Animal Detective

Chapter 73 Check-in
After replying that he hadn't, Shen Xin went back to his apartment to catch up on sleep.

I stayed up all night and was still worried, so I was exhausted.

Shen Xin had a dream, but it was all very vague.

In the darkness, Shen Xin groped his way forward toward the light ahead.

As they got closer, Shen Xin saw it.

It's a woman.

She was squatting on the ground with her back to me, holding a kitchen knife in her hand, chopping away like a robot.

Zhang Qin!

Shen Xin recognized the figure from behind at a glance.

I wanted to escape, but my legs felt like they were frozen in place, and I couldn't move them at all.

Just when she was extremely anxious, Zhang Qin suddenly turned her head.

With its only remaining eye, it stared straight at him, its face expressionless.

Shen Xin's heart pounded wildly.

And at that moment, Shen Xin suddenly noticed that the victim Zhang Qin was slashing with a knife at her feet looked very familiar.

He lay stiffly in a pool of blood, his head turned, staring wide-eyed at himself.

Shen Xin was startled, a chill running straight to the top of his head.

Isn't this... me?
Just then, someone patted him on the back.

A loud "Ah!"
Shen Xin screamed and suddenly sat up.

Then another scream of pain was heard.

Shen Xin was also in pain.

It felt like I bumped my head on something.

Still in a state of shock, after bumping into something, he instinctively leaned back and fell onto the bed.

Only then did they see clearly that Zhang Qian was covering her nose by the bedside, gasping for breath in pain.

"Blood!"

Before he could think about why Zhang Qian was there, seeing the blood flowing from between her fingers, Shen Xin felt a chill run through his body. He felt as if a strong smell of blood filled his nose and turned his head to vomit violently.

"Shen Xin, you bumped into me, are you still disgusted?" Zhang Qian shoved Shen Xin in an annoyed tone.

Shen Xin just gagged; he couldn't vomit at all.

He waved his hand to calm himself down before saying, "I didn't want to throw up on you, I just saw blood... Oh right, you have a nosebleed!"

Shen Xin quickly got up and took out a tissue to cover Zhang Qian's nose.

"And the lips."

My upper lip was also injured and is bleeding.

Shen Xin was in a flurry of activity.

"I can do it myself." Zhang Qian took the tissue, tilted her head back, and wiped her face, tears streaming down her face from the pain.

Shen Xin asked her, somewhat embarrassed, how it went.

"What do you think?" Zhang Qian glanced at Shen Xin out of the corner of her eye, but didn't say anything. She just asked Shen Xin what was wrong, as he seemed to be having a nightmare.

She was sitting on the sofa downstairs when she heard a noise upstairs. When she came up to check, she found Shen Xin's expression was terrifying, so she went over to try and wake him up.

As a result, Shen Xin suddenly sat up and bumped into her nose.

"Don't mention it."

Shen Xin rubbed his forehead; the nightmare from just now was still vivid in his mind.

"By the way, what are you doing here?"

Shen Xin glanced out the window; it was already getting dark outside, almost six o'clock.

Zhang Qian still looked up and said, "I need to talk to you. I knocked on the door for ages but you didn't open it. I called you but you didn't answer. I saw your car downstairs and thought something had happened to you. Then I remembered I had the door code, so I opened the door myself and came in."

I asked her for help that night and gave her the door code for my house.

"sorry."

She apologized.

Shen Xin waved his hand to indicate that it was alright.

Zhang Qian continued, "Then I realized you were just sleeping."

He was sleeping very soundly, probably exhausted, so Zhang Qian didn't wake Shen Xin. She just sat downstairs and waited, playing with Da Mei and the others.

I've been waiting for over an hour.

"Shen Xin, what happened to my dad? We called the police station, and Song said he didn't know, that he was working on a case at the branch office. We called the branch office, and Captain Sun wouldn't say either, just told us to wait."

“My mom was so worried. I came looking for you as soon as I remembered you had just been transferred to the branch office.”

With a wad of paper stuffed in her nose, Zhang Qian hesitated for a moment before asking earnestly, "Shen Xin, aren't we friends?"

Shen Xin silently looked at her nose. Thankfully, it wasn't crooked.

Shen Xin nodded; of course, the two were friends.

"Then tell me the truth, what's wrong with my dad? I felt something was off last night, like you were lying to me."

Zhang Qian's intuition told her that something had happened to Zhang Jian.

She stumped Shen Xin with her question.

"Just tell me, you don't need to go into so much detail, just tell me if everything is alright," Zhang Qian urged.

Shen Xin scratched his head and sighed, "Let me put it this way, your dad had a case that ran into some problems before, and now, it's hard to say, it could be a big deal or a small deal."

"In the worst-case scenario, I might have to take off my police uniform."

Shen Xin said cautiously.

They said the case-handling procedure was fine, it was just that Zhang Qin's methods were too clever, but who can say for sure about these things?

Of course, this is the most extreme case.

Shen Xin estimated that even if Zhang Jian had made a mistake in Li Shanjie's case, if the investigation was not thorough, he would most likely only be held accountable and given a warning.

"Take off your police uniform? Really?"

Zhang Qian was startled.

Shen Xin nodded, but suddenly realized that Zhang Qian's expression wasn't one of worry or surprise, but rather... delight?
She seemed very happy.

"Great!"

Zhang Qian slapped her thigh in excitement.

"good?"

Shen Xin was confused. Had he not explained himself clearly?

Zhang Qian got so excited that her nose started bleeding again. She quickly tilted her head back and said, "You don't know, my mom has been wanting my dad to quit his job for a long time. She said he's getting old and has a lot of health problems, so it would be better for him to quit and find a more relaxed job to retire."

"what?"

Shen Xin blinked. Is that so? No wonder Zhang Qian was happy.

After thinking for a moment, Shen Xin said, "If it's dismissal, the pension will be frozen, right?"

How are we supposed to support our elders then?

“Oh right.” Zhang Qian paused for a moment, then realized what she meant and said, “Then my dad has been paying social security for so many years, hasn’t he just been paying it all for nothing?”

Then he asked Shen if the crime he had committed was serious.

"It's not certain yet," Shen Xin said.

Zhang Qian glanced at Shen Xin, clearly wanting to ask, but knowing Shen Xin wouldn't tell her, she didn't, and ran downstairs to wash her face.

After washing his face, he left in a hurry, saying he needed to report the situation to Shen Yuemei.

Shen Xin didn't even have a chance to stop her or invite her to dinner.

She helped out last night too.

Shen Xin had no choice but to go downstairs to eat by himself.

I was thinking of cooking a dish, but when I thought of Chen Zhongyuan's miserable state, I decided to eat noodles instead.

As I strolled back after dinner, I unexpectedly received a call from Zhang Jian.

He returned from the branch office.

That's normal. He might make mistakes, but it's not like he's committing a crime.

He was a victim too; he almost died.

So the branch office won't detain him; they'll just keep him there to gather information.

"I don't know. The bureau said they need to study it, and there'll be a lot to do later." Zhang Jian sighed and then earnestly thanked him.

Shen Xin saved him once again.

"Captain Zhang, you're being too polite," Shen Xin quickly said.

Then, he changed the subject and asked if Li Shanjie had been re-examined later.

Why is he shining a light on you?

Shen Xin was thinking about this while he was eating.

When this was mentioned, Zhang Jian gave a wry smile and said, "Don't mention it. According to Li Shanjie, he did it on purpose."

"He was in jail for domestic violence, and the head of his cell, you know, was, how should I put it, the kind of guy who was extremely devoted to his wife. After finding out that Li Shanjie had beaten his wife, he bullied him quite a bit."

"They said they not only beat him, but also hired several people to watch him 24 hours a day, not allowing him to sleep, and torturing him like that."

"That's why he wanted to use that method to keep me from sleeping and torture me to death."

As he spoke, Zhang Jian couldn't help but feel a wave of lingering fear.

If Shen Xin hadn't found him with the help of a million dollars, he would have been in real trouble.

(End of this chapter)