Animal Detective

Chapter 408 is simple: Fu Lanting is dead, Guo Jinhua is alive.

Early in the morning, Zhao Hongjie arrived at the Municipal Bureau by car.

After turning into the compound, they hadn't driven far when the driver, Xiao Liu, suddenly slammed on the brakes.

But it was a large, jet-black bird that flapped its wings and landed on the road ahead.

Xiao Liu felt a wave of fear wash over him.

He overheard Zhao Hongjie talking about how the municipal bureau has a bird worth seven million that they can't afford to pay for if they crash into it.

Shen Xin ran quickly over from a distance and picked up the raven.

After nurturing him for two days and building up his affection, Shen Xin decided to let him go.

Keeping someone in a cage slows down the increase in affection level.

Shen Xin quickly stepped aside and gestured for Zhao Hongjie to go over.

Zhao Hongjie rolled down the car window and asked what was going on.

Ravens and falcons are about the same size, so he mistook it for a teddy bear.

But Teddy is white, and now it's turned into charcoal.

"Director Zhao, this isn't a falcon, it's a raven."

Shen Xin put the raven on his arm.

It was as black as ink, quite tall, and extremely handsome, but the only thing it uttered was the word "idiot."

Zhao Hongjie's expression changed, while Shen Xin was startled and hurriedly explained.

My favorability rating has increased these past two days. Perhaps influenced by this, I've become smarter, and my ability to mimic others has also improved.

As a result, he was corrupted by that airplane, and the first word he learned was "idiot."

"Using birds for reconnaissance, like drones?"

When Shen Xin mentioned wanting to train these crows to be police birds, conducting aerial reconnaissance like drones, Zhao Hongjie was surprised but also intrigued.

Shen Xin carefully observed Zhao Hongjie's expression and reaction, and said, "Director Zhao, this is just an idea I had, I don't know if it will work yet, what do you think?"

Zhao Hongjie snapped out of his daze and glanced at the raven.

He thought it might be feasible, after all, he had witnessed Shen Xin's abilities.

But there's also a sense of absurdity.

There are police dogs, even police horses, but police birds?

It feels a bit ridiculous.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Hongjie smiled and said, "Whether it works or not depends on your performance."

He doesn't make any assumptions; he just observes the results.

After saying that, he gestured for Shen Xin to go about his business, then turned and got into his car and left.

Once in the car, he muttered a warning bird and asked the driver in front what he thought.

"A warning bird?"

Xiao Liu looked incredulous for a moment, smiled, shook his head, and said he didn't know if it would work.

He added, "I just feel like our municipal bureau is going to turn into a zoo from now on."

Police dog, bird.

He also heard that Shen Xin had brought back a donkey when he went to Juzhou.

Zhao Hongjie glanced at the driver and laughed, "A zoo is fine, it's good."

Even if Shen Xin really turned the Municipal Bureau into a zoo, Zhao Hongjie wouldn't say anything.

In his mind, Shen Xin was a future animal crime investigation expert.

Shen Xin was relieved to find it was a false alarm. He scolded the raven a few times, fed it all, and then returned to his office.

When I entered, Zhao Tianxing was teaching the plane how to speak.

The man and the bird started hurling insults at each other, and the louder the bird cursed, the more excited Zhao Tianxing became.

Shen Xin said irritably, "Can't you teach me something good, like 'Safe travels' or 'Nothing happened today'?"

From now on, it will serve as the office mascot. Every morning when someone walks in, it will say, "Nothing to do today," to bring good luck.

Seeing that it was almost time, Shen Xin clapped his hands and called the three of them to start a meeting.

It's still Guo Jinhua's case.

Yesterday, Shen Xin went to Hutang and met with Fu Lanting's family.

Meanwhile, Yang Zeran and his colleague have been investigating Guo Kaitai's social connections over the past two days, looking for possible suspects.

Nothing found.

Guo Kaitai is a rather honest person.

The rubber factory was a state-owned enterprise, and he was the workshop director, a veteran in the factory. Logically speaking, if he were a little bolder, he could live a very comfortable life.

But he didn't.

Yang Zeran and his companion visited some of the former employees of the rubber factory.

The general consensus about Guo Kaitai is that he is honest, reliable, and steady, and rarely gets angry with anyone.

If you absolutely had to find someone he had a grudge against, it would be in 96, when the rubber factory was being restructured and all the workshop employees were going to be laid off.

When submitting the list, he named a worker named Yang Zhuangzhi.

This person has a bad reputation at the factory; he's lazy, always late or leaving early, and just drifts around aimlessly in society.

After he was put on the layoff list, he had a falling out with Guo Kaitai and even threatened to kill Guo Kaitai.

Guo Kaitai ignored him.

As a result, Yang Zhuangzhi was laid off first, and Guo Kaitai, who was in the second batch, was also laid off.

As for Yang Zhuangzhi's so-called revenge, it was all just talk and was never carried out.

Apart from that, Guo Kaitai lived a simple life, going between home and the factory, and had no enemies. His social relationships were also extremely simple.

In other words, Guo Jinhua's parents' side is also a dead end.

Shen Xin pulled over the blackboard: "Let's go through the case again, and all the relevant personnel, from beginning to end."

Shen Xin asked Ding Yuwei to write it, as she has beautiful handwriting.

"On the afternoon of June 28, Fu Lanting went to the Yunlin branch for treatment."

"She said that she felt unwell on June 26, which was two days ago. Guo Jinhua advised her to go to the hospital to see a doctor, but she felt that it was not a big problem and did not go until the 28th."

At the same time, Guo Jinhua also experienced weakness, dizziness, and nosebleeds.

“Bromadiolone typically takes effect within 24 to 48 hours, meaning the suspect may have poisoned the two individuals around the 24th, and their symptoms were not severe.”

"It's possible that the suspect didn't control the dosage properly."

Shen Xin flipped through the files and notes, recounting the situation.

Ding Yuwei kept her head down and took notes.

It took almost an hour to fill the entire whiteboard with writing.

The timeline has been laid out.

All the investigations surrounding the timeline were also written on the whiteboard.

Of course, there are also related suspects.

There were about twenty photos posted in total.

Each photo was accompanied by a description of the relevant survey.

Because the time of the poisoning could not be determined, the alibis of some individuals could not be confirmed as well.

"Come on, who wants to speak first and give their opinion?"

Shen Xin looked at the three of them.

Zhao Tianxing seemed lost in thought, looking completely bewildered.

Ding Yuwei twirled her pen, staring intently at the whiteboard, remaining silent.

As for Yang Zeran, he looked up at the ceiling, seemingly lost in thought.

He asked again, but the three of them still didn't respond.

"Brother Xing, you start," Shen Xin asked.

Zhao Tianxing was startled, looked at Shen Xin, and said, "How can I not take the lead?"

Seeing Shen Xin shake his head, Zhao Tianxing thought for a moment, pointed to all the photos on the whiteboard, and said, "Anyway, the suspect isn't among these people."

Each of the people on the blackboard had been thoroughly investigated, and none of them had a strong motive to poison anyone. It could only be someone else.

Ding Yuwei said softly, "But the problem is, if it's not these people, then there's no one left."

She looked at Shen Xin.

Shen Xin nodded slightly and crossed his arms.

As Ding Yuwei said, the social relationship between the two is not complicated.

They were just an ordinary couple.

It's fair to say that these are the only people they have connections with.

If it wasn't them, then it couldn't be someone completely unrelated.

For example, a diner.

One day, while eating, he found a large cockroach in his food. Enraged, he decided to poison his food for more than two months.

This is completely unreasonable.

If he were truly that angry, he would have drawn his knife and killed both of them on the spot.

Shen Xin looked at the blackboard.

The case was investigated for many days, extending the investigation along the same path taken by the original task force, and all possible investigations were conducted.

Shen Xin had always had an idea in his mind.

But I didn't dare to make up my mind.

"Lao Yang."

Shen Xin kicked Yang Zeran under the table and asked him what he thought.

Yang Zeran glanced at Shen Xin, stood up, and made as if to say something.

But he swallowed the words back and sat back down.

I don't want to talk about it anymore.

But not long after he sat down, he frowned and stood up again.

Zhao Tianxing said speechlessly, "Old Yang, just spit it out."

Yang Zeran glared at him, but didn't get up. He said, "I've recently realized that when handling cases, we can't be too presumptuous."

"In other words, there will always be a discrepancy between ideas and reality. Some ideas seem reasonable and logical."

"But in reality, these logics are not necessarily realized."

"For example, when we investigate a case, we follow the normal procedures and investigate the victim."

"Find the motive, find the logical suspect, and then piece together the reality."

"But this reality is a reality we've imagined."

As he said this, Zhao Tianxing interrupted him again, saying, "My great philosopher Yang, what exactly are you trying to say?"

Yang Zeran raised his hand to signal him to shut up, then looked at Shen Xin.

They looked into each other's eyes and made eye contact.

Yang Zeran said, "Shen Xin, this case is very strange. We have come up with some ways to commit the crime, which are theoretically possible."

"But that's just in theory. Is it possible that in reality it doesn't need to be that complicated?"

Shen Xin nodded slightly, feeling that Yang Zeran had the same idea as him.

Shen Xin said, "Just like you said, we take it for granted that the case should be like this and need to be logical, but in reality, it may not be like this."

Yang Zeran's eyes brightened a bit; he felt that what he had thought of, Shen Xin had also thought of.

Ding Yuwei was confused and asked the two what they were trying to say.

Shen Xin looked at Yang Zeran, signaling him to speak first.

Yang Zeran shook his head, signaling Shen Xin to speak first.

He even became polite.

Shen Xin's eyes darted around, and he pointed to the notebook, saying, "Why don't we write it down and see if it's the same?"

Yang Zeran nodded and quickly started scribbling in his notebook.

Shen Xin also quickly wrote a few words.

"Together?" Yang Zeran asked.

Shen Xin nodded and flipped the notebook over.

On Yang Zeran's notebook opposite him, three large characters were written in bold.

Guo Jinhua!
There was a question mark at the end.

Ding Yuwei hurriedly turned her head and looked at Yang Zeran's notebook.

Shen Xin also wrote the three characters "Guo Jinhua" in his notebook.

Zhao Tianxing asked in surprise, "No, what do you two mean?"

Yang Zeran smiled knowingly and gestured for Shen Xin to speak first.

Shen Xin spun his chair toward the blackboard and said, "Actually, my idea is very simple."

“We investigated all the social connections of these two people, and then came up empty-handed.”

"We cannot determine the time or method of poisoning."

"Especially the method, the poisoning lasted for more than two months and has not yet been discovered."

"Was this method of poisoning something we didn't expect, or is it too sophisticated, some kind of ingenious mystery or trick?"

"Just like Lao Yang said, some things seem logically reasonable and understandable."

"But in reality, the possibility is extremely slim."

"So, since there were no suspects with a motive in this case, we also investigated all the people who were related to them."

"We haven't found the poison yet, nor can we think of a reasonable way to poison it."

"So, setting aside all these impossibilities, there is one possibility that becomes very reasonable."

"That means they poisoned it themselves."

Shen Xin pointed to the two photos in the middle of the blackboard.

Yang Zeran nodded.

Ding Yuwei's eyes widened.

Zhao Tianxing's mouth dropped open, and after a long while, he asked urgently, "Shen Xin, do you mean they committed suicide?"

Ding Yuwei was shocked and exclaimed, "You mean, because their child died from illness, the two of them chose to commit suicide?"

"Do not."

Shen Xin shook his head: "It was murder. Guo Jinhua killed Fu Lanting."

"It's very simple: Fu Lanting is dead, and Guo Jinhua is alive."

If there has to be a murderer, it must be a living person, not a dead one.

"As I said, the social relationships are simple, and there are no suspects with motives around."

"But if the suspect is your spouse, wouldn't that make sense?"

"The method of poisoning is uncertain because it is difficult to carry out, but if it was someone close to the victim, wouldn't that be reasonable?"

"You're probably thinking that Guo Jinhua himself was a victim, poisoned, and left with serious aftereffects."

"But as I said before, he lived, while Fu Lanting died."

"No one would be stupid enough to kill themselves, so it could only be Guo Jinhua."

"No matter how unreasonable it may seem, it is the most reasonable explanation for the current situation."

Shen Xin recalled Sun Zhao and Chen Chao's reactions.

Chen Chao said that he had an idea back then, but he never dared to make up his mind about it.

Looking back now, Shen Xin thinks the two of them may have already considered this possibility.

But it's too illogical.

Moreover, a special task force was established for this case at the time, and it attracted a lot of attention.

After a thorough investigation, the victim was identified as the murderer.

However, there is no evidence to support this speculation, so who would dare to draw such a conclusion so easily?

(End of this chapter)