Animal Detective

Chapter 132: The Deleted Videos

Outside the morgue.

Chen Chao silently listened to Shen Xin’s report.

"Let’s wait for Old Du to finish his examination," Chen Chao said, not rushing to give his opinion.

He had brought the medical examiner with him.

By the time Ding Yuwei returned from getting her rabies vaccine, Du Xin Kai, the chief medical examiner from the sub-bureau, finally came out.

He had worn a protective suit inside, so he was drenched in sweat.

"No abnormal wounds," Du Xin Kai said, shaking his head.

He showed the autopsy photos to the group and concluded, "My guess is also that he died of rabies. His medical records support this, so there shouldn’t be any major issues."

Then he added, "Old Chen, don’t you think you’re overthinking this? I just think he was particularly unlucky."

There were no other fatal external injuries, and the possibility of deliberately infecting someone with the rabies virus was practically zero.

So, in Du Xin Kai’s view, Wang Lei was just unlucky and got infected by accident.

"Thanks for your trouble, Old Du." Chen Chao remained noncommittal, thanking him with a smile and telling him to head back first.

After Old Du left, Chen Chao had Ding Yuwei go talk to the hospital about preserving the body for the time being.

After a long enough time, the virus would become inactive and no longer be contagious anyway.

"Captain Chen, you still think something’s wrong?" Shen Xin asked.

If he didn’t think there was something suspicious about Wang Lei’s death, Chen Chao wouldn’t have asked for the body to be preserved.

Chen Chao nodded and led Shen Xin out to the garden.

He was a heavy smoker and lit a cigarette. "Let’s analyze it this way," he said. "I’ll focus on the suspicious points, and you try to refute them."

Shen Xin nodded. This was a common method for discussing a case.

Chen Chao thought for a moment. "Let’s start with Wang Lei’s cat."

"You saw his short video account, right? He was still posting videos of the cat on the 18th. Of course, the footage could have been shot in advance. But if we assume it was filmed on the 18th, that means the cat was still fine on that day."

"Even if it were in the incubation period, it wouldn’t have been contagious. And by that time, Wang Lei had already shown symptoms. Therefore, there must be a third source of infection."

"And the cat almost never went outside. So how did it get infected? Doesn’t that seem illogical?"

Shen Xin mulled it over. "While looking through his video footage, I noticed he filmed outdoors and had videos of him confronting and interacting with stray cats and dogs."

It was obvious Wang Lei was trying to replicate his viral video. He got a calico cat that looked extremely similar to Da Mei and deliberately filmed videos of it interacting with strays to gain attention.

"So it’s possible that while he was out filming, he encountered a rabid dog, and both he and the cat were bitten and infected at the same time."

Chen Chao immediately replied, "But the CDC investigated the area and found no signs of any rabid dogs."

A dog with rabies is aggressive, fears water and sound, and is agitated and restless. The signs are extremely obvious. If one were loose in the city, it would be easily recognized.

If any residents spotted it, they would definitely report it to the police.

And even if it wasn’t discovered, a rabid dog dies quickly. There would be a body left behind.

"Also, any normal person with basic common sense would be wary enough of stray cats and dogs. If they were scratched or bitten, they’d immediately go to the hospital for a vaccine. But Wang Lei didn’t."

Shen Xin had nothing to say to that.

This point, which Zhao Tianxing had also mentioned, was indeed the biggest question.

Wang Lei had a junior college degree, so he wasn’t highly educated, but he was quick-witted.

The fact that he constantly experimented with different fields as a streamer was enough to show he wasn’t the stubborn, inflexible type.

Seeing that Shen Xin couldn’t refute his points, Chen Chao stood up. "Investigate," he ordered. "Investigate everything we can. His job, his social connections, his cat, his dog, and Zhang Qingpeng. Check it all."

"We can’t be too careful. Better to be safe than sorry, after all. This is a human life we’re talking about."

Shen Xin nodded.

That was right. A human life was at stake. Even if Wang Lei’s death seemed straightforward, as long as there were suspicious elements, they had to be thoroughly investigated.

If nothing else, when a death from rabies occurs in the city, the source has to be identified, right?

Just before the end of the workday, Zhao Tianxing returned.

He had found out that Wang Lei and Zhang Qingpeng had known each other for a long time.

Back in 2015, the two of them worked at a company in Songpu City called Guangyu Media.

They were both streamers for the company, broadcasting on the largest online streaming platform.

"Back then, Zhang Qingpeng was one of the company’s pillars, a master at FPS games, and he was pretty popular. Wang Lei, on the other hand, never really took off."

"Then, according to the company, Zhang Qingpeng might have been pulling too many all-nighters. For some reason, he developed a tremor in his hands. His gaming performance plummeted, his popularity quickly faded, and he gradually fell off."

"The two of them left Guangyu Media one after the other and came to Nanjiang."

"According to their colleagues, it was Wang Lei who suggested coming to Nanjiang. He said he had an opportunity here, that he knew the boss of a media company, but they didn’t know the specifics of what happened after they arrived."

"As for what happened after they came to Nanjiang, all we could find is that Zhang Qingpeng joined a local media company at the end of last year as a content planner. His income was average, a little over five thousand a month."

"We couldn’t find out what Wang Lei was doing. He probably started his own short video account."

Zhao Tianxing summarized his findings.

Shen Xin took notes.

The information about Wang Lei matched the video footage Shen Xin had seen on his computer.

That reminded him of the computer.

After getting off work, Shen Xin made a trip to the tech department.

Shen Xin had brought back Wang Lei’s computer tower and given it to the tech department.

When he arrived at the tech department, a few of the guys were huddled together, engrossed in a video.

Shen Xin leaned in for a look.

Alright, they were "studying."

Seeing Shen Xin, Cai Zhe and the others jumped.

"Just watching for fun," Cai Zhe said, embarrassed.

"I get it, I get it."

Shen Xin just smiled, not minding at all. He even snuck a few glances himself.

’As expected,’ he thought, ’only the best stuff gets saved to the collection.’

"Find anything?" Shen Xin asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

Cai Zhe nodded. "Didn’t find anything too problematic. It’s just that on the 22nd, around four in the afternoon, the computer’s owner deleted a batch of videos. I’ve recovered all of them. Want to take a look?"

The 22nd, a little after four in the afternoon... That was the day before Zhang Qingpeng called for an ambulance.

On that day, Wang Lei had already fallen ill. He had a fever, and his mental state was off.

’At a time like that, how would he have had the energy to delete a batch of videos?’

’Was he trying to leave a clean slate behind?’

’That seems unlikely.’

"What kind of videos were they?" Shen Xin asked.

When you delete files from a computer and empty the recycling bin, they aren’t actually gone. You have to copy over them a few times to delete them permanently.

Cai Zhe exited his "study materials" and opened the recovered files.

Shen Xin was surprised to find that these were also short video clips.

They still focused on cat and dog interactions, but this time, Wang Lei’s husky made an appearance.

And it wasn’t just raw footage. There were also clearly edited, finished videos, done in a "Tom and Jerry," cat-versus-dog battle style.

They had exaggerated special effects and sound effects, and they were short—only a minute or two long. They looked like videos ready to be published.

Shen Xin also noticed the filenames.

For example, the most recent one was dated October 16th.

A thought struck Shen Xin, and he quickly pulled out his phone and looked up Wang Pao Fu’s account.

The last video was from the 18th. The one before that was from the 14th.

He hadn’t posted a video on the 16th.

’Or maybe,’ he wondered, ’he was going to post it, but then decided not to?’

’And he actively deleted it, too.’

’Why?’

Shen Xin stared at the husky in the video, which was chasing the calico cat all over the place, and fell deep in thought.