Animal Detective

Chapter 150: Monitoring Website

Ding Yuwei watched Shen Xin leave, her brow furrowed slightly. She quickly gathered her files, grabbed her bag, and left for the day as well.

But just as she walked out of the office building, Shen Xin’s beat-up Camry was parked outside.

The car window rolled down.

Shen Xin leaned out and said, "I’m starving. Want to grab a late-night snack somewhere? Someone else is paying."

Ding Yuwei paused for a moment, then pulled open the door and got in.

The car drove away from the precinct.

Ding Yuwei glanced in the rearview mirror and mumbled, "Is it written all over my face?"

’Even Shen Xin could tell I was in a bad mood?’

"Not at all."

Shen Xin shook his head. In any case, he hadn’t noticed.

Ding Yuwei thought Shen Xin was just trying to spare her feelings. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, and she said nothing more.

Tingyang Old Street, Hiyo BBQ.

"Over here."

Zhang Qian spotted Shen Xin’s beat-up car right away and waved them over.

Ding Yuwei, who had just gotten out of the car, was visibly surprised to see Zhang Qian.

Shen Xin walked straight over, asking curiously, "Why are you being so nice today, treating me to a late-night snack? And more importantly, why barbecue?"

Zhang Qian was wearing a hoodie and flip-flops, her hair in a pair of ridiculously ugly pigtails. "Listen to you," she said immediately. "You make it sound like I don’t treat you to meals all the time."

As she spoke, she noticed Ding Yuwei.

Their eyes met.

Zhang Qian narrowed her eyes, then asked Shen Xin who this was.

"This is Ding Yuwei, my colleague. Didn’t I tell you about her before?" Shen Xin sat down without waiting and picked up the menu. He grimaced, trying hard to banish the images he’d seen at Tao Yufei’s house that afternoon.

Especially that cutting board, and the yellow and white stuff on the floor.

’Fat, probably.’

Shen Xin shivered violently, then looked up at the two women and asked them what they wanted to eat.

"You must be Zhang Qian. Shen Xin has told me about you," Ding Yuwei said with a smile as she sat down.

Zhang Qian nodded. When Shen Xin asked again, she casually said anything was fine with her.

Ding Yuwei, on the other hand, didn’t hold back. She took the menu and checked off several items.

Shen Xin took it back and saw it was all vegetables.

"I’ll just get the fried rice," Shen Xin said, not wanting to test his limits. He then handed the menu to Zhang Qian.

"I’ll have the same."

Zhang Qian called the waiter over directly.

The waiter took the menu, glanced at it, and asked oddly, "You’re not ordering any meat skewers? Our lamb is freshly butchered."

He pointed to a spot not far away.

Only then did Shen Xin notice two sides of lamb hanging upside down in a corner near the restaurant’s entrance, where someone was slicing off pieces with a small knife.

Shen Xin instantly shivered, the image of the leg Zhu Tianshun had hung up to scrape the flesh from flashing through his mind.

An uncontrollable wave of nausea washed over him.

Shen Xin bolted, rushing to the roadside where he began to dry heave.

Someone patted his back. It was Zhang Qian.

She handed him some water and said, "Was it really that bad? Should we go somewhere else? What do you feel like eating?"

Shen Xin waved his hand dismissively.

’Zhang Qian must have heard about the dismemberment case from Zhang Jian.’

"Let’s just stay here. As long as we don’t eat meat, it’s fine." His stomach was empty; he couldn’t even vomit if he wanted to.

Zhang Qian shivered and decisively stopped asking questions.

The three of them each got an order of fried rice and added some more vegetables.

Shen Xin was famished, so he didn’t bother chatting with the two women and just focused on eating.

Ding Yuwei also ate in silence.

It was Zhang Qian who couldn’t stand the silence first. Just as she was about to speak, Shen Xin’s phone rang.

It was a call from Jiang Wengang.

"Captain Jiang, what is it?" Shen Xin answered quickly.

Jiang Wengang quickly explained the situation.

Shen Xin said "Okay," and not daring to delay, he hastily shoveled the last two mouthfuls of fried rice into his mouth.

"Zhang Qian, something came up at the station. I have to go. I’ll treat you to a big meal next time, when I’m not feeling so nauseous."

Shen Xin tossed out the sentence and hurried away.

Ding Yuwei quickly followed him.

Left behind, Zhang Qian opened her mouth, but in the end, said nothing. She shoveled a bite of fried rice into her mouth and chewed fiercely.

"Shouldn’t you take a taxi home?" Shen Xin said, seeing Ding Yuwei get into his car.

Ding Yuwei retorted, "Don’t you need my help?"

"Probably not. They called for me. You should go home and get some sleep; you must be exhausted," Shen Xin said after a moment’s thought.

Ding Yuwei hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

He drove Ding Yuwei to an intersection to make it easier for her to catch a taxi. Just as Shen Xin was about to drive off, Ding Yuwei suddenly tapped on his window.

"What’s wrong?" Shen Xin asked, leaning his head out.

Ding Yuwei looked a little nervous. "Take your gun," she said. "And be careful."

Shen Xin waved his hand dismissively. "What are you thinking? It’s not like I’m going after drug traffickers. Don’t worry about me."

With that, he drove away.

In the rearview mirror, Ding Yuwei stood rooted to the spot, staring fixedly in his direction.

Soon, Shen Xin was back at the precinct.

He drove straight to the area near the training grounds and saw Li Teng waiting for him in the distance, holding Dou Dou’s leash.

"Get in."

Li Teng handed Dou Dou to Shen Xin, beckoning him into the car.

In the car, Dou Dou lay obediently at Shen Xin’s feet. Shen Xin asked, "Li Teng, what’s the situation? Captain Jiang wasn’t very clear on the phone."

Li Teng pulled onto the road and began to explain.

First off, when Zhu Tianshun said his supplier had been alerted and told Jiang Wengang to hurry up and make the arrest, he wasn’t just bluffing.

The colleagues investigating the car wash noticed something: the computer tower for the surveillance system was equipped with a backup power supply that automatically kicked in during a power outage.

This was a bit strange.

It would make sense to install a separate power supply for a surveillance system that needed to run 24/7, to prevent accidental power loss.

But for a car wash, even to guard against thieves, this was overkill.

So they called in someone from the tech department to examine the computer tower.

Cai Zhe discovered that the car wash was also fitted with a set of hidden wireless cameras. Furthermore, there was a separate, hidden network connection that uploaded the live feed from these three hidden cameras to a foreign website.

There are websites that let you view public cameras from all over the world in real time, allowing you to see the whole world without leaving your home.

These kinds of sites either hijack feeds from free public cameras or host feeds from people who voluntarily upload from their private cameras.

"Our theory is that it wasn’t just Zhu Tianshun who could monitor the shop anytime through this website. He didn’t seem to trust Tao Yufei and Huang Jiaming very much."

When the goods he was selling were swapped out, he didn’t suspect the other party of foul play but immediately suspected his own two lackeys. This shows just how little trust Zhu Tianshun had in them.

"And his supplier could probably also watch the shop through this feed. As soon as we showed up, they would have known instantly that Zhu Tianshun had been arrested."

"It’s like an insurance policy."

Li Teng’s expression was grim.

Shen Xin was secretly amazed. ’These drug traffickers are certainly keeping up with the times, using a method like this to protect themselves in case their subordinates get caught.’

"Then wouldn’t his supplier have found out this afternoon?" Shen Xin asked.

After arresting Zhu Tianshun in the afternoon, they immediately went to arrest Tao Yufei and then searched his car wash.

Which meant that everything had happened under the watchful eye of the cameras.