looks quite new.

On the side facing the campfire, there are footprints and traces of someone sitting.

Shen Xin thought these were marks left when Donya was tied to the tree.

Lakshin saw it too and exclaimed, "They've tied Donya up!"

Zhang Qifeng and his companion came over to take a look.

"Where is that person? Did they take him away?" Zhang Qifeng frowned.

Lakshin nodded and said, "Possibly."

The person was tied up and has now disappeared, so they must have been taken away by the criminals.

Shen Xin didn't say anything, but took the flashlight, expanded the search area, and continued to look for traces.

Shen Xin did not quite agree with Lakshin's speculation.

It sounds reasonable to arrest them, tie them up, and then take them away together.

But it's actually unreasonable.

If we look at it from the perspective of poachers...

First of all, these are two armed and extremely vicious men.

Because they dared to fire.

Living in the country, who doesn't know the consequences of firing a gun?

But they dared to shoot the horse dead at close range, a ruthless execution.

That shot was most likely aimed at a person, but it missed and hit the horse instead.

These two poachers, traveling alone on the grassland, must have been far from human habitation.

In that case, bringing along a grown person would be very troublesome.

Their scheme was exposed.

Donya even saw their faces. If they were in their shoes, the best option would definitely be to kill them to silence them.

This area is almost a no-man's land, sparsely populated. If someone is killed here, it might not be discovered for ten days or half a month.

However, Donya's body was not found at the scene.

There are only two possibilities.

Alternatively, fearing it might be unsafe here, they might choose to take the person to a more remote place to kill them.

But Shen Xin felt that this was unlikely.

The campfire extinguished naturally, and there were scattered food packages around.

This shows they left in a hurry and didn't have time to pack up.

If you choose to commit murder, then at the very least, you should clean up the evidence at the scene.

Therefore, Shen Xin is more inclined to the second possibility.

Donya was tied up, and then somehow managed to escape.

The two left the scene in a hurry, possibly to catch up with Donya, or perhaps because they were afraid Donya would call the police and fled in panic.

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

There were also hoof prints around the campfire.

Shen Xin hadn't thought much of it at first, assuming it was left by Donya's horse.

But now I've noticed that the hoofprints are a little different.

For example, these hoof prints in front of us don't show the marks of horseshoes.

Horses owned by herders are usually shod.

That means there were actually two horses at the scene.

One horse has already been shot dead, what about the other one?

Shen Xin's heart skipped a beat as he considered a possibility.

Honggul!
Donya came here to find Hongur.

Shen Xin quickly looked for different hoof prints.

It is clear that these unshoeed hoof prints are in a separate string.

Approaching from afar, they appeared beside the tree trunk, then around the campfire, and extended down the mountain.

Shen Xin was secretly excited.

My speculation is possible; Donya may have taken advantage of the two poachers' departure to escape on her horse, Hongur.

Only after discovering the poachers did they hastily leave the scene to give chase.

Whether they caught up or not is unknown.

But this is really a good sign.

At the same time, the most important thing right now is not to discuss what exactly happened on the scene, but to follow up.

Neither Donya nor the two poachers.

Just then, a light appeared on the distant grassland.

It was two young men from the village who had lagged behind who brought Tian Kui over.

That's perfect. Let's not delay and track them down first.

It's only been a few hours, we'll definitely catch up.

Shen Xin looked out over the vast grassland and couldn't help but pray to the gods and Buddhas in the sky, as well as to Tengri.

May they bless Donya and bring her back safely.

He gestured for Lakshin to go over, and Shen Xin glanced one last time at the location of the campfire, vaguely feeling as if he had overlooked something.

at the same time.

Deep in the grassland.

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

Donya, looking disheveled, was huddled behind a small hill.

A few steps away, Hongur was grazing leisurely with his head down.

Donya lowered her head.

She had her Mongolian robe half-open, and inside the robe lay a large, snow-white bird, motionless.

This is a falcon.

But this was the first time Donya had ever seen a falcon with pure white feathers.

Having rested enough, Donya didn't dare linger and got up to call Hongur to leave.

Hongur turned his head to look at Donya, but didn't move.

Enraged, Donya slapped him on the head. He had been so obedient before, but now he was disobedient again.

Just then, Hongur suddenly looked up.

"You're willing to leave?"

Donya was overjoyed and was about to mount her horse when she suddenly stopped.

She saw it too; in the darkness in the distance, four will-o'-the-wisps suddenly appeared.

Donya felt a chill run down her spine.

That's not some will-o'-the-wisp, it's a wolf.

(End of this chapter)